Place of Promises of God in Prayer

Returning to the Discipline of Prayer: Praying According to God's Will

0:04 Now, after a very lengthy digression that has carried us into the realms of principles of Sabbath-keeping, into the area of the book of the Revelation, we return at long last to conclude in the next couple of weeks the field of study that has been the focus of our concern ever since last fall, and that, of course, being the Christian and his private disciplines of prayer and study of the Word of God. And I trust that some of you can remember way back to the Sunday prior to my leaving for the extended ministry abroad, at which time we were grappling with the whole matter of what concerns ought to be uppermost in our minds when we pray. We spent a number of weeks...

0:59 We spent a number of weeks on the whole subject of the private study of the Word of God and were presently concerned about the subject of secret prayer. And one of the fundamental principles that we established was that in praying we ought to be concerned continually with this matter of praying according to the will of God. And if we are to do that, then we must find the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures in general, and in the Lord's prayer in particular, because our Lord says, after this manner pray ye, and in the examples and patterns of prayer given to us in the Scriptures. And you'll remember that taking that third line of thought, I gave you those five patterns of prayer that the Apostle Paul outlined for the Christians in the various New Testament churches, asking them to pray for him in terms of his ministry. Now, there is much help in these first two areas. Praying in the light of the Lord's prayer and praying according to the patterns and examples of prayer in the Scriptures. For instance, in the larger and shorter catechisms of the Westminster Standards, you have an excellent treatment of what it is to pray after the pattern of the Lord's prayer.

2:21 And if you've never taken the larger or shorter catechism and gone through the section on the Lord's prayer, it comes at the end. It comes at the end of both the larger and shorter catechisms. Let me encourage you to do that, and maybe to take one question relative to each of those petitions, each morning in your own devotions over a period of time. What do we pray for in the first petition?

2:45 And then you have some specific indications of what we pray for when we ask that God's name be hallowed, when we pray that his kingdom come, etc. Also, Watson's book, On the Lord's Prayer, is an excellent book. It's an excellent commentary on what it means to pray after the pattern given to us in the Lord's prayer. So because the helps are available, I'm not going to spend time in this class giving an exposition of the principles of true prayer found in the Lord's prayer.

The Promises of God as a Basis for Prayer

3:16 Also, in general commentaries on the subject of praying after the patterns of prayer in the Word of God, much help can be given. So what we're doing this morning is we're moving now into the second, major area in which we are able to discern the mind and will of God with reference to what we ought to pray for. And that area is the promises of God. We are to pray according to the precepts, and the precepts are given in the Word of God in general, the Lord's prayer in particular, the examples and patterns of prayer in detail.

3:55 But now the second major area is praying, according to or based upon the promises of God. And there will be two major divisions to this material. So if you're trying to keep it all sorted out in your mind, we establish the general principle that we are to pray according to the will of God. How do we know the will of God?

4:18 Area number one, we know the will of God by the precepts which relate to the subject of prayer. And where are they? In the precepts. Where are they found?

4:30 In the scriptures in general, in the Lord's prayer in particular, and then in the examples and patterns of prayer that are found scattered throughout the Word of God. But now in answer to this question, how do we pray according to the will of God? We not only have answer number one, the precepts relating to prayer, but we have the second major category, the promises. And under this general category we will have two subdivisions of the material.

5:06 Subdivision one, this morning, the place of the promises in prayer. Subdivision two, the problems of the promises in prayer. And when we come to subdivision two, I will then fulfill the promise I made last week to take up this whole subject of how do we relate the promises to our own circumstances. Some promises that seem to be so unqualified that a child of God would never experience poverty.

5:37 The child of God would never experience want. No plague will come nigh his dwelling. Well, there are problems connected to those promises. But we don't want to take up the problems until we first of all deal with the place of the promises in prayer.

5:52 And the assertion that I'm making this morning is that if our praying is to be scriptural, it must not only have one eye to the precepts relating to prayer, but it must have the other eye on the promises. Now in physical sight it's bad when one eye goes this way and one the other. But in spiritual dimensions it's a wonderful thing. It's wonderful when you can have one eye to the precepts when you pray and the other eye to the promises.

6:21 And by bringing into focus both precept and promise, we have some reason to believe we are then praying according to the will of God. Alright, do you see where we're going? Is that clear to everyone? Yes? No? Maybe?

The Logic of Faith and Promises in Prayer

6:35 Yes, okay, fine. Alright then, let's come to the first subdivision of praying according to the promises, namely, the place of the promises in true God-honoring prayer. Now the logic that lies behind it is simply this. If we are to pray in faith, we must have a basis for that faith.

6:58 And the promise of God are the God-ordained basis for our faith. Therefore, if we are to pray as we ought, our prayers must be forged upon the anvil of God's promises. One need read his Bible but a very brief time to come to the conviction that prayer that is true prayer is believing prayer. What things soever you desire when ye pray, believe that ye have them and ye shall have them.

7:32 All things that ye ask in prayer believing ye shall receive. Ye have not because ye ask not. And then we are encouraged to ask not with a double mind but with confidence. Well, if we are to pray in faith, we must pray in the conviction that what we ask falls within the scope of God's will.

7:54 And it is the promises that hold out to us a transcription of the mind and purpose and will of God. The promises then become handles for faith to take hold of. The promises become disclosures of the heart of God. Now let's look at some examples of this.

Biblical Examples: David's Prayer in Psalm 119

8:16 We'll limit ourselves to two areas rather than jump from Dan to Beersheba. We'll look into the 119th Psalm for some very vivid examples of a man whose prayers are forged upon the anvil of God's promises. And therefore, they were prayers characterized by faith. They were God-honoring prayers.

8:44 Psalm 119, first of all, verses 41 through 43. Psalm 119, verses 41 to 43. Let thy lovingkindness also come unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy word. In other words, he says, God, I'm asking for that which you have given me warrant to ask for in the word.

9:15 I'm not asking for anything that goes beyond the word, nor will I be satisfied with a salvation that falls beneath what the word holds forth. So shall I have an answer for him that reproacheth me, for I trust in thy word. Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in thine ordinances. Now you see what he's saying?

9:44 He's saying it is the word of God that has formed the basis of his expectation and the measure of his expectation. The basis, and the measure. He's asking because the word gives him grounds to ask, and he's asking precisely for that which the word says he should ask. It is both the ground and the measure of his expectation in prayer.

10:15 Now verse 49. Remember the word unto thy servant, because, or as the margin has it, wherein thou hast made me to hope. He's saying, now Lord, there was a particular word that I found in your word to your people, and that word has become the catalyst for the hope, for the expectation, for the faith of my heart. Now Lord, remember that word.

10:43 Fulfill what you have said to me in your word as one of your children. All right? Verse 74. They that fear thee shall see me and be glad, because I have hoped in thy word.

11:04 Verse 81. My soul fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. 114. Thou art my hiding place and my shield.

11:15 I hope in thy word. Verse 147. I anticipated the dawning of the morning and cried, I hope in thy words. Now, that should be enough to establish the principle found within this one extended prayer, Psalm 119, that the prayer of David was God-honoring, it was prayer conformed to the word, not only because it had respect to the precepts relative to prayer, but it had respect to the promises.

Biblical Examples: Daniel's Prayer Triggered by Promise

11:50 They formed the basis and the measure of his entreaty and of his expectation. Now, let's look at a specific example of this at work in the life of an Old Testament character as recorded in the Old Testament, and then at an Old Testament character whose experience is recorded in the New Testament. Turn, please, to Jeremiah chapter 29. We want to take it now out of the realm of general theory and put it into the realm of a specific instance.

12:24 One picture is worth a thousand words, and whenever we can have a principle fleshed out in a specific example, it's more helpful to us. Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 10 through 13. Jeremiah was this prophet who was considered, of course, a prophet of doom because he constantly pronounced the impending judgment upon Israel, and the false prophets were always trying to salve over the issue and saying to the people, you're God's covenant people, don't mind this old character, Jeremiah, he just looks at the dark side of things, you're God's people, God will never treat you the way Jeremiah says. Well, obviously, they were false prophets saying peace, peace, when there was no peace. And so God has promised that the people of God will go into captivity in Babylon, but they're not going to stay there forever. Now, verse 10. For thus saith the Lord, after seventy years, a specific block of time, after seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place.

13:39 For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end. And ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn again your captivity, and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again unto the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. Now, here's God's clear word of promise.

14:17 After seventy years, I'm going to bring you back. But he says that bringing back is not only to be, a manifestation of my sovereign purpose, it is also to be my response to your earnest entreaties. Notice the connection? I'll do this, but in the context of you seeking me and calling upon me, and my response to those calls will be evident in the turning of your captivity.

14:49 All right? Seventy years have passed, and there's a man of God who's aware of this prophecy. Now, what does he do? God has given a promise. We turn now to Daniel chapter 9.

15:01 Daniel chapter 9. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet for the accomplishing of the desolation of Jerusalem even seventy years. He was aware of a promise. So he made a few calculations, and he says that time has elapsed. Therefore, verse 3, I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes, and I prayed unto the Lord my God. Now, what triggered Daniel's prayer? It was the explicit promise of God that God would do a specific thing after the lapse of a specific measure of time.

16:21 So that promise then became the basis of his fervent faith-filled pleading with the living God. Now, granted, that was a special promise speaking to a special situation, and there is no sense in which we can take the promise and apply it to us and say, well, the seven stands for the number of perfection and therefore I've been in spiritual captivity for seventy years and got...

16:50 No, no, no, no, no. We don't treat the promises like that. Now, there is in the promise a holding forth of God's faithfulness that can be pleaded for all of his people. We can say, Lord God who fulfilled your promise to Daniel and to your captive people as you promised, you will fulfill to me and to the people of God all that you promised in this day.

Biblical Examples: Abraham's Faith in Romans 4

17:13 You see, there is a principle in the promise that applies to all God's people and that's anticipating a little bit the problems of the promises, but I'm using this example simply to support the assertion that it is the promises that are the anvil upon which true prayers are forged and the promises form both the basis and the measure of our expectation in prayer. All right, now turn to the New Testament. And as questions are arising, just hold on to them, let me establish the principle and then we'll open it up for discussion as we always do. In the fourth chapter of Romans, we have the inspired commentary on the mental and spiritual processes that were operative in Abraham while he waited for the fulfillment of God's promise, namely to give him a son and through that son to establish blessing to the nations. Now certain things are told us here in Romans 4 that we can only deduce from the account in Genesis. But here the apostle Paul by the inspiration of the Spirit is given an infallible insight into the inward workings of Abraham's mind and spirit while he waited for the fulfillment of the promise.

18:39 Well, the promise is given. It is a gracious promise as Paul has been establishing. Verse 17, as it is written, Romans 4, 17, A father of many nations have I made thee before him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls the things that are not as though they were, who, speaking of Abraham, in hope believed against hope, that is, who in spiritual expectation based upon the promise believed against all natural expectation to the end that he might become a father of many nations according to that which hath been spoken, so shall thy seed be. And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead, he being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. You see, Abraham was no Christian scientist. He just blinked and said, well, things ain't what they appear to be, it's all a mental illusion. He looked at himself in the mirror and says, you know, you've got some wrinkles, your age has come, you're no longer able to produce a father.

19:50 You may as well expect a man to get out of his tomb, come up from his grave, and father a child as to think, Abraham, that you are going to father a child. You've passed the age when it's biologically, physiologically possible for you to father a child. And he looks at Sarah, he's seen her go through all the problems of the change of life, he understood this process, and he said she's had it as far as bearing kids. And though their medical science was limited, they knew when a woman went through the change of life, her monthly cycle was no longer operative, and they knew she no longer bore children.

20:28 So he looks at Sarah, and he says, Sarah, it's just as likely that your grandmother who lies in a grave somewhere is going to give birth to a child as you can give birth to a child. My body? Dead. As far as procreative faculties are concerned, Sarah, your body dead.

20:44 But, after looking realistically at those, I was going to use a philosophical term, I won't, after looking at those hard-nosed facts, hard-nosed facts, what did he do? Verse 20, Yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, being fully assured that what God had promised, he was able to perform. He didn't stick his head in the sand. He said, my body's as good as dead.

21:25 Sarah's body's as good as dead. But I serve the God who can raise the dead. And if he needs to give power to Sarah's dead womb, and to my dormant procreative faculties, that's no problem. He has given a promise, that in my seed, and that seed is not to be Ishmael, I've pleaded all that Ishmael might live before me, and God has told me, and Isaac shall thy seed be called.

21:49 And therefore, I don't care how dead my wife's womb is, I don't care how dormant my procreative faculties have become, God has promised, God will create it all. Was it a spirit of optimism that was bred into...

22:06 No, no. Look at the little phrase. Look at the little phrase. Looking unto the promise of God.

22:13 He glanced at Sarah's dead womb, glanced at his own dead body, but he didn't look. The focus of his attention was not his native inability, but God's gracious promise, and the God who stands, stands behind that promise, able to make it good. You see? Now here's an example of a man then, who's, the basis of whose expectation, and the measure of his expectation, was the promise of the living God.

Theological Affirmations: Promises as the Anvil of Prayer

22:50 All right? Having established it from the scriptures, now let me just read a couple of choice quotes. When I'm trying to investigate a subject like this, I become like a bee flitting from flower to flower, and I go through all my standard puritans, and sets, they're wonderfully indexed at the back, and I look up all on the promises and the rest, and spread the things out, and come up with some choice gems. Well, I did in investigating this subject, and in a book called Justifying Faith, The Object and Acts of Justifying Faith by Goodwin, he has a chapter, how we are to prayer, how we are in prayer to act faith upon the promises.

23:31 And I quote now, The next object of faith, on which it acts in praying, is the promises. Faith in prayer treats with God, by his promises. And though it treats with God, that is, has dealings with God, and with God only through Christ, yet it deals with promises. Prayer is putting promises into suit, that is, pleading them before God.

23:59 And then he goes on to say, that there are a number of characters, a number of characteristics to the promises of God, and he lays them out. Now he says, If you will know the true meaning and intent of God in his promises, you must search into the nature, the kind, and the tenure of the promises. And thereby we shall find that God, in making these promises, hath not bound us up to any particular persuasion, that I must believe I shall receive the very particular mercy which I ask. This must be granted, that, this must be granted, that, look what God promised it, though so faith ought to believe.

24:35 In other words, and we'll deal with this when we come to the problems of the promises, we don't just go to the promises willy-nilly, and say, Oh, look, look, I found a verse which says, No plague shall come nigh thy dwelling, therefore I am claiming from God that sickness will never come to my house. No, no, no. He says, No, you don't do that. We look into the specific intent of God in the promise.

24:54 We look into the nature of it, the circumstance of it, and then having ascertained the true intent of the promise, then we plead this before God. But now the point that Goodwin makes that I think is so essential, and we dealt with this way back in the beginning of our study on prayer. The concern of prayer is to have dealings with God, the spirit of adoption, enabling us to say, Abba, God is Father. We've come not to say our prayers.

25:19 We've come not to go through some kind of Protestant ritual to salve our consciences. We've come to meet God. We can only have dealings with God in Christ. But the point Mr. Goodwin makes, is a valid one. We have dealings with God in Christ, only in terms of the promises. And it's on the basis of the promises that we are enabled to have dealings with God in Christ. And then another of the old masters, Mr. Manson, and this is just a brief quotation, quoting Psalm 119.45, Remember the word unto thy servant, wherein thou hast caused me to hope. Our necessities lead us to God. Our necessities lead us to the promises, and the promises to Christ, in whom they are yea and amen.

26:07 And Christ leads us to God as the fountain of grace. There we put these bonds in suit, and we turn promises into prayers. We turn promises into prayers. That to me again is the most significant, simple little phrase.

26:27 The promises are there to be turned into prayers when we draw nigh unto God. How many of you ever seen Spurgeon's little book, Faith's Checkbook? Now what is it? Someone tell us what that book is.

26:42 Bob? He takes and goes through just about exhaustively the promises and the word of God, and encourages you, pleads you, and tells you how, and the promises of God, until like a blank check, which we endorse by our prayers. Yes. It comes to us, signed with the pen of the covenant God.

27:00 Made out to whoever will endorse it on the back. And the very title of the book, Faith's Checkbook. It's not as though we must endorse them. I mean that we must sign them.

27:13 God's already signed them. They're signed, if I may say it reverently, in the blood of the everlasting covenant, for how many soever be the promises of God. And it's a text we'll look at, God willing, next week, from 2 Corinthians. How many soever be the promises of God.

27:28 In Christ, is the yea, and through Christ the amen. So that all of those promises come to us, in Jesus Christ, as the head of his people, the one who by his own blood has procured the right for his people to plead those promises before him. Alright, I think we've spent enough time to establish the principle then, that the second great area of concern in our praying, not only that they be regulated by the precepts, after this manner of praying, but that they also be suffused with the promises and that the promises form both the basis and the measure of our expectation in prayer. Any questions now on what we've covered thus far before I ask you a few questions?

Responsibilities of the Believer: Searching and Applying Promises

28:13 Alright, if this be so, what are some of the responsibilities then that this lays upon you as a child of God who's concerned with praying scripture? This is all well and good to know that the promises must be turned into prayers, that the promises are the anvil upon which true prayers are forged, that they form both the basis and the measure of our expectation and faith in prayer. We've looked at the examples, yahoo for Daniel and ya-ya and ra-ra for Abraham. Great, but now, what's it say to us where we sit right here today?

28:54 Yes, you think? Alright, so you've given us three things. Alright, the first one is we must what? We must search out those promises.

29:22 May I suggest the best way to do it is not to go to the local Christian bookstore and buy a promise box. You know what the promise box is, don't you? That's a cute little box that has little cards about the size of your finger double, about like here, and has the promises written on them and when you open it up it has a little music box singing the little

29:48 standing on the promises of God. Am I the only one who's got a promise box? I think someone gave it to us as a wedding gift almost 20 years ago. Alright.

29:57 But the best way, you see, is not, now, I'm not despising that a promise box may have a place, but what's the great danger of a promise box? Bob? Oh, instead of searching for the promise and the searching will involve looking at the context to whom it was spoken, some of these things relative to the problems of the promises, there is a very real temptation just to take a look and to take that thing out and to apply it in the most general sense and if you do that with enough promises you know what will soon happen? You'll find that God just is not conforming to your careless use of His promises and then you'll probably end up either skeptical and saying, well, they just don't work and just give up the whole, you know, process or you'll begin to say something's wrong. I'm pleading certain promises and God's not fulfilling and maybe I ought to start searching into the nature of them and you'll give up your promise box. One of the two things will happen. You'll either give up praying and believing that God answers or you'll go to the heart of the matter.

31:00 So we must search out the promises of God. What does this tell us then about our general, regular, devotional reading of the Scriptures? What ought to be an integral part of all of that private reading of the Scriptures? Bob?

31:24 All right, but particularly in what area? The promises, you see. Having an eye for the promises. Not only the promises.

31:34 We want to see the precepts in general and the precepts in particular that relate to prayer, but having an eye for them. And it's amazing how little God's people bring His promises back to Him in prayer. How little. And since He's not here and it wouldn't be embarrassment to Him, this has been one of the things that's been such a challenge and blessing in the times of prayer that I've been privileged to have with Pastor Glaze is that I've never prayed with anyone who so profusely presses God's promises before Him.

32:06 And it's been a great challenge to my own prayer life to remember that this is the means by which I have dealings with God in Christ is to bring His promises before Him. All right? So we must search them out. We must then make good use of them.

32:23 And the best time to do it is the moment there is the discovery of a promise to begin. If you cannot, having not settled in your own mind, whether it applies directly to your circumstances, and you cannot with any degree of real confidence press that promise before the Lord, you can at least plead for light upon it. I find myself, when I read the 72nd Psalm particularly, and there are several other psalms upon which some of the old writers base their view of great triumphs of the Gospel before the return of Christ, what is called the evangelical post-millenarian view of future things. And I have some real problems with that position when I read certain New Testament passages and yet when I read certain Old Testament passages I find myself again and again saying, Lord, this is a broad promise that You've given. What does it mean? How do You intend to fulfill it? And I don't know.

33:17 I don't know how to plead some of those promises. So I plead for light to know how to plead them. That I can do. And I have God's promise.

33:25 Ask and it shall be given. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Open thou mine eyes, etc. Alright?

33:32 So there must be this searching out of the promises and, if possible, an immediate application of that promise to your present circumstances, pleading it before God in prayer. And one of the great benefits that comes from this is, without even knowing it, you're committing that portion to memory in its vital application to your own life. You see? And this is the way to store up the Word of God in your heart.

33:57 Better than even what I would call cold turkey memorization, though I would never despise that. It is in this way that the Word is inworking itself into the very fibers of your inner life. Alright? There must be a searching.

34:10 The second thing you said, Eugene, was what? So long ago I've forgotten. Oh, yes. Alright.

34:24 Okay. So this would be part of this or flow out of it. And then the third was applying it. Yes.

34:31 Yes. So we have included all of those things. Yes. Very good.

The Danger of Prayerlessness and Presumption

34:35 Alright. Now, are you doing this? This is a general confessional, but I am pressing the question upon your conscience. Are you doing this when you pray?

34:43 If not, could this not be one of the fundamental reasons as to why you see so few answers to prayer? You have not because you ask not. And your asking is so limited because you're making such poor use of the promises. It does no good to have checks made out in my name signed by a bonafide issuer of the checks with money in the bank to back it up.

35:11 Until I endorse the debt and go to the local bank and cash it, I may as well not have that money credited to me. And that's why I was careful to use the example of Daniel. He did not say, Alright, God. You said you're going to bring us back in 70 years.

35:28 Hallelujah. I'll sit back and watch you do it. The promises are never given to be the occasion of spiritual lassitude and prayerlessness. It is presumptuous to expect God to fulfill the promises without prayer.

35:44 Just as it's frustrating to try to pray without a promise upon which to base the prayer. You see? Therefore, prayers without promises have no roots, have no foundation. And promises without prayer have no real substance in terms of our own experience.

36:03 So we must see the two things wedded together, welded together, prayers flowing out of and based upon the promises. Prayers, promises must be turned into prayers. Never reverse the order, but never separate the two. And if we can get that principle, then the lesson time expended in preparation and in discussion and the rest has been well worth while.

Anticipating Problems: Imperfect Perception and God's Glory

36:28 Alright? Can you see some other implications that flow out of this? Bill? Alright.

36:43 This was the other thing. Eugene did mention. You mentioned we must mix faith, then, with the promises. Yes.

36:48 Alright? So, press that a little further, Mr. Rogers, the point you're making. I believe that there's much of a lack of answer in prayer because we really cannot say what we're praying in and that is with complete trust in God's behavior.

37:04 There's too much doubting and wavering. I can't say what the source of it is, but I believe there's a lot of doubting and wavering whether God will answer it or not. And then, I guess quite often if He doesn't answer it, we're not sure. So, I don't know if He answers it.

37:19 It's not going to fit us when we sit by this person all day all night. Yeah. Alright. So, see, we're already anticipating, then, the problems of the promises, aren't we?

37:28 We look at a promise and we're going to see, and this is just by way of anticipation. It'll whet the appetite and get the wheels going. We look at a promise. Let's enlarge that.

37:38 Okay? And there's the promise abstracted. And our present understanding is that that promise involves matters A, B, C, and D. So, we look at a promise and we're going to see that promise A, B, and C in its fulfillment to us.

37:56 So, having prayed to God through Christ on the basis of that promise, we are now looking for its fulfillment. And how are we looking for its fulfillment? We're looking for a fulfillment that perfectly suits our expectation. Now, the point Mr. Rogers is making is that sometimes the answer comes in terms of God's intention when He gave that promise which we believe to be God's promise. And that promise is a promise that we imperfectly perceive when we pray. Okay? And therefore, many times we are discontent and discouraged when an answer comes.

38:48 We may use physical objects like that. And we say, well, this doesn't match that. And God says, not for you it doesn't. But when I gave the promise, this is what I intended for you.

39:03 The promise remains of sinful corruption within. And part of that corruption manifests itself in our dullness of spiritual perception. See, people ask the question, why is it that earnest Christians reading the same Bible have so many areas of difference? Well, it's just a monument of the fact that remaining sin is with us.

39:28 Why is it that I can't have a perfect view of the promise and therefore there is this element that enters in and will demonstrate this from the Scriptures. Alright? What are some of the other implications of this whole thing that we tried to establish this morning, the place of the promises in our prayer? It means we must search them out.

39:52 It means that we must seek to apply them to our situation. It means we must not be content until we've been brought to some degree of confidence that the thing based upon the promises will be granted. We must not be wooden in interpreting how the answer comes. Alright?

40:11 Any other implications? Yes, Doug? It would be proper to, if you have a need in your life, to search the New Testament to find it specifically. To search where?

40:29 Through the New Testament or the Old Testament. Okay, good. I wondered if you said New Testament purposely or that was just the promise there that you can pray to God that will give us an answer according to the need. Alright, so what you're saying is that we must not only relegate this matter of being sensitive to the promises to what appears in our general reading of the Scriptures, but in a time of crisis or in an area of particular concern, we ought to search the Scriptures.

41:05 Now, that's good and right, but is there any very real danger inherent in doing that? Well, again you see there's that problem of our remaining corruption. The problem is always there and oft times if we go in a spirit of inward frenzy looking for something that speaks to that particular thing, generally we'll find what we want to find. For instance, here's a fellow who's agitated on whether or not he ought to get married.

41:41 And he goes searching the Scriptures. You know where he's always going to end up? He's always going to end up with that verse in Proverbs, or, now listen carefully, if he's someone who's been made hyper-spiritual with the idea that the celibate life is more godly than the married life. And all of those are not in Rome, mind you.

42:01 There's an awful lot of incipient monasticism in certain circles of fundamentalism. You know where he'll end up? He'll end up in the book of Jeremiah where God says don't take a wife. And he'll say God's spoken to me.

42:16 No, he didn't. He said that to Jeremiah and your name ain't Jeremiah. He didn't tell you that. And yet I've seen young men tortured over this.

42:25 Tortured over this. Because they were searching, you see, and they found thou shalt not take a wife. And they said there it is. God has spoken.

42:37 I must obey. Okay? So there is a danger in that guy. So we must be aware of that.

42:43 We must do that. But we must plead with God. Lord, give me the grace now to back off in real objectivity. Purge my heart from any subtle desire to just look for a rubber stamp on what I really want.

42:56 You see? And it gets particularly into the matters of guidance. But we ought to do this. And what else flows naturally out of it?

43:06 Yes, Ellen? I don't know. I was just thinking that if we have to keep in mind that when the answer comes that not the way we expected it that the promises are not just for us. They're for God's glory and for the good of His church.

43:22 Keep that in mind personally. Very good. And we're anticipating again one of the problems of the promises. What is the ultimate end of every promise?

43:32 And the old writers were excellent on this. That God will fulfill any specific promise in any specific area of need to any one of His children only so far as it serves His own ends, God's ends and God's own glory. God is never going to sacrifice His goals and His glory upon the altar of some carnal and immediate itch of one of His whimpering children. And the sooner we face that the better.

44:01 God has children just like some of us have children come whimpering and whining for something and we refuse to give it to them because we know it is not in their best interest. And if you're a parent worth your name you won't bend to their whines or their whimperings. And thank God some of you have had parents like that. I thank God that you have parents who when they are child based they are driven by the desire and the desire to be saved.

44:37 Because God is the one that has to do for you and He has to do for but you'll do so at the price of higher ends, okay? All right, any other implications that have come to you? We've got just a couple of minutes before we run out of time. Yes, John?

The Duty of Means and Avoiding Presumption

45:04 Considering and pleading the promises of God, God looks upon us as responsible individuals who may have a part to play in that promise. I think again and again in the numerous situations we've had on Wednesday night when people have asked for prayer and promises, for jobs, for this and for that, and we've been constantly reminded by yourself that we have a responsibility in seeking out sometimes the answers to those problems in the practical way of working on them. Yeah, very good then. We must never insulate the particular promise for this particular need from other portions of the Word of God which define duties that must be performed to fulfill that very promise.

45:45 For instance, one of the old writers said, I read recently, when we pray, give us this day our daily bread, God answers that prayer by putting... by putting work in our hands by which we are able to procure our daily bread.

45:59 That does not mean God is not providing the bread. It means He's providing by the means He has ordained. And if we plead a promise without diligently performing the duties which God has ordained to bring about the fulfillment of that promise, what sin are we guilty of? It begins with a P.

46:19 Huh? Say it nice and loud. Presumption. Yeah, see?

46:25 Presumption. Presumption. I had an occasion recently. In fact, I do quite often to talk with people who have problems in this area and that area.

46:31 And they say, I'm pleading with God. I say, are you using the means God has revealed in His Word as significantly contributing to the answer to that prayer? If not, your prayer is presumption. You can go on praying till your vocal cords shrivel up or turn purple.

46:48 S.

46:53 To what?

46:59 Oh, Joseph Smith. All right. Okay. All right.

47:12 Yeah. Oh, yeah. God gave me the spectacles. Yeah.

47:17 Well, that turns that turns that turns the whole matter of God's revealing His truth into a far-fetched fairy story that only a spirit of deception could ever cause a mature, adult, rational person to believe. Really, I see no answer for the fact that mature, rational people can believe the fairy story that forms the basis of Mormonism. No answer but that there is a spirit of error that is given to people to let them believe a lie. Because there are some very intelligent people.

47:51 I mean, Brigham Young University is not a, you know, not a catch-all for a bunch of nuts. I mean, it has some standing in the academic world. Now, Skusin, who used to teach out there, has written a book, The Naked Communist. It's an excellent survey of how our whole country was led into its, you know, into some of its questionable principles with reference to relationships with the Soviet Union.

48:14 And you don't read that, without saying, this guy's got his head screwed on. Well, how can they believe something? You have to say, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.

48:26 And here we see, then, the abuse of this very thing. And there's no scripture, precept, or promise that the ignorant and unstable will not rest to their own destruction. But we must then, you see, not overreact against that abuse and not enter into the proper use. All right?

Selflessness, Perseverance, and Self-Examination in Prayer

48:43 We've got time for one or two other questions. Yes, Bill, or...

48:46 I think that we go so it would be an earnest pleading the prayers for other areas, other churches in the world, as well as just our personal self. Very good. Yes, all right. So a practical danger is that we do not simply look for promises that apply to our needs and to our circumstances, because there we manifest the spirit of selfishness.

49:10 Even in our prayer life, it's true. He that would save his life shall lose it, but he that will lose his life for my sake shall save it. Isaiah 58, If thou draweth, thy soul to the hungry, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday. And I found this happen.

49:26 Areas where I've been pleading for something from God and when, as it were, forgot it and gave myself to pleading on behalf of someone else, the very thing I was asking for just came in its train, just followed along without even looking for it. And there's a very, very vital principle. We don't want to become like selfish little kids with the promises who only think in terms of filling their own bags with their trick-or-treat pick-up. Yeah.

49:53 All right. Someone else had a hand. Yes, Michael. Sometimes the promise is there's an element of weight where I'll have it to believe that God has given me that promise to me and I've gotten to continue the pleading of that promise that proves it.

50:17 Yeah. Yes, here again, see, we're anticipating one of the problems of the promises is the time lapse between what we felt was a fervent, believing plea of that promise and the apparent delay and non-response of God. And this is where faith is tested and the whole biblical doctrine of perseverance in prayer comes in.

50:40 So you see, we're not dealing with matters that you can touch in isolation. All these things have tentacles that go out and encompass other very vital matters. Yes. But, excuse me, but and then but.

50:52 Yes.

51:03 Yes. And then we lose the benefit too. Not only do we dishonor God, but that promise would be brought back afresh. If we would make it now the subject of praise to God.

51:15 Very good. Yes, Bob.

51:32 All right. So when we get serious about why the thing is not fulfilled or how oft times then God does cause us to search our own hearts to see if we're asking amiss and whether or not that may not be the reason why God has not answered. Well, our time is gone. Let's commit our thoughts to the Lord in prayer.