The seventh sermon, mercies that are the fruits of prayer are known by this. He that hath them ascribes them not to his own industry, but to the grace and mercy of God. Thus it was with Samson, Judges 15, when he was ready to die for thirst, he prayed unto the Lord and God clave and hollow-placed in the jawbone and gave him water. Now Samson calls the name of the place in Hakor, the well of him that prayed. He ascribes it to the return of his prayers, to that assistance that God gave him to pray. So Hannah ascribed her mercy to God, not to herself. But now, a wicked man that receives mercies from God's general providence, his language is, this I have labored for, this I have ventured my life for, this my friends left me. This I got by my forecast, providence and industry. Thus they sacrifice to their own nets, but seldom say this is the return of prayers. This is the gift of God. Fifth, that mercy that is given as a return of prayer is enjoyed with more inward quiet and contentment of mind than when it is given by general providence. when Eli told Hannah that she would have a son and that her prayer was heard, she had so much inward joy and contentment of mind that it said Hannah went away rejoicing and her countenance was no more sad. The consideration of that made her very much to rejoice. The reason is because mercies that are given in as returns of prayer, they are given in with a blessing and inward quietness and contentment of mind. The mercies that God gives his own people, he gives them with joy and comfort. Proverbs 10.22 The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it. You read 1 Chronicles 4.10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coasts, and that thy hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. Jabez knew that it was the manner of God when he gave blessings as returns of prayer, not to add grief to it. Isaac, he prayed for his wife, and God gave her to him to be a great comfort to him. It may be wicked men have wives and no content with them, but sorrow added to them because they did not pray for them as Isaac did. They have children, but sorrow with them, and abundance of riches and sorrow added to that. And all because they have not the mercies as returns of prayer. The mercies that are given in a way of general providence usually are accompanied with vexatiousness and discontent, snares and sorrows mingled with the mercies. So it was that Psalm 106.15, He gave them their requests, but He sent leanness into their souls. God gives wicked men indeed their requests, but how is it with a blessing and with content? No, no such matter. They have a curse with it. You know Saul gave Michal to David to be a snare to him, a cross and discontentment. So does God many times in just judgment give his blessings to wicked men to be snares and curses and crosses to them. And sixth, mercies that come as returns of prayer may be known by this, that they are given in the time when God doth draw out thine heart to seek him in holy duties. An instance of this you have in Acts 12. While the church was met to pray for Peter's enlargement, the prison doors were opened. And he came and knocked at the door of the house where they were assembled. This was an evident sign that God gave in Peter to them as a return of prayer. So Acts 4.31, when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. You read in John 4.52 and 53 that the noble man inquired diligently concerning the time wherein the child began to recover and when he understood that he knew that it was a return of his prayer and a fruit of Christ's love. God tells his people in Isaiah 65, 24, Before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Thus we read in the Book of Martyrs that the people of God did make it a sign of God's answering our prayers when God was pleased to give in mercies to them at the time wherein they prayed. Thus we read of Luther that there was a young man that had made a covenant and sealed a bond with his own blood to give himself soul and body to the devil, only to live in pleasure and to do and to have whatsoever he did desire. And when the time of the bond was almost out, he, being much troubled in his mind, came to Luther and told him what he had done and what was like to befall him upon it. Whereupon Luther called the church together and kept a solemn fast in the behalf of the young man. And whilst that Luther was in prayer, being earnest with God, there was a great noise heard among them and the bond was cast into the lap of Luther in the midst of the congregation. And so for a time to come, the young man did lead a holy and godly life. Seventh, and lastly, mercies are given as answers of prayer, prayers in case you make care and conscience to perform to God those vows which you made to God before you did enjoy the mercy. But when we promise God largely before we have the mercy, and when we have them, do not perform our vows, it is an argument that we have the mercies by general and common providence. Job 22, 27, and 28, thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and He shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows, thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee, and the light shall shine upon thy ways. When thou beggest a mercy and sayeth, Lord, give me such a mercy, and I will do thus and thus, I will walk so and so before thee, I will improve them to thy glory. Now when thou shalt thus ask for mercy and make vows to God, He will hear. But then thou must be sure to perform thy vows. This frame of heart we find to be in David in Psalm 66, 13 and 14. I will go into thine house with burnt offering. I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble. You say David was in trouble and he prayed to God and made some promises and vows in case God would deliver him. Now God did deliver him out of trouble and he did make good his vows. Now here was a return of prayer. David, you see, did not grow secure and careless, but he made conscience to pay what he had promised to God. And so you see how you may discover whether the mercies you receive from God be returns of prayer or only fruits of common and general providence. And so much for answer to that question. Another objection or case of conscience is this, how can this be true that God gives his people more than they need, seeing it is the complaint of God's people many times that they have been a long time begging mercy and God does not give them so much as they desire? Many say, I pray for pardon of sin and cannot get it pardoned and the pardon sealed. I pray daily for power against my corruptions and yet I cannot get my lust subdued. What then shall I think of my prayers? May some poor soul say. Now to this I shall lay down several things by way of an answer. First, it must be considered that God many times gets glory by the denials of His people. Yea, He gets more glory by denying than by granting of a mercy. And if the denying of a mercy to thee be the way to advance God's glory, it is better that God should have His glory and thou be without the mercy, then thou shouldst have the mercy and God want his glory. An eminent instance of this you have in John 11. There was a prayer made by Mary and Martha for their brother Lazarus. And they came unto Jesus and said, He whom thou lovest is sick. But Jesus said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. When Jesus Christ heard that he was sick, yet he stayed two days in the place where he was. Though he loved Martha and he loved Lazarus, yet he stayed two days and would not go to him. But in the 14th verse, Christ said plainly, Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sake that I was not there to the intent that you might believe. But they said unto him, Lord, if thou had been here, he had not died. Christ came and commanded them to roll the stone away. Martha answered, he hath been four days in the grave and by this time he stinketh. This was that that Christ aimed at. Christ knew that it was greater glory to him to raise the dead out of the grave than to raise him out of the bed of sickness. The power of his Godhead did more appear in the former than in the latter. And when Martha told him he stinketh Jesus answered, said I not unto thee, if thou didst believe thou shouldst see the glory of God? That is, thou shouldst see the power of my Godhead? This was the end of Christ's denying of mercy, though it was earnestly desired. The second I answer, it may be thou dost not hear God in his commands, and then it is no wonder that God doth not hear thee in thy prayers. If thou dost not hearken to the call of God, it may be expected that God should not hearken to thy call. See Proverbs 1.24, Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. Compared with verse 28, Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. Micah 3.4 Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them. He will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings." Zechariah 7.13, Therefore it is come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear. Saith the Lord of Hosts. It may be God has been calling upon thee this many years to believe and to repent, to be reformed, to forsake the evil of your doings, and thou hast not heard His calling. His mercies have not drawn thee. His judgments have not affrighted thee. And is it not just with God to let thee call and He not hear thee? Third, it may be thou dost ask but slightly, and therefore thy prayers are not successful, as it is with a man that asketh anything of another man slightedly and coldly. He doth, as it were, desire him to say him nay. So when man asks mercies of God carelessly and indifferently, this provokes God to give no answer. It may be thou prayest sleepily and drowsily, and with a wandering heart. And dost thou think God will hear that prayer, that thou dost not hear thyself? Dost thou think that God will accept of that prayer when thou knowest not what thou sayest? Forth, God may give thee a mercy, and thou, through thy incredulity, impatiency, and inobservancy, not mind the returns that God gives. God may hear thy prayers, and yet thou not take any notice of it. This you may see in Job 9, 16 and 17. If I have called and God answered, yet I will not believe that God hath heard me, because thou breakest me with thy tempest. Job was in a fit of impatiency and unbelief, and though God did give him returns of prayer, yet he would not and did not observe them. Fifth, God may deny thee the mercy, not that he is unable or unwilling to hear thee or relieve thee, but to make thee the more desirous of and so the more fit for mercy. It may be yet thou art not fit for an answer. The philosopher begged some money of Antigonus. He gave him a drachma. He said, It is not for a king to give so little. A talent had been a more suitable gift. The king replied, though a talent is fit for me to give, yet thou art not fit to receive. So though God is always fit and ready to give an answer to our prayers, yet we are not always fit and ready to receive it. God bids us open our mouths wide and I will fill it. God denies us that we may open our mouths the wider and enlarge our desires the more after mercy. The Lord doth by his people, as a father by his child, a father may seem to withdraw and hide himself from his child, to try its love to him. And the child begins to mourn and cry, yet the father comes not to the child. But when he hears the child cry aloud, then he comes to it and takes it up in his arms. So the Lord many times sees his people pray, but he seems to withdraw from them, to hide himself from the prayers of his people, and goes, as it were, out of their sight until they begin to cry aloud, to be very earnest and importunate in their prayers, till their desires be enlarged towards God. And then God graciously returns their prayers into their bosom. Now this is a very good reason why God denies the prayers of His people. Desires deferred grow the stronger. But if the mercies be soon given, the desires grow cold and the mercy grows contemptible. Man is lightly set by, God doth by us, as a fisherman doth, draws back the bait so that the fish may come after it the more eagerly, and bite the harder. God seems to draw back a mercy that we may more earnestly pursue it. Sixth, consider this, that God's people have prayed and waited a long time before God hath given them the mercy they have asked, before God hath given them an answer of their prayers. God promised Abraham a son that from him should proceed such an one in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed, that his seed should be multiplied as the stars in the firmament. And yet it was 15 years between the time of God's making him that promise and the accomplishment of it. So likewise you find it in Zechariah and Elizabeth. They prayed for a child at the first beginning of their marriage. Now God did hear their cries and prayers, yet he did not give them a return until they were old and stricken in years. So likewise it was with the church. Lamentations 3 verse 8, Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. And verse 44, Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that our prayers should not pass through. So also it was Habakkuk 1.2, O Lord, how long shall I cry? and thou will not hear." It was also the complaint of Holy David, Psalm 22, 1 and 2. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, and thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent. Seventh, God may not only defer or deny to hear his people's prayers, but in sometimes and cases be angry with the prayers of his people. Psalm 80 verse 4, O Lord God of hosts, how long will thou be angry against the prayers of thy people? Job 30 verse 20 and 21, I cry unto thee and thou dost not hear me. I stand up and thou regardest me not. thou art become cruel to me with thy strong hand, thou opposest thyself against me. 8. Consider this for thy comfort, that thy person may be accepted, and thy prayers heard, and yet the thing that thou prayest for not granted to thee. An instance of this you have in Christ himself. He prayed, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Matthew 26. Yet this cup did not pass from him, but he did drink of it. And yet it is said that Christ was heard in all that he prayed for. Hebrews 5, 7. Deuteronomy 3, verse 23, I besought the Lord that at that time, saith Moses, and verse 26, but the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes and would not hear me. And the Lord said unto me, let it suffice thee, speak no more to me of this matter. Moses did importunately desire that he might see the land and go over Jordan to possess it. Moses was a godly man, and here he prays for this mercy. But yet God was angry with him and bade him pray no more. God bade him go up to the mount and see the land, but told him he should not go over. So when thou askest particular mercy at the hand of God, God may deny them that mercy and yet hear their prayers and accept their persons. Ninth, God may deny thee the mercy thou askest and give thee a better in the room of it. He makes you to open your mouth the wider that he may give you the greater mercies. Abraham prayed that Ishmael might live. Now God did not hear his prayer in that as Abraham did desire it, but he gave him Isaac, and with him he established the covenant, which was a better mercy. Moses was denied in his request to go into Canaan, but he was translated into a better place, into the true Canaan, the kingdom of heaven. Tenth, God may deny what we pray for in mercy. which should he grant it, would be a token of his wrath, as if a man should ask that which was sinful, or that which would be an unavoidable occasion of sin, or if he should ask it for sinful ends, or in case a man ask that, that would be a monument of his shame, all which cases I have spoken to before, therefore shall not now say any more. Eleventh, God may hear another man's prayers for thee, though he will not hear thine own. This is a great comfort to every poor, weak Christian in the world. They have a stock of prayers going for them to the throne of grace. You read in Job chapter 42 that God forbade his three friends to pray, but bade Job pray for them and told him that he would hear them, hear him for them. In verse 8 and 9, Go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, And my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your folly, in that you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, like my servant Job. And they did as God commanded them, and the Lord accepted Job. It may be there be times when you cannot pray, or when God will not hear your prayers. But remember, you have a stock of prayers going for you. And thus much shall suffice by way of an answer to this objection. I come now to make application. The end of the seventh sermon. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. You are welcome to make copies and give them to those in need. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. It is likely that the sermon or book that you just listened to is also available on cassette or video, or as a printed book or booklet. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb.com. at SWRB.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N, Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.