the 33rd chapter of Jeremiah's prophecy and verse 3. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. the thirty-third chapter of Jeremiah's prophecy and the verse three. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not. It has been said that learned works often smell of the midnight oil. But there is one thing certain that the most comforting and the most consoling words that ever have been spoken have about them the smell of the prison dump and the smell of the fires of affliction. And the great promises that God has given to his people have been given in days of trial, in days of trouble, and in days of conflict, and in days of tribulation. Jeremiah is in prison He knows what it is to be incarcerated because of his faithfulness to the commands of his Lord. And in the prison cell, God speaks to his servant. And God says to him, call unto me. When there is no way forward, and there is no way back, and there is no way to the right or to the left. Praise God, there's always a way out. And the great tragedy among the people of God is this, that we don't pray the way we should pray, and we don't wrestle in supplication the way we should. And God says to Jeremiah in the prison, call unto Me. Jeremiah, you can't get out. You're incarcerated. You're imprisoned. But Jeremiah, call unto Me. And I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not. It's not very hard to see if you look carefully at that verse, that there are three great truths underlined in that verse. First of all, there is human supplication commanded. God commands us, we finite, imperfect, sinning human beings, to call upon Him. human supplication commanded. Then secondly, we have divine visitation assured. God assures us that if we call unto Him, He will answer us. God answers prayer. That's a common statement, but from that's eternal truth. God answers prayer. So we have divine visitation assured. God's going to answer prayer. And then if you look last of all, you have gracious education resulting. This prophet's going to learn something. In the prison cell, Jeremiah, you're going to learn something that you never learned at school. that you never learned when you were free, that you never learned when you were at liberty. You're going to learn great and mighty things that thou knowest not. So we have supplication and visitation and education. Let's look at them. First of all, we have this human supplication call upon me. Isn't it strange that God has to command us to call upon Him? The hospital never needs to command sick people to go to it because they'll go when they're sick. But because of the sinful nature of man, God has to urge man, and exhort man, and encourage man, and He has to spur on man to call upon Him. Isn't that strange? You know why God needs to call upon us and command us? Because of our fits of worldliness. You know, Christians of hours for the world and only minutes for Jesus. Christians of years for the world and only mere moments of time for Jesus. You know why you don't pray, brother? Because you're sick with wordliness, that's why. You're so taken up with the affairs of this life. So busy with the mundane things of time and sense. And the devil will have you busy if he can keep you from the prayer meeting and the place of prayer. Fix the wordliness. Keep God's people from prayer. Heaviness of heart. keeps God's people from prayer. You know, at the end of the day, the old devil makes your heart heavy, doesn't he? And when you should have that precious time before God, some way you feel tired and weary, and languor overcomes your spirit, and you're like the man in the garden that slept when they should have prayed. Man ought always to pray, says the Lord Jesus, and not to faint. How many of us are fainting? How many of us today must confess the blight of prayerlessness? We have office in the church, but we do not pray. We have responsibility in the Sabbath school, but we do not pray. We serve as an elder or as a minister or as a committee man, but we do not pray. We're in membership of the church, but we do not pray. Why? I'll tell you why. Simply because heaviness of heart keeps us from the throne of grace. But my friend, that's the time to pray when your heart is heavy because that's the time God can lift the burden And you know some people when they're in trouble, the first thing they do, they run to their friends. And the first thing they do, they sit down and try and scheme some way whereby they can get out of trouble. But my friend, you should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. This is where we feel. Heaviness of heart keeps us from prayer. And then the reign of unbelief. Oh how unbelieving our hearts are. And I find this, that the more God blesses us, the more we would be cursed with unbelief. And the more that the devil sees that we are getting blessings from God, the more the devil would pour upon us the blight of unbelief. You know what we need? We need a mighty baptism of faith. Faith, mighty faith, the promises, and looks to God alone, laughs at impossibilities, and cries it shall be done. You know, when you set about doing a work for God, all the Christians come with buckets of cold water to pour it over you. I remember when we started building this church, a man came to me and he wrung his hands and he said it could never Never, never, never be done. I laughed at him. I said, did you ever hear of the Lord? Did you ever hear that there's a God in heaven? My friend, anything can be done if you have God's blessing. You can do anything. All things are possible to him that believeth. But I want to tell you, you'll not believe if that Bible's a closed book to you. A man said to me, I wish I could get faith. I said, that's simple. Read the Bible. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. You know why you're weak in faith? Because you don't read the Word. That's why. But if we would soak ourselves in the Word of God, we would be strong in faith, giving glory to God. The rain of unbelief keeps us from prayer, doesn't it? But I'm glad that through it all, with all the unbelief, and with all the heaviness of heart, and with all the fits of worldliness, God keeps saying, call upon me. And if you take your Bible and start in Genesis, and you go through the Bible, you'll find more commands to pray than anything else in the Word of God. The Bible is filled with commands to the people of God to pray. And this is what we need to do. Do you remember the early apostles? They gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. No wonder there was revival. And this is the pathway to revival. And what we need is a church to be stirred up to pray. You know, this morning as I was meditating before I came out, to this service, and I confess that I was tired and weary in body. I got a great verse over here in Romans 8. My, it really encouraged me. Romans chapter 8, and this is what it says, verse 26, Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Do you feel weak? Do you feel unable to pray? Do you feel the burden in the heat of the day? For the Holy Ghost comes, hallelujah, right there, just to help me to pray. He helpeth our infirmities. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us according to the will of God, with groanings that cannot be uttered. Isn't that a great verse? The Lord will help your infirmities. Brother, sister, you may feel down in the valley this morning. You may feel the sun's not shining. You may feel the old boat rugging under the storm-tossed billows of temptations and trials. But the Spirit himself helpeth our infirmities. And we have got help to pray. Do you ever ask the Holy Ghost to help you to pray? Blessed Spirit of God, help me to pray. Help me to battle for God. And look at this next thing. It says here, I will answer you. Why don't we pray? God says He'll answer us. I'll answer you. You know, God must answer because His very nature demands that He answer. You know, God's nature is love. And grace, if ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the things that you ask? When that little son or daughter or father comes and asks for something and looks up into your face, and the eyes are all full of love and full of confidence, that it's going to get what it desires. How much more does a God of heaven answer the prayers of His people? His very nature demands that He must give. God is love. God is grace. No good thing will He withhold from them that love Him. God is not hard with His people. God is gracious with His people. He wants us to come with our petition. He wants us to come with our desires. He wants us to come with all the bubbling over of our hearts to plead before Him. Secondly, could I say, God's past character demands that He'll answer prayer. Look at all that God has done in the past. Do you remember the day you called upon Him as a sinner? Didn't He hear your prayer? And you had no relationship with Him. You were a poor outcast rebel. You were fit for the dark dungeons of hell forever, and you said, God, save me. Did God turn you away? Did God say, no, I'll not save you, I'll not pardon you, I'll not forgive you. Praise God, He brought us in, didn't He? Put His arms of love around us. And He pardoned us, and I was there when it happened, and I ought to know. This spirit burning in me set my heart aglow, and I praise the Lord today. He has washed my sins away. I was there when it happened, and I ought to know." He answered prayer, didn't He, see? And how many of us can look back into our past experience and we can say, there was a day when we were at Whitsam Corner. There was a day when we didn't know where to turn. There was a day when it seemed the end of all things. And I prayed and God answered prayer. He brought me out of a horrible pit and from the miry clay. He set my feet upon a rock. He established my goings. He put a new song in my mouth. He even prays unto God. Past experience demands that he answers prayer. I want to tell you, friend, the cross of Calvary demands that he answers prayer. The cross of Calvary. Oh, there's a word over here that thrills my heart. When I come to look at it, listen to this Romans 8 and 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If he put his son to the cross, Have they allowed His Son to die the shameful death on Calvary's tree? Have they allowed the smiting and the bruising and the bleeding and the battering of Calvary? How much more shall He wonderfully give us all things? Calvary demands that He answers prayer. I want to tell you something else, friend. The Lord's promise demands that he answers prayer. He cannot lie. God cannot lie. And God says, call upon me and I'll answer. You say, preacher, will God answer my prayer? Yes, friend, God will answer your prayer. Unanswered yet, the prayers your lips have offered, in agony of heart, These many years, does faith begin to fail? Does hope seem vanquished, and think it all in vain, those falling tears? Say not the Father hath not heard your prayer. You shall have your desire sometime, somewhere. God answers prayer. Oh, that we could get this into our heart. I think if we did, we would start praying, wouldn't we? You wouldn't have to be pulled out to the prayer meeting, brother. You would be there. You really knew God answered prayer. Let me say something else to you. This verse ends with gracious education. He's going to show us great and mighty things that we have never known before. You read that chapter, you know what that chapter is, it's a chapter of Greece. Israel sinning, idolatrous, apostate, and God says, I'll bring them back. Today Israel is desolate, but he says they'll be heard the voice of joy. and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, and the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord. That chapter's a chapter of revival. That's what it is. God will show us the great and mighty things of the grace of God. You don't know what God's doing, but when you ponder it a little, you see what God's doing. A young woman came to our service last Sunday night. She's a student at Queens University. And she said, I don't believe in the rubbish that's preached in the Ulster Hall. I can go to the Ulster Hall. It'll never affect me. Last Sunday night, she was gloriously saved by the grace of God. She came out to receive the Savior. I will show you great and mighty things that thou knowest not." That's the mighty thing of the grace of God. We have prayed in our prayer meetings that the poor benighted Romanists of this city might know the grace of God. And in this city, a few weeks ago, there was a Roman Catholic mother, and God started to work upon her heart. And the name that came before her was my name. And the inner voice kept saying, get in contact with that man, and he can show you the way of salvation. And that woman put it off and put it off, and last Sunday night she became so frantic that she took down the phone book and she looked for my name and couldn't find it. And she said, well, he's a friend of Major Bunting's. And she looked up the Major's name and rang the Major. And she said, I must see Mr. Paisley, and I must see him now. And he said, well, I think you'll find him in the Evangel Mission in Ocram Street. And when I went to Ocram Street, that dear mother, Roman Catholic mother, was waiting there to come to Christ. She got gloriously saved. She was with us at the prayer meeting on Wednesday night. I want to tell you, friend, He'll show us great and mighty things. She never was at a gospel service. No. You cannot limit the power of the Holy Ghost. I don't want to see that in one case. I want to see thousands of cases like that. That's what God wants to do for us as a church. Oh, we have had the mercy drop. We have two little boys sitting here. On the platform last Sunday night, both Roman Catholics and those little lads gave their hearts to Jesus. At the end of the service, I want to tell you God wants to bless this church ten times over. That's what God wants to do. God wants to show us great and mighty things that we've never seen before. I have seen great days in my ministry. I've seen times of refreshing, but God says those are nothing. Let me show you what I can do for you. Just you get on your knees, preacher, and pray to me, and I'll show you great and mighty things. I'll do it. And the world will know what's the Lord's doing. Who are we? We couldn't build anything. We couldn't build a church. We have nothing and are nobodies. And that's the way the Lord wants us to be. Because no flesh shall glory in His presence. He wants to do great things for us. Would you let the Lord do great things for you this morning? Would you let the Lord just come into your life, believer, as you never let Him in before? This is what the Lord wants us to do. He says, Oh, that those people down there in the Ulster Hall would just call upon Me! They would just lay hold upon me. And they would just say, Oh God, take me and use me. I would show them great and mighty things. I would show them that all I have done in the past is only a drop in the bucket. It's only waters to the ankles. But praise God, there are waters to swim in. You know, God wants to do great and mighty things for us. We never thought that this little church would spread the way it has. We've had an invitation to send a man to Australia to start a branch of our church in Australia. And the fare, the money paid for him to go and take up the work. We're looking for a young man who'll go to Australia to spread the gospel, witness of this church. And this week I received a letter from a young man. He was prepared for the Church of England ministry and was to be ordained. And because he took a stand before the Bishop of Exeter, the Bishop of Exeter said, you're too strong a Protestant. I wouldn't have anything to do with you. And he wrote to say, he said, I want to join the Free Presbyterian Church. And I've got a church building down in Devon. And he says, I can start a Free Presbyterian Witness in Devon. Great and mighty things that thou knowest not. If you had only believed God, and the witness of this church, conspired to the ends of the earth, who would have thought it? Who would have thought in 1951, when we opened in a little tin mission hall in Crossdar and the spat on us, that this church would ever be anything? But God says, I'll show you great and mighty things, if I knowest that. If you would call upon If you would just call upon me, believers, would you start calling? Why shouldn't we have that prayer meeting filled on Wednesday night? Why should there be vacant galleries in the old church? Why shouldn't every seat be filled? Oh, if you would only call on God, God would do great things for you. I would appeal to you as the shepherd of the flock. As the pastor over your souls this morning, I would appeal to you believers in God's name, let's pray. Let's give time to this business of prayer. Let's come next Sunday for this day of prayer and fasting, and let's cry to heaven. By how my heart was encouraged at our presbytery meeting, as minister after minister rose up and sat after the day of prayer and fasting, God did a great thing, saved people, brought man and woman to Christ, stirred the church. Why, this is the way it ought to be, isn't it? We can do nothing. We need to learn that. When a preacher learns he can do nothing, God can do something for that preacher. When a church learns it can do nothing, that we're hopeless, that we have nothing and are nothing, but God says, call upon me. Jeremiah, you're in prison. He couldn't have been in worse circumstance. He was in prison. He couldn't get out. He couldn't get around. He couldn't preach. He could do nothing. But God says, call upon you and I'll do mighty things for you. I'll do things that never were done for you when you were out of prison. Oh, let's call upon the Lord. That's what the Lord wants us to do, just to call upon Him. My friend, if we call upon Him, He'll do it. And He'll do things you never dreamt of. Wouldn't it be nice to see about 30 Roman Catholics all seated here rejoicing in the Lord? What's 30 Roman Catholics to the Lord? He could see 300 of them. My friend, you need to trust the Lord. You need to believe. Wouldn't it be nice to see our morning service with all these seats filled, and these seats filled behind us like a Sunday night? God can do that for us if we would pray. He says, Call upon Me! Don't worry about the people that are against you. Don't worry about what the press says about you. Don't worry about your enemies. Don't worry about these Christians that are carnal and cold. You people just call on me and keep calling and I'll do the work. And I'll send you every penny that's needed. A man said to me the other day, he says, it'll take five years for you to clear the debt in your church. I said, that's humanly speaking. I said, we could open that church free of debt if we called upon the Lord. We could do it. God could send us the money that's needed, even at this hour. The Lord can do it. My brethren, let's call upon him. Let's get down on our knees and say, oh God, we're going to call and call and call until the answer comes. And there's one burden in my heart. And it's a burden for a mighty province-wide revival in this day and generation. And I think we should call on God for revival. That's what we should call on God. And if we have revival, you'll have everything you want. You'll have no worry about money when revival comes, or crowds, or souls. Just let's have a mighty old-fashioned revival. Well, call upon me. Get down on your knees and call upon me. And I'll do it. May the Lord help us to do it. For his name's sake, let's bow our heads.