I want to talk to you this morning
about praying when you pray. About praying when you pray.
The title of the message is Praying in Prayer. James says here in
verse 14 of chapter 5, Is any sick among you? Now God's people
suffer many infirmities. sometimes bodily sickness, sometimes
spiritual sickness, sorrows and trials of various sorts. And
our infirmities are a reminder to us that in ourselves all we
are is sin. They're a reminder, a continual
reminder of that fact. Whenever we're born physically,
we begin dying physically. And every day we get closer to
physical death. We have no reason to put any
confidence in our flesh. And God won't allow His people
to put any confidence in our flesh. He's weaning us from this
flesh, from this world. James said here earlier, what
is your life? It's a vapor. It appears for
just a very little time and then it vanishes away. Now, here's
the instruction he gives to the afflicted, to the sick, verse
14. He says, is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders of the church. Now, the elder, properly
speaking, is the pastor, but it also may mean mature believers,
those who are mature in the faith. And I just want to tell you,
don't ever hesitate to pick up the telephone and call me. Whatever
the affliction, whatever the sickness, whatever it is, don't
hesitate to pick up the phone and call me. That's what I'm
here for. Usually when you do that, and
you do, and usually when you do that, I'm studying something
that's just right for what you need. And so that's always important. I want you to know that. It's
interesting here to me that James doesn't say, call the physicians. He doesn't say seek medical treatment
first. That's not what he mentions.
Not that we shouldn't get medical attention when we're sick, but
that's not what he mentions first. We have a great physician. The
believer has a great physician. Is there no balm in Gilead? Jeremiah
said. Is there no physician there?
Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Look over at Psalm 103, just a moment. Psalm 103, verse 2. Psalm 103, verse 2. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits. Look at this first one. Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities. That's always first. Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities. Look what comes second. Who healeth
all thy diseases. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies. who satisfy thy mouth with good
things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles." When
our Savior walked this earth, the Scripture says that He cast
out, that many came to Him that were possessed of devils and
were sick, and it says He cast out the spirits with His Word. That's important. He cast out
the spirits with His Word, and He healed all that were sick.
And the scripture says he did it that it might be fulfilled,
which Isaiah the prophet wrote, saying, himself took our infirmities
and bear our sickness. Christ took upon himself and
he bore the sins of all those God gave to him in his own body
on the tree, the sins that cause our sicknesses. That's where
our sickness comes from, is sin. And he bore those sins in his
own body on a tree and he made satisfaction to God for the sins
of his people that he might save us from our sins. And when he
healed those bodily sicknesses, those bodily diseases, it was
an emblem, an open manifestation of his power, his ability, his
efficacy to purge the sin of his people. and that he could
do the lesser, which was heal the bodily sickness. The greater
was that he could forgive sins. The lesser was he could raise
the dead physically from death and heal bodily sicknesses. And
he did it through a word. He heals us in our sicknesses,
our bodily sicknesses and our spiritual sicknesses. He heals
us through a word. through his word. He speaks it. And sometimes he uses brethren,
one another, as the instruments through which he speaks, or his
word through which he speaks. And then he bears our sicknesses
by way of sympathy. He knows, Scripture says, we
have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities, but in all points he was tempted like as
we are, yet without sin. So He knows our frame. He knows
the feelings of our infirmities. And the Scripture says, let us
therefore come boldly unto His throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Well, if that's
the case, we have liberty to approach Him as believers who've
been washed by His blood, who've had our sins put away, who've
been made righteous by Him. Why then do we need to call on
the elders? Look at verse 14 again. So they can help you seek the
great physician. That's why. Let them pray over
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. in the
name of the Lord." Now, James is not saying that the preacher
is the only one that can pray for you, or that your brethren,
you have to go through a man to pray. He just said back up
there, is any afflicted, let him pray. But God gives me, your
pastor, for that purpose, to minister to you, to pray for
you, to help you. to petition the great physician
on your behalf. And he gives these fellow brethren
to be helpers in that endeavor, in that joy. Now, the second
thing I want you to notice here is this is a word to the elders. The first was a word to the sick.
You're sick, you're afflicted, don't hesitate to call for the
preacher, the pastor. Don't hesitate to call your brethren,
those mature in the faith that can help you, pray over you,
come to your side, to where you are. But then there's a word
to the elders here, verse 14. He says now, and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."
Now the apostles anointed with oil in a special way. They had a special gift to heal
and they anointed with oil. Now some That power is gone to
heal that the apostles had. That was during this transitional
period that they had those apostolic gifts. But now we're dealing
with James is saying, but let those call for the elders and
let them anoint him with oil. Now, some say that this oil is
comfort. Oil was something used in those
days that was soothing, that was actually something you used
to comfort somebody. Some say that's what is meant
here by this oil is comfort. You better pray for them and
comfort them. Some think it means medical attention. Oil has often
had some medicinal purposes. And some say it may mean help
them, pray for them, pray over them, and help them if they need
to be carried to the doctor. Whatever it is, they need help
them with that. And then some say it means pray
that the Holy Spirit, the oil of gladness, the Holy Spirit
would comfort them, the comforter would comfort them. And perhaps
all three should be applied to it. It's certainly, though, not
any notion as the papists give it, to where you're gonna go
over there with some baby lotion and sprinkle that on them for
some kind of, as if you got some kind of spiritual power. That's
not what's meant. But now I want you to see something
here. James may mean this is what the elders are to do as
opposed to the things which he's been speaking of throughout this
epistle. Now, it seems to me there's a great deal here said
about how we pray, about the quality of prayer, what is true
prayer. If a brother's afflicted in a
trial, or in bodily sickness, or in both, like Job was, rather
than coming to him and grieving him with our words, use your tongue to pray for him
and to speak words that will comfort him. You might say, well,
nobody would be that cruel if somebody was sick with bodily
sickness and in affliction and grieving over the loss of their
loved ones and in sorrow and out there in firmity. Surely
nobody would go and be so haughty as to condemn them and speak. Job's friends did. In fact, Job
experienced the loss of all his property, the loss of his family,
and bodily sickness from head to toe. And he said of his friends,
you're miserable comforters, miserable comforters. They came
there in a spirit altogether different. And the kind of comfort
they show doesn't give any glory to the Lord. It's not submitting
to the Lord. And it divides brethren, is what
it does. And it adds to affliction and
sickness. And it doesn't comfort anyone.
Verse 14, let him call for the elders of the church and let
them pray over him, anointing him with the oil in the name
of the Lord. Here's the oil. Your warfare is accomplished.
The Lord has rewarded you double for all your sins. The Lord said,
comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. That's the comfort that we need,
whatever the situation is. It doesn't matter if you're suffering
from a loss in your family, from a loved one that's died, or if
it's affliction in trials, in daily trials, or if it's sickness,
nothing thrills your heart like hearing what great things our
God has done for us. That quickens. That makes alive. That refreshes. That refreshes. Now look here at verse 15. He
says, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick. It shall,
he says. He's not saying maybe. He said
the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And he said the Lord
shall raise him up. And if he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven him. Now here's the second thing I
want you to look at, and this is really getting into this more
in detail, but true prayer, true prayer. Look down at verse 16
at the very end. It says, the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Effectual fervent prayer
means inwrought prayer. It means inwrought prayer in
one who's truly a child of God, one who's been made righteous
in the righteousness of Christ, who's praying to God with a true
heart. in a true spirit. James, all
through this letter, has been contrasting the fleshly nature
and the spiritual nature. Spiritual nature from the fleshly
nature. He talks about a heart of faith
as opposed to that double-minded man. He talks about a brother
of low degree being exalted, but the rich being brought low. He speaks of the poor of this
world who are rich in faith, heirs of God, according as He's
promised to those that love Him and trust Him and believe Him,
as opposed to those who are rich in this world and poor in faith. He talks about the spirit of
wisdom that's from above, that's pure and peaceable and gentle
and easy to be entreated, without hypocrisy. without partiality,
that's sown in peace of them that make peace, as opposed to
that earthly, sensual, devilish spirit. He speaks of that submissive,
humble spirit toward God, as opposed to that haughty, self-willed
spirit, we will, that spirit of I'll do this or that, I'll
do what I want. I can't help but take note here
that this true heart of faith that he's talking about, this
true prayer he's talking about may be in contrast to what he's
mentioned about prayer before. The prayer of faith shall save
the sick. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. Look back up at James 1 verse
6. The prayer of faith, this inwrought
prayer It's a right prayer. It's righteous prayer. It's the
opposite of that double-mindedness that he's been cautioning us
against. Verse 6, he said, let him ask in faith. Any man lack
wisdom, let him ask of God. God freely gives. But let him
ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like
the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that
man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways. He spoke of envy and strife. Look over at James 4. He spoke
of envy and strife in the heart of those who desire to appear
wise and to appear righteous and appear to be able to tell
everybody else what to do and what they ought to be doing.
And then he said in James 4, 3, Ye ask and receive not, because
ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. But then
look at verse 8 of chapter 4. He says, draw nigh to God and
He will draw nigh to you. Really come near God and He will
draw near to you. He says, cleanse your hands,
you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. You
know what this means? You can't make yourself holy. That's not what He's talking
about. Turn from that that double-mindedness where you're praying with your
mouth, but really your heart's far from Him. He's saying, cleanse
your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Set your attention, set your
focus, set your heart on Christ Jesus, on God the Father. Come to Him in faith, believing,
trusting Him. And He says, be afflicted and
mourn and weep. as opposed to letting your laughter
and having great joy. And I think he's speaking of
another's calamity, of another's affliction, of another's prayer,
of another's sickness, in trial, in falling into error and what
have you. And he says, verse 10, humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. And then back in chapter 5 and
verse 15, he uses the same language. And the prayer of faith shall
save the sick. And the Lord shall raise him
up. And if he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven him. What's the spirit of one who
prays in faith? What's the spirit of one who
prays in faith? It's believing God is able to
raise up. That's the first thing. The second
thing is it's submitting to God and acknowledging that God alone
can raise up. That He alone can do it. If you
think what James is saying here is that your prayer is going
to raise up the sick, you've missed it. Missed it all together. That's not what he's saying.
submitting and acknowledging that God alone can raise up,
that's prayer. That is prayer. It's asking the
Lord to raise up. That's the third thing. And the
fourth thing is asking the Lord to forgive us our sins. Matthew
Henry said, when you are sick and you're in pain, it's most
common to pray and cry, Oh, give me ease. Oh, restore my health
to me. but your prayer should rather
and chiefly be, oh, that God would pardon my sins." And here's the fifth thing. It's
believing the Lord shall raise him up and shall forgive his
sins. The sick brother, the true one,
the one who is truly a brother in Christ. It's believing the
Lord shall heal him, and the Lord shall forgive him of his
sins." If it's affliction, if it's a sickness of spirit, it's
believing that the Lord is able, and the Lord shall, by His chastening
hand, turn him from his error, and shall heal him of that sickness,
and shall raise him up, and shall forgive him of his sins. believing
the Lord is able to do that. And if it's bodily disease, bodily
sickness, it's praying, knowing fully, submitting to, acknowledging,
knowing fully that the Lord shall save your sick brother from his
sickness. He will either do it by restoring
his health or He will completely, absolutely, totally heal him
by bringing him into glory. But either way, He shall heal
him. And it's knowing that He shall forgive him of his sins
because of what Christ Jesus the Lord has accomplished. They're
forgiven. They're forgiven. For any man's
sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
Righteous, who cleanseth us from all our sin. And it's submitting
to that and rejoicing in the fact that the Lord shall save
him. It's praying to God to do what He sees best to do. It's the Lord. Let Him do what
seems best, what's best. And prayer of faith, effectual
inwrought prayer is from a spirit that acknowledges our own sins. Our own sins. Look at verse 16.
Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that
ye may be healed. Now this is not confessing faults
to one another like men do to a so-called earthly priest. This
is the spirit of confessing our faults. What's the spirit of
confessing our faults? It's confessing our Lord is the
only righteous one. It's confessing He's our only
righteousness. That's the spirit of confessing
your faults. It's acknowledging our sins and
our own absolute inability. In other words, I can't raise
up. I can't turn you in your heart from your sin and your
whatever affliction you're in. He can. I can't heal you of a
bodily disease. He can. If He can do that which
is greater, He can do that which is lesser. But it's confessing
that. It's that spirit that realizes,
I can't do that. And we all have that spirit towards
each other. It's submission to one another.
Acknowledging not one of us is different from our brethren.
We're sinners saved by grace. Sinners saved by grace. And not
one is different from the other. The moment one of us begins to
feel like we're different from another and don't have the faults
of another, there'll be trouble. We'll be the ones unknowingly
that are sick, that our brethren are praying for and waiting on
the Lord to heal. We could pray for one another,
go through the motions, pray for one another, but if in our
hearts we're double-minded rather than believe in God, if we have
no spirit of forgiveness, that's what this spirit of confessing
our faults is, it's a spirit of forgiveness. When you know
what you are, it's easier to forgive others of what they are.
And it's knowing that God will hear us and will petition. He will answer this petition.
But if we just pray this and we don't have that spirit, God
won't hear us. He won't hear us. And the only
thing we're going to do is make the affliction worse. That's
the only thing we'll do. will make the affliction worse.
Our own affliction. If we don't have this spirit
by God's grace, prayer will make us be puffed up and haughty.
You see that. You see that. Prayer is just hugely popular
in our nation. It's something churches do. I
don't know if it's true prayer or not. It's something that's
widely and wildly popular. But how many times do people
act like when something, when you are healed, when somebody
gets better or when somebody gets their job or whatever, how
many times have you heard people say, well, we prayed for you. If it's that spirit, that spirit
didn't do any good whatsoever. If you have the audacity to tell
somebody, and that's what you're saying is you got better because
I prayed for you. If you got the audacity to say
that, God didn't hear you pray at all. I can say that with all
confidence. Because it's opposite of the
spirit James is talking about right here. in raw prayers of
the Lord is when He puts this Spirit within us. He gives us
this new Spirit, His Spirit within us, and He's able to bring love. If He's got somebody in this
congregation, one member of this body who gets exalted in themselves
and gets puffed up and gets haughty and is rich, at the same time,
He's got others that He's brought low and taught just so they can
deal wisely and in a humble spirit and patiently with that one who's
haughty until the Lord brings that one low. You can guarantee
that. If one raises up himself over
another, the Lord is working in the midst of the others to
provide for that one. That's how He operates. That's
how this grace works together and He gives every member the
nourishment you need to provide for every other member. It's
the Spirit He puts within us. And then secondly, Romans 8.26
says, Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For
we know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. So we pray by the Spirit He's
given to us, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us, and
then we have our advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus the
Lord, our intercessor, whoever lives to intercede for us. That's
effectual, fervent prayer. That's the prayer of the righteous
man that availeth much, where he's put that Spirit, where the
Holy Spirit is interceding, where Christ our Advocate is interceding.
Now, the example he gives us is of Elias. Let's look at verse
17 quickly. Elias was a man subject to like
passions as we are. You know what I find very interesting?
He gives us an example of Abraham. and of Rahab when he was talking
about faith without works is dead. Two Gentiles who didn't
have the law of Moses, Abraham and Rahab, whose only, the only
thing they did in the examples that they set forth in Scripture,
the only thing they did was wait on the Lord to raise up. That
was the work they did. That was it. Patiently wait on
the Lord to give what He promised He'd give. And then he used Job
as an example when he was talking about patience. And Job had to patiently wait
on the Lord as three friends unbridled their tongues on him
and did all the things that he's been talking about right here.
You know what Elisha did? Elisha hungered and he grew weary
in the land he dwelt in. And the Lord fed him by ravens,
brought ravens and fed him by ravens and by a widow and by
an angel. He was charged by Ahab as being
a troublemaker in Israel because he wouldn't join in with the
religion of the day. He wouldn't compromise with Ahab
in going worship at the altars that Ahab built. And he was considered
a troublemaker in his day. And Jezebel sought his life because
of the gospel he stood for. And he wasn't free from sinful
passions either. He grew impatient. He was fearful. He was in unbelief. He saw all around him, Lord,
I'm the only one that's left. They've all gone after Baal.
And the Lord said, I have 7,000 and haven't bowed the knee to
Baal. I've reserved to myself some people. But here's why James
sets him forth as an illustration in this instance. Verse 17 says,
And he prayed earnestly. The word is, in prayer, he prayed. That's what it means. He prayed
earnestly. When he prayed, he prayed. that it might not reign. And
here we see the power of our Lord. This is the effectiveness
of prayer. It's not in us. That's what James
is conveying here. It's not in us. We're not to
have some spirit as if we're doing something. That's not coming
to Him and praying for Him. That's not coming to Him and
comforting Him. But it's knowing God is able.
And because Elisha prayed when he prayed, praying he prayed,
this is what happened. It rained not on the earth by
the space of three years and six months. Now who stopped the
rain? God did. The one to whom Elisha
prayed stopped the rain. And he prayed again and the heaven
gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. Who gave it?
God did. Elisha prayed, and praying he
prayed, but it was the one to whom he prayed that did the work.
That's the Spirit. Knowing that is the Spirit. God
our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, through
the power of the Holy Spirit, He's able to raise up, He's able
to forgive sins, He's able to heal, and we're not. We're absolutely dependent upon
Him. That's what prayer is. That's
what prayer is confessing. That's what prayer is. Now, he
said in verse 13, is any afflicted, let him pray. That's personal
prayer. He said, call for the elders
and let them pray over him. That's social or prayer together. And he says, pray for one another. That's private prayer. Privately. in your closet. The true inwrought
prayer of a righteous man availeth much because our righteous God
is able. He's able. That's the theme of
this whole epistle. The theme of this whole epistle.
I hope that's helpful to you.