LivePrayerSermon 1802. Thought-Reading Extraordinary
(No. 1802)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 5, 1884,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble: You will prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear." Psalm 10:17.
NOTICE at the outset, the logic of this verse. It is very simple, very forcible, very accurate logic. It runs thus-"You have"-"Youwill." "Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble: You will prepare their heart." When you know that the Lord God is immutable,"the same yesterday, today and forever," you may conclude without mistake that what He has done, He is prepared to do again.The argument from the past to the future would be a sorry one if you were dealing with fallible man, for what man has doneis no sure guarantee of what he may do! He is such a creature of freaks and whims, but when you have to deal with the EternalGod, who is faithful and true, and changes not, you may reckon with safety that the thing which has been is the thing whichshall be. Well did the Apostle say, "Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver: in whom we trust that He willyet deliver us."
On looking at the text, again, you will see that the same blessed logic is carried a step farther, for you read, "You will,"and then, again, "You will"-"You will prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear." Faith, first of all, concludesthat God will bless because offormer blessings. And then she is so sure of her conclusion that upon it she is prepared tobuild up a further confidence. This is a noble faith, worthy of imitation-but it is by no means common-not a hundredth partas common as it ought to be! To doubtful minds it is difficult, even, to infer the future from a present fact immediatelybefore their eyes, but to the believing heart it is an easy thing to do something more than that! Namely, to draw an inferenceof hope from a former inference of hope.
Faith builds a sure abode with invisible stones. She expects, because she has experienced, and experiences what she expects!Why not? Is not faith the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen? Since that which we believe is sure,it is worthy to be the foundation of further faith. We are very fond of that verse-
"And a "new song 'is in my mouth, To long-loved music set Glory to You for all the Grace I have not tasted yet."
By such language we praise God for mercy not yet received. And our text suggests another practical use of "things not seenas yet," namely, to make them, as apprehended by our faith, the basis of a still higher confidence in God. This is to be builtup on our most holy faith. Rest assured that this is not constructing castles in the air, for our faith is no delusion! Itis made of solid, substantial stuff, before which even the supposed infallibilities of science are trifles light as air.
Because our Good Shepherd has made us to lie down in green pastures, we argue that there is no cause for fear though we walkthrough the valley of death-shade-and from that we surely gather that goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of ourlives. Such reasoning is as accurate as the demonstrations of geometry! The Lord will never leave us to be ashamed of ourhope. Learn this logic and it will keep you in good stead in times of distress, when nothing but certainty will sustain you.The Lord is good and, therefore, He will be good! He will keep the feet of His saints and because He will do this, we shallenter His palace with joy.
Apply this logic to prayer. God has answered prayer and, therefore, He will answer it! Of this first statement many of usare witnesses. The evidences of that Truth of God are with us in daily experience-we have proofs of the power of prayer asinnumerable as the stars of Heaven. Because the Lord has heard us out of His holy place, we infer that He will still hearus and, therefore, as long as we live, we will we call upon Him. This is no casual thing, but it is Jehovah's perpetual nameand standing memorial-the God Who Hears Prayer! Never while the earth endures will He forsake the Throne of Grace and turna deaf ear to the cries of His suppliant Israel!
The subject of this morning is thus introduced to you. It is necessary that you pray, for the needy must cry to their helper.And it is profitable that you pray, for the bosoms of suppliants are filled with benedictions. It is not a vain thing to waitupon God-it is your comfort, your strength, your life! If you seek honor, it should be your delight to pray, for nothing ismore ennobling than to win the ear of the Lord of All! A man admitted to audience with the Most High is honored in an unspeakabledegree. We shall speak, this morning, in the way of five observations drawn from our text. May each one be made profitableto us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I. Our first observation is written upon the surface of the Scripture before us-THE LOWLIEST FORM OF PRAYER MAY BE MOST TRUEAND ACCEPTABLE. And what is that lowliest form of prayer? Is it not described in the text? "The desire of the humble." Itis not the prayer of the serene faith of Abraham, nor the wrestling of energetic Jacob, nor the intercession of prevailingMoses, nor the pleading of holy Samuel, nor the commanding cry of Elijah shutting and opening Heaven-it is only a desire-amotion of the heart towards good things! And yet the Lord hears it. Indeed, the lowliest form of prayer may be the truest,for the essence of all real prayer is desire. Words are but the habitation of prayer, the living tenant is desire.
We see from our text that desires are prevailing prayers, for the Lord has made a point of hearing them-"You have heard thedesire of the humble." Other forms of prayer may be attractive to man and yet they may have no influence whatever with theliving God. But this manner of supplication has been successful from of old, even as it is written-"He will fulfill the desireof them that fear Him." And again, "The desire of the righteous shall be granted." In fact, prayer is desire, as our poetputs it-
"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast."
The lowest form of true prayer secures the ear of the Highest and what more is needed?
Observe, it is only a desire-"the desire of the humble." A desire may be altogether unattended by speech. The suppliant maynot be able to put his desire into words at all. He may be too sorrowful; his emotions may choke his utterances. He may betoo quiet and so may be quite unversed in the use of speech. He may be only able to pour forth groans that cannot be utteredand tears whose eloquence is silent-yet God is pleased to hear the desire which lacks expression! Many prayers are very prettilyexpressed. In fact, they are expressed so grandly that their tawdry fineries will not be tolerated in Heaven! Those prayerswill never enter Heaven's gate which are meant to catch the applause of man! God will say, "They were meant for men, so letmen have them." He does not stoop to accept man's leftovers and if a prayer is meant to be a feast for man, God will not bea second-rate guest at its table!
On the other hand, many sincere persons condemn themselves because they cannot offer public prayer as their Brethren do-theyeven tremble, perhaps, to pray before their families-and this is a grief to them. I think, if they are men, they should provetheir manhood by overcoming such diffidence. I would urge them to make the attempt with much resolution and perseverance-andshould they fail in it through positive inability, there will be cause for regret-but no reason for self-condemnation. Theremay be more prayer in the silent than in the fluent. God has heard prayers which nobody else could possibly have heard becausethere was no vocal sound about them. So quick is the ear of God that He hears that which is not properly the subject of hearing-thetrue prayer which abides in silence shall not meet with a silent God!
This desire may not be recommended by any conscious attainments on the part of the offerer. The man may reach far in his desire,but he may have attained to little beyond. He may have a wealth of desire and a poverty of everything else and yet he maybe heard of the Lord. Possibly his confession may run thus-"I desire to be humble, but I lament my pride. I desire to be strongin faith, but I mourn my unbelief. I desire to be fervent, but I sigh over my lukewarmness. I desire to be holy, but I confessmy transgressions. I desire my prayer should be such as God can accept, but I fear that I waver, or ask amiss." Now such aconfession, if penitently presented, will not prevent our obtaining the promise, for the Lord has heard the desire of thehumble.
If your heart seethes and boils with desires, the steam thereof will rise to Heaven! If your stock-in-trade is made up ofempty vessels and of little else, the Lord can deal with you as He did with the Prophet's widow, "who had empty vessels nota few." Your little oil of Grace He can multiply till every vessel is filled to the brim! Have you desires?-great, hungry,thirsty desires? Then bring them to the Lord! Are your desires as insatiable as the horseleech, which is always sucking, butwhich always craves for more, crying always, "Give, give, give"? Then say with David, "All my desires are before You," andbe assured that the Lord satisfies the desire of every living thing! Be comforted if your desires are awake. You are prayingand your cry is being heard! You shall yet say, "This poor man cried and the Lord heard him." Your desires have voices oftheir own-they knock hard at Heaven's door and it shall be opened unto them.
Note, again, that this desire may be unaccompanied by any confident expectation. When you pray you ought to believe the promiseand expect its fulfillment. It is the duty and the privilege of every suppliant to believe that when he prays in the nameof Jesus, he must and shall be heard. But sometimes humility, which is a good thing, is attended by a lack of faith-whichis an evil thing-and this much hinders prayer. Humility is deceived by unbelief and so it gives way to the dark thought thatits poor feeble prayer will not speed with God. I fear that in some cases this lack of expectancy is an effectual barrierto prayer and prevents its being answered. But it is forgiven to naturally despondent, heavily-laden spirits whose fears arenot so much doubts of God as a deeply humiliating judgment of themselves.
It is not so much the case that their faith is sinfully defective as that they have a painfully acute sense of their own unworthiness-andso when they cry they hope that the Lord will hear them and they mean to wait upon Him till He does-but they are sorely afraid.They will go nowhere else, for they have no other hope but that which lies in the Free Grace and sovereign mercy of God. Butthey do not exercise that happy expectancy which the sure promise warrants their enjoying. My Brothers and Sisters, I wouldchide your unbelief, but I would still encourage your desires, for that desire which God hears is not to be despised! Thetext says, "Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble," and the Lord will yet hear your humble sighs and groans! And youshall be surprised to find the Lord doing for you exceeding abundantly above what you asked or even thought! May your faithgrow exceedingly, being fed upon the heavenly food which the Lord deals out to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
This leads me to observe that this commencing form of prayer which the Lord nevertheless hears, is here further describedas, "the desire of the humble." It has this advantage about it, that it is free from pride! Some men's prayers, if they wereto pray them as their foolish hearts really desire, would be requests that they might be made famous. Be not startled whenI say it-I fear that many men proudly ask to be humble! They desire to be humble in order that they may be admired for it!I have no doubt, whatever, that some professors seek great Grace that they may be highly thought of and greatly set by inthe market of the Church. Have we not all found that in the rushing stream of our earnest zeal there will be some backwaterwhich runs not towards God but towards ourselves? Have we not even strived to win souls that we might be notable as soul-winners?
Yes, and have we not sought to glorify God that we might shine in the reflection of that glory? "Come with me and see my zealfor the Lord," has been the language of many a Jehu! Oh, it is hard to keep out pride! This Psalm says much concerning theproud man and the oppressor, whom God abhors, and will surely visit in judgment! But then this bright word shines forth likea lone star in a dark night! Never was a precious pearl found in a rougher oyster shell! May the Lord keep us humble if weare so-and make us humble if we are not! I believe every Christian man has a choice between being humble and being humbled.Now, to be humble is a sweet thing-there is no lovelier spot on the road to the Celestial City than the Valley of Humiliation-hethat lives in it, dwells among flowers and birds, and may sing all day long, like the shepherd boy whose song ran thus-
"He that is down need fear no fall, He that is low no pride. He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his guide."
If you do not choose to be humble you will have to be humbled-and that is not at all a desirable thing. To be humbled is tobe sorely smitten and made to suffer shame in the estimation of your fellow men, both ungodly and godly. Certain persons whohave carried their heads very high have struck them against the beam and have had to go with bruised foreheads for the restof their lives! God resists the proud, but gives Grace to the humble. Therefore may God help us to offer before Him, "thedesire of the humble." "The desire of the humble" is saturated with a Gospel spirit and, therefore,
is acceptable with the God of all Grace! Pride seems born of the Law, though I scarcely know why it should be, for the Lawcensures and condemns. Humility is the child of the Gospel and is brought up upon the knees of Grace. If you would be a childof God, you must be lowly in your own esteem. If you would be heard in prayer, you must come to God as needy and empty. Lowthoughts of ourselves are the companions of prevailing prayers. No man may expect to receive out of the fullness that is treasuredup in Christ Jesus until he is willing to confess his own poverty. Grace for Grace will be given only to those who feel needupon need-all successful pleading must find their argument in Free Grace!
We must never urge claims against the Lord as though He were our debtor, for then Mercy will not deal with us- we have appealedunto the Caesar of justice and unto Caesar we must go! Let us have done with merits and rewards! Let this be our cry, "ForYour mercy and for Your truth's sake, and for Your Son's sake, hear You the voice of my prayer." This is the proper Gospelspirit. If we plead in any other fashion, we shall be sent away empty. Still, this, "desire of the humble," is apt to be somewhatrestricted and straitened. If we contract our desires to the measure of our just deserts, they will shrivel into nothing,for our deserts are less than nothing! It is ill to pray according to your sense of what you have a right to ask. You havea legal right to ask for nothing but justice! And who among us can abide its action apart from Jesus? "If You, Lord, shouldmark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?"
You had better pray according to God's command-and that runs thus-"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." The truest humilityis that which is immediately obedient to the gracious precept and accepts, without question, that which the Lord so freelygives. We have a natural right to nothing-but when the Lord commands us to open our mouth wide, He thereby gives us a Covenantright to all things! Yet, dear Brothers and Sisters, if your humility should cramp your desire. If you feel as if you woulddesire a great gift but dare not ask, still it is a desire. If you say, "I see the sweetness of the mercy, but it seems toogood for such a soul as mine," yet I spy at the back of your humility a true and strong desire and I pray that the Lord mayhear that desire and answer you for His mercy's sake. Forget not this first Truth of God-that what seems to be the lowliestform of prayer is, nevertheless, true prayer.
II. Our second point is full of comfort to those who have begun to pray. GOD IS QUICK TO HEAR THE LOWLIEST PRAYER-"You haveheard the desire of the humble." This must be a Divine science-this art of hearing desires. We have heard a good deal, lately,about thought reading. I give no opinion of that matter among men, but here is a wonderful instance of it with the Lord. "Youhave heard the desire of the humble." This kind of desire reading is the prerogative of God, alone! He knows our desires evenwhen we do not know them, ourselves! Sitting in this Tabernacle you are desiring, but it is quite impossible for the personsitting next to you to know your wishes-and it is quite as well, perhaps, that it is so.
Certain it is that the servant of God, Eli, himself, fresh from the shrine of the Most High, could not read Hannah's desires.Her lips were moving and one would think if anything could be learned, it might be from the moving of the lips. But Eli thoughther drunk and, therefore, chattering to herself, and so he rebuked her. Was it not a mercy for Hannah that God heard her humbledesire and knew all about it? Beloved, the Lord is reading your thoughts now! My dear Sister, your groaning out of the verydeeps has ascended to the heights! You would not like to tell your inward feelings- perhaps your secret is too painful tobe told-never mind, God's ear is so quick that He can hear your desires! Wonderful art! We would be very glad if the Lordhad promised to hear us when we speak, but He has gone far beyond that-He hears the unspeakable and unutterable!
Was there ever power and pity like this? Be comforted, you that are full of desires, this morning, and are sitting here withhearts ready to break, crying in your spirit, "Oh that the Lord would hear me! Oh that He would give me peace! Oh that thedays of my mourning were ended! Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat!" Do not sink indespair! There is no reason for fear-your case is among the most hopeful-for it is the way of the Lord to hear the desireof the humble.
It is an art which has been exercised by God in all ages. He does not merely possess the power, but He exercises it! I likemy text for putting it in the past tense-"You have heard the desire of the humble." It is a matter of frequent fact and notmerely a possible event! It is not the bare assertion of a power, but the record of a deed! All along through history, wherevergracious men have lived, their hearts have talked with God as well without words as with them. The pulsing of human spirits,God has heard as surely as if they had been loud as the beat of a drum! The sigh of the soul has come up before Him as clearlyas if it had been the note of a clarion! The Lord's ear is never heavy. He is not weary of the feeble-
ness and faults of the poor man's petition. The Lord still hears in the day of trouble-and the name of the God of Jacob defendsus-
"When God inclines the heart to pray He has an ear to hear!
To Him there's music in a groan, And beauty in a tear."
Today let this be told! It ought not to be buried in ungrateful silence. It is mentioned in the text, let it be mentionedin your conversation. If some here present had the opportunity, we could tell you how God has heard our desires and how, attimes, before the desire has actually been formed in the soul the answer has come, according to that Word of God, "Beforethey call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." We had a desire laid upon our heart which we nevercommunicated to any living person except the living God-and we carried that desire in our heart for weeks and months, constantlyallowing it to burn in our bosom, and frequently letting it break out in groans and broken cries-and in due time our sighsreached the heart of God! As surely as we have sown in prayer, we have, in due season reaped a harvest of blessing!
Our Lord, even in Gethsemane, was heard in that He feared-sure pledge to all His redeemed that they shall be heard in theirhour of darkness! Happy are they who dwell in God, for they may have what they please at the Mercy Seat. Is it not written,"Delight yourself, also, in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of yours heart"? Has it not been so with you, O youwho abide under the shadow of the Almighty? I charge you, then, to abundantly utter the memory of His great goodness! Failnot to tell your experience of the Lord's faithfulness-for God loses much glory and poor sinners and saints, too, lose muchencouragement to pray-when children of God are silent about their success at the Throne of Grace.
Oh, I wish I could be the means of stirring some, this morning, to pray the prayer of faith while sitting here! You may say,"I will pray when I get home." You may do so, if you please, but I am urging you to something more speedy! Remember the publican?It was in God's house that he prayed and though he did not dare to lift his eyes to Heaven, yet He sighed in his soul thisprayer-"God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" And he went down to his house justified rather than the other! I do not ask youto withhold that prayer till you reach home, but would it not be a grand thing to be saved here, and to go home justified?You shall have that unspeakable blessing, now, if your desire is a true one and you pour it out at once, believingly, beforethe Lord! He has heard the same many times and is prepared to hear you in the same manner.
Why should not this first Sunday in October be a day of Grace unto your souls? "Seek you the Lord while He may be found; callyou upon Him while He is near." This is an accepted time! The Spirit of God is near! If God is now inclining you to pray,do not resist the gentle movement of His Spirit, but let your prayer come forth, encouraged by the sweet language of my text.Say unto the prayer-hearing God, "You have heard the desire of the humble. Why should You not hear my desire at this hour,and bless me, even me, also, O my Father?"
III. Thirdly, we will remark that THE HEART IS THE MAIN MATTER IN PRAYER. That is clearly shown in the
text-"Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble." Desires are the fruit of the heart. "You will prepare their heart."When God comes to deal with men in a way of Grace, His first business is to prepare their heart so that, most assuredly, thestate of the heart is of prime importance. The heart is the source, the seat and the essence of supplication. Prayer withthe heart is the heart of prayer-the cry of our soul is the soul of our cry.
Without the heart, prayer is a wretched mockery. There is as much Divine Grace in the bark of a dog or the grunt of a swineas in a form of prayer if the heart is absent. And God is as likely, no, more likely, to hear the cry of ravens and younglions, than to regard prayers uttered in Chapels, Churches, Meeting Houses or Cathedrals, if the mind is not in earnest. Donot say, "I read my collect this morning"-you may read 50 collects and be none the better! Do not say, "I went through theprayers which I learned from a godly mother"-you may go through them 20,000 times and yet never pray once! Unless the heartspeaks with God, you have done nothing for your own good with all your "Pater Nosters" or other goodly words-no, you may havedone something to your own hurt in all this pretence of praying!
I fear that much so-called public prayer is nothing better than presumptuous sin. If your child should come to you and aska favor in an affected voice, would you notice him? If, instead of saying, "Dear Father, I want such-and-such," he shouldtake up a book and intone such words as these, "Dearly beloved Father, I have to request of you that you, in your
great affection, will give unto me such-and-such things," you would not regard his nonsense! You would say, "Come, boy, whatdo you want? Tell me plainly!" And if he continued to intone, you would drive him out of the room, perhaps, with the aid ofyour foot! I fear that this praying in sing-song is the most fearful mockery God ever hears. Fancy Peter, when he was beginningto sink, intoning, "Lord, save me!" When the heart really gets to speak with God, it cannot talk in affected tones-it throwssuch rubbish overboard!
But cannot a man pray with his heart and yet use a written prayer? Certainly he can! Many have done so for years. If you cannotwalk without your crutches, I would sooner you walked with them than not at all. Still, it is not the best words put togetherby the most devout men that ever lived, nor the holiest language composed extemporaneously by yourself, that can make up prayerif the heart is gone. Words are seldom more than the baggage of prayer. Language, at best, is but the flesh in which prayeris embodied. The desire of the heart is the life of the prayer! See you to your heart, for God sees to it-"You will preparetheir heart." Sometimes the Lord puts words into men's mouths. He says, "Take with you words, and come unto Me," and thusHe prepares words for their use. But in general, the main concern with God is that the heart is prepared to plead with Him.
Without the heart, prayer is a nullity and when there is but little heart, prayer is a failure. He that prays with littledesire asks God to refuse him. If you go through your prayer and your mind is wandering up and down about a thousand vanities,your desires are feeble and your supplication will have little effect. Prayer must be fervent to be effectual. It must beardent to be acceptable. If the utter failure of your prayer would not greatly grieve you and if its success would not muchgratify you, then depend upon it, you will have to wait long at Mercy's wicket before it will admit you. "The kingdom of Heavensuffers violence and the violent take it by force." Importunity is indispensable! Our Lord has given us many parables to thateffect. To play at praying will never do-your heart and soul must be fully awake, for no sleepy prayer can enter Heaven. Wemust praise God with our whole heart and we must pray in the same manner. If double-minded man may not expect to receive anythingof the Lord, neither may a half-hearted man. Above all things, keep yours heart with all diligence if you would speed at theThrone of God.
Success comes to the prayer of a glowing heart. When the soul grows warm, the spirit is fervent and desires are strong, then,Brothers and Sisters, do not spare your prayers! We are not always in that condition-let us pray much when we are. We arebound to prepare ourselves for prayer, but I believe the best qualifications are strong desires and intense longings. No preparationfor food is equal to intense hunger. You have the best sauce with your meat when you are hungry. It will be your wisdom, whenyour desires are sharp, to pray more than you ordinarily do. You cannot always pray alike, but when good times come, use them!When a fair mind fills the sails of desire, then make all possible headway. Set apart a longer season for private devotionwhen the soul is all alive and active in it. At another time you may have to try very hard and make but small progress, forthe chariot wheels may be taken off-let it not, at such a time, be a source of regret that you wasted a happier season. Ceasenot to obtain blessings beyond number both for yourself, for the Church and for a perishing world-but take heed that yourheart is found greatly exercised with longings of soul before God.
IV. Fourthly, GOD HIMSELF PREPARES THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE. "You will prepare their heart." I am greatly rejoiced by thisstatement that God will prepare our hearts to pray, because it is a most important business on which so much depends. On theheart, the whole machinery of life depends and it needs preparing, especially for devotion. You cannot spring out of bed and,on every occasion, pray in a moment without thought or reflection. You cannot say to yourself, "I have just been listeningto ungodly talk and now I am going to pray." It will be poor, pitiful praying which springs up from the barren soil of thoughtlessness.We need preparation in coming into the courts of the Lord's house-the soul has to take her shoes off her feet because theplace is holy.
But this preparation is often as difficult as it is necessary and, therefore, it is a great mercy that our God undertakesto work it in us. Surely none but the Lord can prepare a heart for prayer! One old writer says it is far harder work to raisethe big bell into the steeple than to ring it afterwards. This witness is true. When the bell is well hung you can ring itreadily enough-but in that uplifting of the heart lies the work and the labor. Before musicians begin to play, they attendto their strings and see that their instruments are in order-you wish, perhaps, that the operation could be dispensed with,but it cannot be-it is one of the most necessary parts of the musician's work. Until he has learned to tune his instrument,what does he know? Until he has tuned it, what can he do? I wish we were all made ready, as a people prepared for the Lord.
These processes by which the heart is prepared may have commenced far back. Our gracious God may have prepared the heart ofa man to pray today by a work which He worked upon him, or for him, 20 years ago. The Lord may be working a man up to a certainprayer by years of sorrow or joy. The poet who composes a sonnet may not be able to tell you why the inspiration came to himat that particular moment, for it may have been the outcome of his soul throughout the whole of his life. That which the songsterthrew into words, today, may have lain hidden in his soul from his boyhood. He was not prepared for penning his stanzas, then,but his later life trained him to speak in numbers and to clothe noble thoughts in the dress of attractive language. So mayit be with our prayers-they may be the juice of a life-vintage, the ripened harvest of youth and manhood. In any case, Godprepares the heart to be blessed when He is prepared to bless it.
One of the most difficult things in preparation for prayer is the restraining of loose and wandering thoughts. I do not knowhow perfect Brothers and Sisters keep themselves free from every evil thought, for I find myself defeated often when I wouldshut out these vile intruders! Honestly, I may express my belief that these carnal boasters have as many vain thoughts asother people. The ravenous birds will come down upon the sacrifice even when Abraham offers it-and it costs infinite painsto drive them away. Intruding thoughts surround us like a plague of flies-they are here, there, and everywhere! It is well,indeed, that God should prepare our hearts, for in this one point our weakness is complete. Egypt suffered from a plague offlies which all Pharaoh's armies could not drive away, but when the Lord heard the prayer of Moses, it is said, "The Lordremoved the swarms of flies: there remained not one." That was a deliverance, indeed-truly this was the finger of God!
When the Lord comes to prepare His people's hearts by His Spirit, He chases away every wandering thought so that there remainsnot one. Tradition says of Solomon's temple that though much meat was consumed there, and this naturally attracts flies, yetthere was never a fly in the holy place. I wish it were so with our holy place! O that it might be so that whenever we pray,all evil thoughts may be driven out. This is a miracle, and none can perform it but the Lord our God. "You will prepare theirheart."
Next, the Lord prepares His people's hearts by giving them a deep sense of what they need. I know your grief, your temptation,your misery and the crying out of your spirit under the lashes of conscience, but all this is right, thus you are instructedin the art and mystery of supplication. Nobody cries to Christ so well as the man who is beginning to sink. Jonah's cry inthe whale's belly was the most intense prayer he ever prayed. When the iron enters into your soul, then you cry unto the Lordin your trouble! A sentence of death in your own soul is a mighty quickener of supplication. When your spirit is overwhelmedwith sorrow, then look up to Christ, the Savior, and find Him to be your soul's joy! Our desires are apt to sleep, but whenthe Lord, by His Spirit, reveals to us our spiritual poverty, we long, pine and sigh for spiritual blessings.
When a man, out of the anguish of his heart cries for mercy, then he begins to search out and lay hold upon the promise. Tobring the promise to remembrance is a part of the Holy Spirit's work-He takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us.Oh, how blessedly a man can pray when he gets hold of a promise, when he is sure that God has a blessing in store for him,when he is positive that the Lord is faithful to His covenant and will not withhold any good thing from him! The Lord alsoworks in us strong faith, holy perseverance and high expectancy. And in all these ways He prepares our hearts to pray.
Nor is this all. The text does not say that God will only prepare the heart to pray, but it says, "You will prepare the heart,"and this is a wider work, making ready for other matters besides prayer. He will prepare the heart to receive the answer,for many of us are not as yet ready to enjoy what God is ready to bestow. Do you need anything which Jesus can give you? Giveyour heart up to the Holy Spirit, that He may prepare you to seek the blessing and prepare you to receive the blessing whenthe time comes for the Lord to grant it. "You will prepare their heart"-this is wonderful condescension on God's part-andon our part we ought to feel the utmost encouragement to prepare our own hearts for earnest supplication.
V. Lastly, PRAYER FROM PREPARED HEARTS MUST BE HEARD. "You will prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear." I wishyou would join these two sentences together in your minds and carry them home with you. Let the two bells ring in harmony-"Youwill prepare their heart, You will cause Your ear to hear." Ring them over and over, again, and let their blended music lingerin your ears.
First, if God has had love enough to prepare your heart to pray, He has Grace enough to give you the blessing. The more difficultthing of the two is not to give the blessing, but to prepare your heart to cry for it! If He has done the one, He will certainlydo the other. Consider the truthfulness, the faithfulness and the goodness of God-and you will see that it is not possiblethat He should teach a man to pray for a blessing which He will not give! I cannot imagine any of you tantalizing your childby exciting in him a desire that you do not intend to gratify. It were a very ungenerous thing to offer alms to the poor andthen, when they hold out their hand for it, to mock their poverty with a denial. It were a cruel addition to the miseriesof the sick if they were taken to the hospital and left there to die untended and uncared for.
Where God leads you to pray, He means you to receive. You find a holy desire in your heart? The Lord put that desire intoyour heart and, for the honor of His infinite majesty, lest He stain His goodness and dishonor His great name, He must hearyou! With what comfort would I address those here who are beginning to pray. I know I speak to some who are uneasy, unrestful.You tell us you are seeking peace, that day and night a desire for salvation occupies the entire chamber of your soul. Well,this did not come from your own nature-neither the devil nor the old Adam has taught you to pray!
Dear Hearer, you can be sure that the great Father who is moving you to cry to Him is hearing you! He is inclining His earto catch the faintest moan of your spirit. Believe that He is hearing you. Cast yourself at the feet of His dear Son. Beholdthe wounds of Jesus-let them invite you to draw near to God. I know of no such eloquent mouths as the wounds of the dyingLord! Let them persuade you to come to Jesus-to trust, to rest at His dear feet-for since He has inclined your heart to pray,He is about to hear you and bless you! The Lord be with you for Jesus' sake. Amen.