Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2519
“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” Luke 18:1.
MY mind alights with great joy upon the simple Truth of God which gleams on the very surface of our text—then, man may pray! If men ought to pray, they maypray. Whatever a man ought to do, it is clear that he has the right and the privilege to do—and though this may seem a very common-place truth to those of us whose hearts are at ease through faith in Jesus and who enjoy daily communion with God in prayer—yet there is an exquisite sweetness about this fact to a man who fears that he may not pray. He has come into such a miserable state of heart that he feels as if he could not pray and he fears that he may not pray. Satan tells him that the door of mercy is shut against him, that his day of Grace is over and that the time of hope for him is now past and gone. But our text says, “Men ought always to pray.” Then, men may always pray
Your knees may be bent before the altar of God, though they are stained through many a fall into sin. Though it is many years since you ever thought of praying, yet you may pray! Though, perhaps, you have even denied that there is a God, still you may pray! Though you have ridiculed the very notion of prayer, you may pray—God does not refuse to you the permission to come to His Mercy Seat. Though you have committed every crime in the catalog of sin, you may pray. And though you have gone on in those crimes and involved yourself yet more and more deeply in iniquity, you may pray! Though you are within a few days of death and of damnation unless the Grace of God shall visit you, yet you may pray! It is clear that you may pray because men ought always to pray, and what they oughtto do they maydo! Grasp that Truth of God, O despairing one, and grip it fast, and say to your despair, “Get away from me! It is not possible that I am denied the right of praying unto the Lord while such a text as this still stands in Holy Writ, ‘Men ought always to pray.’”
Now, look at the text again, and lay stress upon the first word of it—“Men ought always to pray.” I feel so grateful to the Holy Spirit that this text does not say, “Saints ought always to pray,” because then I might ask myself, “Am I a saint?” And, perhaps, I might have to answer, “No, I am far from it.” But the text does not say, “saints,” and it does not even say, “Tender-hearted, penitent persons who are in a very gracious state ought always to pray.” No, there is no description of character given in the text—for which I am deeply grateful. Those exhortations that leave the character as wide as possible are all the more full of Grace and condescending love!
Who ought always to pray, then? “Men.” And the word, “men,” is generic and includes the race. “Men.” That is, men and women and children—old men and fathers, young men and maidens—all who belong to the race of mankind ought always to pray! Perhaps you say, “So-and-So is not a good man.” No, but he zsa man, and men ought always to pray! “He is a long way from being a commendable man, a man of mark, a man of note, a nobleman in the truest sense of that term.” Ah, but he is a man, and men ought always to pray! Go down the back streets into the dark alleys where there are men who scarcely seem to be men, and women who are scarcely women, and tell even them that they are still included under this head, “Men ought always to pray.” Go upstairs and stand by the bed where Death has his victim by the throat—the man yet living is still a man—that poor creature lying there is not yet a corpse, but still a man! Say to him, “Men ought always to pray.” They who curse and swear ought always to pray. They who live without any regard for God, or even in disbelief of His existence, and detestation of His Gospel, yet they ought always to pray! And, as I said at the beginning, the “ought” implies a permission,for, what a man ought to do, he maydo and, therefore, whoever you may be, if you are in the shape of a man, you ought to pray!
If you have a head on your shoulders and lungs that heave, and a heart that palpitates—if you are still in the land of the living and can be numbered among the sons of men—to you this text rings out a grand and glorious Gospel! Even though it seems to be put in the form of a Law of God by the use of that stern word, “ought,” yet it really is in the form of the Gospel—you may pray if you are either man or woman, if you are of the race of mankind, for, “men ought always to pray.”
Oh, that some poor heart might catch at this sweet Word of God! That woman talked of throwing herself over London Bridge—yet even she may pray! That man thought of crossing the Atlantic and hiding himself from his fellow men, leaving his kith and kin to get away from the place where he has dishonored his name. Do not think of such a thing, my dear Sir, but pray, for you may pray! There is not in Heaven or earth anything that forbids you to pray! There is an act of amnesty and oblivion passed in the court of God and you are not excepted from it. There is no Book Inspired of Him that denies you a place at the Mercy Seat! There is no messenger sent of God who will say to you, “Thus says the Lord, You shall not pray,” but, on the contrary, bringing before you the living and Inspired Word of the living Christ of God, we say to you, “Men ought always to pray!” Therefore you ought to pray and, therefore, you maypray!