Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1860
“Inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus, for, behold, he prays.” Acts 9:11.
THESE words are the hallmark of genuine conversion. “Behold, he prays” is a surer witness of a man’s conversion than, “Behold, he sings,” or, “Behold, he reads the Scripture,” or, “Behold, he preaches.” These things may be admirably done by men who are not regenerate! But if, in God’s sense of the term, a man really prays, we may know for sure that he has passed from death unto life. True prayer is a sure evidence of spiritual quickening—the Holy Spirit has put spiritual life into the heart of the man who prays, for prayer is the breath of heavenly life. Prayer is the outcome of that sense of need which arises from the new life—a man would not pray to God if he did not feel that he had urgent need of blessings which only the Lord can bestow. While expressing his sense of need and appealing to God for help, the praying man gives evidence of being at peace with his Lord and cured of his natural alienation. He who prays, trusts, and thus reveals the faith which saves. Some forms of prayer display great faith, but all real prayer is the working of faith, either little or great. Will a man cry to God for mercy if he does not believe in Him? Will he plead at the Mercy Seat if he does not expect to obtain his desire? Thus, dear Friends, prayer of the true kind is a voucher for the existence of spiritual life in its consciousness of need, in its turning towards God and in its faith in Him.
Prayer is the autograph of the Holy Spirit upon the renewed heart. Prayer is also an admirable form of communion with God and, as the carnal mind can have no fellowship with God, it becomes the token of regeneration, the evidence of adoption! He that prays has some knowledge of God, some acquaintance with the great Invisible. The habit of private prayer and the constant practice of heart fellowship with the Most High are the surest indicators of the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. When it can be said of a man, “Behold, he prays,” the seal of the great King is upon him! He bears the endorsement of the Searcher of hearts. Hence the Lord gave to Ananias this sure indication that Saul of Tarsus was a converted man, by saying to him, “Behold, he prays.”
In Saul’s case, this indication was very specially remarkable. “Behold, he prays” had a peculiar meaning in relation to this conversed Pharisee. I shall have to show you this at length. It was thought a great wonder that king Saul, of the Old Testament, prophesied. So unexpected and amazing was the event that it became a proverb—“Is Saul also among the Prophets?” But it was an equal marvel when this more modern Saul was seen to pray! Is Saul of Tarsus among those who pray to Jesus for mercy? The Lord from Heaven, Himself, mentions it as a prodigy! He points to it as a thing to be beheld and wondered at, for He says to His servant Ananias, “Behold, he prays.”
I. We will begin our discourse with the following observation—This expression concerning Saul of Tarsus is remarkable, for IT IMPLIES THAT HE HAD NEVER BEFORE PRAYED. “Behold, he prays” could hardly be spoken of one who had been accustomed to pray in former days.
This is very striking, for Saul was a Pharisee and, therefore, a man who habitually repeated prayers. Pharisees boasted of the regularity, number and length of their prayers. Perhaps there had never been a day in Saul’s life from the time in which he was conscious in which he had not gone through his prayers. Many devout Jews spent nine hours a day in prayer, for they occupied an hour in actual supplication and sat still for an hour before and an hour after prayer—and this was done three times a day! Pharisees offered prayer not only in the Temple and in the synagogue, but even at the corners of the streets where they could be seen of men. Whatever the quality of their praying might be, there was plenty of it in quantity. If any fact was in public evidence so that nobody could deny it, it was that Saul of Tarsus had been much
in prayer and, therefore, it is the more striking that the Lord, Himself, should say to Ananias concerning this constantly devout Pharisee, “Behold, he prays.”
Behold how the Lord revises the judgements of men! In the opinion of all who knew Saul of Tarsus, the disciple of Gamaliel, he was much given to prayer. But He who searches the hearts and knew Saul well—and knew truthfully what prayer is—here declares that now, at last, Paul begins to pray! Despite all his former superfluity of ostentatious devotion, Saul, all his life, had never prayed at all! What his friends would have put down as a great mass of prayer, the Lord here makes nothing of! Until the first broken-hearted confession of sin came from the poor blinded persecutor of Jesus, the Lord considered that he had never prayed! I want to push this fact home upon some who are present with us, this morning. I mean those who, in a formal manner, have always prayed and yet have never spiritually prayed. Your mother taught you a form of prayer—you repeated this form all through your childhood and your youth. At this moment you are most regular in bowing the knees, both morning and evening, and yet no single prayer may ever have risen from your heart to the heart of God!