Corporate Prayer as a Means of Grace (1)

Introduction: The Unique Promise of Corporate Prayer

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, March 6, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now may I urge you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 18, and follow as I read what to many of you are familiar words, and therefore may we come pleading with God that the familiarity will not breed either contempt or a closed mind, but that by the Spirit of God we shall hear these words where necessary, as though we were hearing them for the first time.

0:53 Matthew 18, I begin reading in verse 15 through verse 20. And if your brother sin against me, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he hear you, you have gained your brother. But if he hear you not, take with you one or two more that at the mouth of two witnesses or three, every word may be established.

1:27 And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church. And if he refuse to hear them, let him hear the church also. Let him be unto you as the Gentile and the publican. Verily I say unto you, what things soever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

1:55 And what things soever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if, that two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Now let us again pray and ask that the Lord Jesus, who spoke the words, will by his own words, will by his own words, and by his own spirit,

2:39 grant us understanding of them. Let us pray. Our Father, great eternal Holy Father, we bow before you as the God before whom all things are naked and open, and pray that out of your perfect knowledge of every thought and intent of our hearts, your knowledge of every conception that we have of you and of your truth, and of your ways, and especially this morning every conception we have of corporate prayer.

3:24 That you would so minister that every thought will be brought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ. That misconceptions and error will be driven away before the power of truth. That ignorance will be replaced with understanding. that understanding that is not joined to obedience may this morning become regulative of life and of conduct.

3:52 O Lord, speak to the end that we may do that which is pleasing in your sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 4, the apostle speaks of precious and exceeding great promises which God has given to us, his people. And one such precious and exceeding great promise is encased in the directives of the

4:33 Lord Jesus with respect to how his church is to deal with an obstacle. An obstinate, impenitent member of the new covenant community called the church. And the promise to which I am referring is the promise given to us in Matthew 18 and verse 19.

4:58 It is the promise that is in many ways utterly unique with respect to the matter of social or corporate prayer.

5:10 In which we do not see the individual believer going into his secret place to pray, or in the midst of the pressures of life lifting up his heart in what the old writers call ejaculatory prayer, but we find at least two of the people of God in the context of the life and ministry, and in particular the discipline of the church, agreeing together in prayer that is, we find a promise given in conjunction with corporate or social prayer.

Corporate Prayer as a Means of Grace

5:51 And if you ask why do I direct your attention to this particular promise on this Lord's Day morning, I answer that in the progression of our present series of sermons, I know of no more appropriate portion of the word of God to which to direct your attention. We are in a series of sermons in which we are setting forth the biblical perspectives that have constituted the very life and soul of our twenty-six years of existence as a congregation. And in the ninth affirmation, that is, the manner in which we are setting forth these

6:35 principles is in terms of affirmations. The ninth affirmation. The ninth affirmation is that we as a church are determined to maintain a balanced biblical doctrine of conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. And as our focus has been upon the middle concern of those three, namely, a balanced doctrine of the Christian life, we are presently concerned with what we call the means of grace, those disciplines and relationships and activities by which God nurtures and develops the life

7:18 which he imparts in his grace to dead sinners. And the principle that we have been working out from the scriptures is that there are no effective substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. Amen. And having spent considerable time on a large category of the means of grace that we have called the private or personal, individual means of grace, we have been examining for some weeks now the corporate or the public means of grace using the very passage read

8:00 in your hearing this morning as a spirit-inspired outline of the major means of grace. The major means of grace. The major means of grace. The major means of grace.

8:08 The major means of grace. The major means of grace given to God's people as a corporate entity. The church there in Jerusalem under the guidance of the apostles is described in Acts 2 and verse 42 as continuing steadfastly, not in church growth seminars, not in expert men coming and telling them how to market their product. They were not continuing.

8:38 They were not continuing steadfastly in religious entertainment, but rather they were continuing steadfastly in the apostles' teaching. There was this principled adherence to the instruction of the apostles, which was indeed the word of God itself. Furthermore, they continued in fellowship the many dimensions of shared life as the people of God. They continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread, in that simple supper of remembrance in which the focus of all of their hearts would be brought back to the central issues

9:23 of their salvation, Christ immolated, Christ shedding his blood for sinners as they would break bread in remembrance of him and drink the cup in remembrance of him. We come now this morning to focus our attention on the fourth of those major means of grace that were present in that Jerusalem church. For Acts 2.42 tells us that they not only continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching, that is, continual adherence to the word of God, continued steadfastly in fellowship,

10:06 that is, continuous involvement. With the people of God, they not only continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread, that is, in remembrance of the Son of God, but they continued with equal steadfastness, and it is said of not some of them, but of all of them, they continued steadfastly, literally, in the prayers.

10:41 The words continued steadfastly apply to each of these means of grace, and it does not say that some continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching, and others who were people-oriented as opposed to intellectually attached to the Christian faith, they continued steadfastly in the fellowship, and then others who were very mystical and devotional, they continued steadfastly in the bread. And then a few hyper-spiritual people, they continued steadfastly in the prayers. No.

11:18 What is said of the entire church is said of these people continuing in all of the means of grace. And the fourth of those major means of grace highlighted by Luke is described not as continuing steadfastly in prayer. that would be very generic, but continued steadfastly in the prayers. And it is by the use of that language that Luke highlights that there were stated seasons for corporate prayer.

12:00 It could well be that they used the very seasons of prayer that were already woven into the fabric of Jewish religious experience. For in chapter 3 and verse 1 we read, Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer. And it may well be that the Christians would gather in Solomon's porch at those very hours. But whether that is the key to when they gathered, Luke tells us, It was, part of the pattern of their corporate life to continue steadfastly in the prayers.

12:45 And as we begin to examine this crucial aspect of the public means of grace, what I want to do this morning is to direct your attention back to this unique promise of our Lord in connection with corporate prayer. I know of no other, better beginning point to set forth the glory of the privilege, as well as the pressure of the duty to continue steadfastly in corporate prayer than to examine the unique promise of our Lord in connection with corporate prayer.

The Truthfulness, Authority, and Power Behind the Promise

13:28 So with Matthew 18, 19, and 20 open before us, I want you to consider with me as I attempt, to open up these amazing words of promise. First of all, the truthfulness, authority and power behind the promise. We're going to examine a unique promise of the Lord Jesus in conjunction with corporate prayer. But we will start where he starts.

14:01 And that is by underscoring the truthfulness, authority, and power behind the promise. You see, a promise made by anyone in any circumstances is a verbal pledge of commitment to be, to do, or to provide something for another. Some of you kids remember when you took the Boy Scout pledge or promise. There are promises that we took, many of us, in the presence of witnesses when we were married.

14:41 Those promises we often express as our wedding vows. A child may make a simple promise that he'll be home from the playground by five o'clock in time for supper. And certainly politicians are continually spewing out their promises to those whose votes they desire to secure. But a promise in a non-technical way is by definition that commitment, a verbal pledge we make to be, to do, or to provide something for another.

15:20 But you see, a promise is no better than the truthfulness, authority, or power of the one who promises. I might glibly promise you that if you will come to 25 Meadowbrook Lane, and you will be able to see the promise of the Lord Jesus, you will be able to see the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be able to see the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be able to see the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ.

15:36 If you will come to 25 Meadowbrook Lane, that's the address of our home in Cedar Grove at ten o'clock tomorrow morning, I will give to each one of you ten thousand dollars just for showing up. Now I can easily frame the words. But there's a big problem with that promise. There's no hard cash to back it up.

15:59 I have no legal power....

16:02 I have no real stuff with which to back up. promise. So a promise, no matter how large, no matter how gracious, magnanimous it may appear, if it is not backed by power, is meaningless. This is why we're cynical with most of our politicians. We know as well as they do. The promises they make, they have no power to

16:27 fulfill. And we wonder why in the world do they go on making them and increasing the whole climate of cynicism. They no more believe them than we do. On the other hand, someone may have the power to fulfill a promise, but lacks the authority to fulfill that promise.

16:48 Someone may say to a person in prison, I'm going to come and let you out at such and such a time. And may come with half an army to the jailhouse in the little town and have the firepower and the manpower to take the sheriff or the captain. And the lieutenant and all of the guards, a prisoner, and have the power to release that man. But they have no proper authority to do it. On the other hand, there are other

17:19 people who make promises as a means of merely ingratiating themselves to people. Come back to our politicians. They're seeking something from you. The promise is not really an expression of truthfulness. But I want you to notice in our text that before the Lord Jesus gives

17:36 this amazing promise, there is a promise. There is a promise. There is a promise. There is an amazing, this unique promise in conjunction with corporate prayer. He points our attention

17:44 to his own inherent truthfulness, authority, and power. He has been speaking of the subject of church discipline. And he has told his people that if the discipline escalates to the point where they must now regard a man no longer as a brother and put him out of sight, the pale of the visible church, and in the name and in the authority of Christ, according to the word of Christ, they declare him to be as a Gentile and a publican, our

18:21 Lord then in verse 18 says, Verily I say unto you, and you know from previous studies, whenever you find the word verily, literally, amen, amen. In the Greek, it is one of those sayings in which our Lord is taking a highlighter and highlighting his own infallible words. In John, it is the double amen. Verily, verily, I say unto you, and in addition to the use of the amen, which points us to a peculiarly

19:01 solemn word, rather than simply use the ordinary form of expression in which the subject, is inherent in the verb, the Lord Jesus underscores that it is he who is speaking. Verily, I even, I myself, say unto you. And then he says to his church that when you act in accordance with my word, in my name, with respect to discipline, your action on earth is ratified in heaven. And he wants his people to know that.

19:37 That when they are engaged in acts of discipline, they're not acting as a religious club. They're not acting as a group of people setting up their own terms of admission and exclusion. That when their action is according to the word of Christ on earth, it is actually ratified in the presence of God in heaven. And that's such an amazing statement that he knew our faith would stagger before it, so he introduces it by understanding.

20:07 I say unto you, I who am not only the way and the life, but the truth, I who do not speak my own words, but as he has told us in another passage, I speak the words that my Father has given me. In his high priestly prayer in John 17, he said, I have given unto them thy words, with reference to his faithfulness. He who is the Father, he who is the embodiment of truth, is speaking. And he speaks with all of his own plenary authority, as the one who has all authority in heaven and upon

20:52 earth. Earlier in this very gospel, in chapter 11, he says, all things have been delivered unto me of my Father. And no man knows the Father save the Son, and no man knows the Son save the Son. And he says, I have given unto me all of my Father, and no man knows the Father save the Son. And he says, I have given unto me all of my Father, and no man

21:07 knows the Father save the Father. He is speaking as the embodiment, not only of truthfulness, but authority, and also of power. He is the one who could speak the angry seas into glassy stillness, who could speak into the very sepulcher of death and say, Lazarus, come forth, and death itself cannot hold its prey. And it is this Christ.

21:37 Who, in giving us this promise, wants us to have our attention drawn to the truthfulness, authority, and power behind the promise, because, notice the first word of verse 19, again I say unto you. We do not have the simple conjunction chi, and, or a but, but we have the word again, Pauline. And in the use of the again, what our Lord is doing is saying that the same magisterial

22:16 introduction to my word of verse 18 applies now to my promise in verse 19. As surely as my verily I say unto you validates this word, that when you is my word, I shall be your people, act on earth according to my word, and under the direction of my Spirit, your action on earth is ratified in heaven again. With all the weight of that verily I say unto

22:56 you, again I want you to know that my truthfulness, my authority, my power stands in all of its integrity behind this promise. And I say unto you, again I want you to know that my truthfulness, my authority, my power stands in all of its integrity behind this promise. And I say unto you, again I want you to know that my truthfulness, my authority, my power stands in all of its integrity behind this promise. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. Before we consider the substance of the promise, the Lord Jesus wants us to see that that promise is completely

Glorifying God by Believing His Promises

23:39 permeated with the reinforcing rods embedded in the very concrete substance of the promise. His truthfulness, his authority, and his power stand behind this word of promise. And by way of application I say, dear people of God, as we would seek to gaze upon this promise as a promise. And I say unto you, again I want you to know that my truthfulness, my authority, my power stands in all of its integrity behind this promise. And I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. Before we consider the substance of the promise, the Lord Jesus wants us to see that that promise is completely

24:11 a precious jewel. Let us first of all look to the hand that holds out the jewel to us. He holds it out not like a magician to commit some kind of sleight of hand and make the jewel appear like a pure diamond only to throw it on the ground and see it be dashed into pieces as cheap glass. He is not holding it out simply when we would see it in its glory and reach out to take it, to withdraw it. Standing behind the promise, the hand that

24:54 holds out the precious jewel of this promise is the hand of infinite, eternal, unchangeable truth. In the person of him who is the truth, in the person of him who is the truth, in the person of him who is the truth, in the person of him who is the truth, in the person of him who is the truth, the faithful and the true witness as he is designated in the book of the Revelation. And when he says, I say unto you, and what he says seems to be so broad and so expansive in its provisions that we say surely there must be some limitation.

25:35 He says, verily I say unto you, I who have all authority in heaven and upon earth, do not stagger before what I say. Look at the hand that holds out the promise. It is not a promise comprised of sentimental hyperbole. It is not a promise precipitated by political ambition and seeking votes. And follow closely as I make this statement. Dear people of God,

26:09 do you want to glorify God? Do you want to live? To the chief end for which you were made to live? To glorify God? There are few things

26:21 that bring more glory to God than when the people of God take the promises of God and believe them for what they are. Chapter and verse to prove it, turn to Romans chapter 4, where believing the promise of God and bringing focused glory to God are brought into the closest conjunction in the case of Abraham. Speaking of Abraham, we read, verse 19, and without being weakened in faith, he considered his own body, now as good as dead, he being

27:05 about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. God had made a promise that through Abraham and through his seed, through Sarah, there would be glory to God, glory to Abraham. There would be a multitude of nations. He would have a seed that was as numerous as the sands of the seashore and the stars of heaven. And year after year passed.

27:31 The promise had been repeated several times to the man of God. But now, as far as powers of reproduction, he had as much power to father a child as a corpse lying in a coffin. So the scripture says, He considered his own body, now as good as dead. Doesn't mean he was going around like a dead man in terms of his overall physical health, but in terms of power to reproduce.

28:04 He'd had it. Sarah had long since gone through all of the complex problems that a woman faces when what happened in her early or mid-teens is reversed. She goes through the menopause and it ceases to be with her in the old, beautiful, euphemistic language of the King James after the manner of women. Her womb, as good as dead.

28:30 No longer was there a monthly release of an egg from one of her ovaries. No longer a nourishing of the inside of that womb to receive a fertilized egg and to feed it and nourish it to full term. It has long ceased to be with Sarah and it ceases to be with Sarah and it ceases to be with Sarah. After the manner of woman, the deadness of Sarah's womb, death in Abraham, death in Sarah, but look at verse 20.

28:59 Yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith. Now look at the next phrase. Giving glory to God. How did he give?

29:22 He gave glory to God. God is inherently glorious. There is the constant outshining of his perfections as we heard in the previous hour in all of the created order around us and in Abraham's case in his special, redemptive, saving love. Yet it says he gave glory.

29:42 He gave honor to God. How did he do that? He did it by not making what he saw and what he knew to be reality in his own body and that of Sarah's, the measure of his expectation. The measure of his expectation was in precise proportions to the promise of God.

30:05 As broad, as high, as deep, as thick, as sharp as the promise of God, so was his expectation. Looking unto the promise of God, wavered not through unbelief, waxed strong through faith, giving glory, to God being fully assured that what he had promised was able to perform. God was no politician looking for votes.

30:36 God was no slighted hand artist holding out a promise your seed will be as numerous as the sand upon the seashore and the stars of heaven only to take it back. And Abraham glorified God when he said, All right. I've got as much power to father a child as though I were in my tomb. Sarah has as much power to mother a child as though she were in her tomb.

31:04 But, and I will glorify God by saying, the measure of my expectation is what you, the living God, have declared. And on that, I state my all. How that glorifies God. Because it says, God, you're a God of truth.

31:30 You mean what you say. You're a God who has authority and right to fulfill what you say. You can reverse the processes that went on in my body and in Sarah's womb. And Lord, you have authority and power to fulfill all that you have promised.

31:52 Surely, this glorifies God because it magnifies him for precisely what he is. God of truth. God of all authority and God of power.

32:05 Parallel passage, 2 Corinthians 1, 19 and 20.

32:11 2 Corinthians 1, 19 and 20. As we're simply seeking to see why Jesus, first of all, directs our attention to his own truthfulness, authority and power before he gives us the specifics of the promise. Verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 1. But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.

32:39 We do not come with a gospel that it sometimes holds out a sure and certain promise that God in Christ will receive the vilest of sinners who will trust him. And other times say, well, our gospel is that we're not quite sure. Our gospel is not a gospel that at one time says yes and another time no. No.

33:04 The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no, but in him is yes. For how many so ever be the promises of God, how many so ever be the promises of God, including this unique promise touching corporate prayer that we're going to examine, we're presently examining, how many, how many so ever be the promises of God, including Matthew 18, 19. Now notice, in him is the yes, wherefore also through him is the amen

33:48 unto the glory of God through us. The thought is apparently this, in Jesus Christ, in whom all of God's promises are sealed in the blood of the everlasting covenant, God comes to us with his promises in Christ and says the promises in Christ are yes. They are yes to all to whom they come in the word and announcement of the gospel. Therefore, what do they await from us?

34:25 They await our amen. If God says yes in Christ, there is forgiveness to every sinner who will repent and believe. What is repentance in faith? Let our response say amen.

34:38 So be it. Oh Lord, I do come in repentance and faith and believe that you will receive me as you have promised your word to us in Christ in the promise is yes. Our response to God's yes is amen. And what does it result in?

35:00 It says that is unto the glory of God through us. So that as the apostle and his companions preached and held out the promises of God in Christ saying they are all yes in Christ, there is no fickle announcement in the gospel. It is a sure, a certain, a firm word. Whenever as we preach and we urge you to be reconciled to God through Christ to repent and to believe the gospel when you add the amen of the response of your heart, this glorifies, this says God is not a liar.

35:41 God is not making promises. He has neither the authority nor the power to fulfill. He is truth. He has all authority.

35:51 He has all power. Oh, how God is glorified. When men embrace gospel promises that come to them, yes, yes, yes, in Christ, they respond with the amen.

36:07 Do you catch something with the glory of that, dear people? Do you want to glorify God? Here is one of the most crucial ways. When he comes to you with a promise in Christ, it is yes.

36:18 You answer with the amen of your heart. You, like Abraham, say, no matter what obstacles there may appear to be in me, about me, in the circumstances for which I am praying, if God has given the promise, I am going to fix my gaze on the hand that holds me. It holds the jewel of the promise, not upon the weak hand of the one who would take.

36:50 Abraham considered his own body, the deadness of Sarah's womb, yet it says, looking to the promise of God. He staggered not through unbelief, but waxed strong in faith, giving glory to God. So then, we see, first of all, the authority and power and the power of God. And the power of God.

37:12 And the power of God. And the power of God. And the power of God. And the power of God.

37:12 And the power of God. And the power of God. And the power of God. And the truthfulness that stands behind the promise.

The Substance of the Promise: Activity Envisioned

37:17 But now, consider, secondly, the substance of the promise. What exactly does the Lord promise in conjunction with corporate or social prayer?

37:30 Well, in the substance of the promise, I believe the text sets before us three things. There's an activity envisioned. There is a condition described. And then, thirdly, there is a response pledged.

37:44 First of all, there is a condition described. There is an activity envisioned. Look at the text. What activity is envisioned?

37:51 Again, I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, the activity envisioned is that of corporate or social prayer. How do we know this? Well, we know it, first of all, from the context. Jesus has just described the gathering of the church for purposes of discipline.

38:23 The brother's sin has escalated from an individual matter to a matter before two or three witnesses. It has now been declared to the church. Verse 16. And now the brother has refused to hear the church.

38:40 The church in its corporate reality and even visibility it gathers for this specific purpose on this occasion to acknowledge by its corporate affirmation this man is an obstinate, stubborn sinner. The witnesses have stood before the congregation and said, we have gone with brother so-and-so. The sin has been laid out. We affirm that this is the truth.

39:11 The brother says, I went to him in such-and-such a set of circumstances, laid this before him. Everything has been confirmed. Now the church has spoken and the man goes on in his sin, refuses to repent, refuses to reform his ways. With heavy heart and with great solemnity the church gathers and it hands this one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh in the language of 1 Corinthians 5.

39:39 By its corporate act the church casts him out in the language again of 1 Corinthians 5. It puts away the evil man and Jesus says when the church has so acted the action of the church on earth is ratified in heaven and in this context of the gathered church he says again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth is touching what they shall ask. The context points us to the church gathered the Lord God in the language if two of you and the Lord uses this language two of you

40:22 not to give the picture that you had a hundred people in the church gathered for discipline but they've got no guts to stay and pray they have no heart to pray no desire to pray they all go home but two of them, no. What the Lord is underscoring in the subsequent promise affirms this is that there may be times when his church will be comprised of people of the very minimum just a handful just two or as it says in the next verse three that to a church duly constituted in which Christ is present in which his word is obeyed the numerics are matters of indifference

41:05 and so our Lord is not saying that the whole church with great numbers acts in discipline then they're a couple that draw aside to agree together no the whole context indicates that this is the corporate prayer of the church and even should the church be greatly reduced in number there is still a validity to this promise when two shall ask that's the activity in vision if two shall ask and the Greek word for ask is one of the most standard words for petition used in the New Testament it's used in Matthew 7-7 ask and it shall be given you see to it that you may be given and ye shall find

41:50 knock and it shall be opened unto you it's used in Matthew 21-22 when you stand praying whatsoever ye shall ask it's used again and again in John 14 and 15 the upper room discourse if ye abide in me my words abide in you ask what ye will Ephesians 3-20 unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or think it's used by James in James 1-5 if any man lack wisdom let him ask of God it's used in 1 John 5-14 we know that if we ask anything according to his will now why do I quote Matthew, John, Ephesians, James to show that whether it's Joannine

42:34 whether it's Matthew whether it is Peter's use James' use that this is a standard word for petition and so the picture is that the church though redundant reduced greatly in her numbers maybe she had three and it was the third who'd just been disciplined and it leaves her with two I say to you things in a manner that has nothing to do with how large the church is how influential it may be in the eyes of the world or how despised it may be not only in the eyes of the world

43:19 but in the eyes of the church growth experts the activity envisioned is the people of God gathered to ask. That's the promise has to do with this activity but now in the substance of the promise note not only the activity envisioned but the condition described look at the text again I say to you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask the word touching means if two of you shall agree on any matter or thing or affair that they shall ask most likely in the context it is the church praying both for wisdom

The Substance of the Promise: Condition Described (Agreeing Together)

44:04 in implementing the directives of discipline and praying for the blessing of God upon the discipline thus implemented in the context it is most likely that that was the primary reference in the mind of our Lord but the language is so general that it would not be responsible exposition to limit it but it would not be to that one set of circumstances rather the precise language falls upon not the particular thing that is asked but the condition within which it is asked notice

44:49 if two of you shall agree on earth if two of you shall agree on earth shall agree on earth now this word symphony oh obviously it's the word from which we get our English word symphony is the word used in Matthew 20 verses 2 and 13 just turn over the chapter to get the obvious sense of the word chapter 20 verses 2 and 13 kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that was a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard and when here's our verb when he was

45:33 when he had agreed with the laborers for a shilling a day they had a little bit of a labor arbitration not arbitration a little bit of a labor consultation and so the man is talking to these people and they're haggling about what would be a fair wage and they agree they come to oneness of mind that for a day's labor they will receive a denarii they agree on it verse 13 but he answered and said unto them friend I did you know wrong did you not agree with me for a shilling a denarii this amount did we not come to oneness of mind verbally express perhaps sealed

46:17 with a handshake or however a verbal contract was sealed in that context that's the sense of the verb and it's used very significantly in that frightening passage in 1 Corinthians 5 9 I'm sorry Acts 5 9 regarding Ananias and Sapphira when Peter is exposing their hypocrisy Peter said unto her how is it that you have here's our verb agreed together to try the spirit of the Lord you and your husband talked through worked out together a common ruse to try to give the impression you were more spiritual than you really were you were in perfect

47:01 devilish demonic symphony symphony of commitment to try to deceive that's agreeing together and in its noun form it's used in 1 Corinthians 7 when Paul speaks of husbands and wives rendering their proper conjugal duties and the husband is not to withhold himself from the wife or vice versa except it be by consent a husband and wife agree that for higher spiritual exercises there will be a time a temporary period when they will not engage in normal conjugal intimacy neither one has the right to take that step unilaterally they must agree they must talk it through

47:46 come to oneness of mind now you get the sense of the word here's the condition described to which the special promise for corporate prayer is addressed it is a condition in which two are agreed in which two are involved in a symphony in a symphony a unity of desire that grows out of attachment to Jesus Christ and to his word their perspectives about his kingdom and his honor and his name and the advancement of his cause in this context it's the maintenance

48:30 of the church as a company of holy men and women pursuing that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and if the primary reference is to prayer for wisdom in implementing the discipline necessary to keep a pure church and prayer that God will bless the discipline not to the destruction but to the salvation of the disciplined man there must be oneness of heart if one says well that was really harsh treatment we better pray God will forgive us and the other says we were acting according to the will and purpose and reason and the revealed mind of Christ we can pray that what we did on earth will be ratified in heaven the other man is praying oh God forgive us in heaven

49:14 we've been harsh they're not agreed they'll not have what they ask there's no symphony there's no resonating in symphonic spiritual perspective and commitment if you have within the church those that feel the church should be the babysitter of the children of its families and ought to be the main instructor of the church and the children of its families and ought to keep them happy and keep them insulated from the world and give them fun and games and little sermonettes and ditties and entertainment to keep them close to the church that somehow something will happen that will unionize them against the world that's their view

49:58 of the church's task for its children and here are some who have the mind of Christ and know that the church's task is to make disciples and to nurture those disciples in the church and to mature men and women who can exercise godly rule in their homes and validate the gospel by their lives and the great task of the church is to pray and to plead and to bear witness and so to live before the rising generation that the Holy Ghost will come down and change them into lovers of Christ lovers of truth of sin haters of the world who don't need to be hung by the tenuous strings to the periphery of the church

50:41 that will be brought into the very life of the church by the power of the Holy Ghost now when you go to pray in a prayer meeting suppose you've got half the people feeling this is what the church ought to be doing for the young people the other half doing this can they agree is what they ask there's no symphony of agreement this promise shall not be pleaded you see the condition described is if two of you shall agree and it's interesting very interesting that the note that is emphasized in the book of Acts in terms of the state of the hundred and twenty

51:24 upon whom the spirit came in fulfillment of the promise is this very issue look at verse fourteen of Acts chapter one these all having named the eleven apostles and remember just a short time before how they were all fussing with one another and even their mommas got involved in the fuss remember just before the Lord is to die the mommas had ambitions for their sons hey find a special place for my kid at your right hand no no find a special place for my kid and when the others hear it they're all upset with the disciples and the mommas think back through the gospels

52:08 the areas where there was tension and outcroppings of carnality but now notice how they are verse fourteen these all these all the eleven with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer with the women the ambitious mommas got their troubles all sorted out and got their focus where it ought to be and marry the mother of Jesus and with his brethren these all continued steadfastly in prayer but a quality of that corporate prayer is highlighted in only one their absolute unity one accord one accord one accord one accord one accord

52:53 in the passage that Dr. Bob opened up in your hearing last Lord's Day morning what is emphasized in that great prayer that either the apostles or the apostles with some of the church prayed after coming back from that encounter with the Sanhedrin we read in Acts 4 24 and they when they heard it lifted up their voice to God with not eloquence but with one accord the Holy Ghost is careful to emphasize that when the Spirit of God was present in power he was effecting this very condition that Jesus describes

53:37 of agreeing together now listen to me very carefully any preacher that takes a Greek word and says well this is how it's used in the English and then gives you the meaning from the English usage is an irresponsible expositor now the fact that the Greek verb soon for now is the one from which we take our English word symphony we're not warranted then to say well the word then means and then draw out a big theology of what a symphony orchestra is but there is nothing wrong with using an illustration when it fits all right so I am saying that the concept of agreeing together is beautifully illustrated in what happens in a symphony

54:21 when a symphony orchestra gathers what do they have well they have there is one score that all share written by one composer this is what amazes me when I think that Beethoven could hear in his mind trumpets doing this and the first string is doing this and the second that and the percussion is doing it blows my mind to think that one mind could think all that but they think it and they put it out and there's the score that is the written tangible expression that is the expression of the mind and will of the composer all right then you have someone

55:05 in an executive position who's called the conductor and if he's a conductor worth the name he is seeking to reproduce in the present moment what was in the mind of Beethoven of Bach of Brahms of Evaldi whoever the composer might be when he composed that score he is there as an executor he's in an executive position often will spend months studying the period in which that composer composed that particular symphony to understand what may have been the driving thought and force that he might seek to reproduce in the nuances

55:50 that he then draws out of the orchestra that will reflect the purpose of the composer and then you have a body of music of people it's called the orchestra who have agreed to submit themselves to two things to a common score and to a common conductor right you've all learned it thus far in your little music lesson okay now what happens when that commitment is real and there is the discipline of all the years of training to bring it off you have this beautiful

56:34 agreeing together together in what is produced. Now then I say that beautifully illustrates the condition described in conjunction with corporate prayer when you have a body of God's people who are committed to a common school, this book. This book is going to determine what is important to God, how God designs to get His work done in any generation, what is the great burden of God's heart for His church, for the world, what place is God assigned to preaching in the advancement of His kingdom,

57:20 what place is God assigned to fellowship in the Lord's Supper, in the nurture of the life of the people of God. The score is here. And the people of God are committed to have all of their thinking about everything determined not by their own musical inclination,

57:41 not. Not by their own personal musical instincts, but by the written score.

57:49 Now, narrow it down. When we come to pray, we have a common score that has been disciplining our minds in our devotions, in our family worship, in the public ministries of the Word. So we come together and we have a common score. We're committed that our prayers will not be the effusions of our own carnal desires to make God our celestial.

58:14 To come at our bidding and do our silly thing. It is our pouring out of our desires in the language of the shorter catechism to ask those things agreeable to the will of God. It's the score that determines our prayers, not our whims, not our fancies.

58:40 And who is the composer? It is the Lord Jesus Himself.

58:47 He's given us the score. He's given us the score in His Word. Who's the conductor?

58:52 The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, who takes the Word and applies it with power to the hearts of the people of God. That's why it's called the unity of the Spirit. He's the author of it. He's the nurturer of it.

59:10 And when the Holy Ghost is present in a meeting for corporate prayer, and He is laying upon the heart of one of the brethren who is part of this meeting, then He is the author of this symphony, committed with all of His brothers and sisters to a common score, written by the one conductor whom they love, who died for them and bought them with His blood, that they might be committed to the score that He's put in His hands. And one such brother rises to pray, and the Spirit comes upon him as the Spirit of grace and supplication. What happens? As he begins to voice his praise, his confession, his petition, his prayer, he begins to say,

59:51 his petitions, his supplications, we find that what the Holy Ghost has shown us in the score is resonating in our ears as that brother leads us in prayer, and our hearts resonate with His, and His with ours, until the experience of Acts 4 is not just something we read about and Dr. Bob talks about to us, they with one voice, one voice, singular, they lift it up their heart with one voice. What is that? Agreeing on earth.

60:30 It's not saying, I can't read you, dear people.

60:37 You see the beauty of it? Sitting at my desk, I told my wife that I felt like my pen was going to jump off me.

60:47 Dear people, that's what our Lord is talking about. This is reality. This is not some kind of off-the-wall mystical subjectivism. When God, by the Holy Spirit, can take natively wild asses in terms of what we were by nature, each one determined to run in his own direction and cut his own furrow, God can turn us into loving sheep of Christ, committed to the score that He has given.

61:20 Under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, we can gather and agree on earth the things,

The Substance of the Promise: Response Pledged

61:34 that's the condition described. Well, quickly, having looked at the activity envisioned in the substance of the promise, the condition described, what is the response pledged? Look at it. Look at the response pledged.

61:48 If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, obviously, the conditioning factors that are present with all prayer, exemplified even in the Lord Jesus, not my will, but thine, be done. But I'm not going to bring in those conditions. Look at the response pledged. It shall be done for them.

62:14 Literally, it shall become. It shall come to pass for them. Now, notice the play on words. Of my Father who is in heaven.

62:26 He had just said, your action on earth in discipline will be ratified in heaven. Your sin. Your sin. Your sin.

62:37 Your sin. All the ears on earth will have an answer from heaven.

62:47 If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done for them. It shall become. It shall be brought to pass for them.

63:06 By whom? By my Father who is in heaven. My Father who sent me to die for you. My Father.

63:17 My Father who sent me on a mission to save the great company whom no man did not. This is the will of my Father that of all that he hath given me, I should lose nothing but raise it up at the last day. I came down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me. And when your prayers, you see, are shaped by the perspectives of the word of Christ, after this manner pray ye, our Father who art in the heavens, hallowed be your name.

63:48 Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth, even as it is in heaven. And our prayers are God-centered and kingdom-preoccupied and concerned and obsessed with the will of God as well as with our own struggles with sin and the provision of our own temporal needs and the maintenance of a proper climate and disposition of forgiveness one to another. Then, you see, we are asking the things, that the Father has revealed through his Son, are according to his will, and it shall be done for them of my Father.

Luther's Insight and Pastoral Application

64:30 I had hoped to give in the third place the reason for so precious a promise, verse 20, but I'm going to wait till the next time I preach. I cannot with good conscience skip over it, for Jesus says, For where two or three are gathered in my name, he gives as the reason behind the promise, the reality of his own special presence. And it's too precious a thing to pass over, so I must close, and I know of no better way to close than to share with you the thoughts of Martin Luther when he pondered this marvelous promise given to corporate prayer. Listen to what Luther said.

65:14 Combined prayer is precious, and the most effective, for which reason, we also come together, and from which also the church is called the house of prayer. Oh, if God would that any gathering might pray in this manner, so that a common cry of the heart and the part of all the people might rise to God! What immeasurable virtue and help would follow such prayer! What more terrible thing could happen to all the spirits of evil!

65:51 What greater work could happen on earth, by which so many godly people would be preserved and so many sinners converted! For truly the church on earth has no greater power or work than such united prayer against everything that may strike against her. This the devil well knows, wherefore also he does all he can to prevent this kind of prayer. It surely does not depend on places and times, on places and buildings in which we come together, even though it be under a thatched roof, but on this invincible prayer, that we may practice this properly

66:34 and make it come before God. You see why so many of you are so inconsistent in coming to prayer meeting? Because the devil doesn't want this church as a church to continue in the entirety of her membership steadfastly in this country. When you carelessly plan your schedule and your pursuit of money and your pursuit of pleasure so that you're not in the office, to some degree you hinder the effectiveness

67:18 of this church's ability to plead this vow. And when you allow stinking rotten pride or envy or petulance to be a barrier in your heart to one of your brothers or sisters so that there cannot be a symphony in prayer, you see what you're doing? You're neutralizing this blessed promise. When you've got your own pet little notions of how you'd like the whole prayer meeting to center around yourself and your ideas of what the church should be and do, rather than letting those things be molded and hammered out upon the anvil

68:01 of the overarching teaching of the word of God, do you see what you're doing? You're sitting over here with your fiddle, playing some silly tune about old MacDonald while the orchestra's trying to reproduce the magnificence of Beethoven's Ninth. I'd help you to see what this selfishness is. It's ugly, full of running sores and drooping warts and moles, deep, craggy furrows, sallow, yellow skin.

68:46 I'd help you to see those things are in your heart. That's only a faint picture of how ugly they are. Standing behind this marvelous promise is the truthfulness, the authority, the prayer of Christ. The promise given is a promise that points to the activity of corporate prayer in the condition of being agreed together.

69:20 And the response pledged is it shall be. Oh, may God take this preacher and this fellow elders and this church into whole new dimensions of felt experience of this problem. Will you make a commitment to begin, to begin to learn new lessons with me this Wednesday? You see, all of this comes to nothing when crunched.

69:57 We're gathering to pray, God willing, on Wednesday, will you be there? Will your family be represented? If not, why not? Do we want to see our precious children and grandchildren rescued from the clutches of the aggressive determination of this world to suck them into its vortex and down into hell?

70:26 It's going to take more than a mumbled thirty-second prayer at family worship while the meal's getting cold. God save our children, amen. It's going to take more, dear parents. And if God's going to raise up men of vision and conviction and gift and moral courage to lead this church into the hellish circumstances that are sure to prevail if God doesn't send revival, they won't be raised up.

70:59 With an occasional prayer by a few lords sent forth laborers, there needs to be something akin to the majesty of Beethoven's night. And we'll see things when we gather the prayer. With this score, our common commitment, and the Holy Ghost, our conductor, and Christ the composer, making good. And my friends, if you're ready to say this is offensive fanaticism, I beg you, fall on your face and ask God to save you.

71:38 And if you're not going to do that, declare your colors, resign from this place and go play church somewhere else. Some of us are getting too close to the grave to have much patience. With polite, reformed, Baptist religion that has none of the edge of what this kind of praying is going to demand of us. May God help us.

Call to Commitment and Concluding Prayer

72:02 May God help us. O God, our heavenly Father, we confess that the largeness of your heart, poured out in the conduit of your promises, are so big, so vast, our feeble little arms can't even get enough hold upon them to draw them to ourselves. Make us strong with might by the spirit in the inner man that we may have spiritual hands big enough to lay hold of such expansive promises. God have mercy upon this pastor

72:47 and upon his fellow pastors, and upon the deacons, and upon the mothers and fathers and members in this assembly. O God, forgive us that we have so little pleaded so great and gracious to you. O God, forgive us that we have so little pleaded so great and gracious a promise before you. Forgive us when we have been so quick to give up that symphony of heart and mind for petty selfish concerns.

73:20 O Lord, wash us in the blood of your dear Son. Quicken us by the Holy Ghost. And if it please you to bring us together on Wednesday, Lord, give us a token for good. O God, that there would be a fresh touch of heaven upon us, a fresh indication that you are constraining your people to gather with one accord to agree as touching what we ask.

73:49 For those who are strangers to your grace, who know nothing of the joys of sin forgiven, O may they find Christ to be to them the Amen this day.

74:08 As your promises come to them saying, yes, there is pardon and forgiveness, may their hearts cry out with the Amen. Lord Jesus, I come. Seal, then, your word and continue with us in this your day. For Jesus' sake.

74:27 Amen.