Gooding, David: 4 - Praise & Worship

And shall we just pray? Our Father who knows our hearts. While we cannot boast our love to thee, and we hesitate to tell thee that we love thee, yet that is so, and so by thy infinite grace. We pray now thou will take these next moments as we think together and review our problems and questions and think in thy word. Will thou take these moments, use them for our deepening of gratitude, for increasing our awareness of thee and our understanding of thee. Until seeing thee that little bit more clearly than hitherto and more fully, our admiration may deepen to love and our love to worship. That while we are engaged with thee, we may be transformed into that same image from glory to glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, now these are a very interesting list of questions, and very variegated, and as you have heard, I'm not proposing to answer them one by one in every particular point and aspect. On the other hand, what I do propose to do is to make a few comments on these questions that you have on your sheet, not full answers to any one question, but some comments on some of them. And then we'll turn to Holy Scripture and learn some lessons from it. Number two, uh, how would you engage in praise or worship? Is worship an event which can be confined to a given time, or is it a lifelong process? It is both. When Abraham was asked to take his son Isaac and offer him up upon an altar upon Mount Moriah, Abraham said to the young man, stay you here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. In that sense, yes, the worship was confined to that moment. He was talking about an act that he was about to perform on Mount Moriah, and after it was over, he would come back. Or if you listen to scripture, it will talk about the Jews who at certain set times of the year went up for to worship at the feast. They're thinking of the special ceremonies and, uh, praises and, uh, rituals that they would have gone through at the temple as prescribed by the Old Testament on the occasions of the great national holy days and the service of God. So that there were times when the worship was organized, it started and it finished. On the other hand, the question is right in saying that to be true worship, worship, as the hymn puts it, cannot properly be of the lip alone, but must be made up of the life. Because worship has to do with our attitude of heart, and if the way we live contradicts the attitude that we adopt in worship, then our worship is not much good. Can we be aware of success in worship, that is, by registering a physical sensation of elation? But of course, when we worship very frequently, our emotions are involved. Moreover, when some people's emotions are involved, sometimes another thing gets involved, and that's their sensation. You will notice I have friends, shall tell you who they are, that when they listen to a particularly moving bit of music, their skin goes up in like goose flesh. Or some people are afraid. It's funny how you get the same sensations from different kinds of emotions, isn't it? I've noticed some people, when they get afraid, their their flesh goes up in goose pimples. The emotion of fear has led to a sensation of the body, or emotion of deep enjoyment and wonder at a lovely piece of music has spilled over into sensation. Yes. It can very often happen, and does, that if a man is moved to worship, it will affect his emotions, and sometimes it will affect sensations, and I've seen people shed tears, genuine tears, for joy as well as for grief, when they have been at their worship of the Lord. Now we must make a very important distinction. Worship that is acceptable to God must be in spirit. It should start that way round. And emotions, then what we feel come next, and if there are going to be any sensations afterwards. Sometimes, uh, we get confused about this, and we try the other way around, and we try to work out the emotions and then the sensations, and the whole thing is artificial, and in the end, barren and carnal. So let me use an analogy. You like, uh, paintings? Perhaps not. Some people do. Now, um, you go into a picture gallery and you see for the first time a beautiful painting. You look at the thing and you're overwhelmed, and before you know what you're doing, of course, your emotions are being aroused. Why? Because you saw the painting and you, you enjoyed it and saw the wonder of it, and that in turn began to affect your emotions. Yes? Then you go home. You say, I, I really enjoyed that. I wonder if I could try and work up those feelings. I can enjoy that picture again. Now let me have a go, work up the feelings. Well, now that's stupid. You know what you've got to do the next time? If you want to enjoy it again, it's go and look at the picture again. Yes? Suppose the next time you see it, yes, you enjoy it, but that doesn't produce quite the same emotion. Does it matter? The picture is still as good as it was, isn't it? Now, if you're going to, uh, uh, uh, move further in the enjoyment of that picture, you might have to study it now, and study it quite hard, and begin to think of what the, uh, painter was doing when he painted that in there. It might exercise your gray matter, and you might come away quite tired and exhausted by your study, and your emotions wouldn't have been moved, but you'll come to understand the picture a bit more, and perhaps the next time you see it, now it will be even more wonderful, and who knows, you might get more emotions. But whether you get the emotions or not, it's the picture that counts. When we're worshipping God, if we're really worshipping God, it's God that counts. It's the glory and the wonder of God. If it moves my emotion, that's a very good thing. If it doesn't move my emotion, well, I can't be helped. It's God I'm meant to be concentrating on, and not my own emotions. We do need to be watch that because sometimes, though we, we know we shouldn't, but we go rather for the emotions and judge whether our worship has been good by whether we've enjoyed our own emotions. Yes? Let's come down to, uh, smaller things, the matter of giving of thanks. You had a lovely Christmas present given you. And like a young gentleman said to me once, just recently, no, he said, I do feel so bad. I, I, I, I wanted to say thank you in a, in a, in a proper way, and then I, I don't really say it very well. Do you see? And he was all worried about this. Some people get so worried that they can't say thank you the right way around, they never say thank you. But does it matter, so long as you are grateful, how you say it? When we're giving thanks, what are we trying to do? Come on, I'm going to give thanks. Now watch me, I'm going to give thanks. So you've given me a, a beautiful present. Now, don't you think I'm doing the Thanksgiving very well? I am really doing it well, am I not, thanking you? Don't you admire the way I'm thanking you? That's all right, we stood. I thought he was meant to be thanking me, not admiring himself and the way he did it. Bruce, I didn't do that Thanksgiving very- I don't feel satisfied. That ain't the point. To get the sense that you're grateful across to the other person, that's the point. One of the things that worship does, if it's true genuine worship, is to begin to break that endless self-centeredness of which we are so often so guilty. It's our feelings that we're cultivating, wanting to feel that I'm a success even in my prayers. Whereas the secret of worship is bother me and what I say, it's, it's God. Is he wonderful? Does he deserve my gratitude? And as for the sensations, oh, please, please beware of trying to work up the sensations. The Bible has a very interesting story. Allow me to relate it to you, warning us about sensations. Some people feel that they've had such a blessed time if their sensations get moved. One or two people cried a bit and so on. I'm not saying anything against tears and emotions, but be careful. There was a man called Isaac, and God blessed him. Came a point in his life when Isaac had to bless his, uh, son, you'll see. He intended to bless Esau, but Jacob came and stole the blessing. Do you know how he was man- he managed to do that, old Jacob? How he managed to steal the blessing? Well, I tell you. His father, being an ordinary human being, had five senses. Two of them were a bit dim, you'll say. His eyes were dim. He couldn't see very well. So Jacob, taught by his mother, dressed himself up, uh, put some skins on his hands so they felt hairy, like his brother Esau. And then his mum cooked him a dish and spiced it up to make it taste like venison when it wasn't all the time, it just ordinary plain mince meat. And, uh, in he went to his father, you see. His father says, who are you? Oh, he said, I'm Esau. Oh. But father couldn't see very well, so that eliminated the sight. Father says, the voice sounds to me like the voice of Jacob. You sure you're not Jacob? Oh no, I'm not Jacob, I'm Esau. And Isaac didn't dare trust his hearing, poor man. So he let himself be guided by his other senses, didn't he? He says, uh, give me that venison. Oh, it makes me feel nice. Beautiful, he smelt it. Tasted the old venison. Cool, he got such a feeling inside. Then he says to, uh, Jacob it was, he thought it was Esau, come near and let me smell you. Ooh, he says, your smell is like the smell of the field that the Lord has blessed. And then he says, come let me touch you. And yes, he says, your, your, your is all white. I can feel your hairy. So he relied on his smell, and on his taste, and on his touch, and And was was horribly horribly deceived. dismayed. What ought he to have relied upon? He ought to have relied upon the word of God and the spirit of God to guide him. We do well to watch it in our estimation of God's blessing. God's blessings for us, they can be material things, yes, but now when we're coming to think of worship, we must think particularly of spiritual blessings. They are spiritual things. We receive them by God's spirit and through his word. And the order is therefore that I believe his word. And God communicates via his spirit through his word to my heart. And believing his word, I have the blessing. Let the emotions come or not come. Let the sensations come or not come. Am I my pressing the point? In some families, you know, I'm told that occasionally, and oh, very, very occasionally, husband and wife fall out, and they have an argument. And then, of course, in all well ordered households, they make it up, and I'm told, I have no way of knowing, that the making up is marvelous. Oh, and the joy and the relief and the sensation. Beautiful. So here's a man and wife have made it up, and they've enjoyed it. A week later, the good lady finds the man sitting on the, on the settee in his room. She says, what on earth are you doing, Bertie? I'm trying to recapture that feeling, you know, when we made it up. You're very stupid. Yet you'll find believers trying to recapture feelings. Oh, where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord, and I felt my heart with deep contrition melt? I hope you did. That was very appropriate at the time. But you can't regain and rehash old emotions. Now what you need to do is to go on further with the Lord. Was it marvelous when he forgave your sin and you found something as his forgiveness? Praise the Lord for that. What about now going on and finding something further about the Lord, letting that move you? Well, here's a man at dinner. You know what it is, don't you, gentlemen? I know this part, I know I've heard it many times. Uh, you're very hungry. You come in and sit down to a beautiful meal, and and it's not just doing you good, but all the lovely, delightful feeling. I hope you enjoy your food, I do immensely. And all the delightful feeling you'll get, this food going in you. And you sit there. What would you think of a man he'd been sitting there now, long since finished his dinner, and uh, he stopped sitting at the table, so he comes up and says, are you finished? Uh, would you like some more? No, he didn't want no more. Oh, what are you sitting at the table for? I was just trying to get that feeling. Stupid man. No, the feelings only come as the result of being hungry and being fed, what? It's only a side result of the actually enjoying the food. And he would be an even foolisher man who tried to work up the feeling without the food, wouldn't he? And so let it always be God's fact. His word made real to me, himself made real to me by his spirit. Let me believe it. Let me thank him for it. Let me open my eyes to see how wonderful God is, and let me tell God how wonderful I find him. And if I feel emotion, well, praise the Lord for that, and if I don't, well, never mind. And if I get sensations, well, I can't help it, and if I don't, don't let me try and manufacture. For our worship of God also is a matter of faith. Oh, is the singing of hymns, says question five, in any way even remotely related to praise? Well, I should hope it is. The Psalms are a kind of hymn, aren't they? And Israel, in their singing of hymns, pra- uh, in their singing of hymns, were praising God. Yes, of course, hymns are a form of praise. And our Lord at the Last Supper, did he not, just before they went out, they sang a hymn. Yes, of course, we can sing hymns mechanically and with our, uh, our hearts far away and our minds far away as well. But we're talking about people doing things seriously. Of course, hymns are a form of giving praise. Um, if we are to worship in spirit and in truth, can the use of time-honored cliches be justified? Well, it depends. If they're good cliches, yes. Yes. Or again, I quote the Psalms. Our Lord used the Psalms, generations of Israelites used the Psalms. We use them still, don't we? The Lord is our shepherd. I shall not want. Beautiful, what? Been around for hundreds of years, thousands of years, nothing the worse of it. So there's nothing wrong in using phrases that have been around for thousands of years, uh, if you can sing them and they mean something, and you can sing them intelligently and meaningfully. Of course, bad old cliches, mumbo jumbo phrases, you know, that get used, uh, well, again, uh, let's try and speak the best we can. Let's not be unduly critical, however, of other folks. Some folks find it easy to express themselves. Some folks find it very difficult to find words, so they borrow words from somebody else, and they use them. The real thing that matters is how sincere they are being. On the other hand, for public worship in the church, let's see to it, if we can, that we're talking, uh, realistically and not just mouthing a lot of phrases that really, when they're analyzed, mean nothing. Let's talk from our hearts. And if, uh, you find it difficult to, to think of words, well, you need never be ashamed to use the words of Holy Scripture, yes? I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will be continually in my life. If, uh, now about the Lord's Supper, if this service is, uh, considered to be one of remembrance with the emphasis on our Lord's death, is the idea of praise and rejoicing out of place, and therefore these two things, the Lord's Supper, the remembrance of his death, and praise, are they mutually exclusive? Well, no, surely. When the nation mourns its dead and commemorates its dead who dies in the war, are there not very often some people that get up officially on behalf of the nation and praise the courage of the men and the devotion of the men who gave their lives? The fact that it is a sorrowful thing, yet on the other hand, doesn't stop people very sincerely praising them who died for their sake. And so surely with our Lord, even though we remember his sorrows, haven't we, do we not well to praise him for the love that took him to Calvary? I see the point that, yes, it was a sad thing, and yet, you know, Calvary was a tremendous triumph, wasn't it? And the Bible tells us that when Christ gave himself for our sins, it came up to God as a sacrifice of a sweet smell, something that delighted the heart of God, that here on this earth there was a someone that was prepared to do his will to that extreme and do it perfectly. So it isn't inconsistent with praise. And there for the moment, then I'm going to leave it. I'm given permission not to ask, answer all the things in detail, and I couldn't anyway. So let's then leave that side, and for our final study, let's come and read in Holy Scripture. And we'll begin to read in Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four. Then, when we have read our two per- chapters, we're going to read from Matthew chapter four, some verses, and then Matthew chapter, uh, uh, Peter, one Peter chapter two, and then we'll make ourselves a break to refresh ourselves to listen to the ministry of God's word. Chapter four of Matthew. Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he afterward hungered. And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him into the holy city, and he set him on the pinnacle of the temple and saith unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and on their hands they shall bear thee up, lest happily thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, again, it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up unto an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And he said unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Second passage, the first epistle by Peter, and chapter two. Verse one, putting away therefore all wickedness and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk whizzes without guile, that you may grow thereby unto salvation, if you had tasted that the Lord is gracious, unto whom coming a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect precious, ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in Scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. So to let God's word sink down in our ears and give ourselves a pause, let's sing a hymn, shall we? And let's sing that lovely hymn that some of us have been singing. The topic of worship that has been set us for our study this evening is a glorious topic, and yet one that is a little bit complicated. And it's complicated for two reasons. The one is that the word itself is used, even in scripture, in two or three different senses. It's one of those big words that includes a rather large array of ideas. So when Israel went up to the temple to worship, they could be doing various things in their worship of God, so the Old and the New Testament tells us. They could be giving thanks for the things that God had given them. They could, of course, be praising God for his glory. They could be bowing in what we sometimes, using the term strictly, call worship, bowing down in reverence before God. In all those senses, the word worship is used, and therefore we shouldn't always narrow it down to one particular meaning. The second little complication is that for many people, worship in their Christian experience is very often peculiarly associated with what happens when they celebrate the Lord's Supper. And let it be said at once that worship is a very natural thing for any believer to do at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. How could you possibly remember the Lord Jesus and really remember how he died for you without being, uh, moved to bow down and worship him. It is an appropriate thing to do on that occasion. And yet, of course, the fact is that when the Lord Jesus gives us directions about, uh, keeping the Lord's Supper, and when the Apostle Paul repeats those directions in one Corinthians chapter eleven, Nowhere does he or they command us to worship on that occasion. The Lord Jesus tells us to do these things in remembrance of him. And Paul repeats the Lord's own command, for he received it of the Lord, and he hands it on to us, that we are to take bread and eat it, wine and drink it, and to do it in remembrance of the Lord, that he gave for us his body and that he shed for us his blood. We are not necessarily told to worship the Lord. We're not even told to give thanks. We're told to do it. How could you possibly do it without giving thanks? We're told to do it. How could you possibly do it without giving thanks? I know not. But all I'm making the point is that where God has not made rules and regulations, we mustn't either. What our Lord Jesus had said about the bread and the wine, amongst other things, is this, that the cup that we take at the Lord's Supper is the cup of the new covenant in his blood, and that certainly we should be remembering at the Lord's Supper. It's a time when we recall his covenant and how he has covenanted that he will write his laws on our minds and on our hearts. This is a time, therefore, for us, as one Corinthians eleven says, to examine ourselves. Or let somebody come to the Lord's Supper, and he's a believer, but he's living carelessly, sinning and unrepentant. And he comes to take that cup, but that is the cup of the Lord's blood, reminding him that the Lord shed his blood to obtain forgiveness for sin. And for him to be living in sin unrepentantly is to be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, deliberately and unrepentantly doing those things that cost the Lord his life's blood. And for a believer to come to the Lord's Supper while he is living in sin unrepentantly, or while he is not actively cooperating with God in his life to make progress in holiness. Why for him to come to the Lord's Supper and to take the cup of the covenant? The very covenant that says, now look, says Christ, I will write my laws on your heart and on your mind will I write them. And to take the cup, the pledge of Christ writing his laws on our heart, and all the rest of our daily week to have no intention of keeping his laws, nor trying, nor be cooperating with God for the writing of those laws on our hearts. That would be a grievous contradiction, wouldn't it? So that in our celebration of the Lord's Supper, yes, we certainly must keep in view the things he tells us to, the fact he gave his body for us, the fact he shed his blood for us, the fact that he is hereby guaranteeing and covenanting that he will write his laws on our hearts, and we are to remember too that one day he's coming again. We do it until he comes. What else we do? Well, we're under no rules and regulations. Shall someone give thanks? Well, they're free to if they, uh, i- i- if you wish to. Shall someone praise the Lord? Well, he's free to, as far as I'm aware. Shall someone read the scripture and comment? Well, as far as I know, there's nothing against either. Shall someone worship? Well, why not? Let all things be done in order and decently and with due concern for each other and the time. Spiritual instinct will presently tell us as we mature what things are suitable for when. But please, we ought to consider one another, did we not? And one man who's just recently saved, well, if he exuberantly praises the Lord and says, thank you for dying for me, Lord Jesus, that marvelous. If he can't get up and expound Leviticus five in his prayers, well, would you expect him to? Hope you don't either. But if you've seen a lot more in Christ and you want to tell the Lord, well, carry on, my brother, and God will be delighted, and we shall be edified, and we shall learn how much more there is in the Lord than ever we dreamed of by listening to you. Praise and worship the Lord. Don't be a hard on us, will you, who haven't quite seen so much yet, and yet want to say our little thank you as well. But with that, let me come now, as you have bidden me to, to talk a little bit about this topic of worship. What's the point of worship? Why should anybody worship? What's the point of praising? Well, I nearly said, but he wasn't all that ancient preacher, the late Montague Goodman, and it fell to my loss as a very much younger man than I am now to be with him once at a conference that was aimed at young folks, and I suppose it was because he was thinking of young folks and how to help them get going in the Christian life that he related this little incident to me. He said he met a young gentleman at one stage who said he found it very difficult to talk, very difficult to speak, very difficult to praise the Lord. So Mr. Montague Goodman, uh, said he said, so, my good man, yes, and left it for a while, and then presently he came back and he said, I believe you're interested in motorcycles. Oh, yes, yes. Tell me about your motorcycle, he said. Oh, motorcycle, it had wheels like this and gears like this, and there was a lever here, and the clutch went that way, and it was this kind of gear change, and uh, there was an overdrive on the thing. Oh. Well, he went on. The fear was he wouldn't stop. Presently, Mr. Goodman said, oh, you can talk then, sometimes. Depends what you're interested in, isn't it? And what you happen to know about, because the chap loved motorbikes. Phew, they're beautiful, aren't they? They at least they make a lot of noise, and when they go quickly, some people like them immensely. Yes. Why shouldn't he talk about it? He knew all about motorbikes. Well, if you ask me to come and talk about motorbikes, well, I can't talk about motorbikes, eh. It's got two wheels and handlebar and a seat. What else has it got? Well, let me think about it. I've got a tank. That's about as far as I get. This chap, he knew all about motorbikes, loved motorbikes. Who could indeed talk about motorbikes? Why can't we talk about the Lord? Well, some of us have no gift for public speaking. Why can't we talk about him in private? You talk about the carrots, you talk about your saty, you'll talk about the children. Why can't we talk about the Lord? Sometimes, could it be that we don't know the Lord very well? Because if we knew him, wouldn't we want to talk about him? Why should I praise the Lord? Well, he commands me to. Why should I praise him? Well, surely because I can't help it. How about this matter of worship? Worship, what is worship? Well, one of the words for worship that the Hebrews used, and a similar word that the Greeks used, and therefore occurs in the New Testament, has the meaning simply of bowing down. Like in the East, they do a salaam, don't they? They bow down to the ground. So in the ancient world, if you came into the presence of a king, you would bow down, worship him. In the limited sense that you bow down, and by your bowing down you paid him the reverence and respect that was due to his office. You recognized his power, you recognized his authority. It is in that sense, isn't it, that the devil said to our Lord Jesus, if you will bow down and worship me. The devil was realist enough, you know, to know that the Lord Jesus would never possibly admire him. That wasn't what was in his heart. The Lord Jesus, uh, the devil wasn't expecting the Lord Jesus to praise him. What the devil was saying is that the Lord Jesus should bow down and recognize his authority. And of course, there is authority, there is worship, isn't there? Of various depths. In my hometown, we talk about the mayor as his worship. Hm. We don't offer him worship in the, in the Christian sense, but if he comes into the room, we stand up out of respect. He sees worship the mayor, meaning that we ought to reverence him. But then, you know, there is a reverence that is due only to God. And when we offer that kind of worship, we are offering the total surrender of ourselves to God. The utter, unquestioned, unreserved loyalty of our hearts. Bowing down to the authority of God and recognizing God to be God. That's worship. To worship the Lord Jesus is first of all to bow down at his feet and yield him the unreserved loyalty of my heart. Worship, therefore, is very often in the ancient world a word that is tinged with political meaning. For from time to time there have been emperors of great empires, haven't they? And they have said to themselves, now how shall we get the people to obey us and to support us? And they have realized that merely putting laws on the statute book won't necessarily control the crowd, and even getting large armies won't necessarily control the crowd. And these emperors have scratched their heads and said to themselves, now how can we make sure of the obedience and loyal service of our people? And they have instituted worship of the emperor, trying to get people to give to the state that unreserved and absolute loyalty that is God's alone. Old men who could measure tried it. He tried to make everybody bow down when they heard the sound of the music and worship the golden image that he had set up. Nebuchadnezzar claiming absolute loyalty and obedience to him. And the young men, out of loyalty to God, refused, did they not? For to give worship in that sense to any other than God, the absolute loyalty of our hearts, is, of course, to break the very first of all the commandments. The Roman emperors tried it, didn't they? The early Christians obeyed the powers that be. They prayed for the powers that be. Ah yes, but the Roman empires, because they wanted to wield their great empire together, instituted emperor worship and demanded that their subjects come and offer incense before the image of the emperor as an indication of their absolute loyalty to the emperor, and the Christians wouldn't do it. They got thrown to the line. Ah, the Bible tells us there's coming a day when the man of sin shall sit himself in the temple of God, claiming to be God, exalting himself above all that is called God or is worshipped, and he will demand that men take his mark in their hand and forehead, and that they bow down and worship his image. Because the Satan that will inspire that man knows right well that the final citadel of the human heart is the worship of that heart. And to have a man's worship is to have his obedience. There is no more practical thing under the sun. There is no more practically and vitally important thing than the worship of the human heart. And that's why God s- puts so much emphasis on the worship of a believer. Why worship? How will God get me to worship his son? As I say, the word worship often has political overtones, in the broader sense of the word political. When we think of it, we're thinking of God or Christ as king. For that reason, the theologians will have noticed that the word worship occurs in two books prominently in the New Testament. The one is the Gospel of Matthew, and the other is the Revelation. There you should go for your study of worship. So let me turn aside, because I can't resist it. It's easier to tell you about the Lord and let the Holy Spirit move you to worship him than it is to theorize about what worship is. How does Matthew propose to lead our hearts to worship Christ and to yield Christ that absolute loyalty of worship that he s- that he sees? How does Matthew worship? Let me tell you about three kings. Three kings. And the first of them was Herod the Great. And he was king now. Determined to be king. He would be king for the benefit of his subjects if he could. And if he couldn't be king for their benefit, but then he'd be king. There came a message that there had been born somebody king of the Jews. And Herod, fearing lest he lost the throne one day, and determining to be king, ordered the slaughtering of the innocent babes up to two years old. While he was determined to be king. And he would keep his kingship, if need be, by shedding the blood of his innocents. That's how politics is. There's one king. Matthew lets half his gospel go through, he arrives at chapter fourteen and he tells you about another king, another Herod. And what kind of a king was he? Well, Herod, he had a prisoner in his prison. His name is John the Baptist. And John the Baptist had rebuked Herod for his adulterous, uh, his adultery with his brother's wife. Now, Herod had decided that it wouldn't be good to kill John, so he would put him in prison. It wouldn't be a good political move, he decided, because the people thought John was a prophet, so, uh, Herod decided that he wouldn't kill him, he'd put him in prison, you see. But that would stop his mouth and stop his preaching and stop his talking all over about the place about Herod's adultery, you see. So that's how it was. The man was in prison, determined to be king. He would be king for the benefit of his subjects if he could. And if he couldn't be king for their benefit, but then he'd be king. There came a message that there had been born somebody, king of the Jews. And Herod, fearing lest he lost the throne one day, and determining to be king, ordered the slaughtering of the innocent babes up to two years old, while he was determined to be king, and he would keep his kingship, if need be, by shedding the blood of his innocence. That's power politics, isn't it? That's one king. Matthew lets half his gospel go through, and he arrives at chapter fourteen and he tells you about another king, another Herod. And what kind of a king was he? Well, Herod, he had a prisoner in his prison. His name was John the Baptist. And John the Baptist had rebuked Herod for his adulterous, uh, his adultery with his brother's wife. Now, Herod had decided that it wouldn't be good to kill John, so he would put him in prison. It wouldn't be a good political move, he decided, because the people thought John was a prophet, so, uh, Herod decided that he wouldn't kill him, he'd put him in prison, you see. But that would stop his mouth and stop his preaching and stop his talking all over about the place about Herod's adultery, you see. So that's how it was. The man was in prison, and Herod had not decided to kill him. In fact, he decided not to. There came his birthday. And, uh, his adulterous wife sent in her daughter to dance. I'll leave you to imagine what kind of dance it was. Herod was half drunk anyway. He got so carried away that he swore an oath that he'd give the girl up to half his kingdom, whatever she promised. You just imagine the irresponsibility of a monarch on the throne promising a seventeen-year-old girl up to half his kingdom for one dance. Some king. So she went out and asked Mama what she should choose. Mama suggested the head of John the Baptist on a dish. The king was sorry, and he didn't want to, but he dared lose face, and he ordered the execution of John the Baptist. Some king is the control of the life and death of his citizens, and he couldn't even control his own passions. Matthew lets his gospel go by, and he comes to Pilate. Pilate was not a little petty king, he was the official Roman governor, representative of the emperor. And Matthew tells how they brought the Blessed Lord before Pilate, and Pilate examined him and found him guiltless, and washed his hands and said, I'm innocent of the blood of this just person. Ah, but the crowd clamored for his death. But he's innocent, said Pilate, but the crowd clamored for his death. And in the end, Pilate took the water and he washed his hands, and he said, I'm innocent of the blood of this just person. You see, too, he always say. But it wasn't their job to see to it. What do we have kings for? What do we have governments for? We have governments to protect the citizen from the unruly mob. For established government to hand over an innocent man to a raging mob and say, you see to it. Was a denial of his political authority. So the three kings, and thus did they shed the blood of their innocent citizens. And what about Christ? What kind of a king was he? You know, I fancy that what keeps us back from that worship, that yielding of absolute obedience to Christ, and the handing over to his authority completely is the fear, isn't it, that what will he do if I give him my life like that? Then let me show you this king, says man. He too shed blood that day. To gain the obedience of his subjects, he shed blood. Our blood wasn't their blood. It was his blood. This is my blood, which is shed for you, for the forgiveness of sin. Why is it that on times when believers gather to remember the Lord, they take the cup in memory of their absent king, that they're moved to worship? Say to the Lord, king and my life, I crown thee now, thine shall the glory be. Well, because they can't help it, you see, it's the kind of king he is. Rather than they perish, rebellious sinners before God, the king gave his life for them. That's how he brings us to worship in the sense of bowing down and yielding him absolute submission and obedience. Worship, does it not mean more? Yes, it means more than just bowing down and acknowledging the Lord's authority. It will mean enjoying God, praising God. Yes, in the end of so admiring God in Christ. The one spirit is over all. And one wants to bow down in recognition of the merit and the glory of Christ. How does that happen? Why is it that some people find, uh, religion and worship a bore? They do, don't they? Well, we can remember the very first condition of all worship is this. Said our Lord Jesus to the Samaritan woman, you know, God is spirit, and they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. And therefore, if we're going to worship the Lord, we must, uh, that is the prime condition, we must let God give us his Holy Spirit. For if we don't let God give us his Holy Spirit, there'll be such a lot in God that we never begin to understand or even enjoy, and we shall find worship abhor. For who understands the things of God, says the Word of God, save the Spirit of God. Just like, uh, when it comes to human things, says Paul. Who understands the things of a man, say the spirit of a man which is in him. Yes. You can get a dog, and you can bring the dog into your dining room if you'd like to do such things, and get him to watch you eating a nice beef steak, and the old dog will wag his tail and come around in hopes that you will share the old steak with him, you see, because you have a stomach, he has a stomach, and he understands exactly what is going on when he sees you eating a beef steak, and he would like to, and his mouth starts watering because, well, he does share that with you, doesn't he? He's got a stomach, you have a stomach. He likes beef steaks, you like beef steaks. Uh, he thinks beef steaks are the most marvelous things in all his existence. I should give the dog a little bit of beef steak, he's marvelous. And after that, uh, you take him into your lounge, you take him to your picture you've got given for Christmas, you know, one of the beautiful pictures you've got given for Christmas. You say, I go have a look at that. I know immediately comes and has a look at it. Now, it's a little bit nonplussed. Quite what to make out of this and what all the fusses they did. You said, look at it, so he comes and looks at it, and that's not yielding any result. He licks it, that doesn't yield a result either. So he sniffs it and smells it. I don't make anything either. So he looks at it, but you can see there's nothing going on in his old canine head. He hasn't understood. The whole thing is a bore. Give him beef steaks any day of the week rather than Rembrandt. Yes. Now listen, of course you can enjoy God walking out on the golf course, because he made the grass, and he made the wind. Of course you can enjoy God in the garden because those flowers were God's idea. Marvellous idea, weren't they? What a lovely mind God has to invent flowers like that. Of course you can enjoy God in the wonders of nature and feel overawed as you penetrate down your old microscope and cyclotron and everything else to the makeup of an atom. Because God has a, has a mind, and you, by his grace, have a brain. But you know, when you put all that kind of thing together, you're like the dog with a weak leg. There are higher things in God than that, you know. Things of his spirit. You say, but that bores me, you see. Why should I come together in church and remember the Lord and worship the Lord? Because I could enjoy it more out on the golf course, if you could so. You know, the secret of enjoying the other thing, you'd have to have God's spirit. But no man knows the things of God save the Spirit of God. And God seeks worshippers, and they must worship him in spirit. Oh, my friend, let's be honest with God, you know. It's no good pretending, no good coming along mouthing a lot of expressions, oh God, you're marvelous, when in my heart I don't believe it and don't feel it anyway. Let's tell God that we find him a bore, if that's what we do find. Let's tell Christ that you don't see anything in him. He knows it anyway, if that's true. But if it is true, oh, let us cry mightily to God that by his spirit he will reveal the Savior to us. I go along to an art gallery and I see these great cats here, and they're enthusing about this picture, a marvelous picture. I don't see anything in it. I wish I did. I don't see anything in it shows I haven't got an artist's understanding. Here's somebody raving mad about Tchaikovsky and the Emperor Suite or somebody else, and I don't see much in it. Wish I did. Why don't I? Well, I'm not much in religion, not not much in the ear for music. And you'll hear people talking about Christ, and they're obviously genuine, and you don't see much in him. Don't you wish you did? Well, if you don't, well, tell God honestly. He knows it anyway. If you've not yet been born again, then then come and ask the Savior to give you the gift, that well of water springing up to eternal life. Let him give you the very life of God, the spirit of God, that you begin to know the things that are freely given us of God. Worship. Worship. How shall I go about it? Well, says God, I'll tell you what my scheme is, for having a temple where folks can worship me. Well, now, what is your scheme, God? Well, says Lord God, I tell you what, I had a temple once in Jerusalem made of ordinary stone, but in the end that didn't succeed too well. So now I'm building another kind of temple. It's a spiritual temple, and it's going to be built on a foundation, and the chief cornerstone of that foundation is my son Jesus Christ. I should like you to come and in that temple offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to me. How can you do it? Well, by coming and being built up a spiritual temple, a spiritual house, by being built up around Christ. So just as in an ordinary temple in the ancient world, they put the big cornerstone there, and then they got the other stones. Oh, they don't fit. Oh well. So they got the second stone and they chiseled it a bit more, you see, until it did fit. And it fitted all the other stones around the chief. So it is with us. I want to come and worship God. Well, I shall have to find out what God likes, can't I? Yes. When I come to offer God spiritual sacrifices, they've got to be acceptable to God. Well, obviously. Do you know it's the first law in living presence that you have to give what the other person likes? Yes? We would tie you, husbands. You say to your wife, my dear, what would you like on your birthday? And she says, well, let me see. You have some tulips. You say you wouldn't like daffodils? No, tulips. We tie you when the birthday comes, if there ain't no tulips, but instead there's daffodils. And the wife comes and looks at them, all right, darling, but uh, couldn't you get me any tulips? Well, yes, I could have got some tulips, but I like daffodils. Well, then I don't know. I speak of things beyond my depth. You know. I imagine that if you were a perfect gentleman, sir, and it was a giving of a present to somebody else, your prime consideration would be not what I like, but what does he like, what does she like? Isn't that the notion? Ah, so often we say, I, I know I don't see my point in the Lord's supper and in that meeting for praise. I didn't get much out of him. Well, is that what you came to do? Or did you come to see that God got something out of him? You say those tulips, you know, I never saw anything in them, those tulips. Yeah, that pleases her. That's what you were meant to do anyway. And the secret of worship is finding out what God likes and giving God that. Which I don't enjoy, but be honest, I don't either sometimes. And it's so incorrigibly selfish, you know, always looking at what I enjoy, and I'll do it if I enjoy it. If I don't enjoy it and I don't get something out of it, then I don't do it. Oh, my brother God has got to convert us from that attitude, hasn't he, before he gets us to heaven. Sin has left that terrible mark on us that has made us utterly ingrained self-centered. God's Holy Spirit will try to turn us inside out until we find God our chief joy, and what God likes is the thing that we're setting ourselves to provide. How do I find out what God likes? Since God says the cornerstone, that's my son. You come and look at him. Don't you think he's wonderful? Hmm. Have you thought about going to heaven recently? I suppose you have. What are you supposed to be doing when you get home to heaven? What do you talk about when you get up there? There wouldn't be the weather to talk about, I suppose. Well, I don't know really where they have weather up in heaven, do you? You won't have your aches and pains to talk about, your rheumatism and your last operation. That won't be there to talk about. But what will you talk about then? As God said, what did you think that thing that my son did, you know, on the... You remember that, what that said in the Gospel of Mark, how he... when he healed that woman? And he went, I'm sorry. I may not really know what you're talking about. Well, you don't. How long you've been converted? Just last night or something? No, what, about ten years. And you don't know what the Bible says about the Lord Jesus. Now we will talk with God. I suppose we should be discussing. Says God, look, if you want to come and offer praise as acceptable to me, but first of all, let your life be conformed to my Son. Find out what my Son is like, and let my Holy Spirit conform your way of living to his way of living. And as he does that, you'll become to see the lovely things about the person of Christ, and you come and talk to me about that, says God. That's a lifetime's job, isn't it? And finally, you say, but Mr. Preacher, surely there's more practical things in life than worship meetings. I don't know what you mean by practical. Yes, there is a sense, of course. Yes. Worship isn't just singing hymns, is it? Our Lord told a parable once, and it wasn't very flattering to the priest and the Levite who were going up to worship in the temple, and they saw a man by the roadside in need of their help, and they couldn't be bothered to stop and help him, but went on. Pure worship and undefiled, says James, is to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Easy to sing hymns and not let it, uh, affect the way we live. God is looking for practical expressions of our love and kindness to men and our service of God. But that being said, worship itself is practical, isn't it? In Old Testament days, God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, remember, through the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. And at Passa time, at the Passover time, all they had to do was to kill this lamb and put the blood on the doorposts and get behind the blood and shelter in the house, and this destroying angel passed by and didn't touch them. They were saved by the blood of the lamb. That was simple, wasn't it? But when they got out into the wilderness, you know, God had them build him a sanctuary, and God came down and presenced himself in that sanctuary. And when he was in that sanctuary, he invited the people to come near and meet him. And when they came near, God gently said, but of course, you don't deserve to come near yourself, do you? So when you come near, I want you to bring me a sacrifice, for you're not worthy to come yourself. So bring such and such a sacrifice. As they came, they brought the sacrifice, and the priest put it on the altar, and it was offered to God, and the people were accepted. So here's a man, and he's done a sin. He's an Israelite. He's one of the people. He's a priest, maybe. And the Bible says if a man sinned, if a priest sinned, if one of the common people sinned, if, uh, if a ruler sinned. Yes, you say it's very interesting because, Mr. Preacher, I was asking the same question myself the other day. What happens if a believer sins? These things I write unto you, says John, that you sin not, that if any man sin. He, he, what happens if a believer sins? Well, I can tell you what happened in those far off days, say, if a priest sinned or if a, if the nation sinned, suppose the nation sinned. And what happened? Well, first of all, the sacrifice was brought, and the blood was shed. And then the priest was told to get that blood in a basin, and he was to come into the very presence of God, right in, as far as he could get. And being an ordinary priest, he could only come as far as the veil. He could get no further ever, do you see? So when he took that blood, he came in as far as ever he could get, and he came to the veil, and he sprinkled that blood before the veil. Well, what a lovely veil that was. And you just imagine it, the nation had sinned, but now, the sacrifice being offered, the priest could come in as far as ever he could get into the presence of God and stand before the veil. How does it happen when you sin? Did you ever have the experience you've been going on well with the Lord and enjoying the Lord's presence, and then you did something wrong, and your conscience was defiled, and you felt miserable, and you let the Lord down, and you, you, uh, oh, you've messed up things now, and you didn't feel like worshiping the Lord, certainly not. Well, you've repented of it and confessed it, but that leaves that some, you know, that unsatisfactory feeling, and you don't feel like coming to worship the Lord on a Sunday morning, certainly you don't. And you feel now, well, I'll go easy a bit now. I won't sing the hymns too loudly just yet a while. Let the days go by before I come too near the Lord again. You know, like people when they have a huff in the house. I keep on talking about this, don't I? But it does happen sometimes. You know, if you fall in love with somebody and you had some very strong words, and then there's like a thundery atmosphere for a while, isn't it? And you, well, then you don't speak for a while. You feel, well, let things quieten down a moment before we get back and sort of on talking terms again. And some dear believers feel like that with the Lord, you know, when they sin. Or perhaps they oughtn't to come too near just yet a while, keep at some distance. Not quite. When the nation sinned, the sacrifice was brought, the nation's priest was asked to come right in as near the presence of God as he possibly could. Why is that? Well, my brother, because if you sin, you've confessed it. Do you know the safest place for you to be? As near God as you could possibly get. So here's this priest, and he comes with the blood, and he sprinkles it before the veil. Oh, look at that lovely veil. Gold, blue, purple, scarlet, fine twined linen, cherubim all over it. Oh, what a beautiful thing. And here's this man fresh from his sense of guilt and sin and his own unworthiness, and here he's standing before this beautiful veil, and the light of the candlestick is showing upon it one side, and the Shekinah glory is showing it on the other. And the man says, God, I don't feel worthy. Keep quiet, says God. You told me that before. Look at this. See it there? Beautiful, isn't he? Well, yes, isn't it, man, but I don't feel very worthy. Well, I know that, says God, and I told you that. Don't you keep saying it. We've heard enough about you. Please keep quiet a minute about yourself. You are unworthy. But isn't this lovely? This veil. Do you know what that represents? It represents the Lord Jesus in his humanity. Look at that. And you know when we sin and we've repented, do you know what God's Holy Spirit will want to do? He'll want to take us and bring us into the presence of God and show us Christ. The devil will do the very opposite, my brother. He'll get you groveling in the mud of your sins, and oh, what an unworthy man I am, and a terrible man I am, and yes, I am terrible, I am terrible, I am terrible, and he'll so fill your mind with your terrible self that you'll become terrible. You will literally. What a man constantly thinks of, that he becomes like. So God will say, if you repent, now please, my son died for you. Now let's hear a little bit less about you, and could you please change the subject and forget about you? And would you mind for a minute coming and looking at my son because he's marvelous? And fill your mind with the Lord Jesus and what he did and how marvelous he was when he lived here on earth until you yourself are ba- I have some time thought, you know, I was living in a little back street in London last year doing some work, and I had occasion from time to time I had to eat when I wanted to go to my place of business and elsewhere, I had to go past the palace. Sometimes there came stupid thoughts into my head. Suppose I was invited in? I wasn't. Um. What I say and do. Suppose you've got two and a half hours this afternoon to spend with the queen. How would you manage? I find it all right to stand on the pavement and wag my Union Jack when she goes by, you know. But I have to spend time with the dear woman. Would you talk about that? Dry up suddenly, you can't think of anything more to talk about or what to say or how to have real practical fellowship with somebody so it's all. And to do it, you'd need a bit of strengthening, wouldn't you? I should anyway. What about, uh, the Lord of glory? In that sense, dwelling in our hearts or our compass. For it, I need to be strengthened by his spirit in the inner man, and to that end, Paul himself prays for the believers. They're already believers, but he prays for these two operations by God's spirit in their heart, and he prays, and he prays. If I had any sense in my head I should pray too. Would I get answered? Well, that will partly depend. Partly, I said. It partly depends on how serious you are. And whether you think you can get on without him. Consider the man in the parable. An unexpected guest. Fights him in. Finds there's no bread left in the pantry, nor meat either, not a sausage. So, now he's got a decision. Now, well, let me see, it's half past two. Is it worth making a fuss about now? Could the old boy get by till tomorrow breakfast time or till the shop's open? Well, whether he goes and asks for it will depend on how important he thinks it is. And whether he keeps on asking till he gets it will depend on how urgent he thinks it is. And so in this matter too. Easy for us to get our emotions stirred in a meeting and say, Lord, I would like that, and go away and forget it. But these things are not sort of sudden experiences all of a moment. They can involve such experiences. They are the work of a lifetime. For who would say that his eyes have already been illuminated enough, or his heart strengthened enough? And whether I keep on asking, expecting to get it, will depend on my shamelessness, my sense of urgency, and the sense in my heart that as I come to God, not God himself would disagree. God himself would say, yes, you are right, my good man. You do need the Holy Spirit's work in your heart. You have every right to come and insist. I agree with you that this is a thing that must be attended to. Thus may you come, says the Savior. And if you have any doubts that you will be heard, thou, our Lord, seeks to silence them with two further remarks. First of all, the statement of spiritual laws that everyone that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened. That is an invariable law in the kingdom of God. You know, sometimes we get discouraged in our praying, don't we? I do, because I ask and nothing seems to happen at once. And when nothing seems to happen at once, then I get discouraged. It's not good, is it? So as I get home to heaven and the Lord says, Gurin, why did you give up praying, um, five, six weeks on end? Why you say nothing happened, Lord? I mean, nothing appeared to be happening. Didn't you believe me when I said that everyone that asks receives? At this level, when we ask for this kind of thing, we're not asking now for a brand new motorcycle, we're asking for God's Holy Spirit working in our hearts, and everyone who asks receives. And you can know this further, says our Lord, if you will think for a moment of your own attitude to your children. What father is there that his child would come and ask for a loaf or some meat or a fish, and the father would give him a stone or a serpent or a scorpion. No father would do that, even though human fathers are far from being perfect and can be very selfish and careless of their children. But if you, being evil as parents, yet have that milk of human kindness that you would give your child the food he needs, shall not your farmer? And so, as I come, I think of my need and the urgency of it and the utter necessity of it. I think of the character of God. God himself would be less than perfect if I could come and ask this kind of thing and if I had to give it. And for that reason, says our Lord, you come and ask the workings of his spirit. And now I'm going to utter a great criticism, but it's a criticism of me as much as it is of you, and it might be not just of you, but it is of me. I've been in many a prayer meeting. I've heard requests for prayer being asked. I can't remember the last time I heard it asked, please pray for brother so and so, that he might be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of God. Have you? When did you last hear it prayed in the church, for the church? That God would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Oh, we don't have to use those words, do we? This, according to our Lord, is one of the great priorities. To have us in our prayers at all hours of day and night. Let's pass on from that then to the topic, for what time is left, that we promised just to mention, the question of persistence in prayer. Ought I to pray and go on praying and insist I get what I ask for? Or ought I to be content to say, ask and then leave it with the Lord and say, if it's your will, and just leave it and not mention it again? Can I come and claim, or... or must I, when I come, just ask and leave it to the Lord, whether he gives or not? It seems to me that the simple answer to that matter depends on what it is you're praying for. In part. What things must I always pray for and keep on praying for and never give up praying for? Well, let's take the example that our Lord himself gave in Luke chapter eighteen. He spake a parable that men are always to pray and never give up and never faint. Oh, what was this about then? Pray for what? Ah, well, this time it's a prayer that God would avenge his elect. Cry unto him day and night, and he is long suffering over them. That's what it's a prayer for. For this parable, eh, in Luke follows our Lord's sermon on what things should be like at the end of the age, just prior to the second coming. He has just told us at the end of the age, the world will be preoccupied, like they were in the days of Noah, with their building and their business and their marriage and giving in marriage. So preoccupied with their daily occupations that the Lord will come before they know where they are. The Lord's coming, he says, will be like it was in the days of Lot. And men will be taken surprised and unawares, preoccupied with things material, unprepared for the coming of Christ. And because our Lord was talking about the coming of Christ and the end of this age and some of the terrible conditions that there will happen, then he told this parable about the widow and the unjust judge that was geared to telling us that we must continue in prayer. We must not give up praying on this matter of God avenging his elect. Then our Lord indicated, I nearly said his doubt, I mustn't perhaps put it that way, but he said, you know, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Will he? Why is there any doubt? Well, just you consider the situation in the world anyway. Just you consider the situation in the world as it's ever been since the day that Cain killed Abel. Oh, what great wickedness there has been in the world. How terrible the persecutions. We remember our dear brethren and sisters of a bygone age, tarred and feathered and put on poles and lit as lights to lighten the gardens of his imperial majesty Nero, so his ladies and his gentlemen could dance in the light of the earth. Remember our dear brothers and sisters thrown to the lions, dispatched to the catacombs. We think of them eliminated in Albania now, and we think of them in Russia, and we think of them... in those so many lands when they are persecuted. And we think, don't we, of the man at work who won't, uh, idle his time away and insists on working properly and won't cheat, gets into trouble with his fellow workmen who, who don't want to work, and perhaps loses his job. And we think got the principal of the firm who, because he won't cheat, goes under and is dismissed or demoted or suffers loss. It's a wicked old world, isn't it? Why doesn't God intervene and put it all right? Doesn't he care? Is it worth praying? Yes, that's what some people say, isn't it? Why, if there's a God, why doesn't he put the world right? Therefore, the believer is faced with a problem. Men are always to praise, says Christ, and not to feign. It is the fact that one of these days God will intervene. One day the Son of Man shall come. One day he shall put the world right. One day he shall avenge his elect, and no more believers will be persecuted, and sin will be put down. But in the long, long wait, just carry on praying. Why must I carry on praying? Oh well, our Lord told a parable to the end that men are always to pray and not to faint. He said there was this widow, do you see, in this city, and there was the judge, and the widow had suffered, uh, at the hands of unscrupulous men in her town, do you see, and they'd, uh, uh, cheated her. And so the widow goes along to the judge to try and get redress from these unscrupulous businessmen who cheated them, do you see, but the judge wouldn't listen. Cared not for God nor man, this judge. He wouldn't listen to the woman. I suspect he was in, uh, in the pay of the businessmen anyway. So he wouldn't listen to her. Ah, but she came again. Ah, but he wouldn't listen. Neither for man nor God. Ah, but she kept coming. And you know what some ladies are, don't you? They have that gift. Of course they want something. You don't think you're going to get rid of them just by saying no like that, do you? What? They kept working, as they say, uh, be it on their husband or on the unjust judge, whoever it was, you see, they're going to have what they want, and this woman kept coming and coming and coming and coming until she nearly beat the man black and blue, as the Greek has it, and gave him a few black eyes, metaphorically speaking. So even this heartless, unprincipled judge, he says to himself, oh, dear me, this woman has come pestering me. Oh, when I expect I shall have to give it, for I shall get no peace if I don't. So just to get peace, unprincipled rogue that he was, he gave the woman what she asked in the end. Good job, she didn't give up asking, wasn't he? And will you give up praying. Do you think what that would imply if you were to start praying that God one day will intervene and put this world right? If you give up praying, my brother, you are implying that God is worse than that judge. It ain't worth praying because God is so heartless that he couldn't care less. Don't believe that, do you? How would you see your praying has important implications? Is it worth praying for all that are in authority, for kings and rulers? Is it worth praying in response to the Lord Jesus' word, surely I come quickly? Is it worth praying, even so, come Lord Jesus? Is it worth praying, thy kingdom come? How many folks have grown up and they've lost, they've lost their hope. They don't believe the professed prophecies of scripture anymore, and they've given up praying, and it implies that God's, uh, is so indifferent and hard and unsympathetic and unprincipled. He doesn't care of the difference between right and wrong.