A Prayer Hearing And Answering God

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss on Lord’s Day Evening, 20th September 2020

“I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”—Psalm 81:10

This Psalm was written by a man called Asaph. Asaph was a man of many gifts. He was not only a composer of tunes – many of the tunes that were sung to the Psalms that were sung in David’s day were composed by Asaph – but he was also a prophet and a psalmist, as we know from this Psalm. Asaph was God’s mouthpiece at this time. God had a controversy with His people. He had done such great things for them; He had done those things that only God could do for them, but they had shown great ingratitude. And friends, an unthankful spirit is a spirit that is very grieving to God. We are told that the generation that will be in the latter days (and that is the day in which we are living), will be a generation of unthankful people. My dear friends, may we not be left to that spirit. We have so much to thank God for. We have our health and strength in measure. Yes, some of us are older and not so strong as we once were. But, nonetheless, we are so thankful to even be able to be here tonight. We know there are those who cannot, and they remember the days when they could. And there are those other things: we have our families, our homes and our food. We have so much. Yes, there are crooks in the lot. Yes, there are thorns in the way; that we know. But even they are turned to good if they have made us pray and we have proved God to be faithful in them. We have much to thank God for.

Let us not be left, then, to the spirit of the generation to which Asaph was writing who were unthankful and did not remember what God had done for them. Instead, they turned to other gods; little ‘g’ gods, who were no gods at all. Of course, when sinners do that, their lives go down, down, down. And, unless God intervenes, their lives will go down to the bottomless pit. Oh, may God preserve you and I that we might not be left to that downward path.

But then, in the midst of it, there is this blessed word that was perhaps a reminder to those who were conscious of the downward trend. God was still there. He did not say: ‘I was the LORD thy God,’ but: “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

I want, with God’s help, to look at this word as an encouraging word to those who do desire this God to be their God. How many ‘Ruths’ are there among us tonight? How many say: “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”? How many are there like Elisha who said of Elijah: “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.”? How many of those of whom we read in another prophecy: “We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.”? I think of Jethro. He would not go with God’s people at first. He wanted to go back home, but Moses pleaded with him. “Come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.” It does not actually say that Jethro stayed, but we know he did eventually, because his descendants were found in the land of Canaan, settled among the tribes. So, Jethro was a man that said ‘No,’ at first, but then went afterwards. And we have the parable of the vineyard. The father said to the second son: “Son, go work today in my vineyard.” “I will go” he said. But, “He went not.” He did not keep his word. The other son was asked, and his answer was: “I will not.” But, he bethought himself. He was ashamed of his denial and his rejection, and so he went. Jesus asked: “Whether of them twain did the will of his father?” You know the answer.

“I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” So, we have three things before us tonight. First of all a declaration of the God of Israel. “I am the LORD thy God.” Secondly, what He has done: “Brought thee out of the land of Egypt:” And thirdly, what He tells us and exhorts us to do; and may the dear Spirit enable us so to do: “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” A blessed promise is given here to those who open their mouths wide in prayer and asking. Ask great things of this God, because, dear friends, He is a great Giver. You cannot ask Him for too much.

“For His grace and power are such, 

None can ever ask too much.”

That is a mercy, isn’t it? “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

First of all, that word “I” stands at the beginning of our text. It speaks of a personal God. There is one God. I know we speak of God in three Persons, yet He is one God. The point I want to make is this: He has personal dealings with those that are His. Those are the ones of whom He will say in that Great Day: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Those with whom He has no dealings (and they have no desire to have dealings with Him), He will say to them: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” ‘I never knew you as a coming sinner. I never knew you as one asking for mercy. I never knew you as one fleeing to the precious blood of Christ. I never knew you as one who could not do without Me.’ Friends, how does He know you tonight? In which of those categories are you this evening hour? Does He know you as a praying sinner? Perhaps one our younger ones – no one else may know about it, but you are beginning to pray. You are like Samuel with his first prayer: “Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.” The Lord knows. He has heard that cry put up from your young heart, and He will not turn a deaf ear to it.

“He who taught their hearts to pray, 

Will not let them cry in vain.”

Some of you dear older friends – have you given up praying? You say, ‘I cannot give up praying. If I gave up praying, then that would be the end.’ Blessed be God if you have a religion like that. True, we cannot keep alive the life of prayer in our heart; that I know only too well. But we also know this; that we cannot live without prayer. Even when we get into those prayerless conditions, sooner or later we are driven back to our knees. We have to plead again for mercy. We have to knock at mercy’s door in the same way we did at the very beginning of our Pilgrim way. And we have found Him to be a prayer hearing and answering God. But the point I want to make is that He is a personal God. He is to be known personally. There is communication between God and those whom He is teaching and leading. “I am the LORD thy God.”

It says: “I am.” Those two words often remind us of what the Lord said to Moses in Exodus 3. Moses asked the Lord: ‘What name shall I tell the children of Israel who has sent me?’ And the Lord gave a strange answer. He did not give His name in one sense. All He said was: “I AM THAT I AM.” He was telling Moses three things in that strange sentence. One was that really, no human language can really describe God. He is so infinite in all His attributes that human language falls absolutely short in trying to describe who He is and what He is. He says: “I AM.” The great point is: He is. Although we cannot comprehend Him with our natural mind, and no man by searching can find Him out, yet He is. “I AM.” The God who borrows no leave to be. He depends on none.

“He sits on no precarious throne, 

Nor borrows leave TO BE.”

Secondly, it means this. He is eternal. He always was and is “I AM.” There was never a time when it was said of God: ‘He was.’ Friends, He always is “I AM.” “From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.” The great “I AM.” The everlasting God. It is put in very beautiful language in Hebrews 13. Perhaps this comes where one of you need Him tonight. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Have you a yesterday? Look back, child of God. Have you a yesterday to look back on? I do not mean yesterday being Saturday, although some of us felt His help very specially yesterday. But that is not the point. You can go right back to many yesterdays, can you not? Prayers heard and answered, doors opened. Poor, unworthy you – the Lord looked on your state. “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” That is a yesterday, isn’t it? You say, ‘But my today is worse than my yesterday.’ I do not doubt that dear friend, at all. We are poor sinners, and we get no better. We get worse. Our need gets greater. But He is the same as yesterday, and He will be the same tomorrow. Are you like Jehoshaphat with a tomorrow? By the cliff of Ziz – your enemies have gathered. ‘Lord, what am I to do with them?’ “To morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.” And so, He will, because He is “I AM.” “I am the Lord thy God.”

And the third thing it means is that He is always present. Psalm 46 is a lovely Psalm, isn’t it? It says, “a very present help.” One right at hand. There are people who are onlookers. In that sense they are present. But they do not lend a hand. But, blessed be God:

“When most we need His helping hand, 

This Friend is always near;

With heaven and earth at His command,

He waits to answer prayer.”

He is a very present help – right at hand, right by His dear people, “a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” the One who “loveth at all times.” Not just sometimes and not just when you feel it – and that is not very often because we are such hard-hearted characters. But friends, at our worst moments He is still there. “He hath said” (to His dear children) “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” And He is as good as His Word, and His Word is as good as Him.

“I am the LORD thy God.” It says: “The LORD.” No other. That was God’s complaint with the children of Israel. They had turned aside to other little gods; little ‘g’ gods. You say, ‘Well, we don’t do that.’ Are you sure? Many years ago, I was sitting in Coventry Chapel listening to a sermon by my late Pastor, Peter Rowell. He was talking about little ‘g’ gods, and there was one man there whom I knew and still know. This man said to me afterwards: ‘I pondered this. I did not think I had a god, until Pastor got to the end of the sermon and mentioned the word ‘self.’ Then I suddenly realised there was a little ‘g’ god in me that was very strong.’ Isn’t that true? Perhaps money is not your god. Perhaps pleasure is not your god. Perhaps your career is not your god as it is with some people. But dare you say that self is not your god? What selfish creatures we are! Be honest. How little are we like our dear Saviour who looked not on His own things, but on the things of others. That is how we should live. Do we? May God deliver us from selfishness, because it is not the Spirit of Christ. No. But listen, here we have it: “I am the LORD thy God.” The One in control. The One who holds all nature in His hand.

“He holds all nature in His hand; 

That gracious hand on which I live.”

The One who knows the end from the beginning. The One of whom it is said: “For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.” Blessed be that God! We have proved He can do it. You cannot do it. I cannot do it. But friends, He can. Job says: “He bindeth the floods from overflowing.” There is a restraining hand on them. Bless God for it.

So, friends, He is in control. Are you glad He is in control? Or do you foolishly think that if matters were in your hands, you would handle them better? You say: ‘Surely God’s people do not think that do they?’ They often act as if that is so. That is a solemn word in this very Psalm: “So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.” That is a backsliding condition. May God deliver you and I from that. May we know what the good man Solomon meant when he said: “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” Are you acknowledging Him in your business? In your family? In your relationships? In your studies? In your soul? In your circumstances? What place does this great God have in your thoughts about your steps, the decisions you take and the places you go to? Do you ever ask His permission? ‘Well,’ you say, ‘I am a free agent. I can do as I will.’ Our young ones may say: ‘Well, when I am grown up. I will be independent. I will do what I want and go where I want. No one will question me.’ My dear friends, you will never ever be out of God’s jurisdiction. Never, ever. Even if you end up on the other side of the world, as some dear friends who were brought up here are living on the other side of the world. But they are still under God’s jurisdiction. You will never escape it. Jonah thought he could, but he soon found he couldn’t. It would be a great mercy if you found that, as well, although you may go, as it were, and think you can escape the Word, the law of God and the presence of God. May He be so merciful to you that you find you cannot escape from Him! Then you will bless God that you cannot escape from Him. “I am the LORD.” You will come to that place where, in the end, you will have to acknowledge that He is the Lord.

I think it was one of the Roman Emperors (I do not know which one it was), who eventually became a believer right near the end of his life. He said this: “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean.’ He was speaking, of course, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Has He conquered in your heart and mine? Has He got the pre-eminence? Is He truly “the Lord” to you? Remember He says: “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” If we really acknowledge that word “Lord,” then He has the pre-eminence. He has a right to give, to take, to guide and to show us what we must do. He has a divine right.

“It is the Lord, enthroned in light, 

Whose claims are all divine, 

Who has an undisputed right

To govern me and mine.”

Are you disputing it tonight? Friends do not dispute it. You say: ‘But I cannot understand His dealings.’ I know just where you are. What does He say to you tonight? Listen. “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” What does He say to you? Job tells us. “When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” As I tried to tell those of you gathered on the weeknight, those two words “not consumed” tell us that you will come through. You will come through, because He is the Lord. “I am the LORD thy God.” Not just our Creator; that is true of all of us. Every soul on the face of the earth this evening hour is under God’s hand in that respect. But the children of Israel had a very special relationship, and the spiritual Israel has an even stronger, closer relationship. What a wonderful thing to be able to say of this great God: He is my God. “I am the LORD thy God.” Yes. “Thy God.”

It also means that we should have no other gods but Him. So, some clearing out will need to be done, friends. When our Lord went into the Temple, you will remember that He took a whip of small cords, and He overturned the moneychangers’ tables and those who were defiling the house. And He will come into your heart and your life and there will be some overturning to be done, because we are natural idolators. Remember that. But He says: ‘I will have the pre-eminence.’ He establishes His throne, and He says: ‘This heart shall be Mine. This sinner shall be Mine. The life He will now love is one I am going to use for My honour and glory to bring fruit to the honour of My Name.’ “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” “I am the LORD thy God.” ‘Thy God to hear thy prayer. Thy God to deliver you. Thy God to guide you. Thy God to reprove you. Thy God to comfort you. Thy God to be with you when all others fail.’

“When all around my soul gives way, 

He then is all my hope and stay.”

“I am the LORD thy God.” If only we believed it more. But it is true for God’s dear people; His quickened people, His convinced people, His blood bought people – the ones I was speaking of this morning who are under the blood. They can say: “For this God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death.”

The Lord God now says to the generation of which Asaph is speaking (and He speaks to us this night): “Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” Of course, He is referring to the mighty victory that I hinted at this morning. For throughout those four hundred and thirty years they had been in the land of Egypt their roots had gone down very deep. At first, it was a wonderfully pleasant place. But, God, not intending them to stay there, made them feel uneasy there. Their roots began to be loosened under the afflictions that Pharaoh brought upon them. And they began to long for deliverance. Their sighs, cries and tears went up Godward. In the end He said: “I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them.” And it was the blood of the night of the Passover that brought them out. All the plagues before only hardened Pharaoh’s heart, reminding us of what we sometimes sing concerning the salvation of God’s people:

“Law and terrors do but harden,

All the while they work alone;

But a sense of blood-bought pardon 

Soon dissolves a heart of stone.”

Now, Pharaoh’s heart was never dissolved – do not get me wrong. But do you know what it is to have a dissolved heart? Do you? A softened heart? You say: ‘I know a hard heart!’ So do I, dear friends. But do you know a softened heart? A melted one? A contrite one? A malleable one? A moulded one?

Well, the children of Israel were brought out of the land of Egypt by that mighty hand during the night of the Passover. And, although Pharaoh tried to undo what was done that Passover night, he found to his eternal destruction, he could not do it. “Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him.” “Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” It was a mighty hand. Before that, it was impossible. They were slaves. They were under an iron fist and an iron yoke. Only God could deliver them. But He did, and that same God lives today.

But secondly, Egypt is spoken of in another sense. In the Book of the Revelation, Egypt and Sodom are put together and they are spoken of as the same generation that crucified our Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means, dear friends, that the spirit of the world that you and I are born into is innate in us by nature. It is the same spirit that nailed the Saviour to the cross. It is the same spirit that wove that crown of thorns that was put on His holy head. You say: ‘Well, if I was in Jerusalem at the time of our Lord’s crucifixion, I would not have raised my hand against Him.’ You do not know, dear friend. Left to yourself, you would have done. That same spirit is in every fallen son of Adam. It is the spirit of antichrist; the spirit that says: “We will not have this Man to reign over us.” But, blessed be God, the Lord brings His people out of Egypt. The very One whom they said they would not have to reign over them, they now desire that He will reign over them. The One they despised and rejected now becomes the chiefest among ten thousand to them. If you go to Isaiah 53, you read these words: “He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” That is spiritual Egypt. Christ is despised, His Word is despised, His ways are despised, His people are despised, His ordinances are despised – everything about Christ is despised in this dying world. But then it goes on: “Yet we did esteem Him.” Oh, there is a change! ‘We did not esteem Him, but now we do.’ What has happened? Grace has come and changed the appetite and the regard that we have for a precious Christ. So, though once He meant nothing to us and it never stirred our heart to hear His lovely name; though we never longed for His presence, never rejoiced to hear His gospel, now there is a change. We do esteem Him. We need Him and we cannot do without Him. They are the best moments in our life when we hear His lovely voice. Then our hearts are drawn out toward Him. Dear friend, you are coming out of Egypt when that happens. The Lord is bringing you out. He is rescuing you from what you are by nature. He is breaking down those fetters with which Satan has bound you for so long. Bless His holy name. “Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.”

Again. Egypt was typical of bondage. Under the holy law of God under the covenant of works we are in bondage because, through our fallen nature we cannot do what the Word of God says. And such is the nature of the covenant of works that as we cannot do, so there is only one word for us: “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” So, there is a bondage there. But the Lord brings His people out of that bondage. And just as the Passover blood brought the children of Israel out on that momentous night, so, spiritually speaking, it is the blood of Christ that brings God’s people out of bondage. The law’s claims are answered by the great Redeemer who laid His own life down for His dear people. He sheds His precious blood for them, clears the debt, looses the bonds by putting His own perfect obedience to their account and the law now says: ‘Let them go.’ They must go! Justice now demands it because the debt has been paid.

“I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.”

Sometimes that “land of Egypt” can be spoken of in another way: those trials God’s dear people come into. Some of you know what those trials are; when you find there is much to weep over and sigh and groan about, inwardly if not outwardly. You wonder wherever the scene will end in that trouble that has come and that trial that has been with you, perhaps for many a day. But the Lord can bring you out. “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out.” You look back to some of the trials have been brought out of. That same God lives today who has brought you out of those trials before. “He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.” – That next trouble; that one that seems bigger than all the rest. “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” So, you have a retrospect. Many of us have. If God gave us the grace, we could write a book about the retrospect of God’s goodness and mercy to poor sinners such as we.

So, if you have this great God as your God, it is all of grace. If He has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of your wretched nature, out of the curse of the law, out of this dying world and out of some of the snares that have been such a hindrance to you for so long, what does He say to you now in your present need? “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” What does this mean? It means, dear friends, that you should ask great things. He is a great God, and it honours Him when you ask Him for great things. You say: ‘But I am a great sinner.’ Yes, you are. There is no doubt about that. Actually, you are a much greater sinner than you realise. You only know a fraction of what you are as a sinner in God’s sight, even if He is teaching you by His Spirit. If you really knew the whole of it, you would be so staggered you would be completely dumbstruck by it. It is a solemn thing. Sin is a terrible thing. But that does not mean you cannot ask for mercy. No. We read in Psalm 103 those very beautiful words which are an encouragement to God’s dear people in this matter; those, who by the teaching of God’s Spirit, feel to be great sinners. Listen to this: “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.” You think, dear friends of the highest mountain. As you young ones will know, it is Mount Everest. I have not been there, and I have not seen it. But we are told it is so, and I am sure it is. Yet the heavens are even higher than Mount Everest. And however high your mountain of sin is tonight – it may be very high; and it is very high if we are honest – but the heavens are higher than all your sin. “For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.” To that soul who is longing for deliverance, He says: “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” The east and the west are not like the north and the south. There is a place called the North Pole, and there is a place called the South Pole. He did not say: ‘As far as the north is from the south,’ because that is an actual distance. But when you speak about how far the east is from the west, you are speaking about something that is hypothetical. There is no point on the earth that is the east point. If you go east, and keep going east, eventually you will come back to where you started.

So, what this word is really saying is that you cannot put a measure to the distance God has put between a forgiven sinner and his sins. It is an infinite distance; you cannot put a measure to it. Bless God for it! “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” What a wonderful God He is! A great God! A great Forgiver! A great, merciful God! Then come and tell Him your sad state. Tell Him how it all began. Tell Him how day by day your sinner-ship seems to grow deeper and deeper; tell Him it all. But then say: ‘Lord, there is one door I can knock at: the door of mercy.’ Mercy is for the undeserving. You say: ‘Can you prove that from Scripture? Is there a word in Scripture that tells me that mercy is for the undeserving?’ Yes, Romans 5 verse 6. “Christ died for the” – listen – “ungodly.” Think of it. Did He not die for the godly? In another sense He did. But God’s dear people, when they are first called by grace (and many times after), have to say: ‘Lord, I am ungodly.’ Perhaps there is one here tonight and they feel that is all that they can say about themselves. ‘Lord, I am ungodly. My life has been one of ungodliness. True, others have looked on me as a respectable person; quite orthodox. I have kept straight, as least, outwardly.’ But inwardly it is a different tale altogether. There are thoughts, words and deeds that I feel so ashamed of. I have been an ungodly wretch from my first breath until now.’ Listen: “Christ died for the ungodly.” Bless His holy name. You have nothing else to plead tonight but that. Then, dear friends, you are just on the same ground as the publican was. “God be merciful to me a sinner.” What is a sinner? An ungodly person. That is what a sinner is. Sinner-ship is ungodliness. But are you ashamed of your ungodliness? Is it a grief to you? Is it a heavy burden to you? Are you like Bunyan’s pilgrim, staggering along the narrow way with it? Those who met him could not understand him. ‘What are you doing with this burden on your back? Get rid of it! You cannot stagger on like that!’ What did Christian say? ‘It is tied on in such a way that no power on earth can loose it.’ But there was one power that could. He came to the cross. There he saw a precious Christ, and his burden fell off his back and rolled down a steep slope into a sepulchre and was never seen again. ‘Blest cross! Blest sepulchre! Blessed rather be the

Man who there was put to shame for me!’ That is the way to lose your burden, dear friend, not with a short memory and not with other people patting you on the back. No. You will not want that. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Blessed be His holy name. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

But then you have other things to open your mouth wide about, haven’t you? You have an old nature that needs to be subdued. That needs much prayer. You have temptations that come in like a flood, and that needs much prayer. You are living in a dying world that is anti-Christian and now you are going in the other direction – that needs much prayer. And then there are those crooks in the lot and those thorns in the flesh that you need to pray about every day. Paul, in a way, did not know what he was praying for when he asked for the thorn in the flesh to be removed, He little realised that he was asking God to remove the need of prayer about it every day. For if God removed it, he would not need to pray about it, would he? But God saw fit that the thorn should remain, because it taught Paul that he needed to pray every day. In fact, it was such a sharp thorn, he could not live without prayer. And that is why the Lord sends these thorns. You cannot live without prayer with your thorn, can you? That is why it is there.

And how wonderful are some of the answers to prayer in Scripture. It is a wonderful meditation to think of some of the things that God did in answer to prayer. Think of Moses at the Red Sea. Inwardly he was praying to the Lord. What was he to do? He could hear the Egyptians coming up behind them; he had the memory of their cruelty and their slavery. They already had chariots to carry God’s ancient people back to Egypt. There was the water of the Red Sea before them. They could see and hear the waves beating on the shore. On either side was the wilderness, unknown. And, not only that, but there were also a mixed multitude who were already ready to go back to Egypt, thinking they had made a big mistake. “Wherefore criest thou unto me?” says the Lord. In other words, Moses had been secretly crying. And the Lord heard his cry. “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it.” ‘What, me divide it, Lord?’ ‘Moses, you do as I bid you, and you will see what will happen.’ Moses stretches out his rod over the sea, and God – the God of our text who brought them out of Egypt – divides the Red Sea. “And He led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.” All in answer to prayer!

Think of Elijah. “He prayed earnestly” we are told, “that it might not rain.” God shut up the heavens. There was not only no rain, but there was no dew for three years and six months, all in answer to a man’s prayer. Mind you, Elijah was indited by the Spirit so to do; it was a judgment upon the land. Then it was the Lord’s time for it to rain again. The Lord said to Elijah: “Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.” It would have been far easier for Elijah if God sent the rain first. But Elijah was a man who did as God bid him. Firstly, Elijah went to meet Ahab. He told him he would meet him on Mount Carmel, and there he would see what God would do. We know what took place on Mount Carmel; a wonderful answer to prayer was given there. The prophets of Baal could not get their false god to answer, although they shed their own blood on their altar. But see how the fire descended and licked up the water and the stones of Elijah’s altar at the time of the evening sacrifice! Then Elijah says to Ahab: “Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.” But there was no sign of rain. Cloudless skies! It had been like that for three years and six months. Not a hint of even a cloud. ‘Where is this abundance of rain, Elijah? How can you hear it?’ ‘I hear it in the promise God has given. God told me to show myself to Ahab, and He would send rain on the earth. I can already hear the drops being formed; secretly waiting to fall.’ That was the faith of that dear man. He goes up Mount Carmel and he begins to pray. What does he pray? ‘Lord, do as Thou hast said. I have told Ahab rain is coming, Lord! Thy name is at stake and Thine honour is at stake.’ Elijah sends his servant up and down that mountain. Again and again, there are those disappointing, discouraging tidings: “There is nothing.” “Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.” I pause there. Those words are often misquoted. It is often misquoted as ‘a little cloud as large as a man’s hand.’ It does not say that. It says: “Like a man’s hand.” Do not misquote Scripture; look at it carefully. It is: “Like a man’s hand.” Elijah says: “Go up, say unto Ahab, prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.” And we know it did come. It was a great rain. All in answer to prayer! What cannot God do? “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

Think of the day when Peter was shut up in prison. James had already been taken; his head had been severed. Sudden death, sudden glory. The Church was left bereft of one of their leaders; one of their pillars. How strange that God should take James at such an early time in the history of the Church of the New Testament. But God is a sovereign. And now Herod thinks he will do just what he likes with God’s people. He cannot. He can only do what God permits. ‘Peter’s head is next to roll says Herod! ‘We will do it after Easter.’ (That means after Passover). But what did the Church do? There was Peter in prison. Over a period of twenty-four hours, sixteen soldiers were watching over Peter in shifts. Four together; two chained either side of him and two guarding the door. Sixteen soldiers – a quaternion. The inner door and the outer door were shut. What was the Church to do? They had no keys to get into the prison. There was one thing they could do, God helping them: pray. And my dear friends, it may be with you tonight that that is the last resort you have. You have tried everything else. You do not have the key to undo the prison cell that seems to hold what you feel you need. You are separated from it. Yet, you can pray. We read: “Prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” They had a Prayer Meeting. They gathered and they wrestled with the Lord to come and deliver His servant Peter. And the Lord sent an angel from heaven who unlocks the prison doors. He loosens Peter from his chains. He smites him on his side and says: “Arise up quickly.” “Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals.” “Follow me.” The inner and the outer door open as they come to them, and Peter finds himself in the street. He thinks he is in a dream, but, no, he is not in a dream. He goes to the house where the Church were praying. He knocks on the door, and a girl called Rhoda comes to the door. She recognised Peter’s voice and went back and told the others that Peter was at the door. ‘Rhoda you must be imagining it!’ But friends, what had they been praying for? What had they been asking? They had been asking that Peter would be at the door. Yet their faith was so small (and I do not have a particle of dust to throw at them), they could not believe he could be there. And sometimes we cannot believe the Lord can answer our prayers. We limit Him.

But Peter carried on knocking. At last, they recognised: ‘It is Peter!’ And the Church rejoiced because God had appeared for them. Friends, have you got a ‘Peter in prison’ tonight? Is there a case like that? It may not literally be a ‘Peter in prison,’ but you know what I mean. A case that is as desperate as that. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” Take it to the Lord in prayer. He will answer it as is most fit for His honour and glory. But be sure of this: “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” Ask great things. He is a great God, and it honours Him when His people ask for large things, as the answer will give more honour and glory to Him.

May God add His blessing.

“Thou art coming to a King;

Large petitions with thee bring; 

For His grace and power are such,

None” – not even the youngest here tonight, or the oldest – “can ever ask too much.”