GOD AFFECTED BY THE INTERCESSOR
G. C. McKay
I would like to say a little about a very great subject in Scripture, the subject of intercession.
It is a matter that goes through the Holy Scriptures and overshadows this present dispensation of grace. It has been so essential for the salvation of us all, and presently is, as we know, in the intercession of Christ; and it is a matter that we ourselves can be privileged to have part in, and that the Holy Spirit
Himself is active in according to Romans 8. I was thinking of how important this whole matter is. You might say that God will act as He will, carry out His will, but what a God He is, that He can be affected by the intercessor! You might almost say that He is looking for that, waiting for that, someone who might have the standing, the approach, the feelings and the intelligence just to intercede for those for whom it is necessary. We know that the present dispensation is overshadowed by the intercession of Christ.
Those words on the cross spoken by the Lord Jesus, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, are upholding the present dispensation, God being affected by the intercession of that great Priest, the One who, as the hymn says, ‘did for transgressors intercede’. So also in the parable of the man who planted the fig tree in his vineyard, we would have some impression of how the Lord Jesus is maintaining this. The fig tree produced no fruit and the owner said it should be removed; it was making the ground useless, taking up space that might well be taken up by something more productive. The vine-dresser interceded and said,
“Sir, let it alone for this year also, until I shall dig about it and put dung”, Luke 13: 8. I suppose that is again the Lord Jesus interceding, asking for another year.
God is doing that at the moment, waiting another year, giving men time to repent. The gospel is going out and God is delighting in it and holding back, but underlying this patience of God is intercession, the intercession of Christ. He is being affected by the Lord Jesus. So the matter is one that we come into the gain of, and in the light of that we can preach the glad tidings. Also we know that the Lord Jesus ever lives to intercede for us—a blessed matter, that as believers we know that there is an Intercessor on high. It is very strengthening for us in a pathway where we may be marked by weakness and failure. He ever lives to intercede for us, that is, He is
marked by life and power where He is. He is marked by acceptability to God too, “Jesus Christ the righteous”, our Patron with the Father. How blessed that is! “He is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”. The grace of the dispensation has been maintained not only in the wonderful disposition of God, but by Christ, the One who is so acceptable and who has made propitiation for our sins. So we are all in the gain of this great matter. What a God He is that He is affected by prayer and by intercession!
So it runs through Scripture. I have read about Abraham. What marks him is that he has moral qualities that God regards. God has wonderful thoughts as to Abraham and He is confident as to him, that His sovereign selection of him would be justified, and He adds this, that He should not hide from Abraham what He is doing. So there is an advantage then in intelligence as to what God is doing. Thus there can be prayer and intercession that can strike a right chord, that can be in the light of God’s will and of God’s nature. Abraham is able to speak to God as affected by the thought of what was to come in judgment and the fact that there might be righteous persons there in Sodom. He is able to speak then with God and to plead with Him, to draw near to God, “Abraham drew near”. Thank God for that, that persons are able to draw near. Would that we would find our place in that as able to intercede with power. “The fervent supplication of the righteous man has much power”, James 5: 16. So that this matter is very important in every aspect, both as to the gospel and as to prosperity and salvation for the saints.
So Abraham says, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” He went a great distance in his intercession, not the whole distance. He went down and down and down to twenty and to ten and God was affected by that. God acceded to what he said and that is an encouragement to us that God will listen
to us if we intercede. If we pray for one another, God will listen—He will listen. If we ourselves are righteous and have right exercises and right motives, then God will listen to us.
That enhances the prayer meeting. Let us think about that. Prayers and intercessions, it says, should be made for all men. Things are being restrained in the world. Governments are being upheld, I suppose, in that sense. God will do it, of course. He has set up that which restrains, but yet even in that connection the saints are to intercede for men and for the governments.
Moses is another great intercessor in Scripture, even offering himself in a wonderful spirit that prefigured the Lord Jesus, offering that he himself should be blotted out of God’s book to make propitiation if possible for the sin of the people. Think of Moses interceding and becoming so pleasurable to God as he did so. So you can trace this great matter through Scripture. It came to my mind tonight as we came together what that captain of the fifty said in 2 Kings 1. The fifties went up to Elijah in the mountain and were destroyed, fire came down from heaven to consume them, but the third captain of the fifty went up and he came and fell on his knees and asked that his life and the life of his fifty should be precious in the prophet’s sight. It is affecting to think of how cheap life is in the world. We cannot help but be affected by what is impending in the world, the possibility of terrible destruction of life.
Well, this man is affected—he himself is on his knees. And he is able to move the man of God because the angel of Jehovah said to Elijah, “Go down with him—be not afraid of him”.
We find him approaching in a suited way, in a self-judged way, and bringing forward something to strike the right note, the preciousness of the lives of these men.
Well, that is another thing that would be in
our hearts. What a privilege it is in the prayer meeting that we should be able to pray, to draw near to God and to intercede. I suppose really we all are here through sovereign grace, but also I think through prayer. There is no doubt about it, that, although God is sovereign, with many, maybe all, what has lain behind our salvation and our conversion has been prayer, the prayers of the saints and the prayers of our parents. What an incentive it is then, dear brethren, that we should be intercessors and take character from the great Intercessor! How beautiful the character of Christ interceding; not only giving Himself for us and securing us for Himself, but constantly interceding for us. What an advantage that is!
Well, may we proceed on this line. As when Moses was on the mount and Amalek came and fought with the people of God, there is a great conflict, and there you get a great system of intercession, because it typifies a system that we belong to. That word was used and abused in times past, but it is a real matter. There is a divine system, Christ on high and the Holy Spirit here, and God’s work in the saints. The Spirit is in the saints, He Himself being said to intercede for saints according to God. How precious that is—the Holy Spirit here helping and undertaking in this great matter of intercession, so that heaven is affected. We do not pray in an unbelieving way, but understanding that God can be affected and is affected. He is being affected all the time, we might say, by the intercession of Christ, and affected also by our prayers as we pray according to His will and with feeling, being able to say things to God that would affect Him. May we be helped in it for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Glasgow
5 February 1991
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