James #18

“A Living Faith”
James #18
Pastor Ben Fleming
May17th
Thank you Phil Brady for the Mother’s Day message last week. I am sorry that I was not with you but our daughter Mandy’s graduation called us away. She graduated on Saturday and left Thursday for Calcutta, India on a medical mission – by the way I put a prayer card in your program – would you pray for her? She will be doing a presentation of her time there the end of June on Wed night.

Today is our last message on the book of James. Next week we will begin the Gospel of John. We have taken 18 weeks to study this letter that James wrote. A letter that challenges us and encourages us to pursue a saving faith. There is no one in this room who wants to experience in their life an apathetic faith or a dead faith. James writes to believers to equip them to pursue a real living faith in Jesus Christ. Turn in your bible to James chap 5 and we will read this 5th chapter one more time. It is easy to skip the end a book in the bible and ignore the closing words. But today we are not going to skip these last two verses because every word in the bible is powerful and vital to our lives especially these two verses.

When I was 14 years old, my parents sent me to a summer youth camp at Bluestone Christian Conference Center. It was a youth camp that was a canoe trip down the Blue Stone River. 13 youth and one counselor set out for 5 days in open canoes down this lazy slow river – we camped at night under the stars and sang songs around that campfire --- it was the first time I heard the song “they will know we are Christians by our love” and I knew I was not a Christian. We had pulled our canoes up to shore every night but one morning we went down to the river and found that two canoes had drifted away from the shore. Luckily – mine was not one of them – we quickly paddled out to get them and bring them back. Drifting away is easy….. especially when there is nothing holding the thing that can drift. When I was 10 years old my parents took our family to Washington DC to see our capital. We went through the Smithsonian and I specifically remember going through the White House – because not more than 15 min into the tour --- after hearing my dad say – “stay close to us do not wander away” – I wandered away and got lost. They did not find me until 2 hours later after the tour was over. Drifting away and wandering away is easy to do. When you ignore others and when you rebel and are unwilling to submit – you can easily drift. It is especially easy for a child of God to wander away from God. It is especially easy for a person to drift from God – the family of God and the Word of God.

Please stand as we read James chp 5……. 80% of all teenagers raised in the church wander away from the church when they graduate from high school. I have seen professing believers wander away from God and I would have never thought that they would when I served side by side with them – some of them you would have considered the pillar of the church family and very spiritually mature believers. But… they are part of no church family today. The last two verses in James’s letter confronts the very reason that he wrote this letter. Do you possess a false – dead or shallow faith? James wrote this letter to call professing Christians to really examine their lives and see if they have a genuine saving faith. If you have a genuine saving faith you will not wander away from God.

James writes in closing this letter, (19-20) “My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” Notice verse 19 – James addresses genuine Christians with the phrase “My brothers” – but then he says “if one of you” or other translations say “if any among you” – meaning that in the church family there are going to be those who wander from the truth – they fall away – they drift away. Does that mean that they loose their salvation? We know that the bible clearly teaches that a genuine believer cannot loose their salvation – but James says that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his ways and brings him back – that believer will save that person from death and cover a multitude of sins.” Is that not tough to grab hold of ? Keeping with the same theme in his entire letter --- James is saying that there are those in the church who have a religious faith – a demonic faith and there are those who have a genuine saving faith. If you have a genuine saving faith you will not wander from the truth – and if you have saving faith you are challenged and exhorted to go after those who wander from the truth for they most likely have a demonic or religious faith. Pastor John MacArthur – John Piper and theologian Wayne Grudem see these 2 verses in this light.

Instead of expounding each word and phrase in these two verses like I normally would --- I want to address these two verses with some positive direction for you. I want to give you some positive encouragement to not wander from the truth – to keep your eyes focused on Christ – to keep pursuing becoming more and more like Christ and to fight for real joy in your life. I want to ask one question? How do you keep from wandering and drifting from the truth?

1. Be faithful with spiritual habits. If you do not care about developing spiritual habits in your life – at some point you will drift. We have been studying the spiritual habits since January on Wednesday nights. Habits keep us focused. Habits bring us back to where we are suppose to be.

1 Timothy 4:6 - 16 “If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” A believer who trains him or herself to be godly does not and will not drift away.

A believer is not to wait for holiness – they are to pursue it. Hebrews 12:14 says “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy, without holiness no one will see the Lord.” So – how does one pursue holiness? Paul wrote to Timothy 4:7 “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” The only road to Christian maturity and godliness is through the practice of spiritual disciplines. The goal of all spiritual habits is godliness. Spiritual habits keep your from drifting. Look on your outline at the words of the writer of Hebrews.

Hebrews 10:22-25 “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Underline the words 3x LET US AND HABIT.
It is our nature to draw away from God. It is our nature not to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. Our nature is to let go – we are easily distracted and preoccupied. It is not our nature “to consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” We do not want to love and do good deeds – that means we have to be other focused. Think about it……When was the last time you considered how to spur another believer onto love and good deeds? To consider something you have to think about it ---- to consider how to spur another person you have to know that person and spend time with the person. To obey these words means that God has to be #1 in our priorities. God put this in the bible because it is our nature to give up meeting together and to make it a habit to not meet with other believers. Sadly, I know some very very good people who do not have the habit of meeting with other believers. Life is full of challenges - I remember very clearly a year ago on Father’s Day 5 days after my grandson died when I asked Ben and Becky “are we going to church?” and they looked at me and said “of course”. Rhea Williams was here praying for his church family 4 days before he died – he did not drift away. Spiritual habits keep you from falling away. Spiritual habits keep you from drifting regardless of what suffering and turmoil comes into your life. Carol Williams knows --- Phil and Stacie Brady know that.

The spiritual habit that will keep a believer from drifting and wandering away from God the most is the habit of bible intake. There is no habit that will do more for you to hold onto God and learning to love God and have a passion for God than the habit of bible intake. Those who fall away from God do so because they have no love for the Word of God. Those who drift do so because they do not have a habit of reading and hearing God’s Word. I was very encouraged this past weekend when at Mandy’s graduation convocation – the entire audience was asked to stand for the public reading of God’s Word.
Perhaps my favorite bible chapter on this habit is found in PS 1 Turn in your bible to”

Psalm 1 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law He meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” And I think in light of what James wrote – he does not wander or drift away. You wander away when you do not care about the truth of God’s Word. You wander away when you spend no time finding the truth and reading the truth. You wander away when you read books about the bible instead of reading the bible. There is no excuse today for someone not hearing the bible – you could be someone who can’t read or you can’t see like my mother in law Lou. God’s Word is on CD – it is on the web – it is on TV. Ask yourself……..Is your delight in the Word of God? When we put our delight in other things – in other pursuits – we wander away. We are easily led into activities and spiritual pursuits that SEEM GOOD BUT THEY will draw us away from loving and pursing God.

One of the main reasons why believers do not read the entire bible is discouragement. Most people have never read a 1,000 page book before. Tape recorded readings of the bible have proven that you can read through the entire bible in 72 hours. The average person watches that much TV in 2 weeks time. 5 min a day will take you through the bible in 3 years. Discipline yourself to find the time. Turn off the TV. Do it before you leave home. Set your alarm clock 10 min earlier. Go to bed 10 min earlier. It is a habit that you have to develop and work towards over and over. I go to bed almost every Monday night at 10 pm so that I can get up at 5 am to be at prayer at 6 am. It is a disciplined habit. Okay --- some of you say you read the bible before you go to sleep --- this is good and there is great value in that but think about it: You retain very little of what you read when you are sleepy and tired and you probably do very little evil in your sleep and so the next day when you get up and go into your day you do not have the Words of God ringing in your thinking……….Let me say this….

When you have your schedule upset…… you were up all night …. You have visitors in your home…. You are traveling …… you will find it very hard to keep your habit … give yourself a break and do not condemn yourself but when things get back to normal get back into your habit ---- I know for me --taking my Spurgeon devotional with me has been helpful….. I only opened the bible for a long time this past weekend once… but on Wednesday morning – in my regular chair in my regular habit – I had a good time in bible intake. Be faithful with spiritual habits – you will not wander from the truth and when someone is wandering from truth you will be able and equipped to bring him or her back.

2. Pay attention. Pay attention to God’s Word. Pay attention to what you know and what you have been taught. The writer of Hebrews knew that God’s people are prone to not pay attention.
Hebrews 2:1 “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away.” He is talking about what they heard through the preaching of God’s Word. How do you pay attention? Write down what you hear. Go over it. Go home and see if what you hear is truth. Some one who does not pay attention to the preaching of God’s Word will drift away. They will wander. When any man made truth comes their way – they will follow it instead of God’s Word.

How do you know when you are not paying careful attention? You have your eyes focused on something else. (PHOTO) I grew up in Ravenswood WV. Sandy Creek Bridge was 300 yards from our back yard and the train track ran right behind our house over that bridge. I remember very clearly as a young boy how careful you had to be walking over the train trestle bridge – you had to step from wood beam to wood beam and if you took your eyes off where you were putting your feet your leg could fall through. (blank) If you do not feel any conviction when you read or hear God’s Word – if you do not respond to the Word of God --- you do not see any attitudes or actions changing in your life – you are not paying careful attention. You will wander from the truth. John Terry asked me once – “how come the more I read the Word of God the more dirt I see in my life ?”.
That is what happens when you pay attention to the Word of God. That is what happens when you are not just a hearer of the Word of God but a doer. Pay attention to the Word of God and you will not drift away – you will be fully equipped to turn a sinner from the error of his way.

3. Guard your heart. Hebrews 3:12 -13 “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God”. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” Again – we can see the argument in the how God had His Word written down. We have to guard our hearts – we have a nature that leans itself to not believing God. When you do not believe God you drift away from Him. You wander away from God and the people of God. God has given His church – other believers to encourage you so that you may not be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” We want people to encourage us – I want it – you want it – but my first thought is that I want good things said to me --- I want to be built up. But the word encourage also means to exhort. It means to correct --- it means to rebuke and to warn.

Who wants someone to exhort them – rebuke them and warn them that what they are doing is not the truth of God’s Word? Most people do not. Most people get offended and take offense when someone confronts them. Let me say this: I believe a tender heart – welcomes exhortation. A tender heart welcomes correction. A tender heart is able to identify the danger of being hardened by sin. If you have a thin skin --- you most likely have a thick or calloused heart. If you have thick skin – you perhaps welcome exhortation and rebuke in your life. Guard your heart --- do not allow it to be hardened. You want to be tender to God. You want to be sensitive to the truth of God’s Word --- wandering away is so easy when your heart is cold and hard. How do you keep from wandering and drifting away from the Truth? Guard your heart --- pay attention to the Word of God ---- be faithful with spiritual habits.

4. Attack sin in your life. Hebrews12:1-3 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out of us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and loose heart.” Look what he writes…. Consider Christ when you begin to grow weary and loose heart. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus – throw off everything that is hindering you and the sin that you so easily get entangled in. Run with endurance – do not give up – what are your eyes fixed on?

When you do not attack sin in your life – you will drift away from God. You will drift away from the people of God – you will drift away from the Word of God. We get easily entangled in sin – you do and I do. We must mortify sin in our lives. We must put it to death. When you attack sin in your own life you will be much more willing to turn a sinner from their error of their ways – saving him or her from death and covering a multitude of sin. Is it your lust? You jealousy? Your tongue? What sin in your life are you attacking these days. The pursuit of holiness is a struggle. May we SHCC become a church family that attacks sin in our lives --- may we become a body of believers that guards our hearts and pays attention to God’s Word. May we become a church family where the spiritual disciplines are becoming habits in our lives.
LET US PRAY