BE SURE you offer all your closet prayers in Christ's Name, and in
His alone. " Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything
in My Name, I will do it ... That whatsoever ye shall ask of the
Father in My Name, He may give it you. . . " O sirs ! this is your
privilege as well as your comfort, that you never deal with God but
by a Mediator. When you appear before God, Jesus Christ appears
with you, and He appears for you ; when you put up your petitions,
then He doth make intercession for you. Christ gives you a commission
to put His Name upon all your requests ; and whatsoever
prayer comes up with this Name upon it, He will procure it an answer.
In the state of innocency, man might worship God without a
mediator ; but since sin hath made so wide a breach between God and
man, God will accept of no worship from man, but what is offered up
by the hand of a Mediator. Now this Mediator is Christ alone.
There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man
Christ Jesus." One Mediator not of redemption only, as the papists
grant, but of intercession also, which they deny . . .
The apostle plainly tells us that the office of intercession pertaineth
unto Christ, as part of His mediation (Heb. vii. 25). It is
certain that we need no other master of requests in heaven, but the
Man Christ Jesus ; who being so near the Father, and so dear to the
Father, can doubtless carry anything with the Father that makes for
His glory and our good. This was typified in the law. The highpriest
alone did enter into the sanctuary, and carry the names of the
children of Israel before the Lord, whilst the people stood all without.
This pointed out Christ's mediation. In Lev. xvi. you read of two
things. First, the cloud of incense that covered the mercy-seat ;
secondly, the blood of the bullock that was sprinkled before the mercyseat.
Now that blood typified Christ's satisfaction, and the cloud of
incense His intercession. . . .
There is no coming to the Father, but by His Son. Christ is the
true Jacob's ladder by which we must ascend to heaven. Joseph, you
know, commanded his brethren, that as ever they looked for any good
from him, or to see his face with joy, they should be sure to bring
their brother Benjamin along with them. O sirs ! as ever you would
be prevalent with God, as ever you would have sweet, comfortable,
choice returns from heaven to your closest prayers, be sure that you
bring your Elder Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the arms of your
faith, be sure that you treat and trade with God only in the Name
of the Lord Jesus . . . Christ's Name is so precious and powerful with
the Father, that it will carry any suit, obtain any requests at His
hands. The prayers that were offered up with the incense upon the
altar were pleasing and came up with acceptance (Rev. viii. 3). There
are no prayers that are either heard, owned, accepted, regarded, or
rewarded, but such as Christ puts His hand to. If Christ doth not
mingle His blood with our sacrifices, our services, they will be lost,
and never ascend as incense before the Lord. No coin is current that
hath not Csesar's stamp upon it; and no prayers go current in heaven
that have not the stamp of Christ upon them. There is nothing more
pleasing to our heavenly Father, than to use the mediation of His
Son. Such shall be sure to find most favour and to speed best in
the court of heaven, who still present themselves before the Father
with Christ in their arms of faith.
When you come out of your closets, narrowly watch what becomes
of your private prayers. Look at what door, in what way, and
by what hand the Lord shall please to give you an answer to the secret
desires of your souls in a corner . . . He is either a fool or a madman,
he is either very weak or very wicked, that prays and prays, but never
looks after his prayers ; that shoots many an arrow towards heaven,
but never minds where his arrows alight. " I will hear what God the
Lord will speak ; for He will speak peace unto His people and to
His saints." If David would have God to hearken to his prayers, he
must then hearken to what God will speak ; and upon this point it
seems he was fully resolved. The prophet's prayer you have in the
seven first verses, and his gracious resolution in the eighth : " I will
hear what God the Lord will speak" (Ixxxv.). As if he had said :
Certainly it will not be long before the Lord will give me a gracious
answer, a seasonable and suitable return to my prayers. So David
in Psalm cxxx. : " Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O
Lord : Lord, hear my voice, let Thine ears be attentive to the voice
of my supplications. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in
His word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they
that watch for the morning; I say, more than they that watch for
the morning." Those that watch abroad in dangerous times and
tedious weather look frequently for peep of day. How doth the weary
sentinel that is wet with the rain of heaven or with the dew of the
night, wait and watch, look and long, for the morning light! Now
this was the frame and temper of David's spirit when he came off
from praying : he falls a-waiting for a gracious answer. Shall the
husbandman wait for the precious fruits of the earth, and shall the
merchantman wait for the return of his ships, and shall the wife wait
for the return of her husband, that is gone a long journey (James v.
7, 8), and shall not a Christian wait for the return of his prayers ?
Noah waited patiently for the return of the dove to the ark with an
olive-branch in its mouth, so must you patiently wait for the return
of your prayers. When children shoot their arrows, they never mind
where they fall ; but when prudent archers shoot their arrows they
stand and watch where they fall. You must deal by your prayers as
prudent archers. " I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon
the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me " (Hab.
ii. 1). Having been in the former chapter very earnest in his expostulations
and very fervent in his supplications, the prophet gets
now upon his watch-tower, to see what becomes of his prayers. He
stands as a sentinel, and watches as vigilantly and as carefully as a
spy, a scout, earnestly longing to hear and see the event, the issue
and success of his prayers. That Christian that hath one eye upon
a divine precept, and another upon a gracious promise, that Christian
will be sure to look after his prayers. He that prays and waits, and
waits and prays, shall sure to speed ; he shall never fail of rich
returns (Ps. xl. 1-4). He that can want as well as wait, and he that
can be contented that God is glorified, though he be not gratified ;
he that dares not antedate God's promises, but patiently wait for the
accomplishment of them, he may be confident that he shall have
seasonable and suitable answers to all those prayers that he hath
posted away to heaven. Though God seldom comes at our time, yet He
never fails to come in His own time. " He that shall come will come,
and will not tarry " (Heb. x. 37). The mercies of God are not styled
the swift but the sure mercies of David (Isa. Iv. 3 ; Acts xiii. 34). He
that makes as much conscience to look after his prayers as to pray,
he shall shortly clap his hands for joy, and cry out with that blessed
martyr : " He is come ! He is come ! He is come ! " Certainly
there is little worth in that man's heart, or in that man's prayers, who
keeps up a trade of prayer, but never looks what becomes of his
prayers. When you are in your clcsets, marshal your prayers ; see
that every prayer keeps his place and ground ; and when you come
out of your closets, then look up for an answer ; only take heed that
you be not too hasty and hot with God. Though mercy in the promise
be yours, yet the time of giving it out is the Lord's. Therefore you
must wait as well as pray.