7/5/2015 James 5:13-20 Steve Mixsell

I feel compelled to go to the Lord myself in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name we just want to thank you for your manifold mercy and kindness towards us.

We thank you for the great love with which you loved us and the great price you were willing to pay to purchase our salvation, to purchase the forgiveness for our many sins and sinful natures, the precious blood of your

Son. And I just humbly ask that you look with mercy upon me and my weakness and my many flaws and not let them interfere with doing good for your people who are gathered here today.

I just humbly ask that you grant me brevity and clarity and above all that you'll pour out your Holy Spirit to give your words power to transform the hearts of those who hear and even my own heart more into the image of your

Son, which is the reason for your word, not to make us wise and proud but to enable us, just as you say in the word, the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, that we may love you and love others from a pure heart.

And I just humbly ask you'll do this work despite my many failings and my many weaknesses and I ask it in Jesus' name for your mercy's sake and your glory's sake.

Amen. This is a Part 2 message and I'm not going to give a big summary of Part 1 so I hope that as I know

I see some people who are not here for Part 1, I hope that doesn't cause undue problem but I wanted to let you know that Part 1 is available either from a

CD after service from Daniel or anyone at that desk and it's also available online.

So not because of the goodness of the preaching or any special but the greatness of the truth that our text contains,

I commend you to that Part 1. Our text for today is James Chapter 5 verses 16 through 18.

Confess your trespasses one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.

And he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. As we're coming to the end of the book of James, which you've heard me say

I believe is perhaps the greatest biblical text on practical godliness in the New Testament, James spends much if not most of his time in closing the letter on prayer.

He does this I'm convinced because prayer, proper prayer, is indispensable for true godliness for the healthy

Christian life. I believe James knows as the Puritans almost uniformly proclaim, men like Calvin and Luther and Knox, that if a man or woman does not pray properly, constantly, importunately, that whatever else he or she may do is almost certainly going to be lacking in spiritual power, lacking in true spiritual or eternal effectiveness, and most importantly will not be well pleasing to God.

As the Lord Jesus Christ himself said in relating the parable of the importunate widow, that a fervent unrelenting pleading with God for the things we need is the hallmark of a true and healthy faith.

By way of giving you a very brief summary of part one, our main text for today and the key to the whole passage is the second half of chapter 5 verse 16 which says that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

And I spent time exegeting that this verse stands for the proposition that if one will pray properly, that is effectually and fervently, that prayer will produce such mighty answers that they will prove or demonstrate that our prayer was powerful and effective.

And I also tried to show that the phrase of a righteous man is descriptive, telling us that one who prays properly is righteous, rather than restrictive, telling us that even if one prays properly, that one may still not receive great answers because one is not sufficiently righteous.

I will not exhaustively revisit these points. I simply again commend you to part one, and again my apologies for anyone who is not here.

I simply do not have the time to revisit them extensively. But I think all of those points stand on exegetically solid ground.

So I again commend you to part one if you have any doubts concerning those foundational points.

The prayer that avails much, that demonstrates itself mighty by the visibly mighty answers it receives.

First we can see it's a hard -working and importunate prayer. That's why the example is given of Elijah, and Elijah praying for drought on the earth and then praying for rain at the end of the years prayed even as a righteous prophet had to pray many times before God answers.

And in attempting to summarize, and here's where we take an excursus from our text.

Our text stands for the proposition that if you will pray rightly, from the

Greek word energeo, the word effectual and fervent come from the same Greek word which has a connotation not just of its great energy expended, but it's an energy properly expended.

Not like an explosion, but more like a laser beam. It's the energy of the surgeon or master builder who not only works very hard to accomplish the desired end, but very precisely.

So proper prayer is not only importunate prayer, it's not the vain repetition of the unbeliever.

It's God -a method. And that's why the example is used of Elijah.

And that's also by way of defending the fact that of a righteous man should not be understood restrictively.

That's exactly the point why James tells us through the Holy Spirit, tells us through James, that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, making sure it's understood that Elijah, not because he was a great prophet, but he had a nature exactly like ours, that this is a common expectation, that if we will simply pray right, we will receive great answers to prayer.

And by way of giving you a clue, this right prayer goes to the heart of who we are.

It can only be prayed by someone who's righteous and submitted to God. I confess, I haven't read the

Prayer of Jabez. I meant to read it because it was a sensational book that said if you'll pray a certain way,

God will do incredible things in your life. And I don't want to be unduly pejorative. And I hope to someday, possibly by the next time

I speak, read it. But I have a feeling that what you're going to get from me is significantly different from what you get in the

Prayer of Jabez. Because it's not so much a method of our prayer, it goes to who we are, how submitted we are to the will of God.

So to summarize last time, the prayer which avails much from the main texts of Scripture is first a prayer that believes that it has the thing for which it asks, and is willing to fight for that belief.

As the Holy Spirit tells us in Mark 11, beginning at verse 23, Jesus speaking,

For assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says.

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

And we learn secondly, that this prayer which believes it has the things for which it asks, it achieves this faith because it asks for the things which are according to his will, according to his revealed will.

In 1 John, beginning at chapter 5, verse 14, Now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And we know that if he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him.

So we see that the faith, the confidence, comes from knowing that we're asking things according to his will.

It means someone who's well familiar with his revealed will. Not his secret will, or the promise would be of no effect.

Not if God has willed secretly that he's going to do it, he'll do it. That would make the promise of no effect.

But it asks according to his revealed will to us, his word. So in order to pray this prayer of faith, we don't hype ourselves by repeating ourselves as some do,

God's gonna bless me, God's gonna bless me. But we become familiar with his word, so that we know when we ask, we're asking according to his revealed word, which cannot fail.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but his word will not pass away, and his promises cannot fail.

And finally, and most importantly, because this is the top of the pyramid, which kind of subsumes the other truths, the prayer which believes it has what it asks for, it believes it because it asks for things in his name, which is rightly understood to say it asks for things on his behalf, or for his purposes, or for the benefit of the kingdom.

As the Holy Spirit tells us in John 14, 12 -14, Jesus again speaking to his disciples said,

Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my

Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the

Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

So when rightly understood, this asking in his name means you're so familiar, you're not only familiar with the things he's commanded, but you're so familiar with the author of the word, with what, you have confidence that you understand the main truths of his word.

You can distinguish between the main arteries from the capillaries, the interstate highway from the back road.

What are the main things God cares about? Because he does care intimately and deeply about some things more than others.

And so, one is confident that when we're asking for things in his name, for his purposes, as ambassadors, as agents for him, that he would be asking for those same things were he here.

That's how well we know his word, what he said, what he's all about, so to speak.

So this is where the faith comes from. The faith comes from asking in this way.

But I want to, I have one goal for today, it is simply to add a fourth leg to the stool.

We don't just ask in faith, we don't just ask according to his will, we don't just ask for his name.

And if you remember, I want to stop before I go to the one thing, the very simple thing I want to accomplish.

I gave a practical application to you, that in order to become well -schooled in asking things in his name, or for his purposes, that we imitate the men and women of Scripture, who when they prayed, almost unfailingly articulated a kingdom purpose for their prayer.

That we not satisfy ourselves in praying either with others, publicly or privately, with simply asking

God for things, but articulate to yourself and to those around you, what is the kingdom purpose for you asking for these things?

Why? How is God going to get glory by answering these things? And that is a thoughtful prayer.

And it's a prayer that has a tendency, if you develop that habit, to bring your wants and needs into accord with his purposes.

Because you realize, in fighting for that faith, which will answer the prayer, in getting this habit, you start to hear things in your heart that are, wow, maybe

I'm really not asking for his purposes. I'm really not asking in his name, I'm asking for my purposes.

I'm asking so that I may spend it on my own pleasures, as James tells us, is one of the reasons you may not receive what we ask for.

And so it begins the process of bringing our wants and needs into accord with his kingdom purposes, his stated purposes.

So that piece of advice, practical advice I gave you, I'm going to add another one to it.

And that's what I hope to spend the entire time today, Lord willing, is telling you that we should seek, if we want to see our prayers to be effectual, to demonstrate themselves powerful by God's answers, we should seek to be people who learn to give thanks well.

I hope to make a persuasive case, and this is really incredibly good news about the God who we serve and worship, is that the glory he gets, if you will learn to give thanks well, and I, again, hope to spend the entire time unpacking that, if you will learn to become one who gives thanks well, the thanks and glory

God gets before your own heart is a sufficient reason for him to answer your prayers mightily.

And David was such a man, that's why I use the example, that's why I use the text from Samuel, is who of us can imagine the anointed king of Israel, given he has been judged by God by falling into great sin, but some relative of a king who was much more ungodly than him and who

God rightly deposed, comes out and accuses him of usurping the throne and being a dog who, in essence, got

Saul out of the way so that he could have the throne, and a man who's been to war for God for many years, and his servants want to silence the man, and he says, no, don't.

He knows his guilt so much. He will not allow anyone to raise a hand, and by the way, he didn't raise a hand against Shimei the rest of his life.

He left the evil in that man's heart to another man, his son, to judge.

His entire life, even after he was restored to the kingdom and vindicated, he did not lift a hand against Shimei.

So this gives you a little clue as to maybe where I'm going with this what made David, the man after God's own heart, what made

David a man who gave thanks so well that God mightily answered his prayers.

So, now by way of defense, now by way of building this idea, let's look at some examples of these lawyerly prayers you've heard me say many times, these prayers that include the kingdom purpose in the kingdom purpose to be achieved by God answering them.

We see it in the prayer of Abraham interceding for his nephew Lot and the city of Sodom by imploring

God not to submit his name and his glory to the charge of having destroyed the righteous along with the wicked.

In Genesis 18 .25, the Holy Spirit says, far be it from you, and this is

Abraham speaking directly to God, far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked, far be it from you, shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

So we see that he's arguing that if you destroy the entire city, you're going to destroy some righteous people, and far be it from you to open yourself to the charge of having destroyed men who were not guilty of those great sins for which you're destroying the rest of the city.

We also see this kingdom purpose in the prayer of Moses who prayed for the disobedient children of Israel when

God had informed him of his intention to destroy Israel and create a new nation from Moses' own relatives.

Moses implored God not to subject his name, his glory, to the charge of having been unfaithful to his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not to be subject to his glory to the charge that he did not have the power to deliver

Israel all the way to the promised land. When he says, Moses pleaded with the Lord and said,

Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people for whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

Why should the Egyptians speak and say he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth?

Turn from your fierce wrath and relent from your harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that's

Jacob by the way, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken

I will give your descendants. They shall inherit it forever. So the Lord relented from the harm which he said he would do to his people.

And just as David frequently prayed that God would have mercy on him and forgive him, even his great transgression and the setting for this next example,

Psalm 51, remember this is a setting of David praying after he committed contract murder against one of his most faithful servants, his general, a faithful general.

In Psalm 51 David says, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your

Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed,

O God, deliver me from bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth praise. So you see

God, even in the context of David's great sin, David is arguing, and it's not his chief argument, it's not the argument which

I'm going to finally wind up with, but he says, if you have mercy on me, I will become a jewel of your mercy and I will tell sinners about you and your glory and sinners will be converted, they'll be saved.

That's why you should have mercy on me, God. Not because of any merit I have, but because I deeply understand my sin and because you will receive glory by showing me mercy and I will make it my business, my life's calling to praise you for it.

And God made it clear that David's approach is correct. As God himself says in Psalm 50, the preceding

Psalm, verse 15, when he tells the believer, call upon me in the day of trouble,

I will deliver you and you will glorify me. Has nothing to do with the righteousness of him who calls.

God will deliver because he will get glory and therefore I exhort you, this is the beginning, you can see why it's important to give thanks well.

And this, in this we can see, and I think this text is primarily pointing to giving him praise from your mouth to others, which is what

David, if you see in Psalm 51, he said, I will teach sinners your way and they'll be converted to you.

It's emphasizing the, and that is very important in giving thanks well. Make sure you tell others about it.

Make sure you ask your prayers in such a way as that the, when they're answered the person who you're praying for, especially if they're an unbeliever, will know that the hand of the

Lord has done it. Because that's your reason. You want them to know that the Lord is true. So make sure that you don't ask it in a way that will veil his glory should he answer.

I try and ask it in such a way and even tell people, you know no person when he heals your, when he answers this prayer

I'm asking, and I very often quote this text, Psalm 5015. I prayed for a man whose mom had incurable terminal cancer and she was healed.

And I told him before I prayed, and the reason, one of the reasons I had faith to do that was because he had recently done some miracles in my own family.

And I told them, look, I didn't say that God will, but I said my God has healed people in answer to this logic.

This is the day of trouble for you my friend. Your mom has incurable cancer. I'm going to call upon the

Lord in the day of trouble. And he says he delivers so that we may glorify him.

But I said I want you to know, remember this, this is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the

God in the scriptures who is going to, when he does this, if he does this, you're going to be responsible to at least make an inquiry.

And that man's mother was healed. He acknowledged it a miracle. He said the doctors called it a miracle.

But he said, I'm not going to make an inquiry. But my point is simply, try and work things out so that God will receive the glory already.

But always be careful to give God the glory well to others. But that's not the main point.

But I hope you can see that theology is at the heart. Good theology is at the heart of the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man.

First, one of the things that we can see is it doesn't depend on our righteousness. Mighty answers to prayer do not depend on our achieving some level of righteousness.

And by the way, nothing in the Christian faith does depend on us achieving some certain level of righteousness for us to merit.

Does it not? Not only is our salvation by grace through faith, and that, even the faith, not of ourselves.

It is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. But everything thereafter is by grace through faith.

Of course, it doesn't mean that righteousness is unimportant. But it is important when you ask God for great things that you know he gives great things to broken sinners like yourself for his glory.

Because that's the kind of God he is. An incredibly merciful God. He does it for his glory. And as we get to the main point, how to give thanks well in your own heart,

I hope you'll see that good reformed theology is at the heart of proper and effectual prayer.

There's a reason why we spend a lot of time talking about doctrines such as the depravity of man.

I'm interrupting a five -part message, one on each things of TULIP, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace.

Okay, forgot one. Perseverance of the saints. These things which all are in orbit, they're all little facets of the fact that we are utterly fallen before God, that our salvation, beginning, middle, and end all the way to us being with him in glory is by grace through faith.

By grace. He did something for you. He reached his hand and changed your heart, and that changed heart was the heart which believed.

Good reformed theology is at the heart of proper effectual prayer which will avail much.

How can I say this? How can I say that that fourth leg on the stool of proper and effectual prayer is that if you'll learn to give thanks well and here

I'll come right out of it. You'll learn to give thanks well by seeking to develop a deep consciousness of both the unimaginable goodness and greatness of God and his transcendent power, glory, and majesty but also, and here's the hard part, developing a deep consciousness of the depths of your own depravity, your own deficiency, your own fallenness.

That is essential in giving thanks well, and David had that. That is why

I think I'm convinced David is a man after God's own heart. He was a great repenter. He understood the depths of his sin, and I hope to show you how

David uses this argument in at least one psalm, probably more, he uses this argument.

So I want you to know that I'm going to hope that I'll leave you feeling like you're on solid exegetical ground when you can pray to God in any situation,

Lord have mercy on me, deliver me so that my heart will be amazed at your glory.

I will give you thanks in my own heart. It doesn't mean it stops there, but you know, can we not always pray that in every situation where we need mercy?

Do it for your mercy's sake. In scripture, so often in the psalms, and you'll see

I do that in conscious imitation, I ask him to do things for his mercy's sake, for his namesake, his glory.

He gets the most glory by mercy. The cross is the pinnacle. The ultimate example of mercy is the pinnacle of God's glory, which is he's glorified in so many ways by the judgment of sinners, but he is glorified by the salvation, the gracious salvation of sinners more than any other way.

Mercy rejoices against judgment. Okay, let's look at some of these biblical texts.

Psalm 6, beginning at verse 1, David says,

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your hot displeasure.

Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled, but you,

O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver me. O save me for your mercy's sake, for in death there is no remembrance of you.

In the grave, who will give you thanks? Verse 5, for in death there is no remembrance of you.

That for you could substitute a because. His argument is, and keep in mind, David is acknowledging that he is under the reproof of God.

Here is something I don't know, I have not, did not check as to whether this is in reference to the same great sin of the murder of his general, but David committed many sins that God rightly judged him for, but David is saying, okay,

Lord, you are reproving me, this is righteous. Save me for your mercy's sake.

Save me to the praise of the glory of your grace, because, why? In death there is no remembrance of you.

In the grave, who will give you thanks? But I want to focus, in death there is no remembrance of you, strongly connotes that his first reason why he's asking

God to give him grace is because if his judgment follows to its logical conclusion, his death, he will no longer be able to praise him, thank him, in his heart, for in death there is no remembrance of you.

That's not even speaking of the praise he's going to give to others, and he will, but his first argument is you're going to lose the thanksgiving that's going to pour from my heart if you will but answer this prayer.

You're going to lose that, God. And I hope to show you through other scripture that this is a powerful argument.

Our God is so, the God who holds our tears in a bottle, they're precious to him.

It's in the Psalms, I don't have the exact address to me, but it's one of to me the most precious expressions of God's love for us is it says he holds our tears in a bottle.

He's aware of the exact number of tears brothers and sisters that you've ever cried.

There's not a tear you've ever shed that is not, and he's got them on his nightstand because they're precious to him.

They were necessary for some reason to benefit you. That's how precious what's going on in our heart is to God.

So that it is a powerful, and it's David's first -line argument. His first -line argument that he goes to is in death there's no remembrance of you.

My heart in the land of the living will no longer be able to gush forth praise and glory.

And just as the psalmist says later in Psalm 63, giving us a picture I think, a picture into this heart,

Psalm 63 beginning at verse 6, when I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches.

Because you have been my help, therefore in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.

My soul follows closely behind you. Your right hand upholds me. Can we not hear that?

This is him saying, I remember the good things you've done to me, the mercies you've had to me, and so alone in my bed, in the night watches,

I meditate on you and I give you thanks for being my help. And under the shadow of your wings is where I want to be, in this place, this place of intimacy, just you and me.

The psalmist is meditating on God's tender mercies to himself in the night watches. Nobody else is part of the equation.

And make no mistake, I believe that the deep sense of one's own sin that creates a deep appreciation for just how merciful, just how amazingly merciful the smallest answers to prayer are.

And this dovetails into what so many other things James has said. There's a reason why I go back again and again, and this will be time number 5,

I guess I'm about to do it again, why when James says, do not say we're going to go into such and such a city by ourself for a year and make profit, but say instead if the

Lord wills we will live and do such a thing. That that kind of speech is critical because that kind of speech is acknowledging a spiritual truth which we just, we forget unless we grow in the habit of acknowledging it to ourselves.

That it is God's mercy if I walk down, if I finish this message and walk down these stairs and are able to say hello to you, it is

God's mercy to me. If he were basing this on my righteousness, on my performance, even today, even while preparing for this message,

I'm already dead. The message hasn't even started. You get the call that says

Steve didn't make it. That is truth. And we need to remind ourself of that truth.

And when we do, we see it produces all kinds of gushing thanks.

And believe me, you will start to appreciate how these theological truths are very, they're also experientially true.

Once you drop the facade and thinking it's some great and horrible thing that you've discovered a new sin against yourself that God's spirit has revealed to you today, no, it's not a terrible thing.

It's the condition of all of us. You either have sin that he's not revealing to you, which is far more deadly, or he's going to be revealing your sins to you.

It's much better for you to come to know them and for you to give thanks well. I'm convinced that this kind of heart is what

Jesus is speaking of when he says in John chapter 4 verse 23, but the hour is coming and now is when the worship, when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father is seeking such to worship him.

God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God is seeking them. He wants them. He desires this kind of worship.

He's seeking those who will worship him in spirit and truth with a heart unafraid to look into the depths of its own sinfulness because seeing into those depths, though causing some momentary discomfort produces the eternal benefit of a humble heart, a broken and contrite spirit, and a deeply thankful heart, which therefore gives thanks and praise well.

And above all, looking into the depth of our own sin creates a heart which loves much because it knows how much it has been forgiven.

Just as the Lord told the Pharisee Simon who loved little because he believed he had been forgiven little, and make no mistake, he believed he had been forgiven little or had transgressed little.

He almost certainly had not been forgiven at all. In Luke 7 beginning at verse 40,

And Jesus answered him and said, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he said, Teacher, say it.

There was a certain creditor who had two debtors, one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty, and when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both.

Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more.

And he said to him, You have rightly judged. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, and by the way, this is a woman, the woman who was a well -known sinner who had showered him with love by wiping his feet with her hair,

I believe, and tears. Do you see this woman? I entered your house.

You gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.

You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil.

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."

And important to understand, he's not saying that because she loves so much, she's worthy of having her sins forgiven.

He's saying evidence that she has had her sins forgiven is the fact that she loves much. She is aware of God having showed mercy to her, and that makes her someone who is full of outpouring of love.

Let's not reverse those, as many false teachers do. God is seeking those who worship him in spirit and truth, those who love much because they know they've been forgiven much, which is a necessary condition to loving much.

As Jesus said, to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. That's the end of the story.

It's axiomatic. You love little. If you are not to the degree you are aware of how much you're forgiven, how deep your sin goes, how deep

God's grace goes, that's how much you love God, and that's how much you're willing to take that love for God and let it pour out into love for others.

Cardinal, central, it is a main thing, an artery, a super highway, not a back road.

Truth of God's word. You must ask God. You must learn the depths of your own sin if you want to love well, and you must ask

God to show it to you because it is not something that our heart does on its own.

And David was such a man who gave thanks well because he knew the depths of his sin well, as can be seen earlier in Psalm 51.

I skipped this until now for a reason. Again, as he asked God to forgive him and forgive him for a grievous sin, he says, have mercy upon me,

O God. And you'll see a similar argument. This argument goes strictly to what's happening inside of David.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies.

Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For, again, because, and here's the argument, I acknowledge my transgression.

My sin is always before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Does not that sound like the reformers?

The depth of his sin, and his argument, make no mistake, his argument is saying, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin because I so deeply understand my sin.

You are going to get praise from this heart. This heart is going to thank you well. This is not a picadillo.

He confesses that he sinned against God and God alone, not just against the man whom he murdered.

That his mother, he was brought forth in iniquity. He is a sinner. He's not just someone who sinned.

He is a sinner. We don't, we're not sinners because we sin.

We sin because we're sinners. And even though God, when we come to know him, has taken out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh, which is no longer bound to do nothing but sin, we still sin.

And it's not an accident. That's one of the things I was happy to see the London Baptist Confession of 1689, which we're going over in Sunday school, make so clear.

We sin because they're still a part of us. By God's grace, praise God. It was once our ruler.

It's now relegated to rebel status. The band of contras hiding in the hills. But occasionally, it wins the day in our will.

And we sin because we will to sin, even as believers.

So we're utterly dependent on his mercy. But the argument is, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin because my sin is ever before my face.

I see it so clearly I can't see anything else. Because I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.

He understands the depths of his sins. No, an accident. Oops, sorry. I was weak that day.

I couldn't help it. And then he goes on to say, and this is the linkage between God who desires someone to worship him in spirit and truth.

After he says, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. He says,

Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. And in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom.

That's the link. God desires. He seeks those who will worship him in spirit and truth.

And he desires truth in the inward parts. Which is what

David has just given him. I am not shying away. I am not making excuses. I am not saying the woman, the woman made me do it as Adam did.

The snake, the snake, the woman. No. I have sinned.

And he's almost in essence saying, and you know what? I'm aware I could have done worse. I could have done worse. You desire truth in the inward parts.

David well understood what Jesus said in John chapter 15 verse 5.

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit.

For without me you can do nothing. This knowledge of his own sin also created a humility in him which prayed without ceasing.

To the degree we understand this about our own hearts, there is nothing we do that will be prayerless. We will not preach.

We will not teach. We will not have meetings with one another. We will not have meetings with our bosses because we know the sinful nature within us can so easily do harm.

Can so easily act in a way that's not glorifying to God. Can so easily do harm to our hearers.

If it weren't for God's overruling mercy where he takes the crooked stick, I think it was that Josh in prayer said, or someone said, he draws a straight line with Jesus I think, with a crooked stick.

If that were not true, there is no way not only would I never be up here, but I would never open my mouth.

And for those of you that know me, I open my mouth a lot. But it's true. I would not because there's flaw.

There's harm I can do. And so by God's grace, understanding your own the nature of your own heart not only enables you to give thanks well, but it will make you someone who's constant in prayer.

Because you know that nothing can be accomplished. Apart from him, apart from the power of his spirit, asking for it, begging for it, no good thing can come.

You might get a pat on the back. You might get some pats on the back and a job well done. You really did a great job of defeating that other person's argument.

That was a fine, well -organized sermon. But you know what? It won't have lasting power. And more importantly, it's likely to harm.

This created a humility in him that prayed without ceasing. We must pray to avoid sins, which even as God's anointed king of Israel, David was, he might well be guilty of sins without knowing it.

This is why Hebrews tells us the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and joints of marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The purpose of the word being love from a pure heart, it accomplishes that by showing us our sin, by cutting, by peeling back our heart which so naturally wants to cover our sin and hide it even from our own selves.

And the fact that this humble acknowledgement of our prayer, of our need, which also produces importunate prayer, prayer without ceasing, can be seen in Psalm 19, that great

Psalm about the word of God. And I'll begin at verse 8. We can see that David, even as the anointed king of Israel, knows that he's capable of sinning without knowing it.

He's capable of sinning presumptuously. He's capable of great sin. And this is why he says in Psalm 19, beginning at verse 8,

I believe, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors?

Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of the great transgression.

So we see this awareness in David about his own sinfulness.

We see he's used it as an argument twice. He used it as an argument in Psalm 6.

It was his first line argument both times. I will give thanks. Don't lose

God. Don't slay me, which is what I deserve. Have mercy on me. Don't lose the deep thanksgiving you get from my own heart.

And then in Psalm 51, he said, forgive me because I so deeply understand the depth of my sin, the nature of my sin, that I am going to give you thanks well, if you forgive me, in my own heart.

And of course, again, I stress, we give our purpose, the reason God has saved us and left us here in a sinful world is to glorify him before men.

And so it's a cardinal thing, but I just wanted to drive home the truth that your frontline argument is how well you give thanks.

It's worthy of a lifelong pursuit as a Christian to learn to give thanks better and better and better because you understand the depth of mercy, even the smallest answer to prayer is.

And of course, all the texts in scripture which talk about prayer as something which goes on constantly and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

Pray without ceasing. There's many, many more. This heart, which knows the depths of its own defectiveness will be a praying heart.

You would not dare do the smallest task without asking God to do something good from it because you know without that, without him mercifully intervening, only bad will come or only something meaningless, only straws and straw will come.

So I hope you can see that in order to give thanks well, in order to be one who worships God in spirit and in truth, that it is necessary to know the depths of God's mercy to you because you know the depths of your own sin.

If you will become like this, you'll become the kind of person that God first of all requires as he's told us in Micah, what is good and what the

Lord requires of you, but that you do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God for you will walk humbly with your

God. But even more, you'll become what God seeks as he is seeking those who worship him in spirit and in truth and you'll become the person

God desires because he desires truth in the inward parts. If you will devote yourself to cultivating this mind, which

I'm convinced is a major part of obeying the text to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and the text that we should be taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and also the text that says that our acceptable, proper, appropriate worship is to present our very being as a living sacrifice to God, you'll take a major step towards fulfilling those texts and being the person

God desires. And make no mistake, and this is the reason I make no apology, you know

I beat this drum a lot. In one way or another it's probably come out in every message

I've ever spoken. You can't be healthy, a healthy and vital

Christian. The degree of your Christian health, your joy, your love is inexorably intertwined with the degree to which you know the depth of your own sin.

There is no other way. And that's one of the reasons why we talk about it a lot. I had a conversation with a member here after our last

Sunday School that talked about a really tiny minute point about do we ever obey perfectly when we will.

But there's a reason why it's worth us thinking a lot about and knowing things like I think it is axiomatically true.

No, we don't ever obey perfectly. Even our obedience needs to be washed in the blood of Christ.

It is dependent upon his substitutionary atonement and his imputed righteousness. If you will devote yourself to cultivating this mind you will be the kind of person who prays powerfully and effectually.

And I would like to put a final exclamation point on that point by calling your attention again to that passage that I read earlier where Moses prayed for Israel when

God told Moses of his intention to destroy the nation because of their disobedience in fashioning the golden calf and worshiping it.

And remember, this is shortly after he delivered them with a mighty hand and many signs and wonders.

Moses made the argument that he should not destroy Israel because the

Egyptians will say he wasn't able, didn't have the power to deliver Israel and because he'll be open to the charge of having broken his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Now we know and then it says God relented. In other words, he said

I'm going to destroy them. Moses prayed and God says okay, I'm not going to destroy them.

I'm going to continue to show them mercy. Now we as good Calvinists know that God knows the beginning from the end and has sovereignly ordained whatsoever comes to pass.

He sovereignly ordained before the foundation of the world that Moses was going to pray that prayer. So we know that he didn't change his mind.

We know that there was nothing new. We know that he hadn't forgotten that he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We also knew that he knew the Egyptians might say that. So what is God telling us in this anthropomorphic and by that I simply mean this is

God who is sovereign and outside of time who knows the beginning from the end. What is he trying to teach us by speaking in this manner as though he changed his mind?

I am firmly convinced that this is the only answer, the only logical answer.

God is telling us because we are inside of time and that's why it's an anthropomorphism. We don't know what's going to happen in the next minute, the next second.

He's telling us that but for Moses' prayer I would have destroyed them.

Now that doesn't mean God's promise was hanging by a thread because God knew before the foundation of the world, knew when he promised that prayer was going to be prayed and he knew his mercy, his promises can't fail.

But what it does mean is that the glory that God gets before one praying person, in this case

Moses, the difference God's saying before that prayer, you know what, my glory says destroy them.

After that prayer, my glory, the scales have changed. The glory I get before this one praying man is so powerful that which nation is going to be my people hangs in the balance.

So do not forget that. That is how precious, that is how much glory, how much

God is concerned with the degree of glory he gets in your own heart. So I end by exhorting you to pray for great things.

To seek to become an expert in God's word, his revealed will, so that you know, so that you will build that confidence and faith that you have the things you ask because you ask according to his will as revealed in scripture.

To get to know his heart and mind, to know which are the major things and minor things in scripture, what are things

God truly hates and loves, so that you may be confident that you're asking things for his purposes, that you're doing

God's work in any situation, that you're being an ambassador for Christ, pleading with men to be reconciled to God, and seek to be someone who gives thanks well.

Because the thanks and worship God gets in your heart is a powerful motivation alone for him answering your prayers mightily.

Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, we just thank you and praise you for the amazing

God you are, the fact that you care so deeply about what goes on in our heart and mind, that you desire us to be true in the inward parts, both in our knowledge of your greatness and glory and majesty, and also our own weakness and frailty and flawedness.

Father, the fact that it matters so much to you is precious, and the fact that you will answer prayers mightily if we will but give thanks well, if we will but have truth in the inward parts is tremendously good news.

So I just humbly ask that you'll help us to buy your spirit opening and illuminating our eyes and our minds to the truths in your word will enable us to learn and know what you desire, what you want, what you've commanded, and that we may be able to ask in faith, to be asked knowing we ask according to your will, to be confident that we ask for your purposes, and above all, to be people who give thanks well for the incredible mercy that you show us every day, and I thank you and praise you for all that you are, and I ask these things in Jesus' name for your glory.