#311 - Bring Them Back - James 5.19-20

Unknown Speaker (0:03): This message was recorded live at Arvin Assembly of God. What you are about to hear is a sermon preached during one of our regular church services. We pray that as you listen, the word of God strengthens your faith, deepens your understanding, and draws you closer to Jesus. Let's tune in to today's broadcast.

Unknown Speaker (0:27): If you have your Bibles this morning, I want you to turn to James chapter five. And church, this is the very last sermon in James. I'm a little emotional about this. I don't know about you, but James has been a blessing to me. I've found that week by week, the providence of God has been undeniable with every word and every verse that has been spoken.

Speaker 1 (0:57): There is nothing more real or relevant than the study of God's word verse by verse like what we've been doing. This is actually a pretty big accomplishment. We've studied through books before. This is actually the first time that we have covered every verse and every phrase in a biblical book. And I'm excited because I've learned a lot of things, and I'm excited moving forward.

Speaker 1 (1:24): There's always room for improvement, but James has been a blessing. We started back in August 2025. We've covered a lot of ground in these five chapters. We've looked at trials that test our faith. We've looked at faith and works.

Speaker 1 (1:42): We've talked about our mouth and our tongue and the wars and the fights that are among us. And we've seen the warning to the rich and the call to be patient like the farmer who's waiting for the early and the latter rain. We've seen James teach us that the prayer of faith, like a man like Elijah, avails much. And this morning, we come to the very last thing that James has to say. It's verses nineteen and twenty.

Speaker 1 (2:18): This is the final word. And I want you to notice how he ends because James doesn't end the way other New Testament letters end. There's no goodbye. There's no greetings. There's no say hello to the family for me.

Speaker 1 (2:36): Not even in the theology of the great Nacho Libre. There's no big hug, little kiss. Most of the letters in the New Testament, they close differently. They close with grace and peace and a benediction. And James doesn't do that.

Speaker 1 (2:55): He has written the most demanding letter in all of the whole Bible. There are more commands in the book of James word for word than any other book in the New Testament. And at the very end, when you would finally expect him to set the pin down and say, alright. It's time to go. He hands us one more job.

Speaker 1 (3:22): This whole letter has been about wholeness, and it has been about faith in action. In other words, don't just hear God's word. Be doers of God's word. And now at the very end of this letter, he turns to the church and he says one last time. He says, I've got a job for you.

Speaker 1 (3:46): I've got a mission for you. I want you to go and bring them back. Now we'll get there in just a moment. But last week, talked about prayer. It's the kind of prayer that heals, the kind of prayer that restores, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much.

Speaker 1 (4:07): We talked about Elijah, and we saw that he is a man that has a nature just like us. And he prayed, and heaven answered. Look at it with me in James five sixteen. He says, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Speaker 1 (4:35): Now that's a beautiful picture. This is a church that is confessing to one another. This is a church that is praying for one another. This is a church that is being healed and on the path of wholeness together. But there's something in this picture, specifically someone in this picture that's not there.

Speaker 1 (5:02): Because to confess your sin to one another, you've got to be in the room. To call for the elders to pray over you, to have the church surround you, you've got to be in the room. And there's somebody that's not in the room anymore. I want you to notice how James actually sets this up because it's it's beautiful. Three times in the last few verses, he uses the very same phrase, and it's no accident.

Speaker 1 (5:38): Look starting at verse number 13 with me. He says, is anyone among you suffering? That one prays. Now look at verse number 14. He says, is anyone among you sick?

Speaker 1 (5:54): That one calls for the elders. Now look at verse number 19. He says, if anyone among you wanders. There are three people James is describing. The suffering one, the sick one, and the one who is slipping away.

Speaker 1 (6:14): But in the first two people, they come to you because they're among you. The one who's hurting asks for prayer. The one who's sick calls for the elders. They've raised their hand and said, yes, I could use some prayer. But the third person can't raise their hand.

Speaker 1 (6:33): The third person doesn't call anybody. This one just wanders. And if nobody's watching, nobody even notices that they're gone. Maybe it's someone that used to sit on the same pew as you. Somebody that used to serve.

Speaker 1 (6:50): Somebody that used to be faithful to God's house. Faithful on Sundays. Faithful on Wednesdays. They used to show up. And then slowly and quietly, they began to wander.

Speaker 1 (7:06): And now they're gone. Nobody's praying over them because they're not here to ask. And so James ends this letter, doesn't say goodbye, but he turns to the church one last time, and he says, go out and get them. I wanna settle this issue before we read it because there is a question that inevitably comes up when we begin to read passages like this. And the the question is is when somebody wanders off like this, that's not the main question, but it's a separate question.

Speaker 1 (7:46): When somebody wanders off like this, have they lost their salvation? Some might say, well, were they ever really saved to begin with? And that's a valid question as well. But church, I've got to be really upfront and really honest with you because the text demands it. James does not answer this question.

Speaker 1 (8:10): And I'm not going to pretend to answer that question either. That's not the point that James wants to make with us this morning. Here's the point. There are folks that have wandered. They're out there.

Speaker 1 (8:25): They're not in these four walls. They're out of fellowship with God. They're out of fellowship with his people. And the danger is real. And so we don't have to work out the nuts and bolts of theology before we've got to get up and go after somebody.

Speaker 1 (8:43): We just have to go. And so here's now the question that the sermon is

Unknown Speaker (8:50): gonna answer. When one of

Speaker 1 (8:52): us starts drifting away from God, what does God ask us to do? That's our question. Would you stand for the reading of God's word? It's only two verses this morning, James chapter five verses nineteen and twenty. The Bible says, Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

Speaker 1 (9:37): Let's pray. Father, in the mighty and precious name of Jesus Christ, First and foremost, we thank you for the journey that we've been on all throughout this book. And Lord, you saw fit to insert in your inspired, infallible, inerrant word of God these instructions, the very last thing that you would have James say. And so Lord, I pray that we would receive this word wholeheartedly. That Lord, we would be the personification of what he has been saying.

Speaker 1 (10:13): That we wouldn't just hear your word, but that we would do your word. And so Lord, help us this morning. Give us ears to ear and eyes to see. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

Speaker 1 (10:33): Again, we're asking this question. When one of us starts drifting from God, what does God ask us? What does God ask our assembly to do? James gives us the first part of the answer in verse 19, and he says that it starts with your eyes. Here's number one.

Speaker 1 (10:58): God asks us to watch for the wanderer. Now this might surprise you because James doesn't start with going. He starts with seeing. He starts with noticing. And so before you can ever bring someone back, you have to notice that they're gone.

Speaker 1 (11:22): Look at me with me at verse number 19. He says, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back. I want us to focus in on one word right here in verse 19. Notice it with me. James uses the word wonders.

Unknown Speaker (11:46): One word. In Spanish, it's three words. This is the word that we get the English word planet from. And here's why. In the ancient world, you could look up at the night sky and you would see thousands of stars.

Speaker 1 (12:04): And every single one of them would hold their place. Night after night, they would be in the same spot. They would be fixed. They would be faithful. You could even navigate the seas by them.

Speaker 1 (12:19): But there were a few of those stars that didn't hold their place. There was a few of them that drifted. A little tonight and a little more next week. And over time, if you were observant, they would have moved clear across the sky from where they had started. And they had a name for those lights.

Speaker 1 (12:41): They called them the wanderers. And if you get out past the edge of town, out past the orchards, and where the lights of Arvin and Bakersfield don't reach. You too could go up and you could look up. And most of those lights are right where they've always been. But there's a few of them, if you pay attention, that are moving slowly.

Speaker 1 (13:04): They are quietly drifting. And you'll never catch it in one night, but you'll see it over time. And this is where we get the word planet from. It's the wanderers. And that is the word that James uses here.

Speaker 1 (13:22): That's exactly how people begin to leave. How people begin to stray away from God. I want you to think about it. Nobody wanders quickly. Almost nobody stands up on a Sunday and announces, you know what?

Speaker 1 (13:40): I'm I'm done with God. I'm done with church. Goodbye. See you later. That's not how it happens.

Speaker 1 (13:48): It happens like a planet. It's a little drift this week and a little more next month. And before you know it, they miss a Sunday and nothing falls apart. The earth didn't collapse. And so they missed two Sundays and nothing devastating happens.

Speaker 1 (14:07): And maybe the Bible that used to be open, it's closed. And maybe the prayer that used to be every day and morning and evening, it gets shorter and then quieter. And then before you know it, the prayer life has shut down. Activities and recreation begin to take the place of the things of God. And here's the thing, not a single one of those steps feels like leaving.

Speaker 1 (14:39): We tell ourselves that it's just for a season. But put six months together and before you know it, you're clear across the sky from where you started. Wanderers. Church, this isn't a small word. This is the word that the New Testament reaches for when it talks about the most serious kind of falling away.

Speaker 1 (15:10): It's talking about backsliding. Listen to how Peter uses it. He says in second Peter two fifteen, he says, they have forsaken the right way and gone astray. There's that word. Following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.

Speaker 1 (15:33): Again, the same word James uses for wonder. They've gone astray. And Peter, he pulls this out for people who've left the right way, the only way altogether, who for sook the Lord and who went chasing after the way of Balaam. By the way, the way of Balaam is all about money. It's all about prestige.

Speaker 1 (16:02): It's about pursuit. It's about pleasure. It's about acquisition. And the apostle Paul describes this same kind of drift when he warns young Timothy about a day that was coming. He says in second Timothy four four, he says, and they will turn their eyes away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

Speaker 1 (16:32): So this word that James uses for wander, please understand we're not talking about a stumble. We're not talking about a oops. We're not talking about a bad week. We're talking about a direction. It's somebody whose life has started pointing away from the truth.

Speaker 1 (16:57): That's how serious this is. Here's what I don't want us to misread or misunderstand. Look at verse 19 again with me at what they wander from.

Unknown Speaker (17:12): They wander from the truth.

Speaker 1 (17:17): I don't want you to hear truth and think James James only means getting your doctrine wrong. Like the only way to wander is to start believing wrong things, or the only way to wander is to stop believing the things you once believed. Now, that's definitely part of it. But for James the truth is never something that you just carry around in your head. The truth is something that you live.

Unknown Speaker (17:51): It is something that you do. It is a life that is dedicated and committed to the Word of God, to the people of God, and to the cause of Christ. I want you to listen how Jesus

Speaker 2 (18:08): said this in John three twenty one. He says, but he who does the truth does the truth. You don't just believe

Speaker 1 (18:25): the truth, you do it. You walk in the truth. So there's two ways that you can wander. And the New Testament actually gives us a picture for each one of these. Some people wander in what they live.

Speaker 1 (18:47): In other words, follow me on this, their belief system, their doctrine, it stays the same on paper. But their life, it is walking in a direction that is the opposite. You know, Paul had a man like that. He was a man by the name of Demas. A man who traveled with Paul, who walked right beside him.

Unknown Speaker (19:17): In second Timothy chapter four verse 10, he says, for Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world and has departed for Thessalonica. Now if you study this out, there's no indication that Demas changed his theology. He just loved this present world. And it began to pull him away from the things of God especially when times got tough. When other opportunities begin to present itself and became more enticing than the things of God, thee must departed.

Speaker 2 (20:06): That's wandering in how you live. Then there are

Speaker 1 (20:12): others that wander in how they believe. They start drifting on truth itself, picking up ideas that pull them away from the absolute truth of God's word. You know, Paul had men like that too. Listen to what he says in second Timothy chapter two. He says, and their message will spread like cancer.

Speaker 1 (20:38): Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past and they overthrow the faith of some. Notice that it says that they strayed concerning the truth. These guys started teaching that the resurrection had already happened. They pulled people down with them in their false theology. So one man loved the world.

Speaker 1 (21:13): Two men twisted the truth. There are different ways to wander. Church, here's what you really need to see and receive this morning. They're really not separate issues because what you believe and how you live are tied together. You see, you can live however you want.

Speaker 1 (21:37): You can pursue whatever it is that you want to pursue apart from God. But before too long, you'll start to wander from the things of God, from the people of God. And even if you get caught up with what seems like a noble cause,

Speaker 2 (21:57): eventually you'll start changing what you believe so you can make peace with your distance from God. Then if you let go of what you believe, for too long, life will walk

Speaker 1 (22:18): in that direction too. It works both ways, what you believe and how you live. And for James, these are not separate issues. They are the exact same thing. Now there's a reason that James reaches for this word.

Speaker 1 (22:39): Because this exact picture, the person who wanders off and this question of what are we supposed to do, this is the picture that Jesus gave himself. Matthew chapter 18 verses twelve and thirteen. Jesus said, what do you think? If a man has a 100 sheep and one of them goes astray, there's that word for wanderer, the planet, does he not leave the 99 and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the 99 that did not go astray.

Speaker 1 (23:33): One sheep out of a 100. And the shepherd doesn't shrug his shoulders and say, well, I've still got 99. He notices the one. He counts. He sees the deficit, and he goes to the mountains after the one that has been strained.

Speaker 1 (23:56): This is a picture of the heart of God

Speaker 2 (24:01): when it comes to the wanderer, when it comes to

Unknown Speaker (24:05): the backslider. God notices. And before the shepherd ever goes after the sheep, he had to be watching. He had to be

Speaker 2 (24:15): paying attention to know someone was missing. So James would say to us, arbent assembly, watch. Watch for the ones that have stopped believing what they used to

Speaker 1 (24:31): believe. Watch for the ones that quietly start heading in a different way. Watch for the ones that were consistent in their attendance. Maybe they went to Bible study. Maybe they went to prayer.

Speaker 1 (24:47): Now you see them once or twice a month. That's a sign they're starting to wander. That's what James is calling us to do. Watch for the one who got hurt. Watch for the one that got offended.

Unknown Speaker (25:06): Watch for the one that is slowly fading out the back. And here's the thing. Watching isn't the goal.

Speaker 2 (25:17): Watching is only the beginning. Bringing them back is the goal.

Unknown Speaker (25:24): Here's the second part of

Unknown Speaker (25:26): the answer. James tells us,

Speaker 1 (25:31): win them back. Look at verse 19 again. This time I want you to watch the second half. He says, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back.

Speaker 2 (25:51): Now here's a beautiful thing in that word turn. It's because the wanderer has turned away. And what

Speaker 1 (26:00): they need is somebody that's gonna help them turn around. They're walking in the wrong direction. And the whole rescue is just this. It's getting them pointed back home again. And that word turned back, it is the exact same word in the New Testament that the Bible uses for someone coming back to God in the first place.

Speaker 1 (26:29): It's a turning. It's a repentance. So we might ask, well, what does that look like? Listen how Paul says we're supposed to do it. Galatians six one.

Speaker 1 (26:45): He says, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual Now I gotta pause there for a second because last week we talked about the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man. And we talked about how often we want to dismiss ourself and that a righteous man is simply one that has had their sins covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, who has been justified by what Jesus did on the cross. We tend to do the exact same thing with scriptures like this. He says, you who are spiritual, you you you, it's all of us. You who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.

Speaker 1 (27:48): So how do we do this? He says restore in a spirit of gentleness. Now that word restore is actually a medical term. It's the word they used in the first century for setting a broken bone. And I did some research on this.

Speaker 1 (28:10): This was a painful process. It wasn't easy. You had to set the bone carefully. You had to set the bone gently. And Paul uses this word because the goal in winning someone back is not that you would win an argument.

Speaker 2 (28:33): It's not that you would win a debate. It's that you would win the wanderer.

Unknown Speaker (28:41): And so, you approach it gently. The word is meekness. And the definition is qualified by what he says after. And we do so gently and with meekness because we too must understand

Speaker 2 (29:00): that if it were not for Jesus, we could fall or wander just the same.

Speaker 1 (29:10): So you approach it gently. And I don't want you to mistake gentleness or meekness as being quiet or timid, small or insignificant because there is something that is hanging in the balance. Look with me at what James says in verse 20 is at

Speaker 2 (29:31): stake. He says, you will save a soul from death.

Speaker 1 (29:42): Now we need to be clear here what kind of death he means. He's not talking about physical death. The death that he is warning us about, he warned us already all the way back in chapter one. Do you remember what James said sin does in James one fifteen? He says, then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

Speaker 1 (30:10): And sin, when

Speaker 2 (30:11): it is full grown, brings forth death. This is the road that the wanderer is on. That's where the drift is heading.

Speaker 1 (30:25): It's not a little embarrassment. It's not just a rough patch. We're talking about death, the kind that lasts forever, separated from God. Now when you actually help turn someone back, I want you to notice what James says happens. Look with me again in verse 20.

Speaker 1 (30:49): He says, when you save a soul from death, it covers a multitude of sins. And this one's interesting because the word cover is one of the richest theological words in all of scripture. To cover sin doesn't mean to hide it. It doesn't mean to ignore it or to sweep it under the rug or to act like it never happened. In the Bible, to cover sin means to forgive it, to put it out of sight, to deal with it so completely that there's nothing even left that can poke its ugly head through.

Speaker 1 (31:33): David knew this. Listen to what he said in Psalm 32 verse one. He said, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Unknown Speaker (31:48): Forgiven, covered. Now back to James. I don't want

Speaker 1 (31:54): us to miss this little word that's here. Because James uses the word multitude. He says a multitude of sins. Because here's the deal. When the wanderer comes home, it's not just one thing that gets forgiven.

Speaker 1 (32:10): It's everything. It's it's the whole enchilada. Every sin from every one of those steps from that long drift away, all of it is covered. So where does that covering come from? Comes from the same place that your covering came from, the blood of Jesus Christ.

Unknown Speaker (32:37): That's what we're remembering this morning when we take communion. That Jesus has cleansed us. That he has washed us. That he has forgiven us. And there are those that have wandered from the truth.

Speaker 1 (32:51): And now God is saying, after them. And so when the wanderer comes back, their sins get washed in the blood of the lamb. Gone As far as the East is from the West. That's the same grace that covered you and the same grace that covered me. It's the same grace that's greater than all of our sin.

Speaker 1 (33:23): And so put the two together now. A soul that is saved from death, a multitude of sins that are covered. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that you could do for another human being that is greater than this. You could buy somebody a house and give them the keys. You could pay off every debt they owe.

Unknown Speaker (33:56): You can have a new car waiting for them in the

Speaker 2 (33:59): driveway. The day they die it wouldn't even matter.

Unknown Speaker (34:06): But if you turn a wanderer back to Jesus, you have done the single greatest thing that a person could ever do for another human being. You've reached into eternity for them. Here's the part I don't wanna rush over.

Speaker 2 (34:29): Whose job is this? Go back and look at verse number 19 with me.

Unknown Speaker (34:38): Look at who James says does

Unknown Speaker (34:41): it.

Speaker 1 (34:43): He says someone. I had to laugh as I was studying this out because he uses the most vaguest term that he could have picked. And and he did this on purpose. James doesn't say the pastor goes and turns him back. He doesn't say the elders go and turns him back or the the leadership goes after the wanderer.

Unknown Speaker (35:11): He says, someone, anyone, whoever is close enough to notice and willing to go. In other words, that means it might be you. You might be the very person that God uses to save that soul from death. I'm sure this morning God has been putting some people

Speaker 2 (35:44): on your heart. Maybe it's a coworker.

Speaker 1 (35:48): Maybe it's a cousin. Maybe it's a friend you haven't talked to in years. Maybe it was someone that used to sit in front of you or behind you on the pew. Here's the thing. You don't need a title to go after the wanderer.

Speaker 1 (36:07): You don't need a position to help bring them back. You just have to be somebody that is willing to go. Now remember what did we settle in the very beginning? You don't have to figure out all the theology first. You don't have to be sure whether or not they've lost their salvation.

Unknown Speaker (36:30): You don't need to figure out whether or not they were ever saved in the first place. You don't have to figure out if they were just hanging on by a thread. You don't even need to know all of the reasons. That's not your job. That's not your business.

Unknown Speaker (36:45): James doesn't ask you to sort it

Speaker 2 (36:47): out. He just says, church, go. They're out there. They're out

Unknown Speaker (36:56): of fellowship with God. They're out of fellowship with his people. And James says the danger is real. So go.

Unknown Speaker (37:11): Watch for the wanderer. When you find them, win them back. Would you

Unknown Speaker (37:20): stand to your feet with me this morning?