Returning to the Truth - James 5:19-20

A message by Tyler Sanborn on James 5:19-20.

South Valley Student Ministry is a ministry of Compass Bible Church South Valley located in Kuna, ID. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, please visit compassbiblesv.org.

Transcript

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So we are at the final two verses of the book of James. And for you who are joining us for the first time here, you're not too late. You didn't miss the critical component of James's message. You didn't miss it. Because we're going to revisit James' heart for the church in Jerusalem. James, the brother of Jesus, who while he was here on earth, growing up with Jesus, his brother, the perfect and eternal Son of God, the one who never committed a sin, who never told a lie, who never disrespected their parents, who never disobeyed one time. James, the author of this book, in chapter 5, the last two verses, we're going to see his call to believers. James, in the book of Acts, is said to have come to know the Lord. And James is a prominent figure, speaking specifically to a group of individuals who are struggling, who are under pressure, who are receiving persecution by the culture around them for their faith, for the things that they believe, for they believe in the truth. They believe specifically in Jesus, who says, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. And you're not too late. You're not too late, visitors, because we're going to look at the heart of James as he's pleading with his listeners, with his readers, to consider what it is that they believe. The truth, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth that has the power to save sinners, to cleanse them clean of all their sin, and receive the forgiveness that God offers. We sung songs this evening that were gospel-centric. There were some words in there that I'd encourage you, if you don't understand what they mean, I've encouraged many individuals in this group. If you don't know what a word means, look it up. Look it up. It's okay. It's okay not to know. It's not okay to go along life knowing like you think you know the answer to something, like you think you know the truth of the definition, but you actually don't know it. And it would be kind, and James is going to speak to this, it would be kind of a brother to let you know, hey, you're you're wandering from the heart. You're wandering, you're drifting. You're not defining the truth as we see in scripture. You're off. You're wandering. So today we're going to look to James's heart in verses 19 and 20 of chapter 5. So turn with me there. And my challenge to you is this. I want you to ask yourself, do I know the truth? Not truth in general, but truth specifically to the scriptures. Do you know Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life? Let's read together verses 19 and 20. James is saying this as he concludes his letter to the believers, the Christians who are in Jerusalem. My brothers. We just added some siblings to this group, and we'll probably add some more siblings in the years to come. And James is speaking to his family. He's speaking to his brothers and sisters in Christ. The ones who he cares most deeply about. And gentlemen, the ones that he loves. James is speaking to his brothers with his whole heart. Sometimes we can take for granted the people that live under the same roof as us. Sometimes we can think like all the other. They wake up and they annoy me. They wake up and they're still there. They wake up and their tooth, their toothpaste is seen still, it's on the mirror still. They don't wipe it up, they don't clean after themselves. James is speaking to his brothers in a way that is speaking to their hearts. He's speaking with a level of intensity and sincerity that should grab our attention. It should grip us. It should grip us. If you've ever been on a trip and you've been to a certain destination time and time again, you kind of memorize where to go. You memorize the turns, you memorize the highways, the streets, the stop signs, the stoplights, the yield signs, the dead end signs. These are things that are familiar to you. Now, if you were with a friend who thought they know how to get to the place that you're going, and they had never been there before, maybe they had once before, and they're drifting and they're trying to rely on their own their own way to get there. They're trying to get there under their own power, under their own intellect, under their own wisdom. It would be wise of you, it would be kind of you, it would be loving to you to say, hey, you're going the wrong way.

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Come back.

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You made a wrong turn. Turn around. You messed up. No shame on you. I'm just saying, I'm trying to love you. Come back this way. We're trying to get to the finish line. We're trying to get to the destination. That would be a kind thing for you to do. Now, to ignore the warning signs, to ignore the wandering and the drifting, that would be not loving the person that you're traveling along with. And as we are all traveling along this life towards the finish line, which is death, by the way, if you if you didn't know that, the finish line in this life for you and I, for our lives here on this rock planet Earth, the finish line is death. Now the question is, what's on the other side of that finish line? What's on the side? There's only two places to go. After the finish line, there's a fork in the road. There's a fork in the road. My question for you is, gentlemen, which direction are you going? Are you uh heading towards the path that leads to life after death, or are you heading to the path that leads to death and destruction after death? Which one is it? And that's what James is trying to get his listeners to understand. Brothers, if anyone among you is wandering, is drifting away from the path that leads to life. If you're drifting away, if you're wandering away, his call is let's do something about that. Let's have some compassion. Let's have some compassion for this person. They're heading towards a path that leads to destruction. They're wandering away from the path that leads to life. This is important. And James is stressing, he's pleading. I want you to feel the emotion. He might say it like this My brothers. Maybe with tears in his eyes, with emotion, my brothers. This is how he concludes this book. This is how he finishes. This is the last thing he says. This is the last thing. If anyone wanders away, if you see someone drifting, if you see someone on the wrong path, you see them going in a path that leads to destruction, away from the truth, what are we to do? What are we to do? Look to the person that has the most authority, the person in charge. Appeal to someone else. Hey, do you see them? Go get them, go get them, go get them. Hurry, quick. No, it says, if anyone, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone brings him back. Someone is very general. It's not specific. But it's important for us to understand this. We can't be one of those someones that brings someone back if we don't know the truth for ourselves. We need to know the truth. Let's write this down for point number one. Pursue Jesus. The way, the truth, and the life. Pursue Him. If you're following the way, if you're following the truth, and you're following the life, if you know Jesus as your Savior, if you know Jesus in a way that would bring you new life, if you have the Spirit dwelling within you, you know Jesus. You know the truth. You know the way that leads to life. You know this. Now sometimes we can be forgetful, can we not? We can forget the directions. We can lose track. We could be like I am, driving up 55, looking at the Payette River, trying to see if anyone's fishing off the side. And you might lose track and veer and wander off the paved road, the narrow road, the narrow gate that leads to life. That might be you. That might be me. That could be any of us. Not a single person on this planet that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is above wandering. We all have that potential. And we have a duty to do. If you're a parent in the room, you are looking to your student and you are trying to help them understand the truth. You are trying to help them understand the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author of salvation, who wrote the book on eternal life. Students. I had a youth pastor when I was in high school. From time to time, he would say, in a loud voice, look up. Look up. This is important. Your parents are trying to help you know the way. They're trying to help you not wander away. How kind is that? How loving is that? What a gift that is. Think about that. Think about how amazing it is that people in your life would care so much about you, so much about your soul, that doesn't die, by the way, it lives on forever. Your soul inside of you, when you say, I think, or I don't know about that, that's the soul that we're talking about. Not your body. This is just gonna get old and wrinkly and die one day. You know? No, your soul, your the inner you, they they care about that the most. They might care about how you're maturing, how you're growing, how you're developing, what skills you have, how how you might be ready for a career one day. But if you have a loving parent, they're gonna care most, most intensely about how your soul is doing. That is one of their primary roles in raising you to lead you to know the way. If you know the way, you'll know for yourself if you're wandering. You'll know. You might try to deceive yourself in the future, be like, I'm not wandering, I'm just kind of seeing what the shoulder of the road looks like. I might just see how wide this path is that leads to life. I might just be cruising over this way. How how wide is this path, the narrow road that leads to life? How far out of bounds can I go into the danger zone before I can get back quick? How far can I, how can I, how far can I wander safely? Woo! Foolishness. If you're saying that to yourself, you're like, eh, I kind of do what I want most of the time. I kind of do what my parents say to get what I want. It's all working out right now. I want you to think to the finish line. Think to the end of your life. Think about your relationship with this Jesus. You need to pursue him with all you have, everything you got, with all your strength, with all, with all your intellect, with all the ways that God has made you, has put you together, you need to, you need to go. Pursue him and run. Run after him. John says in his gospel in chapter 14, he says, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. And he says, if you had known me, you would known my Father also. To know God, to know the Father is to know Jesus, and to experience and to taste eternal life is to know God. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. Period. You can get all the things that you might desire in this life, and if you don't have Jesus, you have absolutely nothing. You could be a five-time All-Star, you could be in the Hall of Fame, you could be ten times better than Tom Brady. You could be the most impressive musician mastering every instrument in the world. Mozart times two. You could be the most brilliant vocalist, the most skilled cartographer. You can have multiple gold medals. If you don't have Jesus, you have nothing. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, I'm smart enough not to wander, Tyler. I'm smart enough. I know, like formulaically, I know the equation of the gospel, I get it. I know how to get to heaven. And if you listen, if you listen to the testimonies of the people that were baptized today, there's a common theme. I would challenge you all this evening. Have your parents show you the baptism, they're posted already. Have your parents show you the testimonies of adults who thought they knew the way. They thought they knew the way and they wandered. And they wandered. And by the grace of God, through his provision, through his perfect planning, God has orchestrated, has placed specific individuals in your path that will be so kind and so loving and so gracious to you, so Christ-like to you that they will say, Hey man, like you're going the wrong way. Did you know that? You're off track. You're off the rails. You are in the ditch. You don't know it. You might not realize it, but you are. Like the road is over here. Come over here. Like, I'll pull you up. Let's go. Listen. Listen to the testimonies. Listen to them and ask yourself am I deceiving myself? Am I on the path that leads to life? Am I wandering? Which one is it? You're either following Jesus or you're following something else. You're following your own plan that you think will lead to life. But if you're not following Jesus, your plan will fail you, sadly. Jesus says also, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, in John chapter 10, he will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasture. He will find rest. He will find satisfaction for the soul. There's videos that people watch and it does something to their mind. It does something to their body, and they might say, I was watching this video and it was so satisfying. It just tingled the right thing in my brain. People will during during their free time will just make goo and add sparkles and different things inside. They'll like play with it and squish it. And you might just be just looking at it like. Soul satisfaction is only found in the rest that Jesus offers, in the peace and the hope of eternal life that Jesus secures. Your safety, your home, your rest. The pasture that Jesus is speaking about here is only found in him, in his way, in his truth, in his gospel. You might be tempted in your life to buy the lies of this world that would lead you to believe convincingly that a career will satisfy your soul, that a relationship will satisfy all of your needs. You might have heard well-meaningly, happy wife, happy life. Sometimes that doesn't work out. And I don't mean to make light of divorce, but that that phrase, that saying, that phrase and saying isn't isn't always true. And even if it is remotely true, it's not ultimately true. Your life and your pleasure and your fulfillment and your happiness is only found in Jesus. Only found in him. The gospel of Jesus Christ that is able to save. You might have turmoil, you might have stress in your life. Your brother might be driving you up the wall. I was looking over your head. I had a brother that did the same. That's what brothers do sometimes. That's what brothers do. That's what they do. They drive us up the wall. You might be annoyed, you might be frustrated, you might be at odds with people in your life. That's nothing compared to being at odds with Jesus. If you're not saved by Jesus, you are an enemy of Jesus. Did you know that? You're either honest team or you're not. There's no neutral Switzerland. There's no like, we're out of this, we wash our hands of this, I'm good. I'm just gonna stay out of this fight and just kind of hang out over here, drink some alpine water, and make some chocolate and live out of the struggle and out of the conflict. No. The conflict is something that you were born into. You were born into a war, did you know that? You were born into a fight. A fight for your souls. You were born at odds with God. The Bible says if you are not in Christ, you are following. We've talked about this in the past in this series. You're following Satan, you're following the Prince of the Power of the air. You're following after the passions that are within you, which lead to destruction. But if you follow Jesus, he will give you rest. He will give you life. You will have peace with God. You will no longer be an enemy of God. You will be a friend of God. A friend. The best friend that you could ever have. Is Jesus your friend or is Jesus your enemy? That's a question that you need to answer. Is he your friend? Is he your savior? Is he your brother? Or are you against him? Is he your enemy? So, with all this being said, you might be thinking, like, wow, like where am I? Where am I? That leads me to this next point. We all need to see our potential to wander from Jesus. You might be a friend of Jesus. You might be someone that loves Jesus. That doesn't mean you're immune from wandering. That doesn't mean that you're immune from the temptations of this world that would lead you away. You might be like the prodigal son that drifts away, that goes after his own passions and asks his father, give me my inheritance now. I got a better plan than what's here on the farm. I got a better plan. I'm gonna go do me, I'm gonna go satisfy myself with the pleasures that the world has to offer. I'm gonna go chase it down and I'm gonna be satisfied. My soul will be at rest. It's gonna feel good to go and do what I want to do. All these limitations, all these Rules, all these curfews, all these chores, all these bedtimes that I don't agree with. I just want to leave my toys out where I want to leave them. I want to stay out in the street playing till the lights come on. I don't, I'm fine. No. You want to we want to do what we want to do. That's that's our nature. We we want to oppose authority, especially God's authority. We need to see our potential to wander from the truth. Wander away from the Lord that gives us life. Now we have a job to do. We have a job to do. Whether or not you know it, you have the potential to be a rescuer. You have a potential to be someone that is bringing someone back to safe ground, back to the high ground, back to the path that is narrow that leads to life. You have that calling if you are in Christ. You have that charge. The compassion of Christ is this. He came into the world not to be served, but to serve and to lay his life down as a ransom. He came to lay his life down. If you're secure in Christ, you have life, and that cannot be taken from you. Period. If you are his, who can snatch you out of the Father's hand? If you are property of Jesus Christ, you belong to him. You don't belong to yourself. You don't, I mean, technically you belong to your parents until you're 18, and then you're an illegal adult. But still, as long as you're living under your parents' house, they kind of tell you what to do, right? They tell you what to do still. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for loving parents that want to instill discipline and hard work and a sincere focus and drive to know God and to love Him and to follow Him. That's a good parent. A parent that loves you is a parent that's going to continually point you to the Savior, point you to the path. And when you're wandering, kindly, lovingly, sometimes with discipline, sometimes with correction. Well, most of the time with correction, right? Bring you back. You're off track. Sometimes that stings. How many of you have been grounded? How many of you have had things that have taken away from you? Never? Xbox gone. Game Boy Pocket, which you probably don't have anymore, but that's gone. Maybe you have a relic. Mine's broken. My brother dropped it. A good parent is going to help you feel the sting of danger, the sting of wandering. A good parent is going to grab your attention by any means necessary and say, you're off track. Please come back. Please come back. That's a good parent. That's a good friend. That's what you have the potential to be. A good friend is going to say, hey, brother, with all love and sincerity, I know we joke around and stuff, but like, seriously, you're you're failing. You're off course. You're going to disqualify yourself. You're going to crash and burn. You're not going to finish the race. That's a good friend. And James is a brother that sincerely loves the people around him with a whole heart that is submitted to his brother, his savior, his Lord. This is James's brother, Jesus. He's trying to have the compassion. James is trying to see the compassion that Jesus showed the world by going out and seeking those who are wandering, seeking those who are lost. Jesus spoke about the crowds, and he said that they're like sheep without a shepherd. They're wandering. There's no boundaries. They're just going wherever they want to go. Into a ditch they can't get out of. Falling into a well and drowning. Falling off a cliff and splatting to their death at the bottom. Wandering away from water to where they're just going to fall over and die. No, a good shepherd shows you where life is: pasture, water, protection. That's a good shepherd. And that's a good savior. A good friend, hear me out. A good friend does not have the power to save your soul from death. And you cannot cover the sins of a brother. You cannot cover the sins of a friend. Jesus did that. James is saying, with the same intensity, like it all depends on you. Go after the people that are wandering. If you see them, if you notice them, don't just say, huh, not my problem. We'll see you later. If you want to go crash out, go crash out. That's on you, man. I'm not going to get involved. Jesus' brother James is saying, get in the game. Get involved. Stop sitting on your hands on the bench. Every athlete, every person that is practicing to do some kind of performance or game, they want to be in the game. You're valuable if you're in the game. If you're not in the game, you're not valuable. If you're going to compete with horses, if you're going to compete with a ball sport, if you're going to compete somehow with music, you have to practice. You have to put the instrument in your hand. You put the reins in your hand. You put the bat in your hand. You're of no use, no good on the bench. You're not doing anything if you're sitting just crisscross applesauce picking up dandelions, wanting someone else to go and get the job done. It's a role and responsibility that you and I have to help bring a brother back. So let's write this down for point number three. Be alert to bring back the wanderer. Be alert. Keep your eyes open. Stop snoozing. Stop hitting the snooze button. When I was younger and I was late for school and I wasn't getting ready on time, my mom would go into my room, grab my sheets, and rip them off of me. And I curl up into a ball like all uncomfortable. Like, what is going on? She wanted me to get going, do something, move forward. We have a job to do, we have somewhere to be. And that's the same for all of us who claim Christ, who say Jesus is my Savior. We have a responsibility to be looking out for the people that are wandering, to help bring them back. You can't save them, Christ can. You can't cover a multitude of sins, but Christ did. But he's going to use you in a powerful way to help someone get to the finish line, to help a brother or sister finish strong. Pursue the loss. Pursue those who are wandering. That's reflecting the love of Christ. That's reflecting the compassion of Christ. Some of you might have some understanding of some terms. Reflecting here means means what? Casting back light. Casting back sound. Casting back heat from a surface. To serve as a mirror image or to think deeply or carefully about something. That's what reflecting is. As we reflect on the compassion of Christ, we think about what he came to do. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We want to reflect the life and the truth that he brings. We don't just want to keep it for ourselves. We want to share that with others. In Psalm 27, David says, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Whom shall I be afraid? Reflecting on Christ's ability to shine light into the darkness, to save, to show people the truth. We take part in that. God can use you and will use you in a powerful way to help someone see the destruction of their path and to change. And that's such a privilege. That's such an amazing role to play. Compassion. Compassion is an emotional response. It's something that you do in recognition from your surroundings. There might be people that are suffering. People that are feeling strongly about something. Feeling strongly about, I need to do something. Yeah. Empathy. Empathy is good. Sympathy is good. Compassion has action. Compassion does something about it. You might feel bad for someone. You might feel the way that they're feeling. You might see someone that's going through a hard time. Like, that surely is hard. That is not fun. Compassion is recognizing it and doing something about it. The compassion of Christ, he sees a wandering sheep, a lost sheep that's walking straight to destruction. And out of his compassion, he did something about it. He came and he laid his life down on the cross as a sacrifice for those who were heading to destruction, those who were his enemies. The compassion of Christ is something that changes lives. My prayer and my hope is that it would change your life. You would see the compassion of Christ, student, the compassion of Christ, what he did about it. Sometimes we say, like, well, so what? That's not my problem. Jesus did something about it. He did something about our problem. You can say, Jesus did something about my problem. The lyrics that we were singing describe the beauty of the gospel. And as a result, all our boasts is in Jesus. As a result, we have life. So if you're thinking about boasting yourself, think about the compassion, the sacrifice of Christ. And think about what you have the potential to do in wandering. If you're thinking you got it figured out, if you're thinking like I that works for you, but I got my own plan. There's a potential for all of us to do that. Now, if you know the truth, if you know the gospel, if you know the reality of the end of the race, the end of the road, if you know the reality of the fork in the road at the end of life, you will see your need for a savior. If you have faith, if God opens your eyes to your sin, if the Spirit works in you, you will see your need. And if you're wrestling with these questions, you have questions about all this, ask someone. Don't just bottle it up. Talk about it. Talk about it. Sometimes you can help yourself from wandering if you just let people know what's going on in your mind. It's so common for people your age, students, to not talk about your feelings, to not talk about what you're thinking about with your parents. That's common. My challenge for you is to be uncommon. Don't do what your friends are doing that are like, oh, my parents, my parents. No, have a good relationship with your parents. Let them know what's going on in your mind, in your heart. Let them know. Make them aware. They're here to help you. And if you're wandering from the truth, they're going to point you back to it. Parents is a great opportunity for us to invest heavily into our students to build a relationship that says, I'm wrong. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. And some of your parents have done this. Some of your parents have come to you and said, I the way that I behaved was wrong. It was sinful. It was, please forgive me. That's humility. That's a parent trying to care about your soul. They want to show you the error in their ways so that way you can see the error in your ways. That's not selfish. That's compassionate. That's them seeing a problem and doing something about it in a way that looks to God and says, I submit to you. I honor you. I'm doing it your way. I'm not wandering from your way. I'm sticking to the way, the truth, and the life. I'm going to stick and hold fast to this. Your parents would be the person if they're if they're going after you with concerns about your soul. They're the person described in this passage. They're the person that's going to help bring a sinner back from wandering. And through the power of God, in many cases, parents in the lives, the humble lives and submission to God that they live will be the greatest light to you, the greatest representation of Christ to you. Don't squander that. Don't dismiss that. It's important. You'll be a parent one day, Lord willing. And you might be thinking about this first student ministry Sunday night. You might be thinking about this. I remember when I went with my parent and they sat in that sermon. And I was just thinking about like my relationship with them. And you're going to be looking at your own kid one day and be like, huh. Now I now I'm now it's Uno reverse. Now my kid is right here, and my kid needs help. And you want to do something about it, but they're not listening, they're not receiving, potentially. Sei the moment and accept the help that your parents are offering you. Your small group group leaders are offering you. It's so critical for you to humble yourself and say, this path that I am on, I'm actually like, you're right, I am wandering. The God that hung on the cross endured the most brutal and humiliating death possible to save a sinner. If your parents are humbling themselves to come to you to care about you, don't squander that opportunity. See the love and the compassion that they're displaying that's a reflection of what Jesus did in their attempts to help you stop wandering, in their attempts to help you walk a life, live a life that honors Christ. There's many, many ways that lead to destruction. The gate is wide, the Bible says. There's only one way that leads to life, and that's through Jesus. If your parents are telling you, if your friends are telling you, if your small group leaders are telling you, you're off track. I think you're wandering. You think you know what you're doing, but in love, I promise you, you're not. Don't dismiss it. It's easy to do. I challenge you, don't dismiss the care and compassion and the love that your parents, that your small group leaders, that your brothers and sisters are going to share with you. It's so important. And that's James's heart. His heart is this stop wandering. Stay focused. Stay on the path. Finish to the end. Humble yourself before the Lord, and you will be able to receive the kind interjections from loving people that care about your soul. Only one life to live and then judgment. Only one life to live and then it's eternal life or eternal death. There's only two options. Are you going to dwell with the truth, the way, the truth, and the life? Are you going to dwell in destruction? Let's pray. God, we are in need of your help through your spirit to make any kind of change in our lives. It's you that molds us into the image of Christ. It's you that leads us in the way everlasting. It's you, God, that cares for our soul the most. And as we reflect on what Christ has done, as we reflect on the amazing grace that was poured out for us, the compassion of Christ, the mercy of Christ on the cross, we see, we see the love that in compassion does something about a problem. And our sin, God, was an eternal problem. And you provided through your eternal Son an eternal solution to our problem of sin. God, we have an opportunity tonight to wrestle with your scripture. I pray that these students would do that, that they would see the care and compassion and the love of these small group leaders as they're taking their time to invest in eternity. God help us to see your truth, to live by it, and uh and to endure to the end. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.