(Revival) Part 4 - Should Pray — Martyn-Lloyd Jones

Moses’s Petition for God’s Presence

The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in the book of Exodus in chapter 33 reading from verse 12 to verse 17. The book of Exodus chapter 33 verses 12 to 17.

And Moses said unto the Lord, See thou sayest unto me bring up this people and thou wast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said I know thee by name and thou wast also found grace in my sight.

Now therefore I pray thee if I have found grace in thy sight show me now thy way that I may know thee that I may find grace in thy sight and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest.

And he said unto him if thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight. Is it not in that thou goest with us so shall we be separated I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

And the Lord said unto Moses I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken. For thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name. We come back once more to a study of this particular section of this great 33rd chapter of the book of Exodus.

Those who attend here regularly will know that we are studying this chapter and have been doing so for the last five Sunday mornings. But we come back I say again to this particular section which I have been said to say is in many ways the crucial section in this entire incident.

Revival and Moses’s Intercession

Now let me remind you again that we are studying the chapter at all because we are looking into the whole question of revival. We are starting from this assumption that the only hope for the Christian church at the present time is a mighty outpouring of God's spirit.

Such as God gave graciously a hundred years ago in the United States of America in Northern Ireland in Wales and in Scotland and in other places. There are many members of the Christian church this year who are looking back at and commemorating that great visitation of God's spirit in 1859.

And we are taking advantage of this occasion to consider together in the light of the teaching of the scripture this whole vital matter of revival. And here we feel is a very great illustration of how we should approach the entire subject.

I will not again repeat the background let me just remind you of the introduction as it were to this particular section we are looking at at the moment. God having punished these people and having brought them to repentance Moses you remember set up that tent of meeting outside the camp and he and others would go there and would plead with God for further mercy and for further manifestations of his grace.

And God met Moses and spoke to him as a man speaks to his friend face to face. But Moses you remember was not satisfied with that. He went back again into this tabernacle, this tent, this place of meeting with God.

And there we have looked at him already as described in this section verses 12 to 17 we have looked at him presenting further petitions to God. And I would remind you that we have seen that he has asked particularly for a personal assurance as far as he himself was concerned.

He has also asked for power. Power for himself and for the people. And he has asked for some exceptional unusual authentication of the church and her message. How shall these people know he says here in this wilderness that we are thy people.

He is not content with the usual blessings. If one may use such a term he is not content with the ordinary experience of the church. He feels that he and the children of Israel are in such a situation that they have a right to ask for some special authentication.

The situation is so grievous and so urgent. He asks for this special declaration of the fact from God that they are indeed his people. Very well we take up therefore at that particular point. Those are the things for which Moses prayed.

And now we go on to consider another question which is this. Why Moses prayed for them? If those are the things for which he prayed well why did he do so? What were his motives? Surely there is nothing that is more important for us than this.

Because if I understand the situation at all it is in this realm of purpose and of motives that we so constantly go wrong. We start at the wrong end. And therefore we will derive great benefit and instruction as we watch Moses praying here.

And of course what is true of him at this point you will find is true of God's intercessors, God's saints as they plead with God as you find them everywhere else in the scripture. And again I would remind you of this.

That if you read the history of the great revivals of the past you will find that as you watch the men whom God has used most signally in the period before the revival came when they were praying and pleading and interceding you will find that they always were animated by exactly the same motives as we find here in the case of Moses and always as I say in the case of God's servants.

So we must be perfectly clear with regard to this matter of our motives. I'm calling you to pray for revival. Yes, but why should you pray for revival? Why should anybody pray for revival? And the answer that is first given here is this.

Prayer for the Glory of God

A concern for the glory of God. That's the first thing that I find here. You'll find it at the end of verse 13. Now therefore I pray thee if I have found grace in thy sight show me now thy way that I may know that I may find grace in thy sight and consider that this nation is thy people.

That's the motive, that's the reason. Moses was concerned primarily about the glory of God. Now he frequently, you read these chapters the surrounding chapters in the book of Exodus and elsewhere you will find that Moses constantly used this particular argument with God.

Let me give an illustration from the previous chapter 32 you will find it in verses 11 and 12. God was angry with these children of Israel because they had made this golden calf and so on and had rebelled against him.

And God said then to Moses in verse 9 I'm reading 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 that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation.

And Moses besought the Lord his God and said Lord why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thy people which thou hast brought forth are to 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. Now you see Moses concerned. He's concerned about the name and as it were the reputation and the glory of God.

And that's the point he's making here again. This nation he says is thy people. He's saying in effect that God's honor and God's glory is involved in this situation. They are after all his people. They've claimed that.

He has given indications of that. He's brought them out of Egypt in a marvelous and miraculous manner. He's brought them through the Red Sea. Is he going to leave them here now in the wilderness? What will the Egyptians say?

What will the other nations say? Has he failed? He promised them great things. Can't he execute them? Can't he bring them to fulfillment? Moses is suggesting to God that his own glory, his own honor is involved in this whole situation.

Now as I say, you will find this endlessly in the Psalms. You will find it constantly in the prophets. Their prayer to God is this, for thine own namesake. As if to say we have no right to speak. And we're not really asking it for ourselves but for thine own namesake.

For thy glory's sake. For the sake of thine eternal honor. Moses had a concern thus. For and was jealous about the name and the glory of God. And he's asking God for his own sake to do this extra, this special thing.

Well now my friends we can't stop with all these points as I'd like to. But this is the thing that matters isn't it? The church after all is the church of God. She is his new creation by water and the word.

We are a people for God's own peculiar possession. And why has he called us out of darkness into his own marvelous light? Well it is that we may show forth his praises, his excellences, his virtues. But I say we should be concerned about this matter primarily because of the name and the glory and the honor, the reputation of God himself.

Whether we like it or not it is the fact you know that the world judges God himself and the Lord Jesus Christ by what it sees in us. We are his representatives. We are the people who take his name upon us.

We are the people who talk about him. And the man outside the church regards the church as the representative of God. And there is no question about it but that people are judging God and Christ and the whole of the Christian faith by what it sees in us because of the claims that we make.

And therefore I am arguing that we must emulate the example of Moses as we find it here. Our first concern should be about the glory of God. But am I being unfair I wonder when I suggest that one notices that that is scarcely ever mentioned.

There is great concern about the church today of course. But what is the concern about? The concern is about statistics and figures. People are talking about churches being empty and people are talking about means and methods of trying to fill them again and get the people in.

They are interested in the figures and in membership in finance and organization. How often do you hear your annual conferences and assemblies expressing a concern about the glory of God and the honor of the name of God.

Now our attitude seems to be rather that the church is a human organization and of course we are concerned about what is happening to it as a man is concerned if his business isn't going well and if it isn't paying.

We are businessmen and we are concerned about the institution and the organization. But Moses wasn't primarily. His first and chief concern was about the glory of God. Are you grieved at the state of the church?

Well why are you grieved at the state of the church? Is it because you are old enough to remember the end of the Victorian era or the Edwardian period when it was the custom for people to crowd into churches?

Or is it just a sort of nostalgia for the great days of the church? Or do we know something of a concern for the name of God? Are we pained? Are we hurt? Are we grieved? Does it weigh heavily upon our hearts and minds and spirits when we see the godlessness that surrounds us and the name of God taken in vain?

Do we know something for this zeal, this holy zeal? Can we say my heart is pained within me as I see the sky? Because God's name is involved. You notice the concern of the psalmist in Psalm 79? He says wherefore should the heathens say where is their God?

That's what they're saying. They're laughing and they're saying they talked about some great God who was the God above every other God. They said the God of Israel is the God. They gloried in him. They said he was wonderful.

Where is he? Look at them. How can such people claim that they're in the hands of such a God? They'd never be in such a condition if that were really true. You see what is involved primarily is the glory and the honor and the name of God.

It isn't our institutions. It isn't our success or failure that matters. The primary thing is this. Of course, the psalmist see it. Take the second psalmer. Well, he puts it. The kings of the earth set themselves, he says, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying.

Of course, they were attacking David. They were attacking the children of Israel. But David has the insight he was a spiritually minded man. He says it isn't against me. It's against God. It's against the Lord and his anointed that these people are setting themselves and the heathen are imagining a vain thing.

Indeed, this is the great theme that you'll find running everywhere through the psalms. Let me give you just one other instance of it in Psalm 83. For lo, says the psalmist, thine enemies make attunement and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

They have taken crafty counsel against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones. Yes, but it's all against God. And then there is that marvelous and almost lyrical example of it to be found in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

You remember in chapter 4. Peter and John having been tried and having been prohibited to preach the gospel anymore. Great threat given to the church. The authorities were determined to exterminate the church and to put an end to her preaching.

They went back and they began to pray with all the assembled company and this is what they said. The kings of the earth, he's quoted there quoting the second psalm. The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.

Then their own words, for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

And now Lord behold their threatenings. You see they had a clear insight. You would have thought that they would have prayed entirely about themselves but they didn't primarily. They recognized that all that is happening is really against God.

And here my dear friends is the thing surely that we must needs recapture. We are so subjective in our approach always thinking about ourselves. But that's not the way to pray for revival. We must I say be primarily concerned about God.

His glory, His honor, His name. Very well I say I leave it at that. But it's the essence of the whole matter. Go through the great prayers of the Old Testament and you'll find it's always there. These men had a passion for God.

They were in trouble I say they were unhappy because this great God was not being worshipped as He should be. And they prayed God for His own sake, for His glory's sake to vindicate His own name and to arise and to scatter His enemies.

That's the first thing. Well then they come to the second thing of course which is and it comes in the second place but never in the first a concern about the honor of the church herself. Incidentally in this particular passage there is nothing more wonderful than the way in which Moses shows his concern for the church which was then the children of Israel.

Intercession for the Church and God’s People

God had been giving Moses some wonderful intimations of His loving interest in him. Moses isn't content with that. Moses doesn't merely seek personal blessings. He wants to make sure that the children of Israel as a whole are going to be involved in this blessing.

He is given again a wonderful example of that in the previous chapter in verse 32. Let me read it to you. It's one of the most glorious things in the Old Testament. Beginning to read at verse 30 in chapter 32.

It came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people ye have sinned a great sin and now I will go up unto the Lord peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said O this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and then the dash.

It is as if he broke down and couldn't speak any longer. He is in a great agony of soul yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and then he is able to speak if not block me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written.

I don't want to go on living he says if you're not going to include them in the blessing. God has said I'm going to blot out this people I'm going to make a nation out of you. Now says Moses block me out as well I don't want to go on without them.

Oh this is true intercession. The man is concerned about the state of the whole church and his own personal life and welfare and well-being is nothing to him unless the church is to be blessed and here he is repeating all this.

Thy people this nation. Well I might keep you here for a whole morning but we must go on we must press on I'm simply putting it like this my friend it seems to me there's no hope for revival until you and I and all of us have reached the stage in which we begin to forget ourselves a little and to be concerned for the church for God's body people here on earth.

So many of our prayers are subjective and self-centered we've got our problems and difficulties and you know by when we finished with them we are tired and exhausted and we don't pray for the church.

My blessing my need my this my that it's all right my dear friend I'm not being hard and unkind God has promised to deal with them but I ask you where does the church come in your prayers and intercessions?

Do you go beyond yourself and your family? We stand before the world and we say the only hope for the world is Christianity. We say the church and the church alone has the message that is needed. We see the problems of society they're shouting at us they're increasing week by week and we know that this is the only answer.

Well very well if we know that and if we believe that let me ask you in the name of God how often do you pray that the church may have power to preach this in such a manner that all these citadels that are raising themselves against God shall be raised to the ground and flattened in his holy presence.

How much time do you give in praying that the preachers of the gospel may be endued with the power of the Holy Ghost? Are you interceding about this? Are you concerned about it? Moses I say was more concerned about this he wouldn't go up alone he didn't want to be made the great man alone.

No no it's the church he says I'm not going on unless they're all coming with me and he were in the midst. We must learn to think again about the Christian church. Our whole approach has become subjective it's subjective in evangelism it's subjective in the teaching of sanctification it's subjective from beginning to end we start with ourselves and our own needs and problems.

God is an agency to supply an answer to give us what we need and it's all wrong. Evangelism and everything else must start with God and his glory the God who is over all and to whom all things belong it is because men are not glorifying him that they need to be saved not to have some little personal problem solved.

And if the motive for evangelism is to fill the churches it's doomed to failure. Of course you may fill your churches but it won't help you it won't avail you it won't make any difference to the main problem it is I say this conception of the church as the people of God who bear his name and who've been brought into being by him.

It's this that matters. We must cease to think of the church as a gathering of institutions and organizations. And we must get back this notion that we are the people of God and that for his name's sake and because his name is upon us we must plead for the church yes and for her glory and her honor because she is his.

Prayer for Those Outside the Church

And then. Thirdly of course is a third reason is this. He is concerned about these heathen that are outside. He wants them to know wherein shall it be known. Here here means in the wilderness where we are that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight.

Is it not in that thou goest with us. So shall we be separated from the people I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. These are the motives in praying for revival. Yes for the name and honor and glory of God for the sake of the church which is his.

Yes. And for the sake of those people that are outside that are scoffing and mocking and jeering and laughing and ridiculing. Oh God said these people one after another arise and silence them do something so that we may be able to say to them be still keep silent do not give up be still and know that I am God.

That's the prayer. They've got their eye on these that are outside and so they have I say running right through the Bible. So have all men who have felt the burden of the condition of the church and whose hearts are breaking because they have seen the name of God blasphemed.

Oh you'll find it in very strong language here sometimes so strong. You know that certain little people are troubled by the imprecatory psalms. But the imprecatory psalms are just an expression of the zeal of these men for the glory of God.

Let the sinner be consumed from the earth says the man in psalm 104. Here they are he says spoiling your great creation. I see the mountains and the valleys and the rivers and the streams. I see the cedars of God which are full of sap.

He who thinks of the birds and everything conspiring together to show the wonder and the glory of God. But here's the sinner who in spite of all God's goodness to him still reviles and rebels and blasphemes.

And the man in his righteous indignation and zeal says let the sinner be consumed out of the earth. But that I say is the real explanation of them all. It wasn't a desire for personal vengeance. It was that these men were consumed for this passion for God and his glory and his great name.

And there's something wrong with us. You know if we don't feel this desire within us that God should arise and do something shall that shall suck the mouths and stop the mouths of these arrogant blasphemers of today who speak with their mincing words upon your wireless and your television these supposed philosophers these godless arrogant men.

Don't we feel sometimes this desire within us that they might know that God is God and that he is the eternal God. Ah yes. There is a desire that they may be answered that they may be silenced. But it doesn't stop at that.

Of course following that comes a desire that they may be convicted that they may be convinced that they may rarely see it that God should do something so strange so wonderful that they shall be arrested and apprehended and say what is this.

Are these people right after all. Don't our arguments seem to be falling astray. We thought that God had failed. He's left them there in the wilderness. Everything's going against them. Then if God suddenly comes in and does something miraculous and leads them through the heathen will have to think again and say ah perhaps they were right after all.

And that's the first step in the direction of conviction and conversion. Their interest has been aroused. And you see whenever you get a revival that always happens. People have scoffed at the name of God have gone to look on in pure curiosity.

And that has often led to their conversion. Well Moses is praying for that that these people may be arrested and apprehended and may develop an interest in the way in which God is leading them and is directing them.

I simply ask therefore hurriedly in passing. Are you concerned at all about these people who are outside. It's a terrible state of the church you know when she just consists of a collection of very nice and respectable people who have no concern for the world who pass it by drawing up their skirts to themselves in their horror at the bestiality and the foulness and the ugliness of it all.

We not only want the scoffers to be silenced. We should desire that these men and women who are like sheep without a shepherd should have their eyes opened should begin to see the cause of their troubles and should be delivered from the chains of iniquity and the shackles of infamy and vice and foulness.

Oh I ask you as I pass along. Are you concerned at all about them that are outside. And are you praying God to do something that they may be influenced and affected. Well there as I understand it are the three main motives which animated Moses as he offered up these petitions to God in this section.

Holy Boldness Before the Throne of Grace

Let me hurry on to something else. I must comment upon the way in which he prayed. We've seen what he prayed for. We've seen why he prayed for it. Let's watch him as regards his method of prayer. And if ever we needed instruction.

It's just here. Here are the elements that always come out in all the great biblical prayers. I just give you some headings as I close. What are the characteristics of Moses' prayer. Well the first is this.

Isn't it boldness. Confidence. There's no hesitation here. There's a quiet confidence. Oh let me use the term there's a holy boldness. This is the great characteristic of all prayers that have ever prevailed.

It's a thing of course which is inevitable. You cannot pray truly. Still less. Can you intercede if you haven't an assurance of your acceptance. And if you don't know the way into the holiest of all if when you get down on your knees you're reminded of your sins and you're wondering what you can do about them and have to spend all your time in praying for forgiveness and pardon and wondering whether God is listening or whether he isn't.

How can you pray. How can you intercede as Moses did here. No no. Moses was face to face with God. He was assured he was bold with a holy boldness. God had granted him these intimations of his nearness.

We've seen that at the end of the previous chapter we've seen it again in this chapter. So Moses was able to speak with this confidence and assurance. And this is absolutely vital to prayer. Do you know the way into the holiest of all.

Well there's only one way. Let me put it to you as it is put so perfectly at the end of the fourth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. Seeing. Then he says that we have a great high priest that is passed through the heavens Jesus the son of God.

Then he goes on to describe him as a high priest who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. Then he comes to the prayer. Let us therefore he says.

Therefore let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Did you know this is therefore therefore let us come boldly. What's it refer to. Oh it refers to the truth about the great high priest Jesus the son of God who has passed through the heavens and all the truth about him.

That's the only way to be bold in the presence of God. If I look at myself I can't be bold. I become speechless with Job. I put my hand upon my mouth. I have heard of thee. But now I see thee. And I can't speak.

But I must speak. If I'm to intercede. How can I do so with confidence and assurance. There's only one answer. It is to know that my great high priest is Jesus the son of God and that by his blood I have a right of entry into the holiest of all and can go there with boldness.

Notice the boldness and the confidence and the assurance with which Moses prayed. And as I say this is not only characteristic of Moses but of all the great men of prayer in the Bible and ever since read some of the prayers of the saints of the centuries.

And you'll find this selfsame thing. But let me hurry to a second point which is most valuable and interesting. Did you notice the element of reasoning and of arguing that came in. It's very daring but it's very true.

Pleading God’s Promises in Prayer

Let me remind you of it. Listen to Moses pray. Moses said unto the Lord. See. Which really means this. Do you see. He's arguing with God. See. Thou sayest unto me. Bring up this people. And thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me then.

Yet thou hast said you see he's reminding God of what he said. He's having an argument with God. Yet thou hast said I know thee by name. And thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now. Therefore says Moses as if he was saying to God be logical be consistent carry out your own argument.

You can't say this to me and then not do anything now. Therefore I pray thee if still arguing I have found grace in thy sight. Show me now thy way that I may know thee that I may find grace in thy sight.

And consider that this nation is thy people. And then in verse 16 you see for he says wherein if you don't do this wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight. Is it not in that thou goest with us.

So shall we be separated. He reasoned with God. He argued with God. He reminded God of his own promises and he pleaded with God in the light of them. He reminded God of his own declarations and said oh God.

Can't you see that having said this you must. Is it right sir someone to speak to God like that is not this presumption. No no. These things you see go together. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews who talks so much about our going boldly to the throne of grace at the same time reminds us that we do so always with reverence and with godly fear.

This is all right. You see what's happening here. Is this. It isn't a man under the law speaking to the law giver. You dare not do this if you're in a legal position. No no. It's a child here speaking to his father.

And the little child can take liberties with his father that a grown up man who isn't his child would dare not take with him. Oh yes. This is a child speaking and he knows it. God has spoken to him as a brother as it were face to face.

And Moses knew that. And he comes with his love and his reverence and his godly fear. And he ventures to argue. He says you've said this. Therefore and again I commend you to read the biographies of men who've been used by God in the church throughout the centuries and especially in revival.

And you'll find this same holy boldness this argumentation this reasoning this putting the case to God pleading his own promises and saying you've said this. Oh that's the whole secret of prayer. I sometimes think I think at the moment as I'm speaking of Thomas Goodwin in his exposition of the sealing of the spirit in Ephesians 1 3 and that wonderful term that he uses he says sue him for it sue him for it.

Don't leave him alone. Pester him as it were with his own promises. Tell him what he said. He's going to do. Quote the scripture to him. And you know God he delights to hear us doing it. As a father likes to see this element in his own child who has been listening to what he's been saying.

It pleases him. The child may be slightly impertinent. It doesn't matter. The father likes it in spite of this. And God's our father. And he loves us. And he likes to hear us pleading his own 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. And then the next thing I would notice about the prayer is its orderliness its directness the specific petition. You notice that Moses here doesn't offer up some vague indefinite general prayer.

No no. He is concentrating on the one great need. Of course he worshipped God. Of course there was the reverence and the godly fear. Yes. But at this point it is this one thing. So he keeps concentrating on that.

He won't get away from it. This presence of God. He says I won't move unless you come. You must come with us. And he gives his reasons. He plies him with all these arguments the one thing and if I may speak for myself I shall not feel happy and encouraged until I feel that the church today is concentrating on this one thing prayer for revival.

But we haven't come to it. My dear friends we are still in the stage of deciding and committing to do this that and the other and then asking God to bless what we have done. No no. There is no hope along that line.

It must be this one thing. We must feel this burden. We must see. This is the only hope. And we must concentrate on this. And we must keep on with this. The orderliness the arrangement the concentration the argument.

Urgent and Persevering Intercession

And I have already been suggesting at the last point the urgency. You see Moses here is like Jacob was in that passage. We read there at the beginning out of Genesis 32. This element always comes into true intercession.

I will not let thee go. I will not let thee go. I am going on. The morning is breaking. He had been struggling through the night. Let me go. No I will not let thee go. Except thou bless me. The urgency.

Read the great biblical prayers. It's always there. Go back again and read that great statement in Acts 4. It's there now. They said oh God. Now in the light of this in our situation now do this. Give us some indication.