Bringing Home the Lost: The Call to Restore
Notes
Transcript
A. Rapport for the time
What is truth? Relative. Strange stories of new truth—or self believed truth
A Christians relationship with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is the defining quality of our lives as believers. It was always meant to be this way from the moment Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. As they walked with him in the garden until Gen. 3 when they sin against that God that created them and decided they would follow their own truth.
James has been pointing this problem out for the last 5 chapters. You see if we say we are a believer in Christ and that the gospel has changed our lives then our lives should actually reflect this change. It’s really not a crazy concept.
If I say I love someone and then treat that person like a dirt everyone around us will say He is really not in love with that person because the actions do not line up with what they are saying.
This brings us to the heart of the matter as we come to the last two verses in James.
B. Reading of the text
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,
20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
C. Review of the text
D. Relevance of the text
Not to long ago James called us to live a radical life together.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
I pray that the passage this morning will encourage you to continue to look at our lives as Christians as being a radical change that has us care about one another in a Godly way unlike our human race.
1. Recognizing the Risk
1. Recognizing the Risk
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,
My brothers—Isn’t it nice that James draws us near to him once again. This one feels different than the others to me. When he did this before in James it seemed to always bring us close just before he hit our heart with a something that pierced us at the center of who we are. But the tone hear to me seems to be changed maybe because he is coming out of the conversation on prayer.
verse 19 Challenges us to watch over one another. Now don’t make that sound bad, think about it in a loving way. If anyone wanders.
Wander—in our english—move slowly away from a fixed point or place, travel aimlessly through or over an area.
Like what used to do with Lynlee at Target as we walked the clearance endcaps on the back side of each isle.
Wander in this context—to no longer believe what is true, but to start believing what is false.
Jesus taught that this very thing could happen.
3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.
4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.
5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,
6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.
7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
The word of God(seed) lands on the soil of man hearts and some never take it in. But there is a group of people that are amongst believers that take it for a time and they may even declare themselves believers but their life never gives testimony to a life that has been changed.
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower:
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.
20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,
21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Every one of us has been in a service in which someone has walked down an isle at church and filled out the card and been pronounced a believer but never darkened the door of the church again. Yes, a church does not save you but if you are in love with Christ you have to be in love with his bride the church.
This first point draws attention to the reality of straying, urging believers to remain vigilant in their spiritual lives and in their communities, much like Christ exemplified as our Shepherd. Acknowledge that honest examination and accountability are necessary for spiritual health, inviting the church to foster an environment where such vigilance is encouraged.
Beloved we do not save people but we are more than capable of pointing people to the one that has the power to do so. He is our Lord and our friend, we are his children.
T.S.
2. Rescuing with Redemption
2. Rescuing with Redemption
20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
These last two verses are more than just the ending to the letter of James. They encourage us to watch after one another and sum up the entire book of James.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Do we allow the Lord to work in our lives amongst the mundane understanding he is God and we are not? A true believer in the Lord could wander but will be brought back into walking with the Lord. An unbeliever will not endure until the end but will go back to the life they lived because they never truly believed in the Lord. That is why James has been telling us so much and giving us so many orders. Do we rest in the wisdom of God, are we humble, Do you believe God is unchanging, how is your belief in the goodness of God? The list goes on and on in James.
Bringing a sinner back from wandering. This is the ministry of reconciliation that we have been given.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Beloved we have been given this ministry of reconciliation because we have been reconciled unto God by the blood of the perfect lamb that was slain for us!
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
Save his soul from death
8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
1 Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah
3 You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.
10 Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin.
11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.
13 On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.
Application:
Can you believe that the Lord has entrusted this ministry to you and I. You, me the ones that don’t have it all together and very much feel broken this morning. We who don’t have it all together all the time. We who still choose against this good God who holds me in his hand.
The assurance of my salvation comes by:
11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
22 And have mercy on those who doubt;
23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
What a blessed life we are to live together as we care about one another.
