PRAYER FOR COMPLETION

D. E. Burr

John 17: 4; Philippians 1: 9–11; Colossians 4: 12; Revelation 3: 1–4

The first three passages that we have read are prayers. If we come to the prayer meeting, we know what one and another pray about, and we hear prayers at the beginning and end of all our gatherings, but I suppose the greatest volume of prayer that goes on is in secret. Think, for example, of all the sisters in this room. All the sisters here would pray, yet nobody really would know what they pray about. They may tell you, but, on the other hand, they may not, and the great volume of prayer by sisters is not recorded; nobody knows what it is. But the fact is it exists, and I believe that it is effective too. But I would just encourage us to consider the quality and effectiveness of their prayers—not to boast about it, not even perhaps to tell anybody about it, but just in the secret of your own links with God and with the Lord to deepen in the quality there.

These prayers are recorded. The first one was audible; John would have heard the Lord praying. Paul, in writing to the Philippians, tells them what he is praying about. That, of course, is quite a good thing, to let somebody know that you are praying for them, and let them know too, perhaps, what your desires are for them. I suppose a good many of our prayers relate to what is material; we pray for protection; we pray for success—I suppose we do—I have done that in the past, and I expect our young people still do. You have an exam in front of you, perhaps; it is a good thing to pray about it, to pray for the Lord’s help. We pray in relation to disease, severe illness, and suffering. All these prayers are very valuable; God hears them and, according to His will, He answers them. We may not always get the answer that we want, but God answers according to His will. But the common feature of these three prayers that I would like to draw attention to is related to what is complete. They all refer to what is complete. The Lord supremely is an example to us in all things. And really when we are developing any theme, or seeking in measure to help one another, we can never do better than to draw attention to the Lord Jesus, the perfect Man, God manifest in flesh. One in whom sin was not, but nevertheless He was here as a Man, a Man amongst men. And He set out, as a hymn that we sometimes sing to the Father says, ‘All Thou hast e’er desired from man we see in Him’ (Hymn 119). So if you want to know what God is looking for, what He is looking for in you and me, or in the brethren, you go to Christ. You go to Him, the supreme Model, because, for one thing, He was altogether that which He said (John 8: 25).

Now that is a challenge to us; we all love to pass muster as being fairly acceptable and presentable. We all like to convey a good impression. We may not say much about what we are or what we do, but then is the impression we are seeking to convey a genuine one? Is it altogether what we are which we seek to present? We are here today, ostensibly, to hear what the Lord would say to us. And we would credit one another with that objective. But then, to what extent are we prepared to be adjusted or to change course by reference to what the Lord might say to us? We go out of the meeting and say, ‘Well, that was a good time’. Or you might say, ‘There were some good parts to it’; but if the ministry has suggested something that requires a slight change of course, a different way of looking at things, a different way of acting, do we act upon it? Do we really take it on? Well, the Lord was altogether that which He said. But what wanted to draw attention to particularly in this verse is His address to the Father when He says, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”.

The Lord when He came to this scene came with a commission; He came to do the will of God, not His own will, although there was no variation in that sense; there was one will with divine Persons, but then the Lord placed Himself as Man in a position where He did the will of Another.

The scripture says, “He learned obedience”, Hebrews 5: 8. We used to have a brother with us, now with the Lord, who emphasized that that scripture does not say that He learned to obey, because it was impossible that He would not obey. But “he learned obedience”, that whole principle relating to something that did not apply in the eternal conditions of Godhead relationship. But as coming into manhood He learned obedience, and that through suffering.

He says, prophetically, “I come … to do, O God, thy will”. What a vast will that was! What a great extent of divine operations the Lord took on as being sent. Not sent, as we have been taught, from glory, but as Man, coming into manhood, coming into conditions to which obedience applied. He was sent as Man with the Father’s will before Him and all that was involved in that—the declaration of God; the bringing to light of the condition in which men were; the conviction of men as to sin; the demonstration of the superiority of good over evil; the demonstration of the heart of God, made known in a Man; healing, the raising of the dead, the disclosures to the disciples, those intimately in relationship with Him, those whom He had chosen to be with Him, and to whom He made known the Father’s name. No one, He said, knows the Father “but the Son, and he to whom the Son may be pleased to reveal him”, Matthew 11: 27. Think of the Lord undertaking to reveal the Father to certain persons! Then He makes disclosures as to the Spirit’s day, in this gospel particularly that He Himself was going to the Father and that consequent upon that the Spirit would come, the Comforter, who would guide His own into all the truth.

When He says, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”. He was anticipatively referring to the cross, to the laying down of His life. He said, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again”, John 10: 18. Well, His work was complete; not one iota of what was assigned to Him was left undone. Every vestige of the Father’s will was fulfilled, and fulfilled pre-eminently to the satisfaction of His God and Father. He laid down His life and He took it again, part of the completion of His work. He had also instituted the Supper for future generations, that occasion of remembrance for those who own Him as Lord in His absence. Well, all this entered into the Lord’s work, and He says, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”. Think of the Lord being able thus to address the Father in a true and accurate appraisal of His life.

Well, that is pattern for us. None of us will come up to it, for divine perfection is found alone in Jesus; but that is not to lower our standards, it is not to preclude us from following the Model and seeking in the Spirit’s power to express something here of what was demonstrated in perfection in our Lord Jesus. So let us just have our thoughts and minds and affections focussed in this time upon Jesus, the One who is the supreme example to us, “Leaving you a model that ye should follow in his steps”, 1 Peter 2: 21.

In Philippians it is Paul, who had been apprehended whilst in a sinful course, apprehended to serve the Master. He speaks about those who are prepared, serviceable to the Master. Paul was that; he was serviceable himself to his Master, and he lets the Philippians into the secret of what his prayer was, not a prayer in relation to physical needs, but a prayer in relation to the enhancement of their spiritual standing and understanding. So he prays that “your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence”. Evidently their love did abound already; their love came into expression, and there is very, very little that is said in any sense correctively to the Philippians. They were a company marked by love, and yet Paul is praying that their love might abound “yet more and more”. So if the Lord would say something like that to us today, it is not exactly that He is dissatisfied with what He finds; we are not here to discourage anybody. There is love, love in the hearts, I am sure, of all present, but the prayer is that our love might abound yet more and more, that there should thus be an increase in affectionate activity, not what is related to the earth or the world, not related to what is sentimental or anything like that, but, as he says, “that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”.

We were referring in the reading to the character of the day in which we are, a day of corruption, a day of violence, a day of the lowering of standards, morally and in every other way, even educationally. Over our way, if fewer people are properly taught, so that they do not reach the target, well, they make the target more accessible. Well, what a failure and weakness that is. That is not the things that are more excellent, that is bringing things down.

God is not reducing the standard so that more and more attain to it; God is maintaining His standard and He expects us to reach out after it. It is not impossible; Christianity is not, and never has been, a system of glorious impossibilities. Christianity is within the range of the simplest believer and our standards can be elevated so that we are not judging and approving things that are inferior or paltry, things that are corrupt; we are judging and approving the things that are more excellent, as he says, “in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ’s day”. That is, he has an objective, an objective in his prayer, that by maintaining the standard, by having our thoughts, minds and activities related to what is more excellent, we may be “pure and without offence for Christ’s day, being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness”.

Oh, what a prayer that is! Is that something you would like someone else to pray for you? Or would you rather they did not? Would you rather go along in a kind of sub-standard way? go along making do, and contending that we are in a broken day and therefore things can be allowed to drop? A lot of people, you know, hide behind the expression, ‘Well, the Lord knows my capability’ or ‘The Lord knows my desires’. Well, of course, He does. But that is no excuse for lowering the standard. The thing is for each one of us to get our standards raised to the divine standard, to keep before us these things that are more excellent. So Paul’s desire is that they might be “complete as regards the fruit of righteousness”. Well, we are intended to be here in the way of righteousness; that is one of the things we are to pursue, it is one of the features of the kingdom, and it is not to be let go, and we are not to be incomplete, but complete, as regards the fruit of righteousness. So if you know that somebody is praying on these lines you would like to give them some evidence of a result of their prayers. But there is a lot of prayer going on, as I said earlier, that we know nothing about, and maybe it comes into our hearts to do something or to take a certain course of action. And maybe that might be because somebody somewhere has an interest in us, has prayed about us secretly in relation to the course we are on, and, unbeknown to us, God may be answering somebody else’s prayer in relation to ourselves. Well, let us be prepared for that kind of thing and let us have before us Paul’s standard that we should be “complete as regards the fruit of righteousness”.

At the end of Colossians we have Epaphras who. Paul says, was “always combating earnestly for you in prayers, to the end that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God”.

Well, the Colossians would not have known that if Paul had not told them, but, having been enlightened as to the fact, I am sure the Colossians would seek to produce a result. But in any case the prayer goes on, and God hears prayer, God answers prayer. Now that is not to make us slack, as if we can relax because somebody else is doing the praying; that is not in mind at all. But we are to take it on ourselves, the praying, of course, but then the result. We often, maybe, pray for something that is really within our own power in any case to arrive at. Do not let us put things off for a more convenient season, as that governor did in the Acts—“When I get an opportunity”, Acts 24: 25. Perhaps there is something you want to do; perhaps there is some contract you want to fulfil, or some point of achievement you want to arrive at, or some engagement on the Lord’s day that would prevent you from committing yourself to the Supper. Well, do not let us be on the line of procrastination; that is the thief of time. Epaphras was always combating, and that earnestly, to the end that the Colossians might “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God”. That is what God is really looking for; He is looking for persons who give His will the first place, and desire to fulfil it.

I will just close with a reference to Revelation 3, not to dwell on the negative side, but to draw attention to the fact that the Lord is the great Reviewer. The Lord is the final Arbiter.

He looks over things; He looks over our lives; He looks over the course that we are on. He looks over our motives and our actions, reviews them all. He is able to say, “I know thy works”; He knows what our works are; not one of us is outside the range of His view; we are all under scrutiny. “I know thy works”, anything you do, anything you say, any place you go to—the Lord knows. Then He says, “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”. What a solemn thing that is! Maybe some of us here have got a name that we live. We might take certain ground; we might seek to pass muster, to give a good impression. But He says, “and art dead”. He goes on to say, “For I have not found thy works complete before my God”. The whole scope of our activity is looked at; the Lord reviews it.

When it comes to an accurate and true assessment as to Sardis, He has to say, “I have not found thy works complete”. We have been taught that the Sardis church relates primarily to Protestantism, and the Lord says in regard to that, “I have not found thy works complete”. They had gone on a certain way, there was a certain amount that was right and acceptable, but a holding back. And how many of us are liable to get detained in the public profession of Protestantism, ‘not complete’.

“Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard”. Maybe in a meeting, maybe in reading, maybe in private prayer, you received something, heard something. Well, He says, “Keep it”, do not let it go; hold on. Well, I am not going to enlarge on the warning, “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief”.

Then He says, “Thou hast a few names … which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy”. Well, let us be amongst the few. Maybe there are a few names in Melbourne today; not the crowds, not the masses, not the great public edifices of men, but just “a few names”. Are we looking for something grand? something publicly respectable? or are we content to go along with a few names? The Lord knows them, the Lord knows those that are faithful; they are a few, but they are known and He says, “they shall walk with me in white”. That is the reward that is held out, the prospect to be with Christ, approved, taken into favour, because there is some measure of completeness with them. Well, let us all, beloved brethren, be exercised that our own works might be complete to the glory of God.

Address in Melbourne
15 June 1985