Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to James chapter 5. James chapter 5. I mentioned last week that this section in verses 13 to 18 is an exhortation to pray. We took up the first part, verses 13 to 15.
We'll take up 16 to 18 this evening. So I'll read verses 13 to 18. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 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 sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Amen.
Let us ask God's help as we look to this section.
Opening Prayer
Father, we pray for the Spirit now to guide us as we look at these verses. Help us to be a prayerful people, a people not only of the book, but of people who come to the Lord God in prayer. We know it's a blessed privilege that we have the ear of the High King of Heaven. As the psalmist said, I love the Lord because he heard the voice of my supplication.
God, may we treasure these gifts that you've given us and may we utilize them for your glory and for our well-being. So often we do falter and so often we do stumble and so often we do struggle because we are lazy and we fail to use those things that You have given. You have blessed us with the written record of Your Word and You have blessed us with an avenue to come to You through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit. Certainly we would be fools to not utilize these great resources and I pray that You would encourage our hearts as we look at this passage Encourage and strengthen us and conform us evermore unto the image of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ask in his most blessed name. Amen.
Introduction
Well, last time we saw where James gives this exhortation to prayer, and he says, first of all, the individual at prayer in verse 13, "'As anyone among you suffering, let him pray. As anyone cheerful, let him sing psalms.'" This pretty much encompasses all that the people of God will go through. There is suffering to be had in the Christian life, and there is cheerfulness to be had in the Christian life. And the one thing that is consistent, whatever our station or our lot, we need to be faithful in prayer to God.
If we're suffering, we ought to be praying. If we are cheerful, we ought to be singing psalms, not forgetting God, but acknowledging the fact that He has blessed us with these good gifts. And then he highlights the elders at prayer in the reference in verses 14 to 15, if anyone is sick among you, Let him call for the elders of the church." And the elders' prayer is what's particularly noted there. It's not the prayer of the sick man.
It's not the faith of the sick man. Rather, it's the prayer and the faith of the men that are praying for the sick man. And now he moves to the brothers at prayer in verse 16. He gives us encouragement.
He gives us exhortation on how we are to deal with one another and how we are to pray. So, there's the exhortation to pray, verses 15 up to verse 16, and then the example of prayers where we'll end tonight on Elijah the prophet. So,
Brothers at Prayer
let's look first at the brothers at prayer in verse 16. He says, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Now, there is in some versions of the Bible sort of a connecting word.
It might say in verse 16, therefore, confess your trespasses to one another. That connecting particle is left out of the New King James, thus indicating not a lot of connection between the two sections. If the therefore is supposed to be there, it does show connection between the instructions in verses 14 and 15 with verse 16. I think the reference at the end of verse 16, or at the first clause of verse 16 in terms of being healed, does connect us to what has preceded in verses 14 and 15.
In other words, what James says concerning the prayer of faith for the sick man, if he has committed sins he will be forgiven, then leads naturally to this ethic that ought to prevail among the people of God in the church as a whole. confess your sins or trespasses or therefore confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
Confession: Not Roman Catholic Auricular Confession
So this confession of sin, it's not the Roman Catholic practice of the confession of sin. Those of you who were brought up Catholic or those of you who have some understanding of Catholicism Essentially, their idea of this particular text is to have a sort of box set up in the church somewhere where persons come in and they kneel down and they say to the priest, bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been two months since my last confession. And then the father asks him what his sins are.
He then goes to confess his sins. And then the punishment is rendered. And the punishment or the penance is rendered. He has to go pray.
That's the sort of thing that you meet with in Roman Catholicism. That's the punishment. You need to go out and pray. It's a great lesson to teach your people that prayer is a form of punishment.
It's a great lesson and encouragement to try and get the people of God to pray. I'm going to make you say these things as penance for your many sins. That's what confession is in the Roman Catholic Church. That's not what this text is specifying.
He says, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. I don't think this text demands special accountability groups where we get together on a Thursday night and dump out our laundry list of sins that we have done in the previous days. I don't think this text demands special church services where one person comes up and dumps out their laundry list of sins, you know, from the previous week.
Mutual Confession in the Church
The text does not necessitate any sort of a formal confession one with another, but it speaks to the prevailing attitude that the people of God ought to have when they live with one another. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another. The idea is that we're going to sin against each other. How do we deal with it when we sin against each other?
Do we pretend that we didn't sin? Do we act like we never sin? Do we get offended at the thought that we sin? No, we confess our trespasses to one another.
We maintain short accounts with God and with men. We try to do this in our families. I hope that husbands and wives are confessing their trespasses to one another. Again, not everything.
We don't need to say, you know, every time we drop a sock or every time we burn a meal, we have to enter into this confession of a particular trespass. But those sins that hurt our spouse, we ought to confess it to them. In the context of Christ's church, we're going to sin against each other. We see that in Matthew 18.
If anyone sins or if your brother sins against you, go to him. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. Brethren, we need to deal faithfully and honestly and openly with one another and not pretend that we don't sin. We most certainly do sin.
The emphasis or the pressure of this text calls upon us to deal with that sin. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another. If you sin against one another, James says, deal with it. Deal with it, be faithful, one with another.
And as I've often reminded you, the two avenues that we have in scripture, actually three, three ways to deal with one another when we sin against one another. And they certainly have connection to what James says here, confess your trespasses to one another. If I am offering my sacrifice to the Lord, and there at the altar I remember that my brother has a problem with me, I'm supposed to first go and be reconciled with him. In other words, I'm not supposed to go for vertical worship until I've cleaned up my horizontal relationships.
If they're at the altar, I remember my brother has a problem, I go and I fix it. Secondly, Matthew 18, if your brother sins against you, disown him. Depart from him. Have nothing to do with him.
Write him off of your Christmas card list. Have no interaction. That's not what Jesus says. If your brother sins against you, go to him.
Tell him his fault between you and him. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. Not publicize it, not Facebook it, not tweet it, not tell the prayer meeting, please pray for my relationship with brother so-and-so because he's really acting like a jerk. Don't do that, brethren.
Tell him his fault between him and you. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. If he doesn't, then take two or three witnesses. If he refuses to hear the two or three witnesses, then tell it to the church.
If he refuses to hear the church, then let him be to you a heathen and a tax collector. You see, those are the ways we deal with sin. We don't go on letter writing campaigns. We don't try to speak ill of others.
We simply deal. We go to people that we know have a problem with us. We go to people that have sinned against us. And then there's, of course, 1 Peter.
Let love cover a multitude of sins. That's always an option. You're always free to do that. You're always able to recognize, man, I've sinned a world against God, and he's forgiven me.
This particular person, my wife, my husband, a brother, somebody that I love and I'm deeply invested in, sins against me a little bit. Maybe I can just let love cover a multitude of sins. You see, those are the options, and James highlights that within the context of the local church, we ought to confess our trespasses to one another. If we offend one another, we need to confess that sin.
We need to ask for forgiveness. John Gill, not taking the Roman Catholic view, in fact denouncing it, he says with reference to this text, which must be understood of sins committed against one another. which should be acknowledged and repentance for them declared, in order to mutual forgiveness and reconciliation. And this is necessary at all times, and especially on beds of affliction. Again, working under the context of 14 and 15, where the sick man is on this bed of affliction.
What better time to deal with your sin than when you're on a bed of affliction? What better time to deal, well, it's always a good time to deal with your sin, but on your bed of affliction, if you're about to exit this world, You ought to, by the grace of God, try and clean up your relationships. He goes on to say, this is necessary at all times, and especially on beds of affliction, and when death and eternity seem near approaching. Wherefore, this makes nothing for auricular confession used by the papists.
Auricular simply means what I described before, the penitent coming to the priest, confessing his sins, and then being penalized by having to pray. Now, notice the encouragement James gives us, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The idea being is that the church is encouraged to deal with their sin and to pray for one another so that a general overall health will pervade the body of Christ. Yes, physical, to be sure, but as well spiritual.
Spiritual health is something that the church should demonstrate. Spiritual health is something that we ought to manifest, and the way to get that spiritual health is by dealing faithfully with one another and by praying for one another.
Intercession as Every Believer's Duty
Now, James has treated the individual at prayer, verse 13, and the elders at prayer, verses 14 and 15. Now he's calling upon all of us. You see, it's the responsibility of each of God's people to intercede for God's people. That's not just a pastoral practice.
It's not just the elders that ought to be praying for the congregation. It's the duty. It's the responsibility. And yea, I say it's the privilege of God's people to pray for God's people.
Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another. Intercessory prayer is a most blessed thing. You know what one of the most blessed things about intercessory prayer is? Is it gets your mind and heart off of yourself and puts it on somebody else.
That's always win-win, because we are far too selfish, far too narcissistic, far too self-centered, and so when we actually think about the glory of God and the good of others, and we direct our prayers toward the glory of God and the good of others, at least for that brief compass of the day, we're not consumed with ourselves. It's a blessed place to be, not consumed with ourselves. Pray for one another. Emails go out.
Prayer announcements are made. We have a prayer meeting every other Sunday morning. We have a prayer meeting every Wednesday night. We pray for people by name.
We bring their petitions to the throne of grace. We are to pray for one another. It's amazing to me how often we denigrate the place of corporate prayer in the life of Christ Church. The Apostle Paul, when he deals with Timothy on conduct in the house of God, in 1 Timothy 2, he says, for first of all, I exhort that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority.
It's a beautiful thing. When Paul writes on how we ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God, and he's going to deal with the conduct of men at worship, the conduct of women at worship, the qualifications for elders, the qualification for deacons, he says all this in 1 Timothy 3, these things I write to you so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. In other words, the church isn't a free-for-all. We don't get to just come in and do whatever it is we want.
We don't get to come in and just lie down or come in and entertain, but rather we must obey what God's Word says. But beginning that list is, first of all, I exhort that prayers, supplications, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. In other words, the church ought to be a praying people. The church ought to be dependent upon the Word, ought to be students of the Word, and ought to be a people that pray to God Most High.
Pray for one another. Intercession is a wonderful thing. Certainly it gets your eyes off of you, but it also helps the people you're praying for, too. That's sort of the primary goal.
I was just giving that corollary, because I think it's most important for us to try in a day to stop looking at self. to stop being consumed with self. I've said before that a man I read said that when they finally discover the center of the universe, a lot of people are going to be surprised that they're not there. And I agree with that. So intercession for others is absolutely crucial.
Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. Now note, he says, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Who Is the Righteous Man?
We ought to identify this prayer. Who is this righteous man? We have this category of righteous man. We think super saints.
That's not what James is telling us. Not just a handful of dudes in the church that pray. Oh, take it to the righteous man, because they can pray. Take it to the righteous man, because they can intercede.
Take it to the righteous man, because they know what they're doing at the throne of grace. Who's a righteous man according to the New Testament? Well, and the Old Testament as well. Those who are justified by faith alone.
Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become what? The righteousness of God in him, 2 Corinthians 5.21. He has been made unto us righteousness from God.
James is not saying there's a class of righteous men in the church that do the heavy lifting with reference to prayer. All of us are righteous men. All of us who confess faith in Jesus Christ, all of us who by God's grace are called out of darkness into marvelous light, all of us who own Him as Lord and Savior are righteous men. And that's what we need to understand.
Thomas Manton says, it is meant of a man righteous in Christ, justified by faith. John Gill, but of the righteous man who is justified by the righteousness of Christ and has the truth of grace in him and lives soberly and righteously. It's not a category of super saint. It's not a category of the extra special among us.
If you are in Christ, you are a righteous man and your effective fervent prayer avails much. Again, that's a great encouragement. I mean, it's like James is saying, I want you to pray, and I'm going to give you like 1,000 reasons why you should. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Effective, Fervent Prayer Defined
What's the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man? It means that man who's justified freely by grace has, by grace, the ear of God. He takes his petitions to the throne of grace, believing that God hears him and believing that God is going to answer. That's what effective fervent prayer is.
It's not doubting, it's not being tossed to and fro, it's not being double-minded. Remember, James condemns that mindset over and over again in his book. In fact, look at James 1 for just a moment. James 1, verse 5, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach. and it will be given to him.
But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." You see, we need to engage in effective fervent prayer. That simply means that we believe who God is, we believe what His promises stipulate, and we believe that He hears us when we pray.
Now, in terms of this fervency, or we might translate earnestness, this sort of importunateness, I think there's a great illustration in Luke 18, this idea of coming to God frequently. Now, we're not to be like the heathen who think that they'll be heard for their vain repetition. Their many words somehow secures the ear of Yahweh and gets what they want. That's not what we are taught.
But there is a sense, brethren, where we need to come to God in a manner that is consistent with faith. We'll see as we look at the example of Elijah. There are times when God answers just like that. Other times when He doesn't.
Mount Carmel, Elijah prays, God sends fire. Then Elijah prays for rain, and it takes like seven times until they see this small cloud like a man's fist, and then it ultimately, you know, bedecks the sky and brings the rain that God had promised. You see, we don't know how and when God is going to answer prayer. And this idea that, you know, I prayed and, you know, God just didn't answer, so I gave up.
Well, the importunate widow in Luke 18 teaches us that we ought not to give up. Notice in Luke 18 1, that he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. That's just Jesus telling us what kind of character we're dealing with. He's just a wretch.
There's nothing good about this particular man. He doesn't fear God. He doesn't regard man. So, as we move through the narrative or the parable here, the amazing thing is that this guy who just is terrible actually does the right thing.
He actually does the right thing. How much more will God, who's not a terrible, miserable wretch, do the right thing? There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now, there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary.
And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man. We'll give him credit. He's a self-conscious wretch. He knows, he's got an accurate assessment, he knows I don't fear God, he knows I don't regard man.
I mean, at least he has some honesty there, not like a lot of us that tries to be other. He says, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Then the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" So I think as we look here at James 5. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. We have the righteousness of Christ. We fulfill the obligation in terms of who can pray.
In terms of the effectiveness and fervency of our prayer, it's effective because of who God is, not ultimately because of us or how we pray. This idea of earnestness or fervency, let the importunate widow speak to you. Let your Your mind, focus upon what Jesus said to that woman, shall not, or what the unjust judge said in terms of rendering the verdict, and shall not God avenge his own elect? That's the kind of praying that the people of God ought to be about.
Elijah: Example of Prayer
So that is the exhortation to pray, verses 13 to 16. Let's look at the example of prayer, finally, in verses 17 to 18, with reference to Elijah. Now notice in verse 17, at the very beginning, it says,
Two Elijahs: Larger-than-Life vs. Like-Passioned
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. I would submit that there are two Elijahs in the Bible, not the Old Testament and New Testament one. John the Baptist was the New Testament Elijah, but the same man comes across as two men. Again, not in some odd, weird way, but we learn about Elijah as a larger-than-life character, and then we learn of Elijah as a man with like passions as us character.
Notice that James is not encouraging us to focus on Elijah as larger than life. He is telling us to focus on Elijah as a man with like passions. That's the literal. Same nature does the job, but it's literally like passions.
He's a like-passioned man with us. Consider the larger-than-life Elijah. He was sustained by ravens at the Bruck Caret, 1 Kings 17. He was instrumental in raising a widow's son.
He called down fire from heaven at Mount Carmel and defeated the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. You see, larger-than-life Elijah. He went 40 days in the strength of one meal in 1 Kings 19. He brought down fire, or rather called down fire, to consume the soldiers of King Ahaziah on two separate occasions.
And when he was taken up into heaven, it was via a whirlwind. Larger than life, Elijah. James says, I don't want you to think about that. I want you to identify with Elijah who suffered.
I want you to identify with Elijah who struggled. I want you to look at Elijah who ran from Jezebel. After witnessing this great victory on Mount Carmel, he actually flees from Jezebel. And then in 19.4 of 1 Kings, he actually, despondently, under the broom tree, asks God to take his life.
That's not suicide. He doesn't actually take his life, but he essentially says, Lord, I can't continue anymore. Would you please take me from the scene? And then we see that Elijah is brokenhearted and agonizing over the behavior, the idolatry rather, of the nation of Israel.
This is what drives his despondency and his sorrow. It's covenant breaking Israel. You see, James says, I want you to consider that Elijah. Not super Elijah, but regular guy Elijah.
You need that encouragement when it comes to prayer. Because prayer isn't undertaken by a class of super saints, but it's undertaken by regular, ordinary, normal, God-fearing people. This is James' point. He says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
Calvin says, lest anyone should object and say that we are far distant from the dignity of Elijah, he places him in our own rank by saying that he was a mortal man and subject to the same passions with ourselves. You all see that, right? He's not saying, be like Elijah who called down fire on Mount Carmel. Be like Elijah who raised the widow's son.
That's not what he's doing, brethren. And it occurs to me that so often in preaching and in conferences, that's exactly how the minister approaches it. You need to be like an Elijah, supernatural, in power at the throne of grace. You need to be a John Knox, prevailing mightily at the throne of grace.
You need to pray the prayers of C.H. Spurgeon at the throne of grace. Can't I just pray my regular, normal, ordinary guy prayers? I think this keeps men silent in our prayer meetings, because they think, well, I don't have the flowery language, I don't have the facility and the ability, I don't pray like so-and-so, so I'm just not going to pray.
Men, I invite you to pray. Open your mouths unto God and pray. You don't have to have flowery language. You don't have to have gone to seminary.
You don't need a Bible degree. You simply need to open your mouth. It's a beautiful thing. You just open it, and out comes words, and you direct them to the Lord God Most High.
That's effective fervent prayer of a righteous man that does avail much. James does not tell us to identify with Elijah, the supernatural man of God, at the throne of grace. No, he's a man of like passions. Back to Calvin.
He says, for we profit less by the examples of saints because we imagine them to have been half gods or heroes who had peculiar intercourse with God, so that because they were heard, we receive no confidence. There's no confidence concerning, you know, supernatural Elijah. That doesn't help us. Yeah, I mean, he was Elijah.
He was the Tishbite. He was sent by God to answer to the wickedness of Ahab, king of Israel. How does that help me? That is precisely why James says he's a man of like passions.
There's enough in the Elijah narratives to convince you of that and to show you that. He says, in order to shake off this heathen and profane superstition, this idea that we need to pray like the super saint, we need to be like the super saint, we need to adopt their mindset, their mentality, their prayers, and we need to go to the throne of grace like that. No! Calvin's absolutely right.
In order to shake off this heathen and profane superstition, James reminds us that the saints ought to be considered as having the infirmity of the flesh. You see, when God answers Elijah's prayers, it's not because of Elijah. This is the point. This is what James wants you to get.
It's not because he was the Tishbite. It's not because he occupied a specific role in redemptive history. It wasn't because he was the enemy of all things Baal and would labor to root it out of Israel, because God is most high. God hears the prayers of the upright and God answers those prayers.
You see, we are in league with a whole host of men and women that have prevailed at the throne of grace that are beset with the infirmity of the flesh. He says, so that we may learn to ascribe what they obtained from the Lord, not to their merits, but to the efficacy of prayer. I mean, James couldn't have used a better example here. Not that he needs me to say, good job, James, but good job, James.
It is fantastic. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Now notice, he highlights the specific prayer. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain.
Elijah's Prayer for Drought
We should probably set 1 Kings before us. You can turn back there to 1 Kings 17. 1 Kings chapter 17. So James is conspicuous, he says, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. Now when we meet Elijah in 17.1, Before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word." Now remember, for those who were there on the Wednesday night Bible study, this was God's divine response to a group of wicked kings.
The wickedest of them all had just occupied the throne. Remember what Ahab does? Ahab marries that woman of the year, Jezebel, and he co-ops the Baalism of the pagans, and he actually brings it. He brings it right into the confines of Israel.
Ahab is a wretch. He's a bad, bad man. And yet, 1 Kings 17.1, herein is Elijah. And notice there's no, well, I want to introduce to you now this man called Elijah the Tishbite.
He hails from Tishbite, and he has a wife, and he has four. That's not the author's desire. He wants to show that when wickedness prevails, God has his man. And Elijah is that man.
And Elijah comes, and he stands before Ahab, and he tells him, the way he describes this, the middle of verse one, as the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, Isn't that a great way to characterize your life as a believer? Before whom I stand. He's conscious of the fact that he stands before Yahweh of Israel. Then he says, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.
Now it doesn't say that he prayed thus, but we can infer that he did in fact pray thus as he pronounces this judgment, which was in fact a judgment according to Deuteronomy 11 and Deuteronomy 28. God would send drought if the people broke their covenant responsibilities. So Elijah is functioning as God's prosecuting attorney. Elijah prays that God will bring this drought to bear upon the people.
It has a peculiar reference to Baal. Baal, if you'll remember, was the storm god. Three and a half years doesn't look like Baal's doing his job. If you are living in drought, one might wonder, where is Baal?
If Baal's job is to send rain, and we haven't had rain for three and a half years, Baal must be away. Now, there were a class of Baal apologists, defenders of Baal, and they would define it this way. They would say that during the dry season, Baal submitted to Maat. He was the god of death.
And that eventually, Anath, the sister of Baal, would bring back Baal and defeat Maat. Presumably when it started raining again. That's when you would explain it that way. Ian Proven comments, it is Yahweh, and not Baal, who brings fertility.
It is the Lord's presence in judgment that leads to infertility rather than His absence in death. So you see, that's the setting, that's the stage, and that is why the prophet comes and brings this judgment to bear. The people of God had gone a-whoring from God, and they had entertained Baalism. Now notice,
Elijah's Prayer for Rain
James continues and tells us that he then prayed for rain. He prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. You can turn over to 1 Kings 18, the end of the chapter. 1 Kings 18, notice in verse 41. This is after the contest at Carmel.
It was literally a God contest. Remember the particular scene. The prophets of Baal were to pony up. They were to present their sacrifice, call upon Baal, have him consumed.
Baal obviously failed, because there ain't no such thing as Baal. And then, Elijah ponies up his sacrifice, offers a simple prayer to Yahweh, and Yahweh sends fire down, not only to consume the sacrifice, but everything in the surrounding vicinity. And now Elijah comes to pray for rain. Notice in verse 41, Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain.
This evidence is something that I just brought out a little while ago with reference to prayer. Now, he was a like-passion man with us. He's not super Elijah here, but he does exhibit faith here, doesn't he? You see, we need faith at the throne of grace.
We need faith at the throne of grace. There's a general sort of overarching statement concerning God giving rain in 1 Kings chapter 8. It's when Solomon is dedicating the temple and he says, if your people humble themselves, if they pray, then you will send rain upon them. But there's a specific word in 1 Kings 18 where God told Elijah that he was going to send rain.
So verse 41 is an expression, not simply of an instruction to Ahab, but it's an expression of Elijah's faith. Go, make ready. Go get your feast ready. Why?
Because there's going to be an abundance of rain. He enters into the closet in the state of faith. He doesn't enter in doubting. He doesn't enter in wavering.
He doesn't enter in with a lack of confidence, but he knows of a truth that God has promised rain. He has told Ahab to go and prepare the feast. And now, verse 42, it says, Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, Then he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees and said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. The text does not mention that he prayed, but I think it's obvious.
His posture, his conduct. He bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees. John Gill says, this is expressive of his humility and of his earnestness and vehement desire and continued importunity that rain might fall. For this was a posture of prayer he put himself into and continued in.
And it is certain that it was through his prayer that rain came. James 5.18. Manton says, when God meaneth to bestow blessings, he stirreth up the hearts of the people to pray for them. You see, this is the place where the like-us man, Elijah, goes to the God of heaven and earth with a very big request, mind you.
Now, for most of us, our prayers are going to fall short of actually praying for rain. Now, I realize that we could pray that. We're farmers. We're a farming community.
It's not wrong to pray for rain. It's not wrong to pray for a sunny day. It's not wrong to do that. I'm not condemning anybody to pray for a sunny day or to pray for rain.
But brethren, it's a little bit different. I think you'll see us saying, God, please send rain to help the farmers in Chilliwack. That's definitely a good thing. We ought to remember that.
But the livelihood of an entire nation is on the line after a three and a half year drought. And so the bigness of his petition and the fact that God answers really ought to encourage us. You know, God help me get through this day takes on sort of new shape in light of this petition here. We need to pray and understand that God is indeed for us.
And he instructs his servant, he tells the servant, go up now, look toward the sea. Verse 43, he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And seven times he said, go again. Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said, there is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea.
So he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. Now, it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel." You see, that's what James encourages us with in terms of our prayer.
Effective, fervent praying looks like what Elijah does here. Not supernatural, Elijah, but rather man like us, Elijah. We are righteous in Christ, we therefore have the ear of God, and we therefore ought to be a people of prayer as individuals, as elders, and as brethren in the context of the church.
Application
To quote Motier again from last week, in a word, James urges that all of life should be lived with immediate reference to God. bringing its joys to him in praise and its sorrows to him in prayer. The contrasting states of physical ill and spiritual ill are undoubtedly meant to embrace every distress which may come our way." So in conclusion of the whole, we have this exhortation. There's an essay by Ryle, and it says, do you pray? And in the space of that essay, it's probably, I don't know, in print like that, he hammers the reader, do you pray?
I mean, do you pray? I'm not asking you to raise your hand right now and say, yes, pastor, I pray. But ask yourself, do you pray? If prayer is so important as we see from the beginning to the end of the written revelation of God, Are we a prayerful people?
Are we prayerful in our corporate meetings? Are we prayerful in our closets? Are we prayerful at the family altar? Are we a people who, in every circumstance, in every condition, in every situation, pray?
When we're suffering, do we pray? When we're cheerful, do we pray? When we're sick, do we call for people to pray? As elders, are we praying?
As the people of God, are we praying for one another? Do you ever intercede for one another? Are your prayers continually and only concerned with your own needs? I'm not bashing, I'm not hitting, I'm not coming down on you.
I'm thankful that you are praying. Brethren, maybe expand it a little bit. Pray for your spouse, pray for your kids, pray for your pastor, pray for the brothers in the church, pray for Mike in Surrey, pray for Andrew Brunson in Turkey. Pray, get your mind focused on the bigger picture.
It's a beautiful thing to get some perspective, and prayer is a great means by which we are able to do that. Secondly, there is the statement concerning the efficacy of prayer in the passage. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. I think I've shared with you before the times when we as God's people say, well, all we can do now is pray.
All we can do now is pray. That's almost as bad as the papist saying, go into the pew and pray as your punishment for all that list of sins. All we can do is pray. It says the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Sounds like some degree of power that we possess. Not in some weird word of faith mindset, but with reference to we have access to God. we get to call upon Yahweh. He hears us and we can be assured that He answers us consistent with His will. We have the exhortation, we have the efficacy stated, we have the example in Elijah the prophet.
Prayer, when we look at Elijah the prophet, was the lifeblood of his ministry. He was in fact a man of prayer. It was grounded in his confidence in God. Again, that's where we need to be, brethren.
Prayer without faith is just doubting, it's going to be wavering, you're going to be tossed to and fro. We need to believe not only that God is, Hebrews 11.6, but that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We need to have faith at the throne of grace. As well, with reference to Elijah, it is marked by humility.
You know, the man on Carmel who mocked the prophets of Baal. He mocked them. When he comes before Yahweh in verse 42, what does he do? He bows before God.
He humbles himself under the mighty hand of God. You mean it's actually possible for somebody to both be humble and bash false prophets? Yeah, you can do it. Elijah did it, and we ought to imitate him.
And when he bashed the prophets of Baal, it wasn't physical. I always feel like I need to qualify that now in light of, you know, extremism, but it was pointed. And it was, dare I say, funny, just funny. Where is your God?
Is he in the bathroom? Is he on a holiday? Is he sleeping? I mean, I just have this picture of Elijah slapping his knee while he's saying this to them.
He didn't speak it in Shakespearean prose. He wasn't polished orator. He was mocking false prophets. He was saying your God isn't real.
Your God is a fake. Your God is a fraud. Your God is not going to answer by fire. Elijah, however, was a humble man.
And then it is an expression of his faith, prayer. And then finally, it is answered differently than his prayer on Carmel. I mentioned that earlier. In 1836 and 1837, when he's on Carmel, combating the prophets of Baal, he prays to Yahweh, God sends this fire.
The fact that he sends his servant seven times to see the clouds indicates that it took a little bit longer. Davis makes the observation, and this I think is most helpful, because as we pray, as we're God's people and we pray, there are times when God answers right away. There's other times where God does not answer right away, and we think that there's some sort of thing missing in our formula. Well, you know, that time I prayed I was wearing my lucky shirt, God heard and He answered right away.
I'll duplicate that every time I go to the throne of grace so that it'll hear right away. That's not our sovereign God. He's free to answer immediately. He's free to answer in 20 years.
Davis makes this observation. He answered Elijah immediately in one case, verses 36 and 38, and apparently after extended pleading in another. In another case, he will refuse Elijah's request altogether, 19.4. We can praise God that he said no to that particular prayer when he asked that God take him.
Notice God's answer there was, no, I'm not going to take you. You've got work to do. There's 7,000 that haven't bowed the knee to Baal. You need to be faithful, and you need to preach, and you need to prophesy, and you need to be the man I made you to be.
In another case, he will refuse Elijah's request altogether. So you see that. Sometimes it's lengthy. Sometimes it's immediate.
Sometimes it's not the answer we want. Why is this so surprising to us as prayers? Why aren't we prepared for the sovereignty of God when it comes to prayer? Why do we become bailists at the throne of grace?
Why do we think that if we pop in the prayers, God's going to spit out the blessing? Why do we treat the Lord as if He's a vending machine? We put in 75 cents, well, you know, a buck and a half now, and out comes the Coke. Why do we think that?
Why are we not better taught that God's will reigns supreme, that He is sovereign? Sometimes He immediately answers, sometimes He might make you wait, and other times He might give you a big fat no when your desire is yes. There's a hymn, hymn number 94. Whatever my God ordains is right, and we need to embrace that as the people of God.
So back to Davis. He says, we must simply live with the mystery and allow it to teach us caution. I think especially of those saints who are so keen to write God's script for him and seem to assume that he provides a one-size-fits-all conversion experience or that he has a uniform way of answering prayer if only one has enough faith. or that he follows one pattern in giving guidance in circumstantial matters. But Yahweh is not so dull.
Sometimes prayer is relatively effortless and sometimes extremely agonizing. And who really knows why? It's God's business. Ours is to pray.
And the means by which we learn or are able or are equipped to be effective, fervent prayers is to first come to the cross. Because the righteous man is not righteous in and of himself, he is righteous in the Lord Jesus. And the way to go or the place to go for that righteousness is at the cross, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when by God's grace we do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are forgiven of our sins and we are given the righteousness of Christ.
It's imputed to us and it's received by faith alone. having been clothed with His righteousness, we have boldness at the throne of grace, we have access to go before our Father, we can pray for rain, we can pray for not rain, we can pray for brethren, we can pray for whoever it is that we want. because our God cares, our God is merciful, and our God shows in 1 Kings 18 that He's not only the true and living God, which He shows in the refutation of the prophets of Baal, but He also shows that He is a good and giving God at the end of 1 Kings 18 when He sends rain on Israel. That is our God beloved, and we ought to make it a frequent thing wherein we commune with Him in prayer. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this clarity of instruction concerning prayer with reference to us as individuals, with reference to the elders of the church in the case of the sick, and with reference to one another in the context of the local church. Help us to deal faithfully with you and to deal faithfully with one another, and may a climate of health prevail in terms of spiritual things, in terms of physical things, and grant us grace to see that Elijah was a man like us. And he prayed that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't.
He prayed that it would rain, and it did. not because of Elijah, but because of our great and glorious God. We ask now that you would go with us, grant us grace in this coming week to glorify, to honor, and to praise you. And we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
We'll close with a brief time of meditation and then be dismissed.