For Those in Need (Part C)

They were in the fire being consumed and they were snatched out. That's what happens when we are saved and that is what happens when the backslider is brought back into the fold. So blessed is that man or woman that has a heart for the backslider.

Great is their reward. He says in verse 20, then he who turns a sinner from the arrow of his way. Well James has been doing this this whole letter. The whole letter he's been dealing with the wrong way.

Today, Pastor Rick continues his study called for those in need as he teaches through James chapter 5. So, we are to confess our sins to God and our wrongdoings to the one we did wrong to. What is tricky about that? What happens when we bottle it up? When we've done someone wrong and we don't go to them and say, I admit it, I was wrong. What happens then? Well, some of you know. You found out the hard way.

And so skip that step for those of you who might not yet have realized this. When you have wronged someone, Jesus said, you know what, don't go going to church talking about how spiritual you are and you've done someone wrong and you've not made it right. Leave your offering and fix it. Go fix the problem. Some are afraid that if they say, you know what, I was wrong, that the other one is okay, I know you were wrong, now I'm going to take advantage of you.

That's not it. I can pardon a wrong done by another. Can I pardon a wrong done to me? So, confession, it certainly has to be limited to that circle of need.

Otherwise, it may do more harm. I was at a pastors conference once and one of the pastors, we were rooming three of us together in a room, and one said, you know, James says confess your sins to one another and so let's do that. And he said, you know, I struggle with, you know, substance abuse. And he went on to some of the details and then the other one said, I struggle with lust. I can't help myself. And I said, I struggle with gossip and I can't wait to get out of this room.

Now, that really happened. The point is, you just can't go blabbing your mouth to everybody, telling them what your problems are. Who wants to hear it? I got my own problems. This has to do when you have wronged somebody, you've got to make it right and not pretend that your trampling on the heart of another is somehow acceptable to God.

Because you've gotten away with it, you think? And so he goes at it, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another. Instead of doing wrong and ignoring it, how about praying for the other? Those of you who do struggle with gossip, for example, you can redirect that. You know how they do on the train tracks? They just pull the lever and the track goes to another direction?

Just one little twist. Instead of gossiping about the person, how about praying for the person? You still get to talk.

You still get to talk about the person. You're just not talking to other people about them. You're looking for solutions. No, no, you don't pray. God helps those.

You know how messed up they are, how annoying, how I like to kick them off a cliff every now and then. That's not prayer. Heartfelt prayer, and he's going to talk about that. Prayer is work.

It doesn't come natural to us. It's a spiritual thing. Most people do not like to pray until there's something pressing down on them very hard, even Christians.

Our prayer meetings, they're never packed. Prayer is hard work. And Satan knows it and he loves it, that Christians just won't punch through. Matthew 7, verse 12, Therefore whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

This is scripture. Pray for one another. Do you want people praying for you? Who would be foolish enough to say, I don't want anybody praying for me?

You'd be a fool. We all need and should want prayer. He says that you may be healed. So scripture is connecting now, unconfessed sin, with sickness.

And it doesn't only do it here. That's important. First Corinthians 11, verse 30, Paul says concerning the communion table, which the early Christians began to abuse the Christian table. They were getting drunk in church, drinking too much.

Wow, this is wonderful. And the church cut it out. We're going to fix this.

You're not going to just let this happen. So he writes, he says, For this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. It's a euphemism for many have died as a judgment because of the trampling of the communion table. Peter said that misbehavior towards a spouse will block your prayers. What does that mean to cut your prayers off?

That's what it means. God says, Why am I? Why am I?

Why are you even talking to me? You got stuff to deal with. You refuse to do it.

This is unacceptable. This is not sin that you're struggling with. This is just blatant sin that harms others. Husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife. And then he says that your prayers may not be hindered. Jesus, Isaiah, and James, they all tell us carnality blocks prayer. Matthew 13, Jesus quoting Isaiah, For the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. Is sarcasm in that? No, no, no. Don't obey the prophets.

Don't just keep going your way because I would hate for you to have to come to me and get healed. That's the kind of the idea in back of that. Sarcasm works sometimes. In boot camp it works pretty good.

You younger Christians may be, well I'll just share this much. When I went to boot camp, and I've said this before, they never asked my opinion. Not once. It was their way or that was going to be very bad for me. And I'm glad they weren't trying to be like me. In fact, when you first arrive at Paris Island, it's dark, and the drill instructors that you're going to have, they don't get to see you as a civilian. I think they're afraid they'll kill you. So you go through this process.

They shave your hair off and they give you about a week or so. Then you meet your teachers. And I guess the point, I don't know what my point is. I'm having flashbacks. You know, it's okay to look up to those who are trying to say, I want you to be up here. It's okay. And not resist them.

Submit to them. Well he says here, James does in verse 16, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Effective and fervent in the Greek, in this verse, is a single word.

From our English word, energy is tied to that Greek word. And so the energetic prayer, not the ho-hum. I encourage you when you pray for your food to do more than just say, you know, God is great, God is good, thank you for the grub.

I encourage you to think about what you're saying. Yes, Lord, thank you for my food. I don't encourage you to ask God to help the food bless your body because that would be like saying, Lord, help the water be wet.

Food does that. I know I'm getting a lot of scowls right now. The main point is, if you do that, that's fine. You're not going to go to hell or anything like that, for that. But when you pray, think a little bit. Maybe God wants you to pray for something else along with your food.

Would that be wrong? Would it be good for a pastor to say to his flock, listen to the Holy Spirit. Take a moment. Some of you have nine, ten meals a day. Nine chances, ten chances a day to talk to the Lord about something.

It can be the same thing. It's not a vain repetition. If it is serious, it is focused, and the Holy Spirit has got it on your heart. Elijah, it says in 1 Kings 18, went up to the top of Mount Carmel. Then he bowed down to the ground, put his face between his knees.

He was serious business. He prayed seven times that day for the rain to return. Why seven times?

I would have quit by three or four. Well, Jesus did three. That's it.

I'm done. He's going to pray this. He knew God had told him to do this, and he wasn't going to stop until he received the answer, because he was told this was going to happen. This is the fervent kind of prayer that James is saying.

Pray like you mean it, and pray. According to church history, James had a great reputation for praying. I think it's Eusebius the historian. I might be off, but said they called him camel knees, because he prayed so much his knees, you know, sort of just got calloused up and flat. Now, I don't know if that's true, because with what they wore in those days, when did you get to see anybody's knees? It wasn't like today where they wear shorts to weddings. All right, so anyway, be careful when you read church history. Some of it is, you know what, that's a bit over the top.

Just be careful. It's not the Bible. But anyway, verse 17, Eliza was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. A tremendous victory he had against Ahab and Jezebel, that witch of the Old Testament, who imported idolatry into the promised land amongst the people of God and was very successful with what she did.

That spirit, that practice goes on to this day. Jesus deals with it in the church in Revelation 2. Anyway, he had this great victory, and then after the victory, he finds out that the enemy was going to retaliate, that Jezebel had ordered a hit put on him. And he fled there at the gates of the city, and he flees. And so he was like we all are, faithful and faithless. And are we not that way? Sometimes we got it, other times we're struggling. He prayed earnestly, it says in verse 17, that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years. That's quite impressive. His prayer brought judgment, and then it brought relief.

That I think is worth thinking about. Verse 18, and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Again, we're not heard for our much praying, our mindless praying, our just babbling on and on. But there's a difference again between vain repetitions and persistent prayer on a matter that has to be dealt with before the Lord.

And as I referenced Elijah praying seven times before the cloud appeared. Verse 19, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know, verse 20, that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. Well, looking back up at verse 19, brethren, there's that gentle but firm touch of James in the midst of a letter that is all about correction. You come to church and you want to hear how glorious God is, and James says, let me just tell you how messed up you are, because the behavior that's going on here cannot be ignored.

And that's why he's written this letter. That's why pretty much most of the New Testament letters were written. Jesus, five of his letters to the churches were about correction.

Only two were full of encouragement. The Church of Smyrna and the Church of Philadelphia, they were encouraged to move forward. One was being persecuted, the other one was just solid into the word. But the other five, they had big problems, and he gave them some serious warnings.

He says, fix it or I'm leaving. Well, he did that with the temple that she kind of departed, and Ezekiel talks much about that. If anyone among you wanders from the truth, which means that can happen. And again, these are to Jews primarily. The majority of his audience is Jewish, and some were still wanting to go back to Judaism, and others try out paganism.

They were departing. And so he says, if any one of you departs from the truth. Satan, among his favorite weapons to chase people away from Christ who have come to Christ, persecution, prosperity, and pride.

Those are choice weapons. You know, fame. You get a big head.

You start thinking that it is you. We talked about this Wednesday with King Hezekiah. He became fame. He was becoming popular. People had heard about what God had done for Judah, and it went to his head, not his heart. When you feel the head getting bigger and not the heart, when your head gets bigger at all, you have a problem. So maintain your devotional time before the Lord.

That is an excellent defense. Otherwise, the hyenas of hell are coming for you, and they are powerful, and they will take you out. Don't think because you keep your devotional time, and you've not licked every sin that you're faced with that somehow your devotions don't work. You want to see what happens to you if you stop devoting yourself, those of you who have? You'll get worse, and those of you who have not a devotional time with the Lord.

How can you ever get better? What do you think? Is it just because, you know, it's you? You're going to somehow keep up with the big dogs? You get a pass?

You do not have to apply yourself, study to show yourself, approve the worker unto God, who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You think, I don't have to do that because I'm special. Well, I hope that's not you. I hope I sound gentle, too. So I said, brethren, I never mean to sound harsh. Well, I mean, I haven't in a very long time. But you just can't stop every time you're stressing a point and saying, light flashing up. He's being gentle now.

It's just not coming across that way. He says, and someone turns him back. The backslider has to be fetched. We get that from the Bible. The person who goes astray, someone has to go after them, and that's why he says, and someone turns him back. Do any of you know someone who used to be a Christian, used to be in the faith, used to go to church? If the door is open for you to go through it, fetch him.

Go get him. Galatians 6, brethren, again, now this is Paul writing, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. It's not hard to remember that we can be tempted with anything and crumble in an instant.

I think most of us don't crumble to temptation because a big enough temptation has been blocked from us. Matthew 18, Jesus speaking, if a man has 100 sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the 99 and go to the mountains to seek that one that is straying? You see, you go after them. That does not mean that he leaves the 99 vulnerable to wolves and he comes back, I've got my one but I've lost 99.

That is not the meaning. Of course, they would put them in a fold with another shepherd. But he goes at the one who has gone astray.

That is that someone. Verse 20, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. That let him know, that's the someone of verse 19, let the one that went after him encourage them, remind them, oh yeah man, that is a big move.

Zechariah 3, 2 and Jude 23 talk about brands being plucked from the burning. They were in the fire being consumed and they were snatched out and that's what happens when we are saved and that is what happens when the backslider is brought back into the fold. So blessed is that man or woman that has a heart for the backslider.

Great is their reward. He says in verse 20, then he who turns a sinner from the error of his way. Well, James has been doing this this whole letter. The whole letter he's been dealing with the wrong way, trying to fix it, get it to be the right way, will save a soul from death, the infinite value of the individual soul. Salvation is everything. It is everything and why the work in the church is so important when the church is emaciated, when she is anemic, when she is weak and sloppy and ridiculous, how can she save anybody, save them to what? And you do get souls saved in clumsy churches nonetheless which is quite humbling and yet there are many that act as though they're saved in those environments and they are not because they're so ignorant of the scripture, so shut down to its correction. And we see so often people championing the champions of homosexuality in churches.

It's an easy one. It's like a champion adultery. We don't pat people on the back, hey, you're a pretty good adulterer.

We get an award for you. And so you deal with these things and you make enemies so you're tempted in the flesh to say bring them on but you learn I don't want to sound like a tough guy in any spiritual fight. Judgment is real. Jesus said he who believes in the Son has everlasting life and he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him. I don't want any part of that. Some of you know about the wrath of your parents.

I knew about my parents' wrath. Imagine what God's wrath must be like on those who reject who he is, who say to him you're lying. When he says this is who I am in the scripture, they say you're lying.

I don't believe that. Cover a multitude of sins, James says, their own as well as the one that is led back, retrieved. And so he goes out with this burst of encouragement. James keeps the main thing, the main thing throughout his writing and right up to the end for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and need a Savior. And so a quick review of some of the verses in James, I'm just going to read the entire letter. James chapter 1 verse 8, he is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways.

You read that once, you say I don't want to be the double-minded guy. James 1 verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1 22, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Ezekiel, he said that straight out also 500 years before James was even thought of. James 2 19, you believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble.

Look at that, the demons believe that God exists and they remain demons. What a lesson is in that. James 3 verse 6, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire by hell. These are just profound excerpts from this man of God. Chapter 3 verse 14, but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. James 3 16, for wherever envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, without hypocrisy, now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 4, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war against your members? James 4 4, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? It is war with God. Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. That's not in a lot of Bibles.

Humor, sarcasm, so some people act like it's not in there. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. And then we close and then a comment right after, a little short one. 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 way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. This is a powerful letter. I'm glad we're done with it because it's hard to study. Okay, what a wonderful way to close this document, especially one as hard hitting as this.

It closes on a note of love. Thanks for joining us today as we took a deeper look into the book of James here on Cross Reference Radio. Cross Reference Radio is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. We're blessed to bring you God's word with each broadcast. If you'd like more information or want to listen to additional teachings from Pastor Rick, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. If you've been blessed by this program, we'd love to hear from you. When you visit the website, simply click on the contact us link at the top of the page and leave us a message. That website again is crossreferenceradio.com. Please join us again next time as we continue our study through the book of James right here on Cross Reference Radio.