Okay, join me in the book of James if you would. We are closing in on the end of this. I hope to finish it by the end of the month or so. We're in James chapter 5 tonight. Very interesting text. Verses 14 through 16. James 5, 14 through 16. Follow along as I read. beginning in 14, is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he shall have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." We've had a number of themes lately. The theme of humility has been sort of an underlying theme all the way through the book. That coupled with the idea of patience. And what do we mean by patience? How do we define it? Do you remember? Long-suffering, which is another word for endurance. which is another word for, well these are all synonyms, perseverance. The idea of keeping on, keeping on. That's the idea of patience. And we have had that very clearly exhibited to us in just the preceding parts. And then especially we've been dealing immediately in the Just previous to this, the idea of your speech, if you look back, in other words, we've had the idea of don't swear, and that doesn't mean cuss so much as it means swearing oaths, promising to do things you can't do, and promises you can't keep, those types of things. So we've been dealing with our speech, and then in verse 13 we have some alternative types of speech. In other words, As we say, typically when something bad is happening is when you curse. It's when you, not cuss again, but call down the wrath of God on someone or something, whatever not working at the moment. That's what we curse. Or, if something really good is happening, that's when we tend to be presumptuous, making promises and saying things that aren't true, and presuming on God's grace. In other words, we've had the bad types of speech. Here in verse 13 is a remedy for how to speak when things are bad. Is any afflicted among you? Let him pray. In other words, you want to use your mouth for something? Some good purpose? Well, when you're being afflicted, when something bad is happening, rather than cursing, pray. Cry out to God. Second one is, is any merry? In other words, when the good times are rolling, what do you do? Do you boast? Do you say, well, I can do this any time I want to. I'm in control of my own fate and destiny. No, he says instead, let him sing psalms. Psalms being songs of praise to God. In other words, acknowledge the one from whom your merry time is coming. And so we've had those two examples of proper use of speech during bad circumstances or good circumstances. And in verse 14 we're really sort of breaking into the middle of that thought because we now have yet another example of speech when something bad is going on, in this case sickness. And we have the example here is any sick among you Let him call for the elders of the church. Let me put my thing up here. Charles, I'm not seeing it up there. I can look over my shoulder, I guess. Again, here's the themes we've covered. Humility, patience, speech, evil and good use of speech. And then we have this section now in verse 14 dealing with calling on the elders. Notice that sickness in general, we ask ourselves, where does it come from? Sickness is due to the curse that God has placed on the earth, on the material universe, and we being physical, our bodies then are subject to that curse. So if we ask ourselves, for instance, will there be sickness in heaven? No. Why? Because there's no more curse. The curse has been lifted. In fact, the body will be in an immortal, incorruptible form in heaven. But we ain't in heaven yet, and therefore our bodies are running down, is subject to illness and so forth. Some of us a little more faster than others, but all of us subject to decay. Sometimes, however, sickness is tied to a specific sin. You can give me an example of... Yesterday, Sunday, we have the Lord's Table. I read a section out of 1 Corinthians 11, right? And there it talks about disorders at the Lord's Table, and that because of these some are weak and sickly among you, and some sleep. That speaks of a Christian's death. So notice in that case, because of what was going on at the Lord's Table, some specifically are said to be sick because of their sinful behavior. There's at least one example of such. But other times, sickness is not tied to any specific sin. Can you give me examples of that? Job, excellent example. The whole thing was that his three friends are assuming that he is sick because he has sinned, some specific sin, and he insists that he hasn't, and sure enough, he is right. As we know from reading the first two chapters, The reason he is sick is because of what is going on in the heavens. He's sort of a ground zero of a conflict between God and Satan. Has nothing to do with what he has in fact done. So his three friends are wrong. In fact, he's told to pray for them in the end. So that's one case. Any other case come to mind? There was a couple that struck me, that being one of them. How about the man born blind in John 9? Remember the whole discussion is over, wait a minute, somebody had to sin here. Was it him? Oh wait a minute, he was born blind. Well maybe it was his parents that sinned. Notice the general assumption that somebody sinned somewhere down the road and therefore he's blind. And what did Jesus say? Does his condition have anything to do with sin? No. Neither, he says, it's not due to either one of those things. It is for the glory of God. So sometimes sickness may come for that reason. And we could say even with Job's case, he is sick for the glory of God. He will ultimately redound for God's glory. So we have to be very careful in dealing with someone who is sick. And now keep in mind in Pentecostal charismatic circles, if you're sick, it's your fault. You did something to deserve it. Because this just doesn't happen to good people. And that's, of course, the legalistic way of looking at things. I don't think the elders here are to be seen as some reincarnated, or some, well, Benny Hinn copies and clones. That's not the point. In fact, we are not faith healers. We are not out there looking for people to heal. I saw an interesting thing somebody posted on the internet saying, why don't you see faith healers up at the hospital? They said, for the same reason you don't see fortune tellers at the racetrack. You know, they know it doesn't work in their case, you know, if you put them on the spot. So for that reason, we're not out trying to find some folks to heal, put it that way. Notice that what is being said here, let him, the sick person, in verse 14, call for the elders of the church. It is not the elders that go looking for the sick people. It is the sick one calling upon the elders. So this action that is going to be described is initiated by the sick person, not by the elders. And I think I'm stating this as such, but it seems to me that in this context, Elders are simply representing the whole church, but it's probably an impractical thing for the whole church to go and do what is being described here, that they are acting on behalf of the church. Now, the oil that they are to be anointed with, we could ask ourselves, what kind of oil are we going to use? Are we going to use motor oil? Are we going to use cottonseed oil, David? Olive oil, of course, was the common oil in Israel. They used it for just about everything, and again, more or less under the charismatic thinking, sometimes the oil is presented as the miraculous thing. Who is Peter Popoff? John's friend put me on his mailing list, and I used to get these little cloves in the mail. that had been, you're supposed to take the little vial of holy water, or sometimes it was oil, and you're supposed to put that on the cloth and sleep on it. You had to sleep on it and start, well, y'all ever gotten those? Is it just me that's on this guy's mailing list? You know, they send you these things, and if you do it just right, and stick it in an envelope and mail it back with him with a $100 bill, you'll be, you'll get over it. You'll get over something all right. You'll be lighter by about $100 in your pocket. But anyway, there is in certain quarters the idea that there is something then miraculous about the use of the oil. Others, and I would say this is probably the most common understanding, would say that the oil here is simply symbolic. It's much like, say, we would say the ordinance of baptism, that there's nothing magical per se about the water, but it's simply a symbol of something. And in this case, the oil being the symbol of the Holy Spirit. And then others, and I tend to think in these terms, say that the oil is in fact medicinal. Now that is not how we think in modern times of modern medicine, but in the ancient world oil was such a multipurpose thing. It might be used, everything from sunscreen to put on your head to keep you from getting sunburned, to cooking in your cooking oil, to provide lamp for your home in the lamp, and to be used as a medicine. Do you remember the story of the Good Samaritan? How the Samaritan found the guy beaten up and bloodied on the side of the road, and what does he do? He pours oil into the wound. And so there is a school of thought that says the oil represents in their day and time the usual treatment of a sickness of some point. And the appealing part to me about that is that this then would recognize that God may or may not heal using means or without means. In other words, He may heal I would think that if you have the means of healing in the medicine in your cabinet, that God intends for us to use that means. To ask God to supernaturally heal you when you have means for healing, sitting in the medicine cabinet, is sort of ignoring and dictating to God how He must heal. But there are times that God may heal supernaturally without the use of means, but oftentimes He uses means. Am I making sense? In other words, he uses medicines. He uses doctors and hospitals, sometimes. Other times, he may heal without those means. But he intends for us to make use of the means that we have at hand. You see what I'm saying? And so in this case, they are applying what would have been, in the first century, the typical treatment for someone's sickness, at least certain kinds of sickness. You catch my drift. So there is that school of thought that the oil is in fact the means of healing in their day, the usual means, and you're simply applying that means. Notice in verse 15 then that we have the statement, the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And we would assume that the saving here is from the disease. And you'll notice again that the prayer of faith is not the cause of the healing, it is the means of the healing. We are calling on God to heal, and there is nothing again magical about the prayer per se. The power is in God himself, not in the prayer or the pray-er that is doing the praying. Does that follow? That we need to keep straight what's going on here, that prayer is never the cause of something, prayer is the means of something. And in this case, it is this prayer of faith that heals the sick. Notice, let's go to Acts 3 as an example here. Acts chapter 3. In verse 12, we have the case of the man that was lame lying at the beautiful gate at the temple. Notice he is healed and he's jumping up and down, and verse 11, as the lame man who was healed hailed Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered the people, you men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man walk? In other words, he's making it clear that the power that healed this man did not come from us. And yet, at the same time, Peter and John were the obvious means that were used in the healing. And he goes on to say that the God of Abraham has glorified Jesus, and that it's His power, verse 16, in His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong. In other words, who did the healing? Christ did the healing. through the means of this prayer of faith. Let me go back to James now. I want you to realize that the prayer of faith is not the faith of the one being healed. It is the faith of the one who is praying. That make sense? Now, why do I say that? Because in Pentecostal circles, again, the fact that you're sick is your fault, and the fact that you don't get healed is your fault, because you didn't have enough faith. The healer is always off the hook in the Pentecostal movement, because it's not his faith, it's your faith. And so if you don't get healed through the means that he's using, or whatever it happens to be, that particular night, it's always your fault. You didn't have enough faith. Well, in this case, the prayer of faith, the faith is not the sick person's faith, it's the man doing the praying. Am I making that clear? It's the elder's faith, not their faith, that God is responding to. They are not praying, the elder is praying. Okay? Is that clear? So again, just notice how the charismatic movement tends to obliterate all of this, turn everything on its ear. Sickness is always of the devil. Always. God never would send sickness on anybody. And then secondly, if you don't get rid of it when the healer says you're healed, it's always your fault because you didn't have enough faith. And such a sad situation. I have not been ever to a Benny Hinn crusade meeting. I don't ever intend to go to one, but I have talked to people who have been, and they say the most disgusting part of the whole thing is you've got maybe 50 people sitting in wheelchairs over here that have come just in desperation. to see if they could be healed and they just ignore them, just pass over them because of course these people are going to pretty much show you that you don't have that power to heal. So he ignores those and goes and heals somebody's galloping rheumatism or something like that that you can't see. So it is a very sad thing that the charismatic movement does to the poor folks that are there just at their wit's end hoping for a miracle. But that statement, prayer of faith, now here I know probably what's going through your mind is that if what James is saying is true, then why aren't the elders overrun with people who want, every time I get a headache, why don't I go see the elders and get well? Is that running through your mind? I mean, why doesn't this work every time? What's the problem? And I think the answer is in this statement, the prayer of faith. Faith is not our presumptive declaration that we believe God's going to do something, so He's got to do it. Faith always has to have an object. In particular, it has to have a promise. It has to have a word. It has to have something to believe and trust, and there has to be something that has been revealed that God is willing to do for us then to have faith. We can't just put faith in God. I want to be a billionaire, God, so I'm putting my faith in you, and you've got to do it. The fact is, God has nowhere promised to make you or I a billionaire, has He? That would not be faith, that would be presumption. In the same sense, do you know of any promise where God promises to heal every sick person that comes to Him in prayer? And far as I know, there's many promises, many places that speaks of God healing, but never do I find a promise where God obligates Himself to heal those who come to Him. in faith, trusting Him to do it. And the fact that He has not promised us such means that in order for us to have this prayer of faith, we have to have some sort of special revelation that it is God's will to heal that person before we can pray a prayer of faith. I just can't go to God and say, now, and by the way, Some of the questions that we're raising tonight I hope to clear up next week when we look at the specific case of Elijah. Because Elijah is given to us as an example of the kind of prayer that changes things or affects things. That's what's on the horizon here. And when you look closely at how Elijah prayed, and what it's all about. I think these things will become more and more clear. But especially, we need to realize that in order for us to pray a prayer of faith, we have to have some word that it is God's will for the person to be healed. That seems to be a given. Now, let me open it up for discussion. Do you see, first of all, do you understand what I'm saying? In other words, if I say, you know, Somebody I know has a physical problem, and therefore I have the warrant to go and believe God, and He's got to do what I believe. If I just have enough faith, then He must heal this person. Is that true? Janet, you had your hand up. It's not dealing with sickness, but it's the same principle. Now, what she's alluding to is Daniel was in captivity in Babylon and realized, reading the prophecy of Jeremiah, that they would be in captivity for 70 years. And he also realizes that the 70 years is just about up. So what does he do? Well, he starts praying. that God would free them from captivity. Now, number one, that shows you that prayer, then, is the means by which God brings about His purposes. Because it's always His purpose to free them in 70 years, but at the same time, He has put it on Daniel's heart to pray this prayer of faith that they be released. God is revealed, that's what he has desired to do, so Daniel prays for it, and sure enough, guess what? He gets what he prays for. What if Daniel had prayed that prayer when they were only 65 years into the captivity? If he just believed hard enough, would they be freed after 65 years? No. In other words, God had declared, this is what I'm promising, here's what I'm going to do. Daniel then latches on to the promise, you see. And that's the prayer of faith. Faith has to have an object. If it doesn't have an object, it's just mere presumption. It's sort of mind over matter. That type of thing. And so it seems to me that in this case, in order to pray that prayer of faith, there has to be some revelation given that God intends to heal that person. Yeah, Wayne? For instance. I'm afraid you're going to ask that. Well, there is a place where Peter, you know, it's like there is this discernment that goes on. And I hope to show that with Elijah next week. That Elijah just didn't decide to do all this stuff on his own. That he, being a prophet, had a revelation that then becomes the ground of his acting in faith. And, okay, go ahead. Well, I think it is a general instruction, but you still have to have some indication that it is God's will. And I think perhaps if we go a little bit further, we'll see a connection here. Maybe help pull the veil back just a little bit of how you would know. Brenda? In order to pray the prayer of faith that will do what He says the Lord... The prayer of faith shall save the sick. In other words, this isn't, I pray and maybe he will, maybe he won't. We can always pray that way. We can always pray for the sick, if this be your will, raise this person up. We know you have the power to do it. We know you can do it with means or without means. But for me, that does not fall under this idea of the prayer of faith. Because notice, whatever is going on here always works. the prayer of faith saves the sick and the Lord raises him up. So either we just don't have much faith, which is certainly true, or we're misreading what this is saying, that this is speaking of a specific instance where you have some confidence that it is the Lord's will to heal. Wayne, back to you. Well, a while. not to buy knowledge. And let's go back to the man at the temple. Peter said, fixing his eyes on him, said, silver and gold have I not, but such as I have, give I to thee. My old friend Harold Rudolph once said, Peter knew he had something and I know I don't. Think about that statement. He knew He had healing for that man. And therefore, that's the prayer of faith. And yet, at the same time, do I have that? Well, not to my knowledge. And so I can pray for the sick in a general sense, but can I pray in the confidence that God has revealed He intends to heal that person? I'm sorry? That is not the norm. I'm not denying that it never happens, you understand, but I'm saying, is that the normal situation that we run into with sick folks? And Brenda? You and Wayne are having a big time with this, I see. Go ahead. Okay, if... Yeah, well... Yeah, in some ways there has to be a connection between you and the person sick, which was the case in Peter and John. The man is lame, laying right there at the temple gate. Now, let's think this thing through. Does this mean, and I realize if we just take these words that typically the way we would understand them, it would seem that every sick person can come to the elders and they pray a prayer and they get healed. And if that's the case, why, for instance, did Paul leave Trophimus sick at Miletus? Was it always God's will to heal? We have the case of Epaphroditus, who Paul, in the Colossian letter, he's the messenger you've sent to me, and he almost died. He was sick near unto death, but God spared him and had mercy on me and on you. And yet Paul makes no claims of ever praying for him or any healing going on. The guy just got well. In other words, we need to understand that this doesn't give you a carte blanche guarantee that if you're sick, you can go to the elders, they'll pray for you, and you'll get well. Because we have cases of an apostle, even, who had sick people that apparently he didn't do this for. As a what? Well, and we pray in that same way, but keep in mind, in the context, it's not your faith that is even, it's not even in the picture here, it's my faith. And so the question is, how can I pray in faith that you will be healed without some sort of revelation that that is God's will? Okay? Well, that's a good question. How would you know? Let's go on a little bit further and maybe we can halfway... I'm not saying I got all the answers here, but I'm saying think through this thing and I think you'll see this isn't a license that the elder automatically then can, you know, do this and hocus pocus and bingo. It's always going to happen. Clearly that does not happen. Have we been asked to do this for sick people? The answer is yes. We don't go out and advertise. Like I say, we're not out looking for sick people to heal. But we have had those who were sick, usually after a long illness or some serious thing going on, come to us and ask us to do exactly this. And we will do it. But I can't say that the prayer of faith in this case, in every case, is what we prayed. We wanted God to heal. We knew He could heal, but did we know that He would? Did we have a promise to that effect? Well, it is a command. Well, of course, 15 is the conclusion. The command is in verse 14. Let him call for the elders of the church. And then this is the conclusion. Well, I keep saying that the oil, to me, is a cultural thing. We'd say take an aspirin, they would say an ointment with oil. That's their typical, you know, in the days when castor oil was the cure for everything, that's what you did. You didn't rub it on them, but you get the picture. It's the cure-all. It's the thing you always relied on. And that's the way oil was viewed in the first century. But I think it simply means that you do apply the means that are at hand. You don't ignore the means. You follow what I'm saying? If you get an infection, go get you some antibiotics. Don't ignore the means. Now, do we realize that the means may not always work? Yeah, we recognize that. Or the means may not always be available. And in that case, can God heal without means? Yes, He can. Often does. But first of all, make use of the means. Yeah, Janet, you're... No, I don't think so in this context. I think it's just that he's raised up off of his bed. He's back to going. What do we say? He's up and going. All right, let's go a little further. Yeah, okay. I didn't say I'm going to solve this for you. I just said these are my thoughts, okay? And it says, if he shall have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Hmm. Notice in this case, it appears that the sickness was brought about by sin. Right? In other words, is that true in every case? No. But in this case, why does the forgiveness of sins tie in to the fact of his physical healing unless the sin was in some degree the cause of the sickness. And then go, well, the sin connection is what I'm calling it. Sometimes specific sin is the cause of the disease. The person themselves are the only ones who are going to know that. And I will make that clear in a minute. Oftentimes, sin isn't the direct cause. We've seen that in several cases. But if sin is the cause, then it must be forsaken, it must be confessed. And if you are convicted of such, confess and forsake it, and you will know it, and you're the only one who can know that. If you're saying, I'm sick, and maybe I've done something, and this sickness is a consequence of that thing, it's probably not the case. Because if you are sick as a result of your sin, you will know the connection. You'll know what needs to be confessed and forsaken. Now, is sin always the cause? No. But in this case, where it is, then once that connection is made known, what are you supposed to do? Notice verse 16, confess your faults one to another, pray one for another that you may be healed. You see, we've really sort of come at this backwards. That if you started here and worked forward, you would start with the premise in verse 16 that you're confessing your faults and then praying for one another that you may be healed. Those two things are connected to one another. Make sense? And then you back up another step, then if he confesses his sins and you pray the prayer of faith, he will be healed, the Lord will raise him up. In other words, we're dealing with that case where sin is the direct cause of the sickness, and therefore the sin then must be forsaken and confessed, which I think then is the clue to the elder that if this was the cause of the sin and now the sin is forsaken, we can pray in faith that God will heal him. But all of those things are tied together. I should have started at the back and worked up. Yeah, it's backwards to our way of presenting it. But that there is a connection between the sickness, the sin, the healing, and the confession. Yeah? You're exactly right. It's the whole concept here. Although the next verse, Elijah, is being used as an illustration, and I think a very helpful illustration of what we mean by this prayer of faith. And we'll see that next time. But you're right. Immediately, once you get past the example in verse 17 and 18, then you're right back to the idea of restoring a brother who has erred from the truth, and being converted and being saved from his error. In other words, I think that's not accidental, that that's what this whole section is dealing with, sickness that is directly due to the fault or the failing or the sin of someone. Therefore, in that case, the forsaking of that sin will then be the means by which that Sin and the sickness can be remedied. Therefore, then the elder can pray in faith. If the sin has caused the sickness and the sin is forsaken and confessed, then we have the strong conviction that God will heal the person. Why wouldn't He in that case? Now, let's be careful. Is our sickness always the result of our sinning? No. There may not be any cause and effect. But if there is, then the forsaking of the sin on the part of the person sick then gives strong hope to the elder that this prayer will in fact raise him back up. Because the cause of the sickness has been dealt with. Making sense? A little? I am purely dealing with the exegesis of the text. I have no personal, as far as I know, no one has ever been directly healed by my prayers. I'm hoping my prayers were used as a means. Well, I do know, and this is not first-hand experience per se, but in conversations with someone who was involved with the demonic, aspect of things, where the demon was clearly causing the illness, and through the confession of the sin, the demon was cast out, or whatever language you want to use, and therefore the sickness left. I do know of those kinds of situations. I've talked personally to people who've been involved in that kind of thing. Now whether that fits this case or not, it's I mean, I sound like a raving charismatic, but I don't know how to explain. I have seen some of the demonic things with my own eyes. I don't know how to explain what I saw. And then I've talked with others who have been far more involved with it than I have been, and I certainly don't know how to explain what they've experienced. Let's put it that way. But there can certainly be a demonic cause of sickness. In fact, we even see that from the ministry of Christ. He talked about some who were, what was the word, lunatics, and then others that had the spirit of lunacy. In other words, it's like epilepsy or having the spirit of epilepsy. Sometimes, is there such a thing as epilepsy? Sure. Is there a spirit of epilepsy? In other words, a spirit that mimics what epilepsy does. That seems to be the case. In one case, it's epilepsy. In the other case, it was the spirit of epilepsy. In one case, they were healed. In the other case, the demon was cast out. Yeah. Yeah, I do. I think the whole idea that a demon can attack a believer is not biblical because we've misinterpreted the idea of demon possession The word possession is not in the Greek. It just means they're demonized. It means a better translation would be demon oppressed, not possessed. I mean there are those that make the argument a Christian can never be possessed of a devil because the Lord possesses him, you know that. But that's missing the point. I think even Paul may get me in hot water here, but alludes to the fact that his physical infirmity was caused by a demon. Huh? Well, let me show you. It's in 2 Corinthians. How else do you understand this? How else could you understand this? In 2 Corinthians 12, 7, Paul says, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan. Messenger in Greek is Angelos. The angel of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. His thorn in the flesh? Well, the fact that he would say a thorn in the flesh would lead me to believe it's some sort of physical affliction. Well, yeah, it seems to be, to me, pretty specific. This is a physical affliction that he had. And we know he had a physical affliction. He talks about his eyesight at one time to the Galatians. Talks about being sick when he was there with them, that they didn't despise his infirmity, you remember? Whatever this sickness was that he has. Again, I mean, I don't know how else you would understand that when he says, this thorn in the flesh is a messenger of Satan, an angel of Satan, literally is the rendering. So, now, does that mean, you know, what does that mean? Well, it means in that case, God allowed Satan, just like He did with Job, to afflict him through the use of fallen angels. You do realize that in the story of Job, Satan is controlling the weather, Satan is controlling the enemy, the Chaldeans, and Satan is controlling the sickness that has befallen him. Somehow those things have been, that power to afflict him was given into the hands of Satan, and once that power was given to him, he made good use of it. And in this case, Paul is describing how God Wishing, that's a terrible thing to say about God, but desiring to keep Paul humble allowed this physical affliction, which appears to be demonic in its nature. I just don't know how else to understand the words. Go ahead. Well, and that's what I was trying to say. If you don't know, then it's not that. That's what I'm trying to say, is that if it is connected with sin, you know. And so if you don't know, all this goes out the window. This does not apply. I'm thinking of a couple of Old Testament incidents. I'm running through my mind what are the examples that we have in the Old Testament of such. And I certainly agree that in the early church, let's consider In the first generation of the church, there were several things going on that we don't see today. Ananias and Sapphira, it's lying to the Holy Spirit, both of them struck dead. Now, could that happen today? I certainly believe it could, but do we see it with the regularity that they saw these things in that first generation? I don't think so. And I think the same thing is true about this. We don't see it. But I'm simply saying this is there. We've got to do something with it. Does that make sense, what I'm saying? You can't just sweep it under the rug and pretend this was never written. It's saying something. And for me, the best way to understand it is in that sense that if, in other words, if I've got pneumonia, And then I just say, oh Lord, I guess I've done something. And I start, you know, just like pinning the tail on the donkey. I'm trying to hit the mark, and I don't have a clue what exactly I did that brought this on. Then there's no way to have any confidence that the forsaking of whatever sin is out there is going to bring about the healing. But if I know for certain that this has come because of that, then in the forsaking of that I can have strong confidence that healing will take place. And yet notice it is in connection with the confession, in this case to the elders, that the healing takes place. Now notice very carefully, and to try to And verse 16 is important because it says, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. Again, notice the connection between the sin and the praying for one another. But notice it doesn't say in this case an elder, it's just one another. It certainly doesn't mean the priest, that you've got to confess your sins to the priest. A rule that has served me well over the years is that you need to confess your sin as widely as it is known. Certainly those you've sinned against, it needs to be confessed and forsaken. Okay? But notice there is no person here in this case, an elder or any Christian brother, you need to confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another that you may be healed. The tendency is to say, because we don't see this particular thing going on, then I don't have a reason to pray for somebody to get well, and that's not true. What he's saying is, no, prayer does have an effect. So we need to be praying for one another, especially in a case where they have confessed their fault to us. Make sense? on the front end. You're exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like I say, confess your sin as widely as it is known. Confession of sin is you coming clean. Well, certainly that's the minimum. Yeah, that's true. I would think it's the minimum parameter, but great harm can be done by confessing sin. What if somebody comes up to you and says, I've been lusting after your wife all these years, just wanted to confess that to you. You understand what I'm saying? That may be true. It may be a true confession, but what does that do then with your relationship? There are certain things that don't need to be confessed openly. because of the... well, I'm just saying, practically speaking, you can open up a can of worms and relationships... Well, relationships are destroyed, though. It's a can of... we've got two cans of worms trying to get along, and there are certain things... But to the Lord, yes, but... Well, I agree that we need to honestly open up to one another and not put on airs. I'm just simply saying there are certain things that do more harm than good by confessing them, if they're not known. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll stop here. Nobody's satisfied, I see. Okay, David. That's true. Yeah, wisdom is required. And it's not that humility is not, but there is times that our zeal to be humble can do more harm than good. We have to acknowledge that, that we're humble in the wrong way. Well, I didn't think I was going to satisfy anybody in that. I was 100% correct. I'm just saying, wait a minute, we've got to do something with this. If you don't like my interpretation, let me hear yours. I suppose that there would be those to say, well, this is in that day of extraordinary gifts and so forth, and that day has passed away. And I would certainly agree that to the regularity that they saw these things in the early church, we don't see that. And yet to say that this doesn't happen today, that God doesn't miraculously heal, I can't go there. And there's just too many examples from life that seem to contradict that. David? Yes. That's right. Yeah, exactly. We're going to deal with that question. Is there a sin in your life unconfessed that you think is the cause of this? We're going to ask that. Yeah, I think that's true. Yeah. That solves it right there. Yeah. Yeah, anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. Yeah, and that is important. We're asking the Lord to use this means. I have not heard all of it. An old friend, Andy Hamilton, was pastor of Reformed Baptist Church in Shreveport years ago. Andy was one of the strict Reformed Baptist group that they ruled out any extraordinary gifts at all. Strict cessationism. He got to China as a missionary, served over there for several years, came back and called all his supporters to come hear him and he said, I cannot go on receiving support from you thinking that I know, you know, still adhere to what I did when I was sent. Because he said, I've seen things in China that I have no explanation for except the supernatural power of God. And I think that's true that where you have seen the gospel go in, especially into new areas, pioneer areas, the Lord does some miraculous things. And it doesn't last. In other words, there comes a point that it would become a distraction. It does no longer create faith or point out the specialness of the gospel. It detracts after a while. But Dan Hall, we were sitting in Vega del Sol, and he was telling me the story of how when the gospel first got into that village, his dad, it was during his dad's day, Dr. Hall, was the director, and he would go into Vega about once a month. And there was a family there that had a little girl about three years old that he went to see, and he said the little girl was dying. You know, he's a doctor, he'd seen death all his years, and he said she was just a few days from death, and there was nothing anybody could do. And so Of course, he couldn't stay there. He went back to Cordoba. A month later, he made his next trip into Vega. And, anyway, went to this home to see, basically to go give his condolences to the parents. And he walked in and says, well, how did the funeral go? And they looked at him and said, what are you talking about? And he said, well, your daughter. And they said, well, you passed her. She was out there playing in the front yard. And Dan said his dad fell flat on his face in the floor crying and weeping. He said there was absolutely no physical explanation for that. He said he had seen death as a doctor years and years and years and he said there was no way that little girl should be alive and yet she was. And then Dan said, see that woman going up the stairs right over there? That's her. I said, oh, give me a break. She's the little girl. Yeah, that's her. So, I'm just saying, I don't have any other explanation except God still can do those types of things and does in certain cases. Now, does He do them in our circumstances? Not necessarily. He can. We would have to say that, do we need that? As, you know, when you're going into a pagan area, God will sometimes single out his people and point them out in the eyes of the community and so forth. And like I said, after a while, that's no longer necessary. I think that explains why you don't see that going on as an ongoing thing. But does it still happen today? Pioneer areas, yeah. Okay, let us, we'll come back here next. I think the story of Elijah is very enlightening to all of this. It's not exactly the same, because it's not a healing, but in understanding how Elijah functioned, and especially understanding his faith. We didn't cover that last phrase, the factual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth not. In the Greek, it's not a factual fervent, it's one word. It's the energetic, the powerful. The energetic prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And it's somewhat of a truism. It's like saying the working prayer of a righteous man works. It's like a little bit of circular logic going on. But it's the idea that there is the person who prays in faith and that prayer then effects and brings about change and brings about things. Again, not that the prayer is itself the cause, God is the cause, but prayer being the means. And I think we'll see that laid out in Elijah's case. Okay, we'll come back here. We've got to pray.