I was just thinking as I sat
there and listening to that generator and it's producing power and
we're enjoying it here. But then every now and then it reminds us that it really doesn't
have much power at all because some little surge or something
gets it and it almost shuts off. In fact, a while ago it did.
And you know, that's like the mercy of God in bringing us to
the place where he causes us to shut off. A lot of times we
think we can handle it. And we're doing all right. And
then the Lord, he causes our motor to stop. And he reminds
us that it's not our power, but his. uh... he alone keeps us
uh... going and he alone causes us
to be faithful if we are you know we desire I mean I believe
God's people desire to be faithful the sad thing about religion
is that it encourages men to believe that they can be you
know that's that's what false religion does it teaches men
that they can be faithful you can do it you can't do it you'll
never be faithful for one moment in your life apart from the mercy
of god to give you that faith uh... he does do that god's people
are faithful you know the lord makes them faithful he works
in them both willing to do of his good pleasure but sometimes
he makes the motor stop So we were reminded, hey, we didn't
have any faith at all. It was that which he did in us.
Oh, that the Lord might keep us mindful of that. That we might
not be lifted up with pride or be satisfied with any religious
profession that we have. Now, I grew up in a tradition
that taught men to have confidence in the confession that they made.
What you need to do is write down when you made your confession,
and then if you ever get to doubting it, go back and read it. Well,
that's a poor thing to rely on. I remember hearing a testimony
of an old lady who had been taught that. And so she'd written that
thing down, and she put it in the cabinet. And every time she'd
get a little down, she'd go and look in the cabinet and read
that. And she'd be enlivened to some
extent. And then one day she went in
there to get it, and a mouse had got in the cabinet. And he
had eaten that piece of paper. And that's really, you know,
that's the way our confession is. It's pitiful. You know, our
confession is nothing. You know, it's a true thing that
God calls his people out of light and there is a moment when the
light dawns upon the soul and there is that time when a man
calls upon the name of the Lord. But that's a mere beginning.
It's not the thing that is the substance. of the faith of God's
people. It's just a moment in time when
the Lord opened your eyes to see and gave you a heart and
mind to call upon Him. That's all that it is. And if
that's the only testimony that you have, then you are lacking
in a true testimony to Christ. I remember as a child growing
up and people would sometimes they'd have a testimony meeting
and nine times out of ten somebody would stand up and talk about
way back there. when he first started to walk with the Lord. That's a good thing to remember
that. I'm not against that, but brethren,
if that's the only, if that's the substance of our testimony
of what happened to us 50 years ago, the Lord is a very present
help in times of trouble. He's our salvation. He's that
one in whom we call daily, and he's that one that answers us
daily. Now, I know that all of us have been through the hurricane,
and I'm not one to get too worked up over such things as that.
But as I lay there the other night, and I could hear the wind
roaring, and I thought to myself, you know how easy it would be
for the Lord to just obliterate the house I'm in and sweep me
away. You know, and, you know, anybody
that doesn't tremble before God to think, you know, of the power
of God in such times as that, how can he possibly have any
consideration of the power of God unto salvation in Christ? Those are elementary things.
I bet there's not, I mean it's amazing the number of, in fact
this one old gentleman came in the store the other day, and
he was talking about how he gave thanks to the Lord for sparing
him and all his family, and then two minutes later he was trying
to tell me some filthy joke. And I said to him, you know,
you talk about being thankful to the Lord, but what do you
think the Lord might think of what you're saying here? You know, it rolled off his back
like water off a duck's back. In the next few minutes, he was
asking me, did I believe in reincarnation? Well, you know, it's just, I
mean, religion abounds in the world. Men think that they're
giving God thanks, when in reality, you know, they're just talking.
Because you have no regard unto who the true and living God is. I'm not amazed that people believe
in God. I'm amazed that anybody could
possibly not believe in God. You know, when the scripture
says as much, God says, you look around you out here and the heavens
declare the handiwork of God, you can't deny that. I mean,
you look out here and you can say, well, it all just happened,
but you can't really believe that. You know, even, who was
it, somebody I was listening to the other day, they were talking
about, talking, oh, it was a message that Dale Hammons had sent to
me by R.C. Sproul. And R.C. Sproul, of course,
he was a, quite an accomplished theologian and Bible teacher. And he had, Of course, made acquaintances
with a lot of high academic type people, and he was personally
acquainted with Carl Sagan. And, of course, Carl Sagan, I
don't know if you know who he is or not, but he goes around
lecturing, or did, he probably did now, but anyway, about how
creation, you know, there was no such thing as creation. It
all just happened. And so Sproul said, well, he
asked him, he said, well, Carl, he said, what precipitated that
big bang? And he said, I don't want to
go there. Because he knew he couldn't answer
that question. You know, men can answer all kinds of questions,
but they cannot answer the question, it's not that he could not answer
it. He didn't want to think about it. Because if a man thinks about
it, he's got to say, oh, you know, God is the creator of all
things. There's no other way you can
go with that. It's just a fact. But that's
the commercial for today. That doesn't really have anything
to do with what we're talking about. But, you know, the Lord,
He's merciful. And he teaches us things through
people that may themselves not know the truth. He teaches us
things through people that may be the enemies of God. Because
he's sovereign. And he'll call his people to
himself however he sees fit to do. We're looking in James and
we looked at this last week. We're gonna go hopefully maybe
get through with this today. If I can get in the right place
here. James chapter five. Now he'd been talking to them
about being patient with our brethren with one another. He
said, Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman, or the
farmer, the vinekeeper, waiteth for the precious fruit of the
earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the
early and latter rain. Be also patient. Establish your
hearts for the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh. Grudge not
one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold,
the judge standeth before the door. Take my brethren the prophets,
who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example. of
suffering, affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them
happy which endure. Ye 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. But above all things, my brethren,
swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither
by any other oath, but lest your yea be nay and your nay nay,
lest ye fall into condemnation. Is any among you afflicted? Let
him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing songs. 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 err from the truth and one convert
him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the
error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a
multitude of sins. Now there's some very interesting
verses in this chapter here which, if they're taken out of context,
can lead a man down a path of error. And so that's why it's
always very necessary when we study the scriptures that we
look at what the scripture is about. and that we don't take
just one chapter or one verse out of the whole of the book
and set it off to the side and make a doctrinal stand upon it,
when we must take the whole book, must look at the whole thing,
compare scripture with scripture, and thereby, by the grace of
God, we can arrive at the truth. But the scripture is of no private
interpretation. That is, you can't take one passage
of Scripture out and say, see here, this says this. But when
you see Scriptures that are particular and they are supported in the
context of the whole of the Scripture, then indeed, we can say this
is the absolute truth. So, of course, he begins here
with really some good advice and exhortation to the people
of God to be patient with one another. Now my mother used to
have a saying, I've told you this many times but it sticks
in my mind. Patience is a virtue. Possess
it if you can. It is seldom in a woman, and
it's never in a man. Now, you can actually turn that
around and put it the other way, because it probably is appropriate
both ways. But nonetheless, patience is
not an easy thing. Some people have more patience
than others. God gives some men more, they're
just more patient. Some men are a little bit more
on edge and they're, you know, wanting to do something more
rapidly or whatever. But patience is a virtue. It is the work of the Spirit
of God in a man to cause him to be patient. You know, so he
says, be patient unto the coming of the Lord. Now, you know, there are times when
we cry out, oh Lord, how long? And that's appropriate, because
we desire for an end of all of these things. This is a dark
and evil world in which we live. Now, having said that, this is
the dark and evil world into which the Lord has put us, and
he put us here for a season, put us here for a purpose, and
so we can't escape it. And we shouldn't be into escapism. Remember, this very Elijah here,
he wanted to escape, didn't he? He said, Lord, just take me on
out. There's nobody left, I'm the
only one. You ever felt like that? Yeah,
we do feel like that, and that's called feeling sorry for yourself.
And that's not being patient. You know, and we might call our,
we might pat ourselves on the back and say, well, we're being
patient, but we're really not. Because we're called upon to
wait upon the Lord. He said that he was coming. You
know, I think it's Peter that says, you know, some men say,
well, where's the promise of his coming? I've been hearing
this all my life and it hasn't happened yet. You know, how foolish. the lord will come when he comes
and when he comes it'll be sudden and and it will be uh... without
remedy there won't be anything anybody's going to do about it,
just like there was nothing anybody could do when he made the earth
and created all things, the same will be true when he comes again.
We are to be patient, therefore brethren unto the coming of the
Lord, and he uses that as an illustration even as a farmer
is patient in his crop. Now that doesn't mean that he's
just glad that Things are like they are. He's
actually anxious that they are, but there's nothing he can do
about it. So he must patiently wait on the early rain, that
is the rain that comes when the thing's planted. You know, have
you ever planted something and hoped it would rain? And you're
sitting there wondering if it's gonna rain. But the Lord sends
the rain according to his purpose. Because it's important that that
happen both ways. But there's nothing that a man
can do about it and he must patiently wait. And so he says, be patient
also and establish your heart for the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh. And knowing that, That is the
place we are to be patient, waiting on the Lord. Be patient with
one another in the same fashion. Grudge not one against another. Don't be impatient with one another.
Don't think somebody ought to do something. I think that that's
where some of our greatest problems come in is when we think somebody
else ought to have done something. And that caused us great grief,
but we're to be patient, even though it may not seem to us
to be ever going to happen. Grudge not one against another,
lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before
the door. Take my brethren, the prophets,
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering,
affliction, and of patience. Think about Jeremiah, what he
went through. I mean, really all of the prophets of God have
at one time or other been pursued and abused and not considered
for what they are. And so, you have heard, he goes
on to say, you have heard of the patience of Job. Was Job
patient? Well, he was as the Lord worked
in him. You know, because why? He knew there was nothing else
he could do about it. he said shall we receive good and not
evil from the hand of the Lord? I often would like, I've never had the
opportunity to get one of these health and wealth preachers to
answer me the question what was Job talking about there when
he said that shall we receive good and not evil? What he was
saying was that both come from the Lord. And it comes from the
Lord according to the good pleasure of His will. And are we going
to complain about that? I mean, what are we going to
say about that? Some men would say, well, that's
not right. Why does God do this or why does God do that? But
you see, patience is that that waits upon the Lord, whether
we can figure it out or not. I don't have to figure it out.
See, we don't have to know all of these things. Ye have heard
of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord. That
is the purpose of God, what God was doing. He was working patience
in Job. How do you learn patience? The
scripture says through tribulation. Now we think, well, you know,
if we didn't have any tribulation, we could be patient. wouldn't
that be nice? I mean, Lord, look, if you just
take all these problems away, I'll just be patient and kind,
and I'll just be happy. But that's just not the way it
is. The Lord works patience in His people by giving them tribulations
and troubles, because what that does is drives them to the Lord. And that's the place He would
have them to be. The Lord is very pitiful. That is, He is
pitying And of tender mercies, he's full of pity to those that
are weak, that are heavy laden, that are needful. The Lord turns
none away that come seeking him with a broken and a contrite
heart. He's very pitiful and tender towards them. He loves
them and will never turn any away. But above all things, my
brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by earth,
neither by any other oath, but let your yea be nay and your
nay nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. Now some have taken this what
I would consider a little bit too ultra-literal in the sense
that if they were brought before a magistrate, they would not
swear that they would tell the truth. James is not talking about
that. He's not talking about such a
situation as that. What he's talking about is when
you are in the marketplace, when you are in the world here, let
your yea be yea and your nay nay. You don't need to be swearing.
When I tell Ed I'm going to do that, I don't need to say, well,
Ed, I swear I'll do it. Because if I tell Ed I'm going
to do it, I need to do it. If I say I'm not going to do
it, I'm not going to do it. You know, we don't need to be
swearing. So this doesn't have anything to do with taking an
oath in a public situation. I know some people get real concerned
about that. And I have no, I'm not against
anybody who does have a great restriction in their mind about
it. If you do, so be it, you know, have it unto the Lord.
But I don't think that's what James is getting at here. He's not saying when you go into
a court of law, don't swear. You know, that's not what he's
saying. But what he's saying is let your yea be yea, and it
should be whether you're under oath or not. In other words,
what he's saying is you don't have to be under oath to tell
the truth. Now, a lot of these politicians,
you know, they want to find out, number one, if they are under
oath, because it'll be different what they tell you if they're
under oath. If they're not under oath, well, they can just tell
you anything they want to. You know, but you put one of them
under oath. That's what they ought to do when they have these
debates, is when they put them on the stage, say, all right,
we're gonna put you under oath. And have some legal, you know,
penalty associated with it. Make them tell the truth. Now
it's sad, is it not, that that would have to be done, but that's
what has to happen a lot of times. I mean, a man who won't tell
the truth, He might tell the truth if he's sworn in. Likelihood
is if he won't tell the truth, it ain't gonna matter whether
he's sworn in or not. He's still gonna lie. Because that's just
the nature. And so that's what James is talking
about. Don't be such a person that nobody can trust what you
say. Let your yea be nay. Is any among
you afflicted? Anybody having trouble? Now, he wasn't saying that as
if there was people that weren't afflicted. Everybody has afflictions
of one type or other. It may be aches and pains. It
may be financial. It may be medical. It may be
our family. I mean, all of us have afflictions
of one sort or another, trials that come upon us. What does
he say to do about that? He said, let him pray. Because
what other avenue do we have? I mean, we seek the Lord to help
us in our times of trouble. Is any Mary? Are you happy? Let him sing songs. Let him give
praise unto God. Now, I believe that we are to
pray. You know, it's easy to praise God when everything's
going great, isn't it? I mean, you hear people say,
I mean, something will happen good. Praise God. Well then, you know,
they have a flat tire, they don't say that, do they? Huh? Because
that's not the way we think. But he says here, if anybody's
happy, don't just think that the happiness, you deserve it.
See, that's what we think, isn't it, most of the time? That, well,
we ought to be happy. I mean, it's just not right for
the Lord to put these burdens on us. I mean, why can't he just
make us happy? We deserve that. It's like written
in the Constitution. It says the pursuit of happiness.
It doesn't say happiness because happiness, sometimes the pursuit
of happiness involves a lot of unhappiness. And I mean, that's
just the way that it works. But, so we're not guaranteed
happiness, but when we are happy, let's be reminded who it is that
gave us happiness and that it's the mercy of God that causes
us to rejoice. And let's sing praises to Him.
Let's sing Psalms. Is any sick among you? Now listen
to this. Is any sick among you? Well,
I got a headache. You know, I mean, some people
take it to that thing. That's not what he's talking
about. I mean, there are illnesses and things that come upon you
that happen as a result of just being alive. You know, sometimes
you hit your finger with a hammer. Sometimes you get a cold. Sometimes
you get a headache. Sometimes, you know, you have
all sorts of aches and pains and all these things. That's
not what he's talking about. But what he is talking about
is something that is, if anybody's sick, that is if something has
really beset somebody so much so that they just have no relief
from it. And I'm not talking about necessarily
physically, but I'm talking about that this illness has got them
weighed down mentally, physically, psychologically, however you
want to say it. is any man 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." Now, you
can take that literally I don't necessarily think that James
is speaking literally here as far as anointing with oil, that
is literally taking oil and pouring. I believe what he is having reference
to, this is my own personal feeling about it. And again, those that
consider it to be a literal thing, I have no problem with that.
I've even participated in that. And there's nothing in the world
wrong with that. But anointing with oil has to
do with the prayer. Letting them pray for Him, anointing
Him with oil. You see, when we pray for one
another, when someone asks us to pray for them and we gather
with them and we pray with them, are we not anointing them with
the oil of the Holy Spirit? I mean, if the Spirit of God
is in that, is not the anointing oil of the Spirit of God being
poured out on them? Now I'll give you an illustration
of the reason I'm saying what I'm saying here. Now the Lord
gave an example at the Last Supper that He washed the disciples'
feet. And He said you ought to do this
to one another. Now some people take that literally
and they still actually get basins of water out occasionally and
wash one another's feet. Literally so. And I wouldn't
argue with somebody if they want to do that. If a church does
that and that's their practice, I'm not going to go in there
and try to upset the apple cart with them. Okay, that's fine
if somebody does. But I don't think that that's
the message the Lord was giving. I don't think that when he said,
wash one another's feet, that he was talking about taking water
and a rag and cleaning off one another's feet. What he was teaching
was that we ought to be humble before one another. For he said,
you know, I, being your master, have girded myself with a towel
and served you. and we're to be servants one
of the other. And so that a person can participate
in foot washing without participating in the foot washing that the
Lord spoke of here. And a person can participate
in true foot washing and never have a basin of water. Because
it's not about the water. Now a lot of times when people
come to this passage of scripture they make a big deal about the
oil. You know, well we got to pour this oil on them. You know,
it's the only place in the. in the scripture where we're
ever in the new testament where we're ever commanded to do so
and again i'm not against it if somebody wanted to do it because
it's it is an act of faith and if a person in faith believe
that ought to be done as they ask for these prayers to be done
i wouldn't be against it but i don't think that's what james
is getting at i believe the anointing oil is the prayer Now what does
he say here? He said, the prayer of faith
shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. Now I've
heard people say, well, you know what that means then is that
if he's sick and he comes and we pray for him, buddy, he's
gonna be well. That's not what it says. And
we don't have any indication in scripture that that was normally
the case. Why did Paul write to Timothy
and tell him, you know, about his ailment with his stomach?
to take a little wine for thy stomach's sake. Because he had
an ailment. Well, why didn't, was Timothy
lacking faith? Why didn't he come and ask the
elders of the church to pray for him that he'd have been great? No, that's not what it is. Brethren,
these bodies are failing. I mean, it doesn't make any difference
if you get healed today from some illness, you are going to
die eventually. Something's gonna take you out
of here. Every one of the people that the Lord healed in the scripture
ultimately died. You know, I mean, healing is
made in the minds of some people like this, oh, this is the ultimate
thing that God could do would be to heal these bodies. But
the Lord, like Lester Roloff said when he was asked, did he
believe in divine healing, he said, I didn't know there was
any other kind. I mean, if a man's healed, it's going to be because
the Lord heals him. It doesn't make any difference
if he goes through chemotherapy, or he goes to a doctor and has
surgery, or whatever it is, or the brethren pray for him. the
Lord heals men. And a man will not be healed
apart from the mercy of Almighty God doing that. But what's it
saying here? The prayer of faith shall save
the sick. Remember what we said the sick was. It's not just somebody's
got an ailment that's bothering them, but it is that this thing
is weighed upon their heart and mind. And I believe that as God's
people pray for one another, that if the Spirit of God dwells
in us, and the spirit gives us prayer one for the other. I believe
that he will anoint them with oil. He will save them in the
sense that he will bring deliverance to them and help them in the
midst of this. Does that mean they'll be completely
free of it? No, but I believe he ministers
to them and they are saved from it. It's not going to destroy
them is how I see that to be. Confess your faults one to another.
I'm gonna try to get through with this. Y'all bear with me
a little. Y'all are doing all right, aren't you? Because I
mean the commercial took up part of it. All right. And if he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven him. Now, if he's committed sins,
Now that would be a pretty universal thing, would it not? He has committed
sins. I think what it has reference
to, and I believe it's a true thing, and I think there's scriptural
example. As the Lord told the Corinthians,
he said, some of you have taken this supper without proper regard
to what it is, and he says, some of you are sick, and some have
perished. So there is sometimes afflictions
and sicknesses that come upon God's people as a result Now
all of this is in the ordained purpose of God, but it's nonetheless
the avenue through which the Lord brings His people and teaches
His people. And because they are harboring
some secret sin in their mind and heart, that these things
come upon them. Why do they come upon them? Do
they come upon them so the Lord can just give them grief? No,
that He might recover them. Think about the young man that
was in the Corinthian church. I mean, he was overcome with
a terrible I mean, he was walking in just total contrast to what
God's people ought to be. But the church did what they
were supposed to do. They prayed for him, and in time,
as the Lord saw fit, he brought him out of that. and brought
him to repentance. And so it is, I think that's
what this is talking about. That it will cause a man, when
the Spirit of God is there, if he's committed sins, if this
thing that's come upon him is the result of something that
he's harboring in his life, or something that he is walking
contrary to the way of God, that the Lord will bring that to his
awareness. Now that's supernatural. Men can't do that. I can't convince
you of sin. I can't forgive you of sin. I
can't do anything that would cause your sins to be forgiven.
And so when it's saying here, let them pray and this will cause
his sins to be forgiven. There's only one way that the
sins were forgiven, and that's by Almighty God. And what it's
talking about, the forgiveness, is taking it out of His mind,
showing Him the glories of Christ, the healing of Christ, the mercy
of Christ, and that all of these things working together, He's
delivered. in that the prayer of faith shall save the sick.
And if he hath committed any sins, or a specific sin, they
shall be forgiven him. Then he says, confess your faults
one to another and pray for one another. Now, does that mean
that we're supposed to have a session every now and then where we start
telling one another our deepest dark secrets? Confessing your
faults one to another? No, it means that we're not thinking
that we're always right. that we know we have faults.
And we're not trying to point ourselves out as being the example
for everybody to follow, but rather we confess towards one
another that we are weak men, that we're sinful men, that we're
men that have nothing to boast in. We confess our faults one
to another. That's our mindset. We're not trying to make people
think we're highly religious. You know, a lot of religion,
that's the whole thing, is people want to be seen and see and be
seen. You know, they want to show up.
Now, especially the politicians at this time of the year, they
want you to know that they're following the Lord because, buddy,
they show up to church. Well, that's not what, that's
not it, see? That's not where we're at. We
are to be a people who are open with one another. I know what
I am, and I'm not trying to make you think I'm something that
I'm not. May the Lord help us, because you don't wanna know
my sacred faults. I mean, you really don't. You
know, I don't want to know yours, because I know that mine, you
know, is bad. Of course, the way we think is
that, well, but mine ain't as bad as his. I'd really like to
know what it is going on in his mind, you know. I've always suspected
him. No, brethren, we are what we
are, before God, and we're supposed to be what we are before men,
confessing our faults one to another. We don't have anything
to boast of. Elias, well let's see, confess
your faults one to another. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. I think we all believe that. Now who is a righteous man? I
don't know of but one that ever lived. And his prayer is indeed
effectual. It was fervent. He poured out
his soul unto death. He bled sweat as it were, great
drops of blood. He is that righteous man, I believe,
of whom he's speaking here. Now, he goes on to use Elijah
as an example among men. But the prayer of a righteous
man availeth much. Now I've had men say, well, you
know, we need to be righteous so we can pray and our prayers
will be answered. Well, you know, good luck with
that. I mean, there's only one that's
righteous, and it's Christ, and we want to be found hidden in
Him. But he uses the example of Elijah. Elijah was a man subject
to like passions as we are. He prayed earnestly that it might
not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three
years and six months. Now you know the scripture never
says that he prayed. He just went in there to Ahab
and said, it ain't gonna rain. You see, he was a prophet sent
from God, and no doubt the Lord had laid a burden on him. You
know what one of the prophets said, or in a couple of the books,
they talk about the burden of so-and-so. Well, the burden is
the prophecy. It's laid upon a man. And so
that a man who is given a burden, a message to go and tell somebody,
he of necessity is going to pray. Now, did the Lord do what he
did because Elijah prayed? In other words, was the Lord
planning on doing something else, but he said, well, you know,
gosh, here's Elijah over here praying. I'm gonna have to cause
it not to rain. No, of course not. The Lord put
this into Elijah's mind to tell Ahab because he was not gonna
allow it to rain. Now think about Elijah, think
about this, he's going into the king. Because you see in those
days, these kings and what not, these prophets of God, they kind
of looked at them as being like God. Because if they said something,
they believed it kind of was because they said it. Well it
wasn't because Elijah said it, it was because God said it. But
Elijah was fearful, was he not, when he went into the presence
of the king and so the king so he prayed no doubt wouldn't you
I mean if you were going into the king you'd pray I mean you
know but the Lord did what he did and then he prayed again
and heaven gave rain and earth brought her fruit now he had
told once again now remember he told Ahab it's going to rain
well then he went off You know, and he started praying, Lord,
you told me to go in there to Ahab and tell him it's gonna
rain. And you know, it ain't raining, there ain't no clouds
in the sky. And he kept sending his servant
out and he said, go look, you know, see if there's a cloud.
Man, I've done told Ahab that it's gonna rain and nothing's
happening. And on the sixth time, his servant
went out there And he said, I see a cloud about the size of a man's
hand. And he said, get down off of
this mountain, because it's fixing to rain. Because you see, God
brought the prophecy that he was given to deliver to Ahab,
and he made it real to Elijah. Well, see, when Elijah was on
Mount Carmel just prior to that, And he did all these things,
you know. He sat there and he mocked the
other prophets of Baal. And then he went through this
elaborate thing, dug a trench around the altar and filled it
full of water and poured water all over the thing. And then
he said, Lord. He said, here I am. I've told
all these people this stuff. Now what are you gonna do? Of
course, the Lord was the one that put him to do it. Think
of the relief that came over Elijah when that fire fell down
from heaven and consumed all of that stuff. Oh, see, that's
why God answers prayer, is it not? I mean, he works through
his people, and when he brings the answer to that prayer, it's
a glorious thing. Oh, that he might give us such
patience as that. Brethren, if any of you do err
from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he which
converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a
soul from death and hide a multitude of sins. Now we obviously know
that's not speaking about eternal salvation. You can't convert
a sinner. People talk about they're gonna
convert this one and they've converted that one and all that
stuff. You can't convert nothing. You can't convert anybody. So
what it's speaking about here is, if a brother be overtaken
in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering your own selves lest you be tempted.
And when the Lord is pleased to open his eyes and show him
the way of truth, then know that this is a glorious thing. The
Lord has delivered him and he has been converted from his way.
Remember Peter, he was converted, was he not? I mean, he was a
believer. but he was later converted. What
does that mean? That means he was changed, his
mind changed, his heart changed, his understanding changed. And
God calls people to himself, and throughout the course of
their life, he changes them. He works in them. You know, everything
that happens to a child of God doesn't happen immediately. It
happens as the Lord works in them. It's the same work, it's
the same spirit. but he just continually working.
God gives to every man a measure of faith at the time when it
seems good to him. So may the Lord help us.