Show Notes
James 5:7-19
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Amen. Let's pray and ask that God would continue to bless his word to us. Our Heavenly Father, we pray for your word and spirit to be given to us, your flock, that we might be led by it, that we might be comforted by it, that we might be healed by it, that we might receive your instruction and walk in your ways in our lives.
[00:00:29] Lord, we thank you that you guide us. And we thank you that you do not leave us in the dark.
[00:00:35] Because we very often find ourselves in dark places, in places of suffering and despair, places of weakness and trouble.
[00:00:47] We find ourselves in moments where we know not where to turn or what to do.
[00:00:52] But you reveal yourself to us in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:00:58] We ask that you would help us to hear that word, to know him and to believe him, and to follow him.
[00:01:04] Lord, we ask that you would renew the sense of and the knowledge of his goodness and his grace.
[00:01:13] We ask that you would renew in us a zeal to follow him and trust him in every aspect of our lives and including the difficult ones.
[00:01:26] Lord, we pray for the reading and preaching of your word now.
[00:01:30] And we ask for your blessing in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:35] If you would please remain standing with me. And let's turn our attention to the letter by James. It's the book of James, right after Hebrews, James chapter five.
[00:01:48] And as I did last time, I'm going to read verses seven through the end of the chapter.
[00:01:55] This time we will be focusing more on the particular instructions that he gives to us to his church as we find ourselves in times of sickness.
[00:02:08] James 5, beginning at verse 7.
[00:02:14] Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.
[00:02:19] See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains.
[00:02:26] You also be patient.
[00:02:28] Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
[00:02:33] Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door as an example of suffering and patience. Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
[00:02:46] Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.
[00:02:50] You've heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you've seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
[00:02:58] But above all, brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by earth, or by any oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
[00:03:08] Is any among you suffering?
[00:03:11] Let him pray.
[00:03:13] Is anyone cheerful?
[00:03:14] Let him sing praise.
[00:03:16] Is any 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.
[00:03:25] And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. And the Lord will raise him up, and if he's committed sins, he will be forgiven.
[00:03:35] Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
[00:03:40] The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
[00:03:45] Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if any of you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
[00:04:12] Amen. You may be seated.
[00:04:31] Well, the last time we spent some time, some time in this passage, do you remember what we focused on?
[00:04:36] We focused on the power of prayer and God's call to be patient.
[00:04:43] These are easy things to say. They both start with P. We can roll them off the tongue. But to do them is another matter, isn't it? When we're suffering, when we're in trouble, when things are really hard, somehow patience and prayer, which sound really easy and nice, perhaps one day, seem very difficult. And we even forget to do them.
[00:05:09] We ignore them.
[00:05:11] We act as though God has never called us to them, or as if they won't do any good.
[00:05:19] We think that our troubles are just our troubles, that our life is just how our lives are. And that perhaps God doesn't care, or God is bound, or that events are locked in, or that destiny or fate has somehow fated us to some trouble that we just despair of.
[00:05:40] Now, it's true that all things are in the hand of the Lord, that God's sovereign will and work is being fulfilled throughout the history of the world.
[00:05:53] But it's also true that God doesn't call us to despair.
[00:05:57] In fact, as we consider him who is at work and him who is at work through things like prayer and the patience of his saints and the care that happens in the church.
[00:06:08] We see that God is good.
[00:06:10] We see that God is gracious. We see that God is one that we can call on and trust in. Much like many did when Jesus in his earthly ministry was called out to Jesus and begged him to have mercy on them, to heal their sicknesses, diseases, to cast out their demons, to forgive their sins. And he did.
[00:06:31] And he did.
[00:06:33] And Jesus is continuing that work in our day until that time when he comes again, the coming of the Lord, when all suffering will be erased, when every tear will be wiped from our eyes until that day, that day we are waiting for, that day that is guaranteed. We are called to be steadfast, to persevere, to be patient, to establish our hearts not in our own strength, but in His.
[00:07:04] To act and to think and to love and to move.
[00:07:07] In his work, James is encouraging us in this. He's instructing us in these things. He's teaching us these things because.
[00:07:16] Well, perhaps because we forget and we need to learn.
[00:07:22] And so he gives us these examples of Job and Elijah, calling us to remember their stories, how God was at work, what they did, how things fell out in their lives.
[00:07:36] He calls us to reflect on these things and points us to particular truths. And we thought about these last time, focusing particularly, particularly on, on Elijah.
[00:07:47] We thought about how the Lord works through prayer to bring about these really big things.
[00:07:54] I hope you remember some of those, like the salvation of the elect, the judgment of the persecutors of the church, the nourishment of the people of God as they wait on the coming of the Lord, his daily provisions, and even the work of spreading the Gospel to the Gentiles.
[00:08:17] In these in between times, as we look on him as we suffer and as the Lord works in the midst of our sufferings, as we pray to him and he uses those prayers in our lives, we become part of this very, very big thing that God is doing. And God even uses us in particulars of our lives to bring these things about according to his magnificent and holy will. These are very grand things and they should be encouragement to us because a lot of times in the midst of our suffering, we ask questions like, what's the point?
[00:08:55] Is this even meaningful? What's God even doing? And here in Job and in Elijah, and in these phrases and stories that we have here, as we thought about last time, he tells us what the purposes are.
[00:09:09] He gives meaning to us and he reminds us that we are part of something very big.
[00:09:17] Now, before we leave this passage, we want to notice that James doesn't only situate our prayers in this grand world changing work of God, but he also helps us to think about our suffering on a very personal and individual level.
[00:09:34] To put it this way, he gives us a plan, a very specific plan, what to do when suffering strikes hard, particularly in sickness.
[00:09:47] There are many examples of suffering that James could have signaled out, singled Out. But for all those who might experience serious sickness, or all those who might experience the threat of serious illness, which would then be all of us.
[00:10:04] God graciously addresses this very important point of application. What do we do when we're so sick you can't even go to church.
[00:10:14] What do you do when you're so sick that you have to call people to come to you?
[00:10:22] And how does our faith apply to these things?
[00:10:25] How does our faith apply to moments of great illness when we are very sick or when other members of our body are very sick and suffering?
[00:10:36] This is a super practical question, isn't it? We have members in our church that are homebound, unable to attend church on a regular basis. And we have others who will be in the future, perhaps even you.
[00:10:52] What will you do?
[00:10:55] What will you do?
[00:10:57] James tells us what to do in this particular hard season of life. And it has applications to other hard seasons of life.
[00:11:06] I'd summarize it in this way.
[00:11:09] James calls us to pray to God and be patient.
[00:11:13] He calls us, number two, to call for the elders who care for us, body and soul.
[00:11:19] And he calls us to confess our sins and believe in the promise of pardon and resurrection.
[00:11:27] So let me list those again because I want the plan to be very clear.
[00:11:33] Number one, he calls us to pray to God and be patient.
[00:11:36] Number two, he tells us to call for the elders who care for us, body and soul.
[00:11:42] And he tells us to confess our sins to one another, believing in the promise of pardon, resurrection.
[00:11:52] Let's focus on each of these.
[00:11:55] First of all, we are to pray to God and be patient.
[00:12:00] Let's remember this when we pray to God, we don't just pray to any God. We pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:12:08] We're not tapping into some higher spiritual power. We're not tapping into a superstition or an idea.
[00:12:16] We are praying, talking to, putting ourselves, bowing ourselves before the One who sent His Son into the world, anointed him with the Holy Spirit and brought forth the kingdom of God.
[00:12:33] The kingdom of God that was expressed in his teaching, that was proved and promised in his miracles, that was secured in his death, vindicated in his resurrection, corporation, crowned in his ascension, spread through the Spirit's anointing of the people of God, and will ultimately be completed at his glorious return.
[00:12:54] This is the God to whom we pray in the name of His Son who's anointed by the Spirit.
[00:13:02] We pray to the One who has been given to us. We pray to the God who has come into the world who became man and has experienced suffering and death as we experience it.
[00:13:16] We believe and we pray to the One who not only sympathizes with our weaknesses, but endured weakness and suffering and death and humiliation to rescue us from our suffering and our sin.
[00:13:32] We pray to God, trusting that he has elected us from all eternity in his love and that in his love he will keep us to the very, very end.
[00:13:40] We pray to the God who says nothing.
[00:13:44] No one can snatch us out of his loving and powerful hands.
[00:13:49] We pray to the One who says that nothing can separate us from the love, from his love toward us in Christ Jesus.
[00:13:58] We pray to him and ask that he would even use our suffering for our healing and our sanctification and greater works that are that we cannot even know that he would use us to bless other people, people we know, people we don't know that he would use our suffering and our weakness to bring about his great ends.
[00:14:21] This is so important.
[00:14:23] We pray to God.
[00:14:26] We do not neglect our souls and separate ourselves from Him. We do not put on an attitude of self sufficiency. We recognize our weakness. We recognize our humility in these times of suffering. And we pray to the One who made us and can save us and gives purpose to these things.
[00:14:51] We pray to God, and we are patient in him, knowing that he is compassionate and merciful.
[00:15:00] Good Number two.
[00:15:04] We call for the elders to care for us, body and soul.
[00:15:10] So who are the elders that James mentions in this section when he says in verse 14, is any 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.
[00:15:25] One commentator I read interestingly suggested that we are not only calling on our office bearers, but we're calling those who are our seniors in the faith when we are sick.
[00:15:37] Why? Asks this commentator. He says because it's those who have experienced suffering and walked through the real troubles of life in the Lord who will best be able to minister to us in our own times of suffering.
[00:15:50] And this is undoubtedly true. It's good to have people around us who have experienced the things we've gone through and who can guide us in the things of the Lord.
[00:16:01] But if that's true, who better than perhaps the office bearers of the church who not only have gone through those things, but are specifically called to minister to us?
[00:16:16] And this is the other possibility, and I think the more likely interpretation of James 5 is that the word elder here does refer to those men who are particularly called to oversee the flock of God Elders are commanded in Acts 20:25 to help the weak.
[00:16:36] Hebrews 13:17 says that our overseers are the ones who keep watching, watch over our souls.
[00:16:44] And added to these specific commands for elders for to the specific commands to elders are the commands of scriptures that are given to all believers.
[00:16:55] For example, Galatians 6:2 we are all told to bear one another's burdens.
[00:17:02] First Thessalonians 5:14 says that we are to be people who encourage the fainthearted and help the weak. First Thessalonians 5:14 and Jesus tells us that when we serve others bear one another's burdens in these ways, it is as if and it is as we it is a serving of Him.
[00:17:25] An amazing thing that Jesus says in Matthew 25, I'll read verses 35 and 36. He says, For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me.
[00:17:50] His disciples say, well, when did we do these things? And he said, as you did it to my brothers and four my brothers, our brothers.
[00:17:59] We did it to him.
[00:18:02] These passages teach us that believers in general have a responsibility. You have a responsibility to bear one another's burdens. This is not something we opt into or opt out of. It is what we do because of who we are in Christ.
[00:18:20] We are part of his body, and that's how he works. So that's how we work.
[00:18:27] It's because of who we are in Christ and because of who he is in us that this is all true.
[00:18:34] The fact that elders are specially charged here does not remove this common responsibility.
[00:18:42] Just because the elders have a special calling doesn't mean that the rest of us now don't love each other.
[00:18:49] But it's also true that just as we share a common responsibility, this doesn't remove a special responsibility for those who are called to help the weak and watch over our souls.
[00:19:02] So we call the elders those who are specifically called and given this task. And what are they to do? How do they help us?
[00:19:12] In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 16, Jesus talks.
[00:19:17] Now I'm questioning that reference might be Luke 10. We'll look it up. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus talks about how the Samaritan cared.
[00:19:27] The Good Samaritan cared for a man.
[00:19:30] Do you remember what happened to the man? He had been stripped. He had been beaten and left half dead on the road.
[00:19:36] This is a person who is in dire straits.
[00:19:41] And Jesus tells this parable, tells the story, teaching about who our neighbor is, how we love.
[00:19:47] When the Samaritan came, we are told that he had compassion on this man. And here's what Jesus said he did. He went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them.
[00:19:59] He bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, before he took him to an inn for further care.
[00:20:07] This is an instance in the story that Jesus gives, an instance where we see oil being used in a healing way, in a medical way, a pharmaceutical way, and it often was in Jesus Day and after Jesus Day and before Jesus day.
[00:20:27] In Isaiah 1:6, we read this from the sole of the foot even to the head. There is no soundness in it but bruises and sores and raw wounds. They are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.
[00:20:42] So this is another instance in which we see oil being described in this kind of tool used for the health and the healing and the care of the body.
[00:20:54] This is one way that oil is used.
[00:20:58] Now, oil can also be used ceremonially, right? Not only in a healing and healthful way, but as a mark of the blessing of God, signifying health and life, that oil often represented and generally brought to people as they used it in their daily lives.
[00:21:18] The question for us then is what's the intention here in James 5 when it comes to the oil?
[00:21:26] One possibility is that it is being used in a sacramental way.
[00:21:31] One possibility is that James is saying that it should be applied as a sign of life that God promises to us as we put our faith in Jesus, it is to be applied, he says, in the name of the Lord.
[00:21:46] Now, while there's nothing objectionable about God using oil in this way as he does in the Old Testament, I personally don't think this is the best way to understand this for a few reasons.
[00:21:59] One reason is that while it's possible to do things, or, sorry, that it is possible to do things in the name of the Lord, in the name of Jesus, without it becoming a sacrament.
[00:22:12] In other words, that phrase doesn't necessarily mean that it takes on a kind of official sacramental purpose in the Church.
[00:22:21] I think the best way to make this point is to remember Colossians 3:17, when Paul says, whatever you do, word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father through him.
[00:22:38] So as we care for one another, as we serve, as we work in the world, we do these things in the name of the Lord Jesus. And this doesn't make them official signs and seals that God uses and commands in His Church. It doesn't make them bad either. They're good and important things that he does use in a way to bring about his work and his grace. But it doesn't mean that just because we do something in the name of the Lord that it is all automatically a sacrament of the Church.
[00:23:09] A second consideration is that while Jesus does directly command baptism and the Lord's Supper to be done in his name, and Paul uses this language with reference to the Lord's Supper, for example, as I received from the Lord, I also delivered to you. This is what happened. This is what we do. We proclaim these things until he comes again.
[00:23:30] We find no such command or perpetual command regarding the use of oil throughout the New Testament.
[00:23:39] Nothing.
[00:23:41] The closest thing we have is one verse in Mark 6:13 which says that his disciples, Jesus disciples, during a particular period, cast out demons and anointed many with oil who were sick and healed them.
[00:23:57] The use of oil here does not necessarily equal a command.
[00:24:02] It may be.
[00:24:04] One possibility is that this was just for the apostles only, and some think that's the case in James 5.
[00:24:10] But remember, in that passage, the apostles did other things in connection with the sick.
[00:24:16] If they cast out demons, for example, and James is not saying anything about that here, we also see them doing other things in the exercise of this ministry. They are shaking dust off from their feet. They're carrying some things and not carrying other things.
[00:24:34] These things, their sandals or their staff or the money they carry. These do not translate into a particular command in the New Testament. So if you want to say that there's a command here for the use of or oil, you'd have to explain how that's different than the other things that are going on there in this passage.
[00:24:55] More likely, the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ are on a special mission at this particular time and carrying out things in a particular way.
[00:25:05] We don't have a command here to use oil as a sacramental sign. And we have no indication in the New Testament that this was ever done or debated or commanded in other ways, especially in ways that are similar to that we see with baptism in the Lord's Supper.
[00:25:23] Let me add one other point of consideration.
[00:25:26] Anointing is a very, very powerful concept and idea. In both the Old and the New Testament, there are hundreds of opportunities to connect the physical act of poetry pouring on oil with the anointed one, the Christ, and with us, the anointed ones, Christians.
[00:25:49] Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed One, the Christ.
[00:25:54] Acts 10:38 says that he is anointed by the Holy Spirit and in power in Christ. The New Testament teaches that we are the anointed ones, having been anointed by the Holy Spirit.
[00:26:08] 2nd Corinthians 2:21 22 says this, and it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us His Spirit in the heart, in our hearts, as a guarantee.
[00:26:27] And yet, if oil was used as a sacrament of the Church to signify these things, this would be the only place where this is talked about. And it's not developed and it's not.
[00:26:42] It's not connected in any kind of obvious way.
[00:26:46] So I think it's unlikely that oil is meant to be used in this kind of sacramental purpose.
[00:26:54] We will finally add that there is another likely explanation that's in line with how we see Jesus talking about the care of this man on the road in the parable and, and how Isaiah talks about the use of oil.
[00:27:09] We can use oil and other things in the name of the Lord for the sake of love and in caring for the one who is sick.
[00:27:19] So let's think about this for a few moments.
[00:27:22] First thing is to put yourself back in.
[00:27:26] Well, I was going to say the first century, but really most of the history of the world and even many places in. In the history of the world, when we think about health care in our context, in our day, our minds at least, my mind immediately goes to medical bills and insurance cards and all this kind of stuff, right?
[00:27:45] But for most of the world, there hasn't been health care systems and insurance and these kind of things for most of human history. And it was in that day, health care was pretty much up to individuals.
[00:28:02] Take care of yourself.
[00:28:04] Maybe you could find a doctor or this or that, but it was really up to you and your head of your household.
[00:28:11] There were doctors and there were, of course, cults around healing and medicine temples that you could go to, but there was no kind of systemic way in which health was provided for. People took care of it on their own, and they had to learn what to do and, and how to do those things. And sometimes they were effective and other times they weren't.
[00:28:35] This is important to understand because the elders are not turning into doctors here.
[00:28:42] They're doing normal things that normal people do.
[00:28:47] They are doing something that was common and that was expected, using a substance that was common and expected.
[00:28:55] The use of oil, in particular, olive oil, as the word is here, was used in those times and those in that region, especially in all kinds of ways, for all kinds of things.
[00:29:07] As we read in Isaiah, we hear about olive oil being used to soften.
[00:29:12] What Jesus describes with the Good Samaritan, it's probably being used for cleansing.
[00:29:18] Oil was used to warm the skin, provide a barrier against the cold, to wash out wounds, to heal, to soften, to get rid of dirt, to help in massage.
[00:29:31] Now, the Bible nor the ancient world are telling us here that olive oil is the cure all for everything. This is not me telling you to go out and buy a bunch of olive oil and start using it all over the place.
[00:29:45] But it was. What I am saying is it was used a lot and for a lot of things. Again, sometimes well and sometimes not.
[00:29:55] We have examples in the early church, I believe, Cyril of Alexander and Tertullian actually talking about moral and immoral uses, that we as Christians, like in any other area, need to be thoughtful about how we use the various things God has given to us in our lives.
[00:30:15] So with all of this sort of context in place, you can imagine the elders then bringing this substance to care for the sick in a way that people would generally have done in my experience, even today, both religious and non religious people do these kinds of things for sick people today.
[00:30:36] Sometimes it takes other forms, like flowers, bringing flowers into a room or a warm meal, or asking for a nice blanket in a hospital room. But also oils and lotions.
[00:30:48] I've seen people come into hospital rooms with a little bottle of lotion, let's say, and rub it on the person's arms and their hand or maybe their face or their feet. Why?
[00:31:00] To help them feel better.
[00:31:03] To show them love, to care in this kind of concrete and intimate and personal way.
[00:31:11] I think that's what's going on here with the use of oil. The elders are not coming with a kind of sacramental oil, but they're coming with the care and love expressed in this substance.
[00:31:25] In that way, it's similar to the holy kissing that we have in the Bible.
[00:31:29] Another way that God calls us to honor the physical nature of our bodies and bless one another through holy expressions of physical affection and comfort in the name of the Lord.
[00:31:42] Now, can physical touch, kissing included, be abused?
[00:31:46] Of course.
[00:31:48] Right? And for this reason, Christians, as I mentioned before, have been right to be thoughtful about this. What does it mean to use our bodies in the care and in service of one another?
[00:32:04] And it's also a warning.
[00:32:06] These thoughts are also a warning for us against, not just against immoral use, but Also superstitious uses of oil.
[00:32:15] But those things aside, we do see a positive call here for the care of one another in both body, as we see with the oil and in soul.
[00:32:29] The care of the church exhibited or rather expressed through the elders here for body and soul is not only evidenced in the use of oil, but in these material and immaterial ways.
[00:32:43] Let's think about prayer. Now.
[00:32:45] Notice verse 15.
[00:32:48] The elders, when they are called. I'm sorry, verse 14.
[00:32:52] 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.
[00:33:00] Verse 15 then says, the prayer of faith will save he who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
[00:33:09] Now, someone and people have wrongly thought that this means that if you apply oil and you pray really hard, God will always heal the sick person.
[00:33:20] And if you didn't pray with enough faith or you didn't apply the right oil or it wasn't blessed by the priest in the right way or at the right time, et cetera, et cetera, all these rules that, well, that's the reason the person is not getting well. But if you get the formula right, either in the terms of the rite, in the acts, or in the substances or the prayers, then you're good to go. And of course, this isn't true.
[00:33:46] We know many faithful Christians who have prayed many faithful prayers and yet have still fallen asleep and will only raise from the dead at the Lord's return.
[00:33:57] And that's where our focus should be on the Lord and His return.
[00:34:02] Now, it may be that the Lord will raise a very sick person from his bed, and he has done that. And He. And it's a wonderful thing when it happens.
[00:34:12] As brothers and sisters, as we pray for one another, we can and we should pray that the Lord would heal the bodies of the sick, just as we pray for the healing of people's souls.
[00:34:23] But remember this.
[00:34:25] Our hope is not just living forever in these bodies and in this world.
[00:34:31] Our hope is experiencing the resurrection in both body and soul. We are waiting, as James says, for the coming of the Lord. The latter reigns, bringing in the whole of the harvest.
[00:34:47] This means that oil is not forgiving sins.
[00:34:52] It also doesn't mean that every sick person has sinned and is necessarily receiving God's punishment.
[00:34:59] I think James meaning is simpler and more ordinary.
[00:35:03] If we're sick and we're laid out, maybe even near death, it's the right time to take stock.
[00:35:09] It's the right Time to look to the Lord and raise up our bodies and to also raise up our souls. Finding justification, Forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ.
[00:35:21] Think about this, brothers and sisters, in a very practical and experiential way. Think about your own experiences.
[00:35:28] Think about how the Lord often uses our physical weakness to remind us that we are weak.
[00:35:36] How he uses these moments of suffering, including physical suffering, to remind us on how needful we are not only in our bodies, but also in our souls.
[00:35:48] We are reminded also of the connection between these two things. Not that every sickness, Jesus tells us is exactly specifically connected with a particular sin.
[00:35:59] But surely sickness and death is connected to the suffering we experience as a result of sin in this world, as a result of the curse coming to bear on all of the human race.
[00:36:11] When we're sick, when we're weak, when we're dying, we are reminded of sin.
[00:36:17] And when we're reminded of either sin in general or the sin in our hearts in particular is, we ask ourselves, are there things I'm not confessing?
[00:36:27] Are there things I'm not repenting? And as the Lord brings us to our mind, we should pray.
[00:36:35] We can ask ourselves, when we get sick, when we get laid out, when we're feeling weak, is the Lord getting my attention?
[00:36:44] Is he forcing a hard stop?
[00:36:47] In my experience, I don't know exactly what the Lord is doing in all things, but I certainly know that when I'm sick and I'm laying there, I've got some time to think.
[00:36:57] And it often serves as a useful pause in my life to reflect, to pray, and to seek the Lord's forgiveness.
[00:37:06] We ought not to judge what the Lord is doing in the lives of others. But can we examine our own hearts? And if we find sin, do we hide it? Do we ignore it?
[00:37:18] No, we confess it.
[00:37:21] And what is the promise for us?
[00:37:24] The promise for us is that you will be forgiven.
[00:37:29] Christ's grace is so wonderful, so perfect, so complete, that he says, your sins will not be accounted to you, that God will not hold even the smallest thing against you.
[00:37:43] So why not confess?
[00:37:45] Why not repent? Why not turn away from unrighteousness and turn unto the Lord? Why not seek his forgiveness?
[00:37:52] He offers it to us so freely, so wonderfully.
[00:37:56] And why not do that now?
[00:37:58] Why would we wait until we're on the. In the pains of death, until we can't come to church, until we need to call for others to come and to help us, and only then confess our sins?
[00:38:13] That's of course foolish, but that doesn't mean that Any that there is a moment in our lives when it's too late to turn to the Lord.
[00:38:23] It's never too late.
[00:38:27] The promise to us is that we will be forgiven of our sins as we call upon his name. And the promise to us is that we will raise up in our bodies in his name, maybe in this life and certainly in the resurrection to come.
[00:38:48] Let me put it this way.
[00:38:50] When you are sick and you are dying, when you cannot get up, when you feel alone and separated from God and from his people, when you feel the weakness in your bodies, in your souls, do not lie in the agony of illness and hold on to an agony of the soul.
[00:39:15] Do not wait until the very end when you finally release yourselves into the arms of the Savior.
[00:39:23] Because these promises that he promises to us in this moment are promises in every moment of life. Freedom now, healing now.
[00:39:35] So much so that God says even in the midst of our suffering in this lives, we can be people that sing his praise, knowing that these things will be fulfilled in the coming of the Lord, that He provides for us health and provision and patience and steadfastness as we wait for that coming day.
[00:39:58] As I bring these things to a close, let me say this. The shepherds of the Christ's flock, the elders, pastors and elders, are particularly useful in all of this.
[00:40:10] They are given, we are given, for the care of your souls.
[00:40:15] Are you worried?
[00:40:17] Tell us, are you afraid of dying?
[00:40:21] Tell us, do you need to repent?
[00:40:24] Tell us, do you need assurance and forgiveness? Tell us, do you need spiritual encouragement? Tell us, do you need some oil and some flowers and a warm meal?
[00:40:37] Tell us.
[00:40:38] And tell your brothers and sisters, let us care for one another in the body of Christ. Let us be there for one another and serve one another in the name of the Lord.
[00:40:50] And if you don't have elders because you don't belong to a church, what are you waiting for?
[00:41:00] Do you want to be alone and have no one to call on? Do you want to be separated from the Lord and His people and have no one to go to?
[00:41:09] We are not meant to go it alone.
[00:41:13] We are not meant to be self sufficient in this life.
[00:41:17] God calls us unto Himself and unto his people that we might be bound up together to love and care for one another, ministering to one another the name of Jesus.
[00:41:28] And as we do those things, we have the Lord's encouragement and work in our lives to do these, to fulfill these instructions that he calls us to do, to pray and to be patient, to call on the elders and to others. To care for us in body and soul and to confess our sins, hear the assurances of pardon, to believe and to look forward to that resurrection from the dead.
[00:41:55] In all of this, I hope that you hear not only the instructions of the Lord, but the gospel that is behind them.
[00:42:03] A gospel that does not take those who are weak and ill and cast them away and say, we're looking for the strong ones.
[00:42:12] You can't help us right now.
[00:42:15] You're not useful anymore.
[00:42:18] It doesn't cast aside the weak and the sick, as the world often does, but instead it tells the weak and the sick to call on those who have been given, given the call of ministry, and to call them and to have them come.
[00:42:40] The gospel of Jesus reminds that God honors and protects his saints, the weak ones, the humble ones, the sick ones.
[00:42:52] He cares for us in body and in soul, and on the last day he raises us up from the dead and vindicates us forever in the glory of our forgiveness.
[00:43:06] So as you consider the Lord, as you consider his work, as you consider his people, be steadfast, beloved.
[00:43:15] Be praying and wait for the coming of the Lord.
[00:43:22] Let's pray.
[00:43:26] Our Heavenly Father, we beg that you would give us patience, that you would help us not to cast you aside when we are down and low, that you would help us not to strive and to clamor after the things of this world, but instead, Lord, to see the ways that you are working in this world through the supernatural work of your Holy Spirit, to bring to us a salvation that is perfectly saving.
[00:44:04] Lord, we ask that you would give us patience, seeing the work that has already begun in Christ and knowing that this work will be brought to completion, looking to Jesus who suffered for us and who is called the author and perfecter of our faith.
[00:44:25] Lord, help us to look to you, for you, as your word tells us.
[00:44:29] You are compassionate and merciful.
[00:44:33] And Lord, let us be compassionate and merciful as well to those who are weak and those who are falling and those who are dying and those who are sick, those who are struggling and trying to do the right thing, those who are so weak and burdened that they're not sure what else to do. Help us to be people that are constantly communicating to them and to one another.
[00:44:59] Your love, your compassion, your mercy, your generosity, your grace.
[00:45:06] Let us be a people that are marked by the work of Christ, that we might not only be saved by it, but that we might exemplify it and witness it and testify it and enjoy it.
[00:45:21] Lord, we praise you for those who have gone before us.
[00:45:25] Those brothers and sisters who have died in the Lord and who have given us such a great example, those who have remained steadfast and confessed your faith, those who even in their last breaths, were calling to us and reminding us to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:45:46] Lord, thank you for giving to us these brothers and sisters who even in their great weakness, have blessed us so greatly and continue to do so in a way, even though they're gone.
[00:45:59] Lord, we look forward to the great day of resurrection, when we will all be joined together, when every tear will be wiped from our eyes and death will be no more.
[00:46:11] Thank you, O Lord Jesus Christ, for defeating the power of death and breaking us free from the enslavement of the evil One.
[00:46:19] Thank you for pouring out the anointing of the Holy Spirit on us that we might live and live forever.
[00:46:28] We bless your most Holy name.
[00:46:32] Amen.
