His Knees, Part 2

Introduction: The Anatomy of a Man of God and the Bowed Knee

0:00 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, November 13th, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us do precisely what we have exhorted ourselves to do in the language of the hymn, come to God in prayer with our need, our need in this hour being, the illumination of the Holy Spirit upon our minds as we hear the word, the gift and the grace of spirit-anointed utterance to be the portion of the one who seeks to minister that word to you. Let us seek such grace from the Lord together. Our Father, we are thankful that we come into your presence with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving us a sure and a strong foundation on which to come, even though, those words in which he encouraged us to ask in the conviction that we shall receive to seek in the knowledge that we shall find and to knock in the expectation that it shall be opened unto us.

1:26 Therefore, our Father, we ask, we seek, and we knock, we beg, we plead, we entreat that the Spirit would be sent upon this congregation as the Spirit of wisdom and of illumination, the Spirit of conviction, the Spirit who testifies of Christ, that he may be sent in copious measures upon your servant as the Spirit of utterance, as the Spirit of accurate handling of the word of truth. O Lord, answer our cry, we plea, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.

2:14 In the Sunday school hour, our brother Pete Leon announced the fact that it was time to renew subscriptions for the Banner of Truth magazine. And in a recent edition of that magazine, Maurice Roberts, the present editor of the magazine, published an essay with the very arresting title, Where Have All the Saints Gone? And the main thrust of that searching essay is captured in the opening words of the concluding paragraph in which Mr. Roberts writes as follows, Where have the saints gone?

2:59 There is no substitute for godliness. It is the best thing that can be said of any man when it can be said of him that he is God. A man of God. Now these words, a man of God, are the words used in scripture to describe a preacher of God's word who is equipped and sent by God to minister the word of God to his own generation.

3:34 And in the light of our peculiar privileges and responsibilities in conjunction with the Trinity Ministerial Academy, which functions as an integral part of the life and ministry of this congregation, we have been considering together from the scriptures this very vital theme, the anatomy of a man of God. Considering the various features of the human body representative of spiritual characteristics, what does a man of God look like? How is his picture? How is his picture drawn in the word of God?

4:18 And we are considering this truth that the men who are in the academy might have a clear vision of the goal to which they are pressing, that we as the people of God may know what it is we are praying for when we pray that God will mold and fashion these men into men of God. And furthermore, since there is no doubt, there is no double standard in scripture, only an intensified standard for the man of God, in a very real sense, we are reviewing some of the fundamental elements of personal godliness which are requisite of all the people of God, regardless of their gifts and functions in the body of Christ. Thus far, we have examined from the scriptures the anatomy of a man of God as it relates to his head, his eyes, his ears, his heart, and his mouth. And we plan again this morning to consider what the knees of a man of God look like. In our initial study of the knees of a man of God two Lord's days ago, we noted that the knees of a man of God are knees which are constantly bowed, or bent before God,

5:45 the bent knee being the symbol of submission, of adoration, and of supplication. And in this previous study, we had time to open up and apply only two aspects of the bowed knees of the man of God. We saw from the scriptures, particularly examining the 95th Psalm, that the knees of God, the feet of a man of God, are bowed before the living God as creator, sustainer, and sovereign Lord of the universe. And it is this constant spiritual posture in the heart of the man of God being bowed before the living God as creator, sustainer, and sovereign Lord of the universe that forms the very foundation of ministerial humility, ministerial obedience, and ministerial stability. And then we saw in the second place that the knees of a man of God are bowed before the incarnate God as redeemer and mediatorial king.

7:07 The scriptures make it plain that Jesus Christ is now in a posture of supreme exaltation, Ephesians 1, Matthew 28, Colossians chapter 1, and many other passages. And in the heart of a man of God you will find that he is constantly bowed before the incarnate God, Jesus Christ, as his redeemer and his mediatorial king. And it is this spiritual posture of bent knees before the incarnate God as redeemer and mediatorial king that forms the basis of all ministerial influence and authority properly exercised, the basis of all ministerial boldness and liberation from the fear of men, and the basis of ministerial divinity, devotion and selfless abandonment to the work of Christ. Now we take up this morning the third and the final aspect or dimension of the bowed knees of the man of God. And we shall see from the scriptures that not only are the knees of a man of God continually bowed before God

The Knees Bowed Before God as the Father Who Delights to Answer Prayer

8:36 as the living God who created the heavens and the earth, upholds and sustains them by his power, governs and controls them in his sovereign purpose, not only are the knees bowed before the incarnate God, Jesus Christ, as his only redeemer and as mediatorial king, but we shall see that they are continually bowed before God as the Father in heaven who delights to hear, and answer prayer. If anything is characteristic of the knees of a man of God, it is this, that they are in the posture of being bowed before God as the Father in heaven who delights to hear and to answer prayer. And in opening up this dimension of our study, I want to do so in terms of two basic categories of thought. First of all, I want to establish from the scriptures the fact that prayer is given a unique place in the administration and advancement of the kingdom of God. Having done that, we shall then secondly

Prayer's Unique and Indispensable Place in God's Kingdom (Psalm 2)

10:01 seek to open up the four specific areas in which a man of God is constantly engaging in prayer with respect to his identity and functions as a man of God. First of all, then, I want to address this matter of the unique and indispensable place of prayer in the administration and advancement of God's kingdom of grace. Now, I know a few passages which more strikingly and convincingly establish this uniqueness and indispensability of prayer than does the second Psalm. And I'm going to ask you to turn, please, to Psalm 2. That this Psalm applies and finds its fulfillment in the present kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is clearly established by its use in the New Testament. Inspired Apostles quote this Psalm as finding a present fulfillment in the person and work of Christ in Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 13,

11:26 and in Hebrews chapter 1. Now, many of you are familiar with the Psalm. It begins in the first three verses with a description of what we might call the seething age of men against, the rule of his anointed king. Why do the nations rage and the peoples meditate a vain thing?

11:52 The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us. Let us be rid of any impingement of the rule of the Lord and his anointed upon us. And God's response to that concentrated, seething cauldron of rebellion is found in verse 4. He that sits in the heavens will laugh.

12:30 The Lord will have them in derision. God's first response is to laugh. Puny little man who thinks he can oppose Almighty God. But then he not only laughs, verse 5 says, he will speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure.

12:52 Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. In other words, God further vexes them by saying, in spite of all of your combined efforts to frustrate the purposes of my own heart with respect to my anointed king, my anointed one, my son and the establishment of his kingdom, I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. And then in verse 7, we are taken, as it were, into the very throne room of God himself and there we are allowed to listen in on inter-trinitarian communion. Communion and the exchange of words, between the Father and the Son. I will tell of the decree, the decree that lies behind the certain establishment of the kingdom of Messiah. God speaks saying, I've set my king upon my holy hill.

13:59 Behind that action is God's decree. And that decree is here described in terms of a conversation between the Father and the Son. Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee.

14:19 Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And then verses 10 through 12 contain an exhortation to men based upon these certain actions of God.

14:46 Now I want you to focus your attention upon verses 7 and 8. God has decreed Jehovah speaking to his Son saying, Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten thee. Now that does not refer to any notion whatsoever that there was a time when the Son was not.

15:11 That is wicked, heretical, Arian theology. There never was a time when the Son was not. S-O-N. But according to Acts chapter 13 and we could look at a number of passages to validate the apostolic use of this passage, this begetting is not a begetting into existence but a begetting into a position and a posture of rule and authority.

15:45 And it has to do with the events that surround the resurrection and the subsequent exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ to the right hand of the Father. And you can check that in Acts 13 to your own satisfaction at your own leisure. Now then, having invested Messiah with his official position as the Messianic King, and here is the amazing principle, Jehovah now says to the Son, invested with mediatorial poverty of me, the nations for thine inheritance, and I. Now here's the great principle that if Messiah himself whose kingdom is secured by divine me, which cannot be if into the possession of what was decreed from the means

17:05 then surely the longdom is it shall be given. Messiah himself does not come into the possession of what is decreed, what is rightfully his in virtue of his saving work and his appointed position. He does not come into the possession of it oughtens to it in the way of asking and receiving. Now do you see that in the text of me and I will the nations for thine inheritance and therefore this text perhaps more than any scripture God establishes that in securing and in the advance of the kingdom of his Son there is a unique and humble place given to prayer in conjunction with the securing and the advancement of that kingdom. And therefore it should not surprise us that when we see our King among us in the days of his humiliation

The Prayer Life of Jesus: The Perfect Man of God

18:33 he makes it evident that he is living within the bound principle that if he would receive he must ask and our Lord Jesus Christ the only perfect of a man of God is seen as a man whose knees are continued before God's Father who delights to hear and to answer his prayers. Just to give you a little taste of how much this was true of our Lord turn to the Gospel of Luke for a moment and we won't go outside of this Gospel to show that our Lord as a man of God was eminently a man of prayer. We read in Luke 3.21 the first record of our Lord's public manifestation on the threshold of his ministry his adult ministry and we read in verse 21 it came to pass that all the people were baptized that Jesus also having been baptized

20:00 and the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him and a voice came out of the heaven thou art my beloved son in these and Jesus himself when he began to teach was about thirty years of age you see the very first official picture given of the Lord in his adult when he comes to the waters of Jordan to identify himself with his people submitting to a sinner's ordinance as though he were a sinner though he was utterly without sin he no sooner comes up out of the waters of Jordan than we find him according to Luke engaged in prayer and what do you think he is praying for well as we turn into chapter 4 of Luke and we find our Lord quoting from Isaiah 61 the spirit of the Lord God is upon me for he has anointed me to preach it's evident what our Lord is praying for he is praying that the promise of the special anointing that would rest upon him as Messiah might indeed be granted according to the very promise of the Father but you see

21:29 the promise was not fulfilled automatically in the presence of the Son of God he had to pray for that which the Father had promised and it's while he is praying that the heavens are open and the voice of approbation comes from the glory this is my beloved Son in whom I and the spirit comes upon him in bodily form as a dove that all men might know that he is indeed the Messiah the anointed one the Christ of God but the spirit comes and then we turn over to chapter 4 in verse 42 in the parallel passage to this we have studied in Mark 1 verse 35 and when it was day he came out and went into a desert place and multitudes sought after him and came unto him and would have stayed him that he should not go from them but he came but he said I must preach the good tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also for therefore was I sent looking at the parallel passage in Mark 1 35 we know what he was doing

22:55 when he was found in a desert place away from the multitudes early in the morning for Mark tells us in Mark 1 in verse 35 and in the morning a great while before day he rose up and went out and departed into a desert place and there pray if ever it would be legitimate for a man to sleep in a little in the morning it would have been that morning for the context indicates that he was up into what we would call the late hours of the night under the pressure of the needy multitudes pouring our soul in identifying with men in their bruised and battered physical condition and even in their greater bruised and battered spiritual state and we know from that incident in which a woman just touched the hem of his garment and Jesus said who touched me for I feel that virtue has gone out of me we must never think that our Lord healed and preached and ministered to men in some kind of magical mechanical way as though there was a great store of divine energy in him and it just went out of him bypassing the stuff the fabric the texture of his own truly human soul no

24:24 when he identified with human sin and need and the wrecks of humanity scripture records that he groans within him when he comes into the presence of death that he is bowed for being moved compassion means the action of the viscera the holy and empathizes and is exercised in every act of compassionate healing and ministry of the word of God and yet in the midst of that weariness knowing that there were yet many cities where he had to preach we find our Lord doing what a great while before day out in a desert place and there praying praying for what strength for the labors of the day praying for grace to be able to stick to the revealed will of the father and not become the victim of mere opportunity and the cry of needy multitudes who are begging him to come back to the place that he had just left he is there praying furthermore we read on in Luke's gospel and we find in chapter six in verse twelve these words and it came to pass in these days that he went

25:52 out into the mountain to pray and he continued all night in prayer to God and when it was day he called his disciples and chose from them twelve here is our Lord is the great head of his church he is administering his foundation blocks in his church for the apostles are the divinely chosen foundation blocks in the church and though one of them proved to be a traitor and a substitute was selected in Acts one and another was added in the person of Paul nonetheless our Lord in this great administrative act of messianic rule has chosen he does not trust to some stock of given in the but in this great administrative decision in conjunction with his kingdom that would affect that kingdom throughout the entire even on in for the glorified church comprised on which

27:22 are not only the names of the twelve kings affairs that they ever and father all eminently a man of prayer remembering in the administration of its messianic kingdom the rule to which he is subject is us and it shall be given and may I say it reverently it would have been true of our Lord as much as it is of us when James says you have would not come to him in the way of asking and receiving. We read on in chapter 9 and verse 28, just the gospel of Luke, just to give you a little quick overview. Luke chapter 9 and verse 28, And it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, the sayings in which he had plainly, explicitly, in the most detailed way, foretold his forthcoming rejection and suffering and death, which he would taste at Jerusalem. It came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that he took with him Peter and John and James and went up into the mountain to pray.

28:49 The fashion of his countenance was altered. And then we have this glorious account of the transfiguration, in which the Father, as it were, determined that for this, in this brief moment, something of the inherent glory of Christ as God, should skin and to the fabric of his garment, until the brightness and the glory of his face and his raiment drove the disciples upon their faces with fear. That revelation, that activity of the Father came in answer to prayer. And it is my own...

29:40 My own conviction that the connection between the two incidents of having just revealed for the first time in explicit, unequivocal, non-metaphorical language that he must suffer and die, difficult this would be, Peter had immediately taken him and said, Lord, this shall not be unto you. Could it be that his shepherd's heart was pleading with the Father, Oh God, my Father, lest they stumble at all the events to which they will be, lest they be witnesses, give them a glimpse of who I really am? Could it be that the transfiguration was the Father's answer to the pastorally sensitive prayer of his own beloved Son? Well, whether that's the connection, this much is clear. He went to pray, and as he was praying, he was transfigured before them. Chapter 11 and verse 1.

30:42 Just a moment. Listen to the Gospel of Luke. And it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place, no specific crisis recorded. Rather, we get the impression that this was an event that was an integral part of the whole pattern of his life, and Luke is just describing one such incident as he was praying in a certain place that when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray.

31:18 As they overheard him in his intimate loving communion with the Father, did they feel that they had never prayed? So they came and put themselves at his feet and said, Lord, teach us to pray. And then who can forget Gethsemane? That's the last recorded incident of the prayer life of Jesus.

31:42 We don't have time to look at it. Luke records it. Matthew records it. Mark records it.

31:48 And there in Gethsemane, as it were, every lesson he had learned in those nightly vigils, in those early morning watches, in those seasons described here in Luke 11, everything he ever knew of what it was to commune with his Father was now put to its most intense test when the cup that he must drink, in order to be our Redeemer, and go to his rightful place as the Messianic King, that cup full of the wrath of God unmixed with mercy, that seething bitter cup of God's wrath is held before him. And as our Lord penetrates into something of the horrible mystery of what it will be to be forsaken of his Father, he so wrestles in prayer, but always with the words, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass. O my Father, if this cup cannot pass, except I drink it, not my will but thine be done. And it is there, as he wrestles on the one hand with this holy aversion to the cup, that he lays hold of his Father's grace fully to drink the cup for the words, nevertheless not my will but thine be done. That is not a statement thy will be done to me,

33:16 but thy will be done by me. O my Father, give me strength actively to take the cup, actively to drink the cup. And in commenting upon that very experience, the writer to Hebrews says in chapter 5, who in the days of his flesh, when he had prayed with strong and was heard in that he feared, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. Well, do you see in the life of our Lord the principle clearly established that if the law of the kingdom is asked and it shall be given, then surely we should expect that in the record of the life of our blessed Lord, we would see him taking seriously that decree to which he was privy in the councils of eternity. And therefore it is not at all surprising that when he announces in what we would call the Magna Carta of the King, how the subjects of his kingdom will obtain what is graciously provided by the Father through the Son,

34:42 what is the emphasis? He says in Matthew 6, When ye pray, say, Our Father, who is in heaven, give us. He says in Matthew 7, Ask, and it shall be given. And that principle that obtained for him, he now trans of his kingdom and says that everything that he will procure his grace so that it is all women never earn, our prayers earn nothing.

Prayer for the Health and Vigor of His Own Soul as a Christian Man

35:20 They receive what is given, and givenness is graciousness. But the gifts of grace are received in the way of ask, because that's the rule of God's kingdom. Well, having, I hope, demonstrated the unique and indispensable place of prayer in the administration of the kingdom of grace and of God, now then, let me seek in the second passage to focus upon why it is that the mark of a man of God as to his knees is that they are continually bowed before God the Father, who delights to hear and answer prayer. And as time permits, I want to focus upon four categories. I've taken more time to establish the principle because once we see it, then I believe there are many portions of the word of God that will open up with freshness. But now, looking at the man of God, why is he, whatever else he is, a man of prayer?

36:30 Well, first and foremost, and hear me carefully, first and foremost, the knees of a man of God are bowed before the Father to seek the things he needs for the health and vigor of his own soul as a Christian man. The knees of a man of God are constantly bowed before God his Father to seek the things which needs to be thundered from the rooftops in our days. The man, in other words, it is what a man as a Christian that is the foundation on which his function as a minister is built and never the other way around. You do not take the shriveled soul of a babe in Christ

37:57 or the grotesquely developed soul of a man who is not pursuing universal holiness and think that by giving him a task, by giving him a church, by giving him a type, suddenly the minister doth sometimes know. And that is why the primary requisites for the office of an elder in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 focus upon the man and the thoroughness of his Christian stature as a Christian man. It is the man that makes the minister. Now hear me.

38:40 What is true on the threshold in order legitimately to enter the ministry is true at every step along the road in the ministry, even if a man should live and preach for sixty years. It is always what he is as a Christian man that determines what he will be as a Christian minister. Therefore, therefore the knees of a true man of God are continually bent before the Father first to seek, Father, the things he needs of his own, as a Christian man. He goes to the throne room of the Father not for services or to pray for upon him as he leads the worship service. He goes to the throne room to worship. He goes not to ask for grace to help others to worship him

40:03 or for wisdom to know how to plan a service in which men will worship him. He has learned that the Father seeks a people to worship him in spirit and in truth. And we are the true circumcision, Paul says, who worship God in the spirit. That's the fundamental mark of a truly regenerate man.

40:31 He has beheld the glory of God in the face of Christ. And in the work of Christ he has been brought to the apex of redemptive privilege. He has been adopted into the family of God. He has been given the Holy Spirit enabling him to cry, Abba, Father!

40:52 And therefore his first business at the throne of grace is to be a worshipper of the Father as a Christian man. Secondly, he goes to the throne room of the Father not only primarily to worship and praise and adore the Christian man, but he goes to the throne room of the Father to confess his sins and to plead for forgiveness, to pour out the consciousness of his own wretchedness and to pour out of his own self-loathing. He does not go, first of all, to pray for wisdom, to know how judiciously to be the mouthpiece of the congregation to confess its sins. But he goes because he has remaining sin, much of it lying totally beyond the sight and awareness of God in his own conscience. But he knows that lurk in the dark shadows of his own breast. And he fears those demons of pride and of envy and of lust and of greed, of irritation and of selfishness.

42:14 And though the most discerning person may never see those demons breaking out, as it were, into such control that anyone would ever call him a lustful, a greedy, a proud, a haughty man, demons are there. And it's only grace that can restrain the horrible influence of that remaining corruption within his breast. And he therefore goes continually into the throne room of the Father, to say, Father, forgive my trespasses, even as I forgive those who trespass against me. He goes to plead a promise which I personally have said hundreds of times before God. I'm so glad forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven, for surely if there's one verse you'd retract from my overuse of it. It's 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

43:27 And so the man of God goes to the Father primarily and foremost and fundamentally to seek the things he needs for the health and vigor of his own soul. As a Christian man, he goes to adore and worship. He goes to confess and plead and pour out self-loathing. He goes to the Father in the third place for grace that he may grow in likeness to the Lord Jesus.

44:00 There is no automatic conformity to Christ because a man has a reverend in front of his name or because anyone calls him pastor. If he is to be made like the Lord Jesus, he must be made like him the way every Christian is. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3-18 that we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into that same image from one stage of glory to another. It's only as with the eye of the Holy Spirit in the secret place he beholds the reflection of the Father in the face of the Lord Jesus.

44:41 He beholds that glory in the meditative reflective reading of the Word. It's there that he cries, O Lord, may the image of your Son be more pervasively stamped upon me that I may, from the depths of my innermost being to the reaches, the farthest reaching of my external, may I be more like the Savior.

45:09 In other words, it is there in the throne room of his Father that he takes seriously the ministerial charge of Acts 20, 28 and 1 Timothy 4, 16. Take heed to yourselves and to all of the flock. Take heed to yourself and to the teaching and the mark of a man of God who has a posture where he is worthy of the name of Jesus. On this point, I am the price for the nurture of my own. In the past, I have been the price for the nurture of my own. In the past, I have been the price for the nurture of my own. In the presence of my God.

46:08 And you men preparing for the ministry, if that does not become a conviction wrought into the fibers of your soul by the Holy Ghost by which you are prepared to lop off right hands and pluck out right eyes,

46:33 the mark of a man of God.

46:39 First and foremost, the knees of a man of God are bent before the Father. First and foremost, the knees of a man of God are bent before the Father. To seek the things he needs for the health and vigor of his own soul as a Christian man. Let me put it in a stark way, because I put it this way to myself many times over the years.

47:03 In the case of a true man of God, if he were to have a stroke and the stroke affected only the motor coordination of his tongue, just one little blood vessel that sends the signals from the brain, to make the tongue speak, follow me now, in a man of God, if he had a stroke that rendered him in a moment of time utterly unable ever to speak a name, ever speak, I'm sorry, a word in the name of Christ publicly again, his fundamental business at the throne of grace would not be changed one iota. His fundamental, I didn't say his total business, I said his fundamental business at the throne of grace would not be changed one iota, because his fundamental business doesn't have to do with what he does with his tongue. It's what he is as a man in the eye of God, what he is before his own in the light of God's countenance. And I have searched my own heart hundreds of times over the years and asked myself, would that be true of me? God, if you popped one little blood vessel

48:24 so my tongue could never again speak a word in your name of Christ in public ministry, would my fundamental work at the throne of grace be altered at all?

Prayer for the Health and Vigor of His Ministerial Tasks

48:41 Then I must hasten to focus in the second category, and I speak more briefly because I'm moving in order of importance. The knees of a man of God are bowed before the Father to seek the special things he needs for the health and vigor of his ministerial tasks. See what we've done now? We've overlaid to the fundamental needs of every Christian man the peculiar needs he has as a Christian man who has peculiar tasks in the work of the ministry. And the knees of a man of God are bowed before the Father continually to seek the things he needs for the health and vigor of his ministerial tasks. Why? Because if he's a man of God at all, he knows the meaning of these words uttered by the great apostle, who is sufficient for these things. Any man who has anything that approaches a one-tenth accurate perspective of what the work of the ministry is, I don't care what his IQ is, I don't care what his formal education is, I don't care what his native's gifts are. If he were Edwards and Whitfield and

50:04 Spurgeon and Augustine, I don't care what his education is, I don't care what his work is, I don't care what his abo tien. And the courage of Athanasius and Luther all rolled into one, the mystic assesment of the ministry. And even a Superman like that would cry out, I am not sufficient for these things. And therefore, the man of God has a lot of added business at the throne of grace that the ordinary Christian man doesn't have. Let me point out a few areas. Number one, he has a broad spectrum of need rooted in his own peculiar temperament, and physical condition. He has a broad spectrum of need rooted in his own peculiar temperament and physical condition. There's volatile Peter, always ready to jump out and say his thing. All of you shall betray me. It's going to go off. I'm ready, Lord. Let's go get him.

51:08 And then there's poor timid Timothy. The window would drop, you know, sash would break. He thought for sure there was a bullet aimed at his head. Shaking for days. Timid, physically weak, by and oft infirmities. You see, Peter has work to do at the throne of grace if he's going to be a shepherd like the great shepherd. He has work to do that Timothy doesn't do. Peter's got to pray for the restraint of his volatile temperament, of his loquacious tongue, of his forward spirit. He's got to pray for the grace of holy restraint.

51:46 Some of us, when God scrambled us together in the womb, he made us Timothys. We could have no courage to face anyone in a confrontational way. We would have no courage to bear hardship. We are fearful and timid and insecure. What do we need? We need dimensions of grace that the Peters know nothing about. We must pray for the grace of moral courage. We must pray for the grace to speak out when everything in us would wrong. And our lips would be sealed. Each of us, according to his temperament and physical constitution, has special needs that can only be met at the throne of grace. You remember Paul had a physical affliction. We don't know what it was, but he said, for this thing I sought the Lord thrice. He engaged in intense, earnest seasons of prayer, growing out of peculiar physical necessities that seemed to be an imperative. He engaged in intense, earnest seasons of prayer, growing out of

52:46 peculiar physical necessities that seemed to be an imperative. He engaged in intense, earnest seasons of prayer, growing out of peculiar physical necessities that seemed to be an imperative. And that's true of all men of God. But then there's a second category of concern, another broad spectrum of need rooted in the demands of public preaching and teaching. Do you people have any idea what it takes publicly to teach and preach the Word of God with accuracy and clarity, with energy, with passion, with genuine, unfeigned love and self-giving? week in and week out a man does not have any stock of those supplies that he needs for example he needs wisdom to know what he ought to preach lord what spiritual vitamins are needed he's constantly pleading james 1 5 if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of god he's in the train of solomon's

53:42 early years when solomon was ambitious not for a hair of moderics but he said oh give unto thy servant wisdom that he may judge this thy so great a people and the man of god in conjunction with the needs of his ministry is not only constantly at the throne of grace seeking special grace for his own peculiar temperamental and physical condition but the demands of his public ministry he needs them to know what to preach and then he needs illumination as he pours over the word he has no special spectacles like joe smith's imaginary spectacles that supposedly helped him to read this ancient writing all a big hoax well he has spectacles that when he puts them out of the word he needs to cry undress my eyes that i may behold wondrous things out of thy law he needs consummate skill in understanding the word second timothy 2 15 he's to be a workman who has no just cause of being ashamed as he cuts a straight course in the word of truth he has no cause to be ashamed now in

55:04 presence of god and greater yet no cause of shame in the last day that he would be found as one who manipulated and twisted the word of god he needs wisdom to know what to preach illumination as he labors over the text skills of his ministry his character his character he needs wisdom as he is able to hear and understand the word of god and his presence and his presence is a great way to be able to understand the word of god and his presence is a great way to be able to understand the word of god in opening it up and laying it out then he needs boldness to declare it that's why Paul in Ephesians 6.19 said pray for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may make known the mystery of God boldness is not a matter of temperament when it is spiritual it is a grace that almighty God gives in answer to prayer he needs the unction of the spirit Luke 11.13 if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall the heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him he must ask and wrestle and plead for the anointing of the spirit what it is what it isn't and I know when it isn't present and the people of God know when it isn't present and whatever unction in preaching is it is no extra it's not like power in the chariot of preaching

56:30 often all that's left is the confidence of the people of God the heart with all the truth in the outline but it goes nowhere without the anointing of the spirit he needs the graces of meekness and patience 2 Timothy 2.24-26 the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil having been taken away from God and taken captive by him unto his will you know what it's like to wring your soul out as I'm doing this morning looking to the faces of some of you that my soul's been wrung out over you month after month year after year you've been pled with you've been wept over you've been entreated some of us believe that we've cut off Adam isn't up to doing that year in year out decade in and decade out if he's to have that meekness and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience

58:00 and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience and patience those special things needed for his public preaching and his public teaching, the things needed for his own peculiar temperament and physical constitution. But there's another broad spectrum of need arising from the demands of private counsel, rebuke, and exhortation. You see, the work of a man of God is never done in the pulpit, certain theories of the ministry notwithstanding. The word of God is clear that a true man of God will follow up with his people in private the very things he has preached publicly. Paul could say, I preach publicly and from house to house. Paul could say, I was with you, 1 Thessalonians 2.11, as a father, one of you, exhorting and encouraging and testifying.

59:11 I am a father. I am a father. I am a father. I am a father. I am a father. I am a father. I am a father.

59:11 I tell you, it's not easy for some of us to go to a brother, to a sister, and point out a besetting sin that is glaring, that borders on being scandalous. It's not easy to tell a man, do you know you treat your wife like dirt? And I'm going to give you the proofs. Sit and listen to me. That's not easy. And when someone comes into the counseling room and pours out his or her complaint and cries out, I don't know how to deal with it. And you sit there and you say, oh God, I don't know how to deal with it easier. Few things make me want to run from the ministry, but that's one of them. When a bleeding soul comes into my study and I've cried for wisdom, and for one reason or another, God's not been pleased to give it, and I have to tell the soul, I don't know what medicine to give you. I'm letting you see what a man of God goes through. Now, my friends, how is he going to do that?

60:16 Rebuke the stiff-necked prophet. A person who says, nobody talks to me that way.

60:26 To the timid, frightened soul who's ready to consign himself or herself to being an apostate, when in reality they're all the marks of grace. They have a hypersensitive conscience. Where are you going to get the wisdom, the grace, the patience, the sensitivity, the courage? I tell you, there's one place you're going to get it, and that's at the throne of grace.

Prayer for Blessing Upon the Sheep and Converting Grace for the Unsaved

60:53 So the second area of general need that keeps a man of God on his knees is that which arises from the special things he needs for the health and vigor of his ministry. And then I'll just give you the third and fourth heads and we'll be done. The knees of a man of God are bowed before the Father to seek from the Father his continued blessing and grace upon the sheep committed to his care. The knees of a man of God are not only in the secret place for the things that he needs as a Christian man, the things he needs as a Christian minister in his public and private exercises, but he's on his knees pleading for the Father to give grace to his sheep. And I say two things very quickly. Our Lord is the great pattern of this dimension of the man of God. For his present life is fundamentally alive.

61:52 Of sovereign administration and rule and perpetual intercession. Hebrews 7.25, he's able to save to the uttermost, seeing he ever lives to make intercession. And in that marvelous, what may well be, pattern of his present intercession in John 17, he prays fundamentally for four things for his people.

62:17 He prays for their preservation from evil and sin and the evil one. He prays for their sanctification. He prays for their unification. He prays for their glorification.

62:29 And that's what a man of God will plead with God to give to his people. Lord, preserve them from evil. Lord, make them like your son. Lord, keep them one in the spirit.

62:43 And oh Lord, bring them home safely to glory at last. And you read Ephesians 1.15 and following. 3.14.

62:52 And following Colossians 1.9-11. Philippians 1.9-11.

62:57 Colossians 4.12-13. And a host of other passages. And there you see the apostle as he says in Ephesians 3.

63:06 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father that he would grant you. And his prayers for the saints were rich. They were profuse. And it's interesting that in not a one of them is there an explicit, explicit reference that he prays for their physical well-being.

63:26 He prays for their increase in knowledge, in love, in faith, in discernment, in the experience of the fullness of God, of spiritual illumination. The man of God pleads that God the Father would give to the sheep under his care those very things that are the pursuit of his own soul, the spiritual pursuit of his own soul. He is a Christian man. And then finally the knees of a man of God are bowed before the Father to seek converting grace upon the unsaved to whom he ministers.

64:05 And the great pattern of this is the apostle Paul in Romans 10.1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. A man who has felt the flames of hell licking at his own feet, and knows that at any given moment were God to charge him with the sins of the past hour, no matter how holy he is, God could justly send him to hell for an eternity.

64:36 A man who's known his own sin, who's known something of God's free sovereign mercy in Jesus Christ, he cannot help but yearn for the salvation of others. And when his heart's desire is such, his prayer to them, is that they will be saved. He knows that men are blind and deaf and dead and rebellious and ignorant, held in the clutches of the prince of darkness. And he knows there is nothing he can do, though he must preach to them and plead with them and warn them, though he must seek to make them tremble with the terrors of...

65:20 and make them salivate with the sweetness of the gospel. He knows that neither the terrors of the law, nor the sweetness of the gospel will ever move them, unless God gives them eyes to see and ears to hear. And therefore he's in the secret place crying, Oh God, send converting grace. God is witness that some of us, before we ever came to this auditorium today, have cried to almighty God for children and young people and teenagers and adults in union with Christ. And God plants the cross of his son between you and the hell you deserve and says look and live. He only asks you to forsake that which will damn you and embrace him who will take you into his presence forever. What's unreasonable with that?

66:27 That God should tell you turn from the things that will damn you. Run to the one who is life and love and liberty, who alone can give you access to the father, acceptance in the court of heaven, the pledge and title of eternal life, the gift of the spirit. Oh my friend, we plead that you be saved because we know it's not in our power to save you. But he who pleads in secret with God will find himself pleading with men in public.

Conclusion: A Call to Be Men of the Bent Knee

67:05 And I'm personally convinced that perhaps the greatest reason we have so little earnest, passionate gospel pleading and preaching today is that it is an echo of a closet where there's little pleading with God. Well, that's why the man of God will be marked by bent knees, bent before God the father who delights to give in answer to prayer. His knees are bent to get from the father what he needs as a Christian man, what he needs as a Christian minister, in both his public and private ministry, what he longs for God to confer upon his people, and what he yearns that God in grace will impart to the lost. As you pray for the men in the academy, as you pray for your elders, as you pray for your missionaries, as you pray for the men who've left us, cry to God that we will be men of God, men of the bent knee. Let us pray.

68:29 Our father, how we thank you for your name, father, that you are the father who delights to give. Oh, how we ask your forgiveness that it has to be said so often of us. We have not because we've asked not. Forgive us for our sinful silence in prayer.

68:57 Forgive us, Lord. When we found excuses not to pray. Forgive us when our own shriveled souls are the monument of our prayerlessness, our unanointed preaching, our frustrated pastoral endeavors, and our lack of fruit bearing in the conversion of sinners. Lord, we own the shame.

69:20 We own the kilt. Wash us in the blood of your son. And oh, baptize us with the spirit of grace, and of supplication, that we may be truly men of God, of the bent knee. Hear our cry, and dismiss us with your blessing, we pray in Jesus' name.

69:45 Amen.