Let us turn to God's Word in
the General Epistle of James and turn to the last chapter,
chapter 5 and I'll read the closing verses James chapter 5 and reading
from verse 13. 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, 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 one for another, that ye
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, and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren,
if any of you do bear from the truth, and want to convert him,
let him know. that he which converteth a sinner
from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall
hide a multitude of sins. But I want us to consider in
particular this morning the opening verse that I've just read here
in James 5.13. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any married? let him sing psalms. And so, taking up that simple
theme of prayer and praise. Prayer and praise. And first of all, of course,
we read here of prayer in affliction. Remember the Lord Jesus himself
said that men ought always to pray and not to faint. But people are then to be a praying
people at all times. But surely here we recognize
that we come to feel more our need of prayer when we find ourselves
in the midst of afflictions. And we're told in the context,
verse 11, Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience
of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is
very pitiful and of tender mercy. While the believer is one who
is a blessed individual, and therefore one who should be cheerful
and happy, yet at times he is also greatly tried and tested
by troubles. There's much that is so paradoxical
in the experience of the people of God and we certainly see that
in the life of a man like Job and the experience that he was
brought into under the mysterious dealings of God with him in Providence. We're introduced to him as a
man who was just, a man who feared God, a man who eschewed evil.
He was just in the sense that he was a justified sinner. He was one who was in the Lord
Jesus Christ and knew Christ as his Saviour. And yet how trying
were the circumstances that the Lord brought him into time and
again. Think of the language that we
find there in Job chapter 23. where in the midst of all his
afflictions, and they were sore afflictions, he cannot discover
God. He cries out in chapter 23 and
verse 8, Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backwards,
but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he does
work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right
hand, that I cannot see him, but he knoweth the way that I
take. When he hath tried me, I shall
come forth as God." How remarkable then was this man's experience.
He was truly a blessed man, although at times he felt that God was
so far from him and he couldn't begin to interpret anything of
the Lord's dealings, and yet we see there the reality of his
faith in God. And of course in the opening
chapter that we read, doesn't James speak of that man who is
blessed in all his trials? There in verse 2 and following,
In the first chapter, my brethren, count it all joy when ye fall
into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience, or endurance. But let patience, endurance,
have a perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. And then again at verse 12, Blessed
is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall
receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them
that fear him. And wasn't that Job's experience? How by his strange dealings with
him the Lord truly humbled that man. And he confesses it in the
closing chapter of the book I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the irises, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor
myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Or the child of God then,
is one who is oft times in afflictions, in trials, in tribulations, and
there's a sense in which we can say that the believer in Scripture
goes under the name of afflicted. I think of the language that
we have there in Isaiah's book, Isaiah 54 11, O thou afflicted,
as if he is addressing the child of God by that very name, O thou
afflicted, tossed with tempests, he says. O is any among you afflicted? Let him pry. There are, of course,
different afflictions that come upon the people of God. We've
made mention of Job, and there were those afflictions that were
external to him. You know, something of the trials
that are spoken of in the opening chapters, the loss of so much.
He was a man of great wealth, great substance, and yet He seems
to lose everything, but not only his possessions. Also he loses his own children,
and yet still he will not curse God. And then Satan is permitted
to come and to touch him even in his very person, and he's
afflicted then in his body, and he's covered from the sole of
his feet to the crown of his head with all those sores. And
he takes a potsherd and goes and sits amongst the ashes, scraping
himself, helpless, bewailing his sad, his awful position. He knew much about good affliction. And what do we read here in the
context of God? Verse 10. Take my brethren, the
prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example
of suffering affliction and of patience or endurance. Behold,
we count them happy which endure." Then he goes on to speak of Job.
You have heard of the patience, the endurance of Job. But he
doesn't just speak of Job, he speaks of the prophets. He speaks
of those of the Old Testament. And Paul, remember, when he writes
to the Hebrews, says much about the faith of those saints of
the Old Testament. There in Hebrews 11 we have a
great list, a catalogue of names and the experiences that these
Old Testament saints were called to pass through. And Paul acknowledges at the end
of that chapter that the time would forbid him really to speak
of all, all that could be spoken of. And so, he summarizes there
at the end of the chapter, verse 36, he says, Others had trial
of cruel mockings and scourging, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sworn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented,
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, and
in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. All this
is those, you see, that Isaiah is speaking of when he addresses
them as afflicted, although afflicted. And it wasn't just the case with
those saints of the Old Testament, Paul, together with James, together
with all these apostles. Didn't they, each and every one
of them, also know something of that same life where there
were many outward trials and difficulties? In fact, this word
that we have in the text, is any among you afflicted, is one
that Paul uses in reference to himself. There in 2 Peter 2 and
verse 9 he says, wherein I suffer trouble or affliction. Really
it's the same word, it's rendered trouble in that verse in 2 Timothy
2. But it's exactly the same word
as we have here in James 5.13. Wherein I suffer trouble or affliction
as an evildoer. even unto bonds but the word
of God is not bound and Paul knew it of course because at
the end of his days there he was in a sense bound in Rome
he was not free he was under some form of arrest maybe house
arrest but he did not have that liberty that he'd enjoyed previously
but God's word cannot be bound although you know the apostle
himself was in such a situation in the midst of his afflictions.
And he knew it repeatedly. It wasn't just the Roman authorities. He speaks also of the troubles
that he had with those who were what he calls false brethren,
those false teachers. And how they came and was so
evident in the church at Corinth and the hearts of so many of
those Corinthians were persuaded by these false teachers. And Paul writes of them and writes
of his own experiences in contrast to their experiences. There in
2 Corinthians 11.23 he says, are they ministers of Christ?
That's what they claim to be. Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool. I am more. In labours more abundant,
in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths
oft. Of the Jews five times received
I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods,
once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck. The night and the
day I have been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils
of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen,
in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils
in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false
brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger
and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, and so
it goes on. And he's writing all of this
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He's not doing this
to make an impression. He's answering the false teachers.
But he is explaining something of what must be the experience
of those who are the true people of God. They will know something
of afflictions, not those sort of afflictions. That man was
called to do a remarkable work, of course. He was to be the apostle
to the Gentiles. He was that one who was so instrumental
in the fullness of time. God had to accomplish that great
purpose of the gospel going to the ends of the world, and this
is the man who leads the man, as it were. But there are those
principles, as I've said many a time. He is a pattern, as he
says to Timothy, a pattern to them who shall hereafter believe. And so, afflictions, are going
to be, in some measure, the lot of all the people of God. Outward
afflictions, but maybe not outward afflictions, but on occasions
they might be inward afflictions. Paul, also in that Corinthian
epistle, that second letter to the Corinthians, he speaks of
things that were without and things that were within. Without
were fightings, within were fierce. How oft he was in the midst of
fearfulness. He was a man of like passions,
as we are, just as here James goes on to speak of Elijah as
a man subject to like passions. These were men. Now, our outward
situation might on occasion affect our inward condition, the state
of our minds. the condition of our souls. David
said in the 139th Psalm, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
And of course our physical condition affects our mental condition.
It all affects our spiritual state and condition. When Paul
is writing to the Corinthians again in the first epistle, remember
in the twelfth chapter he speaks of the body of the church, there
were troubles in that church and he's seeking to instruct
them and he uses as an illustration the human body and speaks of
the different parts of the human body the hand, the foot and so
forth, the head and one part affects another and so it is
with us our physical condition, our mental condition All of these
things have an effect upon our spiritual state before God. So what are we to do, whether
our troubles be external or internal, whatever our afflictions might
be, the exhortation is so simple, let him pray. Is any among you
afflicted? And those afflictions are sure
to come, there will be troubles. In the world there's going to
be tribulation, That's the word of Christ himself. What are we
to do? Let him pray. And it is an imperative. It's a word of exhortation. It's
a word of command. And then he goes on, of course,
to refer to the Prophet Elijah and the effect of prayer as it
was demonstrated in in the life of that man, that remarkable
man who really, we might say, is a representative of the whole
office of the Prophet. It wasn't Elijah who was there
on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Moses representing the Law, Elijah
representative of the Prophets. And we're told, I think it's
in Luke's account, that there as Christ was transfigured and
the disciples, those three disciples, saw through the veil of his humiliation,
they saw something of the glories of the deity of Christ. And those
two, Moses and Elijah, spoke of his death that he was going
to accomplish at Jerusalem. The great theme of of Moses in
the ceremonial laws, the great theme of the prophetic ministry
in the Old Testament, Christ and him crucified. And Elijah
then is the most significant person, representative of all
the prophets. He's a great man, like Moses
in the Old Testament. But what are we told here in
verse 17? Elias was a man subject to like
passions as we are. He was just like you and me,
and He prayed. 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 her fruit. Oh,
what is wrought then by the prayers of the people of God? And yet,
of times, of course, in the midst of our afflictions, we find it
so difficult to pray, but we have that promise. For that ministry
of the Holy Spirit, likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities,
and maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be
uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints, according to the will of God." Oh, here then
is the exhortation to pray in the midst of afflictions. And
what of this prayer? It must be the prayer of faith. And that's what we have mentioned
of in verse 15. We're to pray in faith. Without
faith it's impossible to please God. He that cometh to him must
believe that he is. and that He is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek Him. Sometimes maybe our faith is
weak, but we're to pray. We're to pray and the promise
is the prayer of faith shall save the sick. It's interesting,
it doesn't say the prayer of faith shall heal the sick. It
says the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And there's something more it
says, doesn't it? And the Lord shall raise him
up, and if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven
him." There's forgiveness, and there's salvation, and there's
a raising up. There's that renewing of grace,
as it were, in the inward man. Here then we see the light of
God's people. At times they are an afflicted
people. As I've said in Isaiah, they go under that very name.
but they're also a praying people. Is any among you afflicted? Let
him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. See, answered prayer will lead
to psalms, to praises. What are psalms? They are songs
of praise. He prays, God answers his prayer,
as we see in verse 15, And then he is merry, he is cheerful,
and he is to give expression to that. And he does it by the
singing of psalms, by praising God. Again, we have that clear
exhortation in Colossians, in Colossians 3, in verse 16, that
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching
and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace into our hearts to the Lord. Psalms,
hymns, spiritual psalms. And all of that is repeated in
what we find in Ephesians chapter 5. It's a similar exhortation
that we had previously in Colossians that I just referred to, but
we have very similar words there in Ephesians 5.18. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things
unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what we see in those verses,
17 to 19, here in Ephesians 5, is that this praise is very much
a Trinitarian form of praise. You're to be filled with the
Spirit. It's spiritual. It's a singing
of praises in the Spirit. And then there's that giving
of thanks unto God, and the Father, it says in verse 19. And it's
all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it's by the Spirit,
and it's through the Son, Christ the Mediator, and it's all addressed
to God the Father. God is the object. God is the
object of these praises, this singing of Psalms. And we have
it there, of course, in Colossians 3.16. It's with grace. In your heart it says to the
Lord. It's all addressed to the Lord. Remember what the angel says
to John at the end of the book of the Revelation. How the angel
time and again has come and revealed to him remarkable things. And
John would worship the angel. But no, says the angel there
in Revelation 22, 8 and 9, he says, worship God. Worship God. Or it's the same as the Lord
Jesus says to the tempter, to Satan, who are there in the wilderness,
like in Matthew chapter 4. What does the Lord say as Satan
would have Christ to deny his eternal sonship and to worship
him? Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, says Christ. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God and him only. shalt thou serve. All these praises
then are to the Lord. O is any merry, is any cheerful,
let him sing psalms, let him praise God, let him ascribe the
glory unto the one who has heard his prayer and delivered him
out of all his afflictions and all his troubles. And all this
praising, as it's Trinitarian in its very nature, as it centers
in God himself. So it is all governed, of course,
by the Holy Scriptures. And again, did we not see that
in those words in Colossians 3 that I referred to? There in
that 16th verse, let the word of Christ dwell in you, Richard.
Sing to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
It's the word of Christ that is dwelling in us. It's that
word of Christ that is to govern us. in all our praises unto God. And the Lord Jesus, as you know,
himself made that so abundantly clear in the words that he spoke
to that Samaritan woman, there at Sychar, in John chapter 4. All the Samaritans, they were
those who were descended, of course, from the ten tribes that
were in the main lost, they'd intermingled with the other peoples,
they were there, in the northern part of what had been Israel,
and they said God could be worshipped in that mountain, whereas the
Jews said that God was to be worshipped only in Jerusalem. It was just Judah and Benjamin
that had remained faithful after the sad division that came upon
the death of King Solomon, the division of the kingdom into
two parts. And there was much despising
by the Jews in the South, despising of the Samaritans in the North.
And the Lord must need to go through Samaria. He must come
to this woman. There's a purpose of grace to
be fulfilled in her life. She's going to be called to salvation. Salvation must
come to Samaritans as well as to Jews. The Lord speaks to her
concerning worship. The hour cometh and now is, He
says, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. All those
ancient divisions are gone. Worship is not now tied to any
place. It's not tied to Jerusalem. It's
not tied to any building. The true worshippers, they worship
God in spirit. We can only worship by the Spirit's
gracious help. We can only pray as He indicts
our prayers. It's all governed by the Spirit
and truth. The true worshippers worship
in spirit and in truth. And what is the truth? It's what
we have before us, of course, on the page of Holy Scripture. Well, if we would be those then
who worship God, is any Mary, let him sing psalms. But it's
not just because we enjoy singing, it's because we want to praise
God as God himself has commanded us. Now, observe here in these
verses 13 and 14, there is a connection, there are a series of questions.
Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any Mary? let him sing psalms, is any 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." There is a connection between the questions. The one question, as it were,
leads on to another question. If afflicted, you are to pray,
and then when you are helped, God answers the prayer, you're
encouraged, you're cheerful, you sing songs. But when affliction
is so great that you're sick and weak and without strength,
why do you call for the elders to come and pray? And annoyance
with oil, there's a connection between these things. But here
we see quite clearly that the mark of the believer's life ultimately
is to be joyful and cheerful. We should be those who are desiring
to praise God. I was struck by a statement I saw recently in a
sermon of Luther's where he says this, the natural voice of the
gospel is joyful confidence in God. That is the voice of the
gospel, that we should be those who have a cheerful confidence
in God. The Gospel doesn't encourage
us to be full of doubts and fears. It doesn't make us miserable. It should cause us to be merry. Is any merry? The word has the
idea of cheerfulness. Let him sing songs. And we should have confidence
in God. And if we have confidence in God, we will be cheerful. How are we to live our lives
in this world as believers? We walk by faith and not by sight. We're not those who are preoccupied
with our natural state, really. We shouldn't be. Or preoccupied
with the things around us. We walk by faith. We're told
concerning Moses back in Hebrews 11 He endures as seeing Him who
is invisible. In the midst of all that came
upon Him, what does Moses do? By faith he sees God, he sees
the invisible God. And here, what are we told in
verse 11? Behold, we count them happily
which endure. All we are to be those who would
endure. And if we're enduring, it is
by faith, it's by the sight of God. And as we see God, that
should fill us with hopefulness and cheerfulness. Remember the
experience of Paul and Silas, there in Acts 16, under the preaching,
there'd been so much opposition, and these men had been seized,
and they'd been taken and cast into prison, and the jailer had
put them in the inner prison. He'd bound their Feet in the
stocks. They were in a dreadful, dreadful
situation. But what are we told concerning
those two men? Acts 16, 25, at midnight. At midnight. All in the gross
darkness. Paul and Silas prayed, it says,
and Sam prays his unto God. And the prisoners heard them.
That was their testimony. Is any among you afflicted? Let
him pray. Is any married? Let him sing
psalms. We sometimes sing that hymn of
Joseph Hartz, 307, and he tells those lines, although our cup
seems filled with gore, there's something secret sweetens all. Although our cup seems to be
a bitter cup, Yet there's something secret. You see, to them that
fear God, every bitter thing is made sweet. What is this something
secret that sweetens the cup? Well, it's real faith. It's real
faith. It's that life of dependence
upon God. When the Lord, in his preaching,
pronounces those Beatitudes, as we call them, at the beginning
of of Matthew chapter 5 remember how he concludes he turns to
his disciples and he says blessed are ye when men shall revile
you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad for so
persecuted are the prophets which were before you or those afflicted
ones you say those persecuted ones What are these men to do?
They're to rejoice. Now, if the believer is to rejoice,
even when he's in the midst of troubles, it's not surprising
that joy is really to be the normal state of the child of
God. We should be joyful people. Rejoice in the Lord always, says
the apostle. And again I say, rejoice. Oh, are we those who do rejoice,
who are merry in our religion, who want to sing praises to God
because God does care for us and God does hear us and answer
us in our prayers. We have it, of course, time and
again in the book of Psalms. As I say, what is a psalm? It's a song of praise. enter
into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise,
be thankful unto him, and bless his name." Think of the language
there of that great 100th Psalm, and we sing it sometimes to the
tune of 100th, all people that on earth do dwell. Oh God, is
that one who is to be praised. But I say we see it time and
again, look again, of the language at the beginning of Psalm 95.
The psalmist says, O come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us
make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come
before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto
him with songs. For the Lord is a great God and
a great King above all gods. This is the God that we are to
sing our praises to. Oh, we are to praise Him because
He delivers us, and He delivers us from all our trials. He delivers
us from our afflictions. He is worthy then of our praises. He makes us to be a joyful and
a happy people. Again, the language of Psalm
50 and verse 13, Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will
deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Isn't that what our
text is saying? Call upon me in the day of trouble,
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Is any among
you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. God is the God of deliverances. Those are tremendous words, aren't
they, that we have in the opening chapter of 2nd Corinthians where
Paul again speaks of himself, speaks of his ministry. We have
the sentence of death in ourselves, he says. We have the sentence
of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God that raised up the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death, and doth deliver in whom we trust he will yet
deliver us. He is the God of deliverances.
Past, present, future. That's what Paul is saying. Now,
All true happiness, of course, centers really in God himself. That's something secret that
sweetens all. That's something secret. What
is it? Well, a psalmist tells us really
it's the covenant. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him. He will show them his covenant. I said just now that the secret
that sweetens the bitter cup is faith, real faith, the life
of faith. But it's not just the grace of
faith that the Spirit works in the souls of the saints of God.
It's not that faith that is the gift of God. Ultimately, it's
the great object of faith. It's the one with whom our faith
has to do, the one in whom our faith must center. It's God.
It's God. And it's God in the covenant,
the secret of the Lord. It's with them that fear him,
he shows them his covenant. And what do we read here at the
end of verse 11? Having spoken of Job, he says, You have heard
of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord. The
end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful. and of tender
mercy. He says to the children of Israel
when they go into captivity that there's an expected end. I know
the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. Oh, this is the God that
we're so favored to have dealings with, because He dines to come
and deal with us. And He calls us by all His dealings
with us to worship Him, to rejoice in Him. It was Augustine, wasn't
it, who said, Thou hast made us for thyself, and our souls
are restless till they rest in the Lord. God made man in His
own image, after His own likeness. God made man to have fellowship
with Himself. And of course, we see Adam and
Eve initially there in the garden, the Garden of Eden, the Paradise
of God, God coming and communing with them, and then the disobedience,
the fall into sin, all but all of that, you see, restored in
the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam, the Lord from Heaven. Isn't it Isaac Watts who says
in, I think it's his His paraphrase of Psalm 72, and it has that
line, concerning Christ and Adam, in Christ in him the sons of
Adam boast more blessings than their father lost. All what we
come to possess then in the Lord Jesus Christ, all that fullness,
all that blessing of salvation, He delivers us. He has delivered
His people. He has paid the dreadful penalty
that was due to their sins. He has redeemed them. or is any
among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. May the Lord be pleased to bless
these words to us. Amen. Let us now conclude our worship this
morning as we sing the hymn 967 And the tune is Brookfield's
310. God of my life to thee I call,
Afflicted at thy feet I fall, When the great water floods prevail,
Leave not my trembling heart to fail. That were a grief I
could not bear, didst thou not hear and answer prayer? But a
prayer hearing, answering God, supports me under every load. The hymn 967 and the tune is
310.