Transcript

James chapter 5. This will be our last installment from James as we have been gleaning on Sunday nights in the book of James with this local church pastor, the senior pastor of the Grace Life Church of Jerusalem and he was quite practical and so pointed and so on mark and pulling no punches as he challenges and reproves and guides the church in a number of things and we come to this very last installment that I’ve called “Winning the Wandering” in James chapter 5 verses 19 and 20. He writes

19 My brethren, if any among you strays [you could say errs] from the truth and one turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Winning the wanderings. It’s kind of interesting if you read James and you see him jump out with a statement about that, where did that come from? And I assume that that’s a great way to end an epistle that’s local church centered. Of course they all are but as he’s talking so much about how to conduct yourself to the local church, how Christians should live in harmony one with the other and he concludes that letter by saying, “Let’s always be vigilant and be aware of the need to draw some back into the fold.”

We’re all kind of wandering in our hearts, are we not? The old hymn that we sing, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” Is it not true, brothers and sisters, that you stay because God holds you? Yes, we hold to him but primarily the anchor is that he holds to me. He gives us enough leash that we might be humbled and find out what we really are on our own from time to time. Has something ever popped into your mind, something ever crept into your life only for you to catch yourself and say, “What am I doing? Oh God, why is this happening?” Do you have to pray the prayer often like your pastor has to pray, “God, save me from me?” You do have to be saved from sin; you do need to be saved from Satan; you do need to be saved from this world in the sense that those things are no longer the anchors of our lives and pursuit and the purpose of our lives but you also have to be saved from yourself. “Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked.” My point is: there’s a proneness to wander. There’s a proneness to pull away and that’s why God has ordained in this intermediate period, this period between when we’re justified but still pilgrims in a fallen world ruled by Satan, the God of this world, and until the time we’re glorified into heaven, during this interim stage when we’re still packaged in unredeemed fallenness, we need the church. Now listen to me: I don’t mean just any church, I don’t mean any membership, I mean a body of Christ, a local body of baptized believers who are striving to genuinely function together, care for each other, minister together the way the Scripture says we ought to. Now what we found here at Grace Life is once you try to do that you become very strange to most other churches. They think you’re something abnormal, something weird almost and the problem really is not that you are anything special you’re not, I’m not, we’re not anything special, it’s just if you’re striving toward normal biblical Christianity, most professing evangelicals are so subnormal they think your abnormal and that’s the culture we’re in. So let’s look at this section and renew our hearts again to be what we are and to be what we ought to be more of and that is genuinely involved in each other’s lives and bringing the wandering back into the fold as some may drift away.

Well, let’s look at it together. Three questions here, number 1: who are wandering? Who are the wandering? Now the first sub point would be: I believe they’re saved folks. Now at least there are those who profess to know Christ as Lord and Savior. Now that final verdict is always out on people because progressive sanctification, that is a continuing striving after God and a continuing of repenting of your sin and getting back in line and humbling yourself to join back up with God’s church if you did fall away, that pattern shows that you’re God’s child. Progressive sanctification – listen to me – is the security of your salvation. Now be careful there. Be careful. Don’t go out and say, “Well, Jeff Noblit said that you’ve got to be sanctified, you’ve got to be working to have the security of salvation.” No, that’s not what I mean. I mean the security of your salvation comes out of sanctification. You’re secure in Jesus Christ but you will not feel secure, you’ll not have the assurance of the Spirit, unless you’re walking in the Spirit and if you’re walking in Spirit, you have progressive sanctification.

Now I’m chasing a rabbit here but it’s a pretty good rabbit to chase especially if you catch it and that is: James is writing to believers but some of them may be false professors and this is exposing them. But I think for the most part he’s writing to saved folks. We have a lot of Scriptures that talk about how saved folks can wander away. In Galatians chapter 4 verse 9, he says, “But now you have come to know God, or rather be known by God, how is it,” now listen, “that you have turned back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?” That’s an interesting phrase and Paul uses that phrase two or three times in his epistles where he talks about going back to the elementary things. What does Paul mean when he talks about, “Don’t go back to the elementary things”? He means that the starting place, the immature things. When you think about knowing and pleasing God, what’s the A, B, C, what’s the kindergarten phase? Here’s the kindergarten phase: rules, works, ritual, religious rights, ceremony. That’s elementary things. In other words, if nobody ever taught you anything, your old fallen humanity would look for some works and religion, some i’s you could dot, some t’s you could cross, whereby in your pride, you could make yourself think you’re pleasing God. That’s an elementary thing.

So Paul tells the Galatians who are being betwixt, that’s the word he uses, by the legalists who come into the church, “When you go back to rules and religion and works trying to gain sanctification, that’s kindergarten stuff. When you get saved, you grew out of that. You have a higher understanding now than that.” But they had a tendency to drift back into old doctrines that were not good and true doctrines. Luke 32, the Lord says, “But I have prayed for you,” talking about Peter, “that your faith may not fail and when you have turned again strengthen your brothers.” So the Lord’s talking to Peter before he falls away, wanders away and he says, “Peter, I’m praying that when you go away you’re going to come back and when you get back on track again, then you’ll be ready to minister and strengthen your brothers.” So this can happen to believers. Now the goal is to have a good small group, to have a good church family, to have a good pulpit, to have good brothers and sisters around you in a church family so that when you begin to wander, you don’t get far before somebody very lovingly and in strict confidentiality, put’s their arm around you, metaphorically speaking, and says, “Brother or sister, let’s don’t go that way. This is not the best route. Let’s get back on track for the glory of God here.” So it’s saved folks.

Secondly, he’s not just talking about saved folks, he’s talking about those who stray or those who err. Literally, planethos is the word that is used here and it’s a word that we get planet from and it has the idea of wandering stars. Just stars that wander off. They just start drifting and then there they go. Now most scholars say this has a different context than the backslider of Galatians 6:1. In Galatians 6:1 the apostle writes to the church and he says those who are kept or caught in a stronghold of sin and they’re having a difficult time dealing with it. That’s more of a hardened position they’ve fallen into. This is probably not one that’s reached that stage, they’re just wandering and they’re dabbling in some things that they shouldn’t be dabbling into.

Every now and then, it doesn’t happen very much and it surely hasn’t happened a lot in the last several years but every now and then a church member will come and say, “Pastor, I’ve been listening to So-and-so preach,” and I just kind of cringe when they mention the name and I think, “Oh my goodness. I hope they’re listening to that for comic relief. I don’t know what they’re going to get out of it for the glory of God.” Or, “I’ve been reading So-and-so’s book,” and I say, “Oh my goodness,” and that doesn’t mean you’re wandering but it is a little bit of a caution flag in a pastor’s heart if you’re exposing yourself to something that I know to be weak at best, if not false doctrine at worst. So these things happen; it’s happened to me. I was not converted maybe eight months or nine months and not that this man’s ministry was all bad. I believe God used him in a lot of good ways but I was sitting there and Jimmy Swaggart was on the TV and that man had a pulpit skill that was amazing and he got on the corner of his table at the end of his broadcast and talked about the financial needs so I wrote him a check for $20. I mean I’m a college student. Do you know how much I was making in those days? I was making $50 a week. That’s what I made here when I started. And I realized later though God blessed Jimmy Swaggart for the good that he did do, there’s a lot about his ministry that I probably would not want to support and I probably could have found more sound people to support. Now I had people in my life, pastors, friends, who were grounded and by their teaching and by their influence, I slowly was guided way from things that are not so sound and guided to those that are. We’re just pone to do that.

Now sometimes folks stray from the true truth concerning salvation. Paul addresses that over and over and over again in the epistles and one of the places where he addresses it most frequently is the epistle to the Galatians where they had just been invaded by the dominant personalities and the strong seemingly logical teachings of those who would bring works salvation and intermingle it with the doctrine of Christ. And Paul was if you remember, he was very strong in rebuking that and saying, “If anyone brings to you a Gospel that adds something to simple faith in Christ, let him be accursed of God.” It means marked out for condemnation only. So that’s a very, very strong denunciation that Paul gave in there but he’s trying to keep them from wandering away. And then you had churches that were affected by the Gnostic heresies of the day. Gnosticism was this group that felt that they were elitist, that only a few people had real spiritual understanding and you had to plug into those few people and get their interpretations to really know who God is and then there were Stoics and then there were others and so there’s a constant proneness to drift away from salvation.

Can I say something to you? I believe it has been empirically proven that evangelicalism, especially for the last hundred years or so, slipped away from a healthy and hearty understand of evangelism and true conversion. We slipped into some things that were not willful evils and not deliberate rebellion or heresy in any way but we kept slipping and wandering and slipping and wandering into these positions of where we got down to if we were in a meeting and somebody was emotionally stirred, we’d just say, “Raise your hand if you want to get saved and well, everybody’s saved.” We’ve been over this many times in our ministry. I don’t have to go over that a whole lot anymore but you know what I’m talking about and we still get reports, we still read it all the time: 70 kids saved at vacation Bible school. Well, I hope 70 kids were saved at vacation Bible school but the problem is overwhelmingly so, almost without exception, the great majority of those kinds of conversions prove to be false. And why is that? It’s because we let some methods and some criterion of what conversion is creep in that the Bible does not teach. You never find the methodologies that got very popular in evangelical Christianity in the Scriptures. You never find a formal walking to somewhere. You never find a formal prayer being presented. You never find a, “Raise your hand. Go to this side of the building,” and here’s why: like Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to say. He said, “I’m not going to give your flesh anything to do because your flesh would love to do something to make you think you did something to cause God to save you.”

So we’re prone to do that, aren’t we? We’re prone to drift into things. “Well Pastor, if you don’t do those things, how are people going to get saved?” They are going to get saved by you preaching the Gospel. You preach the truth and God changes the heart and faith rides in the heart. Listen to me: if the power of God has changed you, you will tell people. You will contact the pastor. You will request baptism. And if we have to coerce and twist and manipulate and scheme and jump through hoops to get you to do it, then how are you going to live for God when you get out there in the world that hates him? They’re not going to twist and manipulate and coax. It’s war out there. It’s cross bearing. You’d better have something real.

So we’re prone to wander and get off track. We’re prone to get off track and wander about what a church is. Gosh, it’s amazing the things that I hear about what’s being called church today. I got a call the other day from a man by the name of Jerry Vines. Have you ever heard the name Jerry Vines? Jerry Vines was a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He’s probably one of the top three or four most prominent men in Baptist life in the last 50 years. Pastor at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida and I had sent him just a brief note commending him on his ministry and thanking him for the impact he had in my life and we talked for about 40 minutes on the phone and he was telling me and I was amening and telling him what have we come to? I mean this is Dr. Jerry Vines. I don’t agree with Dr. Vines on everything but he’s a good man and did a lot of good things. But he was talking about a lot of the new churches and a lot of what they are doing and he and I both agreed that a lot of what’s being called good church life today is just absolutely worldly and bizarre. Now look, it’s not that brothers are trying to bring churches back to the truth and it’s not that brothers are trying and having to struggle at it, we have all the patience in the world with that heart attitude, it’s that the elders themselves are leading the churches into these worldly excesses. But we’re just prone to wander there. I’m 100% convinced that God has called Grace Life Church as an instrument, a very imperfect one but yet an instrument to call folks back to the truth and I think you ought to believe that and no way in pride but with utmost humility you ought to believe that. Sometimes we stray from the biblical morals. “Well, is this really wrong? Well, does God really mean that? Well, we love each other.” I had a report just recently of a couple involved in immorality. Now we’re not talking about a couple that’s struggling, a couple that’s repentance that wants to try to do right, we’re talking about a couple that gave themselves over to immoralities. “Well, we love each other. We’re going to get married.” They’ve got to be confronted lovingly and pulled back.

So these are saved folks. James says here, “If any of you strays from the truth and one turns him back.” That’s what we’re doing, we’re going after those who profess to be brothers and sisters in Christ and they’ve wandered away. II. Not only should we go after them, why should we win them back? Why should we win them back? Well, he says in verse 20 very clearly, “Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul,” not the converter’s soul, the one he’s trying to bring back, “will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” Souls left straying will surely die.

Just a couple of verses. 1 Corinthians 5:5, the young man who had strayed into sexual immorality in the Corinthian church. Paul said, “I decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Here’s what Paul says, “This man is not showing any sign of repentance and so we’re just going to say the church is now considering him out of our fellowship, he’s turned over to Satan in the realm of Satan, and that’s going to destroy him.” When you get in the realm of Satan and give yourself over -now listen – especially if you’re a child of God. Do you want to die early? Be a child of God and walk in sin. And as Paul says, “It’s going to eventually destroy his flesh that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Now we got a good report on this young man. The Bible says the Corinthians finally started acting like Christians and they went to the man and rebuked him and loved him and called him back and he repented. But death was coming. You know, there’s a lot of deaths that come when you live in sin.

Now let me just subdivide this area this way: why should we win them? First of all, because they could lose their life. They could lose their life. They could lose their moral life. People start straying into sin and there’s a point that comes when they die morally; they just give themselves over. I had a man ask me one day, “Well, can a man be a Christian and have this sin?” He mentioned a sexual sin, a moral sin. I said, “What I want to know is he in the fight? Is he humbled by it? Has he repented about it? Does he want some help for it? Or is he just brazen and bold and brash and doesn’t care what anybody says about it?” That’s not a sign of a child of God, not one at all. You can die morally. You can die mentally. You keep straying into sin and the day will come when you just can’t live with the reality anymore and you’ll just give yourself over to drugs and to alcohol or false philosophies and, of course, all the while you’re dying spiritually and that’s where false religions and the occult comes from where people get so far straying into sin they give themselves to false beliefs. Then of course, dying physically. We’ve already covered that. 1 Corinthians 11 covers that, 1 John 5 covers that, talking about those who profess to be Christians. So literally James says, “There’s a risk of physical death and you need to go win the wandering back.”

Secondly, we need to win them back because they lose their witness. The saved person who’s wandered from the truth contains the light and the life of God but they’re walking in darkness and walking in death and instead of enjoying life and emitting light and life, they emit darkness and they emit death. Ecclesiastes 9:18 says, “One sinner destroys much good.” Is it not true that a hundred members of Grace Life Church can be living for the Lord and trying to honor the Lord the best they can and staying humble and being repenters in their lives and let one person, let one church member commit some scandalous sin and it mars everybody. It can just rob the witness of God’s church and certainly individuals. In 2 Samuel 12, we have the occasion where David has taken Bathsheba as his own wife after killing her husband Uriah and he tried to keep it all covered and then Nathan the prophet comes in. You do understand God knows what goes on? Nathan the prophet comes in and gives a long story and talks about how a man took another man’s pet sheep and he had many sheep of his own but he took a man’s pet sheep to feed his household guests and David said, “That man ought to be killed.” And Nathan pointed his finger at David and said, “Thou art the man.” David became broken and he began to repent and pleaded with God for forgiveness. David said to Nathan, “I’ve sinned against the Lord,” and Nathan said to David, “The Lord has also taken your sin away. You shall not die. However, because by this deed you’ve given occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.” In this case the baby was taken. What was the prophet’s point? What was God’s point? “David, by this public scandal, you’ve hurt the witness of God. You’ve given an occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.” So when one wanderers in sin and we don’t bring them back, if they go far enough, they ruin their witness, they ruin the witness of the church. So that’s what he’s saying here. Save their soul from death. Save them not only from a possible physical death but a death to their testimony.

Well thirdly, they could be lost for eternity. What do I mean by that? Here’s what I mean by that, there are two sides to the coin of conversion: there’s that side where God has acted and declared justification and it’s sealed and settled forever the moment you believe on Jesus Christ but there’s this experiential side of conversion down here where we believe on the Lord but we don’t have an easy believism and we speak truth to ourselves and look for the evidence in our own hearts that we are one that God has changed, that we are one that’s convicted about sin, we are one that’s uncomfortable when we stray from God and not that we might get caught but that we just honor God. That’s called sanctification and progressive sanctification means that as we move on in life and we sin and fail, there’s a deeper pain of us dishonoring our Lord and we keep wanting to be drawn back again and that’s what I meant earlier when I said this kind of sanctification is where you gain security of your salvation. You didn’t gain salvation but you will gain a security in it. You have inspected yourself biblically and reckoned from the inspection based on the word of God, “I wish I didn’t sin. I wish I didn’t fail but I know how the Lord convicts me and I know how it humbles me and I know how I hate it and that is evidence that I belong to him.”

It’s not unusual for a young believed to come and say, “Pastor, I need to talk to you.” I say, “What’s wrong?” “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I said these things and I have these jealousies in my heart. I said something that wasn’t true to a person. I just can’t stand it. Why am I doing this? I’m not saved.” I said, “Do you know what? Before you were saved those things barely bothered you. This barely bothered you and now they slay you to where you can’t even hardly focus during the day. That’s good! That’s a good sign. I don’t condone your sin but look for the signs, the evidence that God’s changed your heart.” So when we go after a wandering one and they respond, we’re helping come to the realization for that one that they do belong to the Lord and, by the way, the converse is true: if one wanderers away and we’ve tried to win them back and we’ve tried to be humble and we went with confidentiality and they are not won back, then they never were God’s to start with. Now I don’t know the timetable here, by the way. I don’t know if that’s two weeks or two months or two years or 10 years time. I do know it’s quite unlikely for it to be 10 years but I can’t tell you what the time aspect on that wandering one coming back might be.

What do you do to win them? That’s the third question. Who are the wandering ones? They are saved who have strayed. Why should we win them? Because they could lose their own life; they’re going to lose the witness of Christ in their life and the church and they could be lost for eternity. Then lastly: what do we do to win them? Well, first of all he said, “To turn them from the error of their ways.” Now earlier in this same chapter, James has talked quite a bit about prayer and he talks about prayer in the context of sickness and healing. He’s also talked about it in the context of sin that may have led to sickness and the sin had to be dealt with if there was going to be the healing that could come in their lives. So intercession. Let me just share with you from our Lord’s prayer in John chapter 17 as the Lord was interceding, they call this his high priestly prayer because he’s praying for his followers and that includes us. Now notice what he prays in verse 15 of John 17, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one.” That means to keep them from straying away following the evil one.

“They are not of the world even as I am not of the world, sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone but for those also who believe in me through their word.” That’s us. So Jesus interceded for those who are prone to wander and we should be praying for those.

Let me ask you: who in your small group is not faithful? Who in your small group has a reputation that they are not right with God? Are you praying for them? Is that convicting? Are you praying for them and saying, “O God”? Do you know what a good thing to pray is? “O God, let their sins make them sick. I pray their sins would break their hearts. I pray they’d be miserable in their sin and at the same time, God, I pray they would be flooded, I pray the flood light of unconditional mercy and forgiveness would shine on them where God would say, ‘If you’ll admit your sin and turn to me, my arms are wide open. Welcome back.'” Amen? The Bible does tell us that when we go restore one, Galatians 6, when we restore another one – now look – you consider yourselves. In other words, we all go with utmost humility and with utmost confidentiality knowing it could easily be us. There’s nothing special about us. We all need this kind of help. As a matter of fact, could I just challenge you tonight? I was thinking about this for myself. If Jeff Noblit wander in a public and obvious way, please, please come after me. Please come with utmost confidentiality. Please come with the word of God. I don’t care what you think but open the Bible and say, “Pastor, this is what the word says.” Now we’re not talking about whether the beast had ten toes or nine, I’m not talking about that stuff. We’re talking about clear, bold understandings of Scripture. And if I say, “Thank you, friend. Man, just pray for me. I want to do better. I want to honor the Lord. I need some accountability.” Then you wrap your arms around me figuratively speaking, don’t know who you are and say, “Let’s go grow together.” You know, the Bible even says elders need correcting from time to time. Paul talked to Timothy about an elder who continues in sin has to ultimately be rebuked in the presence of all but that’s only if he continues. That means that you work with him if he hasn’t gotten right. So even elders have to be dealt with sometimes. I believe by God’s grace, our elders are humble men. I remember numerous occasions where the elders would confess and admit something they needed to work on, needed to do better at. Well, that’s the kind of spirit we all need to have.

So intercession but then also, of course, turning them back. How does he word it there in James chapter 5:20? “Let him know that he turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” And that “turning the sinner” has more than just a five-minute thing. I mean you may have to work at it. You may have to go more than one time. You may have to pray more than five minutes. You’re striving towards turning them back. I think sometimes we’re too sheepish. I think sometimes we’re too hesitant. You know, there’s been the case and I honestly don’t know of it happening around here, it could very easily happen tonight or tomorrow but I don’t know of somebody who’s gotten in the flesh and gotten real brash about rebuking everybody. Usually that happens the first time an immature church has taught spiritual gifts. Somebody realizes they have the gift of prophecy, they have the gift of exhortation so they’re just running up and down the street finding who they can correct and they’re just a correcting machine. I don’t see that and, by the way, are you listening to your pastor? Say, “Amen,” if you’re listening to me? (“Amen.”) By the way, about 98.2% of the sins you see in somebody’s life, the first time or two, you just need to put it on the shelf and forget it. You can pray for them and say, “God, convict them. I’m not here to be Joe Rebuker.” And then if it becomes a pattern that God lets you see, then you take some action. Now there can be some exceptions there. You may have a close intimate accountable relationship where the first time it pops up you can say, “Man, that’s not a good attitude,” so there’s some exceptions but generally speaking, let things go and let God the Holy Spirit be God the Holy Spirit. But then when we have to, we’re going to have to get involved and intervene to some degree. Here’s the verse, Matthew 18:15 through 20, “If your brother sins, go and show him his sin in private.” Now if you’re a little bit new around here, you know we purpose to practice this and we put a high, high premium…as a matter of fact, this is the law of the Medes and the Persians that cannot be revoked and that is you better not ever go and talk about that person unless you’ve talked to them first. You do not spread gossip. You do not spread slander. If you do that, your sin is worse than whatever sin you were going to deal with. If you do that, you’re more apt to get disciplined by the church than the person who’s in the sin. Amen. Either leave it alone or go in absolute confidentiality even if you think it’s already kind of known, you be confidential about it. Jesus says, “Go in private.” Now look, if their name is on the front page of the paper, we’re not talking about that. That’s already public. But if at all possible, do all that you can to keep it private and that’s what Jesus says to do.

Verse 16 Matthew 18, “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.” If that happens, you’ve loved them, you’ve urge them, “Turn back. Turn back. You are just willfully in sin. Two or three brothers have seen this. We know it’s going on. Look, we’re not here to condemn you. We’re weaker than you are. We’re no better than you but we want to ask you to come back. If you’ll just let us see you’re trying, then that’s acceptable. We’ll love you and help you and help you grow.” We have people right now that their small groups have a quite diligent accountability with them because they’ve wandered and they’ve come back and they need that kind of reinforcement and support as they continue on for the Lord.

Well, verse 17, “If he refuses to listen to them,” that’s the two or three who are urging him, “tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” What does that verse mean? It means when two or three of you, based on the word of God, conclude that this brother is not repentant. What you’ve done is you found that heaven had already come to that conclusion. Heaven had already considered him bound in his sins. If two or three of you in the Spirit following the Scriptures, reprove a brother in confidentiality trying to get him to come back or sister and they refuse to come back, then all you’ve done is you found out what heaven has already concluded. If they do come back in repentance, you found out what heaven already knew. Heaven said, “I’m loosing them from this stronghold of sin that they not come back in the fellowship with God and fellowship with God’s church.” This is not some sort of secret formula for some sort of magical thing where we bind and loose stuff, it means you’re finding out what God has already concluded in the case.

Then he says in verse 20 of Matthew 18, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst,” and his point is, “I show up in a special way in my person and in my power when you’re purposing to win the wandering back.” Why don’t you just make that commitment to the Lord tonight? “Lord, I want that kind of accountability. I want that kind of love.” Listen, if the wages of sin is death, it’s very unloving to let that one go on in sin because it’s going to ruin them and destroy them. So we preach the truth to them and very often God will do that through the time of preaching. Someone will be broken and they’ll be humbled and want to get back in fellowship with the Lord. Very often it takes personal exhortation but it may not be anything more than just a word or two after a small group one week or just over a meal somewhere and it’s all done and it’s fine. They say, “Look, I need to look at that differently. Thank you for pointing that out.” And sometimes it takes the various steps of church discipline and unfortunately sometimes even than the wandering refuse to come back.

Look, what am I preaching to you? I am preaching to you ABC basic Christianity. If we’re not trying to do this, we’re not even out of kindergarten yet. But I thank God that you are because I hear about it often. I know the elders are very involved in these ministries and let’s keep on being involved for the Lord’s sake, for the glory of God, for the good of souls to keep winning the wandering.

I’m going to pray for us and then we’re going to have a brief time of business.