Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2537
“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” James 1:6, 7.
THE Apostle James was always very practical. He never really differed from Paul, but, whereas Paul dwelt more upon the doctrinal side of the Truth of God, James, who has given us but one Epistle, dwelt more upon the practical. I should not have wondered, if Paul had taken up the same subjects as James did, if he had written in the same style. At any rate, we are very grateful to James that he is so downright, so straightforward, so plain and practical. He never minces matters. He hits the nail on the head every time. Whenever he talks about faith, he seems to be saying all the while, “Believe.” If he discourses on prayer, you can hear him crying, “Pray!” And if he speaks concerning holy living, you can hear the thunder at the back of his words commanding us to forsake sin and to follow after righteousness!
In the passage before us, the Apostle is dealing with the matter of prayer, but not with that, alone, for, while the verse previous to my text is about a man praying and, therefore, James says, “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering,” yet the verse followingour text is notabout prayer, but about a man’s general life—“A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Therefore I shall try to show you, first, that the text speaks of the great necessity in prayer, namely, decided faith. And then I shall use the text as pointing forward to that which follows it, and speak to you concerning the great necessity in life, namely, decision of character for the Lord.
I. To begin, then, the Apostle James first speaks of THE GREAT NECESSITY IN PRAYER. If we would pray successfully, we must have a decided faith.
There should be, first of all, a very decided conviction in our own minds as to the desirableness of the thing that we are asking for ’ ‘Why,” says one, “that is self-evident! Would a man pray if he did not thoroughly desire what he asked of God?” My reply is that I am afraid a great many people ask for what they do not really desire—and they would be taken aback if God were, at once, to give them what they have asked for! There is a man who says that he has been praying for a new heart, but then he does not intend to give up frequenting the bars, nor will he leave off associating with his bad companions. Well, if God could give such a man as that a new heart, all of a sudden, and he could still retain his love for his old evil habits, he would be likely to kneel down and pray to have it taken away again, for he would be very uncomfortable with such a burden as a new heart and a right spirit! That is not what he truly wants.
Some men pray to be made holy, but they wish to keep some little pet sin in the backyard. They do not really want what they are asking for—they are not yet convinced of the desirableness of the thing that they profess to be seeking. Men and women pray that they may be saved, but if we explained to them what it is to be saved, they would pray, “Lord, do not save us—at least, not just yet! We must have a little more of the world. We have some unholy engagements that we must keep—we do not want to be made religious people just at present.” In all probability, the more they understood of what salvation really is, the less they would think of praying to be saved.
A man kneels down, and says, “Lead us not into temptation,” and he gets up and goes straight away to a place where temptations swim all around him. What is he but a self-deceived man asking for a thing which he practically proves that he does not wish for? He prays, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” Within five minutes of so praying, he says, “I will never forgive that fellow! I hate him for what he did and the longer I live, the worse I shall hate him.” Will a man thus mock God? Will he so trifle with his Maker? Alas, how many do! If you must insult someone by your mockeries, go and insult your equal—your king if you dare! But to go and insult your God—can you commit such a terrible sin as this? Yet many do it. If they complain that their prayers are not answered, they have no right to complain, for such people must not expect to receive anything of the Lord. They are wavering even as to the sincerity of their prayer! Their own wish is not intense enough or intelligent enough to be really their settled desire. They waver even on the threshold of the House of Mercy—how can they expect to succeed in their business with the great Lord of the house?
Further, wavering may be seen in some persons as to the fact of God’s hearing prayer at all. Possibly they are not even sure that there isa God, or, if that Truth of God is believed, yet God’s existenceis to them a matter of great obscurity. They know little about Him and do not care to know any more. “Yes,” they say, with a kind of languid assent which they have not the moral courage to refuse, “no doubt there is a God”—and they are a little proud to think that they are not atheists as some people are—“Yes, there is a God, but does He really hear prayer as a man hears the requests of his fellow men? And does God actually attend to the prayer so as to be affected by it and to grant the desire of His creature?” If, my dear Friend, you have been led to question this Truth of God, you must not expect to receive anything of the Lord, for, “he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” If either of these is a moot point with you, you might as well stand upon a hill and whistle to the wind, as go up into your chamber and bow your knee in prayer! You are a waverer about matters in which a man must not waver if he expects to be successful in pleading with God! Your fulcrum is not fixed, so you cannot have any effectual leverage in prayer. This must be a settled and fully-believed fact, that God is, and that He hears and answers prayer. You may not be able to make out how that is consistent with His fixed purposes and it is a blessing that you need not try to make it out. The way to Heaven is not by explaining riddles, but by believing Revelations. The way to Heaven is not through the cleverness that can spell out an enigma, but through the simplicity that believes in God who cannot lie. It is true that God’s eternal purpose is fixed, do not doubt that—but it is equally true that the Lord listens to the voice of a man and that whatever we ask in prayer, believing, we shall receive.