Let's pray. Father God, we come before you this morning and we acknowledge your greatness and we also want to acknowledge our deep need, the deep needs that we have. And Father, we pray that you would be with us and fulfill those needs that we have even here this morning, even through the preaching of the Word, Lord. We're confident in Your Word. We're confident in Your Holy Spirit. And Father, we just pray You'd work in our lives during this time, even here this morning, in Jesus' name, Amen. So open your Bibles, if you will, to the book of James. And we want to finish up our study in the book of James here this morning. Last time we covered verses 12 through 15, and we talked about oaths, what oaths were, and why are oaths used, and how that Christians should be truthful and avoid oaths as much as possible. We talked about suffering and that those who suffer should pray and those who are merry in spirit should sing psalms. And then we talked that the spiritually sick should call upon the elders of the church, and the elders should pray and anoint them. And the result would be that the Lord would raise him up and forgive him of his sins. So today we're going to be covering verses 16 through 20. We're going to talk about confession. What is confession? The use of confession. Prayer, effectual prayer. And we're going to talk about the case of Elijah praying. Then talk about reaching out to the lost in the church, or those who are erring in the church. And we'll talk about who is the sinner in verse 20 there, and talk about erring from the truth, converting the sinner, and covering a multitude of sins. Let's go ahead and read the text. confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that she may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are. And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not upon the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. So let's begin with talking about confession. What does it mean to confess your faults one to another? Confess simply means to admit, to profess, agree, and this is The Greek word tends to have it more towards a free, that it's being done freely or it's being done openly or even publicly. And confession to God involves concurring with Him, agreeing with Him in His verdict regarding your sin. And this confession is to involve a brother or sister confessing faults one to another. And by faults, we simply mean, well, in the New King James, it says sins, New American Standard and ESV as well. But the word for faults here means an error, a lapse, a trespass. Now, when you commit sin, there are two barriers that are erected, if you will. One is a barrier between you and God. And the other is a barrier between you and whoever you have sinned against. Now while the scripture would teach that a true believer would not lose salvation because of his sins, a barrier or a cloud or an impediment to your fellowship with God comes about when you fall into sin as a believer. The believer's faith, even when he sins, is kept intact by the power of God. 1 Peter 1.5 would say that, or other verses as well. Nevertheless, sin does mar our fellowship with God. In Psalm 51, verses 9 through 12, Of course, this psalm was written when David had sinned with Bathsheba and repented of his sin. He says, hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Notice David said there in verse 12, he didn't say, restore unto me your salvation, Lord. He still had that. But it was, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. We're believers and we sin. That affects the joy of our salvation, doesn't it? And you know, God loves us too much for it to be any other way. He's not going to, those true children of His, He's not gonna let us wander off into sin and it be a wonderful thing. We never have a grief or a pain or a sigh or a sorrow with it. No, He's gonna take the joy out of our lives when we do that. Now when you sin against a brother or a sister, usually maybe one of three things would happen. This would categorize most of what would happen. The one is that perhaps, and perhaps most common, is the case of when you sin against your brother and you don't confess it to him or seek his forgiveness. And especially if it's a small or somewhat insignificant matter, maybe your offended brother lets it pass, and it's no big matter, and you just kind of go on. And maybe there's a slight barrier in the relationship for a time, but healing takes place, or at least your brother patiently endures your sin against him. And you may do likewise when he sins against you. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 14, Paul commands us to be patient towards all men. This means that you're to exercise patience even when your brother sins against you. And we're told to forgive others when they sin against us. And we see this, for example, in Matthew 6, 14 through 15. Now, a second thing that happens when you sin against your brother could be that the relationship ends. A classic example of this is perhaps when a spouse commits adultery. you know, that ends the marriage, ends the relationship. You might forgive her, you might forgive your wife, but the marriage ends. You know, your brother may sin against you, and you or he may end the relationship. But now the third and ideal outcome is the one that James commands in our text. And yes, it is an imperative, it is a command. He says, confess your faults. one to another. It is a command. We're commanded to do that. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you be healed. Now confession conveys a need. Confession To confess your sin to another person, it shows your neediness. You've done this thing that is wrong. And many times, confession puts a difficult matter on the table, a sensitive matter, something that's hard to address. But to admit your sin to the ones you've sinned against, this is a good thing. It's a very good thing. And it's not easy, is it? Because it requires several things on your part. It requires an openness, a transparency. And for many of us, this is very, very difficult to do. It's very difficult to open yourself up to another and say, look at me. This is my life. This is who I am. I've sinned against you, brother. But it requires humility. It requires humility to admit that you've done wrong, to admit that you shouldn't have done this. And it requires your faults to be stated to another, or perhaps several others, or perhaps even the whole church. But confession demands a vulnerability as you open your life up again especially to those that may even be angry with you. But to truly confess is to convey the truth that is in you, the real you. And to be truly effective, this confession of your sin needs to be confessed both to God and to the persons whom you have wronged. And this will remove or at least go a long way toward removing the barriers between both God and man that have resulted from your transgression. Now, who do you think it's easier to confess to? Is it easier to confess to God or is it easier to confess to your brother or your sister? Well, I would say, most of us would say, it's probably easier to confess to God, isn't it? Even though He's completely holy, even though He's righteous, even though He is so much different from us, it's much easier for me to confess to God than it is to confess to someone else that I've wronged or done wrong to or sinned against. And yet, they're just like me. If I've been around them any time at all, if I've sinned against them, they most likely have sinned against me. But, Lord, just help us to be humble in this and help us to be more transparent, more real, more authentic. And, you know, what is it about us that makes us think that we have to be perfect? And we only do that in Christ, only through His blood. That's the road to perfection, if you will. And if you confess your sin to somebody else, they probably already realize you've done it. Why not go ahead and confess that? Your brothers and sisters in Christ should love you just as much with your faults as without them. If your brother has sinned against you and confessed it to you, do not pounce upon him in retaliation, but handle it lovingly with forgiveness and with kindness. And I love them just as much as you did before. Lord, help us from being proud and pharisaical and trying to deny all of our sin. Sin should not be covered up. Sin should not be hidden, if you will. It should not be. In Proverbs 28, 13, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." So don't hide your sin, but confess it. And then after you confess it, forsake it. Turn away from it. Turn away from that. Would you be more careful in the things that you think, in those things that you say, and in those things that you do, if you knew you would have to confess them to another person? I believe we probably would, wouldn't we? Now, confession can be overdone, I believe. Those with inordinate guilt, over some imagined sins or some very, very petty failure should not wear others out with confessions that are at best unnecessary and may do more harm than good. John Wesley had his followers meet two to three times a week to confess to each other and pray for each other. Now, this would be good if it was more about your secret sin or whatever, but I don't know that it would be necessary for most of us to meet two or three times a week to cover the sins that we've committed. against each other, confess them to each other, and pray for each other. But nevertheless, you should ask yourself, do you confess your sins to God and others in an appropriate and a timely fashion? I mean, I'm convinced that many of us here are not maybe humble enough or concerned enough to confess our sins as we ought to. You know, we really, we seldom engage in this behavior. Now, let's talk about prayer and the confession of sin. Affectual prayer, that's what he talks about in our text, affectual prayer. And we usually take for granted what prayer is, but literally, it is to speak out, to utter aloud, to express a wish. And of course, for us, this wish is directed to God. This calling out is directed to the Almighty. The text speaks of believers praying for one another on behalf of each other. And what is the purpose of the prayers? Well, the purpose of the prayers is healing. You know, to be cured, to be restored to your spiritual health. And I believe, again, he's talking here about spiritual health, not physical. But confession, when it is undertaken, it feeds prayer, doesn't it? If I have sinned against you and I confess it to you, well, hey, guess what? You've got something to pray about. You can pray for Jim and what he did wrong. You confessed it to me, I could pray for you. I would know how to pray. Here's a problem he's had. Here's a problem she's had. I know how to pray. Now the prayer here is described as being effectual and being fervent. One Greek word is used in the original text but translated affectual and fervent here in the English. And it means an affectual supplication and active on it. It is a prayer that works. It is a prayer that is a very strong prayer. This prayer, the purpose of it is to be right with God, to be right with man, our spiritual ills. We need to use prayer to bring the mercy and the might of God to man's sin. And let's talk about the case of Elijah. James uses Elijah here as an example. He is a man, in verse 17, who is subject to like passions as we are. In other words, He has the same human nature as we have. You know, Acts chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas are at Lystra and they heal the crippled man. and the people start worshiping them. They call Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes or Mercurius, depending on your translation, and they refuse to let the people worship them, saying, sirs, why do you do these things? We're also men of like passions with you. He's just a man, Elijah. The great prophet of God was just like us in many ways. He was a man. He might have been a godly man and a greater man than any of us here will ever be, but he had humanity about him. And he got hungry. We see that in 1 Kings 17, 11. He could be fearful. 1 Kings 19, 3, he fell into depression. 1 Kings 19, 9 through 14. but he prayed earnestly. Literally, he prayed with prayer. He prayed to God, a thorough prayer, a diligent prayer. And in 1 Kings 17, Verse 1, it says, And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to thy word. And then over in verse 1 of chapter 18, And it came to pass, after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year. saying, go, show thyself unto Ahab, I will send rain upon the earth. And so there was no rain for three and a half years. And then Elijah went to show himself to King Ahab and there was rain. And then in chapter 18 of 1 Kings verses 41 through 46, and Elijah said unto Ahab, get thee up, eat and drink for there is a sound abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees and said to his servant, go up now and look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And he said, go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand. And he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare thy chariot and get thee down that the rain may stop thee not. And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind and there was great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins, and he ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Now, the text here in 1 Kings don't specifically mention Elijah praying, but he did say in verse one of chapter 17, the Lord before whom I stand. Now, standing was a common posture for the Jews to pray. You know, you remember Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, chapter 5, verse 5, he talks about the hypocrites who stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the street. So standing was a common posture for prayer for the Jews. And then 1 Kings 18, 42, Elijah puts his head between his knees. And this too is a posture of prayer. But according to James 5, 17, and 18, it was his fervent prayers that affected the rains, that stopped the rains, and then that started them again. Now, if physical healing was the point that James is trying to make in these verses, then why did he not use some examples of healing from the Old Testament, physical healing? But rain does, however, give the picture of God pouring out His blessings onto His people in an abundant way, sort of a flood, if you will, a whelming, if you will. Now, we could ask the question this morning here, do you pray earnestly? Do you pray fervently? Is this the characteristics of your prayer? Do you pray in this way? Elijah did, and it was effective. It was a powerful, working prayer. You know, 1 John 5, 14 and 15, and this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth us, whosoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. One of the reasons we can pray earnestly and fervently is if we're asking within God's will, in accordance with His will, then He is going to hear us. And if He hears us, He hears us, you know that we will have the petitions granted that we have asked of Him. And then 1 John 3, 21, 22, Beloved, if our heart condemneth not, then we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. But here we ask and receive. We can be fervent in our prayers if we are obedient. But the person of God, his character, his might, his great abilities, he is able and willing to heal our spirits. All we have to do is humble ourselves. All we have to do is to confess our sins. All we have to do is repent, to turn away from them, and pray to God. Pray for one another. Ask others to pray for us. In verses 19 and 20, brethren, if any of you err from the truth and want to convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. So what is or who is this sinner in verse 20 that he's talking about? And I'm a little undecided on it. It could be, the possibilities are, it's within the church, brethren, if any of you, okay, so it's within the church. Is he talking about true brothers in the church who have sinned, fallen to sin, or is he talking about the tares in the church, those who are unconverted in the church, and or a part of an assembly, but are not true believers. So, you know, a sinner is one who sinned, obviously. True Christians do indeed continue to sin. You know, 1 John one seven through ten but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us." So we see here believer's sin. You know that. I know that. He's talking about that the blood of Christ continually cleanses us from all sin. We wouldn't need that continual cleansing if it wasn't for, at least on some level, some continual sinning. But again, confession, if we confess, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But yes, true believers do sin. So perhaps this is the sinner we're talking about in James 5. You know, Paul talks about his struggle with sin there in the last half of Romans chapter seven. But typically in the New Testament scriptures, believers are not classified as sinners. A sinner is primarily used to name non-believers in the New Testament, not believers who have committed sin or fallen into it. In 1 Peter 4, 18, and if the righteous scarcely shall be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? So see, he's classifying at least two types of people here, the saved and then those that are ungodly and sinners. But that's one example of how the word sinner is used in the New Testament to convey the idea of someone outside of Christ. Verse 9, 1 Timothy 1, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners. Okay, so again, that is someone there who would be outside of Christ. In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, Verses 7 and 10, I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over the one sinner that repenteth more than over the 99 just persons who need no repentance. So here again the term sinner is tied with an unbeliever. Verse 10, also likewise I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Then Paul kind of puts a little different spin on it in 1 Timothy 1 and verse 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. So here Paul, very much a believer, calls himself a sinner, the chief of sinners even. So, which center are we talking about? I think both, probably. I mean, both need help. Both need restoration. Both need to be helped. Both need to turn to God. Now, erring from the truth, to err is to wander, to go astray. Truth would be the word of God, especially I would say gospel truth. And so the ones he's talking about here in our text are those who are affiliated with the church who are not living according to the gospel truth. Their lives have not been changed by the gospel or either that or they have fallen into sin if they're true believers. if any of you, this opens it up for whoever, he's talking about whoever is in this condition. And now John 8, 31, Jesus said there, if you continue, or that is to say, if you abide in my word, then you are my disciples indeed. Luke 6, 46, and why call you me Lord and do not the things which I say? You know, one can profess to be a Christian, but if he defies the truth of Scripture and the actions of his life, he does not belong to Christ. You know, if this is the pattern of just over and over a practice or a habit of living against the commands of Christ, then he would not belong to Him. You know, John 8, 32, Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. This truth. that some have erred from or not met up with. This truth is what makes us free. It makes us free from the guilt of sin, the condemnation of sin, the penalty of sin, the burden of sin. It is a liberating thing. Now, to convert, to convert and converteth, verse 19 and 20, same word, it means to turn him back It means to bring him back. And the Greek word means in a moral sense to turn upon or to convert unto. And then we have the one. the him and the he, and in verses 19 and 20, and these are those who God uses to recover the lost sinner. And think about this. This is a task. This is something that we've been called upon by the Lord to do, to reconcile brothers and sisters to God. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.18, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit that God in Christ was reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses against them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. And so, really, I believe we've all been given this task of reconciliation, that we should gladly enter into helping those who have gone astray or helping those who have never known Christ. doing what we can to reconcile them to God, whether it's praying for them, if they confess sin to us or whatever, or maybe it's pointing out truth to them, speaking into their life in some way that they could see their sin, come to understand it and turn away from it. In Galatians 6.1, Rather than if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest also thou be tempted. So if someone is caught in some sort of sin or problem or difficulty, if we're truly spiritual people, we ought to restore such a one in a spirit of meekness. And certainly looking to ourselves, lest we also be tempted to do the same thing. Maybe it's like Jesus said, you know, first get the beam out of your own eye. But if someone's overtaken in a fault, we're commanded here by Paul to restore such a one as that. We read Luke 15 a while ago where he said there's rejoicing in heaven over the sinner who repents. This is a great work, if you will, to be involved with, turning people back to Christ. It causes rejoicing in heaven when they do. And so it should be a joy for us to be involved in the ministry of reconciliation, not a burden, not something that we avoid, but it should be a joy to us, I believe, Proverbs 1130, who who wins souls is wise. But what are the results of the sinner being converted or being turned away from his sin? Well, first, a soul is saved from death. Of course, sin causes death. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. James 1.15, sin brings forth death. This death is, of course, a spiritual death. The second death, as it says in Revelation, where an unrepentant sinner is eternally separated from God. And that is an awesome thought. That is something that should stir our hearts deeply. Second Thessalonians 1, 8 and 9, but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedience, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers, et cetera. Oh, that's the wrong one. That's the first 10. I'm sorry. Second Thessalonians 1, 8 and 9. Didn't think that was right. OK. Second Thessalonians 1, 8 and 9. That's the first. Still got the wrong book. OK, third time. 2 Thessalonians 1, 8 and 9. All right. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. And so God is going to take vengeance on those who have not obeyed the gospel. He's going to take vengeance on those who have not repented And then the text speaks of hiding a multitude of sins. Hiding a multitude of sins. Well, we read earlier Proverbs 28 and verse 13. If he that covereth his sins shall not prosper. This is not the kind of hiding we're talking about here. This is a different hiding. The word literally means to envelop, to wrap around as a bark or a skin or a shell or a plaster. It's to cover over. This means that the sins are overlooked and not punished. And we have some blessed thoughts here. in the Psalms with regards to this. 32-1, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. It's not that you hid it, but rather after you confessed it, it's forgiven, it's taken away from you. And why should we be so slow to confess our sin if we repent of it knowing that it will be taken away from us. That should help us in our confession, not slow us up in that. Psalm 85 and verse 2, Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people, Thou hast covered all their sin." Do you ever think about the load of your sin? Do you ever think about the numbers of your sin? Do you ever think about how many times and how many ways and to what a great degree you have offended a just and a holy and a righteous God? But even so, He's gonna cover all of your sin, if you repent of it, come to Him. He's gonna cover it all. Micah 7, 19, He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us, He will subdue our iniquities, and they will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Wow. It's kind of hard to go find something when you just threw it overboard, isn't it? They have these undersea things that can go way, way down to the bottom of the ocean and stand all this great pressure and recover these things. They've done this a lot with the Titanic. The wreck of the Titanic, people going down there and retrieve artifacts, and then they have a traveling exhibit or whatever of it. That's hard. You and me couldn't go find plates or silverware off the Titanic or one of the bails of the ship or anything like that. No, no, we couldn't do that because it's down in the depths of the ocean. And so it is with our sin. Our sin is just thrown overboard and sinks down into the depths of the ocean, never to be seen from or heard from again. What a blessing that is. What a blessing. Psalm 103, 12, As far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Isn't that a blessed thought? As far as the East is from the West, He has removed our transgressions from us. Praise the Lord. We can't remove them for ourselves, can we? I can't remove yours, you can't remove mine. But praise God through Christ, he has done that. Thank you.