Seeking the Strays

This morning, we come to the end of our journey through the book of James. Whenever we get to the end of a book of the Bible, I feel a certain melancholy. Sure, there’s a sense of accomplishment - - we’re finished the journey - that feels good. We have a better understanding of what God has to say to us through one of the 66 books that make up His inspired word … that’s important, exhilarating even.

But, don’t you feel like, after so many weeks with James - hearing his heart - hearing God speak through this half-brother of Jesus, who for most of Jesus’ ministry on earth, didn’t even BELIEVE that He was truly God’s Son - the second person of the Trinity. James and the rest of the family thought Jesus was CRAZY - - - until after they saw the cross and the resurrection … and James didn’t just believe - - he threw himself 100% into following this Jesus - not just as his brother, but as His Savior and Lord …

James becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem and becomes such a man of prayer that he earns the nickname ‘Camel-knees’ - because of the callouses from being on the ground, on those knees, in passionate prayer. After months of sitting at his feet - don’t you feel a little sad, too? I do.

We’ve seen again how God speaks to us through His written word, no matter whether we live in Jerusalem or Abbotsford … whether we live in 50 AD or 2018. This word is LIVING. And here we are at the end of this letter.

As we read James’ closing words, I’m surprised at how he ends. Remember, the letter of James is part of Scripture classified as ‘wisdom literature’ - like the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Job in the OT. These books are all about how to live ‘wisely’ in God’s world.

The main point of James is that Faith Works. We are saved from our sins by God’s grace alone, through faith alone. I add precisely NOTHING to my salvation - It is the finished work of Christ that saves me through faith and, as

tell us - even that faith is gift from God. But - faith - if it is true, saving faith - - will show itself in the way I live my life. We are saved by faith alone but not a faith that is alone.

And throughout this letter - James has pointed out what that working faith looks like in day to day living. “Be thankful, even in suffering”; “Don’t show favoritism”; “Don’t slander, but Guard the reputation of your Christian family”; too many things to mention here.

It’s easy, when you read wisdom literature to think, “Okay, I can check off that box, that box and that one … It’s all good - I pass the self-test … Look at me ...I’m WISE’

But James doesn’t allow us to do that - - he gets to the end of his letter and makes us take our eyes off of ourselves and look at others.

Saying, “You can’t be wise and be self-absorbed. You just can’t do it. You can’t distance yourself from the church and live successfully in God’s eyes, in this world He created. It goes against his plan. You are your brother and sister’s keeper.”

So here, at the end of the letter - James turns our eyes away from ourselves and focuses them on our Christian family: 2 Aspects of family life that I want us to see from this morning’s text: 1 FAMILY CONCERN 2 FAMILY LOVE IN ACTION

1. FAMILY CONCERN

Verse 19 - “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth ...”. James is concerned about apostasy - drifting from the faith. This is not an outsider. “Anyone among you.” This is someone, on the inside of the church - - someone who is drifting spiritually.

The Greek word for ‘wander’ is ‘planao’ - where we get our English word ‘planet’. The word gives the picture - someone wandering around the heavens … like an astronaut who’s lost his tether rope that keeps him attached to the space station … now he’s drifting, lost among the stars.

Always thought it would be cool to be an astronaut - eating ‘space food’ - getting to ride in a capsule and explore where nobody else has been able to go ... looking down at the earth – a little ball of green and blue, from so high above …

… but there is nothing more terrifying, in my mind than being up there in the heavens, among the stars … working outside on the Shuttle - and becoming unhitched from your base and floating helplessly, further and further out into space where there’s nothing to stop you and bring you home.

Well, James says that this never happens accidentally. You don’t just drift away helplessly - the only way you can become untethered from the truth is if you CHOOSE to unhitch YOURSELF. “If anyone among you WANDERS from the truth” .... It’s a choice - someone who chooses to wander from something he once embraced.

What has he wandered from? James says he has wandered from ‘the truth’.

When you hear ‘wander from the truth’ - you may think - “Oh, this is a turning from sound doctrine - turning your mind away from the truth of the Bible.” This is that, but it’s MORE than that - it’s more than what you think in your head - it’s also what you DO with your FEET.

This truth is something that you DO as well as what you BELIEVE.

When people start to question the God they have already come to know … when people INSIDE the church start to say, “I don’t like to think of God that way anymore ...” - - when they start to question the Biblical view of God or the Christian life …

My experience (and it’s probably been yours as well) is that when you ask some questions to try and understand how this change has come about – you find that it hasn’t been because they have discovered some new truth in Scripture that makes them re-evaluate the things they used to believe … No. I’ve found most often that the questions come because of a decision - - they want to DO something. So, they create God in their own image … a “God” who is “COOL” - - with the lifestyle decisions they want to make … choices they want to pursue. And isn’t amazing how often, the new understanding of God just happens to fit the ‘mood’ of the unbelieving society around us. Why, the God in my own image, approves of how I want to live – and He hates all the same people that I hate!

“Did God really say?” It’s no coincidence that was the first question Satan asked Eve in the Garden of Eden, just before our first ancestors plunged our human race into sin and under God’s judgment.

Questioning God’s holiness come first - - then the wandering - - but it’s gradual. JOSH – Tire on his car – put on the spare …. Took the tire in and it’s wrecked … can’t be fixed. But he didn’t have a puncture - - there was no sudden flat … just a gradual, slow leak. But inside the tire – where you couldn’t see, the low air pressure led to the rim of the wheel cutting into the rubber – and the tire was damaged beyond repair. Oh, Christian – watch the slow, gradual leak of spiritual vitality.

I know how quickly my own heart grows cold – how quickly the Bible reading can slide, the prayer life fades, the church family becomes so hard to love.

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love”.

2 FAMILY LOVE IN ACTION

So here, at the end of his letter - James wants to warn us of the danger of wandering. He also wants to call us, as Christian family to not let our Christian brother or sister, go without a fight. It doesn’t always have to go this way. Second point: FAMILY LOVE IN ACTION. Look at what he writes here - in v. 19, “… 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.”

“… and someone brings him back.” Remember back in vv. 13-18, when he was talking about someone being sick and how they were to call for the elders of the church to come and pray? Well notice that he doesn’t restrict this seeking work to church leaders or spiritual green berets. “Someone bring him back.” In other words - - - “Watch out for each other, Christian!” It’s a responsibility that goes along with being a Christian - you’re part of the Body of Christ - the Family of God - so take care of each other. Cain asked God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” And God’s answer is ‘YES. Yes you are.’

So, when you notice a brother or sister on the gradual path of wandering away - you notice … and you care enough to say something: “Hey, I can’t help but notice that you haven’t been around for the last few weeks”; “I don’t see you carry your Bible anymore - is anything wrong?” “I’ve noticed some of the things you’ve been posting or ‘liking’ on social media ...”, people you’ve started following. I’m just a little concerned. Parents – that’s our job in our kids’ lives. But it’s the call on all of our lives

OOOOh - - - now some of us have a hard time with this whole idea of sticking our noses into someone else’s life. I mean after all, “Who am I to say anything? Didn’t Jesus say that I should worry about the beam sticking out of my own eye before I start pointing out the speck in anyone else’s eye?!” The answer is, sure - of course - I need to look at my own weaknesses and failings - I need to deal with my own junk. But don’t stop there. Jesus doesn’t in the sermon on the Mount – “Take the plank out of your own eye – THEN YOU WILL SEE CLEARLY TO TAKE THE SPECK OUT.... love my brother or sister enough to speak up – with radical humility.

James points out Two Blessings that come from the family responsibility of seeking the strays:

FIRST: v. 20, “… let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death’. SAVE HIS SOUL FROM DEATH. But what does that mean ‘? It could mean that the person who is wandering is on the road to hell - eternal separation from God.

But this is a Christian person - If he or she is truly saved, they cannot lose their salvation. I think James is speaking more broadly about death here - - the ‘deathlike condition of sin’. As :15puts it (in the old KJ) - “The way of transgressors is hard”. Oh the pathway of wandering is a painful one. The road starts out wide and smooth - it’s a highway … but eventually, when you get far enough down the road, you get out of town - travelling alone and the blacktop runs out - and the road gets narrow, and bumpy … and it hurts.

So when you see any person who’s in the church sliding away, it’s very possible that they’re on the way to some painful times ahead. If they belong to Jesus, God will bring them back. A real Christian can’t lose salvation. But that doesn’t mean a pain-free life of wandering.

Spurgeon: “A real Christian is like a person who’s on a boat on the way to heaven. A Christian cannot fall off the boat, but you can fall on the boat, break all of your bones, and spend the whole trip in the infirmary.”

So, when you see a Christian starting to slide out and slide back, you go after that person because you don’t want them to spend the trip in the infirmary. Worse than that … This is a hint. It’s a broad hint, though, that it’s very serious for anybody who has been active in the Christian community to fall out, because there’s always a possibility that person never really got it. Maybe they never had saving faith at all.

Are you there right now? You see a loved one there? Convinced that there is no more miserable person in all of Abbotsford today – than a Christian who has wandered. Non-Christian has never tasted the sweet delight of ‘Sonship’ – that a Christian knows – never known the Holy Spirit. Worst non-Christian is just living out his nature. But the Christian stray has known what life could be.

You will deliver him from that hard, death-like existence – that’s what James promises.

SECOND PROMISE that James gives to those who bring back a straying saint – at the end of verse 20, “… will save his soul from death AND WILL COVER A MULTITUDE OF SINS.”

“Wait a minute! I thought only God can cover – forgive sins.” Yes – absolutely true - , “… Christ … offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God ...”

… but isn’t this amazing – that He has chosen to use your love for your Christian brother or sister as the tool, in His all-powerful hands – to grab hold of His wandering child and bring the lost child back home to safety. That’s why Peter writes, in , “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

……..

Love. Ah, here’s the key. Love is the motivation to seek the strays and love is the WAY we go after the wandering soul. Spurgeon, wrote:

“I have known a person who has erred, hunted down like a wolf.

He was wrong to some degree, but that wrong has been aggravated and dwelt upon till the man has been worried into defiance; the fault has been exaggerated into a double wrong by ferocious attacks upon it. The manhood of the man has taken sides with his error because he has been so severely handled.

The man has been compelled, sinfully I admit, to take up an extreme position, and to go further into mischief, because he could not brook to be denounced instead of being reasoned with. And when a man has been blameworthy in his life it will often happen that his fault has been blazed abroad, retailed from mouth to mouth, and magnified, until the poor erring one has felt degraded, and having lost all self-respect, has given way to far more dreadful sins. The object of some professors seems to be to amputate the limb rather than to heal it.”

, “if any of you is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.” GENTLENESS.

Love is the motivation to go and Love is the key to going properly, seeking the strays. “Love covers all sins” (, NKJV), not because our love can atone for them, but because love cares and maintains a relationship through which the grace of God is pleased to move. Have we written off a stray lately?

James says, at the end of his letter: “Do you want to be wise? Then keep your eye out for your brothers and sisters – and if they start to stray - - - go after them. With loving humility – don’t let them go, without a fight!”

CONCLUSION

Some of you are familiar with a Story by Walter Wangerin – called, “The Ragman” - It paints a powerful picture of WHY we seek the strays - - We do it because we love them. And we love others because Christ first loved us. On this, last Sunday of Advent, when our focus is on the love that Christ brings into the world … let’s remember that every act of self-sacrificing love that we engage in, as Christians, is possible because we have received infinite love – because Jesus Christ didn’t just come into this world …. He came into this world to seek and to save the lost. And if you are here this morning, as a born again, child of the King of Kings – an heir of heaven … it’s because we were, at one time, “by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins - - HE made us alive together with Christ.”

STRAYS THAT HAVE BEEN SAVED … FREE TO LOVE

I saw a strange sight. I stumbled upon a story most strange, like nothing my life, my street sense, my sly tongue had ever prepared me for.

Hush, child. Hush, now, and I will tell it to you.

Even before the dawn one Friday morning I noticed a young man, handsome and strong, walking the alleys of our City. He was pulling an old cart filled with clothes both bright and new, and he was calling in a clear, tenor voice: “Rags!” Ah, the air was foul and the first light filthy to be crossed by such sweet music.

“Rags! New rags for old! I take your tired rags! Rags!”

“Now, this is a wonder,” I thought to myself, for the man stood six-feet-four, and his arms were like tree limbs, hard and muscular, and his eyes flashed intelligence. Could he find no better job than this, to be a ragman in the inner city?

I followed him. My curiosity drove me. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Soon the Ragman saw a woman sitting on her back porch. She was sobbing into a handkerchief, sighing, and shedding a thousand tears. Her knees and elbows made a sad X. Her shoulders shook. Her heart was breaking.

The Ragman stopped his cart. Quietly, he walked to the woman, stepping round tin cans, dead toys, and Pampers.

“Give me your rag,” he said so gently, “and I’ll give you another.”

He slipped the handkerchief from her eyes. She looked up, and he laid across her palm a linen cloth so clean and new that it shined. She blinked from the gift to the giver.

Then, as he began to pull his cart again, the Ragman did a strange thing: he put her stained handkerchief to his own face; and then HE began to weep, to sob as grievously as she had done, his shoulders shaking. Yet she was left without a tear.

“This IS a wonder,” I breathed to myself, and I followed the sobbing Ragman like a child who cannot turn away from mystery.

“Rags! Rags! New rags for old!”

In a little while, when the sky showed grey behind the rooftops and I could see the shredded curtains hanging out black windows, the Ragman came upon a girl whose head was wrapped in a bandage, whose eyes were empty. Blood soaked her bandage. A single line of blood ran down her cheek.

Now the tall Ragman looked upon this child with pity, and he drew a lovely yellow bonnet from his cart.

“Give me your rag,” he said, tracing his own line on her cheek, “and I’ll give you mine.”

The child could only gaze at him while he loosened the bandage, removed it, and tied it to his own head. The bonnet he set on hers. And I gasped at what I saw: for with the bandage went the wound! Against his brow it ran a darker, more substantial blood – his own!

“Rags! Rags! I take old rags!” cried the sobbing, bleeding, strong, intelligent Ragman.

The sun hurt both the sky, now, and my eyes; the Ragman seemed more and more to hurry.

“Are you going to work?” he asked a man who leaned against a telephone pole. The man shook his head.

The Ragman pressed him: “Do you have a job?”

“Are you crazy?” sneered the other. He pulled away from the pole, revealing the right sleeve of his jacket – flat, the cuff stuffed into the pocket. He had no arm.

“So,” said the Ragman. “Give me your jacket, and I’ll give you mine.”

Such quiet authority in his voice!

The one-armed man took off his jacket. So did the Ragman – and I trembled at what I saw: for the Ragman’s arm stayed in its sleeve, and when the other put it on he had two good arms, thick as tree limbs; but the Ragman had only one.

“Go to work,” he said.

After that he found a drunk, lying unconscious beneath an army blanket, an old man, hunched, wizened, and sick. He took that blanket and wrapped it round himself, but for the drunk he left new clothes.

And now I had to run to keep up with the Ragman. Though he was weeping uncontrollably, and bleeding freely at the forehead, pulling his cart with one arm, stumbling for drunkenness, falling again and again, exhausted, old, old, and sick, yet he went with terrible speed. On spider’s legs he skittered through the alleys of the City, this mile and the next, until he came to its limits, and then he rushed beyond.

I wept to see the change in this man. I hurt to see his sorrow. And yet I needed to see where he was going in such haste, perhaps to know what drove him so.

The little old Ragman – he came to a landfill. He came to the garbage pits. And then I wanted to help him in what he did, but I hung back, hiding. He climbed a hill. With tormented labor he cleared a little space on that hill. Then he sighed. He lay down. He pillowed his head on a handkerchief and a jacket. He covered his bones with an army blanket. And he died.

Oh, how I cried to witness that death! I slumped in a junked car and wailed and mourned as one who has no hope – because I had come to love the Ragman. Every other face had faded in the wonder of this man, and I cherished him; but he died. I sobbed myself to sleep.

I did not know – how could I know? – that I slept through Friday night and Saturday and its night, too.

But then, on Sunday morning, I was wakened by a violence.

Light – pure, hard, demanding light – slammed against my sour face, and I blinked, and I looked, and I saw the last and the first wonder of all. There was the Ragman, folding the blanket most carefully, a scar on his forehead, but alive! And, besides that, healthy! There was no sign of sorrow nor of age, and all the rags that he had gathered shined for cleanliness.

Well, then I lowered my head and trembling for all that I had seen, I myself walked up to the Ragman. I told him my name with shame, for I was a sorry figure next to him. Then I took off all my clothes in that place, and I said to him with dear yearning in my voice: “Dress me.”

He dressed me. My Lord, he put new rags on me, and I am a wonder beside him. The Ragman, the Ragman, the Christ!

James is a letter of wisdom - like the book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom - these are sections of the Bible that are focused on living successfully in this world … There is much stress in our world today on living in harmony with nature. I get it - if there is an order in this world, then living

1 Family Concern: “My brothers, if anyone from among you wanders from the truth” … (20): “From his wandering ...”.

This is a family concern: Notice what James says: “If

It is a family member who is wandering from the truth - a lifestyle decision … starts with an abandonment of truth

2 Deadly Danger -

3 Family Love in Action: “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth AND SOMEONE BRINGS HIM BACK”

It is a picture of pursuing love

This morning, we come to the end of our journey through the book of James. Whenever we get to the end of a book of the Bible, I feel a certain melancholy. Sure, there’s a sense of accomplishment - - we’re finished the journey - that feels good. We have a better understanding of what God has to say to us through one of the 66 books that make up His inspired word … that’s important, exhilarating even.

But, don’t you feel like, after so many weeks with James - hearing his heart - hearing God speak through this half-brother of Jesus, who for most of Jesus’ ministry on earth, didn’t even BELIEVE that He was truly God’s Son - the second person of the Trinity. James and the rest of the family thought Jesus was CRAZY - - - until after they saw the cross and the resurrection … and James didn’t just believe - - he threw himself 100% into following this Jesus - not just as his brother, but as His Savior and Lord …

James becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem and becomes such a man of prayer that he earns the nickname ‘Camel-knees’ - because of the callouses from being on the ground, on those knees, in passionate prayer. After months of sitting at his feet - don’t you feel a little sad, too? I do.

We’ve seen again how God speaks to us through His written word, no matter whether we live in Jerusalem or Abbotsford … whether we live in 50 AD or 2018. This word is LIVING. And here we are at the end of this letter.

As we read James’ closing words, I’m surprised at how he ends. Remember, the letter of James is part of Scripture classified as ‘wisdom literature’ - like the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Job in the OT. These books are all about how to live ‘wisely’ in God’s world.

The main point of James is that Faith Works. We are saved from our sins by God’s grace alone, through faith alone. I add precisely NOTHING to my salvation - It is the finished work of Christ that saves me through faith and, as tell us - even that faith is gift from God. But - faith - if it is true, saving faith - - will show itself in the way I live my life. We are saved by faith alone but not a faith that is alone.

And throughout this letter - James has pointed out what that working faith looks like in day to day living. “Be thankful, even in suffering”; “Don’t show favoritism”; “Don’t slander, but Guard the reputation of your Christian family”; too many things to mention here.

It’s easy, when you read wisdom literature to think, “Okay, I can check off that box, that box and that one … It’s all good - I pass the self-test … Look at me ...I’m WISE’

But James doesn’t allow us to do that - - he gets to the end of his letter and makes us take our eyes off of ourselves and look at others.

Saying, “You can’t be wise and be self-absorbed. You just can’t do it. You can’t distance yourself from the church and live successfully in God’s eyes, in this world He created. It goes against his plan. You are your brother and sister’s keeper.”

So here, at the end of the letter - James turns our eyes away from ourselves and to our Christian family: “If anyone among you

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1 FAMILY CONCERN

“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth ...”. James is concerned about apostasy - drifting from the faith. This is not an outsider. “Anyone among you.” This is someone, on the inside of the church - - someone who is drifting spiritually. The Greek word for ‘wander’ is ‘planao’ - where we get our English word ‘planet’. You get the picture - someone wandering around the heavens … like an astronaut who’s lost his tether rope that keeps him attached to the space station … now he’s drifting, lost among the stars.

Always thought it would be cool to be an astronaut - eating ‘space food’ - getting to ride in a capsule and explore where nobody else has been able to go ...

… but there is nothing more terrifying, in my mind than being up there in the heavens, among the stars … working outside on the Shuttle - and becoming unhitched from your base and floating helplessly, further and further out into space where there’s nothing to stop you and bring you home.

Well, James says that this never happens accidentally. You don’t just drift away helplessly - the only way you can become untethered from the truth is if you CHOOSE to unhitch YOURSELF. “If anyone among you WANDERS from the truth” .... It’s a choice - someone who chooses to wander from something he once embraced.

ed from the truth is if you choose to unhitch YOURSELF. “If anyone among you WANDERS from the truth” .... It’s a choice - someone who chooses to wander from something he once embraced.

What has he wandered from? James says he has wandered from ‘the truth’.

When you hear ‘wander from the truth’ - you may think - “Oh, this is a turning from from sound doctrine - turning your mind away from the truth of the Bible.” This is that, but it’s MORE than that - it’s more than what you think in your head - it’s also what you DO with your FEET.

This truth is something that you DO as well as what you BELIEVE.

I notice that when people start to question the God they have already come to know … when people INSIDE the church start to say, “I don’t like to think of God that way anymore ...” - - when they start to question

My experience has been that it isn’t because they have discovered some new truth in Scripture that makes them reevaluate the system of theology that they used to believe … No. I’ve found most often that the questions come because of a decision - - they want to create God in their own image … a “God” who is “COOL” - - with the lifestyle decisions they want to make … choices they want to pursue. So often, the new understanding of God just happens to fit the ‘mood’ of the unbelieving society around us.

“Did God really say?” That was the first question Satan asked Eve in the Garden of Eden, just before our first ancestors plunged our human race into sin and under God’s judgment.

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love”

_

2 DANGER

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive Spiritual Reclamation

That’s the reason why when you see any person who’s in the church sliding away, it’s very possible that’s just a person who, though they’re going to be hurt very badly, God will bring them back. They will come back. Charles Spurgeon says a real Christian can’t lose salvation. A real Christian is like a person who’s on a boat on the way to heaven. A Christian cannot fall off the boat, but you can fall on the boat, break all of your bones, and spend the whole trip in the infirmary. You’ve heard me say that before.

Therefore, of course, when you see a Christian starting to slide out and slide back, you go after that person because you don’t want them to spend the trip in the infirmary. Worse than that … This is a hint. It’s a broad hint, though, that it’s very serious for anybody who has been active in the Christian community to fall out, because there’s always a possibility that person never really got it.

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3 FAMILY LOVE IN ACTION -

James has a two-fold purpose in ending his letter the way he does. He wants to warn us of the danger of wandering. He also wants to call us, as Christian family to not let our Christian brother or sister, go without a fight. It doesn’t always have to go this way. Look at what he writes here - in v. 19, “… 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.”

“… and someone brings him back.” Remember back in vv. 13-18, when he was talking about someone being sick and how they were to call for the elders of the church to come and pray? Well notice that he doesn’t restrict this seeking work to church leaders or spiritual green berets. “Someone bring him back.” In other words - - - “Watch out for each other, Christian!” It’s a responsibility that goes along with being a Christian - you’re part of the Body of Christ - the Family of God - so take care of each other. Cain asked God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” And God’s answer is ‘YES. Yes you are.’

So, when you notice a brother or sister on the gradual path of wandering away - you notice … and you care enough to say something: “Hey, I can’t help but notice that you haven’t been around for the last few weeks”; “I don’t see you carry your Bible anymore - is anything wrong?” “I’ve noticed some of the things you’ve been ‘liking’ on social media ...”

Some of us have a hard time with this whole idea of sticking our noses into someone else’s life. I mean after all, “Who am I to say anything? Didn’t Jesus say that I should worry about the beam sticking out of my own eye before I start pointing out the speck in anyone else’s eye?!” The answer is, sure - of course - I need to look at my own weaknesses and failings - I need to deal with my own junk. But don’t stop there .... love my brother or sister enough to speak up.

James points out Two results:

‘whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death’. What does this mean? It could mean that the person who is wandering is on the road to hell - eternal separation from God.

But this is a Christian person - If he or she is truly saved, they cannot lose their salvation. I think James is speaking more broadly about death here - - the ‘deathlike condition of sin’. As puts it (in the old KJ) - “The way of transgressors is hard”. Oh the pathway of wandering is a painful one. The road starts out wide and smooth - it’s a highway … but eventually, when you get far enough down the road, you get out of town - travelling alone and the blacktop runs out - and the road gets narrow, and bumpy … and it hurts.

Are you there right now? You see a loved one there? You will deliver him from that hard, death-like existence

You will deliver him from that hard, death-like existence

2. You will ‘cover a multitude of sins’ … covers

, “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God ...”

, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

THE MOTIVE - - LOVE

Preaching the Word: James—Faith That Works The Blessing of Reclamation (vv. 19b, 20)

Love. The church must engage in love instead of rejecting the wandering soul. The preacher of a century ago, Charles Spurgeon, wrote:

I have known a person who has erred hunted down like a wolf. He was wrong to some degree, but that wrong has been aggravated and dwelt upon till the man has been worried into defiance; the fault has been exaggerated into a double wrong by ferocious attacks upon it. The manhood of the man has taken sides with his error because he has been so severely handled. The man has been compelled, sinfully I admit, to take up an extreme position, and to go further into mischief, because he could not brook to be denounced instead of being reasoned with. And when a man has been blameworthy in his life it will often happen that his fault has been blazed abroad, retailed from mouth to mouth, and magnified, until the poor erring one has felt degraded, and having lost all self-respect, has given way to far more dreadful sins. The object of some professors seems to be to amputate the limb rather than to heal it.

Again, “love covers all sins” (Proverbs 10:12, NKJV), not because our love can atone for them, but because love cares and maintains a relationship through which the grace of God is pleased to move. Have we written a wanderer off lately?

Story by Walter Wangerin, “The Ragman” paints a powerful picture