Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of James, chapter five. James, chapter
five. My heart was providentially drawn
to this passage of scripture. I'm gonna look at verses 19 and
20. First part of this week. And
I'd like to just deal with these last two verses in 1 Peter. Before
we look at it, I know that those that know Him know this truth. There's no depth to the possibility
of our sinfulness. Believers, I'm talking about
believers. There's no limit to the desires of our rebellion
against God. There's no limit. Why? we still
have an old man in us. That nature that we were born
with, that old man, that sinful, fallen, depraved man is still
there. Now the debt of our sin has been
paid for all God's elect. The debt of their sin is paid.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus,
which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. There's
no condemnation. But listen, that old man is still in us. And he's got just as much resentment,
hatred that he's ever had. And that's the battle. That's
the war. That's why we struggle like we
do. Paul the Apostle, just stay in
1 Peter, I want to just read this to you. Paul the Apostle
said concerning himself, which is a confession of every believer,
He said in Romans 7.22, he said, I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. I delight in God's law. Can't
keep it. I can't fulfill it. Not for acceptance
before God, but I delight in it. I love God's law. God's law
is good. God's law is holy. God's law
is just. What's wrong with love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy soul?
What's wrong with that? Nothing. What's wrong with love
your neighbor as you love yourself? Nothing. I just can't do it. He said, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members. Warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? So knowing, knowing
that there's an old man and a new man. There's a new man created
in righteousness. Everyone that Almighty God has
been pleased to regenerate in power and grace. He's put a new
man there. A new creation. Created in righteousness. True holiness. The very life
of Christ. Christ in you. The hope of glory. So now I want us to, knowing
that, I want us to look at these two verses of Scripture and realize
who James is talking to. He's talking to somebody. He
says in James chapter 5 verse 19-20, Brethren, Brethren, now
who's he talking to? He's talking to those that make
claim to know the truth. Brethren, if any of you do err
from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which
converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a
soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins." Now, this
one that I said is being spoken to is one that has made claim
to know the Lord. And James said, Brethren, if
any of you, if any of you, any of you that know Him, any of
you that claim to know the Christ, if you err, If you err, if you roam from,
wander out of the way because of a wrong opinion, He said if
any of you do err, and one convert him, we're not convert in the
sense of the original regeneration, but it's talking about as far
as bring back or be the instrument. Only the Lord can bring one back.
But he uses means. He uses instruments. He uses
men, women, that love one another. There's a possibility and therefore
a reality that we've beheld in scripture and in our own lives
for brethren to err, to wander. Listen to Isaiah 53.6. All we. Do you think Isaiah was
including himself in we when he said all we? He didn't mean
all of y'all except for me. He didn't say that. All we, like
sheep, have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Why do we find ourselves wondering? Why do we find ourselves that
way? Because of an old man. Wars. Listen to what, I'm holding
my finger on first Peter here. Psalm 119, last verse of scripture.
Psalm 119. Last verse of scripture, Psalm 119. Here's what David said. I have
gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant, for I do not
forget thy commandments. David said that, a man after
God's own heart. So there's an old man there that's
wondered. Paul had said, I find a law,
I find a will, there's a will, there's a law, there's a governing
law that I see. That when I would do good, and
I desire that, what believer doesn't want to do good? I cannot not sin, but I don't
want to. I find a law that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. So if any of you err from
the truth and one converted, or as I said, be the instrument. How? And one converted. Well, number one, by prayer,
I would tell you this. Brethren, Paul said, pray for
us. Pray for one. and convert him in this light,
being the instrument in a right spirit. Galatians 6, 1, Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such in one in the spirit of meekness, number one, meekness
in submission to the Lord. Considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted. He said if we have an erring
brother, one overtaken in a fault, and the responsibility and the
attitude of one used by God to restore that erring brother,
sister, is a spirit of meekness. Meekness. Why? Considering yourself.
Not in harsh, judgmental, you know, I'd never do that. Scripture
bears otherwise. I mean, consider these, David,
Peter, Isaiah. What Isaiah said, we all actually,
all of us have done that. It's Matthew 5, 9, it said, blessed
are the peacemakers. Well, they should be called the
children of God. You know why? We love one another. We love
one another. John 13, 55, by this shall all
men know that you're my disciples. You have one for another. So
God's people, they're children of God, redeemed by the blood
of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but we're flesh. And that's not, it's not an excuse. I told you about my buddy, now
he's my buddy, in Tennessee, that was, it was just something,
it was just contrary to scripture. And I asked him, I said, Wayne, y'all don't know him anyway.
I said, you can't do this, you can't do this. No, you cannot. The motions of
sin, the desires of the flesh, and the potential to fall are
in every person, every believer. And therefore we know it. And
if and when it happens, brother fall, make every attempt to recover,
to restore, to resettle him to his place of fellowship. Our attitude is not to be critical,
harsh, condemning, but one of patience, long-suffering, humility,
because the potential to fall is in all of us. I want you to be tender with
me, because I want you to be tender with me. It's that potential
that's there. We know it and we all stand totally
by the grace of God. 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2 verse
24-25. Scripture says, The servant of
the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to
teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves,
if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. The Lord's wisdom concerning
this was set forth in Matthew 13. Matthew 13, verse 27 to 30. Matthew 13, verse 27. So the servants of
the Lord. You know, when I'm saying it,
be gentle, be kind, be patient, be patient. You know, I tell
you, I'm ready always to jerk a knot in somebody's throat just
at the drop of a hat. But what'd the Lord say? He gives this parable of the
good man that had his servants sow some wheat in his field. And someone came, an evil one
came and sowed some tares in it. And the tares started growing
up. The servant said, you want us to go out there and jerk out
the tares? Well, the good man said, no. Leave them alone. Leave them alone. He said, in
the end, he said, they'll be separated, the angels. Matthew
13, so the servants of the household came and said unto him, sir,
didst not thou sow good wheat in thy field? And whence then
hath it tares? And he said to them, an enemy
hath done this. The servant said unto him, wilt
thou then we go and gather them up? But he said, nay, lest while
you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together unto the
harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather
ye together first the tares, bind them in bundles, and burn
them, but gather the wheat unto my barn." So here's the truth
of it. We're all liable to err. We're all. It happens to us all
the time. Be patient. Be patient. In a
spirit of meekness, converting, encouraging. Again, like I said,
nobody's ever converted anybody in regenerating grace the first
time. But what he's talking about, listen to what the Lord told
Peter. Luke 22, 31-32, the Lord said,
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he
may sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for thee. Now, what a
word of encouragement. I prayed for you. I've told you
before, I want you to pray for me. Pray for me, but to know
that the Lord would pray for me. But I prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, that is,
turned back, strengthen thy brethren, Oh, as we consider the indescribable
mercy of God that keeps His people. Here was Peter. Peter. One that Satan desired to have
and sift of wheat, but couldn't. He desired to, but he couldn't.
Why? The Lord will keep him. I'm not going to leave you. I'm
not going to forsake you. The Lord prayed for him that
his faith, faith given by grace, would not fail. And he didn't. He didn't. I've
told you before, I think about that passage. I can't think of
exactly, it's in one of the Gospels. But when the Lord told him, he
said, you're going to deny me three times. Before that cock
crows twice, you're going to deny me three times. Peter said,
I'll die before I do that. When that rooster crowed the
second time, and he had denied the Lord three times, and he
just said the Lord looked at him. He just looked at him. I'm thinking,
that man could fall that walked with him, that heard him preach,
that just sat with him, just taught the gospel by Christ.
What do you think about me? Back in James chapter 5. Brethren, if any of you do err
from the truth, and one, convert him. One, be the means by drawing
him back. Brother Henry made this statement.
He says erring from the truth usually is a very gradual thing.
that progresses from the habit of neglecting the means of God's
grace. That is, the consistency of hearing
the gospel, faithfully studying the scriptures, and daily seeking
the Lord in private prayer. I thought, you know, that's true.
Because see, what we do is we start to justify what we just
did. Then once we get that part justified, then it goes a little
farther. But the God of all grace, He does not allow those that
he's everlastingly loved to continue in their era. It's not that they've embraced
heresy, it's not that they've come to that point where they're
saying that salvation is by man's work, man's righteousness, man's
ability, but they've erred and strayed from the truth in consistency
in their walk. He said, if any man, no brethren,
if any of you do err from the truth, not that he said I don't
believe the gospel, but in the consistency. You think Peter
still believed that salvation was of the Lord? Yeah, he believed
that. But he erred in his walk. Let him know, let him know, one
who is one of the Lords, let him know, that he which converteth
the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from
death and shall hide a multitude of sins. Now let him know the
one that is being the instrument used of God to restore his erring
brother shall save a soul from death. Now again it's not that
the instrument of God's mercy has the ability to save a soul
from death. Now how can I save somebody's
soul from death? It's not that. But it's being
the instrument by which the restoring of an erring brother is the means
by which God shows that he's been pleased. to not permit this
object of his mercy to perish. That's what it means. He shall
save a soul? No. He didn't save it. He's not
the one that saved him from death and he's not the one that hides
the multitude of sins. He's the instrument. He's the
instrument. I come to preach the gospel to
you. Do I have the ability to impart life? No. I don't have
the ability. But if you believe the truth,
it's because God Almighty, by grace, gave you a heart to believe. And I being nothing more than
the voice. That's what John the Baptist
said. I'm just a voice. That's all I am. All I am is
I'm repeating what I'm reading and you're reading. All I'm doing
is repeating this. That's all I can do. And pray
that God blesses it. Let him know that he which converteth
the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from
death and shall hide a multitude of sins. The Lord who has ordained
his people to himself knows the frailty of our flesh. He's the shepherd where the sheep
And He sends an under-shepherd. He sends a pastor who is just
as frail and weak as everybody sitting in the congregation right
now. As I said before, before I started the first message,
who is sufficient for these things? For being sent of the Lord to
set forth the truth of the Lord. I pray that the Lord be pleased
to bless it. blessed to the salvation and
the keeping of God's people. We need to hear this. We need
to hear this. Faithful are the wounds of a
friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Brethren, brethren, if any of
you, if any of you, They overtake him in a fault. Err. He that converted, he that saved
him, will reveal, God's been pleased to save that erring brother
by the truth. Keep him by the truth. To God's
glory and the eternal good of God's sheep. I pray the Lord
bless it. To His glory and our good. Amen.