Okay, let's read James chapter
5, verses 13 to the end of the chapter. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick
among you? Let him call for the elders of
the church and let them pray over him or her, anointing him
with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall
save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he hath
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults
one to another, and pray for one another. Pray one for another,
that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. Elias, or Elijah, was a man subject
to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly. that it
might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space
of three years and six months. And he prayed again, fervently,
earnestly, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth
her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err
from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he which
converteth the sinner on the error of his way, shall save
a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." What
a passage. What a difficult passage. It's
like what Peter said of Paul's writing one time. He says he
writes some things hard to be understood. And so it is with
this subject by James. Now, he says in verse 13, is
any among you afflicted? Let him pray. If any marry, that
means happy, joyful, prosperous, things going well, sing songs. Now, all of God's people are
afflicted. Afflicted. Now, afflicted, the
word afflicted means Hardship. You go through hardship. It means
persecution. This is what the word affliction
means. Absolutely. It means mistreatment,
suffering, wrongdoing, someone treating you wrongly and you're
under this anguish. trouble because of afflictions. Look at verse 10 here. In verse 10 it says, Take, my
brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord
for an example of suffering affliction. and of patience. All of the prophets
suffered affliction, persecution, mistreatment because of the truth
and even death. All of the prophets and all of
the apostles but one were martyred or suffered death. or because
of the truth. Look back at Hebrews 11, just,
oh, six or seven pages. Hebrews 11. This whole chapter is about that.
Hebrews 11, verses, look at verse 24. I love this. Hebrews 11,
24, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, He refused to
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God. To roam, to wander in the wilderness of sin and
go through troubles and hardships and trials with the people of
God and reproach rather than be well known and loved and esteemed
by Egypt. This is what this is talking
about, affliction. Look at verses 35 and following. It says, women received their
dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting
deliverance. They might obtain a better resurrection. Others had a trial of cruel mockings
and scourging and moreover of bonds and imprisonment. stone,
sawed asunder, tempted, slain with a sword, wandered about
in sheepskin and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. So you see, there have been many,
many, many. What did these people do? What
did all of these brethren do? And read Brother Mahan's article
commentary in the Bulletin this morning on the previous verses. We count them happy that endure. What did they do? Well, they
called on the name of the Lord. They prayed. That's what James
is exhorting us to hear. Any among you afflicted, whatever
that affliction may be, from whom? wherever it may come from. And I cannot impress upon you
strongly enough the need for us to pray, to be constantly,
fervently, sincerely, unceasingly praying, calling on the name
of the Lord. Do you hear me? If there is anything
I can impress upon you more than this, I don't know of. We are
not saved. if we don't call. And that doesn't just mean saved
from sin eternally. That means saved from everything
that gives us that afflicts us, that troubles
us, that distresses us. We're safe from distress. We're
safe from depression. We're safe from fear. We're safe
from doubt. We're safe from worry. We're
safe from worldliness. We're safe from temptation. We're
not going to be unless we call on the name of the Lord. Without
Him, we can do Our Lord Jesus Christ was and
is the Son of God when He lived on this earth as a man. Now,
He's the Son of God. And yet, it says, He prayed constantly
with strong crying and tears. It says, He was heard in that
He feared. Now, if he prayed and needed
to pray, where does that put us? In everything. He said men ought always to pray
and never quit, never faint. Men, since we're just men and
women, fickle, finite, failing, fallible, fallen, liable to sin,
liable to do anything. We're liable to do. Anything. Ask the saints down through the
years. Ask them. Since we're so easily tempted,
so easily fall to temptation, brethren, call on the name of
the Lord. You will fall, and if you don't
fall away, it will be by God's saving grace. Pray in everything. Paul wrote. Oh my, was he afflicted? No man since Job more so than
Paul. He wrote about it. He was telling
men there when I was going back over those things, he said, three
times I was beaten. Thirty-nine stripes. Stoned. And he said, men ought always
to pray in everything. Pray without ceasing in everything
by prayer and supplication. Let your requests be known to
God. We need to pray for faith. We need to pray for wisdom. We
live by faith. If we don't have faith, And I've
got to go on. If we don't live by faith, we're
going to pay attention to what we see and it's going to drive
us to despair. You understand what I'm saying?
If we don't live by faith on God's promises, believe Him and
trust Him, that means in spite of everything, we're going to
look around us and it's going to drive us to despair. We need prayer for faith. We
need to pray for faith. We need to pray for wisdom. We're
just natural-born fools, and we're going to be fools. We need to pray for patience.
That's this whole book of James, isn't it? Patience, to wait,
guidance, courage, mercy, love, grace. None of these things we
have by nature. And He's the God of all of them.
And we've got to ask. He says in verse 13 in our text,
any merry, that means any happy, no afflictions, no troubles at
the present time. That's a dangerous time. That's
probably the most dangerous time. In fact, David said, it's good
for me to be afflicted. I learned your statute. He said
in Psalm 73, oh, he said, oh, Psalm 73, he said, Lord, look
at the troubles we're going through. Look at the troubles people are
going through and the world's not going through. They don't
have these troubles. He said, you know, went into the sanctuary.
And I learned. In the last, I think it's the
last verse, he said, oh, it's good for me to draw nigh unto
the Lord that I might learn your statute. Afflictions. As any merry, if
any happy, no real afflictions at the time, no troubles, he
said, sing psalms. Sing unto him that has delivered
you temporarily from those troubles. Because if you don't, You'll take him for granted. You'll take his mercy and grace
for granted and you'll forget God. Prosperity causes people to forget
God, God's people. That's what the psalmist said,
deliver two things I ask for, deny them not to me. Don't give me riches lest I forgive
you, and don't give me poverty lest I steal and bring reproach
upon you. So, if any of you is afflicted,
and you know, afflictions often make us bitter. Anybody? Angry. against who? God. Are you honest? I'm trying to
be. Many of the saints down through
the years got angry at God. They knew God did this and they
couldn't understand it. Pray that you'll be like Job
in all his afflictions. He sinned not with his mouth
and didn't charge God foolishly. Afflictions, eh? Afflicted or
merry or happy or prosperous. We tend to forget God like the
children of Israel. He warned them, didn't He? He
warned them. You're going to build houses and you're going to be
free from troubles and, you know, dwelling in the land of promises.
You're going to forget Me and you're going to become like the
world. And then I'm going to have to start whipping you. See, and He's sick, verse 14.
He's sick among you. Let him call for the elders of
the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with
oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall
save the sick. The Lord shall raise him up.
If he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Any sick,
call for the elders. All of God's people suffer afflictions,
troubles, tribulations of mind, soul, and body. This is speaking
expressly of sickness of either body or mind. There are sicknesses
of mind. Any sick among you, All of God's
people suffer sickness, all of them. Some are sick more than
others, according to God's purpose. Others are afflicted and persecuted
more than others, depending on who it is and why and God's purpose. But some are often sick in body
for a long time. Now this is in spite of what
modern false health and wealth religion teaches. This modern
Pentecostal so-called holiness, so-called religion today tells
you that God doesn't want you to be sick, that God doesn't
want you to be poor, that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy.
That is a lie. In fact, you must truly be poor
and needy to love this gospel. And you must feel something of
this awful sickness or disease called leprosy in you to appreciate
this gospel. Some right now don't know what
I'm talking about, but all of God's people do. But God's people
often actually go through sicknesses of body. some for long periods
of time, many, many, many eminent, that is, well-known and useful,
vitally useful saints, people that the church thinks
we can't do without this man or this woman, have been sick
even unto death and have died from that sickness. And there
are too many to name. And I can name just a few in
the Scriptures. Elisha. Elisha. Arguably the greatest
prophet in the Scripture. He died from sickness. What was
it? The Scripture doesn't say. It
may have been cancer. Daniel was sick. Paul. He suffered with an affliction
all his life. And he asked the Lord three times.
Now listen, in context here. He asked the Lord three times
to remove this thorn in his flesh. He had a problem, an affliction,
trouble or sickness. The Lord would not remove it.
All the Lord would tell him was, what did he say? My grace is
sufficient for thee. Epaphroditus, the pastor at Thessalonica,
Timothy, the pastor at Ephesus, was constantly troubled with
some kind of stomach ailment. The Lord wouldn't remove it.
Paul told him, drink wine for it. Many of our own, modern day,
brothers and sisters, Well, here he says, let him call, or her,
whoever it is that's sick, call for the elders of the church.
Let them pray over him or her, anointing them with oil. Let
them call. This tells us that that particular
person is to call for the elders of the church. Let that person
who's sick call. For the elders, elders meaning
either the pastor, well, the pastor, if there is one, and
the men of the church are older believers. These are people who
are sound in the faith. And strangely, this doesn't happen
very often. People don't do that. I don't
know why. Because Scripture tells us to
do that. I've only had, I've only been asked to do this one
time in 30 some years. I'll try to tell you what this
means in a minute. It says that prayer of faith,
verse 15, shall save the sick. The Lord shall raise him or her
up. If they've committed sins, they
shall be forgiven him. Let them anoint this person with
oil. This means literally to anoint with oil, olive oil. There's only one kind of oil
in the Scripture. Now, there is no such thing as holy anointing
oil. There's no healing properties
in oil. Let me make that clear. baptism, the Lord's Supper, there's
nothing holy, there's no thing that has any healing qualities
at all. And this oil is symbolic. I have mistakenly said in the
past that there's only two symbols to be used, and that's baptism
and the Lord's Table, but this is a symbol. It's anointing with
oil. And we're not to use it flippantly
and carelessly, but in this situation, he says, bring this oil and anoint
this person. And as I said, I've been through
this with someone. Another brother and I did it
for someone. And this oil represents the Holy
Spirit, like baptism at the Lord's table represents the Spirit of
God and His grace that we need anointed. Him to apply this to
our bodies, souls, and spirit. It says, the prayer of faith
shall save the sick. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth none. I thought about Lazarus. Do you
reckon the Lord prayed for Lazarus? I mean, before he got sick. Always. Every day. Always. Lazarus died. Before he died, the Lord said,
this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of the Lord.
I quoted after your dad yesterday on the phone. Regardless of what
happened, it's not unto death. It's not. Do you hear me? God's people
don't die. They don't. Our Lord said that. He that liveth and believeth
in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? If we really believed this, and
then I was talking about this on the way over here, if we really
believed this, we wouldn't have a worry in the world. Come what
may. As Spurgeon said, the thing we
fear the most is really the best thing that could possibly happen
to us, if we're really with it. And our Lord said, I am the resurrection. Well, our Lord prayed for Lazarus. He said, this sickness is not
unto death, but for the glory of God. But Lazarus died. He got sick, and he died from
that sickness. But the Lord saved him. Verse
15, the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord raised
him up. Didn't it? He said, Preacher,
that's not what that's talking about. Oh, yes it is. Oh, yes
it is. His words are first spiritual. He said, my words are spirit
in their life. In fact, the Lord raised Lazarus three times. How many times does he have to
show us that this is healing? He raised him three times. He
was dead in sin, and he was born again. He gave him life. Then
he died this time, and he raised him. Then he died again. Something. Three times. And Lazarus was loved by the
Lord. Oh, the Lord loved Lazarus and
Mary and Martha. Were they useful, vital members
of the church at that time? Oh, my. There were people like
Dorcas who died. Remember the story of Dorcas?
The Lord raised her. In fact, you know, when the Lord
came to his grave and wept over Lazarus, most of the brethren
believe he wept because he's going to have to bring him back
to this place. He wept. I've got to bring him
back. Dorcas, there have been so many
imminent, vital, needful, fruitful members of the church that they
got sick and God took them. My sister, my parents' daughter,
only daughter, Carrie's mother, he had asked the church at 13th
Street, who was one of the most vital, necessary, useful, fruitful,
helpful, like Dorcas, the person that took everybody in, that
fed the saints, housed the saints for years. They would say, Becky,
coffee. I said, don't take her. And the men went and anointed
her with oil, and she asked for the saints to come, the elders
to come and anoint her with oil, and they did. And this has happened
often. There have been men like Charlie
Payne in my growing up, Bill Borders, men that were just salt
of the earth, just the backbone of the church. And this church,
Joe Park, song leader. He's just a little over a year
older than me. And it really is coming home
to me. Sixty-two years old. That's prime.
It really is. Song leader, backbone of this
church. Principal person involved in bringing me here. Got sick with cancer. Boy, it
was that quick, wasn't it? Anybody but him. The Lord took him. Now it says
here in verse 15, so people, you cannot apply this perfectly
and completely. I tell you what, the Lord will
save the sick. Verse 15, save them from despair. Save them from fear. Save them
from distress. You know the thing we need saving
from and delivering from more than anything else is fear of
death. Isn't that what Scripture says?
Our Lord came to deliver us, who all our lifetime was subject
to fear of death. He came to deliver us from the
fear of death. And I've seen it. We have seen
it that these saints on their deathbed didn't fear. And the last words I remember
him saying, to me anyway, Whether I go or whether I stay, it's
all right. I'm standing on the rock. Linda Stoniker. Not afraid. Mended his mother.
Fifty-four years old. She asked him, are you afraid
to die? No, why should I be? The Lord promised me. He does save us from that, doesn't
he? That's what we need saving from more than anything else.
And some have been healed. But we can't, you know, this
is according to God's purpose. Some have been healed. Brother
Todd Nyberg, I was by his deathbed. He was dying. But the Lord raised
him up. We prayed for him. And by the
way, do you not think all of the elders of all of the churches
and all the members of all of the church were praying for these
people? Absolutely. Well, what happened? We had them long
enough. And he said, I want them. Can I say it that way? That's
exactly what it is, like the Song of Solomon. He's the beloved.
He said, I want them now. But the point being, it's the
Lord's will. It's up to Him, completely up
to Him. But some have been healed. And the reason we pray, and the
reason the Lord tells us to pray, I knew I was going to have to
spend two messages on this. I knew I'd get caught. Oh, well. I knew that not one message could
adequately cover that at all. We're going to talk about confessing
our faults and conversion of centers. The point is we're to pray. And
this thing of prayer, you see, is calling on God, beseeching
the Lord. We need His help. We need hope. We need deliverance. We need salvation. We need healing.
We need everything. Everything we get is from Him.
And we call upon Him. Well, if we don't call on Him
and someone is healed, you know who will get the credit? Doctors. Medicine. Luck. Chance. Right? That's what happens in
the world. People are healed and they thank the doctor and
they praise the doctor and nearly worship the doctor. And technology. Right? This is why I hate, I
hate this, I despise this. That this modern world talking
about cancer, about a person bleeding cancer. She beat cancer. I beat cancer. You see these
posters of people standing there. I beat it. Me and Rowan Oak Memorial,
we beat this thing. I hate that. That means we're strong, we've
got through it, and those that didn't, they just weren't strong
enough, right? I despise that. Anybody's healed, God heals them. Hezekiah the king was sick and
the Lord told him he was going to die. The Lord told him he
was going to die. If they get your house in order,
you're going to die. And he prayed earnestly. And Isaiah came and prayed for
him and anointed him, put a plaster of figs, mind you, Figs. Now don't go running out buying
figs. But he put figs on him and the
Lord healed him. And he lived 50 more years. Did
figs save him? Did Isaiah's prayer save him?
Who healed him? God did. God said, I'm going
to give you. He said through Isaiah, God,
I'm going to give you 15 more years. I'm going to do this.
But Isaiah put this plaster of figs on him. We don't despise
man. We're thankful for technology
and all that. People are living longer now
because of technology. That's a denial of the gospel,
of the truth in it. A man's bounds are set, the number
of his months. That's a denial of that. Nevertheless, God uses means,
but we don't trust the means. We don't praise the means. We
don't praise the doctor. We praise the great physician
who gave men minds, their minds, and this technology and all that.
So I'm going to have to quit right here. But this prayer of
faith saved the sick. If somebody is 70 in their 70's
or in their 80's and they get sick, you know, you're never
ready to let go of somebody. Are you ever ready to part with
somebody? Your dad is 71. You don't want him to go, do
you? Dale, you know, right now, he
has cancer. We've been thinking about him, praying for him. But
he's 70. Three score and ten. What did the Lord say? You've got three score and ten.
Maybe. But anything more than that,
four score, by reason of strength, that's God's will too. But when
you get close to seventy, it's time. It's time. And we do pray,
but we think, We don't want to let go of it. We don't want to
leave. But according to the Lord's will,
it's time. It's time. And this is the thing we need
to pray for more than anything else is, Lord, would You please
show me that to die is gain. To be absent from the body, oh, no more tears, no more pain,
no more suffering, no more sin, no more affliction, no more trouble. But the Lord raises people up
according to His will, according to His purpose, and that's according
to His wisdom is perfect. I told you it was difficult but
that's the best I can do with that.