Whispers to God – Pt. 4

God’s people would turn once
again to James chapter 5. James chapter 5, I’ve already
had one person surmise that maybe we were drawing a close to James
this morning. That’s not going to happen. We’re
still in this particular passage, verses 13 through 18, where Paul
is, rather James, is teaching us how to pray. I’m playing off
that line in Romans 8 where Paul said that we do not know how
to pray. And that may be true in a general
sense and even in our particular lives. But if we walk out of
here after four weeks of feasting on this passage and we do not
know how to pray, it’s mostly our fault. Because that’s exactly
what James is doing here, is instructing us about prayer,
how to pray in different circumstances, How to pray on others behalf
and even to have others pray on our behalf. How to come before
God in humility and own and acknowledge our sin. And then, as we will
see today, how to persevere in all of that in faithful prayer. We’re in James chapter five.
I’m in verses 13 through 18. If you would just follow along
as I read. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone
cheerful? Let him sing praises. 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 offered
in faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will
raise him up. And if he has committed sins,
they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins
to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. Well, Paul in Romans 8 wasn’t
suggesting that we don’t know anything about prayer. We know
to whom we should turn, and we even know about prayer, that
that is the avenue that is availed to the Christian, to the child
of God, to be able to come before God and to pray. But there are
circumstances in life where, as we have already seen, we bog
down, we we lose sight, we don’t know exactly how to pray. And
Paul, Paul was right. In a very real way, we do not
know how to pray as we ought. Sometimes life circumstances
crowd in and prayer comes to a screeching halt. Well, James
has been teaching us, we have been feasting on this passage
now for three weeks already. We come to the fourth part today.
We’re looking at what I’ve called whispers to God, just different
kinds of prayer, prayer in its varied shapes. We saw first circumstantial
prayer that circumstances that really urge us to a particular
kind of prayer, the first of which was suffering. Everyone
knows that we all suffer trials. We all suffer setbacks and challenges
in our Christian life. The second that he pointed out
was that of praises, singing praises when we are cheerful
to God. There shouldn’t be a flighty
giddiness, a foolish frivolity to the Christian. But here he
says, if you are recognizing God’s blessings in your life,
number one, there ought to be cheerfulness. And if there is
cheerfulness, there ought to be praise. There was a third
kind of circumstance that James mentions here, that of sickness. But this particular circumstance
bleeds into the second form that prayer takes. If you just glance
down at verse 14, he directs the Christian to call for the
elders, to call for those who lead the church, and to come
and to pray over him. That’s the whole introduction
to intercessory prayer, that we have the privilege to lift
others up, even as we just did a moment ago. We can do this
at any time. We have been talking much about
our, not only our prayer chain, but our prayer list, a device
that we put in your hands that you can open it up and put it
to God’s use on a regular basis. Anytime you have extra time,
you can open up that list and you can refer particularly to
requests that have been offered You can come alongside and pray
for your brothers and sisters in Christ anytime. What a great
privilege. And what a comfort it is to know
that others are praying for you, right? That you have offered
some specific prayer, that you know others are taking opportunity
to turn to that list and they are bearing you up in prayer
on a very particular request. What an amazing privilege we
have. Well, not only circumstantial and intercessory prayer, but
that opens up into confessional prayer. And we pointed out that
no amount of prayer on anybody else’s behalf is ever going to
absolve them of sin. This is talking about personal
confession. That’s what James alludes to
here, even if he doesn’t come out and say it. that we are to
confess our sins to one another and pray for one another, but
there must first be contriteness, there must first be repentance
in the heart of the offender. No amount of prayer on anybody
else’s behalf is ever going to absolve them of sin. Well, circumstantial
prayer, intercessory prayer, all of those are different aspects,
different means of prayer, different forms in which prayer takes. But there’s a fourth form that
we have yet to discover yet this morning. And that is faithful
prayer. If you will, perseverant prayer. This is the kind of prayer in
which we have begun and we do not let go. We’ve begun and we
press on to faithfulness. And we find that the beginnings
of that in verse 15. In verse 15, James has been talking
about the elders who have come to the bedside of the sick and
they are offering up a prayer on his behalf for something specific
that he would be raised up. But it says in verse 15, the
prayer offered in faith. That is the prayer of the faithful. The prayer that is offered by one who believes that
he’s not just bloviating. He’s not just spinning out words. He really believes that God is
not only hearing his prayer, but is attending to his prayer. Somebody very wisely asked me
this week, does God hear the prayers of those who aren’t Christians? Well, obviously, being God, he
hears their prayer, but he doesn’t attend to their prayer. In a
sense, it isn’t any of his business. They can talk all they want,
but they have no design on God. They have no relationship with
God. The first prayer that God hears
is a prayer of repentance. But for the Christians. for the
one who prays in faith, for the one who believes that he has
access to Almighty God and that he is offering up a request that
God not only hears, but wants to attend to. And yet even at
the end of it all, it’s offered up according to the will of God.
It’s submitted to him for prayer. Well, that’s these elders standing
around the bedside of this poor, sick man laying there on his bed. He can
barely get out of bed and has need of his brothers in Christ
to gather around him and to pray for him. This is a desperate
situation. And it says the prayer offered
in faith. We’ll restore the one is sick.
We looked at this. It isn’t an absolute promise
It isn’t we’re not so many faith healers that all we have to do
is stand by the bedside and pray And anyone and everyone has to
be healed That too is not what james is saying. Not at all james
is pointing to the fact that those who have placed their faith
in Christ, who go to God and look to Him for grace and guidance
at the throne of grace, they will be heard in time. And as
it fits with God’s design in their life, God may well heal. Well, we come now to verse 16. We took just a brief peek at
this verse where faithfulness in prayer is again in view because
this man’s healing is absolutely dependent on this prayer. That’s what it says. Confess
your sins to one another, pray for one another so that you will
be healed. And this ties up not only circumstantial
prayer, the prayer of sickness, it ties in the second element
of intercessory prayer, praying for one another. It brings in
the third, confessional prayer, but it also incorporates the
fourth form that prayer takes, that of faithful prayer, continued prayer,
perseverant prayer. Well, Paul has said it well. We do not know how to pray. But James has done a notable
job of teaching us the various forms of prayer, teaching us
the particulars of prayer, and I want to come now Just with
that brief overview, I want to go all the way to the end of
verse 16 to what is an almost bewildering phrase. James has
been talking about faithfulness in prayer, persevering in prayer,
that if we are to be used by God, we not only have to offer
up a once for all prayer, or even a very articulate prayer
or a powerful prayer where our tears attend to it and water
it as it were. We have to persevere in that
prayer. We have to stay long. We have
to return often. We have to continue in that particular
prayer. Well, glance down at the end
of verse 16. 16b, I would call it, where it
says the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish
much. The effective prayer of a righteous
man can accomplish much. And I would just tell you right
off the bat that this particular verse is a very difficult verse
to translate. Notoriously difficult, in fact.
And that’s why there’s almost as many different translations
of this verse as there are translators. I’ve studied a great many of
these, 20 or 30 or more. A few of them are very good.
Some of them are good. Others are very clumsy. It’s a very intriguing verse.
You see, in the original, there are only five Greek words. And yet most translations utilize
10 to 15 words to translate those five Greek words. One uses 18
in an attempt to translate. I even wrote a translation of
the verse myself. And no, I don’t think that my
translation is one of the really good ones that I mentioned a
moment ago. Here’s the way I put it. A righteous individual, when
they energetically labor in petitions, that is specific requests to
the Lord, is very productive. You’re surprised that I am verbose
in my translation. I told you it wasn’t great. But
with the aid of a plenitude of translations, I believe that
we can glean some very simple observations of this verse. And
I would put it like this. In this verse you see an extraordinary
individual. You see extraordinary effort,
and you see extraordinary results. An extraordinary individual,
an extraordinary effort, and extraordinary results. Here’s how this looks on paper. Depending on what translation
you have, You have just a almost alphabet soup. As I said,
10 to 18 different words are used to translate this. This
is how it would read in our modern ear according to the word order.
Much is strong the request of right or righteous operating. And I realize that’s clumsy.
I’m just giving you the wooden, literal translation. Here is
what Tyndale did with it. The prayer of a righteous man
availeth much if it be fervent. And what Tyndale did there in
introducing that clause, that caveat at the end, if it be fervent,
he offered up a little tidbit that is going to be imbibed and
employed in almost every translation down to our day. But it’s an
embellishment because the text doesn’t say that. The word much
is there. But what ends up happening is
most translations end up really utilizing that little word much
twice. There’s much strength and there’s
much effectiveness or operation. Here’s how the King James did
it. in what a clearly embellished translation, because really you
have the word much, you have the word strong, you have the
word request, you have the word righteous, and you have this
verb operating, working. What the King James does is they
translate it, the effectual fervent, taking a cue from Tyndale, the
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. All of the
key components are there, but there is that embellishment.
The New King James is pedantic. It’s no different really than
the King James. The New American Standard is
clumsy as well. Let me show you something. For
those of you who have the New American Standard, and you don’t
need to run to the super store and buy a new Bible, but watch
what happens. In the New American Standard
it says, the effective, that is the strong prayer of a righteous
man can accomplish much. The only problem is I don’t like
the fact that effective, powerful, which is essentially the second
word in the text, is separated so far, violently separated,
I would suggest, where much is placed all the way at the end
of the sentence. And so that’s not exactly a literal translation
as the King James so often seeks to be. Now the amplified, here’s
an interesting one. The amplified version It does
it this way. It says, and if you’re not familiar
with the amplified, it’s amplified in its verbosity. It’s lengthy.
Listen. The earnest, parentheses, heartfelt,
and continued, prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available. It is dynamic in its working. Did you get that? It’s not only
wordy, but it’s embellished, which essentially is what the
Amplified Version is. The New Living Translation also
adds the word earnest, earnest prayer. J.B. Phillips, which I typically really
enjoy reading, says, “‘Tremendous power is made available through
a good man’s earnest prayer.'” Well, I don’t like the translation.
It’s soft to call him a good man. The word is righteous, and
it does in its core mean good, but it has a theological implication
here in this text. It means righteous. He’s talking
about a Christian. So that translation is a little
bit cute and soft. The ASB, which I love, that translation
of 1901, the supplications of a righteous man availeth much
in its working. All of the components are there.
Nothing is added or embellished. It’s not a bad translation. It’s
just Elizabethan in its language. Goodspeed, another translation. An upright man. which is another
vague reference to the righteous man. An upright man can do a
great deal by prayer when he tries. Now that translation is
vague, and it’s cute, and in the end it’s ineffective. It
doesn’t communicate what the passage says. Now, I don’t know
if the pews are equipped with seatbelts, but buckle up. The
NIV. the NIV. The prayer of a righteous man
is powerful and effective. Are you buckled in? I admit it.
I like that translation. That’s a good translation. It
has all the key component, well, almost all It left out much,
but it has most of the key components in a decent order. It’s readable
and understandable. I like that translation. The prayer of a righteous man
is powerful and very effective. If I could
edit the NIV. Lenski, I would offer up for
my brother’s sake. Big fan of Lenski, a righteous
one’s petition avails a great deal when putting forth its energy. Again, wordy, not so embellished. The ESV, if you have that newer
translation, is another good translation, the prayer of a
righteous person. And so they generalized and that
word can be generalized, even though it’s in the masculine.
He’s obviously not talking. He’s not suggesting that only
men’s prayers can be effective. The righteous individuals prayers. The prayer of a righteous person
has great power, much power. And in that sense, it captures
something that the NIV left off in that word much. It’s a good
translation. My favorite of, what, all Christianity,
all of English translation-dom is Moffat’s, and it’s so simple
and so clear. The prayers of the righteous
have a powerful effect. It’s a good translation. There’s
no embellishment. There’s no addition. There’s
no subtraction. I would say that Moffat is the
best in show. Listen carefully. The prayers
of the righteous have a powerful effect. And so I want to look
at those three elements. I want to look at the extraordinary
effort. I want to look at the extraordinary
individual. And I want to look at the extraordinary
results very quickly. The extraordinary effort is energetic
working. This is where the new American
translates effective prayer. And it ends up being a little
clumsy in the new American. So we’re going to have to work
around that. It means energetically working. Literally translated,
it’s working. Which is obvious that it’s effective
because it’s getting something done. It’s energetically working
It’s putting forth its energy in that sense. It is earnest
and that’s where a lot of translations grab and Double the use of that
word that it’s not only working effectively, but it’s effectively
praying And so The word here, as translated
so often, doesn’t mean fervor. The two words, effectual and
fervent, are often employed in the course of these translations,
but it becomes not only cumbersome, but repetitious. It’s as if to
say, the translation should really say, if it’s going to be honest,
an effectual prayer is effectual. What it’s talking about here,
this specific kind of prayer, it’s not a general prayer like
we talked about a couple of weeks ago. Bless all the missionaries
in the whole wide world. This is an arrow prayer. This
is a prayer that requests something specific, particular, spot on. It hits the bullseye. It’s a
very specific request, it’s a supplication, it’s a, if you will, a petition
to God himself. The Puritans used to refer to
it as suing God, going before him and stating their case. I
would just encourage you to listen to the average prayer, listen
to your own. What are we asking for? Is it an arrow prayer? Are we just lobbying a general
request in God’s direction, hoping he can figure it out? So it isn’t so much that the
prayer is effectual, but it’s passionate. It’s focused. This is Jacob wrestling with
the angel. I will not let you go until you
bless me. This is the prayer, a passionate
prayer. where we are asking God for something
specific. And so there is extraordinary
effort here. It’s not a bowing of the head
or a folding of the hands to ask some very general request
of God. It’s an appeal, it’s a plea. Not only extraordinary effort,
but an extraordinary individual is in view here. He’s a righteous
man. The prayer of a righteous man
can accomplish much. And so it isn’t just any man’s
prayer. It isn’t a sinner’s prayer that
God is listening to and attending to. It isn’t a sinner, a godless
man’s prayer that somehow needs God on a whim for a moment for
a particular Passing, desire, this is a child of God. This
is one who stands in the righteousness of Christ. This is the one whose
sins are forgiven. This is the one for whom Christ
died. This is the one to whom is bidden
to come to the throne of grace. He’s not coming in his own righteousness. He’s not coming in filthy rags.
He’s coming in the righteousness of Christ. He’s a righteous man.
Not a hypocrite. He’s not a fool. He’s not a godless
man. He’s an extraordinary man. But
you could also look to it and note that the man must be a pious
man. He’s a godly man. He’s a he’s a spiritual man. He’s one that not only has faith
in Christ, but utilizes that faith by going again and again
and again to the throne of grace. He’s confessed his sins. He has
found forgiveness in Christ and Christ alone. He’s not trying
to earn his salvation by so many efforts on bloody knees as he
prays for others. There are none righteous. This
is the righteous one who is righteous only in the righteousness of
Christ. Psalm 145 19 says the Lord will
fulfill the desire of them that fear him. This is the one who
fears God. This is the one who reverences
God and lives in it and lays his plea before a sovereign God
in all faith. So Proverbs 15 8 says the prayer
of the upright is his delight. This is the one who’s saved.
This is the man who wants to live a righteous life, who wants
to rid his life of the sin that so easily entangles him. This
is the one that wants to do God’s will and wants to honor Christ. The prayer of the upright. Is
the prayer of the righteous. Psalm 66, 18, if I regard iniquity
in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. This is a man who has
confessed his sin. This is a man who has repented
of his sin. This is a man who is clean of
his sin and stands in the righteousness of Christ and may ask whatever
he will. And so not only. Is there this
extraordinary effort of prayer? There is not only this extraordinary
individual, but it leads obviously, as we’ve already noted, to extraordinary
results. It avails much. It availeth much,
as the older translations have it. It has a powerful effect. It can accomplish much. It is
working. It works. The arrow flies, and
it goes straight to the throne of grace, and it hits its mark.
We tell God exactly what we desire, and we leave it in God’s hands,
but it’s working. The effective prayer of a righteous
man can accomplish much. And this word, as I said, is
translated, so often works, effective. It’s working, depending on the
form of the verb. But a godly man’s petition is
powerful. He has access to Almighty God. He’s standing in Christ’s righteousness. He knows exactly for what to
pray. He lets the arrow fly. Are we
surprised that it’s effective? Are we surprised that it finds
its mark, that God hears and honors this prayer on so many
occasions according to his sovereign will? This prayer is strong. This prayer is effective. This
prayer is used by God actively for bringing about amazing victories. James has already told us that
we do not have because we do not ask. And I would suggest
to you, based on our study, that another truism is that we do
not have because we don’t ask specifically. We ask vaguely
or generally. James is saying here, draw an
arrow and let it fly, but make it be an arrow. There can be no doubt that there
are things for which if we do not ask of God based on his word,
if we do not ask of God specifically, they will not be supplied. Is
that frightening? This is the point stated in its
positive form. The opposite is even more profound.
If we ask, God will answer. If we ask, God will answer. And
James dials up perhaps the greatest illustration that he could ever
utilize to make his point. That the Christian, the righteous
man, in order to have an effective, effectual, faithful prayer life,
needs to persevere in it. And he gives us an example of
faithful prayer in action. Look at verse 17. Elijah was a man with a nature
like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. And it
did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And
he prayed again, and the sky poured forth rain, and the earth
produced its fruit. What a beautiful story. What
a beautiful testimony. It’s well worthy to note that
here in this epistle written by James, a Jew, two Jews, converts
to Christianity, that Elijah is now the fourth Old Testament
saint to be referenced. We have met already with Abraham
in chapter 2, 21 through 24. We’ve met with Rahab. Chapter two, verse twenty five,
we’ve met with Job, chapter five, verse eleven, and now we meet
with Elijah. And the mere mention of Elijah’s
name would have arrested the most ardent feelings and the
attention of any self-respecting Jew. Elijah was their guy. Or one of a very small class
of guys. Elijah was held to be an eminent
prophet by the Jews. He was very highly regarded by
Israel. One historian referred to Elijah
as the grandest and most romantic character that Israel ever produced. The record of his life on earth
is almost stuff of legend. It’s almost a fantasy. He says. But he also goes on,
proceeds to point out that sadly, exaggerated opinions developed
about Elijah, ascribing superhuman traits to him. And really in that sense, it’s
not unlike what the Roman Catholic Church has done to Mary. To the
point where most evangelicals don’t even want to mention Mary’s
name. They don’t want to read even the birth accounts that
mention her. Lest they be accused of the worship of Mary. Well. Perhaps and this was almost
unavoidable. Based on the fantastic stories
that are recorded of Elijah. Robert Johnstone says of Elijah,
the grandeur of his character, the stupendousness of his miracles. Remember, he prayed down fire
to shame the priests of Baal, fed by ravens, miraculously,
40 days and 40 nights on one meal. brought down fire from
heaven on the enemy troops. And then when all was nearing
the end, a flaming chariot arrived to escort him to heaven. I mean,
in a sense, we can understand it, can’t we? That’s what John
Stone is saying. No wonder the Jews embellished
him. No wonder. No wonder they made
him almost an idol. Johnstone continues and says,
the peculiar dignity with which Jewish superstition invested
him, especially the guardian of Israel, might almost place
him in the feelings of Jewish Christians in a class of beings
distinct from the human race. So that the power of his prayers,
no conclusion regarding ours could be fairly drawn. Did you
hear what Johnstone said? Elijah was so amazing. Elijah
was so powerful. Elijah was superhuman. How can
you equate our prayer life? How can you set up Elijah as
a model for our prayer? That’s the argument that James
is just going to destroy. Because he says. Elijah was a
man with a nature just like ours.” James’ whole point here is to
the very ones who might be tempted to attribute almost superhuman
qualities to this particular individual, and therefore to
dismiss the idea of having him serve as a model for anything. But especially not a model for
prayer. To do that would have set forth an impossible
standard for the average Christian. But to the people of that very
mindset, James reminds his readers that Elijah, after all, at the
end of the day was a mere man. Nothing more. He was human and
only human with all of our frailties and all of our failings. He was
subject to a sinful nature like you and I. All of our earthly
passions, all of our earthly weaknesses, he hungered for food
just like us. He had a temper just like us.
He became impatient just like us. He got weary just like us.
He had to bear the reproach of others just like us. The first
thing that James establishes then is how do you dare to revere
Elijah like a God when he was a man, he was flesh and blood
like you and I? Turn to the book of Acts if you
would for a moment. We call that upstairs balcony
on Wednesday night the scholar’s nest for our high school students
as we’re coursing through the book of Acts. And in Acts chapter
10, we had just finished this little story. Acts chapter 10,
if you would turn there. Cornelius has likely already
come to Christ. He’s certainly in process. He’s a Greek. He’s a Gentile. And so he sends his friends to
appeal to Peter to come and to visit him, and Peter does it.
Not only does Peter do it, Peter puts up his Gentile friends in
his own home. He nourishes them, cares for
them, and then travels with them the next day. Look, if you would,
at the second part of verse 23. And on the next day, he got up
and went away with them. Some of the brethren from Joppa
accompanied him. On the following day, he entered
Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for
them. He had called together his relatives
and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius
met him, fell at his feet, and worshiped him. But Peter raised
him up saying, stand up. I too am just a man.” Turn, if
you would, to Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14, here Paul is in view. At Lystra, verse 8, at Lystra,
a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from
his mother’s womb, who had never walked. This man was listening
to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him
and had seen that he had faith to be made well, said with a
loud voice, stand upright on your feet. And he leaped up and
began to walk. An amazing miracle. Verse 11,
when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice
saying in the Lycanian language, the gods have become like men
have come down to us. And they began calling Barnabas
Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The
priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside of the city,
brought oxen and garland to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice
with the crowds. It’s a chaotic scene. and Paul
seizes control of it. But when the apostles Barnabas
and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into
the crowd crying and saying, men, why are you doing these
things? We are also men of the same nature as you. Same exact
phrase that James uses. They would have none of this
hero worship. They would have none of this idolatry of men.
And that’s essentially what James says to the Jewish readers is,
don’t you dare make Elijah into an idol. He was a man just like
you. And nothing more. But James isn’t
just taking a shot at Elijah, not just wanting to whittle him
down. He has a purpose in saying what he has said. He’s about
to extol Elijah’s prayer life. And the human response to that
would be to dismiss it entirely. You can’t put Elijah up as a
model for our prayer. It’s Elijah. James essentially
says, yes, you’re right, it is Elijah. It’s a masterful argument. Elijah
can and should be used as an example for our prayer. He need
not be set aside as if he were so amazing, so gifted, so special
that we cannot emulate his prayer. That argument will not stand.
Elijah is our model for prayer. We can be called to pray like
Elijah. We can pray like him. We can enjoy the same results. The feeble argument of the near
Elijah worshipers will not stand. He was a man. With a nature like
ours. But watch what he did. Look at
verse 17, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed
earnestly that it might not rain. And it did not rain on the earth
for three years and six months. A lot of people noted that that
word earnestly there was often incorporated into the translations. Well, here’s a fascinating thing. James is presenting Elijah as
a model for our prayer, and he’s delving into the remarkable portion
of the history of the Kings, our Sunday school study, right?
I had to apologize to my brother last week, teaching through the
Kings, because I feared that if he were in this particular
passage, or really anywhere near it, that I might be stealing
his thunder, or in this case, his reign. James here zeroes in on chapters
17 and 18 of 1 Kings, but a careful student’s study of those particular
chapters presents us with a real problem. You see, Scripture doesn’t
record these prayers. We have no reason to doubt that
Elijah prayed. He was, after all, a praying
man. This is the very reason that
James is setting him forth as an example. But here, in 17 and
18 of 1 Kings, even in the very example that James has chosen,
there is no record of this prayer event. Now that you know where
1 Kings is, some of you, turn back to 1 Kings just briefly.
1 Kings chapter 17. 1 Kings 17, we come the closest
we will to a prayer event, it’s an interaction that Elijah has
with the Lord. 1 Kings 17, 1, now, Elijah the
Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, as the
Lord, the God of Israel lives before whom I stand, surely there
shall neither be dew nor rain these years except by my word.
Powerful statement, standing there in the face of Ahab. There’s
a strong, straightforward declaration that there will be no rain until
he says so. Powerful in and of itself, but
there’s no record of Elijah actually praying about such. Just this
bold declaration. It was disturbing to read, though,
some of the proposed suggestions to this problem. James says Elijah
prayed. Kings records no such prayer. Do you know several suggested
that James had merely gleaned from oral tradition by word of
mouth these stories about Elijah praying? And I tell you, that
is troubling. That just a mere story passed
along from generation to generation over the course of hundreds of
years suddenly inserted as scripture into scripture. That’s how some
people explained this discrepancy, alleged discrepancy. What damage would that do? to
our trustworthiness of God’s Word, of the veracity, the believability
of the very Word of God. Just a story passed along for
centuries, from time to time, and then presented as God’s Word. There was another suggestion
that was almost as bad as that one. Here the suggestion was
made that James here kind of reads between the lines, he reads
the story. and draws a conclusion, he guesses. He must have prayed. Must have
been a prayer. Elijah was a praying man. Stuff
happened, and so he must have prayed. And that, too, is a troubling suggestion.
Here’s how I would explain it. This is revelation upon revelation. This is James under the direction
of the Holy Spirit himself informing us of the behind the scenes details
of what actually occurred. And he says under the direction,
the influence, the authority of the Holy Spirit himself, Elijah
prayed. Elijah prayed. Look at verse 18. And he prayed again and the sky
poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. James, by the Holy
Spirit here, continues his revelation into this amazing illustration
of Elijah, that Elijah prayed and he prayed again. And you
know what? This prayer isn’t recorded either.
This is amazing. Revelation upon revelation. This
is James, by the Spirit, taking us back to the very scene and
uncovering details that weren’t uncovered the first time. We might have wondered about
Elijah’s prayer life. We might have conjectured as
such. We might have assumed that he prayed. We might have heard
people report it who knew a man who knew a man who knew a man
who was friends with a man who knew Elijah. And they said he
prayed. James here says, He tells us
what did happen. He knows that it happened. The
Spirit confirms that it happened. Elijah prayed and he prayed again. And here’s the scene upon which
James is commenting. Flip over to 1 Kings 18. In 1 Kings 18.1, now it happened
after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in
the third year saying, go show yourself to Ahab and I will send
rain on the face of the earth. There’s an interface between
Elijah and God, but there is no prayer of Elijah to God, not
recorded. Jump down to verse 41 if you
would. There is the promise of rain from God himself. Now Elijah
said to Ahab, go eat and drink for there’s a sound of roar of
heavy shower. So Ahab went up to eat and drink,
but Elijah went up on the top of Carmel and he crouched down
on the earth, put his face between his knees. And I would admit
to you, acknowledge to you that that is certainly the posture
of prayer, but there is no recorded prayer. He said to his servant,
go up now, look toward the sea. So he went up and looked and
said, there is nothing. And he said, go back seven times.
It came about at the seventh time that he said, behold, a
cloud as small as a man’s hand coming up from the sea. And he
said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down so that
the heavy shower does not stop you. In a little while, the sky
grew black with clouds and wind so that there was a heavy shower.
And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.” Well, we might all agree that
Elijah certainly took up the posture of prayer. But what James
informs us here about this incredible scene, that this drought, three years
of drought, now rain. was all due to Elijah’s prayer. James says that this was due
to one man’s faithful prayer. Just a man, but just a man who
prayed. As one characterized it, the
prophet prayed with much earnestness, with great vehemence, intenseness
of spirit. His prayer was fervent, it was
constant, it was importunate, it was continued until he had
an answer. That was Elijah’s prayer on this
particular occasion. And Kings doesn’t record that
earnestness. Kings doesn’t record vehemence
unless we read those things into the text of the account. But James declares it to be so.
Elijah was so dedicated, so devoted to the service of God that he
knew what God wanted in this particular situation. He knew,
he prayed, he persevered in his prayer. Perseverance. I don’t know whether I’ve left
you in Kings or in James, but somehow find yourself to the
gospel of Luke chapter 11 as we close. There are going to be circumstances
that come up in our life that call for different kinds of prayer,
even rejoicing before him, which is a form of prayer. There are
going to be occasions in our life where we need others to
come alongside and to pray for us and where we have the privileged
opportunity to come before God and pray for others. There are
going to be those circumstances in life where sin is the cause
and sin drops us to our knees. And there are those circumstances
in life where we need to persevere in prayer We find it in chapter 11, verse
five. Then he said to them, suppose
one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to
him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come
to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him. It’s
a common scene going to the neighbor for a cup of sugar. In this case,
three loaves of bread. From the outside, he answers
and says, do not bother me, the door has already been shut and
my children and I are in bed. Who wouldn’t say the same thing?
Go away, come back in the morning. I tell you, even though he will
not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, which
ought to be enough, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as
much as he needs. Do we need to pester God to move? Do we need to harass God by constantly
knocking on his door? Is that what it takes to move
God? No, but God honors faithfulness
in prayer. God honors a continued effort,
a faithful presentation of our need, an arrow prayer shot again
and again and again. Confession has been done. Other
means have been appropriated. And now the saint, the child
of God, must persevere in the most basic service that God has equipped him to
exercise, that of prayer. Would you humble yourself before
him? Our merciful King, We humble ourself before you
and we. We are not so foolish to think
that one. Quick course through a section
of scripture on prayer that we are now going to be equipped
fully. To know how to pray, but this
helps. This begins to help us and give us the tools. For prayer. So that we don’t
have to lament, we do not know how to pray. Lord God, we pray
that you would pour out your grace by your spirit in such
measure that we would be drawn to prayer, that we would persevere
in prayer, that we would be found faithful in it. Lord, we thank
you for this privilege. And if there are any here who
do not know Christ, who have not placed their faith in Christ,
No amount of crying up to God for anything will ever make him
attend to your prayers until you have attended to your sin
and repentance. Jesus Christ has already died
for sinners. Place your faith in Christ alone
for salvation. And access to the throne of grace
will be open to you. Lord, we thank you and praise
you in Jesus name. Amen.