The Word of Truth (Part 1 of 2)

Music playing The problem is some people approach salvation the same way. They try to earn God's approval.

But that's not how God or salvation works. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg walks us through God's incredible plan of salvation. We start in verse 18 of James chapter 1. Music playing Father, we pray that as we turn to the Bible now, that you will be our helper, that the Spirit of God may conduct a dialogue within our lives, so that we might know that far beyond the voice of a mere man we may hear from you, the living God, in your Word of truth, the Bible. This is our earnest plea and our keen expectation as we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, I invite you to turn to James chapter 1 as we resume our studies here in this letter of James, the brother of Jesus, writing to folks in his day. He chose to give us birth through the Word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. My dear brothers, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the Word planted in you, which can save you.

Now, we'll leave it there. James is writing to believers. He identifies them in the first verse of chapter 2, my brothers or my brothers and sisters, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. This immediately distinguishes his readers from unbelievers. And whenever we come to the word believer, it immediately confronts each of us who is thinking with the question, Am I a believer? In other words, may I legitimately read James and find myself included in the company of those to whom James writes? Well, were these individuals to whom he writes always believers? The answer to that is no, because by our nature and by birth we are not believing people, but we are unbelieving people. And indeed, as Paul puts it in Ephesians chapter 2, our predicament is much worse, we're actually dead people. We are spiritually dead. Doesn't sound very nice, and skeptics don't like it, and unbelievers are appalled by it, but it's actually what the Bible says.

And as I'm going to show you, it really makes quite a lot of sense. Now, this whole concept of being given birth in verse 18 will make some of us think of a particularly famous conversation between a religious man by the name of Nicodemus, who was actually a Pharisee, and Jesus of Nazareth. That conversation is recorded for us in John chapter 3.

You needn't turn to it, but I want you to know that it is there in case you want to look for it later. This conversation took place at night. It took place at the initiative of Nicodemus, who had come to seek Jesus out. He knew that he was a rabbi, he said, and a teacher who had come from God, because otherwise nobody could possibly do the miraculous things that Jesus was doing. It was a very generous and gracious word of introduction.

How? He must have been struck by the immediate response of Jesus when he says to him, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. And later on, in the same little section, you should not be surprised at my saying, You must be born again.

Why? Because, Nicodemus, religious man, you are spiritually dead. And unless you are made spiritually alive, no amount of religious affiliation will do anything for you in relationship to your cause before God. Last week, in the course of conversation with someone, this individual explained to my wife and I that she had an awareness of all forms of Christianity, including born-again Christianity. She said she had met born-again Christianity as well. And the presupposition in the way in which she articulated her view was that this idea of being born again was a unique perspective relating to certain segments of Christianity.

Well, in one sense, of course, she's right, because not everywhere you go where the name of Jesus is mentioned do you hear the message proclaimed that men and women are dead spiritually and they need to be made alive. But when you read the Bible, you discover that the notion of being born again or being made new or having a spiritual rebirth is not something that is tucked away in the corners of the Bible or in the fringes of what Jesus had to say, but indeed lies at the very heart of it. And this, says James in the verse 18, is something that God has chosen to do. He has chosen to give us birth.

To give us birth. We were born physically as a result of decisions and actions taken by our parents without any reference to us at all. Remember the famous conversation involving Johnny Carson and his son, when in a fit of pique his son says to Johnny Carson, I didn't ask to be born. And Johnny Carson replied, No, and if you'd asked, I would have said, No. We did not ask to be born.

It was not as a result of our initiative at all. That is true not only physically, but it is also true spiritually. At the initiative of our earthly parents we were conceived, and at the initiative of our heavenly Father we have been given birth. He chose to give us birth. He was not pressured by our helplessness.

He certainly wasn't impressed by any sense of goodness. But he acted in accord with his own free, uncompelled, sovereign will. Those of us who remember becoming Christians will remember that whoever it was that led us to faith in Jesus told us about all the things we were supposed to do. We were supposed to repent, to turn away from ourselves and our sin, and to turn to Jesus. We were supposed to believe in Jesus and trust in him. And they even said we should receive Jesus in the same way that we might receive something that is given to us as a gift, so we might receive the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. And at that period in our life, it seemed as though it was all for us to do.

Ours was the repenting and so on, and so we did what we were told. But now, in looking back on it, in putting the pieces of the puzzle together, it becomes absolutely clear that God was at work long before we were responding to him. And the hymn writer puts it so accurately when he says, I found a friend, such a friend, he loved me before I knew him. He drew me with his cords of love and bound me to him.

And so, round my heart, so closely twined, these ties that nothing can sever, for I am his, and he is mine, forever and forever. The Christian's faith does not lie in our wavering reaction to an invitation, but lies in the initiative of a gracious, sovereign God. He does not believe for us.

We must believe. Not only does James mention the fact of God's initiative, but he then goes on—and this is really the emphasis of this morning—to tell us the instrument that God uses in bringing us to new birth. And that instrument, you will notice, is the Word of truth. He chose to give us birth through the Word of truth.

What is the Word of truth? It is the gospel. It is the story that Jesus told. It is, if you like, the great, comprehensive, wonderful tale of an initiative taking God who is seeking to save men and women when they're not looking for him at all.

It is a wonderful story. And the Bible, of course, tells us that we know something of God because he has revealed himself in creation. And that's why, if we're honest with ourselves and we look at the complexity of the universe and we look at the detailed nature of even our own physical frame, apart from the solar system and beyond, if we're honest in our heart of hearts, we know that it is only the foolish person who says in his heart, There is no God, because creation compellingly speaks to the existence of the Creator. He has made himself known also in our consciences, because we are moral beings, and that is why we have a sense of right and wrong. Secularists are hard-pressed to explain where we get the sense of right and wrong. We're socially conditioned, they might say, or the externals of life have created this within us. But in actual fact, anybody who thinks for a moment or two about what they ought to do or what they ought not to do must find themselves saying, Where does this sense of oughtness come from? Why is there any oughtness? The answer is, because God has revealed himself not only in creation but also in the fact of our conscience. Well, in that case, isn't there enough for us then simply to know God and proceed with our lives?

No. Why? Because, says Paul—and you can check this in the opening chapters of Romans—because, says Paul, by dint of our rebellion and disinterest in God, against God and disinterest in God, our foolish hearts have become darkened.

Darkened. So that even though we can see something of God in creation, and even though we know something in terms of God in relationship to our conscience, we only know enough to condemn us for our unbelief. But there is not enough there to save us. He chose to give us birth through the Word of truth, so that it is by the gospel, by the Word of truth, that we are brought to an understanding of our situation, that we are unfit for heaven and unable to rectify our condition, that we are brought to an awareness of who Jesus is and what he has done. He has died for sinners, exchanging all of his righteousness for our sins so that all of our sins may be counted against him, and thereby we might know the freedom and forgiveness which is ours available in the cross, and making it clear to us that this salvation which God has chosen to give us, he has chosen to give us, he has not asked us to earn, and he has given it to us as a gift, so that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, this is something that you'll find at the top of the list, as it were, as you go through the New Testament. For example—and I'll just give you two reference points, you may want to make a note of these so that you can find them later—Paul writes to the Colossians, so grateful for their faith in Jesus and the love they have for all the saints. That faith and love, verse 5 of Colossians 1, that springs from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about, where in the Word of Truth, the gospel that has come to you. Where did this hope come from?

How did you hear about this? You heard about it in the Word of Truth, in the gospel that has come to you. He begins his Ephesian letter in much the same way, and he says in verse 13 of Ephesians 1, You also were included in Christ.

Notice the phrase, When you heard the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation. We were not included in Christ when we joined the church. We were not included in Christ when we were baptized. We were not included in Christ when a religious professional did something religious to us. We were included in Christ, he says, when we heard the Word of Truth—the truth about ourselves and our need of a Savior, the truth about Jesus as our only potential Savior, and the truth about the fact that that salvation is not earned but is a gift from God.

Now, that takes us all away from us all the way around the cycle back to the original question that confronts the sensible. Am I then described in this phraseology? Have I been included in Christ? Have I heard and responded to the Word of Truth, the gospel of my salvation? Alec Matea puts it quite masterfully when he explains the way in which we are made alive.

Listen to this brief but profoundly helpful quote. The Father uses the gospel, the Word of Truth, in two ways. First, he speaks it inwardly to our dead souls imparting life, bringing us to birth. Secondly, he presents the same Word of Truth to us as a preached gospel to which the new life within makes a personal and believing response.

Do you get that? Because otherwise, it would be our response that saved us, wouldn't it? Not God who saved us. You see, how can dead people respond?

They can't. Unless they are quickened and made alive. That's what Jesus is saying. That's what James, the brother of Jesus, is reinforcing.

He's saying, think about this. He chose to give us birth through the Word of Truth. We are, says Paul, included in Christ through the Word of Truth when we believe the gospel. I must leave it here, but I must say again to you, do you believe this?

Is this you? This is the vital question of life. There is no more vital question, none at all.

I'm almost finishing the autobiography of John Paul Getty, which I've been reading all week. Fascinating, but looking in vain, in vain for any sense in a man's journey of being confronted by the Word of Truth and the need for salvation. Amassing billions, influencing millions, establishing an empire of unparalleled significance, but apparently without God and without hope in the world. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?

Or what will a woman give in exchange for her soul? The initiative that God takes, the instrument that God uses, the Word of Truth, and thirdly in the verse you will notice, the intention that God has in doing this. He intends that we might become like him, that we might offer our lives in the way in the Old Testament they offer the firstfruits of the harvest to God as an expression of their gratitude, so his intention is that we will offer our lives as an expression of our gratitude for all that God has done. He uses the Word to bring about our spiritual birth, and then, going into verse 19, you will notice that it is by the same Word that he enables us to grow spiritually.

The similarities between the beginning of James and the beginning of 1 Peter are striking. For example, verse 23 of 1 Peter 1, For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God. It is by the Word of God that you have been brought to faith. And this is the Word that was preached to you. Straight into chapter 2, Therefore rid yourselves of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander of every kind, and like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the LORD is good.

See, the same process he describes, using different language but getting to the same point. It is God's Word that not only gives us life but also transforms our life. Now, when you get to verse 19, with this very straightforward call to listen up—my dear brothers, take note of this, listen up—you will see that he then calls for us to do three things in relationship to the Bible, to the Word of truth. First of all, that we should be found listening to it. Secondly, that we should be found receiving it.

And thirdly, that we should be found doing it. First of all, listening. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Some of us have a real problem with this.

Over a hundred years ago, one pastor addressed his congregation as follows—and I was reading this just yesterday, and I thought I'd share a wee bit of it with you, because it was so challenging to me. This is how he writes, There are some people who are always talking. They cannot think. And it is a relief to them to hear the sound of their own voices.

Just as women who are in ill health find a welcome relief in sewing or knitting and sew or knit just to pass the time, there are some people who find relief in talking. And by their incessant talking, they disable themselves from thinking. They also disable themselves from listening. They lose the power of grasping the real meaning of anything serious that is said to them. Their minds are like reservoirs with a large leak and a small supply of water.

Everything that comes into them runs off at once, and they're always empty. Incessant talking, without careful and earnest listening, makes them utterly frivolous, reduces them almost to a state of idiocy. And further, this habit prevents them from listening even to God's Word and from thinking about it. They are not accustomed to listen or to think, and so when the divine Word comes to them, they cannot really listen to it, and they cannot contemplate what it says.

Well, I don't know about you, but I find that just cuts a little bit too close to the cloth. And what is true in terms of interpersonal relationships, whether it's around the dining room table with friends that we've invited to our home who came over to eat, but not to listen to us talk, or whether it's at Starbucks, where we can't wait to get the first opportunity to read all the titbits that we've found in The Wall Street or The New York Times—whatever it might be, most of us do far too much talking. If all that we say in a single day, with never a word left out, were written each night in clear black and white, it would make strange reading, no doubt. And then just suppose, before our eyes would close, we had to read the whole record through. Then wouldn't we sigh, and wouldn't we try a great deal less talking to do?

And I more than half think that many a kink would be smoother in life's tangled thread if half what I say in a single day were to be left forever unsaid. God is the one who gives new life. He's the one who transforms our lives through His Word. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. This week we've been hearing a lot about the gospel, about being born again.

If you'd like to know more, we want to invite you to visit the Learn More page on our website. There you will find two videos to help you get a better understanding of what the Bible means when it uses phrases like saving faith or spiritual rebirth. One video shows Alistair explaining the gospel. The other is an animated presentation about God's salvation plan called The Story. You can watch one or both of these videos as often as you'd like.

They're completely free. Just visit truthforlife.org slash learn more. If you're benefiting from all of the practical lessons in our study of the book of James, you may want to own all four volumes in this series. The series is called Faith That Works. There are 40 sermons on a convenient USB drive.

It's only five dollars, and the shipping is free. You'll find it in the mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash store. In today's message, we learned that God's Word is the instrument God uses to bring us to faith and to enable our spiritual growth. The Bible is clear that we're to share God's Word with others, and that includes our children. So you'll find today's book selection is a big help in getting young children interested in reading the Bible. The book is titled Bible Stories Every Child Should Know, and it's a collection of illustrated Bible stories, more than 120 of them in total, that teach young children about God, about God's people, and about Jesus. Whether you are a parent or you know someone with young children, this is a book that will help lay a solid foundation in their lives so that they can continue learning from the Bible in later years. Request Bible Stories Every Child Should Know. It's yours when you donate to support the teaching you hear on this program. Simply visit truthforlife.org slash donate, or if you'd prefer, you can call 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Enjoy your weekend and worshiping with your local church, and then join us again Monday for the conclusion of today's message when we'll learn about the three barriers that block our ability to listen to and learn from the Bible. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.