Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1137
“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one converts him, lethim know, thathe which converts the sinner from the error ofhis way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” James 5:19,20.
JAMES is pre-eminently practical. If he were, indeed, the James who was called, “The Just,” I can understand how he earned the title, for that distinguishing trait in his character shows itself in his Epistle, and if he were “the Lord’s brother,” he did well to show so close a resemblance to his great Relative and Master who commenced His ministry with the practical Sermon on the Mount.
We ought to be very grateful that in the Holy Scriptures we have food for all classes of Believers and employment for all the faculties of the saints. It was right that the contemplative should be furnished with abundant subjects for thought—Paul has supplied them—he has given to us sound doctrine, arranged in the symmetry of exact order. He has given us deep thoughts and profound teachings. He has opened up the deep things of God. No man who is inclined to reflection and thoughtfulness will be without food so long as the Epistles of Paul are extant, for he feeds the soul with sacred manna.
For those whose predominating affections and imagination incline them to more mystic themes, John has written sentences aglow with devotion and blazing with love. We have his simple but sublime Epistles, Epistles which, when you glance at them, seem in their wording to be fit for children, but when examined, their sense is seen to be too sublime to be fully grasped by the most advanced of men. You have from that same eagled-eyed and eagle-winged Apostle the wondrous visions of the Revelation where awe, devotion and imagination may enlarge their flight and find scope for the fullest exercise.
There will always be, however, a class of persons who are more practical than contemplative, more active than imaginative. And it was wise that there should be a James, whose main point should be to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance and help them to persevere in the practical Graces of the Holy Spirit. The text before me is perhaps the most practical utterance of the whole Epistle. The whole Epistle burns, but this ascends in flames to Heaven! It is the culmination as it is the conclusion of the letter. There is not a word to spare in it. It is like a naked sword, stripped of its jeweled scabbard and presented to us with nothing to note but its keen edge.
I wish I could preach after the fashion of the text, but if I cannot, I will at least pray that you may act after the fashion of it. Downright living for the Lord Jesus is sadly needed in many quarters. Christian garnishing we have enough of, but solid, everyday, actual work for God is what we need. If our lives, however unornamented they may be by leaves of literary or polite attainments, shall, nevertheless, bring forth fruit unto God in the form of souls converted by our efforts, it will be well. They will then stand forth before the Lord with the beauty of the olive trees, which consist in its fruitfulness.
I call your attention very earnestly to three matters. First, here is a special case dealt with—“If any of you do err from the truth, and one converts him.” While speaking of that special case the Apostle declares a general fact, “He who converts the sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.” When I have spoken of these two points, I mean, thirdly, to make a particular application of the text—not at all intended by the Apostle, but I believe abundantly justified—an application of the text to increased effort for the conversion of children.
I. First, then, here is A SPECIAL CASE DEALT WITH. Read the verse and you will see that it was that of a backslider from the visible Church of God. The words, “If any of you,” must refer to a professed Christian. The erring one had been named by the name of Jesus and for awhile had followed the Truth of God. But in an evil hour he had been
betrayed into doctrinal error and had erred from the Truth. It was not merely that he fell into a mistake upon some lesser matter which might be compared to the fringe of the Gospel, but he erred in some vital doctrine—he departed from the faith in its fundamentals. There are some Truths of God which must be believed—they are essential to salvation—and if not heartily accepted the soul will be ruined. This man had professed orthodoxy, but he turned aside from the Truth on an essential point.
Now, in those days the saints did not say, as the sham saints do now, “We must be largely charitable and leave this Brother to his own opinion. He sees the Truth of God from a different standpoint and has a rather different way of putting it—but his opinions are as good as our own—and we must not say that he is in error.” That is at present the fashionable way of trifling with Divine Truth and making things pleasant all round. Thus the Gospel is debased and another gospel propagated. I should like to ask modern Broad Churchmen whether there is any doctrine of any sort for which it would be worth a man’s while to burn or to lie in prison. I do not believe they could give me an answer, for if their latitudinarianism is correct, the martyrs were fools of the first magnitude!