James 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

There is no denying the fact that Christians sin. There is no denying the fact as well that Christians cannot live in sin. Confession of faults, sins, is essential to the Christian life. There is no point in trying to cover up sin or denying sin. God knows every time one of His children sins. Through the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit in the saved person’s life, they too will know they have sinned.
There are countless spin doctors who twist the Word of God and turn It into a perversion. Many false teachers take those perversions and they counsel the carnal Christian that their sin is no big deal and they just need to join some self-help type program their particular group happens to be hosting and that will help them. Thus there are many social clubs developed among New Evangelical and Emergent church groups designed to make sinners feel good about their sin.
We see from the book of I Corinthians that God does not accept the antics of the carnal Christian. He directed the apostle Paul to address their carnality with great clarity. II Corinthians was written to reveal some of the responses to that rebuke.
We see from our text that true fellowship is required for the spiritual and physical well being of the saints. As we have noted before, God is more concerned with the spiritual well being of His children. Isaiah 53:6 is often misquoted by the Charismatics, but Jesus Christ died for our spiritual need of salvation. As we have noted, Christians get sick. They can die of cancer or heart failure or any number of diseases. Christians can also have greater wisdom in living healthy lives because they learn to live disciplined lives.
Back in our text, we also see that effectual, fervent prayer is important. This type of prayer can only come from a righteous man/person. Effectual fervent prayer is prayer that comes from the heart. It is not a ritualistic prayer that is done out of habit. It is prayer that is done with a genuine care and love from the person praying, for the person being prayed for. This again can only come from a righteous man. The love of God is what causes a righteous person to pray in such a manner.
God illustrated this fact further with the example of Elias (Elijah). Elias is simply the New Testament spelling of the Old Testament name Elijah. Some have tried to use this as proof that the New Testament drew from the work of the Septuagint and thus trying to give legitimacy to the Septuagint. The Septuagint is a corrupt Greek translation of the Old Testament. It is not authoritative and is not trustworthy. God did not endorse it and did not draw from it in the New Testament. He gave the Word directly to the New Testament writers as He did for the Old Testament writers.
James was directed to remind us that Elias was a man like any other righteous man. He was not like any other lost man. He was a righteous man. He demonstrated what earnest prayer looks like. We are told here that Elias prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it did not rain for 3 1/2 years in Israel. I Kings 17:1 gives us the beginning of this account. It carried through I Kings 18. In chapter 19 Elijah fled because Jezebel had put a death warrant out on him because he killed her false prophets.
The point that God made in James 5 is that Elijah had access to the throne of God because he was a righteous man. In verse 18 of our text we see that Elias prayed again and God sent rain after the 3 1/2 years of drought. Elias began that prayer after the contest on Mount Carmel. He sent his servant to see if there was a cloud in the sky. The servant came back to Elijah and said he saw nothing. Elijah continued to pray and we read that after the 7th time that he told the servant to go and check for a cloud, the servant reported a small cloud like a man’s hand appeared arising out of the sea. Elijah then told his servant to go and warn Ahab to hurry back to his palace because a rainstorm was on the way. It was not raining yet, but God had assured Elijah that it would rain, and Elijah believed God. This was not a blind faith. This was part of God’s judgment upon the wickedness of king Ahab and the nation of Israel. God demonstrated His authority and power through the fire upon the altar. He also demonstrated His power and authority through the slaughter of 850 false prophets. Now He would continue to demonstrate His power and authority by sending an abundance of rain to replenish the water reservoirs and moisten the earth for the crops needed to feed the people. There was no mistaking that this was all the hand of the Lord. Jezebel rejected all of this. Ahab was a wet noodle who allowed his wife to twist him around her little finger and he refused to accept the facts that were right before him.
The point is that Elias was a righteous man who prayed according to God’s will. He walked with God and he understood the will of God in this matter. As we read the text around this account in I Kings, we find that this same Elias had some important lessons to learn as well. Thus James wrote that Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are. A righteous man does not always walk in righteousness. Thus the need to confess our faults one to another and to pray for one another. It is not that the pastor is holier than other saints. He too needs to confess his faults and he too needs the prayers of other saints. That fact does not mean he cannot be the pastor and should not be respected as the pastor. God chooses certain men to be pastors. Those men cannot be living in sin. They cannot be dictators. They do not establish the order for the local church. God has given us His Word. A true local church functions according to God’s order. The membership needs to understand that. The pastor teaches the order through His preaching and teaching. He points the people back to the “apostles and prophets” who are his authority, as well as that of the rest of the people.
A righteous man cannot persist in sin. Elias was confronted by God for his inconsistency. He proved God to be all powerful on Mount Carmel. Then he ran from a wicked woman. He thought he was all alone. God reminded him that he was not alone. There were 7,000 other men who had not bowed to the wickedness of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. God knew Elijah was tired and He told him to prepare for his death. He needed to set up a new king for the north and a new prophet to replace himself. God needed a strong person to continue His Work and thus Elisha would be chosen to take over.
In verse 19 we see the need to address false teaching. Again, we are talking of a person who is born again. The saints need to address any false teaching that might come from a fellow member of a local church. The reason for the multitude of denominations is that someone in the past did not address the errors of some brother. That brother was left to develop that error and others who were not grounded in the truth adopted the error rather than reject it.
There are many Fundamental Baptist churches today that are adopting error because those who know the truth are not heeding the truth. They are not insistent on contending for the faith once delivered unto the saints. The frog in the water illustration is still repeating itself. The devil gets much further with incrementalism than he does with a large explosion. When he stirs up enough unrest, then he can drop a larger bomb and it is too late then.
In verse 20 we see the blessing of being willing to be a faithful brother in Christ. The errant brother that is converted is saved from death. The fact that the word “soul” is being used here, does not suggest that a saved person can lose their salvation.

I Timothy 4:16  Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

The point is the same. Timothy was not in danger of losing his salvation. He was in need of growing in the Lord to keep from missing out on the blessings that are reserved for the faithful child of God, both in this present life and beyond this life.
We see as well that an errant brother that is left unchecked will lead others into error as well and there will be a multitude of sins. Men like Paul Chappell have a large influence. Several churches have taken his false teaching on music and taken it much further. There are emergent churches that are forming with his blessing. They are tools of the devil, rather than a blessing of the Lord to others. His influence is being felt across Canada in many IFB churches. It is a shame when a man is idolized because he has a large following. ‘He must be blessed of God because of the numbers’, is the theory. We cannot get away from the authority of the Word of God if we want to keep ourselves strong in the Lord. If we are truly walking in the love of God, we will want to be strong in the Lord. We will want to see others come to know the peace of God that passeth all understanding.
Pastor Bartel