Does God Promise to Heal?

Greetings and welcome once again to the midweek service coming from the Auditorium of Beacon Baptist Church on Kirkpatrick Road in Burlington, North Carolina. Thank you for joining us. It's good to hear from folks this afternoon who responded to my email reminding you of the service tonight and said you will be present at 7 o'clock to join us for this service. So thank you for being there.

Thank you for being here because we are together even though we are separated by miles. We are joined together by a common love for Christ, a common relationship to this body of Christ, and a desire, a common desire to exalt Him and to petition His throne in prayer, to worship Him, and prayer, and to talk about the work of the Gospel in other parts of the world and to consider together a portion of God's Word. All of these things we are endeavoring to do tonight. And so I would like to begin by bowing and asking the Lord to be present with us. Father, we are grateful to be called the Sons of the Living God. Blessed we are that Your Spirit worked in our hearts and caused us to respond to the Gospel appeal and to desire those spiritual things which are set before us in Christ. How grateful we are that we have a hunger for Your Word, a desire for righteousness which comes from Christ alone, to other saints of like precious faith, and to praise You together, and to lift our hearts together in prayer, and to join together around the Word of God to consider those things which You have spoken. We want to thank You, O Lord, that today the inauguration of our 46th president went smoothly.

No mayhem, no rioting, no disturbing of the peace. We are grieved at the disturbing of the peace that happened two weeks ago, and we thank You that nothing similar happened today in our nation's capital in Washington, nor apparently in any of the state capitals across the nation, where some thought that there might be a repeat of that rioting. Father, all of these are manifestations of our need of Your presence, of Your Word, of Your Spirit, of Your power, of Your grace. And so, Lord God, we pray that You will bring that to our nation. We pray for our president. We pray for all of our elected officials. We pray for those who rule over us that we might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness. And that is our desire, to lead a quiet and peaceable life, to lead our families in the paths of righteousness, to gather together with the saints of God, to be involved in the work of the gospel, and to be able to do so without fear and without disruption. Father, we are granted those great privileges to us in these United States of America for far more than 200 years. We can see that those are gracious privileges which must not be taken for granted, which we cannot assume will always be available to us. But Father, we are obedient in praying that by Your goodness You might extend those blessings to us. And so, Father, we lay that petition before Your throne tonight in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. We are continuing our present schedule of church services. Sunday morning, 930 people present. We're enjoying those times, having reasonably good attendance considering these days of COVID. And it's such a joy to be able to gather together with the assembly of the saints, people who are gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then on Sunday night at 6 o'clock and Wednesday night at 7 o'clock, we are coming to you from an empty auditorium without people present by way of live stream.

And we have done that in order to be mindful and careful in regard to the COVID crisis, which has come to our nation and indeed around the world. Here in our church services on Sunday morning, we endeavor to practice social distancing. We have marked off every other pew in the auditorium so we don't get too close together. Family units, of course, are invited to sit close together, but otherwise to maintain a six-foot distance. We do not shake hands, as difficult as it is for us to avoid that, but we do not do that.

We either fist bump or elbow bump. We wear masks, and we do what we can to not encourage the spread of COVID. It has touched the lives of a number of people. We're grateful that here in this church that we have had a good many people who have experienced COVID, I myself being one of them. Nobody's had a serious case. Nobody's been hospitalized. Everyone seems to be doing well. I can tell you that in my case, I am recovering, but I can also tell you that the lingering effects of fatigue, lack of energy, lack of stamina, seem to hang on for quite a while.

And that's basically what I'm dealing with now. I don't have the same level of energy that I'm accustomed to enjoying, but I have enough to be able to carry on the ministry that God has given to me and to fulfill the responsibilities of which are mine day by day. I will also mention that we are going to be conducting our annual congregational meeting on the first Wednesday night in February in the auditorium at 715. We regret not being able to meet in the fellowship hall and to have our wonderful catered meal that we've had every year for so many years. But because of COVID, we are meeting in the auditorium, practicing the same COVID protocol that we do on Sunday morning.

But we do invite all Beacon members to be present for that important annual congregational meeting. Now let me go over some of the prayer requests that are on the other side of our sheet tonight. And we begin with some praises. We're thankful that Cheryl Ingalls' cousin, Michael Philippi, has recovered from COVID. We're grateful that Art Pope had a favorable result from his MRI.

What a blessing that is. We're grateful that Brenda Blanchard's brother-in-law, Mark Reif, is doing well from COVID. We are grateful that Geraldine Smith, the mother of Jerry Holt, is back in her regular room at Twin Lakes. And we're grateful to report that Missionary Stuart Waugh did arrive safely in Zimbabwe. He was transported there by private airplane and he is there and is being able to spend some time with his family and with the pastors, of which there are 10 who are currently recognized as pastors in the churches there and others who are in training because the Lord is blessing and new groups are springing up, new churches are being planted.

Our government official of the week is Gibsonville alderman Ken Pleasance. We are undergirding Marseille Councilman in prayer as she's facing her second eye surgery on February 2. We're grateful that May Counts is doing better from COVID, getting strength day by day.

And if she continues to feel well, I think she's going to be traveling to Florida to spend some time with her son, Randy. We continue to pray for Drew Guthrie recovering from cancer and COVID and for Larry Hunter, who's recovering from a recent procedure. And the report is that no additional cancer was discovered with him.

And we thank the Lord for that. After the removal of two tumors from his bladder, we are adding John Kosovich to our prayer sheet, who has tested positive for COVID on Monday. We are praying for Danny Boehm, who was injured in a work accident.

He is the husband of a lady who has worked with Carl Hinshaw, a member of our church, for 30 plus years. And Danny and his wife, Edna, are believers. And Danny is still in ICU in critical condition. But the bleeding in his brain seems to have stopped and he seems to have stabilized.

The doctors are trying to get him breathing on his own. So please pray that the Lord might grant that desire. We're praying for Rodney Mahan and his health issues. This request given to us by Pastor Bob Latour. We're praying for Jack Petry, who is back in assisted living in Pittsburgh, and for Jean Ferris, the mother of Wendy Lynch, 95 years old, I think, today or yesterday. She had her 95th birthday and had a broken hip and had surgery and is now recovering. We're praying for Keith Czarmeski, who has a serious health need.

This is a friend or acquaintance of Leslie Fanon's son, Joel, who lives in Canada, manages a large farm there. And this man passed out at work last week and has a serious heart condition. And he's in the hospital. Please continue to pray for him. We're praying for Pastor Mark Stevens, who is battling COVID, and for Lee Vestal, who has some health issues that took him back to the hospital last week.

And he's continuing to deal with those issues. We are praying for missionary Mike Webster as he's battling COVID cancer. And we are praying for the family of Edith Newsome Linens, who is an aunt of Tommy Blanchard, who passed away. And we are praying for Dawn Hammond, the daughter of Eddie and Clara Driver, who is recovering from additional cancer surgery that she had a few days ago. And for Kathy Rhodes-Cousin, who is battling cancer.

Her name is Kay Wasara and is in a long-term facility. And we're also praying for Naomi Williams, the mother of Amy Freeman, and David Williams, her father, both of whom have significant health needs. We will call these needs to the attention of Almighty God.

He doesn't need us to call them to his attention, for he knows all about them. But that is the nature of prayer, and that is what he delights in our doing, and we'll do that at the end of the service. Now I'll read a few communications from missionaries, beginning with this note from Herb and Wanda Taylor of Hispanic Ministries USA. Dear Pastor Barkman and Beacon Family, it is with hearts of gratitude to our God that we share these brief words of thanks with you, our dear friends and partners of the ministry. We especially want to thank you for your recent Christmas financial gift of $275. Your kindness and gracious gifts and prayers have warmed our hearts and enabled this work for many years. We thank you, and we thank our God upon every remembrance of you. May God bless your work of labor as you seek to serve him. From missionaries, Anthony and Jamie, Valhalla. I'm having a little trouble. This is the COVID effect. I'm a little sluggish.

I'm having a little trouble with these things coming quickly to mind. But anyway, the Valhalla's right from the Czech Republic. Dear Beacon Baptist Church, we thank God for your faithful prayers and your generous giving that enable us to continue to minister here in the Czech Republic. May you be filled with great hope and joy as you celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ this Christmas season. Merry Christmas from the Valhalla's.

Anthony, Jamie, Hannah, Rachel, Sarah, Joshua, Isaiah, Samuel, and Esther. Their Christmas card arrived a little late, January 20, as a lot of Christmas cards did. Our own Christmas cards, which were mailed, I'd say at least a week or more before Christmas. Some of those didn't arrive until several weeks later.

The mail seems to be running slowly these days. Mary Shaw, precious, precious member of our church, writes, Dear friends, I would like to thank everyone for your many thoughts and prayers for food brought or cards sent my way. It is so nice to know that we don't go through our struggles alone.

God is faithful and so are my Beacon friends. I continue to recover from my October reverse total shoulder replacement surgery. The surgery was the exact opposite of the replacement surgery performed on my left shoulder back in 2000. The recovery and therapy is also different than before, but I am seeing improvement. I'm supposed to get back to normal within a year's time.

Lord willing, I will get good use of that arm and will be able to drive again within the next few months. I can thank you for caring for me in the ways you do and for continuing to keep me in your prayers. God is so good in him, signed Mary Shaw. Josh and Amy Jensen did serve in Cambodia. Right, dear Pastor Barkman and the folks at Beacon. Amy and I want to thank you for the generous Christmas gift in December. The timing was a blessing as we were spending time and money in Phnom Penh in November and December so Amy could give birth there. We thank you too for your faithful prayers and support for our ministry, something that we do not take for granted. We hope the church had a good Christmas season and that your New Year is starting well. As you know, our holiday season was quite eventful and we're thanking God for his gift of a new baby.

Mike is healthy and generally quite content. He recently started looking very attentively at our faces and even smiling sometimes. As we start the New Year, some things will stay the same. Amy will continue homeschooling the kids while caring for Micah. I'll continue working on Genesis with our translation team and hope to start moving a bit faster. Tomorrow we're hoping to all be back at Jaira Church together as a family, the first time since February.

And we hope by the end of the month to have started back our Neighborhood Bible Club. We appreciate your prayers for us. May God's peace be with you all, Josh and Amy Jensen.

This letter comes to us from Randy Cornelius, who operates the radio station in Grenada, Harbor Light. He writes, Dear Pastor Barkman and Saints at Beacon, Christian's greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for your broadcasts and faithful prayer support to Harbor Light.

We praise the Lord for his faithfulness to his word and to his work through his dear people. I trust you are all well and continue to see God's hand protecting you and providing for you. Thank you so much for your faithful prayers for us. Thank the Lord we are still able to function normally as an essential service amidst the emergency powers that have been enacted to protect public health.

Listeners on some of the other islands are in much more severe situations of restriction, which is causing fear and frustration. Pray that our radio programming will not only calm minds and hearts, but that the word of God will find good soil to grow and produce fruit for God's glory. We are using many encouraging scripture verses scattered throughout the programming, urging listeners to know the Lord through his word in a deeper way and to trust him more. May God fill us and empower us to live the golden righteousness of Christ each day, a blessed new year in the Lord to you in Christ.

Signed, Randy Cornelius. And my final missionary letter, I'm checking to make sure it is in fact the final one, and it is, comes to us from Armando and Sarah Borsini in Rome, Italy. The letter itself is about four pages long. I will read a portion of it and then I'll probably do some skipping around rather than reading all of it. But we are privileged to have the Borsinis in our missions budget, part of our missions family.

I think we added them at the beginning of last year, if I'm not mistaken. Sarah Borsini is the daughter of Renato Giuliani, who is a missionary in Rome that we have supported for many years. And his daughter Sarah is now married to Armando, a man that God raised up in the church who is gifted in the area of translation and is very much involved in the work of publishing and distributing good books in the Italian language. Now with that in mind, I will begin reading the letter. Dear brothers and sisters, this is our third letter of 2020, a very difficult year, but our God never changes.

His love for his children never alters, and his sovereignty is always absolute over every event in history. We can truly find comfort under his wings. We've had a very busy month, above all because both my parents contracted COVID, and my mother in particular has had painful symptoms for more than a month. Even if we could not meet them in person, we tried to make them feel our closeness by buying them groceries, making phone calls, video calls, and with our daily prayers.

I'm grateful to God that both of them are now better. For about a month and a half, I had the responsibility to lead our church services while Renato and Cherie were in the states. As I shared from the scriptures, I felt a blessed encouragement as the church participated in pondering the truths of God's word. We focused on the main features of true faith, the meaning of walking in the Spirit. And there was no lack of evangelistic appeals as the one focusing on the meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman carried on her commitment with our little girls, or Sarah, rather, carried on her commitment with the little girls of our church in Sunday school.

We are so grateful for the good fruits we are starting to see. I had the responsibility to lead our Thursday meetings during which, as a church, we shared some thoughts from Paul Tripp's book on suffering. They have been and continue to be important and blessed meetings. And then he gives a report on his work of translation. He says, after working on Finding God in a World Fleeing from the Truth by Paschal and Suffering by Paul Tripp, God enabled me to finish two other books. One of them is a new book, William Carey, Missionary to India, translator of the Bible and social reformer by F.D. Walker, translated for this first time in Italian in 1956.

This book needed to be corrected and revised using the original English text and updated in the English language. To enrich the book, Renato also added some beautiful extracts from Carey's diary and letters. Please pray that this book will be read by many believers and churches in Italy. Yesterday we received the printed copies of the commentary on the first letter to the Corinthians, written by Peter Martyr Vermingli, born in 1499 and died in 1562, the most important Italian theologian of the Protestant Reformation, along with Jerome Zankius. Our text includes all of his comments on chapters 12 through 14, which of course deals with the question of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. My work consisted in translating its Latin text into Italian.

I'm amazed at the gifts that God gives some people to be able to do that. Our hope and prayer is that this important book will especially reach our Pentecostal brothers in Italy. After Christmas, I will work together with Renato on the translation and revision of the book The God Who Was There by Francis Schaeffer. This book is not easy to translate and revise due to the many compounded expressions and vital concepts.

In the meantime, I also continue translating the commentary of Paul's letter to the Ephesians by Italian reformer Jerome Zankius, originally written in Latin. We plan on publishing it in two volumes, the first one in the summer of 2021. And then he goes on to list some future projects.

I'm not going to list them here. We'll be getting word on those as they unfold. And then he writes this final word and says, My wife and I are very grateful to every one of you. We are privileged to be instruments in God's hand in the field of Christian literature and co-workers in his work in Italy. We want to thank you for your love, encouragement and prayer. Finally, please pray for our financial situation. Although the Lord moved new brothers and new churches to support our publishing ministry in Italy, most of that new financial support did not increase our income, as it was used to alleviate the very substantial and sacrificial commitment which both the publishing house and our dear local church in Italy have been supporting us with.

Our present monthly income is seventeen hundred dollars, which is about fifty seven percent of the total needed. Our God can do all things, and we are certain that in his timing he will provide for all of our necessities. God bless you.

Now, one final word. Because of the good response to our faith promise project for 2021, we saw an ability to increase our missions budget for the new year by more than eleven thousand dollars. And we'll be presenting that proposal in our annual congregational meeting on the first Wednesday in February. If you're a member, we look for you to be here. And one of the many missionaries that we will be increasing support to are the Borsinis. They're obviously in need of it.

We're grateful that we are in a position to be able to do that this year. And this year of COVID that the Lord would graciously enable us to increase, not decrease our missionary giving. I read another letter today. I don't have it in front of me from a missionary, and I won't identify that missionary right now, but who said that he knows of many missionaries whose support has been decreased because churches and Christians in these days of COVID were not able to maintain their previous level of support.

But he said in his case, he has not had a single supporter who has dropped out or decreased their support. What a blessing. What a testimony to the goodness of God. Now, we're going to take up a very interesting and challenging text today in the fifth chapter of the book of James that deals with the subject of divine healing and what are God's instructions relating to healing for today, because there's a lot of misunderstanding and confusion about that subject.

I am reading James chapter 5 verses 13 through 16. 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.

There's the text we want to examine today. God's instructions for healing the illnesses of new covenant believers. This is the question of divine healing as applied to the church today. We know that God can heal. We know that there have been periods of time when God has poured out a great measure of miraculous healings. Certainly some of that in the Old Testament, more of that in the New Testament, in the ministry of Christ as he healed the multitudes again and again and again and again. And in the early years of the spread of the church after Christ went back to heaven, the apostles and others had the ability to heal. And God used Paul and Peter and others to do exactly that.

And he had a purpose in that. Because of these records, particularly those found in the book of Acts, some have concluded that this is God's normal way of operating for all times and all ages. And if we only had enough faith, we would be seeing examples of the same kind of healing today. The text we're looking at today, I think, is going to challenge that erroneous assumption. Because something is recorded in God's word does not necessarily mean that it's normative.

That is that God intends for that to be the situation in all times and all places. If you read through the Bible with this thought in mind, you will realize that the times when God poured out miraculous healings upon men were relatively few. Sometimes we get the idea that this was going on all the time. If you read the Old Testament, you don't find much of that at all until you come to the days of Moses and the Exodus, and then we find a great number of miracles being performed. And some continuation of that in the days of Joshua, though, to a lesser extent. But then there is a vast period, hundreds of years, where you find very, very little of that going on until you come to the days of Elijah, the prophet. And during the days of Elijah, followed by Elisha, there were many such miracles performed.

There was a great outpouring of this kind of activity once again. But that also came to a stop after Elisha passed off the scene, and you don't find much of that in the remainder of the Old Testament. In fact, you don't find much of that again until you come to the New Testament and the ministry of Jesus, followed by the apostles. So this is not something that we read about going on continuously from Genesis through Revelation, through all times, to all peoples. That's really not the case at all if you study the Bible carefully with the question in mind, when did these things occur and when did they not occur? You'll find that there actually were many periods where such miracles did not occur that were much longer, much more extended than the shorter periods when these things did occur. Well, with that in mind, we're going to come back to our text in James chapter 5 because this addresses healing for the church today. This is the only place where we have a prescription for how to apply for divine healing.

All of these records in the book of Acts, in the gospels and in the book of Acts, don't give any instructions, don't give any prescriptions, don't say, if you want to be healed the way these people were healed by Jesus, if you want to be healed in the way that these people were healed by Peter or by Paul, then all you have to do is ask, and that's what will happen. We don't find anything like that until we come to James chapter 5. And this challenging text which not only answers some questions but almost raises more questions than it answers.

And so it needs to be looked at and we'll try to be able to do that in the limited time that we have tonight. Well, in looking at the text by way of overview, what do we see? We see that James talks about three different situations with three different remedies. Verse 13, is anyone among you suffering? That's situation number one.

And what's the response to that? Let him pray. Number two, is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

That's a proper response to that. And then number three, 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 so forth. So three situations with three different remedies.

Number one, suffering. The remedy is to pray. And this evidently is your own private prayer. This is what you are to do if you are suffering. Suffering is not detailed for us as to exactly what he means by suffering.

But the word that is used is the same word that is used in verse 10. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Suffering. Is anyone among you suffering?

Let him pray. So the first situation is suffering that can involve all kinds of suffering. It could be persecution.

It could be financial loss. But it could and probably also involves physical suffering. In other words, some kinds of illness or injury that doesn't quite fit into the same category as the illness and injury that we come to in verses 14 and 15. But when there is suffering of a multiplicity of kinds, the remedy is you pray. Private prayer. The second situation is, is anyone cheerful?

You'd be surprised to find that put there. But you see, James is dealing here with what we would call the normal vicissitudes of life. And what are vicissitudes?

Well, vicissitudes are the fluctuations, the alternating changes of life. And all of us have times when we have periods of suffering of various kinds and natures. And other times when we are filled with joy and blessing and we are cheerful. And James says, when you are suffering, the remedy is to pray.

When you are cheerful, the response is to sing. In both cases, you direct your response to God and you worship God. But in the first case, you worship God by your prayers as you're asking him to help you with the suffering, certainly to relieve the suffering.

Nothing wrong praying that way. But in many cases, to pray for strength, to pray for grace, to pray for patience, to pray for persevering faith. And when you are cheerful because of physical blessings that have come into your life, the response to that is worship God and singing. Sing, sing, Psalms is the word that is used here by James. And Psalming, singing Psalms originally meant singing to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. That's kind of an aside, but there are those who insist that in the New Testament, instruments are not used in corporate worship as they were in the Old Testament. We are to sing without instruments, according to the instructions in Ephesians and Colossians, to worship the Lord with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. But I just simply remind those who think that way that the very word Psalm means, certainly meant originally, a song accompanied by a stringed instrument. You can't sing Psalms in the original sense without a stringed instrument. I'm sure actually you can sing Psalms without a stringed instrument. You can sing them a cappella, but you understand what I'm saying.

If you're going to do it in the way that is indicated by the word itself, you will need a stringed instrument to do that. And so I and most Christians have concluded that though there's not a lot of mention of instrumental music in New Testament worship, it's not absent totally, and it's certainly not God dishonoring. It would seem strange that instrumental music would be so honoring to God in the Old Testament, and I mean it is so prominent there, and would be so honoring to God when we get to heaven.

Read the book of Revelation. And what you've got, if you omit it from this period, this New Covenant age, what you've got is the Old Testament is the dispensation of musical instruments. Heaven is another dispensation of musical instruments, and this period is a dispensation of no musical instruments. I think that's probably a misunderstanding, but at any point, the response to blessings that bring joy to your heart is to worship God with singing. And praying and singing are two activities of worship to God, and one is as much worship to God as the other, and one is as much expected by God from us as the other. When God brings suffering into our lives, that's a prompting to pray. Hopefully, surely, that's not the only time we pray. We should have regular times of prayer all throughout our life. But when there are times of suffering, that reminds us of our weakness, our need, and reminds us to be fervent in our prayers, and that honors God as we worship Him in our praying. And when we have times of special blessing, we honor God with our singing. Don't be one of these Christians who is reluctant to sing.

I don't see many of them in our church, but from time to time, when I see the congregation joining our hearts and voices together in song, I'll see someone who is standing silently and not joining in the singing. And I would say you will be more honoring to God if you will worship Him in singing as well as worship Him in praying. But there's a third situation in the book of James, and that is instructions for cases of serious illness. First, are you suffering? Pray. Second, are you cheerful?

Sing songs. Third, 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 effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The implication of verse 14 and 15 is that this is a serious illness in view, more serious than what would be included under the word suffering in verse 13, which could also include sickness of a milder nature, but this is more serious. Here the word sick is different than, well, the word in verse 13 is not sick anyway, it's suffering. But here the word sick carries the idea of weakness, a debilitating sickness that makes you very weak, it's a broad word. And the context indicates serious, even life-threatening illness, something greater than the suffering of verse 13, something apparently that has left this person bedridden, because the instructions that follow indicate that he can't go anywhere, but he calls for the elders of the church to come to him, and they pray over him in the name of the Lord.

This pictures someone in their bed and the elders praying over the top of that person lying in their bed. This indicates serious, even life-threatening illness. And what are the instructions in the case of this kind of serious illness? This is real weakness, this is something that a person could die from, it's got them on the bed, they can't get up, but if God doesn't heal, they may never get up, they may very well die. And the instructions here are for this sick person to call for the elders of the church.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. Notice that the sick person takes the initiative to call for the elders. That's different from many of the so-called faith healers in our day who will have campaigns and crusades in which they call upon people to come to where I am, come to my crusade, come to my church, come here, and in this place you will be healed. You will come here and we will deal with your illness. I have the gift of healing to heal you.

Well, none of that here. Here the sick person calls for the elders of the church, common, everyday, ordinary elders, no indication here of someone with a special gift of healing, but he calls for the elders of the church to come to him. The elders of the church of which he is a member.

Churches have pastors. That's what the word elder is, pastor. An elder is a one who has pastoral responsibilities to the congregation. This sick person is a member of a congregation that has elders who have responsibility to the members of the congregation, and he calls for the elders of the church. Christians who do not belong to a local church are in a bind when it comes to following the privileges and promises of this text, but here the sick person calls for the elders of the church of which he is a member. Now the question is why is he instructed to call for the elders of the church, and there have been various answers to that question, and I will tell you of the various ones I'm aware of which one I think is correct. Some say, well, he calls for the elders of the church because the elders are the leaders and the representatives of the church, and this is actually a way of calling upon the whole church to pray for him, but of course the elders being the leaders are the ones that communicate that need to the church. Well, there's no reason for him to call the elders of the church for that to be done. He could send a message to the elders wherever they are to announce this need at the next meeting of the church. This really doesn't seem to meet the situation. Some think that he calls for the elders of the church because they should be more able to heal than a regular church member.

I don't accept that. As I say, there's no indication here that these elders have any special gift of healing. They are the elders of the church. Why then does this person call for the elders of the church?

Well, because, as the text goes on to indicate, there seems to be something here that is particularly of a pastoral nature. There is something here that requires the elders, the spiritual leaders of the church, to become involved with this person on a level that requires their involvement. And when the elders come, they are to perform two tasks, to pray for him over him, implies his bedridden situation, and to anoint him with oil.

Back to verse 14, 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. It seems to be that the anointing of oil and praying are carried out simultaneously. There's no specific instructions given in regard to the oil, presumably olive oil, but that to do this in the name of the Lord, that is as the representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pause to say that for many years I had a little bottle of olive oil that I bought at the grocery store, and I kept it in my church closet just for this occasion, for those times when members of the church would call for the elders of the church to come and pray for them, anointing them with oil.

In all of the 47 years that I've been here, I think that's only taken place two or three times. It's not very often that people make this request, probably because this passage is so ambiguous. Things are not clear, and it's just something that people, without having clear instructions of exactly what's going on, they're not sure if they fit into the context, into the requirements, into the instructions and qualifications that are given in this text. But the elders are to come and to anoint this person with oil and to pray for them. The question is, what is the purpose of the oil? I think we understand what the purpose of the prayer is.

They pray for him to be healed. What's the purpose of the oil? Some have said, well, it's medicine. Well, oil isn't going to have a medicinal value for very many sicknesses, maybe some occasional ones. But if you are calling for someone to come and apply medicine, you'd better call for the doctor, not for the elders.

The elders don't have any particular skill at medical practice. So, no, not a medicinal purpose. Some have said, well, the oil is applied to stimulate faith, like Jesus put clay on the eyes of the blind man on one occasion.

He didn't do that very often, didn't do that regularly, but on one occasion he did that. So oil stimulates the faith of the person who is sick. Well, I think a better understanding of the oil is that it is used, and I'm going to insert a word here that we Baptists don't use very often, but it is used in a sacramental way.

What do I mean by that? It's symbolic. I think it's symbolic of the Holy Spirit, and it is symbolic of consecration. It is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. It is a symbolic way of saying, if any healing is done, it's going to be done by God. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. It's also a symbol of consecration. Kings, priests, even utensils used in the temple were consecrated by the anointing of oil, and the indication seems to be this is consecrating this person. If God heals him, then he is wholly dedicated to God. It's a fresh dedication of this life, this life that probably will end unless God intervenes.

If God extends the life, then what is the purpose of God extending that life so that that life will be given in consecrated service to God, and the oil is a symbol of that. But the results of this procedure in verse 15 are puzzling, because when this is done, physical healing is assured and forgiveness of sins is promised, and the two are linked together in a challenging way. 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. God will save the sick, not he may or may not. God will raise him up, not he may or may not.

And if he's committed sins, he will be forgiven. Now, I think this points to something that is not general, but more specific in this situation, which helps answer the question why the elders are called, and also, I think, reflects upon the nature of this illness. How do you explain this unqualified promise of healing? Paul, who had the gift of healing, was not himself healed of his infirmity in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Trophimus, who was an assistant, a co-worker with Paul, was not healed.

He was left in Trophimus sick. If, in fact, this remedy can be applied to any and every illness, as it applies to all Christians who will institute this passage, then the result would be that no Christian would ever die. If all employed this method, and if the promise is universal in all situations, the Lord will save the sick, the Lord will raise him up. But it's obvious from Scripture that it's not always God's will to heal, so this strong promise of healing must be connected with something that is more restricted, more particular, and I think there is a relationship between healing and the forgiveness of sins that has to be understood here, sort of connecting the dots that are not clearly connected in the passage.

His sins will be forgiven. This could, therefore, be speaking about someone who is under church discipline because of sin, and now they confess their sins and they are restored to the fellowship of the church, and the chastening of God, which is the physical affliction that has come upon them, along with the discipline, is now lifted. There are other passages that relate church discipline to physical infirmities and even death. So, church discipline, a situation where the person who is sick is known to have been in sin, is publicly being chastened for it, and everyone can see that, or situations where a person has been committing sin that may not be known by others, but it needs to be confessed, the elders are brought in, the confession of sin is made to them so that they can deal with this person properly, and so I think that's the situation that is in view and probably why more people do not employ this passage because it seems to be related to sin that is of a serious nature, that has broken fellowship with the church, or would do that if it were known, but this remedy can be applied. The elders, the pastors of the church, are the ones who are to deal with this sinning brother, and if he will confess his sin and forsake it, and they pray for him, the Lord will raise him up, because his sickness is chastening for his sin.

I think that's the explanation. And so, this doesn't apply to every situation, but it does apply to some, and if anyone is in that situation, and you want to be healed and restored, rather than continue in your affliction and perhaps eventual death, then these are the instructions. You must humble yourself, you must acknowledge your guilt, your sin, you must seek the forgiveness of God and restoration to the church, and you must ask the leaders of the church to pray for you, and when they do, you will be forgiven and you will be healed. And now we pray. Father, we thank you for answered prayer in regard to Michael Philippi, an art pope, and Mark Reif, and Geraldine Smith, and Stuart Waugh and his safe arrival to Zimbabwe. We pray for our government officials, all of them, from the president on down.

We pray for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. We also pray for Gibsonville Aldermen, Ken Pleasance, that you might uphold this one and give him wisdom and guidance in his place of leadership. We pray for Marsai Councilman as she faces surgery, for May Counts recovering from COVID, Drew Guthrie battling cancer and recovering from COVID, Larry Hunter recovering from his recent surgery, John Kacevich battling with COVID, and Art Pope with his COPD and swollen glands. We pray for Danny Boehm, who's had this serious work-related injury.

We thank you for sustaining him through the weekend, and we pray that you might continue to minister to him and help him to breathe on his own. We pray for Rodney Mann. We pray for Jack Petry. We pray for Jean Ferris. We pray for Keith Sarmoski. We pray for Pastor Mark Stevens. We pray for Lee Vestal. And we pray for the family of Edith Lenins. We thank you that Dawn Hammond came through her recent surgery, and we pray for her recovery. We pray for Josh Boyd, the son of Angela and Thad Boyd, that you might minister to him.

He has very serious needs. We pray for Kay Wasara and for Naomi and David Williams. We pray for Betty Duncan, and thank you for a report that she is feeling better at this time, and also for Ruth Patterson in Reedsville. Lord, we pray for ourselves. Give us hearts that long for you, that thirst for your word, that hunger for righteousness. For these things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.