Able To Save Your Soul

Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 30th November service and hymns are below.

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Our principal verses are:

Jas 1:16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Jas 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Jas 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

Jas 1:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Jas 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

Able To Save Your Soul

James had been with the Lord and had authority over the church as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Yet, here he does not insist, he appeals to us, rather, as beloved brethren, not to err and not to mistake the source and ground of our salvation. James has spoken of eternal life, the ‘crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him’. Eternal life is God’s free gift to His people in His Son, Jesus Christ. James would have the church know that ‘every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’.

James wrote of grace

This is a fine statement of sovereign grace. The Lord Jesus is first in pre-eminence among all God’s gifts. All divine grace and goodness is in Christ. Our Saviour is from above and has come down from heaven as God’s perfect gift to sinners. Christian faith is from above. It is supernatural. The Father of lights is creator and sustainer of all natural light but more importantly He is the Giver of all spiritual light and life in Jesus Christ. The Father gives life to those who love Christ and all who love Christ have everlasting life.

No shadow of turning

In our great Jehovah-God there is no change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. He who said, ‘I am the Lord I change not’ inspires James to record that there is neither variableness, nor shadow of turning with the Lord. His gifts and calling are without repentance. God in three persons is faithful, trustworthy and dependable. Having been given the good gift of Jesus Christ, and life and salvation by Him, every sinner who comes to Christ in faith can do so with utmost hope and assurance of everlasting life.

Regeneration

James gives the church an example of God’s grace and goodness. Regeneration is a work of God the Holy Spirit. It is the creation of light in the darkened soul of a dead sinner, the dawning of grace by which every other good gift is known and experienced. James emphasises the primacy of God in this creative work. Salvation and the new birth, or begetting, is of God’s ‘own will’. It is neither man’s will nor activity that brings it about. ‘It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.’

Gospel preaching

And yet it is a gift imparted by means. James now stresses the importance of preaching and the ministry of the word in the salvation of sinners. We must never devalue preaching of the gospel in the Christian church. Do we seek salvation? Do we desire everlasting life? Would we see God? Then we must hear the word that is able to save our souls. Regeneration, or the new birth, is effected by the Holy Spirit but it is brought to light through the preaching of the gospel and believing ‘the word of truth’. Faith in Christ, with every other good gift from above, comes by hearing the gospel preached and believing it in our heart.

An essential part

James is teaching us the importance of the gospel. Preaching and hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ is the divinely appointed means by which souls are begotten of God and born again. Paul calls it, ‘the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation’. The gospel gathers in the chosen people of God like firstfruits gathered at harvest. Its message is highly valued in Christ’s church by the beloved brethren. We are to be swift to hear it, eager to listen and determined to apply its message.

A gift to ponder

Let us be slow to speak against what we hear from the Lord’s messenger without first giving careful consideration to the message. Wrath or anger against God’s word has no place in our thinking. Pride is futile. It is meekness and obedience that obtains blessing. We are to be patient to receive admonitions that come to us by God’s word. God has appointed the gospel as the means of both blessing and regulating His church and He gives workmen amongst us to rightly divide the word of truth.

The word and Spirit

It is not the mere reading or hearing of the word that saves a sinner but the engrafted word, that is, the word planted in the soul by the Holy Ghost. When the gospel is effectually fixed in a man’s heart by the power of God it will become fruitful. This word is able to save souls because it is the power of God unto salvation. It is the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, the message of ‘the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith’.

Amen

Hymn 190

New Birth. John 1. 13; 3. 3; James 1. 18; 1 Pet. 1. 23

I. Watts                                   C.M.

1
Not all the outward forms on earth,
Nor rites that God has given,
Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth,
Can raise a soul to heaven.

2
The sovereign will of God alone
Creates us heirs of grace;
Born in the image of his Son,
A new peculiar race.

3
Our quickened souls awake and rise
From the long sleep of death;
On heavenly things we fix our eyes,
And praise employs our breath.

Hymn 796

All from above. James 1.17; Mark 13. 31

J. Hart   7.6.7.

1
When we pray, or when we sing,
Or read, or speak, or hear,
Or do any holy thing,
Be this our constant care:
With a fixed and constant faith
Jesus Christ to keep in view,
Trusting wholly in his death
In all we ask or do.

2
Holiness in all its parts,
Affections placed above,
Self-abhorrence, contrite hearts,
Humility, and love;
Every virtue, every grace,
All that bears the name of good,
Perseverance in our race,
We draw from Jesus’ blood.

3
Lamb of God, in thee we trust,
On thy fixed love depend;
Thou art faithful, true, and just,
And lovest to the end.
Heaven and earth shall pass away,
But thy word shall firm abide;
That’s thy children’s steadfast stay
When all things fail beside.

James is teaching us that the Lord Jesus, and salvation and everlasting life by Him, is God's free gift, His good and perfect gift that comes down from the Father of lights. Preaching the gospel is the means by which the gift of grace is received and experienced by faith.