very clear that prayer and praise should be part and parcel of our lives in all circumstances and in every situation that we find ourselves. And he has assured us of the fact that the effective prayer or the prayer of faith is effective in the sight of the true and the living God. That the Lord will answer the prayer of faith. Now if God has been pleased to make such a glorious provision of prayer to us as his children, if he has been pleased to make that provision to true believers, then James goes on and he says in verse 16, the first part of verse 16, then let us confess to one another and pray for one another. And here, most translations of the Bible have, at the beginning of verse 16, the word, therefore. It says, therefore, confess to one another and pray for one another. And you know what the therefore means? For that reason. For that reason, confess to one another and pray for one another. And the idea will seem to be this. Since sickness is sometimes linked and associated with our sins, but we have this prayer which we can pray, then let us confess to one another so that we can pray for one another before the true living God, so that the necessary healing that we require will be given to us by the Lord. That will appear to be what is going on here. For as we confess to one another, then we are able to pray intelligently for one another. We are able to pray with understanding for one another. And we are able to pray in a way that is acceptable, if you like, before the true and the living God. And by His grace and by His mercy, we'll be able then to achieve and have the required healing for our lives. Now, as we look at this first part of verse 16, the command to pray for one another, or praying for one another, or interceding for one another. I want us to consider in the first place the command to confess to one another. Then secondly, we'll consider the need to pray for one another. And then in the third place, we'll look at the goal of praying for one another, that is, that you may be healed. So these are the things we'll look at quickly this evening and then the Lord helping us will come to the Lord's table. So in the first place, confess your sins to one another. James says confess your trespasses or your sins to one another. Now you know what the Roman Catholic Church has made of this scripture. They have use this verse as a support for that confession that members make to their priests. So that for them, this is in support of what they refer to as auricular confession, confession to the ear of the priest, of course. And remember, A Roman Catholic is required to go for confession at least once a year. At least once a year. So even if you claim as a Roman Catholic you have nothing to confess to the priest, you are required to go at least one year and to make your confession to the priest. We know from scripture that is not true, that is not biblical. Because what we have here is, having spoken of elders praying for those who are seriously sick, those who are incapacitated by their illnesses, it asks them to call for the elders. And we have seen what that means. means he has felt the need by the Spirit of God to call the elders and that the elders will have concord in the same fashion because they will have felt this need to go there by the Spirit of God and pray for such a one. And then when they pray the prayer of faith, he has assured us that God will answer such prayer. Now he has said in such cases, this are to call the elders to come and to pray for them. And when they pray for them, he has told us that by the grace of God, the prayer of faith will be answered and they will be restored to good health by God's grace. And he has made it clear also that if their illness, their sickness was caused by any sin in their lives, then even such sins will be forgiven them. They will be forgiven by the Lord. Having said that, he now turns and he clearly says in verse 16, confess your trespasses to one another. Confess your trespasses to one another. It doesn't say confess your trespasses or your sins to the priests. He doesn't even say confess your sins or your trespasses to the elders that I've been talking about. He's been talking about elders. No, he doesn't say that. He doesn't say confess your sins to particular persons. No, he doesn't. He makes it abundantly clear that we are to confess to one another. How anybody would translate that to mean confessing to a particular group of people beats me, beats my imagination, because the Word of God here is very clear. Now, if this is what He has said, then we need to look at what that means, especially in the light of the teaching of Scripture, not to take that in isolation and interpret it anyway to suit whatever we want. So in the light of the teaching of the scriptures, and in the light of the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, what does this clearly mean? In the first place, we are to confess our sins, especially if our sins have wronged others, have wounded others, then we need to confess our sins to them, seek their forgiveness, And then if they're able to pray for us, then they may pray for us. We can pray and encourage one another in that way. Now remember the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and why this is absolutely important. In the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter three, you remember there our Lord Jesus Christ teaching, he says, Concerning those who have wronged others and are coming to worship He says in Matthew chapter 5 and there in verses 23 and 24 therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and There remember that your brother has something against you leave your gift there before the altar and go your way and first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer the gift. In the light of that it is very clear that we are required as it were to go to those whom our sins have hurt to ask for their forgiveness and indeed if necessary ask for their prayers. You remember If you remember the story of Job, his friends had advised him. And in all the advice, they had been wronged. And the Lord comes, and he puts them right. And he asked them, as it were, to go to Job, the one whom they have wronged, to ask for his forgiveness and to ask for his prayers. And this is what we must do. When we have wronged others, we must remember that is sin. and we need to go and confess to them, ask for their forgiveness, ask them if necessary to pray with us or for us. Burns, in his commentary, says on this, the worship of God will not be acceptable, however well performed externally, until we are at peace with those that we have injured. The worship of God will not be acceptable, however well performed externally, until we are at peace with those that we have injured. And that is abundantly clear, isn't it? If we want our worship and our praise to be acceptable before God, we must make sure that those we have wronged, those we have erred against, know that we are truly sorry. We confess to them, ask for their forgiveness, and then worship the true and the living God. In the second place, we may confess to godly believers, godly Christians, in whom we have confidence, who also we know are able, as it were, to direct us, to assist us, to give us faithful counsel, and to offer prevailing prayers for us. Many of us have such in our lives. Godly men and women that we know and we respect, we have confidence in, we trust. We come to them when we have sinned, when we have done certain things wrong, and we know that we need the forgiveness of the Lord, we confess to such ones. so that they may present us before the Lord and give us the necessary counsel that we need to walk aright again with the true and the living God. But in the third place, we have such cases where sin has caused, if you like, a public scandal. It has caused a discrediting of the gospel and discrediting of the church of our Lord and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In such a case, confession is required to the church, to the people of God, to the body of our Lord and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that that matter is dealt with before the Lord. And in that situation, of course, much wisdom and discretion is required by the grace of God. But in places like 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle has given us guidance on how to go about such. And in such situations, it must be confessed. So it is not going to be in private as one to the other, but it will be in the church the body of Christ so that the matter is dealt with and we pray for the Lord's forgiveness and ask that he will visit us again in mercy and not in wrath. But we know situations where those who have professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ have not only discredited the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but have discredited the church, the body of our Lord and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and scriptures make it clear how we are to deal with such circumstances. So I confess to one another. And as we will see at the end, as we do that, there must be careful discretion. It's important that we consider that at the end. But in the second place, we have James saying here why we are to confess one to the other. Because he says in verse 16, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another and pray for one another. So as we have seen in verse 14, James has been talking about elders interceding for the sick in prayer, been talking about that. So here he teaches that intercessory prayers, if you like, is not the exclusive duty of elders. All true believers, all saints are required to pray for one another. It's our responsibility. It is our duty to pray for one another. The Apostle Peter tells us that we are all priests, aren't we? In the sight of the living God. We all have access to the throne of grace. We all can call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ if we are true believers. If we have come truly to know our Lord and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Each one of us has access to the throne of grace. In 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light who once were not a people but now are the people of God who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. We are a royal priesthood and we are to come with the requests and the petitions of all our members of the body of Christ before the throne of grace. It's not only the elders, but all true believers are required to do that. All God's people should be engaged in praying for one another. In the second place, we are reminded here that James He's not looking at the subject of confession in isolation. Remember, he's looking at the subject of prayer. He's been talking about praying. So when he talks about confessing to one another, it must not be considered in isolation, but in the context of prayer. Because that is what James is doing. He's looking at it in the context of prayer. So that confession should be in the spirit of prayer. And that is absolutely essential. We must not confess in a spirit of fake humility. That's not what James is asking us to do. We must not confess as a perverted, if you like, device to draw attention to ourselves. That's not what James is saying. We are to confess in the spirit of prayer with the conviction that we need prayer and that those we are confessing to are able and willing to pray for us. This is what James wants us to do. Our confession must be in the spirit of prayer. There must be no fake humility. It must not be done because we want to seek attention upon ourselves. It must be done in that spirit of prayer. Alec Mortier says, there should be no hearing of someone else's admission of sin and need without a deliberate and single-minded intention to make it a matter of prayer. There should be no hearing of someone else's admission of sin and need without a deliberate and single-minded intention to make it a matter of prayer. Only thus will we be delivered from the spirit of prying curiosity, which far from helping the needy out of his sin, will make the thing a matter of sin for the listener. And we do well to heed to that warning. We only listen because we intend and are willing to pray for such a one, not because of our prying curiosity into the affairs of others, but because we sincerely and honestly desire to pray for them and to make that a subject of prayer before the throne of grace. If that is not our intention, it could make our situation worse. it could lead to further sin for the listener. Thirdly, why should we confess to one another? And what is the goal of our praying for one another? So here we have it. James says, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another. Why? What's the goal? That you may be healed. So why do we confess and pray? It is in order that we may obtain healing from the Lord, that you may be healed. So the goal of our confession and our prayer is that we may be healed. And the word that James uses here for healed is used in other parts of scripture, and it can be used in two particular senses. In the first place, we see in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 8, how it is used by the centurion who seeks physical healing for his servant. In Matthew, Chapter 8, and there in verse 8 of Matthew, Chapter 8, The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. And here he is talking about physical healing. And it is the same word that he uses as James uses. But in the same Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, our Lord Jesus Christ uses the word for spiritual healing. Matthew chapter 13 and there in verse 15 of Matthew chapter 13. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes and their eyes they have closed. lest they shall see with their eyes and hear with their ears let they shall understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. Again we have the same word used by our Lord Jesus Christ and here he is clearly speaking about spiritual healing not physical healing. So that when we come back to James and his use of the word here yes Remember at the end of verse 15, he has said, if there is sin in the sickness that will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your trespasses and there seems to be some link with that. So that there may be the element of physical healing because of the link that is there between sickness and sin. Some sicknesses, as we've seen from scripture, are caused by sin. Now, in such cases, prayer of faith will lead to healing and the forgiveness of the sins. But it will also be clear, I mean, it's also clear from this passage that James is not particularly focusing upon physical healing. He is speaking especially about spiritual healing. That seems to be the focus here in James chapter 5 and verse 16. The emphasis seems to be very clearly on spiritual healing in general. So that the aim of confessing to one another is for healing of our spiritual situations. It is in order that our spiritual situation may be healed, whatever that situation is, in order that we may obtain forgiveness from the Lord, in order that we may be blessed by the Lord, in order that we may be restored as it were, as the case may be, in order that we may be restored to useful service for the Lord in his church, for his glory, and for the good of his people. And if there are any physical healings desired or required, it is also in order that we may be healed in that respect. So that it will appear here he is speaking about spiritual healing in general. And if physical healing is required, that will be included. The aim here is that as we confess to one another as we pray for one another before the throne of grace, that the Lord will have mercy upon us, that he will forgive us our sins, that he will truly restore us as it were to his favor, to his grace, that we may be restored to the youthfulness that we have known in the church, and that we may be truly a blessing even to others in the body of our Lord and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.