Alright, let's look at that passage
that Brother Joe just read. James chapter 5, on the prayer
of faith. And obviously I took that title
from verse 15, where it says the prayer of faith shall save
the sick. But really what I want to do,
my text really for this morning, I'm going to have to give you
some context here. But my text for this morning
begins in verse 13, where it asks this question, is any among
you afflicted? Someone said once, that's like
asking, is any among you breathing? Well, affliction is common to
all of us. It's common to all mankind, believer and unbeliever. are
afflicted at some time, to some degree, in some way, at some
stage. Death itself is an affliction. And that's the natural consequence
of sin. The Bible says in Romans chapter
8 that the body is dead because of sin. The afflictions that
you go through and that I go through of the body. And we do
go through them. Especially as we grow older.
Some of us younger than others. But we do go through these afflictions.
Because this flesh, when I say flesh there, I'm talking about
this human body, is subject to all the pains and all the consequences
of sin and death that we go through as the Lord brings us through.
I thank God for that scripture in Romans 8 that does say that
the body is dead because of sin. Because it goes on to say this,
it says, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And
that's Christ. There is spiritual life. There
is eternal life. The death of this body is not
the end. Now, this body itself will end,
and the afflictions of this body will end, but eternal life will
go on forever and ever because of Christ and His righteousness
alone. And that's because He died. That's because He suffered
affliction, and I'll talk about that in just a moment. But when
he says, is any among you afflicted? I want you to think about this
in the context of the book of James here. Now again, there
is affliction that's common to all of us. But here, he's talking
about something specific. Most people, when they go to
this passage, they relegate everything to physical ailments. When you
get sick, when you have heart disease, or when you have cancer,
or whatever. That's what they relegate this
to. And especially when you look at verse 14, it says, Is any
sick among you? That's literally, is any weak
among you? That's what really it is. Literal
translation. And so when they talk about the
anointing of oil and all that, we'll talk about that just a
bit. Now, let me say this. If there are any of us who are
physically ill in any way, we ought to pray for each other.
There's no doubt about it. Because God is the ultimate healer
of all sickness. He's the ultimate healer. Now,
He uses means. Doctors, medical science, medicine,
all of that. Don't be like the denomination
that says that it's unbelief to go to a doctor. That's crazy.
That's not even reasonable, let alone it's not scriptural. There
are others who say you can't take a blood transfusion. You
know why they say you can't take a blood transfusion? It's because
they don't understand the issue of sin. Sin is not in your physical
blood, my friend. And if you get a transfusion
or if you go to the blood bank again, they're not handing you
a bottle of sin or a vial of sin. That's not what sin is. Sin is transgression of the law.
Sin is a heart matter. Sin is in the mind, the affections,
the will. If that's what you think, you
need to go to the scripture and find out what sin really is.
Sin is transgression. That means you go too far. It's
rebellion. It's iniquity. That's inequity. That's injustice. It's an attitude. It's a way
of thinking. It's a desire that's ungodly
and unholy. That's what sin is. It could
drain every pint of blood out of you and you'd still have that
if you could breathe. You'd still have sin. So don't
think like that. But what I'm saying is this,
now look, we've got some people in our congregation that are
going through physical affliction right now, and I pray for you. And I may not know all of you
and all your specific afflictions, but I pray for anyone among our
number who's going through the trial of physical affliction,
and we should. But that's not really what James
is talking about here. What he's talking about is affliction
that comes upon all believers at some stage, at some time,
to some degree, because of trials and persecution over the gospel. That's what he's talking about.
He started out in chapter 5 talking about those who are rich and
powerful in the world, unbelievers, who afflict and persecute and
come against God's people, the church. Because they hate the
gospel. They hate the good news of that
which is so good and pleasant to our ears. They hate it. And the reason they hate it is
because of self-righteousness and self-love and religious pride. That's why I hated it before
God broke me. It's why you hated it. You may
not have thought you hated it. You may not have had such an
aggressive attitude against it as some, like Saul of Tarsus. But my friend Christ said, you
can't be a fence-sitter here. He said, you either love me or
you hate me. It's a love-hate relationship. It's either one
or the other. It's not both, and it's not well, it's loveless,
and all that junk. No, no, no, no. He that is not
for me is against me, He said. John chapter 3 and verses 19
and 20. We won't have to turn there, but it tells us why men
by nature, including ourselves, hate the truth, hate the light,
because our deeds are evil. And what that means is this,
that which we naturally highly esteem as gaining us God's favor
and approval and blessing, the gospel light of Christ reveals
that and exposes that to be evil deeds. Now, why is that evil?
Well, because it doesn't glorify God. It exalts man. Anything that does not glorify
God and exalts the sinner is evil. Did you know that? You
say, well, I go to church every time the doors open and that
ought to count for something. My friend, that's wicked in the
sight of God. Now, I know it's hard for us
to wrap our brains around that kind of thing, but that's true,
isn't it? If we think that anything recommends
us unto God, person and finished work of Christ
alone. In God's sight, that's wicked
because it denies His glory. Now think about this. It denies
His glory. It exalts and lifts up the sinner. That's pride,
you see. God hates a proud look. That's exactly what it is, isn't
it? The proud look that God hates is that sinner who comes to Him
not confessing his sin, but confessing what he's done or what he's been
enabled to do. I thank God I'm not like other
men. The Pharisees said, I fast twice a week. Well, good for
you. That's evil in the sight of God.
I give tithes of all that I possess. Well, shouldn't you try to do
good? Yes, but not for that reason. Not in a way that dishonors God
and lifts you up in pride. That's right. And then another
thing it does, It is a total denial of Christ. You see that? Whenever a sinner
comes before God seeking salvation or any part of it based upon
what he's done for the Lord, that is a denial of Christ who
said and claimed that he did it all. You make yourself a rival, not
a follower of Christ. You see that? That's evil in
the sight of God. And so that's why man naturally
hates the gospel, because it exposes everything that we think
highly of, and everything that we trust in, and everything that
we take refuge in as being a lie, as being wicked and evil. That's
why it takes the power of the Spirit of God to bring us to
submit to Christ. And His righteousness is the
only thing that makes me entitled to heaven. So James started out
here talking about those who persecute believers. And he says
that we who are condemned and killed in the name of religion
or whatever, politics, whatever, we're to endure. He spoke of
patience. Look at verse 10. He used the
example of the prophets. Take my brethren the prophets
who have spoken in the name of the Lord. They preach the gospel.
They were an example of suffering what? Affliction. Why? Because they spoke in the name
of the Lord. Now again, don't get me wrong,
anytime we, you know, when you're sick and I'm sick, when I was
sick, I coveted your all's prayers. And you are, you are commanded
to pray for me and I'm commanded to pray for you. I'm not saying
we're not to pray for the sick, that those are physically it,
we are. I'm just simply saying that's not what James is talking
about here. He's talking about those who are suffering affliction
under the persecution because of their stand in the gospel
of Christ and their identification with Him and His people. And
he says, they spoke in the name of the Lord for an example of
suffering, affliction, and of patience, endurance, endurance
by the power of God. And so he said in verse 11, Behold,
we count them happy which endure. Endure what? This affliction.
And he says, you've heard of the patience, the endurance of
Job. Job was afflicted. Now, originally, he was not afflicted
because of his testimony of the gospel, granted. But when his
three miserable friends come along, then he became afflicted
over his stand in the gospel. And he messed up a lot. But in
the end, he got it right because it was by the power of God. And
he says, you've seen the end there of the Lord. In other words,
you've seen the purpose of the Lord in that. You know, we say,
well, why did Job go through what he went through? Well, God
tells us at the end of the whole thing there. He's showing Job
that he's in control and that all things will work together
for good to them that love God and who have been called according
to his purpose. And so he says that the Lord is very pitiful.
That doesn't mean the Lord in him, you know, we look at somebody
and say he's pitiful or she's pitiful. We're talking about
their character or something, their nature or their situation.
What that means here is that the Lord has pity on his people. when it says the Lord is pitiful
and of tender mercy. I love that term, tender mercy.
Tender mercy, because that's what we need. We need mercy.
We need the compassion, but the tender compassion. For example,
every one of God's children goes through what the scripture calls
chastisement. And chastisement is not a legal
punishment for sin. It's a correction. It's like
a loving father correcting his children in love. And so when
I need correction, or you need correction, I pray, God, let
it be a tender correction. Sometimes it can be pretty rough,
can't it? Well, he says in verse 12, then he says, but above all
things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by
earth, neither by any other oath, but let your nay be a, and your
yay be a, and your nay, nay, lest you fall into condemnation.
Well, he's talking about us when you're going. He's not, he's
not saying we should never swear an oath at any time for any reason,
because we do. I told you, somebody asked me
about that. What about when you go to court and they ask you
to swear on the Bible to tell the truth? There's nothing wrong
with that. That's talking about telling the truth while you're
on the witness stand. What this is talking about is, what is
it that secures your salvation? And you don't need to swear an
oath to secure your salvation. You're going through affliction.
You're going through a trial. And our tendency, when we go
through afflictions and trials, is to look up to heaven and say,
I swear to God, if you get me out of this one, I'll never do
it again. That kind of thing. No. See, I don't need that because
Christ is my assurance. Christ is my hope, you see. God already swore an oath for
the salvation of every sinner who comes to Him seeking mercy
in Christ. And you don't need to swear another
one to secure that or to make it real or whatever, however
you want to look at it. Well, I swear, well, that seals
it. No, it's already sealed. And that seal was sealed at the
cross. And so what do we do when we go through this affliction?
How do we endure? We look unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Now, that's the context. And so now he says, is any among
you afflicted? Are you afflicted? Now, our affliction,
now think about this too, our affliction under trial is not
our salvation. Christ is our salvation. Let
me say this, it's not our suffering under affliction that saves us,
it's His suffering under affliction that saves us and keeps us safe. Let me read you a couple of scriptures
on that. This is from Psalm 22, that's the psalm of the cross.
It's a prophecy of Christ. In Psalm 22 and verse 24. And
here's what the Lord says about our Savior on the cross. It says,
For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the
afflicted. That's talking about Christ on
the cross. Neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he
cried unto him, he heard. And I thought about our Savior
on the cross saying, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. He
was heard by his Father. And then when he said, you know,
when he said it's finished, he was heard. How do you know? The
veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom, torn from top
to bottom. And many of those who had gone
on died. They were raised from the dead,
just like Lazarus. You remember when the Lord stood
outside Lazarus's tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth. Well, you
know, when he died, you read it in Matthew 26 and Matthew
27. It says that many came out of
the grave and they walked there. They came out like Lazarus did.
They died again, and then they'll be resurrected at the end, never
to die again. But you see, he was hurt. And
then Isaiah 53, that speaks of his affliction. That's the substitutionary
work of Christ. Verse 4 says this, Surely he
hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Now when man judges
affliction, here's how we normally by nature do that. Well, you
must have done something wrong or this wouldn't have happened
to you. God's really getting you, isn't he? Well, the problem with that is,
number one, we all suffer affliction. And the next problem with that
is we don't have the knowledge and the wisdom to make such judgments.
You know, you may be sick today. I don't know why you're sick.
I don't even know if there's a reason at all. I mean, from
my point of view, I know this, I can tell you this, if you go
out and try to rob a bank last night and you got caught and
Brother Terry puts you in jail, I can tell you why you're in
jail. Because you're a thief and you got caught. You broke
the law. So I mean, I've got that kind of wisdom. We all have
that conscience, that knowledge of right and wrong. We know the
laws of the land. But let's be careful there now. Looking at
somebody and saying, well, they're sick because they Now yes, I
know people suffer consequences of their own bad decisions, bad
habits, and bad acts. I know that. But let's be careful. We all suffer affliction. But
that's the way they looked at the Savior. He was afflicted,
smitten of God. And you know what? He was. But we didn't know why. That's
why when they hung him on the cross, they called him a malefactor. You ever heard that term before?
Malefactor. You know what that means? That
means a criminal. That means he deserved what he got. Now,
we, by nature, think he deserved what he got because of sin, because
of his own sin. That's not true. But you know
something? He did deserve what he got because of my sins charged
to him. And so Isaiah 53-7 makes this
statement. It says, he was oppressed and
he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He didn't answer
for himself because he became guilty for my sins. And he's
brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shears
is done, so he opened not his mouth. That's his affliction. And his affliction unto death
for my salvation. That's my salvation. Whatever
I experience on this earth, whether it's affliction or whether it's
merriment. Now, he mentions merriment here
in the book of James. It's in Him married. Whatever
I suffer, that is not my salvation. Christ is my salvation. His affliction,
His death, His burial, His resurrection, His victory, that's my salvation. Now, our affliction that he's
talking about here gives proof of our salvation. You see the
difference? Our affliction doesn't earn us
points in heaven. Doesn't earn us rewards in heaven.
Our affliction is not our salvation. It's the proof. The evidence
of our salvation. And I want to show you that.
I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 5. Look at Matthew chapter
5. This is a sermon on the Mount.
And Brother Richard Wormack, taught on this in our Bible school.
Here in Matthew chapter 5 and look at verse 10. Now he says, blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Now that persecution for
righteousness sake means for the gospel. wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. It's being persecuted in the
name of the Lord, for His namesake." Look on. He said, "...for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you 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 great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you." You see, this kind of persecution and
affliction identifies us with Christ and identifies us with
His people. Turn to Romans chapter 8. I'll
show you another verse on that. You mark these verses. Look at
Romans chapter 8. And look at verse 15. Listen
to this one. He says, For you've not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. That's legal. That's legalism.
Self-righteousness. But you've received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That's a special relationship
with God as Father. Papa. Papa. That kind. Not disrespecting
them. But he says in verse 16, "...the
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and joined heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified in Him." Suffering
with Christ. Now what that means is that we
suffer because of our identification with Him. Our testimony of Him. And then, let me show you another
one. Let me give you just one more here in Hebrews chapter
12. Turn over there. This is Hebrews chapter 12. There's
several in Hebrews 11, but I don't want to belabor the point. But look here. Here he's talking
about believers, Hebrew believers, who are going through persecution
and affliction. And he says in verse 4 of Hebrews
chapter 12, you've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.
You haven't yet been killed for the faith. Abel was killed for
the faith. Do you remember him? His own
brother killed him. That's affliction, isn't it?
There have been others. Stephen, he was killed for the
faith. These believers here are being
persecuted, they're suffering affliction, they're going through
some hard trials, and I'll tell you something, they're getting
ready, in the history of this thing, they're getting ready
to go through some harder stuff. You think you've had it hard?
I think I've had it hard. Not compared to these fellas.
But he does say here, you've not yet resisted unto blood,
you haven't been murdered yet. But then he goes on to say in
verse 5, And have you forgotten the exhortation which speaketh
unto you as unto children? My son, despise thou not the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him
for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. So if you endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom
the Father chasteneth not? See, he tells us that we're to
look at such afflictions over the gospel as being chastisements
from God. Now, that would fit right in
with James, because you know, when he started off this book
in James chapter 1, he talked about the trial of our faith
as being sent from God. So here's what we're saying.
Now, somebody afflicts you. God's still in control. He's
still Abba Father. He'll bring you through. And
even in physical sickness, He may heal you. He may heal you
and give you more years here on this earth. He may heal you
ultimately too, and you'll never be sick again. You know what
kind of healing that is? That's when you're... David said,
I'll be satisfied when I wake with thy likeness. That's ultimate
healing. So don't ever think that if you
pray for a brother or sister in Christ who's sick unto death
and they died, that your prayers failed. It's just maybe the Lord
answered them in a way that you just didn't expect. and took
that person on home, and they'll never be sick again. Isn't that
right? Well, go back to James 5 now.
Now, here's what he says. This is the issue. One of these
things. He said, now, if you're afflicted,
what are you going to do? If there's any among you afflicted,
let him pray. Now, that prayer there means
exactly what it says, but don't just relegate it to hitting your
knees. It's a whole life attitude of
prayer. It's worship. And what he's saying
here is that when you go through these afflictions, you realize
that you are totally dependent upon God, your Heavenly Father,
through Christ. You have a great high priest.
We read in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14. He's passed through
into the heavens. Now, how did he pass through into the heavens?
Through his affliction. He suffered, bled, and died on
the cross to do what? To satisfy the justice of God
for the sins of His sheep. To bring in everlasting righteousness
that would enable God to be just and justify a sinner like me.
And the same righteousness which saves me and secures me for eternal
glory. That's good that comes out of
affliction. He said in John chapter 12, I
believe it was, when he talked about a corn of wheat, a seed
of wheat falling into the ground and dying, but it bears much
fruit, the fruit of his people, the fruit of his church. He was
afflicted. Now, when we're afflicted, it's going to bear much fruit
in some way or other. We may not know exactly what
it's going to do, but in Hebrews chapter 12, it's called the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. And what does that mean? That
means that when I come out on the other side, I've learned
to trust Him even more. We sang a song during our Bible
school, one of our courses, Learning to Lean, Learning to Lean on
Jesus. You know, that's a lifelong learning
process. It's not just a one-time thing
when you're born again. But every day of your life, child
of God, you're learning to lean on Christ. And you'll forget
about it sometime. You'll forget about it, but he'll
always bring you back and he'll teach you. He'll teach you again
and again and again and again. He's the master teacher. You
see, the problem with that, the problem in this educational process
is not the inability of the teacher. It's the weakness of the students. Us. We have this treasure in
earthen vessels. And so he says, if any of you
are afflicted, you pray. You go to the Lord. You express
your faith in Christ. And you trust Him to bring you
through. And then he says, if any marry, let him sing psalms.
That's worship. You say, well, I'm going through
a hard, hard trial. Well, pray. Now I'm going through
a time of plenty, time of abundance, a time of great health. I've
got, as Brother Henry said, I've got the world by the tail on
the downhill slide. Stock market doing me some good.
Although I don't know of anybody that can say that today. But
if you're married, and I'm going to tell you something, you all
know, you older folks especially, you know it's a short-lived marriage
now, isn't it? It is. Well, what do you do?
Worship God. Sing songs. That doesn't mean
go out down the street singing hymns. That means you worship
God. Do you know that you and I have absolutely no excuse at
any time, for any reason, under any situation, to forsake the
worship of the Lord? And even to forsake the public
worship unless we just cannot physically make it. There are
people who cannot physically make it. They are the ones providentially
hindered. You know, I've heard people talk
about, well, he was providentially hindered. You know, that's just
another way of blaming God. I can't worship because God won't
let me. Well, now, there are some people
who are genuinely providentially hindered. They cannot physically
make it. But us who can, we have no excuse. Period. Isn't he merry? Let him
sing songs. And I think about this. I want
you to mark this down and read it every now and then. Proverbs
chapter 30. It's Proverbs chapter 30, beginning at verse 7. Listen
to this, this is the wise man speaking by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit who is all wise. Now listen to this in Proverbs
chapter 30 and verse 7. He says, two things have I required
of thee. Now this is a prayer. And he
says, two things I want from God. Deny me them not before
I die. Now listen to what he says, here's
what he prays for. First of all, remove far from me vanity and
lies, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food
convenient for me, with that which is necessary, just what
I need, lest I be full and deny thee. If I've got too much, I
might deny the Lord. And say, who is the Lord? Is
it any Mary? Worship God. And then he goes
on and says, or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of
my God in vain. It's almost like he's saying
this, don't let me be rich because I would probably deny God. I'd
probably go off on a tangent. You talk about having the world
by the tail on the downhill slide. How many people have you seen
that happen to? Read the story of a lot of these
lottery winners. They had the world by the tail on the downhill
slide and they hadn't come up from bottom yet. Don't let me be rich, lest I
deny thee. Don't let me be poor, lest I
steal and dishonor your name. Read that every now and then
as you go through your daily lives. That's what he's talking
about. Look back at James chapter 5. Now look at verse 14. He says,
Is any sick among you? Now, that word sick, usually
we Think about physical ailments, that's included, but it's literally
weak. Is any weak among you? And James
is mainly talking about those going through this affliction
over the gospel. We grow weak, we grow weary.
And he says, 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. Now this thing about calling for the elders, that's the leaders
of the church, the pastor, the elders, whoever. And what are
we wanting to get here? We want them to be encouraged
in the Word of God. That's what he's wanting here.
To encourage that person in the Word of God. Whether it's a physical
ailment, or whether it's the affliction of persecution. We
want to be encouraged in the Word of God. We want to be led
to Christ. We don't want Job's miserable
comforters coming along saying, now let's figure out in your
life what you did to deserve this. What did I ever do not to deserve
it? Oh, we could talk about what
we deserve until we're blue in the face. What do we deserve?
What have we earned? Even at our best, we're unprofitable
servants. Well, you know, there's some
sin in your life and we've got to cut it out. You know? No, we want to be led to Christ.
We want to be encouraged in Christ. We don't want to promote sin
or evil or any bad habit. We don't want to do that. But
we want to be led to Christ for assurance, for peace, for comfort.
Tell me more about His blood that washes me clean. And somebody
said, well, that might lead them to sin more. Well, if it does,
what does that tell you about them? that they're false professors. You don't have to worry about
that where grace has done his work. And then he says, let them pray
over him. I had somebody get mad at me
one time because I visited him at the hospital. And what happened
was a nurse come in to do a procedure and I didn't stop everything
and pray. I just said, well, I need to go. And they got mad
because I didn't pray. Well, if you want me to pray for you,
ask me. That's what that says. And I'll pray for you. I prayed
for them anyway, even though they were mad at me. I prayed
they wouldn't be mad at me anymore. I'll pray for all of that. Pray
for me. I'm asking you to pray for me. Don't get mad at stuff
like that. Sensitive people, you know, I
mean, you know, you just can't do that. You can't walk around
like that all the time. Be like that, you know. I'll
pray for anybody who needs, and I'll pray for you anyway, and
you pray for me anyway. So we pray over him. We pray
that the Lord will help this person going through affliction
endure. We pray that the Lord will help
this person who's sick unto death, that he'll be healed, or she'll
be healed. Isn't that right? And we pray in the name of Christ.
And we don't look to the power of our praying. And we're not
trying to change God's mind when we pray. Because you know what
the mainstay of prayer is? The foundation is Christ and
Him crucified and risen again. We have an Advocate with the
Father. And the motivation is grace and gratitude and love.
And the goal is the glory of God and that His will be done,
not ours. I mean, there are people who
are in this congregation when I first came here, that are not
here today. And I miss them. I miss them. And you do too, especially you
family members. You miss them. But you know, it was God's will
to take them. It wasn't my will. It wasn't my will for Him to
take, because I would love to see Him sitting right out here
enjoying. But you know what? In reality, now you think about
this. In reality, And we should know the reality, given God's
Word. We really wouldn't want to have them back for anything.
Come back to this? When they're viewing the full
glory of the face of Christ without any tears or pain or sorrow? Why would we want to bring them
back to this? Self-love. So we pray, and then this anointing
with oil in the name of the Lord. Now, there's a lot of controversy
over this, and you know that. But let me tell you something,
what it literally says. This is not just sprinkling a
little oil over their head. It doesn't say what kind of oil
here. Most people think of olive oil. But it doesn't say, and he doesn't
really explain it. But if you take this literally,
it wouldn't be just sprinkle a little oil, or I've seen some
of them dip their finger in oil and put a dot right here. This
is literally a rub down with oil. That's what it is, literally,
in the original language. I mean, it's like an oil massage. And some people say, well, this
is the way they did it back then for medicinal purposes. That's
possible. It could be that that's talking
about some kind of a medicine application to that day, and
what we would see today is, how we would interpret that today
would be taking the medicines and the treatments that doctors
have for us according to the providence of God. But I really
believe, I really believe of what he's talking about in the
context here of prayer and all of this, is that this is a symbolic
matter concerning the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
And that's the anointing of oil that he's speaking of. Now, you
can take it either way you want to, but I suggest don't go out
and start a church over it. Either way you go, okay? Because
it's just not explained here. But I know this, when we pray
for one another in the power of the Spirit, it is an effectual
prayer, however it comes out. Because it's in the name of the
Lord. So either way you take it, do it in the name of the
Lord. Do it for His glory. Thy will be done. And so then
he goes in verse 15, he says, And the prayer of faith shall
save the sick. Save the weary, literally. And
that save there doesn't mean that your prayers are going to
save their souls from hell. That's not what saves our souls
from hell. It's the blood of Christ that
saves our souls from hell. It's his righteousness alone
that justifies us before God. But that saved there means deliverance
from the affliction. And what he's saying here is
that God uses the prayer of faith. That's the prayer that's in Christ,
according to the will of the Father, to deliver his people
from whatever affliction they're going through. And it says, "...and
the Lord shall raise him up." Now, he may raise him up from
the sickbed, or he may raise him up in the glory. Either way,
the prayer of faith shall save the sick. Isn't that right? Either
way. And it says, and if he hath committed
sins, they shall be forgiven him. Now somebody says, well,
what do you mean if he's committed? We all sin. Well, I believe this
is talking about believers who fall under trial, going through
these trials, knowing that we're all sinners and in continual
need of forgiveness by the blood of Christ. But it's true that
believers can be guilty of sins of which God takes particular
notice and given specific consequences to deal with. I believe that. But that's God's business, not
mine now. I'll give you an example. Over in the church at Corinth,
you can read about this in 1 and 2 Corinthians, there was a man
there who professed to be a believer who was committing incest with
his stepmother publicly, bringing scandal on the church. And God
told Paul, you tell them, don't let that go on. You discipline
that man. You take care of him. You oust
him from the local fellowship. Not to damn him to hell, but
to recover him, to bring him to repentance, to bring that
person to recovery. That's the goal. Don't condemn
him to hell, but you tell him what you're doing is wrong and
we're not going to tolerate it. And he even told Paul, he said,
turn him over to Satan to be buffeted. Now, what that means
is to go through suffering, to bring him to his senses. And
that's possible. But that's God's business. You
see what I'm saying? Again, we're not to be Job's
miserable comforters. So if he had committed sins,
if there is some specific sin in this person's life that brought
on this or that affliction, and it's useless for me and you now
to form a committee and try to get in there and find out what
it is, but he's saying if that person is one of God's children
and God delivers him from that affliction, his sins shall be
forgiven him. Now, on what ground? the blood
of Christ. And so he says in verse 16, confess
your faults one to another. Now, that doesn't mean that we're
supposed to get together and tell everything that we've done
or going to do or have done or will do or try to do or what
I dreamed last night. Confess it like to a priest or
something like that. You've heard that, I remember
Brother Richard brought that up where a preacher told him
one time, if you don't confess every sin of that day before
you go to bed, it's unforgiving. Well, if that's the truth, we're
all unforgiving. You commit sins you don't even
know. I do too. Sins of omission. The very fact
that we don't love God perfectly and our neighbor is ourself,
which includes our worst enemy, means that we're sinners. So
what do you do when you confess your faults one to another? Brother Joe prayed a while ago,
and he made this statement. He said, we confess that we're
sinners. We have nothing good in us. We have nothing to recommend
us unto God. We have Christ alone. That's
what he means. That's confessing your fault.
You've confessed all your sins. When you confess that you have
nothing good in you and nothing to recommend you unto God, your
only hope of salvation is the blood and righteousness of Christ.
That's right. And so he says, confess your
faults one to another, pray one for another that you may be healed.
He says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much. What's a righteous man? A sinner
saved by grace. It avails much. We may not know
how much. We may not know the nature of
the much that it avails, but it avails much. And then he uses
the example of Elijah, verse 17, "...Elias was a man subject
to like passions as we are. The prophet Elijah, he was a
sinner just like us, saved by the grace of God. 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. God answered his
prayer." It was God's will. Elijah didn't change God's mind
here now. This was God's will, but he willed
that Elijah should pray for it. That's God's means. In verse
18, he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth
brought forth their fruit. God answers prayer. And then
he says in verse 19, Brethren, if any of you do err from the
truth, and one, convert him. That err from the truth has to
do with going under that affliction and getting away from the truth
of God's grace in Christ. And one, convert him. That's
not talking about conversion in salvation. That's talking
about changing him. If God uses me, To correct myself
or to correct you in the preaching of the gospel, he says in verse
20, let him know that he which converted the sinner from the
error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude
of sins. Whenever we go through trials
and afflictions, we have a tendency to go wrong, don't we? Think
wrong, get off on the error, get down on ourselves, even unbelief. And sometimes God will bring
us a preacher or a brother or a sister in Christ who will speak
a word in season, read a scripture, talk to us in encouragement,
and change our hearts and our minds. Use that person. It's
the power of God. But He uses that person to speak
a word of encouragement, and we're delivered from death. It
might be physical death. If it's a person who's a professor,
a false professor, might be eternal dead. God may use that to drive
that person to Christ for all salvation. Either way, a multitude
of sins are hidden, not from our view, not from our confession,
but they're hidden under the blood of Christ because He saves
His people from their sins.