I would like to turn to Hosea 14. Hosea comes after Daniel. Hosea has fourteen chapters, but it is actually a small book. The chapters are very short. I will just read the first three verses of Hosea 14. We read in Hosea 14:1-3:
O Israel, return unto JEHOVAH thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to JEHOVAH: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
I will stop reading there.
We are living, of course, at the end of the world. We are living in the last days. May 21, 2011 will be it. There are no other dates. This will be the Day of Judgment.
This means that God will complete His salvation plan over the next five months and a few days, that He will save all those whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that He will save His elect whom He predestinated to salvation, that He will complete His plan and that everyone whose sins He paid for will be redeemed. Many have already been redeemed and the rest of these will be redeemed over the course of the next few remaining days. Over the course of the next few remaining days, God has obligated Himself to do this. He has decided that He will finish the salvation plan for this world in the next few days.
I can refer to this time as only a few days because five months and a couple of weeks are nothing. They are nothing. It is just a few days and then it will all be done. It will all be finished, and then God will take His people out of this world. He will then complete and finish His judgment plan on the rest of the people of the world, on the unsaved. On May 21, the torment will begin. Many will die over the course of those five months. Then on October 21, that will be it. It will be utter destruction and everything will be finished for this world.
From that point, the focus of the people of God and God Himself will turn away from this world, this earth. Actually, there will be no remembrance of it. God says that “the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Our eyes will then turn to God and into eternity future forevermore. We do not really know all of the glorious and wonderful things that are in store for the child of God, but we will experience them shortly.
God will save His people, but the remaining days are numbered and very short. This means that many people are going to be going to God today and tomorrow and over the course of these few last days beseeching Him for mercy. They are going to be crying out to Him for mercy. This is why I thought that it would be good for us to look at something that God instructs us to do when approaching Him, when going to Him in prayer for salvation.
We know, or we at least should know, that it is a good thing to go to God and say, “O Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” We should know that this is a very appropriate thing. Something that God will allow and not despise is for people to come to Him along these lines and say, “God have mercy. Please save me. Help me.” This is something that should encourage us because God encourages people to pray to Him with these kinds of words, “Save me. Help me. Have mercy.” This is how the Bible says that we are to go to Him.
So if someone who had the ability to do this would determine to say, “For the rest of this day, for basically the whole day, I am going to go home and I am going to beseech God for mercy; I am going to hang on and this is all that I am going to do; this is going to be the focus of the rest of this day,” and then tomorrow if they said the same thing, as well as the following day, would this be too much? Would this be out of the question for someone to do when their very life, when their soul depends on God having mercy on them? Perhaps they realize that they are not saved or maybe they realize that they may not be saved, that they are unsure of their salvation. Is this not something that a person should really devote a lot of time to?
The answer is that, of course, this is the most important thing in the world. An individual should devote as much time as possible to going to God and beseeching Him for salvation; but the problem is that people go to prayer, they get alone, and they say, “God have mercy. Have mercy on me, O Lord.” They might say something along this line a few more times, “God help me. God save me.” Then about ten minutes later, they feel like they have exhausted everything and they do not want to be repetitious. They then get up and believe that they have prayed; and, yes, they did. This is prayer. That is true; however, their life depends on this.
This is like the example of someone falling overboard from a luxury cruise liner. A team just recently went on a cruise liner in order to be able to stop at some ports to hand out tracts. What if someone had fallen overboard late at night and no one noticed? The ship would have been steaming away while the person would have been out in the middle of the ocean by themselves with no other ship around. This person would have known that if the cruise ship they were on continued pulling away from them, they would die. Because of this, they would cry out, “Help! Help!” They would have been crying out as much as they could with all that was within them.
This is what you would do, right? I would do this, too. This is when you would see just how loudly you could actually shout and cry out. You would know that you were in great danger and that your only hope would be for someone to hear you who was on that ship and for them to send out a rescue crew.
This is the idea behind crying for mercy. We are in great danger. We are in far more danger than actually drowning, because we are in danger of losing our souls forever. This is why God encourages us repeatedly to come to Him and to beseech Him, and yet this is not easy.
Is anyone familiar with prayer books? Throughout the last few hundred years, the churches developed prayer books. One is called, “The Book of Common Prayer.” This came down through the English church and it contained a liturgy. They would print prayers in the book and the congregation would repeat them. Many of the prayers state, “Lord, have mercy; God, have mercy.” This is something that they would repeat over and over again, and the reason that they developed a prayer book was because they felt that the people wandered in prayer.
So the people tended to wander in prayer; therefore, they wanted to develop a format or a standard that would direct people in prayer along the lines of the most important things. Salvation is a very important thing and praising God in prayer and thanking Him is also a very important thing, but one problem with the prayer book was that it also caused people to wander in their hearts. This was because they were reading the words of other men and it might not have expressed what was really going on with them at all.
There has always been a problem with prayer; but in the book of Hosea, God gives us some very excellent instruction concerning prayer. This is very good instruction. He gives us an outline or something that we can take with us in prayer, and so if you are someone who after 10-15 minutes of prayer cannot think of anything else to say, or if you are someone who says, “God, You know it all anyway; You know all of the sins that I have been doing. What can I say to You since You already know it,” and then you actually rather quickly get up off of your knees and go about other things, pay attention to what God has to say here in Hosea. If we follow His instructions, we could actually pray quite a long time and in a very good way that God would be pleased with. This could really help any individual at this time. We read in Hosea 14:1:
O Israel, return unto JEHOVAH thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
This is why we need to return. It is because we have fallen in sin. The Bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” We cannot reach that perfect standard that is the Bible itself, because God requires perfect obedience on every point. Any transgression of the Law means that we have broken the Law. We are thereby condemned as a rebel, a sinner. We are guilty and the penalty is death, “For the wages of sin is death.” This penalty is for even the slightest transgression of the Law of God.
This is why God says that “all have sinned.” There are no exceptions. All are guilty. We have all fallen by our iniquity, and yet God also commands:
…return unto JEHOVAH thy God…
This word “return” is also translated many times as “turn,” but we find this translated again as “return” in Isaiah 55. We read in Isaiah 55:6-7:
Seek ye JEHOVAH while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto JEHOVAH, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
So God is saying here in Isaiah 55:7:
Let the wicked forsake his way…
If we are not going the “narrow” way, the way of Christ, the way that God outlines in the Bible, then we are going a wrong way. We are going the “broad” way. The Bible says, “Broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,” and this is the way that we are going. This is man’s way naturally. The way that leads to life is not the way that men naturally follow. God is recognizing this and He is telling us to forsake this way, to forsake the way that we are going, the road that we are headed down.
Can you not see where this leads? Can you not see that the sins that you are involved with are no good and that they are eventually going to lead to your death and judgment? Actually, man has already been judged by the Word of God and condemned repeatedly as we sin.
So God says in Isaiah 55:7:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts…
The unrighteous man is to forsake “his thoughts.” This is not too easy, and yet this can be done. If you take a habit like cigarettes and you throw them into the trash, or a can of beer, something of this nature, something that is outward, this is difficult because man is so attached to his sinful behavior, and yet it can be done; but the Bible goes much deeper than this. Jesus said, “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Out of the heart of man flows all manner of iniquity.
So for the things that we think up here in our minds, God demands that He be Lord of them, too. He also demands obedience in this area. A person’s thoughts are not their own. We can think whatever we please; but, however, the thoughts themselves are transgressing the Law of God and God requires that an unrighteous man forsake his thoughts; that is, go away from them and leave them.
If we are thinking in a wrong way, which could be a sinful way or an obstinate and rebellious way, if we are being stubborn, whatever it is, God says that we are to forsake these thoughts. This is for our own good, for our own benefit, for our own soul; because if we hang on to these thoughts, they will destroy us.
So we can begin to see just how perfect God’s standard is and how impossible it is for us to do things this way. We can try and we should. We should clean up our minds and we should try to think rightly, but to obey this command in the way that God wants us to requires that we receive a lot of help from God. He would have to change us inwardly for this to happen.
Then God says in Isaiah 55:7:
…let him return unto JEHOVAH…
This is the same word from Hosea 14:1:
O Israel, return unto JEHOVAH thy God…
Turn. Turn from the way that we are going. Turn from our sins. Turn from a life of rebellion against God. Turn towards God. He will have mercy if anyone is able to return to the Lord or to turn.
Just to quickly mention something. Ezekiel 13:22 says:
Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:
Does this sound familiar? This sounds familiar, does it not? God says to return and you will live. He is speaking to the prophets or to the leaders of Israel here, which typify the churches, and He is saying:
Because with lies…
Number 1:
…ye have made the heart of the righteous sad…
Number 2:
…and strengthened the hands of the wicked…
The hand represents the will. “The wicked” are any who are unsaved. In this case, this is referring to those in the congregations and churches.
How have they:
… strengthened the hands of the wicked…
How did they accomplish:
…that he should not return from his wicked way…
They did this:
…by promising him life.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “Accept Christ and you will be saved”; that is, you will have eternal life. “Come down the aisle and you will be saved.” “Say the sinner’s prayer.” On and on it goes. “Be baptized.” These are all promises. They are promising their congregation life. They are saying, “Do this and you will live. You will not face the judgment of God.” But God is saying, “No! You did not give them life. What you did is that you strengthened their will in their sinful condition.”
Has anyone handed out “Does God Love You?” tracts and had someone walk by who said, “No thank you; I am a Christian; I do not need this,” and then continue on their way? Why did they think that they did not need this tract? They thought that they did not need it because they had made a decision for Christ.
I have heard things like this. I am sure that some of you have, too. They will tell you when they became saved and how they became saved, but all that this has done is that it has convinced them that they have no need to hear the Gospel of the Bible. They also have no need for further repentance or to turn from their way at all since they have been convinced that they are already a child of God.
This is great for them. All they have to do is accept Christ and then they can continue doing whatever they want. They can have the best of both worlds, or so they think; but God says that all that those who bring this false gospel have done is that they have contributed to that person’s damnation by teaching them something that has them thinking that they are guaranteed to have eternal life.
This is the reason why so many millions on Judgment Day, May 21st, will be saying, “Lord, Lord, have we not…in thy name done many wonderful works?” It will be because they have been convinced by their churches and by their church leaders that they have the gift of eternal life when they do not.
Let us also turn to Ezekiel 18. God says in Ezekiel 18:23:
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord JEHOVAH: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
Does God take pleasure in the death of the wicked? No; He takes no pleasure in this. What does He take pleasure in? He takes pleasure in saving people.
We read in Ephesians 1:5:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
The Bible tells us, “He delighteth in mercy.” God has pleasure in saving sinners, but He will and must judge the wicked. They will face the pronounced judgment of the Bible, but God does not take pleasure in this in the same way that He delights in saving His children.
If we go down in the same chapter of Ezekiel 18 to Ezekiel 18:30, it says:
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord JEHOVAH. Repent, and turn yourselves…
This word “turn” is the same Hebrew word that is translated as “return.” It continues:
…Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
We should not be confused about this at all. If we are left behind, if we end up experiencing the five months of torment or any part of it and if we are ultimately destroyed, it is because iniquity has been our ruin. Sin has deceived us. Sin has convinced us that its pleasures were far greater than anything that God said in His Word about the pleasures of obedience and about the pleasures that the child of God experiences in salvation. Sin has led us with ball and chain. The cords of our iniquity have been wrapped about us all the way and sin has reigned in our lives unto death. It has been the cause of death and what has led us to our ruin.
Then we read in Ezekiel 18:31:
Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
God kindly gives us a verse like this should we get too carried away. He gives us verses like this to help remind us that we cannot create a new heart within ourselves. How can we create a new heart and a new spirit within us? This is necessary because the Bible tells us, “Ye must be born again,” but how can I do this? I cannot. This is an impossibility. I cannot do this, and so God gives these types of verses in order to make us to think and to realize that we just cannot obey this command. There is no way that we can make ourselves born again.
If you remember, God says in Deuteronomy 10, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart,” which is an impossible command to obey, and God also says here in Ezekiel 18:31:
Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart…
He says these things because repentance is connected to salvation. Turning from our sin in a right way and in a way that is completely pleasing to God has everything to do with salvation. To a certain degree, we can repent of things in our lives; but who can repent from the heart? Who can turn from a heart of iniquity that all manner of evil flows out of?
If you remember, we have used the analogy of the Gulf oil spill, which is very fitting. This is a good description of ourselves and our sin. Oil is filthy and dirty and a pollutant. Oil just ruins the beaches. It kills the wildlife and destroys wherever it goes; and even though they were working frantically to clean up the effects of the oil spill, all the while it was still gushing five miles down.
This is how it is. God tells us to repent and to turn from sin, and we should, each of us, try to clean up the beach. We should. It would have made no sense not to clean up the area while the gusher was still coming out. Things would have become worse if they had not tried.
In this same sense, God wants us to try. Yes, we should turn from sin like the Ninevites. Whatever evil is in our hands, we should turn from it and cry mightily to God, because “who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not” from the evil that He intends to do on Judgment Day?
In relation to the Ninevites, we realize, however, that even if they had stopped doing wicked things, this did not mean that they were saved because the real problem is something that we can never get to ourselves. The real sin problem lies deep-down within, just like the gusher that was five miles down. It was so deep that for a long time they just could not get to it. This is what has to be turned off. This not only has to be turned off, it has to be changed.
So God says here in Ezekiel 18:31:
…make you a new heart…
He says this because the heart that lies within us is no good. It is no good at all and it needs to be transplanted, which is something that only God can do.
Yes; we are to clean up our lives and turn from sin, but do not ever think that turning from outward sins is salvation and that this is the obedience that God is referring to. When God says, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” He means from the heart, and this is impossible for a man to do.
If we go to Jeremiah 31:18-19, it says:
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art JEHOVAH my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented…
This is true repentance. This is the gift of repentance, but we can pray to God while we are turning from outward sins. We can go to God and we can say, “O Lord, I know that this is not the answer and that You want much more than for me to stop cursing or for me to stop doing this sin or that sin. You demand a change of heart, but I cannot do this. O Lord, turn me and I will turn. Have mercy on me.”
If God turns us, as it says in Jeremiah 31:19:
Surely after that I was turned, I repented…
So God did the work. He gave the new heart. It was then that true and right repentance could follow; but without God doing this, this is just not going to happen in anyone’s life.
Let us go back to Hosea 14 and look at the verse that I really want to look at. We read in Hosea 14:1-2:
O Israel, return unto JEHOVAH thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to JEHOVAH: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
So this says:
Take with you….
This makes it sound like we are going somewhere. When you go on a trip, you “take with you” things. When you pack, you do not want to forget anything. You want to take everything with you that you will need.
So God is saying to also:
Take with you words…
But where are we going? Where are we headed? Spiritually, we are going to God.
Look at Hebrews 4:16. It says:
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
This is where we are headed. We are headed to the King of kings who is seated upon the throne, to the Lord of lords, to the Great I AM, to eternal God, to the “high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,” to the Almighty, to the One who can speak a word and create a world and a universe that is just mind boggling, to the same God who the Bible says has forgiveness in His hands, to the same God who the Bible says, “But there is forgiveness with thee.” He possesses forgiveness. He has that scepter of grace. If you remember in the book of Esther as she approached King Ahasuerus, if he let down the scepter, this meant that she would not die.
So God upon the throne of grace can bestow grace to any who will come to Him. This is where we are going and God tells us not to forget to take something with us and it is not “The Book of Common Prayer.” Do not take this. You can take your own words; this is fine to do. You can say, “O God, have mercy. O Lord, help me. Save me.” Yes, any of us can talk to God with our own words, but if we want to go to God and we are earnest and serious and greatly troubled because we believe that May 21st is the Day of Judgment and we are afraid, which is a right reaction, then go to God in prayer.
We go to God in prayer because we know that God has the power to save and that He could save whomever He so chooses. Of course, He predestinated His elect, but we do not know who they are. From our perspective, He could save any one of us; and this is where we should keep this, from our perspective. We should not look at this from God’s perspective and say, “Since God is only going to save in all probability 200 million out of a world of 7 billion people, what is the use?” This would be arrogant. This would be placing yourself in the position of God.
We know that He is saving a great multitude. He is very merciful. He saves by His Word and He has brought His Word into our lives, has He not? He has brought His Bible into our lives and He has been individually teaching us His Word for maybe a long time, and this is a good thing.
So there is nothing wrong with our own words, but God says in Hosea 14:2:
Take with you words…
What words do you think that He is referring to? He is referring to the Bible, the words of God. He is indicating, “Look, you are a sinner. You are a sinner and you need to return. I am a great Saviour, full of grace and truth, and I can save. I permit you and I allow you to approach unto Me. Like Esther, yes, you can come into the throne room and you can enter into the presence of God and you can pray in whatever way you want.”
But what we read in Hosea 14:2 is not a recommendation. This is in the imperative. It is a command:
Take with you words, and turn to JEHOVAH…
Turn and:
…say unto him…
Again, you are to speak words. It continues:
…say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
If anyone would like some help in praying, if you want some assistance by God in praying a right way, in a way that if you do it faithfully, like anything else, God would be pleased with, then let us listen to what He is saying and “take with you words.”
For instance, let us go to the Gospel of Luke. Let us start in Luke 11:11-13:
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
We mostly pray alone whenever we are praying. We also want to read the Bible, because there is great blessing and benefit that comes from reading the Bible. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” and so it would be an excellent idea to take the Bible with you wherever you pray.
So you could start by opening up the Bible wherever you would want to, but if you are starting with Luke 11, you could pray, “I just read this and I know, O Father, that You encourage me to take words. So Lord, here You speak of evil men, fathers of the earth who give good gifts to their children who ask them, but how much more are You a good Father, a holy Father? O Lord, will You hear me and will You give me the gift that I ask, which is salvation? Lord, I believe that May 21st is Judgment Day. I have no interest in the things of this world. I have no interest in riches, in fame, in education, in anything, because I believe that this is true. O Lord, I only have one desire. Please give me the Holy Spirit. Please have mercy.” Then you could pray with your own words, “O Father, help me. Save me. Have mercy upon me.”
We could start with these verses and pray whatever we would like. After 10-15 minutes or so, we could turn the page to Luke 12. Let us go to Luke 12:31:
But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
This is a parallel verse to Matthew 6:33, which says:
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
So you stop here and say, “O Lord, make this my number one desire. Make this the sincere desire of my heart, that I seek Your kingdom first and Your righteousness. Today as I pray, may You make this the true feeling of my heart. O Father, I know that I have no righteousness. All of my righteousness is as filthy rags, but I also know that You clothe sinners with the righteousness of Christ. Will You make me righteous? Will You make me able to stand in Your sight? Will You save me and take away all iniquity and make me righteous through Christ?”
We could go on with the following verses if we would want to, but we could pray for a little bit and then we could turn back to the Bible. We could then read Luke 13:11:
And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
So then you could pray, “Father, this accurately describes me. I am helpless. I am hopeless. I cannot save myself. I cannot exalt myself unto Heaven. I need You to lift me and to exalt me and to save me.”
Then after praying this for a little while, we turn to Luke 14:7-11:
And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Again, you could stop and put the Bible down and go back to praying and you could pray, “Father, I am a sinner. I am a sinner and I know it. I also know that salvation is of the Lord. It is in Your hands entirely. O Lord, I wait here for You to act. I will not dare to bring salvation to myself. I know that many gospels promise liberty and salvation; yet it is a false promise, and so I wait on You. Dear Father, the days are passing quickly. The time is going fast. O Lord, I am waiting on You in the lowest place, because I know that I could be destroyed. May You lift me up. May You exalt me and seat me in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
You see, these words that God encourages us with, as He tells us:
Take with you words…
These can lead us to hours and hours of prayer. This can lead us to hours and hours of prayer, as well as to studying the Bible at the same time. If we do this, we will be praying things that are right in line with what we should be praying, which is the need for salvation.
Go over to Luke 15. Here we have the prodigal son. It says in Luke 15:11-20:
And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him…
That is, he is going to take words and he has prepared the words. It continues:
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
How much could we speak to God about these verses? We could start off with how we have wasted so much of our life and say, “Yes, Lord. I recognize that this is true of me and my life and the things that I have done over the course of time, and now time is almost gone. I pray, O Lord, redeem me. Save me. Move in me to will and do of Your good pleasure that I would waste no more time and that I would use the time that is left in a God-glorifying way, in a way that You would be pleased with. I agree 100% that I have sinned against Heaven, and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son in any shape or form. O Lord, O Father, have mercy.” Then we could also pray, “Father, I know that You encourage me to turn to You and return to You, like the prodigal son, but I also know that I cannot make it to the degree that is needed. I can turn in Your direction, but I cannot turn sufficiently unto salvation. O Father, see me a great way off. See me and come to me and find me. I am a lost sheep. I have wandered out of the way and I need You to save me.” So these verses could also help us to pray.
Turn next to Luke 16. Luke 16:19-24 says:
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell [in the grave] he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
We could pray a lot about this, too. In private, in our “closet,” we could read these verses and we could say, “O Lord, I see that the most important thing is to be saved and that it does not matter if I have money. It does not matter if I have health. Anything that I might possess in this world does not matter. All that matters is that I be a child of God; because even under normal circumstances, time is fleeting. Men live a few years and then they fly away, but I only have a few months remaining; so help me Father to do Your will and to be lowly esteemed, even in the eyes of the world, and to be made a reproach, to be someone that no one cares about at all, like Lazarus the beggar whom no one even noticed. May You make me, Father, into one of Your children. Help me not to think about the riches of this world. What good did they do for this rich man? Father, when I see that he is in torment and I know that torment is coming, that an incredible time of sorrow is coming for a period of five months, O Father, I pray that I would not experience the torment that this rich man is experiencing. I pray that I would not overlook and dismiss Your Word, Your Gospel, now at this time when it is abundant, when the Gospel is covering the earth ‘as the waters cover the sea.’ It is everywhere present. O Father, may it not be that I desire to be saved then. May it not be that I be stirred up to cry unto You for mercy then, when there will be no mercy. Please, stir up my heart in a right way now. Today is the day of salvation, but I know on May 21st that the door closes. So, Father, You do this, please. You do this in me.”
Again, these are words and they are all words of the Bible. It is the Word of God. The great thing is that I have just been going through Luke, chapter after chapter after chapter. Luke is a wonderful Gospel. There are a lot of good things in it, but the Bible is a wonderful Book and it has a lot of wonderful words in it everywhere that you turn. Open the Bible and you can find words that you can take to God. You can beseech Him with His own words.
Would it not be good to find verses that point out God’s mercy, His great compassion, His love, His grace? Would it not be wonderful to read verses where Jesus healed everyone who came to Him, where He gave sight to the blind, ears to the deaf, legs to the lame, life to the dead? Would it not be wonderful to read these things and then go to God and say, “O Lord, I am blind. I am deaf. I am lame. I am dead. Quicken me. Quicken me, O Lord, and make me to see and to hear and to walk and to live”? I think that God is giving us some good instruction for us over the next few days that are left, while there is still the possibility of salvation.
In Luke 17:33-36, it says:
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. I tell you, in that night there shall be two in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
We could stop here. We know that this is referring to May 21st, the day of the rapture. So we could pray, “Father, O Father, take me. Please take me. Catch me up when You come. Do not leave me behind.” Basically, this is what the prayer of those requesting salvation is leading to. “Do not leave me. Please do not forsake me. Do not leave me on earth, which will become hell for a period of five months, but take me out of this world. Father, I am asking You because I know that You can do this. It is Your plan to take Your people, so please make me one of Your people.”
We will stop in Luke 18, but we could go to Luke 19, Luke 20, Luke 21 and continue on, as God encourages us to take words and approach the throne of grace. This is how we plead with Him, but never ever do we plead with God for salvation based on our own actions, “O God, have mercy on me because, well, ‘I am not as other men are…or even as this publican,’” as we read in Luke 18. Remember that the Pharisee said this. Neither do we go to God like the elder son, “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid.” We do not pray like this. We never boast, “I am doing Your will so much, Lord.” Never ever do we pray, “O Lord, have mercy because I said or I did or I gave.” We never pray because of these things. We pray because of what Christ has done, what God has done, and then we can take the words of the Bible to God. We are then coming in a right way.
In Luke 18:1, it says:
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
We are to do this always. The Bible says, “Pray without ceasing.” This is a good admonition.
Is this crazy? How many hours can people sit and watch television? How many hours can people sit and watch ballgames? Is this crazy? How much time can people put into so many other pursuits? But when it comes to praying, we give it 5, 10, maybe 15 minutes.
Luke 18:1-6 continues:
…men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
We can stop here and we can say if this is true, “Lord, I have been coming for a long time. I have been coming for years. I am tired and I am weary, but, O Lord, please help me not to faint. Help me not to stop, not to cease, not to give up. Help me to hang on like Jacob who would not let go of the Man, who was God, whom he was wresting with, and who said to this Man, ‘I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.’ O Father, I know that blessing is in Your hands and that I cannot make You save me, but I can come to You in prayer and I can beseech You and cry out to You and beg You and I know that I can do this often and that I can do this daily. Father, I pray that You will not be displeased with me. Maybe You are putting me off like You did delay in cases like the Syrophenician woman, but maybe it is possible that You will still save me. This is why I continue to come. O Father, help me. I see than an ‘unjust judge,’ an evil judge, a wicked judge was brought to the point of hearing the widow woman because she wearied him ‘by her continual coming.’ But You are the great and just and holy Judge of all men and I know that You will do right. Father, I pray this prayer, that You would strengthen me in the inner man, that You would lead me and draw me to Yourself so that I will continue to pray. May You help me to take words with me when I approach Your throne.”
Let us stop here.