May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the epistle of James, and the fifth chapter, and we'll
read the last sentence in verse 16. So the epistle of James,
chapter 5, and reading the last sentence in verse 16. the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. It's very clear from the Word
of God, from Right Genesis through to Revelation, the necessity
there is that we do possess prayer to Almighty God, and that we
do pray. And the Word of God tells us,
indeed in James, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to
do these things for them. We are to pray to God. God has blessed us with the ability
to pray. And just to get the analogy very
simply put, We live, don't we? We've all got natural life. And
we won't live if we don't breathe. It's obvious. People stop breathing,
there's no life. They're dead. And that is really
the same spiritually in our spiritual life. If we don't pray, then
there's no evidence of spiritual life. So there's no point or
consideration in pretending we're a Christian, we're a believer,
if we don't pray. And if we do pray, we are to
come and to pray to God in a right way. That doesn't mean that we
come to God demanding that he will do things. but always come
into God seeking for blessings and favours if it is His will
to hear and to answer prayer because you and I don't know
what is good for us sometimes we want this and we want that
and we think it would be really good to have that but it may
not be because God has a great plan you and I have little plans
those little plans are often not good plans God only has one
plan and that's a good plan. And you and I should be very
concerned that we do follow God's plan and not therefore follow
our own plan. Now this very simple sentence
here tells us, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man avoideth much. Now let me just start off in
a negative way really. It doesn't say that every fervent
prayer will receive answers. It says the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much. It doesn't say it will
avail everything. We shouldn't therefore think,
well I've prayed and I haven't received an answer and therefore
what's gone wrong? You see we always have to bow
to the will of Almighty God and as I said in prayer and as I
often say to those of you who worship here regularly our lives
are for the honour and glory of God and often our prayers
are for our own honour and glory we want this to happen and that
to occur so that we are perhaps bettered off in our natural life,
perhaps in our spiritual life, and we may think it must be a
good prayer, it must be a right prayer, but it may not always
be so. And it's good, therefore, if
we do recognise the importance of and the truth of that. I'm sure you're familiar with
the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was a very gracious
man, a man who lived a very bad life to start with, and then
the Lord wonderfully favoured him and wonderfully blessed him. And we read in the second epistle
to the Corinthians in the twelfth chapter, we read of something
of his spiritual experience and his prayer. And he tells us And
again as he starts off this twelfth chapter, it is not expedient
for me doubtless to glory. He didn't want to glory in things
that he had done. But he did want to glory in the
things that God had done for him. And that is a good thing
for you and me to remember. We should desire to glory God
glorify God in the things that he has done for us and so the
Apostle as he tells us he explains it in the third person he says
I knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body I
cannot tell God knows and it's just a little word here of instruction
for us because sometimes if you desire to glorify God you may
not necessarily speak of an experience that God has blessed you with
but you can speak of it in the third person like Paul does he
doesn't tell us it was himself although we know he was himself
he therefore didn't bring glory to himself and it's good therefore
to remember an illustration like that to instruct us well he was
blessed with this wonderful vision of heaven itself and he tells
us then how God dealt with him and he says unless I should be
exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of
Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. And he says, for this thing I
besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. Well,
Paul tells us here that he has something. He tells us to keep
him, if you like, on level ground. so that he didn't get, as you
might say, beheaded by a wonderful revelation. He tells us the Lord
brought this on to him which was a thorn in the flesh. Now I suppose we might think
of it because it's described as a thorn in the flesh, we know
what thorns are like and if thorns scratch us or prick us it's a
bit painful and it's a bit unpleasant. But it would seem here that Paul
is really directing us not to something which is natural but
something which is spiritual because he says the messenger
of Satan to buffet me and that means really what it says and
Satan does buffet us sometimes with evil thoughts wrong thoughts
which perhaps we do not want but yet Satan knows how he will
tempt us and how he will bring things into our minds that we
don't want and we're told it's a messenger of satan to buffet
us and of course when that occurs we think what a terrible thing
it is which it is what a failure we are which we are but then
as we pray to god that we may not suffer this difficulty, and
this trial, and this opposition. And we think, now surely God
will hear my prayer. Surely if I pray like this, where
in our text here, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man, it will avail and I will be delivered from that well.
The Apostle tells us, he says this, For this thing I have besought
the Lord thrice that it might depart from me.' And how did
the Lord respond? Did he say, well of course Paul,
you've prayed well and you've prayed fervently and you've prayed
rightly, of course I'll hear that prayer and of course I'll
deliver you and take this away, this thorn in the flesh, this
messenger of Satan. But the Lord didn't do that. Instead he answered in a very
different way. It was a good way and a right
way. But this is what he said. My grace is sufficient for thee. No mention of the messenger of
Satan. No messenger of the thorn of
the flesh. Just this great and wonderful
statement. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect weakness. Now then, how does Paul respond
to that? Does he say, oh I'm very disappointed. I really expected a wonderful
answer to my prayer. Well this is how he responds.
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in disgraced distresses, and here's the secret, for Christ's
sake he was willing and happy to bear these things for Christ's
sake, because Christ has said to him, my grace is sufficient
for thee. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. You might just ponder that. Remember
it's in the 12th of the 2nd of Corinthians, but it's good words
of instruction to us. And it does give us a balance
with regard to our prayer life. You realise that God doesn't
always answer our prayers in the way that we want, perhaps
in the way that we expect. We may often think, well surely
I'm praying in a right way, surely God will answer me. Well he may
not answer in the way that we expect or want. But we should
take heed to this great and simple statement, that my grace is sufficient
for us. And that, as you may well know,
means the unmerited favour of God. So just bear that in mind
when you think of this word, the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man abideth much. And you think, well surely God
will hear and God will answer me. Well, it may not always be
so. And then just another example
that it's well worth considering, and that of course is the case
of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He lived of course
that perfect life, as I trust we all know and realise that
the Lord was blessed with wonderful favour and wonderful blessings,
but we know that the Lord Jesus Christ prayed to his father often,
often. But one particular prayer is
recorded, and that was a prayer when Jesus was in the Garden
of Gethsemane. And we might think, well, here
surely is an occasion where we will witness a wonderful answer
to prayer. We're told Jesus came to a place
called Gethsemane, took with him Peter and James and the two
sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death. Tarry ye here, and watch with
me. We see here the condition of the
blessed Saviour. And then we're told, and he went
a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying,
Oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not as I will, but as thou wilt. we might think, well surely the
Lord is going to bring this about. Well, He was willing, you see,
to do His Father's will. And His Father's will was that
that prayer would not be answered. Because through the death of
the Saviour, that brought about a wonderful and glorious benefit
to the whole Church of God. So we see there, surely there
was a gracious and glorious prayer, an effectual, fervent prayer
of indeed a righteous man. And yet you see, the prayer wasn't
answered. The Lord had to suffer. He had to endure, as the hymn
writer says, all incarnate God could bear with strength enough
and none to spare. So with that, as you might think
of as a negative introduction, remember the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man avails much. We are to pray. We are to pray without ceasing. And then we are to pray, of course,
in a right way. And we are to not pray in a wrong
way. And we read together in that
18th chapter of Luke, two people praying. I know it was a parable,
but it's a very accurate picture of people today as they always
have been. And we see, well, first of all,
we might start with the, there was a city a judge who feared
not God, neither a guided man, and there was a widow in that
city. And she came unto saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And what do we see with this
woman? Initially, the judge wouldn't listen to her requests. And sometimes
it might seem to us that God doesn't listen to our requests. But nonetheless, we should press
on. Press on. Because the Lord tells
us, I tell you that he would avenge them speedily. That's
the judge. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall
he find faith on the earth? And we are therefore to pray
in faith. We are to pray believing. that God will hear and God will
answer we're not to pray with a heart of unbelief saying well
I don't think God will answer this prayer we are to come believing
and we are to pray and perhaps pray again and then he goes on
to give this parable of two men a Pharisee and a Publican. A Pharisee was, of course, a
religious man. A Publican was a tax collector,
often immoral men who took bribes so that people didn't have to
pay as much tax. So there were these two men.
And the Lord gives an illustration of this Pharisee to start with. And he was pretty proud of his
life. He thought he was a very good, we might say, Christian. Of course, he thought he was
a good Pharisee, but we would think we were a good Christian.
And he gives an illustration of how he prayed. First of all,
he didn't pray to God. He prayed to himself. And he
wanted people to understand. He stood and prayed thus for
himself. God, I thank thee that I am not, as other men are, extortionless,
unjust, adulterous, or even as this publican. But it's not wrong
to thank God that we haven't been left to fall in all manner
of sin. But we have to realise that it's
by God's grace that we haven't done that. And therefore we have
to come acknowledging it's God's goodness It's not our ability. It's not our strength. It's not
what we've done. And then he tells God what a
wonderful man he is. I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Well, he's illustrated in his
own mind what a great person he was. He doesn't ask then for
any forgiveness. He doesn't ask for any blessing. And it all gives us A picture
then of the other person, this publican. He stood afar off and
he wasn't proud, didn't lift up his eyes so that people would
observe him. Standing afar off, he would not
lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,
saying a very short prayer, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Well, I wonder this morning,
If I was to ask you, have you prayed that prayer? Well, you
would only have prayed that prayer honestly and truthfully if God
has come and shown to you that you are a sinner. And if He's
shown you that, what's He shown you? He's shown you that you've
disobeyed the law of God and that you're guilty before God. And because of your guilt, you
deserve endless punishment. And you won't come and say, well,
I don't think I'm very bad. Many people today, perhaps the
vast majority of mankind, will say, well, I haven't done everything
right, but I'm not very bad. I'm not as bad as that person,
just like the Pharisee. But what a blessing when the
Holy Spirit has come and shown us that we are a sinner and that
we need forgiveness from our sins. And if we need forgiveness
from our sins, we will need the mercy of God. And we will understand
then what this publican came and said this very simple prayer,
Be merciful to me, a sinner. Now let me tell you this. This
prayer never becomes out of date. It never becomes old-fashioned. It never becomes something which
is not suitable for every one of us. Doesn't matter how old
we are. Doesn't matter how long we've
been a believer. We all still need God. to be
merciful to us, because, sadly, we still continue to sin. Well, what was the response?
What did the Lord say then? He says, I tell you, this man,
the publican, went down to his house justified rather than the
other. And he explains why. For every
one that exhorteth himself shall be abased. And he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. Well, we should be very thankful
and I hope you are very thankful that we have such a wonderful
and simple illustration in the Word of God like that to encourage
us how to pray, and to remember that our prayers are not always
answered in the way that you and I expect. And so we have
this encouragement then here today, the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And that means what it
says, we are to often come to our God in prayer. We can go
right back from Genesis right to Revelation to many people
that prayed and there were many answers that God indeed gave. Perhaps one of the person or
people that is recorded mostly in the Word of God with regards
to prayer is David. David was a man who prayed very
much and many of his prayers are recorded in the Book of Psalms. There are many, many prayers
in the Book of Psalms and it's good for us to remember the Lord
has given us this gracious and wonderful testimony because of
what the Lord is. And David commences the 18th
Psalm and he tells us this. It's good to just note how he
commences. He says, I will love thee, O
Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust,
my buckler and the hoard of my salvation and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord. means
I will pray who is worthy to be praised so shall I be saved
from mine enemies you know it's very easy to come to God in prayer
with a want list and this is what I need God to do for me
today perhaps this is what I need God to do for me in the future
but how about thinking and thanking God for those things which he
has done for us. Well, it's easy, as I say, to
have a want list, but it's blessed to have an acknowledgement of
what the psalmist is able to say and also as to what we are
able to say. And so David says, I will call
upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. Perhaps we might also think of
the case of Jehoshaphat, you may remember. the case of Jehoshaphat,
a very remarkable man, a very wonderful occasion in his life. He came into a time of great
difficulty and great opposition, and it's recorded for us in the
book of the Chronicles. It's in the second book of the
Chronicles and in the 20th chapter we read of what Jehoshaphat had
to face. The enemy was against him. We're told what Jehoshaphat confessed. Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation
of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the
new court and said, O Lord, God of my fathers, art not thou God
in heaven? And rulest not thou over all
the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thy hand is there not
power and might so that none is able to withstand thee? He commenced the prayer acknowledging
how great God is. And my friends, that is important.
We have these patterns in the Word of God for us as we come
to God in prayer to acknowledge how great, how mighty, how glorious,
how compassionate this God is. That's just what Jehoshaphat
did so many years ago. Art not thou our God? who didst
drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel,
and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever.
And they dwelt therein, and have built this sanctuary therein
for thy name. If when evil cometh upon us,
as the sore judgment of pestilence or famine, we stand before this
house and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and
cry unto thee in our affliction, then they were here and help. So he's just reiterating to almighty
God what he would do to them, how he would be with them. Reminding
God, as it were, in a humble way, not in a proud way. And
now behold, the children of Abba Namoab and Mount Seir, whom thou
wouldest not let Israel invade when they came out of Egypt,
but they turned from heaven and destroyed them not. Behold, I
say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession,
which thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge
them? And we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are upon thee. That's good, isn't it?
He confessed he didn't know what to do Perhaps sometimes we might
come in that way in our prayers good to come to God Not saying
I've got a great plan But coming to God simply like this Well,
he says our eyes are upon thee waiting for God to direct him
as to what to do We should come like that should we not in our
spiritual life in our natural life and then we're told and
Judah stood before the Lord with all their little ones their wives
and their children they all came together the children weren't
exempted they were all together hearing this prayer of Jehoshaphat
Well, then we read on. And there was a man called Jahaziel. And the Spirit of the Lord came
upon him. This is what he said. Harken ye, O Judah, and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem! And thou, King Jehoshaphat, thus
saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason
of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but
God's. so when we come in prayer it's
good to be reminded that the situations perhaps the battles
that we are in perhaps the battles which are before us they're the
Lord's battles the Lord brings these things into our lives and
again it's good to remind ourselves of this great and wonderful truth. And the Lord came and spoke to
the people through this man, and he said, you shall not need
to fight in this battle. Really? That's all this enemy. We've not got to fight? Can't
believe that. You see, the reason is God will
have all the honor and all the glory. And so they're told, stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and
Jerusalem, fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. Well, Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord. worshipping the Lord well
we haven't got time really to go through the whole account
but the essence was this when they went forth they were to
begin with praising God and when they began to praise God the
battle hadn't been won the battle hadn't even started they were
to praise God when they began to sing and to praise the Lord
He set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and
Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and they were smitten.
For the children of Ammon and Moab stood against the inhabitants
of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them. And when they
had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every man helped to
destroy one another. You see the wonderful deliverance
that God brought about. They didn't need to fight in
that battle. And we may think, the battle's too hard, you may
not have to fight. May God may come and deliver
you. We're coming back then to David. He says, I will call upon
the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved
from mine affliction. He had a humble confidence that
God will appear. And it's good therefore for us
today when we pray to God Hopefully, in this way, the effectual, fervent
prayer of a righteous man avoneth not much, believing the Lord
will appear in whatever way seems good to our God, not always the
way that you and I expect or want. And then he tells us, David,
the sorrows of death compassed me The floods of the ungodly
men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed
me about. The snares of death prevented
me in my distress. I called upon the Lord and cried
unto my God. What was the result? He heard my voice out of his
temple. And my cry came before him, even
into his ears. Well, David's prayers were answered. Again, there's many, many illustrations
in the Word of God in this book of Psalms, and I won't go through
them all. But a psalm which we do refer to often is, of course,
Psalm 51. where David comes and he says, have mercy upon me,
O God. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Here he is, this David. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. What was his problem? His problem
was his sin before God. He needed his transgressions
to be forgiven. And he explains it very simply.
Wash me throughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Well, that was David's prayer.
My friends, it would be a good thing for you and me today if
we come to our God with the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man pleading the forgiveness of all our sins, because we must
all be forgiven. None of us must pass out of this
life without being forgiven. None of us must pass out of this
life without having the evidence that we are washed, that we are
cleansed in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what will that mean? That will mean that we will realise
the importance of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and it
will show to us why he had to suffer because he had to shed
his blood. We read in the Hebrews, without
shedding of blood There is no remission, there's no forgiveness.
Blood had to be shed, and the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood.
He died that death on our behalf, if we are his children, to atone
for all our sins. So that we are therefore washed
in the precious blood of Christ. Well that's how the Apostle Peter
refers to it in the next little epistle after James is Peter
in the first chapter speaks about being redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. Now if you and I have a real
need before God of forgiveness If you and I come to that place
where we pray to God, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And
if that has been the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man, then availeth much. And God comes and directs us
to the only way of salvation, the only way of being saved. is having all our sins washed
away and the only way is through the sin atoning death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's then that by the grace of
God you and I will realise the necessity of knowing this wonderful
truth that Jesus is the one thing needful. You know the account,
I'm sure, of Jonah. Jonah disobeyed God. Because
of that, there was that great storm. And because of that, it
was ordained by God that he should be thrown overboard into the
sea. And God had prepared a great fish. We know it was a whale
to swallow up Jonah. And there was Jonah in the whale's
belly. And you would think, well, now surely Jonah is going to
pray to God. Well, it would seem that he didn't
for three days and three nights. And there he was in that desperate
condition. And eventually, he prayed to
God. He said, I will look again. towards
thy holy hill perhaps some of you have forgotten to pray perhaps
some of you don't want to pray perhaps you're in a condition
where you should pray but you haven't well Jonah was brought
to that position when he did pray and after that He came to
this realisation. It's a wonderful statement. Salvation
is of the Lord. God had given him that prayer. God had blessed him with that
prayer. And God therefore delivered him.
And as I'm sure you know, the whale was sick and spat him out
on the dry land, God heard. an answer in his prayer and we're
also told then the Lord then spoke to Jonah the second time
yes how kind and gracious God is when he speaks perhaps again
he hasn't cast us off we've deserved it but he hasn't He speaks a
second time. This time Jonah obeyed God. He went to Nineveh and he preached
the preaching that God commanded him to. Well it's good to have
these accounts. I've said there's a whole host
of glorious illustrations if you haven't got time to go through
this morning but you can go home and think about it and bless
God for such a very simple statement like this. The effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much, and praise and bless God
that it is true. Amen.