Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the Book of James. The Book of James will be in
Chapter 5. Book of James. Today we'll continue
our journey through James. It's been a wonderful journey.
It's just been an incredible study. I'd never studied the
Book of James till just this time, so it's just been What
a joyful experience going through this book. And as I told you
guys many times through the study, people had always told me it
was a book of legality, but my gosh, it's such an encouragement,
such a wonderful book. There's no illegality in that
book, I'll tell you that. It's just absolutely wonderful.
And today's message, I think, will be the second to last. I
think next week, we'll probably wrap it up next week. If the
Lord wills, if the Lord wills, we're in this wonderful journey,
and then we'll be going on to study the book of Galatians. Galatians, which is another wonderful
book, but a different author this time will be reading Paul.
And we will notice in that book, It's all about the freedom that
the believer has in Christ. Now, he defends the gospel in
the first chapter, which is just an incredible defense of the
gospel. But then he gets into the freedom that we have as believers
in Christ. It's absolutely amazing how free
we truly are. Last week, we looked at suffering
and affliction in the book of James and patience and how we
are to react as believers under those circumstances. named today's
message, effectual prayer. We'll see that it covers various
topics, too, as well. And we are to have patience,
which is long-suffering in the Greek, during trials and tribulations
which come our way. Now, that's not natural for us,
but we know that one of the fruits of the Spirit is long-suffering,
so he works that in us. He works that in us, and it's
absolutely incredible to see what he does for us and in us. Let's read James chapter 5 verses
12 to 16 for today's topic. And again, it'll be on the subject
of prayer. James writes, but above all things, in James 5,
12, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by earth,
neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your
nay be nay, lest you fall into condemnation. Now, we know that
there is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. So
this condemnation is not talking about losing your salvation.
Not at all. 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. In the prayer of faith shall
save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if you have
committed sins they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults
one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
Now these verses again that we're going to look at today in this
wonderful book We must always read these verses in light of
James, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that God is writing
to believers. He's not writing to the world. He's writing to
a group of believers. And that's the wonderful thing
about these books of the Bible, is God has preserved them and
kept them, and they're authored by Him. And they're instruction
for us, too, aren't they? We know Scripture's instruction
for righteousness, it's for doctrine, it's for reproof, it's for correction.
And who does all that? Not the preacher. Not other believers. It's the Holy Spirit who does
that. That's his work. It's not the office of the preacher
to shear sheep. Because he'd have to shear himself
first, right? Because he's a sheep too. See, people in religion
don't think that way. You know, I'm a sheep just like
you all. When I'm studying, I'm being corrected. I'm being admonished.
I'm being built up in the faith, too, just like everyone else.
Just like everyone else. And these words that we see here
that we just read, they actually tie into the words of the first
chapter. Turn, if you would, to James
chapter 1. They actually tie right in with the first verses
of this book. And we must look at these words that James is
writing, all through the whole book, is that he's writing to
suffering saints. He's writing to saints who are
going through afflictions, who are going through trials. So
we always have to keep that in mind as we're reading the whole
book. Even these verses that we saw here in James 5, 12 to
16, they're written to suffering saints. They're written to saints
who are going through affliction. Look at the first eight verses
of chapter one, and we'll see how they tie in with those verses
we just read. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations.
That's trials in the Greek. It's not temptations in the Greek,
that's trials. So when you fall into all different,
and that's various, divers is various trials. So we as believers
fall into various trials. If we got together and talked
about the trials we go through, we find out we go through a lot
of the same trials. But there are some trials that
only we go through. There are some suffering that
only we go through. But as a whole, believers are afflicted by the
world as a whole. And it may come in different
ways for you as it would come for me. but there's an affliction
from the world for us as believers. And that's trials, there's various
trials. Knowing this, knowing this, what
does the trying of your faith worketh? Look at this. Knowing
the trying of your faith worketh patience, long-suffering. Look
at that. So the Holy Spirit uses the trials
that we go through and works in us long-suffering. We don't
even see that, do we? When we're going through the
various situations, we don't even see that. And yet the Holy
Spirit's working in us, long-suffering, patiently waiting on the Lord.
Would we wait on the Lord before the Lord saved us? No, we'd be
out doing whatever we could to try to alleviate the situation,
right? Now we just wait on the Lord.
Now we wait on the Lord. But let patience, long-suffering,
have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God. That's what we do, right? We
come to God and we cry to him, don't we? We didn't do that before,
and now we do. That giveth to all men liberally,
and uprighteth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask
in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like
a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let
not that man think that he should receive anything of the Lord.
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." So we come
by faith and we plead to the Lord. We offer up the situation
we're going through to Him. Lord, give me grace. Give me
strength to make it through this situation that I'm going through. So, as we look at these verses
in chapter 5, let's keep those verses in chapter 1 in mind.
that he's writing to those who are having their faith tried
through various trials, various trials that they're going through.
Same as us, even today. We don't look at our trials that
we go through as trying our faith, but they do. And you know what's
amazing? God gives us grace to get through
them. They don't crush us. Think of how we would be before
the Lord saved us with even the world circumstances right now. I'd be pulling out what hair
I have left if it was, but now I can just rest in Christ. Now
I can rest knowing that everything's happening according to His will
and His purpose. And then to think, think, I was
thinking about this this week, think of this. Everything in
this world is happening according to the purpose and will of God.
And yet he has his eye on me, in the minutest details of my
life, and yours too if you're a believer. Even while he's controlling
all the things that's going on, he has the minutest details of
your life before his eyes. Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! That's our God, beloved. He watches
over His sheep. He provides for us. He feeds
us. He gives us grace. He pours out His mercy upon us.
What a great God. I can see now why it's the goodness
of God that leads men to repentance. Because when we think of how
good He is to us in that sense, looking at us to the minutest
detail, providing everything for us, taking care of us, giving
us what we need, not what we want all the time, Right? And
yet controlling the whole world and everything, visible and invisible
at the same time. That's our God. That's our Savior.
He's so much bigger than anything we can see with our eyes. My,
what a God we have. And then to think that he carved
his cross and suffered and died and bled in our place as our
great substitute, redeeming us, ransoming us, purchasing us with
his precious blood. Oh my, it doesn't get any better,
does it? There's nothing in this world that's any better than
that. It's wonderful. So why are trials needed in our
life? Well, because we have a habit,
I have a habit, and I believe it's so for you, I have a habit
of leaning on the flesh. So what does these trials do?
Well, they wean me from that, and they drive me to Christ. Is it so for you? They drive
us to Christ, don't they? They drive us to the feet of
Christ. They wean us from this world. They draw us ever closer
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember Sister Marge Lodzinski
telling me, she says, I thank the Lord for the cancer I have,
Brother Wayne, because it's drawn me closer to the Savior, closer
to Christ. My, that's God-given faith right
there. My goodness. And remember, also, these trials
are not to punish us. When I was in religion and something
was going wrong, I used to always think, well, God's punishing
me. I must have really messed up. I used to think that. I did. I admit it. I'd say to Vicki,
oh, man, I don't know what we did, but we really messed up.
No. These trials are not to punish
us. Do you know why? Because our
sins have been punished at Calvary's cross. They've been bought and
paid for. by the shedding of Christ's blood. So these trials
are not to punish us, beloved. They may chastise us from me
wandering off, bring me back to the feet of Christ, right?
But it's all done in love. That's the difference. It's all
done in love. It's all done by a gracious Father. And it's wonderful when you look
at our trials that way. You know, we'll never be punished
for our sins. God will not punish us for our sins. They've already
been paid for. He won't extract double payment,
especially when the payment of our sins was made by the Lord
Jesus Christ, God himself incarnated in the flesh. Oh my, that doesn't
give us a license to go crazy, of course not. Of course not.
And we won't do that, will we, as God's people? We won't. We
desire to serve our king. But every one of God's elect,
every one of God's born-again, blood-washed child had all their
sins laid upon Christ at Calvary's Cross. Every one. So therefore, our trials and
the things we go through are not punishment for us, not at
all. It's a loving father. It's a loving father working
things out for our good, and for His glory. My oh my. They come to us, these trials
come to us as acts of correcting grace. Correcting grace. What a great way, Henry Mahan
said that, I love that, what a great way to look at our trials. Correcting grace. Just like we
corrected our children when they were young. These trials come
our way and they're correcting grace. They come with pity and
tender mercy. God remembers we're but dust.
He knows what we are. He knows that we're sinners from
the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. So what mercy he
has upon us then. What mercy our great God has
upon us. And these are directions and
exercise of patience, because we see, and look at James 5,
verses 10 to 11. Take my brother and the prophets
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering
and afflictions 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. The Lord is very pitiful and
of tender mercy. That's our king. And he's like
that to every one of his people. We can testify of that. Now let's
read verse 12. But above all things, my brethren,
swear not, neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by
any other oath, but let your yea be yea and your nay nay,
lest you fall into condemnation. Now, if we're honest, every one
of us have a hard time with that, don't we? Let your yea be yea
and your nay nay. Last night we were coming home
from visiting Joshua, and Vicki wanted to go down to the thrift
store. It's run by the Grace, the pastor you guys know. Yeah.
And we like going down to that surf store. It's a great place
to go to. So she was getting ready to pull
off. And I'm like, I wish we could just go home. So she's
like, whoa, and goes over to M53. And I'm like, honey. And
she goes, well, you said let's just go home. And I'm like, and
then we had some intense fellowship. Okay? Some intense fellowship, we end
up going to the thrift store. But again, there's a perfect
example of me not letting my yay be yay and my nay be nay.
Because I had said, yeah, let's go. But we all have trouble with
this. We all have trouble with this.
And impatience and murmuring against God's providence doesn't
help us at all, does it? Not at all. Not at all. We should
rest in the Lord's providence for us. And then we see the words, above
all things. Profaning God's name. Profaning God's name is a serious
offense. And we who are believers, we
reverence the name of God, don't we? There was a time when we
profaned the name of the Lord, but now we love that. We love
the name of Jesus. We love the name of the Father.
We don't want to pervade it. And you know, Scripture says,
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name.
That's for both saved and lost. Both saved and lost are to reverence
the name of God. And we're not to swear by heaven
and earth, we see here, because the glory of God is everywhere,
shining forth. And when angry men swear by heaven
or earth, they only designate the worker by his works. It's
a common vice in all the ages that this world has went through
to curse or swear we're not mentioning the name of God, but I noticed that we can have Christianese. You've probably heard of that,
right? Where we, instead of using a
word that we shouldn't, we import another word in there. But the
intent's still in our heart and mind, isn't it? See, we're all guilty. Do you
see how guilty we all are? Isn't God so full of mercy? Isn't
he so merciful to us, beloved? He's so gracious to us, isn't
he? Oh, he's so good to us. Oh, my. We try to play some word gymnastics,
and oh, my gosh. The intent's still right here,
isn't it? Still in the ticker. And out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaketh. So it just shows us our sinful
nature. And it should show us the grace
of God, too. It should, because he's forgiven
us of all our sins. Man imagine that there's no evil
as long as they do not mention the name of God, but yet the
deception and delusion for the angry rebellious spirit and attitude
are still present. So you can use words that Christianese
words, but still within our heart is that angry spirit, and that
rebellious spirit, right? And that's the flesh, that's
our flesh, beloved. So we're not to swear out of
passion, anger, or habit. Now there is a form of swearing
that's not sinful. In the book of Deuteronomy, I'll
read this, it says, thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve
him and shalt swear by his name. All my allegiance is to the king.
All my allegiance is to the king. But we see the words here, but
let your yea be yea and your nay nay, lest you fall into condemnation. What the apostles warn in here
is against, is just a careless use of language. That's what
he's doing. Again, he's dealing with the
tongue. Remember he's dealt with the tongue in chapter three? He's still
dealing with the tongue. Just don't be careless. Let us
not be careless with our tongue. Now, we're all guilty, aren't
we? I'm going to admit, I'm guilty.
We're all guilty. of just carelessly saying words sometimes. Well, we should let our yea be
yea. I found out last night we should
let our yea be yea and our nay be nay, right? Oh, my. Now let's read verse
13. Keep in mind, again, that this
is written to suffering saints. Is any among you afflicted? Let
them pray. Is any merry? Let them sing psalms. So, afflicted
in our text, afflicted, I looked up in Greek there, it means to
undergo hardship. So trials are us undergoing hardships,
aren't they? And again, they come in all different
situations. They could be trials of our mind,
they could be trials of our heart. They could be trials of things
we're going through at our workplace. They could be trials with a family,
hardships with a family. It could be all different. Hardships
come in a thousand different ways. And what James here is,
he's asking the people of God, are they undergoing hardships?
Because none of us are free. None of us are free from the
sickness. None of us are free from sickness. Everything that
the world goes through, we're going to go through. We're not
immune since we're believers. You know, this health, wealth
garbage, and they say, don't claim that. I just have to laugh
at those people. It's just ridiculous. God's people
go through afflictions, and as we saw in chapter one, those
afflictions work along suffering in us. The Spirit's working in
us. If I'm laying on my bed, when
I thought I had COVID last January, laying on my bed, I was just
praying to the Lord. Lord, have mercy on me. And I
believe it did draw me closer to Him, going through all that. You don't know if you're going
to live or die. And at that time, it wasn't even very well known. And it was just awful going through
that. But it did draw me closer to
the king. I had nowhere to go. You're laying
on the bed. You can't do nothing. Right? You're absolutely at your
weakest point when we're sick, when we're sick and bedridden.
All we can do is cry out to our king. No leaning on the flesh
then, is there? Not at all. So let us be thankful
that the Lord gives us long suffering, that the Lord gives us patience
during those times. that he doesn't just let us endure
those times going through by the will of our flesh, which
is awful, because we'd be questioning all kinds of things, wouldn't
we? Look at verse 17. Oh, actually,
think of this, too, when it says that all about, is any merry,
let him sing psalms. Why should we be that way? Turn
back to chapter one. Why should we be like that? Why
should we be merry during trials? Are you full of joy? Then sing
a psalm. Sing a psalm. That's all that
means. Sing a psalm to the Lord if you're
married. If you're going through an affliction, just pray. Look
at this in verse 17. Men were so perverse in our fallen
nature that times of blessing and prosperity And this can happen
to us even as believers, we can forget the state that we have
in Christ. Because we can be so overwhelmed
by a situation. Look what it says here, verse
17. So if God ordains us to go through something, he's going to give
us the grace. And grace is a gift, isn't it? Mercy is a gift. We don't deserve
it. He's going to give that to us.
You know, folks always worry about dying grace. I like what
Jim used to say. He said, well, you don't need dying grace till
you're dying. It's true, right? And God will give you the grace
when you're dying. He'll give it to you. If you're
one of his people here, give it to you. Oh, my. Now let's look at verse 14 again.
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. Is any sick among you? Well,
again, the bodies are liable to all variety of sickness. There's
nothing that an unsaved person can go through that we won't
go through as well. Listen to what Paul wrote. He said, yet
I supposed it necessary to send to you Aphrodite, my brother,
and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger he
that ministered to my wants for he longed after you all so here's
a brother that's laboring with Paul and he wants to go to Philippi
and and see the Saints but listen to what happened in the providence
of God and was full of heaviness because that ye had heard that
he had been sick for indeed he was sick nigh unto death but
God had mercy on him. And then look what Paul wrote,
see, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have
sorrow upon sorrow. Remember, he's in jail writing
to the Philippians. And so God spared this brother.
It wasn't his time. He had an appointment, but it
wasn't at that time. It looked like it might be his appointment,
but it wasn't. And Paul says he had mercy on
the church, on him, and on me. My, oh, my. Then we see in the
text, let him call for the elders of the church. This may mean
those who hold the office by authority of the church or older
men of the church, sound in faith and have long experience of walking
with the Lord. It says, and let him pray over
him. Pray for his comfort. Pray, if it be your will, Lord,
heal him. Not demand it, but ask the Lord,
plead with him. Lord, if it's your will, if it's
your will, please heal him. And some suggest this means to
use ordinary medicine, when it says anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord, some suggest this means ordinary medicine
as well as prayer. Don't forget, God gave men the
knowledge to make medicine. I've been in, I was in, we went
to church in Oregon long before the Lord called me to preach,
and when I was in religion, and this group, they took no medicine
at all. And I never totally understood that, because I had went through
a lot of surgeries in my life, and medicines had been used to
help me with pain. And so I never really understood
that. And now I understand it's just a form of self-righteousness.
Right? It's a choice, too. But God gives
men knowledge to make these things. Brother Donny Bell really enlightened
me with medicine in a sense. He said, God makes it for all
of his elect. He allows people to make it for
his elect to extend their lives to their appointment. Think of
me with diabetes. I'm on insulin and I'm on medication
for my diabetes. If I didn't have that, I would
have probably died. because there's no way we can
control our sugar by eating, but our sugar still spikes up
as diabetics, right? After eating certain things.
And we saw a lot of people die young in the 1800s and the 1700s
and 1600s, and they think those were all kinds of afflictions
like blood pressure and heart attacks and diabetes. Diabetes
has been known since the Egyptian days. I read an article on that. It was incredible. People had
diabetes. So these things have been with
us all the time, but the Lord has given us medication to use. There's nothing wrong with it.
God has given these people that. So it says here, when it says
anointing with oil, when some suggest this means to be ordinary
medicine, yeah, I could see that. And some suggest this ought to
be done today because, or ought not to be done today because
the extraordinary gift of healing in the church has ceased. Well,
God still heals people. He still heals people. We don't
see it until He's done it, but it's not in our hands, it's in
God's hands. And others say the oil is symbolic
of the Spirit of God, I can see that too, and should be applied
as the Scripture commands. Whether we anoint with oil or
whether we pray for them without the anointing, let it all be
done in the name of the Lord. Let God get all the glory, you
see, not man. See, when man says, I don't claim
that. I'm staying away from that. That's just self-righteousness,
beloved. That's all that is. Somebody's just full of self-righteousness.
You can't stop getting sick. If the Lord ordains you to get
sick, you're going to get sick. There's nothing we can do about
it. My, oh, my. We shouldn't be fatalists about
it, right? My religion, I just remember
when I was in religion and I was so, oh, it was awful, beloved. I feel so free and so peaceful
now. It's absolutely amazing. Let's look at verse 15. In the
prayer of faith, she'll save the sick, and the Lord shall
raise them up, and if he hath committed sins, they shall be
forgiven him. We see here in verse 15, James starts to emphasize
prayer two more here now. The prayer of faith. Look at
that, the prayer of faith. Who are the only ones who can
utter the prayer of faith? Only those who are born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. They're the only ones. If you're
not born again, you're not uttering the prayer of faith. What comes first? Again, now
think of this, when we cry out to Christ, right? We're crying
out by faith, right? We're crying out, Lord, save
me! But what came first, faith or
regeneration? Regeneration. And because of
that regenerating power of God, we cry out, Lord, save me! Oh, it's wonderful, beloved.
The prayer of faith on part of the elders and part of the sick
brother. When we doubt God, we close the door of prayer, don't
we? When we're doubting him, we're
not praying to him. We're not. And we can't say God will heal
everyone, because we know he doesn't. He just doesn't. He heals whom
he wills. And he gives us grace to bear
the afflictions that we go through. And next we see, if he hath committed
sins, they shall be forgiven him. No man lives without sin. Not one of us live without sin. But in the sense that that if
the brethren's been guilty of offenses which God has taken
particular notice of and on account of which he has bought him down
in order that he may acknowledge them and repent look at David
he was bought low wasn't he prophet said thou art the man David was bought low he had committed
adultery with Bathsheba he had sent Uriah to the front lines
to die And yet he's bought low. He repents,
doesn't he? See, in trials and tribulations
and stuff, sometimes we're bought low. We never fall into condemnation,
as I said earlier, we know that. Because there's no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. Listen to what Psalm says here.
Psalm 51, verses two to five, and then Psalm 51, verse seven
to 11. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. and cleanse me from
my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions. See, God's people,
we acknowledge our transgressions. We say, I'm just a sinner, saved
by grace. We acknowledge that we're sinners.
My sin is ever before me. That's so true, isn't it? Even
after we're saved, it's still ever before us, isn't it? Oh,
my. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned. Our sin is not against anyone
but God first. Even when we sin against other
people, we're sinning against God first. Remember Joseph? Remember
Joseph? He said, how can I sin against
God and Potiphar when Potiphar's wife wanted to lay with him?
First he said, how can I sin against God and Potiphar? So
our sin is ever before the Lord. And think of how great his mercy
is. It's all forgiven now. Against
thee have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that
thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when
thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and sin did my mother
conceive me. So there is our natural state.
born dead in trespasses and sins. Then he writes in verse 7 to
11 of Psalm 51, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Oh, the blood of Christ
makes us whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness.
Now we hear the gospel. Now we rejoice in the gospel
being preached and proclaimed. That the bones which thou hast
broken may rejoice. Hide my face from my sins and
blot out all my iniquities. God's blotted out all our iniquities,
beloved. They're all gone. Wash clean
in the precious blood of Christ Created me a clean heart. We
have a new heart now Oh God, and we knew a right spirit within
me now We had the Holy Spirit within us can't cast me not away
from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. He never
will The comforter will ever be with us confess your faults
one to another. It says in James 5, 16, confess
your faults one to another and pray for another that you may
be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. How are we righteous? We're not
righteous in ourselves, are we? No, we're only righteous in Christ. We're only righteous in Christ.
We have clothed in his perfect, spotless righteousness. My, oh
my, so we see then that that the prayer of faith can only
come from one who is born again of the Holy Spirit of God, one
who's been made righteous in Christ. One who's been made righteous
in Christ. And when it says, confess your
faults to one to another, you know what that is? That's not
giving someone a whole list of the most horrible sins you've
ever done. That's just saying, brethren, sister, I'm a sinner,
saved by the grace of God. Saved by the mercy of God. I
admit I'm a sinner. See, because natural men don't
admit they're sinners. When people used to ask me if I was a sinner
before the Lord saved me, I'd always point to somebody else
down the street. I did. You want to know a real notorious
sinner? It's that guy over there. He's a real bad fellow. I'm a good person. And you find out there's none
good, no, not one. And my gosh, man, it's like the
whole foundation that you rested yourself upon is absolutely wiped
out. Praise be to God it is, isn't
it? Praise be to God. Oh, how merciful our God is,
how wonderful he is. Glory to his name. Heavenly Father,
we thank you.