Christian Growth - Part 4 — Alan Redpath

Transcript

Toward spiritual maturity. Our goal? To be conformed to the likeness of Christ. To be filled up with all the fullness of God. How far do you want Him to go? All the way? I don't see any reservation or hesitancy.

The will of God for your life? Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. And if we're going to grow toward spiritual maturity like that, the Lord has to deal with our faith and cause it to mature, to be able to stand up to all the testings through which He puts it.

And we've got to learn humility. A Christian never really gets up because he refuses to go down. As Dr. Barnhouse used to say, the way to up is down. And we've got to learn, I must decrease, He must increase.

Maturity in faith, growth in faith, growth in lifestyle, that breaks us at Calvary. And now, perhaps the most important, and certainly for me, the most uncomfortable of all, growth in prayer. And I'm just inviting you, if you will, to turn to two verses, and then keep your Bible open at the second of them.

Intercession in Ezekiel and Isaiah

The first, Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30. Ezekiel 22 and verse 30. And this, believe it or not, is the Lord speaking. And I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it.

But I found none. Isaiah 59, verse 16. Isaiah 59, 16. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intervene, or no intercessor. Then his own arm brought him victory, and his righteousness upheld him.

You often read in the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testament, of the need for each one of us to seek the Lord, and search for him. There would be many texts which would flash to your mind, I would think, immediately, I say that.

For instance, Luke 11, verse 9. Ask, and you shall have. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. And going back to the Old Testament, Jeremiah 29, verse 13. You will seek me, and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

But here, in these two verses, everything is in reverse. It's the Lord seeking for a man. Not man seeking for God. The Lord seeking for a man. And he's always doing that. Not for a group of men. Not for a committee.

Not for a drama group, or a beat group, or a singing group, or any other kind of group. Of which there are thousands today. Not that. How, as I think I've said to you one session this week, Christian entertainment has taken over.

Christian Entertainment and the Loss of Prayer

And British people will remember this. You, dear folks, probably haven't got so far down the line as this. But, oh my. Just before Easter, I had a week at what we call Spring Harvest. There were about 3 ,000 people there, in a holiday camp, Christian week.

And it majored on music. With, of course, ministry added. I was there to take the Bible readings in the mornings. I spoke on Jonah, for four mornings. And I'm Jonathan. Mind you, there was a two generation gap between me and everybody, or most people there.

And in the evening, the first evening, I went and sat in the platform, as I was told to. But I was in front of the first drummer, who made an incredible row. And I could not hear a thing. And I pleaded some excuse, and sat in the congregation for the rest of the week.

And there was one solid hour of Christian entertainment every night. Followed by a tremendous ministry, from men of God, who really preached the Word. But I found myself getting a bit critical, and wondering why we needed to endure this noise.

On Good Friday morning, a lot of people have left. But there was a communion service. I stayed for this, took part in it. And there they took an offering for missionary causes. Three missionary causes.

There would only be about 1 ,500 people present at that. And I heard, it was told, announced about half an hour later, the offering that morning had amounted to over 8 ,000 pounds. That's $16 ,000. And that was from people who were mainly teenagers, and many who were redundant, unemployed.

And that shut me up. I may not like their music. I may find ground for criticism upon it. But I learned to keep my mouth shut. And I'm just telling you, I'm not criticizing it. But I'm saying that Christian entertainment has taken over in our country, in an alarming way, to replace preaching of the Gospel.

Not in all cases, of course, but in many. But the Lord is not looking for that kind of thing. Of course, the argument behind it is, we must get on the wavelength of modern youth. We must get into an area which they understand.

They understand and respond to Beech and Rock, and Presley, Tip Richards, and so on. They must, we must get on that wavelength. Well, I'll buy that. But there's one area in which the Christian has no competition whatsoever from anybody.

And as I mentioned to you earlier this week, in all the letters to the book, in the book of Revelation to the seven churches, they end with this statement, he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Just one man who will listen, who will take time to get off his evangelical rat race, and out from the from the conveyor belt, and take time to wait upon God and hear what He wants to say. And in the frantic rush and feverish activity of our church program, often with a very good objective, the Lord hasn't a chance.

He doesn't even get a vote. And I wondered, as our text says, that there was no man to intervene, no one to intercede. How can a Christian intervene in society today? How can it? There isn't a single area in which we Christians can make an effective impact upon society, upon world situations, except, except one.

Prayer as Intervention in Society

And that is intervention through prayer to the highest throne in all the universe. And in this respect, it's a tremendous comfort to me to remember this verse in the Bible, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my faith, and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7, 14. And that verse is still true. And I would say it's very significant that in the West, in our own country, and in yours, there are those to whom God has spoken about this, and who are now being used as intercessors.

You probably know of Evelyn Christensen, what an impact her ministry has made, not only here, but in Britain. Two weeks ago, I was in Northern Ireland. Tragic country, much misunderstood. It's not a religious issue, not except in the case of some extremists.

It's a communist issue. The IRA is not the Irish Republican Army, it's the International Revolutionary Army. Wanting a united Ireland under communist rule, knowing perfectly well if they can do that, that's the backdoor into Britain.

And in that situation, I found myself in churches packed, absolutely packed, with shooting and all the rest going on in the street, but packed with people pleading with God for revival and renewal, and the church healthy.

I know very well a man of the name of George Verber. You may know him, he's the founder and director of Operation Mobilization, worldwide, with two ships, Logos and Dulos. It's a thrilling organization to go with.

He was a student at MBI when I was pastor of the church, and I saw it begin to take off, spiritually. It was thrilling. He used to come and see me once a month, and he brought along a gender of things he wanted to talk about.

And we used to have, in successive weeks on a Friday, we had at one time seven successive nights of prayer, because we were facing, as so often in the church, a crisis. And, oh, those nights of prayer I shall never forget, because George Verber really, really led them.

As a young fellow, he was absolutely, absolutely fired up. And I used to say to him, George, the Lord has a tremendous thing for you. You'll probably make some big mistakes, but my, the Lord has a wonderful thing for you.

And he used to go to the faculty meeting, the MBI, knock on the door and say, gentlemen, I'm conducting an open-air service in Chicago Loop. I expect you all to be there to represent the faculty. Well, that's a bit dangerous, but he did it, and the institute simply couldn't contain him.

Tremendous fellow. And when I go to speak sometimes, his invitation at the conferences they have, every year in Belgium and sometimes in London, wherever one may be, always they have a night spent waiting upon God.

Fellows who go to the OM really face a real test. They go to have lectures on anthropology and all the subjects that will, as they go out to different countries, and having had their lectures, they simply bed down on the floor and sleep there and have lectures the next day.

And that goes on for a whole month. And their food is, well, it's primitive. But they mean business with the Lord. And I go to a country like Korea, and at five o 'clock in the morning, a bell rings, a church bell, calling the nation to pray.

And hundreds of people meet every day to wait upon God for two hours, that He would give us, give us in the world before Jesus comes, one totally Christian nation. And out of a population of 38 million, they already have 12 million committed Christians.

Church growth and career is fantastic, absolutely fantastic. But these are exceptions. Exceptions to the pleading and the burden of the heart of God. He sought for a man. Of course, that's used in the generic sense.

I mean, He would not say no to a woman. He sought for just one person. And I love these words that I quote to you from an author, George Liddell. Listen to them. Give me a man, one man, whose faith is master of his mind, and I will right all wrongs and bless the name of all mankind.

Give me a man, one man, whose tongue is touched with heaven's fire, and I will flame the darkest heart with high resolve and keen desire. Give me a man of God, one man, one mighty prophet of the Lord, and I will give you peace on earth, bought with a prayer, not a sword.

Give me a man of God, one man, true to the vision that he sees, and I will build your broken shrines and bring the nations to their knees. The Lord sought for a man. If you ever go to London, don't forget to go to the National Gallery.

And in it, you'll find a photograph, a portrait of General Bull, the founder of the Salvation Army. And in that portrait, you see him sitting at his table with an open Bible and a bowed head, pleading with God, obviously.

And one night, the porter of the Gallery was going round to shut all the doors. And he went into the room where General Bull's portrait was. And here was a man who hadn't left with everybody else that day, and he was on his knees before that portrait, and he was weeping with all his heart, saying, Lord, do it again, do it again.

And that's a new dimension for us. No matter how good our work is and how good our ministry and how good our organization, that is a dimension that is unoccupied. Lord, do it again. Give me a man, just one, and that's priority in heaven.

Prayer as the Priority of Christian Life

And yet, all of us, all of us, not least the one who brings and discharges this burden from the Lord to you, all of us would acknowledge that this is the area in which we are weakest. A well-known Christian leader, whose name you would know but who would prefer to be anonymous, said, When I go to prayer, I find my heart so low to go to God, and when it's with him, so low to stay.

We can always find time for the things in life that we think are the most important. I wonder, on our list of priorities, where they put the time we spend with God. My Jesus, I love you, I know you are mine.

For you all the pleasures of sin, I resign. My Jesus, I love you. When you love people, what do you want to do? Always be with them, be alone with them. The joy of love, the intimacy of love expressed in fellowship together.

Honestly, honestly, how long is it since you spent half an hour with the Lord alone and told him you loved him? Today, this week, last week, this year, last month, or never? The Lord Jesus has a dreadful word to describe such a person.

He said to him, You hypocrites, you worship me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. I've sought what a man. To most of us, who would draw up a list of priorities, that would mean curtailing the time we spend in prayer.

Martin Luther, when asked about his plans for the next day's work, said, Work from early till late. In fact, I have so much to do, I will spend the first three hours in prayer. That wonderful prophet of God in this country, A. W. Sosa, whose books are best sellers, and now people think of him with highest respect, but when he was alive, thought a bit peculiar, very strange, never mixed with anybody.

Oh, what an encourager he was to me when I came to America. Far too British to come here, really. I had to learn such a lot to think American. He said to me, called me on the phone and said, Look, you may find that things a bit difficult for you in that church.

If you want fellowship, come and pray with me any day you like. So I said, Fine. Tell me where and when. Oh, he said, South shore of Lake Michigan, any morning in April to October between five and eight, where I gulped.

I lived about 30 miles away on the north side of Chicago. Did early. I didn't go too often, but when I did go, I felt it was holy ground. Here was A. W. Sosa on his face, on the sand of Lake Michigan, with an open Bible, pleading with God.

That's what made him the man he was. And over and over again, I heard him on WNBI, Moody radio station, preaching the word. Ah, with such authority, with such power, with such conviction. And I tell you, Chicago, United States and the world lost something when he departed for heaven.

The Lord had given the United States a man, and there are no shortcuts to that. No shortcuts to ministry, to testimony, no shortcuts to Bible study, fellowship, leadership, no shortcut to it all, unless God finds in you a man, a woman who will intervene on his behalf.

Jesus Christ as the Model of a Praying Life

If our view of prayer is anything like that of the Lord Jesus, we become more dismayed than ever. Surely, if there's anybody on earth who ever could dispense with prayer, it would be our Lord. Surely he, the Son of God, the spotless Jesus, he didn't need to pray.

Oh, but you look through the Gospels, and you find that prayer was the dominating factor of his life. Over and over again, take it in Mark chapter 1 sometime, read it through for yourself. Saturday in the morning, in the temple, teaching, healing, casting out demons.

Later in the day, going to Simon's home, his mother-in-law's home, where she was sick of a fever, and he healed her. And in the evening, great multitudes gathered, the sick, the maimed, and the lame, and he healed them all, and then exhausted.

For he, as a man, knew all our weariness and all our tiredness. In the morning, rising a great choir before day, he went up into a mountain and prayed. And I read through the Gospels, and I look, and I'm ashamed as I find time and time again, and every crisis, and the choice of his disciples, and every great issue in life, he went away, he departed from the multitude.

A great crowd came to see him and listen to him, and he withdrew from them, drew back from the crowd, and went to be alone with his Father. Mark 1 .35, Luke 5 .16, Mark 6 .46, Luke 9 .28, these and many other verses tell us that.

And I find myself reduced to having no excuse. Both Paul and our Lord made it clear that real prayer is not merely having a nice little chat with Jesus. It'll be right, all right. But it's Jowett who said, all vital praying makes a drain on man's resources.

True intercession is a sacrifice, a bleeding sacrifice. Jesus performed many mighty works without any outward sign of strain, but of his praying, it is recorded in Hebrews chapter 5, he offered up prayer and supplication with strong crying and tears.

Repentance as the Prerequisite for Answered Prayer

Of course, there is one requisite, prerequisite of all true prayer, and I find it in Isaiah, Isaiah, sorry, chapter 58. Let me just glance at that chapter with you. The opening verses, cry aloud, fear not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sin.

Yet they seek me daily, and alike to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me righteous judgment, the delight to draw near to God.

Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it? Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight, and to hit with wicked fists.

Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. These people, Israelis, were complaining that in spite of continually fasting and performing all necessary religious functions, they weren't enjoying the blessing that God had promised them.

And God's answer was to point out to them that they were going the wrong way about it. He turns the whole responsibility upon them. And if they accuse him of inactivity, he points to their sinfulness.

Chapter 59, verse 2,. Behold, the Lord's hand, this one, is not shortened, but he cannot say it, or is he a dull that he cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, so that he does not hear.

What a plight to them! What a plight! They shut their eyes to his law, and he shut his eyes to their deliverance. And that's repeated over and over again today. Look at the language of verses 9 through 11 in chapter 59.

Therefore, justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We look for light, and behold darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind. We grope like those who have no eyes.

We stumble at noon and twilight among those in full vigor. We are like dead men. We all growl like bears. We moan and moan like doves. We look for justice, but there's none. For salvation, but far from us.

For our iniquities, our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and we know, we know our iniquities. Every word of those verses, every word of them, could be repeated over and over again today.

Vietnam, Injustice, and the Need for Intercession

Don't you think the language of those verses could be applied almost to the last word in the tragedy of Vietnam years, a decade ago? I spoke to Stephen Arthur after he'd just been there, and he'd seen and talked to General Abrams, because he was visiting on behalf of the forces and ministering to the people at the invitation of the chaplain, and he spoke to General Abrams, and General Abrams said to him, if I had my own way here, I could finish it off in two weeks.

But his hands were tied. What happened? North Vietnam comes in and crushes South Vietnam and wipes them out. Anybody squeal about it? No. A few little noises, but no protest. Same things happened in Afghanistan, same things happened in Poland.

The Soviet Union getting right away with the whole business, and daring to say they have nothing to do with it. I wondered that there wasn't a man who would intervene and intercede. But why is God so inactive?

Why does it seem to go on as though he was dead? That should make me think. But it's not only true, beloved friend, nationally, but it's also true personally, because a wrong relationship with him, no matter what else is right, inevitably pulls the curtain to his promises being fulfilled.

Let me say something to you that hits hard. I found in life that the supply of God's adequacy, his adequate grace, never is in conflict with the demand of his holiness. Could I just repeat it, not only for your sake, but to my own heart.

The adequate supply of the grace of God is never in conflict with the demand of his holiness. And God puts the blame for his inactivity fairly and squarely where it belongs. He's not deaf, that's one.

But if we want him to hear us, every barrier has got to go down that comes between him and us. And that means genuine repentance. And that means being sorry enough to stop it. I don't go on repenting or shouldn't go on repenting of the same thing year after year.

There's no sign of spiritual growth there. But because spiritual growth is desired in heaven more than anything else, as I grow, the Lord opens my eyes and opens my heart to fresh areas of truth concerning which I need to repent and turn to him.

But repentance means, not that I go on sinning, but shall we continue in sins that fall if the grace of God should abound, God forbid. How shall we who are desperate continue any longer? Repentance, genuine repentance means a change of mind and a change of behavior and a change of attitude, which leads me to higher ground.

The Difference Between Prayer and Praying

But instead of doing that, Israel had forsaken prayer. No wonder, no wonder the Lord was amazed that in spite of the tide of corruption, there wasn't any man bold enough to stand in the gap on behalf of God.

Oh, if only he could find an intercessor. Brethren, said Paul to the Romans, chapter 10, verse 1, Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Now, notice something.

My heart's desire, my prayer, have you ever realized, and I confess that it isn't long since this got home to me, there's a big difference between my prayer and my praying, a big difference. My prayer and my praying.

My prayer, the burden. My praying, and there's a tremendous lot of prayerless praying goes on. My praying, the words with which I cloak and clothe and express my thoughts, the words which put my thoughts into verbal expression, but which are carefully guarded so that they will never offend anybody in the prayer meeting.

They must be on track, they must be, as the church usually prays, they must be, they must confirm, they must be ordered off, and I'm thinking as I pray of words that I better forget, and words that are better cut out, and things that are better not asked for, and I'm praying.

Forgive me, but that's why it is that our prayer meetings in churches are often just playing games. You know, oh, how a pastor almost climbs up the wall when he's handed a list of prayer requests. Somebody's toothache, somebody else's backache, somebody else has got foot trouble, somebody else has got flu, all sorts of physical problems.

Oh, I'm not being unsympathetic, they need our prayer, but I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times when someone has put in a burden for their life and told the truth. I'm desperate, and I can't go on unless the Lord meets me on that issue in my heart and breaks my hypothesis.

I'm afraid to.

Pray like that. Afraid? Why? Well, there might be a few things on the roof, and having read the prayer.

Requests, the pastor then asks Brother So-and-so to lead us in prayer, and boy does he. He'll pray round the world for about 20 minutes, and the prayer meeting is dead as flat as a daughter. My praying.

Spirit-Led Prayer and Genuine Church Fellowship

Oh, but when I go into church that's released, and got the Holy Spirit on the move, and the water of life is beginning to flow in, I meet a church that cares, that is loving, and concerned, and caring.

My daughter, our daughter, not in Birmingham, Alabama, but Birmingham, Britain, and she attends an Anglican church, which, oh, don't sit me down in flames, is biblically charismatic. Biblically. Not extreme, but biblically.

No insistence upon any particular gift, but biblically. It's released from tradition, and it's called, the prayer meeting is called, Open to God, and after a few choruses, like we've had, possibly a hymn, the service is open to God, and to each other, and people go up to one another if they've been out of fellowship and apologized, and pull right what's wrong of the conduit there, and then they'll bear witness to the fact they ought to, and there's confession, honest confession, within this area where fellowship has been spoiled by their actions, and there's a heart that's broken, and there are tears, and there's reality, and there's pleading with God, and there are no barriers, and heaven seems to open up.

I know churches in this country, which are like that. I won't name them, no, I'll name one, you know, oh boy, it's in, it's in California, and uh, it was a Presbyterian church, people, and the minister preaching a faithful gospel, but a bit pudding-y, heavy.

One day, a hippie came in, hippie day as it were, and initially he came in, everybody moved off, said somewhere else, it was a bit ridiculous, and uh, amazingly, he got converted, wonderfully, because the pastor was a faithful preacher of the word, and got soundly saved, he was a drug addict, and he was completely free, and the pastor said to him, don't come back here, you couldn't cop, with what we do, but go and tell all your friends, what's happened to you.

So he went out, and he was so relieved, so free, no, no, no hang-ups, he was absolutely free, and the earth all wanted the same freedoms, and what's happened to you, how do you do, I don't know, I don't know, splendid Jesus, that's all I know, Jesus, he's coming to my life, you come with me next Sunday to church, all of you, and you'll find out, so 30 of them turned up, and they sat in the front two and they put their feet up, and they put their toes through the communion cup holes, and the congregation were hopping mad, and the next Sunday, the next Sunday, there was a notice outside the church, and the church, that notice said, no bare feet allowed, and the pastor said to him, after the service this morning, there will be a church business meeting for members only, and the membership meeting was held, and the church, the pastor said to him, either that notice is removed, or I cease to be a pastor.

Anybody who's a pastor, or a pastor's wife, will understand what I mean when I say, he lost the battle, but he won the war. Some families got the feathers ruffled and quit, others stuck with him, and soon the church exploded, not physically, but spiritually, and when I got there two years after, oh, there was a meeting in the building, couldn't get in, they were in a huge tent, huge tent, seating about over 3 ,000 people, and I squeezed in the back row, and that service was being conducted on a Saturday evening by half a dozen music groups, not beaten stuff, but oh, tremendous music, worshipful music, and all of them gave testimony how the Lord had delivered them and saved them, and the service started at seven and went on till ten, by nine o 'clock, all my 17 hairs were standing right on end with sheer excitement to find 3 ,000 young people absolutely on fire for the Lord.

Ten o 'clock it finished, and all went out, and bless their hearts, they went out into little groups with lamps and torches, sat down on the beach with open Bibles, prayed, read the Word till midnight.

Oh, that was surreal. That church has a new building now, you know what happened? 10 ,000 people attended, close to Sunday, and you know the program, 2 ,000 young people, different ones, attend every night for Bible study, nothing else.

That's a church program. Oh, absolutely, absolutely alive, it was absolutely thrilling. My prayer, prayer is praying out the window, church program out the window, hymn prayer, hymn reading, notices, choir piece, offering sermon, hymn benediction, out the window, thrown overboard, killed out.

There they worship God in reality, in spirit and in truth. They're all open to God, they praise Him and rejoice in Him, and they're not ashamed to stand up and shout hallelujah. Why should Christian people be denigrated to sit on a pew and never participate in a service and listen to somebody preach for sometimes 10 minutes or sometimes 60, and go out and talk about anything except the Lord, and never really be concerned and never get moving for God?

Why do we do that? Why? God knows. But he wondered that there was no man, and wondered that there was nobody to intercede. My prayer, my praying, my praying, meaning is dead, but my prayer, the burden of my heart that God has put upon me, the concern, my prayer, my heart's desire for Israel is that they might be saved.

But you see, Christians who are uninvolved and not prepared for the sacrifice of time and inconvenience that that would demand, no, they're not interested. And so the church in these desperate days has lost its attack power under fire from the devil and every possible hand, Satan using all kinds of methods and all kinds of things today that he's never even used before.

A Call to Reorder Priorities

Now the church, hindered, hampered, because he looks for a man. And those willing to commit themselves to Jesus, my, to that warfare, and I don't mind telling you that when I came here, I pleaded with God that here at this precious week together, the Lord would give us a man, a woman, perhaps more than one, who this week would make these days to be a watershed for their lives.

On the one side of that watershed there are half-developed sense of values, wrong priorities, and a frustrating looking around for spiritual shortcuts to exorcise a sense of failure. And on the other side of that watershed they discovered new standards, new touchstones, and we begin to learn how few things in life are really essential, but how essential are the few.

And for 50 years, maybe, we've forgotten that. Forgotten. He cares in hell, found a busy Christian who serves and works for the Lord and programs the whole business seven days a week. Amen, says the devil.

God looks for a man who'd scrap his program and adjust his diary and clean the thing up and put his first thing first. But God may find a man. Of course, may I say that we excuse ourselves in this area because, well, we can justify it on theological ground.

Well, throw is the argument, your heavenly father knows what you have need of before you ask him. Then why pray? Fine. Matthew 6, verse 72. Why bother to pray? If the Lord is sovereign and all things are under his control, why should I bother to pray?

If he knows, then prayer? I'm interfering with somebody's free will. I'm blackmailing God. I've actually heard people say that. That's what prayer is doing. You're blackmailing God, persuading him to act.

You're interfering with a man's individual personal life. In my deepest respect, that is making escape of the sovereignty of God. And excuses us from all the travail. Paul said in writing to Galatians, my little children, my little children, I travail in birth till Christ becomes.

Travelling. Paul, as I've already said this morning, bowed his knee before his father in heaven and prayed that the church might be filled up with all the fullness of God. And the devil's great concern is to keep us from all that.

He loves to see us up to the eyes in work, provided I don't pray. He doesn't even fear our eager Bible study, provided I don't pray. But I never pray. He laughs at our toiling hours, but he trembles when he finds somebody really at prayer.

It was H. J. Gordon who said, listen, I have to say this rather slowly, you can do more than pray when you have prayed, that you can never do more than pray until you have prayed. Got that? No, I thought not.

Reverse gear, start again. Put it down and think it through. You can do no more, excuse me, you can do more than pray when you have prayed. But you can never do more than pray until you have prayed. One more time.

Like our choruses three times, right? You can do more than pray when you have prayed. But you can never do more than pray until you have prayed. If only we believed that. That's why God is so amazed and wonders that there's nobody to intervene.

Desperate Intercession and Confidence in God's Victory

But also, that there's nobody humble enough to approach him on the only basis that can make intervention successful. Casting ourselves on the mercy of God. David cried, O Lord. Isaiah cried, chapter six, verse one, O that thou would rend the heavens and come down, Hannah, in bitterness of heart because of her barrenness, wept and prayed, O Lord of hope.

The O has gone out of our prayers. The desperation has gone. Therefore, there's no prayer. We seldom cried, O Lord. May I point out the most important thing of all before I stop? That in spite of our failure to hold this strategic battlefront, God's purposes may be delayed, but they can't be thwarted.

Ultimately, Isaiah 59 and verse 16 will be true. The Lord saw it, displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, wondered there was no one to intervene. Then, then his own arm brought him victory and his righteousness upheld him.

That verse will be true and God will have the victory. But I am forced to the conclusion this morning. I'm forced to this conclusion. If God can't find an interceptor, can't find people who really put this area of living first, he destroys a nation.

Verse 17 and 18, he put on righteousness as a breastplate, hammered a salvation upon his head, put on garments of vengeance for clothing, ripped him, wrapped himself in fury as a mantle. According to the deed, so will he repay.

Wrapped to his adversary as requital to his enemies, to the coastland he will render requital. God's purposes may be delayed, but they can't be thwarted. Ultimately, he'll have a victory. But even so, because, because his people have failed him strategically, on this key battleground of all, God takes things into his own hand and destroys a people and achieves his victory.