WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.900 Great. Okay. So we're in James chapter five versus 13 to 18. There's only two other verses 00:00:10.900 --> 00:00:15.880 in this chapter, but I think that those last two verses form kind of a conclusion to the 00:00:15.880 --> 00:00:22.320 book and this section goes together. So I'm going to focus on verses 13 to 18 and this 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:27.879 will finish out our James series. So without further ado, let me read starting in verse 00:00:27.879 --> 00:00:37.759 13. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:42.840 Is anyone among you sick? Well, let him call for the elders of the church and let them 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:48.879 pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith 00:00:48.879 --> 00:00:54.840 will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed 00:00:54.840 --> 00:01:01.480 sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one 00:01:01.480 --> 00:01:07.840 another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:13.000 is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed fervently that it 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:18.560 might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:23.520 you prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. This is the word 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:31.239 of the Lord. So I want to start by just acknowledging that when we come to a difficult passage or 00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:37.280 a passage with confusing bits like this one has, it's a mistake to start by trying to 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:42.359 answer all of our biggest, hardest questions or trying to get right at the confusing bits. 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:46.920 We need to start by getting our head around the main idea, around the context, around 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:53.920 the big picture of what the author is saying. And then we bring our questions to that. So 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.760 we start with the big picture and with what's clear and we work our way into what's less 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:04.960 clear. Now, we're not going to have time to get to the really fuzzy stuff, to the difficult 00:02:04.960 --> 00:02:08.639 stuff in this. So I just want to warn you now, I'm going to leave you with a lot of 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:15.240 questions. And that's okay, because you all have Bibles and the Holy Spirit and each other 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:20.760 and we can continue to kind of interrogate this chapter in the weeks to come in our personal 00:02:20.760 --> 00:02:25.240 studies and in our city groups. You can always ask me or Derek or Thomas questions or any 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:32.600 of your elders or anyone that you respect. So that's my big caveat. So with that being 00:02:32.600 --> 00:02:40.120 said, I'm just trying to get at the main idea of what James was saying in this section. 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:47.280 So to do that, I have, I'm breaking my three point sermon rule and there's six. So there's 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:55.680 two principles, two promises and two applications. So two principles, two promises, two applications. 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:01.719 Let's go to principle number one. The first principle is this God works his power through 00:03:01.719 --> 00:03:12.240 the prayers of ordinary Christians in extraordinary situations. Now this principle comes from 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:20.759 the section on Elijah at the end of our passage versus 16 B, the second half of through 18. 00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:26.000 So that's on your screen now. And in this section, the reason I'm starting here is it's 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:31.960 actually the logical grounds for the section that comes before it. Now, so it doesn't come, 00:03:31.960 --> 00:03:36.960 you know, in order, it doesn't come first, but logically it comes first. He's arguing 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:42.879 from this illustration. So it's when, you know, when a sermon starts with a great illustration, 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:46.840 which might never do, but when they start with a good illustration and kind of say, now you 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:51.719 can see how my point makes sense. That's what he's doing. The grounds is this section and 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:57.159 what comes after before it is actually its inference. So the prayer of a righteous person 00:03:57.159 --> 00:04:02.479 has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. And he prayed 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:10.319 fervently that it might not rain, etc. Now reading the ending of James, this whole section, 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:15.280 this whole last bit of chapter five, it's actually quite easy to think, you know, that 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:22.439 kind of powerful prayer, the rain stopping prayer, the sick bed healing kind of prayer. 00:04:22.439 --> 00:04:27.800 That the prayer that ushers the miraculous into our experience, that's only for special 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:39.199 people. And James says that's not the case. Elijah was a man with a nature just like ours. 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:48.159 He was ordinary. So it's the prayers of ordinary people like us that the Lord wants to use. 00:04:48.159 --> 00:04:53.480 That he wants to show his power through. And even though earlier James told us to call 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:58.879 for the elders of the church when we're really sick, it's not that the elders are super Christians 00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:04.879 who have more powerful prayers or kind of a special direct line to God. And he doesn't 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:09.199 say when you're sick, summon the church healer, right, because that's not a position that exists 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:14.839 in the New Testament. And it's not a position that really exists now. Though some are convinced 00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:20.399 that it does. It doesn't seem that the Lord gives to his church special people with kind 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:29.159 of this constant power to heal. He uses ordinary people like us. And he does give us special 00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:35.600 gifts sometimes. But it's through the ordinary. And that's the point I want to draw. So it's 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:45.080 ordinary people. But verse 16 does add a caveat. The prayer of a righteous person has great 00:05:45.080 --> 00:05:51.160 power as it is working. So we have to infer that Elijah is both ordinary, right? He has 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:58.680 a nature like ours, and he's righteous. Therefore, his prayer, God used him in his prayers. 00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:04.360 So we should ask, when James says a righteous person, what does he mean? Well, let's look 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:10.639 at James chapter two briefly, verses 21 to 24. It's on your screen to help us understand 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:16.840 that point. Starting in verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works when 00:06:16.840 --> 00:06:22.439 he offered up his son, Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his 00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:28.719 works and faith was completed by his works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 00:06:28.719 --> 00:06:34.120 Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And he was called a 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:41.680 friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Now we've 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:48.480 covered this before, but the question is, who is a righteous person? And the answer 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:56.960 is someone who believes God and lives like it. In other words, someone who has both a 00:06:56.960 --> 00:07:02.600 saving faith in Jesus and whose faith is worked out into their life. And that's what a 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:14.360 does. Faith works, a living faith works. And James says that person is justified. Now here's 00:07:14.360 --> 00:07:18.879 why that matters in our text, because the prayer of someone who believes God and lives 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:28.639 like it is powerful. The prayer of a sinner saved by grace is powerful. Now why is the 00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:35.920 prayer of that person powerful? Because when Jesus justified us on the cross, taking on 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:43.840 him our sins and giving to us his righteousness, he bought with his blood, the sacred privilege 00:07:43.839 --> 00:07:51.799 of standing before God, not as sinners begging for mercy, but as children asking their Heavenly 00:07:51.799 --> 00:08:00.439 Father to dispense his good gifts to us. That's what it means to pray as a Christian. That's 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:10.159 why we pray in Jesus's name. So God works his power through the prayers of ordinary Christians 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:14.920 in extraordinary situations. Elijah was in an extraordinary situation. He needed the 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:20.240 Lord to shut up the heavens and keep rain from falling for three and a half years. And 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:26.560 James is saying we have that same kind of access to the throne of God to ask him to 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:36.519 do the extraordinary. And that privilege comes by living faith in Jesus. That's how we get 00:08:36.519 --> 00:08:41.519 there, not by being special people, but by being ordinary people who belong to these 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:47.919 special person. God works his power through the prayers of ordinary Christians in extraordinary 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:53.639 situations. That's principle one. Principle number two, I'm sorry if I'm flying through 00:08:53.639 --> 00:09:02.399 this. It's exciting. Principle two, God invites us to pray in all our ordinary situations. 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:09.399 Now, I told you that the section we just looked at about Elijah was the grounds for what precedes 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:16.480 it. So verses 13 and following are the outworking or the inference from those grounds, right? 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:26.399 So with that in mind, let's read verses 13 to 14. So this is the inference now. Is anyone 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:33.159 among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing. Sing praise. Is anyone 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:37.240 among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:43.039 anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. So suffering, is anyone suffering? Suffering 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:50.120 is a very generic word. The Greek word behind this is very generic. It's not specific to 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:59.279 persecution. It's not specific to, you know, deadly sickness or to abuse. It's just suffering. 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:06.480 Everything that might ever trouble you fits into that word suffering. Similarly, the word 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:10.279 cheerful means just what it sounds like. It's when your heart is lifted up when you feel 00:10:10.279 --> 00:10:16.480 good. When you catch your first bluegill in the United States, you're cheerful, right? 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:23.039 And in those cases, you're to sing praise to the Lord when you feel good. In other words, 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:29.000 between suffering and cheerful, James is actually covering the whole gamut of human 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:39.680 experience and emotion. Is there anything troubling you? Pray for yourself. Are you feeling good? 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:47.919 Singing praise and singing praise is just prayer set to a tune. Are you really sick? 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:53.559 Call the elders. It's only natural that a sick sheep would desire its shepherds to be 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:59.719 nearby to minister care to them. Now, by the way, as just kind of a sidebar, I've heard 00:10:59.719 --> 00:11:06.879 some people say that it's very selfish to pray for yourself. And it can sound very 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:12.000 high. I only pray for other people. I don't pray for myself because I don't want to be 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:20.840 presumptuous with the Lord. They say that praying for yourself seems proud or deceitful. 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:29.399 I said deceitful. I'm not conceited. But crying out to God and saying, Lord, I'm hurting. 00:11:29.399 --> 00:11:36.519 I'm helpless. This is awful. I can't bear this. This is hard. Will you please help me? 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:43.559 That's not pride. That's humility. The Lord loves those prayers. When you're suffering, 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:51.519 he wants you to talk to him. He wants you to go to him. John Calvin summed up this whole 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:59.199 section well. He said that James means that there is no time in which God does not invite 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:08.240 us to himself. I love that language. When James says, let him pray, God, the Holy Spirit 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:18.240 is saying through him, I want you to pray. You're invited. That's wonderful. So here are 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:23.520 our two principles that we've covered. God works his power through the prayers of ordinary 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:30.360 Christians and extraordinary situations. And God invites us to pray in all our ordinary 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:38.759 situations. Do you see how that second principle flows out of the first? If God loves to work 00:12:38.759 --> 00:12:43.279 through the prayers of ordinary people like us in the most extreme of circumstances, how 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:49.480 much more should we expect him to work in all of those ordinary circumstances of life, too? 00:12:49.480 --> 00:12:58.360 Now, James is leading us to two big application points coming up. And it's like he's trying 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:04.120 to light a fire. He wants that fire to spring up in the church with intensity and with heat. 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:08.360 And those two principles are the tinder, just the kindling that he's laid for the fire. 00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:14.240 And now he's going to lay two promises as the fire would before he sets it alight. So 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:26.399 let's talk about the two promises. Promise number one, God works through the prayer of 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:33.080 faith. This is from verse 15, the first half. And the prayer of faith will save the one 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:40.759 who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. Now, if you've read this passage thoughtfully, 00:13:40.759 --> 00:13:48.120 briefly, you might have asked yourself, you know, okay, but what about when we pray for 00:13:48.120 --> 00:13:56.480 healing and we really think God wants to heal this person and he just doesn't do it? What 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:04.319 then? Let me tell you two brief stories. Just to connect this to human, modern human experience. 00:14:04.319 --> 00:14:08.159 So I don't know if any of you have noticed, we've been on zoom a lot close proximity to 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:13.519 my face. Sometimes when I look at my face on zoom, I scare myself because my right eye 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:19.279 is really big. And it kind of gets this intense stare at the camera. And it's because my left 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:29.039 eye, there's nerve and muscle damage. And my left eye is weak. And so my eyelid doesn't 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:39.159 open all the way. I also can't focus very well. I find in that eye and my and he called the 00:14:39.159 --> 00:14:44.159 elders of the church and insisted they pray for me, even though it wasn't normal for them. 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:49.319 And they did. And the next day they took me back to the doctor. I had a surgery scheduled 00:14:49.319 --> 00:14:54.679 and the doctor said his eyes fine. He doesn't need the surgery and I can't explain it. Isn't 00:14:54.679 --> 00:15:02.319 that cool? So I love James five because I can see out of my left eye mostly. And that's 00:15:02.319 --> 00:15:06.879 great. Now on the other hand, some years back I was an elder at a church in Washington, 00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:14.759 Washington state. And there was a fairly young man who was suffering from absolute debilitating 00:15:14.759 --> 00:15:21.399 chronic pain and had been for years and years and years. And he read James five and believing 00:15:21.399 --> 00:15:27.919 the Bible and wanting to obey the Lord. He called the elders among whom I was one. And 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:36.840 we went out and anointed him with oil and prayed over him. Nothing happened. And as 00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:43.240 far as I know, that was many years ago. And to this day, he still suffers from pain. So 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:52.519 what's the deal? Why does it sometimes work? And sometimes it doesn't. Well, we know that 00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:57.120 the Bible isn't lying to us. So when the Holy Spirit says through James that the prayer of 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:02.960 faith will save the one who's sick, we believe him. We also know that not all of our faith 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:11.159 filled prayers seem to work to put it crudely. So how do we reconcile that? All right, let 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:16.799 me lay a little groundwork first. There seems to be two kinds of faith in the New Testament. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:24.199 Faith generally is just belief. It's to believe in something. But the New Testament usually 00:16:24.199 --> 00:16:30.600 is talking about saving faith, right? That the faith that every single Christian has 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:35.319 that is it is it that comes to them by gift of God that helps them believe in Jesus, they 00:16:35.319 --> 00:16:40.559 hear the gospel and they believe it. And they're Christians. You know, it's by faith you're 00:16:40.559 --> 00:16:46.119 saved, right? Saving faith. The other kind is I don't know, there's not a word for it, 00:16:46.119 --> 00:16:51.199 a special faith or something like that. It's the same word used in different contexts. And 00:16:51.199 --> 00:16:58.399 it's by which God may choose to give as a gift to people already saved by faith, a certain 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:05.879 measure of increased faith. For instance, briefly in 1 Corinthians 12 verse nine, Paul's 00:17:05.880 --> 00:17:12.280 speaking to Christians saved by faith Christians, but he teaches them that to some of those 00:17:12.280 --> 00:17:19.280 faith saved Christians, the Holy Spirit gives the gift of faith. So there's two different 00:17:19.280 --> 00:17:23.720 kinds of gifts of faith as it were the saving kind and then this increased measure of faith 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:28.880 kind. And if I sound confused, it's because I don't have my head fully around this. I'm 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:35.080 honest. I don't know that many people that I know have wrestled through this very thoroughly. 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:39.439 So maybe you've known people like that. I've known a few people that you say, you know, 00:17:39.439 --> 00:17:44.720 we're both Christians, but that man, that woman filled with faith, unbelievable faith 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:54.559 in the Lord. Oh, sorry, didn't mean to do that. So there's another category of prayer 00:17:54.559 --> 00:18:01.079 in the New Testament as well. And it's the one that James seems to be referring to as 00:18:01.079 --> 00:18:10.039 the prayer of faith. Right. And Jesus taught about this in Mark chapter 11 verses 23 to 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:15.839 24. And I am aware that I am opening a can of worms that I won't be able to close. But 00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:22.359 it's, it's, I believe this is what the Bible teaches. So we're going to follow it by faith. 00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:28.159 Mark 11 23 to 24, Jesus said to his disciples, truly, I say to you, whoever says to this 00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:33.759 mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:40.880 that what he says will come to pass. It will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:52.800 you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. Sometimes the Lord 00:18:52.799 --> 00:19:03.639 gives us in our fervent prayers a deep certainty of what the Lord wants to do in a given situation. 00:19:03.639 --> 00:19:10.480 Not all the time, but sometimes. And I think that's what it looks like to, as Jesus says, 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:21.200 not doubt in your heart. In this context, it doesn't mean Jesus doesn't mean to squeeze 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:30.480 your eyes real tightly shut and believe really, really, really hard. It's a gift of certainty 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:37.240 from God. So someone may be praying that a mountain be thrown into the ocean or the heavens 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:43.319 be shut up for three and a half years or that someone may be healed. And the Lord may give 00:19:43.319 --> 00:19:52.839 to that person in prayer such a clear certainty that it's exactly what God wants to do. And 00:19:52.839 --> 00:20:00.359 that prayer of faith is answered. We need to remember that in prayer as a Christian, 00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:07.439 there are two wills at work, always two wills. When we're praying for something, our will 00:20:07.439 --> 00:20:13.079 is at work as we want something. That's our will, right? We want something to happen. 00:20:13.079 --> 00:20:18.399 So we're asking God to do something. And mysteriously, Paul teaches in Romans chapter eight that 00:20:18.399 --> 00:20:28.480 as we pray, God, the Holy Spirit is his will is at work through our prayers as well. So 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:34.960 sometimes then you may have this remarkable grace from the Lord. I think I've had it 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:40.599 once in my life, maybe twice. You may have this remarkable grace from the Lord that as 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:48.079 you're praying, your will is at work. And you become clearly aware of his will at work 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:55.879 with a special kind of clarity and certainty. Ultimately, though, prayer is a commitment 00:20:55.879 --> 00:21:03.559 to the will of God. Prayer is entrusting our will, subjecting our will, submitting our 00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:09.240 will to the will of God. So that's why Jesus prayed to the Father saying, not my will be 00:21:09.240 --> 00:21:16.200 done but yours. That's why he taught us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:23.680 on earth as it is in heaven. Christian prayer says on some level, Lord, I think it would 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:30.799 be good and pleasing for you to do this and that. But what I really want is your glory. 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:37.960 And your glory is our ultimate good. So please do whatever brings about your glory. That's 00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:46.720 the heart that lies beneath Christian prayer. Told you I'd open more questions than I'd 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:56.240 answer. So underneath this first promise lies another sweet promise. So the promise was 00:21:56.240 --> 00:22:02.680 God works through the prayer of faith. And that sweet promise that lies below it is this. 00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:08.560 God will always work through our prayers for his glory and for our ultimate good. Isn't 00:22:08.560 --> 00:22:15.160 that sweet? Sometimes we just ask for the wrong things. And if we knew what God knew, 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:20.160 we'd ask for what he's going to do. But we don't know all the time. Most of the time. 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:27.279 We don't know. So we ask as best we can saying your will be done. God will always work through 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:34.399 our prayers for his glory and our ultimate good. That's promise number one. Promise number 00:22:34.399 --> 00:22:46.399 two, God forgives sins. James 15 B, I mislabeled it. It's the second half of verse 15. So the 00:22:46.399 --> 00:22:49.879 prayer of faith will save the one who's sick. The Lord will raise him up. And if he has 00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:58.520 committed sins, he will be forgiven. So I'm going to have to go faster here for the sake 00:22:58.520 --> 00:23:03.400 of time. But let me just speak plainly and then briefly. Praying for a repentant brother 00:23:03.400 --> 00:23:09.600 or sister in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins is the prayer of faith or is a 00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:20.240 prayer of faith because we know that the will of God is to forgive the sins of his children. 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:24.639 Remember what we said about prayer. There's always these two wills at work. When our will 00:23:24.639 --> 00:23:33.000 is for our brother or sister in Christ to be forgiven. That's God's will too. Both 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:41.599 wills are in accord in that prayer. Two quick caveats. First, this is speaking to the covenant 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:49.359 community. This is speaking to the church. So James is not saying that all the prayers 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:54.359 for the salvation of our unbelieving friends will always be answered no matter what. That's 00:23:54.359 --> 00:24:02.720 not what he's saying. Second caveat. I did say that repentant brothers and sisters in 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:12.000 Christ because by this point in James' letter, that has to be assumed. He's made it clear 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:18.720 all over the letter that living faith acts on that faith. Real heroes of the word also 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:24.319 do the word. That's the life of repentance. That's the life of moving toward God and away 00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:31.720 from our sins. And so that's why I say when we pray for the forgiveness of sins for our 00:24:31.720 --> 00:24:36.640 repentant brothers and sisters in Christ, we can be certain that God is in that prayer. 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:42.440 God loves that prayer and God's will is for that prayer to be answered. God wants to forgive 00:24:42.440 --> 00:24:48.920 his children. So there's that truth. God forgives sins. There's that promise. We know 00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:54.160 God forgives sins. It's the most basic thing about the gospel that we know. But the sweet 00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:01.360 truth that lies below that promise is that God loves forgiving the sins of his children. 00:25:01.359 --> 00:25:06.679 He doesn't love that we've committed them. But when we do, God is eager to forgive us. 00:25:06.679 --> 00:25:15.599 He's not a holdout. Now, if you can swallow that pill, that God's eager to forgive your 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:24.240 sins, it will cure the disease of thinking we need to hide our sins from God. So we have 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:33.599 two principles and two promises. Yeah, they're there on your screen. I won't read them again 00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:41.880 for you. So we've laid the tender and we've laid the firewood. Now here's the spark James 00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:54.840 will use to light the fire application number one. We should confess our sins to each other. 00:25:54.840 --> 00:25:59.520 Most of us immediately have all sorts of reasons why we shouldn't confess our sins to each 00:25:59.520 --> 00:26:09.640 other, pop up into our minds. James says we should do it. So James five, 16, therefore 00:26:09.640 --> 00:26:17.400 confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. That 00:26:17.400 --> 00:26:23.160 first word is crucial. Therefore, that word is there to say, All right, we've got our 00:26:23.160 --> 00:26:31.480 principles, we've got our promises. Now, if those are true, here's what we ought to do. 00:26:31.480 --> 00:26:38.640 That's what the therefore is saying. Confess your sins to each other. I wonder when the 00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:49.320 last time was you did that. It's not easy. Not at first. Now this is a mutual confession 00:26:49.320 --> 00:26:54.759 of sins. This is important. The grammar makes it clear James isn't saying merely that the 00:26:54.759 --> 00:26:58.800 church should be the kind of place where people can sometimes confess sins if they feel like 00:26:58.800 --> 00:27:02.800 they should. And he's also not saying it's just good to acknowledge that we're generally 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:09.639 sinful. And he's not saying that we should institute a Roman Catholic kind of confessional, 00:27:09.639 --> 00:27:14.599 which isn't mutual and has all sorts of other problems. And he's not saying that we won't 00:27:14.599 --> 00:27:22.720 be forgiven unless someone else prays for us. But he is saying that we should confess, 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:30.960 mutually confess our sins with some specificity and regularity. And that if God loves to forgive 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:35.279 sins, if God works through the prayers of ordinary people like us, then we can glorify 00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:44.880 God and minister to each other by confessing our sins to each other. First John 1.7, which 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:49.880 you've probably heard me talk about 20 times. First John 1.7 puts it another way. He talks 00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:56.559 about walking in the light. That is stepping out into openness and honesty about who we 00:27:56.559 --> 00:28:03.839 are and what we've done. First John 1.7, but if we walk in the light as he, God is in the 00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:11.759 light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:21.440 from all sin. When writing about this verse, John, the verse in James, James 5.16, John 00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:26.960 Calvin said, confession is required for no other end, but that those who know our evils 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:34.640 may be more solicitous to bring us help. Let me read that again. Confession is required 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:41.039 for no other end, but that those who know our evils may be more solicitous to bring us 00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:50.000 help. That's the point. I think this is wise. Is there a sin in your life that you just 00:28:50.000 --> 00:29:00.400 can't seem to get traction on? Do you need help with it? Have you confessed it to someone? 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:09.640 Have you asked them to pray with you, to pray for you? One more note about confession. If 00:29:09.640 --> 00:29:14.279 we are to be the sort of community that can confess, sends to each other. And that's what 00:29:14.279 --> 00:29:18.640 James is wanting us to do here is become that kind of community. If we're going to be a 00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:25.200 place where people can confess their sins to each other, we must be a safe place for that 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:33.360 to happen. If someone tells you their sins, bear them to the Lord in prayer. Bear them 00:29:33.360 --> 00:29:41.920 to no one else. We need to be like a coffin for the sins of our brothers and sisters. 00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:45.920 We hear them, they come to us, we shut over it like the grave and they die there. Never 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:52.160 to see the light of day unless it's in prayer. So no one should think, I would confess this 00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:58.400 sin to John, but I'm afraid he's going to go tell so and so. No one should have to be 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:04.000 worried about that. That kind of culture, that kind of safety takes time and it takes 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:15.200 intentionality, submission to the Lord, faith, but it's possible. One caveat here. I'm not 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:21.600 talking about crime, right? If someone's robbed a bank, please call the police. Do tell that 00:30:21.600 --> 00:30:28.799 sin, right? But I'm talking about if someone comes to you and says, brother or sister, 00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:35.480 I confess to you, I've been struggling with lust for some time, maybe many years, and 00:30:35.480 --> 00:30:42.920 I'd appreciate your prayer. We have no right then to go and say to someone else, hey, you 00:30:42.920 --> 00:30:49.000 know who struggles with lust? And also it doesn't make it better to couch it in a prayer 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:53.080 request. You know, hey, I think we should be really praying for so and so because they're 00:30:53.080 --> 00:31:06.680 a lust problem. We need to be a place where people can confess sins. All right, confession. 00:31:06.680 --> 00:31:12.840 Question number two, we should then pray for each other's forgiveness. James doesn't want 00:31:12.840 --> 00:31:18.759 us just to confess our sins to each other and say, ah, glad to get that off my chest. Now 00:31:18.759 --> 00:31:26.880 I feel better. That's not the point. He's saying that as the body of Christ, we have the extraordinary 00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:34.320 privilege of ministering the gospel to each other through prayer as we entrust our brothers 00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:41.480 and sisters to Jesus. So let me make this as practical as I can. What is the appropriate 00:31:41.480 --> 00:31:49.679 response if a brother or sister in Christ comes to you and confesses sin? Something 00:31:49.679 --> 00:31:58.960 like this. Thank you for trusting me with that. Let me pray for you right now. James 00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:03.559 is not saying confess our sins to each other and then give each other good advice. That's 00:32:03.559 --> 00:32:09.839 not the point. Quite frankly, a lot of people who struggle with the really deep dark sins 00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:15.000 that get their grips around you, they've heard all the advice before. And if we're to start 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.559 telling them, you know, the four things they need to do to get free from this sin, we're 00:32:19.559 --> 00:32:26.039 not going to feel like the sort of people they can come to with a serious God size problem. 00:32:26.039 --> 00:32:33.519 You and I do not have in us the answer to our brother and sister's sins. We can't impart 00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:41.480 the power to them through good advice to wrench free of that death grip that sin has on our 00:32:41.480 --> 00:32:51.000 hearts. One person does and it's Jesus. So we entrust them in prayer to King Jesus. That's 00:32:51.000 --> 00:33:04.799 it. All right, it's quite late. I must end. Yeah. Here's our principles, our promises 00:33:04.799 --> 00:33:13.680 and our applications. If we treat the principles and promises like they're true, then we can 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:19.599 begin to become the kind of people, the kind of community that confesses our sins to each 00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:27.799 other and prays for each other. It's not weird. It's glorious. It's God honoring. It's humble. 00:33:27.799 --> 00:33:32.159 And that gospel doctrine of saying, I can't handle my sins and you can't handle my sins, 00:33:32.159 --> 00:33:37.039 but Jesus can. That's gospel doctrine. That gospel doctrine will work way down into our 00:33:37.039 --> 00:33:44.599 community, way down into our hearts and create a beautiful gospel culture. That's what it 00:33:44.599 --> 00:33:52.599 does. God wants us to so believe in his power, working through us in prayer, to so believe 00:33:52.599 --> 00:34:01.079 in his eagerness to forgive our sins and to heal us that we do the unthinkable by confessing 00:34:01.079 --> 00:34:15.880 our sins to each other and praying for each other. That's it. That's what I got. There's 00:34:15.880 --> 00:34:22.719 a lot of questions that come out of that. Aren't there? Like, how exactly does healing 00:34:22.719 --> 00:34:29.440 work and why are the elders called? There's so many things that we could say about this 00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:34.119 passage. I'm just skimming the surface, trying to get that kind of big thrust of what James 00:34:34.119 --> 00:34:43.360 is doing. But if this has, if what I have said has got under your skin a little bit, 00:34:43.360 --> 00:34:49.400 please pray about it because it got under my skin too. Take that to the Lord and talk 00:34:49.400 --> 00:34:53.320 with someone in the church about it. Talk to your friend, go to coffee with somebody 00:34:53.320 --> 00:34:58.480 and wrestle through these things together. God is honored in that.