James chapter 5, and if you would stand with me as we ask God's blessing now upon the preaching of His Word, and I will read from chapter 5, verse 13 and following. Let's pray together. Blessed God, we ask You to come, O God, and bless the preaching of Your Word. and power, Lord, this week preacher. To preach the word boldly and faithfully, Lord, in a way that is honoring and pleasing in your sight. Lord, bless all of our hearts here to receive it, accept it and love it and cherish it. Lord, would you give us the strength we need to root out sin? Some sins are, Lord, ingrained and, Lord, habitual, give us victory. Lord, grant us a strong, vibrant faith this morning as we feast upon your word. Lord, strengthen our hope. Give us clarity of mind and discernment. Let us take great encouragement, Lord, at what we hear, to know that we stand in this sweet stream of compassion and grace. Lord, call it salvation. Lord, let us stand arm in arm and shoulder to shoulders with our brothers and sisters as we hear the same word that we might be edified and, Lord, made strong together. Strengthen our homes in all that we are. We pray in Christ's name, amen. And beloved, chapter five of James, I want to begin reading at verse 13. So hear now the word of the living God. Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? Well, he is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? And 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 sins, they will be forgiven him. 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 can accomplish 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. And then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit. And thus ends the reading of God's precious word. You may be seated. Now brothers and sisters, as we already know, faith remains the dominant theme of this small epistle. When James does leave that dominant theme of faith, it's faith, it's only for a short time, and it's only that he might support and add to that faith other graces that accompany it. Everything he does supports and surrounds this idea of true saving faith, a real justifying faith. And we've seen so much of that as we've looked at the book. In the portion that I've read this morning, prayer takes a primary role. Prayer is one of those graces and duties that always accompany saving faith. Prayer is not simply an option for the believer. It's not something that he or she can add to her or his spiritual repertoire. It is nothing more than a fruit and byproduct of a born again condition, or not condition, but a state. that when we are new creations in Christ, when we've had our hearts changed, when we've had our minds opened up, our eyes illuminated, then we know we must and desire to pray to God. And it is true that prayer can be dampened, that activity, Even the desire can be strained at times, but for the real Christian, they never go away. They are always there accompanying in some fashion to some degree their love for God and dependence upon Him if they are real children of God and believers in Christ. James seems to be circling back around, if you will, at this theme of faith accompanied with prayer. If you look back at chapter 1, we saw this when he talks about the trials of faith. Faith being strengthened. by the various providences that we face, those strong, hard providences that challenge us on every level. Well, he says right there in verse 5, if you lack wisdom, pray and ask God. But look at verse 6. Look how he attaches prayer to saving faith. But he must ask in faith without doubting. That when we ask God for wisdom, when we pray, when we come to God, when we lay ourselves open in humility and sincerity before God, acknowledging our weaknesses and all of the various things that we need to do when we pray, well, it must come from faith and out of faith and by faith. Faith is the foundation. It's the bedrock that our prayers spring from, if you will. I think John Calvin was the theologian that said, prayer is nothing more than the conduit of saving faith. It's like a pipeline from the heart of the believer to the throne room of God. And the believer uses it, it's kind of like a landline, you know, you pick up the phone, we don't really need landlines anymore, do we? Everything seems to be wireless, but we get the concept and idea. This morning, as we look at prayer, I want us to see this portion of scripture in this light. And I did work with many different titles in order to help us understand it, but I think I have a handle on it, and I think you will benefit from the title I selected. This morning's message is gonna center around the need for more prayer. the need for more prayer. And we're gonna look at this need for more prayer through at least in four different ways. The first one we're gonna look at in the need for prayer in ordinary circumstances. ordinary circumstances. Secondly, we're going to see the need for prayer in sort of special circumstances. Those unique times where we really must call upon God in prayer. Thirdly, we're going to see the need for more prayer in creating a healthy body life for God's people. A healthy body life. And it's going to be important that we see that prayer must be vital, must play a vital role as we seek a healthy body life as Christians. And then thirdly, we're going to see that the prayer of the righteous availeth much. And James uses the Old Testament prophet Elijah. You know, James loves the Old Testament. He loves the Bible. He's already brought out several examples to us. You know, remember the last Old Testament figure he just used a couple weeks ago? We talked about Job. He's calling us back. What is he calling us to? The Bible. He's calling us back to scripture. James wants our minds and our hearts saturated with the word of God. He wants us thinking about holy people and the way they worked and struggled and still maintain their witness and testimony in the earth. You know why? Because we're getting to do the same thing. We got to do the same thing. We struggle, we wrestle, we battle so many different temptations and trials and afflictions and hurts and compromises, and you know what we need to do? We need to be like Job and Elijah and many others. That's what we need to do. Now brothers and sisters, so you've got a basic scheme and outline of the text we're gonna look at, but let me give you some doctrines to pin your mind on. Now I'm gonna go ahead and give them to you up front so you can be listening for them as I go along, okay? So you can listen for them, and you're gonna be able to remember these. It's not hard at all. The first doctrine that will sort of flow naturally out of the text is this one. Well, God cares about His children, and He cares about the whole person. God cares about you, and He cares about all of you, okay? It's not just your soul. He cares about your hands and your feet, your arms and your legs, He cares about your heart and your lungs. He cares about you. That's first. I think you can remember that one. A second doctrine that naturally flows out of this is this one. God is to be worshiped at all times. But there are special times where worship and devotion and meditation and study should be increased. It's natural and normal for people to worship God. You know what? It is. Yeah, we got a lot of abnormal people out here. But God's creator. He made everything. He made everybody. And all men, women, boys, girls, they all owe God worship. But as believers, as it goes with the church, as it goes in particular seasons, there are times when we should attend to the worship of God in a greater level. That's number two. Number three, God answers the prayers of his church. Yeah, he does. And God answers the prayers of his elders. who call upon him on behalf of the membership of the church. And we're gonna look at that. So you need to understand that. God loves to answer prayers and he loves to answer those prayers when those men who are called by his name to serve him and his people in a very special way, that when they pray and beseech the throne of grace, he answers their prayer. He answers the prayer that these elders pray. And then our last one is God does afflict saints who have slipped into habitual sinning with physical suffering. God does afflict His people with physical suffering in order to wean them off that sin. And that typically comes after a long time of whispering in their ears to come back. come back, come home, be faithful. And it gets to the place where God says, well, I've sent preachers, I've sent elders, I've sent mothers and fathers and sons and daughters, I've sent friends, but now I send affliction. And affliction will gain our attention, sometimes much better than any preacher. So those are the things that we must sort of look for and listen for as we attend this text. Now, first of all, I wanna deal with these ordinary circumstances that I mentioned to you. And what I mean by these ordinary circumstances, well, look right there in verse 13. Is there anyone among you suffering that is afflicted? burdened. Suffering is the, I think, appropriate word, but this particular word doesn't necessarily mean physical suffering. We have the word sickness for that, which means to be without strength. There are some special who are sick because they find themselves without any strength. They become sort of incapacitated. But this word means to struggle, affliction. Are there any among you suffering, struggling, afflicted? Well then, you must pray. Now notice suffering and affliction, if you will, and even look at number two there in verse 13. Is anyone cheerful? Is anyone happy? You have two opposing conditions. We have the afflicted and we have the happy. Well, those are ordinary circumstances, brothers and sisters. That's seasons of life, is it not? These are ordinary. These aren't extra special. And we need to understand this, that is, there is in our ordinary lives the need for prayer, but now there are certain times within our ordinary mundane lives that we should give attention to more. Let me read to you a couple of comments by some commentators because this is certainly a passage of scripture that falls under a variety of interpretations. Listen to Matthew Henry as he describes this circumstance. He says, Christians, we are taught to suit ourselves to the dispensations of providence. Now we've already talked about providence in the book of James. Our condition is in this world various, he says. And our wisdom is to submit to its being so. That is, it comes from God. It's providential. And we would be wise to submit ourselves to it. And to behave, he says, as becomes us, as Christians, both in prosperity and in affliction. Now these are common, ordinary circumstances. I'm sure that most of us in our lives can say there have been seasons of sadness and affliction. And then there have been seasons of happiness. There have been seasons of joy. There have been seasons of great, great, if you will, this is really, it's as good as it gets, if you will, we might use that term. Matthew Henry says they both come from God. He says sometimes in sadness, sometimes in myrrh, God has set these one against another that we may better observe the several duties we are required to do. Then he goes on and he says, these several duties may be performed with special advantage to the happiest purposes of such seasons. What he means by that is this. He means, you know what? When we are afflicted, our prayers seem to have a little more earnestness to them. And we benefit from that. Because God loves earnest prayer. God loves it when we take time to pray. And to say, oh God, help me. I can't do it without you. Because that's often not what we do. We kind of pass things along sometimes and just assume that God knows. And God does know everything. He is certainly all-knowing. But you know what? He requires us to speak it, to say it, acknowledge it, and confess it. Listen to John Calvin. John Calvin says, James means that here is no time in which God does not invite us to Himself. Now, what Calvin means is, he says whether God has His afflicting hand on you or His happy hand on you, God's inviting you to come to Him. I love that. So Calvin says, listen, I'm either being afflicted or I'm in a happy season. Either way, there's a special invitation for me to pray more. You've got to love that. For afflictions ought to stimulate us to pray, Calvin says. Prosperity supplies us with an occasion to praise God. But such is the perverseness of men that they cannot rejoice without forgetting God. and that when afflicted, they are disheartened and driven to despair. We ought then to keep within due bounds so that the joy which usually makes us forget God may induce us to set forth the goodness of God and that our sorrow may teach us to pray. Isn't that great? What wisdom. What wisdom. Prayer is shown in scripture To be, brothers and sisters, a divine dimension. Prayer is shown in Scripture to be a key dimension of the human divine relationship. It's a key aspect of it. To say you have a relationship with someone is to acknowledge there's interaction between the two. To say you know something, you can say, well, I mean, pick some actor you've never met that you've only seen on TV. You don't know them. You can go read about them, but you don't know them. You know things about them, but you don't know them. And that's the way so many people treat God. He's a list of facts. He's a list of categories and ideas and even truths that we can all get around and support like a political party. But to say you know God is to have a relationship with Him. To say you know Him is to talk to Him and speak with Him and to converse with Him and to seek His face and to find out what He wants from you and out of you. And we see this principle in the text. It marks the people of God. It's rooted in human need and divine love and sufficiency. Asking for help is a primary image of prayer in the Bible. Humbling ourselves, getting on our knees and crying out to God for help is the picture of prayer. It's the image of nurture. Communing with God. Dialoguing with Him. and being the recipient of God's special blessing of having the opportunity to do so. Now brothers and sisters, because all men don't, have that. And when you do have that, it ought to be precious to you to have that invitation at any time. night and day to come and speak with me and I'll comfort you, God says. Let me do this. I want to strengthen your minds, if you will, and show you how faithful our confession is to this idea and principle that I'm talking about, this providence, these ordinary circumstances. I'm just going to read a couple of statements. I didn't go through all of the confessions. There are more than the ones I have selected and picked for you, but I think you'll get the picture as we read this. And what I want to impress you with is the vibrancy of what I'm talking about being Christianity. This is Christianity 101. This is what real Christianity is, the rubber meeting the road. This is how Christianity rolls into everyday living and life. Chapter five of the Westminster Confession is the chapter on providence, and paragraph seven makes this statement. It says, as the providence of God does in general reach to all creatures, all men, So after a most special manner, it takes care of his church and disposes all things to the good thereof. Now what the confession is bringing out from passages like Romans 8, 28 and 29 is that yes, God's providence covers everything that he's made. But there is a very special, attention given to those that love God, to those who serve Him. That there is a special providence, if you will, given over to those for their well-being, that their communion with Him might be enhanced and heightened and strengthened. Because see, brothers and sisters, the greatest thing that ever can happen to us is a relationship with God. The best thing that ever happened to you is not a wife or a husband, it's not children. And those are all blessings. It's not a job, it's a blessing. It's a relationship with God. Because we've been alienated and separated from Him by our sin. to have that closeness and that communion by faith, beloved, is precious, and it ought to be precious to us, and if it's not precious to us, it's often seen by a lack of prayer. Isaiah, well, let me go on to chapter four of the confession of faith, and this is the one on justification. But notice they mention prayer in paragraph 5 of chapter 11 on justification. It says this, God does continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified. That's why we pray and ask for forgiveness. And although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God's fatherly displeasure. and have not the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance." Well, how do you confess your sins? How do you beg pardon? How do you confess your faith and repentance? How do you renew that with God if you're not talking to Him? If you're not speaking with him, how do we mend our human relationships when there's a fracture, when there's a brokenness? We go to one another, we speak to one another, we ask for forgiveness from one another, and we say and do the things that enhance and support what we say with our mouth so there can be trust there. And that's what we do with God when we go to Him, when we sin. And He allows us to suffer for our sins to the point where we go, I get it, I wake up, I know God, you're calling me. You're using pain to do it. You're using the result of my own foolishness and my own awkwardness and my own affliction. Lord, you've afflicted me, it's like the psalmist said, it was good. If David wrote it, we can see where it might be written and what season of his life when he said, it was good that I was afflicted. Imagine if God would have left David go his own way after the sin of Bathsheba. Imagine he's saying, okay, David, you're done. David would have spent the rest of his days until he took his last breath, weeping and moaning and groaning on his bed. Psalm 32 says, I ache all night, I can't sleep, my bones cry out. That's affliction. And David writes, he said, oh, it was good that I was afflicted. Why? Because the best thing that ever can happen to a sinner is to have communion with God. Another chapter. Chapter 14, he says, this grace, this is the chapter on saving faith, he says, this grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the spirit of Christ in their hearts, is ordinary wrought by the ministry of the word, by which also and the administration of the sacraments and prayer, it is increased and strengthened. So you see how our confession rests upon the foundation of the Word of God. It's biblical. It's good. We ought to know it. And what he's saying, you see the connection the confession makes with saving faith and prayer. How does faith strengthen? It doesn't just strengthen on its own. It strengthens by the other means of grace and by prayer. All right. I think we get that. I don't want to spend more time on that than necessary. I have some other ones. The whole chapter on assurance is great. You ought to read that. Let's get to the text itself. Let's look at these ordinary circumstances and what is commanded. If you look there in verse 13, notice that James says, is there any among you suffering? The suffering here are called to prayer, but they're not called to just any kind of prayer. They're called to the fervency of prayer, the fervency of prayer. It's above that which is ordinary. We pray when we're not afflicted. We should. Sometimes we may find ourselves only praying when we're afflicted. Maybe that's why we're afflicted, to develop that habit and season of prayer in our lives. And the Lord says, well, you only pray when you're afflicted, so guess what? I want you praying, you need to be praying, you need to strengthen your own faith and heart, so I'll bring affliction to you, because I love you. Because that seems to be the only time you pray. There's that. But what he's saying here, he says we are, as believers, we are to understand there is that normal, common use of prayer as a means of grace, but this goes above that. This is in addition to that. They are to pray. Those who are suffering should pray. You know, brothers and sisters, it's not uncommon, right? When we go to the doctor to address some ailment and some disease we have, what does the doctor do? The doctor plans some protocol in order to combat the disease. And if you follow the protocol, typically what's supposed to be the end result? Healing. And that's exactly what God does. God has prescribed Prayer, along with other things, because James isn't using prayer isolated from these other graces. Let me give you an example. When he uses the term prayer and the singing of Psalms, he's not saying this is all that's required. These are figures of speech that encompass all the other means of grace. That is, well, I pray, but guess, I pray at home. You don't pray in isolation of worship. If your prayer is to be enhanced and fortified and strengthened, you are doing it in the context of all the other graces that they too, that is, if I'm afflicted and I'm seeking God's face, I want more of Him. Have you ever hurt somebody that you love and you could hardly do anything else, but you just wanted to talk to them, be with them. And they may have been hurting inside. You know, I can't be around you right now. And all you could get in your mind was, I need to be with you. I need to be comforted. I need you. And that's the way it is with God. When we are afflicted, whether it be physical, relational, psychological, It should drive us to greater fellowship, communion with God. And James uses prayer as this means to call us to that. I mean, if I'm praying, right? If I'm praying with a sincere heart, if I'm praying, and I'm seeking God's face, and I mean what I say, and I tell him how much I love him, how glorious he is, and all that he is, and he's everything to me, yet I don't go to church, I don't do the things I need to do, and I'm not doing these other things, well, how important is my praying? What James is talking about is not just common, ordinary prayer. He's talking about this fervent prayer that needs to be fitting with the season of affliction. The affliction is driving the need for more praying. Now what is this when we are to pray? That is, when we employ and we add this fervor and passion in greater times, I will tell you, you will pray more passionately when you're hurting and in need. Amen. You will. You'll seek God like you've never sought him before when you are in need. And what he does here, I mean, notice, what are we to pray for? Well, these things, just think about these common things that he's already kind of touched on throughout the epistle. He says, well, pray for support. That is, we're not to pray, God, you know what? If you really love me, you just take away this affliction. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's there, providentially, by an all-knowing, all-loving God. So what do we pray for? Support. Lord, you brought this to me. Would you support me? Would you strengthen me? Why do we need strength and support under that heavy hand of God's providence? So we'll glorify him. See, that should be the key to all of our lives, right? That should be the goal of our lives, to glorify and enjoy him. How can I glorify and enjoy God if I'm always failing and compromising at every corner? How? How does that happen? But if my goal is to, Lord, would you strengthen me in this time of difficulty and hardship, my stress, I mean, the psychological torments, would you strengthen me, oh God, because I want to glorify you and give me enjoyment in doing it. Would you give me the enjoyment? Because you know what, don't come natural. The natural man does not enjoy affliction. Oh man, the natural man runs from hardships. No, no. I'm all about pleasure, the natural man says. The natural man says, I'm all about me, man. I'm all about pleasure. I'm all about having fun. Don't talk to me about hard things. That's why churches that don't focus on true discipleship grow so fast. There's no demand. There's no responsibilities. There's no requirements other than just kind of be there and be happy all the time, but there's no substance to it. Support and strength under God's providential hand. What else might we pray for? Lord, I pray and ask you that my faith would not fail. Remember Peter's affliction and temptation. Jesus said, Peter, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. That you don't become an atheist. That you don't abandon the faith. I've prayed that your faith will remain. Now it'd be weak, but we know what happened. If you don't know, please read up on it. He had denied the Lord three times. We talked about finishing the race. Don't let my faith fail. Don't let it fail. Let me be strong in a culture that's dark and compromising because my tendency is to go with the flow. I'm a people pleaser. Problem is I'm pleasing all the wrong kind of people, not the right kind. Pray that your faith would remain strong, brothers and sisters. That in temptation that you would stay true and when you fall, confess it and cling to the Son of God sitting at His right hand. Brothers and sisters, that's the whole thing we're talking about. Pray that in temptation, your love for the Son of God would remain and stay strong and true. Lord, don't let my love wax cold. Don't. My tendency is to be more about what I say instead of what I do. Don't let my love for God grow cold. You know, brothers and sisters, we talk about loving God and we talk about loving one another, but you know why so many people struggle with loving one another? Because they don't love God. First table of the law. First four commandments deal with God and what's rightly His. If we can't love God, how are we gonna love each other? And when we are in the middle of a hardship and affliction, we must pray, oh God, don't let my faith fail. Don't let my love wax cold for you. Because if I can stay strong to my love for God, I will love you and you will love me. Let's look at happiness. We've looked at suffering. I think you get the picture. But there's the other condition that James brings out in verse 13. He says, is anyone cheerful? Is there anyone happy? Let him sing praises. or let him sing these praises. Now, you might say, well, that doesn't say prayer. But beloved, as I've already said, this is a group of graces. He's highlighting one, because what do happy people typically do? They sing. What do afflicted people typically do? They pray for help. So under these headings, he's including these other means. He's not saying go sing praises isolated from worship, obedience, fervent, passionate service. No, he's not doing that. It's all highlighted under this statement of praise. It's in keeping with the spirit of the text, actually. Why? Well, praise is something we regularly owe God, is it not? but there can be seasons of greater praise. Why is it so important, brethren, to praise God when it's good? Well, you might think, well, it's important because I might think I did it in and of myself, and God's not blessing me. I did it in my own strength. You see, when we don't praise God for the good times and the seasons we have, we really are acting like atheists. And we're not to do that. We are to celebrate. When we're living in a season of plenty and a season of blessedness, we ought to be greater in our fervor and passion to praise His name, to offer thanksgiving. Where's a great place to offer thanksgiving? You got one? Worship with my brothers and sisters. That we might collectively come together. There's some in a season of affliction. There's some in a season of blessedness. And guess what? We all need each other. The seasons of blessedness, we look at them and go, brother, dear sister, I'm praying for you. I've been there. Look at me. And the Lord will give you a season of blessedness. and I'm gonna walk with you in this, and then they walk with you in the blessedness, because they can rejoice. What does the Bible tell us to do? Weep with those who weep and mourn, and then rejoice with those who are happy. How do you do that if you're not worshiping together? It's normal. But this is talking about that which is above normal. Brothers and sisters, I mean we have birthday parties, we have all kinds of events, barbecues, cookouts, get-togethers, all kinds of things, but when's the last time, and I've never done this, I'm preaching to myself, but when's the last time I said, hey brothers, come over. We're going to celebrate a raise. We're going to celebrate this goodness. I just am so thankful and happy that God is blessing me. Come over and rejoice with me. And then we're going to meet on Sunday and we're going to rejoice together there too. Isn't that, that's that God conscious life, isn't it? How about Zacchaeus? What happened to Zacchaeus when he, met the Lord when he was converted, when the Lord changed him and he gave him a new heart. What happened to Zacchaeus? Lord, come over to my house and have dinner. We're gonna celebrate. I want you to teach me the Bible. You see what I'm saying? I'm not against the barbecues, you know that. We love to eat, we love to fellowship, we love to get around the food like that and have a good time. But you know, what I'm talking about, this is a fellowship that's geared and governed and grounded in the truth of God and God's word and character. Let's talk about God. Let's talk about how good he is. And it's important that we remember these times, these good times, and it's important we sing in these good times. If we don't, we are acting like atheists. We're acting like God doesn't exist because the Bible tells us explicitly he's the one blessing his people. Those who are in a happy place, as my note says, should praise God. When we praise God and offer sincere, fervent thanksgiving to Him, we are guarding ourselves against the temptation of pride and arrogance and atheism. They help us remember who blessed us. There's nothing greater, I mean there's nothing more honorable, there's nothing more good than coming into the presence of a holy God and fellowshipping with Him and going, thank you, thank you, thank you for your goodness and blessing. That we might perform those ordinary duties with great delight as well doesn't mean we don't, but it means there are times when we are to perform them with greater thanksgiving. We have a warning of this in Deuteronomy 8 verse 11. God tells the nation of Israel, He says, now listen, when you go into the land that I'm setting apart for you, when you go in there and you eat from vineyards you didn't plant, when you live in houses you didn't build, when you benefit from all that I've done for you, don't forget me. You know what He's saying? When you're prospered. So you're wandering now. You're living in tents. When you go and live in these fine places that already have fruit to eat from, and you already can pick them and sell them and make a profit out of them, don't think you did it on your own. Don't forget me. Because what's our tendency? Forgetfulness. You know forgetfulness is kin to apostasy. You know that? Forgetfulness is kin to apostasy. What does the apostate do? Ultimately, what does the apostate choose to do? Forget God. So we're to perform these These seasons of blessedness we are called upon to perform special, special duties of praise and thanksgiving. The book of Romans tells us that it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. When we think about all that God has done for us, all that God has blessed us with, all that God is just communing with us, all the benefits we have, guess what the proper response to that is? Lord, forgive me. Forgive me of my sins. Psalm 119.71. passage I've already quoted to you. The psalmist says it was good that I was afflicted. Notice what the psalmist says. It was good. It was good that I was afflicted. I'm no longer afflicted. I'm now living in a season of blessedness. And I enjoy this blessedness because I remember the affliction. I remember your faithfulness. There's not a person in this room under the sound of my voice that doesn't owe God thanksgiving for calling us back. Amen? So he deals with the afflicted, now he deals with the happy, and now let's deal with the sick. Notice the verse, let's look back at our text, verse 14. Is anyone among you sick? A lady 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 sins, they will be forgiven him. Well, this is the portion of the text where there is a variety of opinion. And there are some Reformed theologians that certainly hold out that what is being spoken of is this spiritual healing of the text. But brothers and sisters, I want you to know I benefited from reading a sermon by Thomas Goodwin that changed my mind about these words. I think the common reading of the text is plain, and I think it's something that we ought to listen to. Let me read the words again, and I want you to hear them. Is anyone among you, brethren, among you sick? weak. 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 sins, they will be forgiven him." There are several arguments by which I think This text is actually dealing with physical healing. Physical healing. And I'm going to give those arguments to you. You can take them, mull over them, pray about them, meditate on them, examine them in the text of God's Word, but nevertheless, listen to these arguments. Argument number one for this being physical healing. Notice what the text says. The text says, is anyone among you sick? This is an ordinary situation. That is, we're not speaking of the extraordinary gift of miraculous healing that the apostles possessed and others that the apostle gave that gift to. We're talking about ordinary communion and fellowship and fellowship among God's people. And I want to demonstrate by the arguments that we're talking about ordinary church life. Power of prayer is seen in extraordinary situations. We've already dealt with ordinary. And now we're gonna deal with extraordinary. What's the extraordinary situation? Someone who has become ill is now calling upon the elders to pray. That's not an everyday occurrence. So let's look at these arguments. The sick are to seek healing and relief from their sickness. That's what we first of all understand. Who is sick among you, let them call on the elders. It is not wrong for the sick to seek healing. It is not wrong for those who are weak and impoverished. The idea in the Greek word is the person has become incapacitated, useless, unable to do those common and ordinary functions of life. They are now in this very weakened state And now they call upon the elders of the church to pray for them. You say, well, wait a minute, it's God's providence. Why would they call? Let him suffer. Let her suffer. No, the text tells us, if there's any among you sick, take advantage of God's love for you. As a believer, call the elders, those whom God has ordained and placed over His church, godly men. Call upon them to come, lay hands on you, and pray for healing. Notice the sick are to seek healing. They are to be healed and they are to employ a means by which they are healed. Here, the anointing oil is a means of medicine in that day. So it's not in isolation. We're not talking about the miraculous gift where the pastor, notice, collectively, the sick call upon the church. Notice, they don't call upon a person. Who do they call upon? Elders, plural. Elders, plural. So we're not talking about the healing gifts of the church, we're talking about the healing that comes from Christ through the channel of His door-named ministers. Look at the text. Look at the end of verse 14. They are to pray over Him anointing with oil in whose name? In the name of the Lord. Look at verse 15, the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and what? The Lord will raise him up. Who's doing the healing? The Lord. The Lord is doing the healing. These healing gifts are not mentioned in the text. These are not miraculous gifts. These are ordinary church officers, ordinary elders. And that's how the text reads, that these are ordinary church officers that are called upon by the one who is sick to pray over them and anoint them with oil. Number three, the sick is the one doing the calling. The elders don't go out. We have these faith healers today, right? I'm not gonna say anything else, but anyway. So the sick are to call upon the elders of the church, plural. Not one man, not their favorite man, not their favorite men, but the collective body of elders to come and to pray over them. The connection here is that of membership and authority. Membership and authority. These are the ones who have this grace are the ones who are church members and have put themselves under the authority of Christ under the local fellowship of elders. They're in submission. These miraculous gifts are not mentioned. Remember, they're miraculous gifts were both for the what? Believer and non-believer. Jesus went around healing all various types of men. The apostles healed of various sorts of men. This particular gift ordinarily for the church is for the membership of the church. Those who are sick and those who are under the authority of the elders who call upon the elders to come and exercise that divine authority in Christ over them in the healing of their body. Fourthly, the general reading all together among you being brethren. This is not extraordinary. He's not calling the whole world. He's calling Christians to come, these church members to come. This is ordinary. The prayer of healing by the elders is coupled with the means. It's the anointing of oil. Oil is the medicinal element here. It's in conjunction with. They anoint with oil, a sign that God is pleased to not only work through His authority, but He's also pleased to work through means and ordinary means. When you take medicine, I promise you, that antibiotic didn't do the work. God did. God blesses the means by which people benefit from. Point being, if you lived in an atheistic world, we'd all be dead. If there was no God, we'd all be dead. Because God's the only one sustaining everything, keeping all things together. I think the last thing that's important, and I've certainly all mentioned it in my zeal and excitement, but who does the healing? It's not the elders. The elders do not get the credit for the healing in the text. Jesus does. We all understand the modern craze of psychopath preachers who love to draw attention to themselves. Okay? This drawing attention to Jesus. The elders come in the name of Jesus. And they anoint that person in the name of Jesus. Now, when they say it in the name of Jesus, they mean it by faith. Because look what it says in the text. Look at verse 14. Is if anyone among you sick, let him call for the elders of the church, that they pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered, what? In faith. What kind of faith is this? This is the faith that James has been talking about all along. This is the faith that when we come to God, we do believe that God, if this is what God wants, if He desires healing, guess what? You're gonna be healed. I had a Bible professor one time that said, listen, son, you pray for rain, if you're not walking outside with an umbrella, you're not praying in faith. Well, first of all, don't be trite in your prayers. Don't just spit that out and expect God to be like a cosmic vending machine and spit out some rain. That's not how it works. I ain't even touched the lodge yet. Well, brothers and sisters, I'm gonna stop there. I've given us plenty to think about. We'll pick up on prayer needed in the body life and the prayer of a righteous man next week. Let me close with this. Why is this so important? Brothers, turn to Proverbs 3. All throughout the Bible, well-being and health go together. You know, we are spending billions of dollars in this country fixing the outward man. That Paul says to Timothy, our exercise benefits a little. But what happens when you stop working out? Hey, what happens when you quit cutting your hair? What happens when you stop brushing your teeth? What happens when you start grooming yourself? You go down. You get ugly. You start smelling. Nobody wants to be around you. Always got to do it, don't you? Paul says, yeah, it benefits a little, but there's something that benefits even more. See, exercise, you're not taking that into the next life. Look at Proverbs 3. Look at verse five. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord. Turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body. and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe his reproof. For whom the Lord loves, he reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights." I'll stop there. Brothers and sisters, what James is saying is what Proverbs 3 says. The Lord cares about you, and He cares about your soul, and He cares about your body. Now here this morning, you're either troubled, okay, you're not troubled, you're happy, you know what to do. If you're sick, you know what to do. All of it must be done in faith. Faith is the fountain by which all of this springs from on our side. Let us respond to the love of God that says, I love you. I want all of you to be well, but don't forsake me. Don't leave me, because there's nothing good that can come out of it. Let's pray.