Good evening. And I still want to say good to see you. And I look forward to that in God's timing. But I'm glad you're able to be with us tonight as we study the book of James. And we're coming to our final lesson on James. And so we're in James chapter five and verses 12 through 20. And so you can turn there in your Bibles, James chapter 5, verses 12 through 20. And what we have here at the end is the final admonition that James is going to give. And in life, there's a lot of contrasts, light and darkness, tall and short, big and small. And I want to look tonight at strength and weakness. All right. So each of our points, we just have three tonight. We're going to look at things that are strong and weak. And so the first one is avoid strong oaths given to support weak character. And then we have two more, but let's pray first as we get started and ask God to bless our time together. Father, we thank you for the grace that you give and the opportunity that we have to come to the Word of God tonight. And Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit would give wisdom and guidance and liberty and expression of the truth of the Word of God. Father, we need your help. And Father, we look to you for your blessing. And Father, we want to stop and thank you for what you're doing in our church during these days of everything being shut down. And Father, may the Spirit of God give us grace to just wait upon you as a people. And Lord, as we've talked about as a church, we do have more time, many of us, and that we can spend in the Word of God and more time that we can spend in prayer and more time that we can spend with our family or maybe with our neighbors speaking to them. And father, we pray that the gospel would go forth with power in these days. We thank you for the advertisements that are running on Facebook and Lord, those that are kind to visit our page and look at the different things that we're doing. I pray that the spirit of God would meet the spiritual needs of people that maybe wouldn't visit church and father, or maybe wouldn't have until they were brought into contact with the truth of the word of God. And so God, we just, we rejoice in that. We thank you for that. And Father, we pray that in all our ministry that is taking place, that you'd be glorified. God bless our kids' classes. Thank you for our Thursday night kids' club and the lesson that is online for the children to watch and be challenged by. I pray, Spirit of God, that you'd use that in their life. Father, we pray for the children in our church that still need to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, that they'd be born again. Father, we pray that they would come to a very clear understanding of the gospel. And Father, we just commit these ministries to you. Ask for your enablement. I can't speak without your help. I pray that the Spirit of God would lead me and guide me. Thank you, Lord, for how many times that you have enabled and you've helped us in ministry and the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. And Father, I acknowledge that and pray that you'd be glorified to work in our hearts, even tonight, as we consider these truths about strength and weakness. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. And so the first one is avoid strong oaths given to support weak character. All right, weak character uses strong oaths. Verse 12 is where we're at in chapter five. And it says, but above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath. James puts this as a high priority. He says, above all else, and it's almost, again, as a conclusion, as he comes to the final thoughts, he says, this is not a small thing. This is a main thing. I want you to really think about this. Do not swear an oath. Again, James was a half-brother of the Lord Jesus, but Jesus put this as a high priority in his preaching as well. He preached this in the Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew chapter five, verse 34 through 37. He said, but I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it's God's throne, neither by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it's the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. See, the Jews knew that it was wrong to give an oath and to say something and to call God as a witness. So rather than calling God as a witness, they would swear by heaven. And Jesus says, wait a second, that's God's throne. They would swear by earth. And Jesus says, wait a second, that's God's footstool. They swear by Jerusalem. He said, that's God's city. They would swear by their head. That's the same as swearing by their life, which was given to them by God. They had nothing to do with it. They couldn't make one here. White or black and it's the fact that God is the giver of life. And so there was a great character flaw in the life of a person who had who had to or felt like they had to swear that they were telling the truth and Jesus forbids it as does James and so James again says do not give an oath verse 12 says but above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth nor neither by any other oath. An oath is something like this, as God is my witness, or heaven knows I am telling the truth, or if God was standing here, he would tell you And so an oath is often given, if you stop and think about it, by somebody that's anxious. There's some pressure that's on them where they feel compelled that they have to persuade somebody that they're telling the truth. It might be a child that's been playing hooky. And so they've not been at school. They're trying to come up with a real reason why they missed school. And so they would swear as to that reason. An employee might be late again to work and knows he's going to get into trouble for being late, and so he would swear or give an oath as to the reason for his being late. Some pressure has come into play. Quite possibly, as in those illustrations, it's a pressure to get somebody to be persuaded of an untruth that you're trying to put across. And so if an oath comes out of our mouth, we ought to examine our heart. and look and consider it and think, why do I feel compelled to tell somebody and to swear that I'm telling the truth? And so don't give an oath. Let your integrity stand on its own. It says, but let your yay be yay and your nay nay. Let your yes be yes and your no, no. This week, and this message was in my mind when this happened, so that's why it stuck with me, but I asked Logan something. my 13-year-old, and all of us thought that he said no, but he actually said yes. And so we got that clarified. That was a misunderstanding. What James is dealing with is not a misunderstanding of somebody said yes and you didn't understand they said yes or said no and you didn't understand they said no. He's not dealing with misunderstandings. He's dealing with misrepresenting something or misleading in something. And so we need a yes, yes, or a no, no. And if we have more than that, Jesus says that comes of evil. And so Matthew, again, chapter five, verse 34, Jesus said, but I say unto you, swear not at all. And then verse 37, but let your communication be yes, yes, no, no, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Jesus said, if I have to swear that there is a problem and a wickedness from which that swearing comes from, our word ought to stand on its own. Back when I was a freshman at Bible college, I thought I would prank my roommate, my senior roommate. He had senior study hall. We had to go to bed at 11. He got to stay up till 12. And I knew he'd be coming back from that. And I knew his routine. He would come in. And he would flip down his blanket over his bunk, and then he'd turn on his light, and then he'd do the different things that he did. So I put a bunch of packaging peanuts in his blanket that he had rolled up, that he would flip down, and then I unscrewed his light bulb. And then I hid under a desk in the room, and Adam came in. I heard him pull the blanket down. I heard all the packaging peanuts hit the floor and it's dark in the room. And then I hear click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. And then I hear him come over to my bed to look and see where I am. And I'm thinking it's funny at this point. And then I hear him walk out into the hallway and our hall leader was out there. That was the person that was over all the rooms and was my authority. And he said to Daryl, Daryl, have you seen Ben? When I heard that, I thought, what are you doing? You're going to get me in trouble. Anyway, I got back in bed. I slept. And the next day, Daryl came to me and he said, Ben, and I kind of joked about staying in another guy's room there that was in our prayer group. And he said, Ben, did you stay in that room last night? I said, no, I didn't. And he said again, or he said to me, well if you did, well I grew up reading a lot of westerns and you know to suggest that somebody's not telling the truth was to call that man a liar and it's kind of like you got your guns on. Are you calling me a liar? And that's kind of the way I felt about it. And so we got into a little bit of a head on there. And I wish I would have had humility with my honesty and we worked it out and we're still friends and it all was okay. But when you say something, Do others expect that what they hear coming out of your mouth is the truth? I knew a person, this is a while back in my pastoring, that would say to me, often as he was speaking to me, he'd say, well, to tell you the truth, or he would say, honestly, pastor. You know, and he wasn't a person of integrity, and I often had to wonder, is he telling me the truth, or is he not telling me the truth? It is right to doubt somebody that has to swear regarding their speech. Remember when Peter denied Christ, he swore that he didn't know Jesus, and he was lying. Matthew 26, verse 74, then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man, and immediately the cock crew. You know, it's better to be a person of integrity and be punished for telling the truth rather than to let the pressure of the situation lead us to an untruth and swearing and backing up our word with an oath. And so let your words be yes or no and be a person of integrity. And see, God will not allow his name to be misused. It says, again in her text, lest ye fall into condemnation. And James is just warning them, lest you come into judgment with God. Because it's a vain use of God's name and God's person to call him to witness your integrity, especially when it is regarding something that is untrue. Exodus 20 verse 7 says, It's interesting in the law that the Ten Commandments, this command when it's given, it gives the command And then it seems like it understands the human heart that thinks taking God's name is not a big deal. And so there's an emphasis that, look, God will not let an exception take place with regard to taking his name in vain. You know, God's law hasn't changed in the church age. By God's grace, we talked about this in our study of Romans, the grace of God allows us to go up to the standard of the law by imputed righteousness, which God gives, and then the enablement that the Holy Spirit gives us to live the Christian life as God intends us to, with integrity, with purity, with holiness. So God's grace allows us to meet the law and when we fail by God's grace we can get forgiveness and be restored to that righteousness with God. But God's law has not changed. I don't know what the word I'm trying to think of is, but surprised you or shocked you or disappointed you as you, in your evangelism, you talk to somebody about the Lord and as you begin to speak about the seriousness of sin or the seriousness of damnation and hell, that a smirk comes up on the face of that individual and you see humor, you might even get a laugh or somebody to mock it, doesn't it grieve you to think that people would so think about God as to not fear God? You know, the concern is that there are Christians that if you spoke to them about taking God's name in vain, a smile would come across their face and they'd just make excuse and say, well, you know, kind of everybody does it or act as if it's not a big deal. And the Bible says, he'll not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. You know, we live in a day of great carelessness when it comes to God. His name and the abuse of His name, His day, and abusing the Lord's day. And I'm not speaking about the world, I'm speaking about believers that do not give God first place, even on His day, by being faithful to the house of God, by spending maybe some more time in the Word of God and in prayer and who make it just a day of amusement and entertain themselves all afternoon and just by imbibing and taking in sport and not focusing upon God and then try to go back to church and act as if they can worship God. It's just an abuse of the Lord's day. His work, neglecting, or I'm sorry, His Word, neglecting His Word. You know, again, we've got Bibles that we've got, and I haven't asked this of our church. I've not asked this in churches that I've been, but I wonder how much time the average believer spends in the Word of God, his work. unfaithful Christianity. Got time for hobbies, got time for family, got time for entertainment, but no time for God and no availability to God. Week in, week out, nothing that they can actually do for God. His increase, robbing God of his tithes and offerings, the way God has blessed us and not being grateful and giving God first place so that he could sanctify that which he has entrusted to us. Do you fear God? Are you careful about your speech that you use yes and no? To go beyond that and to swear is to abuse his name. And so the first thing as we come to our study in James tonight is avoid strong oaths given to defend weak character. And then secondly, embrace strong prayer to meet weak needs. Embrace strong prayer to meet weak needs. I heard a good message by Pastor Clarence Sexton. His church has Crown College in the United States. They do a good work for the Lord. And I was enjoying listening to this message that he preached recently on 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and Paul's weakness, but that in weakness, that is really where God will use a man. And he was talking about embracing weakness. In 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9, God said to Paul, as Paul asked God to take away the thorn in the flesh that he'd been given to humble him, he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And so Paul embraced his weakness. And as we think about prayer and weakness, would it not be true that someone who prays often is someone who knows his weakness? Someone who prays little is someone who feels like they are strong of themselves. Again, this message I heard was good in its emphasis in that before God can really use somebody, and it might just be that God is preparing to use them, they take them through a very deep season of life of great weakness. And so embrace strong prayer to meet weak needs. Pray when life is tough. Pray when life is tough. Verse 13 says, is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms or spiritual songs. Afflicted means enduring hardness. And so is any among you afflicted? Is any enduring hardness? Paul used the same word in 2 Timothy 2.3 when he said to Timothy, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You know, it's good as you face that place of difficulty and hardness and suffering, affliction, to remember to go to God in prayer. Yesterday, we enjoyed being online on Zoom with 25 other ministers and their families in different countries, serving God with Baptist World Mission, our mission agency that we're with. And it was a joy to see so many of them. But as we did that, there was a buddy of mine, Dan Hassman, that we grew up together, and his dad was a deacon in our church. And one day his dad contacted me and said, hey, I'm going out on my sailboat. We had a huge river by our house. And he said, would you like to go with me? Well, I thought, well, sure, I'll go. I had no desire to steer the boat whatsoever. But I got there with him, and it was just a lightweight sailboat that you trailer in and trailer out. And it had a 20-foot sail on it and we got in that and so we're going out on the St. Croix. And there were some times where that edge of the boat was pretty close to the waterline. I thought, wow, you know, Mr. Haspin's good at sailing. And I was a little nervous. I hadn't been in a sailboat before and he asked me if I wanted to take the the rudder, and I wasn't interested. But there came a point where he really wanted me to do that. And so I took that, and it was going great. And he said, there's a V thing up there and an arrow in that V, and you just keep that arrow between those Vs, and everything's going to be OK. And well, a side wind came up of some sort. And all of a sudden, that arrow was way out of those Vs, and the boat was tipping. And I went up over the edge of the boat that was flipping onto us, and I was saying to Dan's dad, Mr. Haskman, I said, Mr. Haskman, go this way. And I shouldn't laugh about it, but as that boat flipped back on top of him, and he disappeared, and I thought, oh no, I killed a deacon. And I rejoiced as he bobbed to the surface. And the first words out of my mouth were, Mr. Haskman, can we pray? And we did, we prayed, and it was interesting because we didn't wave our hands or anything, and it was a pretty big river a mile across. But some people said they saw us waving our paddle, which we didn't do, but they came over and helped us, and we were able to right the boat and get out of that situation. But you know, it's a good thing as affliction cubs or a bad situation to say, you know what, I need to pray. I need to seek God through this. pray when life is tough, don't quit enduring, go to God in prayer, and then don't quit enduring hardness, go to God in song. It says as well, as any merry, let him sing songs. And again, here it's speaking about being merry, but there's times in affliction when God in his grace will give us a song that will bring us close to him. Amanda Baker was also on that Zoom meeting. She's down in England. And Amanda, when she stays at our house and she comes a couple times a year, she says, you just walk through the house and you'll have all these different songs in your head because the short kids will all be singing something different or an instrument will be playing something and it just gets in your head. But you know what? That is a great thing. It's a good thing when there is a song in our heart, there are times where we can lose our song because our hearts are so heavy. David in Psalm 77 verse six, he said, I call it to remember it's my song in the night. I commune with my own heart and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercy? And so David's going through it, it's tough. And he's saying, this is, I feel just completely isolated from God. But as he's going through that, he remembers, he thinks back to the song that used to be in his heart of rejoicing in God. In Psalm 42, verse 8, David expressed great confidence that God would bring that song back to his heart. Psalm 42, verse 8, he said, Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. And David just had confidence that that song was gonna come back and be there in his heart. You know, music is a wonderful gift from God, especially when it's your heart expressing itself in worship to God. Ephesians 5, 19 says, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. There's something wonderful as that song comes into our heart that just lifts us up to God. There's a hymn by Stuart Hamlin entitled Until Then. It says, my heart can sing when I pause to remember. A heartache here is but a stepping stone along a trail that's winding always upward. This troubled world is not my final home. But until then, my heart will go on singing. Until then, with joy, I'll carry on. Until the day my eyes behold the city, until the day God calls me home. The things of earth will dim and lose their value. If we recall, they're borrowed for a while. And things of earth that cause the heart to tremble, remembered there, will only bring a smile. And then the chorus again, but until then, my heart will go on singing. Is your heart heavy because of enduring hardness? Ask God to give you that song. Go to God in prayer. And so pray when facing affliction. Secondly, pray when you are ill. Pray when you are ill. It says, is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders in the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. There's only been one time in my ministry life and experience that I've seen this actually done in a church. And I was in Bethel, Tucson, Bethel West, where that was started by Dr. Ed Nelson. And I was doing my internship with him. And there was a man in the church that asked for the leadership of the church to anoint him with oil and pray over him. And I can't remember the health need that he was facing at that time. And Dr. Nelson did that and had him come in and took oil. and anointed him and prayed over him, asking God to heal him. Dr. Nelson honored God's word in doing that. And if I remember Dr. Ed Nelson's testimony correctly, it seems to me, if I remember correctly, that Dr. Ed Nelson, in his own life, had had something like this, where he did ask for the elders of the church to pray and anoint him with oil, and that God had, in fact, raised him up at that time. You know, as you look at this text, there's a lot of debate about the oil and different things in this passage. It's really an interesting passage in the Word of God. But does the oil represent medicine? It was common to use oil as medicine back in that day. Does the oil represent the Holy Spirit? Well, as we think about those two things, whichever it teaches, the Bible teaches that medicine is good. Remember Luke, the apostle, was a physician. He was a doctor, even though the apostles had healing abilities, yet Luke was a physician. Remember Paul said to Timothy, take a little grape juice for thy stomach's sake and thy often infirmities. And so the Bible teaches that medicine is good. is often symbolic of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. And so you see that emblematic throughout. And certainly as you look at Acts and the gifts, again, that God gave, one was healing and it was the Spirit of God that gave that ability to heal. But the main point as we look at this text is that God does heal in answer to believing prayer. God does heal. Now, as I said that, I just stopped and thought, it's that God can heal. It's not that God every time will heal. We've already looked at the passage where Paul embraced his thorn in the flesh three times. He had asked God to heal him of that and God had not, but Paul believed God could, but God chose not to. And so God can. After my wife had surgery on her knee back when we were engaged and I was there at the hospital with her and in a chair by her bedside that night as she needed some help in the night I'd be able to help her at the hospital. And she in the middle of the night, this kind of gross a little bit, but she started to get sick. But if she got sick, I knew that she would be in the hospital much longer. And I was sitting in my chair and I was praying and I was asking God to graciously intervene. that she not get sick, and it's one of those times where it's just an interesting answer to prayer, but I knew God had answered, and we talked about it the next morning. She settled back down, was able to go back to sleep. She didn't get sick. She was able to get out of the hospital quickly. You know, God is a God, and that's just one example. There's so many examples that we can look at at times where believers have prayed, and God has very specifically stepped in in answer to believing prayer. Jesus did many miracles of healing in his day. We've let, I think, faith healers and the whole idea of the showmanship that's gone on around this idea keep us often from really believing, asking God to intervene with health by prayer. And so pray when you're ill. And then pray for restoration. Pray for restoration. There are times when other people are benefited by a brother that's a godly brother praying and asking God to help restore a brother to the Lord. Specifically when it's that brother that has been offended by the disobedience of the other. We see that in the Word of God in the Old Testament with Job. Job's friends came and they didn't properly treat Job as they came. But as God dealt with that, God said very specifically, look, when Job prays for you, I'll accept what Job prays and I'll restore you. And so Job 42 verse eight, God told him, therefore take now seven bullocks and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up for yourself a burnt offering. And my servant Job shall pray for you. For him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your folly and that you have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. our families reading through the book of Genesis in the morning. We just came across that story of Abimelech taking Sarah, Abram's wife, into his household with the idea of her becoming his wife because he thought that Sarah was Abraham's sister. And God closed up the wombs of Abimelech's household until he got right with Abram and Abraham prayed for him. Genesis 20 verse 17, so Abraham prayed unto God and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants. and they bear children. And so in the context of what we're looking at, it may be that this person that James is referring to that is ill, is a person that has been under church discipline, they're in disobedience to God, and that that illness is a result of their sin. And we know in the Bible that illness can be a result of sin. And so verse 15 says, 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. Again, it seems that this prayer is for a person that has been in disobedience to God because of that they're suffering. Now, infirmity is not always a result of sin. John 9 verse 1, remember the disciples looking at a blind man asked Jesus a question. And so Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him saying, master, Who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be manifest in him. Jesus said, no, no, no, it's not because of a sin on the behalf of anybody here. This was done so that God would be glorified. And of course, Jesus heals the man and the testimony of the power of the Lord is glorious to God. There's several people that we could think of that have gone through incredible illness for God's glory. Frances Crosby, the great hymn writer that she wasn't born blind, but at two years old, she had a doctor wrongly apply eye salve or something like that to her eyes that in fact blinded her. But she became the great hymn writer. Annie Johnson fled a woman that was crippled with arthritis, so much so that in her 20s, she had to use chalk in her hand on a chalkboard above her bed to be able to write the hymns that we sing. Hymns like, he giveth more grace. He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more strength when the labors increase. To added afflictions. he addeth his mercy. To multiply trials, his multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed, ere the day is half done, when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father's full giving is only begun. And so there are times where for God's glory, like Paul, a weakness is given, not because of sin, but for God's name to be glorified. But of course, sometimes illness can be a result of sin. I'm struck every time we read 1 Corinthians 11 for the Lord's Table at our church as we observe the Lord's Supper, that Paul says in that text, for this cause, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. And the cause was this, they had wrongly taken of the Lord's Table with sin. And sin is that which put Christ upon the cross and And Paul says, because of their unwillingness to deal with their sin and trying to act as if they're right with God, God has brought this illness upon them because of that and even to the point of death. And so in the text that we're looking at, it would remind us that when illness comes, it's right for there to be a deep soul searching and seeking and saying, God, am I right? And certainly, In the context of what James is speaking about, it seems that this person has been under church discipline, they're in disobedience to God, illness has come, but now they want to get right. And so they call for the elders of the church and they ask their forgiveness and make confession of sin so that they can get right with God and that God would mercifully intervene. And so we find verse 16, which says, confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that he may be healed. And so the instruction is get right so that God can restore your health through the prayers of those that are rightly related to God. Your confession to man ought to be made to the extent that the sin is known. The Catholics would take this text and they'd say confessionals and so they have these booths in their church where people come in and just unload their sin in the ears of the man and that is not what the Word of God teaches. Sin is to be confessed to the extent that it's known. A thief, to confess his crimes is to confess to God and to those that he stole from and that were robbed. An adulterer needs to get right with his spouse and possibly right with the church if that adultery is known or has affected the testimony in the community to the extent that that sin is known, that sin ought to be confessed or restitution ought to be made. And as that takes place, that is a great thing and God is for that and God will bless that decision to come clean and get right, not just with God, but with man as needed. Matthew 5.23 says, therefore, if they'll bring thy gift to the altar and there remember us that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled to the brother and then come and offer the gift. And the Lord's instruction there, again, in the Sermon on the Mount was to, before you go to God, make sure that you're right with man so that God will accept you as you come to God. And so then we see righteous men restoring others is a powerful work of God. And so it says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. God's righteous men have great privilege and power in prayer. is what Galatians speaks about in Galatians chapter 6 verse 1, though it doesn't mention prayer, it's certainly part of this. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. And so part of that would be to go to that brother and say, brother, we want to see you get right with God. We are for you. And praise God, you want to get right with God, let's pray. And let's ask God to intervene, make this situation right and see you restored. Jeremiah. 15.1, and I want to share three texts with regard to righteous men praying and God hearing them, but these are, if you would, negative examples to emphasize this positive truth that God does hear His servants as they pray. Jeremiah 15 verse 1, Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward these people, cast them out of my sight and let them go forth. And there in that text, God chooses two of his great men that had intercessory power. And he says, even if these two men were here, my heart could not be toward these people. Ezekiel 14 verse 14 says, though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. Ezekiel 14 verse 20, though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter, but they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. And it's teaching this truth, if mercy were possible, it would come in answer to the prayers of these servants of God, and yet mercy was not available. But if there's an opportunity for mercy, it's good for God's men and women and godly men and women in our churches to go and ask God to intervene. And certainly we live in the age of grace where God's ear is open to our prayers because of Christ. You know, Abraham did this intercessory work for Lot. Lot didn't even know about it. Lot's living wickedly in Sodom and Gomorrah, and yet remember, as Abraham hears about that judgment coming, he pleads with the Lord, he intercedes with God, down to the point of if there were 10 righteous, God would even spare the cities. But God in his mercy spared Lot, his wife, and his daughters, and got them out of that city because of a righteous man that prayed. the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Praise God. When somebody humbles their heart and their life's getting tough and they're out of the will of God and God has allowed sickness and they wanna get right with the church and they wanna get right with God and God's church comes together and prays and God works and God restores that brother, not just spiritually, but physically. we ought to pray forth for divine intervention. Pray for divine intervention, pray for restoration, pray for healing, pray in affliction, pray for divine intervention. You don't have to be a prophet or a preacher to powerfully pray. And so verse 17, says Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. You know, as you look at Elijah, I love the fact in the Word of God that God doesn't hide what we would consider character flaws and we try to suppress these things. You know, we read the story of Elijah, we see a man that was passionate about seeing God work in the lives of God's people, a man that was worn out trying to declare God's Word to God's people and God's people not responding A man that had people that hated him and it discouraged him and even made him a bit fearful and he got exhausted and God had to give him food to nourish him. He had to give him sleep to refresh him. And so as James says, Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. He's not saying that he was a man that was living under those passions. He was just saying he is a man, he is human. My psychology teacher at Bob Jones would say, you know, on his undershirt, his white shirt, he didn't have SC written on it. Super Christian. Just a normal man. Do you understand that James is declaring that God didn't answer a great prophet, but he answered a man who prayed in faith. James is encouraging you and I, just ordinary believers, that there is a great privilege in prayer to ask God, God divinely intervene. God, we need you to get involved in our society. We need you to get involved in our community. We need you to get involved in our community in a divine way. And God, we're just men, but we're coming in faith to ask you to do this. Elijah was just a man, but Elijah was a man of prayer. It says, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and I don't know what that entailed. I imagine that was maybe a prolonged period of fasting and praying and saying, God, withhold rain from this land. He prayed earnestly that it might not rain. Why would Elijah pray for a drought? Why would a man of God ask that this take place? Well, Elijah knew that God's judgment was often a drought and that Israel needed God's judgment. 2 Chronicles 7 verse 12 says, And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven, that there be no rain, and God's talking about his judgment, if I do this, if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, "'If my people which are called by my name "'shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face "'and turn from their wicked ways, "'then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin "'and will heal their land. "'Now my eyes shall be opened and my ears attend "'unto the prayer that is made in this place.'" And God said, if I judge this land by drought, and then if my people repent, then I will pour out blessing again. And so Elijah, looking at the word of God, saying that's what God does, he got on his knees and he said, God, please do not send rain because Israel needs judgment. And then as Israel repented after the prophets of Baal were slain, and they said, the Lord, he is the God, the Lord, he is the God. Elijah gets on his knees again and he goes to God in earnest prayer. And so the Bible says 1 Corinthians 18 verse 42, Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. He cast himself down upon the earth. He put his face between his knees and said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea, toward the Mediterranean. And he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. He said, go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand. And he said, go up, say unto Ahab, prepare thy chariot and get thee down that the rain stop thee not. He didn't just pray and quit. He didn't just see the fire from heaven fall and say, well, God, now you take care of it. That's me done. Elijah was beginning to end involved in what God was doing in prayer. Even when the fire fell, remember it fell in answer to the believing prayer of Elijah. You know, let me ask you, what are you stopping or starting because of your prayer or lack of prayer? What is happening that God would gladly intervene, God would gladly do something, if somebody would stand in the gap for the land, that God should not destroy it, that we would get passionate and burdened and say, I'm gonna give myself to praying. What kind of praying do we do in our days? Father, bless the food. Bless me now as I go to sleep. Where are those that would weep and pray for God to intervene in Scotland and awaken this nation and awaken our government and turn this land from their wickedness and turn these people to Christ that God in his power would work. We ought to have strong prayer to meet weak needs. We ought to have avoid strong oaths to defend weak character. And then the final point is short and it is a continuation of what we just considered. It is this, encourage strong brethren to help weak brothers. Encourage strong brethren to help weak brothers. And so we need to pursue those that depart. It says in verse 19, brethren, if any of you deer from the truth and one convert them, Notice that Paul doesn't assume that any of them were beyond departing. If any of you depart and err from the truth and go away from the Lord, and one converted. To convert is to bring back and to restore and get back into that place of obedience to God. Remember Jesus restored Peter. Peter, you're gonna fail, but I prayed for you that your faith fail not. And then afterwards at the Sea of Galilee, that restoration of Peter took place and Peter became the great preacher of Pentecost. Remember Barnabas and John Mark and Paul and the falling out that took place as John Mark went back from the first missionary journey. And so after that missionary trip was over, Barnabas thought, I want John Mark to go with us again. And Paul said, no, I don't think it's good that somebody that quit last time goes with us again. And there was a falling out even between Paul and Barnabas over that. But Barnabas restored John Mark. Later, Paul restored John Mark and said, send John Mark, he's profitable. He is the author of the gospel of Mark. And so Paul helped restore him as well. And Paul spoke about restoration. In 1 Corinthians, he talked about dealing with somebody that was living in gross fornication and awful sin and deal with that with church discipline. But in 2 Corinthians, as he wrote back to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 2.6, he said, "'Sufficient to such a man is the punishment "'which was inflicted of many, "'so that contrarywise you ought rather "'to forgive him and comfort him, "'lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up "'with overmuch sorrow. "'Wherefore I beseech you "'that you would confirm your love towards him.'" And so Paul says, okay, that church discipline has been effective. Now is the time to go after him and restore him and let him know that you love him. You know, when somebody genuinely wants to get right with the church of God, the church ought to have open arms with somebody that's truly repentant about their sin. And so there's a great blessing in bringing back the wanderer. It says, let him know that he which converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. And James is saying this is a high priority. This is a great thing that somebody gets involved in this. In the context, save a soul from death would refer to the early death of somebody that's disobedient to God. And so it would spare them that physical judgment that God would give them if they did not otherwise get right. He will subdue our iniquities and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. And God is willing, praise God with that person that wants to get right with God, God is willing to take all that sin and to throw it into the depth of the sea and say it's forgotten, it's cleansed. Isaiah 118, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. and God is willing and God wants to restore you. You may have used to go to church. You may have used to, you know, sung in the choir, taught Sunday school, been involved in God's work, and you've gotten into a place of disobedience away from God. Listen, God wants you to be restored through repentance and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, asking his forgiveness. I want to emphasize the point God's servant plays in this. It says, he which converteth a sinner. It reminds me of what God says in Proverbs 11, verse 30, the word of God, the fruit of righteousness is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. Are you a soul winner? Are you a soul converter? Are you reaching out to those that are disobedient to God saying, brother, I just want you to get right with God. I want you to be restored. I want you to go on for God. Are you reaching out to those that are lost and saying, listen, Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Are you actively seeking to encourage others to get right with God? And so we have some principles, don't we? As we come to the conclusion of this text. Some principles of strength and weakness. Strong brethren ought to help weak brothers. Do you look down on people? Do you despise them? If they fail, I knew they were never gonna go on for God. Or do you have a concern and say, you know what? I'm burdened, I wanna see you do what's right. God is able, God can help you. We have to have strong prayer to meet weak needs. All those areas of prayer, affliction, and just asking God to get involved in working in our lives and working in our country. Does your prayer do anything? And then avoid strong oaths. Let your yes be yes and your no, no. Be a person of integrity that doesn't feel compelled to say anything about an oath. Just a simple yes or no. Praise God for a practical book. I trust that you've enjoyed our study of James. This is the conclusion of the time that we'll spend in this book, but I do thank God for giving us such a practical book. Be praying for wisdom. I've got an idea maybe where we'll go next week, but pray that God will give wisdom and guide us to just the right study as we continue with our Thursday night Bible studies. Let's pray. Father, I praise you for the grace that you gave. Thank you for those that have taken the time to listen in to the word of God this evening. Father, I'm jealous of our church. I pray the spirit of God would make our church strong. I pray that God, we'd love to see somebody that maybe got away from God and wants to get right and wants a good church that would love them and encourage them and where they could fellowship and become a part. And we'd love to be that church. And Father, I pray for anybody that's not saved. Lord, they're not restored to God at all yet. Father, I pray that they'd understand that there's a savior that loves them, that died for them, that through his shed blood and his work on the cross, they could be forgiven of their sin and saved. If we could help them with that decision, God, please help us to be put in contact with them. And Father, would you just bless your word as we've heard it, help us to obey it. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.