Well, good morning. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Mark chapter one. We'll continue our study in Mark
chapter one this morning. Before we begin, let's seek our
Lord's blessing. Our Father, how thankful we are
that you out of your goodness and mercy to your people, have
given us one more opportunity to meet together to worship your
matchless name. Father, I pray you would enable
us this morning to worship. Send your spirit upon us and
enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Father, I beg of
you that you not just let us go through the motions of religion
and go home feeling better about ourselves because we've done
our religious bit for the week. But Father, enable us to worship.
Speak to us through your word, we pray. Father, show us your
glory. Reveal your redemptive glory
in your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through the preaching of your
word today. Here and Father, especially in
our children's classes, we pray that you'd bless in this hour.
Pray that you'd bless our teachers as they teach. We thank you for
them. Thank you for the skills and the abilities that you've
given them. Father, be with them. Enable them to rightly divide
the word of truth. And Father, be with our young
ones as they hear. Use this time, we pray, to plant
the seeds of faith in their heart. Father, how we beg your blessing. Bless us as we look into your
word. Show us our Lord Jesus Christ. In his name, for his
sake we pray. Now, I've titled our lesson this
morning, The Praying Savior. I struggled with the title, whether
I should call it Praying and Preaching or The Praying Savior.
I ended up going with The Praying Savior. Our text begins in verse
35 of Mark 1. In the morning, rising up a great
while before the day, he went out and departed into a solitary
place and there prayed. Now remember Mark, his gospel
is showing us Christ the servant of God. Like any good servant,
our Savior rose up early in the morning. Mark says a great while
before sunrise, and he got to work. That's what a good servant
does, don't they? He got to work praying. Now the Lord Jesus is
the greatest man of prayer who ever lived. And if that doesn't
show us the importance of prayer, I don't know what is. You really
see the importance of prayer if you consider what's happening
here. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. He's God incarnate, God in human
flesh. Jesus of Nazareth is God. He has all the attributes of
God. He has the power of God. He has the eternality of God
because he is God. So this is God praying to God. This is not a fallen man praying,
seeking mercy and calling on God. This is God praying to God. Now let that rumble around your
head for a while. As a man, the Lord Jesus made
this matter of prayer something of great importance. It's so
important, he got up a great while before sunrise so that
he could pray uninterrupted. During our Lord's earthly ministry,
we don't read of him praying publicly
very often, but we read of him praying privately often. He would
pray all night sometimes. Let me show you a few examples.
Look over at Luke chapter three. Before our Lord did anything,
before he did anything, he prayed. He prayed before After and from
what I read maybe even during while he was being baptized Luke
3 verse 21 Now when all the people were
baptized it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and
praying The heaven was open. He was praying Look over at Luke
chapter 9 Before our Lord was transfigured
before he peeled back that veil of flesh and gave us a glimpse
of his glory, he prayed. Look here at Luke 9, verse 28. And it came to pass, about an
eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and James and John,
and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion
of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and
glistering. And behold, there talked with him two men, which
were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory and spake of his decease,
which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Now here the Lord
prayed. And as he prayed, his glory was
revealed. And when his glory was revealed,
the law and the prophets, Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets
showed up and they talked with the Lord. They talked about what
Christ would accomplish in his death. Not that he would fail
because he died, but what he would accomplish in his death. I'm telling you, that must have
been some preaching service, wasn't it? How did it begin? With the Lord praying. Matthew
tells us after the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Well,
even in the miracle of loaves and fishes, before the Lord broke
those loaves and fishes and turned that boy's lunch into a feast
for 5,000 people, what did he do? He prayed. And then afterward,
the people wanted to make the Lord king. And you know what
he did? He left them. Now, if somebody
wants to make you king, what are you gonna do? They wanted
to make him king, and he left them, and he went up into a mountain
alone to pray. He went to pray. Before the Lord
went to suffer and die on the cross, he went to the Mount of
Olives, and he prayed, didn't he? He prayed in the garden,
oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not as I will, but as thou will. As a man, the Savior prayed his
Father would strengthen him. They'd strengthen him to do what
he came to do, to put away the sin of his people by the sacrifice
of himself. Now that's a matter of prayer,
isn't it? This is the hour of hours. This is the hour for which
the whole world was created, the sacrifice of Christ. And
he prayed that the Father would enable him to do it. In John
17, the Savior prayed, Father, The hour has come. Glorify thy
son that thy son also may glorify thee. Now, he knew what he was
gonna do. He knew that he would be successful,
but he still prayed, didn't he? Father, enable me to glorify
you. As a man, he needed to be strengthened
for this matter of crucifying himself, willingly giving himself
to be crucified for the sins of his people. And he said, Father,
enable me to glorify you. In my death, enable me to glorify
your justice, your holiness, and your mercy and your grace,
all at the same time. Father, enable me to put away
the sin of my people so that you could redeem them in justice
and mercy. And at the same time he was praying,
Father, enable me to glorify you. At the same time, he prayed
for the people that he would redeem. He said, Father, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they're thine. Now, the Lord knew he was gonna
save his people from their sin. There wasn't a question. He knew
the outcome of this. He knew that he was gonna go
to the cross. He was gonna be made sin for
his people and put the sin of his people away. He knew that.
There was not a doubt in his mind. Yet he still prayed for
his people. Prayed for his people. And you
know, the Lord makes a habit of praying for his people. Isn't
that comforting? To think that the Lord makes a habit of praying
for his people. Before Peter was tempted of Satan,
what did the Lord tell Peter? He said, Peter, Satan's desired
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but Peter, I've
prayed for you, that your faith fail not. And Peter's faith didn't
fail. You know why? The Lord prayed
for him. The Lord prayed for him. What's
the difference between Peter and Judas? Judas betrayed the
Lord, Peter denied him. What's the difference between
the two? The Lord prayed for one. God's sovereign, electing
grace, and he prays for his people. And you know, he hadn't changed.
God hadn't changed, he still does that. Isn't that comforting
to know that the Lord still prays for his people? He intercedes
for his people. Our Lord prayed so often the
disciples saw him pray. So, you know, here on this day,
you know, the disciples got up and the Lord wasn't there, looked
around for him. They found him somewhere off praying and they
saw him go off by himself and pray often. So they said, Lord,
teach us to pray. Teach us to pray. Now, if the Son of God prayed
like this, this is the Son of God. Like I said earlier, this
is God praying to God. If he put so much importance
on this matter of prayer, how much more should weak, sinful
people like you and me be praying? Oh, we ought to be praying at
all times about all things, shouldn't we? If the Lord didn't do anything
without praying, we certainly shouldn't be doing anything without
praying, should we? And that's why scripture teaches us to pray
without ceasing. To pray and not think. Pray and
don't quit. You know, our Savior never quit
praying, but we should never quit praying either. Certainly,
if the Savior didn't, we shouldn't. Now, I know this. This is a doctrinal
truth. This is the Lord's character,
something about God that I know as well as I know anything at
all. Almighty God has a will and a purpose. And that will
and that purpose shall be done. It would be done right on time,
exactly at the time God purposed it. I know that. But, you know,
knowing that does not make the believer fatalistic. It doesn't
make the believer say, well, you know, whatever will be, will
be. You know, God has a purpose that he determined before he
created anything. It's going to be done, so it doesn't matter
what I do. Whatever will be, will be. The Lord's going to
do His will no matter what I do. Now, that's not what Scripture
tells us. Scripture tells us to pray. Pray for what's on your
heart. Paul said in Philippians 4 verse
6, be careful for nothing. Don't be overly anxious, is what
he means, for anything. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God. This is what scripture teaches us, what's on your heart.
Whatever it is, you pray for. You pray about it. Scripture
tells us pray, believing, believing. Believing that the Lord's able.
I'm not exactly sure what the Lord's gonna do, but I do know
this, Wayne, he's able. I know that, I believe that.
We're to pray, believing that the Lord will do what he promised
that he would do. We're to pray without ceasing. And we're to
pray and not stop. When the Lord doesn't answer
right away, well, how impatient are we? We want to pray and the
Lord answers. When He doesn't answer right
away, now you keep praying. You keep praying. And you know
why we keep praying? Because we're totally dependent
on Him. When the Lord doesn't answer, remember the parable
of the unjust judge? You keep praying. Keep praying.
And pray about all things. All things. Now, whatever it
is that's on your heart, Does that fall under all things? Does
it? If it does, then you pray about
it. You pray. Now, like I said, I know God
has a purpose. He has a will, a will that he
determined before the foundation of the world. And what you and
I are doing does not change God's purpose. And God, he doesn't
have to make slight corrections all the time, you know, to keep
this thing on track. God has a will and a purpose and that
will and that purpose is exactly what's being done. And nothing
will ever deviate from that. Now I know that. But I also know
this. Almighty God is a God of means.
And he taught us in the scriptures to make use of the means of grace. The means of grace. It's just
like salvation. God's determined that he's gonna
save a people, but now he's not gonna do it apart from the preaching
of Christ. He's not gonna do it apart from the preaching of
the gospel. That's the means of grace. Make use of the means
of grace. I'll show you a good example
of this in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 36. Now the Lord has an eternal will
and purpose that shall come to pass. But before the Lord does
his will, you know what he does? He puts it in the hearts of his
people to pray for it. And then he does it. He does
it after he puts it in the hearts of his people to pray for it.
Here in Ezekiel chapter 36, the Lord's made all these promises
to Israel, how he's gonna deliver them and how he's gonna redeem
them. He's gonna give them a new heart.
He's gonna sprinkle them with clean water. He's gonna bring
them into their own land. They're gonna have this freedom
and this glorious, all this that the Lord promised to give his
people. Now look what he says in verse
37. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
yet, for this, be inquired of by the house of Israel to do
it for them. And I'll increase them with men like a flock. See what the Lord's saying there?
He said, I'm going to do this. It's not a question, I'm going
to do this. But I'm gonna be inquired of
it by the house of Israel. I'm gonna put it in the hearts
of my people to pray for it, and then I'm gonna do it. And
you see that over and over and over and over in scripture. I'll
give you a few examples. Look first at Acts chapter 10.
Acts 10. Now from all of eternity, God
elected a people to save. And God had elected a man named
Cornelius. He's a Gentile man from a town
called Caesarea. And God had determined before
time began that he's gonna redeem Cornelius. But now, when did
the Lord reveal himself to Cornelius? When did he? It's when Cornelius
prayed. Look at Acts 10, verse 29. Peter says, therefore, came I
unto you without gainsaying as soon as I was sent for. I asked,
therefore, for what intent you've sent for me. And Cornelius said,
four days ago, I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth
hour, I prayed. I prayed in my house, and behold,
a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cornelius,
thy prayer is heard, and thy noms are had in remembrance in
the sight of God. Send, therefore, to Joppa, and
call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter. He's lodged in the
house of one Simon, a tanner by the seaside, who, when he
cometh, shall speak unto thee. Immediately, therefore, I sent
to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now, therefore,
are we all here present before God to hear all things that are
commanded thee of God. Peter preached. Boy, he took
that up, didn't he? He preached the gospel. And boy,
they had a revival. They had a revival. How did that
all start? Prayer. Cornelius seeking God. Look over at Acts chapter 12.
In Acts 12, Peter was thrown in prison. That was Herod's will
that he would kill Peter. It was the Lord's will that Peter
be delivered. No, that was the Lord's will.
But when was Peter delivered? When people prayed for him. Look
at Acts 12 verse 1. Now about that time Herod the
king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
And he killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. And because
he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter
also. Then were the days of unleavened bread. And when they'd apprehended
him and put him in prison and delivered him, to four quaternions
of soldiers to keep him, intending, after Easter, to bring him forth
to the people. Peter, therefore, was kept in prison. Now, they
were gonna put this man to death, everybody knew it. But prayer
was made without ceasing. Remember I told you we're to
pray without ceasing? Prayer was made without ceasing of the
church under God for him. And when Herod would have brought
him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers
bound with two chains, And the keepers before the door kept
the prison. And behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him and
a light shined in the prison. And he smoked Peter on the side
and raised him up saying, arise up quickly. His chains fell off
from his hand and he went back to his friends. And you know
how he found them? Praying for him. Now Lord determined
he was gonna deliver Peter. He was not going to allow Herod
to kill Peter at this time. But when was Peter delivered?
When people prayed for him. Look at Acts chapter 16. Here in Acts 16, Paul and Silas
have been thrown in prison in Philippi. A bunch of folks there
wanted them put to death. But the Lord, His will was for
Paul and Silas to leave Philippi and go to preach in Thessalonica.
God had a people in Thessalonica. Paul and Silas are in prison.
Isaac, they're chained to a wall. I mean, they're chained to a
wall. They can't move. But it was the Lord's will for them
to preach to a fellow there in Philippi. Then after that, go
to Thessalonica and preach. Now, when did the Lord's will
come to pass? When did he do it? When Paul
and Silas prayed. Acts 16, verse 25. At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed. The same praises unto God, and
the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and
immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were
loosed. And the keeper of the prison, waking out of his sleep
and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for
we're all here. And he called for a light and
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas. and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to
be saved? And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, thy and thy house.
Anybody you know, they believe on Christ, they shall be saved.
And they spake unto him the word of the Lord and all that were
in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and
washed their stripes and was baptized. He in all his straight
way. Now there's another great revival,
wasn't there? When did all of that start? When those two men
chained to the wall prayed. That's when it all started. You
believers just have to pray. Have to. Just like a living body
has to breathe, a believer has to pray. Remember when the Lord
came to Ananias and told him to go down there to the street
called Straight? Saul of Tarsus is down there.
And Ananias said, Lord, I've heard about that man. I just
as soon as I go and expose myself, I've heard of what he does to
the believers. And you know what the Lord told Ananias that made
Ananias so willing to go down there to Saul of Tarsus? Behold,
he prayeth. This man must be a believer.
Behold, he prayeth. Now we're to pray about all things
all of the time. The Lord set the example in that,
didn't he? But there's something else here. Look back in our text.
This thing of prayer is very closely tied to the preaching
of the gospel. Now it is, prayers are associated
with everything. We're to pray about all things
at all times. But here specifically, the Holy
Spirit moved Mark to write this so that we see the importance
of prayer in preaching the gospel. Now there isn't anything that
we do during the course of our week that is nearly, not even
nearly, it's not even worthy to be compared with how important
it is to hear the gospel preached, what we're doing right now. You'll
not do anything remotely as important the rest of this week as what
you're doing right now. And I don't mean just going through a religious
ceremony. I mean hearing Christ preached,
hearing the truth of God's Sovereign, effectual, saving grace being
preached. There's nothing more important
than that. Now, when I say that, please understand this. I'm not
saying that the preacher is all this great, big, important thing. Preachers are so great. I'm not
saying that at all, at all. Preachers are the same as every
other believer. We're just as weak, just as sinful,
just as needy as every other believer. I heard someone say one time,
all a preacher is, is an empty tube. And Lord's got to fill
it. It's not the preacher that's
the important thing here. It's the preaching of Christ.
The preaching of Christ that is vitally important. That's
vitally important because it's pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. The simple thing of one sinner
preaching Christ to another sinner. I know the world calls that foolish,
but that's how it's pleased Lord to save them to believe. Well,
it's gonna save his people through preaching. Now, if the preaching
of Christ is that important, I mean, it's the most important
thing to your soul. You can't believe on Christ unless
you hear of him. Somebody's gotta tell you who
he is. If that preaching of Christ is so important, I'm telling
you, we sure should be praying for it, shouldn't we? Let me
show you that. Verse 36, back in our text, Mark
1. And Simon and they that were
there with him followed after him. And when they found him,
they said unto him, all men seek for thee. And he said unto them,
let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also,
for therefore came I forth. And he preached in their synagogues
throughout all Galilee and cast out devils. Now Peter and Andrew,
James and John, they had to be so excited to see so many people
that wanted to follow the Lord. They wanted to be around the
Lord. This man just called them to follow him the day before.
Just the day before, he said, come with me, I'll make you fishers
of men. And all men are seeking after him. They thought, oh,
we're in the popular crowd now, you know. And they told the Lord,
all these people are seeking after you. And you know what
the Lord did? He said, let's leave here. I'm
gonna go preach in other towns. Now, The Lord did not seek or
turn from those people, even though they were truly seeking
salvation in Him. No, they weren't seeking mercy.
They weren't seeking forgiveness for their sin. They weren't seeking
the Lord to save them, be merciful to them. They were seeking the
Lord for the wrong reason. That's why the Lord left them
alone. I can show you that. Look back
at Matthew chapter 11. Now remember the town they were in is Capernaum. What did the Lord have to say
about that city, Capernaum? Matthew 11 verse 23. And thou Capernaum,
which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But
I say unto you that it should be more tolerable for the land
of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. See, the Lord
said those people in Capernaum, they saw, they saw the miracles,
they saw the wonders, they saw the Lord's power, and they still
didn't believe, because they're seeking physical blessings, not
spiritual blessings. So the Lord left Capernaum to
go to these other towns to preach, because the Lord was a preacher.
He said, that's why I came. I came to preach salvation by
grace. The Lord came to be that prophet.
like unto Moses, that the people would hear and believe. They're
hearing preach. Now the Lord came to preach salvation
by grace and then accomplish it. The Lord came to preach righteousness
and to establish it. The Lord came to preach peace
and then to establish that peace by the blood of his cross. The
Lord came to preach redemption from our sin and then to purchase
it by his own precious blood. And if you look back at Psalm
40, I can tell you what the Lord
preached. Now I can't tell you every exact outline and things
that he used, but I know what he preached. I know the gospel
that he preached. Here in Psalm 40, these are the
words of the Savior. Look at verse six of Psalm 40.
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou
opened. Burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come, and
the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do
thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart.
Now, there's no doubt who's speaking here. These words are attributed
to the Savior. This is Christ the Savior speaking,
and look what he says, verse nine. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Oh, I've not refrained my lips.
Oh Lord, thou knowest. I've not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I've declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I've not concealed thy loving
kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. The Lord
came to preach, and this is what he preached, God's righteousness. Not man's righteousness, which
we try to earn by keeping the law. He came preaching the righteousness
of Christ. He came preaching the obedience
of Christ. That's the only righteousness
God will accept. And that's the righteousness Christ gives his
people. Christ came preaching God's faithfulness. It's not
our faithfulness. Salvation is found in the faithfulness
of Christ. He was faithful to do everything
that was required to save his people from their sin. You and
I aren't faithful. You know, I say that, you know
what I mean. This is one of those faithful congregations that I
know of. Faithful to be in the service.
Faithful to support the gospel. Faithful to look to Christ. But
boy, it don't take much to make us not faithful to Him. Thank
God Christ is faithful. He is faithful. That promised. See, Christ came preaching God's
salvation. God, this is the salvation of
God. The salvation the Father purposed.
The salvation the Son purchased. Salvation that God the Holy Spirit
applies to the hearts of his people. This is God's salvation
that he gives to whom he will now that's the message Christ
preached and Before he went preaching that message, you know what he
did He prayed He prayed Now we're to pray I mean we're to pray
about everything because we're helpless about everything But
boy, how much especially true do we see that is in this matter
of preaching the gospel? What man is sufficient for these
things? What man is sufficient to take the word of God and dare
stand up in front of a bunch of people and say, thus saith
the Lord. This is God's message for you. What man is sufficient
for that? Not one, not a single one. Look at Acts chapter six. That
means that prayer is the occupation of every preacher. Peter tells us this here in Acts
chapter six, verse two. Then the 12 called
the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, it's not
reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest
report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, who we may appoint
over this business. Let them take care of the business
of the church, but we'll give ourselves continually to prayer
and to the ministry of the word. You see, prayer is the occupation
of every preacher. We dare not stand up before God's
people without praying that the Lord give us the message. without
praying, God, give me your message for your people at this moment. God, give me the message. Put
that message in my heart. Give me the tongue to preach
it. Give me the ability to preach Christ and get out of the way.
Lord, take this message. Take your word and bless it to
the hearts of your people. Don't let them just hear my voice.
Father, speak to them. You be their teacher. It's just
a constant matter of prayer. I pray for you all every day.
In my mind's eye, I start over here with Alec and go left to
right, just thinking of each person. I'm glad y'all sit in
the same place every time, I don't miss nobody. But how much especially the spiritual
blessings, God bless His word to your heart. You know what? This ministry
is not my ministry. It's ours. You're in the ministry
too. You believe God? You're in the
ministry too. It may not be your job to preach,
but you're in a ministry. Then pray. Make this matter of
preaching the gospel here, God's blessing to these people here,
your occupation to pray. I tell you this often, I beg
of you, that if I cross your mind through the week, that you
pray for me. I'm not fooling when I say this.
There are times I'm sitting in my study and I'm struggling,
struggling, struggling, struggling, and suddenly I see it. That's
it. And I think, somebody's praying
for me. You know what the Apostle Peter told
the church at Thessalonica? Brother, pray for me. Pray for
us, he said, that Lord will enable me to preach as I ought. You see, that's such a prayer,
vitally important in all things. But boy, in this matter of preaching,
the most important thing to our souls every week, I beg of you,
that every time you think of it, you pray. Pray that God will
bless you. All right, I hope that'll be
a blessing to you.