All right, so we're up to chapter 19. This is John Brown of Wemphrey's Pious and Elaborate Treatise Concerning Prayer and the Answer of Prayer, chapter 19. The Encouragements from Christ's Name. The whole verse, John 14, 13 and 14, Whatsoever 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. So we're going to be looking at encouragements to prayer from the name of Christ. And as we get into this, it'll be, I think, pretty clear point by point what he's trying to direct you to consider. If you understand the name of Christ is pointing to his mediatorial office, if you have a grasp to some degree of why it was necessary that the eternal Son of God becomes a man and assumes and undertakes for sinners of mankind. Some of the things we've been talking about the last few weeks. Then, not only should you be making use of that name in praying itself, but he wants you to understand that there are other encouragements that you can derive from this. We've talked about what it is to pray in the name of Christ and why that is important. In fact, why it is so important that prayers offered up apart from Christ really are not going to gain the divine approbation. And so they're not going to come before God in a gracious manner. They're not going to be up for receiving a return of prayer, an answer of prayer. So the things we've talked about in prior chapters, all of that is important. But Brown doesn't want you to think that, any more than he wanted you to think that praying in the name of Jesus was just something you do by rote, you should be meditating upon the implications, why you should be doing it, what you intend in that, that you're not seeking anything on your own merit, and so on. All those things we talked about before. But beyond that, As we contemplate praying, he's saying that there are actually additional encouragements to pray. Additional encouragements you can take to this duty of prayer, to seeking a return of prayer, things that you can derive from taking, I think, a proper recognition and a proper estimate of what is in view in this name Christ. So we're talking about the person, the divine person, We're talking about the offices. He's a prophet. He's a priest. He's a king. In the matter of prayer, the office that is most prominent is his priesthood. But when we say it's most prominent, it's not the only that is in consideration. So these other offices have bearing and just the general office of mediator has bearing. It should, the more we understand it, the more we concentrate, meditate, contemplate what that means to us in our condition. Brown is saying there's a lot here. and you can derive a lot of encouragement. It's very easy when you consider anything else, when you look at yourself or you look outside of yourself, it's a very easy thing to be distracted, discouraged, or just generally driven off of the duty of prayer. And it's very, very easy. And he's alluded to that again and again. This is not something that, for example, the natural man wants to do. We are, by reason of our fallen nature, we're averse to anything good or godly. We're averse to doing anything that God would have us to do. still present with believers as well. Yeah, we still have indwelling sin. We still have this principle of indwelling sin, which is why the apostles continually chiding believers to, you know, telling them, you know, mortify that sin within you. All right? You have to choke out that root of sin. That's what sanctification is about. Which is why, as we saw in previous chapters, you know, The more you are obedient, the easier obedience becomes. When you give in to sin, when you depart out of that narrow way, you stop to smell the roses, as it were, in the world, it's hard to get up from that and come back. The further down that path you go, the harder it is to go back. The best is obviously to press on. Which is why he's telling you, even when you don't feel like it, do it. Because in the doing, Particularly if you do and you are doing it prayerfully and you're doing it with an eye to the mediator Then the grace of God is going to be meeting you in the way of that duty Yeah Yeah, so you're you're doing just that you're you're making these approaches which By the way, whether you feel like it or not, those approaches are so many motions of the Spirit of God. Because nothing else is going to be pushing you, because naturally speaking, you are averse to it. You can go so far in these motions without being saved. You could taste of the good gifts and have a certain participation in the motions of the Spirit of God without being saved. However, if you persevere in that, the very fact that God is drawing you is an indication that there is probably gracious intent because there's nothing else in that, right? There's no evidence in that for anything other than God has a gracious purpose toward me. Okay? That's not to say everyone who is brought into that, you know, the realm where the Spirit is working is that they're always going to persevere. But it is to say that you are now in a place where you're continually being challenged to rise to meet the working of the Spirit of God and perseverance ultimately is the proof positive that you're elect. you know, that you, when Peter says, you know, make your calling and election sure, he's giving you a to-do list, which if the Spirit of God is working in you, it doesn't really seem quite so onerous as those kinds of things do to people in whom the Spirit of God is not working, right? When the Spirit of God is not working, the law of God just simply sounds like this very harsh, foreboding list of things I'm not allowed to do. Honestly, I think it sounds to people, and if you talk to people, it sounds to them like what you're trying to do is take all the joy and fun out of life. They perceive it that way, and rightly so, because everything in them is contrary to what God is saying is good and true and right. But as the Spirit of God starts working, all of that changes, right? Because as Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. So you can keep the commandments in a slavish fashion, but when you start keeping the commandments and one day you wake up and you say, I like doing this. You know, I don't find this at every respect troubling and difficult, or I don't find it in every respect repulsive. There are things I'm starting to find I like about this. I'm finding, you know, pleasure in this. And if you were to tell your worldly friends that, they're going to look at you and say, are you crazy? Because they don't get it. But for you, as that changes, Spirit of God is working and that changes. There is that rising where again, you're meeting the Spirit working in you is meeting the Spirit of Grace in the Word of God. And you come to realize you actually have the same desires and purpose. That there's this formation, which is what the new man, the new creature is when you're born again. But that old creature The old man, that body of sin, the body of death remains. To some degree, you're going to deal with that until you die. So the more you mortify, the more you rise up to meet the challenge, the less troubling that's going to be. The more you succumb to that, the harder it is. What Brown wants to do is give us a list of ten things here, ten particulars that we're going to be talking about, ten particular encouragements that we can derive from the name of Christ. Let's begin looking at question 365. Why is it a great encouragement to make use of Christ's name in prayer? And the answer he gives is this. We have a lot of things which can dishearten and discourage us from the duty. There are a lot of things that would make us faint in the duty. And again, as I said before, really, realistically, what's going to discourage you and make you faint is when you, A, look at yourself and B, start looking outside of yourself at the world. Right? That's the quickest way to discourage yourself. So the converse, the flip side of that is, If you look to Christ and you take encouragement from his name, that's really the answer here. So the remedy proposed then, B, 365B, is a right taking up of the name of Christ. And again, he says, his person, his offices, His work as a mediator, an advocate, and an intercessor. Right, so he's working as a mediator, as an advocate, as an intercessor. And all of these are important in prayer. If we think about some of the things we talked about the last couple of weeks, you know, how easy it is to, you know, you take up the duty of prayer and then what happens? Well, you know, you start to have doubts. They arise either from your conscience or perhaps more sinisterly, there is like the whispering of Satan in your ear. You know, people don't realize how often, you know, that still small voice that they tend to hear is not necessarily their conscience, but it's something else. You know, when you're not a believer, you have to remember there's a spiritual warfare going on. So are you going to hear voices? Yeah, of course. I mean, some people, when they hear voices too much, they start to think they're going crazy. The fact is that those voices are actually an indication that you're involved in a spiritual battle You know, they're not necessarily indications that you're psychotic or schizophrenic But in a world where people are told that everything is just materialistic and They're they're often perceived that way and and then when you go to someone with that problem their answer is they're going to give you lithium or something else going to drug you and and you know very often the problem is Not a really an organic problem so much as a demonic problem So anyway We're going to be looking now at the particulars that he wants to instance. 366, the first particular discouragement, and then such as who, and then what comfort in praying in Christ's name. And while not all of these instances are going to give us a who, an example in the Bible, a lot of them he does. So let's take up the first particular discouragement, 366a. He says Satan is going to endeavor to keep poor people back from prayer. And he's going to do this by trying to Convince them it's in vain for them to seek the Lord Because after all you know the Bible and the Bible does say this he doesn't here regard the prayers of sinners Of course you have to understand that Satan is very adept at misquoting and misapplying the Bible So, God not hearing the prayers of sinners has to do with people who are crying out to Him who are just impenitent, hardened people who are in a dire strait and now they think all of a sudden they're going to call out to God. That's not a good time to be seeking to make amends, right? You have no guarantee God will hear you. But God does tell all men everywhere to pray. And so obeying the duty and doing it from even from a simple consideration that I'm trying to do what I'm supposed to do. You're making an approach and it could be that God is working in you and it could be that as you make that approach that God is going to meet you in the way. And it may not be at the first instance, it may be after some striving. Anyway, the point is, Satan is going to be very busy trying to discourage you and dissuade you from praying. you know, giving you, Satan would like you to take the perspective of what difference does it really make. You know, and this is, this is the prayer equivalent of when you start telling people about predestination, and people say, well, if I'm elect, I'm elect, and if I'm reprobate, I'm reprobate. There's nothing I can do about it anyway. Yeah, when people are talking like that, that's the way a reprobate would talk. You make the wrong conclusion from that. You take away from that the wrong idea. The end without the means, right? Yeah, you're assuming an end without considering the means. You've been told to take use of and make use of a series of means. And rather than that, when you find out this is the end of all things, there's going to be a distinction made and it's predestined. Therefore, you know, you have this idea and this is expressed, you see this in a lot of fatalistic type thinking in literature. You know, they have this idea that this is going to happen, will or nil, right? If I do or if I don't. Doesn't really matter. Well, actually, everything you do matters tremendously. Right? Because God is going to work and accomplish in and through you what he wants to do for sure. You're going to glorify him either willingly or unwillingly. absolutely the case. All right. But that's not that realizing that, okay, a reasonable, sensible person, whether or not you were elect, if you were just reasonable, that shows you that people who are reprobate are actually out of their minds. Okay, because hearing that your proper reaction would be Something along the lines of what must I do to be saved? You know, how do I I don't want to be in that category of reprobate All right, and yet a lot of people when they hear that they just say well And then the reason they do is Ultimately because they don't want to leave off sin Which is you know, it's that's a normal natural response of fallen people I love my sin. I certainly love it more than God. It turns out I actually love it more than I love myself because it's going to bring me to a horrible end. Until and unless God starts working on people, the wicked are out of their minds. Not in every respect, I mean, there are things that they can do and all, but they are literally, when it comes to this sort of thing, they're out of their minds. I've heard people say things that if I had recorded it and played it back and it wasn't them, if I was asking them to comment on someone else saying it, they would just say, well, that's crazy. Why would anybody say that? I mean, at an abstracted level, they could acknowledge it's insane, and yet for themselves, they would choose that insanity. All right, so. Who does he bring, this 366b, this discouragement? He says, well, and if somebody has Zechariah 3.1, we can look at this. The case of Joshua, the high priest, He stands before the angel of the Lord and Satan is there at his right hand to resist him as an adversary. Yeah, and so that's a good picture of that kind of satanic resistance to prayer. You're about to pray. You're going to consider praying. And you hear, whether audibly or internally, you in some fashion or other hear that what you're about to do is pointless, right? The thought crosses your mind. Where did that thought come from? Well, again, in this case, let's assume it's from the devil, right? You know, Satan is watching very carefully over people to make sure that he doesn't lose anything that's been committed to his trust. And so He's going to resist him. But look, the comfort of praying in Christ's name, 366 C. He says, if you look at verse 2 there, what Joshua does is he has a right consideration of the name of Christ, who is that Lord Jehovah. said to Satan in verse 2, the Lord rebuked thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuked thee, etc. And the point is that although we're sinners, we're not standing before God in prayer on our own account. We're not seeking anything on our own account, but we're seeking everything on account of Christ and for his sake. And he is righteous and holy and undefiled. He's satisfied the justice of God. And so whatever the endeavoring on the part of Satan, the fact is that If we look to Christ and consider what he's done, it's very easy then to make use of what he's done and allow that to rebuke that satanic doubt that has come to you. Alright the second particular discouragement 367 B He says it's like when we are conscious of our original corrupt nature and our estrangement from Christ and from the covenants of promise when we're conscious of the sins of our youth. He says these things can all stare us in the face and in essence say to us, well it's vain to call on the Lord. He's not going to hear. What were you thinking? Consider who you are. Consider what you've done. You have nothing on him. And he says, okay, so such as who? 367b says, well, this is sort of like that poor woman of Canaan. Right? And Christ actually calls her a dog. Tells her she had no interest in the covenant. She's an alien, she's a stranger. But what does she do with that? She actually does something very useful and in fact on this verse Samuel Rutherford based his entire book that treatise on the trial and triumph of faith on this encounter. She takes all of that and she says, yeah, I'm a dog. Yeah, I'm an alien. I'm a stranger, right? But instead, and this is 367 C, she basically says, I'm not seeking anything on my account. I'm seeking it on your account. I know you're the son of David and you're merciful. So she's not, she's telling him that she's not put off by the challenges of the law in her conscience or on her conscience because she is in fact resting her faith upon him and his righteousness, what he's done. And that, of course, is a very important point. It would be very easy for her. It would be very easy for you. I mean, imagine approaching Christ and He says, you know, you're a Gentile. You're an alien. You're a dog. You know, most people, and this is the way most people react, again, when they hear the law. They hear it and they begin to resent. I don't like anybody calling me this. I don't like anyone insinuating I'm not a good person. I don't like anyone insinuating there's something fundamentally defective about me. You know, as long as you're carrying that pride around, you are a hopeless case. This woman is devoid of any pride. She instead is exercising full faith that he is able, and despite what he said to her, that ultimately he will be willing to have mercy upon her. So Brown is saying it's a good example for us, you know, when challenges of conscience come, when you're about to pray and you say, well, you know, here I am, I'm utterly unworthy. Why would God hear me? Why would there be any answer to prayer? I'm fickle in my In my walk, I'm unstable. Brown is saying, again, you're going to be put off from the duty of prayer as long as you're looking at that stuff in yourself. It can all be true. In fact, it probably all is true. Probably wouldn't be having those thoughts. Your conscience wouldn't be prodding you and troubling you and riling you up in that way if it was not true. Or at least had some semblance of truth. But at the end of the day, your appeal is not ultimately to your own worthiness, but to a worthiness that's outside of yourself, in which you're placing your trust, your faith, and that is Christ. All right, third. The third particular discouragement, 368a. Satan again may raise storms in the soul and present to the eye of the sinner Former sins with all their aggravations And the the who in this case 368 be There's Daniel. Daniel has all these challenges of sin and all the aggravations thereof in his prayer. He says we know because in Daniel 9 verse 5 and forward, but he urges in his petitions, which we see in verses 17 and 18 in Daniel 9, urges his petitions and this is 368 C For the Lord's sake for his great mercy sake So whatever his sense of former iniquities he's not going to allow that to to put him off of the duty or put him off of the hope of attaining a return of prayer. Because again, he's saying it's not for my own sake, but for the Lord's sake. I'm not seeking anything on my own strength or merit. Yeah. I guess, you know, we're commanded to pursue sanctification at all times, right? But if there's a prevailing sin, you know, the only way to beat that is even though you're stuck in that sin is to pray your way out of it. You're commended to pray even when everything seems like it's against you. The only way out is to pray. You have to pray regardless. Yeah, this is why he's going back and forth and I think he's going to go back in the next one to conscience again. Because it's really, there's a battle. We are sinners. And so there's plenty for either our consciences or or the devil to accuse us, right? We're always coming short, we're always failing. And if it were all dependent upon us, it would be a very sorry condition we would be in. I mean, you might then justly say, why should I bother? But the point is here, we're not asking, we're not approaching for our sake, but for the Lord's sake. For the sake of His mercy. Right, 369, the fourth particular descriptor, 369a. He brings up the conscience of guilt, staring us in the face. We are conscious of our guilt now. Our conscience is, in fact, confirming that we are guilty. And he says, you know, the effect of that, well, that's, he says, it's sort of almost pushing your petitions back into your throat. How in the world could you ever consider prey? And here he raises a case, 369b, raises a case of Jeremiah and of David. So Jeremiah in Jeremiah 14.7, Jeremiah says, O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake. And David in Psalm 25.7 says, Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. According to thy mercy, remember thou me for thy goodness sake, O Lord. And then in verse 11, he goes on and says, For thy namesake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. And so the comfort here in praying in Christ's name, 369c, is this. That when we rightly consider and improve upon that name, we're going to very quickly remove the difficulty And we're going to give ground to express free grace, expect free grace, and the outflowings of free mercy despite our sins. Because again, we're not grounding any hope or confidence in our sin, in ourselves, in our weakness, in our frailty, in our failings. grounding it all in what Christ has done. As soon as you can get that down, get that point down, you're going to be in a much better position to go forward in a way that is, in fact, able to tamp down all of the the difficulties that your conscience is throwing up and to really to remind yourself and open the way for the expectation of a return of prayer because you're asking as a matter of free grace not because you're a great person not because you've been particularly successful or faithful in obedience, but because ultimately you are putting your confidence outside of yourself. All right. The fifth particular Discouragement 370 The fifth particular discouragement is He says when the Lord seems to refuse to hear And the praying person is made to say as a psalmist in Psalm 22 to oh my god I cry in the daytime, but thou hears not So what's he talking about here? Here I would suggest that his reference is to something that is more along the lines of experimental religion. And by that I mean when you pray, when you are exercised in prayer. There will be a time when you are praying and if you really enter into the duty of prayer, the grace of prayer, you're going to all of a sudden realize that you were hurt. You're going to know it. And it in the only thing I can say To describe this is what he's talking about is this When you're talking to someone Very often you can tell whether or not they're listening Right whether or not they actually acknowledge that they're listening or not Very often you have a sense of that person actually heard me or didn't hear me. He's looking directly at you. So what he's saying is this, when you get to this point where you do on occasion have a sense that you've been heard, but now he's saying the opposite, right? You've have the sense that I'm praying but I'm not being heard. I'm talking but it's like there's no one there. Okay, now a lot of times, not always, but a lot of times that is actually what happens when you have done something to grieve the Spirit of God. You've not just sinned in some sort of common, in lesser fashion, but you have given vent to either an egregious sin or some habitual sin has arisen and shown itself. Regardless of how you get to this, Brown is saying this, there are going to be times when you pray, and it's the opposite of those times when you have a sense you've been heard, where you're going to have this sense, no matter how long you go on in prayer, you're going to have this sinking feeling in your stomach, like I'm not being heard. Doesn't matter how much I cry out, like the psalmist says, you're not hearing. I know you're not hearing. And of course, it's not that God isn't hearing, like he sort of missed what you said, but it's... He doesn't know that he's not hearing. Yeah, it's sort of, you know, looking at you as you're talking to him, but he's not responding. There's no, you're not getting anything back at that moment, right? So that part of the communication and communion has been removed. And Brown is saying when that happens, and this is only something that happens, I just want to point this out, I think this is only something that happens when you actually get to the point where you, in the course of praying, you have those times where you are quite aware that you've been hurt. Because he can't know that you haven't been hurt. Right. Because clearly he's pointing to something here and you have to have something against which to judge this. OK, so this is why I'm saying this is now we're getting into the matter, I think, of experimental religion. Same thing with the company of the spirit. You don't know what's going on. How can you know you're not being confident if you haven't been confident in the first place? There are things... There are experiential things about religion that occur in people in the midst of their devotion. You're probably not going to have a sense of being heard or not being heard if you're not praying, right? I mean if you're not really setting apart time and If you're not really approaching God in a proper manner Okay, but in the in the case that you are there are going to be times where this is going to happen. And so what he says, the comfort in praying Christ's name at this point, when this happens, 370B, is when you have a right side of the name of Christ, he says, that's going to keep you from, I think, basically falling into utter Discouragement despair because he says through him You will remember that the Lord is your portion and That his compassions don't fail. They're new every morning as Jeremiah says in Lamentations 3 So The fact is that in this situation God Although you don't have, necessarily you don't have a sense of God's presence in your praying, you don't have a sense of God's comfort in your praying, nonetheless, if you have a right apprehension of Christ and what He's done, you will have that stability in your praying though your experience of God ebbs and flows. You may not feel like you're going in the right direction, but if you know that you're going in the right direction, despite how you might feel at some moment about that turn you just made, you're going in the right direction. There's another thing about this. Very often when you are first a believer, there are these times which are more sensible. that you may not have later on, not because you've done something to grieve God, but faith is all about walking by faith and not by sin. So you're being called out of that kind of comfort sometimes. Nonetheless, If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's something you should, I think, be seeking in your praying so that you are aware. Because as I've said before, and the Puritans talk about this, and Brown hasn't really gotten into this so far, although he's alluded to it, but the Puritans talk about praying something through. And what they're talking about is, in essence, something very much related to this particular point. You begin praying for something, about something, and you just don't have any sense of anything about it. what will become of it, whether or not this is acceptable, but you persist, you keep praying. And there are times in the course of your persistence where you get to a point where you know that you've been heard. And I honestly, I can't say much more about that other than, again, it's like the difference between, you know, sensing that someone is in the room while you're talking or is actually paying attention, you know, having a sense that they've actually heard what you said, that they've actually perceived the meaning of that. And there are times when you're praying through, you're praying over some matter and you pray through. That is, you get to a point where you literally go from a point where you just have absolutely no sense. You're getting anywhere in praying to knowing that you know that that prayer was heard. And from experience, I would say this, when you reach that point, there is an answer not far behind. That's been not just my experience, but if you read accounts of people in prayer, throughout the history of the church. You will find them talking about, and they'll characterize it in different ways, but they're talking about the same thing. Okay. So anyway, if you don't have that, he's saying, don't be discouraged. All right, let's move on to the sixth particular discouragement, 371A. He says there's a great discouragement when the Lord by his dispensations Seems not only to say he will not answer But also in a manner Basically discharging you from praying anymore for that mercy And what he means is and he brings up here this is 371 B and the case of Moses. Moses is praying, and in Exodus 32.10, God says to Moses, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them. He's talking to Israel, and that I may consume them. There are a couple of times when these kinds of things happen. And God just tells Moses, look, I like you. Get out of the way and I'll kill the rest of them. I'll make another family for you. I'll make another nation for you. Just let me kill all of them. So Brown is saying there are times when you're praying. And again, I think we have to think of this in experiential terms. You're going to have this impression. that not only is God kind of indicating there's not going to be any answer to that prayer, right? But beyond that, stop praying that. Okay? Now, what do you do in that case? Well, here's the thing. And this is, you know, making use of Christ. What is it? 371 C. He says Moses has a sight of the name of Christ. And what does that mean? Well, that is the name through which alone God shows mercy to sinners. And that encourages him to continue to cry out he does in Numbers 14 19 pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy in other words I have this sensibleness that of all these different things but that sensibleness should not be allowed to discourage me or dissuade me from taking hold of the promises of God my praying and that's really what Christ's name is holding forth. In this case, in Moses' case, which is what he's using as our example, he's saying you have not only the distinct impression that you're not going to get an answer, but beyond that, that you should stop praying. And yet that distinct impression, though it may come from God, and you may also have a sense that this is God, right? This is not demonic. Remember Jesus with that woman of Canaan. Canaanite-ish woman. It's Jesus who's saying to her, you're a dog. Why are you bothering me? You can't let that get in the way of this name of Christ. God may be testing you, trying you on this point. So you don't, there are some things where you don't take no for an answer. You don't, you shouldn't because the promise of God is contrary to that no. Okay, so in that case, I would say, you know again, and this probably one of the best things you could read on this particular point would be Rutherford's Trial and Triumph of Faith. I know it's wordy, I know Rutherford can be difficult, but there are so many things he says in the course of those sermons on those few verses that are to this point. Again, consider, this isn't the devil trying to discourage you now. This is God himself, in a sense, putting you off. if you understand what's going on, it's really a trial of your faith. And the goal here is that you come through and triumph in faith and don't become discouraged. Okay, so that's what's happening with Moses. That's what's actually happened with a Canaanite woman. And in these cases where we have clear promises or clear precepts in the Word of God, concerning the things about which we're praying. In those cases, don't be discouraged. Hold on to the promise. Hold on to the precept. Forget your impression. Now this is important because what Brown is trying to get you to understand is, and this is pointing I think at a big problem Pentecostalism. We're not saying that your Christianity should be just cerebral, that it should just be in your head. We acknowledge that there's an experiential aspect of the faith, all right, and that there's a sense in which it is a good thing to taste and see the Lord is good, right, to have some experience of the divine. But what we're pointing out in this, what Brown is pointing out here, is even in that, we are to give supreme regard to what is written. Despite whatever impression we have, what is written is unquestionably true. Pentecostals will ignore the Bible to follow after some feeling, some impression, whatever. This is a warning to you, don't do that. Because if Moses had followed his impression, he would have stopped praying for Israel. If he'd stopped praying for Israel, God would have destroyed Israel, as best we can tell. But God wasn't discouraging him from doing it because he ultimately wanted to destroy Israel. What he was doing was challenging Moses to take upon himself the burden of the people more and more. So these things have to be balanced, but the Word of God has to reign supreme. All right, the seventh particular, 372a, particular discouragement. He says, great discouragement to coming to God when such as should set us forward and encourage us to come are standing in our way or holding us off or discouraging us from coming forward. So now we're talking about the very people, and I think we're talking about people in our lives, particularly people in the church, discouraging us. And he brings forward a particular here, which is a very interesting one. And that is the two blind men who were crying after Christ. And so he says, Comfort and praying in Christ's name, 372 C. is where Christ is rightly taken up in his name considered, this difficulty is going to be very soon stepped over. Remember the blind men, everybody's telling him, shut up. Don't cry out. Be quiet. He's saying, no, don't do that. You're blind, you need to make use of Christ. Don't get discouraged by what these people are doing or saying. People are going to be discouragements. Again, you know, if you focus your attention and you rest upon what you see them doing, how they're behaving, that could be a huge discouragement to prayer. Instead, consider Christ, right? Don't lose track of that. Who he is, what he's done, and why you need him. All right, 373, the eighth particular discouragement. The eighth discouragement is when our present framing condition is such that our hearts are overwhelmed and the waters are, as it were, coming in to our soul and sinking us down. Again, what should we do in that case? Focus on our frame, our condition? All the sorrows or whatever it might be that are overwhelming us? No, he says the comfort in praying Christ's name, 373B, he says we need to go forth and find a ground of footing and hope of escape in Christ. We need to be led to that rock that's higher than us. We need him to pull us out of the mire. We can focus on the mire or we can focus on Christ who will pull us out of the mire. You know, this is actually, I think, something we're going to be getting into in a couple of weeks. The story about Peter walking on the water. You know, Christ bids him to walk on the water, and Peter gets out of the boat and he starts to walk, and then he realizes these waves are huge, right? They're raging all around him, and fear takes over and he starts to sink. So when he steps out of the boat, what is he doing? He's focused on what Christ said to him to do, told him to do, and he's focused on Christ. It's when he looks away that he starts to sink. So, Brown is saying, you're going to be overwhelmed. There are things all the time in life that are going to overwhelm you. I mean, you're a human being and human beings are very easily overwhelmed emotionally because they're easily overwhelmed with outward circumstance. Okay, so you can fixate on that or you can look beyond that. He's saying if you look beyond that, that's what's going to pull you out of that. Keep looking at this circumstance. Don't let this overwhelm you. When you feel all of this coming over you, don't keep looking at that. Look outside of yourself. That's really what you're doing here. Make use of Christ. Don't keep looking at yourself and thinking, how can I depend more on me? All right, nine. The ninth particular discouragement, 374A. He says, we may be tempted to think all of our pains are in vain. and that heaven's doors are shut and will not be opened for us. And that's wisdom. Something wise about that. Saying there's not really. Because he says again, 374b, the comfort in praying Christ's name is The right thoughts of the name of Christ the great high priest and intercessor Afford us ground to wait and cause us to say Christ is the way Christ is the door he can open the treasures of heaven can rain down blessings and so on So, you know we can we can again fixate on our own wisdom Which is not We can think to ourselves that we are somehow so wise in our own conceits that we can't possibly find relief and so on. But that's just not going to carry the day. We're not going to get there if we try to go that route. There's one more. Tenth particular discouragement, 375A. This is an interesting one, I think. It says that the devil might suggest to you that by praying you're going to procure a curse rather than a blessing because after all God has decreed the contrary to what we ask. And this is, again, the important point about praying according to the word and will of God. He says, comfort in praying in Christ's name, 375b, God's revealed will is our rule, so that if the thing we're asking is for God's glory and for our good, then we have ground to expect it in the name of Jesus. Why? Because he's faithful to fulfill every promise. As long as it's a promise, we're not really in a bad way here. So we need, again, to consider that God would have us take care that we ask according to His will. And that really is going to lead us into the next chapter. Because chapter 20 is going to, we're going to start discussing what it is we are to ask. And that's what we'll be taking up next time when we look at chapter 20.