Please be seated. Please turn in your copies of God's word to the prophecy of Jeremiah. The prophecy of Jeremiah, Chapter two. And with God's help this evening, we'll be considering Verses 31 and 32. Here now, the inspired and inerrant word of the living God. And you, oh, generation, behold, the word of Jehovah, have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say we are free? We will come no more to you. Can a virgin forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. May the Lord bless this reading of his word. Amen. How would you respond to the following scenario? You're sitting in a local coffee shop reading your Bible. and sipping a cup of coffee when a stranger walks up to you, sits down, points at your Bible and asks you the following question. The person says, I spend a lot of time at this coffee shop and I see a lot of people walk in and out these doors and I see them order a number of different coffee drinks. And I see them sit down and read a lot of different types of literature, indeed, a lot of different types of religious literature. So I must know. Why, Jesus? Why are you a follower of Jesus? What is it about Christianity that really clinches it for you? I mean, there are so many religions out there, so many options. Why, Jesus? What would you say? I think most of us. On the spur of the moment would probably say, hopefully say something along the lines of. I follow Jesus because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, no one is righteous, no, not one. All are sinful. And in in. Desperate need. of salvation. And hopefully you would mention that there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, that there's only one name under heaven by which we must be saved. One God, man who took the wrath of God for sin. And who clothes his people in perfect righteousness. I think we would hopefully say something like that, at least something like that. And let's be clear, that is a great answer. That's a theologically sound answer. But I fear that if at the end of the day, all we have to say to that person is I need Jesus to be saved. Then we will have perhaps missed one of the most fundamental. One of the most dynamic aspects of the Christian life in full bloom. And so in this evening's sermon, I'm not going to be asking you if you need Jesus. Several weeks ago, we considered our need for the gospel, our need for the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. So we're going to be taking that for granted, that without Jesus Christ, you are nothing, you have nothing and you can expect nothing. But the question that I'll be asking you this evening, is do you want Jesus? Do you want Him? Does your heart overflow with a pleasing theme? Is your tongue a skillful writer's pen to speak about the King? Are you impassioned by His love? Captivated by His perfection? Are you amazed at His wisdom and His infinite power? Yes, you need Jesus to be saved from the fires of hell. But do you want Him as your head and your husband? Is fellowship with God in and through the person of Jesus Christ the most precious reality in your life? Does it arouse in you the greatest zeal? Does it give you the most excitement? Do you pant for the living God as a deer pants for streams of living waters? Is this the pulse of your being? Or is it something less? And I would submit to you that if your Christian life is based solely upon, I need Jesus, to the exclusion of, I want Jesus, then what you're really saying is this. I'm guilty before God and and I need to be forgiven. And so I need Jesus for justification. I was born a son of Adam, a son of disobedience, a child of the devil, and I need Jesus in and through him to be adopted as a son of God. And I have sin infested throughout my life. And I need Jesus To clean me up by his word and spirit, and I need him for sanctification. I need him for knowledge. I need the Christian worldview and all of these other things. All of these other benefits. Man, I would like you to for a moment just consider if we asked your wife. Why she decided to accept your marriage proposal. Why did she decide to marry you? Why did she walk down the aisle with you? What if we asked her that and what if she said something like, well, I always wanted to be a wife. And I always wanted to have a home and I always wanted to be a mother and raise children and and drive a nice car and have a home and and all of these things and always wanted to have an engagement ring and and There's nothing wrong with that. It is good to be needed. It is good to be a great means to one attaining their goals. It's good to be needed. But if that's all that she said, wouldn't there be an emptiness? Where is the desire for your person, for you? How empty it is. When we view Jesus as our chief means without viewing him as our chief end. Well, believe it or not, this is not a new phenomenon. The idea of valuing God more for his benefits than for his person. We find in our text this evening that even in the days of Jeremiah, the sons of Judah, regarded Jehovah more for his benefits than for his love and his fellowship. When he blessed them with the land of Canaan, he brought them out of Egypt through the wilderness, and he placed his special presence in the tabernacle and then in Solomon's temple, and he gave them a prosperous kingdom, and he did all of these things, they grew to be satisfied. with these outward blessings. God had given them what they needed and they pursued Him no further. And so Judah ignored its God. Year after year of prosperity went by and God's people grew so sure of themselves that they forgot Him and they stopped relying on Him. We see this in our text. It says that God accuses them of saying, we are free, we will come no more to you. The word free here can also be translated lords, that is, we have developed such a strong national sovereignty. We have gained what we came here to get into the promised land and we are established. And don't get us wrong, Lord, you helped us every step of the way, but we have now arrived and we are now independent. And so their hearts drifted from him so much so that they did the unthinkable. They forgot Jehovah, their covenant God. What a shocking statement. My people have forgotten me days without number. I mean, how can you forget God? How could the sons of Judah have forgotten the God who brought them up out of Egypt, who had given them so many blessings, who had conquered so many nations and done so many mighty works of providence and miraculous works as well? How could they forget Him? It's unimaginable. That is, until we examine our own hearts. in our own lives, in our own schedules. Many of us have forgotten Jehovah, our God, days without number. And nowhere does this unthinkable sin manifest itself more dangerously and more malignantly than the neglect of private prayer. Scottish preacher Robert Murray McShane once said, a man is what he is on his knees before God and nothing more. Friends, prayer is not a peripheral aspect of the Christian life any more than breathing oxygen is a peripheral aspect of our physical lives. In some sense, prayer is the most intimate and the most indestructible means of grace. Think about it. Persecutors can take your Bibles away and they can burn them. They can take your Psalters away and they can burn them. They can forcibly stop the public preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments. But they cannot stop you from praying. You say, well, they can kill me. And when they do, according to the book of Revelation, Your soul will be ushered into the presence of God under his altar there to cry out and petition him. On behalf of your innocent blood, they cannot stop you, no one can stop you from praying. Mary, Queen of Scots, once allegedly admitted, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe. John Knox was a fiery preacher. John Knox was a fearless and zealous shepherd. He was a daunting political activist. He was an avid psalm singer. The administration of the sacraments under John Knox is exemplary for all reformed generations to come. And yet, what was it That struck fear in the heart of his most violent enemy. That shot shivers up her spine. It was his private prayer life. J.C. Ryle, in his highly recommended book, Practical Religion, once wrote, Prayer is the most important subject in practical religion. All other subjects are second to it. Reading the Bible, keeping the Sabbath, hearing sermons, attending public worship, going to the Lord's table. All those are very weighty matters, but none of them are so important as private prayer. Now, I don't know if I would have had the boldness to pen such a statement as that. And Ryle goes on to support his statement. But the point is, prayer is indispensable. And it is crucial. And for this reason, our chief spiritual enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil are deeply engaged in the enterprise of promoting prayerlessness among God's people. The world offers alluring alternatives to prayer. It regularly seduces Christians into prayerlessness through the time consuming, immoderate use of temporal vanities. It seeks to replace prayer with modern media, entertainment, sports, money and various other activities which either openly mock prayer. Oftentimes we see this, they openly mock prayer or they ignorantly misconstrue prayer. Or what is even worse, they subtly insinuate that there is no God of the Bible and there is no no good reason to pray at all. So the world hates prayer. The flesh despises prayer. It would rather have you do almost anything than pray. I would encourage you, if you have a library at home of Christian books, Perhaps this evening, go through your library and look and look at all of the wonderful theology and practical books that you may have amassed over the years and see if you can put your finger on the most edifying book aside from the Bible, the most edifying book in your library and pull it out and put it on the kitchen table and look at it and recognize that very likely your flesh would rather have you reading that book than entering into the presence of God in prayer. And of course, there is the devil. Now, there's much in the scriptures about the devil in relation to this, but I'd like us briefly to focus on one example where Satan was going to attempt to sift Peter like wheat just before Jesus trial and his death. What was Satan's strategy? Well, Jesus took the disciples into the Garden of Gethsemane and he said, watch and pray. What happened? Peter fell asleep. And Jesus said, watch and pray. And Peter fell asleep. And we often think, well, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Of course, our Lord did say that. And we sometimes think that that means, well, he had a long day. He didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. But that's not what Jesus was saying. Because several minutes later, when the angry mob came to arrest Jesus, Peter was up and at him. Peter pulled out his sword and cut off a man's ear. When it came time to pray, Peter fell asleep because his flesh, that is his sinful nature, weakened him. But when it was time to engage in physical combat, Peter had all the energy in the world. And so Satan attempts to use our flesh against us. He hates prayer. We find in Ephesians, chapter six, at the very end of the whole armor of God being laid out for us by the Apostle Paul. That he says this, the climax of the passage, he says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. I don't think I could fit any more references to prayer in a small quotation like that. He's emphasizing in spiritual warfare. Prayer is essential. And to that end, as members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, many of you have solemnly sweared in the name of Christ and in the presence of God and his people. To the end that you may grow in the Christian life, to engage in private prayer, And so to forget God through the neglect of private prayer is for you, as it was for the sons of Judah, not simply a lapse with regard to some moral obligation, but it is a breaking of the covenant that you have made with God. Now, with this in mind, let us now examine our text from which I hope to set forth to you three crucial reasons to fight prayerlessness. And just before we do that, let me say this. I am not a field general. I am not a field general in the fight against prayerlessness. I, perhaps like many of you, am a mere foot soldier, and perhaps there are many in this room who have far excelled me in this battle and who I look to as examples. And so when I was asked to look into preaching this topic by my home congregation, I determined to present the most powerful motives and the most powerful spiritual arguments that have kept me going and have helped to subdue my remaining sin throughout the ups and downs of my own battle against prayerlessness. And so if at the end of this sermon you are captivated and overwhelmed by the duty and the beauty of prayer, And at the same time that you are drawn to pray by the loving solicitations of your heavenly Father, then you will have experienced the desired effect. So we look at reason number one. Reason number one, Jehovah's goodness to you. Jehovah's goodness to you. Verse 31. Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say we are free? We will come to you no more. There's two elements of imagery that we must focus on in verse 31. It is the idea of God being accused by his people of being a wilderness and also of being a land of thick darkness. And in order to understand this, we need to look at the beginning of the chapter. Turn back to verse four of Jeremiah, chapter two. I'm going to read verses four through seven, see if you can pick out the the parallel imagery here. Hear the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob and all the clans of the house of Israel. Thus says Jehovah, what wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worthless? They did not say, where is Jehovah, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells. And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. What is the imagery here? The imagery is God bringing his people out of bondage in Egypt. And what's their destination? The promised land. But there are two hindrances, two obstacles in the way between them and the promised land where God is taking them, the direction that they're headed in. And those hindrances are spoken of as this desert land, this wilderness. This land of deep darkness. And so what are God's people accusing God of being to them in verse 31? They're accusing Him of being a hindrance to them, just as the wilderness was a hindrance to them getting to the promised land. So now, as they move forward in the direction that they're heading in, they view God as a hindrance. But of course, God was not a hindrance. God was not a land of deep darkness. He had given them light. He was the pillar of fire by night. And He was not a wilderness to them. He brought them through the wilderness. Their sandals didn't wear out. They had manna and they had quail and He provided for them. He was not the problem. He was the solution. And the same was true for them in the days of Jeremiah, but they failed to see it. And there's one other aspect of this imagery that is crucial to understand this text. And it is this. At this time. What was the direction that God's people were headed in? That they viewed God as being a hindrance toward through his prophets. Well, at this time, Babylon as a kingdom was growing. It was beginning to conquer adjacent nations, and it was thought by many of the foreign policy experts of the day that Babylon was going to just continue to move west. And so the powers that be in Judah looked around and instead of relying on God or looking to his prophets to interpret his providence, instead they said, look, we have Egypt. We can rely upon Egypt. They are still somewhat of a world power. And perhaps we can rely upon Assyria to the north as well. But they wanted to make a covenant with Egypt to protect themselves from Babylon. And God here uses this irony. He says, in effect, I brought you out of bondage from Egypt. What has Egypt ever done for you but enslave you and corrupt you? And so he reminds them that he brought them out of Egyptian bondage. It's even more ironic because these were the days right after Josiah, one of the greatest kings in Judah's history, had been killed by who? By the Pharaoh. And so again, God says, you're going to trade me for them. They've enslaved you. They have this long history of oppressing you and and they've killed. King Josiah, and you're going to trade me in for them. We see this reflected in chapter two, verses 12 and following. Be appalled, oh, heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate. declares Jehovah, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Just pause for a moment. Most likely, these broken cisterns are Egypt and Assyria. Is Israel a slave? Is he a home born servant? Why then has he become a prey? The lions have roared against him. They have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste. His cities are in ruins without inhabitant. Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tapanis have shaved the crown of your head. Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking Jehovah, your God, when he led you in the way? And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? Again, it doesn't make any sense. Be shocked, oh heavens, how could the people of Judah trade in God for the people who had sought to take away every blessing that God ever gave them? And even Assyria, Assyria is mentioned, and God in effect says, you're going to trade me for Assyria? Don't you remember that Assyria sent an army and conquered the ten tribes to the north and then sent down hundreds of thousands of soldiers to attack Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah? And I, says the Lord, sent the angel of my presence who killed 185,000 of these bloodthirsty soldiers who are out to kill you. And you're going to now turn around and trade me in for them. How foolish of Judah to replace the goodness of Jehovah with the emptiness and hatred of the world. But, you know, I think there's a lesson for us in all of this. I think there's a key application here for us today. Could it be, could it be that you have begun to view private prayer as a hindrance to other things that perhaps you would like to do more? Ask yourself this question, if that in any way tugs at your conscience, ask yourself, does the world love you? Does the world genuinely care for your well-being? Friends, if we're honest, in the eyes of the world, we are nothing but a Nielsen rating, a dimpled Chad, sports fan with a wallet, a consumer unit. What has the world ever done for you? Has Hollywood maintained your heartbeat every day that you've been alive? Has your favorite political talk show host said his eternal love upon you from the foundation of the world? It's almost whimsical to compare. Those things that compete with our time with the Lord. To him and what he has done for us, and yet how successful is the world that deceiving us as to how to spend our limited time? On this earth. You say, but but you're comparing apples and oranges. We can have Jesus and entertainment, too. And we can have Jesus and sports and all these other things as well. And indeed, you can. But answer me this question, when Jesus looks at your zeal for entertainment, your enjoyment of sporting events and your excitement for your favorite hobby, and then he looks at your zeal for holiness, your attentive enjoyment of preaching, And your excitement for private prayer. Is there any cause for jealousy on his part? Now, there's nothing wrong with being a sports fan, there's nothing wrong with enjoying God honoring entertainment, but let's be honest, nine times out of 10, Satan is not going to get us to fall into prayerlessness by getting us to visit the adult video store. He's going to do it by using things that are not necessarily sinful in and of themselves, perhaps good in themselves. But distractions, nevertheless, and so we need discernment. But above all, we need to remember the goodness of Jehovah, every good gift. comes from him. And so we need to block out these distractions and focus upon him. And I would encourage you. I would encourage you ask the Lord today to give you more zeal. To give you more of a desire for private prayer. A reason, number two, Jehovah's Covenant with you. Jehovah's Covenant with you. Look at verses 31 and 32. There's a phrase that's repeated. It's very interesting. Who is it that has forgotten Jehovah? Is it the Babylonians? Is it the Egyptians? Is it the Assyrians, the pagan Greek philosophers, perhaps? No. My people. My people have forgotten me days without number. Now, it stands to reason that the more intimate you are with a person, the more heinous it is to not spend time with that person and to ignore that person. And also, the more that a person has done for you, the more heinous it is to neglect communion with that person and to forget that person. How utterly wicked, therefore, is the sin depicted in this text, the sin of neglecting our covenant God. And in this declaration, we also find a reference to the wonderful doctrine of adoption. And I think it's wonderful to see that he addresses them as my people. He's not raining fire and brimstone upon them. He's calling them my people. If you look in the context back at verses 26 and 27, Judah is being rebuked for calling a tree my father. They're replacing God their Father with these idols. And then in verse 30, the Lord says, In vain I have struck your children. They took no correction. Again, the idea of Jehovah as a Father. Yes, He's rebuking them, but He's calling them to Himself in love as their Father. My people, have you neglected your loving Father? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to the Father but through Him? Do you believe that? And I would urge you, take Him up on it. Go to your Heavenly Father who welcomes you, who welcomes you in and through His Son. Go today, this evening. Reason number three, Jehovah's fellowship with you. Reason number three to fight prayerlessness, Jehovah's Fellowship with you. Verse 32, can a virgin forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. Here we find an illusion. to this prevalent imagery throughout Jeremiah and some of the other prophets, where you have Israel and Judah pictured as a betrothed virgin early on as they're being brought through the wilderness and out of Egypt. But then over time, they become hardened and they become idolatrous and self-sufficient and they are transformed into a harlot. And we find this at the beginning of chapter two, verses one and two. Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. Thus says Jehovah, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness in a land not sown. Israel was holy to Jehovah, the first fruits of his harvest. And then look, skipping ahead to chapter three, verses one and two. And in many ways, chapter three is just full of this imagery. But we'll consider the first two verses. It says, if a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers. And would you return to me, declares Jehovah, lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see where have you not been ravished by the wayside? You have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. So the transition. In Jeremiah 2 and 3 has taken place. Israel started as a virgin bride and now she is a harlot. And God brings this charge against her. And he says, you do not adorn yourself as a bride, as a virgin bride would adorn herself for her husband. You see, her zeal to adorn herself is a reflection of her desire to commune with the bridegroom. And notice something else about the imagery of the virgin bride. Indeed, she is a virgin bride. What's being looked forward to here is the consummation of the marriage and the wedding and the adornment that she puts on is in this context. And so we see that not only does she love the bridegroom, but she makes formal preparations and arrangements to meet him for the specific occasion of the wedding. And she is ready to commune with him in this way. And yet, imagine. Imagine if she were to show up late to her wedding. Imagine a bride who showed up late to the wedding, had not even worn any sort of special bridal attire. And perhaps she came in and she was late and she was talking on her cell phone and with an entourage of her friends. Perhaps she didn't even show up at all. What would we think of such a bride? And yet, do we not often, as the bride of Christ, treat him with similar contempt? When we refuse to prioritize regular intervals of private prayer throughout the week. Do we really take seriously who we are in Christ? And the intimate relationship that we have with him. I can still remember in the early 90s watching a television program called Matlock. In that particular program, Andy Griffith played an Atlanta defense attorney, some of you may recall. And of course, he would always be defending someone who was innocent. And one of the strategies that he frequently used was to try to get the person he thought had committed the murder and get them on the witness stand and try to confront them with evidence to get them to admit to the murder. And very often, the person that he suspected claimed that they had no relationship whatsoever to the murder victim and they didn't know the person, they weren't friends with them, and there was no tie between them and the murder victim. And I remember on not a few occasions, Matlock would go over to his table and get a piece of paper and walk over to the witness stand and he would say, you know, the phone records don't lie. We have records that you called this person. Weeks before and leading up to the date of the murder and you call them. The night of the murder in their hotel room, the phone records don't lie. You have a relationship. We can tie you to this person. And indeed, the phone records don't lie. How are your phone records with God? Could Ben Matlock walk over to his defense table and pick up your prayer records, your spiritual phone records with the Lord and demonstratively prove your close relationship with him? And I realize. I realize that this can be a discouraging question. But the purpose of this question is not discouragement. Actually, the purpose is to encourage you. Well, why do I say that? Well. If you truly sense, as I do. The utter emptiness of prayer, prayerlessness. If you sense. You want to do better, you want to pray more, you want to commune with Christ and you sense the lack. If you are hungering and thirsting for a better prayer life, then be encouraged. For as one Puritan wrote, the desire for grace in the want of grace is grace itself. And some of you may say, well, Jesus deserves more than a pang of conscience. How can you say that we should be encouraged simply by feeling a sense of guilt and a sense of a desire to do better? Doesn't he deserve more than that? But friends, let's be honest. Sometimes that pang of conscience is all that we have. And that is something to rejoice in. Because when we are genuinely displeased with our lack of a desire for prayer, that is evidence that the Spirit of God is working. And He's perhaps starting with a mustard seed, but He is working. And we ought to stir up that grace of God within us. And I would encourage you, go to your Heavenly Father tonight And if you have a wounded conscience, lay it before him earnestly in private prayer and bask in the warmth. Of his fatherly love, the one who says, come, my people. Now, I would hope that by now we've gleaned from our text the incalculable importance of communing with the living God and the person of Christ through private prayer. But were we to end there, I fear that Satan would succeed in using a text like this to breed discouragement, not just the type of discouragement that we just spoke of, but the sort of discouragement that keeps us from going to the prayer closet. But a different type, the type of discouragement that comes while we're praying. In my own life. I found that oftentimes the biggest discouragement is when I get on my knees to pray and I begin to hear myself speaking. And I think of how unfaithful I've been in the past, and I think these are weak and feeble prayers and perhaps I need to impress God and and I'll need to do this two weeks straight before he'll take notice of me. And there is great discouragement that can come even during prayer. Listen to these words from J.C. Ryle. If I know anything of a Christian heart, you, to whom I now speak, are often sick of your own prayers. There are few children of God who do not often find the season of prayer, a season of conflict. The devil has special wrath against us when he sees us on our knees. Yet I believe that prayers, which cost us no trouble, should be regarded with great suspicion. I believe we are very poor judges of the goodness of our prayers and that the prayer which pleases us the least often pleases God the most. What he is saying here is that when we come to God humbly. He's not looking for us to recite the entire shorter catechism. He's not looking to be impressed. He wants to commune with his children. And where we see flaws, he sees weaknesses that draw him all the more to meet our needs and to have compassion upon us. So if we're to go on in our prayer life, this is a real phenomenon that we need to deal with. What do we do when the accuser comes to discourage us? But with this in mind, this is the last thing we'll be considering this evening. Turn to Zechariah chapter three, verses one through five. This is a very relevant text, because we think back to the situation of the people of Judah in Jeremiah's day, they forgot God. And God judged them and sent them into captivity for 70 years, and then he brought them back in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. And he brought about revival and reformation. And they began to remember Jehovah their God. And they repented. And they came back to embrace Him. And they rebuilt the walls of the city. And they rebuilt the temple. And they reinstituted the sacrificial system and the priesthood. And look what happens when the newly ordained priest comes into the presence of God. in an attempt to repent and now to break this pattern of forgetting God. Zechariah 3, verse 1, Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Jehovah and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And Jehovah said to Satan, Jehovah rebuke you, O Satan. Jehovah, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed in filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him. And to him, he said, behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you and I will clothe you with pure vestments. And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of Jehovah was standing by. When you seek to break any sort of pattern of forgetting God, you can expect that this will happen to you. Satan will be there. The forces of darkness will be there to accuse you, to discourage you as you pray. And so what is the solution? It's the solution that we find in the text that we just read. The angel of Jehovah, who is Jesus Christ, pre-incarnate. They remove the filthy garments. They remove the filthy rags of the righteousness of God's people represented here in Joshua the High Priest. And he is donned with garments clean and spotless. This is what we must do in our prayer life. We must cast aside the filthy rags of our righteousness and even our own prayer life, the weaknesses that we find that spot and stain our prayer life. We cast it upon Christ, who then gives us His perfect righteousness and clothes us in it so that we are a brand plucked from the fire and we can address God. We can come to the throne of grace with boldness and access. With confidence. I have never known a virgin bride. To neglect to adorn herself. For her wedding. May we not forget to properly adorn ourselves each and every day as we approach that throne of grace. confessing and removing our sin stained garments and putting upon us by faith the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, through whom we are seated in heavenly places and look forward to an eternity of communion in and through him. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we recognize that our prayers are feeble. Our desire to pray is often weak. And when we look at ourselves in the mirror of Your holy law, and we look at the covenant of church membership, that many of us have made. We cannot help but be tempted to be discouraged. We ask that you would give us strength and encouragement. That we would see that you are as the father of the prodigal. That you are wanting to embrace us, that you love us as your children, that you are good to us, that you've made an unshakable covenant with us, that you welcome us into your fellowship. Father, we thank you for your dear son. That you have not spared. But given for us. And for your Holy Spirit. Who dwells in us and patiently conforms us to the likeness of Christ. Bless us, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.