Could you turn please in the word of God to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter two. Once again, it is a delight to be here. And I want to just say a personal word of thanks to Sermon Audio, the entire team, Stephen and all his staff. Appreciate very much the effort and The encouragement this has been. So thankful to those who have ministered the word already. I have much food for thought to go home. And that has been the answer to prayer for me because you give and you give and you give week after week after week. And it's good to sit here and hear the word and be ministered to from the heart of men who are engaged in the battle as well. I normally am very kind of expositional and systematic, and that is not the case because I want to be very focused on how I'm trying to address the subject matter and keep in mind the theme that seems to lie at the heart of why this conference is being held, that we would give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And I have chosen to focus on prayer more than the ministry of the Word because, well, I've been praying longer than I've been preaching, so I know a little bit more in some ways. And there are many men who can speak much more, with much more experience than learning about preaching, so I'm dealing with prayer again, though with a different angle. And what I say today, I'm not laying down the letter of the law. There'll be some examples from church history that I'll make mention of, and part of my concern is that you will feel I can't do that, so there's no point. And that's not my aim. My aim is that your mind might be broadened just to think about what, by grace, you might be able to do for the Lord's honor. So Proverbs chapter 2, verse 20, wisdom has been expressed, of course, in such language to encourage the son who reads this to be kept, verse 12, from the way of the evil man. And verse 16, to deliver thee from the strange woman. And verse 20 reads, Thou mayst walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous. Let's momentarily pray. Lord, all we cry for, is the honor of Thy name in the ministry of Thy Word. To that end give all the power and wisdom required. We ask for the honor of Christ. Amen. The fact that a sinner through no merit of his own may be everlastingly reconciled to God through Jesus Christ is without dispute the most glorious message in the entire world. Now it's easy to say that, but we need to always keep it at the forefront of our minds. There is no greater message And the fact that we can spend more time in other messages rather than learning and relearning and filling our minds with this message shows a sad state in our hearts at times, I think. And while this is glorious, some seem to understand that the free grace of God, which is in Christ, And the complete standing that can be known by the sinner who has joined to Christ as their mediator seem at times, not pointing any fingers here, but it seems to be the case that some take this glorious truth and use it in such a fashion so as to not merely pardon the Christian of his deficiencies, but even to excuse his lack of effort as a trivial matter. We've been reminded today, as well as yesterday, of our responsibilities. Responsibilities, when they're carried out, require effort. While the gospel is free, and pardon is free, and Christ is offered freely to all, Yet it comes with responsibility. Even where it might not be explicitly stated, sometimes there is an undercurrent which seems to lead one to assume, for example, that there's no need to exercise ourselves in precise matters of holiness because Christ is my righteousness. Or there's no need to submit ourselves to those in authority because Christ is my head. or there's no need to exercise ourselves in prayer, because Christ is our great intercessor. This isn't new, of course, but it is being fed into our hearts by a culture which emphasizes rights over responsibility. And while we would not admit that that is part of the problem that comes into the church freely, I think that it is being drip-fed into our hearts and can be seen, maybe not on what we say, but on how we live and how we think. I want to answer such folly as briefly as I can by quoting the beloved Apostle John when he writes in 1 John 2 verse 6, he abideth in him," that's in Christ, of course, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. You say you abide in him, there ought to be the result of walking as he walked. In all that Christ did, we are to follow His example. Of course, we all have our blind spots, but it's what we do when we realize we've been blind to it. And I've had my eyes opened through some of the messages that have been brought. I started preaching as an open air preacher. I cut my teeth as an open air preacher. I actually believed for years that there would be nothing else I would do but be an open air preacher. And I've been two and a half years in the pastorate now and haven't preached in the open air. So I was convicted. So we have our blind spots and they have to be addressed. We are to see the following of Christ learning His life and exemplifying His pattern as the chief calling of our lives, uppermost beyond everything else, even the ministry and its practical outworking, that God's chiefest desire is that we be conformed to the image of His Son. And to none does this more apply in a strict sense than to those of us called to the ministry. And so I deal with prayer under this heading this afternoon, an earnest call to follow good men. An earnest call to follow good men. I have three points again. the biblical evidence of the need to follow good men, the autobiographical examples we have of good men, and then thirdly the blunt exhortations we have from good men. So the biblical evidence of the need to follow good men. And we read in Proverbs 2 verse 20, that thou mayest walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous." This is the exhortation to the Son. This is the heart's desire of a father calling upon his son, whatever you do, do not follow evil men. Do not go after strange women in all your ways. You're not carving a new path. Just walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous. Success, you see, leaves a trail. It does. No Christian has to, unless he is foolish, try to see the pattern of Christian success, if we can use those terms, for himself. He can learn. He can learn from others. He can read history. He can learn from godly examples within his local congregation and follow them, as God gives him grace so to do. I am not going to spend time proving the point that men are not good by nature. We are all aware here, I am sure, that there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. We know that. And while that point may be easy for the Calvinist to accept, It is also true that grace puts men on a path of making them good. It does. Grace puts men on a path of making them good. To deny this point is to oppose God and some of His greatest work. We are told explicitly that Barnabas was a good man. He was a good man. And we have to see that we are called to be good men. Paul argues this point when he says in Ephesians 2.10, we are his workmanship, God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus onto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus onto good works. Good works are performed by good men. and we are the Lord's workmanship. So I learned from that that God is wonderfully glorified in this work because as he did in the beginning, in the first chapter of the Bible, he makes things and says it's good. And what's glorious about the gospel is that it takes a vile, wretched, hell-deserving sinner breathes life into that sinner and begins a process of working on that sinner to make him good. Without regard of who that sinner is, if he comes to Christ, God Almighty, Christ sending His Spirit into his heart is working to make that man good. And the Lord is glorified in it. Just as the Lord works in our hearts, He's working to that end to make us good men, good women. And He's crafting us as a man might cut and polish a diamond in order to maximize its beauty and value, so the Lord is working on us, cutting and polishing for the glory of His name. But He also gives that man a desire for the same. He instills in his heart if he is truly regenerate. And I believe this to a man. If you don't understand this, if you reject this, if you oppose this, I really wonder, though God alone is judge, have you ever been saved? If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature not to continue in a regenerate state in the old ways, but to make all things new, to make him a good man. And so that regenerate soul will know what it's like, in the words of Philippians 2.12, to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling. Do you look at your life like that? Do you examine the deficiencies and have a sense of fear and trembling where there is sin in your life? Pleading to God lest it be found at the end that your reprobate But one of the ways God aids us in achieving the ultimate goal of being truly good men and like Christ is by giving us examples and calling us to follow those examples. Other men are not the means of grace, but they are a means, a wonderful means that God gives to us. I thank God for good men. Sinners, yes, men I know. I could see their faults. I can think of them. I know they weren't perfect men, but they were good men that I could follow as a young believer. Good men. Men that God had made good. Matthew Henry says, there is a way which is peculiarly the way of good men. The way in which good men, as such, as far as they have really been such, have always walked. It will be our wisdom to walk in that way. There's a peculiar way in which good men walk, a unique way, a way that leaves a trail. It's not good men all scattered going in different directions. There's a general path they all take, and it's toward Christ in every facet of their This matter of following the best examples was paramount in the Christian life of the Apostle Paul. Paramount! He says in 1 Corinthians 4.16, Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. It says also in that letter in chapter 11 verse 1, Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. So there's an understanding there. He's not trying to make disciples of Paul. But insofar as Paul followed Christ, follow Paul. And he says to those at Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 3, 7, for yourselves know how ye ought to follow us. You know you ought to follow us. You know that. When I was with you for that short period of time, I made it clear, follow us. That's interesting, isn't it? This was uppermost in his discipleship. Follow us. Follow us. See how we live, follow the pattern. These are new believers and they're being asked to follow the Apostle Paul. Some of us have been on the road a long time, we'd struggle to get anywhere near following the Apostle Paul, but he's talking to new believers in the midst of great conflict, and he's saying, look, just follow me. In Philippians chapter three, verse 17, he says, brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us, for an example. That's interesting, the verb he used there, to mark them, to mark them. He used the noun form of that word in verse 14 where he says about pressing toward the mark. We are to press toward the mark. And then a few verses later he says, mark them that walk like us, mark them. There's a correlation there. As you press toward the mark, what will help you is marking those who look like they're going in that way. Follow them. follow them, mark them out. Every believer, especially young men here, whether in the ministry or thinking about ministry, you need to be marking good men, the best of men. They will still be full of sin, you might see it, but just find in the providence of God the best man, the best men God has put in your vicinity where you can watch them. and learn from them. I did this by the grace of God without even knowing. I wasn't deliberately doing it. You've no excuse. You're being told and encouraged to do it. But I had no idea. And there was a man in our local church who'd been preaching in the open air for over 50 years. And I joined that man, and I stood with that man, and I preached with that man. I remember receiving advice later on by someone who knew that man. and said of that man that he's the greatest personal worker he ever knew. He said, he's an old man now, you learn from him all that you can. And I did. It's wonderful. You're standing in the open air preaching and then you get into the car and you move to another area. Those times in the car, talking, not active discipleship, But just through his life and the conversation, talking about prayer, we heard it mentioned, I think Dr. Beakey mentioned about praying through. The first time I heard that term was from that man. Praying through! Praying until you've got the answer and you know it's on the way. This is biblical. We're to follow the path of good men. We're to find them out and follow them. I don't want to say any more then on the biblical evidence of the need to follow good men. I trust what has been said has sufficed to encourage you to see that this isn't some effort to lead you on the path of following human authority merely. It is biblical, both Old Testament and new. We come then to the autobiographical examples we have of good men. Now, it'd be nice to be able to say biographical, because that would keep all the Bs, but it's autobiographical. We're looking at what men have said themselves, and I begin with David Brainerd. I begin with him because he exemplifies this need, even before I get to some of what I'm getting at with regard to prayer specifically. We read of him as a young man sometime in April, 1738. He says, I went to Mr. Fisks, who was a pastor, I went to Mr. Fisks and lived with him during his life. I remember he advised me wholly to abandon young company and associate myself with grave elderly people. Which council I followed? Which council I followed? Finding grave elderly people. Now, I don't know whether the young people in that area, there was some deficiency the pastor was concerned, or whether he was just trying to accelerate the growth of this godly young man. And it would be accelerated not by his peers, but by grave elderly men. I don't know, but he says, which counsel I followed. He left young man to follow old man. At 24 years of age, here is what we read in his diary. This is just a snippet. You need to read his diary for yourself. if you have not. He's 24. Now, we can go down the path, some arguments maybe already, in some minds, we can't, we shouldn't really follow Brainerd, he was melancholy, depressive. Yeah, he was those things, but if you died at 29, what would you be remembered for? If you died at 29, what would you be remembered for? Here we are, talking about this man. We can point out his faults. But he was a good man, even at 24. We can learn from him. April 25th. This morning, I spent about two hours in secret duties, and was enabled more than ordinarily to agonize for immortal souls. Though it was early in the morning, the sun scarcely shined at all, yet my body was quite wet with sweat. So when he uses the term agonized for immortal souls, he's not exaggerating. He was sweating over them. You ever sweat in prayer? That doesn't guarantee your prayer's gonna be answered. It's an interesting one, isn't it? Souls should sweat. I wonder, do we know anyone else that would sweat in prayer? Someone like our Lord himself? April 27th. Oh, that my soul might never offer any dead, cold services to my God. See his mentality? I don't want anything I do to be dead and cold. Nothing. April 28th, I withdrew to my usual place of retirement in great peace and tranquility. Spent about two hours in secret duties. He goes on, God was so precious to my soul that the world with all its enjoyments was infinitely vile. The world with all its enjoyments We look back then and say, what worldly enjoyments? What did they have? No electricity, television, internet. What does he mean, worldly enjoyments? Playing cards, what is it? Whatever it was, infinitely vile. That's what he says. He goes on and says, I had no more value for the favour of men than for pebbles. This is how his diary continues, constant expressions of longing for God and lamentation over his own sins. In June 13, he says, I was in such an agony from sun half an hour high till near dark that I was all over wet with sweat, but yet it seemed to me that I wasted away the day and had done nothing. Oh, my dear Jesus did sweat blood for poor souls. I longed for more compassion towards them." He's praying the whole day, the whole day over souls and feels he's not compassionate enough toward the lost. What does that say about us? When did you last pray the whole day for lost souls and come away feeling that your compassion isn't sufficient, that it's lacking toward them? June 18th, I set apart this day for prayer to God. and spent most of the day in that duty. June 19, spent much time alone. My soul longed to be holy and reached after God. June 22, in the morning, spent about two hours in prayer and meditation with considerable delight. June 30, spent this day alone in the woods in fasting and prayer. And so it goes on. 24, 24. Heart for God, heart for men. Surely something has to resonate in our hearts today. I'm standing up before you more convicted, I guarantee, more convicted than any of you. It's not, thank God, that I can say I know nothing of this. But I don't know the extent of it. And it's far too infrequent. Raynard was a good man, of whom the world was not worthy. God took him at 29 years of age. He is one we can follow. Another man, this time in the United Kingdom, in Scotland, Reverend James Calder, He was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who lived from 1712 to 1775 in the village of Croy, just about 15 miles north of where I was born in Scotland. He writes in his diary, this is just December, just a couple of things from December, at study all day, some materials prepared, but oh, listen, but oh, I fear that they are ununctioned, too much of my wretched, unhallowed self in them and too little of Christ and the Spirit. Lord, supply my deficiency. according to the riches of thy glorious grace. And make tomorrow, speaking of the Sabbath, make tomorrow a happy day to me, to mine, to thousands and tens of thousands of saints and sinners. But you see, his spirit, he's prepared for the Lord's day. But oh, I fear that they are ununctioned, ununctioned. Sometimes we don't feel ready for the Lord's Day as preachers. Not quite ready, but you're more concerned about the kind of tangible readiness rather than the spiritual, whether it's got the unction of heaven. December 18th, studied all day, too little in prayer. My, isn't that familiar? studied all day, too little in prayer. Lord, pity, forgive, and cure my atheism and indevotion." It's atheism in his mind, this Scottish divine. It's atheism. To labor in the Word and not labor in prayer. Atheism. Can you follow his reasoning, can you? Can you see the atheism in it? Because it's like believing that I merely prepare some sermon, some homily, get up there and I've done my duty. No, that's atheism at work. The man who knows God knows that it needs to be a message from God to the people. And so he prays that his neighbors Have the blessing of heaven. December 31st, this is the last day of the year. How does he spend it? This day I resolve in the Lord's strength to set apart as far as my feeble body can bear and as the Lord shall please to favor and assist for deep retirement, humiliation, and prayer. Many loud calls to this duty at this time You hear those calls too, you do. I hear them, but we don't listen to them. Many loud calls to this duty at this time, such as the case and condition of my own poor soul, cold and languishing, oppressed with a dead, hard heart and clouded evidences. He goes on, he talks about the case and condition of my children with regard to their souls and what concerns their salvation. the case of my parish in general, which is not what I would wish it to be, and the case in particular of four aged, sickly, dying women of my flock, some of whom I fear are yet strangers to Christ and in great danger of perishing forever. Come now, blessed Lord, breathe life into the dry, dead bones of my soul. Do you ever hear the loud calls to the duty of retirement and humiliation and prayer? Do you hear the calls? You're hearing it now. But will we respond? He then records that he was away for part of that day. He was called away to go minister to a widow who had a sick child. And he then enters in his diary at 9 p.m. of the same day. After visiting the sick youth, I returned direct to my closet, where I continued about two hours more without any interruption, spent mostly in prayer, at which time I hope I can say to the praise of free grace, that the Lord was pleased of His infinite mercy to shine and breathe on my poor soul by His Word and Spirit to quicken and humble and comfort and enlarge and strengthen and sanctify in some measure. I was helped to plead in a wrestling, importunate, believing way for my own soul, for each of my children and servants, for some of my friends, for many of my worthy brethren in the ministry, and for some young divines, students, and candidates for the ministry." What a heart for the kingdom. It's not just about him. Do we understand why these men lived as they did? Do we? Are they extreme? Are they? Are they nutcases? We're to retire to some shelf where this took place in Christian history but we ignore it? No. No, these are good men. These are good men. God and His providence. has given us a record of that we can learn from. Too many of us are caught up in worldly matters. I think of 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4. No man that woreth, no man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. Why? That he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. No man Are you in the battle? Are you? Are you in the war? We were reminded of it this morning. We are in a battle. We are. We are soldiers of Christ. And if we are in the front line, as it were, if we are ministers of the Word of God, if we are pastors of God's flock, if we are ministering to the souls of men, then we are called to that front line to realize that no man in this battle just like soldiers in a real physical battle. If you're called to this battle, you don't, you don't entangle yourself with the affairs of this life. You get wrapped up as much as you are enabled with the eternal. Why, that you may please him who hath chosen you. Think of it. Chosen you. Chosen you! Me. It's all our sin to be a soldier. In a letter written in 1740, Whitfield is a young man at this stage, in his twenties still. He said this, there's nothing I dread more than having my heart drawn away with earthly objects. When that time comes, it will be over with me indeed. I must then bid goodbye to zeal and fervency of spirit, and in effect, bid the Lord Jesus to depart from me. For alas, what room can there be for God when a rival hath taken possession of the heart There's nothing I dread more than having my heart drawn away with earthly objects. You know, most men in the ministry, it seems these days, they're scared that you'll take away their earthly objects. They're scared. They're scared someone will get up and say, this carnal or the spirit of God will put his finger on some aspect of their life and tell them it's not for them and they'll claim, oh, oh, but we're free from the law and we're not under it in such a fashion that we have to kind of live in some strict fashion after holiness. My conscience is fine with this. Conscience isn't the law. The conscience needs to be counseled by the word. Whitefield was a good man. I dare to say, one of the best of men. And we can follow him. Say goodbye to zeal and fervency if we are engaged in earthly things. So brethren, that is the autobiographical example we have of good men. We come then thirdly and finally to the blunt exhortations we have from good men, the blunt exhortations we have from good men. A.T. Robertson said this, it is the highest crown of the minister that he has called so often into the closet fellowship with the eternal God. There is, of course, no special ministerial approach to the throne of God, but his very work of itself draws him to communion with God. A preacher may not live up to his rich privilege, but it is there for him. It is there for him. It is there for us, brethren, to live up to a rich privilege. What privilege? Our highest crown being called into closet communion with the eternal God. our highest privilege indeed. And so I ask myself, do I really want to live up to this rich privilege? Do I? To what degree do I want to live up to it? That's the question. Robert Bruce. was a Presbyterian minister who was in his teens, if I calculate correctly, when John Knox died. And John Livingstone, who preached that famous sermon at the Kirk of Shots in which 500 were converted, John Livingstone was a junior, a younger man, to Robert Bruce. And he said of Robert Bruce, this was what he said of him, No man in his time spake with such evidence and power of the Spirit. No man had so many seals of conversion. Yea, many of his hearers thought no man since the apostles spoke with such power." And he goes on to say about him, he was very short in prayer when others were present. But every sentence was like a strong bolt shot up to heaven. I've heard him say that he wearied when others were long in prayer, but being alone he spent much time in wrestling and prayer. I say all that to set the stage just of who Robert Bruce was and how he was esteemed, because he said this, that we should be acquainted with prayer and be instant in it, that the Lord would not withdraw His Holy Spirit from us, but rather increase the power of Him from day to day. This is Scottish Presbyterian, and he's talking here about the Lord would not withdraw His Holy Spirit. Now, to listen to some Reformed men today, God wouldn't withdraw His Spirit from His people. He doesn't do that. They have the Spirit. And of course they do. If they're regenerate, they have the Spirit. But these men understood there's measures of the power of the Spirit. One man can grieve the Holy Ghost and know nothing of his power, and his labors are all in vain, and no matter how much he does by the flesh, he's going to find on the Day of Judgment his entire life goes up in smoke, for his labors are nothing but wood, hay, and stubble. He's nothing of the Spirit. Only the Spirit can birth that which has value in heaven and make a man's labors be seen as gold, silver, and precious stones. Only the Spirit of God can do that through a man. And we need the fullness of the Holy Ghost. We need the power of the Spirit of God, and this man understood That we should be acquainted with prayer and be instant in it, that the Lord would not withdraw His Holy Spirit from us, but rather increase the power of Him from day to day." Increasing in the power of the Spirit. You know we talk about these men and we wax eloquent and we become experts in all the details of their lives, but we won't follow them. We won't follow them. And that makes us worse than anyone because we have all these examples, all these examples. And some of them have laid out very clearly how they live, the manner of their conduct. Their contemporaries are talking about the manner of their life. They're giving clear arguments that this man genuinely was a man of God. He is therefore a good man. And the spirit of God would say to us through his word today, follow these men, follow them. On one occasion, when a young preacher named Robert Blair had the opportunity to preach before Robert Bruce, he later asked the more senior man, this is dangerous, but he asked him of his opinion of his sermon. To which Bruce replied, I find your sermon very polished and well digested, but there is one thing I did miss in it to wit. The Spirit of God, I found not that." And you can read on, you see how this influenced the young man, and he later became a man of God and knew the power of God. He needed to hear the truth. Maybe he thought he had done well. He thought, it wasn't so bad. Got through that okay, I can ask the eminent Robert Bruce how he got on. But he was focusing on the fleshly. It was all about how well he understood it, the logic of the way he carried it, the way he presented it. And the discerning man of God says, it's all well polished, but I could not discern the Spirit of God. I tell you, brethren, I have sat under many a message and I have no doubt preached many a message just like that. But we need to understand, and thank God I have some understanding of my continual need of the ministry of the Holy Ghost as I stand before men to minister the Word of God. I know. How do I know? Ask me how I know. I know because of good men. Good men, like that man I referred to earlier, driving in the car, going to the open air, Encouraging me, the only thing you need, young brother, is the power of the Spirit of God. That's it. I remember I mentioned Nicholson. This man was converted under W.P. Nicholson. And Nicholson was an evangelist of his day of extraordinary power. saw a mighty move of the Spirit in Northern Ireland in the 1920s in the midst of civil turmoil, God's hand was on him in an extraordinary way. And then later in his life, he's in his 80s when this mentor of mine was converted in the 50s, and he communicated constantly the need for young men, or anyone, to be full of the Holy Spirit, to know the power of the Spirit upon his life. And so here I'm getting a message from Nicholson, who's dead in the 50s, but through another man who learned from him, he's passing on to me, as I say to this brother, how we need another W.P. Nicholson. And he would turn around and say, I can remember, I can still feel it. He put his hand on my knee and he said, no, no, we just need an Amen filled with the Holy Ghost. That's what he said. And he's right, not to boost me. It's the same for any man. We don't need another Knox or another Calvin in the sense of him to be come back from the dead. We need men who will follow these men and know the power of these men. That's it. Stop trifling. Stop wasting our time. Stop engaging in things that have no value and that we will live to regret before the judgment. Thomas Brooks said much about prayer, said much of a Christian's spiritual strength is in secret prayer. I have a few more here, but I'm going to skip down to Another man who will not be liked or supported by many, I'm sure, because of his theology. Well, I give him a pass on that, because I discern he was a man of God. And I'm quite sure I could have had sweet fellowship with him and learned more from him in a few hours than I would learn in a lifetime from most. Leonard Ravenhill. Leonard Ravenhill said, There's a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. We might not agree with all the terminology there, but let's just think of the spirit of the kind of man he's talking about. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable. Let him be as plain as John the Baptist. Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and stagnant churchianity. Let him be as selfless as Paul the Apostle. Let him too say and live, this one thing I do. Let him reject ecclesiastical favors. Let him be self-abasing, non-self-seeking, non-self-projecting, non-self-righteous, non-self-glorying, non-self-promoting. Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself, but only that which will move men to God. And listen to this, let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has received the order of the day. Let him under God unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism. Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism. There is a sense in which we need a new breed of preachers. Young men determined to swim upstream. And in another sense, really all we need is for the current crop of preachers to learn from good men. You and me. to learn from good men, that's it. Just learn from these men. Specifically in this regard, our personal devotion to God, our abstaining from the nonsense of the world, and our enjoyment of sweet fellowship and communion at the throne of grace where no one else sees that business we engage in. Perhaps we feel like failures. Perhaps. Should we give up? Should we? At 52 years of age, he's about four years away from death, George Whitfield could be found lamenting, and if you don't understand this, it's because you don't know the life of Whitfield. If you know the life of Whitfield, this is just plain weird. At 52, which is a handful of years to live, Whitefield could be found lamenting over how little he had done and suffered for Christ and resolved, quote, I will begin to begin to be a Christian. And if Whitefield had to hit the reset button sometimes, and surely to God so do we, forgetting those things which are behind, forgetting the failures, the successes, let God measure them. From this moment, from this hour, right here, right now, reaching forth onto those things which are before, pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I know the guilt, I do. But this is not a day for half-heartedness. It's not. Brethren, it is not. Let me finish with our patron saint, Spurgeon. He said this, we never do anything in this world until we set our faces thoroughly to it. The warriors who win battles are those who are resolved to conquer or die. The heroes who emancipate nations are those who count no hazards and reckon no odds, but are resolved that the yoke shall be broken from the neck of their country. The merchants who prosper in this world are those who do their business with all their hearts and watch for wealth with eagerness. Listen to this. The half-hearted man is nowhere in the race of life. The half-hearted man is nowhere in the race of life. I think, brethren, above all that we have said here, I think, I think, I see our blessed Savior today. ever living to make intercession for you and for me. And just perhaps, as prayer might be today, think of it. Think of the prayer of your blessed Savior who still bears those wounds before the Father, granting all the merit we need and praying, praying for you, that today you would follow good men. You would follow good men. You might not be able to spend two hours, but you can follow good men. You can get in the path. You can get on that way, the ways of the righteous, the ways of good men. You can get on there and say, by grace, I'm going to try and trod this path. I'm going to give my heart to the things of God, those things that take up my time. Could there be any pastor here who games, who spends time gaming? Could that be possible? That we will have to give account of time spent, wasted, playing video games or whatever other nonsense. I'm not saying there's no place for certain recreation, but there are certain recreations that we find difficult to control. And if they lord it over us, they need to go. We need to die to them. And we need to say, no man but worth, not even me, especially not me, will entangle myself with the affairs of this life. that I may please him who prays this day over my soul, that I might follow even his own dear example, who prayed with strong crying and tears, and sweat, as it were, great drops of blood for my salvation. Let us follow, good man. Let's bow together in prayer. Brethren, I don't need to tell you how to pray, but if God has dealt with your heart, just start again. Let us learn from Edwards, resolved, resolved, that from this day I will whatever. Holy resolutions, by the grace of God. We will be, with all our weaknesses, the best that we can be, because Christ is worthy. Lord, I pray for each of us, especially for those engaged in ministry. Lord, take us higher with thyself. Let us see that the things of this world are infinitely vile. when compared to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Give us grace, give us strength, give us Holy Spirit, and continue with us through this day we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.