Well, it's been, I hope it's been a blessing for you. I know it's been a blessing for us, those who have the privilege of preaching week by week. But James has been a real, you know, a real good study here in terms of clearly calling us to a high level of discipleship. Calls us to trust the Lord and seek Him in wisdom. to not quarrel or fight, not show partiality, not have consideration for just the rich or the poor, but no, to have control over our own passions, to kill our sin and fight against our sin, to go to the Lord in prayer, to listen to the word when it's preached and taught, but not seek to be teachers. Not many of us should seek to be teachers, only those who are called and appropriately ordained. There's just so much in here. We shouldn't be friends with the world, right? We should be friends with God, but not friends with the world. We should be enemies of the world. There's so much here that the Lord has taught us through this through this book of James. And so even in the last section that we were talking about in chapter five, he was calling us to endure through suffering, to have patience and steadfastness because the Lord is coming back. He's coming back soon. So we need to be ready for him to come back soon. We need to endure through suffering. But as we are finishing up here, we're gonna have this section, starting in verse 13 through 20, where the main idea that holds these verses together is this idea of prayer. Prayer is so important in the life of the church, in the life of a believer, but in the life of us together as well. And so, as we've seen in other parts of James, James likes to and often quotes or alludes to some of the teaching that Jesus himself has taught. And we're gonna see that James, just like Jesus who taught on prayer, is going to give us very significant, important things for us to consider when regarding the topic of prayer Very practical, very straightforward, and yet necessary for us to be engaging in. I pray you'd be encouraged and challenged this morning. And so as we seek to get into this topic, we're just gonna ask a very simple question. What are we to learn about prayer? What do we learn about prayer from this section? There's gonna be several different parts to it. We'll have three points, but there's a lot to say here. So let's see, what are we to learn about prayer from James in James chapter five? Well, if you're taking notes, you can put this down if it's helpful. It's that believers ought to pray for themselves in all types of circumstances. Believers ought to pray for themselves in all types of circumstances. Let's just read. the very first verse, in verse 13. What does he say? Is anyone among you, he's talking about Christians now, is anyone among you believers, suffering? Any of you experiencing difficulty or hardship? The word is often translated affliction, which is a general word, meaning just hardships. Does your life have difficult things in it? What are you to do when life is hard? Well, he says, let him pray. It's a really simple thing. In fact, unfortunately, in our day and age, people have come to really dislike, you know, cliches. Oh, that's so cliche. Right, but it's one of those things where it's cliche, meaning it gets said often. Oh, it's the typical answer people give. It's often the case that cliches are probably true. One of the Christian cliches, if you will, is, well, have you prayed about it? Have you gone to the Lord in prayer? You know, you're going through difficulty. Maybe you're hearing somebody talk about difficulty in their life, difficulty with a relationship, difficulty with their health, difficulty at work, difficulty in all kinds of ways. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, brother. I'm so sorry to hear that, sister. Have you been praying to the Lord? Has he encouraged your soul? Has he brought you strength? Has he given you discernment and wisdom and knowledge as you pray and as you read his word and as you pray his word back to him? This is a simple and yet fundamental part of what it means to live a Christian life. When we go through difficulties of various kinds, we can pray. We should pray and we must pray. That word ought, when we looked at this, believers ought to pray. That means we must. It's something that we're called to do. It's not something that's optional. We must pray. Now, many of us maybe do pray. In fact, maybe some of us pray only during suffering. We pray because things get hard, and we're not praying maybe in other parts of life, but when things get hard, we go, ouch, ooh, God, please help. Oh, ouch, ouch, God, please help. Maybe we do go to Him when things are hard, when we're sad or when we're mad. But what we're gonna see here, suffering, affliction, difficulties, we are to go to God. He does hear our prayers. We are to lay out our heart and to ask Him. Just think of the psalmist. I mean, the psalms are just prayers, right? They're prayers, they're songs to God from our heart to Him, whether individual or from a group. But it doesn't stay in just the category of suffering. Notice this next part also brings in joy and rejoicing. It says, is anyone cheerful? Hey, are you sad and discouraged, going through difficulties? Then brother, sister, pray to the Lord. Ask for help, ask for perspective, ask for strength. He loves you, He knows you, He sees you, He's with you, He's available. But not just when you think you only when you need Him. Praise Him in the good times. Are you happy? Give Him glory. Give Him, point out that the reason why you are joyful is because of Him. It's because of His blessing in your life. And so when you go, wait, let him sing praise. So is it prayer or is it singing? Did you know that every time we get up together and we sing, that it is a form of prayer? Did you know that? Singing is a form of prayer. Prayer can be to music or it could be just on our own. But the prayer is that we are lifting up our hearts to God. And sometimes you could do that with music, and sometimes you do that by yourself. But singing is a form of prayer. In fact, it's an appropriate thing to do. Even non-Christians, unbelievers do this, right? We see this, and it's kind of sometimes made light of in different movies or something. When somebody is really excited, maybe they have a romantic interest. Well, what happens? Well, all of a sudden, this guy who's not normally a singer, all of a sudden is ready to give a serenade to a woman outside of a window. La, la, la, la. Why? Because he's so happy. He's so excited. He's willing to sing. He's willing to be cheerful, right? It's actually God put this in our humanity, that when we are cheerful and glad and excited, that a natural response is to sing praise. We should be singers, all of us, not just merely on a worship team. All of us are the worship team, you realize that? When we come together, the congregation is the singing. And the wonderful servants up here, they just help us sing. It's not about them, it's about us singing to the Lord with our hearts, amen? And so what are we called to do? We are called in all types of circumstances from the hardest of hard to the highest of joys and everything in between. we are to go to God in prayer. We see that James, it makes sense that this is the end of his book, and last chapter, he's already talked quite a bit about prayer in different circumstances. Let me just remind us of some of them. In the very first chapter, chapter one, verses six through eight, what is, or verses five through eight, it says, if anyone lacks wisdom, Let him ask God, right? And who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. Pray to God when you need something. Pray to God when you're in difficulty. Pray to God when you're excited. Pray to God all the time, in all circumstances. But, he says in verse six, but there's right and wrong ways to pray. We're not to pray to God with doubting. Let him ask in faith. Let him believe that God who is there, you believe he's there, you believe he hears you, that's in faith, and you believe that he will answer you in faith, and you believe that whatever that answer is will be for your good. This is what it means to pray in faith, not just like, oh, I don't know if God will hear me, or I don't know if this does anything, or I don't know if, no, we're not supposed to be Not confident, we are to really place our faith and trust in Christ and his person and in his work and knowing that he hears us, knowing that he will bless us. But his works are his works, he's sovereign. And so we must accept whatever his answers are in our prayer. He's saying don't pray like a non-Christian. Don't pray like an unstable person, pray like a stable person. Don't pray like, oh, I hope this works, but I'm not sure. Non-Christians do that. Don't do that, he says. No, if you need something, you have a heavenly father, he gives good gifts to you. This good giving God never changes. And so he will hear your prayer, no matter what the circumstance. It's like James is kind of wrapping up his stuff on prayer. All circumstances pray. The lowest of low, the highest of high, everything in between. He's there. He's for you. James chapter four, verses two and three also talks about prayer. He says, you desire and do not have, so you murder. You get mad, you get angry, and so you murder in your heart. You covet and cannot obtain. You wish you had other people's stuff, but you can't, and so what do you do? You fight and you quarrel with your fellow believers. You do not have because you do not ask, meaning in prayer. You don't ask God for the right things, you're just being selfish. This is another example of prayer that he talks about. And in verse three, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. So we are to pray in all circumstances from the highest of high, the lowest of low, knowing that he hears us, praying in faith, and yet realizing that our person, our passions, can steer us in the wrong way. We are not to just pray for anything in any old way. No, we are to pray, not selfishly, we are to pray for God's will to be done. Now, we come to God asking for our requests, of course, but we're not asking selfishly, we're asking for God's will. That's what we should be doing in this season of prayer and fasting. Lord. Please have your will in our church. Affirm these men. Give me the right appropriate confidence to be able to say these are the men that you've called us to be led by, to be submitting ourselves to, to be receiving counsel from and teaching from, that I will call them in times of need, that I will believe and trust in how you're working through their counsel and their testimony. Lord, for your will's sake, for your church's sake, for the benefit of your church, for the benefit of our souls, We're supposed to pray God's will. And so, what does he do? He says, pray. If a man is suffering, let him pray. I appreciated this comment about the suffering, the affliction that James says. I'm going to be quoting from Curtis Vaughn several times. It's very, very helpful in our study this week. show this part here, to those who are afflicted. It says, in the question, in the question, is any among you afflicted? The reference is to those afflicted with any kind of trouble, whether bodily, or mental, personal, or domestic, arising from ordinary trials, or spiritual conflict, or religious persecution. He's just saying anything, anything, if there's anything difficult at all, Pray to God. It shows you the relational nature that we're supposed to have with God. It's like all forms of difficulty, all of them are covered. Go to the Lord, ask him for help. He's there, he's ready, he's willing, he hears you, he's available. And it says the Greek word means to suffer misfortune or to have hard experiences. What is the proper attitude for the Christian under such circumstances? James answers, let him pray. We should keep on praying. That's the thing, let him pray. Let him pray and pray and pray. Let him keep on praying, the sense of the word is. Prayer, to be sure, may not always remove the affliction, but in that case, it always brings the sufferer grace to bear it. Even then, when we pray, Lord, help me through this affliction. Lord, remove this affliction from me. Get me out of this difficult situation. We might pray that, and guess what? There's plenty of prayers like that in the Psalms. Lord, remove this from me. But, God may remove it. But he may not, just like Paul. When Paul asked for this thorn to be taken out, he's gonna say that later here. It says, as Isaiah put it, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, Isaiah 40, 31. And this was Paul's experience in reference to his thorn in the flesh. God did not remove the thorn, but he assured him, my grace is sufficient for you. And so prayer is always effective. Can we understand that? Prayer is always effective. It is. And what I mean by that is not that you will get what you want or ask for, but if you are praying in faith, if you're asking, if you're coming to the Lord and saying, Lord, I want to honor you. You've called me to pray. I want to obey you. So Lord, could you please help me in this situation? Would you give me whatever you think I need, and would you bring the people in my life to give me confidence and clarity, or would you just put me on the path? I want to be pleasing to you." Guess what? He can and will answer these prayers, and sometimes He'll answer them clearly and loudly, and things will just happen in ways that you can't deny. And there are other times where He'll bring you along a pathway where you'll have to continue to pray, you'll have to persist in prayer, and like, Lord, you want me to do this, and you read it in the word, and you get it confirmed there, and then you talk to other Christians for godly wisdom and discernment, and you get that, and then you go on a path, well, this would be a godly, prudent thing to do, keep going, and then you just keep persisting in prayer. God calls us to do that. So let me ask you, do you pray in all types of circumstances, or only when things get hard? Do you pray in all types of circumstances? In the hard, yes. Do you even pray in the hard times? Or maybe you don't go to prayer, maybe you go towards fixing stuff yourself. Maybe you go towards despair, maybe you go towards anger, maybe you go towards sadness. And instead of praying, there's a sense of wallowing, a sense of stuckness, a sense of anxiety or discontentment. Maybe you don't go to God in prayer. Do you go to God in prayer in all types of circumstances? This is what we're called to, this is what it means to be a Christian, this is what true and undefiled religion looks like. It looks like trusting the Lord, following His word, going to Him, He's our God, He's our Savior, He has all power and might for us, and believing in Him more than our circumstances. Believing that He is the God of the universe and the God of providence, that He is working out the details of our lives. Do you go to Him when you're sad? Do you go to Him when you're happy? Do you go to Him when you're bored? Well, there should be an ongoing conversation with God. And that's not meant to make you feel like you're failing. That's meant to just remind us and encourage us we really can have this kind of life with God. It's possible. Not only is it possible, it's the design. It's the design. So if we're not connecting to God in this way, let me encourage you, there's help and there's hope. There's help and there's hope. Prayer is something, it's a skill that needs to be learned. It's something that needs to be practiced. In fact, that's why in the scriptures when the disciples ask the Lord, teach us to pray. What does that mean? You need to be taught how to pray. You need to be taught what to pray, and how to pray, and where to pray, and how long to pray, and what to say, and what not to say, and how to manage your heart, and how to be aware of what's going on. It's okay, brother or sister, if you struggle in prayer. Good news, you can grow in this. You can have more victory in this. And prayer is one of those things that, it takes work, but when you, it's like anything else. When you make good habits and you work hard at setting time aside to pray every morning, or pray, you know, many of us pray during meals, maybe we pray during instances where people ask for it, maybe we pray right away in the moment, those are good habits. But we should be making habits of praying, and we can be making habits of praying by ourselves to the Lord, praying with our spouses or loved ones. We can have praying with the church together. We're going to be talking more about that in the next few verses. But good news, Christ knows us. He sees us. He prays for us. We're going to see that as well. But do you pray in all types of circumstances? That is what we're called to do. It reminds me of 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18. It says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Oh, pastor, what is God's will for my life? You know what God's will for your life is? That you'd give thanks in all circumstances. That you'd be praying in all kinds of ways. You'd be praying and rejoicing to the Lord no matter what. That's God's will for your life. Amen? Also reminds me of Psalm 31. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. This is what God calls us to do. So, what are we to learn about prayer? That believers ought to be praying in all different types of circumstances for themselves. Pray for yourself. It's not selfish to pray for yourself, meaning for the needs that you have and for the thoughts that you're having. Pray for yourself, but in a way that is pleasing to God. So let's look at the next point for this morning. What are we to learn about prayer from James? And we're to see this, not just praying for ourselves. Believers ought to be prayed for by the elders of the church. Believers ought to be prayed for by the elders of the church. Verse 14, is anyone among you sick? Notice it says, is anybody suffering? Is anybody cheerful? Is anyone sick? I mean, these are the basic parts of life, is it not? From happy to sad to hurting. Well, what does it say? Let him call the elders of the church. Interesting, are elders doctors? What's going on here? Well, in some ways, they actually play a role that they are ministers to the soul. They do have a doctoral, if you will, responsibility to pray for somebody's well-being. And it says, let them call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. There's much that could be said here. In fact, unfortunately, these verses, I don't know how familiar you are with them. People have different relationship to these verses. Some people don't know these verses at all, and they just go, oh wow, I didn't realize that there was a command in the Bible that says when I'm sick that I should call on the elders. Wow, I haven't been doing that, didn't know that at all. Good gravy, I'm behind the ball on this. Some people just don't know about these verses. Some people know about these verses but don't obey them. don't follow them. Some people know about these verses and make too much of them. They actually misunderstand them. In fact, unfortunately, this is one of those areas where Roman Catholic teaching has made a whole bunch of set of doctrines around these verses that we would just say are unnecessary and not true. But let me read this quote here from Curtis Fawn about this. It says, James first explains of the sick person, James first explains the responsibility, it's the responsibility of the sick person. Let him call for the elders of the church, verse 14. The presence of the elders at the bedside would not only add earnestness and fervency to their prayers. but would also hearten the afflicted person and make him more conscious of the effectiveness of prayer. Elders as church officers are mentioned in many passages in the New Testament, Acts 11, 14, 15, 20, Acts 21, Titus 1, and others. There's many, many examples of the elders and the elders even praying. The responsibility was pastoral oversight and spiritual leadership. The elders are mentioned specifically because they are the persons within the congregation who are above all others, should be men of prayer." We're talking about discerning what it means to be in this season. We're going to go over those in the next sermons, but let's go ahead and talk about some of that now. The elders are placed in the church for spiritual leadership, spiritual oversight. They are to be followed and submitted to and obeyed, but they have responsibilities to the congregation. They are to preach, they are to teach, and they are to pray. These are primary responsibilities of the church and of the elders in the church. They have a calling to pray for the needs of the church and pray for those saints who are in various different circumstances. But we see very clearly here, sickness, illness is one of those elevated type situations where the elders ought to be called. They ought to be understood as people who are called on to serve in this way. They ought to be known as men of prayer. In fact, some people go, well, does that mean that I have to call every time I get the sniffles? Is that what that means? Some people might say that. And did you know that people have been asking that question for hundreds and hundreds of years, ever since James was written? People are like, really? What do I need to call it? People have asked that. I'll just give you one of the many funny quotes that I read this week, but here's one. It says, the elders must not be sent upon every light occasion as soon as the head or foot aches, but in such grievous diseases wherein there is danger and great pain. So it's appropriate when a person is sick and their sickness is not getting better, right? There's certain sicknesses where it's like, oh, brother, sister, stay home, get rest, you know, have some soup, whatever you need to have, and we'll pray for you and with you, and may the Lord bless you and heal you, and we'll see you in a week or two, because that's how long it takes for the body to recover, and we'll be so glad to restore you during our times, we'll be together, and we'll praise the Lord how he heals. That's a normal thing, right? But there are times when it gets more elevated. There are times where a person really is struggling, where they're not getting better. They're in pain. They're in distress. We don't know if it's going to get better. That would be an appropriate time. You know what? This is not just a normal kind of weekly, monthly thing. No, let's call in for the elders. And even for healing, for comfort, for strength, because is it not true that when we get sick, we are tempted, when our bodies are not at their strongest, when we're at our weakest, that our mind often wanders, that our hearts often get sad or discouraged, that we might even get angry and short with other people? Isn't it true that when we're not feeling well, sometimes our spirituality goes out the window? Wouldn't it be appropriate then to have a spiritual father, a spiritual help to come in and to pray in your time of need and say, oh Lord, please help. Please, when you're not strong, I could be strong, we can be strong for you. Now it's true, other members can also be encouraging in that way. In fact, we're gonna talk about that in a little bit. But we have a clear command here. We have a clear example. that in times of difficulty, specifically even times of sickness and hurting, when there's healing that's needed, restoration that's needed, the elders are to be leading those things. They are to be at the front, if you will, of shepherding the sheep, of caring for the flock. Again, we can encourage and help each other, of course, but there is a sense of responsibility and even deference to how the elders are supposed to work, particularly even in prayer. In preaching and in prayer, the elders are to lead the church. They're to be leading those things. And so we see that clearly. In fact, it tells you what to do and even how to do it or how it is to be done. Let's read verse 14 again. It says, Boy, we should talk about this. I have to admit, this is a section in which I learned something this week. And in my study, I always learn something every week, of course. But I have to admit, this is one of the passages that I didn't realize that after further study, I think I didn't quite understand it to the best. But now that I've studied, I see things a little bit more clearly now with the help of previous pastors and qualifying men, theologians and such. What does this mean, the anointing hymn with oil in the name of the Lord? I don't know if you've been at a church that actually does physical anointing. We are a church, or at least in our history as a church, we have been that kind of a church. It's not something that we are, have, you know, talked about necessarily often, but it is one of those things. We have a history in our church of physically anointing people with oil based on this very clear passage, because it says it. Hey, if you're sick, call the elders, anoint them with oil. It seems pretty straightforward. There's a lot of questions, though, that have been asked about this particular passage and exactly what it means and exactly how to do these sorts of things. Let me read some more quotes that were helpful about anointing with oil. The anointing with oil has received disproportionate attention Because Roman Catholics have sought by this reference to justify the sacrament of extreme unction. I don't know if you've heard of that. It's kind of like last rites, where somebody's going to die on their deathbed. And they actually have made it into a sacrament called extreme unction based on these verses. And it is, however, a gross misinterpretation to understand this phrase as referring to a ceremony intended to prepare a sick man for death. Indeed, James implies in the following verse that God may be pleased to answer the elders' prayers to restore the suffering man to health. These verses are not talking about how to prepare a person before they die. These verses are talking about what happens when you get sick, even gravely sick. You are to call on the elders to come and pray for you, and they are to pray in faith for your healing. But we're gonna see, there's other verses that go on to say, about healing. There could be healing. It's not talking about their death. It's talking about what you do so that you don't die. Unfortunately, they've created a whole system of sacramentology regarding this. They call it a sacrament of the church. We only have two sacraments or two ordinances, baptism and Lord's Supper. There's only two. Those are the things that we think Christ set up for the church to do until he comes back. Those are the two things we're supposed to be doing. But the Roman Catholic system has seven of those. They've added more different doctrines that they say must happen. And if you don't do those doctrines, you're sinning. Well, we just think that those are the doctrines of men, a misinterpretation of Scripture, that we don't need to fall into those things. Here's something that was surprising to me, but I now see where it's coming from. It's actually good understanding of how to rightly interpret the word. Let me tell you the question. Are we required or is it necessary? Should we practice the anointing of oil? We have. Well, what do many others say? Here's Curtis again. He's quoting Manton now, Thomas Manton. who is a Puritan preacher, British Puritan preacher. He says, Manton says that the oil is a usual symbol of divine grace among the Hebrews. Yes, it's a symbol of divine grace. And was here an extraordinary sign of an extraordinary and miraculous cure. Thus, the anointing with oil was not the means of healing, but a symbol of healing. It was, according to Manton, not consistently practiced in apostolic times, and was not intended to be binding upon succeeding generations. The rite ceased when the gift of healing ceased." Let me talk to you about this. As we've studied this section, there's quite a bit of things to wade through, and one of them is, what exactly is the oil? What exactly are we called to understand this to mean? What is the oil doing? Is the oil efficacious by itself? And really, there's just a few kind of main categories is what is the oil? Is the oil... Medicinal like is the you know because a lot of people say oh oil olive oil was used often in in kind of doctoral uh you know arts healing arts people would use oil put like salve and so there are some healing in fact you might even see some of that in today's sort of natural uh medicinal you know practices that they use oil for those sorts of things it's true oil can and does have those properties are we supposed to understand that this is kind of like oil is really the same as medicine Go give them medicine. Is that what this is saying? Many people throughout history have taken that position. Another people have said, when you give oil, like the Roman Catholics, you can count on there being some sort of effective healing. That it's almost like a stamp or a promise that when you use the oil, because the oil in and of itself is blessed by God, therefore you can count on there being some sort of actual help or healing in the oil. And the position that many of our forefathers have taken, I would say most of all in the Protestant tradition, are saying, no, it's not medicinal, it's not automatic, but it's symbolic. Oil has been a symbol of God's blessing, of God's healing, of God's involvement. I mean, just even thinking of the idea of God's anointed one. The anointed one has to do with God has called a certain person for a certain work and his anointing him with oil is God's blessing on him, saying, I will be God's presence with you. When he anoints priests or when he anoints kings, it's saying, I'm with you. It's a symbolic understanding. And so that being the case, what we can see is when James says, call the elders to pray and have them pray anointing with oil in the name of the Lord, All you need to do is just read through Acts and see how many times that there was healings that took place in Acts. And what did they do? They prayed in the name of the Lord. They prayed in the name of the Lord. And this becomes an understanding of this is how the apostles were having signs and wonders, miraculous healings. And so this actually makes sense. If James is writing in the mid-40s, early on, and there absolutely was the apostles and their ministry taking place in Jerusalem, in other places, there were healings. We can just read it all through Acts. There was lots of healings. There was lots of signs and wonders. then it makes sense that this would have been a period of time where you could call on the elders, you could call on the apostles, the leaders of the church, they could pray and anoint you with oil because there were gifts of healing at the time. But there are no longer any gifts of healing in that same way. There are, let's be clear, God absolutely is still all-powerful and God can and does heal according to his own will, amen? He does heal, he does hear our prayers, and he does act upon these things when we go to him in faith. But the question is, are we to understand this kind of on the surface and say, oh, should we do this like they did it? And truth be told, I'll confess, that was my understanding previously. My understanding was kind of more simplistic. It was, well, it says it, so I'll do it. But now it actually, I think after reading some more brothers in the faith, let me just give some of these names. Thomas Manton, who I just were quoting here. Not just him, John Gill. We've talked about John Gill a lot. He's a particular Baptist from London. Matthew Henry, the whole Bible commentator that's really well known, Puritan. Matthew Poole, very helpful in his whole Bible commentary. John, Calvin, I mean, all of these guys, without fail, said the exact same thing, and it's not just because they said it, they're pointing out to the hermeneutical, the interpretational process that says, oh, this makes sense, based on what James is saying, in his particular time, that there would have been this oil anointing ministry of healing, and that's something you should call for if you're sick. You should call for the leaders of the church, elders, which would have included, think about Jerusalem. There were apostles in Jerusalem. Think about it, right? Therefore, their elders would have included apostles, would have included those who had the gift of healing when they were to call upon them. You see that? So it's appropriate to say, to see this background in the scriptures and go, oh, I hadn't thought about it that way. That actually is a thing. Like there was that time So let me just say this. Is it wrong to use oil? Is it like a sin to use oil? I would say no, it's not a sin to use oil, but we should understand what it is. It's a symbol. It's a symbol. It's not wrong, so I don't think there's anything wrong. I don't think we did anything wrong by using oil to pray and put people on. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But we shouldn't understand that just because we use oil, it's somehow more effective. We should say, no, it was always meant to be a symbolic act of saying, God is with you, God's power is for you, I'm praying in the name of the Lord, and according to his will, he will heal or not heal, but may God have his will and may you be blessed. That's what we're calling to do. And the elders are the ones who are called to do that. But let me keep on going here because there's more to this section about prayer and healing. It says, verse 15, and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. That seems to be a really positive thing. It's not about your deathbed. It's about, hey, pray. Call the elders. They'll come. They'll pray for you. They'll anoint. And what does it say? And the one who prays in faith will save. The one who's sick. And the Lord will raise him up. And if he's committed sins, he'll be forgiven. This seems to be, you can be encouraged that if you're in a difficult situation, you have somebody to call on who can come minister to you, and God's power will be with them. You see, this is not saying, hey, you're at your end of your rope, and you better be given last rites. This doesn't have anything to do with that. It has to do with the life of the church, how they should be in close communion with their leaders, and how their leaders should be ready and willing to serve them in their time of need. So then let me, and even there in the last part, it says, if the one who is sick, he will be saved and the Lord will raise him up. Some people have made light about the fact that that's, people go, oh, he will resurrect him. He'll bring him back from the dead. No, he's raise him up. He just, it literally means he will bring him to his feet. Like he was sick on his bed. Now he's walking around again, right? Like he'll be helped. And it says, and if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven. Here's another thing we must say. Are you familiar with the passage where people asked about the man who had the infirmity and he said, Jesus, who sinned, this man or his parents? Right? And Jesus says, neither. It wasn't because of sin that this man is ailing. It's because the glory of God would be shown in his healing. Right? So we can make an understanding that just because somebody is sick doesn't mean it's because their sin, that the sin is making them sick. We need to make sure we understand that. But at the very same time, Sometimes when you are sinning, it can make you sick. I mean, it's true that it can be true, but it's also true that it might be something else. You might just be living in a fallen world where there's sickness, and so we can't always blame somebody being sick because they're sinning actively or something. It just may be. But why does he bring up then that if he's committed sins, he'll be forgiven? It's because we should be aware that, hey, maybe there is something going on in our life. When we are sick and we're needy and we're weak, that is a wonderful time to say, Lord, I need your help. And is there anything else in my life that needs to be cleaned too? Sickness, physical sickness, gives us an opportunity to do inventory spiritually. It does. What do we do? We can't work when we're sick. What can you do? You can lay there and you can think. Well, that's a good time to be in prayer. That's a good time to be thinking, oh Lord, when I regain my strength, please help me not to be a knucklehead again. I've been doing this or that. Oh, I need to, you know, you have time to think. Maybe you don't because you're tired and you want to sleep. That's okay too, but no, it's appropriate. Is there anything else that we should remedy while we're here? Not just your physical body, is there anything else spiritually? That's an appropriate time to think about confessing sin. In fact, it really just lines up with the promise when it says, if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. When he confesses them, 1 John 1, 9, it says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we see this. So, question, that part previous, when it says, when he's praying for him, if anyone is sick, and he anoints him with oil, that the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, is this God promising us that any time a person prays, that they will get healing automatically? No, we've already said that's not the case. I appreciated this quote here from A.E. Byrd. He said, is this a promise of healing every time? Some argue that healing is in the atonement. Isaiah 53 verse 5 says, references the atonement and healing. And therefore, no Christian need be sick. That's what some people say. But James speaks of anyone of you being sick in verse 14. While it is true that healing is in the atonement, not everything in the atonement is the present possession of the Christian. We haven't yet received our resurrection bodies, for example. One of the reasons Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead was a sign that the new age had begun. There will be a new heaven and a new earth in which all sin and all evil, all suffering, all sickness and death will be eradicated, praise the Lord. But that is in the future, when he comes a second time to consummate his kingdom. Indeed, most of the blessings of the kingdom are future. We do receive some blessings now, pardon, forgiveness of sin, reconciliation, the gift of the Holy Spirit. These are blessings won for us at Calvary. However, the time when there will be no sickness is in the future, part of the not yet. Nevertheless, the passage here encourages us to seek divine healing now as an encouragement to hope, to faith and hope. So no, this is not a promise that every time somebody prays you'll get healed, but it is a promise that God is with us, and that he hears us, and that this is what we are to do. We are to seek God in prayer, call the elders, and to do this. So let me just ask you now as we consider this. I mean, just very practically speaking, how often do you call on the elders for prayer? I mean, this is a command, this is a very clear example of what you're called to do. When's the last time you called on the elders for prayer? This is what it means to be in a right church relationship. Some of us, maybe some of us are doing it. I know there's a couple of you who are doing it because I pray with you, right? I've met with you and I know that to be the case. So praise the Lord that you're doing that. I don't know if you were doing it because of James 5, but you've been doing it. That's wonderful. But there's others of you I know who don't, I don't get calls from. It may be because, what, many different reasons. Is it because you didn't know that this was a thing? Or was it because maybe you're too embarrassed or don't want to bring in, you know, somebody who's considered a leader or an elder in the church? you know, is there some, I don't know, weakness or vulnerability that you don't want to be showing in front of a leader? Want to always look strong or something? Or maybe there's just a sense of, maybe an oversized view of privacy. Some people like their privacy too much in an ungodly way where they go, you know what, I'm just not going to let people into certain things because I don't want to. It's my business, not your business. Nope, stay out. I'll let you into certain parts, but not other parts. You know what that's called in this case? Sin, in this case. Why? In this case, not every case. But in this case, because we have a clear command in scripture on exactly what to do. And if you refuse to do it, that's sin, right? So I'm not saying everybody's sinning here. What I'm saying is, maybe we just haven't thought this one through. Maybe we haven't been taught this one clearly. This should be a normal part of the life of a church, a normal part of the life of a believer. If you are sick, if there are difficulties in your life where you need help, call on the elders for help. They're the ones. Where do we go instead? Just think about the alternative. We go to, I don't know, the TV and certain shows, or we go to the internet if we look for certain remedies, or we go to our friends who we know that will listen to us and they'll be the encouraging ear to us. None of those are wrong or bad, necessarily. They may be common grace help to us. But we have divine command here. We have divine instruction on what to do in difficulty, and particularly in sickness. And so, how often do you do that? Do you do that joyfully? Do you do that willingly? That is something that is a privilege to be able to be involved with in your life. Happy to do that. It's what God calls us to do. So, what are we to learn about prayer as we look at James as he concludes his book here? First is, hey, if you're in all circumstances, pray to the Lord about your different varied circumstances. And what else? Hey, Believers ought to be calling on their elders for prayer in their life. That is something that believers ought to be doing. Well, now let's look at our third point for this morning. What are we to learn about prayer? Believers ought to be prayed for by the members of the church for both physical and spiritual needs. Believers ought to be prayed for by the members of the church, both physical and spiritual needs. Let's look at verse 16. Therefore, he's kind of bringing all this stuff together, when you're sick, calling the elders, if there's confession of sin, it's gonna be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, to each other. He's talking, first he was talking about the elders, now he's talking about each other. Confess your sin to each other and pray for one another. This is why we do intercessory prayer every month, because we want to follow the commands of scripture where we are commanded to pray for one another. We're commanded to confess our sins to one another. Now it's true that we do not have to pray with every single member in the same way. It's not like we have to keep a box and check, okay, I've prayed with this member, I've prayed with this member, or I've confessed into this member and this member. That's not what he's talking about. He's saying we are to be the type of people that we are to regularly be praying with each other, maybe different people in different ways, We are to regularly be confessing sin, not everybody in the same way. There's appropriateness, guy, girl, same age, understanding, wisdom. There's appropriateness to who you confess your sin to. But he's saying, hey, therefore confess your sins to one another, pray for one another, that you may be healed. This is important. The regular intercessory prayer and the regular confession of sin within the body of a local church is a clear biblical pathway by which God brings about healing in your life. Can we say that? For those people who are not vitally connected to the life of a church, You are not connected to a regular way in which God brings about good in your life, particularly healing, spiritual healing, physical healing, emotional healing, all kinds of healing. God says it in his word, pray for one another, confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed. There's a result, there's a result that you can look for because God said it in his word. Now, is it a promise every single time? No, but it's a promise that he's a healing God. It's a promise that this is a healing community, right? It's not like I have the gift of healing, it's that we pray to the God who is our healer. And then we encourage each other to be reminded about what God has said in his word, right? That's what brings the healing. God is the one who heals. It's not the oil, it's not the elder, it's not the church member who heals, it's God. But we are the group that are committed to saying, let's be Godward. Let's listen to him, let's love him, let's follow him, let's enjoy him together. Right? The life of a church is so important. I unashamedly call people to church membership. Unashamedly. Why? Because that's exactly the life that the scriptures describe. They describe this interconnectedness, this lively interdependence, this we're commanded to do things to one another, And church membership is a framework by which we can say, you know all those one another's, you know all those elder passages that you're commanded to do, all those church passages? Well, we're just gonna wrap them up in church membership and say, we're gonna do all that together, yeah? Instead of, oh, I'm gonna choose to do this one or choose to do that one, or I don't want that kind of involvement in my life, that's too much. No, no, God calls us to have that kind of involvement in our life, so let's do it, let's embrace it. Let's be blessed by it. Verse 16. But look what he says, even at the second part of verse 16. He's now gonna say, you know, we should be praying for one another, and that all of us can do this. Look, the prayer of a righteous person has great power and it's working. And right away, you guys go, wait, I'm not righteous, wait a minute. Well, wait, are your sins forgiven in Christ? Then God's given you a new righteousness, amen? He's not talking about perfect. Oh, and the perfect person will have great power. No, he's not talking about perfection. He's talking about righteousness, the righteousness that you've been given to by Christ. He says if you're a righteous person, there's great power and it's working when you pray. Be encouraged. Christian, you can pray powerfully because of Christ. It's a wonderful thing. And then he gives this example. He says, yeah, but I'm not anything like the elders, I'm not anything like the leaders that God has used in the past. And he goes, oh, you wanna use that as an example? Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. You know what he's saying? Elijah wasn't Superman. In fact, do you know the story of Elijah? He was sad, he was scared, he ran away from a woman, right? He was tired, he was hungry. I mean, we have all kinds of examples of Elijah just being a normal guy. Yes, God gave him incredible feats. Remember, God was the power behind Elijah, not Elijah. But he was a man just like us. He was a human being. And he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. And he prayed again. So he prayed fervently. He prayed persistently. He prayed again. And the earth gave rain. And the earth bore its fruit. He's not using Elijah as some superhuman example. He's using Elijah as he's just like us. He wasn't some super man demigod. He was a man. He was a man. You're a human. You pray too. You can pray like that. I think it's a very encouraging passage for us as individual believers. God has given us power as we pray in faith. Matthew Henry says, such prayer avails much. It says, he who prays must be a righteous man, not righteous in an absolute sense, for this Elijah was not, who is here made a pattern to us, but righteous in a gospel sense. Not loving nor approving of any iniquity. Yeah, if you're not wanting sin involved, but if you regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer, Psalm 66, 18. Further, the prayer itself must be fervent. In wrought, well-wrought prayer, it must be a pouring out of the heart to God. It must proceed from an unfeigned faith, meaning it must be fervent. It's not just sort of, okay, God, you told me to pray. If you want me to pray, I guess I'll pray. Lord, please do it. I don't know if you will, but okay, maybe. It's fervent. Lord, please do this. We're supposed to call on the Lord. We're supposed to show emotion. We're supposed to feel things, right? We're supposed to call out loud sometimes. We kind of have to get past some cultural stuff. This is the kind of all-in fervency that we're called to be. Our prayers should be scary when people are listening. Like, think about it. Oh, Lord, would you do this work? And you're like, hold on, Pastor, you're getting a little charismatic here, you know, back up the train. We can learn from the scriptures how to pray appropriately. This example should be put in the righteous category, not in the, oh, I don't wanna do that because other people might think it's the wrong thing. No, follow the Lord in the scriptures. Pray fervently. Don't worry about what other people think or say. Worry about the Lord says, right? So we should be fervent. We should be all in with this. We should not be doubting. We should be all in. So what does he say? Such prayer avails much. It is a great advantage to ourselves, it may be very beneficial to our friends, and we are assured of it being acceptable to God. It is good having those for friends whose prayers are available in the sight of God. The power of prayer is here proved from the success of Elijah. This may be encouraging to us even in common cases. If we consider that Elijah was a man like passions with us, like he was the same like us, He was a zealous good man and a very great man, but he also had his infirmities and was subject to disorder in his passions as well as others. So yes, God used him in a mighty way, but he was just a man like us. He was susceptible to getting it wrong. In fact, we read about him getting it wrong. He was all scared and discouraged, and, oh, Lord, take my life. There's nobody, and he's doing all this stuff, and God's like, take a nap, right? Get a snack, you know? So, church members ought to pray for one another. They ought to pray for one another fervently. They ought to pray for one another boldly. There's power in our prayer. Let's do it, let's trust the Lord, right? Think about this. If the Lord used Isaiah's prayer to affect the weather, what's more important, the weather or one of God's children? It's kind of like Elijah's prayer is of a lower nature. in God's eyes, because he's just dealing with wind and rain. But God cares, does God care more about nature or does he care more about his children? Think about it, didn't Jesus say, hey, if a sparrow falls, if providence over all the sparrows, how much more you? How much more you? God cares more about you than the wind. So when you're praying for one another, expect God to hear and to work. It really is that way. That's what the scriptures are teaching us. So we are to pray for one another, and here's our last section. It's an important section. We're supposed to pray for each other physically and pray for each other spiritually. We're gonna get into the section here that's often misunderstood, but let's understand it now. Even spiritually, we should pray for one another spiritually when we wander, when there's church discipline that takes place. What does it say, my brothers, now? He's talking to the group, my brothers. If anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, that's what church discipline is. Let him know that whoever brings the sinner back from his wandering will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. Now let me just say here, this has often been misunderstood. People think, oh, see, you can lose your salvation because you wander, and if you are left in a state of wandering, then your soul is lost. Some people have used these verses to say you can lose your salvation. It's not true, and they'll say, see, a wanderer, that just means they're off, and he calls them sinners, so that means they're not Christians. This is all misunderstanding. All we needed to go is to chapter 4 and realize is that he calls Christians sinners big time. Chapter four, he's like, you adulterous people. Who's he talking to, sinners, non-sinners? He's talking to Christians. You adulterous, cheating people. You love the world instead of God. Cleanse yourself. Submit yourself, is what he's saying. He's talking to Christians. He doesn't have any problem calling Christians sinners. They got a bunch of sinners. Praise the Lord that we're forgiven. Praise the Lord. In fact, he says, stop acting like non-Christians. You're Christians, right? No, so what is he saying here? If anyone among you wanders from the truth, someone brings him back. This is what, remember, we're supposed to pray for each other, help each other. Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Let me show you 1 John, we've probably heard this before, but it's good to be reminded. 1 John chapter 2 says that you can't lose your salvation if you end up leaving the faith, quote unquote, it's because you never were a part of the faith, right? 1 John 2 says, they went out from us, but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out. that it might become plain that they are all not of us. So this is really clear. A person cannot lose their salvation, but a Christian can fall into sin. And they can fall into grave sin, significant sin. They can cheat and steal and lie and lose all kinds of trust and all kinds of dignity. They can bring shame on the name of the Lord. They can bring shame on their name of their family and on the name of a church. I mean, we've heard of a recent example of that taking place amongst one of the preachers in our tradition. A Christian can fall significantly. But what do we see here? Even if they are brought back, it's because they're truly Christian, right? What does Jesus say about the sheep that wanders? Leave the 99, go get the one, bring them back. It's not because they were never saved, it's because they're brought back into the fold that they belong into. It's talking about saving Christians from their sin. It's talking about church discipline. This is what this is talking about. And that's what Christians do when they sin. They sin in a way that they wander off, but they need to be brought back. This is encouraging us to watch out for one another. Another thing in our membership class, we're gonna talk about watching out for one another. This is what people don't want. They don't want accountability. They don't want watching eyes. But this is exactly what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be watching out for the sheep, to guard one another against these types of sin, to encourage, to exhort, to admonish. We need to do that godly, in a godly way. We need to do that carefully. We need to not do that pridefully. But this is what we're called to do. We're called to find the wanderers and go get them. was to pray for them, go to them, speak with them, encourage them, correct them, call them. And when you do that and God works through that, oh, you're so blessed. You just love that person. You just covered a multitude of sins. Why? Because when you brought them out of that state of active sin, guess what? They're no longer sinning. They're no longer experiencing God's discipline on their life. You love them so much that you're trying to get them back to a place of just living in right relationship with God and the church. It's a wonderful thing. Peter says a very similar thing. He says, the end of all things is at hand, therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers, 1 Peter 4, verses 7 and 8. Above all, keep loving one another. It's a loving thing to watch out for each other. Loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. Same phrase. Bringing a wanderer back covers a multitude of sins. Loving each other earnestly covers a multitude of sins. What does that mean? When you actively seek to help Christians in their sin and you bring them back, you're loving them. You're not hurting them. You're loving them. So let me ask you, is intercessory prayer, which is praying for one another, this is what this section's about, is intercessory prayer a regular and treasured part of your worship to God? is intercessory prayer, a regular and treasured part of your worship to God. It's a duty and a responsibility, but boy is it a joy to be praying for each other. It's a wonderful thing to be in prayer, to be bearing one another's burdens, to be encouraging each other in the Lord, to be reminding each other of the word, to be showing up when you're sick, to be giving that call or showing up when somebody's really struggling and saying, brother, sister, don't do it. Don't do it, I heard a story about this one wife who found that her husband was very likely cheating on her. She found some emails and said, and talked to her pastor and said, pastor, I just found these emails from my husband. It looks like he's gonna go meet up with a woman like this weekend. And I think he's cheating on me. I think I caught him. He's gone right now. And what did this pastor do? This pastor went to the airport and tracked down that man and told him, brother, what you're doing is wrong. Flee, tell this woman to get out and to go back and you'll have nothing to do with her anymore. And go back and plead for mercy and forgiveness from your wife. Do it now. This is the type of love and earnest devotion we are to have with one another. To fight for each other's holiness and purity It's a real honor and privilege and a duty to be in the church. And we're called to this high calling. This is what he gives us. So let me end with these verses about praying for one another. That's how we fight the good fight, the spiritual battle. We take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and praying at all times in the spirit. praying with all prayer and supplication to that end. We keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And also, Paul says, for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. May we fully embrace the place that God has for prayer in our lives. Amen? Amen. Let me pray now. Father in heaven, thank you so much for these concluding words of James in this book. Lord, what a blessing it's been to hear your teaching Christ through him and to us. Lord, may we receive it We receive the seriousness and the joy and the call to holiness. And yet, Lord, we know it's only because of you that we can do these things. It's only because of your righteousness and your goodness and your forgiveness. It's not because of our own. And so, Lord, we throw ourselves at your feet. We pray by faith in you alone. Lord, we ask for you to do your healing work in our lives, your sanctifying work in our lives, and thank you that we have each other to do it with. It's in your name that we pray, amen. Amen.