Well, good morning everyone.
It's good to see you here. I echo Winston's welcome. This morning's message is going
to deal with the subject of prayer, more specifically effectual prayer. And our primary text will be
James chapter 5, verses 13 through 18, if you want to be turning
there. And as you turn, I want to just share some of my own
thoughts, which I believe you'll be able to relate to. the thoughts
that led me to study this subject. We know that true believers,
that is sinners saved by grace, they're brought to see that God
is sovereign in all things. And that includes in our very
salvation. God does according to his purpose
and will. We know from Daniel 4.35, for
example, that God does according to his will in the army of heaven. and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? We know as Ephesians 1 tells
us, that due to our having been made one with Christ, we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him, him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Now we also know that God is
immutable, as he tells us in Malachi 3.6 saying, I am the
Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. So we know that prayer does not
change God's mind. God changes not. So why do we
pray? You know, we naturally think
Well, if God is truly working all things after the counsel
of His own will, if I can't change God's mind, God who is immutable
and changes not, then why bother? And, you know, we pray. There
are different aspects to prayer. We pray prayers of thanksgiving
and praise. But this morning I'm addressing
more specifically those petitions, those things we ask of God God's
Word tells believers that they should pray. We're commanded
to pray. The Scripture says, pray without ceasing. Consider
these verses in Philippians 4, 6. It says, Be careful for nothing,
but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God. In other words, he's
saying, don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. 1 Peter 5 verse 6, Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth
for you. So we're commanded to continually
pray for all things, petitioning God with our every request and
need. And we also know from Scripture,
though, that prayer is effectual. and powerful, that it truly does
have an effect. The key verse that I'm going
to be focusing on today in James 5 verse 16, it says just that
as it reads at the end of that verse, the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much. I know that personally
I do not always appreciate the significance and the power of
prayer as I should. And you know, that can affect
how we approach God in prayer. So I'll just admit to you, I
chose to study this subject really for my own benefit as much as
any other reason. But with that said, I do trust
and I pray that this message will bless you as much as it
has me in my preparation of it. So with that, just look with
me in James 5. We're going to begin in verse 13. We know from
the context of the preceding verses, really beginning back
in verse seven all the way through verse 12, that these words are
directed toward the brethren, that is, spiritual kinfolks,
the adopted saints for whom Christ lived and died, who as a result
have been born again in each generation, given spiritual life
so as to look to Christ for all of their salvation. And here
in verse 13, God, through James, He's talking to these fellow
believers, saying, is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. And the thing that struck me
here is just the simple, obvious truth that whether afflicted,
enduring trials or difficulties, or merry, as in times of happiness
or prosperity, we're to be ever mindful of God. both in praying
to Him for deliverance from our difficulties and the bad times,
and in thanksgiving and praise over the good times. Well, continuing
in verse 14, we read, is any sick among you, 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. That anointing there could
maybe symbolic of the Holy Spirit as it is in other places. I believe
it's for, speaking of, for medicinal purposes here. In other words,
using the means. But regardless, what I want you
to keep in mind here from as we move now towards verse 16,
the last phrase there, verse 14, it's communicating that these
prayers and these efforts are to be in the name of the Lord. And I think that's significant
to our proper understanding of effectual prayer. He continues
there in verse 15 and the first part of verse 16 where we read,
and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall
raise him up and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him.
Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that
you may be healed. The prayer of faith as mentioned
here. It's described for us in Hebrews
chapter 4, beginning in verse 14, where we read, seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For
we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. So let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. And I want you to notice the
therefore in that passage. That is, seeing that we have
Christ as our high priest, that is our intercessor, our mediator
before God, Christ who understands, knows, and even experienced the
difficulties of this life on earth, let us boldly come to
God in prayer, knowing of our acceptance and of our forgiveness
in Christ, having the very merits of His perfect obedience unto
death, that satisfaction to justice, His very righteousness imputed
or accounted unto us. So the prayer of faith is the
prayer that always sees our fitness, our acceptance, and our access
before God in Christ, person, and word. So it's praying on
the basis of that central truth of the gospel as a believer,
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, on His doing and His dying. And yet that's not a guarantee
that if we pray with enough faith that God is going to physically
heal everyone for whom we pray. Though that may well be our expressed
desire. You know, it may be, excuse me,
it may be that God's will is that one for whom we pray will
be healed eternally. and particularly in the context
of this passage because it's speaking of praying for the brethren,
for other believers whom we know assuredly shall be eternally
healed. That prayer we know will be answered
for a believer. And then notice that the first
part of verse 16 indicates that we are to confess our faults
to one another and pray for one another that we may be healed
in accordance with His goodwill and pleasure. You know, the confession
of true, genuine, God-given faith, it includes the confession of
our faults. For you see, it is by faith that
we confess that we are sinners. That doesn't mean we just know
we fall a little short. No, we're, the confession of
true faith confesses that we do not deserve and we cannot
earn our own salvation. We need God's mercy and grace.
And so that brings us to where I'd like to focus this morning,
and that's on the latter part of verse 16, where, as I've read,
the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Let me begin by commenting on
the translation of this sentence. The Greek word that is translated
for the phrase effectual fervent and for the phrase availeth much
is actually one and the same. It's a word from which we get
our word energetic. It refers to that which has power
and energy and is fitted to produce an effect. And so it's translated
effectual. The construction of this sentence
almost could be, sounds redundant. It could be understood to be
saying that a prayer which is effectual is effectual. And I
point that out. There's some significance to
that. And it's this, that we need to understand that that
word effectual is not an adjective that is describing the praying
itself or the manner of the prayer. As if to infer that this issue
is if you'll just pray effectively, whatever you might construe that
to mean, then it's going to produce an effect. That's not its meaning,
but rather the verse is telling us why the prayer is effectual. And it's simply because it is
the prayer of faith. It's the prayer of a righteous
man. Not any man or woman, but a righteous
one. The word righteous there is describing
someone who is found just before a holy God. It's speaking of
a justified sinner who stands before God perfect, holy, unreprovable,
unblameable, not guilty, having the very merits, see, of the
perfect satisfaction to God's justice which the Lord Jesus
Christ rendered by his substitutionary obedience unto death. The merits
of that charged are imputed to his or her account in the same
way that their sins were imputed or charged to his account that
he might bear them away, that he may pay the penalty in full
due unto them before the justice of God. Now that's a glorious
exchange that finds these otherwise guilty sinners justified or righteous
before God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And
their prayers, the prayers of the righteous, they are powerful
and energizing and effective. Now, in spite of the fact that
we don't always get exactly what we request in our prayers, that's
an undeniable truth of Scripture. Here in James 5.16 and elsewhere,
that the prayers of true believers, justified sinners, are effectual
and powerful. I want you to consider these
other verses that pertain to the effectiveness and the power
of prayer. Back in the first chapter of
James, he writes to the brethren there again, to believers, If
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all
men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."
And then I want you to consider these passages from the Gospel
of John. First in John 14, beginning in
verse 13, Christ there told his disciples, and whatsoever ye
shall ask in my name, that will I do. that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my
name, I will do it." John 15, 7 Christ said, If ye abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and
it shall be done unto you. And in the next chapter, John
16, verses 23 and 24, Christ said, and in that day you shall
ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to
you. Hitherto, if ye ask nothing in
my name, ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Well,
I don't know about you, but I often pray for things for myself and
for others that don't always come to pass. And so that prompts
the question, how then is the prayer of a righteous man, a
justified sinner, effectual? Well, the context of James 5
helps us with that as we go forward. Here, James gives an example
of the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man as recorded
for us in the Old Testament. The example is that of Elijah. As we read beginning in verse
17, Elias, or Elijah, 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. And he prayed again, and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. First
and foremost, note, it's describing Elijah as a man who was subject
to like passions as we are. In other words, he, like every
other fallen son and daughter of Adam, he was a sinner with
sinful passions. So he, too, would have had those
same sinful principles of self-love and pride, you see, that would
taint everything that he did, including his prayers. And although
Elijah was a prophet, he was still just a man. He was a man
of like passions. Now what this teaches us is that
the effectiveness of Elijah's prayers were not due to his own
merit or his own goodness, but rather it was because of his
standing before God as a justified or righteous man. In other words,
as a sinner justified by the blood of his promised Messiah,
his prayer was effectual because of the grace of God towards him.
God, see, reckoned to Elijah the merits of the work that Christ
would later accomplish in time on the cross, and he thereby
declared Elijah righteous. So this should remind us that
these men of God, such as these Old Testament saints, Moses,
They did not have a unique access to God in this sense, as if their
prayers were only effectual because of their great faith, or because
of our perception of them as maybe some sort of spiritual
giants, as we often think of them. You see, it's not that
such effectual praying is reserved for some class of believers.
What some might refer to as someone who they think has just so grown
in grace and knowledge, they might call him a super-Christian
or something of that nature. No, remember, it's their standing
before God as justified or righteous, which describes those whose prayers
are effectual. And the only righteousness that
any sinner has before God is that which was accomplished by
Christ and imputed or accounted unto them. So what that means
is, and that's a perfect righteousness, and all who are righteous then
are equally righteous. They have the same righteousness
as Elijah, the same righteousness as any other believer, the righteousness
of God in Christ. And now having said that, we
recognize from this passage Elijah's praying was effectual. He prayed
it would not rain and it did not rain. And then three and
a half years later he prayed again for rain and it did rain.
Have you ever prayed for rain and yet it didn't rain? I have. So how are we who have trusted
in Christ alone for all of our salvation and thereby we have
assurance of our righteous standing before God as a justified sinner,
how are we to relate to this example of Elijah? Think back
on the story of Elijah. It's recorded. You can read about
it in 1 Kings. You'll recall that God brought
a drought, a famine, to the land of Israel, the northern kingdom,
in judgment of their rampant idolatry. And that was during
the reign of King Ahab. Ahab was married to Jezebel,
who was an idolatress, who persecuted and even had killed the prophets
of the true and living God. And Elijah had a direct divine
order from God to pray for that very judgment upon them that
it would not reign. In other words, Elijah prayed
as he was instructed to by God. Likewise, three and a half years
later, he prayed again as instructed by God. The Lord spoke to Elijah
and he told him to go before King Ahab. as he informed Elijah
that he planned to send rain. And it was at that time that
Elijah confronted those 450 prophets of Baal, the idol, with a test
to validate the true God before the nation in sharp contrast
to the idol Baal, which they were worshiping. And those of
you familiar with the story, you'll remember God brought a
consuming fire down from heaven upon the altar. that was constructed
by Elijah to prove to the people that Elijah's God was the true
and living God, not Baal. And it was then that Elijah had
the people taken. He killed all the 450 prophets
of Baal. And then just after that, Elijah
went up to the top of Mount Carmel where he sent his servant to
look out toward the sea. You will remember he told him,
he said, there's a sound of abundance of rain. And he told him to go
out, and he sent him out seven times to the sea. And on the
seventh time, the servant noticed a cloud out over the sea, which
then produced a great rain. Well, when we consider it with
our text today, we know that Elijah prayed for the rain. And
most believe that it's likely he persisted in prayer for the
rain on each of the occasions, those seven occasions when he
sent that servant out. But regardless, we know this.
In praying for the rain, Elijah was praying to God as instructed
by God. So the significance of this example
is in that it shows the efficacy of the prayer of a justified,
righteous sinner that is made in accordance with the will of
God. Elijah's prayer was both in his
name That is, with regards for God's glory. I believe those
are synonymous, as we'll consider them this morning. And secondly,
it was in submission to the will of God, as instructed by God. And just as Elijah's prayer was
effectual, likewise, when any justified sinner who prays in
his name and that his will would be done subordinating their will
and their desires to that of God, they too can know that it
will be done because God's will is always done. Recall in verse
14 of today's text, it made mention of praying in the name of the
Lord. And recall those passages I just
read from John that stated that if we ask in his name, it said
it shall be done. Praying in the name of the Lord
is akin to praying that God will be glorified. You see, because
his name refers to how he is identified, who he is, what he's
like. That's God's very glory. We know
that God's glory, being glorified, is his chief design in everything
that he does. That he might receive all honor
and glory. That he might be worshiped, see,
as he is. So when we pray in the name of
Christ, we are praying with an overriding spirit-led desire
that the triune God be exalted and receive all honor and all
praise and all things revealed as He is. To pray in His name,
see, requires that we know God as He is revealed in Christ. It requires that we know that
it's been revealed to us how God can be both a just God and
a Savior. It's to know the Lord as Jeremiah
23 6 puts it, as the Lord our righteousness. You see, that's
the name in which a righteous, justified sinner prays. Elijah
prayed for the famine or drought to be brought upon Israel as
part of God's judgment upon Israel for their rampant idolatry. And
following their elimination of those prophets of Baal, Elijah
prayed for the rain to end that drought. Now do you see how Elijah
was praying in his name? To pray in his name is to pray
with a regard for God's glory, which he would not share with
that idol Baal. Nor will God share his glory
with not just an idol of stone, but a construction of our own
minds. As many pray to God, even thinking
they're praying to the God of this Bible, and yet the imagined
way of salvation, rather than being glorifying to Him, would
deny the very holy attributes of the true and living God of
the Bible. It's as if He set aside His holiness and justice
to show mercy. That can't be. That's not the
God of this Bible, and that's not praying in His name. Well,
likewise, every righteous, justified sinner prays in His name when
they've been delivered from their blindness to see God as He is,
as both a just God and a Savior. They see how that is so solely
through the salvation that Christ established for them by His perfect
obedience unto death. They see their only hope, see,
for salvation in His imputed righteousness. They possess a
God-given desire that God likewise be glorified, that He, as He
has been in their hearts, that He be set forth, that He be revealed,
that He be honored. And listen, when there is no
regard for God's glory or for His name, there's no evidence
that such a one is righteous or is a justified sinner. And
you know, that's often exposed even by many who profess to be
a Christian when like me in years past, they have never really
even considered how God could be holy and just and still accept
them as a center into his holy presence without denying or setting
aside his justice. I guess just showing mercy, saying
I'm just going to pretend I'm not a holy and just God. You
know, the truth of the matter is they don't suppose that. They
just do not think about it from that perspective. Instead of
focusing, see, on how a just and holy God could accept me,
a sinner, the natural focus is, have you accepted Jesus? It's
on your acceptance of Him as if this salvation that is supposed
to be all to God's glory is actually in the hand of the sinner and
conditioned on that sinner's, something that sinner does, his
or her decision, whatever. You see, like me in years past,
it just doesn't cross their mind to consider it from God's perspective,
to consider how could God accept them. And listen, that is, the
scripture puts it this way, says, that is what it means to have
no fear of God before your eyes. That means it is to have no regard
for the honor of His character, for His glory, and to persist
in that frame of mind. Many of those who do persist
in that frame of mind, they may repeatedly assert, as I did,
and as I do today, in praying, that I'm asking all these things
in the name of Christ. But you see, they got the wrong
name if that's their focus, if it's all a manward focus rather
than a Godward focus. Those are empty words then, and
those prayers reach no further than the ceiling. You see, there's
only access to God for the righteous, for those who have the righteousness
of Christ imputed to them. And who are they? That's evidence
by their having been brought to see that nothing else will
do for them. Now, closely akin to praying
in his name is praying in subordination to God's will. We know that Elijah
was certainly praying in accordance with God's will for It was God
himself who directly instructed him to pray that there would
be no rain and later that there would be rain. In Philippians
2, 5, we're instructed to let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus. Now in the context of Philippians
2, it's speaking of Christ's humility. and taken on the form
of a servant to be made in the likeness of men to come and die
on the cross as a surety for a people. And we should strive
to emulate that sort of humility. But consider that for a moment.
Consider Christ, the God-man, co-equal, co-eternal with God
the Father and God the Holy Spirit, humbling himself, God, to take
on human flesh. And to die for sins that he had
no part in committing, and all of that in accordance with the
Father's will. At the time as his death approached,
he sweated drops of blood there in the Garden of Gethsemane as
he agonized over that which he was about to face. You see, in
his humanity, he truly dreaded facing that death on the cross
which he came to accomplish. Drinking the cup of God's wrath
against the sins that he bore away. And yet, hear what he prayed
there in the garden, as recorded for us in Luke 22, beginning
in verse 41 we read, and he was withdrawn from them, that is
the disciples, about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed,
saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine, be done. Well, let this mind be in us,
which was in Christ Jesus, when we pray. We're instructed to
bring all our requests to God to express our wills or our desires
for things. But if we, like Elijah, are praying
in accordance with God's will, then our true spirit-implanted
desire is that even if it is contrary to our own will as expressed
in our prayers, that we too might say even so, nevertheless not
my will but thine be done." So when a justified sinner, a righteous
man, prays as Elijah did, as we are instructed from God's
word to pray, that is in his name and according to his will,
our prayers avail much. They too are powerful and effective. Now, like me, you may think,
well, try as I might, I don't always have in the forefront
of my mind this desire that His will override my own. You know,
I actually see a lot of my own sin, self-centered, selfish,
sinful focus reflected in my very prayers. I pray most often
for me and for those that are closest to me and that I care
about. I pray for my family way more than I ever pray for any
of your families. And that shouldn't be so, but
it is. And it's because of self-love that springs from that remaining
sin principle that plagues us all, including all sinners, justified
born-again sinners as well as the lost. And I think that's
why many of the old commentators, they describe the prayer that
is effectual as an inwrought or a spirit wrought prayer. In
other words, they believe it's effectual only to the extent
that a righteous or justified sinner's prayer is directed by
the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Some even translate
James 5.16 to understand an effectual prayer to be one that is inspired. And I think there's something
to that. But I know that's an awful difficult thing. It would
be very difficult for us to always discern what is inspired and
what is not. We don't see the Holy Spirit.
He doesn't audibly speak to us. But we know that God the Holy
Spirit leads and guides us in pressing things upon our hearts.
And we also know that the Spirit of God breathes into men the
breath of spiritual life, so they become spiritually alive,
born again. And just as you know we physically
breathe when we're physically born, prayer has been likened
to being the spiritual breath of the spiritually alive, prayer
being the product of the indwelling Holy Spirit impressing the minds
of His people, the righteous, with a proper sense of their
wants and their needs and of the will of God. But as I studied for this message
and contemplated these things, I couldn't help but being drawn
back to the example of Elijah's effectual prayer and how God
first reminded us that Elijah was a man of like passions. That
means his prayers were likewise tainted with sin and self as
is anything that proceeds from a sinner. And in light of that,
I believe that the intercession of both God the Son and God the
Holy Spirit cleans up our prayers, so to speak. And I'm not sure
that's the right way to say it, but I put it that way for the
lack of a better way. So I believe that all who have
the indwelling spirit All who are born again of the Spirit
is a fruit and a fact now what Christ accomplished for them
by His death on the cross, whereby they are justified righteous.
I believe that the prayer of these, God's people, accordingly
will always avail much. The scripture tells us this in
Romans 8, 26. It says, likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities,
our weaknesses. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he, God, that
searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he the Spirit, see, maketh intercession for the saints according
to the will of God. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Further down in that chapter,
in verse 34, we read, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ
that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the
right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. even now. His intercession did not end
at the cross. So for those with a new principle
of life who walk not according to the flesh but the Spirit as
evidenced by their look into Christ for all their salvation,
they had the Holy Spirit interceding for them in accordance with God's
will. So when I pray that God will
physically heal someone and they go on to die anyway, does it
mean my prayer was not effectual and powerful? I don't think so. If the Holy Spirit himself and
Christ himself is ever interceding for me, then I believe that all
of the prayers of the righteous are ultimately submitted before
the Father, accepted in accordance, submitted in accordance with
His perfect will. And His will shall always be
done. Now listen, if you saw the title
of my message, A Factual Prayer, you might be a bit disappointed.
Some would say, well, I was hoping you could tell me how I could
get what I wanted when I prayed. You may be disappointed to learn
that God's will and purpose shall always be realized and that prayers
will not change God's mind. But that does not mean that the
prayer of a righteous, justified sinner is not effectual and powerful. Listen, you know, God's ways
are so much higher than our ways, as the scripture tells us. So
in ways I do not come close to fully understanding I do know
this, that God uses the prayers of his people as an effectual
means in accomplishing his objectives. I know the prayers of a true
believer are powerful and effectual because God says so. Now, our
natural tendency, again, is to think, well, if my praying isn't
going to change God's mind, then why bother? But I want you to
consider this. Many... Bill Parker, our former
pastor, brought this to mind when I was discussing this with
him when he was in town last week. We were talking about the
fact that many who claim to believe this Bible, they concur with
the Bible's assertion, as we do, that it's appointed unto
men once to die. So many bow to the truth that
God has determined the length of their life. He's appointed
the very time of their death. They agree that We're not going
to live one minute longer, nor are we going to die one minute
sooner than God has determined, regardless of what we do. And yet, if they get sick, they
go to the doctor. They take the prescribed medicine.
They refrain from jumping off the top of a skyscraper or running
out in front of a truck barreling down the road. Why? If they're not going to die one
day sooner or one day later, then God has determined why do
they attend to the means. It's because they know the means
are effectual. If you get an infection and you
don't treat it, it can kill you. God is a God of means. We who
believe the gospel and we promote it and serve in it and support
a gospel ministry, we know that the true gospel of God's grace,
it sets forth salvation that is totally outside of ourself,
totally conditioned on the doing and the dying of Christ as a
substitute. for a people chosen by God according
to His own good pleasure and will. Not a single one of God's
elect, you see, for whom Christ died shall perish, and none of
the rest will be saved. All of God's elect will be saved,
and only they will be saved, whether I preach this gospel
message today or not. So why do I preach? Why do we
strive to spread the gospel? It's because God tells us that
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. The gospel is God's preached,
is God's ordained means by which he chooses to reveal himself
to each and every one he saves. What a privilege! We have to
hear it. Oh, I'm telling you, we don't change who the elect
are. But what a privilege it is to
be used by God in setting forth the message that glorifies Him,
a message that He says will not return void, a message whereby
He draws His elect unto Himself. Likewise, prayer is ordained
by God as an effectual means of accomplishing His perfect,
unchangeable will and purpose. What a privilege to have such
access to God that we might be used in accomplishing His purpose. Now, I'll speculate here a moment. I can't prove what I'm about
to say, but you know, it wouldn't surprise me someday to learn,
perhaps in eternity, that God the Holy Spirit impressed one
or more of His righteous, justified children to pray for the salvation
of each and every individual soul that God brings to faith
and repentance. For that matter, it wouldn't
surprise me to learn that the Holy Spirit may impress justified
sinners to pray for everything that God accomplishes. We know
that that takes place in a general sense when we pray that His will
be done in all things. But regardless of my speculation,
you know, I take God as His Word, and so although I do not understand
how, We can know that the prayer of a righteous, justified sinner
has its powerful effect as a means to achieve God's will. Now that
ought to encourage us to pray. I read just a moment ago Romans
8, 28 said that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Now knowing that, if you believe
that, Would we rationally choose to have what we, in our limited
wisdom, think is best for us, rather than have the all-knowing
God's eternal best for us? God who is infinitely wise? Look,
granted, due to the remaining presence of sin that's going
to plague us until the day we die, we may be tempted at times
to not exactly relish putting our own desires in subordination
to God's will. But thankfully, the God who saved
us, he will preserve us to the end. He keeps us and he continually
draws us back to himself in submission to his perfect will. And thankfully,
as weak as my prayers may be, we have the constant intercession
of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit cleaning it up, so to
speak. interceding in accordance with
the perfect will of God the Father." Well, are your prayers effectual? They are, if you are a righteous
or justified sinner. For the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. So the real question is, are
you such a person? Does that describe you? Do you
stand just or righteous before a holy God? who requires nothing
short of sinless perfection. He cannot commune with sin. Well,
who so stands? All those that come to Christ,
pleading His righteousness, the very merit of His work of redemption
as their only hope of eternal salvation. Christ died for them.
They are blood-bought people. He purchased them and He purchased
for them all of salvation, including the gift of faith and repentance. by which in time they all will
come to place their trust in Him and look to His imputed righteousness
alone as a sole ground or basis of their salvation." So flee
to Christ. Look to Him and His finished work for all of your
salvation. Repenting of ever having imagined
anything else would find you accepted before God. You know,
even now, a justified sinner prays for just that. if it be
according to God's perfect will. And the effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.