There is one thing that I am going to speak about today, which is that there is no doubt that we are living in the last days, that we are headed very quickly now to the end of the world. Think of it: the end of the world! You know, we are headed there. The days are passing very quickly. Another year has gone by. 2008 has ended. We could remember fully when it just started not so long ago. Now it is the end of it and now it is 2009.
As we look back (notice that I am saying “we”), how did we spend 2008? What did we do with it? Did we spend time in prayer before God? Did we spend time reading God’s Word earnestly? As we reflect back, what did we do with it?
All of us have time. At times, people want our attention or time: our kids, our job, you name it. There are things that are there that want our attention and time, but have we really taken the time out to really set down—me and God and the Bible—and take that time out of our day, a half hour or an hour, no matter what kind of day it is? It could be 3:00 A.M. in the morning. It could be in the early morning. Have we really spent quality time over this past year just reading the Bible and praying to God, praying to God earnestly?
There is no better thing that we could do with our time than listening to God’s Word, spending time alone with Him. Each one of us has to look at our time, because this is the time that God has given us. Many of us have been living in this world a long time. Some are two years old. Some are teenagers. Some are different ages. But this is the time that God has allotted to you to make. What have we done with it? What have we done with the time that God has given to us, especially in our day when time is quickly coming to a close? It is coming to an end. It is coming to an end and we should not let the things of this life bog us down, yet we can easily get caught up in that. What about this? What about that? We have to be very careful.
God commands us in the Bible to redeem the time. Time is precious. Time is very precious and we should spend it very wisely because none of us have the assurance that we are going to live through 2009. Do you? I do not know. A thousand things could happen to any one of us. We have to make sure that each minute, each moment, is spent very wisely, because it is precious.
I want to look at Daniel, if you could turn to Daniel 6. God gives us a very good example at this man of God, Daniel. We see him here spending time before God. Although he was a ruler over this land, we see him take time out of his day to pray to God. He prayed to God. Let us look at Daniel 6 and let us start reading in verse 3. In Daniel 6:3-5, we read:
Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him…
We know that Daniel was a saved man and that the Spirit of God is in all of God’s people.
…and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
And so are we when we become a child of God. Spiritually, we become perfect. We become blameless before God. Here, God is saying these things about him.
Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.
Let us drop down to verse 7. Here, these other people were jealous of Daniel and they were trying to find an occasion in him. Really, their intent was to kill him. Daniel 6:7-9:
All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.
The king had no clue what his other presidents and governors were cooking up against Daniel. He had no idea. In other words, he was tricked into signing this decree.
Daniel 6:10:
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.
This is not something that he just did right then and there. It was something that he had been doing over a period of time, because it says here, “as he did aforetime.” So it was a habit of his that he would pray to God three times a day, continually. He would constantly do this.
How about us? Are we praying continually before God and pouring out our hearts before Him? You see, this is a great example of our own lives. How is my prayer life before God? Am I praying consistently before God?
We do not have to go to God only when something goes wrong. We can go in thanksgiving to Him in prayer. We can go to Him when things seem to be going badly and when we are going through a trial. No matter the situation, we can go to God at any time of day or night. We could never wear out our welcome. If you have a concern about your salvation or if you are praying for the salvation of a loved one, no matter what the situation, you can go before God and just simply pour out your heart before Him. That is a wonderful privilege for those who are children of God. We can just continually go to God and pray and pray and pray, because He commands us to pray without ceasing.
No matter what the situation, who knows me better than God? Who knows you better than God? God knows you better than you know yourself and He understands your situation. He understands it. No matter if your wife or your husband or your child may not understand the situation, God does. He does. He knows what you are going through. No matter how difficult it might be, God knows it.
That does not mean that God is going to get you out of it. We do have the blessing of making our request known to God, so we just rest in this fact and say, “May God’s perfect will be done.” That is it. May God’s perfect will be done.
But here, Daniel went each day, three times a day, and prayed to God. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5. Tony read this earlier. Look at verse 17, a very familiar passage. Christ says to us here in 1 Thessalonians 5:17:
Pray without ceasing.
Pray without ceasing. That word “ceasing” is the word “continual.” We should pray continually before God, in the morning or at night. We could pray while we are mowing the lawn. We could pray while we are…whatever the case might be…we could pray…we could pray to God.
That word for “ceasing” is also used in Romans. Turn over to Romans 9 and we will see how it is used in that chapter. In Romans 9:1-2:
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
The word for “continual” is translated as “ceasing.” We should always continually pray. Pray without ceasing. It goes hand in hand.
It is used also in 2 Timothy. Turn over to 2 Timothy 1:1-4:
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;
Here, we see that the Apostle Paul is praying for his fellow believers, day and night. You see, this is a continual thing. He is praying without ceasing.
If we have, let us say, a child who is not saved and we get troubled, “My child may not be saved or my wife may not be saved,” what should we do? Continually go before God and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray.
You see, we could never…it is an integral part of the child of God’s life, prayer. This is why I asked the question. How much time have we spent in this last year praying to God, just simply praying to Him, just pouring out whatever is bothering us?
Whatever the case might be, we just go to God and pray and pray and pray and just tell Him all about it, and God understands. We are not going to tell Him something that He does not already know. He knows all things and He commands us to pray, “Pray without ceasing.” He commands us to come boldly before the throne of God, and that is a great blessing that the child of God has.
Unsaved man does not have that. What does he do when things are bothering him? He goes, maybe, to a counselor, to an unsaved counselor, or maybe he goes to alcohol or whatever, but there is no help in it. He is not going to get any help from man. We have to go to God.
As a true believer, we go to God and we leave it there at His feet. We leave it there because we know that God is…we simply ask God, “May His perfect will be done.” If it is His decision to leave us in a difficult situation in life, so be it. So be it, you see. So be it. God will strengthen us to go through whatever we are going through. Although it might seem that there is no other way out, God knows. God knows.
Let us go on a little further and look at Psalm 130. In Psalm 130:1-2, we read:
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.
Do you see the desire of the true believer, that God will be attentive to his supplication, to his request? We know that God hears us. He hears us.
Turn over to 1 Peter. We know that God hears us, the true believers, and in 1 Peter 3:12, we have this wonderful promise that God has given to us:
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous…
We know that “the righteous” are who? They are God’s people, God’s elect. We are not righteous of ourselves. God has made us righteous. He has imputed His righteousness to us.
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers…
Is that not a wonderful comfort?
…his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
Do you see this wonderful promise of God, that He hears the prayers of His people? Unsaved man has no assurance that God hears. Of course, we know that God hears everything, but here God is particularly speaking to His people, that God’s ears are open to their prayers. He hears them. You see, He hears them and that is a wonderful blessing of God, that He hears the prayers of His elect. He hears them, you see, and that is beyond comprehension that God will listen to a dirty rotten sinner.
In our little situation, we know that our “light affliction” is “but for a moment.” It is temporary, you see. It is a temporary thing. To us, it seems like it is a mountain that we are carrying. At times, we tend to lose sight of the fact that God is in control. He is in control. He let these things into my life. Sometimes, a lot of things that happen in our lives, we caused them ourselves. Because of disobedience, because of rebellion, because of sin, we caused it in our own selves. Some things that happen to us, we cause them to come on us ourselves.
God knows and He understands all things, yet we also know that Christ prayed. He prayed. Many prayers are recorded in the Bible, but we know that Christ is our example and He prays also. Remember that the greatest test that anyone would ever undergo was Christ going to the cross, and now we are beginning to learn that He was simply demonstrating what He had done.
Let us turn over to Matthew 26. This is only one place that we will look at. There are other places that we could look at, but in Matthew 26, Christ is about to go to the cross. In Matthew 26:37-39, we read:
And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed…
Christ is praying to God the Father.
…and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Do you see one of the ways that we are to come before God? Yes, we pour out our hearts before Him, but we know, “O Lord, may Thy perfect will be done. If it be Your will to not answer my prayer or to leave me in this situation, so be it; so be it,” and we leave it there with God. God will strengthen us to deal with that situation. God is a merciful God. He is very merciful to us. So if it is His will to leave us in this situation, so be it. So be it, you see.
Another thing that we also understand about prayer is that it is a very personal thing. It is very personal. We do not have to let anyone else know what we are praying. It is a very personal thing between that person and God. So let us look at Matthew 6. It is a very personal thing, and my hope is, as this year starts, that we may pray even more, that we may take time out of our day to pray to God. In Matthew 6:5-6, God is going to instruct us in how we are to pray, speaking to a child of God:
And when thou…
The true believer.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet…
Is that a literal closet? No. In the closets of our minds, you see, we pray.
…and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
You see, it is a very personal thing. We do not have to pray out loud. Let no one hear, no one, because God knows our hearts.
He gives us an example of this. If you will turn over to 1 Samuel, do you remember when Hannah prayed? When Hannah prayed, we see here that the only thing that moved on her was her lips. Eli did not hear a thing. Eli thought that she was drunken, but she was pouring out her heart to God. In 1 Samuel 1:8-15:
Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.
You see, she was pouring out her heart before God.
And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth.
All Eli saw was her lips moving, not a word; she did not say a word.
Now Hannah, she spake in her heart…
Do you see where she spoke? She spoke in her heart.
…only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.
You see, not a word was spoken, but yet God heard it. God heard her prayer.
And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.
All that she was doing, she was doing it in her heart. You do not have to be praying out loud for God to hear you. You can just pray in your heart. Pray in your mind and God hears it. He hears it, you see.
Now, verse 16, 1 Samuel 1:16-17:
Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.
You see, we do not have to say a word-prayer. As we are driving down the way or we are at work or we are lying on our bed and we cannot sleep, we are lying there and thinking and we can pray. That is a wonderful blessing that God has given to His children. God understands. No matter what it is, God understands it.
Does that mean that He is going to change the situation? No. I hear people say, “Prayer changes things.” No, we pray according to the will of God, “Lord, may Thy will be done.” When Christ was facing that awful test, what did He say? “O Lord, may Thy will be done,” you see.
If it is His will to leave me in this situation or if it be His will not to save that loved one, “God’s perfect will be done.” You see, we just leave it in the hands of God. We pour it out before Him. We get anxious, we get concerned, we get fearful, no matter what the situation in life might be, so we go before Him and we do not take matters into our own hands because we are going to make a mess of things. We leave it in God’s hands because God is almighty. He is Almighty God.
Let us look at another familiar passage in Philippians 4. Do you remember that passage there in Philippians 4? In Philippians 4:6, there we read:
Be careful for nothing…
Do not be anxious. How often that happens to us. We get anxious. The world gets that way, while the true believer could be in a calm situation. No matter if things are going haywire or whatever it is, God says, “Do not be anxious.” Do not be anxious.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication…
We supplicate before God, you see.
…by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Prayer; here again, prayer. We go before Him again, and God gives us this assurance in verse 7, Philippians 4:7:
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
You see, we supplicate and then we leave it there. Seeing that there is no way out of this situation or that situation, we leave it in God’s hands because He is directing things.
Do you remember that He gave this promise to the true believers? I think it is Psalm 49 or 50 where He says that He will be our guide even unto death (Psalm 48:14). He guides the true believer’s life. He puts things in the true believer’s life and He guides it, right into His presence. He guides us right into His presence.
Come what may, we have this assurance, to the child of God, that God is in control of our lives. Yes, He is in control of all things, every person’s life. But for the true believers, we have that great comfort and blessing that God understands. So my hope for all of us in the coming year is that we will spend more time before God in prayer.
Also, something that I wanted to mention earlier is that another thing that we want to spend more time in is Bible reading. Just simply open the Bible and read any part of it. Whether we understand it or not, that is what we are to be doing with our time: reading the Bible.
Children, read the Bible. Read the Bible. You cannot go wrong. Turn off the TV. Put away the games. Stop doing what you are doing. If you are in school, put away the books for a half hour or so. Pick up your Bible, go in your room, and start to read the Bible.
We are called by God to set aside a time in our day to simply listen to God speak to us, to you, to me, from the pages of the Bible. The children who cannot read, I am pretty sure that Mom and Dad can say, “Come on. Sit down child and let me read the Bible to you.” That is the same thing. Set time aside to listen to God speak to you from the pages of the Bible.
Let us look at Hebrews 1. In Hebrews 1:1-2, we read:
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
So we know that as we read the Bible, it is God who is speaking to us. This is how He chooses to speak to us today, not through a voice or an unknown tongue or a dream or these things. If somebody tells you, “God told me to tell you something,” it is a lie. God does not speak to us that way. He will only speak to us through the pages of God’s Word, the Bible. It is the voice of God that is speaking to us, so we want to spend time listening to God speaking to us. It is as if God is standing right in front of you as you read the Bible. What more do you want? It is as if God is here in front of you and talking to you. This is the Bible and this is God speaking to us.
Let us look at 2 Peter 1. We will start reading in 2 Peter 1:16:
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Here, the disciples saw Him, Christ, back there 2,000 years ago. They saw Him. They were with Him. They were eyewitnesses to Him. It goes on in 2 Peter 1:17-21:
For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard…
Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration, they heard the voice of God and they were eyewitnesses of Christ. They were with Him for three plus years.
…when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy…
What is that? The Bible. So even that happened to them. They heard it and they saw Him, but here He is saying:
We have also a more sure word of prophecy…
Which is the Bible, the Bible.
…whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man…
Mankind did not write the Bible of his own will, but it says:
…but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Do you see how sure and true the Bible is? Although they heard these voices and they saw Christ, the Bible is even more sure than that. So you see how true the Bible is. The Bible is the Word of God and any true believer is going to spend time reading God’s Word, the Bible.
There is no substitute for that and you cannot be lazy. You cannot be lazy. Remember, God’s Word to the child of God is the joy and rejoicing of their heart. Because God has given to us a new heart, that new heart desires what? To be fed from God’s Word, the Bible. That is the desire of the new heart that God has given to the child of God. He is going to spend time reading the Bible. He is going to spend time before the Bible.
Turn over to Luke 10. We are going to read a little bit here about Martha in Luke 10. Martha is a great type of the child of God. We will start reading at verse 38. Luke 10:38-39:
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village…
This is Christ.
…and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
Do you see where she is? Here we are, truly saved, and we are seated at the feet of Christ. As we are seated there, what are we doing? We are listening to what He is saying to us. This is how we ought to be. We should be seated at the feet of Christ. As we are reading the Bible, we are seated at the feet of Christ and we are listening to what He is saying to us.
In verse 40, Luke 10:40-41, He says:
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?…
What was her concern? Her concern was with all that was going on. You can see how easily that can happen to any one of us. I am concerned about my job. I am concerned about this. I am concerned about that. It comes in our life and it pushes the Bible out, which should never happen. It pushes our concern and anxiety comes in our life and we start focusing on this, “Poor me; poor me; look at what I’m going through,” instead of stopping it right there and opening God’s Word, as if we were seated at the foot of Christ when we are reading the Bible, listening to what God says to us. But here she is and she says:
…bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful…
She is anxious, as any one of us could get. She is anxious.
…thou art careful and troubled about many things:
Do you see? Verse 42, Luke 10:42:
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Do you see how we can still get so caught up about this and about that and we neglect listening to the Bible? We can get caught up in these things, you know, a true believer can, but we have to stop and go back to the Bible and start reading God’s Word and praying to Him for wisdom and guidance, you see.
We have to be very careful about these things so that in this coming year, we carve out time alone with Christ with our families. Read God’s Word together in our homes and stress to our children the importance of God’s Word, the Bible, because it is God who is speaking to us.
Let us look at Psalm 119:97:
O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
You see? Our minds and hearts are filled with God’s Word and we are thinking about it. We are thinking about God’s Word, you see. How easily our minds could go this way and that way, but we ought to be thinking, thinking about God’s Word. We are to meditate upon it each day. Verse 98, Psalm 119:98-99:
Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.
You see? We are to be thinking about it, praying for wisdom and so forth.
Psalm 119:100-104:
I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
Do you see how the true believer looks at God’s Word? If we are not spending time in God’s Word, what are we doing with our time? We are actually wasting it. I know that we have to take our children places and we have to work. We have to do all of these things, but there comes a time when we have to just stop all of that, stop all of the hustle and bustle, all of this and all of that, and pray. Spend time in prayer before God and read the Bible. You cannot go wrong; you cannot go wrong.
That ought to be our desire as we enter into the new year, that we may spend time, more time, because we are in the last days. I believe that we ought to see this. Time is of the essence, is it not? Time is quickly coming to an end. If ever there was a time when we ought to be looking at ourselves and spending time in prayer, “O Lord, I do not think that I am saved; give me that assurance,” it is now. And how are we going to get that assurance? By reading the Bible. God says that His Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are sons of God. Yes, it is good to pray—pray, pray, pray—but there is no substitute for reading the Bible. That is how God operates. He says that faith cometh, which is Christ, cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
God is not going to change the way that He operates to suit me because I am lazy. He says that He works through the hearing of His Word. We have to put ourselves in that situation. If God is going to save me, if I am not saved, He is going to save me through applying His Word to my heart, however He does it. We cannot just be worried and troubled, “Oh, I am not saved! I am not saved! I am not saved!,” if we are not praying and going to God and reading His Word. We just cannot do that.
Okay. Let us close. Heavenly Father, we thank You, O Lord, for Thy Word and we thank You Lord that Thou hast brought us through another year. We pray as we start a new year that we may spend quality time just simply reading Thy Word and in prayer before Thee. Those of us who are saved, it is our nature to come to Thee continually, continually. No matter what we are going through in life, we know that You are with us. You will never leave us nor forsake us. We have this marvelous assurance in Thy Word that You are always with us. O Lord, we pray for each and every one of us who are here today and who might be listening over the Internet that, O Lord, their desire and our desire may be to spend more time with Thee alone in Thy Word, because it is Almighty God who is King of kings and Lord of lords who is speaking to me, to all of us here who are listening to His Word, the Bible. Lord, we pray and thank You for this time together around Thy Word. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.