The Lost Among Us part 2 Our Reponsibility

Well take your Bible and turn with me to James chapter 5 and like I said previously This will be our last message in the text that we have had before us in these five chapters in the book of James and Next week we are going to wrap it up we're gonna take and do an overview to help us get the big picture and Help us remember some of the truths that we really need to see and we're gonna divide the book in half or divide The message of the book in half next week and we're gonna look at the message to the Christian and the message to the lost Person and you're gonna see just how relevant James is but we are finishing up our text and what I mean by text We have had five chapters in the book of James and we're at the end of chapter five And we started with verse 19 and 20 last week when we looked at the lost among us If you remember we looked at the lost among us part one and I called it their condition their condition Now we looked at the text I explained to you my approach We were going to look at the text look at the words the keywords the phrases We're gonna look at the text verses 19 and 20.

We were gonna look at other text. That is my habit I want to look at where the language is used in other books I want to look at how Paul might have used the language and Jesus used it in the Gospels And then we looked at the context of the book and that helped us to establish the fact that James is Dealing with lost people within the life of the church Now when I say that lost people within the life of the church Some of you might say that's not a possibility Some of you might even say that's not a probability. Well, I will tell you it is a certainty I've gotten into trouble by saying those types of things in the past.

I explained that to you last week But James teaches us this fact James is showing us verse 19 and 20 that there are lost people among us We know the context these are Jewish Christians primarily They were from Jerusalem and when the great persecution broke out They scattered and they scattered in the different places some were blessed and some were not some struggled and some were not But what we see is James is writing to them and as he is giving these tests all through the book of James He comes to the end and he says listen brothers.

I love you But there are some among you they do not measure up to the tests that I've been giving you James is giving this certainty Not just a probability not even the possibility but the certainty that there are lost among us I'll just give you a specific example chapter 2 verses 14 through 17 Remember we looked at dead faith demonic faith and demonstrated faith. What do we see? Some have a dead faith and even some have a demonic faith What's James saying James are saying some of you over there say you believe in God say some of you say you believe in Jesus He says well the demons in hell believe as well What is he saying?

The the the certainty that there are lost among you Now Jesus tells us this as well You might not be familiar with this verse, but all of us should be it's not a very positive verse as a matter of fact It's a very graphic verse But in Matthew chapter 7 verse 21 Jesus says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven But he who does the will of my father who is in heaven and then he goes on to talk about the judgment When all of lost humanity will stand before him as the king of kings and the Lord of lords the judge of all humanity What does he say many will say to me on that day Lord Lord?

Did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will declare to them. I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness I Want you to notice that scripture there in Matthew? He's not talking to the cults He's not talking to the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons. He's not talking to those who are involved in Islam No, these are people notice who preach in the name of Christ They do many miracles in the name of Christ they do good things in the name of Christ and what does he say they are? Practicers of lawlessness because they did not know him. What do we see?

Those among the church who are lost and we see they're doomed when they stand before Christ Third Paul tells us this certainty at the end of the Corinthian book second Corinthians I don't know if you're familiar with first and second Corinthians. It's really a Depressing two letters, but also a blessing because if there's hope for the Corinthian church, there's hope for us Remember that Corinthian church had all of these problems problem after problem after problem well Paul just writes to deal with each issue each problem It's a matter of fact each person and when he gets to the end of the book in second Corinthians 13 5 He says now test yourselves to see if you are in the faith and he says examine yourselves.

What is he saying? You better make sure you line up with everything that I have given you He goes on to say or do not or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Christ is in you That's the test is Christ in you examine yourself test yourself and then he goes on to say unless indeed you failed the test What is that that is the certainty that there were lost people in the Corinthian church now? What must we see? This certainty that there are lost people within the life of the church now, they are not the church They are not the body of Christ. They are not blood-bought They are lost and doomed and damn, but they are around us.

They sit in our pews They sit in our Sunday school classes and they can even be in leadership positions This certainty that we must see they are not just outside of the door of the church, but they are within the church They are also in our families and let me tell you this is half the battle Let me explain what I mean Half the battle is coming to the understanding that the scripture teaches that there are lost people In the four walls of the church, you know the parable of the weed in the tear the Christians are symbolized by the the weed in and the lost are symbolized by the tear or the weed and and and In that parable the workers say to the Lord you want us to go pull up the tears He said oh, no, you might pull up some of the wheat.

It's all is hard to distinguish sometimes who they are But the truth is taught and that is half the battle is for us in the life of the church to come to the realization that this is taught and this is a reality and this is a Certainty because what James is doing is James is telling us what to do about it I like how MacArthur wraps this idea up. He says the assumption throughout James epistle Is that there will be those who identify with the church but have dead non-saving faith?

Here the writer calls on those with true saving faith to pursue pursue such people This is not nothing less than a call to evangelism within the church Wow a call to evangelism within the church. I Shared with you last week my own personal experience. I've gotten in hot water because of this But you know, I'm so thankful that I came from a church now I was born again matter of fact my spiritual birthday was this past week I failed to mention that February the night 26 years ago.

God saved me and I never got over it Now I'm still not getting over it But I'm thankful when God saved me and he put me in a Bible believing Bible preaching church where God was to work That my pastor and the leadership of the church believed that there were lost people in the life of the church and I had the privilege of seeing people who were regular fixtures in the church come to know Christ and That was kind of a taboo thing in our in our community.

We were ridiculed for that And it's seeing my personal experience I have seen people who looked apart talked apart act apart They might teach Sunday school even be deacons come to be born again come to be saved. Listen My wife was what came to Christ after we were in the ministry She was teaching Sunday school doing everything right now. Look I didn't meet her in a bar room. I met her at church She was doing everything right.

She made a profession of faith as a child a profession of faith as a teenager But but but yet God showed her after we were in ministry I say we I was in the ministry and she's my partner in that what am I showing you the certainty that there are lost people in the life of the church Some people have to see it a little more clearly than this and I give you an example before we move on a lot of people are familiar with church history and Probably one of the high watermarks in our American Church or on this side of the Atlantic is the great awakening the Great Awakening Well in that part of time and in our history in church history There was a great move of God in the life of our church and a life of our our culture and our country I'm trying to say but part of that was many people who had their names on the role of the church were born again As well as those outside of the life of the church Now I said earlier last week's message was the lost among us part one their condition And what I I wanted us to see is what James was saying James was showing us the condition of these people They do not need to be rededicated That is a falsehood that is a lie from the beat of ale and what we saw is that they were lost the language Shows us that that's why I said their condition.

That's half the battle Understanding that that person over there is lost and doomed and damned But then we move on and what I want us to see this morning is the lost among us part two and that is our Responsibility because it's not enough just to see that they're lost now. We must see what is our Responsibility as blood-bought born-again Christians What must we do because after we understand what we looked at last week the ball is in our court So I'll put the title of the message on the screen and the two main truths that we're gonna look at I encourage you to write them down I always encourage you to take notes so that you can go back in your own time and study and allow the Lord to Really put into your mind and heart what he wants you to get.

So let's look at the scripture together verse 19 and 20 James chapter 5 My brethren is addressing the Christians if any among you notice he does not call them Christian strays from the truth the war and one turns him back verse 20 Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins Now I've made my case for the condition of those who were mentioned remember go back to verse 19 There is a line of division.

He says my brethren He's addressing the Christian then he says if any among you there is a difference between the two And last week I made my case with the language with the language right here in these verses in The language in the scriptures and also the context that these are lost people in the church now We see our responsibility So let's divide the text and let's look at what we must do in response to what we've learned number one We must seek to turn them back from error We must seek to turn them back from error Now if you would I would like you to look at your copy of God's Word go back to verse 19 He says my brethren if any among you strays from the truth and notice and one Turns him back if you write in your Bible I'd like you to underline or circle that word turns verse 20 Let him know that he who turns a sinner Now the key word right here is this word turn now the King James reads convert all the other translations say Bring him back when I mean by that the English standard version the new international the amplified that I mentioned sometimes Says bring him back the new American that I'm reading from says to turn Now the meaning of this word is very simple and it is very straightforward There's really no definition needed because what is meant in the original it means to turn them back It means to bring them back.

It means to turn them around to convert them the King James says Now James uses this word two times I've already mentioned verse 19 and verse 20 now this word and this phrase is used very often throughout the New Testament in Version of the lost that's how it's used There are many other plate times where it's used I'm gonna read you to just to help illustrate and help you understand what this word means Luke chapter 1 verse 16 through 17 This is the ministry of John the Baptist Notice what the scripture says Luke chapter 1 you don't have to turn there verse 16 and 17 and he will turn back Many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God and it is he who will go as a forerunner Before him in the spirit and the power of Elijah.

What does that word turn back mean? It's talking about conversion It's talking about reaching the lost. What do we see John the Baptist? What is he doing? He is doing the work of turning people bringing them back. I Give you another example. This is not found in in the in the Gospels But in Acts chapter 9 we see this communicated in verse 35 Peter is preaching. I mean excuse me Acts chapter 9 verse 35 This is the the after the conversion of Saul and notice what it says This is in Peter's ministry now. It came about that as Peter was traveling throughout those parts. What is he doing?

He's evangelizing verse 35 and all who lived at the Lydia and Sharon saw him and what and they turned to the Lord. What do we see here? This is conversion This is the laws coming to know Christ. What am I trying to show you other places in the New Testament where this word? Turn or bringing them back is used and the context is always the lost coming to Christ the lost being converted Now to see the depth of this word and James call to action. He's calling us to action.

We must remember last week's message these messages build on one another See this word right here has action to it go back to the verse my brethren if any among you strays from the truth and One turns him back Then he goes on verse 20. Let him know that he who turns a sinner There is action there, but we must see that action in light of last week So let me let me give you some truth first They are turned from their error First they are turned from their error Now remember these who have gone astray they are in action They are in the action of straying from truth They are in the process of straying from the Word of God and the gospel Remember we looked at that last week.

That is what they are in error of they have left the word They have left the gospel But also verse 20 says that they are in a position of error. They have taken a position of error They have moved away from truth and they have taken up a position of being wrong But what we see right here is they are turned from that error They are turned from that position and see that is the responsibility That is the action of the one who goes out after the one who is in error Second I want you to notice that they are turned from their sin They are turned from their sin go back to verse 20 and let him know that he who turns a sinner Remember how I define to you what that word sinner meant?

They are a sinner in their actions, but they are a sinner in their condition Everywhere that word is used it speaks of the unregenerate those who were lost and without Christ Not in just what they do but listen but in who they are It's easy to say that they're lost in what they do, but what James is saying is they have wandered from their truth from the truth They are in a position of error, but they are in sin and they are a sinner.

That's who they are Remember I talked about their nature That is their nature that is who they are What's in the well comes up in the bucket and what they are what what what what takes place is is they are turned from? They're seeing they are turned from their condition then third they are turned now notice to the truth My brethren if any among you stray from the truth and one turns him back Turns him back turns him back to what the word of God The truth of the Bible the truth of the gospel the truth of God I want to pause here and say this to you if we move away from what the Bible says What will we turn people to?

You will turn them from one pit to another pit Because to move away from the word of God is to move into error to be in a position of error and to reveal the fact that you are a sinner and you are in the condition of sin a Rebel against God, but what James is saying is you turn them back to the truth the word of God and look I want you to get this we must see two important issues here first God's great use of mankind What does he say my brother and if any among you strays from the truth and one of you turns them back? This is the great use of mankind Man's God's plan is for man.

God desires to use man So first and foremost we must see God's great use of the brothers and sisters of Christ To turn these back, but second Man's responsibility Let me show you what I mean they are and we are responsible to the task and performing the task correctly We must do this task correctly We must see that God chooses to use man and second we are Responsible to that and look if we have the responsibility of being used to turn sinners back We must be skillful We must do this correctly because if we miss either of the two we are failures You get that if we miss either of the two we fail if we fail to see that it is our responsibility We're failures But if we fail to do this skillfully We are failures if we say oh, yes, I see it boy The Lord wants me to reach these people, but if we don't turn them to the truth, we are unskillful therefore we are failures and There are countless throngs of people in the life of the church who are turning people away From one lie to another lie.

Let me give you an example in this found in Scripture This is very familiar to us Romans excuse me Romans chapter 10 starting in verse 14 It's a very urgent plea to go share the gospel from Paul What does he say how then shall they call upon upon him and whom they have not believed and how? Shall they believe in him him whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach? Unless they are sent. What do we see the responsibility the Responsibility and if we say alright, yes, Lord.

I have a responsibility Well, then the next step is if we're gonna step up to the plate to fulfill our responsibility Then we must be skillful. We must do this properly go back to what Paul said How then shall they call upon him and whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him who may have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Well, here's my question What are you preaching? What are you declaring? What are you saying? What are you turning them to?

Turning them from one thing is one thing turning them to the truth It is entirely different proposition because there are a lot of people out there trying to evangelize people But they're moving them from one pit one lie one position of error to another and that's why we must be skillful in our Responsibility to turn them to the truth to turn them to the gospel. I said this last week This is where many of our best southern Baptist friends have have been in error We have people in the life of the church and we fail to realize their condition and what do we do? They come in crisis in our life and we move them from one air to the other.

What do we say? Well, you just need to rededicate your life and maybe you need to get baptized again And you need to make that declaration public when actually all we're doing is leading them from one place to another place We're just making them more religious. They're just jumping through more hoops They're just doing more things to make themselves see it feel good when actually what they're in is an error and all we're doing is navigating more error I rejected that years ago See what James is saying is these people their condition they're lost and you are responsible to turn them Need me show you what that looks like That means we have to sit down with some and say you were living your life and you're going the wrong way You've made self the captain of your ship You've made self the boss of everything.

You're a rebel against God. You are living your life You are in error. You have a form of religion You say that all good people go to heaven you say you've been baptized But you are going a direction and you are in a position of error all of the excuses all of the professions that you have that says that you are in a position of error and then you must be Skillful enough to show them their condition and show them that they're lost and they need to turn to the gospel Turn to the sacrifice that Christ made you need to turn them towards repentance that they are rebels against God And they need they don't need a better life They need a new life in Christ and see you must be skillful to point them to the gospel to point them to who they are See we don't do that in Baptist work today because we don't ever tell anybody their sinners We don't ever explain to them that they're lost and doomed and Dale that damn then they're headed to a devil's hell Because we might offend someone we might hurt someone we might cause them to go the other way Well, that's not what we see in the scripture That's being a skillful Worker for God is to turn them from themselves to turn them from their position of error and to show them the gospel Look a lost person will never jump into the arms of Jesus until they see themselves lost and doomed and damned Until they see themselves in Deserving of the eternal wrath and then they cry out for mercy and they say from the bottom of their heart Lord I deserve hell.

I deserve your wrath. I have sinned against you It was my sin that put you on the on the cross and and and I have no hope but your mercy and grace That's being a skillful worker that would turn those back towards the truth because the truth of the scripture is Men and women without Christ are lost. They are headed towards a devil's hell and If you have a problem with that don't have a problem with me and I'm not trying to sound like a smart I like you have a problem with the scripture and if you have a problem with the scripture you must examine yourself So we must see that we must seek to turn them back from their error number two We must seek to save their soul We must seek to save their soul My brethren if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way notice will Save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

See there's a different word here this word save Every translation that I refer to uses the word save And this word save just like turn is the key word here. The definition is simple It's it's also very direct and I'm going to use other Scripture to illustrate and show us what this word save means now This word is the most common word for salvation or conversion in the New Testament It is used throughout Matthew throughout Luke throughout John throughout acts throughout Romans throughout Corinthians throughout Ephesians throughout first Timothy and Titus Now I'm going to give you two examples as a matter of fact.

I'm going to move on into The epistles what I mean is these are writings to the local church not evangelistic And I want you to notice what first Timothy chapter 1 verse 15 says Paul is writing and and what does he say? He says it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save Sinners that is the exact same word that is used here in the book of James I'll give you another example the little book of Titus a Titus chapter 3 verse 5 What does it say he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness?

But according to his mercy that word saved what is he talking about we were? Unregenerate we were lost and without Christ, but what he has what saved us And this is used all through the New Testament to refer to the laws Coming to a saving place being rescued from who they are Now let's let's see the depth of this word and James call To action for these brothers we must remember again last week's message This is a call to action go back to the verse let him know verse 20 that he who turns the center from the area of his Way will save him notice the action save his soul from death now Let's see how this is fleshed out first I want you to say that see that they are saved from death and now what he says save his soul from death We talked about this last week.

That's why it's so important these messages go together They are saved from death. They are headed to the second death Remember this word death it speaks of the second death all throughout the New Testament This is the punishment for all unrepentant sinners all Unrepentant sinners the man the woman rich or poor black or white or in between who is unrepentant and without Christ What does it say all throughout the New Testament? They are headed towards the second death They are headed towards death and look what does he say you have a responsibility? To save them from this death.

That's why I cannot believe these verses are meant for a wandering Christian This language is graphic What does he say if you turn them then you save them from that imminent death? So first we see that they are saved from this death. This is the place that we call hell You know I thought about something I Don't know if you're familiar With it, but there are a lot of these books about by people about these people who quote-unquote die and go to heaven Now those things are all a lie Because the scriptures teach that after the death comes judgment the scripture teaches after death comes Judgment, but you know what I thought about nobody writes a book and says that I died and went to hell and came back You know our imaginations are very powerful I Think maybe these people imagine these things.

I don't know I've imagined some very graphic things. You know when I've been dreaming at night Have a very stressful time go through a lot and you imagine a lot of graphic things What am I showing you? This place called hell is a real place that people Trivialize the afterlife and they trivialize it and you know I've said it like this I talked about this Wednesday night Nobody goes to hell anymore But these people are saved from death second, I want you to notice that they are saved by cleansing Verse 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins now what does that mean?

This word or this phrase refers to the cleansing of the sinner from his sin the psalmist David writes it like this in Psalm 32 one he says how blessed is he whose transgressions is Transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered What is he saying my sins are covered my transgression is forgiven They are covered that is exactly what David is talking about here Peter speaks about this in Acts chapter 2 when he's preaching at the day of Pentecost remember that great story As he's preaching the gospel and you know what they interrupted Peter, and they blurted out. What do we do? We're lost. What do we do?

What do we do and what does he say in chapter 2 verse 38? He says repent that more means turn and he says let each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ For the forgiveness of your sins. What does that mean? That your sins have been covered That your sins have been taken away. They have been covered by the blood and what he says in Acts falls right in line With what we see right here in James. What does he say he says save his soul from death and will cover that multitude of transgressions Now understanding their condition what we talked about last week is essential to understanding their souls need for salvation Excuse me.

Let me say that again Understanding last week's message is essential to understanding the soul's needs for salvation Because if you don't understand the condition of the people that we love We do not understand that they are headed towards death and they have a multitude of sins that need covering and that List just gets greater and greater that pile just gets taller and taller So understanding the condition is half the battle and then when we understand the condition we easily understand what James is saying Understanding that they are walking dead men is key understanding that they are men and women and young people and they are dead in their tracks When we understand that we will understand their need to be saved and their need to be cleansed and then we will understand our responsibility to be skillful in dealing with these people I Will refer you To what we looked at Wednesday night it has become my habit at prayer meeting to kind of Continue what we looked at on Sunday mornings and Remember we talked Wednesday night about what the gospel of John says We're familiar with John chapter 3 verse 16 Don't we know that verse for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish But have eternal life isn't that so wonderful and I don't say that flippantly It is wonderful.

I Mean when I read that it blesses me And even verse 17 is very positive in nature for God did not send his son into the world of judge the world But that the world should be saved through him again positive But nobody in today's church seems to know verse 18 Because verse 18 says he who believes in him is is not judged But he who does not believe has been judged already I explained to us Wednesday night that that is a judicial term That means that the judge of judges and the king of kings has pronounced judgment and on all those who would reject Christ And they're just waiting for that death sentence to be carried out.

That's their condition Now why do I mention the condition so much Because if you realize their condition you realize that they need to be saved if you realize their condition you realize that they have a multitude of sins and transgressions against the Holy God if you realize your mother and your father if your son and your daughter's condition then you Automatically see where they're going and you see that mountain of rebellion against the Holy God and you see that look your Responsibility is to save them now you can't save them. I Can't save you But you are that agent What I mean is you are that?

Ambassador that goes to them and takes them and saying you are going the wrong way your condition Your position is wrong You are going the wrong way and it's like you take them and you turn them and you point them towards the truth of the Word of God you point them towards the gospel you point them into their The position and the condition that they're in and you point them to Christ and it is God who saves But it is God who uses people just like you and me And I believe that if you find people who are truly converted Nine out of ten of them will tell you that God used at least one person.

Oh It might have been one person that stopped him on the street that handed in the gospel tribe But God used at least one person to turn them God used at least one person to turn them and to save them. Oh the person done save them Oh, it's only the living Lord Jesus that saves but look it is that responsibility exercised skillfully Now what have we seen this morning what have we seen last week The lost among us part one their condition The lost among us part to our responsibility Let me read the verse one more time my brethren If any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his way Will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

I Ran across an article this week that really illustrates this and I want to read it to you He was published February the 8th of this year The title of the article reads bystanders partially to blame for Canadian man's death the coroner says Listen to the article a Canadian man late dying on a local Train platform bleeding from the head and not breathing for 20 minutes before someone called the paramedics This man had been seen by at least 40 people who glanced at him on the ground Most people thought that he was just a drunk who passed out despite his head being inches away from the trains One person even searched his pockets for an identification card, but never checked for a pulse By the time it took for an ambulance to come to assist this man The 59 year old man was dead after being struck by a train Test showed his blood alcohol level was extremely high and he was deprived of oxygen three minutes before anyone made an effort to help him The coroner's report into the man's death places some of the blame on the bystanders who looked on him Curiously as he laid lifeless on the ground and this is a quotation At the end of the day, there are not many positive things to write about this rescue attempt This is the coroner and he goes on to say The indifference of the passenger says a lot about the apathy of the citizens According to his obituary this Algerian native could not find work upon his move to Quebec Canada With his wife and two children and he began a slow descent into alcoholism soon after My fear is that many of us are just like these bystanders Well, you might say well brother Chris this guy was a drunk and he was passed out This guy was a drunk.

He brought this on himself Are not our mothers and fathers are not our children our neighbors and our friends and are not people sitting right next to us Right now just like this man Yes, he was guilty of drunkenness But I'll tell you what I was guilty of I was guilty of a whole long list of transgressions and I'm so thankful that people did not fall into the trap of passing me by So I want to ask us this morning Are we to blame are we those bystanders who just step over them and Continue in our everyday normal goings-on in life.

I Think that if we were really pay attention To what the Lord wants to say to us in these verses we would feel the weight of the responsibility That we have to Evangelize those people next to us. Maybe our wife. Maybe our husband. Maybe our son or our daughter Maybe our neighbor Maybe our friend, but it starts with those who are on the pews Most people would turn it around And say it like this if we can't evangelize the bar stool, how can we invite an evangelize the church pew I? Would say it's the opposite if we can't evangelize the church pew how will we ever evangelize the bar stool?

What does he say if any among you strays and then he goes on to say it's your responsibility Lord I Want to thank you Then over 26 years ago There were people who cared about my soul Lord I want to thank you That when I was guilty and vile just like this drunken man There were people who cared