we turn again then to the portion
of scripture we've just read here in that first chapter of
the general epistle of James and drawing your attention to
the words in particular that we find in verse six in that
opening sentence really the first part of the verse James 1 6 but
let him ask in faith nothing wavering. Let him ask in faith,
nothing wavering. And the subject that I want to
address then is simply that of asking in faith. Asking in faith. The context
is one in which James has been speaking somewhat of the trying
of that faith. He says at verse 2, My brethren,
count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have a perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. The profitability that comes
with the trial of faith. As Paul says to the Philippians,
it was given to them on behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on His name, but also to suffer for his sake. There is a gracious
purpose even in those sufferings of the saints of God. But how
we stand in need of much wisdom, that heavenly wisdom, that spiritual
wisdom, to understand the mystery of God's dealings with us. And so he says at verse 5, if
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all
men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given unto
him. We need that wisdom that comes
from above, that heavenly wisdom that is first pure, then peaceable,
and gentle, and easy to be entreated, and full of mercy and good fruits,
and without partiality, and without hypocrisy. As James goes on to
say later, And so, the asking in faith is set in this context
of the need of much heavenly wisdom to understand the dealings
of God. And it reminds us in some ways
of the language that we have in that 107th psalm. That psalm
that speaks to us of God's dealings, God's providences. And we're
familiar, I'm sure, with the psalm. We often quote the concluding
verse of that psalm, how the wise man is one who seeks to
discern what the Lord is doing, who so is wise, and will observe
these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness
of the Lord. And remember how he speaks of
the various situations, the different vicissitudes of a man's life,
those that go down to the sea in ships and do business in great
waters, he says these, see the works of the Lord and his wonders
in the deep. He's speaking clearly of the
mariner, but there's a spiritual significance when God's people
are brought into deep waters in their soul's experience. Oh, he says there at verse 27,
they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at
their wits' end. And oftentimes in God's dealings
we are brought to that, our wits' end, we know not what to do.
All their wisdom is swallowed up, it says in the margin. We
have no wisdom of our own. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm, and the waves thereof are still. When God says, Peace, be still,
and speaks that into the souls of his children, what comfort
his words are able to bring. And so, this is the context here. He's speaking of faith, and he's
asking the prayer of faith, in the midst of a passage where
he says much really about trials later verse 12 he says blessed
is the man that endure of temptation for when he has tried he shall
receive the crown of life which the lord has promised to them
that love him and so turning then to these words let him ask
in faith and i think wavering for either waver if he's like
a wave of the sea driven with the wind and toss for let not
that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Well, as we
come to these words and the subject of this prayer in faith, I want
to mention two things. First of all, to say something
with regards to the danger of our doubts, the danger of doubts,
and then secondly, the fact of faith. Now, sinful doubts lead
to at least three things we see here. First of all, where there
are those sinful doubts, there is no stability. As we're told at the end of this
sixth verse here, that Widereth is like a wave of the sea driven
with the wind and tossed. This is that double-minded man
in verse 8 who is unstable in all his ways. There's no stability. And that is really the condition
of the wicked. The wicked are said to be like
the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire
and dirt. There is no, please set my guards
to the wicked. There's no stability when we're
full of those sinful doubts. And remember that unbelief really
could be said to lie at the root of all our sinning. It's there,
as I've said many a time, in the Garden of Eden, in the fall
of our first parents. The embracing of the devil's
lie, the rejection of God's truth, unbelief. And unbelief casts
aspersions upon God and upon the character of God. It questions
the very faithfulness of God, the truth of his words. He says
in scripture, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word
shall not pass away. And again we're told the scripture
cannot be broken. And yet when we're full of those
sinful doubts we question all of that, our iniquities. Can't
they separate between us and our God and our sins hide his
face from us. Here is the first danger then
of doubts. There is no stability in that
man's life. He's a wavering man. He's like
a wave of the sea. He's just tossed about by the
winds. But then also, with that man,
there's no sincerity. There's no sincerity. He's a
double-minded man. It's an awful condition. to be
double-minded. The child of God is to be a man
of his words. But we read of some people that
draw near to God and they honour him with their mouth and yet
their hearts are far removed from him. There in Isaiah 29
and verse 13. The double-minded man. He simply
plays a part. His religion is really hypocrisy,
he's a play actor. There's a form, there's a form
of godliness, in a sense, but he denies anything of the power
of that godliness. He lives a lie. And there are
these contrasts with God himself. Look at what it says concerning
the Lord God himself, in verse 5. The Mannach's wisdom is to
ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, it says, and upbraideth
not. He gives to all men liberally,
and the word that we have here has the basic idea of simplicity
and sincerity. This is the gods that we have
dealings with when we come to pray. He is such a sincere God. He doesn't say to the seed of
Jacob, Seek him, I face him thine. His word is such a true word. And He is that God who gives
things so liberally. As we see in verse 17, Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh from
the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor any shadow
of turning. He is of one mind and who can
turn Him. This is the God that we are privileged
to have dealings with and we are to come and we are to be
as it were like God. We are to draw nigh to God and
He will draw nigh to us. He says you shall seek me and
find me when you shall search after me with all your heart.
We are to be wholehearted then in our seeking of Him. not double-minded,
singleness of mind and that simplicity of heart is the mark of those
and those sinful doubts you see or they are evidenced not only
in a lack of stability but also they are evident in that insincerity,
that double-mindedness sinful doubts they lead to these awful
consequences, thirdly where there are those sinful doubts there
is no answer as it says in verse 7 let not that man think that
he shall receive anything of the Lord that man who is full
of sinful doubts now we need to be careful of
course because all doubting does not nullify our prayer I'm thinking
really of those doubts which give way to what we can only
say is a total unbelief. We know that there's always a
conflict in faith. So we need to be careful. We're
not saying for a moment that all our doubts are going to engender
such awful consequences. We are only too conscious that
there is a good fight of faith. We know how the flesh lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these
are contrary one to the other, says the apostle, and you cannot
do the thing that you would. Doubt should in a sense embolden
us. We sometimes sing that little couplet in In Joseph Hart's hymn,
let the danger make thee bolder, war in weakness, dare in doubts. Oh, when we feel our weakness,
we're to engage in that fight of faith. When we're full of
doubts, we're to dare to come and to believe that God will
hear us yet. We can think of that man who
came to the Lord Jesus in the Gospel with his child who was
struck down by a diamond death spirit there in Mark chapter
9 at verse 23. And what does the Lord say? What does the Lord say to that
poor man? If thou canst believe, he says,
all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway
the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord,
I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. And what do we see there as that
man responds to the words of the Lord Jesus? He makes a confession
of faith and then he utters a prayer of faith. What is his confession? Lord, I believe, he says. And
what is his prayer? Lord, help my unbelief. The two things stand together
side by side. The confession of faith and the
prayer of faith. And the prayer of faith has to
do with the fact that the man is full of unbelief. You see,
all our doubts are not to be reckoned to be such doubts as
I've sought to describe in some measure. Those doubts that are
evidenced in that lack of stability or that insincerity. and those
doubts that really nullify our prayer altogether, so there's
no answer. But we need to be aware, we need
to be aware of the grievous nature of our doubts, the awful sin
of unbelief. It is that sin which doth so
easily beset us, as the Apostle says, and it besets us constantly. Even when we come into a prayer
meeting, do we really believe that our prayers will be heard
and answered when we bow our knees in our private prayers? Do we sometimes think, well,
we're just saying words, will there ever be an answer? Will
the Lord really appear for us? But what we have here, you see,
is the importance of asking in faith. It must be that blessed
fact of faith. Let him ask in faith, says the
text, not in quavering. We're not to be those who are
doubting. Now what of this faith that we're to ask with? Well
I remind you again that when we come to the scripture we do
see that there are so many different sorts of faith. We know that
there is a faith that we can only describe as a natural faith. We might call it theism. There
are those who are so bold today to declare themselves to be atheists. They don't believe that there
is any God at all. But not all men, not all men
and women are atheists. I dare to say that most would
probably still say that they believe in some sort of divine
being. The fool has said in his heart
there is no God, and of course that's declared twice in the
Psalms, Psalm 14 and again in Psalm 53. It's a foolish man. who closes his eyes to that revelation
that God has given in all His works, His works of creation,
His works of providence, the invisible things of Him from
the creation of the earth are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power. And Godhead
says, Paul, therefore thou without excuse. There is a revelation,
a general revelation of God. and men witness it every day
the heavens declaring his glory the firmament showing his handiwork
as we read there in Psalm 19 it's a fool who in the face of
that revelation says there is no God so there is a what we
might say a natural faith And there is also an historic
faith. What I mean is there are those
who would dare to say that what we read in Holy Scripture is
true. They accept in principle the
record concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
might question various aspects of the biblical record, but they
accept that there was such a person and They don't deny what God has
revealed of himself here. When John writes in his first
epistle, he says, He that believeth not hath made God a liar, in
that he hath not believed the record that God has given of
his son. Some might accept the truth then of the historic Jesus. And then furthermore, there's
a faith that even the devils have, as you know. James says
that, doesn't he? Here in chapter 2, in verse 19,
Thou believest that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. Oh, the devils, they recognize
certainly the truth of who Jesus of Nazareth was and is, that
He is the eternal Son of God, that He is the Holy One, even
as He begins His ministry we see them there having to acknowledge
Him. In Mark chapter 1 and verse 24
when Christ performs the miracle there in the synagogue. What does the demon say? Let
us alone. let us alone what have we to do with thee
thou Jesus of Nazareth art thou come to destroy us I know thee
who thou art the Holy One of God that is the confession of
the demon he trembles before the Lord Jesus Christ the devils
believe and they are afraid they are fearful Or there is a faith
of the devils, a faith of demons. And then also, we're thinking
of the different types of faith that are spoken of in Scripture.
There's a faith associated with miracles, remember? In 1 Corinthians
chapter 12, where Paul is dealing with some of the disorders in
that greatly gifted church at Corinth. He speaks of the various
gifts that are given and dispersed throughout those who are in that
church. In verse 8 of that chapter, 1
Corinthians 12, verse 8, he says, "...to one is given by the Spirit
the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the
same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another
the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working
of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits,
to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation
of tongues. But all these worketh that one
and the selfsame Spirit divide into every man severally as he
will." And amongst these charismatic gifts we might call them, these
gifts of the Spirit, There in the apostolic age there was a
special gift of faith to another faith by the same Spirit. Now he's not speaking there of
saving faith. He's not speaking of saving faith
because not everyone has that particular gift of faith. He's
speaking of the various gifts that have been distributed to
every man. To every man to profit. And then he says, to one is given,
to another is given, and to another. So they don't all have the same,
but it's all these gifts are for the edifying, the building
up of the body. But there was such terrible abuse
of those gifts in the church at Corinth. It must have been
some sort of gift of faith associated with miracles. So there's historic
faith, there's the faith of the devils, there's natural faith, there's a faith of miracles,
and there's also a faith that is temperate, it's not permanent. And remember those solemn passages
that we have in the epistle to the Hebrews concerning a faith
that seems to be genuine, but then is revealed to be but temporary
and not saving. In Hebrews 6 at verse 4, he says,
It's impossible for those who were once enlightened and have
tasted of the heavenly gifts and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost, and have tasted of 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." Such solemn
words, and it's so difficult to know just what's being spoken
of, but they're there in Scripture, and they are such a solemn warning
to us, to examine ourselves, and prove ourselves, and know
ourselves, that Jesus Christ is in us, except we be reprobate. And these people have tasted
God's words and the powers of the world to come. They've been
enlightened and so on. Partakers of the Holy Ghost and
yet their faith is not true, genuine faith. But then there is a faith that
is real faith and what is it? Well, we might say it's the faith
that is being spoken of here certainly it's praying faith
it's also saving faith and justifying faith let him ask in faith it
says it's certainly that faith that we need if we're going to
pray And it's that faith whereby we
come to the experience of the blessings of salvation and justification. Being justified, it says, by
faith we are pleased with God. We come to experience the blessing
of what it is to stand before God those sinners, yet declared
to be righteous by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But here we're
thinking in particular of this aspect of this true and genuine
faith. It is praying faith. And what
does it entail? Well, there's a belief in the
being of God. There's a conviction here of
the reality of God's. Without faith it is impossible
to please Him. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. There is this conviction then
in the soul that God is, and that God is the one who has appointed
and ordained prayer, and God will hear and answer our prayers
when we come to Him, because it is His own ordinance. Men
ought always to pray and not to faint, says the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we have those various exhortations
in the epistles, pray without ceasing. Be careful for nothing,
but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgivings,
let your requests be made known unto God, and so forth. There
is then that belief, that conviction of the reality of God, who is
the one who has given to us this blessed ordinance of prayer,
praying faith. Then also with it there is that
submission, we have that faith will come in a spirit of real
submission acknowledging the sovereignty of God I would say
I've said it before that when believers really pray there's
nothing of Arminianism nothing of free will in those prayers
when we come and pray to God we and we ask God to work and
we ask God to work graciously in the souls of people We know
that the work is God's, that salvation is of the Lord. There's
that acknowledgement then of His absolute sovereignty. And
there's that submission to His will. The Lord Jesus tells us
how to pray. And we're to say, Thy kingdom
come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Or we bow
in submission. That's the instruction of Christ
but The Lord has also given us that pattern by His own prayers,
when we see Him there in all the agonies of the Garden of
Gethsemane, and what is His prayer? Not as I will, but as thou wilt. Or where there is praying faith,
there is belief in God, there is submission to God. And then
thirdly, there is also confidence. There is confidence in the promise
of God. And what is the promise? Well,
God says, Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall
find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Everyone that asketh
receiveth. He that seeketh findeth. To him
that knocketh it shall be opened. All the shalls and the wills
and the promises. The promises that God himself
has given to us and they're all yay and they're all amen in the
Lord Jesus Christ because they're all sealed by his precious light. There's confidence in what God
has promised here in his holy word. As we read here in verse
6, nothing wavering, nothing wavering for he that wavereth
is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and toss. What do we read concerning Abraham
and the faith of Abraham? Remember, he didn't waver. We're
told in Romans chapter 4 that he did not stagger at the promises
of God. There at verse 20, he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief. but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he
had promised he was able also to perform. His faith centered
in the promise. And the promise, of course, was
the Son, Isaac, but Isaac a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
promise really centers in Christ. and therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. His faith in the promise was
reckoned to him for righteousness. Calvin says here he looks hopefully
for the grace that God promised. He looks hopefully for the grace
that God promised. The Old Covenant would say do
this and live. That was the language of what
we call the Old Covenant, the Sinaitic Covenant, the Covenant
of Works. But the New Covenant, although
the New Covenant was first given, of course, in the Gospel to Abram
400 years before Sinai. And what does that Covenant say? Be not afraid, only believe.
And Abram believed God. He did not dispute, He did not
waver. And they which are of faith were
told the same are the children of Abraham. All who are the children
of Abraham then, they have confidence in the promise of God. And all
those who are saved, Old Testament and New Testament, are of that
seed. They are the children of Abram. And remember how later here we
read of one from the Old Testament, we read of Elijah. In the last
chapter there at verse 17 in chapter 5, Elias 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, and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth fruit. Oh, he was
subject to like passions. He was a man A man of passions
like yours and mine, doubtless there was unbelief there sometimes,
there were doubts. But not those doubts that we
sought to say something of initially. He was delivered from those.
And he came like that man in the gospel really, believing
he could make his confession, I believe. And he could say to
the Lord, help thou mine unbelief. But how he prayed, he prayed
earnestly that it might not rain. And then he goes on there, of
course, to speak of the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man. Or the effectual fervent prayer
of that righteous man, that justified sinner. And the word effectual
fervent has the idea of energetic, lively, powerful. And that's
surely the way we are to come to God in all our prayers. We
want to have lively prayers. Or we want to come with believing
hearts. Acknowledging that God is able,
nothing is impossible with Him. And He is the one who will give
us that heavenly wisdom if we do but ask it of Him. that we
might understand his ways, his dealings, that he might help
us to rightly interpret his word of truth and to apply that word
of truth to all the circumstances that he brings us into in his
sovereign providence, to be comparing those spiritual things with spiritual
things. Oh, if any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and abridgeth
not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering. May the Lord help us thus to
pray to him tonight. Amen.