Restraining Prayer
(No. 2943)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1863.
"You…restrain prayer before God." Job 15:4.
THIS is one of the charges brought by Eliphaz the Temanite against Job,
"Yes, you cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God." I shall not
use this sentence as an accusation against those who never pray, though
there may be some in this House of Prayer whose heads are unaccustomed
to bow down and whose knees are unaccustomed to kneel before the Lord,
their Maker. You have been fed by God's bounty, you owe all the breath
in your nostrils to Him, yet you have never done homage to His name!
The ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib, but you know not,
neither do you consider the Most High. The cattle on a thousand hills
low forth their gratitude and every sheep praises God in its
bleating–but these beings, worse than natural brute beasts–still
continue to receive from the lavish hand of Divine Benevolence, but
they return no thanks whatever to their Benefactor! Let such remember
that that ground which has long been rained upon, and plowed, and sown
which yet brings forth no fruit, is near unto cursing–whose end is to
be burned. Prayerless souls are Christless souls, Christless souls are
Graceless souls and Graceless souls shall soon be damned souls! See
your peril, you that neglect altogether the blessed privilege of
prayer! You are in the bonds of iniquity, you are in the gall of
bitterness. God deliver you, for His name's sake!
Nor do I intend to use this text in an address to those who are in the
habit of formal prayer, though there are many such. Taught from their
childhood to utter certain sacred words, they have carried through
youth and even up to manhood, the same practice! I will not discuss
that question just now, whether the practice of teaching children a
form of prayer is proper or not. I would not do it. Children should be
instructed in the meaningof prayer, and their little minds should be
taught to pray, but it should be rather the matter of prayer than the
words of prayer that should be suggested. And I think they should be
taught to use their own words and to speak to God in such phrases and
terms as their own childlike capacities, assisted by a mother's love,
may be able to suggest. Full many there are who, from early education,
grow up habituated to some form of words which either stands in lieu of
the heart's devotion, or cripples its free exercise. No doubt there may
be true prayer linked with a form, and the soul of many a saint has
gone up to Heaven in some holy collect, or in the words of some
beautiful liturgy, but, for all that, we are absolutely certain that
tens of thousands use the mere language without heart or soul, under
the impression that they are "praying."
I consider the form of prayer to be no more worthy of being called
prayer than a coach may be called a horse. The horse will be better
without the coach, travel much more rapidly and find himself much more
at ease. He may drag the coach, it is true, and still travel well.
Without the heart of prayer, the form is no prayer–it will not stir or
move–it is simply a vehicle that may have wheels that might move, but
it has no inner force or power within itself to propel it. Flatter not
yourselves that your devotion has been acceptable to God, you that have
been merely saluting the ears of the Most High with forms! They have
been only mockeries when your heart has been absent. What though a
parliament of bishops should have posed the words you use? What though
they should be absolutely faultless, yes, what if they should even be
inspired? Though you have used them a thousand times, yet you have
never prayed if you consider that the repetition of the form is prayer.
No! There is more than the chatter of the tongue in genuine
supplication! More than the repetition of words in truly drawing near
to God! Take care lest, with the form of godliness, you neglect the
power and go down to Hell having a lie in your right hand, but not the
Truth of God in your heart!
What I do intend, however, is to address this text to the true people
of God who understand the sacred art of prayer and are prevalent
therein, but who, to their own sorrow and shame, must confess that they
have restrained prayer. If there is no other person in this
Congregation to whom the preacher will speak personally, he feels
shamefully conscious that he will have to speak very plainly to
himself. We know that our prayers are heard. We are certain–it is not
a question with us–that there is an efficacy in the Divine office of
intercession. And yet (oh, how we should blush when we make the
confession!) we must acknowledge that we do restrain or neglect prayer.
Now, inasmuch as we speak to those who grieve and repent that they
should have done so, we shall use but little sharpness. But we shall
try to use much plainness of speech. Let us see how and in what respect
we have neglected prayer.
I. Do you not think, dear Friends, that we often neglect prayer IN THE
FEWNESS OF THE OCCASIONS THAT WE SET APART FOR SUPPLICATION?
From hoary tradition and modern precedents we have come to believe that
the morning should be opened with the offering of prayer and that the
day should be shut in with the nightly sacrifice. We do ill if we
neglect those two sessions of prayer. Do you not think that often, in
the morning, we rise so near to the time of labor, when duty calls us
to our daily avocation, that we hurry through the familiar exercises
with unseemly haste, instead of diligently seeking the Lord and
earnestly calling upon His name? And even at night, when we are very
weary and jaded, it is just possible that our prayer is uttered
somewhere between sleeping and waking. Is not this restraining or
neglecting prayer? And throughout the 365 days of the year, if we
continue to pray thus, and this is all, how small an amount of true
supplication will have gone up to Heaven!
I trust there are none here present who profess to be followers of
Christ who do not also practice prayer in their families. We may have
no positive commandment for it, but we believe that it is as much in
accord with the genius and spirit of the Gospel, and that it is so
commended by the example of the saints, that the neglect thereof is a
strange inconsistency! Now, how often is this family worship conducted
in a slovenly manner? An inconvenient hour is fixed and a knock at the
door, a ring at the bell, the call of a customer may hurry the Believer
from his knees to go and attend to his worldly concerns. Of course,
many excuses might be offered, but the fact would still remain that in
this way we often neglect prayer!
And then, when you come up to the House of God–I hope you do not come
up to this Tabernacle without prayer– yet I fear we do not all pray as
we should, even when in the place dedicated to God's worship. There
should always be a devout prayer lifted up to Heaven as soon as you
enter the place where you would meet with God. What a preparation is
often made to appear in the assembly! Some of you get here half an hour
before the service commences–if there were no talking, if each one of
you looked into the Bible, or if the time was spent in silent
supplication–what a cloud of holy incense would go smoking up to
Heaven!
I think it would be comely for you and profitable for us if as soon as
the minister enters the pulpit, you engaged yourself to plead with God
for him. For me, I may especially say it is desirable. I claim it at
your hands above every other man. With this overwhelming congregation
and with the terrible reliability of so numerous a church, and with the
Word of God spoken here published within a few hours, and disseminated
over the country, scattered throughout all Europe, no–to the very ends
of the earth–I may well ask you to lift up your hearts in supplication
that the words spoken may be those of truth and soberness, directed of
the Holy Spirit and made mighty through God, like arrows shot from His
own bow, to find a target in the hearts that He means to bless!
And in going home, with what earnestness should we ask the Master to
let what we have heard live in our hearts! We lose very much of the
effects of our Sabbaths through not pleading with God on the Saturday
night for a blessing upon the day of rest, and through not also
pleading at the end of the Sunday, beseeching Him to make that which we
have heard abide in our memories and appear in our actions. We have
restrained prayer, I fear, in the fewness of the occasions. Indeed,
Brothers and Sisters, every day of the week, and every part of the day
should be an occasion for prayer. Cries
such as these, "Oh, would that!" "Lord, save me!" "Help me!" "More
light, Lord!" "Teach me!" "Guide me!" and a
thousand such, should be constantly going up from our hearts to the
Throne of God. You may enjoy a refreshing solitude, if you please, in
the midst of crowded Cheapside, or contrariwise, you may have your head
in the whirl of a busy crowd when you have retired to your closet. It
is not so much where we areas in what state our heartis. Let the
regular seasons for devotion be constantly attended to. These things
ought you to have done, but let your heart be habitually in a
state of prayer–you must not leave this undone. Oh, that we prayed
more, that we set apart more time for it! Good Bishop Farrar had an
idea in his head which he carried out. Being a man of some substance
and having some 24 persons in his household, he divided the day and
there was always some person engaged either in holy song or else in
devout supplication through the whole of the 24 hours! There was never
a moment when the censor ceased to smoke, or the altar was without its
sacrifice. Happy shall it be for us when, day and night, we shall
circle the Throne of God rejoicing, but till then, let us emulate the
ceaseless praise of seraphs before the Throne of God, continually
drawing near unto God and making supplication and thanksgiving.
II. But to proceed to a second remark, dear Friends, I think it will be
very clear, upon a little reflection, that we constantly restrain or
neglect prayer BY NOT HAVING OUR HEARTS IN A PROPER STATE WHEN WE COME
TO ITS EXERCISE.
We rush into prayer too often. We would think it necessary, if we were
to address the Queen, that our petition should be prepared. But often
we dash before the Throne of God as though it were but some common
house of call, without even having a thought in our minds of what we
are going for. Now, just let me suggest some few things which I think
should always be subjects of meditation before our season of prayer and
I think if you confess that you have not thought of these things, you
will also be obliged to acknowledge that you have restrained prayer.
We should, before prayer, meditate upon Him to whom it is to be
addressed. Let our thoughts be directed to the living and true God. Let
me remember that He is Omnipotent, then I shall ask large things. Let
me remember that He is very tender and full of compassion, then I shall
ask little things and be minute in my supplication. Let me remember the
greatness of His Covenant, then I shall come very boldly. Let me
remember, also, that His faithfulness is like the great mountains and
that His promises are sure to all the seed, then I shall ask very
confidently, for I shall be persuaded that He will do as He has said.
Let me fill my soul with the reflection of the greatness of His
majesty, then I shall be struck with awe, with the equal greatness of
His love, then I shall be filled with delight! We would pray better
than we do if we meditated more, before prayer, upon the God whom we
address in our supplications!
Then, let me meditate also upon the way through which my prayer is
offered. Let my soul behold the blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat
before I venture to draw near to God. Let me go to Gethsemane and see
the Savior as He prays. Let me stand in holy vision at the foot of
Calvary and see His body torn, that the veil which parted my soul from
all access to God might be torn, too, that I might come close to my
Father, even to His feet. O dear Friends, I am sure if we thought about
the way of access in prayer, we would be more mighty in it, but our
neglect of so doing has led us to restrain prayer.
And yet, again, ought I not, before prayer, to be duly conscious of my
many sins? Oh, when I hear men pray cold, careless prayers, surely they
forget that they are sinners, or else, renouncing gaudy words and
flowing periods, they would smite upon their breast with the cry, "God
be merciful to me a sinner!" They would come to the point at once, with
force and fervency–"I, black, unclean, defiled, condemned by the Law,
make my appeal unto You, O God!" What prostration of spirit, what zeal,
what fervor, what earnestness and then, consequently, what prevalence
would there be if we were duly sensible of our sin!
If we can add to this a little meditation upon what our needs are, how
much better we would pray! We often fail in prayer because we come
without an errand, not having thought of what our necessities are. But
if we have reckoned up that we need pardon, justification,
sanctification, preservation–that, besides the blessings of this life,
we need that our decaying Graces should be revived, that such-and-such
a temptation should be removed, and that through such-and-such a trial
we should be carried and prove more than conquerors–then, coming with
an errand, we would prevail before the Most High! But we bring to the
altars bowls that have no bottom–and if the treasure should be put in
them, it would fall through! We do not know what we need and,
therefore, we ask not for what we really need. We try to lay our
necessities before the Lord without having duly considered how great
our necessities are. See yourself as an abject bankrupt, weak, sick,
dying–and this will make you plead. See your necessities to be deep as
the ocean, broad as the expanse of Heaven–and this will make you cry.
There will be no restraining of prayer, Beloved, when we have got a due
sense of our soul's poverty. But because we think we are rich,
increased in goods and have need of nothing, therefore it is that we
restrain prayer before God.
How well it would be for us if, before prayer, we would meditate upon
the past with regard to all the mercies we have had during the day.What
courage that would give us to ask for more! The deliverances we have
experienced through our life, how boldly should we plead to be
delivered yet again! He that has been with me in six troubles will not
forsake me in the seventh! Do but remember how you passed through the
fires and was not burnt, and you should be confident that the flame
will not kindle upon you now. Christian, remember how before, when you
passed through the rivers, God was with you, and surely you may plead
with Him to deliver you from the flood that now threatens to inundate
you. Think of the past ages too, of what He did of old, where He
brought His people out of Egypt and of all the mighty deeds which He
has done–are they not written in the Book of the Wars of the Lord?
Plead all these and say unto Him in your supplications–"O You that are
a God that hears prayer, hear me now and send me an answer of peace!" I
think, without needing to point that arrow, you can see which way I
would shoot. Because we do not come to the Throne of Grace in a proper
state of supplication, therefore it is that too often we restrain
prayer before God.
III. Now, thirdly, it is not to be denied by a man who is conscious of
his own error, that IN THE DUTY OF PRAYER, ITSELF, WE ARE TOO OFTEN
STRAITENED IN OUR OWN HEART, AND SO RESTRAIN PRAYER.
Prayer has been differently divided by different authors. We might
roughly say that prayer consists, first, of invocation. "Our Father,
which are in Heaven." We begin by stating the title and our own
apprehension of the Glory and majesty of the Person whom we address. Do
you not think, dear Friends, that we fail here, and restrain prayer
here? Oh, how we ought to sound forth His praises! I think, on the
Sabbath, it is always the minister's special duty to bring out the
titles of THE ALMIGHTY ONE, such as "King of kings, and Lord of lords!"
He is not to be addressed in common terms. We should endeavor, as we
search the Scripture through, to find those mighty phrases which the
ancient saints were known to apply to Jehovah! And we should make His
Temple ring with His Glory and make our closet full of that holy
adoration with which prayer must always be linked! I think the rebuking
angel might often say, "You think that the Lord is such an one as
yourself, and you talk not to Him as to the God of the whole earth but,
as though He were a man you address Him in slighting and unseemly
terms." Let all our invocations come more deeply from our soul's
reverence to the Most High and let us address Him, not in high-sounding
words of fleshly homage, but still in words which set forth our awe and
our reverence while they express His majesty and the Glory of His
holiness.
From invocation we usually go to confession, and how often do we fail
here! In your closet are you in the habit of confessing your real sins
to God? Do you not find, Brothers and Sisters, a tendency to
acknowledge that sin which is common to all men, but not that which is
certainly peculiar to you? We are all Sauls in our way–we want the
best of the cattle and the sheep. Those favorite sins, those Agag
sins–it is not so easy to hew them in pieces before the Lord. The
right-eye sin–happy is that Christian who has learned to pluck it out
by confession. The right-hand sin–he is blessed and well taught who
aims the axe at that sin and cuts it from him! But no, we say that we
have sinned–we are willing to use the terms of any general confession
that any church may publish! But to say, "Lord, You know that I love
the world, and the things of the world! You know that I am covetous."
Or to say, "Lord, You know I was envious of So-and-So, because he shone
brighter than I did at such and-such a public meeting. Lord, I was
jealous of such-and-such a member of the church because I evidently saw
that he was preferred before me!" And for the husband to confess before
God that he has been overbearing, that he has spoken rashly to a child.
For a wife to acknowledge that she has been willful, that she has had a
fault–this would be letting out prayer–but the hiding of these things
is restraining prayer and we shall surely come under that charge of
having restrained prayer unless we make our private confessions of sin
very explicit, coming to the point.
I have thought, in teaching children in the Sunday school, we should
not so much talk about sin in general as the sins in which children
most commonly indulge, such as little thefts, naughty tempers,
disobedience to parents. These are the things that children should
confess. Men in the dawn of their manhood should confess those ripening
evil imaginations, those lustful things that rise in the heart, while
the man in business should always make this a point–to see most to the
sins which attack businessmen. I have no doubt that I might be very
easily led, in my confession, to look to all the offenses I may have
committed against the laws of business because I should not need to
deal very harshly with myself there, for I do not have the temptations
of these men. And I should not wonder if some of you merchants will
find it very easy to examine ourselves according to a code that is
proper to me, but not to you! Let the workman pray to God as a workman
and confess the sins common to his craft. Let the trader examine
himself according to his standing and let each man make
his confession like the confessions of old, when everyone confessed
apart–the mother apart and the daughter apart, the father apart and
the son apart. Let each one thus make a clean breast of the matter and
I am sure there will not be so much need to say that we have restrained
prayer before God.
As to the next part of prayer, which is petition, we all fail
lamentably, indeed! We have not, because we ask not, or because we ask
amiss. We are ready enough to ask for deliverance from trial, but how
often we forget to ask that it may be sanctified to us! We are quite
ready to say, "Give us this day our daily bread." How often, however,
do we fail to ask that He would give us the Bread which comes down from
Heaven and enable us blessedly to feed upon His flesh and His blood?
Brothers and Sisters, we come before God with little desires and the
desires we get have so little fervency in them. And when we get the
fervency, we so often fail to get the faith which grasps the promise
and believes that God will give, that, in all these points, when we
come to the matter of spreading our needs before God, we restrain
prayer!
Oh, for the Luthers that can shake the gates of Heaven by supplication!
Oh, for men that can lay hold upon the golden knocker of Heaven's gate
and make it ring and ring again as if they meant it to be heard! Cold
prayers court a denial. God hears by fire and the God that answers by
fire let Him be God! But first there must be prayer in Elijah's
heart–fire in Elijah's heart–before the fire will come down in answer
to the prayer! Our fervency goes up to Heaven and then God's Grace,
which gave us the fervency, comes down and gives us the answer.
But you know, too, that all true prayer has thanksgiving in it. "Yours
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever." What
prayer is complete without the doxology? And here, too, we restrain
prayer. We do not praise, and bless, and magnify the Lord as we should.
If our hearts were more full of gratitude, our expressions would be far
more noble and comprehensive when we speak forth His praise. I wish I
could put this so plainly that every Christian might mourn on account
of his sin and mend his ways. But, indeed, it is only mine to speak–it
is my Master's to open your eyes, to let you see and to set you upon
the solemnly important duty of self-examination! In this respect, I am
sure even the prayers that you and I have offered today may well cry
out against us, and say, "You have restrained prayer."
IV. Yet, again, I fear we must all join in acknowledging A SERIOUS
FAULT WITH REGARD TO THE AFTER-
PART OF OUR PRAYERS. When prayer is done, do you not think we very much
restrain it?
For, after prayer, we often go immediately into the world. That may be
absolutely necessary, but we go there and leave behind us what we ought
to carry with us. When we have got into a good frame in prayer, we
should consider that this is like the meat which the angel gave to
Elijah that he might go on his forty day's journey in its strength.
Have we felt Heavenly-minded? The moment we cross the threshold and get
into the family or business, where is the Heavenly mind? Oh, to get
real prayer, inwrought prayer–not the surface prayer, as though it
were a sort of sacred masquerading, but to have it inside, in the warp
and woof of our being–till prayer becomes a part of ourselves! Then,
Brothers and Sisters, we have not restrained it! We get hot in our
closets–when I say, "we," oh, how few can say as much as that!–but,
still, we get hot in our closets and go out into the world, into the
draughts of its temptations, without wrapping ourselves about with
promises–and we catch well-near our death of cold! Oh, to carry that
heat and fervor with us!
You know that as you carry a bar of hot iron along, how soon it begins
to return to its common ordinary appearance and the heat is gone. How
hot, then, we ought to make ourselves in prayer, that we may burn the
longer and how, all day long, we ought to keep thrusting the iron into
the fire so that, when it ceases to glow, it may go into the hot embers
once more and the flame may glow upon it and we may once again be
brought into a vehement heat. But we are not careful enough to keep up
the Grace and seek to nurture and to cherish the young child which God
seems to give in the morning into our hands that we may nurse it for
Him.
Old Master Dyer speaks of locking up his heart by prayer in the morning
and giving Christ the key. I am afraid we do the opposite–we lock up
our hearts in the morning and give the devil the key–and think that he
will be honest enough not to rob us! Ah, it is in bad hands when it is
trusted with him. He keeps stealing all day long the precious things
that were in the safe until, at night it is quite empty and needs to be
filled all over again! Would God that we put the key in Christ's hands,
by looking up to Him all day!
I think, too, that after prayer, we often fail in unbelief. We do not
expect God to hear us. If God were to hear some of you, you would be
more surprised than with the greatest novelty that could occur! We ask
blessings, but do not think of having them. When you and I were
children and had a little piece of garden, we sowed some seeds one day
and the next morning, before breakfast, we went to see if they were up.
And the next day, seeing that no appearance of the green blade could be
discovered, we began to move the dirt to look for our seeds. Ah, we
were children then! I wish we were children now with regard to our
prayers. We would go out, the next morning, to see if they had begun to
sprout and disturb the ground a bit to look after our prayers, for fear
they should have miscarried. Do you believe God hears prayer?
I saw, the other day, in a newspaper, a little sketch concerning myself
in which the author, who is evidently very friendly, gives a much
better description of me than I deserve. But he offers me one rather
pointed rebuke. I was preaching at the time in a tent and only part of
the people were covered. It began to rain just before prayer, and one
petition was, "O Lord, be pleased to grant us favorable weather for
this service and command the clouds that they rain not upon this
assembly!" Now he thought this very preposterous. To say the least, it
was rash, if not blasphemous! He admits that it did not rain a drop
after the prayer, still, of course, he did not infer that God heard and
answered the prayer. If I had asked for a rain of Grace, it would have
been quite credible that God would send that, but when I ask Him not to
send a temporal rain, that is fanaticism! To think that God meddles
with the clouds at the wish of a man, or that He may answer us in
temporal things is pronounced absurd! I bless God, however, that I
fully believe the absurdity, preposterous as it may appear! I know that
God hears prayer in temporal things! I know it by as clear a
demonstration as ever any proposition in Euclid was solved. I know it
by abundant facts and incidents which my own life has revealed. God
does hear prayer! The majority of people do not think that He does. At
least, if He does, they suppose that it is in some high, clerical,
mysterious, unknown sense. As to ordinary things ever happening as the
result of prayer, they account it a delusion! "The Bank of Faith!" How
many have said it is a bank of nonsense and yet there are many who have
been able to say, "We could write as good a book as Huntington's Bank
of Faith, that would be no more believed than Huntington's was, though
it might be even more true."
We restrain prayer, I am sure, by not believing our God. We ask a
favor, which, if granted, we attribute to "accident" rather than
ascribe it to Grace, and we do not receive it. Then the next time we
come, of course we cannot pray, because unbelief has cut the sinews of
prayer and left us powerless before the Throne of God.
You are a professor of religion. After you have been to a party of
ungodly people, can you pray? You are a merchant, and profess to be a
follower of Christ. When you engage in a hazardous speculation and you
know you ought not to, can you pray? Or, when you have had a heavy loss
in business and repine against God and will not say, "The Lord gave,
and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord"–can you
pray? Pity the man who can sin and pray, too! In a certain sense,
Brooks was right when he said, "Praying will make you leave off
sinning, or else sin will make you leave off praying." Of course, that
is not meant in the absolute sense of the term, but as to certain sins,
especially gross sins–and some of the sins to which God's people are
liable, are gross sins–I am certain they cannot come before their
Father's face with the confidence they had before, after having been
rolling in the mire, or wandering in By-Path Meadow.
Look at your own child–he meets you in the morning with a smiling
face, so pleased. He asks what he likes of you and you give it to him.
Now he has been doing wrong. He knows he has and you have frowned upon
him, you have chastened him. How does he come now? He may come because
he is a child and with tears in his eyes because he is a penitent–but
he cannot come with the power he once had. Look at a king's
favorite–as long as he feels that he is in the king's favor, he will
take up your suit and plead for you. Ask him tomorrow whether he will
do you a good turn and he says, "No, I am out of favor. I don't feel as
if I could speak now." A Christian is not out of Covenant favor, but he
may be experimentally under a cloud–he loses the Light of God's
Countenance and then he feels he cannot plead–his prayers become weak
and feeble.
Take heed unto yourselves and consider your ways. The path of
declension is very abrupt in some parts. We may go on gradually
declining in prayer till faith grows weak, love cold and patience is
exhausted. We may go on for years and maintain a consistent profession,
but, all of a sudden, the road which had long been descending at a
gradual incline may come to a precipice and we may fall, and that when
we little think of it. We may have ruined our reputation, blasted our
comfort, destroyed our usefulness and we may have to go to our graves
with a sword in our bones because of sin. Stop while you may, Believer!
Stop and guard against the temptation. I charge you, by the trials you
must meet with, by the temptations that surround you, by the
corruptions that are within, by the assaults that come from Hell and by
the trials that come from Heaven, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into
temptation."
I speak especially to the members of this church. Think of what has God
worked for us! When we were a few people, what intense agony of prayer
we had! We have had Prayer Meetings in Park Street that have moved our
souls. Every man seemed like a crusader besieging Jerusalem, each man
determined to storm the Celestial City by the might of intercession and
the blessings came upon us, so that we had not room to receive them!
The hallowed cloud still rests over us! The holy drops still fall! Will
you now cease from intercession? At the borders of the promised land,
will you turn back to the wilderness, when God is with us and the
standard of a King is in the midst of our armies? Will you now fail in
the day of trial? Who knows but you have come to the Kingdom for such a
time as this? Who knows but that He will preserve in the land a small
company of poor people who fear God intensely, hold the faith earnestly
and love God vehemently–that infidelity may be driven from the high
places of the earth–that Naphtali again may be a people made
triumphant in the high places of the field?
God of Heaven, grant this! Oh, let us restrain prayer no longer! You
that have never prayed, may you be taught to pray, "God be merciful to
me a sinner," uttered from your heart, with your eyes upon the Cross!
You will receive a gracious answer and you shall go on your way
rejoicing, for–
"When God inclines the heart to pray,
He has an ear to hear!
To Him there's music in a groan,
And beauty in a tear."
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 JOHN 2.
1 John 2:1-4. My little children, these things I write unto you, that
you sin not. And if any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins:
and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And
hereby do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that
says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him. Holy living is the sure fruit and proof of anyone
being in Christ. Where it is not manifest, the profession of being in
Christ is a lie.
5. But whoever keeps His Word, in him verily is the love of God
perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. Note the gradation–we
know Him, we are in Him–we know that we are in Him.
6. He that says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He
walked. Abiding in Christ helps us to live as Christ lived, not, as one
well observes, that we can walk on the water as Christ walked upon it,
but that we can walk in our daily life even as He did because we abide
in Him.
7. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you but an old commandment
which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which
you have heard from the beginning. The old commandment is the word
which we have heard from the beginning, yet it is always fresh and new.
8-10. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in
Him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now
shines. He that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in
darkness even until now. He that loves his brother abides in the light,
and there is no cause for stumbling in him. Love is the great and sure
way of abiding in the light, abiding in Christ.
11-14. But he that hates his brother is in darkness and walks in
darkness, and knows not where he goes, because that darkness has
blinded his eyes. I write unto you, little children, because your sins
are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write unto you, fathers,
because you have known Him that is from the beginning. I write unto
you, young men, because you have overcome the Wicked One. I write unto
you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written
unto you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the
beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong,
and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the Wicked
One. Having overcome him, at the first by your faith in Christ, you
still go on to conquer him by abiding in Christ.
15-17. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If
any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And
the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will
of God
abides forever. Everything else is transient, fleeting and soon passes
away. But he that does the will of God has entered into the eternal
regions and he has become one of those who abide forever. Do not be
carried away, therefore, from your old firm foundation and from your
eternal union to Christ.
18-20. Little children, it is the last hour and as you have heard that
Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists; whereby we
know that it is the last hour They went out from us but they were not
of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they
were not all of us. But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you
know all things. You are taught of God, so you know all that is
necessary for the attainment of true godliness, and the accomplishment
of the Divine purposes.
21-25. I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but
because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but
he that denies that Jesus is the Christ?He is Antichrist that denies
the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son, the same has not the
Father: [but] he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Let
that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning.
If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you,
you also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father And this is the
promise that He has promised us, even eternal life. Not transient life,
but eternal life is the great promise of the Covenant of Grace, and
abiding in Christ we possess it.
26, 27. These things have I written unto you concerning them that
seduce you. But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in
you, What a wonderful declaration this is–not only that we have this
holy anointing, but that we have it always!
27, 28. And you need not that any man teach you: but as the same
anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and
even as it has taught you, you shall abide in Him. And now little
children, abide in Him. See how the Apostle rings out this note again
and again? Our Savior repeated the word, "abide," or, "remain," many
times in the short parable of the Vine, and now John strikes this same
silver bell over and over again–"And now, little children, abide in
Him"–
28, 29. That when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be
ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you
know that everyone that does righteousness is born of Him.