“Give him no rest!” Importunity would not have been commanded had it not been right for us, and prevalent with God. How safely may we commend what the Lord commands! God is to be moved by the importunate prayers of his people. He will hear; he must hear, if we will pray with persistent faith.
Importunity on our part is the sign of coming action on God’s part. Sometimes the Lord seems, according to Old Testament figure, to put his right hand into his bosom. We cry to him, “O Lord, how long?” But his right hand is in his bosom still. Error prevails, sin triumphs, God’s people are despised; but his right hand is in his bosom still. Take no rest from prayer, and give him no rest. Ere long he will pluck his right hand out of his bosom, and he will roll up his sleeve, and you will see what his bare arm will do. He will work as soon as he sees that his time is come, and that will be when we are in earnest, and give him no rest.
Sometimes God’s work goes on so well that we have much cause for gratitude; and yet we feel that the pace might be greatly quickened. A sermon that could save a hundred could as readily save a thousand, if God blessed it to that extent. The same truth which sways one mind could sway a million minds, if applied by the Great Spirit. There is no reason why the sowing of the Lord’s word should not bring forth a hundred-fold instead of twenty-fold. We may not dream that the Spirit of the Lord is straitened. When God is with us, all things are possible. When the Lord fires his saints with zeal, his own work never lags behind. God is never behind the desires of his people: in fact, their longings are prophecies of his givings. When we cry day and night, God will work day and night. When saints groan and sigh for revival, it is because the revival is already come, and has begun within their souls. When the whole company of the faithful shall glow together with passionate desire and importunate prayer, we may know that our redemption draweth nigh.
Importunate prayer is the sign of a growing work. The sighs and cries of the church are growing pains. Prayer is the thermometer of grace. The Lord has committed his divine force in a large degree to the custody of his people. Unbelief shuts up that force: as it is written, He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Faith, on the other hand, sets the sacred force free; for “all things are possible to him that believeth.” When saints are all alive and instant in prayer, it is the index and token that the Lord will open the windows of heaven and pour them out such a blessing that they shall not have room enough to receive it.
I have done when I have urged you, my well-beloved friends, to take this text as a lesson to be practiced. This first sermon on my return ought to be the key-note of this year’s service of God. Have you a mind for great grace and grand enterprises? Or do you prefer to slacken? I hope you will not hesitate, or choose the meaner part. Does the Lord put it into the heart of one and another to feel an agony concerning the unconverted? Do some of you feel a deep concern for the souls of others? Does this happen to you that teach in the Sunday-school, or who go out to the lodging-houses? Is this state of mind prevailing among the officers of the church? Is this the condition of a large proportion of private members? Then a grand future lies before us. If God gives all of us to travail for souls, we shall see greater things than these. Brethren, we hold the truth of God. If we had wickedly departed from the way of the Lord, all the praying in the world would have brought us no spiritual progress; but holding fast the everlasting gospel, what is now wanted is the fire from heaven to fall upon our altar and consume the sacrifice. Oh, for the Holy Ghost! Oh, for the working of God himself in our midst!
I exhort you who fear the Lord, and are his appointed remembrancers, to be much in prayer, and in testimony. Pray and preach. Keep not silent. Tell out the simple gospel. The more you tell of pardon bought with blood the better. I saw my dear brother, Archibald Brown, this week, and he told me of a poor fellow in East London who had been visited by a soul-winning brother. He had been a wild and wicked man. He was ill, and the visitor talked long with him. It seemed to make no impression, till one day he explained substitution to him, and the man asked pointedly, “If I believe in Jesus, do you tell me that he took all my sins upon himself?” “Yes, he bore all your sins in his own body on the tree.” “Well, well,” the man cried, “if he took them, I have not got them.” “No,” said the other; “that is the glorious truth. The Lord suffered for your sins.” “Then I shall not have to suffer for them?” “No,” said the visitor. “Your sin is put away.” “Never heard that before,” said the rough man; “that is the wonderfullest thing I ever heard. I believe it. Blessed be God, I believe it, and I am saved!” Soon after his son came in—another fellow of the Bill Sykes order and the visitor began exhorting him. The older man cried out, “Give him that little bit; that will do it.” Just so, “that little bit will do it.” The visitor told the story of Jesus dying in the sinner’s stead, and the little bit did the work. Our chief business should be to cry, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” We must bid men look to Jesus and live. Keep not silence. Publish this salvation far and wide. Preach the cross, and plead the blood. Preach and pray for Jesus: he is all in all. Keep his sacrifice to the front, and God will bless his own word. Oh, that he may now grant us a glorious period of genuine grace-work! Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
