Unseasonable Prayer
(No. 2851)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1903.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER 14, 1877.
"Why do you cry unto Me?" Exodus 14:15.
AT first sight we might suppose that crying unto God was so good a
thing that it would never be necessary for the Lord to ask the
question, "Why do you cry unto Me?" But the question we are now to
consider shows that there may be a time when, even to a man like Moses,
it is necessary for God to ask, "Why do you cry unto Me?" Think of the
circumstances in which the Israelites were then–the Red Sea was before
them and the Egyptians were behind–so that when the Lord said to
Moses, "Why do you cry unto Me?" Moses might very properly have
replied, "What else can I do? There are great multitudes of
blood-thirsty foes behind us and nothing but the roaring sea in front
of us–what can we do except cry unto You?" But the fact was that the
time for praying about the matter was past and the time for acting had
come. So the Lord said to Moses, in effect, "Speak not to Me, but
'Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward'– forward
through the sea that now rolls in front of them. That sea will divide
as they march into it, so you need not pray any more about that
difficulty. I will prepare a pathway for the people as they advance and
they shall go safely through the very midst of the sea."
There is a time for praying, but there is also a time for holy
activity. Prayer is adapted for almost every season, yet not prayer
alone, for there comes, every now and then, a time when even prayer
must take a secondary place and faith must come in and lead us not to
cry unto God but to act as He bids us, even as the Lord said to Moses,
"Why do you cry unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they
go forward; but lift you up your rod and stretch out your hand over the
sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground
through the midst of the sea."
It is perfectly clear, then, that there may come a time when crying
unto God becomes unseasonable. Our Lord's command to His disciples is,
"Ask." But what follows that command? Why, the promise, "you shall
receive." Then there must be a time for receivingas well as season for
asking! But if, instead of stretching out my hands gratefully to
receive what God is waiting to give, I continue to ask and forget or
neglect to receive, I put prayer out of its proper place! Our Savior
also said, "Seek, and you shall find." Well, if I have sought and, at
last, have found the treasure I have been seeking–but if, instead of
perceiving that it is there and taking possession of it, and blessing
God that I have found it–if I still go on seeking for it, then I have
forgotten that while there is a time to seek, there is also a time to
find, and my seeking then becomes unseasonable!
It is the same with the command and promise, "Knock, and it shall be
opened unto you." Suppose that I have knocked and that the door has
been opened to me, but that I still stand knocking at it? It is
manifest that I am acting foolishly and wrongly–that I am casting
reflections upon the owner of the house and also upon the sincerity of
my own knocking, for it is doubtful whether I really did knock with the
honest purpose of getting the door opened if, when that opening has
taken place, I do not avail myself of the opportunity to enter, but
continue still to knock. I do not say that we may not pray for
something else, but I do say, in respect to the one thing which we have
asked of God, that there comes a time for receiving rather than asking.
With regard to the thing which we have sought at the Lord's hands,
there comes a time for finding. And concerning the door at which we
have knocked, there comes a time for opening. And, in
each of these cases, the Lord's question to Moses comes with
appropriateness to each one of us, "Why do you cry unto
Me?"
When do you think, dear Friends, that prayer about anything becomes out
of date? I answer, When we ought to believe that we have the answer to
our supplication. I do believe that many a time some of you go on
asking for a certain blessing after you have received it though you are
not conscious that you have it. I am glad that you still ask for it as
you think that you have not received it, but it would be a better
evidence of your spiritual growth if you perceived that when God has
given you a certain thing in answer to your petitions, you certainly do
not need to continue asking for it. You have it, so rejoice over it and
bless the Lord for giving it to you! I think there are some Christians
who have received many blessings of which they are quite unaware. They
have what they asked for, yet they still continue to pray for them. For
instance, in some cases the prayer for assurance is offered long after
assurance has been granted. Someone says that he believes the promise
of God, but he needs to be more fully assured concerning it. My dear
Brother, what do you mean? To be more assured that God made the
promise? Because if so, you will have to go into the question of the
authenticity of that particular passage and of the Bible in general!
"No," you say, "I do not mean that, for I am quite sure that God gave
that promise." Then, do you mean that you doubt whether God will
fulfill the promise that He has given? Because if so, I must say with
all solemnity, that you ought to be assured that God cannot lie. This
is not a thing for you to pray about, but for you to believe! It is the
Lord's due that you should not allow anything like a question to arise
over this matter. "Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He
spoken, and shall He not make it good?" There is His definite promise
and yet I go and ask Him to give me an assurance concerning it? If I
were to give a promise to any of you and you were, afterwards, to come
to me and say, "Give me further assurance," I would feel that you did
not believe that I could or would do what I had promised! If such
treatment as that were meted out to me by any of you, I would not feel
that you had done me any honor by finding it difficult to believe my
word–yet why should I expect you to honor me? But I do expect that a
son should honor his own father! And I do expect that a child of God
should so fully believe his Heavenly Father that he should not talk
about needing assurance of the truthfulness and reliability of His
promises of Grace! Instead of continuing to pray for God to keep His
word, it would be far better for you to believe that He has done so and
that He always will do so!
"But it may be presumption," says someone. No, it can never be
presumption to believe God! It is presumption to ever doubtHim. However
great His promise may be, it must be true–and it is presumptuous for
anyone to ask, "Can this be true?" or, "How can it be accomplished?" It
would be enough for me that God has said it–how He will fulfill His
promise is His business, not mine. I rest upon His word with a simple,
childlike faith–and I am sorry if any of you are not doing the same. I
feel that, sometimes, in the matter of assurance, God might say to us,
"'Why do you cry unto Me?' Believe My word and rest assured that I
shall certainly fulfill all that I have promised."
It is the same, also, in plain matters of Christian duty. It is a very
shocking thing, but I have known the case of a man, I hope a Christian,
knowing such-and-such a thing to be right, yet not attending to it, but
saying that he was praying about it. He is quite certain about that
particular thing–it could not possibly be plainer than it is, yet he
is praying about it! Such-and-such a Truth of God is revealed plainly
enough in the Scriptures–the man could see it there and did not doubt
its authenticity–but he wanted it to be "brought home" to his
conscience, so he said. Well, all I can say about such conduct as that
is that it is a kind of rebellion against God, a shameful piece of
hypocrisy–pretending to honor God in one duty while you know that you
are neglecting another!
My dear Brothers and Sisters, if you are a Believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you know that it is the will of Christ that all Believers
should be baptized even as He was, do not go home and pray about
it–but be baptized! If you are not a member of a Christian Church and
you know that it was the practice of the early Christians to first give
themselves to the Lord and afterwards to give themselves to His Church,
do not tell me that you have been praying about that matter for
months–cease praying about it and go and do it! It is idle to talk of
praying about things which are clearly according to the will of God.
Cease praying about them–practice them!
You feel that you ought to have family prayer, yet you say that you
have been praying about it! Praying about it? That is not what you have
been doing–you have only been trying to see whether you could not find
a loophole by which you could escape from an uncongenial but recognized
duty! Go and do it, dear Friend–do not, any longer, act the
hypocrite's part by pretending to pray about it! Yet this is the way in
which some, who say that they love the Lord, try to
play fast and loose with known precepts and duties. Do not let any of
us fall into this sin–if we do, the Lord may well say to us, as he did
to Moses–only He may say it to us with more anger–"'Why do you cry
unto Me' about such a thing as that? Do what you know to be right."
I. Now, leaving that part of our theme altogether, I come to a more
general subject, which is this, IT IS GOOD FOR A MAN OFTEN TO ASK
HIMSELF THE QUESTION, "WHY DO I PRAY? WHY DO I CRY UNTO GOD?"
In some cases, I fear that the answer will be exceedingly
unsatisfactory. One replies, "I pray because I was always trained to do
so. My dear mother, now in Heaven, taught me a form of prayer and that
is why I continue to repeat it." If your mother had taught you the
Muslim form of prayer, I suppose you would have kept on repeating it.
Or if she had taught you to worship a block of wood or stone, would you
have done so? I do not wish to speak with contempt concerning the
influence of a mother's teaching, but I must say that this, alone, is a
very unsatisfactory reason for presenting a prayer to God. Let me ask,
Did your mother, when she taught you that form of prayer, merely mean
that you should repeat those words without any particular thought as to
what they meant? If she did, your mother knew but little of vital
godliness and, probably, you know even less! You must pray to God from
your inmost heart. Your soul must have real fellowship with Him, or
else the prayer your mother taught you may be of no more use for you
than if you repeated the alphabet backwards or forwards. I have heard
of a man of 70 who said that he always prayed night and morning. When
he was asked what he said in his prayer, it turned out that he only
repeated the form which he had been taught to say as a little child.
Now, if you had taught a parrot to say a prayer like that, the parrot
would not have been saved, nor will you, if that is all you have to
depend upon. There must be something, as a reason for prayer, vastly
superior to that, or else your prayer may be nothing but a mockery of
supplication, a sepulcher of devotion with no life in it, an external
form which cannot please God.
Another says, "I pray because prayer is a part of my religion."Yes, and
it is a part of every true Christian's religion to pray. It must be an
essential part of his religion. But what sort of prayer is this of
yours which seeks to justify itself upon the ground of being a part of
your religion? And what is the religion of which it is a part? Is it a
religion which knows God and draws near to Him? Is it a religion which
leads you to seek the Lord in spirit and in Truth? If so, God bless
your religion and the prayer that is a part of it! But if your religion
consists merely in attendance at church, or at the meeting house so
many times on the Lord's-Day and in the repetition of certain words
which you have been taught, God deliver you from it! If your religion
is to be worth anything, it must have a heart–there must be
heart-work–the work of the Holy Spirit upon your heart and the drawing
near of your soul unto God. Otherwise, all your outward performances,
however excellent they may appear to be, will land you short of Heaven.
Another friend replies, "I pray because it is a right thing to do."
There is something hopeful about that answer, but the question is, What
sort of prayer do you pray? I make that enquiry because, although it is
right to pray, it is not right to pray some sorts of prayer. It is the
right thing for a clerk in the telegraph office to work the telegraphic
apparatus, but suppose that he should merely move a handle backwards
and forwards for a whole day, yet never send a message or receive one?
I would not think it was right for him to keep on moving that handle to
no purpose. Evidently a wire is broken, or something is out of
order–there is no connection with the electric current, for the
machinery does not work. And in like manner, a prayer that never
reaches the heart of God as it should and never brings an answer to
your suppliant soul–a prayer in which you have no fellowship with the
invisible Jehovah–is not a right kind of prayer to pray. And I cannot
say of such prayer that it has any good reason why it should be
presented. If you do not mean the petitions that you present, you mock
God when you utter them, for they are only words and nothing but words.
There are some who would not like to say, just in so many words,
exactly what they think, but they really pray because they regard
prayer as being more or less meritorious. They do not consider it so
meritorious that they expect to be saved by it, but they have some kind
of notion that it helps with a great many other things, among the rest,
faith in Jesus Christ to procure salvation for the soul. All these
things go into the scale and, at last, they make up the weight
re-quired–that seems to be their idea. In fact, according to some, our
Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, is only a make-weight– our prayers, tears,
alms and good works count for a great deal. These people do not quite
advocate salvation by works. They do not go the full length of the road
that the Romanist takes, but they go a very long way in the same
direction through their belief that there is some kind of merit about
various things appertaining to themselves, and, especially, that their
prayers are meritorious.
I will speak about this error very strongly, lest I should not be
understood by all and I state my final conviction that if any man
thinks that his prayers have any merit in them, of themselves, every
prayer that he presents is an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ, for He
is set forth as the onlyPropitiation for sin! If you think that your
prayers help in any degree to put away sin, you make an antichrist of
your prayers! Christ's blood and righteousness form the onlyground of
your acceptance before God. If you reckon your prayers as a ground, or
medium, or even a helpto your acceptance with God, you push the Cross
of Christ far into the background and put your prayers into the place
of the only Substitute for sin-ners–and the more you pile them up, the
more you multiply your sin!
Possibly I have quoted the answers which would be given if I were to
ask many of you why you cry unto the Lord in prayer. I would like to
listen to the prayer of every man here present–without his knowing
that I was doing so–I would like to put my ear to the keyhole of his
room and hear the style of his praying, but, as I cannot do that, I
would like to ask whether you would wish anybody to hear them? How do
your prayers appear to the eyes of God? Has it been humble, earnest,
sincere, trustful, relying upon the atoning Sacrifice of Christ, and
upon the effectual working of the Holy Spirit? If so, it is well, but
if not, it is only vanity of vanities. All is vanity! How would it be
with some of us if we were put into the condition of the Highland
soldier of whom I have read? In our war with our American colonists,
before they gained their freedom from this country, a certain Highland
regiment was engaged. Every evening one of the men was observed to go
away from the camp into an adjacent woods–and it was suspected that he
had gone to give information to the enemy. He was, therefore, arrested
and brought before the colonel of the regiment.
The other officers said to him, "Now tell us what you have been doing
while you have been absent from the camp." "Well," he said, "I have
been accustomed, whenever I can, to retire for an hour or two of
private prayer." The colonel happened to be a Scotchman and a
Presbyterian, so he said to the soldier, "Well, you never had such
reason to pray before as you have tonight. If you do go for an hour
together to pray, you can pray–so let us hear you now." The man knelt
down and poured out his soul before God, seeking deliverance at the
Lord's hands and resigning his spirit into the keeping of his Heavenly
Father. He prayed with such an earnest, simple power that when he had
finished, the colonel said to the other officers, "A man who can come
on parade like that must have been drilled a good many times. I think
we may confidently accept what he has said as being true. There is no
doubt about his having been alone in prayer to God, now that he can
pray like that before us."
Happy is the man whose prayer would bear to be listened to by his
fellow men in such a critical season as that, so that they should be
compelled to say of him, "That man has often prayed before tonight–he
has the very brogue of one who communes with Heaven." But he who gives
such answers as I have been quoting would certainly not be able to pray
before others as that soldier did!
II. But now, secondly, THERE ARE SOME ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION WHICH
BETRAY A GREAT DEAL OF IGNORANCE.
"Why do you cry unto Me?" There are times, dear Brothers and Sisters,
when a sinner's crying to God in prayer hinders him from immediate
repentance. The Gospel comes to each man and says, "Repent, and be
converted." The man says, "I will pray." So he gets away alone and he
prays–but such prayer as that cannot be acceptable to God. There is a
favorite sin, of which he has long been guilty. He does not give it up,
but he says that he will pray about it. God says to such a man, "'Why
do you cry unto Me?' Give up your sin! This is not a matter for you to
pray about, but to repent of." The man says, "I was asking for
repentance." Ask, if you will, for repentance, but exerciseit as well.
Christ does not bid us pray to have our right hand cut off, or our
right eye plucked out, but He says, "If your right eye offends you,
pluck it out, and cast it from you…And if your right hand offends
you, cut it off, and cast it from you." It will never do for any man to
hope to be saved by putting prayer into the place of genuine repentance
and immediate forsaking of sin!
The same is true of those who put prayer into the place of believing in
Christ ' 'I mean to pray about the salvation of my soul," says someone.
My dear Friend, the Gospel says to you, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you shall be saved." "I have been praying for salvation,
Sir, and I hope to get it if I keep on praying." No, you will not–on
the contrary, you will be lost forever if you pray instead of believing
in Christ! As surely as you live, if you will not accept God's way of
salvation, which is to believe in Jesus Christ, whether you pray or do
not pray, you are a lost man. "There," says the Lord, "on yonder Cross
is your only hope. Trust My Son, and you shall be saved." "Lord," you
reply, "I will pray about the matter." Again the Lord says to you, "You
see My well-beloved Son hanging upon that tree? There is life for a
look at Him." "Lord, I will pray about the matter." The Lord says, "I
have said to you, 'Hear, and your soul shall live.' 'Look unto Me, and
be you saved.'" "Lord, I will pray." To put the matter very strongly,
might not the man almost as well say, "Lord, I will swear"? Is there
not just as much of the spirit of rebellion in the one answer as in the
other? He has chosen his own way instead of accepting God's way! God's
way is, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believes not shall be damned." And to this, the man replies, "Lord, I
will pray." And if that is all he does, he sets his seal to his own
condemnation! In such a case, the Lord asks the question in my text,
"Why do you cry unto Me?" Why are you crying? For another atonement
beside that of the Lord Jesus Christ? Crying for God to save you in
some other way than by believing in Jesus? Crying for somebody else to
believe for you? Crying to the Holy Spirit to repent for you? Is that
what you want? He will not do it! Why should He repent for you? You
must repent for yourself and believe for yourself, for the Holy Spirit
cannot repent for you, or believe for you. If a man, instead of
believing the Truth of God which is so plain and which is evidently
able to save him–if, instead of simply resting upon the atoning
Sacrifice of Christ, he says, "I will pray about the matter," he
betrays the fatal ignorance of his heart in supposing that God will
make a new way of salvation for him instead of the one which He has
plainly revealed in His Word!
Perhaps another one says, "Iam in hopes that, by praying, I shall be
made more fit for believing in Christ "Fit for believing in Christ? You
also are upon the wrong tack, like these others of whom I have been
speaking. Your ignorance is misleading you. Fit for believing in
Christ? A man is never so "fit for believing" as when, in himself, he
is most unfit! It is unfitness, not fitness, that is required! What is
fitness for being washed? Filth–and filth alone! What is fitness for
receiving alms? Poverty, abject need. What is fitness for receiving
pardon? Guilt–and only guilt. It comes not as an act of Grace, but as
an act of Justice if there is no guilt–for the display of God's
pardoning Grace, guilt is needed. If you are guilty, if you are black,
if you are foul you have all the fitness that is required! So, come and
find in Jesus Christ all that meets your greatest and most urgent need!
Does someone ask, "But must I not have a sense of my need?" Not as a
fitness for coming to Christ, for the man who says, "I am quite fit to
be saved, for I feel my need," does not really feel his need as he
should and is the farthest off from Christ. O you who are most empty,
most guilty, most lost, most ruined, you are the most "fit" for the
great Savior to save! May the Holy Spirit enable you to realize this
and drive out of you the foolish notion that your praying is to help
Christ to save you and to take you part of the way on the road to
Heaven! Your prayer will not help the Divine surgery which alone can
cure you! So, just as you are in all your wretchedness and sin, trust
Christ to save you, for He is able to save you, from first to last,
without any help of yours!
III. Now I am going to close by mentioning OTHER ANSWERS WHICH MAY BE
GIVEN TO THIS QUESTION–"Why do you cry unto Me?"
I will tell you my own answer to this question. I cry to God,
principally, because I cannot help doing so. I cry to God for the same
reason that I eat when I feel hungry and for the same reason that I
groan when I am in pain–it is the outward expression of the condition
of my inward life. I cannot help praying. I think if anyone were to say
to me, "You must not kneel down to pray," it would not make any
difference to my praying. If I were not allowed to utter a word all day
long, that would not affect my praying. If I could not have five
minutes that I might spend in prayer by myself, I would pray all the
same. Minute by minute, moment by moment, somehow or other, my heart
must commune with my God. Prayer has become as essential to me as the
heaving of my lungs and the beating of my pulse. I do ask God to give
me power in prayer and I chide myself if I am lax in prayer. Still,
almost unconsciously, one gets praying in the streets, praying while
preaching to you–yes, sometimes, one almost prays in his sleep! One
gets so into the spirit of prayer that, without always knowing it,
there is a prayer leaping from the heart and the very glance of the eye
becomes a means of communion with God. So, that is my answer to the
Lord's question, "Why do you cry unto Me?" I pray because I cannot help
doing so.
It is an equally good answer when anyone can say, "Ipray because I
delight in it There is no holy exercise which is so sweet, so blessed,
so delightful, so inspiring, so care-removing, as praying to my loving
Heavenly Father. Nothing brings me as near to Heaven, or opens its gate
so wide to me, or gives me such a foretaste of its Glory, as prayer
mingled with praise."
It would also be a good answer if you should say, "Ipray because I have
such great needs that I cannot help praying. I have such a little faith
that I must pray for more. I have so many troubles that I must pray to
be delivered out of them. I
feel that I have so many sins that I must pray to be cleansed from
them. I have so many desires after better things that I must pray for
those things to be given to me. I feel that not merely my happiness,
but my sorrow also drives me to my knees." I do not mind how you get to
the Mercy Seat as long as you get there in spirit and in Truth and do
really pray. But, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I do hope that
these reasons for prayer are those that you would yourselves give if
the Lord were to say to each one of you, "Why do you cry unto Me?"
I think I hear another say, "Ipray because what little repentance and
faith I have can express themselves best in prayer. I tell the Lord how
I hate my sin and I ask Him to help me to hate it still more. I go to
Him when I fall and ask Him to hold me up for the future. I tell Him
all my faults and follies and I ask Him to teach me, and sanctify me. I
find that my little faith is most at home and at ease when I go to God
in prayer. I tell the Lord that I do trust Him and I ask Him to
increase my faith. I tell Him that if He should refuse to listen to me,
I will still cling to the hem of His garment and if I perish, I will
perish at the foot of His Cross." Well, that is the right way to
pray–when prayer is the expression of penitence and faith.
"Yes," says another, "but Ipray because I get more repentance and more
faith by praying." Just so. They grow while they are exercising
themselves. He that weeps for sin will weep more as he prays, and he
that believes in Christ will believe more strongly while he expresses
that believing in prayer for yet greater faith.
All these are good reasons for praying without ceasing.
Perhaps one of the best is this. "Ipray because Iam nothing, and I want
to get to the great 'IAM.' I pray because I have nothing and I know
that all I can have must come from Him. I pray because my poverty would
gladly draw upon His infinite wealth, because my weakness would drink
in His eternal strength, because my sin would be a partaker of His
perfect holiness, because my nothingness would find itself lost in the
all-sufficiency of God." These are blessed reasons for praying and if
these are your reasons, pray on, Brothers and Sisters. Pray on, if you
can thus answer the Lord's question, "Why do you cry unto Me?"
I suppose that there may have come into this place someone who never
prays. If so, I do not know where you are, Friend. I am glad I do not.
I would look upon you with the greatest pity if I knew you. The very
thought of such a sad case as yours makes me feel heavy of heart. A man
who never speaks to his Maker! A man? Can he be a man? Let me look him
up and down. A man, "fearfully and wonderfully made" by God, yet he
never speaks to his Creator! O God, to what a terrible depth a man can
sink if he can live without prayer! What a strange creature he is! A
little chicken drinks and lifts its head each time it sips. "The ox
knows his owner, and the ass"–you know how stupid the ass is, yet he
knows "his master's crib." But here is a man, whom God has made, and
kept in being all these years. He gave him a household and made him
well-to-do among his fellow men, and kept him out of the asylum, and
out of the workhouse, and out of the jail, and out of Hell, and yet he
never prays? O knees that never bend before the Lord! O hearts that
never yield yourselves to God, are you not accursed?
Ah, Sirs, assuredly a curse rests upon the man who never prays! He who
prays not, believes not, and what says the Word of God concerning the
man who does not believe? "He that believes not is condemned already,
because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of
God." From my inmost soul, I pity even guilty men who are condemned to
die because they have broken the laws of their country and have taken
the lives of their fellow creatures. Yet, O you unbelievers, their
condition only differs in degree from yours, for you, also, are
"condemned already" because you have not believed on the only-begotten
Son of God! Oh, I beseech you, turn unto Him before it is too late and
you are cast into Hell, where the worm dies not, and the fire is not
quenched forever and ever! If you believe that what I have said is
false, you will take no notice of it, but if you believe that this Book
is, indeed, the Word of God, and most, if not all of you, know that it
is–then, escape for your lives–look not behind you, but lay hold on
eternal life and may God the Holy Spirit enable you to do so this very
moment!
It is not to prayer that I exhort you, but I urge you to obey that
great Gospel command, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall
be saved." And more than that, in the name of God, I command you to
believe in Him whom He has sent as the only Savior of sinners. Believe
on Him! Trust in Him and go your way forgiven! God grant it, for Jesus'
sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:
LUKE 18:1-27.
Verse 1. And He spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought
always to pray, and not to faint. Especially not to faint in prayer,
not to become disheartened, or weary, even if their prayers should, for
a long time, remain unanswered.
2, 3. Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God,
neither regarded man: and there was a widow in that city; and she came
unto him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary. He would not have
interested himself in her case simply because she was a poor widow. He
had no heart of compassion for her, nor would it have concerned him at
all that her adversary had wronged her. He did not trouble to discharge
the duties appertaining to his office. No fear of God and no respect
for public opinion affected him at all.
4. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself
Though I fear not God, nor regard man. He even boasted of the very
thing of which he ought to have been ashamed–"'I fear not God, nor
regard man.' I care for nobody and defy everyone."
5. Yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her
continual coming she weary me. He cared for nobody but himself. He was
concerned about his own peace of mind. The poor woman could win through
his selfishness, what she could not get from his sense of justice,
since that had no weight with him. Her importunity won for her what
nothing else could procure.
6-8. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said, and shall not
God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He
bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless when the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the
earth? God will hear the earnest, united, persistent cries of His
people. His Church, today, is like a widow left forlorn. Her cries go
up to God, pleading that He will vindicate her cause–and He will do
so. He may wait a while, but the prayers of His people are not lost.
By-and-by, He will avenge His own elect. So is it with regard to all
true prayer. Though, for wise reasons, God may delay to reply, yet He
files our petitions–they are registered in Heaven. Their power is
accumulating, it is all adding to the great pile of supplication which
is the real strength of the Church of Christ. What a question that is,
"When the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?" He can
find it if anybody can, for He knows what faith is, where faith is–but
will He find any? Well, He will find so little, even among the best of
His people, that the question may well be put–and among a great many
who profess to have faith, He will find none at all! Brothers and
Sisters, we pray so feebly, we expect so little, we ask with such
diffidence, we have such slight courage in prayer that if the Son of
Man, Himself, came among us to search us, how little faith He would
discover!
9-12. And He spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: two men went
up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a
publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank
You that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of
all that I possess. He could not even magnify his own excellencies
without sneering at the poor publican who had said nothing against him,
or about him. That is a poor kind of religion which has to look down
upon all others before it can look up to itself. What, O Pharisee, if
others are not, apparently, so good as you are in some things? Yet, in
other things, they probably excel you and if you think yourself worthy
of praise, you have never really seen yourself as you are in God's
sight! A correct knowledge of your own heart would have led you to a
very different conclusion. It is a good thing that the Pharisee
appeared to be thankful for something, but, probably, that was merely a
complimentary speech which meant very little. He did not thank God half
as much as he praised himself!
13. And the publican, standing afar off–Away in some distant corner.
13. Would not lift up so much as his eyes unto Heaven but smote upon
his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. He makes no
reflection upon others, but confesses his own sin and appeals to the
great Propitiation, for the word he used means, "God be propitious to
me, a sinner."
14, 15. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other: for everyone that exalts himself shall be abased; and
he that humbles himself shall be exalted. And they also brought unto
Him infants, that He would touch them: but when His disciples saw it,
they rebuked them. Were not these children too little and too
unimportant for
Christ to notice? Their understanding was not sufficiently developed to
know anything that He might say–what was the use of bringing them for
His blessing?
16. But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Suffer little children to
come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God consists of child-like spirits, persons like these
children! Instead of needing to grow bigger in order to be fit to be
Christians, we need to grow smaller! It is not the supposed wisdom of
manhood, but the simplicity of childhood that will fit us for the
reception of Divine Truth. Alas, we are often too much like men–if we
were more like children, we would receive the Kingdom of God far more
readily.
17-19. Verily I say unto you, Whoever shall not receive the Kingdom of
God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. And a certain
ruler asked Him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why do you call Me good? None is
good, save One, that is, God. Yet the ruler was right. He knew not that
he was speaking to One who is, assuredly, God and, in the highest
sense, good. But, since he had asked, "What shall I do to inherit
eternal life?" Christ answered his enquiry.
20, 21. You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill,
Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, honor your father and your
mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. All which
appears to be simple enough if you only look on the surface. But when
you come to recollect that there is an inward, spiritual meaning to all
this, that a licentious look breaks the command about adultery, that a
covetous desire is stealing, that the utterance of a slander is bearing
false witness and so on, who is he that shall enter into life upon such
terms as these? Yet they cannot be lowered, for they are, spiritually,
just and right.
22. Now when Jesus heard these things, He said unto him, Yet you lack
one thing. Christ gives him a test. If he is what he thinks he is, he
will be ready to obey whatever command God lays upon him. Christ is
about to lay one upon him–let us see whether he will obey or not.
22. Sell all that you have and distribute unto the poor, and you shall
have treasure in Heaven: and come, follow Me. Now, which will he love
the more–the Son of God–or his wealth?
23-27. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very
rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, He said, How
hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God! For
it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich
man to enter into the Kingdom of God. And they that heard it said, Who
then can be saved? And He said, The things which are impossible with
men are possible with God. Yet some men spend all their lives in the
earnest endeavor to make it hard for them to be saved! They are trying,
as much as they can, to block up the road to eternal life, hoarding up
that which will be a grievous burden to them, even if God shall lead
them in the way to Heaven. How much better is it to live wholly unto
God and then, be we rich or be we poor, consecrate all to Him and live
to His praise and glory!