Matthew 26 please.
I would like to try to speak briefly.
Kenny back there is a farmer from northeast
Iowa and he said his corn crop was
pretty good and he filled his barn a
little bigger than normal and both ends broke
out and so we don't want to overload
but here we are dealing with matters of
eternity.
If Paul were here and he heard me
say that I would try to speak more
briefly he might he might rise up.
Don't do it.
Matthew 26 verse 36.
The garden of Gethsemane.
Then Jesus came with them to a place
called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, sit
here while I go over there and pray.
And he took with him Peter and the
two sons of Zebedee and began to be
grieved and distressed.
Then he said to them, my soul is
deeply grieved to the point of death.
Remain here and keep watch with me.
And he went a little beyond them and
fell on his face and prayed, saying, father,
my father, if it is possible, let this
cup pass from me.
Yet not as I will, but as you
will.
And he came to the disciples and found
them sleeping and said to Peter, so you
men could not keep watch with me for
one hour, keep watching and praying.
That you may not enter into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak.
He went away again a second time and
prayed, saying, my father, if this cannot pass
away unless I drink it, your will be
done.
And again he came and found them sleeping
for their eyes were heavy.
And he left them again and went away
and prayed a third time, saying the same
thing once more.
And then he came to the disciples and
said to them, are you still sleeping and
resting?
Behold, the hour is at hand and the
Son of Man is being betrayed into the
hands of sinners.
Get up.
Let us be going.
Behold, the one who betrays me is at
hand.
We'll be concentrating on verse 41.
Keep watching and praying that you may not
enter into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak.
Look at verse 36.
Then Jesus came with them.
The situation here is
very unique, very important, very weighty, very
awful.
Formerly, up till now, we see the Lord
Jesus, the Lord of glory, very poised, dignified,
in control, calm and authoritative.
But now we find our Lord Jesus distressed.
It says here, grieved and distressed, distressed to
the point of death.
We find the Lord on his face, like
a beggar, destitute, on his face.
It is a scene of blood, sweat, tears,
agony, grief.
The Lord, no doubt, it would appear he
wanted out.
If it is possible, take this cup from
me.
Likely, he was tempted to call on seventy
-two thousand angels and get out of it.
The cup was being pressed to his lips.
Soon he was to be spit upon, and
slapped, and slugged, and scourged, and stripped, and
spiked, and speared, and sentenced by men, and
sentenced by God.
Condemned by men and condemned by God, and
die what would appear to be a miserable
failure.
We are so concerned about success, I mean,
we can hardly play a casual game of
basketball and miss a basket without having to
make a comment about it.
And here is the Lord, dying an apparent
failure.
It was such a pivotal point, it is
an understatement to even try to say it,
a pivotal point in the history of the
universe.
Lord Jesus, what would you have to tell
us at such a time of deep distress?
What would you have to tell us at
such a time of grief, at such a
time that is so crucial?
What would you have to tell us, we,
us, in the battle of the ages?
What would you have to tell us when
sin is crouching, when the masses of hell,
when the hosts of hell are gathering to
try to upset us as they were him?
What would you have to tell us in
this battle, in fighting the good fight?
I'm centering in on verse 41, keep watching
and praying.
Let's look at first, the word weakness, and
then secondly, the word willing, and then third,
the watch and pray.
Those are the three key words as far
as an outline here.
The Lord gives this instruction, we'll start from
the back end of the verse and work
forward.
He said, the flesh is weak.
Have you ever taken the position of weakness?
Have you ever seen yourself as a weakling?
You know, Paul says in Galatians 6.3,
if anyone thinks that he is something when
he is nothing, he deceives himself, and whatever
strength we have, mark it down, it's likely
to be, it will be our greatest weakness.
Are we strong in looks?
It's likely to be our weakness.
Strong in musical abilities?
It's likely to be a danger to us.
Whatever gift we have, mark it down, right
there will be a danger.
That'll be a weakness for you.
Watch out, it says that King Uzziah was
greatly helped until when?
Until he became strong, and then God had
to knock him down.
I remember a preacher that I've respected, he
told a group one time as we were
sitting around talking, he says, don't think highly
of me, if you do, God will have
to reduce me.
Weakness, how can it be that, in what
way are we weak?
Are we not inhabited, as we heard this
morning?
Are we not a habitation of God through
the Spirit?
Christ in us, the hope of glory, a
habitation of the living God?
In what way are we weak?
I mean, it sounds like if the living
God dwells in our heart, it's a wonder
we don't just strip gears like an overpowered
tractor.
How is it we don't explode when we've
got the living God abiding in our heart?
How can that be that we are yet
weak in some sense?
Well, he says, the Lord says, the flesh
is weak.
The flesh is weak.
Sometimes the Bible talks about flesh as just
the body, you know, flesh and blood.
God was manifested in the flesh.
Sometimes it uses the word flesh with reference
to all humanity.
Acts chapter 2, I will pour out my
spirit on all flesh.
Quite a way of describing humanity, isn't it?
But another way, at least three ways, it
describes flesh as fallen human nature.
That's why in Galatians chapter 5, it says,
now the deeds of the flesh are evident,
which are immorality and envy and jealousy and
strife.
The deeds of the flesh.
We know that envy doesn't come out of
our little finger.
It goes deeper than that.
And so it's man in his fallen condition.
And so here we have got a reference,
I think, to the body.
I mean, outer man, inner man, the flesh
and the spirit.
I take it as little s.
And so our bodies in our fallen condition,
in our body, our bodies yet unredeemed, are
weak.
There is a part of us that is
not yet redeemed, a part of us that
is not yet regenerated, made new, and that
is our bodies, our flesh.
And I am persuaded that the sin problem,
yet, even for the Christian, goes deeper than
the body.
But nevertheless, in our embodied state, there is
a weakness.
Our body is a vehicle for sin and
for lust.
And so the Lord says, John chapter 6,
the flesh profits nothing.
Romans chapter 7, I know that in me
that is in my flesh dwells no good
thing.
And this word weakness here, interestingly, it sounds
like, you know, it's weak.
It does have some benefit.
It does have some virtue.
It does have some strength, but it's just
weak.
That's not really an accurate translation.
You look the word up in the Greek,
and I don't know Greek, but I see
it does mean no strength.
Ah, such and such.
That means no strength.
It doesn't contribute a thing.
Matter of fact, as I say, in our
unregenerate condition, it is a vehicle for powerful
forces, the lusts of the flesh, the flesh
lusts against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh.
The flesh is weak.
It is a hindrance even.
It says that we cannot, the flesh lusts
against the spirit and the spirit against the
flesh, so that what?
You cannot do the things that you would
like to do.
It's like somebody who wants to take, a
family wants to take a vacation, and you've
got some livestock, and you can't, you can't
leave them.
You've got to take care of them.
You can't get away.
They've got to be fed, and that's the
way the lusts of the flesh are.
They make it such that we cannot do
the things that we would like to do
as regenerates, as born-again Christians.
They've got, these lusts are there demanding to
be fed, wanting to be fed, waging war
against the soul.
1 Peter 2.11, war against the soul,
and so they are quite a hindrance.
A hindrance really is a mild statement.
I mean, it is a mighty continuous struggle.
There is not in this life any complete
eradication of sin.
There is not in this life any perfect
sanctification, and so it is a struggle against
old Amalek, way to the end.
It says in Exodus 17, the Lord will
have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
It is a fight to the finish, a
mighty struggle.
The lust, the flesh lusting against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh.
You might live in a Muslim land with
all this external adversity, but that really is
no, that is not your main battle.
The main battle is still in the heart,
in our lives, in this struggle against sin,
in this striving against sin.
That's where the real battle is, is dealing
with this weak flesh.
I remember hearing a John MacArthur telling about
a man who was converted on his deathbed,
I believe it was, in a hospital at
age 73, and one of the things that
he said was that he was still ruled
by lustful thoughts.
It doesn't matter how old you are, that
is no solution to the lust of the
flesh.
It says in Titus that we were formerly
enslaved by sinful lust.
Enslaving, they enslave.
You cannot dabble in sin and think that,
count on the fact that you cannot walk
away from it.
You don't touch sin without being affected by
it.
You don't touch it without it hurting you.
They enslave us, they affect us, you see.
Think of Daniel, I'm sorry, think of David.
David, the godly David, he fell.
Abraham fell, Noah fell.
These men, these testimonies are there to warn
us, watch out, watch and pray, the Spirit
is willing, the flesh is weak, watch out
so you don't enter into temptation, into a
place where you'd be tempted and then sin
in it.
Paul says, after I have preached to others,
he says, I keep my body, I buffet
my body, lest after I have preached to
others, I myself should be cast away.
These lusts, I say, they are mighty, these
fleshly lusts, mighty, powerful, strong, aren't they?
You know that.
Seeking for a thrill, so perverted, always seeking
for some thrill, always seeking for some new
adventure, always seeking for some new feeding, always
seeking and coveting the forbidden, not necessarily wanting
the object, but just wanting the want.
After getting the person like Ammon, he was
not satisfied, immediately was not satisfied and wanted
something more.
These fleshly lusts, they're like the leech, they're
like the open grave, they're like the dry
earth, they're like the fire, they will not
be satisfied, they are always demanding more and
they intend to kill us, that is the
latter end of fleshly lusts, they intend to
kill us, we either kill them or they
will kill us.
They intend to drag us right down to
hell.
There is only one solution and that is
to mortify them through Christ.
How do we think that we will stand?
Perfect Adam fell in perfect paradise.
How do we think that we'll walk the
world in white?
How do we think that we'll make it
through this waste howling wilderness?
How do we think that we'll make it
through?
But lambs we are in the midst of
wolves.
Let's look at this next phrase.
The spirit is willing.
The flesh is weak, but the spirit is
willing.
The Christian can say that.
The Christian can say that his spirit is
willing.
Before that his spirit was not willing.
You will not come to me that you
may have life, but now we have been
wrought upon by the spirit of God.
He has worked in us to will and
to do of God's pleasure.
And so now we have a willing spirit.
That is wonderful, that is priceless, that is
precious.
To have a willing spirit, willing to do
God's will.
You know David prayed in that prayer, Psalm
51, Renew within me a willing and free
spirit.
We cannot talk about perfection in this life,
but we can talk about direction, we can
talk about a willing spirit.
A person may be a new convert and
be doing better than an older convert who
has gotten loose and sloppy and some hardness
set in in his heart.
Here's a new convert, he's willing, he's walking
in all the light, he's eager, he's zealous,
he's there, he's willing.
And that is precious in the sight of
God.
The spirit is willing.
We have been wrought upon by the grace
of God.
Sin will not have dominion over us, for
we're not under the law, weak as it
is to the flesh.
Not under the law, but under grace.
Grace ruling and reigning in our heart.
His name will be called Jesus, for he
will save his people from their sin he
has given us.
He has wired us up entirely differently, so
that we are saints by nature, not sinners,
holy by nature.
The deepest reality of who we are is
a willing heart.
I was talking with a Baptist preacher up
there in Missouri the other day.
And in the course of the conversation, we
got onto the matter of carnal Christianity.
And it was going back and forth, and
to try to define where he was at,
I asked him this question.
I said, let's take a fellow that is
just a real gutter drunk.
And he gets arrested for some crime, and
he gets thrown in jail.
And there in jail, somebody brings him the
gospel.
And he receives the gospel, he believes on
Christ.
And he's out of jail now, and he
lives a clean life, a different life.
He lives a clean life for five years.
He's free of drink.
But in the course of time, I say
after five years, he falls back into drink.
And he lives the rest of his life
a drunken sop and dies that way.
I asked the pastor, will he go to
heaven or will he go to hell?
And he said, you can't say.
We don't know a man's heart, you can't
judge.
But I quoted him 1 Corinthians 6, Do
not be deceived, the drunkard will not inherit
the kingdom.
Man, you're deceived.
You wouldn't be deceived about somebody that didn't
even profess.
It's the professing Christians that are living like
children of the devil.
They're the ones you'd be likely to be
deceived about.
So Galatians chapter five, it says, walk in
the spirit and you will not fulfill the
loss of the flesh.
The spirit of God, you see, affecting our
spirit.
And that is the key to victory over
the loss of the flesh.
The weakness of the flesh.
Brother Bill brought out Ephesians chapter three this
morning.
He says, I pray that you might be
strengthened with might by God's spirit in our
inner man.
See there, the spirit in the inner man,
the spirit working upon strengthening our spirit.
That is the key.
That is the secret to victory.
Have you ever seen cattle out in the
pasture, swatting flies?
The flies are on them thick.
You feel sorry for them, being bothered by
those flies.
And there isn't any cow that's got a
tail long enough or fast enough that can
chase all those flies away.
And so the farmer puts out an oiler
and the cow gets all oiled up and
the flies stay away.
And so you see that if ye through
the spirit demortify the deeds of the flesh,
you'll live.
We need the spirit of God working on
our spirit.
When the river is high, the canoe doesn't
drag.
Stay filled with the spirit.
That is the secret to victory.
Temptations lose their power when you are near.
I need you every hour.
Stay nearby.
Temptations lose their power when you are nigh.
Third point is watch and pray.
Watching and praying, that is instrumental in obtaining
the fullness of the spirit of God, affecting
our spirit that we not give in to
the weakness of the flesh.
Watch and pray, instrumental in knowing and having
the blessing of the spirit of God, the
fullness of the spirit affecting our spirit.
There are other things.
Admittedly, this is not any exhaustive treatment on
sanctification.
There are other things like fasting.
There are other things that are mentioned throughout
the word of God that are effective and
instrumental in walking in victory.
But here the Lord is saying watch and
pray.
Three times, did you notice?
Three times this word watch comes up.
It means vigil.
It means stay awake.
It means stay on the alert, be on
the alert.
Watch and pray that you may not enter
into temptation.
This matter of watching, it's woven in.
God has woven it into all of life.
Now, I mean the farmer has got to
watch his crops.
The athlete has got to keep his head
up.
Watch, be on the alert, the coach says
over and over again.
Are you asleep?
The mother must watch her children.
I tell my children one by one as
they start driving a car, you've got to
stay on the alert.
Watch, watch your speedometer.
Watch what the other driver is doing.
Watch the road conditions.
You've got to stay on the alert if
you're going to stay alive.
They must watch.
The shepherd must watch his sheep.
They were watching over their flocks by night.
They watch for your souls.
A soldier must watch if he's assigned to
guard duty in crucial times.
In certain nations anyway, if a man falls
asleep on guard duty, they'll kill him.
It's death penalty.
Watch, stay alert.
We're in enemy territory.
The scriptures are replete with this exhortation to
watch.
Matthew 24, watch.
25, watch.
Acts 20, watch.
1 Corinthians 16, be on the alert.
1 Peter 4, watch.
1 Peter 5, watch.
Be sober, be vigilant.
Your adversary, the devil, is prowling.
And so all over the Bible, we've got
this exhortation.
Stay on the alert.
It's real.
It hurts if you don't.
Eve, if she'd only watched and been on
the alert.
David did not watch and he got fooled
by Doeg.
Jonathan was on the alert.
He watched, he observed the countenance of his
father Saul and probably saved David's life.
Nehemiah was on the alert.
He said, I perceive that God didn't send
him.
And so we have exhortations like this.
Proverbs 4, watch over your heart with all
diligence.
How much stronger language could be given us?
Watch over your heart with all diligence.
Watch out for the choices you make.
Watch out for inroads of sin.
It's crouching at your door.
Watch out for deceitfulness and lies.
Why did you say it that way?
Come on, be honest.
Watch over your heart with all diligence, you
see.
In Matthew 16, Satan whispered, that's subtly in
Peter's ear.
But here it says, watch and pray.
These two are often found together.
Ephesians chapter 6, watch and pray.
Colossians 4, watch and pray.
First Peter 4, watch and pray.
Luke 21, watch and pray.
These two go together.
Watching is a partner with prayer.
It says in Luke chapter 21, watch, be
on your guard, that your heart may not
be weighted down with the dissipation that is
being spread too thin and drunkenness that is
excesses.
And the worries of this life, decisions.
And it says, keep on the alert and
pray at all times that you may have
strength to escape the things that are coming
upon the world.
For it will come upon all those like
a trap.
And so pray and watch that you may
have strength to escape.
In a football game, if a fellow's strong
enough, he can break away and escape the
tackle.
An animal, if they're strong enough, they can
break away from the trap and escape.
Pray that you may have strength to escape
the things that are coming upon the earth.
So watch and pray.
Let's think about prayer here.
Again, they often go together.
Even in the songs we see that, put
on the gospel armor and watching unto prayer.
I hear the Savior say, thy strength indeed
is small.
Child of weakness, watch and pray.
Find in me thine all in all.
Think of the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter
four.
He was led about by the spirit to
be tempted.
We're talking here about being tempted, lest you
enter into temptation.
He was led about by the spirit to
be tempted by the devil.
And overcame those temptations.
But notice in the previous chapter, he was
praying and received an anointing of the Holy
Spirit.
And even here in the garden, we find
the Lord praying and then strengthened by an
angel.
And thus he overcame.
In Acts chapter four, they gathered together for
prayer.
They cried out to God.
They lifted up their voices to God.
And it says that they were filled with
the Holy Spirit.
And it was in a time of distress.
They were threatened.
Their lives were in danger.
In Psalm 73, the psalmist was being tempted,
all right?
He was tempted to think, why should I
try?
I've tried and I've tried.
I've washed my hands in vain.
I've chafed and chastened every morning.
And look at the worldling.
He's doing so good.
He was envious of the wicked.
Until what?
Until God came into the sanctuary of God.
He had a meeting with God and his
whole mindset was changed.
And he escaped that temptation.
Watch and pray that you may not enter
into temptation.
Prayer bringing the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God strengthening our spirit is
what I'm saying.
When the arms of intercession were held up,
Israel prevailed over Amalek.
When they went out in prayer and praise,
and 2 Chronicles chapter 20, it says the
Lord set up ambushments against the enemy in
the way.
It says in Psalm 138, in the day
that I called on the Lord, he heard
me and answered me and strengthened me with
boldness in my soul.
David was feeling it and he found had
a meeting with God and thus escaped the
tempter snare.
I one time heard a woman, Riona Peterson
was her name.
She gave her testimony how this was in
Germany.
She went into communist Albania back in 1975
and to smuggle Bibles.
And there she was caught and stuck in
a room and sick and under demonic attack.
They were choking her.
She could hardly get her breath.
And she was despairing and she began to
eke out just a little bit of praise
to the Lord and a little more and
a little more.
And the powers that were choking her let
off little by little by little.
She won the victory and through angelic provision
was able to walk out of Albania.
Prayer, bringing, securing, instrumental in obtaining help from
the throne of grace.
In seasons of distress and grief, my soul
is often found relief and off to escape
the tempter's snare by thy return.
Sweet hour of prayer, watch and pray that
you may not enter into temptation.
How many, how many professing, even pastors are
falling into miserable sin.
We better watch and pray now in closing.
Why is it that what are the hindrances?
What are the obstacles to keep us from
watching and praying?
Why the Lord says, could you not watch
with me one hour?
What, why could they not watch and pray
with him?
I mean, there they were in that last
moment.
It was as J.C. Ryle says, it
was the last service they could have rendered
for the Lord.
And yet they missed it.
They were why they were sleeping.
They were sleeping because of sleep.
They missed helping the Lord in his agony
because of sleep.
They missed the Lord in his glory on
the mount sleep in Luke's account.
It says it this way.
Why are you sleeping?
Rise and pray lest you enter into temptation.
Why are you sleeping?
Rise and pray.
So often that is one reason that we
fail to watch and pray is flat out.
We're just sleeping.
We're sleeping.
Something's got to give in our schedule.
And, and there's where you're going to find
the relief.
There's where you're going to find the opportunity
and the occasion to watch and pray is
to sacrifice some sleep.
They were sleeping.
What a thing.
Rise up.
Why are you sleeping?
Lest you enter into temptation.
Stonewall Jackson and Robert Dabney and two of
his generals were held, were pulled up in
some farmstead with the army.
They were, those four generals were staying in
a farmhouse.
And Jackson told his three men that we
will rise at such and such a time.
Jackson and Dabney rose at the appointed time.
They were dressed and they were ready, but
the other two laid in and they were
attacked with a surprise attack from the enemy
army.
Jackson and Dabney escaped.
The other two got caught with her pants
off and they were apprehended and put in
prison.
There's an example.
It happens the same way in the spiritual
realm.
It's that real.
I mean, I have seen it so many
times in my own life that I gave
an occasion to the devil an opportunity for
the enemy come in and scratch me good
because I laid in bed and didn't get
up and have a meeting with God and
spit it all out, put out my letter.
My heart's burdens get unloaded to start the
day in prayer.
It's that real.
We're in a spiritual battle.
These are some helps.
I'm not trying to put anybody in bondage,
but it is written here what we can
do.
Another enemy to watching and praying adver.
I mean, a hindrance to watching and praying
is just old self-sufficiency.
Peter said just before this, although all deny
you, not me.
I won't.
I can handle it.
You see, prayer is an admission that we
can't handle it when you don't pray.
You're saying I can handle it.
I don't need God.
I'm adequate.
Self-sufficiency.
It'll not happen to me.
And Peter, after this, went right ahead and
did the very thing he said he wouldn't
do.
He fell.
He denied the Lord.
The devil was out to sift him like
wheat.
He had been raked bad.
The Lord prayed for him that his faith
fail not.
What are some helps to watching and praying?
One thing that helps, at least it helps
me, is to find, is to have a
place of prayer.
The Lord came with his disciples to a
place called Gethsemane, and it was his custom
to go there.
The Lord Jesus had some customs.
He had some habits.
Nothing wrong with some good habits.
I try to find every bit of routine
I can.
Wherever it's possible, it helps.
Some don't need it.
I do.
Routine can help you.
And he had a place where he could
get alone with God, where he could cry
out to God, where he could roar to
God, where he could lift up his voice
to God.
He had a place of prayer.
Have a place where you can get alone.
It will help you.
I remember when I was driving truck for
a couple years, I made it my habit,
on the last load before coming home, I
made it my habit, after unloading my last
load, to find a park to walk in
and pray to unload my heart.
It was a great help to come to
find my own garden and unload my heart
before I came home and was all spread
out and thin.
It helps.
I like to go to cemeteries and seek
the living among the dead.
It's pretty quiet there.
Another thing that will help is to take
others with you.
The Lord came to the Garden of Gethsemane
with others.
He brought his disciples and Peter and James
and John in a special way.
Be regular at the church prayer meeting.
It will help you.
One will chase a thousand and two will
put ten thousand to flight.
It will help you.
Mack has just given us a whole load
of examples regarding the church prayer meeting.
Isn't it amazing that some churches do not
even have a prayer meeting?
What on earth is going on?
Someone told me about a big church out
east.
They've got a prayer meeting, but it's only
a half an hour long for 600 members.
You cannot do any business with God in
a half an hour.
It's a joke.
It's a laughingstock of demons.
I remember Terry and I going one time.
We were visiting somebody and it was on
a Wednesday night.
We went with them to their church prayer
meeting.
The pastor spent about 20 minutes taking requests.
And I mean, we could have used that
20 minutes putting our requests up to God
rather than the pastor.
And finally it came time to pray.
And so things were quiet.
And then we heard a little bit of
mumbling.
And I thought, well, if nobody else is
going to pray, I'll pray.
And as I was about to open my
mouth, after five minutes we had been there,
all of a sudden the chairs rustled and
everybody got up and the prayer meeting was
over.
That is no prayer meeting.
It does not scare hell at all or
impress God.
We need a time where we as a
church can get right down and do business
with God, where everybody can feel free to
pour out their heart, where there's liberty.
John Wesley says at three o'clock in
the morning as he continued instant in prayer,
the Holy Spirit of God fell.
Three o'clock in the morning.
I don't know about that, but we need
more than a half hour.
Could you not watch with me an hour?
It takes a little time to do business
with God.
A hurried prayer is a, it's a hindrance
to real prayer.
It's a curse.
You either do, God doesn't fall when the
wind is blowing.
You've got to settle in, take others with
you in prayer.
Is it scriptural?
It's all over the Bible.
Acts chapter one, they were meeting together for
prayer before Pentecost.
After Pentecost, they were continuing steadfastly in the
apostles, doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.
Acts chapter three.
Apparently they had a daily prayer meeting three
o'clock in the afternoon.
Acts chapter four, they were threatened.
And what did they do?
They got together with their own company and
lifted up their voice to God.
And Acts chapter 12, they gathered together for
prayer fervently on behalf of Peter.
And he escaped the edge of the sword.
Chapter 13, it says they were ministering to
God and fasting, group prayer.
Acts chapter 14, they prayed together and fasted
before the appointed elders.
Acts chapter 20, they meant for prayer after
the pastor's conference, Paul to the Ephesian pastors.
Acts chapter 21, they got together for prayer
and knelt down on the beach to say
goodbye to Paul.
Everywhere, gathering together for prayer and yet we
do it so little.
It seems to help in the economy of
God.
He has set things up that way.
The Lord took with them disciples, took with
him some disciples.
Another thing that will help us is to
take the word of God in prayer.
Now, admittedly, that's not in our text or
in our context.
This has been mentioned a little before.
I believe it was Brother Bill that mentioned
that.
But I'll tell you what little I know.
I know that it helps.
It helps to know the Bible.
It helps to memorize all the scripture you
can.
It helps to have the sword of the
Spirit handy on your tongue.
It helps to have ammunition to shoot at
the battlements of heaven.
It helps to know the word of God
and have it ready.
Why can't we sustain prayer very well?
I'll tell you one thing that will help,
and that's to know, to memorize the word
of God.
Be rich in the scriptures.
Be mighty in the scriptures like Apollos.
Why not memorize young men, young women?
Memorize Ephesians, memorize Romans, memorize Hebrews.
Get it down.
Take it in.
Write it on your heart.
Sure, it will take some investment.
It takes some work, but the rewards are
so great.
It just takes a little diligence.
You know, isn't it something where you've been
to a certain location many times?
You've driven that road many times, and yet
when you go to tell somebody how to
get there, you can't think how to tell
them.
And the reason is, is because you've never
fixed it in your mind.
And the same way of reading the Bible.
You've read it a lot of times, but
you can't really say it.
You can't really repeat it because you've never
fixed it in your mind.
It will help you to fix scriptures deep
in your heart.
That way, hide them in your heart.
Have them ready to use against the hosts
of darkness.
This is just practical, some practical things that
will help us to watch and pray that
we might not enter into temptation that will
strengthen our spirit by the spirit of God
and avoid the weakness of the flesh.
Prayer is such a mystery, isn't it?
Such a mystery.
Here we believe in a God that is
sovereign, has foreordained everything, and yet listens to
the voice of a man.
Matter of fact, in that prayer meeting in
Acts chapter four, when they gathered together, they
lifted up their voice to God.
And what did they do?
They used scripture.
Said, Lord, you said, why did they even
rage in the people?
Imagine a vain thing.
In other words, they realized this was foreordained
of God.
This is that which God had foreordained and
told about ahead of time.
And yet they lifted up their voice.
They didn't just say, well, whatever will be
will be.
They said, Lord, would you spread forth your
hand to heal?
Would you grant your servants with boldness?
We might be able to preach your word.
We go out and preach as though men
were responsible, utterly responsible.
We go home and pray to a sovereign
God.
It's a mystery.
Bingle, Samuel Bingle, he said, when I meet
a man of God, the one thing, the
most, the main thing that I want to
find out from him is how does he
keep up communion with God?
Don't you feel it?
You'd like to ask, how do you keep
up communion with God?
How do you watch and pray?
What are your secrets?
And they won't tell you because it's too
personal.
And they realize each one's got to wear
his own armor.
Here we are talking about the weapons of
our warfare.
Mighty through God, mighty through God.
We are the kings.
We are the true kings who are able
to control our spirit and conquer our fleshly
loss.
We are the real kings.
You look at the philosophers with all their
philosophy, and here they are believed by the
masses of humanity, ruling the world with their
pen.
With their paper.
And yet you read the lives of these
philosophers that everybody knows about.
Marx and Hegel and Kant and these fellas
and they can't do a thing.
They're wicked, rotten, filthy men.
But here we're talking about mighty weapons that
God has put in our hand for conquering
sinful fleshly loss and ruling and walking the
world in white.
The weapons of a worker are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds.
Strongholds in our heart.
Big sins, Goliath sins.
Pulling them down to the power of God.
Watching and praying.
Peter, watch and pray.
You're on dangerous ground.
You're an enemy territory.
We can never watch over our heart with
too much jealousy.
We ought to take these words in verse
41 and let them be a trumpet in
our ear.
The Lord bless you, my dear fellow saints.
My love to you.
You are here.
It's just I can't help but look out
upon this congregation without thinking of Ephesians chapter
one, the riches of the glory of God's
inheritance in the saints.
It's just a poor taste of heaven.
Hallelujah.
What a day when the saints will be
gathered from north, south, east and west.
A massive redeemed humanity.
The bride of Christ.
The meal is probably ready and but.
I would like the young adults to go
first as we dismiss you from here and
again, meet up in the youth area.
We do.
I mean, the conference is not over and
we do need to watch and pray still
there.
There's some things that are going on right
now.
There's still souls at stake that this conference
has has something to do with.
And there's there's youth meeting.
You know, during this meal.
And so we need to be in prayer
about that.
And there's the final meeting with Brother Bill.
We need to be in prayer for him.
And for the message that the Lord will
put on his heart.
I'd like to ask Brother Charles Leiter to
bless the meal for us.