Restoring Passion
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning! Please keep your bibles open to James 5.
Congratulations again, church! We did it! After this morning, we will have gone through the entire book of James and conclude our study of this amazing book. I thought it would be fitting to close out our study this week as I will be out of the pulpit for at least the next 4 weeks as I will be recovering from brain surgery on September 25th, and this give us a nice place to land while Pastor Wayne and my friend Tore come out to share the Word with you.
In James 3, James begins a section that goes all the way to the end where every interaction involves our speech. In our passage today, it doesn’t mention speech so specifically, but it carries the insinuation that when we are helping those who go astray, that we are speaking to them.
Sometimes, we all need encouragement - we need to be reminded that we are loved by God and by those in the church. However, James is referring in our passage today to people who need more than simple encouragement, but those who need to be talked off a ledge of faulty doctrine or the ledge of walking away from the Lord. He reminds us the importance of the church community doing what the church community is supposed to do in terms of intervening in someone’s life to help them and see them restored.
My hope and prayer for us all today is that we are reminded of the tremendous privilege we have in the church to be used by God in other’s lives to bring about restoration.
Because sin leads God’s people to wander toward death, believers must urgently pursue the straying so that God may use their efforts to bring about true rescue and forgiveness.
We are going to look specifically at 3 idea:
The Reality of Wandering (5:19)
The Responsibility of Restoration (5:20a)
The Reward of Recovery (5:20b)
The Reality of Wandering (5:19)
The Reality of Wandering (5:19)
Read with me starting in…
19 My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back,
When we remember James’ purpose for the book, it is essentially a call to action to Christians to live according to what we believe and actually behave like believers of the Lord. The unfortunate reality he addresses in this passage is that there will be some who stray - no matter what we say, what we do, people have a sin nature living in their mortal bodies that will cause us to stumble and fall, and for some, to stray from the truth… What does he mean to “stray from the truth?”
There are a few things that James could have legitimately had in mind, based on the language of the text. First, he could have been suggesting the idea of straying from the truth in terms of Doctrine. Doctrine comes from the same word we get “doctor” from and it simply means a specific “teaching.” There is a wonderful systematic theology book that was released a couple years ago called “Biblical Doctrines” where the authors layout through the scriptures what the “teachings” of scripture tell us as a whole. I don’t agree with absolutely everything written in it, but it is an absolutely fantastic resource that I could recommend to you with a clear and open conscience.
So James could be inferring here that to stray from the truth means walking away from the doctrines or the teachings of the apostles. After all, right knowing and right doing go hand-in-hand: if you start from believing something not true, then your actions related to that matter, no matter what your intentions or how good your intentions may be, will be less informed and more open to error than if you started with the right information.
Guys - how many of you have ever tried putting a car seat or a pack-and-play together? I’m sure engineers lose sleep trying to think of funny ways to have these things build just to get the satisfaction of knowing that there’s some poor schmuck out there struggling to put the thing together or make it work the way it’s supposed to. It doesn’t help that - as guys - we generally tend to ignore the instructions in the first place - we get the parts out, look at the picture on the front of the box, and give it a go!
We know that the New Testament writers, especially Paul, placed great value on getting our doctrine right.
Paul said this to Timothy in
16 Pay close attention to your life and your teaching; persevere in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.
“Your life…” is in reference to how you live which is informed by our doctrine - the “…and your teachings…” He wanted to make sure Timothy was guarding his heart from straying from the correct teachings Paul had taught him, and to make sure he wasn’t teaching untrue things - giving them the truth of the gospel and the expectations on a Christian’s behavior.
Jude even mentions the importance of sound doctrine in
3 Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all.
4 For some people, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.
In verse 3, when he says “contend for the faith…” he is speaking about the doctrine of Christ - the encompassing truth of God, especially the Gospel. Here, Jude says that people outside the church (non-believers) will come in and try to lead the church stray.
So, it is possible that James could be referring to “straying from the truth” as embracing false doctrine as truth. Another possibility, and this is the one I believe to be even more likely is that James had the idea of walking away from the faith all together.
The Responsibility of Restoration (5:20a)
The Responsibility of Restoration (5:20a)
20 let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
Who is James referring to in verse 20? When he says, “that person,” he is referring to the person who turned someone back towards the truth of God. This portion of the passage is for the rescuer and the effect they will have on the one being rescued. If we were to ask ourselves who this responsibility falls on - what would we say? The church - right?! Let me give you a big caveat here though - that’s not referring to the pastor or even to the baord, though we know from Matthew 18 that some circumstances can and should go that route - the resucers James has in mind are each of us individually - we are brothers and sisters in Christ inhabiting the same place: we should be the ones to notice when someone is veering away from the truth of God’s word and, like Paul ways, we should seek to restore them with gentleness and humility:
1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.
2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
So it is the responsibility of those in the church to come along backsliding believers and encourage them in their faith - sit with them in their times of despair, counsel them when they need godly advice, confront them in their sin, sit down with them in their time of need and listen. It is part of how we, according to Paul, fulfill the law of Christ, which is born out more fully by saying love God, love people.
I have heard, almost as a reflexive defense mechanism - “I don’t go to church, I’m not perfect and I don’t claim to be…” That’s when I say, “Good, I don’t think I would want to go to church with anyone who thought they were perfect - that would be annoying!” The reality is - that is what the church is here for - to keep us moving with a forward momentum towards Christ and bring more into the fold.
22 Have mercy on those who waver;
23 save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
One day, each of us will stand before the Lord and be called to give an account for the things we did. One of the things we will be asked is how we loved others in our church - did we help those who were going astray find their way back home. One of the things I have had to learn, the lesson I will admit, that I have hated more than pretty much any other lesson I have ever learned in my life is that we cannot take for granted the idea that anyone is beyond going astray. What I mean by that is that I have seen pastors, university professors, elders in the church and countless others within the church tuck tail and walk away from the Lord and the church when their lives got too hard. I say I hate that lesson more than any other because my heart was grieved so completely every time I saw people people who claimed to once know and love the Lord so completely disassociate themselves from him and walk away. My theological take on this is to honestly wonder if they were ever truly regenerate to begin with. Jesus says
10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them.
13 This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me,
15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.
He also says:
39 This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day.
The Lord indicates that He wont lose even one of those who God has given to Him for salvation - so Christ’s mechanism for keeping all who belong to him is a multi-faceted approach.
He works through the influence of the indwelling holy spirit
He works through the events in life - whether good or bad - to bring about good to those who love him and who are called according to his purpose
He established the church - specifically the local church body - to be his hands and feet in the world - and this includes evangelism (helping people come to Christ initially), and discipleship (helping people learn how to live a faithful life for Christ).
The responsibility for helping those at risk of going astray - whether be in terms of their doctrine or the idea of them wanting to walk away or just stop coming because they’ve lost the will to do so - has been assigned to the church, but it is backed up by the promise of Jesus that he will not lose one of those who truly belong to him.
The Reward of Recovery (5:20b)
The Reward of Recovery (5:20b)
Read with me again from verse 20:
20 let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
So, again, he is talking about the rescuer - the one helps lead someone who has gone astray back into the fold. First, we are reminded that it is the responsibility of the church as believers in Jesus to help those struggling in their faith - whether be related to doctrine or their desire to continue in their Christian walk - remain in the fold.
We have the promise of a sovereign God that those who belong to God will not be lost. Some use this as a way to argue for the possibility that we can forfeit, or walk away from our salvation - somehow that we can lose it. I am of the mindset that if I could lose my salvation, I would - I rely solely on the goodness and grace of Jesus Christ for my ability to remain in Him and I believe that there is nothing I could do to earn that gift or maintain that gift - that the nature of the gift is permanent and eternal.
The outcome of helping those who have gone astray back into the fold needs to be understood by the weight and gravity of what is happening in that task -
It can be looked at the same as leading someone to the Lord initially in evangelism - when someone trusts in Jesus for their salvation - they are given grace through their faith as a free gift from God. That means that they can rejoice that the number one problem we have to face in life - the problem of sin and separation from God - is handled and our sins are forgiven.
Sometimes we forget how big it is that our sins are forgiven and no longer being counted against us - we forget the gravity and weight of that situation because we become so comfortable in Christ and we are a forgetful people, so we forget the magnitude of what was given to us through Christ.
1 How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!
What James is saying is to remind the rescuer that they are taking part in helping this person escape the fires and torments of hell (that James refers to as ‘death,’ being final and complete separation from God forever) and help them see their sins be forgiven.
Conclusion
Conclusion
This short passage today reminds us of the importance of how we should be relating to those inside the church. From James 3 all the way through the end, each section deals with how we speak to one another and what we are to strive for as a Christian community because we are saved. In this case, we are to speak to others within the church who are struggling with their doctrine or just discouraged and at risk of wavering - and minister to them the goodness of Jesus. We pray for them, beseeching on God’s behalf for encouragement, for peace, for an overflowing abundance of love in their heart for Christ. This is how we are to walk with those in the church who go astray.
And isn’t it interesting that the book of James ends here - not with a final salutation or goodbye, but a call to action to help those who are struggling in the church?
James whole point was to show us what the Christian community in a hostile world should actually be doing. Friends - we should strive to emulate and live according to the word of God in this matter - because we are living in a world that is becoming less and less tolerant of the church and we are seeing people being persecuted and even martyred for their faith. I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that today is Charlie Kirk’s funeral. While there are some who believe that we was shot for his political view points, his political view points we directly informed by his desire to be faithful and obedient to Christ. His method of going and having conversations with people he disagreed with were proof of an intellect that I could never hope to attain to - but hearing him talk about the Lord and his love for Jesus in the Turning Point USA events reminded me that he was not only a political activist trying to reach the youth, but he was also an apologist and evangelist - out there defending the Christian faith and trying to lead as many to Christ as possible. Make no mistake about it, Charlie Kirk’s assassination was a direct result of him preaching the sinfulness of man to other men who didn’t like the message, so they killed the messenger.
I have never hidden the fact that I am fascinated by politics and have it as sort of a hobby to follow along and see what is going on - it makes the presidential election more like the olympics to me than the actual olympics are. I listened to Charlie’s podcast pretty regularly and really enjoyed his contributions for Christ in the political realm. If you’re anything like me, it was really difficult when I learned about what happened. The shock of this is largelyt because of exactly what happened. Had he died in a car accident or something like that, it would still be sad, but I don’t think it would have effected the country as much. It was the fact that he was murdered for having an opinion that differed from the shooter’s that highlights how dastardly this deed truly was.
So as we close today, I would like to pray for each and every single one of us, that God would not only keep us from going astray, but to use us in the lives of those who are. I would also like to pray for Charlie Kirk’s family and for the nation moving forward as I do believe that we haven’t even begun to see the ramifications of his death in our country. But I would also like to pray for you. I will be away for a few weeks as I am getting my brain tumor removed this week. I specifically want to pray for encouragement in the midst of an uncertain world - that you would be certain and confident in your love and affection for Christ and that he would cause your heart to grow for him.
Lets pray.
