1689 London Baptist Confession (part 52)

Our Father in heaven, how amazing is it that we get to come before your presence.

We have no right, no claim, no reason, and not even any ability to do so other than that which you have granted us in Christ Jesus because of His finished work, because of the fact that you have declared us righteous in Him that we can come before you and we do so with gratitude, with joy, with thanksgiving.

You are our creator, our sustainer, our provider, and Lord we are thankful to be in your presence today and to be gathered together and to look to your word to see what it says about you, about us, about your church, about how we ought to think about important things as we look through our confession of faith and we see where it imitates, where it mimics what the word of God says.

Father we praise you, we would ask for your blessing on your word and on our time this morning, in Jesus name, amen.

Well, we've been going through the London Baptist confession of faith and this morning we're going to hit a few interesting items, but just to kind of remind you, we're leading up to a study about the

Sabbath, but the way the confession of faith goes through it, it leads us to that by talking about really the nature of worship and I think it's interesting and I think when we get to the

Sabbath we'll see why, because I think ultimately what we need to think of Sunday as a special day of worship, that's what it is.

Worship comes first, we call it the Lord's day, you can call it the

Sabbath, call it what you like, but there is to be a priority to it, but first we've been talking about worship, what it is, what it isn't, even last week we talked about how we're talking about idolatry and about things that can become idols,

I think my wife said something like, what did you say? Oh, something about basically anything that comes before God can become an idol, something that takes precedence before God can become an idol, sometimes it's activities,

I sometimes joke, I think the greatest idol in all of our nation is probably what?

What do you think it is? The greatest idol, if you were to say, what is the greatest, well let's just put it this way, what's the biggest false religion in the

United States of America? I think it goes by three initials,

NFL, right? I mean one of the reasons why I think the the flag protest was such a big deal is because people are like, well wait a minute,

I'll have to stop going to church on Sundays, meaning NFL on CBS, you know,

I mean that it was tough, it was tough. We talked about how even

God can be reshaped, can be distorted, and can become in effect an idol.

If you're worshiping what you say is the God of the Bible and he's not the God of the Bible, then you have made an idol out of the

God of the Bible. We like to, and I mentioned this last week, people like free will, they like, well they love

John 3 16, they love to talk about the love of God, what they don't like to talk about is the wrath of God.

They don't like to talk about the fact that the world stands condemned apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

These things are not, excuse me, are not comfortable to talk about, so they don't like to talk about it.

Yeah, why don't we talk about these kind of things. When we go to most churches, you're not going to hear about the love that the world has for sin, and because of that love that the world has for sin, it stands condemned.

Let's look at John 3. We started reading John 3 16 and 17 last week.

We know John 3 16, probably don't even have to read that. And then John 3 17 says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

And if somebody would read verses 18 to 20, it really kind of gives us a description that is really not very popular in church.

John 3 verses 18 and 20, and would somebody read that please? Okay, so when we read that, you know, if we just look at those verses, would we tend to think this way?

Most people are good. Would we think that? Yes, no, maybe.

I haven't had enough coffee to decide yet. Not likely.

Well, I mean, when you see this, and it says, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Well, why did they love the darkness? It hides what they're doing. Their deeds are evil.

Here comes the light into the world that got the light of Christ. And what do they love? They love the darkness, not the light.

They don't say, Oh, I'm so thankful the Lord came. They're upset because their deeds are exposed.

It is human nature to resist and quench the light that has come into the world.

See that again is human nature to resist and quench the light that has come into the world. That's what our nature is.

It's fallen. And when you tell people that they are naturally bent toward sin, they don't like that.

People like to hear what? We're good. We're good people.

R .C. says we're not to engage in mere religion when we worship God. What does he mean by that?

We're not to engage in mere religion. What is when you think of religion?

What do you think of rules?

OK, maybe outward practices, you know, having that kind of covering the veneer of righteousness, but it just covers up what's inside.

He says we are to worship the living God, the God of Scripture, to whom we are to give glory.

What happens when you do something other than that, when you fail to worship the God of Scripture and when you fail to give him the glory?

What is that hint?

We've been talking about it. It's idolatry, right? If you fail to because you're worshiping something and if you're not worshiping the

God of the Bible, if you're not giving him the glory, you're giving something else the glory. You're giving something else your attention.

You're giving something else your affection. And that something else is an idol.

Now, God is one being and three persons and all three persons of the

Godhead are worthy of our worship. R .C. says we are to adore and glorify the spirit, the son and the father, because all three of these are

God. Here's where it gets tricky, though. We are to worship no one else and nothing else.

Right. Can you I mean, other than the NFL, can you think of other things that get worshipped?

Money. Absolutely. What else?

Self. OK. What's that? Positions, family.

What's that? Celebrities. Absolutely. Now, if we put that in a little bit of a religious context, what other things are worshipped besides the father, son and spirit?

Mary. Saints. If you go to Eastern Orthodox churches, icons.

Images. We as human beings have the capacity to worship

God. As Christians, we have the capacity to worship God. And how do we do that?

Who is our mediator? It's Christ. Let's look at First Timothy two, five.

First Timothy two, five. Something that should be familiar to us, especially as we've been talking about and reading about it over and over and over again in Hebrews.

But it's important to note here this morning. First Timothy two, five. Would somebody read that, please?

The man, Christ Jesus. Why do you suppose that Paul sort of emphasizes?

I mean, doesn't he emphasize that Jesus Christ is man there? Why do you suppose it's important to note that?

OK, because as man, he bore the wrath that was rightly due us. I think, you know, just in the in the concept of mediator, what what is a mediator generally?

Anybody ever been before a mediator? What does a mediator do?

Neutral party. OK. And he tries to do what? Tries to reconcile two parties that are at odds.

Right. So when Paul's describing Jesus as this mediator, what he's saying is there are two parties at enmity with one another.

And these two parties are God and mankind. Jesus Christ, he emphasizes, is a man.

And he does so because Jesus Christ, while fully and truly God, is also fully and truly man.

And therefore, he alone is qualified to act as mediator, to be an arbiter, as it were, between these two parties that are at odds.

Now, here's the funny thing, though. God is angry with mankind.

True or false? Did I hear it false?

True or false? True. And we know that we'd see that in Romans chapter one, where it talks about the wrath of God is unveiled against all unrighteousness of mankind, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

We'd also see it in Psalm five and other Psalms. God is angry with the wicked every day, the

Bible says, but God has a right to be angry with the wicked and to be angry with mankind every day.

Mankind is at odds with God. But has no right to be at odds with him.

We call that sin and the reconciliation or the mediation is that Christ makes man acceptable.

To God, not that he makes God acceptable to man. But he mediates for us, he comes before God, the father for us.

Right. And for God, he mediates the grace of God, he grants us the grace of God to us, to believers by living and dying and being raised from the dead.

But this idea that there is one mediator. We could say it this way, that there is one way to God.

And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And people say, well, I don't like that. How can you say that?

How dare you say that there's only one way to God? And that is through Jesus Christ.

How can you dare say that? What gives you the nerve to say that? What gives you the nerve to say that Jesus said it?

He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. And he said, some people come to the father in other ways.

No one, he said, no one comes to the father but by me.

He's the only way. It's an exclusive truth claim. And the problem with that is the world doesn't like it.

The world does not like this exclusivity. We talked about it a few weeks ago.

Even Christians don't like it. God accepts the worship of all these different religions.

And the world says that there are many paths to God. I mean, if we had to sit through this morning some kind of speech from a politician, what would they say about the various religions of the world?

They're all good, right? They all worship the same God, but they don't.

Ultimately, the lost world claims that all roads lead to God. But Jesus doesn't stand for that.

He says that in John 14, 6. He also says it in John 10.

He makes these exclusive claims when he says that he is the true shepherd.

Well, what does that say about all others who would claim to be shepherds? That they're false.

He says the good shepherd does what? Lays down his life for the sheep. Well, nobody else did that. Every other religious leader, every single one of them, whether it's

Buddha, whether it's Joseph Smith, whether it's, I was going to say

Elizabeth Warren, but I won't. I'm trying to think of the woman over here in Lancaster, the

Seventh -day Adventist woman. All these religious leaders have one thing in common.

Muhammad. They all died, right? And they're still dead. They were sinners.

And none of them had the credentials necessary to reconcile us to God, to be that mediator, to stand between God and man, and to reconcile two parties at odds.

Nobody else could do that. It's interesting, over the last, you know, one of the things

I used to say about Pope Benedict before he stepped aside was, I appreciated the fact that he had the audacity to be

Catholic. And what do you suppose I meant by that? Everybody's like,

I don't know, that he wore all of his papal. No, it had nothing to do with what he wore or anything else.

It's that he would say that there was basically only truth in Catholicism.

Because we've had some real namby -pamby popes, including the one we have now, who are just like, you know, all this kind of exclusivity thing.

I mean, I expected one of them to say, although I'm really the vicar of Christ, because that's what they claim for themselves, that they're the mediator between us and Christ.

Although, kind of the mediator, because Mary's also the mediator, but I digress.

But they used to say that the only way you could be saved was through the Catholic Church. But they don't even say that anymore.

Popes are kind of embarrassed to say there's only one way to God, right? They'll say nice things about Islam. They'll say nice things about Hinduism.

Evangelical leaders have choked when they're asked if there's really only one way to God. Is Jesus really the only way?

Can't there be some other way? It is a very unpopular position to say that only

Christ can reconcile man with God. So, God will be worshipped in the way that he will be worshipped.

He will be represented in only the way that he wants to be represented. And now we're going to talk a little bit about prayer.

How do we come to him? The confession talks about that. How do we pray to God?

Because we're talking about different aspects of worship. Listen to what the confession says. It says, Prayer, with thanksgiving being one part of natural worship, is by God required of all men.

But that it may be accepted, it is to be made in the name of the Son, by the help of the

Spirit, according to his will, with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance.

And, listen to this, and when with others in a known tongue.

Interesting. Now, easy question.

Does God hear the prayer of unbelievers? Yes, he hears it.

And he knows on that. He knows everything and he hears everything.

Depends on which prayer. Yeah. God be merciful to me, the sinner.

He'll hear that one, right? Does he hear the prayers of an unbeliever?

Well, R .C. says this, he does hear them. And that is to their great disadvantage.

The scriptures make it clear that unless they pray through the one mediator, that God abhors their prayers of unbelief.

In a sense, the prayers are insulting to God. Let's look at Amos. The prophet

Amos 5. Amos 5, verses 21 to 27.

And when somebody has unwrinkled their pages there in Amos 5, let's hope they read verses 21 to 27.

The setting of this is, I mean, who's he talking to, first of all? To Israel.

And ostensibly, you would think, oh, these are believers, right? And look what they're doing.

They're holding feasts. They're having solemn assemblies. They're offering bird offerings.

They're offering these fatted animals. They're playing their harps. They're carrying on.

This is a big worship festival. But even though God hears them, right?

He makes note of the fact that he hears them. He says, I won't listen. There's a difference between hearing them and actually listening and being willing to act upon them.

Well, why won't he? Because they're actually in a time of idolatry, worshiping false gods.

Look at verse 26. You shall take up Sikoth, your king, and Ki -yon, your star -god, your images that you made for yourselves.

Well, that, again, is idolatry. And he's going to send them to idolatry.

This is what one commentator says, a summary of it. He says, it is Yahweh himself speaking.

He says, there's no introduction. It's just, thus says Yahweh. Thus says the

Lord your God. And he says, the hatred and rejection of Israel's feast is expressed in language as sharp and cutting as possible.

God separates himself from what they're doing. Notice how many times he says, your, right?

He says, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fatted animals, I will not look upon them.

Take away from me the noise of your songs to the melody of your harps. Everything is like, this is what you people are doing, and I want no part of it.

The verbs make the displeasure of Yahweh plain, that he just hates what they're doing.

He's not going to listen. MacArthur notes, in addition to worshiping the

Lord in the wilderness, Israel also worshiped other gods, carrying along,

Sikoth, your tabernacle, your king, or Molech and Kihun in your images.

Molech worship included the astrological worship of Saturn and the host of heavens and the actual sacrificing of children.

Warned against Molech worship, Israel nonetheless pursued all facets of it, continuing with Solomon and his descendants until Josiah.

Stephen recited Amos 5, 25 to 27, when he recounted the sins of Israel while he was right before he gets stoned to death.

So that's just an illustration of how God rejects the prayers of unbelievers, those who are involved in idolatry.

What he wants is prayer made with thanksgiving, prayer made with thanksgiving.

And that's one part of religious worship that God requires.

Let's look at Philippians 4, verse 6.

There is thanksgiving that is, you know, I mean, we just had

Thanksgiving. And it's always amazing to me, you know, when you're gathered with a large enough group of people, that some people,

I mean, people like the holiday and everything, but who, it's okay to say what they're thankful for, but people don't say who they're thankful, where their thanks is directed, right?

Who they're thankful to, we don't hear that very often. But God wants his people to be thankful when they come to him with their prayer and supplication with their requests.

Prayer must be made through the name of Christ. He is our only mediator, our high priest interceding for us.

The Old Testament priest spoke to God on behalf of the people. Jesus is our priest and he speaks to the

Father on our behalf. The Holy Spirit also intercedes for us, particularly, particularly when we don't know how to pray.

So our prayers are Trinitarian. They're to the Father through the Son by the power of the

Holy Spirit. And that's what the confession says. And our prayers also must be in accordance with the will of God.

R .C. says this, it is a blasphemous thing to pray for anything that God in his word prohibits.

It's blasphemous to speak, to pray for things that God prohibits in his word. What would be an example of a prayer that you might, not that you have prayed these kind of prayers, but that you might think,

I want to pray for X. And then you think, well, wait a minute. The Bible prohibits not just you, but anybody in general.

What might some people pray for that is in contradiction to the word of God?

OK, for God to bless their homosexual union. God says homosexuality is an abomination.

And yet you, not you, but somebody wants to pray for that. Well, you can know right away that that person is a blasphemer, that he's speaking things against what

God has said. God says this, and I'm going to pray for that. God's not going to answer that.

People say, OK, here's here's one. How about this? Somebody says, well,

I've been praying for the death of President Trump.

Would that be a good thing to pray for? What would the

Bible say? We're to pray for those who are in authority, right?

We don't have the authority, the capacity. It would be sinful for us to pray imprecatory

Psalms. If Paul, and he did, if he wrote, you know, pray for those in authority, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, while evil, wicked men were ruling

Rome and persecuting Christians, what makes us think that we have the right to pray for something else?

You know, some Christians didn't particularly care for President Obama. Well, the right thing to pray for him is for wisdom, for salvation, for those things.

And it's the same thing for President Trump. We're not

God. You know, Daniel says that God put people on the throne and he takes them off the throne.

He raises up kingdoms and he takes them down. He sets the boundaries. We don't. And it's blasphemous to think any other way.

Can you think of other prayers that people might pray that are in direct contradiction to the

Bible? That's a great point. I mean, he just essentially consigned

Daniel to death. And the next time Daniel sees him, he says, live forever, O King, not, you know, are you in trouble now,

O King? You know, good point. Yeah, people have, so often we put ourselves, sorry, if you never do this, the blessed are you among men and women.

You know, we put ourselves in the place of God. And we actually find if we thought about it long enough, we'd realize that what we're saying is in contradiction to the word of God.

Think about this. Let's say there's a married couple. They're struggling in their marriage. And so the wife prays, you know,

I pray for a divorce. I pray that my husband would be unfaithful to me. Or the husband says,

I pray that my wife would abandon me. I think people pray like that.

And I think it's wrong. If we're not praying in accordance with the revealed will of God, how can we think that his revealed will is somehow different than his secretive will?

God tells us that he wants these things to happen. That's how we pray. Let's look at Matthew 18, 19.

Other comments about that before I move on? It's a good question. Okay, next on. Moving on.

Now, what do you think? Do you ever, after your kids pray, and that's right, you know, we want to teach them, right?

After they pray something that you know is wrong, you know, you ever say to them, well, really, should we be praying like this?

Or, you know, do you ever punish them for their prayers? Smite them with it.

Or, you know, just say, you know, God could consume you for that prayer.

Don't get too close to the oven, kids. Okay. Yeah, I think that's right.

I think you want to train them. And part of that training sometimes can be, you know what, that's not totally right.

Here's how you want to pray and how you want to think. And, you know, are you a sinner?

Yes. Do you have the right to approach God? No. You know, there's only one way to approach God, and that's through the

Lord Jesus Christ. And, you know, just kind of teach them those things. So I think that's a good point. Other thoughts or what?

But I mean, you know, are you heaping, you know, I guess you could look at it this way. I think a parent could take it probably too far and say, well, wait a minute.

If Amos 5 is true, and the worship of unsaved people is an abomination to him that garners wrath for them, right?

God's angry with them. Then I should keep my child from praying altogether. You know, stop their mouth and not allow them to pray because.

And I think you're on the right track when you say, well, I want to train them, you know, in the way that they should go.

Okay. Matthew 18. How many times have you heard this one? Matthew 18, 19.

Would somebody read that? Remember hearing this in a Stephen Curtis Chapman album

I used to listen to all the time. A live album. Would somebody read

Matthew 18, 19, please? Yeah, Anthony. Okay.

So if two people are gathered together and they agree, right? Then whatever they agree upon will be done by God.

Is that right? That's what the Bible says. Joni, why do you have to be such a killjoy?

Debbie Downer. It's in the context of church discipline, right?

Has nothing to do with, as R .C. says, it's not the guarantee that God will do as we demand.

He's not a cosmic bellhop. And he writes it this way. He says, we would like to have a cure for cancer or have all wars cease or to be rid of all famine and hunger.

You suppose that we could find two Christians that would agree that those are all good things. So then why don't they stop?

Why don't we see the end of war, the end of persecution? You know, why doesn't just peace break out and prosperity everywhere?

Why isn't that happening? I mean, after all, if you watch certain network on any particular day, they bind

Satan. So why is Satan still tempting anyone? I always wonder, you know, somebody is praying to bind him.

Then somebody must be praying to loose him too. I don't know how that works exactly. You know, the binding and loosing thing.

The problem is that, you know, Matthew 18 is not taken in context. We pray in accordance.

If we just think about, you know, the so -called Lord's prayer, which is really the disciples prayer. Why is it the disciples prayer?

Because he's teaching the disciples how to pray. He's not like saying, this is how

I always pray. Because if you read his prayers, he doesn't always pray like that. He's saying, this is how we should pray.

This is how his followers should pray. And he says, let's see.

Does he say that we should pray in accordance with the will of God? I think he does. I'm not going to go through it right now.

But the answer is yes, right? Thy will be done or your will be done.

That's what we want. We want the will of God to be done, not our will. Okay. So praying with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance.

And when with others in a known tongue. Now let's talk about these individually. We won't finish here, but we'll finish up next week.

Then eventually we'll get to the Sabbath. Reverence. And he says,

R .C. does, this may be the most difficult to pray with reverence. Why do you suppose that is?

Why do you think it's hard for us to pray with reverence? Okay, that's exactly right.

We tend to forget who God is and our position before him. We treat him more as I would say, as a peer, right?

And there's a real struggle with that. Because if we think about Jesus, Jesus is our brother.

Yes. Right. Is that true? Yes. But that really doesn't go far enough.

I mean, he's our brother in the sense that we've all been, we've been adopted. He is the son. We've been adopted in him.

You know, R .C. says this. He says that we are among the most casual and disrespectful people who have inhabited the earth.

Don't hold back. That disrespect carries over even into our worship and prayer life.

We tend to approach God as if he was our peer. And I think, you know, of all the services that I watch on,

I watch them on online now. And I think there's rarely a sense of the holiness of God, the separateness of God, the transcendence of God.

God is more like our buddy, our pal, our friend, you know, a guy that we might go to the movies with on Friday night.

That's just wrong. Our prayer should have a sense of awe and adoration.

So should our hymns. Everything about our worship service should have a sense of awe and adoration.

This isn't like talking to our neighbor. I was thinking, whatever that old TV show was, the sitcom where the guy would talk over his fence to his neighbor.

And I'm like, this isn't like that. We have a totally wrong view of who it is that we're addressing.

And I don't mean all of us. I just mean, when I watch church services, I have this sense that they're praying to, you know, the guy in the third row.

Wrong. Just wrong. We need to remember who we are.

And really, when you think about it, it is incredible that we, creatures who have been in rebellion to the very moment, really when we pray, but lesser rebellion, right?

What happens is when we talk about sanctification, we're in full rebellion against God, then we get saved and then we're only in partial rebellion.

Why? Because we're only in partial obedience to him. We've only partially surrendered our actions, our minds, and we want to surrender more.

And that's sanctification. But there's a sense in which most prayers lack that sense of awe, that sense of transport, that sense of wonder, that we finite creatures get to enter the throne room of the transcendent, eternal, omnipresent God, which leads right into the next one, humility.

We come into the presence of God with our prayers on our faces in awe and adoration, saying,

God, I know I have no right whatever to mumble in your presence, except that you have invited me to be here clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

We enter into the throne room wrapped in the robes of Christ's righteousness.

We actually belong there, even though in our minds, we think I could never belong there, but we're not there on our own merits.

We're there on the merits of Christ. He gives an example.

He says, Babe Ruth, I think one of the reasons

I like Babe Ruth so much is, you know, any guy who could hit all those home runs after eating several hot dogs during a game has to be, you know, pretty cool.

But he recounts the story of how Babe Ruth was once over in England, and he was to be introduced to the king of England, which really sounds odd, because there hasn't been a king of England in quite a while.

But he's going to be introduced to the king of England. And Babe had his own little,

I mean, he'd grown up kind of, well, poor and not a very marvelous environment or anything, and was really kind of new to this whole same thing.

So they give him all these rules. Don't do this, do this, you know, say your majesty and et cetera, et cetera.

This is how you talk to the king. And here's how you act. And these are all the things that you need to do.

And so they then quiz him. You understand how to do this. And yeah, I got it. You know, did I say this?

Okay. So they open the doors. Here comes Babe Ruth.

There's the king. Hi, king. Here's his point.

He says, this is not the way to address a king, especially the king of kings and lord of lords.

It's not just, hi, king. Now, does every prayer have to be said, you know, on your face?

Does every prayer have to have a depth of humility and, you know, just a sense of awe and everything?

Or can you just sometimes say, Lord, I just need help right now. Absolutely. But when you're going into a time of prayer, when you've set aside a time of prayer, there needs to be some reflection.

And when he's in particular directing us toward our worship services, and we're thinking about, you know, the ways in which

God will be worshiped on Sunday. And so when we pray on Sunday morning, what we don't want to hear is, hi, king, how's it going?

How are you today? That's not how we address the

God of the universe. That's not how we go in to worship the king of kings and the lord of lords.

Let's look at James chapter 5. We're going to talk about fervency. Fervency or passion in prayer.

We sometimes, you know, it's remarkable. If we really, really want something to happen, let's say we really want a particular person in our family to get saved.

We really want some particular sin in our life removed.

There's something that we're particularly focused on. We can have great fervency in our prayer life.

Isn't that true? I mean, especially if we're in a time of difficulty. I mean, let me tell you something.

There's nothing that will so fix your mind on importance, you know, the important things in life as some disease.

Suddenly a prayer becomes very precious to you, very important to you. Would somebody read

James chapter 5 verses 16 to 18? OK, now, thank you. We tend to think, you know, when we even hear the name

Elijah, what's what do we think? He's a lot better than me. But James says he was a man with a nature like ours.

And that's the thing. I mean, I think there is a tendency to sort of lift these men up. But the truth is everybody in the

Bible other than the Lord himself. Has a simple nature. I don't care if we're talking about Moses, we're talking about Abraham or we're talking about Elijah.

They have a nature like ours. But it says he prayed fervently that it might not rain for three, three and a half years.

It didn't rain. God heard his prayer and he answered his prayer.

And then he prayed again and heaven came forth rain and the earth bore its fruits. It's not, you know, what is fervency?

Let's put it that way. What is fervency, Barry? What is it?

Heat. OK, with passion. Yep. Joni. OK, intentional persistence.

Man, that's like the American Heritage Dictionary. You know, that's that's right. OK, good.

Focus, yeah, total focus. What it isn't is loudness.

You know, just plain emotion or even our posture that indicates fervency, it's earnestness.

When when I read this part, I just thought, you know, it reminds me of one does not just stroll in the

Mordor, but one does not have a casual conversation with God. R .C.

says it is serious business to come into his presence, right? When we pray.

Serious business, he says we ought to pour our hearts out to him. We certainly do that when we really need something, as I said earlier.

But why not at all times? R .C.

says to pray in faith is to plead one's case before God and then leave it in his hands and trust him.

I like that so much. I put it on Facebook to pray in faith. Genuine faith is to plead one case and one's case, right?

To ask him to fervently ask him for whatever it is that we want and then leave it in his hands and trust him.

Job 1315, we're going to close here. I'll read it. Job says, though he slay me.

I will hope in him. Yet I will argue my ways to his face.

Well, what's he saying? Saying I trust God in whatever circumstances

I'm in, even unto death. Right. Because what's the worst thing that can happen from a human perspective?

The worst thing that can happen is I die. From a Christian's perspective, the best thing that can happen to me is.

I die. Sometimes somebody will ask me, how are you doing?

And I'll say the only way I could be better is if I was dead. And that's people can be like, what is wrong with you?

It's true. Right, there's only one way I'm going to improve, and it's not by living any longer.

It's by dying. I mean, I think I'm not sure, but I think Pastor Bob would probably say.

20 years ago, if you would ask me, he would have said, well, not as good as I hope to be someday.

And he wasn't talking about today. Right. Do you feel better than you did 20 years ago? He said, not physically.

Spiritually, he feels much better. I mean, as we get older, our reliance upon our physical and other capacities, not as great.

But that's not the point. Though he slay me, I will hope in him.

And then look what he says. He says, yet I will argue my ways to his face. Well, what is he saying?

I'm going to trust him even unto death. I'm going to trust him. Nevertheless, when I come before him, when

I'm praying to him, what am I going to do? I'm going to argue. I'm going to present my case.

I'm going to say, Lord, would you please do this for me? But after that,

I trust him and I leave it to him. And whatever happens, it's the Lord's will. Now I can go to him persistently, fervently and all these things.

But ultimately, I have to trust him. We need to close. Let's pray. Father, what a blessing it is to be able to call you father.

To have the righteousness of Christ, righteousness that we've not earned. To be able to come in before you into your throne room, as it were.

By the power of the Holy Spirit. Knowing that even if I don't say the things

I ought to say, he intercedes for me. Lord, would you grant us fervency and urgency in our prayer lives?

Reminder of your transcendence, of the awesome responsibility and blessing and honor that we have of coming before you.

Let us not take these things lightly. Not in our personal lives, not in our corporate life.

Father, for everyone here today, would you bless and strengthen us? Would you cause us to not want to do anything that is displeasing to you?

Especially while we pray. Especially not to be blasphemous, to pray against your revealed will, to pray against your scriptures.

Teach us to pray according to your will, in accordance with your will. Renew our minds that our prayers might be more pleasing to you, we pray in Jesus' name.