Suing God in Prayer — E.A. Johnston

A person's prayer life will reveal much about that person. I believe that a preacher is only as tall in the pulpit as he is long on his knees in prayer. I can listen to a man preach and, within ten minutes, tell you all about his prayer life.

Faith, Prayer, and the Hidden Life of the Preacher

A desperate life of prayer is not acquired easily. Rather, it's hammered out on the anvil of affliction and faith. Faith and prayer go hand in hand. You cannot pray without faith, and you cannot have faith without prayer.

Men of prayer are men of faith. They are inseparable. I was talking with my homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Olford, years ago in his study, and we were discussing the vital aspects of a prayer life and the necessity of a daily quiet time.

And Dr. Olford looked me in the eye and said, My dear brother, I must confess to you now, it's harder for me to have a daily quiet time at the age of 84 than it was when I was 24. I have to fight for it every day.

And Stephen Olford had authority in the pulpit because he was a man of prayer. I was reading the biography of Ulster's best-known evangelist, W .P. Nicholson, and how God used him in revivals to shake cities like Belfast with the gospel of the Son of God.

W. P. Nicholson’s Agonizing Prayer Life

And there was a remarkable incident in his life that made a big impression on me, and I want to share it with you, friends. I was reading about W .P. Nicholson's prayer life as related by a lay evangelist called Lindsay Glaig.

Now, Lindsay Glaig and Stephen Olford were best friends, so when I read this story related by Lindsay Glaig, it immediately grabbed my attention. In 1928, W .P. Nicholson was invited to preach at Cambridge to the students of the Christian Union, and Lindsay Glaig went up to Cambridge to help him with the work.

Let me read you the words of Lindsay Glaig now, friends, regarding the prayer life of W .P. Nicholson. He conducted a campaign for the students at Cambridge at the request of the Christian Union, and my wife and I went up to help.

We met Willie Nicholson in his room for prayer, and afterwards, my wife, walking across to his bed, said, What have you been up to? Your sheets are torn to shreds. Ah, said Willie, I must tell them at the office about that.

What had happened was that he, unconsciously, agonizing in prayer, had ripped the sheets into strips with his strong hands and arms. Yes, prayer was surely the secret of his power. And when I read that story, friends, it gripped me.

Here is a man, an evangelist, who's being used of God in revival after revival, and all hell is against him. His wife is removed from him suddenly. He's left to raise his three small children. He faces opposition wherever he goes because he's preaching the full counsel of God and under the power of the Spirit of God.

And it all boils down to his prayer life, his secret life of prayer, where he rips his sheets into shreds while he's agonizing with his God in prayer. And as I thought about that man ripping up his sheets while he prayed, I broke down in tears.

It did something to me. It convicted me in my own prayer life. Listen, friends, God uses those rare individuals who have a close walk with him in prayer. And there's an aspect to the life of prayer, which I would like to elaborate on this evening before we go to our time of prayer, to which I speak is the aspect of suing God in prayer.

Exodus 32 and the Boldness of Moses

And that's the title of my message this evening, friends, Suing God in Prayer. Our passage can be found in the book of Exodus in chapter 32. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 7 through 14.

And before I read us this striking passage of scripture in the life of Moses, let me read you a quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones on this aspect of suing God in prayer. Here now are the words of D. Martin Lloyd-Jones.

God has spoken to him, as it were, face to face, and Moses knows that, and he comes with his love and his reverence and his godly fear, and he ventures to argue. He says, you have said this, therefore, again, I commend you to the reading of biographies of men who have been used by God in the church throughout the centuries, especially in revival.

And you will find the same holy boldness, this argumentation, this reasoning, this put in the case to God, pleading his own promises. Oh, that is the whole secret of prayer, I sometimes think. Thomas Goodwin, in his exposition of the sealing of the spirit in Ephesians 1 .13, uses a wonderful term.

He says, sue him for it, sue him for it, do not leave him alone, pester him, as it were, with his own promises, tell him what he has said he is going to do, quote the scripture to him. And you know, God delights to hear us doing that, as a father likes to see this element in his own child, who has obviously been listening to what his father has been saying.

It pleases him. The child may be slightly impertinent, it does not matter. The father likes it, in spite of that, and God is our father, and he loves us, and he likes to hear us pleading his promises, quoting his own words to him, and saying, in the light of this, can you refrain?

It delights the heart of God, sue him. Well friends, those were the wise words of the doctor, Lloyd-Jones, I too believe that it is the secret and power to prayer, I have found this to be the case, as I have studied historical revivals through the years, I have discovered this to be the case, in my own prayer life with God, sue him, sue him with his own promises, sue him, and watch God go to work, friends, oh how feeble most of us are in our prayer lives, how selfish and self-centered our prayers are.

I remember being in a prayer group in Sunday school years ago, and a married lady in the class was a millionaire, and we were all seated in a circle going around with various prayer requests, and this wealthy lady's prayer came up, and she asked the class to pray for her interior designer, who was designing their new multi-million dollar home, and she wanted prayer for this designer to do a good job, I'm not making this up, that's what that lady prayed for, some of her own prayers, if they were examined under the light of the Holy Spirit, would be just as shallow and ridiculous as that, but men and women, whom God has used to reach their generation with the gospel, have been mighty persons of prayer, they knew how to soothe their God with their desperate and sacrificial lives of prayer, and that's what Moses did, that's what Moses did exactly, friends, let us turn now to our passage in Exodus, and see this for ourselves, we're in Exodus 32, beginning in verse 7, you'll often hear me say before I read a passage of scripture, here now is the word of God, I say that because years ago, I had the privilege to hear a man from Japan, a Japanese pastor, come to America and preach, and before he began his message, he extended his arms and held up his Bible, and very reverently he said, here now is the word of God, and he held his Bible as if he was holding the most valuable treasure in the world, so I do that too, friends, so here now is the word of God, and the Lord said unto Moses, go, get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves, they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them, they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people, now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation, I will pause there, friends, notice God's complaint against the sinning people, notice how Moses intercedes on their behalf, and sues God, so to speak, now, let's pick up in verse 11, and Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand, wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, for mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth, turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people,.

I will pause here, friends, notice how Moses is speaking about the pagan nation of Egypt, and how God's honor is at stake if he destroys the people of God,. Now, look at how Moses reminds God of his covenant keeping promises,.

Look at verse 13, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed, as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of, will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever, and the Lord repented of the evil, which he thought to do unto his people,.

Now, friends, this is a startling passage of scripture, because it reveals God's character in relation to his praying people, and how God will listen in regard to his honor, and in relation to his promises given,.

Notice how Moses reasoned with the Almighty, and argued in behalf of the sin and Israelites, and how Moses moved the heart of God by suing him with his own promises and declarations, this is how we should approach God as well, friends, we should sue him with his promises, that's the secret to gaining an answer to our desperate prayers, that's the secret to revival, as I read this passage from Exodus 32, I'm reminded of how God answered in prayer for revival on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland in 1949, allow me to relate the following story to you, which deals with this aspect of suing God in prayer, friends, on the Isle of Lewis, in the village of Barvis, lived two elderly sisters who were in their 80s, one was half blind, and the other bent over with arthritis, but these two Smith sisters were mighty prayer warriors, listen, friend, don't you ever think for a skinny minute that you were too old to be used to God, don't let Satan fool you into believing that God can use you at any age, and it's often the older saints who have the most familiarity with the Almighty, because they have walked with him the longest, well these two elderly sisters took the promise of God from Isaiah, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, and they pleaded that promise of God to God in prayer, night after night, for months on end, until God sent a powerful revival to the island, listen friends, listen to how these two elderly sisters battled with God in prayer until they received a victory, they argued his promises to him by suing him in prayer, listen to their words, we struggled through the hours of the night, refusing to take a denial, had he not promised, and would he not fulfill, our God is a covenant keeping God, and he must be true to his covenant engagements, did he fail us, never, before the morning light broke, we saw the enemy retreating, and our wonderful lamb taken to field, now listen friends to how God came in that revival from these two desperate women's prayers, these are the words of Duncan Campbell, who was the preacher of that revival, listen to Duncan Campbell's description of what God did, the awful presence of God brought a wave of conviction of sin, that caused even mature Christians to feel their sinfulness, bring groans of distress and prayers of repentance from the unconverted, strong men were bowed under the weight of sin, and cries for mercy were mingled with shouts of joy from others who had passed on to life, that friends is what can happen, when the people of God get serious with the God of the Bible, when the people of God get desperate enough in prayer, in agonizing prayer, that stands on the promises of God and reminds God of his honor and his promises to his people, that God must act or he's not the God he claims to be, sue him with his promises friends, sue your great God and tell him that his honor is at stake if he doesn't act, oh friends can't you see how this applies not only to our personal lives of prayer and our own desperate needs for God to answer us in prayer, but also can you not see how this principle of suing God applies to seeing revival in your day and mine, how if we as the people of God were to go to our knees and agonize with him in nights of desperate prayer and intercede like Moses did on behalf of the sinning people, if we interceded with God on behalf of our own sinning nation, if we quoted to God his own words, if we held him to his honor and his promises to us and if our level of desperation rose to a great need of seeing a move and answer to our prayer and we continually sued him until the answer came and believed it by faith, oh what a difference it could make in our nation, friends how desperately we need to see a move of God in our land today, this sin loving society that hates all things holy and hates God Almighty needs to be gripped with a God consciousness once again, God has moved in revival in former times in Scotland, God has moved in revival in former times in England, God has moved in revival in former times in Ireland, God has moved in Wales, God has moved in America, China, Africa and other nations and seasons of revival and spiritual awakenings, I believe we as the people of God are hindering his mighty work today through our own belief and compromised lives, through our lack of a vital prayer life, oh how this should convict every one of us and drive us to our knees in repentance and humility and prayer, listen friends God's the same God of Moses, God's the same God of the Lewis revival, God is the same God of the Welsh revival, but because of our ineffective prayer lives and our unbelief we hinder the work of God today, I truly believe that God wants to send us revival, it's a desire of his heart to pour out his blessings in this age of grace, I believe my Bible where it says in James, yet you have not, because ye ask not, ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God, whosoever there will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God, did you hear that friend, let the world go, give it up and go to your God, go to your God in prayer friend to see him move in your lifetime for his glory,.

Fervent Prayer, Righteousness, and Spiritual Awakening

I believe my Bible when it says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, there's some key statements in that verse friends, a righteous man, a man of faith who prays with fervency and heat, his prayers are effectual and they avail much in heaven, I really believe friends there's nothing more startling to the sight of angels and glory than the sight of an emboldened saint on his or her knees, crying out to God in faith through desperate prayer, how the angels must look and wonder at such a sight as a mere mortal, daring to engage almighty God in prayer and to move his heart in answer to their faith and prayer, what a sight to behold, and I believe friends there's no greater influence you can have on your children than to have them see you pray to your God, oh how a vital life of prayer can alter their spiritual health of a home, how a vital life of prayer can alter the life of an entire nation, go to your knees friends and grab hold of your God, like Jacob of old and don't let go until he blesses you, let us pray.