Verse to continue in prayer and
watch in the same with Thanksgiving That word continue is to adhere
adhere Cling to Be devoted and constant in prayer
Continue all the time in prayer these are all different definitions of the word. Be steadfastly
attentive to pray. Persevere in prayer and don't
faint. Those all are the definition
of the word continue. Prayer is not just something
that we do a couple of times in the public worship. I hope
that that prayer is not only that to anyone. Although we do
pray publicly and worship Him publicly, prayer is not just
something we do when someone needs prayer. Everyone needs
prayer all the time. Of course, we pray for specific
people in specific circumstances, but not only that. Continue in
prayer. cling to it, adhere, persevere
in it. That means to overcome difficulty. Prayer, it's not always easy. We've talked about this several
times before. Prayer is very time consuming. But can you imagine a better
way to spend your time than in supplication before the
throne of God? Prayer is a heavy thing. It's like preaching in that regard.
And I'm not saying that our prayer is like the Lord's when he was
in the garden and he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. But I'm saying that we bring
everything to the throne of God. I'm saying that we labor
in prayer. We labor to know how to pray. We labor to know what to pray
for. God is in heaven and you're not, let your words be select. We labor to recall and to mention
specific needs of specific people. And we beseech God on their behalf. I don't really know how to talk
about it in specific terms. But it's not always enough just
to say, Lord, be with so and so. We have to enter in, in our hearts,
we have to enter into their situation and bring supplication to the Lord more deeply than that. We have a lot of people we love
and they have a lot of needs. We desire prayer above just about
anything for ourselves. How many times did Paul say,
pray for us, pray for us? Prayer is an immense privilege.
It should always be considered such. Have you ever thought about this?
You're going over everybody's head when you pray. You ever think about that? You're
talking to the manager. It's important to remember what
Job learned when we pray. He said in chapter 42, verse
two, I know that thou canst do every thing. Do we know that when we pray? and that no thought can be withholding
from thee. Now you might think that means
that our thoughts are, he's aware of our thoughts, but that's not
what that's saying. It's saying no thought of that, no thought
of God's can be withholding from him. In other words, whatever
he thinks, desires, wills, nobody can stop him. Is that who you
pray to? What a privilege. What an incredible privilege. Look at this word watch for a
minute. Watch in prayer. That word means
what you think it does, but consider that prayer is how we do that. Watch in prayer. That's how we watch. Give strict attention, be cautious,
be active. Our Lord has told us to be sober,
be vigilant. That's the word, watch. Be sober,
vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. But ask yourself
this, We're to watch, be sober, be careful, be watchful, be concerned,
be aware of our enemies. But what are you going to do
about it? How are we watchful when it comes
to our enemies? Oh, you better be careful now.
You better do this. You better not do that. What
are you gonna do about the devil? The way we watch is in prayer. Lord, you keep me. Keep us from
the evil. Keep them from the evil. Is that
not what our Lord, you see what it, watch in prayer. If Satan seeks to devour you,
how are you gonna stop him? Watch, but watch in prayer. And then with thanksgiving. When we consider prayer unto
our Father, it's difficult not to think about children and their
relationship to their parents in this world. Children tend to want things.
You notice that about them? They want stuff. They want everything. Can I have this? Can I have that? How often, unless you carefully
teach them, how often just naturally would they say a week later maybe,
a few days later after you get something for them, Thank you
for my toy. Thank you for that, Daddy. Thank
you for that, Mommy. How often do you think they would
do that? Teaching them to say thank you
when they first get it is one thing. What do you say? Thank you, Daddy. That's right. Nothing wrong with
that. But sometimes when they're asking
frantically for something in the store, maybe ask them this, aren't you
happy with what I've already bought you? If they say, no, I want this,
then maybe it's time to teach them something more. If you're not happy with and
thankful for what I already bought you, why would I buy you something
now? And this applies to more urgent
needs that we have before God, not just, we don't ask for toys
of God, but if we're not thankful to God for what he's done for
us, why would he grant us our requests anymore? 1 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without
ceasing. Continue in prayer, adhere to
it. Realize the value of it, realize
the privilege of it. Realize what a treasure it is
that God allows us to come before him. Next verse, in everything
give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. Not only is giving thanks God's
will concerning us, but the everything in everything give thanks for
that thing, whatever it is, is God's will concerning you. We believe that? Whatever it
is. In everything give thanks. In
bad times, is it God's will concerning you? Do we indeed know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose? Then in everything
give thanks. We don't have to be glad that
something terrible happened. but I can be glad that God did
it. How can I not be glad that it
is the Lord? Let him do what seemeth him good. I may not rejoice in having my
heart broken, but I can rejoice that God's the one that broke
it. Psalm 51 a make me to hear joy
and gladness In other words make me to hear the gospel That the
bones which thou hast broken may rejoice You see the gospel
teaches us that Christ is all And that if we go through trials
Because What is the gospel? The Lord
Jesus Christ shed his precious blood for me. And when he did,
he redeemed me. By his stripes, I'm healed. He's
a successful, victorious savior. And how shall God, if he spared
not his own son for me, not also with him also freely give me
everything? Look at verse three in our text. With all, or while you're at
it, praying also for us. While you're praying, pray also
for us. That God would open unto us a
door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which
I am also in bonds. with all praying. While you're
praying, pray for me. And look at this. Paul prays
that he might be able by God's grace and power and providence
to preach the gospel, to do the one thing that is the cause of
his suffering. I'm in bonds for that gospel.
Pray that I might preach the gospel. The grace of Christ is so overwhelming
and so heart-changing. We don't pray like this world
prays, do we? By his grace, we don't. We pray
for his glory. We pray for that as we saw a
while ago, knowing what the will of the Lord is. I know this about
the Lord's will. I know what the Lord's doing
in this world. He's exalting his Son. To speak the mystery of Christ,
pray for that, that I might be enabled by the grace of God to
speak the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ. You know,
the fact that Jesus Christ died on a cross is not the mystery
of Christ. Everybody knows that. This word mystery means hidden.
What is hidden from everybody until it's revealed is that Christ
is all. Help me preach that Lord. Pray
that the Lord would give me grace to preach that. That Christ is
God in human flesh and he does as he pleases, when he pleases,
with whom he pleases. That's the mystery. That's what
they're not getting. That's what's hidden from this
world and all of its religion. That's what's hidden. Lord, give
me grace to preach that. to preach who he is, who Christ
is, is a mystery to every sinner that God must reveal. And we
know how he does that by the preaching, please God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. But who is
sufficient for these things? With all praying. While you're
praying, pray for me. that the gospel would go forth
in power, his power, in clarity and boldness. The fact that he is the almighty
unfailing Christ is hidden from religious people, isn't it? To
this religious world, he's the Christ that won'ts to if you'll
let him. He has a plan for your life, but you can mess that up. Would it be a shock to you if
I told you anything that we can mess up, we're gonna mess up? You can't mess up the new covenant.
We messed up the old one, didn't we? That's why the Lord sought
for a new one that's older than the old. I will and you shall. the mystery of Christ is that
he himself is life. Martha knew him well personally. She heard his word, she walked
with him, but she still trusted an event. It is hidden to the
hearts of sinners that he himself, Martha don't trust the resurrection,
he's the resurrection. That's a mystery to this world.
God helped me preach that. Well, I got saved when I was
10 years old. He is salvation. The mystery of Christ is that
everyone for whom he died is redeemed and forever saved. That
just sounds, just kind of makes good sense,
doesn't it? Nobody believes that. Nobody believes that unless and
until God reveals it to them. That's a hidden mystery concerning
Christ. That he's utterly successful
in his sin-atoning death. That he didn't die in an attempt
or an effort. He died to save and he saved. He died to redeem and he redeemed
everyone for whom he died. That's mysterious to this world. Not only is it a mystery to them,
but when they're presented with it, they despise the one whose
precious blood is effectual. Nobody knows it. And you're not
going to know it unless and until God reveals Him to you. Who He is and what He did. He doesn't provide salvation.
He is salvation. That's mysterious. He doesn't
make salvation available. He saves sinners. Paul said this, that God would
open a door. Religion loves to picture the
Lord Jesus Christ outside the door of the sinner's heart, knocking.
Won't you let me in? It's up to you now. Won't you
let me in? That verse in Revelation 3.20
is taken completely out of context. And the picture that religion
paints is a fairy tale. When it comes to the gospel and
the success of the gospel and the salvation of sinners by the
preaching of the gospel, God doesn't knock on doors. He opens
them. Aren't you glad? Do you want
to see anybody saved? Do you want God to politely knock
on their heart to see if they're interested in letting him into
that? God deal with them as you did
Saul of Tarsus and shut them down That's what needs to happen
shut them down Shut them up to Christ Verse 4 that I make it that I
may make it manifest As I ought to speak This is the
opposite of mystery. I that I may make it manifest,
dear God in heaven, give me grace to take that which is completely
hidden from the black hearts of men, verse three, and make
it clear as a bell. Now let me be clear about being
clear. Me making it clear is not gonna
save anybody, but This is the way God saves everybody he saves,
by the plain, clear simplicity that's in Christ. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3.12,
seeing then that we have such hope, such vital hope, such precious hope, We use great plainness of speech I Thought you said it's a mystery
Chris Mysterious plainness, that's
the gospel Mysterious plainness It's hidden Until God reveals
it The truth that Christ, God's
son, does as he pleases, when he pleases, with whom he pleases,
is not complicated or hard to understand. There
couldn't be anything more simple than that. You know what really gets complicated
is when you start thinking about what religion teaches, that he
influences, he woos, but He can't violate your will. He can't just
save you because he wants to. He can't just walk up to you.
Well, he kind of did, didn't he? He can't just walk up to
you and say, your sins are forgiven. But that's what he did. But when
you start preaching that, that gets complicated, doesn't it?
Because it's like, well, wait a minute, maybe he didn't woo,
does he woo everybody exactly the same? If he doesn't, that's
not fair. Does he providentially arrange
the same experience of hearing the gospel for everybody that
ever lived? Doesn't look that way, but it's
not fair if he doesn't do that. You see how complicated that
is? You know what's simple and plain and clear? He does what
he wants to. He saves who he wants to. Don't let them get away with
saying that's complicated or that's deep, dark doctrine. No,
that's as plain as a nose on your face. You just don't like
it. It's not hard to understand.
It's just hard for sinners to take. Unless and until God brings
them down and shuts them up to his son. The truth that the precious
blood of God's eternal lamb redeemed and saved every sinner for whom
he shed it is not a complex thing to grasp. It's not ambiguous
in the scriptures. It just says that salvation is
not up to you. It's up to him. And sinners despise
that Christ. They love the idol that they
worship that leaves everything up to them And they will unless
and until God Brings them to submit to Christ Who is himself
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it?
If Christ will he can make you clean And nothing thank God is
up to you The mystery of the gospel concerns
who Christ is and what he did on Calvary. And this is hidden
from sinners by nature, but he's God. He's in the heavens. And he hath done whatsoever he
hath pleased. And what it pleased him to do
and what he did was save his elect by making his very soul
an offering for their sins. He laid down his life for his
sheep and they shall never perish So simply so clear Simple cause and effect I lay
down my life for my sheep And they shall never perish Pray for me that God would give
me grace to make that manifest, to make known, to be plainly
recognized and thoroughly understood. The gospel is recognizable, isn't
it? It's recognizable. Even those
that don't believe it realize it's not the same as everything
else that they've heard. And when we preach Christ may
God make it so that those who hear plainly recognize that we're
not saying what religion says. We're not saying it's up to you.
We're not saying God loves everybody. We're not saying Christ died
for everybody. We're saying it's up to God. We're saying what
the scripture says that God elected a people is clearly revealed
in Scripture, and we're saying that Christ's precious blood
is effectual. It gets the job done. It's shed
particularly for His sheep, the elect. I lay down my life for
my sheep. Those that the Father gave me,
all of them shall come to me. Those that the Father gave to
the Son in the eternal covenant of grace, We say that Christ
was and is perfectly successful in redeeming every one of them
unto God. That's a very recognizable message. That's the word there. That I may make it manifest. The sinners would recognize the
truth of God in the scriptures that Christ is sovereign. That as the father giveth life
to whomsoever he will, he's also given authority to his son to
quicken whom he will. It's a recognizable message and
it's how God saves sinners. And may we never say anything
else or hear anything else by His grace.