PERSISTENT PRAYER PROSPERS
GENESIS 18:20—32 AUGUST 17, 2003
DEUTERONOMY 18:20-32
20Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
22The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. 23Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
26The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
27Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?"
"If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."
29Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?"
He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."
30Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?"
He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."
31Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?"
He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."
32Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?"
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed:
What word did you think of when you listened to our text this morning? We might think of persistence. Abraham did not give up did he? He kept asking the Lord to do what he wanted to be done. That is the point of our text this morning – which the Lord teaches us about persistent prayer; the Lord teaches us about not giving up and He tells us why – because He’s ready to hear and listen.
From James we read that it is the believer and the believer alone who can come before the Lord in persistent prayer. That’s one of the blessings you and I have been given. As be-lievers who have been called out of darkness into His light, not only are saved eternally but are also given the ability to speak with our Lord and Creator. "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. (Only believers can do that – then he tells us why.) The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective"(JAMES 5:16). We heard that term ‘righteous’ in our text – it refers to believers. The prayer of a righteous man is a ‘believing’ man. It’s the same here. ‘Persistence’ – our text tells us
PERSISTENT PRAYER PROSPERS
I. Abraham pleads and pleads
II. The Lord hears and listens
I. Abraham pleads and pleads
We know the setting of our text. The Lord and His angels had come to Abraham and Sarah to tell them great news. Last week we heard how the Lord had announced to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son within a year. This was great news first of all because it was a blessing from God! It was great news also because Abraham and Sarah were beyond the age of childbearing and now the Lord says they would enjoy this great blessing. The Lord and His messengers leave; Abraham walks along with them as a sign of his hospitality. As they walk away, the Lord decides to tell him another reason that He is there – that He is going down to Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord tells Abraham that news because He knows Abraham is a righteous man, a faithful man. The Lord knows that Abraham, in his heart, cares for all men. We’re told, 22The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. We picture the men (the angels) going on to Sodom. Abraham and the Lord are by themselves – going to speak to one another in private. It’s just like prayer isn’t it? Abra-ham is speaking to the Lord directly just like any believer today can still do.
Then we have the pleadings of Abraham. 23Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Will you really sweep away and not spare the place for the sake of the righteous people in it? He’s going to appeal to the Lord with his (Abraham’s) own human understanding of compassion. He says to the Lord, Surely, you should go to Sodom. You would not destroy the city if there were believers there. If there are fifty peo-ple in this town would you destroy it? It would not make sense that the Lord would put to death the believers with the wicked.
Abraham goes on with this line of thinking. 25Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. With Abraham it would not make sense that the righteous would have to die because of the wickedness of the wicked. It did not make sense to him that those who were still believers would be put to death in Sodom. After all, he knew the Lord was a Lord of compassion and mercy. “Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" He addresses the Lord, as He rightly is – the crea-tor, the judge of the entire universe – one who is going to judge rightly and justly.
He appeals to the Lord’s compassion. He pleads and pleads with Him. 24What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Fifty righteous people in a town of thousands – liter-ally!! Abraham is pleading – not with any strength – just asking the Lord. Abraham realizes he has no reason to come to the Lord and ask Him such a thing. Abraham spoke up again. 27Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, (Remember Abraham is a very wealthy man – wealth-ier than most at his time – well respected and honored.) When he came before the Lord, what did he say? He said, ‘I’m just dust and ashes. I don’t deserve to come before you and ask any-thing but I do. What if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty?’ Abraham is getting down to forty-five. It’s interesting how he puts it. “Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?" He doesn’t say forty-five, he just says those five people. Abraham pleads with the Lord to not destroy this city. Do not destroy the believers that are there.
Abraham has a few concerns. First of all, he’s concerned about any believers that are there. Secondly, he’s concerned because he knows his nephew, Lot, lives in the city of Sodom. He knows they are believers. Certainly, in his heart, Abraham didn’t want to see Sodom de-stroyed at all because it would mean the death of many people. Abraham also did not want to see the death of his relatives. He begins to plead even more earnestly. He said, ‘What if there are only forty there? Thirty? Twenty?’ 32Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?" In essence, the odds are going down. He started with fifty in a city of thousands and is down to ten. The percentage is de-creasing. Yet, Abraham knew that the Lord would listen. He pleaded and pleaded and pleaded six different times with the Lord because he knew that his persistent prayer would prosper. Abraham also knew that he came and pleaded from no position of strength.
Abraham’s attitude is not like the attitudes of today. Today people feel that they deserve the best from the Lord. They sometimes don’t ask God for things but they demand them. If they don’t get it, they stomp their feet, shake their fist at God and say, ‘Why is God so unfair to me?’ At least that’s the attitude of the world. Maybe sometimes we have felt just like that – that God has short-changed us. Are we any better than Abraham or any other believer in this world? Do we deserve to stand before God and talk to him? Not really, do we? We are much like Abra-ham – dust and ashes. We were created from dust and we’ll go back to dust. In between, we’re not inanimate dust are we? We live, sometimes because of our sin, as enemies of God. The psalm writer reminds us that even though we are dust and ashes, even though our sins stand in the way of our complete understanding of God’s will, yet God cares for us. "O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? 4Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow"(PSALM 144:3,4). He says we are dust and ashes, we are like a fleeting shadow and yet the Lord does care for us. The Lord makes many promises and He ful-fills them all. Our Lord invites us to come to Him time and again to plead at His throne of grace. Abraham teaches that persistent prayer prospers for a believer. It gives a reminder to you and I that God is not far away in heaven but He is close to each one of us. He is as near as our thoughts, as our words of prayer can express. That is how close He is to each one of us.
Again, as I already mentioned, prayer (talking to and with God) is a gift for you and I as believers. In this world the unbelieving world looks and says, ’Well, I pray to God when I want to. I ask for things I want.’ Some feel the need to only pray for prosperity and the Lord ought to give it to them. But, what are we told in scripture? "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him"(HEBREWS 11:6). Even though we hear lots about prayer, if they’re not directed toward God, they’re not really prayer. If a believer does not pray them, they are not really prayer. The Lord says to you and I to pray persistently – to come to Him time after time.
We almost would think that Abraham would have given up wouldn’t we? Six times here in a few verses he asks the same thing – asking it over and over. He was bold, we would think, the way he pleads with God and seems to bargain with Him. He knows the Lord. You and I know the Lord. He says to us, ‘Come. Ask. Seek. Knock.’ He tells us to pray to Him. He never tells us to stop praying. Scripture reminds us that we are to pray continually. God tells believers to ask, seek and knock and then He tells us why we are to do those things. "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened"(LUKE 11:9,10). We picture that in Abraham. Hopefully we can picture that in our prayers too – that we ask, seek and knock and the door is opened.
Persistent prayer prospers. We learn it from Abraham to plead and plead and plead with the Lord because the
II. The Lord our God hears and listens
All these pleadings. All this bargaining. It had happened first of all because the Lord had compassion and had come down to see Abraham. The Lord had also heard the outcry that was against Sodom and Gomorrah. He was going to give Abraham a chance to express his Chris-tian faith. What do we find? Abraham says, ‘Spare the city for fifty people.’ The Lord says, ‘All right, if I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.’ He’s willing to do that simply because Abraham asked. One believer praying for thou-sands of people and the Lord says all right. He says the same thing – ‘if I find forty-five there, I will not destroy it. If I find forty there, I will not do it.’ The Lord said, ‘The same with twenty, I will not do it.’ “What if only ten can be found there?" The Lord answered, ‘For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.’ What a merciful God Abraham was appealing to that He would spare the wick-edness of an entire city if there were only ten believers there. He was going to do this because one believer asked Him to.
But what about this wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah? Our text opened with those disparaging, frightening words -- 20Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Go-morrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know." Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked beyond all imagination. It was so wicked and so evil and so bad that the people prayed that the Lord would do something about it. The believers prayed, ‘Lord what are you go-ing to do with Sodom and Gomorrah? When are you going to do something about those wicked people?’ Travelers who passed through were treated inhospitably, were assaulted sexually and they left saying, ‘Lord what are you going to do about Sodom and Gomorrah?’ Even when the messengers came to warn them (in chapter 19) and to come and tell Lot, the men of the city came and gathered around the house of Lot in order to have sex with the angels. Their sin was homosexuality. Their sin was sexual immorality. It was so great and so grievous the Lord says there was no hope left.
The Lord heard Abraham plead and He listened to him. What was the answer? Sodom was destroyed. Gomorrah was destroyed and cities in the plain around there were destroyed. Why? There were not even ten believers in a city of thousands. Imagine that! So grievous and so wicked had their behavior become. The Lord answered Abraham – Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed because of the wickedness of their sin – because of sexual immorality.
That sin is still around today. Even though the world might try to dismiss it, and even though the world says we have to give rights to those who practice such things – that’s not really true. The Lord says sin is still sin. Even though there are those who say the Lord and Scripture is quiet about it, they can turn here to Genesis; they can turn to Leviticus 19; they can turn to 1 Corinthians; they can turn to Romans 1. All those references clearly state that homosexuality and sexual immorality is an abomination before the Lord. In the book of Romans 1: 24ff, we read how men were given over to their own sinful desires. The conclusion in verse 32 states, "Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them"(ROMANS 1:32). That follows verses 30 and 31 where he talks about sexual immorality and homosexuality. God clearly says those things deserve death. Not only are there people, who do them, there are people who approve of it. Persistent prayer prospers. It reminds us to pray for our nation that hopefully the Lord would never look upon us as Sodom and Gomorrah and say, ‘There’s not even enough righteous people left.’
What was the answer? We go back to the answer the Lord gave to Abraham. The Lord said, ‘No’ to Abraham didn’t He? He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham prayed, ‘I want Sodom and Gomorrah saved because there might be some believers there.’ Maybe Abra-ham wasn’t praying what the Lord wanted was he? Abraham wanted entire cities saved be-cause he didn’t want the righteous destroyed with the wicked. The Lord said ‘no’; instead He would save the believers – Lot, his daughters, their husbands and their family – eight people. God answered Abraham’s prayer as ‘no’ because He destroyed the city, but there weren’t ten people there who were believers. He did save them. The Lord answered Abraham’s prayer ‘No’ but He also did it His way. The Lord also does that with our prayers. He may answer us ‘No’ but He’s still listening and hearing, isn’t He? The prophet Isaiah tells us, "Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear"(ISAIAH 65:24). Our Lord does that for us. From time to time our Lord may say, ‘No’ and we become disheartened. When He says ‘No’ we are yet reminded that when we pray persistently that our prayers prosper us even in the face of ‘No’ because in praying to the Lord, we renew our relationship with the Lord. No matter what the answer might be, we’re increasing our wisdom and knowledge of God. When we’re talking with God, He’s listening to us. Persistent prayer prospers our soul. The Apostle Paul prayed time and again to remove the thorn in his flesh. The answer the Lord said was ‘No’. He said, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’ What did Paul do? Did he stomp his feet and storm off? No. He says, "That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong"(2 CORINTHIANS 12:10). He was reminded that in his weakness, the Lord was strong. When the Lord was strong, he too, was strong. The Lord reminds us that his answer of ‘no’ is to remind us that He is strong. Sometimes when we are afflicted with a sickness or illness or nagging problems, we may be-come frustrated. The Lord reminds us that He is strong when we are weak. His ‘no’ is so that we would keep praying to Him. His ‘no’ is so that we would keep prospering by our prayers to the Lord. We would continue to prosper spiritually in visiting with God even if and especially if the answer is ‘no’.
Persistent prayer prospers. Abraham pleads and pleads with God. We are to be like Abraham and plead with our Lord and not be embarrassed – and not be scared and frightened -- because our God is a compassionate God even though we are dust and ashes. Even though we live lives full of sin, the Lord says, ‘Come and pray.’ He does that because He hears and lis-tens and answers. The people who pray to false gods pray just hoping that their god might hear. You and I pray, knowing that our God hears us. Not only does He hear us, He listens to us and answers us. Persistent prayer prospers. It prospers us as individuals, it prospers our congregation as a church, and it prospers our nation as a whole. It prospers the world to know that there are believers praying against the wickedness of the world and for God’s blessing.
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him"(1 JOHN 5:14,15). Persistent prayer prospers. We plead and plead and plead and the Lord listens and hears and answers. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
