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{The Application
Application for the Godly
The Right Performance of Holy Duties
Directions for the Duty of Prayer
Sinners: Learn the Skill to Plead with God in Prayer}
Question:
These arguments may be used by saints in prayer. But what about poor natural people who are yet in their sins? Is there no plea for them to use? What may they say for themselves when they come before the Lord? Have you no word to put in their mouths? They have more need of arguments than any. What shall they say?
Answer 1:
I will take it for granted that it is the duty of merely natural [unregenerate] people to pray. Prayer is part of God’s natural worship. If there were no positive law requiring it, the law of nature still enjoins it and no person is exempted from the obligation of a law of nature. Otherwise, it would not be sin to neglect prayer for where there is no law, there is no transgression [sin]. But we also find in Scripture that neglect of prayer is counted up among wicked people’s sins. “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord [pray]?” (Psalm 14:3–4 ESV). Sin disables, but it does not release from duty.
Objection:
That which is usually objected against this is that God does not hear sinners (John 9:31), and the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord (Proverbs 15:8; 21:27). Now, no man is bound to offer up to God an abominable thing; it is better to offer up nothing than an abomination.
Solution:
In answer to this, consider that there are two kinds of sinners: determined sinners and repentant sinners. Accordingly, there are two kinds of prayers made by sinners. Determined [unrepentant] sinners make dissembling, mocking, and lying prayers. “Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit” (Hosea 11:12 ESV). They make lying sacrifices and lying devotions. Ephraim makes as if he had a mind to know and serve God, but it is not in his heart. Such prayers are used either as a veil to hide and cover their wickedness and make them appear to people as righteous, or else as a means or device to quiet and pacify their consciences in a course of sin. They make confession of sin to serve instead of forsaking sin, and praying to serve instead of repenting. Their prayers help them to sin more freely; they think they may go free for anything if when they have done iniquity they just ask for forgiveness. Such prayers are an abomination to God and a desolation to sinners. “Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me” (Isaiah 1:12–17). Sinners, not only your wickedness, but your very prayers will undo you. If you make them a shelter for sin, your very prayers will be turned into sin.
But then there are the prayers of repentant sinners. Such a sinner is struck with a sense of his sin and the necessity of changing his way. He is aware that he has no ability [power] inside himself to turn from his sin. Under the fears and troubles of his heart, he goes to God and cries out. Lord, what shall I do? I see that I am in an evil state. My soul is continually going on in sin and I behold Your curse and wrath continuing against me. Lord, save me; Lord, help me; Lord, pardon; Lord convert me and break me off from my sins; break me off from my sinful corruptions. I cannot get loose; my heart is too hard; my lusts are too strong; my temptations are too many for me to overcome by myself. Lord, help me and turn me, and I will be turned. Pluck my foot out of the snare so that I will not be utterly destroyed. Forgive my iniquity. Make a clean heart for me. Make me Your child and make me Your servant so that I may never again yield up myself to be a servant to sin. Such a prayer as this, if it is hearty and in earnest, might be heard. There is no promise that it will be heard, but there is at least a half-promise; who can tell? It may be that the Lord will hear. Although it cannot definitely be said that the Lord accepts it, neither can any man say that God will reject it as an abominable thing.262
Answer 2:
Having made the above distinctions, I will answer the question. Sinners, if they have a heart to it, also have a price in their hands. God has put arguments into their mouths also to plead with Him for mercy.
The Grace of God and His Gracious Nature
{The Application
Application for the Godly
The Right Performance of Holy Duties
Directions for the Duty of Prayer
Sinners: Learn the Skill to Plead with God in Prayer
The Grace of God and His Gracious Nature}
The grace of God, His gracious nature, and His readiness to show mercy are attributes of God that even strangers may lay hold of. Ben-Hadad’s encouragement to beg his life from the king of Israel (1 Kings 20:31) may be the sinner’s plea in begging his life. “We have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings.” Sinner, go to the Lord and speak thus in His ears, “Lord, I have heard that the King of Glory is a merciful King.” Your name is the Lord, merciful and gracious, and Your nature is according to Your name. It is Your nature to pity, and in Your heart there is bountiful compassion. Oh, I am a miserable creature, a poor, undone, and helpless wretch. Oh, do for me according to Your nature; do for me according to Your name. Will the God of mercy send away a wretch that comes for mercy? Will the God of grace send me away without grace? The God of mercy hear me; the God of grace grant me to find grace in Your eyes.
God’s Call and Gracious Invitation
{The Application
Application for the Godly
The Right Performance of Holy Duties
Directions for the Duty of Prayer
Sinners: Learn the Skill to Plead with God in Prayer
God’s Call and Gracious Invitation}
God calls and graciously invites sinners. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1 ESV). “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22 ESV). “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 ESV). Rise, sinner, He calls you. Go to the Lord, and when you go, tell Him, “Lord, You have commanded me to come, and behold, here I am.” I have come, Lord, at Your word; I have come for a little water; I have come for Your wine and milk; I have brought no price in my hand, but You have commanded me to come and buy without money and without price. Though I have no grace, yet behold, at Your word, I come for grace. Though I have no Christ, yet I come for Christ. Though I cannot call You Father, yet being called, I come to You as fatherless because with You the fatherless will find mercy. Is it only those whose who lack earthly fathers? Is it not also those who lack the Father of Spirits? Shall earthly orphans find pity and only spiritual orphans be lost orphans? If I am not Your child, may I be made Your child? Do You not still have remaining yet263 a child’s blessing to bestow on me? You have commanded me to come for a blessing; bless me, even me also. O Lord, why did You send for me? Shall I be sent away just as I came? I come at Your word. Do not say again, Be gone, be gone out of my sight. I cannot go at Your word; I will not go because where shall I go from You? You have the words of eternal life (John 6:68). Since You will have me speak, Lord, I answer. Though I dare not say, “Be just to me, a saint,” yet I do say, will say, must say, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).
{The Application
Application for the Godly
The Right Performance of Holy Duties
Directions for the Duty of Prayer
Sinners: Learn the Skill to Plead with God in Prayer
Christ}
There are two things in Christ on which sinners may plead with God.
{The Application
Application for the Godly
The Right Performance of Holy Duties
Directions for the Duty of Prayer
Sinners: Learn the Skill to Plead with God in Prayer
Christ
Christ’s Sufficiency}
There is enough in Christ, in His obedience and death, to save the worst of sinners and the whole world of sinners. There is a fullness in Christ. “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him” (Colossians 1:19 NASB). There is a fullness of merit to obtain pardon and make reconciliation for whomever comes. There is a fullness of the Spirit to sanctify and cleanse them from their sins. “He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25 NKJV). From this, sinners may reason thus with the Lord: O Lord, I do not come to beg from You something that cannot be had. But You do have enough next to You; look at Jesus who sits at Your right hand; is not there enough righteousness in Him to answer for all my unrighteousness? Are there not enough riches in Him to supply my poverty? Oh, shall I die for lack of a pardon when there is such blood continually in front of You pleading for pardon? O, shall I lie down in my own vomit and wallow in the mire of my filthy lusts when there is such a spring next to You that is still open for sin and uncleanness? O, sprinkle me with this blood and wash me in this spring. Hear Lord, do not send me away without alms when You have it next to You.264
{The Application
Application for the Godly
The Right Performance of Holy Duties
Directions for the Duty of Prayer
Sinners: Learn the Skill to Plead with God in Prayer
Christ
Christ’s Office}
Christ’s office is to bring sinners to God, to make reconciliation for sinners, and to intercede for transgressors (Isaiah 53). “You have received gifts for men, yes, even for the rebellious also” (Psalm 68:18).265 What a strange and mighty plea is here for poor sinners. Oh, it is true, Lord, I am a transgressor and have been from the womb. I have played the traitor and have been a rebel against You all my days. But is there none in Heaven that will intercede for a transgressor? Has the Lord Jesus received no gift for this poor rebel who falls down before You? Though I am a rebel, Lord, I am a repentant rebel. Though I am a rebel, let me receive a rebel’s gift, not a rebel’s punishment, which would be dreadful. Lord grant me some of those gifts that Christ received for the rebellious. Does Christ make intercession for transgressors and not be heard? If You will not hear me, a sinner, yet will You not hear Him who speaks for sinners, whose blood speaks, whose mercy and pity speak, whose Spirit speaks? Does he speak for sinners and not for me?
{The Application
Application for the Godly
The Right Performance of Holy Duties
Directions for the Duty of Prayer
Sinners: Learn the Skill to Plead with God in Prayer
Their Own Necessity}
Sinners are needy creatures; they have nothing of value left them. In the fullness of their supposed sufficiency, they are in rigorous difficulty. A sinner a hundred years old is just a child and a sinner thousands of years old is only a beggar and poor, miserable, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17).266 He can [seemingly] lack nothing, but he still lacks everything that is good. Sin has stripped him to the skin and stabbed him to the heart; the iron has entered into his soul and left him nothing but wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores. Is this your state, sinner, and have you nothing to say? Spread your wants and needs before the Lord and let them speak for you. Learn from beggars that come to your door; if they have a sore, illness, a blind eye, lame leg, burnt hand, or broken arm, their condition will be sure to open and move pity, and procure alms. Their pinching hunger, parching thirst, naked backs, and cold lodging are things that speak at your door: “Never a penny in my purse and never a morsel of bread have I had in a long time.” Their necessity will both make them speak and help them to speak.
Sinner, spread your necessities before the Lord. Spread your wants before Him, open your wounds and sores to Him, and tell Him how desperately sad your case is. Tell Him of the guilt that is on your head, the curse that is on your back, and the plague that is in your heart. God of mercy and compassion, look here and behold what a poor, blind, dead, hardened, unclean, guilty, naked, empty, and helpless creature I am. Look on my sin and misery and let Your eye affect Your heart. One deep calls out to another; a deep of misery calls out to a deep of mercy. Oh, my very sins, which cry so loud against me—they also speak for me. My misery proclaims my curses and the woe and wrath that lie upon me. My bones speak and my perishing soul speaks. And all cry in Your ears: Help, Lord God of pity; help; help and heal me; help and save me. Come to me for I am a sinful person, O Lord. I dare not say as it was once said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). Come, Lord, because I am a sinful person. You could never come where there is more need. Who have need of the physician except the sick? Come, Lord. I have too often said, “Depart from me.” But if You will not say to me, “Depart from me,” I hope I will never say, “Depart from me,” to You again. My misery says, “Come.” My wants say, “Come.” My guilt and sins say, “Come,” and my soul says, “Come.” Come and pardon; come and convert; come and teach; come and sanctify; come and save me. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Thus you have the sinner’s plea. Poor sinner! Are you willing to repent and turn from your sins? Then fear not to go to your God. Take some such words as these267 and go and tell the Lord that one of His poor ambassadors told you from Him that He expects you before the throne of grace, and that unless you refuse, He is ready to grant you mercy. Go and may the Lord help you and give you your heart’s desire and all you have in mind. For your encouragement take along with you this Scripture: “Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6 NKJV).
262The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3–21), examples in Scripture (Matthew 26:25; 1 Kings 3:3; 11:1–9; 1 Samuel 16:23; 15:31), and the sad experience of many believers who have seen all too many friends and relatives fall from grace (1 John 2:19) all explain what Alleine means here. Those God chooses to be truly born again, God will hear. But those who never truly close with Christ remain sinners, are not born again, and are mere hypocrites, whether consciously or by self-deception; God will not accept them.
263Genesis 27:38.
264Proverbs 3:28.
265The best reading of the Hebrew in Psalm 68:18 is difficult to determine. Bible translators properly render the Hebrew according to their best understanding. The consensus is that the Lord received gifts. But Ephesians 4:8 clearly says that God gave gifts. The editor thus suggests that the full meaning is that Christ received gifts in order to give gifts to people. It is significant that Psalm 68:18 does not say “gifts from men,” but “gifts among men.” The preposition בּ is most naturally translated “among” (NKJV, ESV, NASB). The KJV translates “for men,” suggesting that perhaps the translators interpreted Psalm 68:18 in light of Ephesians 4:8. Whatever the direction of the gift, it must be the same direction for both men (in general) and the rebellious because there is no additional intervening preposition between the two. It is in light of this that the editor has translated Alleine’s text.
266While still a sinner, no sinner learns true wisdom, however so long he lives.
267Hosea 14:2.
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