We're turning today to the Gospel of Matthew, the chapter 18. We're going to read there in that chapter, Matthew chapter 18. Let's just bow for a word of prayer before we come to the Scriptures, and let us seek the Lord's face. Let's all pray. Every child of God bowing in the Lord's presence and looking to Him, for His help and His blessing. O God, our Father, we pray that Thy blessed Spirit would rest upon us. We come to the Word now. We pray that Thou wilt bless it to us as we read. Speak to our hearts, we ask of Thee. Lord, may we meet with God in a real way. May we know Thy blessing and power together. We ask this in Jesus' name and for His eternal praise. Amen. Verse 15 of Matthew, chapter 18. The Lord says, Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if ye shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if ye neglect to hear the church, let them be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, And if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." And God will add His blessing to the reading of His own precious Word. It is those last two verses that I have just read that I want to draw to your attention in this service. The Lord Jesus Christ, as the head of the body of His believing people, has ordained certain means of grace by which His people will be spiritually edified. The chief of those means of grace is the Word of God. But another vital means of grace is prayer. Now, last week, I considered with you the words of Jude, verse 20, where prayer is certainly shown to be a means of grace to the people of God. It says there, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, praying by the Holy Ghost is what the words really signify. And we took up that line of thought that by the help and the enablement of the Spirit of God we are able to pray, we are enabled to come before the Lord. And we looked at the Holy Spirit and the existence of prayer, the Holy Spirit and the expression of prayer, and then the Holy Spirit and the essence of prayer. It is only the Holy Spirit or only by Him that prayer could ever exist in a human heart. It is only by the Holy Spirit that prayer may be expressed, poured out before the Lord with faith and in fervency. And it is with regard to the essence of prayer that the Holy Spirit enables us to pray in that He shows us the mind and the will of the Lord. We must pray according to God, and when we pray by the Holy Ghost, then we certainly will be praying according to God, according to His will, and therefore we will be edified. Now, with regard to prayer being a means of grace, it's essential that we deal with the matter of the church prayer meeting. When we employ the term, the means of grace, we must always remember that primarily that term is used with regard to the public and the visible life and experience of the Church of Jesus Christ. For example, the sacraments of the Lord's Supper and Baptism are two of the means of grace. We will be dealing with those shortly. They are two of the means of grace, but according to the Bible and according to or confession of faith and church history and so on, they must never be practiced privately. There must always be a public use of the means of grace with regard to the Lord's Supper and baptism. You may be well aware that it is the practice of the Church of Rome, for example, for the priest to take, well they call it communion, it's far from it, but they take the communion, the emblems around people privately, and that is on scripturals. Because the emblems or the Lord's Supper, the emblems of the Lord's Supper, the Lord's Supper itself, is to be a public service wherein God's people meet together. And the same with baptism. We have a baptismal service. We come together to worship the Lord in a public manner at a certain time to engage in baptism. So when we think about that, when we think about the Word of God, for example, as a means of grace, While the believer is to spend time in private reading the Scripture, of course, and praying over the Scripture, yet it's primarily the public exposition and preaching of the Word of God that the Lord has promised to bless. I'm not saying He hasn't promised to bless you in the private place as you read the Word, but when you go through the Scriptures, there's such an emphasis on the public. Preaching of the Word. And that is why the term, the means of grace, has been used in that context of the public gatherings of the Lord's people, for whether it's the sacraments or the preaching of the Word. And of course, the same has to do with the matter of prayer. The believer spends time alone with God in the place of prayer, but as a member of the body of Christ. And that's the important thing. We have dealt with this whole background, this whole foundation to this series. By looking at Christ as the head of the church, or the church as the body of Christ, and as a member of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, my friend, you are to come together with other members of the body to pray, as well as to hear the preaching of the Word, or to engage in the Lord's Supper. It is a public matter. This whole issue of the means of grace and the use of them and the believer's attendance upon them. There is such a large range of the whole subject that falls within the public context that it is absolutely impossible for anyone to read the Bible and study the Bible and not see that. Now, that means that we must give some consideration to the subject of the church prayer meeting, a means of grace, as it's set before us in these two verses, 19 and 20 of Matthew 18. Now, in the context, the Lord is dealing with a matter of church discipline. And as he does so, he mentions prayer, verse 19, again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree an earth is touching, I think they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. He refers to prayer in the context of church discipline. for the simple reason that in matters of church discipline great wisdom is needed and therefore there must be prayer by the church, that is, by the elders of the church seeking for the Lord's direction and wisdom in the place of prayer concerning that matter of church discipline. But it cannot be confined to praying in the area of church discipline, the reference in verse 19, because it says here that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, that they shall ask." In other words, the Lord here refers to the needs of God's work in general, touching anything it says right here. Just not only church discipline, but also praying over all the needs of the work of God. Here is Christ actually establishing that there should be church prayer meetings. And that the fact of the corporate gatherings for prayer, as a means of grace obviously for God's people, runs the whole way through. That is that idea of the corporate gathering for prayer. It runs the whole way through the New Testament. This is the first place really that you read of a prayer meeting. In those words, two of you coming together, asking for the Lord's blessing on anything that they seek Him for, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Very well-known words. They certainly can be taken with reference to the church prayer meeting. But, as I say, that's a theme that runs the whole way through the New Testament. This may be the first reference to a church prayer meeting, but it's not the only one. You'll find, for example, that New Testament prayer meetings were really a carryover from the Old Testament church. The Old Testament church, the Old Testament saints met together to pray. We know that by inference at least. Actually, verse 1 refers to the hour of prayer. Peter and John going up to the temple to seek the face of God. There actually were various hours of prayer. When the temple was opened up, and people would come, and they would worship the Lord, and they would seek His face. Therefore, the New Testament prayer meeting was not something altogether novel. It wasn't an innovation. It was a carryover from the old era. Furthermore, the New Testament church prayer meeting was distinct from other church meetings held on the Lord's Day. We know that the church met on the Lord's Day. We see various references to that in the New Testament Scriptures. But prayer meetings were held not only on the Lord's Day, but on other days of the week. For example, Acts 1.14, the church comes together to pray. It says they continue in prayer and that they spend ten days in prayer. You might say, well, that was a special thing. Yes, it was a special matter, but the point is, it was a series of ten prayer meetings that went on for ten days. They were true prayer meetings. They met, they worshipped God, they called upon His name, and they sought Him for the blessing that they required and that they needed in the work of God. It would have included, of course, at least one Lord's Day. Indeed, It may even include it too, because the very tenth day, the last day of their ten-day prayer meeting, was the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and that was a Lord's Day. And then there had been one a week earlier. But the point is, there were weak days there when the church came together and sought the face of the Lord. Deathly times of gathering together by the saints holding. Therefore the prayer meeting held a distinct place in the overall spiritual life of the church. The point is this, brethren and sisters, that the New Testament prayer meeting was not relegated to some second rate. In theory or place, it was given an importance that peculiarly belonged to it. It was a special time for the church. They believed in praying and they came together to pray. Just not those ten days, but go through the book of Acts and you will find the whole scene is punctuated with prayer meeting after prayer meeting after prayer meeting. The New Testament church believed. In prayer meetings, they were distinct from the other worship services. They came together to seek God. And then, of course, their purpose was to secure the blessing of the Lord. The New Testament church realized that there could be and there would be no blessing unless they came together to seek the face of God. Why was this? Could they not have said to themselves, God has ordained whatever comes to pass, therefore we will just sit back and we will wait for it to happen? If they had adopted that attitude, they would have gone into heresy. They would have gone astray completely. They would have taken the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and abused it for this simple reason. that the God who has ordained whatsoever comes to pass has ordained that His people will seek Him for it, and will get before Him and call upon His name. God has promised certain blessings for His church, but He has also decreed that they will be obtained in answer to prayer. God wills that His people come together, that they seek earnestly for the very things that He has promised and that He will give to them as they call upon Him. Take the book of Acts again. What did the Lord say to the early church, to the disciples and to others as well? He said to them in Acts 1 verses 4 and 5 that they were to stay in Jerusalem and they were to seek God for the promise of the Father. They had a promise from God of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. My dear friend, they waited and they prayed for the fulfillment of that glorious promise and they saw it fulfilled as the Scriptures go on to show. I could take a lot of time today dealing with that particular matter as we just outline these few points here by way of preliminary thoughts. The New Testament prayer meeting, a carryover from the old. The New Testament prayer meeting distinct from other worship services. The New Testament prayer meeting a gathering of the whole church to lay hold on God and lift up His promises to Him and secure from Him what He has said He will do. Now, my friend, the practice of the New Testament church is our mandate for holding prayer meetings. for seeking God, for coming together in a gathering for prayer to call upon the name of the Lord. When you take this information, and of course much more that could be adjusted and set forth, in a message like this. It's very clear that the prayer meeting in the New Testament church was the nerve and the center and really the heart of the whole life of the church, of the Lord Jesus. And, of course, it always has been ever since. We need not confide ourselves to New Testament church history. If we had time now, if I had time today, to bring into this pulpit book after book after book that record the history of Christ's church down through the ages, you will discover, my friend, you would discover that the prayer meeting was always at the very center of the whole life of the congregation of God's people. No matter when, with regard to time, when you read, place, people, churches of various kinds, names and so on and so forth, they all had a place for the church prayer meeting. Look with me here and notice that there is to be this assembling for prayer, therefore. Verse 20 is really descriptive of a prayer meeting, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. I say this is a prayer meeting simply in the light of verse 19, which talks about praying, if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask. Anything that they shall ask. Remember, this is dealing with all the needs of the work of God. It's not, of course, an open check for the believer to come and ask for things that are really nonsensical. I hope we would never want to do that, but I'm just simply making the point where it says here, for anything that they shall ask, it's not that kind of a situation. Anything that is in keeping with the will of God, in other words. Anything that God has promised, revealed in the book, for the church, for the people of God. And let me tell you something, brethren and sisters, there is so much revealed in this book for us, promised by God for us and to us, that we could spend unlimited time before God seeking for the fulfillment of it. But the point is, this is a prayer setting. And therefore, verse 20 deals with the assembling for prayer. Notice the features of this assembling for prayer. These may be practical points at this stage, but they're very important. There are different features here for this assembling for prayer. There is plurality, because the Lord Jesus Christ refers to two or three gathering together. What's the Lord doing there? He's taking the very smallest number that can constitute a true prayer meeting, a gathering of believers to seek God. Two or three. He doesn't say one or two. Why? If you have only one person, you do not have a church prayer meeting. But if you have two, that's enough to start with. Let me tell you something. Many a free Presbyterian church started out with maybe just two or three coming together. getting before God, seeking for His face. We think immediately, if we think of all of the history of the great 1859 awakening that started in our own district of Ballymena. And how did it start? Because there were two or three or four, and it was four at the most for quite a while. of brethren who came together and their burden was to see God pour out the Holy Spirit. And when they met in an old schoolhouse, it didn't mean it wasn't a prayer meeting. It most certainly was. Therefore, Here is the plurality that the Lord mentions, two or three, not one or two. And what I want you to see from that is this. If the Lord, and the Lord does, since the Lord shows us here that two or three constitute a real prayer meeting and the sense of believers coming together to seek God, since that is true, then, my friend, should it not be our desire, our determination to be part of that two or three? Should it not, just to take it that way, since that is lawful and legitimate according to the mind, and this is Christ the head speaking here, according to the mind of Christ, that legitimatizes a prayer meeting, then should it not be our desire to be part of that company and say to ourselves, I will be there? Of course, it depends where you are, what church you're connected with, taking your own fellowship here. Thank God there may be more than two or three. But that's not the point. The point is, where there is a regular, lawfully conciliate prayer meeting, the Christians would say, that is where I am going to be. Irrespective of any other engagements, apart from emergencies, sickness and so on, by the grace of God I want to be there, because the Lord tells me that I should be there in so many words. We think of the words of Zechariah chapter 8, verses 21 and 22, where it says this, And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also. This is a day when there's a moving of God. That's the principle here. And people from various areas saying, let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also. Notice this. The desire to be there, the longing to be there, and the yearning to be there. And others stirred up by that. They hear. The individual hears others speak. Let us go to the prayer meeting. And he's stirred up. And he says, I'll go too. Do you ever think about that, parents, with regard to your young people? Have you ever said at family worship, let us develop our family worship as it should be, and let us go to pray in the church gathering? Are you teaching your boys and girls, your young people, to appreciate, to value the assemblies of the saints in the house of God at the place of prayer? I fear not in many cases. I fear that the prayer meeting is never mentioned, because many parents are never there. Therefore, how can I as a minister expect the young people to be present if the parents are not there? I don't say that to get at you. I trust, by the Lord's help, I'm not that kind of a preacher. I'm just stating facts. I'm stating facts. And I'm not here today to talk about the church down the road or some other free church. I'm here to talk to you. Parents, are you in the prayer meetings of the church? Are you? Well, some of you aren't. Why not? Where are you? What is it that has so taken over your souls and your life that the place of prayer is neglected. And notice that I say prayer meetings general, because I know that your work schedule, your shift work, whatever it might be, may keep you at home on a Monday night. But I tell you, there are plenty more prayer meetings at which you could be present if you really wanted to be there. There's plurality here. people coming together to pray. That's one of the features of this assembling. There is also unity. It says, two or three gathered together. And those words gathered together in the original text refer to the thought of unity. They are one word, actually, in the original text. The two words gathered together here in our English Bible. But they're one word in the original, and they express the thought of unity. So when there's an assembling of the saints, there is the feature of plurality. Many believers coming together, even. But gathering together as one man. That's the key. That's the whole point. And I will deal with that a little more here later. But just think right now of the basis of that unity. How is it that we aren't able to come together? There may be ten or twenty or a hundred or whatever. How can we come together and be one man? Because we're one man already. And Christians need to keep that in mind. We are not meeting in a prayer meeting to create unity. We meet in a prayer meeting because there already is spiritual unity among the saints of God. By virtue of our union with Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit, we come together because that unity already exists. And that's a very important feature of this matter of assembling for prayer. You see, when we come together, we come as different people with regard to backgrounds and personalities and even how we look. And one of the problems in any church worship service, never mind a prayer meeting, is thinking about others, looking at others. May I just pause there? Someone told me, and that's the way I will put it, about watching one of our videos. And as people walk in that door and up these aisles to these seats, What am I talking about? Heads going round to watch the person coming in into the seat. And the person I was told this about was an absolute stranger, well visitor, who felt very uncomfortable. because of people looking at who was coming in. My friend, we're not in any church meeting to sit and look at each other, scrutinize each other, analyze each other, because we'll find an awful lot there if we do that. We're there as those who are already God's people, united together in Christ. And that's what takes care, you see, of all those things I mentioned, personality differences, Whatever you want to mention. We all have them. We've all got our quirks. We've all got our peculiarities. Every one of us, let me say, including me, we're not coming before God to sit and examine each other. We are brethren and sisters in Christ. We're there as those who are united together in Christ and by Christ. And if we keep that before us, that is what not only cements the unity, but that's what preserves the unity among the people of God. Coming together as one man because we're all in Jesus Christ. Then there is here the focus of this assembling for prayer. It says, gather together in my name. That's how the Lord puts it. Two or three gather together in My name. How important this is because the name here is really equivalent to the person. Gather together unto Me is what the Lord is saying. Gather together by virtue of His appointment and our relationship to Him and our profession of faith on Him. Gather together in My name. Unto Jesus Christ. Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be. Now what these specialties and focus there? gather together in my name, surely, my friend, what you have in focus there is the Lord's mediation. You see, our gathering together is because of the fact that we're able to approach the throne of grace and have access to God and know that as we gather together, Christ Himself is praying for us and with us. It's all in that thought, gather together in my name, in the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ. What right do we have to come and approach God in the place of prayer except this? that through Christ we have access to God and acceptance before His face, knowing that the Lord is there praying for us. This is all wrapped up in that statement, gathered together in His name. The name of Christ, all it means, all it represents, His mediatorial work prevailing on our behalf, it's all there. We must focus on that every time we come to pray. And then there's also his ministry, because the Lord speaks here as the head of the church. And therefore, to gather in his name is to focus in prayer on the fact of the Lord's being the source and supply of all the spiritual life that we need, that the work of God requires. Why do we gather together in Christ's name? Why is our focus on Him? as well as being our mediator, thank God, He's there to minister to us. Right there in the prayer meeting, turn to Colossians 2 and look at verse 19. This is where we see prayer, and especially corporate prayer, being a means of grace to the people of God. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 19, and there it speaks of the head Just break it into the verse, break it into the sentence. The head, that's Christ, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. We gather together to obtain from the head the nourishment that He has promised, that He ministers to us. It talks here about nourishment ministered from the head. My friend, where especially will you receive the grace, the ministry of Christ to your soul? It is when you are before Him, calling upon His name. That is true, as I say, in private prayer, but here we are looking at a public prayer meeting, gathering in the Lord's name, with our focus on Him, His mediation, our only grounds of approach to God. And then looking for that ministry to our own souls right there and then. As our head, Christ has procured for us all the blessings we need. Oh, that we could learn that. In Christ, there's everything that we need as the people of God. In Christ, there's everything that the church needs. This is the thing that we so often forget. Ability, power, influence, reaching out, touching others. Whatever you care to mention, functioning as the body itself, all of these things. Where will we find the resources for it all to be exercised? Why are we in a prayer meeting? This is the point. This is the secret of the church prayer meeting. We are not there to parade our own ideas in a prayer meeting. We are there to lay hold on God for the blessing of heaven. That's it. That's it. We're in the prayer meeting to obtain from the head even Christ, what He has promised to give us. Let us not forget that. It seems that no matter how often a preacher exhorts his people not to forget these things, they're forgot about almost immediately. You know, it's wonderful how much the Lord learns in a prayer meeting. I'm speaking very sarcastically, actually. I'm trying to deliver us all from these faults. You know what I'm getting at? We start to pray and we say, Lord, You know. Then we start to tell the Lord about this person and the other person. Well, if the Lord already knows and He does, why tell Him? My friend, we're not in a prayer meeting to tell the Lord anything. We're in a prayer meeting to seek from the Lord what we need. That's what it's all about. Coming to Him who ministers to us right there in the prayer meeting, seeking from Him blessings for the church and blessings for the work of God, whether at home or abroad. That's what it's all about. But, oh, let us have the right focus. And you see it brought before us here. He's the head of the church. He's there to minister to us. The assembling The actual praying itself, there's a lot of information here about that. If you read the verses carefully, there must be this agreement. Again, I mentioned a while ago, look at verse 19 that says, If two of you shall agree on earth as touched by anything that they shall ask. And the word ask there, of course, is the regular, normal word for prayer in the New Testament. And it mentions agreement. And the word agree there is an interesting word that means to sound together. It's a word that denotes the idea of musical instruments playing together harmoniously. All the different parts of the orchestra, and you may have the different parts, the string instruments and the brass and percussion and all the rest of it, and they all play together and it sounds harmonious. That's the meaning of this word, agreement, with regard to the prayer that is offered. A prayer meeting characterized by harmony and agreement. How will that come about? Well, again, I bring you back to this. It is when we pray by the Holy Ghost and with the Word of God firmly fixed in our hearts that then we will be praying for the same things. Seeking God. in agreement according to his own word. We can also say here that there is audibility in the prayer meeting because it says, if two of you shall agree. And that means that if I were meeting with my brother at a prayer time or with a number of believers, whatever the number might be, and I sit there and I do not actually express what the Holy Ghost is prompting within my soul, How then can my brother or my sister be in agreement with me? What is the whole purpose of audibility? That is, actually praying vocally in a prayer meeting. It is that other believers might hear as you pray. And I, of course, am talking here about the believer who is led out by the Lord, praying by the help of the Spirit. Just assuming here that's the way it is, and that's the way we want it to be, of course. And a believer is led out by the Lord, and he's praying in the Spirit, or she is praying in the Spirit. And there is the expressing of desire that the Holy Ghost has stirred up in the soul. How can others say, Amen, if it's not expressed audibly? You see, the Bible teaches the sense of God to say, Amen. Sometimes there are jokes told about that. But you look at Matthew 6, verse 13, and the very last word of the prayer that the Lord taught His people, that He gave them as a pattern for all prayer, is included in the prayer. What is the last word? Amen. We could pass by that, you know, and say, that's just tagged on there. But it's not just tagged on. It's actually part of the prayer. Matthew 6, verse 13, Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. The Lord teaches us when we pray to say, Amen. But it's just not saying, Amen, to my prayer. Or if you're praying to your prayer, it's much broader than that. I haven't had the time to take you through all the verses. But you go to verses like 1 Corinthians 14 sometime, and in that chapter you're told, you have the Apostle Paul saying, how can people say amen at the giving of thanks or the expressing of prayer if you're not praying properly? The point is that when we come together, there's to be this agreement and there's to be this audibility. We pray. We are laying hold on God as the Spirit stirs us up and lays matters on our hearts. and we pour them out audibly and then the other believer or believers hear what we're praying and they enter into our prayer and they pray with us. And may I say by way of a practical point here at this stage that when you come to the prayer meeting, my friend, you're to engage your soul with all those who are there and who are laying hold on God. It's very easy when you maybe pray yourself audibly, and then you sit back and relax, and you kind of drift away. That's not the way it should be. You stay with it the whole way through the season of prayer. And you lay hold on God with your brother or sister. And you call upon the name of the Lord as they call upon the name of the Lord. There's the asking itself. I quickly just touch on these things. Verse 19, that word ask, as I said, is a word that's used so often in the New Testament in the context of prayer. And it's a very interesting word. It denotes the idea of someone who is in a lesser position compared with the person to whom he is making the request. For example, it's a word that's used of a child asking of a parent, a subject of a king or a beggar from someone who is passing by. It's a word that the beggar used as he lay at the gate of the temple and he was asking for alms. This is the word the Lord puts into our mouths right here with regard to the very asking of prayer, because it is a word that is used of men asking of God. And the point, my friends, of the word of the asking is this. We are so much inferior to our God. And therefore, we come before Him as those who are His children, and He is our Father. We come before Him as those who are subjects, and He is our King. We are acting before the Lord as those who are beggars. And we need His help and His mercy and His grace. Oh, that we only felt our own bankruptcy and poverty and beggarliness! I tell you, it would give to our praying the impetus and the fervency that are so often missing. If we could see just how much we are in need. This is the asking that's in view here. Here are some, therefore, of the features or the actual praying itself. But what I want you to look with, or to notice with me today as we draw to a close, is the great assurance given to those who assemble for prayer. Because the Lord says, there am I in the midst of them. Oh, how often those words are taken and used by us in prayer and rightly so. Take the whole verse, but especially those words, there am I in the midst of them. That is an assurance given by Jesus Christ to the church that when we come together to pray in His name, with the focus right and our hearts right and all things else being right, and we are there to lay hold on the Lord, He says, I'll be there. Now, it's an assurance of what I call spiritual precedence, because it says here, where two or three are met together, gathered together in my name, there am I. It doesn't say, there I will be. In other words, we come together and then the Lord arrives a little later. I don't say that facetiously. What the Lord is saying is this, when the prayer meeting is appointed, When there's a band of believers who earnestly want to meet with God, and they set their time, and we must do those things, and we come together on that occasion, the Lord is there first. He says, where two or three are met together, gathered together in my name, there am I. There I am. He's saying that He will be there first, as I put it. In other words, you can't have a prayer meeting unless the Lord is there at the very start. He must be there, right in the midst of His people. He precedes them, which means that He initiates the gatherings, and He draws us together. What assurance that is to our souls! And I wish you'd keep that before us. You approach the prayer meeting, on a Sunday evening or whenever it might be, and you think of the words of Christ and you say to yourself, well, there's one thing sure, the Lord is already there. As the time approaches and the moment draws nigh, the Lord's there. He says, I am there. It's present tense. I'm there already. It's an assurance of His precedence right there in the place of prayer. And knowing this, Let us fill up our own hearts with this. And furthermore, let us say to ourselves, I dare not disobey the prompting of the Spirit of God. Now, even feeding that dear believer down through certain days, the prayer meeting approaching, some season of prayer scheduled, and you find your heart stirred and prompted, and you're saying to yourself, oh, I want to get to that prayer meeting. But then when the time comes, through negligence or whatever, you're missing. You've disobeyed the Lord, because the Lord's the one who calls the prayer meeting and brings His people together, and you've missed out with God. Then there's also the assurance of spiritual presence. It says here, where two or three are gathered, there am I in the midst of them. The Lord is there spiritually, of course, that's what He's saying. The Lord's given a great promise here to His disciples for the whole New Testament era, that His spiritual presence will mark gatherings for prayer. Now, why do I emphasize spiritual presence? Well, it has to be that way. Number one, the Lord has gone back to heaven. He's there in His bodily form. He doesn't come down in a physical form into our prayer meetings, but He does say, I'll be there. So how is he there? He's there by the Holy Ghost. And the marvellous thing is, it doesn't matter how many prayer meetings are going on at the same time, the Lord is in them all. Notice that. He says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, There am I in the midst of them. Focus on the word where, because there may be two or three gathered in this place, two or three in another place, and whatever the number, another group somewhere else. And the point is, the Lord is simply telling us that wherever they are and whatever number of prayer meetings there might be, He says, I'll be there. And thank God He is able to do that. because the Holy Spirit is omnipresent. It is by His Spirit that He visits all of His people gathered together in one place at any given time. It is an assurance of spiritual preeminence. He says, for two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. That is spiritual preeminence. That's the rightful place. belonging to our Lord Jesus Christ, right in the midst. He took up that posture when He came the day of His resurrection. Turn to John 20 here quickly. John chapter 20 and look at verse 19. It says, the same evening being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, when the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst. And the same in verse further on down, He came again and He stood in the midst a week later. The Lord is always in the midst, you see. What this signifies is His rightful place belongs to Him by virtue of what He did at the cross. You take John 20. He appears in the midst. And what does He do? He shows the disciples His hands and His side. What is He teaching them? He is teaching them, this is my place, central. I am the preeminent one because I have accomplished the work of redemption. And therefore the Lord is teaching His people this glorious thought, this glorious fact, that we are assured of the Lord coming among us and visiting us because of Calvary. What guarantee, along with the Word, that the Lord says here. But what guarantee do we have that when we come together the Lord will be there, that will have His presence in our prayer gatherings? It is, my friend, the great guarantee that is based on the victory of His death and His sacrifice. Because as soon as He rose from the dead, He appeared in the midst. That's what He's saying here. And when we come together, as we saw earlier, with the focus on the Lord's mediation, looking to Him for His ministry, coming together to agree and audibly calling His name. And all of these matters that pertain to the actual running of a prayer meeting. Oh, we can be absolutely sure that the Lord will be in the midst because of the finished work of the cross. He comes to bless His people. He comes to meet with them in prayer. He comes to make our prayer meetings a means of grace to our souls because of what He did for us at Calvary. And therefore, in this assurance, there's a spiritual purpose. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And I often may have tagged on the words and that to bless us, but the words aren't actually there. But people Put those words on earnestly, sincerely, because that is really the ultimate sense of this. What is the Lord there to do? He's there to bless us. When you approach the season of prayer, do you approach it with this awareness? I am going into a gathering where I may expect the Lord to bless me. For why else would He come? What would His purpose be except to bless us? Meeting with us, touching us, helping us, enabling us, blessing us. That's His assurance. Let us eagerly and joyfully get to the place of prayer. And may God make us a people who know what it is to lay hold upon the throne of grace. Let us bow together today and let us just come to the close of our meeting, looking to the Lord to take the Word and use it for His glory and for His praise. And may He apply it with power to our hearts. May the Lord be pleased to take it and use it to show the value of the prayer meeting, the importance of it, and have us there to seek His face. O God, our Father, use Thy Word, we pray. Bless it to every soul in this gathering. Build up the saints. We confess, O God, that we need Thee to apply the Word. We need the Lord to use it and to make it a source of encouragement and instruction to our hearts. Come upon us, we pray. Bless us and do us good as we come to the end of this meeting. May thy hand be upon us in power and may the Holy Spirit be pleased to take us and make us more and more a praying people, a people who eagerly, joyfully gather together in Christ's name to lay hold upon Him Hear and answer prayer, part us with thy blessing, and give help from heaven throughout this day, in Jesus' name and for Jesus' sake. Amen.