“Behold, He Prays”

"Behold, He Prays"

(No. 1860)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 20, 1885,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus, for,
behold, he prays." Acts 9:11.

THESE words are the hallmark of genuine conversion. "Behold, he prays"
is a surer witness of a man's conversion than, "Behold, he sings," or,
"Behold, he reads the Scripture," or, "Behold, he preaches." These
things may be admirably done by men who are not regenerate! But if, in
God's sense of the term, a man really prays, we may know for sure that
he has passed from death unto life. True prayer is a sure evidence of
spiritual quickening–the Holy Spirit has put spiritual life into the
heart of the man who prays, for prayer is the breath of heavenly life.
Prayer is the outcome of that sense of need which arises from the new
life–a man would not pray to God if he did not feel that he had urgent
need of blessings which only the Lord can bestow. While expressing his
sense of need and appealing to God for help, the praying man gives
evidence of being at peace with his Lord and cured of his natural
alienation. He who prays, trusts, and thus reveals the faith which
saves. Some forms of prayer display great faith, but all real prayer is
the working of faith, either little or great. Will a man cry to God for
mercy if he does not believe in Him? Will he plead at the Mercy Seat if
he does not expect to obtain his desire? Thus, dear Friends, prayer of
the true kind is a voucher for the existence of spiritual life in its
consciousness of need, in its turning towards God and in its faith in
Him.

Prayer is the autograph of the Holy Spirit upon the renewed heart.
Prayer is also an admirable form of communion with God and, as the
carnal mind can have no fellowship with God, it becomes the token of
regeneration, the evidence of adoption! He that prays has some
knowledge of God, some acquaintance with the great Invisible. The habit
of private prayer and the constant practice of heart fellowship with
the Most High are the surest indicators of the work of the Holy Spirit
upon the heart. When it can be said of a man, "Behold, he prays," the
seal of the great King is upon him! He bears the endorsement of the
Searcher of hearts. Hence the Lord gave to Ananias this sure indication
that Saul of Tarsus was a converted man, by saying to him, "Behold, he
prays."

In Saul's case, this indication was very specially remarkable. "Behold,
he prays" had a peculiar meaning in relation to this conversed
Pharisee. I shall have to show you this at length. It was thought a
great wonder that king Saul, of the Old Testament, prophesied. So
unexpected and amazing was the event that it became a proverb–"Is Saul
also among the Prophets?" But it was an equal marvel when this more
modern Saul was seen to pray! Is Saul of Tarsus among those who pray to
Jesus for mercy? The Lord from Heaven, Himself, mentions it as a
prodigy! He points to it as a thing to be beheld and wondered at, for
He says to His servant Ananias, "Behold, he prays."

I. We will begin our discourse with the following observation–This
expression concerning Saul of Tarsus is remarkable, for IT IMPLIES THAT
HE HAD NEVER BEFORE PRAYED. "Behold, he prays" could hardly be spoken
of one who had been accustomed to pray in former days.

This is very striking, for Saul was a Pharisee and, therefore, a man
who habitually repeated prayers. Pharisees boasted of the regularity,
number and length of their prayers. Perhaps there had never been a day
in Saul's life from the time in which he was conscious in which he had
not gone through his prayers. Many devout Jews spent nine hours a day
in prayer, for they occupied an hour in actual supplication and sat
still for an hour before and an hour after prayer–and this was done
three times a day! Pharisees offered prayer not only in the Temple and
in the synagogue, but even at the corners of the streets where they
could be seen of men. Whatever the quality of their praying might be,
there was plenty of it in quantity. If any fact was in public evidence
so that nobody could deny it, it was that Saul of Tarsus had been much

in prayer and, therefore, it is the more striking that the Lord,
Himself, should say to Ananias concerning this constantly devout
Pharisee, "Behold, he prays."

Behold how the Lord revises the judgements of men! In the opinion of
all who knew Saul of Tarsus, the disciple of Gamaliel, he was much
given to prayer. But He who searches the hearts and knew Saul well–and
knew truthfully what prayer is–here declares that now, at last, Paul
begins to pray! Despite all his former superfluity of ostentatious
devotion, Saul, all his life, had never prayed at all! What his friends
would have put down as a great mass of prayer, the Lord here makes
nothing of! Until the first broken-hearted confession of sin came from
the poor blinded persecutor of Jesus, the Lord considered that he had
never prayed! I want to push this fact home upon some who are present
with us, this morning. I mean those who, in a formal manner, have
always prayed and yet have never spiritually prayed. Your mother taught
you a form of prayer–you repeated this form all through your childhood
and your youth. At this moment you are most regular in bowing the
knees, both morning and evening, and yet no single prayer may ever have
risen from your heart to the heart of God!

You go constantly to your place of worship; you are diligently
observant of every Christian ordinance; you join in the responses, or
you bow your head and listen in silence to the extemporary utterance of
your minister and, therefore, you suppose that you pray–and yet it may
be a vain supposition! If anyone were to say that you had not prayed,
you would be very angry! And yet it is possible that such a statement
would be strictly true. How much I long that today, for the first time,
you may in real earnest cry unto the Lord God and cause Him to bear
witness that now, indeed, you pray! You will then think little of all
your heartless repetitions of prayers and you will cry to God for the
Holy Spirit who helps our infirmities, since we know not what we should
pray for as we ought.

I have told you that the Pharisees were noted for their prayers and,
therefore, it seems the more amazing that the Lord should announce that
Saul of Tarsus had now begun to pray. Yet it was so–he was now
offering his first real prayer. That prayer of the Pharisee which we
read just now from the 18th Chapter of Luke was meant for prayer, but
there is not a particle of prayer in it! He did not ask for anything.
He did not confess a necessity, nor plead a promise. He did not seek
mercy, nor mention propitiation. His formal thanksgiving was stained
with proud self-esteem and it was more the boast of vanity than the
request of humility! Much of what is called prayer is the husk and not
the kernel of prayer. Suppose you take the best form that was ever
written and you go through that in the most orderly style–you may do
that and continue to do it throughout a life of 70 years–and yet you
may never have sought God in real earnest!

If you prefer to compose your own prayers, you may do so throughout
life and you may make prayers which shall be excellent in language. You
may even make a new one every morning and every evening–and yet there
may not have been a single atom of true supplication in the whole round
of pious effusions! What if your first prayer has yet to be prayed?
What a solemn suggestion to you who have been nursed in the lap of
piety and wrapped in the garments of religion! I do not wonder that it
cuts you to the quick. This heart-searching enquiry ought not to be
thrust aside as if it did not concern you. Unless your heart speaks to
God; unless your soul comes into spiritual contact with the great
Father of Spirits, your form of prayer, whether it is liturgical or
extemporaneous, is of little worth! God is not the God of the dead, but
of the living–and this applies to prayers as well as men–

"God abhors the sacrifice Where not the heart is found."

One sentence of true heart-pleading, such as, "God be merciful to me, a
sinner," is worth volumes of mere lip-service!

Real prayer must be spiritual and Saul's prayers had not been such
before. Words are but the body of devotion–the confession of sin, the
longing for mercy, the groaning for Grace–these are the soul and
spirit of prayer! A man may have repeated the choicest words and these
may have been the outward embodiment of true prayer because his heart
went with them–but, on the other hand, he may have used equally select
expressions and may not have prayed at all–for there may have been in
him no stirring of the heart towards God. A man may utter no words
whatever. He may sit in absolute silence and he may be praying most
effectually. Moses cried aloud when he said not a word and Hannah was
heard in the Temple when she made no sound, but only her lips moved! I
reckon that those prayers which cannot be expressed in language are
often the most deep and fervent. When desires are so weighty that they
burden our words and even crush them down, then are they most prevalent
with God. There is power in that solemn silence which is "frost of the
mouth, but

thaw of the mind," when the soul flows with strong current in a deep
and hidden bed till it reaches the heart of God and prevails with Him.

Anyway, that prayer which is not spiritual is not reckoned of the Lord
to be prayer at all, for "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him
must worship Him in spirit and in truth." You may, if you like, praise
God with organs, as the English do, or you may pray to God with
windmills, as the Tartars do–the things are very much alike, as I
believe– but your praising and your praying will not be measured by
the heaving of the bellows, nor by the revolution of the sails. They
will be measured only by the heart work which was in them. If the
spirit does not commune with God, there has been no prayer. There may
have been music and oratory, but there has been no prayer if the
spiritual nature has not spoken with the Father of Spirits. Notice,
then, that we only begin to pray when we begin to live spiritual lives.

Next to this, Saul had never prayed a single right prayer of the kind
which the Lord can accept. Saul, up to then, had not known the Lord
Jesus and, therefore, he did not know the way of access to the Father
through His Son, whom He has appointed Mediator. Saul knew the letter
of the Truth of God according to the Ceremonial Law, but he did not
know the spirit of it as it is embodied in Jesus. He had been going
about to establish his own righteousness, but he had not submitted
himself to the righteousness of Christ and, therefore, in his prayers
he had not been traversing the road which led to the heart of God. If a
man, using his rifle at Wimbledon in a contest for a prize, were told,
"It is not that target on the right, but this upon the left which must
be aimed at," if he would continue to shoot towards the right, even
though he should make a center, yet he would not have scored! Inasmuch
as that was not the target appointed in the competition, his best shots
would count for nothing.

When a man does not pray in the Lord's appointed way, nor through Jesus
Christ, nor in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, he does not pray at
all! However fine his prayer, it is only a splendid sin. If you employ
a servant to do a work and he obstinately persists in doing another
thing, he will not earn his wages. However industriously he works at
what you have never set him to do, he will receive nothing at your
hands. So if you pray to God in a way which God has never ordained; if
you refuse to use the name which He has appointed; if you neglect the
cultivation of that holy and humble spirit which the Lord will, alone,
accept, you may pray till your tongue cleaves to the roof of your
mouth, but in God's judgement you have not prayed at all and you will
not receive anything of the Lord!

It is certain, too, that Saul of Tarsus had never made mention of the
name of Jesus in his prayers and, therefore, God reckoned that he had
not prayed. Saul had heard of Jesus, but he had rejected His claims and
hated His people. Our heavenly Father never turns a deaf ear to the
name of Jesus when it is honestly pleaded. But He will not hear us if
we despise that ever-blessed name. There is no other name under Heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved! There is no other name by
which we can hopefully approach the Mercy Seat! Saul had rejected that
name and had come in his own name and, therefore, he had not prayed at
all. Suppose a king should make a rule that every petition that was
presented to him should bear a certain stamp which his representative
would freely put upon it? Then if a man neglected or refused to have
his petition thus endorsed, he could not wonder if his petitions were
treated as impertinences and returned unanswered! Virtually, such a man
has sent in no petition, whatever, since he has declined to comply with
the regulation without which no petition can be received! Friends, let
us see to it that we most humbly and heartily, in our prayers, plead
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the force of prayer
lies mainly in our pleading the name and work of the well-beloved Son
of God! We must set ourselves on one side and hide ourselves behind the
Lord Jesus–for we and our prayers can only be accepted in the Beloved,
through the Person, the merit, the sacrifice, the ever-living
intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ! If we have not prayed in the
name of Jesus, we have not prayed at all!

Furthermore, I should like you to notice that real prayer cannot come
from men whose characters are contrary to the mind of God. He whose
character contradicts his prayer has not prayed. His life has
effectually pleaded against his lips. Saul of Tarsus was opposed to the
Son of God–how could he be in favor with God? He did not believe the
Gospel, though the seal of God was on it–how, then, could God receive
his prayer? How shall the Lord listen to us if we will not listen to
Him? How shall God accept us if we will not accept His Son? If we set
ourselves in opposition to His Gospel, do we not shut the door of mercy
in our own faces? While we pretend to be knocking at Heaven's gate, we
are turning the key against ourselves! Saul had been more than an
opposer, he had become a persecutor–can persecutors enjoy the favor of
God? Can we hope for God's blessing while we are cursing God's people?
How can a persecutor pray?

Saul of Tarsus was evidently full of hate and cruelty–how could he
pray? Love is the element of the children of God! "Everyone that loves
is born of God"–but Saul had conceived such an intense disgust against
the followers of the Crucified, that he hauled them to prison and voted
for their death! Brothers and Sisters, we have no right to persecute
any man for his religion or his irreligion–whether he is Catholic,
Jew, Muslim, or Infidel, we must do nothing wrong towards him, nor rob
him of any of his rights, however erroneous his views may be. We are
bound to be just and right towards all men as men, whatever their
religions convictions, or irreligious notions. Injustice is no friend
to the Truth of God! We must not fight God's battles with the weapons
of ill will. For us to hate those who are in error and talk of them
with contempt or wish them ill, or do them wrong is not according to
the Spirit of Christ. You cannot cast out Satan by Satan, nor correct
error by violence, nor overcome hate by hate. The conquering weapon of
the Christian is love and if Paul had sought to overthrow what he
thought to be an error by love, although he had been mistaken, he would
not have been so guilty.

Whoever they might be, whether righteous or wicked, men or women, he
would compel them to blaspheme the name of Jesus, whom he judged to be
an impostor. He sought to domineer over their consciences and to
oppress them for their beliefs. How, then, can God hear his prayer? If
you have the spirit of hate in you, it nullifies your devotions and
makes your prayer to be no prayer. In love lies the essence of prayer
and prayer ought to be the flower and crown of love. If I go through
the world hating my fellow men because they differ from me. If I am
determined to force my own doctrines upon others with an iron hand, I
cannot lift that hand in prayer! A malicious heart pollutes the
sacrifice which it offers. When I come before God in prayer, I may be
offending Him when I dream that I am pleasing Him. Friend, if you are
living an ungodly life, I do not care how regularly you bend your knees
in seeming devotion, there is nothing in it! If you are not living as a
Christian should, your prayers prove nothing–your matins and your
vespers, your family prayers and your Prayer Meetings are the mimicry
of prayer and nothing more.

You may have been baptized and you may have frequented the Lord's
Table, but it is all mockery–the caricature of godliness and nothing
more–unless you strive after holiness and labor to conform your life
to the will of God. God will hear us when we hear Him–He will do our
will when we do His will. But persistence in known sin and especially
indulgence in enmity and hatred are so destructive to prayer, that till
we are free from them, we do not pray! Be at peace with all men, or
talk not of prayer! Lay aside all opposition to the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus or you can no more pray than a fiend of the Pit!

Yet again–Saul, with all his prayers, had never truly prayed because
humility was absent from his devotions. What a test this is! Saul had
gone about the world feeling that he was a righteous man. Did he not
wear texts of Scripture between his eyes? What a pious man he was! Had
he not broad borders on his garments–borders of blue? What a saint he
was! Did he not fast thrice in the week and pay tithes of mint and
anise and cummin? There was not a better man in all the dominions of
Caesar than this Saul, in his own judgment! When he prayed, there was a
high flavor of self-righteousness in his religious exercise and this
made them disgusting to the Most High. The Lord delights in humble and
contrite spirits, but the proud, He knows afar off. There was no
confession of sin, no crying for mercy through a propi-tiation–his
prayer was the expression of thankfulness that Saul of Tarsus was a
Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the Law, blameless!

In the courts above, where outward appearances are nothing and God
looks at the heart, his pious harangues were not reckoned to be prayers
at all. If you feel quite content with your own prayers, permit me to
suggest that you do not pray, for few who pray aright are ever content
with their own petitions. Those who dream themselves to belong to the
Good-Enough family will find themselves bad enough and the Too-Goods
will find themselves shut out of Heaven! If you have a righteousness
made out of your prayers, throw it to the dogs! Self-righteousness is a
leaven which the Lord commands us to put away, for He abhors it and
considers that it pollutes His Passover. If you pray as a deserving
person, pleading your own good deeds, there is such a lie at the bottom
of your prayers that you have not prayed at all!

I say again this makes terrible work of a great many persons who have
been brought up in outward religion. Dear Friend, be not vexed or angry
if this should seem to come home to you. If before your eyes the whole
heap upon your threshing floor should be blown away like chaff, thank
God that it has been blown away so soon, while there is time to gather
the true wheat! It is better for you to make the sad discovery now,
than to make it when you come to die, or to wake up in another world
where there will be no hope of rectifying the error! Let this thought
come to every professor of

religion this morning–that you may have been a praying man or woman
for years, you may have come, like Saul of Tarsus, to the fullness of
your age and have abounded in the appearance of devotion–and yet you
may have to pray to God for the first time!

II. This brings me to my second reflection, and that is, IT IS IMPLIED
IN THE TEXT THAT IT WAS A REMARKABLE THING FOR SUCH A PERSON TO NOW
PRAY. It is put with an ecce, a mark of admiration, "Behold,

he prays!" It is a very difficult thing, a very marvelous thing, for a
man to truly pray who has been, all his lifetime, praying in a false
way! It is a miracle of Grace to bring a proud Pharisee to plead for
mercy like a penitent publican! It is not half so wonderful that an
irreligious man should begin to pray as that a vainglorious professor
should begin to pray. The most remarkable conversion that could take
place here, today, would not be that of Elymas, the sorcerer, but of
Saul, the Pharisee! The most remarkable conversion in the Apostolic age
was that of a man who, from his youth up, had been plunged in
self-righteousness and in the self-content which comes of attention to
ritual, ceremony and the form of godliness. "Behold he prays."

It is hard for him to pray because he is a person who has been a
formalist for a long time. He is so rooted in the habit of formal
devotion and so contented with it that it is extremely difficult to
bring him to attend to spiritual things. The letter kills in more
senses than one–and the man so killed has no life for the things of
the spirit. If he goes up to his chamber at the hour of prayer, he runs
along the old trams without the least feeling and heart. He repeats the
words, but he might as well be reading an unknown language. The
tendency is to say the same thing over and over again till the lips
move mechanically and the soul is in a deep slumber. The Bible is read,
but the mind is dozing. The sermon is heard, but the heart is
wandering. Where is the good of this? Yet how hard it is to get men out
of it! It is easier to attend a thousand "masses," or to go to church
every day in the week, than to offer one true prayer!

It is very difficult for you who are rich in nominal devotion to enter
the Kingdom of Heaven. It is hard to get the robe of Christ's
righteousness upon that man's back who believes that his own coat is as
good as it needs to be–he has worn his own rags so long that they
cling to him! He is too proud to beg, for he has lived so long like a
gentleman on his own income. He has been rich and increased in goods so
long–and in need of nothing–that he has grown so used to his way of
external and superficial religion, that you cannot get him, without a
miracle of Grace, to seek after that which is deep and true.

Again, self-righteousness is a very great hindrance to coming to Christ
in prayer. In Christ's day, the publicans and harlots entered the
Kingdom before the Pharisees who were self-righteous! It is a great
thing to conquer sinful self, but it is a greater thing to overcome
righteous self. The man who is downright bad and feels it, asks for
mercy, but these people are bad at heart and do not feel it and,
therefore, they will not seek the Lord. They think that they have done
everything they ought to have done–wrapping themselves about in their
shoddy righteousness, they imagine themselves to be quite fit to enter
into the royal feast without putting on the wedding garment of the
king's providing! It costs a self-righteous man a great effort to stoop
to prayer. If he did but know that his righteousness is only a part of
his filthiness, he would change his note. The Scripture says, "All our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags." When we see them to be such, we
are glad to be rid of them, for they are loathsome in themselves and
the foul disease of pride poisons every thread!

The man that has been accustomed to pray without his heart and to be
pious without being converted is very hard to be made to pray because
he is prejudiced against the way of Grace. He has made up his mind that
he will not see the Light of God because he believes in his own light.
You talk to him about salvation by Grace, redemption by the precious
blood and justification by faith, alone, but he cannot stand such
themes–they may suit the wicked, but he is of another breed! He is
overshadowed with the glory of himself and, therefore, he cannot see
the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The habit of superficial
external religion once formed is as hard to break as for the Ethiopian
to change his skin. A man hugs his self-righteousness as he hugs his
life. Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has, will he give for his
legal life, the life of

self.

Besides, a self-righteous man knows that everybody thinks him to be
right and, therefore, he cannot demean himself by such prayers and
confessions as might suit a common sinner. If you talk to him about
being converted, why, dear Sir, he needs no conversion! He was born
good! He has always been a Christian! He needs no change–you don't
know what a fine gentleman he is! He never cries in the bitterness of
his soul, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Why should he? His mother
and father were extremely good people and he was born again at the
baptismal font and has since been confirmed!

What more do you need? Washed in the blood of Jesus? Well, perhaps he
needs this as others do, but there is no special sin in him, nothing,
certainly, for which he could be condemned. Persons who are of this
order are seldom brought to pray. They may be called reprobate silver,
for the Lord has rejected them. If ever such as these are saved, it
will astonish men and angels–and the Lord Himself will cry, "Behold,
he prays."

Even religious intensity and fervor may become a hindrance to a man's
conversion when that ardor is for a false faith. The earnest formalist
is encased in steel and the arrows of the Gospel glance off him. Some
worship every nail of the church door and every tile of the chancel. If
such a thing as a priest should cross the road, they are ready to kiss
the ground he treads upon! How can these be brought to the simplicity
of the faith? Among Dissenters are there not persons who are obstinate
for trifles, conservative for old methods, inflexible with habit,
ferocious for externals and yet devoid of spiritual life? Those who
have none of the inward and spiritual Grace are often the more fierce
for the outward and visible sign. The man who has no money is a great
stickler for a respectable appearance, the fact being that if he does
not keep that up, he will soon be in the Gazette. A sincerely gracious
Christian is tempted, rather, to think too little of externals than too
much of them. He sets the highest value upon the inner life and faith
in the Lord Jesus. I say again, Brothers and Sisters, it is such a
wonderful thing that the externally-religious man ever should begin to
pray in earnest that it is recorded as a wonder! "Behold, he prays."

See what was needed in Saul's case to make him pray–the Lord Jesus
must, Himself, appear and bring him to his knees! Nothing less than a
Light shining from Heaven could show him his vileness! Oh that such a
Light would break upon all self-righteous souls! The proud man must
fall to the earth, cast down from his high places! Until he lies low,
he will still glory in his flesh. He must be struck with blindness,
that he may be ready to accept the sight of faith. Three days he must
neither eat nor drink, to wean him from earth and make him feed on the
Bread of Heaven. Great must be the agony of his spirit, for he that has
been so intensely self-righteous cannot be brought to Christ without a
wrench. He that has rested in himself so completely and so long needs
to be torn up by the roots before he will quit his carnal confidences.
It takes, as it were, a special interposition of Grace to bring a
religious professor to pray in spirit and in truth!

III. And now I want you to notice, in the third place, that albeit it
was a great wonder that Saul prayed, yet IT IS DIVINELY DECREED IN THE
TEXT THAT HE DID.

One would have liked to have heard Saul of Tarsus pray. Look at him
now! This fine, good man! How humble, how lowly he is! His prayer began
with a full and grievous confession of sin. He offered neither excuse
nor extenuation. He looked to Him whom he had pierced and mourned for
Him. He acknowledged that he was the chief of sinners–"Because I
persecuted the Church of God." The only thing he could say by way of
apology was, "I did it ignorantly, in unbelief." Look at him there,
alone in his chamber, with his eyes opened and yet blinded, He weeps,
cries, groans and humbles himself before the Lord. Indeed, he prays!
The other day, as he rode along to Damascus, everybody looked upon him
as a saint, but now by his own confession, he is a sinner of the
blackest sort! Listen how he defames himself! He repents in dust and
ashes! He prays for mercy. He begs to be forgiven his scarlet sins. He
acknowledges that if he were sent to Hell, it would be no more than
just, but he begs that for the Savior's sake, he may be spared and
permitted to see the Light of God's Countenance. I think I hear him
making this sad confession. Behold, he now prays!

Now you will find him acknowledging his great need. "Why," he says,
"Lord, I need everything! It is not one thing that I am devoid of, but
everything is gone that is worth having. I need a new heart and a right
spirit. I need the Truth of God in the hidden parts and that, in the
inward parts, I may be made to know wisdom." He had nothing to boast
of–he had turned from a boastful millionaire into a beggar! He would
cry, "Lord, give me my sight again, but specially grant me my spiritual
sight. Take away the scales from my heart as well as from my eyes! Help
me to see Jesus as my Savior! Help me to live to His Glory, as before I
have lived to persecute Him." He prayed this time–and none could doubt
it!

I think I can see mingled with that prayer the lowliest adoration. How
he would worship Jesus of Nazareth as his God now that he was conquered
by Him! How he would cry, "My Lord, my Lord, have I been persecuting
You? Are You the Messiah whom all the 12 tribes expected, and have I
rejected You? Did I sit to see Your servant, Stephen, stoned, and keep
the garments of those that stoned him, and I have been breathing out
threats against You, my Lord?" Surely the deep homage of his chastened
spirit must have come up sweetly before the exalted Lord as Saul bowed
himself in the dust before Him and said again and again, "God forbid
that I should glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
"Behold, he prays!"

Consider what pleas he had. Did it ever strike you how Saul must have
pleaded? Pleading is the truest and strongest part of prayer. Now, how
did Saul of Tarsus plead? Assuredly he urged the promise, "Let the
wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let
him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our
God, for He will abundantly pardon." He knew the Old Testament
Scriptures better than we do and he would be sure to use them in his
prayer. I hear him crying, "O Lord, You have said, 'Come, now, and let
us reason together, says the Lord; though your sins are as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they
shall be as wool.'" Surely, he also went over that 51st Psalm, every
bit of it–it suited him exactly. "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O
God, God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your
righteousness."

Do you not think that when he had gone over those promises, he would
then plead the types of the Ceremonial Law concerning Christ? How the
53rd of Isaiah must have flashed in his mind! He was blinded, but what
a light must have flamed up in his spirit as he saw the Man of sorrows,
the acquaintance of grief, and heard the Prophet say, "Surely He has
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. . .The chastisement of our
peace was upon Him." How Saul would begin to cry to Jesus, "Oh, Son of
God, be my Scapegoat, be my Sin Offering, be my morning and evening
Sacrifice! Be to me the blood of sprinkling and the Paschal Lamb!"
Knowing, as he did, all the types of the Jewish Law, he must have found
them rich in comfort, now that, in beholding Jesus, he had found the
Key of them all!

And, Beloved, all this must have been steeped in a wonderful fervor. If
we could have stood outside the door and listened, we should have
understood why the Lord said, "Behold, he prays." Before, you might
have heard him repeating words, but now he uttered groans, cries, sobs
and tears! Before, you might have said to yourself, "He is saying his
prayers," but this time it was as when a man wrestles for his life and
is in bitterness for his only son! All previous prayer was sham, but
this was real! All the rest was but a performance, but now he did real
business with the Most High! "Behold, he prays." Now he is a real
Israel, and lo, he comes off more than conqueror through Him that has
taught him to pray!

IV. Lastly, we see that as soon as he did pray, IT WAS EVIDENT THAT THE
LORD ACCEPTED HIS PRAYER.

How do I know this from the text, "Behold, he prays"? Well, I know it
from the text, first, because here is God bearing witness that he did
pray. Might not the Lord stand in a Prayer Meeting and hear a dozen of
us talk our piece and never say, "Behold, he prays"? But if a voice
from Heaven were to say concerning someone, "Behold, he prays," we
would know that the man was accepted of the Lord. So it was with Saul.
The first time he prayed, God heard him. Try it, my Friend, try it! If
this is your first prayer this morning, breathe it to God with humble
faith and He will hear you!

We know that God had accepted this first prayer, for He was about to
answer it. He had Ananias in readiness to go and comfort the poor
blinded penitent. God is about to answer your prayer, my dear Brother,
this morning, if you have cried to Him. Perhaps the man is present in
the Tabernacle who will speak to you before you leave these walls, or
somebody will soon call to tell you the way of peace more perfectly. If
now you quit the way of self-righteousness and formal devotion and
begin to cry out for the living God, that God will meet you!

Moreover, we are sure that God accepted this first prayer because He
called attention to it by a, "Behold." It is as if God said to angels,
to men, to everybody–"Behold, he prays." We have heard of the seven
wonders of the world and of other marvels concerning which men cry,
"Behold," but that which strikes God most is a praying man, a sinner
praying! God does not say, "Behold Herod on his throne," or, "Behold
Caesar in his palace," but He does say, "Behold, he prays," as if He
would make the praying man the center of observation, the focus of
regard! "Behold, he prays." The heart of God is delighted with true
prayer. The arch-enemy notices true prayer and trembles when a man
falls on his knees. And God would have all His saints on earth and His
saints in Heaven look down upon a man in prayer. To the great Father's
heart, it is a prodigal returning! He cries, "Behold, he prays," but He
means, "Behold, he is coming home! Behold, he seeks his Father's face!
Behold, I have found My son which I had lost!" Prayer is God's delight,
God's admiration!

Beloved, has this ever been the case with you, that you could draw the
attention of the great God to yourself? I am afraid there are many of
whom it would have to be said, "Behold, he never prays!" What a sight
upon earth–a man created by his Maker who never worships his
Creator–a man who is daily fed by God's bounty, but never worships
Him! Sir, you are a monster, you are a creature among men most
loathsome! A man that lives without prayer ought not to live!

It is a wonder that the earth does not open her mouth and swallow up
such a wretch! And yet when he does pray, God makes a wonder of it!

It is his first prayer this morning. I see him–the sermon is over and
he has reached home. He has gone up to his room. He is afraid somebody
will come in and disturb him–he is turning the key. He is kneeling by
the side of that bed on which he has slept so often without prayer and
he cries, "O God, I do not know what to say, but be merciful to me, a
sinner, and forgive my sins!" I hear the rustling wings of angels as
they gather around the sacred spot! Soon they fly upward crying,
"Behold, he prays!" Years shall pass on with you, young man, and you
shall come to middle life and be exposed to sharp temptation–what will
you do then? Good spirits watch you, fearing lest you should go astray,
and devils watch for your halting. You will then remember that day in
the middle of September when you first prayed–and you will say to
yourself, "I will again cry unto God, as I have often done." You go
upstairs and say, "Lord, many days have passed since first I cried to
You and I have not ceased to cry, but now I am in special trouble. I
beseech You, deliver me!" God will help you. The great wheel of
Providence will revolve for you. Meanwhile, both angels and devils have
spied you out–the angels sing and the devils mutter, "Behold, he
prays."

A few years have passed. The young man has grown old and the time is
come that he must die. He has gone up to the same room for the last
time and there are those about him who weep and watch. Mark the sweet
serenity of the departing soul! He is looking into eternity without
fear. He knows whom he has believed and he is ready to depart. What is
he doing in his expiring moments? "Behold, he prays." Prayer, which has
long been his vital breath and native air, is now–

"His watchword at the gates of death– He enters Heaven with prayer!"
Demons that gather about our last hour shall flee away as bats fly out
of a cavern scared by a torch! They shall flee when they hear the
voice, "Behold, he prays." The shining ones shall gladly meet the soul
that is on Jordan's bank when they hear the voice, "Behold, he prays."
They shall meet the praying spirit on the other side of the river and
shall smile while the prayer of earth melts into the praise of Heaven!
Soon shall we be forever with the Lord! God grant it may be so, for His
name's sake. Amen.
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