James 5:13-20

Introduction

Good morning everyone! If you have your Bibles please turn with me to the last chapter of the book of James. We are gonna be looking at James 5 beginning in verse 13. Today we are going to finish up our study in this very practical epistle with a look at the final two tests that James gives us. As we’ve mentioned previously, this book is outlined by a series of tests. To name just a few, in Chapter 1 we saw the test of perseverance through suffering and we learned that as Christians we are to rejoice at trials because they are the means that God uses to mature us as believers. In Chapter 2, we learned about the test of partiality and that as Christians we are not to show favoritism to people for some superficial reason like their race, wealth, or their position, but rather we are to be impartial to the poor or rich and to love our neighbor as ourself. In Chapter 3, we learned about the test of the tongue and how if we are not careful, it can be used to both bless God and curse men, which ought not to be so. In chapter 4 we learned about the test of loyalty to either the Word of God or to the ways of the world and that we must choose which one we will pledge our allegiance to. In chapter 5, we learned last time about the test of patient endurance in the midst of suffering and today we finish this epistle with a look at the test of prayerfulness and faithfulness.

To the Christian, I ask, how is your prayer life? If I were to ask someone who knows you best to describe you as a person, would they say that you are a person of prayer? How about your lifestyle? Do you live your life in such a way that God would answer your prayers? How about your aim in life? Would that person describe you as someone who takes an active interest in the spiritual well-being of other Christians?

The passage before us touches on these important questions and I want us to take an honest assessment of our heart before the Lord today.

Let me read to you James 5: 13-20.

Let’s the Lord for help now as we expound His Word.

Pray.

I read something this week by Barna Research Group that said prayer is the most common faith practice among American adults and that 57% of Americans are in support of the National Day of Prayer. A couple other polls suggested that while 85% of Americans pray, only 20% believe the Bible is the literal Word of God. What this tells me is that the majority of Americans praying are not allowing the Word of God to instruct their lives and prayers because they don’t believe it to be absolute truth. People don’t believe Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16 when he says “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”. Friends, this is so important because if a Christian doesn’t settle the issue in their heart regarding the authority of Scripture, then they will never have confidence in their prayer life. If they don’t see the Bible as the revelation of God that is the basis and final authority in matters of life, then the act of prayer becomes simply a religious activity void of any true power. You may pray, but you will lack any confidence that God hears and is responding to your prayers.

Before we get into our text in James, I want us to see three truths from Scripture that show us how to have power in our prayers. When these truths are applied in a Christian’s life, the assurance that God is listening and working in your life is very real.

The first truth is devotion to God. If we are going to have confidence that God is listening to our prayers, then we must devote ourselves to follow Him as revealed in Sacred Scripture. Listen to Moses when Israel was about to enter into the land of Canaan after leaving Egypt in Deuteronomy 8:2–3 “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Jesus restated these same words in Matthew 4:4 when speaking to the Devil. If you want to have power in your prayers, you must be a person devoted to the obedience of the Word of God as revealed in Scripture.

Second truth, devotion to holiness. Devotion to holiness. A man or woman who is effective in prayer is characterized not only by devotion to God in their heart, but also to living a life that reflects the nature of God in the world. What does it mean to be holy? That word simply means to be separated from impurity and sin. In other words, for the person who is devoted to God, their life ought to look different than the lives of the world around them which Paul says is characterized by “…sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Holiness begins on the inside in our heart and manifests in a lifestyle that is characterized by the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23 “… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. How does one grow in this holiness? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Thats it.

So, the key to effective prayer is devotion to God, devotion to holiness, and thirdly devotion to praying according to the will of God as revealed in Scripture and through the indwelling Holy Spirit in the life of each believer. We are commanded to seek the will of God. Psalm 143:10 “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!”. We are to delight in His Will, Psalm 40:8 “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” And we know that His will is ultimately what’s best for us, Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

So effective prayers before God are the result of devotion to God from the heart, devotion to a holy life, and devotion to praying according to the will of God.

Having said all that, lets look at our text this morning concerning prayerfulness and faithfulness.

James gives us three commands in verses 13-15 regarding prayer. Lets look at them. Remember, he is talking to Christians here because he says “is anyone among you”. He’s not referencing unbelievers . Unbelievers can pray all they want, but God is not listening to their requests. We will see that more in a just a minute when we get to verse 16. So James is talking to Christians and he says if anyone among you is suffering then he is to pray. Now the implication here is praying to God and we know that it must mixed with faith in God to do what we are asking because we remember in James 1:6–7 that if we pray with doubt in our heart towards God then we shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord. I was talking to a man this week whose son is going on to state for cross country. This young man has trained and trained diligently to get to this point and has the track record of an elite runner. Despite his consistent results, he doubts that his own ability to perform. In a spiritual sense, while God has a perfect track record of always accomplishing what He intends to accomplish, we nevertheless have a tendency to doubt that God will do what He said He would do.

So James says, are you enduring hardships? Then pray to your Father. Don’t complain about your hardships, pray about your hardships. Use them as springboards into the presence of God. John Calvin said that needs serve the purpose of driving us to God in prayer. I don’t know what difficulties you are facing individually. For some its illness. For others is a fragmented relationship. Still for others, its the fear of your future or someone you love. Whatever may be your difficulty, my question to you is how is your prayer life?

So the first command is prayer over general hardships in your life. The second command is to worship when you are joyful. He says, “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.” This is marvelous because for the one who is in need they are commanded to seek God in prayer. For the one whose heart is joyful they are to sing unto the Lord. Paul adds in Colossians with thankfulness in your heart. Did you know that your cheerfulness could be just what neighbor needs to help them see Jesus? How would your neighbors and the staff here at The Cardinal be impacted for Christ if they could see the joy in your life? I can remember one time having lunch with a pastor of a small country church here in Zebulon. Upon meeting him at the restaurant I was immediately struck with the joy in His life. It was palpable and very edifying. Not surprisingly, his joy was accompanied by kindness and generosity. That’s the kind of cheerfulness that induces praise from the heart.

So prayer when facing general hardships, praise when your heart is filled with cheerfulness and thanksgiving, and then thirdly James calls the sick to seek church leadership for prayer. Verses 14 and 15, “Is anyone among you sick? 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 will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

James is saying, if you are sick then you should call upon elders or pastors, same thing, of the church to get involved by praying for those who are sick. James is alluding here to the protective care and benefit of being a member of a local community of believers. There is a sort of insulation from the world for the believer who is part of a Biblical community of Christians. In that community, spiritual and physical needs are expressed and met by others through encouragement, teaching, correction, physical resources, and here we see prayer. The elders of a church are to pray from the physical needs of those in their care, as well as the spiritual needs.

Now, elders anointing with oil could either be viewed as some type of medicinal treatment for the physically injured, like the good samaritan in Luke 10:34 where he used oil to heal a wound. Or it may be better to see this in a metaphorical sense where elders are not only praying for the sick to be physically well, but comforting and strengthening the believer spiritually as well.

So James is calling for believers to solicit their pastors to pray for both their physical and spiritual needs.

The implication is that when both the pastor and the Christian seek the Lord with a broken and contrite spirit, the physical body will be healed sometimes, but the person will be forgiven every time. Forgiven by who? Forgiven by God. Pastors don’t have the authority to pardon our sin before God Mark 2:7 and Daniel 9:9 make that clear. Listen to the words of Martin Luther, “The pope cannot remit any guilt except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God’s remission…God remits guilt to no one whom He does not at the same time, humble in all things and bring into subjection to His vicar, the priest.” In other words, God forgives those who humble themselves and rather than continuing in sin, subject themselves to the Word of God and those in spiritual authority over them. Amen?

Now, in verse 16, James expands the scope of those who can help the believer to the entire church. He gives us an insight into the life of the local church. As I mentioned earlier, life in a healthy local church insulates the believer from the full force of the satanic influences all around us. The church ought to be the safest place for the Christian. In the life of church, there ought to be the confession of sin to one another when wrong has taken place and prayer going on all the time. The mutual sharing of needs in an open and honest environment among other believers is designed by God to strengthen and edify His church. This is indicated when he says that the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

He uses Elijah as the model of three devotions we mentioned earlier. Devotion to God, holiness, and praying according to the will of God. The story is found in 1 Kings 17–18 and its very fascinating. Basically Elijah served as the prophet of God during a time in Israel’s history when idol worship was rampant and he told the evil King Ahab that there would be a drought until Elijah commanded the rain to come. After three years, Elijah had a standoff between him and 450 prophets of Baal on on Mount Carmel in Israel to determine whose god was the real God. The test would be both sides would call upon their god to consume the sacrifice with fire and whoever’s God answered, then theirs was the true God. Long story short, the prophets of Baal prayed and no response, but when Elijah prayed, God responded to HIs prayer and was glorified that day in Israel.

If you study the life of Elijah you will see that he was a man devoted to the true God, he was a holy man as reflected in his commitment to preaching and living the truth, and he was a man who prayed according to the will of God.

Well, lets wrap up our time by quickly looking at the test of faithfulness. A genuine believer is not only devoted to God, devoted to a lifestyle obedience to the Word of God, and praying according to the will of God, but lastly they are committed to calling wayward Christians back to the truth. Verses 19-20, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

Friends, if we say that we love the Lord Jesus Christ, then the most loving thing we can do is when we see a Christian in unrepentant sin, to call them back to obedience to the truth. This is called the ministry of reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5:18. It comes from a man or woman devoted to God in their heart, to living a pure and holy life, and seeking the will of God is prayer.

Bow your head with me for a moment. While your heads are bowed, if you are here this morning and before God you would admit that you are not devoted Him in your heart. You may have spent a lifetime going to church hearing the Word of God, but you do not know the God of the Word. The truth is you still in your sin and unless you repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ, you will die in your sin. It doesn’t have to stay that way. Right where you are, confess your sin to God, seek His forgiveness, and receive the grace that is only found in Jesus Christ who paid the penalty of your death on the cross. By faith, place your trust in Him and commit your life to following Him today.

If you’re here and like Elijah, you are a person devoted in your heart to the Lord, to a life of holiness, and praying the will of God. Take a moment and express your gratitude to the Lord for His work of grace in your life and can I encourage you to ask the Lord about what ministry He has for you here at The Cardinal? Maybe its a Bible study. Maybe, its organizing some social event for the purpose of building relationships and having gospel conversations. Whatever it may be, would you consider being open to the Lord for His Work here?

Pray.

Lord,

This is for that He calls the Christian to confessupon the then its imperative to seek the Lord for forgiveness, to confess your sins to one another, and to pray for one another that healing may take place.

Not all sickness is the result of sin, but sometimes it is. And when God in His mercy forgives us of our sin, the response of the sinner is to obey the words of Jesus in John 5:14 “….Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

While God alone forgives our sins when we confess and repent of our sins, the community of Christians ought to be a safe place for the believer to be open, honest, and share their needs with one another in order to find strength and encouragement . James says in verse 16, to confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. In other words, within a This is not saying that the pastor’s prayer pardons your sin, because only God has the power to forgive sin. But in humility and the presence of the pastors, confession of sin to God is made and forgiveness is received.

That means reading and obeying the commands of the Word of God. Exodus 20:3 ““You shall have no other gods before me.” This is an imperative to all people that we are to worship noone and

The question is can a Christian really know if God is hearing their prayers? To take it step further, if He hears is will He respondIf you want to have power in your prayers, then

Eric read earlier from Psalm 34:

then Before we get to our regarding prayer, I think its important to address the issue of Therefore, prayer for many people is nothing more than making a wish. They may desire something, ask for it, but don’t give any thought to is my prayer something that God will answer? if they don’t believe it to be absolute truth and Many may say be confessing monotheists, or believers in one God, but really they are syncretistic in their practice. That is they blend different philosophies together as the basis for their convictions, and thus there really isn’t a source of authority other than themselves. They take a little Bible, a little secular psychology, and some of their experiences to develop a worldview that is not consistent with the Word of God.

Now, I want you to think with me here because this is very important for you to process. Some of you are Christians and believe the Bible to be the Word of God and this can help you in your conversations with others here at the Cardinal who are not followers of Jesus Christ. They are trusting in some other spiritual source of authority that gives them a false sense of security. Its praying not knowing if God is really listening or even worse does He even care? But is that true? Does God hear the prayers of all people? Does He respond to the prayers of all people who pray? If we say that He doesn’t, on what authority do we make that claim? Am I the authority to determine what God responds to? You see, the issue of our generation is the same for every generation and that is the authority of Scripture. Do we believe the Bible is the literal Word of God. If we don’t then we vacillate in our prayers, doubting if God hears or is concerned about our lives. Its reminiscent of the Christian in James 1:6-7 where he says if you doubt God, don’t expect to receive anything. So you must settle in your heart this critical issue. Is the Bible the Word of God or not? Do I believe it or doubt it? Do I obey it or just listen to it? For the majority of Americans, they have become their own authority for truth and thus rendered the Word of God useless in their lives. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say I believe the Bible, but don’t submit to its teaching. You can’t say I believe in God, but don’t obey His Word from the heart.

To help you settle this issue in your mind, listen to Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”. Peter says in 2 Peter 1:21 “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” So when we put these two scriptures together we see that all 66 books of the Bible are the very words of God given through human agents. They are the very Words of God. And if they are God’s Word then they are trustworthy, amen?

Now, once you have settled in your heart that God’s Word is final authority upon which you build your convictions upon, then you can look at the imperatives of Scripture with confidence knowing that God is the source of these commands and if we obey them then we will be blessed.

Lets look at the test of prayerfulness. Beginning in verse 13 and going through 18, James gives us six commands that we are to obey. For the sake of time we will go through them quickly, so we will just touch on them. Verse 13, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.”

That word “breathed out” is speaking to what theologians call “inspiration”.

But when a believer who has sinned and is physically ill as a result, humbles themself before God sometimes God will heal them physically and will always forgive their sin if they do so by genuine faith and repentance. For reasons known only to Him, allows at times physical illness to remain in our bodies for purposes greater than personal health. Even the great Apostle Paul prayed three times for deliverance from a personal affliction, yet God refused to do so for the purpose of humility in Paul. His attitude in Philippians was that God will be honored in his body by life or by death. Friends, if God chooses to heal our body of sickness, then He is glorified. If He chooses to use an illness to take us from this life to the next, then our attitude ought to be that God will be honored and glorified in our death knowing that the Lord will raise us up again when Christ returns. I think of the great baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, who was used by God to influence countless preachers even to this day died at the age of 57 by gout, which is a disease of the foot. Or Jonathan Edwards, who many believe to be the greatest theologian the United States has ever produced, died at the age of 54 from smallpox. Our focus ought not to be on preserving our lives so that we may be comfortable, but to invest our time now in laying up treasures in heaven.