Well, would you open your Bibles, please? At James chapter 5, we’re learning about faith, which is the bond of a living union between a believer and Jesus Christ in which the believer comes to love and trust and serve Him. And in this series, we’re looking at the anatomy of faith. We’re learning together from the Scriptures what faith actually does. And using the image of the human body, we have been learning together that faith has ears hearing the Word of Christ. Faith has hands serving with the love of Christ. Faith has a mouth that feeds on the bread of Christ. And last week, we saw faith has a voice declaring the praise of Christ. Today I want us to look at the subject of prayer. Very obviously following the image of the anatomy, faith has knees praying in the name of Christ. Prayer is a fruit of faith, it is an evidence of faith, it is an expression of faith, and there is no true prayer without faith. The Bible says very clearly in Hebrews chapter 11, anyone who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. So prayer is impossible without faith, it is merely words apart from faith. Anyone who comes to Him, anyone who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. It is faith that prays, unbelief never does, it merely talks. And, God has given to us astonishing promises in regard to prayer. Let me remind you of seven of perhaps the most striking statements in the New Testament with regards to prayer. Of which the passage that we have read from James chapter five is one. But let’s begin with the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 18. Listen to the power of these promises. And then I’m going to ask a question how do we use them? And how do we apply them? Number one from Matthew 18 and verse 19 and 20, So Jesus said if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. John chapter 14 in verse 13, John chapter 14 in verse 14, the very next verse, do it. John Chapter 15 in verse 16, John Chapter 16 in verse 23. Number five, Jesus says, repeating the same words. Number six, first John Chapter 5 in verse 14. This is the confidence that we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. That’s 1 John 5, 14. And then number seven, the passage that we read from James, in chapter five, The Lord will raise him up. Now folks, just to take in the scope of this, these are astonishing promises of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. How are we to use these promises? What does it mean for you, for us to pray with faith? How can you do that? Because faith prays. Now, as we come to the subject today, I have to tell you, there are many Christians who, at least in my experience over these years, have become perplexed, have become confused, troubled over how to use these promises. So just as we come to this, I want to describe a situation that as a pastor I’ve seen many times, too many times, and I think you will recognize it and you will understand it and it will frame for us what we are trying to learn from the Scriptures today. A loved one becomes ill. The illness is serious. The family begin to pray. Perhaps you have been in this situation. I expect you have. Over time the situation becomes worse. Someone says, you know, if only we had more faith we could move the hand of God and we would get the answer. As the praying goes on, there is an increasing sense that life and death itself lies in the hands of those who pray. Faith is no longer about trusting God. Somehow faith has become about us managing to convince ourselves that what we look for to happen is actually going to take place. Then if it does not happen, one of two things will most likely result, and possibly both. One is that you blame yourself. I’ve heard this so many times if only I had greater faith my loved one might have lived. Friend, that is a crushing burden. The other one, and it can go along with blaming yourself, is of course to resent God. If God really cared, if God even listened, my loved one would have lived, and friend, that too is a crushing burden. Either way, I hope you see what has happened, that where this happens in a person’s experience, and as I say, I’ve seen it happen many times. What has happened is that the person has put themselves in the place of God, and whenever we try to take the place of God, we assume a burden that we cannot bear. So I’m asking the question out of a heartfelt concern to understand the Scriptures and for us to use them because these promises are given to us. So what does it mean to pray with faith? That’s the question that is before us today, and I want to show you from the Bible that faith prays in two ways. Faith prays with assurance, and faith prays with submission, and these two kinds of prayer, and they’re distinct, we’re going to see them together today, these two kinds of prayer are given to us for different situations, and discerning how to pray is critical as we seek to engage in this marvelous gift that God has given to us. It is important that we know how to use these gifts of prayer and that we learn to distinguish between them. Now, just so you know where we’re going, I’ll give you the two headings and then we’ll plunge into the first. But here are the two. Faith prays with assurance where God has made the outcome known. That’s the first. And second, faith prays with submission where God has kept the outcome hidden. These are the two things that I want to try and show you from the scriptures with the great desire that this will be helpful to all of us as we seek to grow in the faith that prays. So let’s begin here and I hope you have your Bible open at James chapter 5, that faith prays with assurance when God has made the outcome known. Now, James gives us an example of this kind of prayer that he’s describing in James and chapter 5. And the example that he chooses is the story of Elijah. So let’s begin with the example at verse 17. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Now many of you will know the story well already, you can read about it in first Kings and chapter 17 and chapter 18. Ahab was a wicked king, an evil king. And among God’s people there had been a great rebellion and a turning to idolatry. And Elijah prayed that it would not rain. He must have been very sure that what he was praying would happen. Because in one Kings in chapter 17 in verse one, we are told that Elijah went right into the court of Ahab, the tyrant. And he says face to face to Ahab, it’s not going to rain on the land. Now you have to be pretty confident about what you’re praying about in order to say that to a tyrant king. Elijah prayed and he knew that what he prayed would happen. Now the question, of course, is how did he know? I think we can answer that by looking at what happened three and a half years later that James also tells us about here in verse 18. One Kings in chapter 18 tells us that after a long time in the third year after three years of the drought, the word of the Lord came to Elijah. Go and present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the land. In other words, God says the word of the Lord comes to this man and God says, there will be rain. And on the basis of this promise, Elijah calls Ahab and Ahab comes to Elijah. It’s so interesting that it’s that way around. And Elijah prayed for rain and had great assurance when he prayed because God had told him that this would happen. Now, that’s how it happened. When the rain returned, it seems reasonable to assume that it was the same three years earlier when the rain stopped. What happens here? God tells Elijah what will happen and so Elijah prays with great assurance with great confidence because God has already made the outcome known. Now, James uses this to illustrate the kind of praying that he describes in verse 14 and 15. Look at what he says. Is any of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. Let me give four observations on these remarkable verses. Number one, the initiative is with the sick person, not with the elders. Number two, the sick person is not required to call the elders, but he or she is permitted to do so. This is something that a person who is ill may do. Number three, God may use this occasion when the elders gather with someone who is sick to give an assurance of the outcome so that they are able to pray what James calls the prayer of faith. In other words, to pray in the same way as Elijah, who is the illustration dead. It would seem to me therefore that just making a fourth observation that a person should consider calling for the elders especially if and when they sense that it may be the purpose of God to intervene in their life with a gift of healing. Let me give you an illustration just from my own experience of an occasion where I witness this myself, and I’ve chosen one intentionally from a good number of years ago because history gives distance which enables you to make a better assessment of what has happened in these kinds of situations. I’m thinking about a lady who worshipped with her husband and with her son and daughter-in-law in the church that I served in London for 16 years. She was diagnosed with cancer. She asked for the elders to come, as James describes here in chapter five, and to pray with her. So I went to her home with another elder. I’ll never forget the occasion, it was Christmas Eve. And I said to her, now, I will anoint you with oil as it says here, and then we will pray, and if you want to pray, you should feel free to do so, and said the same to her husband. I anointed her with oil. I began to pray, and then the other elder prayed. Then this lady began to pray. Now I have to tell you, this lady had been a regular attender at the weekly prayer meeting in the church. I would describe her as as quiet as a mouse, though she had attended every week, as far as I could remember, invariably, and throughout the time that I had been a pastor, I had never once heard her pray publicly. In fact, after this occasion, I never heard her pray publicly again. It was the only occasion I ever did. But as she began to pray on this occasion, I can only say that it seemed that God gave to her a gift of faith. As she prayed, she was given a confidence, an assurance that God would heal her, and he did. I tell the story because I was able to observe what happened for years afterwards. The lady was remarkably healed. Now, I have no other explanation for what happened, but that the Holy Spirit gave to her a special assurance with regards to the outcome of her prayer so that she was able to pray as James describes here, as Elijah did, the prayer of faith. I smile as I tell this story, because I’m quite sure in my own mind that she called for the elders thinking that the other guy or I myself would be the ones to pray the prayer of faith. God knew better, he gave it to her. She was given a prompting of the Spirit that this was indeed God’s purpose in her life at this time, and she was enabled to pray with great assurance. Now I want you to try and understand, therefore, that the prayer of faith that is described in James and chapter five and verse 15 is not an effort that is somehow worked up. It’s not me trying to convince myself of a particular outcome in relation to prayer. No, it is a gift that comes down. The prayer of faith is a gift of God, and folks, it is not limited to situations of sickness. It may be that we are praying for a breakthrough of God’s grace in world mission. It may be that we are praying for the advance of the gospel. It may be that we are in need of guidance on a particular need, and we’ve been praying, and we have been laboring, and suddenly there seems to be a freedom, a gift that is given in the process of prayer, and there’s clarity, and there’s confidence that is given with regards to the outcome, and the evidence follows. Just this week, I came across in my own reading of The Life of C.H. Spurgeon, a fascinating account from the late 1880s recorded in his biography. Spurgeon, for any of you who don’t know, was the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, a large church in the city of London. And we’re now going back by nearly 150 years. But there was a remarkable ministry going on there, and what has so interested me in reading Spurgeon is that God laid on Spurgeon’s heart a sense that the church where he had been privileged to be pastor ought to be doing more for the advance of the gospel in the city. And that has fascinated me because, as you know, I feel that myself in regards to our situation, I think that many of us are feeling the same and are therefore rejoicing in what God is doing in these days. Now, having said that frame, a man by the name of Welton, who was a student at Spurgeon’s college at the time and therefore part of the church, records a story of how at a Monday night prayer meeting, Spurgeon got up in front of the congregation and I quote what he said, ”Dear friends, we are a huge church ”and we should be doing more for the Lord ”in this great city. ”I want us tonight to ask Him to send us some new work, ”and if we need the money to carry it out, ”let us pray that the means may also be sent.” That’s what he says to the congregation. Now, the way in which they prayed in that setting was very fascinating. They had all these students from the college and they had the deacons and they had the elders so rather than just throw it open to everybody, at least in the first part of the evening, what Spurgeon would do, and this was done in many churches in those days, is he would call to the platform those who were leaders because what would leaders do except lead the congregation in prayer? And so the deacons were called forward and the elders were called forward and those who were students at Spurgeon’s college were called forward, and there they are on the platform one by one. They begin to lead in prayer. This man Weldon, who was one of the students, records what happened, he says several of the students had been called to the platform along with the deacons and the elders to lead the assembly before God’s throne of grace and to plead with God about this matter. Then he says while that mighty man of prayer, Mr. William Olney, this was one of the lay leaders, a man by the name of Olney, and he’s leading in prayer and he’s wrestling with the Lord, Spurgeon knew that the answer had come. Had the Holy Spirit told him? Welton asks, it seems so for walking lightly across the platform to where I was sitting. Spurgeon said, it’s all right, Welton, you pray for the conversion of sinners, will you? You see, he had the sense, right? As all these praying that there’s been a breakthrough and now we’re gonna move on, we’re gonna pray about something else because God has heard this prayer. Spurgeon had that sense within his, the prompting within his spirit. I continue to quote from the biography, a few days after this tabernacle prayer meeting, a Mrs. Hill Yard wrote to Spurgeon offering a gift of 20,000 pounds. Now folks, I don’t know if anyone can do the calculation of values, that’s about $30,000, but it’s 150 years ago, 20,000 pounds for the purpose of founding an orphanage for fatherless children. You see what had happened? The Spirit of God had prompted in Spurgeon to ask for more work to be given and for the means by which it would be done. As that prayer was prompted by the Spirit and as the people under the leadership of those who were able to lead them in prayer, Mr. Olney wrestling in prayer, and the people engaging in this, Spurgeon came to a point where he was quite convinced within his own heart God would do it. And within a week, both a new work and the provision for it arrived on his desk, the prayer of faith. Folks, just so you don’t think this is so far off from us, while I was working on this message yesterday, my phone rang my desk and it was a member of our congregation was phoning from the hospital and he said, I just wanna share this wonderful news, he said, he said, my wife is going to have a liver transplant. I’ve since heard that she has received the liver and all has gone wonderfully well. He wanted us to know because my wife has particularly been praying for this lady and earlier this week, it was fascinating, Karan said to me, I’ve begun to pray that a liver would be available. And I said this to the brother and he said, it is fascinating, he said there are a number of friends who are praying for us and in the last few days, one after another has said something very similar. We’ve stopped praying for his wife in a general way and we have started to pray for a liver to be made available, to be transplanted into her. And he said, you know the amazing thing was when the hospital phoned and said we have a liver for you she said to me, I knew that it would be today. The prompting of the spirit. I think some of us perhaps know more of this than we perhaps immediately realize. Have you not had an experience at some time of been wakened up in the night and you just know there is someone for whom you may pray. You do not need, you do not know why that has to be the case. But the spirit of God lives within you. And sometimes moves in particular ways in individuals and in churches so that we may be positioned to pray in a particular way with assurance into the advance of his purpose for us. So this is the first kind of prayer that I want us to grasp clearly and to understand well. And to which the great promises earlier that we read clearly relate. Prayer with assurance is prayer that arises either from a promise of Scripture or from a prompting of the Spirit that is given by God in order to give direction to our prayers. It is a gift. And so if this should happen in your experience, then be grateful for it and pray in this way. Now we said there are two kinds of prayers. Faith price in two ways. Faith prays with assurance where God has made the outcome known. That’s what we’ve been looking at these last minutes. But here’s the second thing. It’s equally valuable and it’s equally important. Faith prays with submission where God has kept the outcome hidden. Now folks, this is how we are to pray in all the situations where you do not know what the outcome will be. You apply for a job, there’s no special promise in the scripture relating to whether you will get it or not. You pray for an unconverted loved one, there is no particular scripture nor promise that tells you whether they indeed will be converted. In all these situations where the outcome has not been made known, faith prays with submission. Now here’s the thing that is so important to grasp. This kind of prayer is equally effective and I want you to see that today. It is not that there are two kinds of prayer, you see, and one is greater and the other is lesser. It is not that the first one involves faith and that the second one somehow does not. No, prayer can only be made on the basis of faith. That’s what we saw in Hebrews and chapter 11. These are two kinds of prayer that both involve faith that are given to us for different situations. So let me give you two examples of the second kind of prayer. The first is in Mark chapter one in verse 40 where we have the story of a man with leprosy who came to Jesus. Mark chapter one in verse 40, this man comes to Jesus and he begs him. There’s the intensity of his request. Begged him on his knees. If you are willing, this man says to Jesus, you can make me clean. Now notice two things about this man’s prayer. He knows that Christ can heal him. You can make me clean, there’s no doubt about that. But he does not know if it is Christ’s purpose particularly to make him clean. To cleanse him from his leprosy. So he says if you are willing. So here’s a man who comes in a situation where the outcome is not clear to him. For him to ask with assurance would only be presumption. Because Christ has not made his will known. So he asks with submission. And in this way he honors Christ with his faith. And I want you to see how wonderfully he receives the gift. Filled with compassion, Mark 141, Jesus reached out his hand and he touched the man. I am willing, he said. Be clean. So friends, this is not an inferior kind of praying. Faith prays with assurance where God has made the outcome clear, and faith prays with submission where God has kept the outcome hidden. This is the appropriate way of praying where we do not have a promise of scripture directed to our particular situation or a prompting of the Spirit that has been made known in regards to the matter about which we pray. Let me give you a second example, and it comes from no one less than the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 7. You know this passage well. There was given to me, Paul says, a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Now you would think that the outcome of Paul’s praying here would have to be quite clear. I mean here’s the apostle. And what a mighty man of faith he is. And he’s doing God’s work. And there is something that he perceives here is tormenting him, it’s trouble to him. And what’s more than that, Satan is actively involved. If Satan is actively involved, surely it’s an open and shut case as to what the outcome must be. So Paul begins to pray. Verse eight, three times I pleaded with the Lord. Notice that word, I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. Here’s the apostle pouring himself into intercession. See Satan in this. But verse nine Christ said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me. So you see that Paul’s faith rests not on an assurance of the outcome but in a submission to the outcome. And friends, the Bible is full of examples of this marvelous faith. The King Nebuchadnezzar sets up this image of gold in the book of Daniel, and Shadrach and Meshach and Abeddnego will not bow down to the image and they’re called before the king and there’s a fiery furnace that’s been prepared and it’s very hot and they say to him, if you throw us into the blazing furnace, oh king, the god that we serve is able to save us from the furnace and he will but even if he does not. We want you to know, oh king, that we will never worship the image of gold that you have set up. Remember Job when he’s wrestling with his own pain and he’s wrestling with his own suffering and he says to God, though you slay me, yet will I trust you? That’s faith-submitting where you just don’t know what the outcome’s gonna be and of course the greatest example of praying in faith in all of scripture is right here in the Garden of Gethsemane when our Lord Jesus says, Abba, Father, everything is possible for you and then he says this, take this cup from me, Mark 14, 36 yet, not what I will but what you will and your salvation and mine hangs on the faith of Christ submitting to the purpose of the Father almighty. So folks, that’s what we’re learning from the Bible, faith prays in two ways. It prays with assurance and it prays with submission. These are not grades or tiers of prayer in any kind of way, they are simply two kinds of prayer that are appropriate to different circumstances and inappropriate to the reverse circumstance. Prayer with assurance where God’s will is known, prayer with submission where God’s will is kept hidden. So I want simply to make these two applications and encouragements to us so that we may grow in our own prayer as a result of our time today. There’s the first obvious encouragement, pray with submission in what God has kept hidden, will you do that? I want to encourage you in that. Pray with submission in what God has kept hidden. In other words, I’m asking that we cultivate humility in our praying. You may ask, you may plead as Paul did, you may beg as that guy with the leper who came to Jesus did but always remember that you are asking. You are not commanding. Listen to these words from James chapter four. Listen to you, he says, verse 13. Listen, you who say today or tomorrow we’re going to go to this and that city, we’re gonna spend a year here, we’re gonna carry on business, we’re going to make money, why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and we will do this or that. Folks, what James says to is that applies to our praying as well as to our planning. It is not a cop-out to say as you pray, if it is the Lord’s will. If God has not made the outcome known, that is how we pray. Anything else would be presumption. So cultivate humility where you are praying about a job or about health or about salvation of a loved one. We know that it is God’s will that people should be saved. We do not know which people will be saved, so we pray with humility, and that will keep you from blaming yourself, and it will keep you from resenting God. It is of huge practical importance. And, folks, I’m convinced that this is of huge importance to us as we pray for our nation. The secret things belong to the Lord. The purpose of God in the rise and in the fall of nations is kept hidden from us, and God may give us a thorn in the side of the nation A nation that in large measure moves away from Christian faith, and he may do it to keep us from becoming conceited over the surpassingly great blessings that he has given to us, and he may say to us in it, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. I do not know what the purpose of God is, nor do you. What I’m saying is this, let us cultivate humility. Oh, what a dreadful thing. What an offensive thing to be arrogant before the throne of grace. Let us cultivate humility in our praying. Pray with submission in regards to all that God has kept hidden. Hidden. And then pray with assurance with regards to all that God has revealed, or to put it another way, cultivate boldness, boldness in your praying. God may make his purpose known either through, we thought about a prompting of the spirit, but much more often and regularly, God makes his purpose very plain through the promises of scripture. And when God has spoken a clear promise for all people, you can pray with great assurance. The scripture is full of such promises. The Bible is like a field that is full of buried treasure, and prayer digs up the promises of God. That’s what prayer does. Imagine owning a field that is full of buried treasure and never digging. That’s what it is if we don’t pray. Prayer digs up the promises of God. And where God has given a particular promise which is for all people, we may pray with great assurance. So let me end on this note. God has said though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. When you come to ask God for forgiveness, you don’t need to come and to say, O Lord, please forgive me if it is your will, why? Because you know it’s his will, he’s revealed it, he’s already told you. Christ has come, Christ has died, Christ has risen. Christ calls you, Christ invites you, Christ’s blood is shed for you. So when you come to pray about this, pray with great assurance, because this promise is given. God has said, if you who are fathers know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? So when you come to ask for power from the Holy Spirit and strength to be able to stand this week, you don’t need to say, give me strength if it be your will, why? Because God has already revealed his will in the promise that he has given to you. The promises of God open the door to faith that prays with great assurance and with boldness. Let us come boldly, the book of Hebrews says, to the throne of grace, why? So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us, Christians, in our time of need. That’s how faith operates in prayer. You take God at his word. You say Lord, you’ve said though my sins be a scarlet, they shall be white as snow, and Lord, my sins are a scarlet, you have said O God that you sent your son into the world for sinners, O Lord, I am that sinner. So I believe your promise. And I embrace, and I receive, and I rejoice in all that you have said as mine. Let’s pray together, shall we? Dear Lord, teach us to pray. To pray with great humility in what you have kept secret. To pray with great boldness in what you have revealed. Lord increase my faith. Lord, increase our faith. And help us to pray and to live with a faith that trusts and a faith that submits to Christ in all things. For his namesake and for his glory, amen.