Praying Without Ceasing

Good morning. I'm glad for the opportunity to come and speak with you all today, both during the Sunday school hour about what God has been doing in Ethiopia, what he's privileged me to be a part of there and continues to allow me to work among and also for the opportunity to preach this morning. My work in Ethiopia has been going on for, this is the 14th year since the first year that I went there. I have spoken in dozens, maybe even close to a hundred churches over that time about the work in Ethiopia. And only a handful of them have said, will you preach? I like the ones that invite me to preach. I mean, I like the others too, but really, it's good to hear about the work and helpful for sure, but having the opportunity to open up and look at the Scriptures is always a delight. I want to spend our time thinking primarily about one topic this morning. I'm not sure, now that I'm thinking about my notes, that I really have any points. So, the topic will be my point this week, prayer. And we're just going to talk about prayer together for a little bit, looking at a few different passages. The first place we're going to stop is in Luke chapter 18, if you want to take your Bibles and open there. If you have a Pew Bible, it's page 877. But it's going to take us a few minutes to get there. Prayer is something that we often take for granted. I wonder if we all took out a piece of paper and wrote down a definition of prayer, how many different definitions we would have. I think if we seek to define it concisely or broadly and broadly at the same time, we might say that it includes. Acknowledgement and confession and praise and petition and supplication and thanksgiving. And we might summarize all of that with the one word communion, communion with God. But for the Christian, prayer is vital, I fear far more vital than we often realize. I mean, for you in your own life in the past week, in the past month, since the day that you first professed Christ, could you describe prayer in your life? Like water to a fish, is it that necessary or milk to an infant or oxygen for your own lungs? In thinking about prayer this morning, there's so many different angles that we could approach it from so many questions that we could seek to answer. So many things that we could say about it. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the famous pastor in London, the Welshman, said regarding prayer, everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer. So I picked a really easy topic. In fact, I will say it's far easier to preach on prayer than to pray. Prayer is not difficult because God has put his almighty power to use, making it nearly impossible to accomplish. Prayer is, however, difficult because we are so reluctant to humility. and dependence. And honesty. I mentioned there were a number of questions we could answer this morning regarding prayer. What is prayer? When should we pray? To whom should we pray? What kinds of things should we pray for? What kinds of things should we not pray for? What is the difference between public prayer and private prayer? I just want to answer one of those questions this morning. When? When should we pray? Well, the easy answer. Is always. But it's easier answered than accomplished. Colossians 4 2 says devote yourselves to prayer. What do you find that you're devoted to? If someone's watching you in the past week, even in your relationship to God, where is your devotion? What are you devoted to? What is it? In the reading that we've looked at already from Paul, the Apostles letter to the church at Thessalonica. First Thessalonians 517 pray without ceasing. It flows off our lips so easily. And out of our lives. So difficult. Let's look at the parable in Luke chapter 18 as we begin this morning. I find this parable to be encouraging, especially when we consider the context in which it comes during the last days is when is what Jesus is teaching about and the difficulties that are going to come upon them. And so he says, in the midst of teaching them in Luke, chapter 18, beginning in verse one, he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said in a certain city, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary. For a while, he refused. But afterward, he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I'll give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said here what the unrighteous judge says and will not God give justice to his elect to cry to him day and night. Will he delay long over them? I tell you he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith? On the Earth, Jesus says when times get difficult, When circumstances seem overwhelming, do not lose heart, but rather. Pray. Now, this parable concisely captures the Lord's emphasis, but I want to go back a bit further and not just look at the encouragement here in the parable this morning, but I want to see the exam an example displayed. More fully. from the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 62, verse 7 says, Give him no rest until he establishes and makes Jerusalem appraised in the earth. In thinking about Jesus warning of difficult times and what how he suggested we should respond in the midst of these difficult circumstances, we can go back and see in the life of Isaiah. He experienced those times and we can see that his response was as Jesus commands us. God has promised so many remarkable things to us as his people in the scriptures. But if we're honest, when we take a step back and gaze at the land in which we live, what's going on in the world doesn't match what God has promised for his people. I mean, it's one of the reasons that in the all too familiar Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. It's because God's will is not being done on Earth as it is in heaven. When we compare the promises that God has made with the reality of our lives and the actual spiritual situation that we find ourselves living in, our incentive and motivation to give him no rest should increase. That's what the prophet suggested. Give him no rest. Keep banging on the door. Knock and it will be open to you. Ask and it will be given to you. No. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that it's true for you, just like it is for me, that the traditions of our past experiences, either real life or recorded history, prayers that we've prayed or heard that other people prayed and then seen God answer for us or for others should serve to motivate us to powerful pleas for present help. We have a God who hears and who answers. It makes zero sense whatsoever for us to sit back passively and not storm the gates of heaven, as it were, asking him to give us all that we need. I quoted from Isaiah 62, but if we back up and and catch what's going on there in context of chapter 61. If you have a few Bible, it's page six hundred and twenty. God spells out, if you will, his plans regarding his people. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn. To grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. The preaching of Christ himself is being prophesied here by Isaiah. And the message that Christ will preach is a full and free and everlasting salvation to perishing sinners. This kind of promise ought to cause us to wonder at his mercy. I mean, imagine, since this prophecy was made, the myriads of broken hearts that have been healed, that has resulted in rejoicing on earth and hallelujahs being sung in heaven. Christ's work on our behalf. Gives us great cause for praise. But it actually does more than that. Christ's work for us and in us actually produces praise, blessing and honor and glory and power to him who sits on the throne. That's what the apostle John saw when he peeked into heaven in Revelation five. Those who had been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb were worshiping that Lamb, who is Christ. What happens after this wonderful prophecy of the preaching of the Messiah that was to come? Verse four. Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise up the former devastations, and they will repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, and foreigners will be your farmers and your vine dressers. But you will be called the priests of the Lord. You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Participation in the gospel in the kingdom is assured. It's guaranteed everything that's broken down will be repaired. You will be preached of the Lord, Isaiah says to the people of God, and he continues. Instead of your shame, you'll have a double portion. Instead of humiliation, they'll shout for joy over their portion. Therefore, they will possess a double portion in their land. Everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering. and I will faithfully give them their recompense. I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Then their offspring will be known among the nations and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them because they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed preeminent blessings are promised a possession of a double portion. The recompense will be paid. People will be seen. The people of the Lord will be seen and recognized as those blessed by God. Which results in verse 10. I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, Isaiah continues. My soul will exult in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with jewels for as the earth brings forth its sprouts and as a garden causes the things sewn in it to spring up so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise the spring up before all nations. Isaiah is prophesying about the guaranteed fruitfulness that will come as a result of the coming kingdom. Of the Messiah. But as we move into chapter 62, we see the tension building in the prophet, he's beginning to feel it even in his own day and his response to this tension that exists between what God has promised and what reality is all around us. His response lays foundational groundwork for us and how we, too, must respond. For Zion's sake, chapter 62, verse one, I will not keep silent. And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not keep quiet until her righteousness goes forth like brightness and her salvation like a torch that is burning. The nations will see your righteousness and all kings, your glory, and you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will designate. Isaiah is planning here to pray. He's planning to pray because the tension is so much inside. He can do no other between what God has said about his people and what the present situation says. This is so much more than Isaiah saying, man, things are bad, I think I'll pray. It's more than hearing the devastating effects of sin, ravaging a family and you saying, I'll pray for you. For Zion's sake, he says, I will not keep silent. I will not until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, until God makes good on his promises. He's promised. I know that he's faithful. I'm not going to be silent until he proves himself faithful. Isaiah is resolved not to cease praying until God fulfills his promises and the people of God become what God intends. What has he promised for his people? What does he intend for his people? Let's continue reading sixty two three. You will be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. It will no longer be said to you forsaken nor to your land. Will it any longer be said desolate? But you will be called. My delight is in her and in your land married. For the Lord delights in you and to him your land will be married for the young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. So as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you. On your walls of Jerusalem of appointed watchmen all day and all night, they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves and give him no rest until he establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise. In the earth, the Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his strong arm, I will never again give your grain as food to your enemies, nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored. Isaiah has complete confidence that God will hear him. He knows the promises of God and he believes that God will make good on it. But he also sees all around him that what God has promised has not come to fruition. So he, as a result, says, I will give him no rest, begging God to make good on his promises. I will not keep silent until the nation see your righteousness, he says. How does that measure up to our prayer for the nations? I will not keep silent until your people are called by a new name. Are we concerned at all about what we appear to be? Are we marked in the way that God said we will be marked as a blessed people of God? It's far different praying than merely saying, Lord, if it be your will, please help us. His will is clear. Revealed and good. We must believe it. being absolutely done with the puny little God of our imagination and rather see him as he really is the powerful presence, all knowing, everlasting, almighty, glorious God. It's this God who says in verse three through five, you'll be a crown of beauty in the land, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You'll be called. My delight is in her. It's this same God who goes on to say he will rejoice over you. Do you really believe this? Have you grasped it? And if so. Is your praying enough to convict you of believing this remarkable reality? You see, if we aren't convinced of. The truth of these promises, then the tension isn't going to be there. between what God has promised and what reality suggests all around us, because it's that tension of what God has promised and what reality presents that will. Result in us going to him and asking. Do you think that the pledges that God makes in Isaiah 61 and 62 match the circumstances that we find in the church today? The professed church in America right around the globe even is consumed with heresies galore, divided by divisions that seem to never, ever end, characterized by an apathetic hopelessness with seemingly no power at all. Yet God himself says regarding his people, it will no longer be said of you forsaken. To your land, it will no longer be said desolate. But you will be called my delight is in her for the Lord, for the Lord delights in you. These two words forsaken, desolate, these are accurate descriptions of the professed church in our day. Yet God has promised so much more. A crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord. Is that what you see is the people of God as the church, a royal diadem in his hand? Verse six and seven, because of the tension created in the prophet, he says all day and all night, they will never keep silent. You who are the Lord's reminders. Take no rest for yourself. Keep going back petitioning over and over like the widow to the unrighteous judge. Give him no rest. Don't leave him alone until he establishes his fame and his glory among us. Does this kind of response, the response of the prophet here, does it characterize our reaction to these glorious promises? Back in verses three through five, the crown of beauty, the royal diadem, I wonder. I wonder how much of our response to the revelation of these promises that God has made regarding us as his people. I wonder how much of our response is blunted. As a result of our lack of understanding of God's sovereignty. I wonder how guilty We might find ourselves of misunderstanding God's sovereign dealings with us. I wonder how often we're guilty of shunning our role in our responsibility of praying and working by chalking up our apathy to his sovereignty. I wonder how often we excuse our neglect of the only appropriate response to God's promises with our wrong understanding of how he works everything. according to his perfect will. Now, God is sovereign. I'm not arguing against that. I am suggesting and attempting to rather strongly that he is sovereign and active, and he is a sovereign and active God who works out his purposes through his people and among them in their midst. So what are the ways that God has determined to work out everything according to his will to bring about his purposes in our lives, in the life of his church? Just in these chapters that we've looked at here, we see. Three specific ways through the preaching of his word in sixty one, one through three, through the praise of his people in sixty one, ten and eleven, and through the prayers of his people, sixty two, six and seven. And we're only looking at one of those this morning. Through the prayers of his people, God has determined to work everything according to the counsel of his own will, and he's chosen to work it through the prayers of his children, which is why the prophet Isaiah says to you this morning and to me, give God no rest. We must break our guilty silence and prevail in prayer. How would you define your own praying? What about your praying as a church? In the eight thirty a.m. prayer meeting or in the Wednesday night prayer meetings, are you giving God no rest until he establishes his renown on the earth among Jefferson Park Baptist Church? Do you find often in prayer you're merely running down a list of telling God a few things about himself and listing off a few interesting things about yourself that he obviously already knows? Do we know this type of prevailing prayer, do we know this type of praying, not letting up until we have his ear and we've been heard? Or is our prayer typified by mere reciting of facts? Facts are meant to be accepted and believed and promises are meant for pleading. And prayer is the pleading of promises. When it comes to just listing off things that we know to be true about ourselves or about God, God really has little interest in what we know, and it's not because he's disinterested, it's just that he's far more interested in what we really need. Because what we need is what he has promised. He's promised to give his presence to his people. I will never again give your grain as food to your enemies. He's promised to be our great provider. By his right hand, by his strong arm, he's promised to live among us. He will grant blessings to us. Foreigners will not drink your wine anymore. He is promised to be our sustenance. Now, if he's promised all these blessings to his people, will he not do it? Is he going to leave us to ourselves to try to bring these things about is going to allow these promises to go undone forever? Verse 10 of chapter 62. Go through, go through the gates, clear the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway, remove the stones, lift up a standard over the peoples. Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth, say to the daughter of Zion, lo, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. And they will call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. And you will be called sought out a city, not. forsaken. It's as if God has the vision in his mind of these things coming to fruition, and he reveals to us our responsibility of prayer, and then he shows Isaiah the glimpse of the glory that what will happen whenever he answers the prayer. The path has been clear before that's before us. However, it's now cluttered with rocks of resistance that are in our hearts. Pray a little, sin a little, seek a little, forsake a little. We have responsibilities in light of these promises of God. It's not as if God has promised and it's going to happen as we sit back and watch. We must not neglect our responsibilities relying on his sovereignty. We must not corrupt the promises, thinking that we can somehow manipulate him. We must believe him and beg him to make good on his promises. Numbers 23, 19, has he said and will he not do it? Has he spoken? Will he not make it good? Are we really content to allow the banners of desolate and forsaken to be the banner? over our lives as the people of God in our day. Are we really OK just meeting together here and there, pretending to encourage one another and enjoying life? Are we being deceived by some sort of remnant mentality, wrongly assuming that small means accurate or pleasing when there are thousands who are lost all around us? Have we believed the lie that the world is too far gone and the only hope is the end? Pretending somehow that the only way out of this mess is for Jesus to come back, that the only hope for us is in some future kingdom. What a small God we serve, if that's the only hope. Have you taken the promises of God and somehow postponed them? Letting God off the hook, as it were, concerning his promises, transferring his promises intended for the church militant to the church glorious. These promises that God has made are for his people, for us. I fear that we somehow assume that God has everything under control in heaven, so maybe all these promises will just come to fruition when we get there. His son himself taught us to pray that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. We, as the people of God, as the church, have become overcome with this spirit of lethargy and defeatism. I mean, when we back up and consider Christianity in our day, we are experiencing it is experiencing atrocious decline right across our land. But it is insufficient for us just to nod our heads at a mere theoretical analysis. We must be determined to act, to pray, to live, to seek. How concerned are we for the Church of God? Are we convinced who the church really is? Do we respond like she is the city of God, the bride of Christ? I mean, think about it with me. God made her for himself. He brought her into being even at the cost of the bloody death of his own son. Therefore, we ought to be incredibly concerned about the state of the church. And what keeps us from being concerned about the state of the church in our land is that we are far too consumed with ourselves and our personal problems and all of our difficulties. But if we slow down and back up and consider the promises that God has made, when we compare them to what we see all around, the only thing left for us to do is follow the example of the prophet and to cry out to him to give him no rest. We must. band together and inundate heaven with bold pleadings bombarding God, if you will, until answers come from heaven. We have no choice but to return to the scriptures to get a vision for the church and God's plan for her. We have no choice but to take keen notice of the stark contrast between the great promises that God has made and the abysmal state of affairs in which we live. We must, as verse six says, become the Lord's reminders. God, you said. We must take no rest. For ourselves and we must give him no rest until he hears and until he answers, we must not stop short of the church becoming a praise and a glory again the way that Isaiah said it until her righteousness goes forth like brightness. and her salvation like a torch that is burning. And the nations see righteousness and glory. Now, we see in the parable from Jesus and encouragement to at all times pray. We see it explained a bit further by the prophet. And if we look at the life of Jesus, especially in the final hours We see it exemplified. Jesus came to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be grieved and distressed, and he said to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with me. And he went a little beyond them and he fell on his face and he prayed, saying, my father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and he found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, so you men could not keep watch with me for one hour. Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Jesus went away again a second time and he prayed, saying, My father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done. And Jesus came and found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy and Jesus left them again. He went away and prayed a third time. Our Lord himself going back petitioning, just like the widow to the unrighteous judge, just like Isaiah has demanded that we give him no rest, he goes a third time, Matthew 26, 44, saying the same thing once more as the way Matthew records it for us in his gospel. In the days of Christ's flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death. And the writer of Hebrews says he was heard because of his piety. He was heard in those prayers when he went back once, twice, three times. He was heard because of his persistent praying. Now, in order to kind of simplify the expected application. For us this morning. I'll shrink it down to two options. I think we could all stand back and look around at the religious climate in which we live and say. At best, it's not very good. So with that in mind, There's a tension created. If we believe what God has said and if we see the religious landscape and see that there's a difference, there's a tension created which leaves one of two responses for you and for me. I think the best way to picture the responses would be imagining two thrones. And you have the option of going to either of those thrones. One would be a throne of grace. The other. We'll call it a throne of works. We sang the wonderful hymn before the throne of God above the writer of Hebrew says it this way, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all ways. We are yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This is my suggested my suggested response to go to the throne of grace. When we draw near with confidence, not in ourselves, but confidence in him who loved us and gave himself for us, who lived and died a life that we could never live and a death that would do no good even if we died. And was raised again and ascended on high, receiving gifts among men, namely the Holy Spirit that he poured out that day at Pentecost that still lives in among us today. We go to him. Heaven's favorite who's seated at the right hand of the father whose blood is there on the mercy seat, we go with confidence in him. And he hears and we receive mercy and grace in time of need. We've already agreed that it's that we're living in needy times. The other option would be for us to go to the throne of works, or I might say it more pointedly to the throne of self-sufficiency. Really, the only option is for us to believe God. And go to him and ask him to make good on his promises or to not believe him or to believe him and trust that we can accomplish it with our own merit or our own ability, we either come to him or we trust in our own understanding the proverb. Familiar chapter three, verse five, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. It's either a path to the throne of grace, asking God to make good on his promises or the path is to the throne of self, and we try to manage it all on our own. Hoping himself and trusting in our own righteousness. Will not God bring about justice, Jesus said at the end of the parable for his elect who cry to him day and night, and will he delay long over them? Jesus says, I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly. with that kind of encouragement from our Lord, with the example from the prophet and seeing it exemplified in the life of Jesus. How in the world could we then stand back and not make bold petitions, storming the gates of heaven, begging God to prove that his word is true and that what he has said will come to fruition in our lives. Let's pray. God, you alone are worthy of all worship and praise. We thank you that you're a God who hasn't left us in our sin to fend for ourselves, but you've accomplished all that we need for life and godliness in Christ. And you've given us yourself and the person of your spirit to dwell within and among us. God, we acknowledge that you've promised so much more than we've taken advantage of. So, God, we ask by your grace, God, that you would be merciful and work in us, creating an increased tension in our hearts that would result in us believing your promises, acknowledging the state in which we live and as a result, coming again and again to your throne, begging for an outpouring of your mercy and grace and love. and power into our lives. Hear us, for Christ's sake we pray. Amen.