The book of James, as we've studied
through it, has been seen to have really a two-fold message.
It's a very coherent, clear message throughout the book of James.
Number one, that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, faith in Him
as our substitute, as our Redeemer, as our righteousness before God,
as our sin offering, and as our holy standing before God. We
stand in Him and we own Him as our sin offering, as our Lamb
that takes away our sin. And that faith in Him is not
an empty profession, religious profession. It's a living, working
principle in God's people, a God-given gift whereby We lay hold of Him
and it changes us forever. It changes us forever. We saw
it in the book of Hebrews, in chapter 11, how those men and
women did what they did by faith. None of those things are possible
in the flesh, only by faith in the Son of God. And that's that
living, working principle that James is talking about in this
book. And secondly, his message is this, when a sinner has that
faith from God, He abandons all the prideful,
self-reliant boasting of the flesh and falls head over heels in
love with, and in dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He stops saying, I will, I will,
I will, and he says, Lord, if you will. Isn't that the message
of this book, as we've seen so clearly? And we'll, Lord willing,
finish the book today, but look at verse 13. Is any among you
afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing. Sing what? Psalms of praise unto God. So much teaching here in so few
words. First, let's consider the first
question there at face value. Are you, am I afflicted? Is any among you afflicted?"
He's not talking here about the everyday common cares of this
world. This world is one big affliction,
isn't it? Living in this world as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not really talking about
that, although we certainly should pray about the everyday troubles,
the common things that we experience every day. No question about
that. Pray without ceasing, Paul said.
When the scripture says in Ecclesiastes 5 to be not rash with thy mouth
and let not that heart be hasty to utter anything before God
For God is in heaven and you're upon the earth for and so therefore
let your words be few Let your words be few. This doesn't mean
don't hardly pray much because God don't want to hear it That's
not what that's not the teaching of that verse. I The few there,
let thy words be few in the context, that word means select. Be careful
how you speak before God because he's God. Remember who it is
you're speaking with when you pray. That's the message of that
verse. We're not to neglect to pray
though. Paul said, be careful for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication, With thanksgiving,
don't ever pray anything without thanksgiving. Thanksgiving should
season all of our prayers before God. But with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known unto God. Ask Him, ask Him. He said, ask and you'll receive. Philippians 4, 6. Let your request be made known
unto him. The teaching there in Ecclesiastes
is to remember that when you're praying, remember who it is we're
praying to. He's God and we're not. But don't
forget either that when you're afflicted, he's God and he's
your father too. And he deals with us as his sweet,
precious children. Don't be afraid to ask him, but
be in awe of him. But are you in any real trouble
that's the question this morning you in any real trouble Don't
be like the man that he just talked about in this chapter
and in chapter 4 who relies upon his own ability He says here's
what I'm gonna do to fix my problems Don't be like him James said
here's what you do believer pray Ask You have not why Not because
you're not doing enough. You have not because you ask
not. Do everything you know to do, but that's not why you don't
have what you need. A man described in chapter four
at the beginning of chapter five, he never bows. He'll never admit
his dependence upon God. He's not going to pray to God.
He'll pray to his God. He may toss up a prayer every
once in a while, but what he's asking for is a little help that
he deserves after all anyway. You know I'm right about that.
I've been in religion. I know what's in my heart and
I know what's in everybody else's heart by nature. Our religious,
proud hearts. We feel like God owes us something.
And our secret attitude is that we wouldn't be in the mess that
we're in if it wasn't for God anyway. So the least he can do
is give us a little boost. Isn't that right? This is the
kind of man who says, I make my own luck. Did you know there's no such
thing as luck? I still hear people talk, I still
hear those who claim to be God's people talking about luck. That's
an offense to God. There's no such thing as luck.
There's no chance in his universe. The lot is cast in the lap. Even
when dice are rolled, the scripture says the whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord. It's not of luck. It's not the
odds. It's God. But this man says, I make my
own luck. Have you heard that before? Or
he's the kind of guy who says this, I'll pull myself up by
my own bootstraps. And he's also the kind of guy
who says, to whom God says, when your calamity cometh, I'll laugh
at you. I'll laugh at you. Turn to Proverbs
chapter 1. Let's see this. This is the fellow that James
is talking about. And we're reviewing a little
bit here. This is the fellow that James is talking about in
chapter 4 and 5. Proverbs chapter 1 and verse
20. Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth
her voice in the streets. Wisdom in the book of Proverbs
and wisdom everywhere else. Christ is what to the believer? The power of God and the wisdom
of God. This is Christ who teaches and
preaches the gospel and sets forth the wisdom of God in the
streets. She crieth in the chief place
of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the city, she
uttereth her words, saying, wisdom is personified as a woman here,
but this is the wisdom of Christ. How long, you simple ones, will
you love simplicity? We're stupid and we like it.
We like it that way, by nature. And the scorners delight in their
scorning and fools hate knowledge. Turn you at my reproof. Behold,
I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words
unto you. Hadn't he done that? He asks
in the book of Isaiah, have you not heard? Because I have called
and you refused. I have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded But you have said it not all of my counsel,
and you would none of my reproof. I will also laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Is any
afflicted? If you're this man that James
is referring to, and also Solomon here in the book of Proverbs,
and you've bowed your neck against God. You didn't ask Him for anything.
You said, I'll take care of things myself. Thank you very much.
And then when real calamity comes, when your anguish comes upon
you, then you'll call upon me, He God said, and I won't answer
you. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me, for
that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the
Lord. They would none of my counsel,
They despised all of my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity
of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me
shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil. Is
any among you afflicted? Bow before God and ask him for
help. Don't be too proud to do that.
You got no excuse for pride. When the doctor says to you,
you've got cancer and it's inoperable, the best we're going to be able
to do is just make you comfortable for a little while. Are you going to make your own
luck then? What are you going to pull yourself
up by then, when you're calamity coming? And more importantly,
if God ever gives you a glimpse of what you are before Him, when it's too late. And I don't
say when it's too late, but God said there is a time when it's
too late. He said, there's a time you're going to call upon me
and I'm not going to answer you. It's not that way this morning.
Maybe for somebody there is such thing as reprobation. Have you
bowed your neck against God's truth for a while? Bow and ask. Here's what you
do, believer. James said, pray. Pray. Do you need something? Do you
really need anything? Relief from some devastating
sorrow? Are you lacking some necessity?
Are you burdened for the soul of a lost loved one? Being a
child of God doesn't make you exempt from sorrow and trouble.
I don't care what the health and prosperity people are talking
about. It doesn't make you exempt from
trouble. You don't have to read far in the Word of God to see
that. Jeremiah was the weeping prophet. Paul, look at 2 Corinthians
11, 23 through 29 sometime. Don't turn there now, but Paul
gives a harrowing catalog of the troubles he went through.
And he's one of God's choice servants. Is any among you afflicted? What did you do when you were
afflicted with your own sin? When, as Paul said, the commandment
came and sin revived and I died before God. What did you do then? When it came home to your heart,
your true condition before God and all your fancies of self-righteousness
perished before your very eyes and you saw yourself hanging
over hell by a spider's web. Did you know that scriptural
in the book of Job says the hope of the hypocrite is a spider's
web. And that's all you're hanging over hell by. What did you do then when God
revealed that to you? You became a mercy beggar at
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you did. Well, let
me ask you this. When did you stop being a beggar? When did you become self-sufficient,
believer? You saw then that Christ, the
holy, righteous Son of God crucified, was your only hope before God.
I got to have a sin offering. I got to have payment for my
sin. And they got to be put away. And I've got to be holy before
God. And you saw Christ as the fulfillment of all of God's promises
of mercy and grace to His people. You saw that all of His promises
of goodness and mercy and glory where ye and amen in one place
and one person and you went and bowed at his feet and asked him
for mercy. So what are you gonna do now
when you need something? He heard you then, didn't he?
He had never turned a sinner like that away ever, so I know
he did. You said, Lord, if you will,
and once and for all you stopped saying I will. And you said, Lord, if you will,
you simply asked for mercy and He gave it to you. That's what
happened. When you stopped saying, I will,
the Son of God said, I will. Be thou clean. Be thou clean. Are you self-reliant now? Paul
asked, I believe it was the Galatians. He said, have you begun in grace
and now will you finish on your own? You gonna be saved now by
works? No, go to the same Lord now and
say the same thing. Lord, if you will, you can. He'd
give you everything out of the storehouses of heaven itself,
out of the storehouses of his heart of mercy and love for his
little children. He'll give you everything good.
Ask, that's what James is saying here. All right, are you afflicted? Well, you know what to do now,
don't you? Let me ask you this, are you
married? Are you living now in a season without really any affliction? I've had some times in my life
like that, haven't you? There's always something you
can worry over and mourn over. I've told you before, if I don't
have something to worry about, I'll make something up. I like
to worry for some reason. I haven't figured it out yet. But let me ask you, are you merry? Have you seen the Lord bring
you through all the troubles that you've had thus far and
brought you out on the other side and you're rejoicing in
Him without any sorrow, without any heaviness of heart, without
any dark cloud on the horizon? You're just rejoicing and are
you merry at heart? Don't forget God then. That's
our tendency, isn't it? To forget Him. I fear it's our
tendency as believers to pray when we're afflicted and then
to forget God when we're merry. Is it that way with you? Has
God given you cause for being, and here's the definition of
the word merry there, in good spirits, gladdened, cheerful. Has God caused that in your heart?
That's a good time, isn't it? That's a good place to be, cheerful
and gladdened before God. James said, do this, sing his
praises then. Sing about it, sing how that
he has done great things for you and how wonderful and marvelous
it is to be an object of his distinguishing love and mercy
in Christ Jesus. Sing about it, let everybody
know Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. And do it in song. Do it with cheerful, joyful heart. Again, don't be like the man
who is the self-made man and forget where all good things
come from. He celebrates himself, not the Lord Jesus Christ and
his body and blood. He celebrates himself. He pats
himself on the back. Here's what the self-reliant
man will do. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse
10. Listen to this. This is such
a good reminder. Deuteronomy 8, 10. Now listen
to this. When thou hast eaten and art
full, Then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land
which he hath given thee." When you're married, bless the Lord
God. He's the one that made it so.
He's the one that has caused all these conditions that have
made you married. We're married in Him and because
of Him and over Him, but also all the blessings that He's given
us. He's given us good land. And think of this spiritually
speaking. Mount Zion is beautiful for situation. Hasn't He given
us a good land spiritually? When you're married in that,
bless the Lord God for the good land, which he has given thee. And look at verse 11, beware
that thou forget not the Lord thy God, and not keeping his
commandments and his judgment, his statutes, which I command
thee this day. lest when thou hast eaten, and
art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein, and
when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and
thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied,
then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy
God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from
the house of bondage, who led thee through that great and terrible
wilderness. We're in, we're fiery serpents.
And again, physically, earthly, temporally speaking, all these
things are true. Also spiritually. He saved us
from the fiery serpents of sin, didn't He? Not only does He heal
us physically, and He does make our herds and our crops and everything
to be multiplied in our lives. Everything. Every morsel we see
is a blessing from God and we rejoice in what He's done for
us. But spiritually speaking, As that serpent was lifted up
on a pole and some physical healing took place, so the Son of Man
was lifted up. And the Holy Spirit called one
day and said to our hearts, look and live. And we did. We looked
upon the Son of Man lifted up and God gave us life in Him,
revealed Him to us. and gave us faith in him. And
the Scorpio, verse 15, in the drought where there was no water,
who brought you forth water out of the rock of Flint? Who was
that? Were you making your own luck then? Or were you just dependent
upon the mercy of God and basking in the goodness of God, the bountiful
heart of God? Who fed you in the wilderness
with manna? which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble
thee, and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter
end. And thou say in thine heart,
look here's what the man in James chapter four and five said, my
power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. Sure
enough, I've heard it, I've seen it, I've seen it in a mirror. But thou, here's what you do,
James said, thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, For it is he
that giveth thee power to get wealth. There might be a man's
name on your paycheck, but every penny of that came from your
God. That's where that came from. That he may establish his covenant,
which he swear unto thy fathers as it is this day, temporally,
spiritually, eternally, in every way and in all things. We lift
our hand up to God, and He's bountiful. He's plenteous in
mercy, and He's rich in blessing with all of His earthly goods
in Him toward us. Sing a psalm of praise unto Him
when you think about all He's done for you. That's what James
said. We have reason to be married,
don't we? Sing the praises of the one that blessed you. When
the Israelites walked through the Red Sea as on dry land and
saw their enemies, the vast Egyptian army drowned in the Red Sea,
in a moment, do you know what they did? They sang a song. They were merry, don't you reckon?
When they walked through, they're kicking up dust. under their
feet, walking through the midst of the Red Sea. And they turned
around and they saw every problem they had in the world washed
away in a blink of an eye. They saw the mighty hand of God
for them, if God be for us, who can be against us? And they sat
down on the riverbank and sang a song. Let's look at it, Exodus
chapter 15. It is a beautiful song too. It's a beautiful song. Chapter
15, verse 1, Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this
song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the
Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song,
and He has become my salvation. Has God saved you? Do you sit
there, a born-again, redeemed sinner this morning? washed in
the blood of Christ. Did He give Himself for you?
Sing a song to Him. Say, He's become my salvation.
You know the words, don't you? Every redeemed sinner knows the
words. This is true of all of us. He's
become my salvation. He's my God, and I will prepare
Him in habitation. My Father is God, and I will
exalt Him. Won't we? Mustn't we exalt Him? The Lord is a man of war. The
Lord is His name. He's the sovereign. We bow to
Him. And know that He doeth all things, and doeth them well,
and for His own pleasure He's done them. And we like it like
that. Pharaoh's chariots and his host
hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are
drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them.
They sink into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord,
is become glorious in power. Thy right hand. O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine
excellency, thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
And with the blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together.
The floods stood upright as in heap, and the depths were congealed
in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue,
I will overtake, I will divide thee. Does that sound like the
man in James chapter four to you at all? I will go into the
city. I will continue there a year.
I will buy. I will sell. I will get gain.
I will. I will. That's what they said.
I will draw my sword. My hand shall destroy them. Oh,
but God, you blew them with your wind and the sea covered them.
They sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto you,
O Lord God, among the gods? I wish everybody would shut up
about what they're going to do and start talking about what
God did. I wish I could do that. Don't you? Who is like unto thee? Glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. You stretched
out your hand and the earth swallowed them. You and your mercy has
led forth the people which thou has redeemed. Thou hast guided
them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. He's guiding
us all the way and he's the author and the finisher. Can we sing
about that? Thy people, the people shall
hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Palestina. Then the Dukes of Edom shall
be amazed. The mighty men of Moab trembling
shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them by the greatness of thine arm. They shall be as still as
a stone till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people
pass over that you purchased." What did he purchase us with?
The blood that that represents right there. His precious blood. Thou shalt bring them in and
plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place,
O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the
sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established." It ain't
this building. This is not a sanctuary. It's
just an auditorium. Our sanctuary is Christ. The Lord shall reign forever
and ever. Aren't you glad? For the horse of Pharaoh went
in with his chariots, and they went in saying, I will, I will,
I will, in verse nine, didn't they? And with his horsemen into the
sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went
on dry land in the midst of the sea. Is anybody merry? sing a song like they did. Isn't
that a beautiful song they sang? And notice here in this verse
in James chapter 5 that there's nothing in between. Is any afflicted? Is any married? Well, maybe you're thinking,
well, sometimes I'm just neither one. I'm just, I'm not clicking
my heels, but I'm not really heartbroken either. Shame on
you, shame on me. If you're not bowed down with
sorrow, you better be singing a psalm, I tell you that. Paul
and Silas, even when they had every reason to be weeping and
mourning and belly aching maybe, not good reasons, but every reason
that we take advantage of, they still sang a psalm, didn't they?
Oh, for the grace to do that. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord. That's what David said. Oh, that we would, by His grace,
praise Him. This very morning. We have every
reason to do so. I don't expect a believer to
run around with a big smile on our face all the time. Religious
people, you know, they try to do that. They're putting on a
front is what they're doing. We're not interested in that.
But if you're not afflicted, is any among you afflicted? Would
you say no? I can't honestly say that right
now I'm suffering anything really great. Then there ought to be
a big smile somewhere. It may not be on your face, but
there better be one in your heart. There's every reason to have
one in there, a big smile. Verse 14, back in our text, is
any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of
the church. Don't suffer in privacy. If you must, then that's your
business. But it's a good idea to let people
know. Let the people of God know to
pray for you. Isn't that what he's saying here?
Call for the elders of the church. And that doesn't mean just the
elders are able to pray. The elders should certainly pray.
We do pray together, don't we? The men of the church pray together.
And we pray for this church and for God's blessing upon it, and
for one another, specifically when there's occasion to do so.
But all of us, let it be known that you're sick, let it be known
that you're hurting, that you have a need. And don't just suffer
privately. How are we going to pray for
you? We're commanded of God to pray for you, and we can't do
that unless we know about it, can we? 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 have committed sins, they shall be forgiven
him. Now, remember the context here. He just got through saying,
is any afflicted? Let him pray. And now he's just
getting more specific here. Is anybody sick, for example?
That's a common affliction, isn't it, that the people of God suffer?
Pray. Let him pray. Let the elders
pray for him. Let all of the people of God
pray for him. And the prayer of faith will
save the sick. And the teaching here is that if a man is going
to be healed, God's going to do it. That's the context of
this whole book, isn't it? The latter part of the whole
book. That we're dependent upon God for it. Don't just say, well,
I'm going to win my battle with this thing. No, you're not. You're
going to perish without God, without His mercy. You're not going to win anything.
We're to do what we know to do. And that's the next verse here.
He said, anoint them with oil. If there's something that'll
help, use it. Take some medicine if it'll help you. But if you're
gonna be healed, God's gonna have to do that. The rich man as well as the poor,
it doesn't matter, the self-reliant as well as the prayerful are
dependent upon God. Some of them just don't know
it for healing. You're dependent upon him for
healing. Therefore, acknowledge before God your dependence upon
him and pray as Christ himself did for the healing of the sick,
but also for the glory of God with the same attitude that the
Lord Jesus Christ had. Of course, not my will, but that
will be done. We pray always with that attitude,
don't we? We don't know how to pray as we ought, Romans chapter
eight, but that doesn't mean don't pray. But we pray with
that attitude, don't we? If not with the very words, Lord,
Your will be done. You're omniscient. You're good, and we're not. We don't even know what good
is. We think it'd be good if He'd get better. It may not be
good. It might be more good if He doesn't get better. Right? Not my will, but Thy will be
done. If you having the elders now of the church meet at the
hospital and rub oil on you, on a sick person and pray over
you that God would heal you, you're welcome to try that if
you want to. But here's my belief on that. James is not giving
us here a formula for guaranteed healing. There's a lot of evidence
in the scripture that that's not what he's doing. He's teaching
and mentioning the custom of the day while doing it. which
was to anoint with oil. That's even in the Old Testament.
But he's teaching here that healing comes from God. Pray. Depend upon Him. Ask Him for what you need. And I'll promise you this, if
true believers get together, especially the elders, and obey
this, with or without the oil, and God takes that sick sheep
home to be with Him, nobody's going to complain about it. Nobody
in the room is going to have a problem with that, are they?
Paul said it'd be better to be with him, wouldn't it? So this
is not some, Gary, this is not what religion has turned this
into. And this goes for forgiveness of sins also. You can talk about
believers not having any sin, and we do talk about that. In
Christ, we have no sin. And that's absolutely true. That's
a wonderful truth that I preach. But our Lord also taught us in
Luke 11 to pray this way. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins. Today, forgive us our sins today.
You understand that? How that in Him we have no sin?
but also in Him and in His name, we're to pray, Lord, forgive
me for what I've done today. We're to acknowledge every day
our sinfulness and rejoice every day that in Christ and only in
Christ we have no sin. And understand why. Because God
in mercy has forgiven them in Christ. That's why we pray, forgive
us! because of His shed blood that's
redeemed us from the curse of the law, Him being made a curse
for us. Because of Him, our sins are forgiven. And we acknowledge
that every day and praise Him daily for forgiveness of sin. And when we bow before Him and
say, Lord, forgive us our sins, we're acknowledging that. We're
acknowledging this morning that because of His shed blood and
broken body, our sins are forgiven. And we pray as we partake of
this in our hearts, Lord, forgive our sin. I've sinned today, I've
sinned this morning while we were gathered to worship, I've
sinned. Delivering from affliction or
sins, either one, is God's prerogative. Pray. Let the elders of the church
pray. Pray for one another. We're never
to presume upon that. We can trust His promises, but
don't presume upon His grace. God's promises are yea and amen
in Christ, but there's no name it and claim it. There's no presumption
upon the grace of God, not with God's people. 2 Corinthians 12,
let me, you can turn there if you'd like or I'll read it to
you. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 7. And lest I should be exalted
above measure, Paul said, through the abundance of the revelations,
the Lord showed him some things. That's how you're gonna know
anything worth knowing. God's gonna show it to you. And he
showed Paul and he said, lest I should be exalted. God gave
me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing
I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And
He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength
is made perfect in weakness. When you're afflicted, Paul,
the glory goes to me. When we're not afflicted, the
glory goes to Him, right? But when we're afflicted, when
we're weak, when we're revealed to be weak, when we're shown
to be weak, then you got no choice but to praise Him, do you, for
everything that happens, instead of attributing it to the flesh,
like Mr. I Will does in James 4. Most
gladly, therefore, Paul said, I will rather glory in mine infirmities. Instead of always looking to
not be afflicted, rejoice in them. But there's nothing wrong
with asking the Lord to remove them. Paul said, I did it three
times. I prayed. I just kept praying. The Lord didn't remove it the
first time, so I prayed again, Lord. But the Lord gave him an answer,
didn't He? And so Paul bowed and said, you know what? All
glory in mine and firmity is that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. He'll use me not because I'm
strong in the flesh, But in His strength, I'll prevail and do
all that God's given me to do. In His strength, the power of
Christ will rest on me and be seen in me. Therefore, I'll take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions
as any afflicted. Let Him pray. But pray with resignation
in your heart that God knows better than you do. that if he says no to your prayer,
be willing to bow. Be willing to rejoice in that
answer because you know it's the right answer if it came from
him. In persecutions and distresses
for Christ's sake, for when I'm weak, then am I strong. Because I'm not in my strength,
I'm in his strength. And that's sure enough strength
there. And so, if God wills it, Whatever it is, I'm pleased with
it. That's what Paul said. I'll take pleasure in it. Turn
to Philippians chapter two and verse 24. But I trust in the Lord that
I also myself shall come shortly. He trusted in the Lord for that.
He said, I'm going to come to the church at Philippi, but I'm
trusting in the Lord. The Lord may not have it that
way. I'm not saying I will go, I will
come. I trust in the Lord that I'll
come. Yet I supposed it necessary to
send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor
and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered
to my wants. I'm going to send him to you
just in case or until I'm able to come. For he longed after
you all and was full of heaviness because that he had heard that
he had been sick. For indeed he was sick, verse
27, now unto death. He said, I'm gonna send Epaphroditus
to you, but he was sick. And you were thinking of him.
You were heavy for him. And he was heavy for you because
you'd heard that he'd been sick and he almost died. Well, why
didn't you just anoint him with oil, Paul, and pray over him?
Maybe they did do that. I don't know, but I'll tell you
what happened. But God had mercy on him. That's
why he got well, that's why he didn't die. Because God had mercy
on him. Not because there was some secret
formula, you know, you could follow and make sure that nobody
ever died. You could just do that every
time somebody got sick and you never would die. No, that's not
the teaching. God had mercy on him and not
on him only, but on me when he made Epaphroditus well. Well,
sometimes when the Lord makes somebody else well, that's mercy
on me. Because Paul said I should have had sorrow upon sorrow.
If I had been without him, it would have made me sad. So the
Lord had mercy on him. The Lord had mercy. That's how
you're going to get well. If anybody's going to be healed,
it's going to be God that does it. And God can heal or not heal
at His sovereign pleasure. And we bow to that. That's what,
you say pray, the whole context is saying pray to God about it.
And then look at verse 16, we'll try to finish this morning. Confess your faults
one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed.
There again, pray one for another, not just the elders, but all
of you, pray one for another. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like
passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. This is something that happened.
Who's in charge of the rain? But Elijah was enabled of God
to pray that it 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.
Do you see the teaching there? Is it going to rain today? I
don't know, it's not up to me, is it? Is so-and-so that's sick
in bed, are they gonna be healed? I don't know, it's not up to
me. You see the context? It's not up to me, it's up to
God. But Elijah was just like you and I are. He's a sinner.
These men are not to be... You're not to glory in their
flesh. He was a sinner just like you
and I. But he prayed to God and God stopped the rain for him.
And that's what's going to have to happen in this matter of praying
for one another. Is it going to happen this way
or that way? It ain't up to me. Just like it ain't up to you
whether it rains today or not. Isn't that clear teaching? Now
he says confess your faults to one another. I don't want to
hear about all your sins. And I know you don't want to hear
mine. People tend to want to confess their sins to a man,
especially a preacher, and many cater to that. I've threatened
to put a booth up here since we have so many people wanting
to confess sometime, but I'm kidding when I threaten that. I don't want to know. And at
the same time, I do know already. I just assume that you're evil
like me, and that's all I need to know. And besides, I don't
have time for you to confess your sins to me. There's two
dadgum many of them. And you don't have time to hear
mine, sure enough. This verse, verse 16, means to
openly acknowledge it, especially when you've wronged one another.
He's talking about when you've offended or sinned against one
another, mainly here, I believe, because of the context. He said,
openly acknowledge that. Don't be too proud to say, I'm
wrong. Don't be too proud. And instead
of being bitter over it, pray for one another. Confess your sinnerhood to one
another. Not all your sins, your sinnerhood.
That'll be good enough, won't it? Because I know what that's
all about. When there's an offense of some
kind, hard feelings over something. Scripture says in another place,
don't let the sun go down on your wrath. And if you're the
cause of wrath, confess it, openly acknowledge it. Get it out and
done with. I've learned this by experience
as well as from God's Word. And then he said, don't neglect
or despise prayer here. Pray for one another. Don't have
the attitude that prayer is unnecessary. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. That's what God said. You may
say, well, everything's already ordained, so it doesn't really
matter whether you pray or not, but God said it availeth much. Whose
word are you going to take for it? You're not praying in order
to change God's mind. Prayer is the effectual means
that God uses to bring about His purposes in Providence, just
like He uses the sun to make my tomato plants grow. Without
that sun, they're not going to grow. Don't plant your tomatoes
in a light-proof box. You're not going to have any
tomatoes this summer. And don't neglect to pray to God either,
because that's how He accomplishes His purposes. Ask. Ask. Ezekiel you might want to
jot this down. We won't turn there because I'm
through but Ezekiel 36 33 through 38 God said I will yet be inquired
of Israel To do this thing for them he already said before he
said it he said I'm gonna do it and Then he said you're gonna
ask me to do it. And then he said again, I'm gonna
do it Isn't that how he does thing? Verse 19. 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 again, the teaching here is not to presume upon God's
grace nor attribute to one sinner the salvation of another. We
know better than that. You're not going to save anybody.
I'm not going to get anybody saved and neither are you. But
as God's means, he can use us in correcting a brother from
error. And he does do that at times. We cannot, of course,
correct anybody for anything. We can't even do that except
as God uses us to do so. And the teaching here is to understand
what's at stake here in this. When a brother or a sister errs
from the truth, that's destructive to that person. You're saving
them from death, possible death, possible sorrow and woe. But
it's also destructive to all the church. And that's what he
said here, pray for them, restore them. If a brother be overtaken
in a fault, restore such in one, considering thyself, lest thou
be tested also. Their trial, their testing may
become a testing for you to see how you're gonna react in a situation.
Are you gonna condemn them? Are you gonna kick them while
they're down? Or are you gonna pray for them and lift them up?
And that's what he's saying here. Pray for them, restore them,
help them if you can. Don't condemn and judge them,
but be a blessing to them. And so you see all through this
book of James how God is glorified in the kind of faith that he
gives and how that faith acts. It depends upon God. It prays
to God. In general and in all of these
specifics that he gave toward the end of the chapter here,
we go to God for what we need. Without Him, we can do nothing.
We depend upon Him for everything. I need Thee every hour. We need
His grace every moment. It's his grace that keeps us
from falling. It's his grace from that keeps
us from from from from hating one another and from for from
being an offense to one another. It's his grace that causes us
to sing when we're when we have reason to, which is always if
you're his and it's his grace that causes us to bow at his
feet when we have need. And this is how faith acts. It
doesn't rely on the flesh. We have no confidence in this
flesh. but we rejoice in Christ Jesus. Amen.