And we will read from verse 16. And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this she did many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. So here's a case where it looks like something good was going on, but it really wasn't. The girl was under the power of a demon spirit. continuing on the way she was, was making the people think less of Christ and of the gospel. When her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they must have been taking up offerings or something, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers. and brought them to the magistrates, saying, these men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And I wrote a big liars beside that. And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. When they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison. charging the jailer to keep them safely. Who having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. And verse 25 is what we will consider our text. but I'm going to continue reading. And suddenly there was, and at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep, And seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved or delivered? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. He took them in the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he said, meet before them, and rejoice, believing in God with all his house. And when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants saying, let these men go. And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now, therefore, depart and go in peace. But Paul said unto them, they have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans, have cast us into prison. Now do they thrust us out privily? Nay, verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out. And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they were Romans. They came and besought them and brought them out, desired them to depart out of the city. They went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia. When they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed. And at midnight, verse 25, Paul and Silas prayed, saying, Praise is unto God. And the prisoners heard them. Heavenly Father, thank You for this beautiful day. It's always good to be gathered on the Lord's Day with the Lord's people. And though we as the Lord's people are not kept from trials and even the same kinds of trials that the lost world has in many cases. Many times, our life is not just a bed of roses, as people say. We are not untroubled by the world, but we are very troubled by the world, just as the world troubles itself because of its unbelief. So we are troubled because of the unbelief that surround us and the trials that that brings upon us. But bless your church this day, our Father, wherever it gathers in the world. Some have already had their services, and now we are in a position where it is time for ours. May each heart here feel a drawing and the summons from you, as I teach this morning, that they should have their minds and hearts and affections drawn towards heaven, or at least be moved to fear God and and have their works modified by that. Thank You for Your grace now and goodness in Christ, through whom there is salvation for everyone who believes and calls upon Him. I pray in His name, Amen. We're going to be looking today at the nature, glory, and blessing of prayer. True prayer is a revelation of God's special grace drawing a soul to heaven. True prayer is a revelation of God's special grace, drawing a soul to heaven. Vain men suppose that they can go to God at any time that they want to, just on their own will, no matter what kind of sinner they are. Now, it is true, ultimately, that God calls all men to come to Him. But it is also true that those God saves are drawn with a special drawing, and those God saves were appointed to that special drawing from eternity. Scripture, God reveals that God only receives men for Christ's sake. So prayer is a gift from Christ, in that sense, as the divine mediator between God and men. So potent and efficacious was the intercession of Christ that heaven was opened to his followers. With free access at any time, or situation of their lives and is a holy duty to use as a gracious gift from heaven. Prayer is a duty. In fact, a real Christian can surely not think that God doesn't care whether he prays or not. That's what a part of what a Christian is, is someone whose heart has been opened and been turned to God. But I want to add to that open, it's been open in love, to love. It's been open to love God. And therefore, He is not closed-mouthed and closed-minded concerning the great God of heaven and earth. He wants to pray. He desires to pray. He takes time to pray. He sets a time to pray. And his life, if he ever misses a prayer time, he feels like he's insulted a friend or something because he knows that God loves him and he loves God. And not only his duty, but his life is much centered around that love going out to God in prayer. Christ could and did teach us to think of God as our Father. Our Father, which art in heaven, is how He taught us to pray. Matthew 6, 1, 4, 6, 8, and 9, or just go ahead and read 1 through 13. It's a tremendous section on prayer. In John 14, the Lord Jesus declares that heaven is open to His people. John 14, verses 13 and 14. Jesus says in this dialogue, and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. This was said to his disciples in his teaching them on prayer. In my name, here has the same meaning as according to my will. You never forget that though Christ hears all of your prayers, our prayers, we do ask amiss from time to time. And it's sad that it's so and we may never know what we ask them is, but the scripture teaches us that it is something that we should watch for and try to not do it. But it does happen from time to time. He also informs us that he will give his own spirit and has given his own spirit. to draw our souls out to heaven, in verses 16 and 17 of John 14. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide in you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not. Neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." The Blessed Holy Spirit draws us after Christ, calls us after Christ. In John 17, in His intercession for His own, on the merit of His about to be offered sacrifice, He declares that he is effecting a union between the Godhead and the redeemed. That's what he taught the disciples at that time. In the practical bonds and ligaments of that union, prayer is the means by which man sees, hears, and takes hold of God. It helps in God's taking hold of him and guiding and directing him. We may say then that Christ's mediation permits us an open door to heaven. That's no little thing. That's one of the biggest things in your life as a Christian. That there is an open door to heaven. The whole world is shut out from heaven except those to whom God opens the door to believe on Christ. We as Christians, no matter how blessed we feel, can never, can never, feel the blessing as great as it is. I think we would, as some other preachers have said, die from joy and happiness if the fullness of the glory of being made sons who can commune with God came upon us. We may say then, Christ's mediation permits us, I say it again, an open door to heaven. And by prayer, we come through the door into the presence of our Heavenly Father. I like to think that way. When I come to prayer, I like to think The door is open. I don't have to prepare a certain number of minutes to be able to pray to God. I could just begin to pray to God. And of course, people who habitually pray to God, they're always having their mind geared towards God, and so they're ready to pray at any time. In our text, we find Paul and Silas in most distressing circumstances. I'm going to read some of that. Acts chapter 13, reading, I mean Acts 16, reading from verse 13. Acts 16, verse 13. It's gonna be a lengthy reading. And on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened as she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." Now, whose heart the Lord opened could mean that God regenerated her at that time, but it doesn't have to mean that. The statements that is made before about her, which worshipped God, could indicate that she's already a real believer. Why would be two different statements? She would be a real believer. As the apostles went preaching, they found many real believers who did not yet know about Christ. You remember? And so she was probably in that case. And what Paul was doing was preaching Christ to people The Jews had not been preaching Christ. They had been preaching Judaism and believing in God. But they themselves, in these areas out here where Paul was now, probably had not heard of Christ or many of them or maybe most of them. By Christ's mediation, we have an open door to heaven. And by prayer, we come through that door into the presence of our Heavenly Father. In our text, we find Paul and Silas in most distressing circumstances. They're in jail, in prison. A certain woman, well let me get down to where we left off. And she was baptized, Lydia the seller of purple, in her household and she besought us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us. And it came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination, it was not a good spirit, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High. God would show us the way to salvation. And this she did many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command Thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And He came out the same hour. It was too much of a good thing to have them just following around in loud voice saying that same thing over and over and over and over and over. It would ultimately make people hate the sound of their voice and dislike the Christ that they were allegedly ballyhooing. I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, Paul said to the Spirit. And he came out the same hour. When her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers. and brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans." I've got liars written in my Bible. And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates ran off their clothes, commanded to beat them, and they had laid many stripes upon them. They cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm. We are all here. And he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling, fell down before Paul and Silas. brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And if any child or any adult is asking the same question, the answer is the same now as it was then. And we're in hopes that all of you who are not converted, the Lord will rally your spirit and you will honestly ask that question. But the answer is the same. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. They spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. When he brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. In our text, we find Paul and Silas in distressing circumstances. The unbelieving Jews sought to derail the holy gospel express by sticking them in prison. None could be summonsed to their aid. They were jailed. What to do? How to endure? how to keep mental and emotional balance, these would be problems, wouldn't they? They would have been for me, and it would have been for everybody. Of course, they were on, let me think how to say it, a higher plane of recognition with God than the normal Christian is, because God was just beginning to open up the world to the gospel. And so these apostles, He did things with them and for them that He does not do now that we can be assured of. None could be summonsed to their aid, and they were jailed. What good is faith in Christ when you're in the dungeon of unfeeling tyranny? Yet, Paul and Silas prayed. At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed. They not only prayed, but they sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. Sooner or later, I think our God teaches all of His children this principle of Christian living. First, tend to your heavenly affairs. Pray. Pray. Don't just believe that you believe God. Pray. People who believe God, pray to God. And they pray consistently. Then you will soon find yourselves as them, singing praises unto God. When our hearts are lifted up to heaven, soon heaven will come down to our hearts and draw out praises to God. This is part of the inheritance we receive in Christ our Lord. It's a good thing to sing praises to God. It's a wonderful thing. It's a joyful thing. Praising God causes you to want to praise Him more because you're singing truth to your heart and to your mind. and it stirs your affections to love God even more. There's a sad commentary upon believers' weaknesses that Christ went more readily to the place of sacrifice than we to the throne of grace many times. Christians who are not seeking to pray, Christian heads of families who do not have family worship, are ignoring the throne of grace. And I know there are, in some families, there are hindrances because they're divided. One parent is saved and the other is not, and so forth and so on. Where it can be done, it should be done. We're not going to worship God too much. And even if we're alone, We still need to be sure that we worship God. And I'd hate to have to sing to myself, but I would sing anyway, because the scripture commends it. Well, a final word on the nature of prayer. Whatever else may be in true prayer, there is certain things that are always there. Repentance, confession. Repentance leads to confession. Repentance leads to confession. Submission, repentance, encourages submission, resignation. What do you mean by resignation? We mean that bad things happen to good people. Bad things happen to Christians just like they do to the whole world. And so you might, as a new convert, You might have been expecting that the whole world was going to be different. The world's not going to be different. It's not going to be different, and you who've been Christians any length of time know that. I was so green, having never been a man of prayer, having never attending any church. I had never been in a regular church service. Most of you heard me say this from time to time through the years. And so it was all new to me. And so, prayer was a stranger to me, but it is the first thing, before I ever started going to church, I started praying. Because that was the final message, or the, I don't want to say it that way, that was the message that Daddy in one of our religious arguments he had been converted a year or two earlier, left me with, and he asked me if I prayed. I don't remember exactly what I said. I think I lied to him and said, well, I pray about as much as anybody that I know or something like that to try to cover my tracks. But I wasn't a praying person. I didn't pray. I didn't have even any thoughts about praying unless it was when somebody was real sick or something, I might think in my mind. I pray that God would have mercy on them. Well, whatever else may be true prayer, there is repentance, confession, submission, resignation, giving up to God, and faith. There's love, hope, and faith. And with love, hope, and faith, there's going to be pleading, and agonizing, and even desperation when we are in great straits. But there's sure to be repentance. A sinful man cannot appear before God without repentance. Repentance. The praying man Repentance is as automatic as breathing. To a praying man, repentance is as automatic as breathing. Confession. Repentance always begets confession. No shame for sin can stop the soul ascending to Christ's throne from confessing his sin. to His Savior, the only priest. Submission, the heart that truly communes with God, holds not anything in reserve. It commits all to God. That's what a real Christian does. He wants God to rule everything. He wants God to govern him. At first, he may just want God to give him what he wants and so forth, but finally, as he recognizes God's sovereignty, as he recognizes how ignorant he is, where God is concerned, that he doesn't even know what to ask for, as he ought, he comes to that place that in his heart, his communication with God, He holds nothing in reserve. He commits it all to God. And in resignation, the communicant with heaven desires and delights in the will of God. Not my will, not my will, but thine, O God, is his manner of praying. above and over His own will, He always desires God, Thy will be done. That's the spirit He lives in concerning everything that He prays for. Because God knows better than him what He needs. God knows better than we do what we need. And we don't get what we ask for because we didn't need it. Or we didn't need it at that time. Or you may find some other way to say the same thing. Faith is with every believer. Faith is universal in prayer. Hebrews 11. You probably know which verse I'm going to. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Through faith. I'm not accentuating prayer there, but accentuating faith. Faith is with every believer. Faith is universal in prayer. It is before prayer, It is in and with prayer, through and through prayer, and after prayer. Faith is when prayer is not, and it is surely there when prayer is. Secondly, there is a glory about prayer. There is a glory about prayer. God is great in glory. And in prayer you are dealing with a glorious God. And God communicates an ability to pray to Him. And there's a glory that goes with our prayer. I think it was B.M. Palmer who said, Be not afraid to pray. To pray is right. Pray if thou canst with hope, but ever pray. Though hope be weak or sick, with long delay. Pray in the darkness, if there be no light. Now, you long time prayers know that you have prayed in the darkness. And probably a lot of times. We don't know what God was going to do. We don't know what He ought to do about many of the things that we pray about. We just pray for the things that it seems that would be good for the Kingdom of God or the people that we're praying for and leave it, leave everything to God. And that's what we have to do. None of our activities so employs all our faculties as prayer. Let me go back and read it again and add a word. None of our religious activities so employs all our faculties as prayer. Our understanding, perception of God, His Word, His will, our own nature, the world we pray for with some understanding, but God accentuates our understanding, our reason, contrasts and comparisons, weighing right against wrong, heaven against the world, God against And I even hate to say the word. I want to spit every time I say it. God against evolution. Christ against psychology. And that's another word of the same kind. Christianity against all other religions. Our judgment, conclusions, assigning guilt or innocence, regulating actions, forming actions to be carried out. Our memory, recollections, recalls Christ's substitutionary sacrifice, always recalling God's greatness, our sins, and our need concerning them, God's mercy, love, God's glorious eternal covenant. Our conscience needs direction, weighing and assigning guilt and innocence, expressions of devotion, hearty love, pure joy, wholesome delight, these good remembrances and appreciation of God's person and grace, of Christ's sacrifice. Our heart, affections, with Christ's intercession and mediation, the Spirit's constant grace draws out our hope and draws us to greater holiness. our senses, feeling appreciation and beauty of God's glory and righteousness, His great mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our will, our volition, decision, we must determine to act upon what our God convinces us by word and spirit is right to do. Determine to love God determined to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, to love the brethren, to forgive freely. All our faculties are involved in genuine prayer. All are in action in prayer and acted upon. If our aim was only to enhance our nature, to perfect our own nature, Prayer is of the utmost value. And would you be a better man, a more whole, more complete, a more developed, a mature Christian in every faculty, then prayer, prayer, prayer is desperately needed. Secondly, prayer engages these faculties upon the noblest object, the grandest and the best object. What in the world is the best thing we can pray about? Well, the best thing in the world that we can do in prayer is to pray to God and to pray about our God and to pray to the Lord Jesus Christ and about Him. Thanksgiving is praying about the Lord Jesus Christ. Our prayers outstrip time and space. We go beyond creation's limit. We fly to heaven, and we fly to God in our prayers. You say, well, my prayers go to heaven, but I don't. There must be something of you with that prayer. We're a spiritual being as well as a physical being, you know. And so I don't know, we don't know, none of us know what it is to pray and what goes on between heaven and earth when we're praying. Now we know from time to time when we're blessed to have an affirmative answer to our prayers, we know that. We don't know what goes on with our God as He receives our prayers in heaven. We rise to the sublime misconceptions possible for us of God's majesty in prayer. higher than our profoundest meditations. Our souls know and see what our tongues can never express. You say, well, I don't believe that. Well, go read Romans 8, 26 and 27. It will help your theology. Our souls know and feel what our tongues can never express. Here we lay our smallness beside the greatness of God and find the grandeur of His majesty at hand. That's a quote from B. M. Palmer. We touch God. We are touched of God as we pray and faithfully pray here in John 14, 23. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. Does God dwell in you? Have you ever become bold enough in your faith to say, God dwells in me? I know I say this every once in a while, but I say it again. You're not going to feel God in you. God is a spirit. But you feel what God does in you. Your faith is stirred up. Your faith is heightened as you're thinking up on God and praying to God. And the Spirit of God dwelling in you is doing that. You say, well, I'm the one. Yeah, you're the one. But the Spirit of God is the one that causes you to give any consideration. The Spirit of God is the one who gives you faith, who maintains your faith, who actuates your faith in what to trust in and what to believe in. Christians have many more dealings with God. especially if they're praying people and people striving to walk with Christ. There's much more activity in you by God than you realize. And it's not wrong of me to say that we touch God and are touched of God. Yea, we lie upon Christ's bosom spiritually. His glorious dwelling place is entered by man. Our mind is fed by His mind. Our will is united with His. We have a part through Him in much that is done in His eternal kingdom as prayer fits our soul to live and speak in His name. And that's where I'm going to stop for today. Heavenly Father, thank you for your wonderful, wonderful grace. Thank you for giving us prayer. Prayer is not an empty thing. Prayer is not just wind blowing out of our mouths. But prayer is the Spirit of God deals with prayer in our own spirit. is actuated very much by the action of the Spirit of God upon our prayers. Help us, our God. Perhaps there may be some young people here who will not know and perhaps the sermon will have touched them and be a help to them. We pray so, blessed Holy Spirit, do thy work in all of us, encouraging those, even those who are the most adamantly engaged in prayer and most faithful in their prayer life. Work in them, oh God. Oh how we need those people. The whole church and many things around the world are answers to prayers of the Lord's people. Bless us now in Christ's name, amen.