Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Exhortation to Prayer (part 1)

(Psalm 66:16-20) Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

Our Lord’s Day worship is an extended conversation with the Lord of heaven and earth. It is a prolonged and multifaceted exercise in prayer. Having ascended before His throne by faith and encouraged by the “blood of sprinkling” all around us, we present our confessions, our praises, our thanksgivings and our supplications to the Lord Most High. And He, because He is so perfectly filled with love and mercy, is pleased to hear the lisping mutterings of His people, and to receive our simple supplications. And we are glad that it is so.

But the psalmist reminds us, or should I say warns us of something that stops the ears of Almighty God; something that causes Him to grow deaf to our pleadings and insensible to our cries: the regarding of sin in our hearts.

But what is it to “regard sin” in one’s heart?

They regard sin in their hearts who practice it secretly, fearing the reproach of men, but having little care for the omniscient gaze and stern reproof of Him who knows all, and has promised to chasten all disobedience.

They regard sin who entertain, fantasize about, and indulge the desire of sin, even though God in His merciful providence may have restrained them from the actual commission of it.

They regard iniquity in their heart who reflect upon past sins not with contrition, remorse and humiliation, but rather with relish, enjoyment and even delight.

They regard iniquity in their heart who look upon the sins of others with favor, approbation and approval. Although not personally guilty of the sin, they nevertheless countenance the rebellion and lawlessness of others without grief or reproof.

They regard iniquity in their heart who will not diligently apply themselves to God’s grace, and to His several appointed means of grace until the sin in question be properly mortified and put away.

Dear Christian, if you, while standing here in the presence of God this afternoon feel distant from Him. If you, while standing in the midst of Christ’s body, feel disconnected from him, consider the possibility that you may be “regarding” some sin in your heart, and seek grace even now to put it away by faith, and to enter joyfully into unhindered communion with the Father, through the death and merits of the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Come, let us worship the Lord together in spirit and in truth…

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