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That being said, we're reading from James this morning, this will be part 3 of a series called The Power of a Praying Church. We at Redeeming Grace Church, and not only Redeeming Grace Church, but universal church at large across this world, must be a praying church.
It's imperative, it is essential that we, and I say praying church, we're just not talking about just meet in prayer corporately, which is so important, and we do that. I love the way we've been doing that on Wednesdays, which has been a big help to us, as well as myself, because I live such a long distance away, we're not able to make it.
But to save some mileage and time, we have this great resource through the internet. We've jumped around from Zoom to Google, now we're to, yes, we're to something else now. But, praise God, we can communicate this way and pray, so please join us if you can.
It's such a blessing.
We've been going through systematic theology with R .C. Sproul. We've been talking about, it's beautiful just the way he's been going systematically, through what the Bible, what theology is, what Reformed theology is, then picking up on about the scripture, how we got the scripture, the canon of scripture, the authority of scripture, the sufficiency of scripture.
Now we're at the triune God, the Trinity, and it's going to keep getting better and better. And now we're going to be going through the great doctrines of the Bible. So please join us in that. But James, what's James talking about here?
He's talking about prayer. I mentioned prayer meaning corporate praying. That's important, but our personal devotion before the Lord, but praying for one another. There's so much, and everything here he's talking about is actually prayer.
So reading from James chapter 5, and I'm reading from the NASV, and here the word of God in chapter 5, and we're looking at verse 13 through 18. The apostle James is speaking through the Holy Spirit, and this is what he says.
Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed any sins, they will be forgiven him. Verse 16,. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.
The effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Let's stop right there, and let's go to the Lord in prayer, and ask for His anointing upon all of us this morning. Father, we are so thankful.
Father in heaven, You are the blessed one. You are the giver. We are the taker. Lord, how great and merciful You are, O Lord. And we come with a bended knee in our hearts, and humility and reverence, as we come before Your courts, Lord, to worship only through the precious blood of Your dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we only come by faith alone, because it's not of our good works that brings us into Your courts. It's by the works of Jesus Christ, Your Son, that has accomplished this, that we can even pray and have access right into Your holy temple, into Your courts.
So Lord, give us eyes to see Jesus Christ in the text that we read this morning. Lord, give us ears to hear by Your Spirit. Lord, I as a minister can only take the word to the ear, but only You, O Lord, through Your Holy Spirit, can take the word from the ear to the heart.
So Father, You, through the Holy Spirit, are the real teacher. Speak to Your people. Lord, sanctify Your people. Lord, cleanse us this morning with the cleansing and the washing of Your Word. Lord, give to us a mind to perceive Your wisdom.
Most of all, Lord, give us a heart to love You and to obey You more and more. And last, Lord, I would pray that You are the most generous, the most giving God, a rewarder of them that diligently seek You.
May this be our heart's desire, Lord. And may we give back to You in our service, our life, and to one another for Your glory, I pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. You know, the gift of speech is a marvelous blessing, that is, if it is used to the glory of God.
And as we have been seeing in James here, James has had a great deal to say about the tongue, hasn't he? A great deal. And in this chapter, in chapter 5, is no exception. He mentions some of the lowest uses of the tongue.
If you notice in verse 9, he speaks about, or against, I should say, complaining. Scripture says, do not complain, brethren. He's speaking to the church, brethren, against one another. There's a one another.
So do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that yourselves may not be judged. And then he says, behold, the judge is standing right at the door. Very quick is our life. Our life is like a vapor, that's why he says that.
The judge is there, he's ready. So he's giving us loving warning. We're not to complain with our tongues. And then he says, in the lower side of the tongue, also he speaks against swearing. In verse 12, as we looked at, but above all, my brethren, again he speaks to the church.
Do not swear either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath, but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment. Again, he's giving loving warning, so that we may not fall under judgment, or be judged by using our tongue in a wrong way.
That is the negative, low side of using the tongue. But he also names some of the higher uses of the tongue. In chapter 5, verse 10, as an example, he says, brethren of suffering and patience, notice, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
They spoke God's word. And praying and praising God, in verse 13. So, then he comes to this section, in verse 13. He gives the question, is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Now, that's the right way to use our tongue, right?
Is to pray. Is anyone cheerful? He says he's to sing praises. So, what is he saying? So, prayer is certainly the high and the most holiest of privileges, that we can have on this earth. We may take it for granted, but when we do pray, and we use our tongues while we are alive with our breath, that God has put within us, we are to use it for communion with the Lord.
To pray to God. But we also have to pray for one another, which is intercession. And he deals with this. He's dealing with specific needs among the body of the believers there. And this is how James is addressing them.
He's addressing them in a very pastoral way. So, prayer is certainly a high and holy privilege. So, in this section in which we're looking at, James mentions prayer, notice, seven times. Seven times. Verse 13, let me point them out to you.
He says, then he must pray, verse 14. Then he must call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, verse 15. And the prayer of faith will restore the one sick, verse 16b. And pray for one another, so that you may be healed, verse 16c.
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much, verse 17. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. Notice verse 18. Then he prayed again. Notice how many times he mentions prayer, or praying, or prayed.
So, the believer is to be prayerful, right? I believe he gets his point across in a very strong way there. So, the believer is to be prayerful in all the troubles of life, but not only the troubles of life when troubles are not coming, which is rare.
Most of the time, troubles are coming. We are to pray, and if you're cheerful, we're to give God thanks and praise Him. Instead of complaining about our situation, we are to talk to God about it, right?
And God hears and answers the prayers of the righteous. And we know that we're not righteous enough of ourselves. It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's not merits of our own. So, in this section here, James encourages the believers, and not only encourages them, I like to use the word, he instructs us.
He instructs us in righteousness. There's always instruction in righteousness in the Word of God. It is our road map. It gives us the direction of what God wants us to do. It's His Word, His revelation.
He speaks to us, and He tells us specifically what He wants us to do. So, in this section, James is encouraging, instructing us to pray, and describing four situations in which God answers prayer. We've been looking at this.
First of all, you notice in verse 13, prayer is for the suffering. Prayer is for the suffering. So, we are to pray for those that are suffering, that has gone through persecution and suffering and affliction.
Secondly, prayer is for the sick. And we looked at that word, sick, it means not only physically sick, it means those that are weak and persecuted and afflicted. The early church went through a lot of sickness in that sense, of casualties that's on the battleground, and being persecuted for the faith in which they stood for.
Third, prayer for the nation. I believe we see that for the nation in verse 17 and 18. And he was probably in one sense speaking of the nation of Israel, but for the nation in which we live. We definitely need to be praying for our nation right now.
It's in trouble. It's like the sinking Titanic. It's going down, I'm telling you. But the kingdom of God is not going to go down. And the gospel is the answer. It's not a political answer. And that's why you're not going to hear politics preached from this pulpit.
This pulpit is going to preach the word of God, because the gospel is the answer. And that's what we need to keep our focus on, is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is the gospel. The person and the works of Jesus Christ.
The death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He's coming soon, and He's coming soon. And that is our focus. And we want to be evangelistic and tell everybody we come in contact with who Jesus is and what He's done for them.
That's the good news. And that's our focus. So no doubt, prayer is the utmost, most important to James the apostle. So this is the focus of his conclusion of his epistle. Isn't it wonderful? He is focusing on prayer.
And today, I'd like for us to look specifically on verse 16 through 18. And what is he saying? Now, we can sum it up in this. And this is my outline. First, we're going to look at prayer and fellowship.
This goes along with the power of a praying church. It's prayer and fellowship. That'll be my first point. And my second point is prayer and power. Prayer and power. And we're going to look at the example.
And then we're going to look at the conclusion of the message today. I'd like for us to look at the examples of prayer and requirements of effective praying, the scriptural elements and the methods of effective praying, and the examples of prayer that the Scripture gives through powerful and effective praying.
This is application to everything that's been said. And I believe James has given application to what he's been saying through the Holy Spirit in the book of James, in this epistle as he speaks to the church.
So let's look at it. Let's go, first of all, prayer and fellowship. Prayer and fellowship, verse 16. Look at verse 16. Therefore, this is the NASB. Now, not all translations has the word therefore, but in the accurate translation, therefore is there, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Now, like I said, in the NASB, the translation therefore marks a transition in the flow of thought. Always keep that in mind. Anytime you see the word but is a transition word that takes place of the thought beforehand.
And also, I like what my old professor in seminary says, therefore is there for a reason. It's a transitional word. And this transitional word is in the flow of thought in what James is talking about.
He turns his attention from the sins of those believers of who have been defeated in the spiritual battle. Now, James addressed the congregation. Now, he's addressing the congregation as a whole. And he exhorts them.
And what is he doing? He's exhorting the believers to what? To confess. That's a key word. To confess their sins to God. No. In the text here, yes, it is important that we confess our sins to God. Right.
But in the text, James is talking about corporately to the congregation as a whole to confess their sins to one another. Now, we're going to see what this means and what it entails. And then he says, and not to wait until those sins are dragged, has dragged them down into the depths of utter spiritual defeat.
Pastor John MacArthur noted this in his commentary. What did he say?
Again, quote,.
The inspired writer was well aware that sin is most dangerous to an isolated believer. Let me say that again. The inspired writer was well aware that sin is most dangerous to an isolated believer. And he goes on to say this.
Sin seeks to remain private and secret, but God wants it exposed and dealt with in the loving fellowship of other believers. Therefore, James called for mutual honesty and mutual confession as believers pray for one another.
Thank you, Brother Pete. I had a dry spot, so please excuse me. Let me say that one more time because I feel this is so important of why we're to confess our sins to one another. Again, MacArthur, The inspired writer was well aware that sin is most dangerous to an isolated believer.
Isolated. Sin seeks to remain private and secret, but God wants it exposed and dealt with in the loving fellowship of other believers. Therefore, James called for mutual honesty and mutual confession as believers pray for one another.
Now, that's what MacArthur says, and I agree with that because it's so critical that we are accountable to one another in confessing our sins. And we're going to look at what this really means here in just a minute.
So the ultimate purpose for that, in which Pastor John MacArthur was referring to, is that what does the Word of God say? That you may be healed. God desires the believers, when He falls away into sin, He desires for Him to be restored.
Even church discipline is restorative. It is for the healing. That God desires that person's healing. The restoration. He restoreth my soul. You see it all the way through Scripture. God is in the business of restoring.
He's all about restoration. But we must come on His terms. We must do what He commands. And we're going to see what He's talking about here in just a minute. So that's the goal of the believer to maintain an opening, sharing, and praying relationship with one another among the body.
So such relationships help give the spiritual strength that provides victory over the sin. And we all struggle with this, don't we, if we're honest. That's why we need one another. None of us is an island to ourselves.
There is a body of believers. I just spoke to someone here the past week. A relative. And I'm not going to name who that person is because if they listen by this, they'll definitely know. But I'm going to be honest.
This particular person within my family really thinks it's okay just to stay home and watch evangelists over television and think she has done her part in the church. And I said, oh, no, no. I said, I'm telling you, you need.
I said, church will not save you. But if you are saved, you want to be in church. Now, when I'm talking about church, I'm not talking about a structure in a building. I'm not talking about the organization.
I'm talking about the living organism. I'm talking about being with the people of God where we are accountable to one another, where we hear God's Word preached, where we come together and worship, where we sing praises together, when we go to God in prayer together, when we sing God's praises, and when we pray with one another and pray to God and pray for one another and encourage one another.
That's what the Scripture says. Not to forsake assembling yourselves together as the lack and the matter of the sum is. But He says, but so much the more, see, encourage, come together, and come together not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together because the day is approaching.
It's a judgment day. And it's important that we come. It's a means of grace.
I don't know about you.
I'm going to take a hold of every means of grace I possibly can. These are the means of grace that God has given us to come to hear God's Word, to encourage us and help us on this journey to the celestial city because I'm telling you, you've got the world, the flesh, and the devil and a lot of enemies that's against us in this fight.
And we need all the encouragement and the means of grace to get us through until we reach over the finish line. This is a serious thing. That's why we need to meet together. And actually, when I told this to this particular person, they just were dumbfounded, like no answers.
Well, of course. I said, you need to be with other believers. And of course, the excuses came. And I said, look, I can't make you. You can lead a horse to water. I can't make you drink the water. I said, but your desire should be, if your desire is toward God, your desire is toward His Word, then if your desire is toward His Word, then your desire will be with God's people.
And I said, be selective and where you go, grant it because there's not many good Bible-believing churches that studies and preaches the whole counsel of God of all 66 books of this Bible. But I said, get in there and take advantage of all the means of grace you can.
We need it, don't we? We need it. And I say that lovingly.
I really do.
Because we need to encourage one another. Pray for one another. And what does he say here? Confess your sins. Now, one translation says you're false. But the correct translation, if you look at the original Greek, says confess your sins one to another.
Now again, this is to provide godly pressure. Let me say that, godly pressure. To confess and not only to confess our sins, but to forsake our sins. We need to turn from our sins. We need to hate those sins.
And they so easily beset us. And turn away from it. And forsake them before they become, why? Before they become overwhelmingly to the point of total spiritual defeat and defection. Now none of us plan on defecting from the faith.
And let me tell you this. People out there that's defected from the faith never planned it either. They drift slowly away. Satan is a very, he's very strategic on this. And that's why we're not ignorant of his devices.
Because the word of God gives us the wisdom.
Of how he comes to us.
But he doesn't come to us showing himself as an ugly devil and pitchfork. No, he comes as an angel of light. He comes as a, what? As false teachers do, as wolves in sheep's clothing. He dresses them, a wolf dresses himself up as a sheep.
And you think the other sheep's gonna notice?
He don't look like a sheep.
But inwardly he's a ravening wolf. Now that speaks to false teachers. But Satan plays for keeps and he wants to, he desires for us to defect from the faith, right? But God's for us. God's not against us.
And we could be more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who loved us. And greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And what is the victory? Even our faith. And our faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So our eyes of our faith must be on Christ. And yes, there's people out there that's defected from the faith and their eyes was on Christ. Look at Judas. He kissed Christ. He kissed him, a sign of worship.
And Judas today for all eternity is in hell. And Jesus said it would have been better for him not to be born. But you know something? Jesus prayed for Peter. Peter denied Christ. But Jesus prayed for Peter.
Now, I want to go on to say this. This is exactly what James deals with in the closing verses of this epistle which we will be looking at also the next Lord's Day. And if you notice in the last two verses.
Of this epistle,.
What does he say? My brethren, if one of you should wonder for the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover a multitude of sins.
And notice how it's in context with everything he's saying here. Confess your sins, your faults, your sins to one another. Now, so confession of sins is what James is speaking about. The early church, the believers practiced church discipline.
I don't have time, but read it in your devotional time, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 is a very good example of this. Chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians,.
The Apostle Paul.
To a very carnal church,.
The carnate, very carnal.
And they probably would appear as godly compared to the church today. And that's a thought I'm giving to you. But immorality was defiling the church and it had to be dealt with. And immorality, it had to be judged and it had to be exposed.
Why?
Because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. And Jesus' intention, which was the founder of the church, was the one that set in motion and gave the instruction on church discipline. And that's why it was important to keep, that Jesus' intention was to keep His church, it's His church pure.
So Paul the Apostle told the believers at Corinth to dismiss the sinning member from the assembly until they repented of his sins and made things right with God. So James here says, therefore confess your sins to one another, pray for one another that you may be healed, to be restored.
Now,.
That's another sermon in and of itself talking about church discipline. That's a whole series, believe me. And Lord willing, we'll probably touch on that one day if Jesus tarries. But now it's very easy as well.
Now, let me say this. To misunderstand what James is saying here about the command, and I think it's a command, to confess sins to one another. So to the extent,.
What does James mean, what does he mean.
To confess our sins to one another? I want to ask that question. What do you think it means?
Well, we're going to look at this.
And mind you, let me say this.
Before we tackle this.
In just a short, brief, a few minutes. This is the only time that you see, the only verse in the Bible that it says, confess your sins to one another. The only place. So we can't take that out of context.
You know how a lot of people take one verse out of context and just lays hold of that and forgets everything else that God is saying. So we don't need to do that, do we? But there are.
So the other scriptures,.
We need to guide our thinking to think biblical. So here are some biblical principles I thought of, that I want to set before you to look at, and there's just three that goes along with what James could be saying here.
Number one.
The offender confesses to the one offended, whether to a human or to God. That's the first. Second principle would be, we confess secret sins to God since sins such as anger, envy, and lust offend God, even if they never lead to action.
It is highly unlikely that we will accomplish anything constructive by telling someone, and go up to them, you know, I envied you today, or I lusted after you today. I don't think that would be very constructive.
Now that is another, what you would say, is this what James is saying, confess your sins to one another. The third, which I take, I believe this is what James is saying, is we confess sins privately to the one individual or the few we've offended.
We confess public sins which offended many publicly. For example, let me give you an example of this. And you may know some people that's done this in the past.
I do.
And I'm not going to call names,.
But listen to what it says.
For example, if a leader of a church preaches heresy, or he deceives his people, or misuses public funds, then public confession then needs to be applied. So what I'm saying is, if this person,.
Especially a leader,.
Is held accountable, if he sins against the individual, then he needs to confess it to the individual. If he sins against a group of people, he needs to confess his sins to the group. If he sins against the church, then he needs to confess it to the church.
Now this is critical. And I believe this is what James is speaking of. Because James is speaking what? To the body here. To the body. The confession James recommends and instructs must fit the category of the three, right?
So I believe it does fit that category. So why? For this reason. So once a sick or weak sinning believer repents, fellowship is restored. And James assumes, and this is what I really believe, James assumes that the offended party will be ready to forgive.
Then the whole body of Jesus Christ can pray effectively for healing, for restoration. So James, I believe, is expecting those prayers to be effective and fervent. And what does he say? For the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Elders are responsible to set an example for personal righteousness and personal holiness. Yet, here in James 5 .16, he expects the whole church to pray. Every saint. Every believer. Everyone who is righteous by faith in Jesus Christ.
Prays.
He prays.
Let me add this.
The effectiveness of prayer lies in the sheer grace and power of God. This is so critical. It sounds so simple. But it's so critical. The sheer grace, the effectiveness of prayer lies in the sheer grace and power of God and not in our personal goodness or our merits as a believer.
Now why I say that? Because a lot of people say it was my praying that got the answer. So they're taking glory for themselves. Now even though God commands us to pray and God answers the prayer, we're not to take the glory, are we?
The glory belongs to God. It's God that's working in us. It is God that has given us. It is God that's the source. And if prayer is answered, Dr. A .W. Tozer said this, and if God answers our prayer, it's not because we're good,.
It's because God's good.
And the prayers of a righteous man avails much. And God gives us the righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit. God desires healing. God desires restoration. So the purpose for mutual prayer that James called for is that believers may be healed.
Don't you love that? God desires the healing, the restoration of people that fall into sin. Confess it. Forsake it.
That's what the church is there for.
And we're not to be critical. Oh, we love them, we tell the truth. There's always truth in love and gentleness to restore those that have fallen. That's what Paul says. The word healed here is an interesting word.
It doesn't necessarily refer to physical healing. You know, so many preachers take this out of context. They think this applies to physical healing.
No, it doesn't.
Now let me give you some verses of Scripture to back this up. In Matthew 13, 15, quoting from the prophecy of Isaiah,.
Jesus said this,.
And Jesus quotes Isaiah. You will keep on hearing, will not understand. You will keep on seeing, will not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull, and their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return. See? Repent. And listen to what he says. And I would heal them. What's he talking about in healing there?
He's talking about spiritual restoration. He's talking about spiritually restoring them.
Salvation.
So this symbolizes God's withheld forgiveness of Israel's sins. And the healing in this text is spiritual restoration. Here's another good example. The writer of Hebrews also used it metaphorically to speak of spiritual restoration.
I love this verse. Hebrews 12, 12 and 13. Therefore strengthen the hands that are weak, and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
Did you get that?
That the weak and the knees that are feeble make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. God wants to put them back together. The healing.
And the apostle Peter also used it to describe the healing from sin that Jesus Christ purchased on the cross in 1 Peter 2, 24. And I love this as well. All these scriptures, how can we say we don't love them?
They all are cherished and loved. Peter says,. And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. And then he says this,. For by His wounds you were healed.
That's not talking about physical healing. That's talking about spiritual healing. James uses it to refer to God's forgiveness and making the repentant believer spiritually whole again. Now, next we see, this is my second point.
Prayer and power. He makes a transition here, and I love the example that he gives. Prayer and power. Verse 16 through 18. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Now keep in mind, they're going to score the righteous man.
The righteous man. Now he's got someone in mind when he thinks of righteous man. He goes right to him. Elijah. Elijah was a man. I can stop right there. He was a man. He was a man with a nature like ours.
And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Tells us exactly how many days and months and years. And then he prayed again. He persevered.
He prayed again. And the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.
By the way,.
Of encouraging both elders and Christians here to the context, to this kind of intercession for those in spiritual weakness, James is reminding the believers, reminding them that such prayer is effective.
It is effective.
It has power to it. Now the word effective is an interesting Greek word. The Greek word is energero. Energero. That's the word in which our English word derives energy. That's where we get the word energy.
Pray with energy. Pray with unction. Pray with power,.
Fervency.
So he's talking about just not in volume, but in energy by the spirit, by the spirit of God within you. This derives this prayer of a righteous man. And we've got to keep these other verses in mind too.
I've got a few verses. Psalm 66, 18 is very important. And regarding to this,.
Because it says,.
The psalmist says, if I regard iniquity or wickedness in my heart, the Lord would not hear. So if there's sin within our heart, God's not going to hear it. Your prayers will be bouncing off the ceiling of heaven.
Proverbs 15, 8. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord. But the prayer of the upright.
Is His delight.
And in Proverbs 28, 9. He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination. So did you hear that? If we turn our ear from listening to the law, which is the word of God, then our prayer is abomination to the Lord.
That's a strong verse. Now, so the prayer of a righteous man avails much. Literally, it is speaking, it is very strong. That's what he's saying. The prayer of a righteous man is very strong. Very strong.
Makes me think about what Paul says. Be strong in the Lord. In the Lord. And in the power of His might. Thus to pray effectively, for healing restoration to take place, we must first cleanse our hearts from all sin.
That will obstruct our access to a holy God. And we must commit ourselves to praying with fervency. Now, as Scripture says, if we regard iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not hear. But, I love the Scripture also in 1 John 1, 9.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful. And He is just.
To forgive us of all of our sin.
And cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then our prayers will be fervent and open and welcome to God. Now, isn't that beautiful? But there has to be that cleansing. We must not regard iniquity in our heart.
Now, it may seem to us that God is asking more than we can do, right?
I don't think He is.
He desires a fervent prayer with energy and power. But like the disciples who went with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, it makes me think of this. They went with Jesus, especially those three, Peter, James, and John, which was the core group, the inner circle, went with Jesus.
And by the way, one of my favorite texts is there, only Jesus could go a little further. Only He went a little further into the Garden. In the most important time in history, He was about to take upon Himself the sin upon Him.
And He prayed three times. He struggled with this. But He knew that it was the will of His Father to go to the cross and take upon Himself the sin. And the battle was won in prayer right there, beloved.
Before He went to the cross, we know that the victory was won at the cross. But can I submit to you right here that the battle was won right there when He fell on His face and sweated great drops of blood?
Our Lord went a little further there.
But the disciples,.
What were they doing?
Jesus came back and they were so tired.
And worn out.
And they fell asleep. And didn't Jesus tell them, He even comes back and He said,.
What?
He said, You could not even watch with Me for one hour?
Jesus said,.
Matthew 26, 41, The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. I tell you, all of us can admit up to that. When we fall into sin and we fall under the weight and the burden of all of it and we fall and are overpowered by the flesh, it's because our flesh is weak.
And we give in to it. But you know, to further demonstrate the power of a righteous, prayerful life provided, James gives an illustration of a man of God. Now, I believe a lot of people may ask, Why does he go to Jesus?
Well, Jesus was the perfect man. He, even though He was a fully man, but He was fully God. Elijah was not fully God. You see what I'm saying? So, Jesus is the perfect example of prayer. So, I believe He goes to Elijah for two reasons.
Number one, because He had like passions, a nature like ours. Jesus, He had the God nature. Elijah didn't have that. Also, the Jews loved in the past the Old Testament examples and Elijah was one of them that they loved to read about.
He was a man of God. He was a man of prayer. We're going to look at him a little bit here. To further demonstrate also that powerful man of prayer, the illustration He captures, their attention, the very essence of discussion, James turns to the most popular Old Testament figures and it was Elijah.
Elijah was the prophet of fire. Elijah was a man of prayer. He was a man of God. He wasn't perfect. Jesus was perfect. But He reminds us, His readers, through the prophet, though He was a prophet and a man of God, which the Jews admired, again, He was a man with like passions and a nature like ours.
Isn't that encouraging to you? That encourages me. The Bible records that He was hungry in 1 Kings 17 -11. 1 Kings 19 -3, it says He was afraid and He was depressed. He got depressed in 1 Kings 19 -3 and in verse 9 -14.
And yet, what did He do?
He prayed. He prayed earnestly. Now, literally, He prayed with prayer. He prayed with prayer. Incredible things happened and results took place. God answered His prayer. It did not rain on the earth for 3 years and 6 months and then He prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced fruit.
Now, Elijah's prayers had such power and energy, beloved, it was incredible. That His prayers both created and ended a devastating 3 and 1 half year drought.
Jesus spoke of it.
In Luke 4 -25, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, He said of Elijah, but I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was shut up for 3 years and 6 months and there was a great famine throughout the land.
That's the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the record is exact on that. Now, some might argue, but Elijah was a prophet of God.
He was a man of God.
I'm not that kind of person. I'm not a prophet of God. Well, that may be true. But of course, God heard His prayers. Not because, quote-unquote, He was a prophet of God, but because He was righteous.
You see, He was righteous. Now, I want you to get this. Beloved, James' point is that he's reminding us that Elijah was a man with like passions, like passions, a nature like ours. He wasn't perfect, right, but in fact, after the great victory at Mount Carmel, Mount Carmel, I get my words right, Elijah became afraid.
Don't you love the story? What was he afraid of? He was afraid of Jezebel. Jezebel threatened to take his life. He ran like a scared rabbit all the way to the cave and discouraged. And he thought he was the only one, the only prophet around.
And God had to encourage him. And God came to him and demonstrated His power.
And this was a beautiful lesson.
That God gave him when he was alone with God. And then, you know the story. God comes and there's thunder and there's fire and there's lightning, but God wasn't in it at that time. Even though God was demonstrating it, but then God gave a lesson in the still, small voice.
God was in it.
That was the lesson.
And so it helped encourage Elijah. He was depressed.
In a sense,.
He was like suicidal in a sense.
He really was.
He was scared of Jezebel. He was afraid for his life. He became discouraged. He ran in the cave.
And by the way,.
God told him at times,.
He said,.
Hide thyself in the cave. He became very familiar and close with God. And then God said, Show yourself. There was a time to hide himself, a time to show himself. So we need to obey God, the word of the Lord, in these things.
So, notice this. Again, he wasn't perfect, but let me tell you one thing about Elijah I like. He was obedient. He was obedient to the word of the Lord. And that tells us we need to be obedient to the word of the Lord.
To the Lord and trusting Him and in His timing and everything that He does. So God's promises of answered prayer and faith. And it's through faith. And that's what He says. The prayer of faith. The prayer of faith.
James refers to that. And according to God's will, we are all for God's children. Not just for one. We may call this spiritually. Let me say that again. God's promises of answered prayer and faith and according to God's will are for all of God's children.
Not just for the ones that we may think are the spiritual elite. The giants in the faith. It's for God's people.
For all of us.
Now notice what James connects with Elijah's prayers.
First of all,.
He was a righteous man. That's why his prayers were effective. They were answered. He was righteous. They were fervent. They were energetic. And they accomplished much. Elijah prayed. And notice another thing he said.
He earnestly prayed again.
Earnestly.
That means fervently, full of energy. And was the result of earnestly praying, persevering?
Yes.
Because the text says in verse 18, then he prayed again. The sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. He got the results.
I'm close to the application here. And let me bring a few things to the forefront here. Here's some godly men that you may know of. Of course, C .H. Spurgeon. I can't go without a message about quoting a Spurgeon once in a while.
But Spurgeon says this. Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first sets His people to pray. I love that. Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first sets His people to pray.
Beloved,.
If God has put it within you to have a desire to pray, God's going to do something. And I don't know about you, I'm expecting great and mighty things that God's going to do among redeeming grace church.
Martin Lloyd-Jones said it very well. Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes face to face with God. That's what we need to be thinking of right now.
When we go on our knees before God, we're face to face with the most holy and great high God that's able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can even ask or think. We should expect great things with God and for God in prayer and faith because we are righteous through Jesus Christ and He will answer His prayers, the prayers of the saints if it's according to His will.
Now, much could be said here, but James is referring to 1 Kings. So turn with me very quickly to 1 Kings chapter 18. And I want us to see something very quickly here in closing and some application. In the Old Testament, I love these Old Testament books.
All of it's wonderful.
I love...
Someone asked R .C. Sproul one time, What's your favorite verse of the Scripture? And he said,.
All of it.
I like that answer. You just can't pick and choose.
I like all 66 books from Genesis to Revelation. Every word of God is pure. Now, 1 Kings 18, notice what the Word of God says. Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel. In verse 42. Top of Carmel. He bent down to the earth and put his face between his knees.
Go and look toward the sea. And he told his servant. He went up and looked and there was nothing there.
And he said,.
Seven times, Elijah said. Seven times. Go back the seven times the servant reported. A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea. So Elijah said, Go and tell Ahab. Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.
Meanwhile the sky grew black with clouds and the wind rose and the heavy rain came on. And Ahab rode off to Jerusalem. Okay, he rides off to Jerusalem. And what does it say? Meanwhile the sky grew black.
Verse 46. The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and tucking his cloak into his belt and he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jerusalem. You see, God, there was abundance of rain that was coming. And that was by faith of what was about to take place.
Now, there's some things I want to bring to your attention right here. And I hope I got enough time to pull this together real quickly in application. There's reasons for prayer. Very quickly, reasons for prayer.
There's three reasons for prayer here. First and foremost, believers are commanded by God to pray. Number one, that's a good reason. Because God commands us to pray. But not only is it a command, we should have a desire to seek the Lord, to call on the name of the Lord, to cry out loud to the Lord like David did.
Lifting up one's soul to the Lord. Seeking the face of God. Approaching the throne of grace with confidence and boldness. And drawing near to God. So it's a command. That's a good reason. And that command is to pray comes from the lips of the psalmist.
It comes from the prophets. It comes from the apostles. And it comes from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. God desires our fellowship. By prayer, we maintain our relationship with Him. Now, I don't know if you've ever thought about this, when Jesus purchased our salvation, He purchased you.
You are His possession. And He's jealous over you. That is all everything that you have. And I look at when I pray before God, why would I hold back from praying.
Of something that Jesus died for?
You see what I'm saying?
He died for my communion and my fellowship. And you are a love gift to God. And when you pray, it's like I'm bringing my sweet incense before the Father and giving back to you, God, what belongs to you for your glory.
He died for you on that. How can we neglect prayer when we think of it like that? So that's a good reason. We're commanded to pray. Second reason is prayer is the necessary link to receiving God's power, God's blessings, and all by the means of grace through the Holy Spirit and the fulfillment of everything He's promised us in this world.
Think of that. Every promise is a yes and an amen to us, to the children of God, the promises of God. The third thing is in His plan of salvation for the elect in which God has ordained that believers be workers with Him in the redemptive process.
Now I want you to think about what I'm saying there. You and I are co-laborers, Paul said that,.
Together.
With the greatest work on the face of this earth for the kingdom of God, for the King of kings and the Lord of lords. So how can we neglect those reasons? And you know something Jesus said, God, well let me say this, He said ask of the Lord in Matthew 9 .38 therefore to send out workers, laborers into His field, harvest field for they are white and ready to harvest.
We need to be thinking on that. Judgment is on the horizon and I'm here to tell you the storms of the judgment day is right on the brink of coming and Jesus Christ is about to burst back into the sky again and receive and I'm telling you,.
Judgment day is not going to be a good day.
For the lost and the wicked. But it's going to be the glorious day for the saints and Jesus is coming back soon. But that's good reason to pray because God has all that.
For us.
Those are the three quick reasons. Now very quickly, there's the requirements of effective praying. I'm going to spend a little time right here. Requirements of effective praying. There are several conditions that must be met for our prayers to be effective.
Powerful.
And don't you want your prayers to be effective?
When I pray, even though our feelings may come against us at times and we may not always feel like praying. Some days I don't even feel saved. But you know something? I don't go by my feelings. The Bible says the just shall live by faith.
It doesn't say faith.
But we walk by what?
Faith.
Not by our sight. We don't walk by what we see. We don't walk by what we feel. And sometimes the feelings is great and there's joy unspeakable and full of glory and I know I've been in the presence of God and those feelings of joy come.
But you know something? It's a deep seated joy. It's not just my happenstance and feelings I go by. But now the requirements is this.
If you're writing this down, this is important. Our prayers will not be answered unless we have a sincere, true faith that's grounded in Jesus Christ. Now I'm telling you, if our faith is not grounded in the person and works of Jesus Christ,.
You forget it.
It's all in Jesus. All in Jesus. And Jesus said this. Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received them and it will be yours. Now that doesn't mean I'm going to go out there and ask for any material thing.
God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory. And people sometimes categorize those material things as needs. And now He does take care of His own. The righteous has never been forsaken or received begging for bread.
God will take care of His own. You don't have to worry about those things. But the Bible also says, and brother Ben read it today, the tenth commandment, thou shalt not covet. We're not to covet. We're to be content.
We're to be content with the little things that God gives us. So that shows you how fleshly people are in praying. We should be praying for the spiritual things, for the souls of people. You know, the father of a demon-possessed boy, he spoke these words, everything is, Jesus said, everything is possible for him who believes.
He's talking about someone that was possessed of a devil. And then he says, if you believe, it's possible. He was talking about that person's soul. To cast a demon out. The author of Hebrews urges us, as believers, to draw near to God with a sincere heart, full of assurance, of faith, of faith.
And James encourages us to believe and not doubt. Second, prayer must also be made, and this may sound simple, but it's important. It must be made in Jesus' name. Jesus' name. Jesus Himself expressed this principle and said, I will do whatever you ask of my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
And you may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it according to His will always. Our prayer should be in harmony with the person, the character, and the will of God. Third, prayer can only be effective if it is made according to God's perfect will.
It can be only effective if it's made according to the perfect will of God. This is the confidence. It says in 1 John 5, 14, this is the confidence that we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
So it must be according to His will. Jesus modeled the prayer, the Lord's prayer, the disciples' prayer, really. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. With a focus on God's will, what God desires.
Jesus in Gethsemane once again, in Matthew 26, 42, He says, Not my will, but Thy will be done. Well, fourth, not only must we pray according to the will of God, but we must be in God's will. We must be in God's will.
And what is the will of God? Even your sanctification. Even your sanctification. God has called you not just to holiness, but in holiness. You must be holy. That's God's will.
Sanctification.
That's how we're to walk. That's how we're to talk. To be separated from the world. To be different. We should be different people. And people should notice it. Matthew 6, 33,. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things shall be added unto you.
Well, to wrap this up, the fifth thing is, finally, for prayer to be effective, we must be persistent. We must not let go of the horns of the altar. And we must be crying day and night. God's elect cries day and night until God brings the answer.
And I'm telling you, it may not be the answer you expect. God's going to answer what He expects and what's best. He knows what's best. And whatever it is, we depend on Him that He's an all-wise God. And He does everything right.
He does everything right, even though it may not be what we think. And Scripture says this in Isaiah, His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. As high as the heavens, above the earth.
Well, to wrap this up, there's examples of effective praying. There's elements, I don't have time to get into the elements, which is important, which consists of worship and praise. Just keep that in mind.
There's worship and praise to God. But let me give you some examples very quickly in closing. The Bible is filled with so many examples of prayer. My goodness, it would take a whole series. But in wrapping this up, they were very powerful and they were very effective.
Number one, I think of Moses. Moses on numerous intercessory prayers that God answered, even when He had told Moses that He would follow a different course of action. That was another time. You may not regard this as a powerful prayer, but the repentant Samson, at the end of his life, prayed for one more opportunity to fulfill his life's destiny and his task on this earth in defeating the Philistines.
And it was in one prayer, God strengthen me this once more. And God, by doing that, He brought down the whole temple of idolatry and idols and all the enemies and Philistines was killed more in Samson's time than any other time that he ever lived.
What a powerful thing. The power. That was a short prayer. It doesn't have to be long. But God heard it. And God strengthened him even after his consequences of sin. And he lost his eyes because of his lusting after harlots.
Oh, God was in the restoring business. How about the prophet Elijah that we're talking about? At least four powerful prayers God answered in which brought glory to God in Israel. How about King Hezekiah?
He became sick and was told by the prophet Isaiah that he would die. He said, you're going to die. What if somebody came to you?
You're going to die at this day.
What are you going to do? Are you going to die within this period of time? Well, he set his face to the wall and he prayed. Feeling his life and work was incomplete, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall.
Look in the Scriptures.
He prayed intensely for God to give him more time. God, give me some more time. God granted it. And God healed him. Gave him 15 more years.
God answered it. How about Daniel? The prophet Daniel undoubtedly prayed to the Lord in the lion's den and God shut the mouths of the lions. This was a righteous man. What about the early Christians prayed earnestly for Peter's release from prison and when God answered the prayer, Peter came knocking at the door and it was Peter at the door.
And they said,.
You've got to be kidding me. They didn't even know it was Peter. God answered their prayers. Well, the greatest prayer life that was ever given was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But He was the perfect man and His prayers was always perfect.
His whole life was perfect in accordance, by the way, to the will of God. Constant communion with the Father.
From early childhood,.
Three years of His public ministry and all the way to the cross.
Even on the cross He prayed. And then after His resurrection, He's still praying. And He prayed and He prayed again. Let me close with this poem by Amy Carmichael. Then we'll have a word of prayer and sing a hymn.
What a godly woman this missionary to India was.
It's called,.
Fuel of God, Fuel of God. Listen very closely to what she says in this poem. And it's a prayer. From prayer that asked that I may be Sheltered from the winds that beat on thee. From fearing when I should expire.
From faltering when I should climb higher. From silken self, O Captain Free. Thy soldier who would follow thee. From subtle love of softening things. From easy choices, weakenings. Not thus are spirits fortified.
Not this way with the crucified. From all that dims thy calvary. O Lamb of God, deliver me. Then she says this, Give me the love that leads the way. Give me the faith that nothing can dismay. The hope no disappointments tire.
The passion that will burn like fire. Let me not sink to be a clod. Make me thy fuel, flame of God. May that be our prayer today. Let's pray. Father we thank you for this time and the study of the word.
It goes by so quickly because it's so good. You're good. Your word is good. Father forgive us. O Lord forgive us for our prayerlessness before you. O God, truly as your son says, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Lord forgive us for not spending more time at your feet like Mary. Like Mary that sought the best. Forgive us for being Martha's at time. Yes Lord, you desire us to be servants and we are your servants, but the greatest of servants.
Is at the feet of Jesus.
So Father, we desire the best. Help us Lord by your grace within this grave hour I pray Lord that we'll be salt upon a nation that's decaying. Lord that we will be light to the glory of God. And that Father that we will be upon our knees and our face before you in humility and prayer confessing our sins as Daniel did.
Pleading with you in prayer O God to once again to restore and revive us and revive our hearts afresh and put a fire within us and set our hearts afire before you O God. A fire that would never, never go out until we are home with you.
And even then the fire will even burn brighter. So Father may we love one another, pray for one another and even confess our sins to one another that we may be healed. In Jesus name, Amen and Amen.