(Easter Convention 2008) Prayer in the Old Testament - Part 1 — Gerhard Du Toit

I was reminded, once reading about this old pastor in a church in the United States, and he was never able to get his people to come and sit in the front of the services, they always sat at the back, and so one Sunday morning he became so desperate that he took the pulpit and he put it in the back of the church and he asked them all to turn around.

So they walk out of the service with bended backs and bended necks, probably bended minds also for all you know, but we appreciate you. You know, because we are involved in different countries on the subject of prayer, I sometimes come across some wonderful little things about prayer, and I was reading some time ago about this family that would have family prayers every day, and they had a wonderful dad.

Every day when the dad prayed, there was something that he would thank God for that happened during that day, and so the children were always looking forward when daddy's going to pray tonight, when the family prayers, what is he going to thank God for today?

And then one day, absolutely everything went wrong. I mean, nothing went right that day. From the morning, the moment that they woke up, right through the day until the evening, absolutely everything went wrong, and so the children were all excited, and they said, now when dad prays tonight, what is he going to thank God for today?

Because nothing went right, and so that day, that night when they prayed, the daddy said, Lord, I thank you that every day is not like today. So, then I was reading about these two elderly men who were praying.

They used to pray together, and the one fellow, they would pray all over the world, and the one man would pray for different countries, and his prayer got so intense and so long that the man that prayed with him fell asleep.

He just couldn't take it anymore, and when he closed his prayer, the fellow that was praying looked at him, and they realized that he was asleep. So, he woke him up, and he said, when did you fall asleep?

And he said, I think it's when you were in India. So, there you are. We mentioned to you last night and yesterday in the sessions together that we have some great material that we would like to put into your hands, and if you have not taken one of these sheets on accountability, they really deal with four weeks that you can take five questions every week and just systematically go within in your required times, and I would encourage you, if you haven't taken one, to make sure that you take one.

We've got quite a group of other material. We put them at the back, and we would like you to take them if you will. We've got sheets of this if you are interested. When do you know when you have died to yourself?

The Crucified Life and Faith in Christ

You know, the Apostle Paul said, I am crucified with Christ, and he said, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and he said, the life which I now live in the flesh, how do I live it?

I live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's quite significant if you go to the life of Christ and you study the teachings of Christ, and look at every word that Jesus said, and discover how much Christ said about faith, and then lay the foundation for the understanding of faith coming from the teachings of Christ, exploring the acts of the Apostles as it relates to faith, and then go to the Apostle Paul and his epistles, and explore the understanding of faith, the general epistles, and of course the book of Revelation, and you will discover three aspects of faith.

Faith to be saved, faith to be sanctified, and faith for service. And when you explore those three aspects of faith, you discover the secret of what the crucified life is all about. And so the Apostle Paul said, the life which I now live, which life is it?

It's the crucified life. How do I live a crucified life? I live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and who gave himself for me. And then in Hebrews chapter 11, we enter into what we would consider as the gyros of faith.

Scripture, Experience, and Christian Maturity

But when you study the New Testament epistles, you'll discover that the majority of the New Testament epistles can be divided up into two sections, a doctrinal section and a practical application. And that's why we are so emphatic in saying to you that when it comes to the Christian life, that you cannot go from your experiences to the exposition of Scripture.

You cannot interpret Scripture in the light of your experiences, because you will isolate the Word of God, and as you isolate the Word of God, you'll interpret God's Word in the light of your experience.

That's why there are movements today, they are so experiential orientated, and everything is manifestations and experiences and all these kind of things. And brother and sister, they last for three or four or five years, and then they blow up like a balloon, and you pick up these psychological, spiritual wrecks all alongside the road of the Christian life, and it takes them five or ten years to recover.

Why is it? Because they've interpreted Scripture in the light of experience. I mean, this is my, if I may be allowed to say that, this is my criticism of books on holiness. I mean, I probably have every book on holiness that you would be able to find the last hundred years or longer that has been written.

And of all my books on holiness that I dearly love and appreciate, 70 to 80 percent of them are experiential orientated. And the problem is, you know, Christian maturity is not Christian purity. When God cleans us and fill us with the Spirit of God, it's going to take you a lifetime to develop Christian maturity.

And one of my problems as a young Christian worker in Africa was that I listened to people who would speak on the subject of sanctification, and they would preach a message that took them 25 years to get there themselves.

And I would sit there in the inadequacy of my simplicity, listening to this, and I said, okay, if I need to trust God to cleanse me today and fill me with His Spirit, I need to experience that this man is speaking about tomorrow.

Didn't realize that it took him 25 years to be able to get to that place in his relationship with God. And so what are we speaking about? You see, if God is dealing with us in a drastic way, and He cleans us, and we surrender ourselves to God, and He fill us with His Spirit, brother and sister, that's not a goal, that's a gateway.

You see, a crisis without a process is an absence. And so in the Christian life, you will discover when you study the New Testament, and we speak about surrender, and if I would be allowed to say this, and you say, why do you do that?

You know, I've made a commitment to my life, and I'm not saying this to impress you, but I'm passionate about discovering what the Word of God is saying, and I've made a commitment in my relationship with God, and I've asked my wife to hold me accountable.

But every 12 months, I said, Janice, I want you to help me. I want to go through the New Testament 35 to 40 times for the next 10 years. And I said, after those 400 times of systematically going through the Scripture, writing the New Testament out about every 12 to 15 months, to come to grips with what God's Word is saying.

And so that's what the New Testament is about. You study the word sin, and you need to ask yourself, what is the Gospel of Matthew saying about sin? And what is Mark saying about sin? What is Luke saying about sin?

What is John saying about sin? You say, how do you study this when you look at that? You study the Gospel of Matthew together with a little epistle of James. You say, why do you do that? Because James is the commentary on the Sermon on the Mount.

Those wonderful 105, 108 verses, and you put them with the 1071 verses of the Gospel of Matthew. You study them together. Then you take the Gospel of Mark. And how do you study the Gospel of Mark, those 678 verses?

You study the Gospel of Mark with 1 and 2 Peter. So why would you do that? Because theologically speaking, the Gospel of Mark had the relative influence of the Apostle Peter behind it. You say, to what degree?

Because it relates in the Greek New Testament with 1 and 2 Peter. That's why the key word in the Gospel of Mark is the word justus in the Greek language, which is the word immediately. That's why it's so difficult to analyze the Gospel of Mark, because you discover how Peter, theologians are saying to us, dictate it to Mark, and that's how the Gospel of Mark tries.

So I study Mark with 1 and 2 Peter, and incidentally I study it also with the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts. So why would you do that? Well, you see, the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts was dominated by the ministry of the Apostle Peter.

And so that's what you do. Then you study the Gospel of Luke, 1 ,151 verses with the Acts of the Apostles, which is 1 ,007 verses, and I study that with the Epistle to the Hebrews. And you say, why would you do that?

Well, I'm not going to tell you, but that's the way I'm doing it. Because, let me just say this, if you study the Gospel of Luke in the Greek New Testament, you know Luke was a physician, and there are about 50 technical medical terms in the Gospel of Luke and in the Acts of the Apostles.

Now, when you study the Gospel of Luke in the book of Acts in the Greek New Testament, and you study the Epistle to the Hebrews, you discover that in the Greek language there are deeply underlying corresponding concepts that are coming together that is unique in the style of those three New Testament books.

And so you say, who wrote the Gospel of Luke? Who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews? I'm not going to tell you, but I give you a piece of my mind that I can't afford to lose. So, I remember when I was a student, one of our professors said to us, I want you to find out who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews.

And so I had 50 arguments, and now I discover that it was the Apostle Paul. And the morning when our professor asked us and said, so who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews? I was a very zealous student, you know, and I jumped up and I said, I know exactly who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews.

And so he said, who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews? And I said, I have 50 arguments, it was the Apostle Paul. And he just pointed his finger at me and said, you are absolutely wrong. And so I was kind of hurt in the arrogance of my young student days, and I jump up again and I said, so who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews?

And he turned to me and he said, it was the Holy Spirit. Terror, wasn't he? He wasn't prepared to make a statement. I still believe it's Paul. You say, did he write it in Greek? I don't think so. You say, how did he do that?

I think he wrote it in Hebrew, but someone translated it for him. And in the Acts of the Apostles, you'll come across the we sections. You know, Luke was the physician of the Apostle Paul. And from Acts 16, three times you discover that he speaks of we, we, we.

So you say, what happened? It's obvious that Luke must have been working. And Luke became, I think, his personal physician. And so when you, if you have an interest in the Greek language, and if you are interested, I can give you the Greek New Testament on audio.

And so, and I can give you the Greek New Testament in English. You say, what do you mean in English? We translated, they translated the Greek New Testament from Koine Greek into English, so that you look at the Greek words and they are spelled in English, which makes it really easy to come to grips with it.

And I love to do this. And when I sit in a plane, I sit with my Greek New Testament and I sit with the English translation of the Greek New Testament and I listen to it on, on audio. And it's just wonderful as you systematically, you know, there's only 5 ,250 words in the Greek language.

And there are about 140 of those words that if you come to grips with it, they are the skeleton of the Greek language. You know, you're all sitting here this morning like a bunch of stammering spirits.

I mean, Kevin, we could only, we can honestly give him an honorary doctorate for looking after all the sheep in the farm for all you know. Anyway, let me tell you something, brother and sister is so rich.

And you know, when you study the scripture, it's so wonderful. I mean, you know, it's just precious. You take one word, the word blood in the Greek language, 99 times we find it and you systematically go to the Bible and you study it in its context and you will never go wrong in your interpretation of scripture.

Because you always deal with the context of what scripture is about. The work in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 261 references in the Greek language speaking to us about the Holy Spirit. The word for sin, which means missing the mark, and it's different context and it's structures and it's tenses.

And when you come to grips with, you discover the fullness of what the scripture is all about. And so that's how you study the Word of God and let it become part of your life. And when you pray, you know what the Holy Spirit does?

He brings God's Word into your life. And you pray the scriptures back to God and you discover what does it mean to pray in the will of God and systematically exploring that what this is all about. So how do you know when you've died yourself?

Dying to Self and the Cross

When you are forgotten or you're neglected. When you are purposely set up north and you do not sting and hurt with the insult or oversight but your heart is counted worthy to suffer for Christ. That's when you've died for yourself.

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice are disregarded, your opinions are ridiculed, and you refuse to let any form of anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself and you take it patiently and lovingly with silence.

That is when you've died to yourself. When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any impunctuality, or any annoyance. When you stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensitivity, and endure as Christ endured it.

That's when you've died to yourself. When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or to record your own good works or each other's commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown, that's when you've died for yourself.

When you are content with any food, any offering, any arraignment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption, by the will of God, that's when you've died for yourself. When you see your brother prosper, and you see how his needs have been met, and you can honestly rejoice with him in spirit, and feel no sense of envy, or never question God, while your own needs are far greater, and in desperate circumstances, that's when you've died to yourself.

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself, and you can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly to that person, or to God, finding no rebellion, no resentment rising within your heart, that's when you have died for yourself.

So, are you dead? In these last days, the Spirit will bring us to the cross, that I may know Him and be conformable to His death. So, we want to make sure that we are able to put these materials into...

Judson, Humility, and Brokenness

You know, Judson, the great missionary to Burma, he was one of the greatest men in the mission field, and they refer to him as the Apostle Paul of Burma. And so, when Judson came back from Burma to the United States, and there were many reports written about the great ministry that God gave him.

So, when he came back from the United States, and the ship that he was on came into Boston Harbor, when word came out that Judson was on the ship, many Christians, many, many Christians went because they wanted to meet this man that was so mightily used of God.

And he didn't know what was happening. He was just coming home. He was old in life. He was coming to spend his last years back in the U .S. And so, when people came off the ship, Judson was there in his cabin.

He was preparing and getting things together. And people were waiting, and somehow he didn't come. And they were looking for this man. They were looking for some marvelous spiritual giant that was going to come down from the ship.

And so, he never came. He was just a small, little, inadequate, insignificant man. And eventually, they thought, well, maybe he's not on the boat. And so, they found out, and they said, no, he's in there.

He's just getting his stuff together, and he's came out. And so, the reporters and Christian leaders were so anxious to see him, they began to board the boat. And they said, we want to go and meet him, and we want to bring him down.

And they came down, and he was in this cabin, and they just filled this cabin. And they were all there, and talking to him, and said, oh, you are the modern apostle Paul, and you are the great missionary to Burma.

And he just broke, and wept, and wept, and wept, and he wouldn't even look at him. And so, when they got under the conviction of sin, because of what they were doing, he began to pray in their presence, you know.

And he began to pray, and he said, God, I never wanted them to compare me with the apostle Paul, but I always wanted to be like the Lord Jesus, you know. Well, I tell you, that got the night in the hurry, didn't it, you know.

So, brother and sister, you know, we're really nothing. Don't you ever think, listen, you know what breaks my heart about the Christian life? And I'm so glad, you know, there's not a ton of people here these days, because it's wonderful, we can look one another in the eyes.

But you know what breaks my heart about the Christian life? God don't need any one of us, you know. He don't need any one of us. He need only something. God can do His work far better without us, you know.

Far better without us. So, you say, why isn't He doing it? The angels would love to do what He's given us to do, but God wouldn't give Him permission. And so, we are precious to God, and He wants to use us, and our lives are important to Him.

Don't you ever sit there in the chair and think, you know, I'm just a little nothing. You are not a little. You're very, very important to God. But don't ever come to the place where you think you are indispensable.

I always smile at the life of Elijah, you know. There at Mount Carmel, after three and a half years of preparation, and the fire of God fell upon the altar. And when the fire of God fell upon the altar, and devoured it, and God manifested Himself as the God of Israel, Elijah thought, you know, this is it.

And it wasn't it. And he had to search for his life, hour after hour after hour. And then you know how God took him, and took him to this place all on his own. And then the voice came and said, what are you doing here, Elijah?

And he said, I'm the only one left. I'm the only one left, you know. And you know, I wish I can translate to you the Hebrew understanding of that statement. Because you know what God said to him? So what?

So what? You know what God said to him? You're not the only one left. There are many of you to bail. And Elijah, my work will just continue the way that it has, even if you're not there, you know. So don't you ever think that you are indispensable.

You know, I'm amazed that God can use donkeys in Scripture. I tell you, God can use donkeys in Scripture. And by the way, you know, when Balaam talked to the donkey, the most incredible revelation when the donkey spoke back to him.

I mean, he was the donkey, because he understood what the donkey was saying to him. That's amazing, you know. But just be you very careful, you know. We're precious to God. You're not indispensable. You say, so how does God use us?

You know what? God used broken people. I've often said to my dear and my precious wife, I said to her, my darling, the day when I lose the brokenness of the Spirit of God in my life, will you have a courage to nail me in a corner and say to me, don't you ever go near ministry again?

God used broken people. And if you don't serve God with a broken heart, you're not going to get far. You're going to get so hurt. You're going to get so offended. You're going to get so upset. You're going to become so bitter that no one will be able to get near you.

You say, what are you talking about? You need to learn to kiss the hand that is holding the knife. And if you learn to kiss the hand that is holding the knife, you will never be able to look at people.

You will always be able to look at people with the grace of God, and you will always be able to see yourself without the grace of God. And if you see yourself without the grace of God and you see people with the grace of God, brother and sister, you never will be able to criticise people.

Never. Never be able to criticise people. Because why? You see them with a heart that has become broken. I wonder this morning, you know, I tell you, it's such a blessing to be in Australia because I know there's a burden of God for this country.

And it was amazing when I came into Sydney the other day. It was just like being here nine years ago. Because, you know, we've been praying. We've got around more than 500 people in different countries of the world who are praying for every one of these meetings.

They don't know your faces, they don't know your innards, but I tell you, these people are praying for you every day. And what a blessing to be in this country to sense the burden of God and to ask God to come and visit us with revival.

Intercessory Prayer and Perseverance

So, let's spend some time in prayer together and then we're going to turn to the Scriptures. If you are new with us this morning, we've been praying together at every one of these sessions and this is what we are going to do.

I want you to meet in groups of five and just get into a little circle. If there's something that you really want us to pray about, we want you to share it. So, what I want you to do is to look at the person and say, how can I pray for you?

If it's a family member, if it's an issue at your church or whatever it is, we want to pray with you about it. Do you know the longest that George Muller of Bristol prayed for someone? For 63 years. So, when did he become a Christian?

Three weeks after George Muller died. The great Andrew Murray prayed around 400 of his descendants into the ministry. But you know what happened to Andrew Murray? Every one of his children found Christ, went into the ministry except one.

He was the youngest boy, he was a rebel all his life, never came to Christ. Andrew and Emma Murray prayed for him, God gave them promises, they sought the face of God, stood upon the promises of God, but he never gave his life to Christ.

The war broke out in South Africa and when the war broke out, this young man in his thirties went to the war. He didn't know Christ. Andrew and Emma Murray prayed for him and prayed for him, went to the war totally lost.

Do you know what happened during the war? He was killed. When he was killed, Andrew and Emma Murray said, we don't understand this, but we can't question the promises of God that He has given unto us that our son would come to Christ and that would be born of the Spirit of God.

And they got the message that his son was killed in the war. And for six months they went through awful darkness. They never knew what happened to him. They didn't know if he came to Christ. All they had was the promises of God.

No word about this youngest son of the Murrays. Do you know what happened? Six months later, a knock was at the door of the Fasteners in South Africa, and Andrew Murray opened the door and a man stood in front of him and he said to him, are you Dr. Andrew Murray?

And he said, yes. And he said, I need to talk to you. And Andrew Murray said, about what? He said, I need to talk to you about your son. He said, what do you mean? He said, your son that went to the war.

And Andrew Murray said, come in. And they sat down and Emma Murray came in and he said to him, what is it about our son? And the man turned to him and he said, I was in the trenches right next to him when he was shot.

And he said he was wounded. And he said he fell into my arms. And he said for the last five minutes of his life, I held him in my arms. And he said, sir, I need to tell you, I led him to Christ. In the last five minutes of his life, because I'm a born again Christian.

And he got saved. Don't you ever give up, you know. Don't you ever give up, you know. Sometimes you know what we need to do? We need to confess and say, God, I've given up. But you've never given up on people.

You've got family members this morning and they are lost. Don't you give up. You've got children and they are lost. Don't you give up. So why are you saying that? The tide goes out and brother and sister, the tide turns and comes back.

And people need to get bottom, hit bottom, before they turn. And things need to get worse before they are going to get better. So what is it? Don't you ever give up when it comes to prayer. So let's pray.

Break together in our little groups. And if you've got a family member that you want us to pray for, it would be a great time for us to do it. Find four or five people and just break up in little groups and that's what we're going to do, okay?

It's a great time for us to pray for our families. And so why don't you just share about your family or some of your friends and then we pray together. Our Heavenly Father, as we have bowed this morning in the greatness of your presence, has it been a tremendous encouragement for us to know that in thy presence there is fullness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

We thank you that your word is set unto us that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and they shall not faint.

And Father, we confess this Saturday morning that there is nothing that is so valuable to us and there is nothing that is so refreshing to us to be able to worship God and just to become conscious of the encouraging blessing of recognizing that the Lord is in the midst of his people.

Father, I was reminded again of Solomon in the Old Testament when at the dedication of the temple and how your word is set to us that when he came to the place and he prayed and he said, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

And we are so grateful this Saturday morning that we are thy people, that we have been called by thy name. And Father God, we want to humble ourselves before you. Your word said that you dwell with those who are of the humble and the broken heart and the broken spirit.

And you set unto us, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. And Father, we confess today that in the best of our understanding and our comprehension and our perception of what humbling ourselves before God really means, it is still so inadequate in that which God really wants us to do.

Lord, we thank you that Oswald Chambers said that we need to learn the secret that to humble ourselves before God is not just a discipline, but it needs to transform itself into a disposition and a lifestyle of an awareness of our inadequacy in the presence of God.

And Father, we confess today that we have never learned the art that when you said to us, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, how we come to the understanding of how far we come short of the glory of God.

And Lord, we are not speaking about unconfessed sin, but we are coming to grips with the depravity of sin and the fact that we are missing the mark and that we come so far short of the glory of God. And as we humble ourselves before you, that the Spirit of God is able to come and show us the unbelievable depth of our need in the presence of God.

And Father, teach us the secret of what it means to sit in the dust before you, not in a sense of depression, and not in a sense of introspection, not in a sense of being disillusioned, and not in a sense of discouragement, but in the consciousness that if you withdraw your presence from us for one split second, that we will simply disintegrate in the greatness of the majesty and the centrality and the supremacy of the life of the Lord Jesus.

And God, we pray that you will teach us these marvelous secrets. Lord, I have been so blessed in recent months by this little book by Andrew Murray on humility, and how we expound the humility in the life of Christ, and how the Son of God learned obedience by the things that He suffered, and how He said unto us, the Son can do nothing unless He sees the Father doing it.

And how in His submissiveness to His Father, He said unto us, My Father worked hitherto, and so do I. And God, we confess this Saturday morning, we don't know a thing, because of the awfulness of sin and its impact upon our lives and what it has done to us, that we do not know a thing about what it means to fast and pray, and to come to grips with the Hebrew understanding of sitting in the very ashes and the dust before God.

But I pray that you will teach us afresh this weekend, that one of the greatest attributes and one of the most marvelous aspects of the sanctified life, and one of the most beautiful consequences and characteristics of the fullness of the life in Christ in us, is when you bring us to the place where we will be able to sing with the hymn writer of old, when he said, Nothing in my hands I bring, but simply to the cross I cling.

Teach us humility, dear God, so that after our purity and the cleansing efficacy of the blood, will flow the vision of the risen Christ who submitted Himself, who became conformed to the image of man, and who gave Himself to us.

And when you said unto us that we are in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us, and that He gave Himself for us, and Father, that we would recognize that the understanding of our surrender to God leads us to the comprehension of our depth of need, and humility, and brokenness, and transparency, and vulnerability, and a total abandonment, and being sold out to every aspect of what the life of Christ is all about.

God, we confess that it is not these times that we are spending with you, but, Father, it is these times that you are spending with us. And help us never to lose the vision of the possibility that God has promised to us, household salvation.

Help us this morning never to lose the vision of the Christ that is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, and is ever interceding for us. Help us never to lose the understanding that we are not on our own, but that you have said unto us, my little children, these things I write unto you that you sin not.

But if any man sins, we have an advocate to the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteousness, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. Help us never to lose sight of the fact that you say to us that we do not have a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who is touched in all points, just like us we are, and yet without sin.

And help us never to lose sight of the fact that you said unto us, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace and mercy, so that we might be able to receive mercy and grace in the time of need.

And I am so glad, Father, that the Greek New Testament is really saying to us that God will step in in the nick of time, just when we need it. And you have said unto us that no temptation has taken you, but such as is common to man.

But God is faithful that He will, with a temptation, make a way of escape. And He will not allow us to be able to be tempted about that which we are able to handle, but that He will, with a temptation, that He will make a way of escape.

God, I am so grateful today that our understanding of temptation has been so warped and so misunderstood to the ages gone by. And how that were for us, so we are speaking to us about emotional suffering, mental suffering, the agony of our weaknesses as it relates to prayer, the reality of facing the sin of this world, and the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and that in those five different meanings, that God will not allow us to go above that which we will be able to handle, but God that He will give us a way of escape.