We're going to finally finish up our study on the book of James. We've been interrupted off and on so many times that it's taken us a while to get here, but we're in the last two verses of the book tonight. James, the fifth chapter, and we'll be looking at these last two verses if you would follow as I read. James 5, verse 19. if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he who converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins." Rather interesting way to end the book. We have just completed this section that dealt with the power of prayer, that the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. We had an example given to us. Anybody remember who the example was? Elijah, who was such a man who prayed and it rained not for three and a half years. He prayed again and it rained. And of course going back and studying Elijah's life and those incidents you see that even though this was the will of God. It was a struggle. It wasn't easy. Elijah prayed seven times, you remember, before the rain came there at the end. But I wanted to remind you that this whole subject sort of got brought up due to the fact of the elders praying a prayer of faith for the sick and the sick being raised up. And that's sort of the whole context of all of this. It illustrates, in Elijah's incidence, what a prayer of faith looks like. It is a prayer according to the revelation of God. Okay? And the question is, well how can an elder pray a prayer of faith? And my answer is, is if the sickness is connected with his sin, then we could pray a prayer of faith once that sin has been confessed and forsaken. then we have the warrant to pray that prayer of faith that God would heal him and raise him up, if sin is the reason for the sickness. Now, that's not always the case. There's many, many times when it's not the case. But we do know that sometimes it is the case. And it seems to me that that's what we need to have in our mind tonight as we look at this closing admonition. Because here we have the example of a brother that is straying or erring. Let's look carefully at what is being… what I just talked about. So we ask ourselves, what is the problem in view in our text? It is to err. It's a Greek word, palaneo, which means to stray, to go astray, to go outside the bounds, step across the mark, the boundary mark. It's to wander, to go aside from a path. If you're ever hiking out in the mountains, you learn very quickly, don't leave the path. Stay on the trail. The trail is there for a reason. It marks the easy path, the easy way. You get off the trail. I was thinking about Paula and I, we had one afternoon fishing on the Sweetwater River coming home from Wyoming. And we had taken this trail pretty much down. I had found this trail last year. It took us down to where a real nice area of the river was to fish. And coming back, we decided to sort of cut cross-country, which was a big, big mistake. It was terrible, rough going, and trees down everywhere, climbing over stuff. And, of course, you're always looking around for what's out there stalking you. And at one point, we got, where in the world did the river go? You get off the trail, you're in trouble. The reason those trails are there, I think, you know, most of our roads follow the old trails, and they follow the old Indian trails, and the Indians followed the game trails. So that's where these things develop. So you learn in a hurry not to stray from the path. Here, however, is a case of someone leaving the path, getting out of the way, turning aside. You get the idea. That's what plenaio means. We use the translation to err, to deviate from the correct course. Notice that sin can be viewed as a number of things. Sin can be viewed as a debt. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. We're taught to pray. Sin can be used as that which makes us guilty, and so we are forgiven. Our sins are remitted. Sin is viewed as that which defiles us, so we are cleansed from our sin. But sin is also viewed as a transgression. And I realize that word to us doesn't quite carry the meaning of trespass, but in Greek that's really the root meaning of the term transgression. When you transgress, You go astray. You step over a boundary line. You get the idea? You've gotten off the right way. And so therein lies the idea of erring here in this passage. Someone is leaving the way. Well, who is it that's straying? Who is it that is stepping off the path, going astray? Notice the very first word in our text tonight in verse 19 is brethren. It is someone who is considered a Christian brother. It is the straying of a presumed Christian. Now, I'll say more about that later on. But the presumption is, is that this is your Christian brother who is straying from the way, from the path. He's turning away from that which is correct. And we asked ourselves, well, from what exactly is he straying? And notice our text tells us, if any of you do err, stray from the truth, not a truth or not truth in general, but the truth, and then notice to err in this case is to steer, depart from the way, the pathway of life. Now, notice James 1.18, when we say he airs from the truth, let's look at how James has used that term earlier in this epistle. In James 1, verse 18, he's talking about the new birth here, and he says, of his own will, of God's own will, begot he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. In other words, when James uses the term, the truth, he's not talking about generic One plus one equals two. Okay? Or he is speaking of specific truth, and as the word is often used in the New Testament, it speaks of what we would call gospel truth. That's the truth. When Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. That's what he's talking about. We're talking about the truth that enlightens us as to the way of salvation, and that's why the way is so very important. Notice that here is a Christian brother who is departing, leaving the truth. He is getting off, he's erring off the way. And so it is a Christian who is turning, in the process of turning from light to darkness, from life back to death, and from Christ to the way of Satan. Is it possible for a Christian to err, to depart, to leave the way, to go astray? Let me put it that way. Is it possible for a Christian to err? If not, James is wasting his breath here. He's saying, brethren, if any of you do err. In other words, keep in mind that here, to err is not talking about the normal pitfalls of your daily life. The normal transgressions of the will of God. And remember James earlier has said, be not many teachers. How does he put it? For in many things we all offend. In other words, there's none of us that are free or that are completely free from the hobble of sin in our life. We all fall prey to sin. daily, but keep in mind that here what is under view is a Christian straying away from the truth. I mean, most of us when we sin in the course of a day, we don't have in mind the fact that we're leaving Christ or leaving the gospel or turning from truth, do we? I mean, we may be exhibiting a behavior that's not compatible with truth, But we're not in the process of rejecting truth. This kind of straying that James is describing is that latter kind. It is someone who is turning away in a knowledgeable way from the truth. In other words, what we have here is the description of the sin that we call apostasy, to fall away from Christ. Let me just remind you of a few places where this sin is described to us. I could remind you of Sunday morning. That's one place where they, because they received not the love of the truth, God gave them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Notice that we're not talking about the fact that some of us are not exactly true as far as what the things we believe about the gospel. There's none of us that have a perfect understanding of the gospel. We're talking there about people who have departed from the truth. They didn't love the truth. They didn't love the gospel. They love lies, so God gave them a lie to believe, turned them over to this strong delusion. Those folks are gone. There's no coming back from that. When God gives you strong delusion, you're gone. You really think you're going to be able to see through the delusion that God sends? upon you. So, keep in mind, that's the kind of sin we're talking about. A departing from gospel truth. 1 John 2, and this is of course in the context here of the era that was popping up in John's day, and in verse 19 he says these words, they, and notice it's more than one person, it's not he, but it's they went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they no doubt would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be manifest that they were not all of us." There's a whole lot of us's in there, but notice there's the us and the them. They were once with us, but they went out from us, so it was made manifest that they were never of us. Got that? Then go to the last chapter of 1 John. In verse 16, we have this statement, if any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say he shall pray for it. Now, I believe that's apostasy. There are those that say, well, this is just a sin and a sin that gets you killed. Well, number one, the only way you'd know that the guy sinned a sin that gets you killed is that he gets killed. God strikes him dead. But notice here is John saying that you see your brother's sin and you're to make a distinction between a sin that is not unto death and the sin that is unto death. And if he has sinned the sin unto death, you don't have the duty of praying for your brother if he has sinned a sin unto death. You say, why not? Because God's not going to hear it. God has given him over to his sin. There is no coming back from the sin of apostasy. Once that is committed, there's no return. Okay? Once you sin that sin. However, John is saying there's lots of sin that's not apostasy. And if you see your brother sin a sin that's not unto death, then pray for him. God will forgive that sin. You get the sense of it. All right, go over to Hebrews 6. And the book of Hebrews is interesting because it uses the incidents of Israel in the wilderness. You know that if you look at the context of Hebrews 6, the previous two chapters have been talking about the fact that Israel came right up to the border of the promised land at Kadesh Barnea, refused to go in, and they perished in the wilderness. That's what he's just been discussing, and he's saying, don't you repeat that problem. That's what they did. They perished in the wilderness. Now don't you refuse to go in. In other words, the book of Hebrews is writing to Christian, apparently Jewish, believers that are wavering. And so there's a question, are they really Christians or are they not? Are they going to go in? Are they going to fall away? And keep in mind, in Israel's case, at Kadesh Barnea, God said, that's it. Israel, let's just ask God to forgive us and we'll go in the next day. Uh-uh. Once they committed that sin, it's all over. They're going to die in the wilderness. It doesn't matter. In fact, the next day they said, oops, we made a big mistake. Let's go in and take the land. They got the pants whipped off of them. In other words, once they crossed that line and God said, that's it, you're going to die in the wilderness. There was no going back. There was no correcting that mistake. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, don't you make the same mistake they made. Back in chapter 4, verse 1, let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, their rest was in a land, our rest is in Christ, any of you should seem to come short of it. Don't you fall short of coming to a place of rest in the real rest, the person of Christ. Don't repeat their mistake. That's the context here. So understanding that, chapter 6, which is a very difficult chapter, I'll admit, makes sense if you keep that in mind, that that's what's been under discussion. Look in chapter 6, verse 4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, who have tasted of the heavenly gift, who were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." Whatever this is, there is no going back. Now, my Church of Christ roommate, who believed you could lose your salvation and get it back a hundred times a day, I mean, I'm not joking, used to ask him, are you saved or lost? And he said, well, at the moment I'm saved. But every time he sinned, he got lost, and you have to get saved again. Of course, they believed in baptismal regeneration, so my question was, why don't you have to get baptized again? Never did give me a straight answer. But the idea is, he's in and out of grace, and this is one of his proof texts that you could fall away, you can lose your salvation. I said, well, if once saved, always saved isn't true, at least once saved is true. That's what this text is saying. If this is talking about someone who is saved, losing their salvation, There's none of this coming back, folks. Now, in this case, I believe it's exactly the same situation that we're dealing with in 1 John. We're dealing with those who have an appearance of salvation. We consider them Christian brothers. But if they fall away, and by that, this sin of apostasy, there is no repentance. There is no going back. It's a one-way trip when you commit this sin. Now you understand what we mean by apostasy, and it's described pretty well right here in verse 6. It is to crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh. Now what does that mean? Once men stood and screamed their head off away with Him, crucifying Him. And Christ was crucified for our sins. But it's not going to happen again. Men will, if they reject Him again, if they turn their back on Christ, if they put Him to an open shame by turning and refusing the grace of God in the Gospel. There is no other Gospel. There is no other sacrifice. And they have shut themselves off from this one. And we see the same thing repeated in chapter 10, Hebrews 10. Here we are again. The same idea. Hebrews 10 verse 26, for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. There's not a Christ number two. There's not a second cross. You reject Him. You turn your back on the cross. There's nothing else out there for you. He's just this, a fearful looking for of judgment, fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. So keep in mind, what's the assumption here? The man who despised Moses' law perished. What happens to the guy who despises the gospel? Let's read on. Of how much sore punishment. In other words, the gospel didn't make it easier on you. makes it worse. The infraction is a greater sin. How much sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, hath counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? Now there you've got apostasy described for you again. Now go back, in your minds, go back to 1 John. Here are people who have been in the church under the teaching of the apostle John. This is an apostle teaching the gospel. They went out from us. Where'd they go? You know, Peter's not next door. They're not going down the road to the next church where an apostle is teaching down there. They are leaving apostolic Christianity to go embrace what is pagan, what is heathen. Now, they call it Christianity. They had a Jesus. If you read on that passage in 2 John, they've got a Jesus. He's not a human Jesus. Didn't come in the flesh, you remember. But they've got this heretical church down the street. They're leaving apostolic Christianity and going to that. So we're not talking about somebody leaving this church, go joining that church. We're not talking about a Baptist going over here to the Presbyterian church, okay? We're talking about you leaving and going and joining the Mormons. We're talking about you leaving and going and becoming a Roman Catholic. Yeah, make you cringe, huh? You say, that's what I came out of. Yeah, it's going back to where you were. It's the sow returning to the wallow. It's the dog returning to his vomit. That's the language Peter uses to describe this thing called apostasy. So it is turning your back on apostolic truth. Here we got this text in James. If any man he heirs, from the truth. Do you get the feel of this? This is not just you and me stumbling as we do, bumbling along every day in our life. It is someone who is in the light and refusing to go on. They've been illuminated, to use the language of Hebrews. You're still in Hebrews 10, verse 32. Call to remembrance the former days in which after ye were illuminated. Notice these people are not completely in the dark. They've been exposed to gospel light. They've been illuminated. The question is, have they been regenerated? They're under the light. Have they become a child of light? It's the language of Jesus. Walk while you have the light. Or we'd say, make hay while the sun shines. Walk while you have the light. That you may walk in the light and do the works of the light. Become a child of light. Because once the light is gone, you're going to be in darkness. And so here is someone who has, and you understand this from our human standpoint, we look at that, we see this happen. People come and get exposed to the light, and for a season they are under the light, and then they reject it and go somewhere else. And when I mean somewhere else, I mean out away from gospel ministry, from true Christianity. We've seen it here. So this is not just hypothetical. This happens. And notice again that if we see a brother sin a sin, it's not unto death. We have a duty to pray for him. However, if they commit this sin, there's another thing. Okay, I've got to move on. So this isn't just the normal straying. It is a willful, knowledgeable, turning aside, by someone who has been illuminated. You say, why in the world would you preach this to us? Because you're the only one that can commit this sin. The guy out there that's never been under the light can't sin against the light. He can't reject the gospel. He's never heard it. It's the folks who have heard it, and the more clearly they've heard it, the more qualified they are to commit this sin if they do not go on and embrace this light. Are you trying to wave me down, Barry? Well, I thought I did. Yeah, the sow and the dog. Well, didn't I say that? Everybody was listening but Barry. Let me read it since Barry is obviously out to lunch. Again, this is speaking of false teachers preaching a false gospel here in 2 Peter. While they promised them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome." Okay, you get the idea? They've come out, they came into under the light, illumination, and they are again entangled and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have ever known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them, according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again, the sow that was washed to her walling in the mire." And there you get the The key, I believe, to the whole passage, the dog is still a dog, the sow is still a sow. There has been no regeneration. There's been illumination, but no change of nature. And so sooner or later, if one does not go on and embrace and enter into that faith rest in Christ, then eventually they will return and go back. Chris, how do you see the difference? How do you make sense of this? Illumination, what I mean by that, is an outward thing. It is light coming upon you from without, just as we would have, and that's a figure for someone who would come under gospel teaching for a season. They're being enlightened as to the truths of the gospel. They have come under the light for a season. The question is, And keep in mind what Jesus is referring to in his ministry in Israel, that the nation at one time came under the light of John the Baptist and Jesus, both of them. And then the nation began to blaspheme. Remember, this all happens, a turning point is when the scribes and Pharisees begin to say, oh yeah, he's doing these miracles all right, but it's by the power of Beelzebub. And so what you've got is they've come under the illumination, they've seen the outward evidence, but now internally God has given them over. They refuse the light, they reject the light, and now they're blaspheming the light. And so then the idea is, Jesus illustrated very, very well in this parable that a man sweeps his house and, you know, And what happens? Seven kicks the demon out. And the demon comes back with seven of his friends. It comes back and finds the house unoccupied, empty. And he comes back with seven of his friends. And the last state of the man is worse than the first. Remember, that's what Peter is saying here. It would have been better for him never to have known. So the idea, what is Jesus illustrating? Israel was like that house. that the ministry of John the Baptist and Christ came and they swept a house but they never did fill it with the Messiah. They never invited Christ into the house and so the demon comes back with seven of his friends and the last state is worse than the first. In other words, that's apostasy. Am I making that clear? Another way of illustrating it is back to this Hebrews 6 passage where it talks about they who were once enlightened I'm looking at Hebrews 6, verse 4. They've tasted of the heavenly gift. They were partakers of the Holy Ghost. And that's the part of this that some say, well, they must be saved. I'm saying, nope, this isn't describing a saved man. But in some sense, they've partaken of the Holy Ghost. They've tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come. Put yourself in Israel's shoes. The Israel that came out of Egypt and that went to Kadesh Barnea before they turned their back and refused to go in. They tasted. They were illuminated by the light of that cloud in the pillar of fire. They drank of the water from that rock. They had all of these outward illuminating experiences, and yet they get to Cadiz-Barnea and say, we're not going in. That's what I'm talking about. You've got the external evidence. You've got the external witness. You have the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit opening your understanding to the gospel and then refusing to enter in to the rest of faith in Christ. Now you say, well, how would you know this is not describing a saved experience, like my Church of Christ roommate was claiming? It's because down here in verse 9 he says, Beloved, we're persuaded better things of you, things that accompany salvation. Clearly these things are things you can have and not be saved. You understand? So the writer of Hebrews is still encouraged. They have not yet committed this sin. They have not yet turned away from Christ. They are wavering. They're in danger of committing the sin of apostasy. So he's pleading with them. While you still have the opportunity, while you haven't yet reached Kadesh Barnea, close with Christ. Turn your back on Judaism once and for all. Don't even flirt with going back where you came from, because that's where these guys have come from. There is no more sacrifice for sin. Those Old Testament sacrifices may have had some value back then before Christ came, but now they are of no effect whatsoever. And in fact, to offer them now is an affront. It is doing despise to the Spirit of grace. You're insulting Christ. by going back to those things. Tony? There's a sense in which, well, I could say, is there never a sense in which a Christian can stray from the truth? And I would say, yes, there are times that even a Christian flirts, can I use that word, flirts with unbelief, flirts with going back into the world. If not, the world would not be much of a temptation for us. But we, you understand, there are times even in the true Christian's life and walk that we battle, that battle, we have our doubts, we have our disappointments, we have our disillusionments. Am I the only one? I mean, aren't there times that things happen and we're just shaken to our foundation of what does this mean? And if this is what it is to be a Christian, maybe I made a wrong move. Maybe I'm in the wrong bunch here. Have you never flirted with those kinds of... Maybe I'm the only one that wrestles with things like that. But that's... I think every Christian, well, I hope not every Christian, but I think a lot of Christians have those moments where we are flirting with turning back into the world and just chucking it all. That's been sort of interesting. My experience is that I knew a lot of Armenians that when they left, they might come back later on, go and come, go and come. Most of the time in Calvinist circles, when they leave, they ain't coming back ever. I don't know why. I think it's because they get a good dose of light, and when they leave it, it'll just not come back. In Arminian circles, the truth they've got is so shallow, they're hardly rejecting the truth. If I can say that without insulting all Arminians out there, as if I was concerned about doing that, but anyway. But you know what I mean. There are certain places, they don't have enough gospel to reject the gospel. But where you have light, intense light, then when you leave that, there is no other place to go. There's no other haven for you. Okay, so, it is a willful, knowledgeable, turning aside by someone who has been illuminated. What is our duty? Well, what can we do? If he's committed the sin of apostasy, it is unrecoverable, irreversible. We find that in two places. Hebrews 6, it's impossible to bring them again to repentance. Or over in 1 John 5, no need to pray for them. If they've committed sin unto death, I do not say you should pray for them. I mean, isn't that strange to hear the apostle of love say, if they've sinned that sin unto death, you don't have to pray for them. And you begin to say, why not? Because God won't hear it. That's why. You say, you mean God wouldn't hear our prayers? Go back and read Jeremiah. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, and God said, you can bawl your eyes out. I'm not going to hear you. You plead and pray for these people. I have consigned them to destruction. I will not hear your prayers. In other words, God has turned them over to their own loss. And so they're in an unrecoverable situation. But here's my question. How are you going to know that? If he's an apostate, this is what I'm saying up here, our duty then ends. But it is our duty to seek his restoration before he crosses that line into apostasy. And how do you know he has committed the sin unto death till you try to restore him? I mean, there's no gong goes off when someone commits the sin of apostasy. There's no gunshot from heaven or anything like that. How would you know that someone is irrevocably, irretrievably gone. The only way I know of is try to restore them, and if there is no response, then maybe they've committed the sin unto death. But you're never going to know until you try to restore them, and that's what James is pleading for here. Let me start over here, Beth. Your responsibility is over. The Lord can. I admit that's true. There are circumstances where obviously they have not committed apostasy. You understand? Or else... Right. If they've committed, then it's impossible to renew them to repentance. Well, I think what James is simply saying is that our duty is while there is any inclination, while they are wavering, and I like that term that the book of Hebrews uses, is that we are seeking to restore them. But if they reject our admonitions, then we are no longer under the duty to pray for them. Can we pray for them? Sure. Well, let me put it this way. Do you suppose the other disciples were having a prayer meeting for Judas? And I realize that's an extreme example, but there was no And boy, the tone of the New Testament in dealing with Judas is, this is the one that betrayed the Lord. They are not saying, oh what a terrible thing, let's pray for him that the Lord will bring him back. This is the son of perdition. He has gone into apostasy. And so, let's be careful with what we're talking about. Just because somebody gets out of sorts with us and leaves the church for a while, let's not jump to the conclusion that they've committed the sin of apostasy. And we're seeking to restore them. But after all our entreaties, they reject the truth, they go astray into error. How do we then put that to rest? And the only way I can see is that we say, if God wants to bring them back, He certainly can and I'm all for it. But I don't have the duty to keep going after them. Once they have turned their back on truth, I don't have anything else to offer them. I think that's the point. You know, come back because you like me? You know, you like my preaching so you ought to be here? That's a lousy reason to come back. Yes, and that's what I was trying to point out, that this is not like somebody who is coming from darkness. committing this sin. This is knowledgeable sin. This is enlightened sin. Illuminated sin. And it's not just tripping up in your daily walk. It is a decided rejection of the gospel and embracing, as in the case of 1 John 2, a heresy. Something that is not apostolic Christianity. Brenda. Well, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin Well, in essence, that's what apostasy is. It is to, let's use the language of Hebrews 10, it is to trample the blood of Christ underfoot. I mean, listen to this, the language here. To treat it as a common thing. In other words, the blood of Christ is no different from your blood or my blood. Cutting yourself or stumping your toe. To do despite. to the spirit of grace. You see, it is the utter rejection of the truth of the gospel. And here is the case. If we sort of put ourselves back in first century Jerusalem, where James is pastoring, the Christians undoubtedly, in Jerusalem in particular, were under tremendous pressure to go back into Judaism. Wouldn't you think? And especially as the rebellion, the Jewish war heats up, you talk about folks in no man's land, they're hated by everybody. And so they're under tremendous pressure to just chunk it all and go back to what they were doing before Christ came along. And in that context, James is then talking about seeing someone who was one of you. Now is he a true Christian? Well, we're going to find out, because the true Christian is kept by the power of God. But we have this Arminian notion, well, Southern Baptist Arminian notion, that, you know, salvation is like a roach motel, and we crawl in on our own accord, and then we can't ever get out, whether we want to or not. And that is a perversion of the doctrine of eternal security. The reason we never leave Christ is because we never want to leave Christ. And there's a reason why we never want to leave Christ. It's because the grace of God that made us want to come to Christ in the first place is still at work in our life. That the work God started, He continues to perform to the day of Christ Jesus. So the preservation of the saints, enduring to the end, is the proof of genuine salvation. But what do you do then with these who show, who seem to start out, who seem to show evidence of salvation, and then leave? Obviously, God didn't complete the work in them, which argues that He never started the work in them. Yes, it was not an effectual call. Now, it was a call of the preacher. Al, I forgot you. Well, there are many who, as you say, show no sign of fruit. no changed life, no heart. But, to me, that's still a different thing from this, of turning your back in a decided manner against the gospel. Yes, I've sampled the world, I've sampled the gospel. The world is better and I'm going back to the world. That's what's going on. It's formal. It's a decided apostasy. There are certain things we ought to keep in mind. Number one, all straying is not apostasy. That's what I was trying to say a while ago. That every believer goes through times of being torn and tossed and all the things that this world and the devil does to us, okay? We wrestle with doubt, we desolate with disappointment, disillusionment. Every Christian goes through that. That's not what I'm talking about. But, all straying potentially leads to apostasy. Let that sink in. Once you turn out of the way, what has to happen for apostasy to follow? Just keep pursuing that deviation from the truth. Do you see what I'm saying? All straying. That's why sin can never be your friend in the Christian life. Because every sin has the seed of apostasy in it. That's why we must hate sin. Every sin. Because every sin has the potential of leading us into apostasy if it's not dealt with. If it's not forsaken. If it's not repented of and forgiven. Any sin can lead you in that direction if you continue to follow that direction. You see what I'm saying? And then apostasy, as I'm trying to say, comes at the end of a process. It doesn't happen overnight. Israel's apostasy didn't happen overnight, folks. They were two years going from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea. They griped and complained every step of the way. Never could, as the Writer of Hebrews points out, they never could enter into rest. They just couldn't. Everything that happened to them, God's trying to kill us. Why'd you bring us out here? Why didn't you just leave us in Egypt? We had plenty to eat back there. Why'd you bring us out here in this wilderness? That's what they did for two years. So it's no great surprise when they get to Kadesh Barnea and say, no, we're not going to go in there. They had been in this long process of rebelling against the goodness of God. Apostasy is like that. It's not something that happens just overnight. It's the end of a process. And because of that, then when we see someone heading down that road, what James is saying, we are to seek their conversion. That means to turn them around. Epistrepho, I think in Greek, to do an about face. You're heading one way, now you go the other. So, you are to convert the one stray. Okay, last verse. What are the benefits of this? And I called it a search and rescue mission. Anybody here besides me been the target of a search and rescue? I mean a real honest-to-goodness search and rescue mission? It was not one of my most shining moments. It's not something you want to brag about. You know, they had to call out search and rescue. Well, okay. Well, here I am. You know, you've got yourself good and lost, or as we say, plum lost, when they call out search and rescue. Well, this is calling out search and rescue for a brother that is erring, turning off the way, turning his back on truth. What's the benefit? Number one, you save a soul from death. And you say, well, Brother Mark, that sounds like heresy. What do you mean we save? That's what James writes. If you do this, you save a soul from death. Keep in mind that we're not talking about salvation in the strictest sense, but in an instrumental sense. Paul uses exactly the same language in 1 Corinthians 9, 22 when he says, to the Jew I became a Jew, to the non-Jew a non-Jew. By all means, that I might win some, that I might save some is his language. And he's not talking about that he becomes their Savior, but that he then is the instrument of salvation in their life. And so it is that the one who restores converts the sinner. The one who has gone astray then is the instrument of their salvation. Peter uses similar language in Acts 2 verse 40, is it? Save yourself from this perverted, this crooked generation in his sermon at Pentecost. What do you mean, save yourself? Well, he doesn't mean save yourself in the sense that you become your savior. But here is the instrumental thing you must do. Here's the means you must avail of if you are to ever come to salvation. Notice, in my view, this death is not physical, it is eternal. I think the language of 1 John 5 has to mean that for it to make any sense. And notice they appear to have life. But if their course is not corrected, it will lead to certain death. This deviation, if pursued, will lead to death. Okay? Now, you'd say, well, they were dead already. Well, yeah, I know that. This is proving that. But we don't know that, you see, up front. This is one we presume to be our Christian brother. He's made a profession of believing the gospel. Alright? Second thing is, we hide a multitude of sins. That's what James says. In other words, their conversion, their turning about back into the way, the truth, then brings about repentance and confession and forgiveness of sins. It covers their sins. And this is something that I learned from raising sheep, is I never had just one sheep get out. As soon as one sheep found a hole in the fence, he would squirt out through it, and then a half a dozen others followed him right through that same hole. Rarely does apostasy happen solo. Others follow. Remember the language of John in 1 John 2? They went out from us, for they were not of us. And so the example of one apostate infects the lives of others. And so for that reason, our turning this brother back into the way not only keeps him from danger, but it keeps the other sheep from going astray as well. Yes, Greg. Yeah, over in Galatians, I believe that is, you that are spiritual, restore such a one. In a spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Yeah. In other words, keep in mind that it's like trying to rescue somebody that's drowning. They can take you with them. And so be very careful that you do this, he says, in a spirit of meekness. And that is a difficult thing to do because we obviously believe we've got the truth and they don't. And it is hard to express that notion in a spirit of meekness. You get my drift? Most of the time we come across, well, how dare you not see what I see and all this kind of stuff. But we need to go with the idea that there but by the grace of God go I. I can't stand in judgment, individual judgment of you, because the situation could easily be reversed. I could be the one straying, and if I were, I would hope you would come and seek me, just as I'm coming to seek you. Well, this is sort of a sobering way to end this epistle, but it is the very practical concern of the early church, and I think of the modern church as well, that we are awake and aware of the sin of apostasy. It has been defanged and dehorned to some degree in several ways. The teaching of eternal security that's normally taught, once saved always saved, which technically is true, it's just a lousy way to state the doctrine, okay? It implies Therefore, once I've had a past experience, then no matter what I do from then on, I can't be lost. And that puts the wrong impression into the mind of the hearer. And don't tell me that doesn't happen. I've talked to many Southern Baptists that believe exactly that way. No matter what I do from here on out, I'm going to heaven. And that's the old roach motel mode. Well, the Catholics are a little different in that they're sort of dangling all the time, like a worm on the end of a hook. As long as the priest is there when I die and I get all the hocus-pocus done, I'll be alright.