Amen. I'd like us this evening to continue our study in Paul's letter to the church in Rome, and in particular, that final section of chapter 15 in which Paul asks for prayer. First thing I'd bring to your attention is the request. Paul has a request which he lays before the saints in Rome. And the very nature of that request tells us something about Paul. Well, let me begin by simply asking, how willing are you to ask for help when you need it? I suspect that there may be many of the men here who would rather drive considerable distance in the wrong direction than stop and ask someone else for directions. We know that men are not very good at admitting they don't know something, and so when they don't know where they are or where they're going, they'd far rather end up in the wrong town altogether than wind down the window and say to a passerby, am I on the right road? Mercifully for us, the example that Paul sets before us is not to pretend that he has all the competency in and of himself, but to ask for prayer. There's a very simple request, very understandable. It doesn't require any advanced schooling at a theological seminary to understand what it is that Paul is asking for. He's asking for help. I remember hearing the story of, it's a Scottish story, but I make no apologies for that because some of the best stories are Scottish. A preacher was staying with a farmer and his family as he was preaching for the weekend. And as he gets up on the Sunday morning, they put all sorts of good things in front of the pastor, because that's the way you're supposed to treat pastors when they come to call. So out comes the bread, and out comes the butter, and out comes the strawberry jam. And after he's had a feral feast on that, they bring out the kippers. Now, what are kippers? It's a smoked haddock, which is a wonderful delicacy at a Scottish breakfast table. Not everybody likes kippers, apparently. That's okay. As out come the kippers. And it's at that point that the farmer says to the minister, Minister, will you ask a blessing? And he said, well, we've just had bread. We've just had butter and jam. And now when we can bring out the kippers, you're asking for a blessing now? And the farmer explained, well, it's simple. The wheat we grow ourselves. The butter we get from the cows, which we milk ourselves. And the jam we get from the garden, that we get from strawberries. We make these things ourselves. But the kippers, well, we don't do that ourselves. So that's why we ask a blessing for that. Well, I trust that you are already ahead of me and see the fallacy, the falsity of the farmer. Well, the bread we grow ourselves. Well, that's not Paul's attitude. He doesn't say, I can do this and I can do that. He says, I need you to pray. And he's bold in his request. He says, strive. That probably tells us more about Paul than it does about the church in Rome. He's not saying, well, if you can spare me a moment in your thoughts at some point in the future, if you could just remember me and tack me onto the list of your prayers. It would be nice to have, but I could probably get by without it. Well, I might say I could use a haircut, but I can get by without it. I'm going to ask you, says Paul, for something that will take effort on your part. And that tells us something about the bond that Paul has with the church in Rome. He's not frightened to ask them to do something, even though it will require an effort on their part. And we'll ask you to do something that will have a cost to it. Are you willing to make that commitment? It's instructive then of how Paul couches his request. without troubling you with all sorts of Greek verbs and so forth. And it's not something that I know natively. I haven't memorized the New Testament. But I looked it up. I looked up my Greek New Testament to see what word it was that Paul used, parakalo. Didn't mean anything much to me when I read it, but there it goes. You say, well, I looked up Paracallo to see where that's used, because that would be instructive. If it's used in a particular way in one part of scripture, then that helps me understand how it's being used in another part of scripture. It's the same word that Jairus used. You remember the story of Jairus? His daughter is gravely ill on the point of death. And he comes to plead before Jesus for her life. I beseech you, I beg of you. Well, I think we can understand what the sort of emotions that will go through the heart and mind of any parent when their child is gravely ill is not a, if you can spare a moment sort of request, it's, If I needed to, I would grab you by the lapels and drag you along with me. I beseech you, beg you. And that's the same word that Paul is using here when he's writing to the church in Rome. He uses it again in one of his other epistles, 2 Corinthians 5, wonderful, wonderful chapter that speaks of Christ being made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might become the righteous of God in him. And Paul uses the same verb at that point, I beseech you, I beg you, be reconciled to God. So this is not a verb, which is just a polite request. And if you could be bothered to remember, if you don't mind, just as it comes up in your thinking. Now, what Paul is saying is, I'm beseeching you. Strive with me in your prayers. This is really important. Really important. So that's the request. The second thing I'd bring to your attention is a recognition. It's a recognition on Paul's part that what he was called to do, he could not do in his own strength. It was a humble recognition by the Lord Jesus Christ, by the love of the Spirit. Preachers can't get into a pulpit and expect a blessing from God because of their eloquence or their native abilities in any sense. Another Scottish story. In my native town of Edinburgh, at the end of Princes Street, there is a Shandwick Place, and along Shandwick Place is a church. It's, I think, still in operation to this day as a church, which says something. A young man who was a student at New College, which is where I trained, was invited to preach at the evening worship service. And he suffered from that weakness that so many young men suffer from, a degree of self-confidence, perhaps even arrogance. And as he mounted the steps to the pulpit, his head was held high. And he tried to preach, but it all just fell apart. So when he came down from the pulpit, his head was down low. He knew that he basically made a mess of things. I said to the minister, if he had gone up as he came down, he would have come down. as he went up. What Paul is doing as he makes his request, he's recognizing that he can't do it in his own strength. He may be the Apostle Paul, but that doesn't mean to say even the Apostle Paul can do it in his own strength. He is asking, pleading, if we're taking that verb in the way in which it is used elsewhere. He's pleading with the church in Rome, support me by your prayers. I can't do it in my own strength. Paul is modeling before us that humble dependence on the Lord and upon the Lord's people. The work, as one of the Puritans said, the work is though it all depends on you. Pray. knowing that it all depends upon God. So what is Paul saying? He's a bold request. He's asking you to be insistent in the place of prayer. Now here, I'm gonna make a confession that I suspect that each and every one of you know exactly what I've been talking about when it comes to prayer. When it comes to your personal devotions, you'd like everybody to think that you are just some great, victorious person who prays with boldness and fire and vigor. And yet so often, what are our prayers truly like? They can become something like a shopping list. We want to pray for others, we have that mental list, but actually we have a physical list before us and we go through it. And if the Lord were to ask us honestly how we are praying, perhaps we'd have to confess it's with little more than a routine. So what is Paul saying? He's saying when you pray, it's not, you know, you've got your shopping list, bread, milk, butter, eggs, and then someone on the bottom of that shopping list that you call your prayer notebook, just write in the name Paul and add him to the list. And yet too often, am I alone? in thinking that our prayers really are just matter of fact. And we become convicted that all we're doing is reciting a list of names before the throne of grace. And truly we do ask for God's blessing, but the heart really isn't engaged. And sometimes not even the mind is engaged because the list becomes such pro forma that we pray, we've got to the end of the prayer, we've been through the whole list with it. Now did I pray for so-and-so? He's on my list, but did I actually mention him? Now if you're one who's never had that experience, I want to speak to you. I want you to tell me how it's done. So there's my confession. That's not an excuse for you to do the same. It's a recognition that none of us are experts in the place of prayer. Not, dare I say, not even the pastor. And we long for those seasons of refreshing in the place of prayer, where there may be something of an effort to enter into God's presence. It's as though the doors of heaven are opened up and God pours out his Spirit. And what a moment ago was hard for us even to begin, now becomes hard for us to cease. We are made deeply sensible, and the Spirit of the living God is joining us in prayer. and helping us to pray. And it's no longer just the recitation of a list of names of people that we know around the world as we pray for the advancement of Christ's kingdom, but we are quite literally upon our knees with tears in our eyes, begging and beseeching and pleading for the outpouring of God's Spirit. That's what Paul is asking for. I beseech you. Strive with me in prayer. I recognize that I can't do it on my own. And if you do not join me in striving before the throne of grace, then do not expect that blessing, which in your better moments and in mine, we desire to see. So we admit it. that our prayer life is not as we would yearn for it to be. And Paul, even by the very request that he is making, is recognizing his dependence upon God, most certainly. But he's recognizing his dependence upon the people of God as they pray for the preaching of God's word. Now, I often, perhaps not as often as I should, will refer to other passages of scripture. And sometimes you'll turn them up. On this time, I would make it my plea to ask you to turn this particular passage up. Maybe another one may be familiar to you. And being familiar to you, you just need to have your memories job. But this one, I want you to see it written on the page. Isaiah chapter 62 and at verse 7. Isaiah chapter 62 and at verse 7. We'll read from verse 6 to get the sense. And I want you to ask yourself a question as we read these few verses from the Gospel of Christ by Isaiah. If they were not on the page in front of you and you're reading them, would you have believed it? It's kind of one of the clickbait on YouTube. Watch this because of the title, just to get your interest. If it wasn't recorded, you wouldn't believe it, says the clickbait. If it wasn't in your Bible, You wouldn't believe it. Isaiah 62, verse 6. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen all the day and all the night. They shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest and give Him no rest. until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Do you hear what Isaiah is saying? Give God no rest. Let me say it again. Give God no rest until He has established Jerusalem. Zion? The place of escape. Paul is not asking for the gentle adding on to the bottom of your shopping list of prayers after you've prayed for this person, that person, and whatever else it might be. Get your stylus out and write it on the back, on the bottom of the wax tablet, if there's room for me. I beseech you, strive with me in prayer. And if we're following what the gospel of Christ by Isaiah is saying, give God no rest. Would you have presumed to do that if it were not in your scriptures? To give God no rest? Will God make me even as Jacob when his family are threatened, at least in Jacob's mind, with destruction from his brother Esau? So he crosses over the river. to pray. It opens up with us being told that an angel comes to Jacob, but it becomes apparent to us that this is one of those pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus himself. Jacob lays hands upon this messenger of God. Truly I believe it to be a pre-incarnate example of the Lord Jesus. And Jacob is bold enough to make his petitions known. And in one of those verses that once heard becomes unforgettable, I will not let you go until you have blessed me. No shopping list of prayer for Jacob. He presumes He is bold enough to lay his hand upon the ambassador from the court of the king of kings, and laying a hold upon him, though he's losing the fight, declares, I will not let you go until you have blessed me. And that's what Paul is looking for from the saints in Rome. Strive with me. I'm making this my earnest prayer and petition. I'm pleading with you, beseeching you, I'm begging you. When you get up on your knees in the secret place of prayer, and no one else can hear you, and you know that entering into the place of prayer becomes a difficulty for you because your heart has grown cold until the breath of the living God breathes upon you. And strangely, that which was so hard to begin becomes so hard to stop." That's what Paul is praying for. That's his request. That's his recognition. You have now voted to petition the presbytery to sever the pastoral tie. And shortly, you'll be engaged in a process that will identify for you a successor, one who we all trust will preach Christ in whom crucified when my tongue lies silent in the grave. And perhaps a number of the older members will likewise have gone to their eternal reward. So what is it that we should be praying for as a congregation? that the Lord would raise up a man to preach Christ to this congregation, to your children, to your children's children. And will that be just an item that's placed on the bottom of your list of prayers as you remember this missionary and that, this relative with some particular sickness or disease? Or perhaps, as we remember, those who mourn, those who long to have children, all of which it is right and proper for us to pray for. But bear in mind what it is that Paul is asking for. The recognition that a man cannot enter the pulpit in his own strength, or that if he does, he is all but wasting his time No, says Paul, I beseech you, strive with me. Strive with me in the place of prayer. And then thirdly, let me lay before you the requirement as Paul sets them out. Basically there's two things that he is asking for. He wants to be delivered from unbelievers and he wants the work of the kingdom to advance. I remember speaking to a well-known minister, preacher, in Scotland. He had a magnificent reputation as a preacher. He certainly was a good speaker. And I asked him on one occasion, being young and foolish, as opposed to being old and foolish, I said to him, and I won't say his name, How do you deal with those who are opposed to your ministry when you preach the gospel? And he paused for a moment and then responded, no, I don't think anyone has ever taken exception to anything I've said from the pulpit. Well, I had no more questions for him. A man who enters the pulpit and doesn't find himself with opposition at some level is not a man who's fulfilling the task which God has set before him. Don't call a man who doesn't rock the boat. That may be uncomfortable for you, but perhaps it should be. You don't want someone who fears the face of men. You want someone who will speak to you of the needs of your soul, who will be bold in declaring God's word, even though it stands on your toes, makes you feel uncomfortable, wince even, as he lays a finger on that most sensitive of issues for you. So what is it that Paul is asking for? There'll be those who will rise up in opposition to faithful gospel ministry. Sometimes they will be from outside, and sometimes they will be even from amongst God's people. Paul speaks about that in Acts chapter 20. We read just a very brief section when Paul is speaking to the elders from First Presbyterian Church of Ephesus. It charges them to look after the flock, to be pastors of the flock. But he recognized that even from among their own number, men will arise who will tear at the flock. So it is the requirement in a successor, someone who will be bold, bolder than I have been, faithful, more faithful than I have been, that he'll be protected from the enemy of his soul and of yours. To deal with the unbelievers in Judea, those who would seek to undermine the ministry for whatever reason, but basically because they are the agents of the enemy of our soul, wanting to tear down and destroy. And if he can't lay his hands upon our Savior, He will do his best to destroy his people, that's you and me. Has the need for men in ministry ever been greater? Well, perhaps every generation is saying that, but I don't think we can be absolutely certain that the need is no less than it's been in previous generations. We need men. And I have no hesitation in saying that we need men and not people. We need men who will stand forth, recognize their own weaknesses, and call for help. Not because they are not really men, but simply because they recognize their own weaknesses and know how much they have need of the prayers of God's people. To be clear and to be bold. Let me read just a few verses from the end of chapter 11 of Hebrews. It's that wonderful chapter of the heroes of faith. And after he has made mention of a number of individuals by name, he then goes on to speak in more general terms. From verse 36. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with a sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. It's all in two. Some commentators will point us to Isaiah, the same Isaiah from whom we've just been reading. And there is a tradition that at the last Isaiah was tied to a tree and he and the tree were sown in two. of whom this world is not worthy. So what is Paul asking? So I've got a request to make of you. And in making that request, I'm telling you something about myself. I cannot do this on my own. And I'm begging you to strive with me in the place of prayer. Because what we need is men who might even be tied to a tree and sawn in two. And some will be stoned. Some will be left for dead. Some will be destitute and covered with animal skins. Some may go hungry. But we need men. who will not fear the face of men and preach boldly, even at the risk of their lives. And these men are not stepping forward. or we would not have had a day of prayer and of fasting for the whole of the OPC because we're so short of men who are willing to go out into the mission field. No, says Paul. These men can't go out on their own initiative, in their own strength, with only their own eloquence in the preaching of the gospel. We need men, bold men, godly men. Men who will not hold back even their own life, but will surrender it for the cause of Christ. So Paul says, strive with me in prayer. Strive with me because There's gonna be hardship in prayer because there's hardship in ministry. I suppose we've all at some point listened to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, a favorite of Sunday school teachers. Nebuchadnezzar, known to us more recently as we deal with the prophet Obadiah. Nebuchadnezzar has taken captive those from Jerusalem and the surrounding area. But amongst those that are being held captive, there's Daniel, who is an exemplary godly man. And there's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, his prayer partners. Shadrach has the problem of a large empire which is diverse with many different nations, tongues, peoples, and trying to weld them together into one political entity is challenging to say the least. So he erects a huge golden statue on the plains and then gathers together the representatives of all the nations and his empire and commands that whatever they do in their home country that they should be unified in this one religion of bowing to this golden statue. So when the The musicians strike up, people get down upon their faces and bow and worship towards the golden statue. All of them, well, all of them except for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and of course the enemy of God's people, make sure that this comes to the attention of Nebuchadnezzar. Didn't you say everybody should bend the knee? Everybody should get on their face before your statue of gold, this god that you have made. Well, I don't think Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did. Nebuchadnezzar, of course, terribly offended. He got everybody together. And this is a way of bringing the empire under his control, welding them together. And he certainly can't afford to have people standing in the back row. They were probably Presbyterians because they're in the very back of the assembly. Can't afford to have them flaunting his rule by refusing to worship the statue of gold. What is it that Shadrach says to Nebuchadnezzar? Our God can save. Our God will save. But even if he does not, will not bend the knee to your statue. and then they're thrown into the fiery furnace. I think the words of Shadrach are instructive. Our God can save, he will save. But even if he does, if he does not appear to save us in the short term, you take us, you throw us into the fiery furnace, and nothing comes out except a pile of ashes. Well, what have you done? You have promoted us to glory. and God will save. But even in your opinion, if he appears not to save, he will still not bow down to your false God. We are the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego of our generation who will not bend the knee, who will not bow to the gods of this world. Hold back the powers of darkness. And to what end? To bless the saints. To point them to Christ. That they would know that Christ had ministered to them. Because ultimately Paul wants to come to the church in Rome. Now we're getting to the very end of the epistle to the Roman church. But let me remind you here very briefly how Paul begins that epistle. He says, I have often wanted to come to you. because I wanted to preach the gospel to you as well. He's speaking to believers. That you and I know that there is nothing more appealing than when the gospel is being powerfully and persuasively preached and Christ is being set before us. The Christ who has died in our place. Here at the end of the book of Paul's letter to the church in Rome, he's saying, I still want to come to you. And I want you to pray earnestly that when I go to Jerusalem that I may have something that will benefit the saints in Jerusalem so that when I come to you, you may rejoice. Rejoice in what? rejoiced that their prayers were answered, and that when Paul preached in Jerusalem, the saints were lifted up into the very presence of God, and their faith was confirmed, and they grew to love Christ more. And Paul is saying right at the beginning and now in conclusion, as he gets towards the end of his book, he says, when I come to you, I want you to rejoice that together we have been about the work of the kingdom, that Christ is glorified in Jerusalem and in Rome. So there's the request, there's the recognition, and there's the requirement. Though it may not be this month or next month that I personally will close the Bible for the last time from this pulpit, I beseech you, brethren, Strive with me in prayer that the Lord would raise up one to minister the gospel, that he would be protected from the enemy of his soul and of yours, and that the gospel being powerfully and persuasively preached in your hearings would lead you with rejoicing into the presence of the living God. Let's pray together. Father, we thank Thee for Paul. We thank Thee for his ministry. We thank Thee for his humility of spirit that was willing to acknowledge freely that the ministry was not something he could undertake in his own strength, but was emboldened by thy spirit, sent down for our instruction, even to plead with the saints at Rome that they should strive with him in prayer. So Lord, though the church in Rome was far removed physically from Paul, and that he had much still to do before he would at last arrive in Rome, he was bold to ask the saints, not simply to add that prayer to the bottom of the list when they had a moment, but to make it an earnest matter of prayer. So we would ask, Father, that Thy Spirit would be granted to us, that in the place of prayer we might strive to see someone raised up in preparation even now to preach Christ and Him crucified. And that Thou would raise up even from our own midst, our own young men, who will go to the ends of the earth to make Christ known. We pray, Lord, that we may be granted to see in our day men of the gospel. Hear us, we pray, in Jesus' name and for his sake. And all God's people said, Amen.