Could you turn back to James
chapter 5 and after the service if some men could set up tables
for the bridal shower Saturday. I want to read this verse of scripture
again. James chapter 5 verses 14 and 15. 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. If these two verses simply refer
to physical healing, the healing of a physical sickness, it would always work when the
man is prayed for with the prayer of faith. It would always work. And if it didn't work, that means
the ones who did the praying didn't have enough faith. Their
faith came up short somehow, and that is why it didn't work. You just don't have enough faith.
Now the example I thought of, and I'm glad he's not here tonight,
is Tom Wooten. He carries around that oxygen
with him. Has difficult time breathing. Carries that oxygen
with him. Now if I pray for him to be healed
of this, I can't remember what it's called, the disease he has.
If I pray for him to be healed with the prayer of faith and
he is not healed, Well, there was something defective about
my prayer, wasn't there? If that is exactly what this
means, the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And somebody may
be thinking, well, sometimes it's not the Lord's will for
someone to be healed. You know, they're sick and you
pray for them that they'll be healed and it doesn't happen.
Perhaps it was not the Lord's will for that person to be healed. Now, that may be true, but it
still says the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And let's
say I prayed for Tom and he could put that oxygen thing down. You know, in miraculous healing,
it's not some kind of gradual, we get a little bit better and
a little bit better. No, I mean, he would just totally
be healed. Let's say that did happen. He's still going to die
of something. He's still going to get some
kind of disease, some kind of sickness that's going to kill
him. Now, sickness. Is any sick among
you? As a matter of fact, that's what
I entitled this message. Is any sick among you? I can say from experience that
the most blessed times of my life has been in sickness. I've never experienced such joy,
such favor from the Lord, such blessedness as when I was physically
the worst. Now, I can say that from experience. Now, why did James say the prayer
of faith shall save the sick? Why didn't he say the prayer
of faith shall heal the sick? Why did he use this word? It's
the same word that is used in Ephesians chapter two, verse
eight, for by grace you are saved. He didn't say the prayer of faith
shall heal the sick here. He said the prayer of faith shall
save the sick. In a child of God, You listen
to this statement real carefully. In all children of God, sin is
a sickness. Have you ever felt that? Like
you have the disease of sin? The horrible sickness of sin? That's the way it feels to you.
Oh, I'm sick. I'm sick. I'm sick of myself.
I'm sick of my sin. My sin makes me sick. Every believer
has made statements and have thought that about themselves.
Is any sick among you? Right here. Yep. I'm one of them. Is any sick among you? Now, when
you see sickness in your children, how does it make you feel? Are you mad at them? What'd you
get sick for? What's your problem? No, you
feel compassion. You feel mercy toward them. And you don't look at that sickness
as a part of your child. You look at that sickness as
invading your child, don't you? You don't associate that sickness
with the person of your child. That's a foreign element that's
come in and attacked your child. And you hate that sickness. But you know the Lord, when he
sees his children and the sin in his children, he says, my
child is sick. and he has compassion toward
his sick children. And he doesn't look at that sin
really as part of his child. That's a foreign invasion upon
my child. Sin is a disease in a believer. Turn with me for a moment to
Matthew chapter 8. Now, are you saying that this
doesn't have anything to do with when you're sick to ask the Lord
to heal you or call upon people to pray for you? No, do that.
Do that. If you're going to be healed,
the Lord heals you. He uses means. He always uses means. But yeah,
if you are sick, Lord, heal me. Heal me. Sick of mind, sick of
body, sick of soul, whatever kind of sickness it is. Lord,
heal me. We're called upon to ask the
Lord. When one of you are sick, you
want, Lord, heal him. Heal him. This is not saying
we don't pray about sicknesses, but look here in Matthew chapter
eight. I think this is so interesting. Beginning in verse 14. And when Jesus was coming to
Peter's house, he saw his mother's wife laid and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand and the
fever left her. And she arose and ministered
unto them. When the evening was come, they
brought unto him many. that were possessed with devils,
and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that
were sick, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the
prophet, saying, himself took our infirmities and bear our
sicknesses. Now, if you look at Isaiah 53,
that's not the way Isaiah said it. As a matter of fact, turn
with me there. Hold your finger there. Isaiah
53. Verses four and five. Surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he
was wounded. for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes were healed. Now, does that sound
like sicknesses when he's saying that? No, he says he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
But when Matthew quotes this, he quotes it as diseases and
sicknesses. Now what that lets me know is
sin to the believer is a sickness, and it is a disease. Now some have maintained that
physical healing is included in the atonement, and it is, but not in this life. One of these days, I'm going
to have a glorified body that is not sick, and even better,
it's sinless. The first line of that song was,
waiting for my body that will never sin. Now that is what every
believer, yes, healing is included in the atonement, but as far
as physical healing, Not yet. And really, when Isaiah is speaking
of this, it doesn't really have anything to do with physical
healing. He's talking about, turn with me, 1 Peter 2. Peter
quotes Isaiah 53. 1 Peter 2, verse 24. who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that
we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes you shall be healed. Not what it says, is it? By whose
stripes you were healed. When Christ said, it is finished,
every believer was healed of this disease of sin. Now this scripture in James chapter
5 has been so abused, and it's one of those scriptures that
the Lord gives you enough rope to hang yourself on if that's
what you want. Somebody says, would the Lord do something like
that? Sure he would. Sure he would. It says, God shall send
them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie, that they
all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure
in unrighteousness. Second Thessalonians 2.10, sure
he would. And this is a passage of scripture
that has been used and abused in a very strong way like that. Now, is there any sick among
you? Back to our text in James chapter
five. Is there any sick among you?
Sick of body? Diseased? Sick of mind? Sick of soul? Yes, it could be
cancer. It could be heart disease. It
could be diabetes. But Paul also used the word like
this when we were yet without strength in due time. Christ died for the ungodly.
It's used to describe those who are weak in faith. That's the
same word, sick in faith. He that's weak in the faith,
receive ye but not to doubtful disputations. It's used to describe
the impotent man in John chapter five, utterly impotent, without
power. Paul used the word like this,
when I am weak, then am I strong. And this was after He had that
thorn in the flesh and he said, oh, remove this from me. He asked
the Lord three times to do it. He said, it's a messenger of
Satan buffeting me. And he asked the Lord to remove
it. And the Lord didn't say no, but he did say this, my grace
is sufficient for thee. You're gonna have to be satisfied
to be saved by grace. Is that okay? Oh, that's blessed. My grace is sufficient for thee.
And that's why Paul said, I'm glad when I'm weak, because when
I'm weak, then am I strong. Is any sick, physically sick,
sin sick, sickened by this horrible disease, sin? And like I said,
that's what it is in a believer. It's a disease. It's a disease
I inherited. It's a disease I was born with.
It's a disease that's all my fault. Brought on by me. Well, how could
you be born with it and how can it be inherited and you say it's
your fault. Well, it is. It is. That's all
I know how to say. Both things are true. I was born
with it. I inherited it from my parents,
from my first parent, Adam. And it is all my fault. I can't
blame, I can't say, well, at least it's not my fault. I don't
have any responsibility in this. No. You know, disease is brought
on by sin. Well, my sin is brought on by
sin. My disease of sin is brought
on by sin. Now, What does he say for this
sick person to do? Is any sick among you? I am. I don't know how many times
I've thought that about myself. I'm sick. I'm sick. Is any sick among you? What's
he called on to do? 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. Let him call on the elders of
the church." Now, does that mean different pastors of different
churches, or does that mean some kind of plurality of elders?
I don't know. I really don't know. I know there's
only one pastor. There's not five pastors. There's not six
pastors. There's one pastor. The Bible doesn't say whether
a local church has to have a plurality of elders, a number of elders
here or not. The Bible doesn't really give
any instructions on that. But he says, call for these elders.
It could mean more mature believers. Now, look in verse 16. Confess
your faults. James 5, verse 16. Confess your
faults one to another and pray for one another that you might
be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much. Now, I don't take man praying
for me, don't you? The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much. That's the man I want praying
for me. A man who's righteous before God, having the righteousness
of Christ, and that prayer inwrought in his heart by God, and it availing
much. That's who I want praying for
me. Let him call for the elders of the church. Pray for me. Pray
for me. and let them pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord. Now, many look at this verse and they
go on down into verse 16 and say, here's the scenario. You're
sick because of some sin in your life. And that's the reason behind
sickness, and ultimately it is the reason behind sickness. If
you didn't have sin, you'd never get sick, would you? But they're
saying, kind of like Job's friends were, remember Job's friends?
They were always saying, the reason all this stuff is happening
to you is because some kind of sin is in your life. And until
you get it straightened out, this stuff is gonna continue.
And what we're calling this person who has become sick because of
their sin, what they need to do is get with the elders of
the church, confess the sin, ask them to forgive it, and ask
so they can be restored back into fellowship and everything
will be okay. I wonder when I was in the hospital
about a month ago, wonder how many people were thinking, wonder
what he did? What'd he do to get in a condition like that?
He must have committed some kind of horrible sin and he's being
punished for it or he's being chastened for it. Well, let me
say this. Let me say this. If I was being
punished or chastened for it, I deserved it. I deserve it. I wouldn't say that for a second,
but I just don't believe that that's what this passage of scripture
is teaching. If you're sick, the Lord gave you that sickness
and he gave it for your good and his glory. And it's all a
part of those things that work together for good to them that
love God and to them who are called according to his purpose.
Now, when he says, let them pray over them, anointing them with
oil in the name of the Lord, If you're sick, let's say you
get really sick, should you call on me and say, come pray for
me and anoint me with oil in the name of the Lord? What does
that really mean? Now turn to Mark chapter six. The apostles did this. Mark chapter
six, verse 13. And they cast out many devils,
and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. The
apostles did this, didn't they? They anointed with oil many that
were sick, and they healed them. Now here's my question, before
I go on to try to give an explanation of this. The apostles had supernatural
ability to heal, given to them by Christ, didn't they? They
could lay their hands upon somebody, And that person they laid their
hands on was healed. I mean, if someone was born crippled
or born blind, and they would lay hands on them and do something
for them, they would be healed immediately. They wouldn't get
up and just, no, they'd get up and leap and walk. It was just
a miraculous healing, and they had the ability to do that. Now,
turn to Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter 8. Now, Philip had gone to Samaria
and preached the gospel, and a great revival took place. Many
were made to believe. And Philip and John come, and John and Peter come. Philip was
the one doing the preaching, he was not an apostle. John and
Peter come, and they start laying their hands on people, and all
of a sudden they started having these supernatural gifts. Now
look in verse 18. When Simon saw that through the
laying on of, what? The apostles' hands. Now God
the Holy Spirit points that out. You know, Philip couldn't lay
his hands on someone and cause them to have these supernatural
gifts of healing. He couldn't do it. He wasn't
an apostle. Only the apostles could do this. No one else. And so when the
apostles died, that gift was over. If someone claims to have
the gift of healing, they are phonies and frauds. And the entire charismatic movement
is satanic. It's of the devil. There's no
truth to it. These men who claim to be apostles
are liars, phonies, and frauds. And if somebody did have the
gift of healing, why don't you go into a hospital and really heal
somebody? I mean, if you have the gift
of healings, you ought to go into any of the hospitals in town
and all the sick people come and heal them. They can't do
that because they're frauds. It's all phony. So this man praying over them
would not have the ability to heal. So what is this anointing
of oil all about? Well, throughout the Scriptures,
oil is used medicinally. Remember the Good Samaritan?
The guy laying in the ditch? What's he do? He pours in oil
and wine. What this is symbolic of is the
use of means. Are you sick? Go to the doctor. That's the use of means. If you're
healed, God healed you, but he uses means. Are you sick? Take your medicine. I want to
believe God to heal me without the medicine. Well, that's foolishness. Take your medicine. Do you need
surgery? You need to have something cut
out? Have it cut out. God is a God of means. Use the means. Somebody says,
I want to believe God for a garden. And I'm not going to plow the
land. I'm not going to plant any seeds.
I'm not going to water it. I'm not going to do anything.
I'm just going to believe God for a garden. Why, that's utter
foolishness. Have you ever heard anybody say
anything that foolish? No, you don't hear people. But yet people
say it religiously. I'm going to believe God to heal
me without the means. Wouldn't that glorify God more
if no means were used and He just miraculously healed me?
I'm just going to believe God to heal me. Use the means. God is a God of means. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Well, couldn't God say
without preaching? Of course He could. Is anything
too hard to the Lord? Of course He could. The question
is not can He, but does He? No. No. He does what He says
He's going to do in His Word. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. So the anointing of
oil represents the use of means, use the medicine. It's used that
way throughout the scripture. But notice it says, is any sick
among you? Let him call for the elders of
the church and let them pray over him. And I want you to pray
for me. You know, when I was in the hospital,
I hope you were praying for me. praying for my, I want to pray
for you when you're sick. I want you to pray for me because
of my sin sickness. And I want to pray for you because
of your sin sickness. And every believer, I think this is so
remarkable, sin in a believer is a sickness. It's a sickness. And the Lord has compassion on
His children. Just like you'd have compassion
on your sick children. It's a sickness. It's foreign
to them. It's not part of them. I'm the
new man in Christ Jesus that the Lord loves. That old man?
That's a sickness. That's a sickness that we hate. But notice He says, let Him anoint
him with oil in the name of the Lord. When we ask the Lord to do something
for us, we ask it in Christ's name, don't we? We don't dare come in our own
name. We don't dare come in our own righteousness or in our own
merits. Whatever we ask the Lord to do, we come in His name. It works like this. Be ye kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for what?
For Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. We come in His name. Now look at verse 15. And the prayer of faith shall
save the sick. Now, once again, this is one
of those things that have been so abused. You really got to
believe if you're going to pray to be healed or if you're going
to pray for someone to be healed, you've got to really believe
it's going to happen. And it won't do you good. Like I know
one man that he prayed for his eyes to be healed. He took his
glasses off. He said it won't do me any good
to not trust God to do this. He took his glasses off, got
in his car and had a wreck. Had a wreck. Couldn't see. Had
a wreck. And he was wanting to believe
God. And I admire that. I admire that. And he said, well,
I want to believe God. But the thing is, don't remember
in the previous chapter in chapter 4 when we're taught, don't say,
I'm going to go somewhere and be there a year and do this and
that. And know if the Lord will, we'll do this. And with regard
to praying for whatever, Lord, if it be your will, heal me. If it be your will, heal so and
so. Whatever the Lord's will is,
we really believe in the supremacy of his will. What is the prayer
of faith? I got it. If you will, you can make me
clean. And that's the prayer of faith.
That leper, full of leprosy, full of the leprosy of sin, he
came into the Lord's presence and he worshipped. Oh, the Lord's
to be worshipped. I'm so sure the Lord is to be
worshipped. Whatever he does with me, he's
worthy of worship. Lord, he worshipped him. Lord,
if you will, you can. You have the ability. to make
me clean. That's the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith is
believing the gospel. Thy faith hath saved thee. Now faith always works. You hear that? Faith always works. And there's a reason why faith
always works. Because of the object of faith. Christ Jesus the Lord. You see,
it's not your faith, the strength of your faith, or the weakness
of your faith that saves you. It's Christ that saves you. Can
you believe that? Your healing is not dependent
upon the greatness of your faith or the weakness of your faith.
Your healing is dependent upon His will and His ability to heal
you. Now that's the prayer of faith. The prayer
of faith shall save the sick. Now you trust Christ to save
you, and you're saved! Is that clear? I don't care how
sick you are. I don't care how sin sick you are, if you can
enter into this. To him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. You believe the gospel, you've
been healed. You've been saved. And look what
it says in verse 15. In the prayer of faith shall
save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. Now, I'll use myself again. A month
ago, I was on my back. I was on my back in bed. I was
very sick. One night, I even thought I was
going to die. I was very sick. And what the Lord did? He raised
me up. through the use of means, through
the antibiotics I was taking, the doctors I was seeing, and
the others, all through the use of means, but the Lord raised
me up. But I want you to know this, I was raised when Christ
was raised. Turn with me to Ephesians 2 for
a moment. The Lord shall raise him up. Verse four, but God, who is rich
in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are saved. And hath
raised us up together with Christ and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Now I love that. You know when
I was raised? when Christ was raised. I was
in Him. When He was raised, I was raised. I was raised up when
I was born again. I was dead in sins. Totally dead. Had no interest in God, no interest
in the gospel, no understanding. And I was raised from the dead.
And one of these days, I'm really going to be raised up. And when
I'm raised then, you know what? I'll be plum healed. I'll be
completely healed of all sickness, of all sin. The Lord shall raise
him up. I'll have a glorified body, perfectly
conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, complete satisfaction
in beholding his face and awaking in his likeness. Don't you love
that scripture in Psalm 715? I'll behold thy face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. And it says in verse 15, if he
had committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Like I said,
everybody that I read implied that this sickness has been brought
on by some kind of sins you've committed. And that's the reason
you're sick. And those will be forgiven you
if you go through the process of going to the elders and confessing
your faults and all that kind of stuff. He hath committed sins. Now let
me ask you a question about that word if. If he hath committed
sins? If? What if I said regarding
you now, if you've committed sins, what would your conscience
say? You'd say, I have committed sins. There's no question about
that. Do you know this word, if, four
times, it's only found 13 times in the New Testament, this particular
word that is translated if, four times, it's translated though. Though he hath committed sins,
they shall be forgiven. Though he hath committed sins. And the word committed, I think
this is very interesting. The verb committed is a participle. Now, the language is very exact
and it's very important. I don't want to get technical,
but the word is a participle. What is a participle? A participle
takes both the nature of an adjective and a verb. Here's what he is. This is the description of him.
This is the adjective. He's committed sins. And this
is the verb. This is what he does. He's committed
sins. Now that's the way the language
works. Not if he has committed sins, but though he has committed
sins. What does the Bible say about
those sins? They shall be forgiven. They shall be forgiven. Blotted
out. Canceled. They are no more. They shall be forgiven. Now the
only way a believer is to look at his sins is as forgiven sins. All of them forgiven sins. Though he hath committed sins,
they shall be forgiven. Now, this is a special promise. Yeah, I'm not going to take away
from praying for the sick. I pray for the sick every day.
I pray for you're sick. I'm praying for you. The Lord
heal you. I want the Lord to heal you. I'm not taking away from the
emphasis of praying for the sick, but that's really not the primary
purpose of this passage of Scripture. To a believer, sin is a sickness. We feel it to be so, a miserable
sickness, and we're asking the Lord to heal us, heal our loved
ones of this sickness. I sure feel comfortable looking
at this passage this way, and if you look at it merely as physical
healing, you've got some problems, because evidently you don't have
faith, or your faith's not good enough, because you pray for
people and they end up dying. So I'm sure that this is the
meaning of this passage of Scripture. Let's pray together. Lord, we feel the sickness of
sin. Lord, we feel physical sickness.
And we know that You're in control of that. Lord, we feel the sickness
of sin. And we pray for healing and salvation. And how we thank You that by
his stripes we were healed. Now Lord, bless this message
for our good and your glory. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.