There's an old song that I like
very much. It's awful hard after having
brethren quote Psalm 31-24, be of good courage, for a fellow to try to sing.
Especially when you don't feel that you're gifted to sing or
that you've been called necessarily to sing. And maybe we'll make
an effort to do it. Listen to the words, not so much
to the voice of the one doing the singing. Beyond the gates
of life so fleeting, there is for us a better place. There's a place where peace shall
reign forever, and sighs and tears, they'll never come. Beyond the gates, beyond the
sunset, new life immortal for us waits. We'll be at home on
that fair morning, beyond the gates, beyond the gates, beyond
the gates of all sad parting, where grief and pain, the heart
makes sore. We'll meet again, our own dear
loved ones. Their welcome smile we'll see
once more. Beyond the gates, beyond the
sunset, new life immortal for us waits. We'll be at home on
that fair and wonderful morning, beyond the gates, beyond the
gates. All right, I did it. I did it. That's been haunting me for months. I thought, well, I'm going to
do it. And I hope I didn't embarrass
anybody. But nevertheless, that's it. It's something for a fellow
to wait until he's 65 years old to do that. First time in my
life I've ever done that. By myself. Standing up in front
of a congregation. Now if you've turned in your
Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 15, I'd like to read
beginning with verse 25 down through verse 33. verse 25 through verse 33 of
Romans chapter 15. But now, Apostle Paul doing the
speaking says, I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia
and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints
which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily,
and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been
made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to
minister unto them in carnal things. When therefore I have
performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come
by you into Spain. And I am sure that when I come
unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the
gospel of Christ. Now I beseech you, brethren,
for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit,
that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for
me, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea,
and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted
of the saints, that I may come unto you with joy by the will
of God, and may with you be refreshed. Now the God of peace be with
you all. Amen. And it always has been a blessing
to me, but there are times in particular when this verse of
Scripture really grips my heart. And this is one of those days,
one of those times. And I trust the Lord will be
pleased to bless what we have to say this morning. to the edification
of your heart and to the glory and praise of his dear name. Now, beloved, the Apostle Paul
held a very high and useful and glorious office. The Apostle
Paul, as we all know, was one chosen of God and one who was
placed in the office of an apostle. Paul called himself, in Romans
chapter 1 and verse 1, a servant of Jesus Christ and said he was
called to be an apostle and said, I am separated unto the gospel
of God. This was this man that God had
laid hold of on the road to Damascus. This is that man that God had
poured out his spirit upon and that God had anointed to be an
apostle to the Gentiles. But he had by no means a smooth
path in life. He did not have an easy life.
Even though he was an apostle, blessed of God, gifted and enabled
to speak his word, he had no easy, no smooth path in life. Now when we read the account
of the sufferings and the persecutions and the labors, we wonder how
this man could have gone through all that he experienced. In 2nd
Corinthians, in chapter 11, verses 23-31, through 31 you could read,
in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths
often, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
is blessed forevermore, knows that I lie not, he said. I had
great experiences of trial and test in my life. The Apostle
Paul did not have an easy life. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews,
yet he was used of God to spread the gospel to the Gentiles and
to be their teacher under God. And what we owe to him, beloved,
we cannot fully estimate. Look, if you would, at verse
15 and 16 of this very chapter. Paul says, nevertheless, brethren,
I have written more boldly unto you in some sort as putting you
in mind because of the grace that is given to me of God, that
I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering
the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable
being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Now, beloved, we cannot
fully estimate what his ministry meant to the New Testament Church
and to the Gentiles even down to the present hour. When we
consider the struggles of his life, we do not wonder that the
apostle was sometimes in great sorrow of heart and heavily burdened
in spirit, and I think he was at this time, the time that he
wrote this epistle to the Christians at Rome. Paul was to go to Jerusalem. We can read verse 25 and 26,
and we did, but now he says, I go into Jerusalem to minister
unto the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia
and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints
which are at Jerusalem. And Paul was ready to go. He
was ready to go to Jerusalem. He had this contribution from
the Gentiles to relieve the necessity of the saints at Jerusalem. Now, he said in verse 27, to
explain why the Gentiles were sending an offering or a contribution
to the Jews, he said, for if the Gentiles have been made partakers
of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto
them in carnal things. meaning that the message of the
gospel first went out to the Jews, and the Jews had it, had
the message of the gospel, and then now if this message goes
out by a Jew unto the Gentiles, and if the Gentiles receive of
these spiritual things, of these spiritual truths from the mouth
of the Jews, then they ought to minister unto the Jewish people
of their carnal things. Those things that God has blessed
them with, those things that God has been pleased to give
them, they ought to share those things with those who minister
unto them in a spiritual way. And this is true, and it's brought
out in several places in the Word of God. Now then, Paul was
going to Jerusalem, but he was well aware that there were those
in Judea who hated him with deadly hatred and would seek to take
his life. He had been the rising hope of
the Jewish party, but God intervened. Sovereign grace intervened. He was struck down on the road
to Damascus, and God saved him, and that put an end to all of
that. That put an end to his ministry toward the Jews. And the bigoted Jews regarded
him as an apostate from the faith of their fathers. But they had
a special hatred. They had venom in their heart
for him because of his boldness and because of his zeal in the
spreading of the gospel which they hated. Paul knew he had
enemies, and these enemies were at Jerusalem. And Paul went among
the Gentiles. He preached the grace of God
more clearly than any other man. Salvation by the cross, salvation
by the death, and merit. of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
this provoked hostility. You see, Paul had a very clear
message. I believe that it was one of
the clearest exponents of the doctrine of God's grace that
this world has ever heard. And he was very, very bold and
courageous in bringing that message. He felt he would not be well
received by the brethren at Jerusalem. Not only by the bigoted Jews,
but by the brethren. He knew of their tendency. toward legalism and for the maintenance
of the law. Paul knew how these Jewish brethren,
how they were all entangled in the do's and don'ts of the law. Paul was a marked man because
he had shaken off entirely that yoke of bondage and Paul preached
that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ was not under the law,
but under grace. Here is what he said in Romans
6 and 14. He said, for sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but under
grace. Paul said in Galatians, he said,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, because if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And in Galatians
3 and 23 through 26, He said, but before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up under the faith, which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster,
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come,
We are no longer under a schoolmaster for you're all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. So Paul had fears as to his enemies
and doubts about his so-called friends because he was so plain
and so clear as to how God saves sinners, and he was a champion
of the grace of God and the truths of God's grace as they were to
be spelled out in the lives of God's dear children. His case
was peculiar hard at this time. Well, what did Paul do when his
spirit was so oppressed? Well, he wrote to his brethren
And he had a request to make of them. He said, now I'm an
apostle. I'm an apostle. I'm separated
under the gospel of God. I've got business in this world. And Paul knew that he was immortal
until God chose to take him out, until his business was through
in the world. But yet, He wrote to the brethren
and he said, I want you to do something for me. And somebody
said, well, what did he want? Did he want them to take up a
special collection for him to help him out in his hard times?
What was it did he want? Well, beloved, he wanted them
to pray for him, to pray for him. Now you may wonder this
morning why it would be necessary for an apostle to have somebody
to pray for him. Why would it be necessary to
have someone to lift up their hearts earnestly and unanimously
to God that this apostle might be preserved from them that do
not believe in Judea and that the service which he had for
the saints at Jerusalem would be accepted. Well, now some of
those to whom he was writing are listed over in chapter 16
and we're acquainted with Priscilla and Aquila of whom we've read
about them in other scriptures. But Paul makes his appeal to
these unknown and to these humble individuals that they would strive
together with him in their prayers. Now this Beloved impresses me. Most of the time if we know somebody
that has or exhibits some spiritual strength, we say, well they need
to pray for them. They'll get along quite well.
They don't really need anybody to pray for them. Somebody said,
here's an apostle begging prayers of unknown people, of people
that he may or may not have ever met here in the church at Rome. You mean he's asking people to
pray for him? Well, you remember David. On
one occasion, after he was anointed king, he said, I am weak this
day, though anointed king. He said, the sons of Zeriah,
they're too much for me. They're too much for me. And
beloved, do we not once in a while meet people in this world, doesn't
make any difference how strong we are spiritually. that are
just almost too much for us. And Paul recognized that's exactly
what was going to happen when he got to Jerusalem. These people
were going to be difficult to handle. These people were going
to be a great trial to him. And these people were going to
persecute him and possibly take his life. And so he said, I need
some prayer to God. I need somebody to pray for me.
And you know, don't sit around and say, well, that preacher
sounds like he's got a corner on the word of God. Sounds like
he's spiritual enough. He don't need anybody to pray
for him. That's the biggest lie ever told on this side of hell
itself. Everybody, every child of God,
especially a man who's preaching the gospel, needs the prayers
of God's people. And so Paul said, I want you
to pray for me. I beseech you, brethren, for
the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the Spirit,
that you strive together with me in your prayers to God. for me." Now then, Paul makes
his appeal to these unknown and humble individuals that they
would pray for him, and it shows us the lowly spirit of the Apostle
Paul. It shows us that he was indeed
a humble man, and reveals to us his high value for the prayers
of obscure men and women. the high value that he placed
upon the prayers of those men and women that were lowly. He feels that he needs what the
prayers of these people can bring to him. Does it astonish you
that a man so rich in grace as Paul should be asking prayers
of these unknown saints? Listen, it need not astonish
you, for the more a man grows in grace, the more he feels his
dependence upon God, and in a certain sense, the more he feels his
dependence upon God's people. Now Paul was not looking for
hands to work for him, but hearts to plead for him. He wrote to
those whom he had never seen, and he begged their prayers as
if he pleaded for his life. Now every preacher of the gospel
of Christ is in much the same condition as Paul. True, we're
not apostles, but our needs are great. Our needs are great. Now
I do not have the grace of Paul, neither do I have the gifts,
or the ability of the Apostle Paul, but for this very reason
we make this appeal to you this morning, brother and sister,
fellow helpers to the truth, you ought to read and memorize
verse 30, and when you read this verse, remember this preacher,
strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. This text
caught my attention for I have a longing in my own heart that
I may more abundantly live in your prayers as a church and
as a people. Your prayers and the prayers
of others across this country have been asked for on numerous
occasions. They are my comfort. They are
my riches. They are my strength. And I want you to hear Paul plead
for prayer in our text. But I also want you to know that
there is another voice that is pleading for it too, and that
is the voice of that one that stands before you today. I say
this to you today, beloved, I need your prayers, maybe more than
I ever needed them before. in my life through all of the
years that I've stood before you. I'm more and more conscious
of their value and I request of you do not fail me. Just now I need special grace
in a number of areas and I trust that those of you that have long
prayed for me and the work of God here will feel the burden
now and that you will pray earnestly for me. I'm looking for someone
who has God's ear that will pray and that will speak a word to
God for me. I'm looking for somebody that
is able to pray, somebody that has the burden on their heart
to do it. I'm asking you, I'm pleading
with you that you'll pray for me. I'm not worthy to use the
same language as the Apostle Paul, but I do not know any better
language today to set forth the necessity of my heart. Therefore, I borrow his words
in verse 30, and I request that you strive together with me in
prayer to God for me. So in our text then we have prayer,
first of all, ask. We will look at Paul's request.
First then, here is a request to the people of God for prayer.
He asked it for himself. There seems to be three things
in particular here that he specifies. First of all, he says that you
strive together with me in your prayers. Now the word strive
here is agonize. It is agonize. Agonize, he said,
for me. Paul knew his own weakness and
we know somewhat of ours. He knew the difficulty of the
work that God had given him to do, that he had been called to.
He must not fail. It would be injurious through
the coming ages to the entire church if the Apostle Paul was
to fail. And so agonized, he said, for
me. strive together with me, agonize
before God, because he felt that much depended on him and the
success of his ministry. Who is sufficient for these things?
Paul asked in another place. Our sufficiency, he was quick
to add. is of God only. Only God can
help a man when he has been given this awesome responsibility and
obligation of spreading the good news of the gospel. And so Paul
is like a man who is willing to lead the way. And he's willing
to meet the enemy head on. But he says to his comrades,
you will support me. in prayer, won't you? Will you
support me in prayer? I'm willing to meet the enemy
over there at Jerusalem. I'm willing to go. I'm willing
to come. I'm willing. I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to go. But will you pray for me? Paul
is willing to go into a far country, taking his life into his own
hands, but he plaintively explains You won't forget me, will you?
You won't forget me. Will you strive together? Will
you agonize before God for me? It reminds us of Terry, who when
he went off to India said, I'll go down in the pit. and the rest
of you must hold the rope." The rest of you must hold the rope. So Paul is willing to go. He's
willing to be faithful to God. He's willing to be a martyr.
He's willing to lose his head for the sake of the gospel. But
he said, I want you to agonize with me in prayer. Well, it's
not according to the heart of a true soldier that we should
desert any man whom we've set in front of the battle. In other
words, if you put a man out front, and he's a point man, it's not
the art of a true soldier to back off from him and let him
take the heat of the battle himself. No, he must have some support.
And if we choose, if we call a man, if we place him in the
position of responsibility, and he's our representative in service
to God, We will not desert him, would we? Paul would say, if
you're with me in this war for God and truth, and for Christ's
sake, support me. Pray for me. I'm in a war. I'm
in a battle. I'm in a constant state of trouble
and conflict and persecution. Pray for me. Notice, if you will,
Paul used the word here, I beseech you, brethren. I beseech you.
It's the strongest word of entreaty that you can find. It is as if
he said, I go down on my knees to you. He says, I implore you,
pray for me, agonize to God in your prayers for me. I ask it
of you as the greatest favor that you can do for me. Paul
said, pray for me. I ask it of you as the dearest
token of your love that you strive together with me in your prayers
to God for me. Brethren, you are my brethren. Paul would say, pray for me. I beseech you, pray for me. The life that is in you is also
in my heart. We're born again to the same
Father. We're quickened by the same Spirit. We're redeemed by
the same Savior. Therefore, spiritually, We're
brethren. Do you have the love of God in
your heart? The love of the Spirit? Then
strive, agonize together with me in your prayers. Shall not
brothers pray for one another? He seems to say that if you're
brothers, then show the token of your brotherhood. I'm not
asking you to go up to Jerusalem to be my bodyguard up there as
I face the enemy. But I asked you to pray for me.
I asked you to remember me before the throne of grace. And the
Bible says in Matthew 18, 19. A verse that I referred to in
my prayer a few moments ago, if any two of you shall agree
on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall
be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. My, what
would happen around here if all of us were of one mind and one
heart in the matter of prayer for this work? What would happen?
If we were to have prayer meetings, and even if we cannot get together
in a geographic way or in one place, but if we were to agree
together to pray, to pray, to pray for God's intervention,
for the blessing of God upon the services, for the Holy Spirit
to give the anointing, for hearts to be touched by God and for
the finger of God to come down and to work in the hearts of
men and women here. Oh, if we were to pray, what
would happen? We must cry to God at once. Bless
the work, bless the preacher, bless the people who are coming
under the sound of the gospel. Mike said this morning if it
was left up to us in his prayers, nothing. These people would go
to hell. There are people here who are
under the sound of the gospel, they've heard the gospel, and
they've heard it over and over again. They need a touch from
God. Everybody here would say amen
to that. They need to hear from God. It's one thing to hear the
voice of the preacher, it's another thing to hear from God. And we're
hoping, we're praying that the Lord would be pleased to touch
some of you, because one of these days in a flash, this thing could
be over with. It could be all over with and
the judgment of God come on this unsuspecting world and it may
be that the last time that this church will ever assemble is
today and there's lost souls here under the sound of our voice. Oh, my friend, we need to pray.
This business that we're involved in is serious business. It's
very, very serious. We must cry to God at once. Establish
thou the work of our hands, yea, the work of our hands, establish
thou it. It is earnest prayer that Paul
asked for, prayer with force, desire with earnestness. Oh,
you know, I don't feel that this generation will ever get a blessing. The churches of our day are not
going to get the blessing that they could have if Mr. Wet Eyes would come back to the
services again, if that one would come back that is in dead earnest,
if that one would come back to our meetings who said, I got
a burden to pray and I will pray and I'll pray and I'll pray until
God begins to touch and work and affect those that come unto
the sound of his word. I beseech you, brethren. He says,
and I want you to listen to this. I want you to listen. He says,
now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. I beseech you for the Lord Jesus
Christ's sake." What an argument! What an argument! Now, Paul knew
that the name, that that name which is above every name, Paul
knew that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it was full
of power when that name was heard by true believers, when it was
heard by true hearts, when they heard that name, the name of
Jesus. All that surely would have an
effect upon him. Listen to me now. You may not
want to pray for me. You may say, matters very little
to me what becomes of you, preacher. But listen, does it not matter?
For Christ's sake, would you not pray? Would you pray for
Christ's sake? Even if you wouldn't do it for
the preacher's sake, would you do it for Christ's sake? Wouldn't
you do it? Now listen, beloved, you owe
everything to Him. Everything to Him. You owe Him
your very souls, do you not? You owe Him your hope for the
future and every comfort in the present and every happy memory
of the past, you owe it to the Lord Jesus Christ, do you not?
You owe it to Him. You owe it to Christ. Now listen
to me, your life and mine would have been worse than death apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ. If I'd never heard the melodious
name of Jesus, if I'd never heard that name which is sweeter than
the honeycomb, if I'd never heard that name, Oh beloved, I would
still be lost today, lost in my sin, hopelessly ruined, without
a ray of hope for eternity, facing the grave without any comfort,
facing eternity without any assurance, if it had not been for that name,
that name. And Paul said, I beseech you,
brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Oh, listen, God
will do many things for Christ's sake. Everything God does, I
believe, in the realm of the eternal purpose, as it involves
the redemptive purpose of God, it is all done for Christ's sake. How many times have we pleaded
that, for Christ's sake? For Christ's sake, do this. For
Christ's sake, do that. For Christ's sake, intervene
today. For Christ's sake, lift us up
out of our misery. For Christ's sake, visit souls,
save men and women. I just happen to believe that
anything that God Almighty could do, that Jesus deserves to be
done. That's what I believe, and that's
why I plead his name. That's why I plead his name.
And, beloved, that's why I'm ashamed of our weaknesses and
our frailties. I know they give impetus to our
prayers, but we're ashamed of Jesus. Jesus, for his sake, oh,
for his sake, pray for me. Now, Paul would say, as you cannot
repay the Lord Jesus Christ personally, then repay it by praying for
his servant. Did you get that? We all owe
a debt to Jesus we can't pay. Isn't that right? We are not
able to pay. We can't even make the first
installment. We cannot pay by the debt. But Paul said means you can't
pay him personally. Pray for his servant. Pray for
that one who represents him, for that one who stands and preaches
his gospel. Pray for him. If there be any
love to Christ in a Christian's heart, he must pray that the
Holy Spirit would bless the ministry of the Word. The preacher is
like the bell in the church steeple. It'll not ring until it's yanked. And I believe the preacher must
be given a yank by the Spirit of God if he's going to be able
to minister and minister faithfully. He then adds another argument.
He says, for the love of the Spirit. If the Spirit of God
has indeed loved you, proved it by quickening you, bringing
you out of spiritual death, setting you apart, sanctifying you, and
we have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, that means that
the Spirit of God has come in and cut us out from the rest
of mankind, and Jesus has come and taken up life in us. and were saved, were the saved
of the Lord. And he says, if you have the
love of the Spirit in you, then pray for me. Pray for me. The
Spirit of God creates a love in the hearts of the Lord's people
which is stronger than mere natural affection. A love which does
not arise out of fleshly relationships or any mere association, but
a love which the Holy Spirit himself creates and fosters in
the believer. If there be such love in you,
not natural and temporary, brother, but spiritual, then pray, become
prayerful, and begin to breathe out prayer to God. And lest our
profession is a lie, we do love each other. unless we don't know
the Lord. The Bible says God is love, and
it says that if you know the Lord, you love, and if you've
been begotten of the Lord, then you love those that are also
begotten of Him. And so, beloved, we're to pray
for one another, and we love each other unless our profession
is a lie. Question yourself. Do I love
these people around me enough to pray for them? Do I? Do I
love these people around here enough? Do I love that preacher
enough to agonize in prayer for him? Oh, I don't think there's
very many in our day who know anything about agonizing. They
don't want to work that hard. That's hard work. To agonize
in prayer. To agonize. I don't ask you to
put on anything. and just create a show. I'm not
asking you to work out something. I'm just saying that you need
to feel the burden. to burden until you begin to
say, Lord, what's wrong with me? I know the name of Jesus,
and I've been saved by Him. He's my Redeemer. And I have
the Spirit of God, the love of the Spirit in my heart, and I
do love the Lord's people. I do, I do. I know that I'll
pass from death to life because I have the love of God in my
heart for the Lord's people. Lord, what's the matter with
me that I cannot agonize in prayer for them, that I'll not pray
for? each other, those in the church, I'll not remember them
as a whole. The love of the Spirit is knitted
to one another and none can put us asunder, brethren. In Christ
Jesus, my brethren and sister, there has been begotten in our
hearts an affection that's deep, that's true, that's real for
one another, which death itself shall not destroy. We will not
be separated even in eternity. No, not even in eternity. This little church will be in
heaven along with all of the Lord's living family throughout
eternity. Oh, could we not? Could we not
just get a vision of what it'll be like when all of this is over
and we're over on the other side? And could we not somehow or other
feel just somewhat of a burden upon our hearts to become more
prayerful for the Lord's people that are on this side, this side,
and those that are in need? Then by the love of the Spirit
I beseech you that you agonize together with me in your prayers.
Every word pleads with tears, not a wasted word in the verse
that I found. Paul believed in the providence
of God. He believed in that providence
that could overrule all things. We also believe this. He believed
also that God could influence men's hearts, especially the
hearts of his own people. We believe that the hearts of
all men are in the hand of God. Do we believe that? Do you not
believe in the supremacy of the will of God over the will of
men? I believe in it. We recognize
that there's a providence that not only shapes our end, but
also molds men's hearts into what God wants them to be. Paul
believed in the power of prayer. He believed in it. He not only
believed in the power of prayer as he prayed himself, But he
believed, as we said earlier, the prayers of simple people,
Paul believed in it. Not the prayers of the bishops,
not the prayers of the right reverend fathers in God, not
the prayers of the super elite spiritual of the world, but the
prayers of simple people, Paul believed in it. Nevertheless,
let us imagine and imagine what was going on in his heart. And
there are things that come across my heart as I begin to ask you
to pray today. I know how unbelief, I know how
it talks, I know the phrases it uses, and I know that there
are many times that we imagine that the doctrine of the fixity
of events, that the doctrine of God's ordained decrees, or
the supremacy of the grace of God, that is contrary to the
prayers of God's people. In other words, prayer ain't
gonna change anything, so why should we pray? Why should we
get all worked up to the point of agonizing in prayer if God
is a God that has ordained all things, and that if he's a God
that has the supremacy? over man and over the things
of this world, why should we pray? Well, the truth is that
the prayer, the Bible says, that the effectual prayer, the fervent
prayer of a man of God, that it is very effectual. And that
God has ordained to his own end and purpose and has ordained
means to be used For that purpose, the purpose of God, that is,
includes the use of means. God intends for men to pray. God will be asked of His people
to do for them what they require to be done, what must be done
by Him. And notwithstanding the eternal
purpose of God, that purpose includes the use of means. We declare that among the most
potent means in all the world is prayer. And this must not
be neglected. It must not be neglected. Now,
you may say, well, I believe that a man can pray when he can
pray, and that he can't pray all the time. Well, now, there
are times when we exercise a great deal of liberty in prayer. Other
times when we're shut up in ourself. Seems like that. The prayer don't
get any further than the ceiling, seem like the heavens are brass,
and we can't get a prayer off to God. But I've discovered that
many, many times when we don't think we are praying, and don't
think we can pray, we are very much praying. And that's the
same thing true about the preacher, coming here and preaching. There
are times when you can preach. There's times when you can't.
You can't preach when you want to, you preach when you can.
But we preach every time that we're obligated, every time that
the opportunity presents itself, we preach anyway. We just preach
in season and out of season. Preach whether we got liberty
or we haven't got liberty. Preach, preach, preach. Because
God said that you preach. Preach the word in season and
out. And so we'll do so. And we must
also pray the same way. You get up and you say, I don't
hardly feel like praying. Well, you just go ahead and pray
anyway. Just pray anyway. Just pray anyway. You say, I don't feel like kneeling.
Then sit up and pray. You say, well, I don't feel like
sitting. I feel like walking. Well, then walk and pray. There
have been an awful lot of prayers went up to God by people walking.
And you say, well, I got to work. Well, then pray while you're
working if you can keep your mind on your business and prayer
at the same time. If you can't, you better keep
your mind on your work lest you cut your hands off or something
else terrible would happen. or that lets you shirk your responsibility
to your employer. But I am saying that we must
take up this duty and we must not neglect it. As I tried to
quote a few minutes ago, the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much, James said. So without doubt
or question, please pray. Pray and pray earnestly. Pray
for a blessing and leave the way of the coming of the blessing
to the wisdom of our God who knows all things. We make no assumption, we have
no assumption that we know what God ought to do. We do not know
what God ought to do here. But we know what he's in the
business of doing, and we believe that we should ask him to do
it. We know that God saves sinners. We're going to ask him to do
it. We know that saints do grow in grace. We're going to pray
that saints will grow in grace here. We do know that God calls
young men into the ministry. We're going to pray that he'll
do that here. We do pray that God will be pleased
to use this congregation as a mouthpiece for him in this generation. Pray for a blessing and leave
its coming to the wisdom of our God who knows all things. Well,
the very air in our day and time is full of unbelief. The very
air. The earth seems to tremble with
unrest, both social and political. A deep and terrible unrest that
fills us with dark forebodings of the future. The hope of our
day and days to come lies under God in the church of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Somebody ask, is it right, preacher,
for a man to feel uneasy in this world and to feel that there
are dark, dark times coming? that there are times of test
and trial coming on the earth. Is it right? And I say to you
that as long as God's creation, until that creation, is brought
into the glorious liberty of the children of God, the children
of God as they live out their days in this world, are bound
to have this feeling that things are not right, that things are
out of kilter, that things are not as they ought to be. And
until we know the will of God to be done on earth as it is
in heaven, we do feel that things are not as they ought to be.
I look at this world and I've been looking at it now for a
long time. I do not look at it through rose-tinted
glasses. I tell you, I believe that this
world is coming down to its end. The Bible says the end of all
things is at hand. Be therefore sober and watch
unto prayer. I do believe that judgment is
coming on this earth. Unbelief is a terrible thing,
but we will say that if in other days and in softer times you
neglected prayer, do so no longer. Do so no longer. Begin to cry
to God. Now then, the signs of the times
are big with terror. Therefore, to your tents, O Israel,
and in your tents, cry to God that a blessing may come upon
the church and the nation. If it be so, that without God's
blessing we can do nothing, and that God's blessing can be had
for the asking, then never let it be said of us, you have not,
because you ask not. I am not as the paid optimist
in Washington, D.C. I am not an optimist. I am not
a pessimist. I am a realist. And I believe
that if we're going to believe what God says, and we must believe
it as God said it, then if we don't have what we need, we must
ask for it, and we'll get it. There was a man who was a businessman,
and he was asked to conduct a business meeting in the church. And he
got up and so they read the minutes and he said, if the minutes,
if they stand as read, if they're not corrected, then they'll stand
as read. And somebody said, well, I think
we ought to read a portion of the Word of God. So they opened
up the Bible and read. He said, well, if the scriptures
are not corrected, then they'll stand as read. Well, let me tell
you this, beloved, they'll stand as read. God said, you have not
because you ask not. That's what he said. He said
you don't have because you don't ask. Now then, if that be the
case, and if the Word of God means what it says, then I think
we ought to take up asking, don't you? Oh, Paul said, you agonize
in the name of Jesus Christ. You strive together with me in
your prayers. In the love of the Spirit, you
strive together with me, your prayers to God for me. Pray for
me, pray for me. And I'm sure this morning that
there was a lady, young lady, I saw her walk back, she had
a shirt on, and on the back of it she said, God, on the back
of it it said, God is working. God is working. I said, do you
know that the Bible says that God is working in us to will
and to do of His good pleasure? that that is scriptural. God
is at work. He is at work. I don't know whether
He was at work in her or not, but God is at work in His people. He's at work. You can put up
a sign. They put up a sign out in the street, men at work. Put
up a sign if you have to or if you want to. God is at work here. The Lord's doing something in
our hearts. May the Lord move our hearts.
To your tents, O Israel. Cry to God. Cry to God. In your closet, cry to God. Cry
to God wherever you can. Pray, pray. Father, in the name
of Jesus, we've delivered what we felt was what you would have
us to deliver today. Thou knowest, our Father, whether
we're satisfied with it or whether we're not. It's the truth. And
we gave Thy people something to think about, something to
challenge them. And I hope that love to Jesus
was inspired more fully this morning. And I hope that the
duty of prayer was set forth and that we'll all feel the burden
Lord, to pray, to seek thy face, and that each one here might
particularly say, I've got to pray a prayer for that preacher
this week, that the Lord will help him, and the Lord will deliver
him, the Lord will spare him, and the Lord will show him his
way and his word more clearly. May the Lord bless this congregation. Lord, strengthen this group,
and may we have risen up in our midst here, boys and girls, men
and women, who are prayerful people, believing people, those
that would be connected with faith, and those that would have
many experiences when they grow up and become older people, that
are not for sale, saying, the Lord heard me here, the Lord
heard me there, God visited me here, and God visited me there. May we have many that will have
a testimony in time to come, the faithfulness of God dating
back to this day, this day, the last Sunday in September in 1997,
when they heard an old preacher say, agonize, agonize in prayer
to God and strive in prayer for me. Lord, may this church be
blessed. In Jesus' name we pray it. Amen. Mike, would you lead