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The sermon teaches that genuine prayer involves real nearness to God, expressed through humility, delight in God’s goodness, or confidence in filial relationship. Spurgeon sharply distinguishes true prayer from mechanical repetition and insists that prayer has no meritorious power apart from Christ’s blood and righteousness. Prayer is presented as a means by which God sustains believers, illuminates Scripture, helps them endure suffering, and advances gospel ministry. The sermon therefore combines strong conviction about spiritual deadness with an urgent and hopeful call to become a praying people.
Theological center: Prayer is a God-given means of communion and grace, effective not through human merit but through the saving merit of Jesus Christ.
Applications: Draw near to God in prayer · Examine the reality of your prayers · Pray with humility and sincerity · Redeem wasted time for prayer and service
Primary texts: Psalm 73:28 · Job 42:6 · Luke 22:43
“But it is good for me to draw near to God.” Psalm 73:28 THERE are many ways by which the true believer draws near to God. The gates of the King’s palace are many, and through the love of Jesus, and the rich grace of His Spirit, it is our delight to enter and approach our heavenly Father. First and foremost among these is communion, that sweet converse which man holds with God, that state of nearness to God, in which our mutual secrets are revealed—our hearts being open unto Him, His heart being manifested to us. Here it is we see the invisible, and hear the unutterable. The outward symbol of fellowship is the sacred supper of the Lord, at which by means of simple emblems, we are divinely enabled to feed, after a spiritual sort, upon the flesh and blood of the Redeemer. This is a pearly gate of fellowship, a royal road which our feet delight to tread. Moreover, we draw near to God even in our sighs and tears, when our desolate spirits long for His sacred presence, crying, “Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee!” And as often as we read the promise written in the Word, and are enabled to receive it and rest upon it as the very words of a covenant God, we do really “Draw near to him.” Nevertheless, prayer is the best used means of drawing near to God. You will excuse me then, if in considering my text this morning, I confine myself entirely to the subject of prayer. It is in prayer mainly, that we draw near to God, and certainly it can be emphatically said of prayer, it is good for every man who knows how to practice that heavenly art, in it to draw near unto God. To assist your memories, that the sermon may abide with you in later days, I shall divide my discourse this morning in a somewhat singular manner, first, I shall look upon my text as being a touchstone, by which we may try our prayers, ay, and try ourselves too. Then I shall take the text as a whetstone to sharpen our desires, to make us more earnest, and more diligent in supplication, because “It is good to draw near to God,” and then, I shall have the solemn task in the last place of using it as a tombstone, with a direful epitaph upon it for those who do not know what it is to draw near to God, for “A prayerless soul is a Christless soul.” I. First then, regard my text as A TOUCHSTONE by which you may test your prayers, and thus try yourselves. That is not prayer of which it cannot be said that there was in it a drawing near unto God. Come hither then with your supplications. I see one coming forward who says, “I am in the daily habit of using…