0:03 nothing that I have perceived of the
0:08 American religion is more persuasive
0:11 than the image of the Southern Baptists
0:16 alone in the garden with Jesus even if
0:18 as I have to believe the Baptist
0:20 ultimately is alone with herself she
0:22 knows the two truths of spirituality
0:24 that are most worth knowing
0:27 she knows beyond knowing that she is no
0:29 part of the creation and she possesses
0:31 the other American knowledge also the
0:35 freedom that is wildness total spiritual
0:41 solitude so wrote Harold Bloom in his
0:43 fairly recent and uh Nilima nating book
0:47 called the American religion though
0:50 mistaken in fact a Bloom has hit on
0:52 something that is often thought about
0:56 Christianity and that is that it's an
1:00 individualistic religion that is that
1:01 it's a religion that doesn't say so much
1:04 about us as a community or families but
1:06 it speaks very much about us as
1:11 individuals Christianity has often been
1:12 misunderstood as a religion of
1:15 individualism reflecting Greek influence
1:18 people would often say rather than the
1:20 more community oriented religions of
1:24 Africa or Asia and certainly
1:25 Christianity does teach the
1:29 accountability of each individual before
1:32 God well if people make that charge
1:34 about Christianity it's even more so
1:36 made about Protestantism in particular
1:39 after all isn't it we Protestant to take
1:40 our identity from the fact that we
1:42 believe that we are justified by God
1:44 through faith alone the individual
1:47 stands before God with no need of a
1:50 human mediator other than the god man
1:54 Jesus Christ and well if it's true of
1:57 Protestants how much more is this true
1:59 of angelicus
2:01 Evangelical Protestant who stress so
2:03 much that individual experience of the
2:06 new birth where we come to realize our
2:09 own sin personally and where we pray to
2:11 God for forgiveness and where he gives
2:15 us new life in crime
2:18 and if that's true of Aven Jellicle
2:20 Protestants well how much more of
2:22 Baptists most of all
2:24 after all we Baptists are the one who
2:27 stressed that there is no infant baptism
2:29 there is baptism for believers only
2:32 churches are to be composed of those who
2:34 have not been coerced but it is a
2:37 voluntary cooperation of people who in
2:39 following Jesus as they understand it
2:41 feel they are called to covenant
2:44 together to follow him together but how
2:46 we have to make that statement and that
2:49 decision individually and so therefore
2:52 with Baptist there's no possibility of a
2:54 state Church when you have infant
2:56 baptism in a Lutheran Church certainly a
2:58 Roman Catholic a Greek Orthodox Church
3:01 in a Presbyterian or Methodist Church
3:03 there you can have a state Church infant
3:05 baptism can be as wide as the population
3:09 of a geographic area but Baptists well
3:10 there's no chance of a state religion
3:13 with Baptists Baptists know that only
3:16 those who choose individually to be a
3:19 part of the church can be a part of the
3:21 church and so Baptists have historically
3:23 in this country been great champions of
3:27 religious liberty in the earlier part of
3:28 this century the historic Protestant
3:30 belief in the priesthood of the believer
3:34 became twisted into what was called soul
3:37 competency by some Christians in America
3:39 which essentially was the demand of one
3:40 Christian to others you keep your nose
3:44 out of my life just as every tub stands
3:46 on its own bottom so every man is his
3:50 own Pope each of us is our own religion
3:52 Robert Bellah and his book habits of the
3:54 heart noted this as he interviewed
3:56 people around America about their
3:58 understanding of Christianity he kept
4:00 noting how everybody was individually
4:02 tailoring it to fit themselves he called
4:06 the phenomena Sheila ISM after this one
4:08 person that he interviewed named Sheila
4:10 who liked to think of God this way but
4:11 not this way in this way but then
4:13 particularly like this and that bit of
4:15 Christianity as well he said he found
4:18 this kind of design or religion typical
4:20 of the people that he interviewed and
4:24 it's not just academics and analysts who
4:27 look and think and say these things how
4:28 many times have you heard
4:30 someone say who is a member of a
4:33 Christian Church religion is a private
4:39 matter of course it is a very personal matter
4:40 matter
4:42 Christianity it must be if it's going to
4:46 be genuine often people though who say
4:50 religion is a private matter simply mean
4:51 that they don't want to talk about it
4:54 it's something you keep very much to yourself
4:55 yourself
4:58 Tennessee Williams explaining why he had
5:00 given up visiting a psychoanalyst said
5:02 he was meddling too much in my private
5:07 life we do have a tendency to think of
5:10 our religion our private lives as like
5:13 our ambitions part of our private
5:19 fantasies or fears and that's where this
5:21 little letter of James in the New
5:23 Testament that we've been studying for a
5:25 month now on Sunday mornings and for the
5:26 last two years in this church on
5:28 Wednesday nights that we come to our
5:31 last study of this morning as we say
5:33 goodbye to the book of James as a church
5:35 for a while that's where this last
5:39 section of James's letter shows us that
5:41 any saving faith any truly Christian
5:48 faith can't be private personal yes but
5:50 not finally private because both God and
5:53 his people are involved any religion
5:55 which isn't just thoughts and opinions
5:58 but which includes actions can never
6:03 finally be completely private just to
6:06 refresh your mind what James has done in
6:08 this letter up to this point is he sort
6:09 of penned these early Christians he's
6:11 writing to against the wall he's told
6:13 them in the first chapter that they're
6:15 not to despise trials because they're
6:17 hard things they shouldn't try to avoid
6:19 something simply because it's difficult
6:22 and then on the other hand he's shown
6:23 them in the end of chapter one and in
6:25 chapter two that they're supposed to
6:28 obey Scripture all of Scripture not just
6:30 those parts that they particularly like
6:34 but all of it and then when he's made
6:35 that clear he gets to what I think is
6:37 the main bulk of the letter in chapters
6:40 three and four and five and that is
6:41 about how
6:45 this applies to their stress ridden
6:50 faction prone Church having shown the
6:52 goodness of trials and the active nature
6:54 of faith James and his concluding part
6:56 of his letter tells him that faith is
6:59 social that it has to be lived out
7:02 together and their understanding of
7:08 speech and sickness and sin and in their
7:11 practice of Prayer well our passage is
7:14 James chapter 5 the last eight verses of
7:16 the book found verses 13 to 20 on page
7:20 1200 and I think it's 69 of your pew
7:26 Bible 1269 listen to these last few
7:28 verses in James's letter and follow
7:30 along because I think this sermon more
7:31 than most of them from James is going to
7:33 be a bit of a detective novel as we try
7:35 to figure something out in this passage
7:37 it may seem strange to us upon first
7:42 reading James chapter 5 beginning in
7:51 verse 13 as any one of you in trouble
7:57 he should pray is anyone happy I'll let
7:59 him sing songs of praise
8:04 is any one of you sick he should call
8:05 the elders of the church to pray over
8:06 him and anoint him with oil in the name
8:08 of the Lord and the prayer offered in
8:11 faith will make the sick person well the
8:14 Lord will raise him up if he has sinned
8:15 he will be forgiven
8:18 therefore confess your sins to each
8:20 other and pray for each other so that
8:22 you may be healed the prayer of a
8:25 righteous man is powerful and effective
8:27 Elijah was a man just like us
8:29 he prayed earnestly that it would not
8:31 rain and it did not rain on the land for
8:34 three and a half years again he prayed
8:36 and the heavens gave rain and the earth
8:39 produced its crops my brother's if one
8:41 of you should wander from the truth and
8:43 someone should bring him back remember
8:45 this whoever turns a sinner from the
8:48 error of his way will save him from
8:56 well the first topic from this passage
8:57 I'll simply mention and that is their
9:01 practice of speech in verse 13 he says
9:03 as any one of you in trouble he should
9:06 pray is anyone happy let him sing songs
9:10 of praise he's essentially exhorting
9:11 them there to be God centered in their
9:14 speech and in their communication so he
9:19 says are you feeling bad well would you
9:21 like some specific application here are
9:23 you feeling bad
9:30 pray to God are you feeling good praise God
9:31 God
9:34 he's saying they should be God centered
9:35 in their speech in life really I think
9:37 this goes more with the the previous
9:38 section that we were thinking of last
9:41 week where they were looking at how all
9:43 of life has to do with our being
9:44 dependent on God and how we need to
9:47 recognize that so that's all I'm gonna
9:52 say about verse 13 moving on to
9:54 something that probably brings a few
9:56 more questions to us when we read it on
9:58 matters which I think are probably most
10:00 interest us and confused us here and
10:02 that is their understanding of sickness
10:06 in verses 14 to 16 and how they're to
10:09 deal with it you know at first force
10:11 verse 14 may look like just another one
10:13 of those is anyone of you passages
10:15 because you see in verse 13 you've got
10:16 two of those and then verse 14 begins
10:19 like that but really though the word
10:21 prey makes verse 13 seems like it goes
10:23 with all this as I said I think it goes
10:25 with more verse 12 about our speech and
10:27 indeed that whole section about being
10:30 dependent on God but verse 14 is any of
10:33 you sick this seems to open up another
10:35 topic which really has continued
10:36 throughout the rest of the passage
10:38 throughout the rest of the book this is
10:40 how James finishes with this question is
10:43 any of you sick he should call the
10:45 elders of the church to pray over him
10:46 and anoint him with oil in the name of
10:48 the Lord and the prayer offered in faith
10:51 will make the sick person well the Lord
10:53 will raise him up if he has sinned he
10:56 will be forgiven therefore confess your
10:58 sins to each other and pray for each
11:03 other so that you may be healed now some
11:04 of this we Christians have no problem
11:07 with a for example the basic
11:08 here in this passage that we see in
11:12 verse 15 but God answers prayer for the
11:15 sick those of us who are here this
11:16 morning as Christians have no problem
11:20 with this we know this is true we don't
11:21 have to bend and break our worldview to
11:23 try to fit this and we we understand
11:26 this afterall we Christians are not
11:29 natural ists that is we don't deny the
11:30 supernatural we know there are things
11:33 going on that we that are above us in
11:35 our powers so prayer to God makes
11:36 complete sense
11:38 we're not Deus they don't believe the
11:40 deity that God is some cold removed
11:43 being who's not caring and concerned for
11:45 us now we Christians aren't like that at
11:48 all we know that God has chosen to
11:50 involve himself in our world that he
11:52 cares about us that he invites us to
11:54 make our cares known to him and to
11:58 entrust ourselves fully to him and in
12:00 this case here with our physical health
12:02 just as much with other concerns we may
12:05 have we're invited to do this all right
12:06 no doubt that many of us who are sitting
12:08 here this morning right now
12:11 could give testimonies even personal
12:13 testimonies to the way that God has
12:15 involved himself in our lives in
12:18 extraordinary ways when we've been sick
12:22 perhaps when we prayed for ourselves or
12:24 for others and God has granted a
12:26 recovery of health I remember one time
12:28 soon after I became a Christian when I
12:31 was limping around and one of my legs a
12:32 lot because the doctor said I had
12:34 growing pains I didn't know what it was
12:35 I went to the doctor and he just
12:37 explained the bones were growing faster
12:39 than the cartilage at that point well I
12:42 I went to this Bible study that I just
12:43 started to attend that night and I'm
12:44 when they were asking for prayer
12:46 requests I just innocently shared well
12:48 that you know my knees had been hurting
12:50 for a while and and the doctor when I'd
12:51 asked about I'd seen him actually that
12:52 afternoon when I'd asked him about it
12:54 and said what should I do he said well
12:55 there's nothing you can do you know you
12:56 just have to wait a few months until
12:58 your ligaments catch up and then you'll
13:02 be fine again okay and well I was I was
13:05 I was embarrassed mortified really to
13:07 find at the end of the meeting the lady
13:08 who was leading the Bible study asked me
13:09 to get in the middle of the circle
13:12 they were then gonna lay hands on me and
13:14 pray for me I hadn't intended to have
13:16 that happen at all I mean I felt that
13:18 that happened then I was gonna have to somehow
13:20 somehow
13:22 hope I could feel better or something
13:24 you know if they were gonna be praying
13:27 for me in front of everybody else so I
13:29 got in the middle of the circle and they
13:31 laid hands on me and pray a very simple
13:34 prayer and I was thinking oh my goodness
13:36 what am I supposed to do now I stood up
13:39 my knees were absolutely fine for the
13:40 first time in months they weren't
13:42 hurting at all now maybe that was
13:44 psychosomatic I leave it to you we can
13:46 sort it out in heaven but I have no
13:50 doubt that God answers prayer for things
13:51 like this and I'm not going to spend a
13:53 lot of time on this because I think most
13:54 of you who are sitting here believe this
13:57 as well we know that God hears and
14:02 answers prayer well we may believe that
14:04 God sometimes heals but I think it's the
14:08 assurance that James has here that God
14:12 will say that he will heal that he will
14:16 raise up in verse 15 and that's the
14:18 thing that gives us pause this air of
14:20 certainty in the verse look at verse 15
14:22 again and the prayer offered in faith
14:25 will make the sick person well the Lord
14:29 will raise him up now that is more a
14:32 problem to us that's where we start to
14:35 go wow I don't know about this I mean
14:37 when we look back at our own experience
14:39 and we can see times when we've prayed
14:41 or others we now have prayed for someone
14:43 to be healed and it doesn't seem that
14:46 they are James seems to be saying here
14:48 that this prayer for healing is one
14:51 which we can know will be answered
14:53 unlike so may our prayers which are a
14:56 little more than wishes this prayer
14:58 seems to be one which is prayed with no
15:02 doubt with no hesitancy or uncertainty
15:05 about the answer the prayer seems to
15:08 know that God will raise up this sick one
15:09 one
15:11 now perhaps that means the final
15:13 resurrection that's the case and there's
15:14 no problem here perhaps that's all it
15:16 means here by saving the sick person or
15:19 making them whole or well and if we're
15:20 Christians we do have that assurance
15:23 that whatever bodily malady we have well
15:26 we have a new body to inherit one day if
15:27 you want to know more about that go read
15:30 1st Corinthians 15 in 2nd Corinthians 5
15:32 and you could read this passage in James that
15:33 that
15:35 now would eliminate as I say all kinds
15:37 of difficulties that we have with the
15:40 certainty that there seems to be in this
15:41 verse which seems to clash with our own
15:45 experience yet it seems to me as I read
15:46 this honestly if I'm not trying to make
15:48 it fit and I'm just trying to listen to
15:49 what James is saying it seems like he's
15:51 clearly talking about a health or
15:56 raising up which happens in this life if
15:57 we're honest we're probably also a bit
15:59 puzzled by this idea of turning to
16:03 others like he tells us to do here to us
16:05 both the instruction to bring the elders
16:08 and what the elders themselves then do
16:10 to affect this physical healing it seems
16:13 strange verse 14 he says as any one of
16:16 you sick he should call the elders of
16:18 the church to pray over him and anoint
16:21 him with oil in the name of the Lord now
16:24 let's be honest and when we're sick
16:26 calling the elders is not our first
16:29 thought we tend to think of what Health
16:31 Plan do we have who do we call
16:33 particularly at first for this malady is
16:35 there some way I get a prescription for
16:37 this this afternoon so that I'll be okay
16:37 by work tomorrow
16:40 our first thought is not calling to the
16:41 church office and seeing if somebody's
16:42 there who can come and join us with oil
16:46 and pray for us but James may be telling
16:49 them to do so not so much because of the
16:53 sickness but because of the sin that
16:57 seems to be involved and look at what
16:59 the elders do what they do they do in
17:01 the name of the Lord they pray for the
17:02 sick one well that's obvious to us we
17:04 have no trouble with that but then they
17:07 anoint the sick one with oil that's
17:09 alien to the traditions of many of us
17:11 who are sitting here this morning it was
17:13 quite commonplace in the culture that
17:15 James is writing to some commentators
17:17 say that this anointing with oil was
17:20 medicinal but this was actually a way of
17:23 bringing physical healing that was
17:24 looked at as we would look at a
17:27 prescription of a drug today well that's
17:28 kind of true but you're not gonna find
17:30 many statements about how oil was viewed
17:33 as an all-purpose healing agent they may
17:35 have thought olive oil was good for this
17:37 or good for that but there wasn't a lot
17:38 there weren't people around saying it
17:39 was just good for everything now this
17:41 seems to be a bit more than that it
17:43 seems to be like in the Old Testament
17:45 where you have someone actually being consecrated
17:46 consecrated
17:48 especially to God handed over
17:51 particularly to him and entrusted to him
17:53 being set aside where his special
17:55 providential care that seems to be
17:57 what's going on here with this anointing
18:00 with oil it's important to note I think
18:01 that these elders in both the things
18:03 they do praying and anointing with oil
18:07 don't do it in their own name or even in
18:09 the name of the church they do it as
18:11 emissaries of a higher power they do it
18:17 strangest of all to us perhaps is this
18:21 whole connection of dealing with sin and
18:25 dealing with sickness together look at
18:29 the end of verse 15 if he has sinned he
18:31 will be forgiven therefore confess your
18:34 sins to each other and pray for each
18:39 other so that you may be healed we're
18:41 not surprised by the thought of people
18:45 getting sick or of us appealing to God
18:48 for physical healing as I say most of us
18:49 here this morning probably even believe
18:51 that God not only sustains our health
18:54 but sometimes grants us reprieve from
18:56 sickness in response to our heartfelt
19:00 prayers but it is this connection of sin
19:04 and sickness that seems so alien to the
19:07 way we think I mean sin seems so
19:11 immaterial so spiritual and ethereal and
19:16 invisible whereas sickness well it seems
19:19 so concrete so physical if you had the
19:21 right implements you can see it going on
19:24 in the body it seems so material and
19:26 observable maybe at one time we would
19:28 have ascribed sickness to some higher
19:31 supernatural cause but since van
19:33 Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope and
19:35 pastor on his theory about germs I mean
19:37 hasn't all that been left with belief in
19:39 ghosts and witches and hobgoblins of the
19:45 tooth fairy well it seems not the Bible
19:48 very clearly presents an awareness that
19:56 David presents them in parallel when he
19:59 wrote in Psalm 103 verse 3
20:03 he forgives all my sins and heals all my
20:06 diseases and again when he prayed in
20:10 psalm 41 oh lord have mercy on me heal
20:14 me for I have sinned against you I could
20:16 go through finding lots of little proof
20:18 texts but I don't have to do that the
20:20 whole warpin will for the Bible story
20:23 presumes this from the garden where you
20:25 have in Genesis the fall of man and with
20:29 the introduction of sin comes death to
20:31 the very end in consummation in the book
20:32 of Revelation we're in the heavenly City
20:35 with the abolition of sin you have the
20:37 abolition of physical suffering and
20:41 death as well the whole Bible assumes a
20:45 connection between sin and sickness
20:49 between holiness and health not
20:51 perfectly in this world we know that we
20:53 get to lots of troubles when we try to
20:54 do that I'm not gonna go down that road
20:56 very long in the sermon you can come and
20:57 talk to me about that afterwards if you
20:58 want but we know there's not a
21:01 connection it's perfectly obvious to us
21:03 if you're taking notes and you want
21:05 scriptures on that the blind man in John
21:08 9 the disciples say who sinned this man
21:09 or his parents that he should be born
21:11 blind and Jesus said neither had nothing
21:12 to do with that it was said that God
21:16 would be glorified or the story of Paul
21:18 in 2nd Corinthians 12 where that thorn
21:20 in his flesh we don't read this Rennie
21:24 sin it's so that God's strength may be
21:26 perfected in his weakness or the whole
21:28 story of job in the Old Testament when
21:30 all the people around it thought that he
21:31 was suffering because of sin in his life
21:35 but in fact ironically it was because of
21:39 his very righteousness that God was
21:42 allowing job to undergo these trials and
21:44 of course supremely we had the example
21:49 of Jesus whose suffering was the most
21:54 unjust in the history of the world but
21:57 in our passage here it seems clear that
22:00 unconfessed sin can lead to physical
22:03 sickness now that's gonna give you
22:04 something to talk about over coffee
22:07 today it seems clear that unconfessed
22:09 sin can lead to physical
22:13 sickness though he says there in verse
22:15 15 if he has sinned I don't think that's
22:18 because James had any doubt that the
22:19 ones in this church who were sick had
22:22 sinned rather I think he was indicating
22:26 that even such sins that were so serious
22:28 that they would lead to immediate
22:32 physical punishment by God even those
22:38 kinds of sins could be forgiven when
22:43 confessed and repented of that's why
22:45 James exhorts them here to confess and
22:50 to pray so that you may be healed
22:53 you see God is Lord of the physical as
22:56 well health and sickness are from his
23:01 hand health and virtue sickness and sin
23:03 do not invariably go together I just
23:05 gave you a list of scriptures that show
23:08 exceptions to that but this is what we
23:14 need to hear today they do sometimes I
23:17 know that can be a platform for the
23:20 worst kind of psychological paranoia I
23:23 know that can be an excuse for the most
23:25 manipulative program of behaviorism a
23:26 church could ever come up with
23:28 but I'm sorry I didn't write this thing
23:30 I'm simply telling you what God is
23:33 inspired and he has said here that
23:41 sometimes sin can lead to sickness pain
23:45 you know is useful as an indicator pain
23:48 tells us something that's going on in
23:51 our bodies and it may be that pain and
23:54 our health can also give us good
23:55 direction in our spiritual lives
24:00 sometimes as Thomas Manton the Puritans
24:03 said when God takes away the disease and
24:06 does not take away the guilt it is not
24:09 deliverance but a reprieve
24:12 you see it's dangerous to us when God
24:15 allows us to have physical health when
24:19 our souls are sick and therefore when
24:21 there is physical sickness that God and
24:23 His grace will use to turn our minds eye
24:25 through our sin to cause us to examine
24:29 ourselves that is His grace to us
24:33 therefore there's love in the provision
24:36 of pain in a world that's fallen and
24:39 sinful it would not have been loving of
24:42 God to anesthetize the world to the
24:44 effects of sin when our first parents
24:49 fell if the wages of sin is death it is
24:52 no surprise and in fact it is God's love
24:54 that he sends messengers of pain and
24:58 sickness on in front of death to warn us
25:01 of the account that we will give to
25:03 remind us that these bodies we trust in
25:06 so innately will dissolve most certainly
25:09 and that we will stand and give account
25:14 before the great judge so how can we
25:16 tell when our sickness is directly
25:20 related to sin no there's only one
25:23 answer that I know together we need to
25:28 know God and we need to know his word we
25:30 need to know what he says is right and
25:32 what he says is wrong we need to examine
25:34 Scripture and our own consciences
25:38 honestly and our own lives and we should
25:41 pray for willingness to admit our sins
25:43 to confess them and to repent of them
25:46 and so then to pray for forgiveness and
25:49 for healing then this is one whole
25:51 category of motivation which Christians
25:52 used to have which we've now laid aside
25:56 by our trust in medicine we feel that if
25:57 we can have antibiotics and some videos
25:59 to keep our mind going while we're sick
26:03 in bed then we'll be fine and we may be
26:07 physically for a while but if you've
26:08 read any Christian literature from an
26:10 earlier age than our own you realize
26:12 that Christians before have all together
26:16 been United very much against us in the
26:19 way they would take sickness as an
26:24 occasion for self-examination not in an
26:25 unhealthy paranoid fashion of knowing
26:27 that if I could just find the sin to
26:29 repent up then this heart trouble will
26:33 leave me no not necessarily that at all
26:35 but knowing that sometimes
26:38 God uses sickness to put his finger on a
26:41 particular sin in our lives and so when
26:44 he lays this aside we should examine
26:47 ourselves we should not simply call the
26:50 doctor and read a book or watch a video
26:54 though those things can be fine we
26:57 should also learn from what James is
26:59 saying here and from what Christians
27:00 have done for 2,000 years before
27:02 entertainment and medicine was less easy
27:06 to come by we should examine our lives
27:10 we should use these things as times for
27:14 God to speak clearly to us so much for
27:16 their understanding of sickness for now
27:18 on to the third aspect of their faith
27:20 together James brings their attention to
27:23 and that is the practice of prayer and
27:26 verse the end of verse 16 the prayer of
27:28 a righteous man is powerful and
27:30 effective he gives the example there of
27:34 Elijah Elisha was a man just like us he
27:35 prayed earnestly that it would not rain
27:37 and it did not rain on the land for
27:39 three and a half years again he prayed
27:40 and the heavens gave rain and the earth
27:44 produced its crops well you may know
27:45 this part of Elijah's story from first
27:48 Kings 17 and 18 you don't I don't need
27:50 to recount it here enough of it is right
27:52 there in James in verses 17 and 18
27:55 that's the story I think the reason
27:57 James brings this up now is because this
27:58 is an example of the prayer of faith
28:03 that he just said they had in verse 15
28:04 that should be offered for the one who's
28:08 sick here is a prayer of faith here we
28:10 see in in 1st Kings 17 Elisha
28:12 prophesized about there being no rain in
28:14 the land for the next few years and then
28:17 in 1st Kings 18 verse 2 God told Elisha
28:19 after over three years that he wanted it
28:20 to rain again
28:23 so Elijah's prayers were based upon what
28:26 he knew God wanted and that my friend I
28:30 think is a prayer of faith a prayer of
28:33 faith is not something that you work up
28:37 faith is a sure and certain perception
28:40 of God's will so it's not something that
28:44 we generate ourselves it's a gift from God
28:45 God
28:48 as we know from Ephesians 2
28:51 as we see very clearly from Hebrews 10
28:54 and 11 and 12 it is a perception of
28:58 spiritual reality well such was Elijah's
29:03 experience perhaps you see whatever this
29:05 sin was and the sickness was in the
29:06 church that James was writing to perhaps
29:09 it was so serious that some people
29:12 thought they should not even pray for it
29:15 that it would be in vain even to offer
29:17 prayer for such a situation as this we
29:20 know after all that John wrote in first
29:23 John about some sense about which you
29:27 should not pray well maybe this was one
29:31 of those particularly serious sins so
29:32 serious that had brought on this
29:33 sickness in the body
29:36 I think this exhortation to the power of
29:38 prayer shows us that people must have
29:40 been balking at it in view of the
29:43 serious situation they were encountering
29:47 so much for the practice of prayer but
29:50 to understand more what that serious
29:53 sickness causing sin was look at the
29:59 last two verses of James's letter look
30:03 about to find there the specific sin
30:07 that James was writing about verse 19 my
30:09 brother's if one of you should wander
30:10 from the truth
30:11 and someone should bring him back
30:14 remember this whoever turns a sinner
30:17 from the error of his way will save him
30:20 from death and cover over a multitude of
30:25 sins the situation he's described as
30:27 clearly one of one of them wandering
30:29 it's described negatively there is
30:30 wandering from the truth positively as
30:33 being an error so this one is wandering
30:34 off from the truth he's wandering off
30:36 from it he's wandering off from the church
30:36 church
30:38 he's differing with them perhaps over
30:41 what God says in his word it's where we
30:42 get the idea of heresy from he's
30:45 choosing to believe something other than
30:47 the truth and that's where this one here
30:49 is doing so having left them he was in
30:51 error he says here in verse 20 if a
30:56 wanderer is brought back or turned so
30:57 James envisioned one who has been
31:00 wandering being brought to repentance of
31:01 their errors literally
31:03 turning aside from the false course they
31:07 were on to the true course and what are
31:10 the results of that repentance well for
31:13 the sinner it says he will be saved from
31:17 death that is spiritually I think after
31:18 all of this error is going to lead to
31:21 ultimate spiritual death turning from it
31:23 repenting is part of what leads to
31:26 salvation and forgiveness of sins just
31:30 as James said up in verse 15 perhaps
31:31 also an interim sense he'll even be
31:34 saved from physical death if this has
31:36 been a kind of sin that has been causing
31:39 physical suffering well then if
31:41 confessing confessing and turning from
31:43 it may cause God to relent of allowing
31:47 the sickness in this one and so the
31:50 result is for the sinner being saved
31:51 from death and the result for the church
31:54 body is that his sins will be covered
31:58 over is he turning a sinner from the
32:00 error of his ways also seems to have a
32:01 good effect on the church body as a
32:04 whole that last phrase in the book this
32:08 covering a multitude of sins we may at
32:09 first glance take to be a kind of
32:12 covering over which we have Angelica's
32:13 talked about some time with the word
32:16 expiation in which our sins are covered
32:18 over from the gaze of a holy God so that
32:22 we are spared his wrath but two things
32:23 make me think that's not what James is
32:26 talking about here first while it's a
32:28 good thing for someone to bring back
32:30 somebody from wandering to turn them
32:33 from error such turning as never
32:35 elsewhere said in Scripture to hide our
32:39 sins from God never in Scripture do we
32:43 read that mere human virtue can obscure
32:45 human vice from the searching gaze of
32:49 God but second also and I think this is
32:51 a key to understanding our whole passage
32:54 on sin and sickness that phrase to cover
32:57 over a multitude of sins I think is a
32:59 quote I think James is quoting from
33:01 Proverbs in fact from proverbs chapter
33:04 10 verse 12 I think he's alluding to it
33:06 proverbs 10 verse 12 that we will hear
33:07 more about tonight
33:13 Lord willing says hatred stirs up dissent
33:15 dissent
33:20 but love covers over all wrongs James
33:22 here seems to have known that proverb
33:24 and seems to have been alluding to it in
33:26 the conclusion of this letter when a
33:27 similar phrase of covering over is used
33:30 in proverbs 17:9 it is in a similarly
33:34 social exhortation he who covers over an
33:37 offence promotes love but whoever
33:39 repeats the matter separates close
33:42 friends there's only one other time in
33:44 the New Testament this phrase cover over
33:46 a multitude of sins is used if you turn
33:47 over a couple of pages from james's in
33:53 1st Peter 4 verse 8 he says above all
33:57 love each other deeply because love
34:03 covers over a multitude of sins see
34:05 there's not a reference to Christ's
34:07 expiatory death on the cross but to the
34:09 action of a believer Peter's not
34:11 teaching there that we can make
34:12 atonement before God for each other's
34:15 actions but rather that love can go a
34:19 long way to protecting the body from
34:22 your stupidity in your sin that's what
34:25 proverbs is teaching and that's what I
34:28 think James and Peter were teaching so
34:30 it seems that hatred and dissension
34:33 tale-bearing and slandering are the
34:35 kinds of evils which James here is
34:37 saying can be covered over within the body
34:38 body
34:40 insofar as they have an effect on others
34:43 by them coming to an end it seems that
34:45 some in the church that James is writing
34:47 to had accepted a kind of hellish wisdom
34:50 we read about back in chapter 3 which
34:52 bore this fruit of divisive miss and
34:54 dissension in their speech and actions
34:55 toward each other
34:58 I mean think back over the whole letter
35:00 James what do we see going on they were
35:03 struggling with discriminating against
35:06 the poor among them poisonous curses
35:10 from their mouths bitter Envy selfish
35:13 ambition boasting denying the truth
35:17 disorder every evil practice fights
35:20 quarrels self-centeredness worldliness
35:24 pride slander speaking against your
35:26 brother judging your neighbor bragging ignore
35:27 ignore
35:31 good grumbling against each other
35:34 swearing all of these sins mentioned by
35:36 James sins which we may perhaps can
35:40 assume were occurring in that body now
35:42 that doesn't sound like a very peaceful
35:45 harmonious united body does it it
35:46 doesn't sound like the kind of church
35:48 that can have the first half of our
35:50 worship service in there but this
35:51 morning we thought about the unity of us
35:54 as a family of faith and how that gives
35:56 testimony to the world about what God is
35:59 like now they were engaging in spiritual
36:02 fratricide ever killing one another
36:05 spiritually so it's not very surprising
36:07 that turning someone from this kind of
36:10 selfish pseudo wisdom which encourages
36:12 all of this self-destructive behavior
36:13 it's not very surprising that would
36:16 benefit the body if you get someone
36:18 who's being like a cancerous cell in the
36:23 body to stop of course that's going to
36:26 be a benefit to the body you see true
36:29 heavenly wisdom is the kind of wisdom
36:32 that Paul wrote about love is patient
36:35 love is kind it does not envy it does
36:39 not boast it is not proud it is not rude
36:40 it is not self-seeking it is not easily
36:43 angered it keeps no record of wrongs
36:45 love does not delight in evil but
36:47 rejoices with the truth that always
36:49 protects always trusts always hopes
36:53 always perseveres this is the kind of
36:55 wisdom that James and written these
36:58 Christians exhorting them to have so
37:00 turning this kind of erring one from the
37:02 error of his ways will lead not only to
37:05 his own salvation but to the protection
37:06 of the body from the negative effects
37:08 their sins was having on others the
37:09 believing community will then no longer
37:12 be ripped apart by hatred and strife
37:14 caused by this kind of hellish wisdom
37:18 that they had been following medicine
37:20 verses 19 and 20 there it's not said
37:23 James as a Wright does to the one who
37:26 turns whom themselves repents like I
37:28 mean rather to the one who gets others
37:31 to turn like Paul and Galatians 6 saying
37:33 to those of you who are spiritual I say
37:35 go to those who are sinning it's not
37:36 that at all he's written to the actual
37:39 ones who are in error
37:41 just like up in verse 14 it's actually
37:45 written the one who is sick and that is
37:47 this wanderer and verse 19 is called a
37:51 sinner in verse 20 you see as I studied
37:52 this past as I'm come to the conclusion
37:54 that this sin of wandering in verses 19
37:57 and 20 it's very likely the sin of verse
37:58 15 that James has in mind for the whole
38:01 passage so if you're here today is a
38:02 real Bible soon you want to try to
38:03 figure this out I've just given you the
38:06 key to understanding it I think that the
38:08 sin of dissension that he's talking
38:11 about in 1920 he's the very sin that
38:13 he's talking about specifically up in
38:16 verse 15 if anyone is sinned I think
38:17 that's what's causing the passage the
38:20 sickness in the body if this is so then
38:22 this helps explain how James can be so
38:24 certain that God will raise a person up
38:26 if they have recognized their divisive
38:28 attitudes and actions as sins and have
38:30 confessed them as such before the elders
38:32 of the body and have repented of them
38:34 then we can be certain that God wants to
38:37 forgive such a repentant sinner we have
38:38 no reason to think he would withhold as
38:40 healing from one who has been afflicted
38:43 specifically because their sins were
38:45 selfishly wounding the body if the
38:47 sickness was not simply to punish them
38:49 but if it was to teach them then its
38:50 purpose would have been accomplished
38:52 when the sinner repents so it's not
38:54 surprising that God would restore them
38:55 to help and you could know that when you
38:59 pray for such a one who's repented and
39:01 if this is so then this helps explain
39:02 why James would tell them to go to the
39:06 elders you see if James has every
39:08 sickness in mind the elders would do
39:12 little else the elders would spend all
39:14 their time going to whichever members of
39:16 the body are sick and praying for them
39:19 in anointing him with oil there would
39:23 have been time to do anything else but
39:25 if he was exhorting them to go to the
39:28 elders when they had this sickness
39:29 because they had this sickness because
39:33 of sins against the body well then it
39:36 would be appropriate for them to confess
39:38 them to the elders and to have the
39:40 elders of the whole body pray for their
39:44 restoration spiritually and physically
39:47 and finally if this is so it helps to
39:49 show the connection between sickness and
39:52 sin you know God so often seems to work by
39:53 by
39:55 types so that we can easily understand
39:56 him so with his people in the Old
39:58 Testament he would speak to them about
40:00 his relationship with them often through
40:02 a prophet and the prophets wife as a
40:06 picture so the whole sacrificial system
40:07 in the Old Testament is a shadow of what
40:10 Christ would do on the cross so here
40:13 isn't it an appropriate thing that the
40:15 illness that one is causing the body of
40:19 Christ be represented by the illness in
40:23 one's own body but if there was no other
40:25 way of hearing and understanding that
40:28 this would be a way that God in His
40:33 mercy shows this in God's goodness there
40:36 is often a suitableness between the
40:39 trial that we experience and the lesson
40:41 that God wants us to learn so if other
40:45 ways of teaching have been exhausted who
40:47 here of us this morning can say that God
40:52 should not go to such measures in his
40:54 searching love after all we know he
40:56 takes a special concern for his church
40:59 he considers the church's bride wearied
41:01 and like the good husband what good
41:03 husband does not consider his bride his
41:06 own body so when Paul is struck down on
41:07 the road to Damascus when he's going
41:10 there to persecute the church what is it
41:13 Jesus asks him Saul Saul why do you
41:18 persecute me in fact as we think of this
41:20 connection between sin and sickness
41:22 what is the one other place in New
41:24 Testament letters where we see this kind
41:28 of clear connection it's in Paul's first
41:30 letter to the Corinthian church where
41:33 there was gross sin so much so that Paul
41:35 warns your meetings are doing more harm
41:37 than good I hear that when you come
41:39 together as a church there are divisions
41:41 among you and to some extent I believe
41:43 it no doubt there have to be differences
41:45 among you to show which of you have
41:47 God's approval when you come together it
41:49 is not the Lord's Supper you eat for as
41:50 you eat each of you goes ahead without
41:52 waiting for anybody else one remains
41:55 hungry another gets drunk don't you have
41:57 homes to eat and drink in or do you
41:59 despise the Church of God and humiliate
42:01 those who have nothing sounds like James
42:04 chapter 2 about favoritism what shall I
42:06 say to you shall I praise you for this
42:08 certainly not whoever eats the bread or
42:10 drinks the cup of the Lord in an
42:11 unworthy manner will be guilty of
42:13 sinning against the body and blood of
42:16 the Lord a man ought to examine himself
42:17 before he eats of the bread and drinks
42:19 of the cup for anyone who eats and
42:21 drinks without recognizing the body of
42:23 the Lord eats and drinks judgment on
42:27 himself that is why many among you are
42:29 weak and sick and a number of you have
42:31 fallen asleep the euphemism for have
42:35 died but if we judge ourselves we would
42:37 not come under judgment when we are
42:39 judged by the Lord we are being
42:40 disciplined so that we will not be
42:45 condemned with the world so even as the
42:47 sickness in the Corinthian church was
42:48 being caused by divisive nough switch
42:51 was hurting the body so it seems that
42:53 the sins of dissension were causing
42:54 sickness in this church James was
42:58 addressing even on a human level I think
43:00 there's some understanding of this we
43:01 know that stress and interpersonal
43:04 relationships can lower the immune
43:07 system make it less effective whatever
43:08 our human understanding of it may be
43:10 though James is clear here that sins
43:13 against the body of Christ seem to merit
43:16 God's special judgment that don't
43:18 misunderstand me all sin is offensive to
43:22 God and all of a sin Phil Jensen said in
43:23 the meeting I was had a few years ago
43:26 the basic reason people don't sin is
43:31 lack of opportunity that's the sad truth
43:35 all of us would probably send more if
43:37 the right or wrong opportunities
43:39 presented themselves to us no question
43:41 about that but there's no getting around
43:43 the fact that God seems to care in a
43:47 special way about sins against his body
43:50 you see we show much of the truth about
43:52 our relationship with God by the way we
43:55 relate to one another as a Christian I
43:57 should know that my primary obligation
44:00 in this life is not to myself but it's a
44:03 God into the body of Christ I am to use
44:07 myself for others you know they always
44:08 tell you in marriage counseling when
44:09 you're getting ready to marry someone
44:10 else you need to know that you're not
44:13 just marrying them you're marrying their
44:16 whole family well those of you who are
44:18 married know it's true yeah I see all
44:19 the single people are the ones that laughed
44:21 laughed
44:22 it's like that when you become a
44:26 Christian you cannot take God as your
44:27 God without taking his people as your
44:32 people I'm sorry you can't do it that's
44:34 why it's so vital you commit yourself to
44:36 a church lest you be deceiving yourself
44:38 with some idea of a God that I love I
44:41 support but when it comes to his very
44:44 children that you find difficult then
44:47 friends that's exactly where God is
44:48 intending to show you the truth about
44:52 your own love for him our Christianity
44:53 if it would live up to its name must
44:55 affect other people in a loving and
44:58 godly way what does it mean to say that
45:02 we're followers of Jesus Christ if we
45:04 don't give our lives and love for one
45:06 another if we don't do that and care for
45:11 each other so religion is personal but
45:13 it is also very public and social very
45:15 much about how we live together the
45:18 father of lies as he was tempting at him
45:19 in the garden probably told him
45:21 something like don't worry if you get it
45:23 wrong won't hurt anybody else
45:26 but of course religion is a private
45:30 matter is a lie plain and simple
45:35 a lie so watch your words watch the
45:38 kinds of divisive nasaw in this church
45:42 or any other because I'm simply telling
45:45 you from studying Scripture God seems to
45:49 have a special concern for his church
45:51 one day the telephone rang in the office
45:53 of st. Thomas Episcopal Church over in
45:55 Northwest DC here in Washington where
45:57 President Franklin Roosevelt attended
45:59 church at the time and an eager voice
46:01 inquired tell me do you expect the
46:03 President to be in church this Sunday
46:05 the rector who had had a lot of calls
46:07 like this explained patiently but I
46:10 cannot promise but we do expect God to
46:12 be there and we fancy that will be
46:14 reason enough to have a tolerably large
46:20 audience the church is God's special
46:23 concern the church is where Christ
46:26 displays his glory God cares especially
46:28 about his church the very thing which
46:29 God meant to be a model for what he
46:30 intends to do with his whole
46:33 creation that which God has made for a
46:37 special glorious church must not become
46:42 a theater to disgrace him by the actions
46:47 of any of us and I warn you of that as a
46:49 minister of one who fiercely loves his
46:53 bride and as an ambassador of the
46:57 approaching king we will give an account
47:02 each one of us individually for how we
47:06 have treated one another as James said
47:08 earlier the Lord's coming is near the
47:13 judge is standing at the door let's pray
47:31 together dear father you know the truth
47:32 of your word and the truth of our lives
47:36 like none of us do here we pray that
47:37 your Holy Spirit would search our hearts
47:40 and would cause up to cause us to render
47:43 out that last bit of selfishness which
47:45 prevents us from loving each other in a
47:47 way that shows your good love and mercy
47:52 and just character thank you for the way
47:55 you have tolerated us for the way you
47:57 have shown love to us continually for
47:58 the way you've delighted in the smallest
48:01 steps of our obedience or thank you even
48:03 for the patient ways in which you
48:06 correct us through your word and through
48:10 rebuke and through sin and sickness we
48:14 pray Lord that you would continue that
48:15 you would get glory to yourself through
48:18 each one of us as we live together in
48:21 this covenant and community as we try to
48:23 show our love for you by a love for each
48:27 other while there help us to be mindful
48:29 of each other's needs concerned about
48:33 each other's cares and loving as we have
48:36 opportunity to be or give us a
48:38 greediness about seizing opportunities
48:43 for showing love and doing kindness Lord
48:45 we thank you for the care and concern
48:48 that you have for us we pray we would
48:50 reflect that to each other to your glory
