PRAYER IN THE GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN

 

Dr. W. A. Criswell

 

12-29-57

 

1 Thessalonians 3:1-13

 

This is the Pastor, bringing the morning message at the eleven o'clock hour entitled: “The Place of Prayer in the Life and Ministry of the Christian,” or “Prevailing in Prayer.”  In our preaching through the Word of God, we have come to the third chapter of the 1 Thessalonians letter, which is the passage that we read together a moment ago. 

The letter of Paul to the church at Thessalonica shows forth the burden on his heart in behalf of these new converts, this young church that has been established in the midst of great suffering and trial.  In the second chapter of his letter, in the sixth verse, he speaks of the burden on his heart for them.  Then, he describes himself as being like a nursing mother, who cherisheth her children.  He speaks of himself as being affectionately desirous, willing to impart not only the gospel of God, but his own soul, because he says: “Ye are dear unto us.” 

Then, in the eleventh verse, he compares himself again to a father who loves his children: “As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children.” 

Then, in the eighteenth verse of the same second chapter, he tells why it was he has not been able to see them.  He says:  “Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.” 

Then, in the third Chapter, he describes what finally he did.  First, he says, when they were in Athens, because of the earnest intercession in his soul in behalf of the church at that Thessalonica, he finally—because he could bear the burden no longer, he finally sent Timothy, his young son in the faith, to go to Thessalonica to inquire of their spiritual welfare.  And, he says that he was left alone in Athens, sending Timothy to them. 

In the meantime, Paul went from Athens to Corinth and began his ministry in that Greek city.  While he was there in Corinth, he was greatly discouraged.  He was burdened still further.  And, in the midst of that discouragement, there came to him from Thessalonica his young son in the ministry, Timothy. 

Then, see how the whole word changes.  He says: “But when Timothy came from you unto us and brought us good tidings of your faith and love... .” 

Timothy came back.  And, as Paul says elsewhere in the letter, Timothy came back and told the apostle how, from the church at Thessalonica, not six months old—yet, from that little band there had sounded out the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the region—that they were growing in faith and maturing in the word of the Lord. 

When Timothy brought that message back—now, you can turn to the eighteenth chapter of the Book of Acts and see what happened to Paul—When that report came, he was greatly encouraged.  And, he set himself anew and again in a new fervency and devotion to the preaching of the word of the Lord in the city of Corinth. 

Then, he says here in the third chapter of the 1 Thessalonians letter: “For now we live, knowing that ye stand fast in the Lord.”  And, that is no exaggeration.  His life was lent a new color, a new exuberance, a new buoyancy, a new faith, a new victory.  “For now we live,” having heard from Timothy the wonderful report of his Christian converts in Thessalonica. 

Then, he closes the chapter with a prayer, which is the message of the morning: For what thanks can we render to God for you, because already for your sakes we pray night and day, praying that your faith might be perfected,  that the Lord would make you increase and abound in love toward one another, and to all men and “that he may establish your heart unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ, with all his saints.” 

So, what Paul does is this:  Hindered by Satan to see them, prohibited to be in their presence, there is one thing he says that he can do, and does do.   He can influence them and reach them by his prayers.  So, he gives himself to prayer for the church at Thessalonica, to which he could not go, among whom he could not visit, prohibited and hindered by Satan from even coming to where they met. 

Now, could I make an aside here concerning many, many, who every Lord's Day, listen to these services over this radio?  There are a great many of the people who belong to this church who, in days past, were present every time the door was open, who cannot come anymore.  They are afflicted by illness.  And, as Dr. Fowler says in his prayer so often, “prohibited from coming by age and infirmity.”  There are even young people who belong to our church who, because of a permanent illness, are not able to come. 

A thing like that could not but bring despondency, and sometimes despair, to the heart.  There God's people are gathered in Sunday school, and I can't be present; gathered in the services of the church, and I cannot attend; planning all these wonderful programs by which we seek to reach the city for God, and I cannot share in them.  All I can do is just stay in this house or lie on this bed. 

But, that other thing that you can do, and so many of you also truly do, means more than you could ever realize or we could ever say in words.  You can do what Paul did when he wrote this letter to the church at Thessalonica: “I cannot come.  I cannot be with you.  But, I can pray for you night and day,” he says.  “I do it, praying exceedingly.” 

I suppose the great poet, Tennyson, was right when he said:

 

More things are wrought by prayer

Than this world dreams of.

Reaching out through the arms of intercession,

Molding and framing and guiding

the word of the kingdom of God

By prayer and supplication.

 

I do not suppose there was ever a true and mighty minister of Christ who did not have in back of him an interceding and praying people, somebody who can speak to God.  I have often said: “To me, the sweetest and most meaningful sentence I ever read from the lips of a great preacher was this:  One time, Charles Haddonn Spurgeon said to a dear friend, ‘Sir, sometime when you have the ear of the great king, would you mention my name?’" 

I cannot come, cannot be with you, cannot be present.  But, I pray for you. 

And, Paul was persuaded that, in the praying of his heart and the pouring out of his soul to God, there would come blessings and power and honor and unction to the little band of Christians in the church at Thessalonica. 

Now, let us see for what Paul prayed: “For your sakes, before our God, night and day praying exceedingly.”  And, he had three things in his prayer.  First, that they might be perfect, might be mature; that that which is lacking in their life, that they might have from God those things that make for grown-up Christians.  No longer babes, no longer children, no longer adolescents, but grown up in the faith: “Might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.” 

Second thing: that they might exhibit that maturity in Christ; “that the Lord might make you to increase and abound in love to one another and toward all men.” 

And, then, the third: “that God might establish their hearts unblameable in holiness.”  Now, that is very representative of the attitude of Paul in the preaching of the whole gospel message of Christ.  He was not only an evangelist, a missionary, a flaming soul winner and preacher.  But, he also was a faithful teacher who brooded over the souls of his converts, that they might grow and mature in the faith. 

That is, it is not enough just to win people to Christ, to be evangelistic, to have the flame of appeal in your heart.  But, we must also be teachers, and we must have a burden on our heart for the growth of these who are won to Christ. 

It is not enough just to preach for the salvation of the souls of men, but we must also be full of care for their spiritual growth and maturity.  It is not enough for the father and the mother to rejoice in the birth of a little child. 

See what God hath given.  They’re bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh, this little gift into your arms.  But, there must also be, in our rejoicing in the birth of the child, also a prayer, a continuing prayer, that God will grant the little child growth: Growth in his mind and understanding; growth in wisdom and knowledge; growth in stature and body; growth in spirit toward God.  And, the delight of a home will inevitably be found in the growth of that child to speak a word, to take a step, to growth, to be able to sit up, to walk.  That is a true picture of Paul's prayer for his converts: Not only that they be saved, but that they also grow in the Christian faith. 

That is the meaning of the sixth chapter of the Book of Hebrew.  Writing to the little church made up of Jewish people, he says to them: “We are not to be engrossed and given all the time to whether I've been saved or not.  Was my repentance just right or not?  Was my faith just perfect or not?  Leaving those principles of those primary doctrines of Christ, the foundation of repentance from dead works of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms and eternal judgment, all of that is to be in the past.  We,” he says, “leaving these principles, are to go on unto perfection, unto maturity.” 

Now, let me tell you something.  One of the commonest conferences that I have, frequent—has been all of my ministry—is this, “Pastor, I do not know whether I am saved or not.  I do not know whether I have been converted or not.  I'm not sure.”  Therefore, their minds are turned back, and they go over and over and over again: “Did I repent just right?  Did I have saving faith just so?  Was I genuinely born again?  Is my name in the Book of Life?  Was I truly converted?” 

That is one of the commonest experiences of Christian people.  And, if I were to ask all of the people here this morning, all of you that have gone through that experience, “Am I saved?  Am I really born again?”  Most of you would hold up your hands: “I have gone through that experience.” 

That is childishness.  That is adolescence.  That is immaturity.  Having done the best you could at some time in your life, I went down that aisle.  I took Jesus Christ as my Savior.  You can't ever do that in any other way.  When you have turned from sin and turned to God in faith, done the best you could to receive him as your Savior, you cannot do anymore.  That's all a human, mortal, can do to save himself. 

And, you're not to go over and over and over that again and again and again.  What you are to do is, having confessed your faith in the Lord, having done the best you know how taken him as your Savior, you are to go on. 

On to what?  That's the thing that most of our people do not realize.  What's the matter with them is, there is a dearth and a drought, and a lack of unction and meaning and power in their lives, and they think they're not converted: “Pastor, I don't know what's the matter with me.  God doesn't answer my prayers.  I don't have any ableness before God.  My life is like a desert, and my heart is like an arid place.” 

What's the matter is not haven’t been saved, haven't been converted.  You wouldn't be here if you weren't interested in God, nor would you be talking to the pastor if it wasn't a burden on your heart to please the Lord.

Well, what's the matter?  This is it: When a man is saved, when you're converted, you're just born.  You're a babe.  You're a child.  You've just started out.  And, to stay a child is to be frustrated and defeated in all of the ultimate purposes of God. 

And, you feel it.  If you're powerless and immature and childlike in the Christian faith, naturally you feel something is wrong.  And, you think, “Well, I haven't been saved.” 

It’s not that at all.  There is a great something else for God's child, and that is the fullness of the Spirit, the spiritual understanding of the Word.  Sometimes, they'll call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit; sometimes, the fullness of the Spirit.  However the nomenclature, there is for the Christian a something else and a something further, a something great and mighty and wonderful. 

Think that.  Don't keep your faith turned to the back.  Turn your faith forward: “Lord, back there, I repented.  I accepted Jesus as my Savior.  I was baptized.  Now, Lord, give me this other full blessing: the baptism of the spirit, the understanding of the Word of God, the fullness of heaven, of victory in thee, a rejoicing in God, my Savior.” 

Well, how do you do that?  It is a very simple thing, and it is here in the Scriptures.  The means of our grace are always the same, and they're very simple.  The means of grace by which we are saved and the means of grace by which we grow are both the same.  They are alike.  And, they're very simple. 

They are, first, the Word of God.  And, second, they are prayer, intercession, speaking to God.  And, it takes both of them.  The means of grace by which we are saved are those two. 

Listen to the Word of the Lord.  1 Peter 1:23-25: “Born again, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.  And this is the word, which by the gospel is preached unto you.”  James 1:18: “Of his own will beget he us, by the word of God.”  But, also, Romans 10:13: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 

So, a man is saved by listening to the Word of God, by hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are saved by the Word of the Lord and by calling upon him: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  I am saved through the mediation of the gospel message of Christ, the Word of God.  I am saved by calling upon the name of the Lord.

Those two means of grace—now, those same two means of grace grant us also our growth in the Christian spirit and faith.  I grow by feeding upon the Word of God.  1 Peter 2:2, the following passage that I quoted a while ago, immediately, he says: “Wherefore as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.”  John 17:17, the prayer of our Lord:  “Father, sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”  Ephesians 5:26: “Ye are cleansed.  Ye are sanctified with the washing of water, by the word.” 

But, also, I am admonished to watch and to pray, lest I enter into temptation.  So, the two are together: feeding, eating, drinking the word of God and speaking to the Lord in prayer, the same two means of grace by which I'm saved, by which I grow in the faith. 

And, both of them are necessary.  If I read the Word of God and study the Word of God without praying, then I become a historical critic.  I become very learned in all of historical meaning and foundation and development of the Holy Scripture.  And, I can become brilliant in all the doctrines of the faith. 

But, I have no unction and no power.  And, it is nothing more than a mass of historical facts and incidents.  I become puffed up in learning and knowledge.  I become superior in theological training.  But, I have not the power and the Spirit and the true message of God in my heart, if I read the Word and do not pray. 

Now, turn it around.  If I pray and do not read the Word of God, then I become introverted and subjective.  I become esoteric and abstruse.  I become a fanatic.  I am blown about with every wind of doctrine. 

When I pray, I must know and learn the mind of God, if I am ever to come in maturity in the faith of Jesus Christ.  So, for this great blessing that will hallow and sanctify the life of the Christian, I must give myself to the Word of God and to prayer. 

Now, may I make this comment of our days and our generation?  I do not know of any day or any generation, but that has felt its weakness and its powerlessness in the preached word of Jesus Christ.  But, how true is that of our day?  There never was any time or any era when the pulpits of the Christian church were filled with more learned and trained and educated men than we have today.  Our men, for the most part—in most every pulpit in the land is a man trained in the college.  He has a graduate course in theology in the seminary.  And, from the east side to the west side, there are men who are greatly educated and wonderfully trained, some of them brilliant, indeed, as they stand in the pulpit.  But, when you listen, you wonder at the lack of moving power, the fire from heaven, the burning from above. 

What is it?  It is simply this: That the young man, that the preacher, has poured over the Scriptures in the light of his historical criticism, in the light of his books of theology, in the light of all of the history and background and manners and customs, exegetical commentaries, and all of the things that enter into the learning.  He's done it magnificently, but he hasn't done what Jesus did:  pour out his soul before God.  And, he hasn't done what Paul did: “Wherefore I bow the knee before God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and stayed on his face or on his knees, or by himself, until he has a message from God. 

I do not know of any calamity that has overtaken the modern preacher greater than this.  He's a maneuverer.  He's a politician.  He's a machine-greaser.  He's an organizer.  He's an advertising agent.  And, he's an editor.  He's a publisher.  He's a civic speaker.  He's a go-between.  He's a gadabout.  He's an up-and-down the streeter.  He's a backslapper.  He's a glad-hander.  And, a few other things I could think about that would be just as true. 

But, how many would you say, “This is a man of God.  This man has a message from the Lord?”  You can't be that way and you can't have that burning word without a closet that shuts and closes, and there you stay and you stay and you stay and you stay.    

One of these great, great preachers of the last century, Richard Cecil, said, “There is a manifest want of spiritual influence on the ministry of the present day.  I feel it in my own case, and I can see it in that of others.  I am afraid there is too much of a low managing, contriving, maneuvering temper of mind among us.  We are laying ourselves out more than is expedient to meet one man's taste and another man's dislike.  The ministry should find in us a simple habit of spirit and a holy, but humble, indifference to all consequence—just leading, knowing, praying for the mind of God.” 

And, that incomparable preacher, Richard Newton said, “The principle cause of my leanness and unfruitfulness is owing to an unaccountable backwardness to pray.  I can write or read or converse or hear with a ready heart, but prayer is more spiritual and inward than any of these.  And, the more spiritual the duty is, the more my carnal heart is apt to start from it.  Prayer and patience and faith are never disappointed.  When I can find my heart in frame and liberty for prayer, everything else is comparatively easy.” 

William Penn, who—for whom Pennsylvania's named—not because of himself, but when the king granted him the charter, he made him name it “Penn”—put his name there—Pennsylvania.  Of George Fox, the great founder of his faith, of the Society of Friends, he said, “But, above all, he excelled in prayer.  The inwardness and weight of his spirit, the reverence and solemnity of his address and behavior, and the fewness and fullness of his words have often struck even strangers with admiration.  The most awesome living, reverent frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his prayer.  And, truly, it was a testimony.  He knew and lived nearer to the Lord than other men, for they that knew him most will see most reason to approach him with reverence and fear.”

And, I took this out of a word from the William Carey, over there in Serempur , at the mouth of the Ganges River, near Calcutta, in India: “Let us look at David Brainerd, in the woods of America, pouring out his very soul before God for the perishing heathen.  Prayer, secret, fervent, believing prayer, lies at the root of all personal godliness.  A heart given up to God in closet religion, this more than all knowledge, or all other gifts, will fit us to become the instruments of God in the great work of human redemption.” 

When I say these things and read these things, my own heart smites me.  And, I can sense in the congregation that same conviction of dereliction and lack and want and need.  Our spiritual lives are so shallow, and our faith is so weak, and our prayer life is so barren. 

Could I say two things that enter into our praying?  First, always and always, when we kneel, when we bow, when we talk to God, first, there must always be the spirit of submissiveness, of yieldedness, on our part.  “Not my will, but thine be done.”  Lord, I have come to speak of thee of these matters, then lay them before the Lord. 

One of these blessed, sainted women who was so ill was asked by a friend, “If you had to choose, would it be to live or to die?”

And, she said, “As God chooses.” 

But, she was pressed, “If God should refer it to you, which would you choose?”

And, she replied: “Truly, I would refer it to God, again”: A yieldedness, a surrender, a submission. 

“Lord, we have come to speak to thee of this matter.  I am ill in body.”  Or, “I am broken in soul and in heart.”  Then, lay it before the Lord.  And, as the Lord shall choose, shall I get well?  Then, to use health and strength for his glory.  Shall I be sick?  Then, Lord, may I exhibit the patience and the dependence and the humility of a true Christian.  As God shall choose.  Praying in yieldedness and in submission. 

Then, this second thing: Praying in a waiting faith.  It isn't like that.  It doesn't work like that.  Rush into the presence of God, ask him, run away with an answer.  Sure, I've got it.  It doesn't work that way. 

A little boy said to his teacher—he was such a bright-eyed, earnest-faced boy: “Teacher, why is it that so many prayers are unanswered?  For the Bible says: ‘Ask and ye shall—ask and it shall—you'll get an answer.  Seek and you'll find.  Knock and it will be opened unto you.  Teacher, why don't we receive these things for which we ask?” 

And, the teacher replied, and she said, “Son, sitting by a fire some evening, did you ever have somebody knock at the door, and then you go to answer the summons and look out, and then nobody's there—it's just darkness? 

But, down the street you hear the patter of little feet.  One of your little friends came to knock on the door.  Then, he ran away.  He didn't expect an answer.  He didn't expect to enter.  He was just a mischievous boy just playing a trick on you.”           

And, she said, “Son, that's the way it is with God's children.  So many times we ask and don't expect to receive, and we knock and don't wait for entrance.  Son,” she said, “when you pray in true faith, you wait and you knock, and you wait and you knock.  And, by your importunity, God looks into the heart and sees the earnestness of the request, and God grants entrance and God grants answers.”  To wait.  To wait.  To pray importunately and to wait in faith. 

Reading these things, preparing this sermon, I came across so much.  Oh, if you had an hour or two hours just to see what you find as I prepare these messages. 

Moody, coming into a hotel, a fellow pointed and said, “You see that man seated there?  He's the leader of the ‘infidel club’ in this city.” 

“Well,” said Moody, and he walked over there and sat down by the man in the hotel. 

And, the infidel, with sarcasm, turned to Moody and said, “How long are you going to continue this humbugging business, telling these people that God answers your prayers?”  He said, “Moody, why don't you try it on me and see if God answers prayer.” 

And, Mr. Moody said, “I will.”  And, he got down there on his knees, in the foyer of the hotel, and prayed for the infidel, that God would save him. 

And, when Moody got up from his knees, the infidel looked at him with sarcasm and said, “See there, it didn't work.  I'm not converted.” 

Moody turned to him and solemnly said, “But, you will be.” 

And, a little while after that, they were having a big revival meeting in the city.  And, guess the businessman who was leading it?  It was that infidel, that infidel.  “But, you will.  But, you will.”  Praying in faith and, then, just wait on God. 

In my much reading, I read an address by George Mueller.  I can't tell you the end of it, but I can tell you what he said up to that time.  George Mueller, the great man of faith and prayer in England, said—he said, “Five men were laid upon my heart to pray for them, that they'd be converted.  Five men.” 

He said, “I prayed for those five men.  One of them was converted 18 months later.  The second,” he said, “was converted five years later.”  He said, “I continued to give myself in prayer, and 12 and a half years later, a third was converted.”  And, then, he said, “I have prayed for the other two for 40 years, and I have the assurance that God will give me their souls too.” 

I cannot go any further with the story because I was unable to find how ultimately it ended.  But, think of that: 18 months and one saved; five years and another saved; 12 and a half years and a third saved; and 40 years in faith that God would give him the other two. 

Sometimes, these prayers of ours are answered after these who have prayed have gone to glory.  One of these men that came down here and took me by the hand and gave his heart to God said to me, “Oh, Preacher… .”

 

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