Ron Dunn Podcast - Principles of Intercession

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

There is no defence against intercessory prayer. It is the most powerful weapon we have as a believer is intercessory prayer.

You can pray a prayer today that can be answered years later. Jesus did this in John 17 because he prayed not only for his immediate disciples, but he prayed for all those who would believe on his name. And every time a new Christian is born into the family of God, the prayer of Jesus is answered all over again. And you may not be able to leave your children an inheritance of money, but did you know that you could leave them an inheritance of answered prayer? And you could begin tonight praying for your children when they are older and married and

praying for their children and praying for their lives. Even long after you're gone, God can be answering prayers that you offered in their behalf. It is the secret weapon of the church. You can use it anywhere, under any circumstances, just the very speed of thought. You can send that prayer and that power to any part on the face of the earth. But I think the greatest thing about intercession being the secret weapon of the church is there is absolutely no defense

against this weapon. The lost man for whom you pray has absolutely no defense against intercession. Now he can refuse to listen to my sermon and he can sit here and look around the building and think about a thousand things. He may even refuse to attend your revival. And you might try to witness to him and he can stop his ears and you can give him a track and he can refuse to read it. And he can build up one defense after another, but he has absolutely no defense against intercession. He can't stop it, and there is not anything he can do to keep God from working in his life in answer to prayer. I read an article last week, five things necessary to win people to Jesus. Neither the Holy Spirit or prayer was mentioned in those five things.

We have long forgotten that prayer is God's method of evangelism. It is a method of evangelism that we have failed to use and appropriate. And in this series of intercessions, what I'm praying that god will do is to pour out upon us a spirit of intercession and lead us to a ministry of intercession i have already begun to pray that god would so move in our church that before long we'll have people praying around the clock 24 hours a day seven days a week just wrap our church and its ministry in a blanket of intercession. I'm anxious to see what God can do with a church that does that. I'm reminded that on the day of Pentecost and before Pentecost,

they prayed for 10 days. They prayed for 10 days and preached for 10 minutes and 3,000 souls were saved. And you've heard it said so often today, we pray for ten minutes and preach for ten days and we have thirty people saved, we say Pentecost all over again. I am convinced and more and deeper convinced of it every day that I study this truth out of the Word of God, that it is the one lost secret of the New Testament church. And that if a church under the illumination of the Holy Spirit can recapture the ministry of intercession

and apply itself and use this secret weapon of the church that God can work miracles such as our eyes have never seen. And what I want to do tonight is bring to you five principles of intercession. My usual way of preaching is to take a passage of Scripture and preach from that and expound that. But tonight I'm going to be taking a number of verses, a number of passages, because we're going to be looking at some reasons, some principles of intercession. And as I have talked with various individuals about this matter of interceding and praying

for the lost, I find that one question comes up, well, can I pray with assurance for lost people? Can I really pray with assurance for somebody else? How is it that here is a person who doesn't know God and here is a person who doesn't want to know God, but I can begin to pray for that person and that person doesn't want to have anything to do with God, but I can pray for him and God will work in his life. How can that be?

Can I pray, can I intercede with assurance? And I believe you can. And what I'm going to do tonight is to give to you the five basic grounds for intercession, or the five basic principles for intercession. I call them the encouragements for intercession because as I begin to glean these from the Word of God and put them down on paper, my own heart was greatly encouraged to intercede. And what I hope the Spirit of God will do for you tonight through the ministry of the Word is to encourage you in this matter of intercession. All right, five principles. Principle number one is the principle of appropriated promises. We have the right to appropriate the promises of God.

You remember a couple of weeks ago as I preached on the authority of the intercessor, one of the authorities that the intercessor has is to claim and appropriate the promises of God. Every promise that God gives us is the coin of the realm. It's our spending money. And I can take that promise and I can appropriate it to meet any need that I have in my own life or in the lives of others. Now, the verse that I want to fix your attention on right now is Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. You remember in this story, in this passage is the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus.

He had everything this world could offer, and yet he still was not satisfied. And he said, What must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, You've done all of these other commandments. Only one thing you lack. Sell everything that you have.

Give it to the poor and come and follow me. And the Bible says his countenance fell and he went away because he had great possessions. In verse 23, And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again and said unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? Now, in the King James Version, that phrase, for them that have trust in riches, is in your text. In the other translations, your newer translations, it is not there because it is not in the Greek text.

It is not a part of the Greek text. Let's read verse 24 again the way it is in the New Testament. And the disciples were astonished at his words, but they were astonished. Jesus said, It's hard for a rich man to be saved. Well, they just couldn't believe that because the Jews taught that a man who had wealth, this meant the blessings of God was upon him. He wouldn't have money unless God had favored him and blessed him. And so when Jesus said that it's hard for a rich man to be saved,

they couldn't believe it. They were astonished out of measure. But Jesus answered again and saith unto them, children, how hard is it for anybody to enter into the kingdom of God? He said, not just rich people, but it's just flat hard to enter into the kingdom of God because straight is the gate and narrow is the way. And a man has to humble himself and take everything of his life and dump it at the gate before he can enter in. Jesus said it's hard for anybody to enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible. Now underscore that last phrase. With God all things are possible. Jesus is talking about the salvation of any man. It is hard for any person to enter into the kingdom of God. And some of you have some lost people on your heart and you have been reluctant to pray for them because it just seems so hard

for that man to be saved. He is so stubbornly entrenched in his lostness. He so stubbornly refuses to listen to the word of God. And you've had a little problem in confidently praying for that man to be saved. Who can be saved? Jesus said, with man, impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Now listen, this truth revolves on that little preposition, with, W-I-T-H It is the Greek preposition pros, which means face to face. Face to face. What Jesus is saying is not God can do anything. That is not what Jesus is saying. That's true, but that's not what Jesus is saying.

Jesus is not saying all things are possible for God to do. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, when you take this matter of a man being saved and with men impossible, when you put it face to face with man, when you face man with the problem of getting somebody saved,

you have to say, it's impossible. But when you face God with this situation, it is possible. That's what Jesus is saying. He's saying that when you take the impossible, you take the impossibilities of life,

if it's a rich man or it's anybody who's lost, and you are faced with the big task of somehow getting them to Jesus, if you face that yourself, it's an impossible task. But face to face with God, anything is possible. That simply means you take the impossibility and you stand it up to God. You face God with it.

You link it to God and the impossible becomes a possibility. And that encourages me to pray for lost people. That encourages me just to believe that God can do anything, that there isn't any problem, there isn't any need, there isn't any difficulty. If I take that difficulty and that problem and that serious spiritual infirmity in the life of a man, and I face that with God, and I face God with that and link it to God, it suddenly becomes possible. I read over in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, I believe it is, where the apostle Paul describes what

those Christians used to be. He describes them as adulterers, fornicators, drunkards, sorcerers, idolaters, thieves, and murderers. What if you had a congregation like that? What if you were sent out to preach to a congregation like that? You'd think that's an impossible task. And Paul goes on and says, and such were some of you. You were just like that, but Jesus Christ saved you. And I think when you and I begin to enter into this matter and this ministry of intercession, the first thing we need to do is to realize that we have the right to appropriate all the promises of God. And Jesus promises that

you can take anything that seems impossible to you, and if you will bring that face-to-face with God, that thing becomes possible. All right, the second principle is the principle of answered prayer. The principle of answered prayer. Someone asked me just not long ago, do you mean that we can really pray for lost people to be saved? You mean that we can honestly pray for lost people to be saved? First John chapter 5, verses 14 and 15 are the verses that we are going to look at under this principle of answered prayer.

And encouragement for intercession. How is it that I can pray with assurance for people to be saved? Because of the principle of answered prayer. 1 John 5, verse 14. And this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know, there's faith, if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know

that we have the petitions that we have desired of him. All right, let's look at verse 14 again. Here is the principle of answered prayer. The promise is that if we ask, we have desired of him. All right, let's look at verse 14 again. Here is the principle of answered prayer. The promise is that if we ask, we have confidence. I like that. He starts off by saying, this is the confidence. Listen, you're never going to make it in intercession if you don't pray with confidence.

You must come boldly to the throne of grace. If you're going to stand against Satan in the warfare of prayer, you must come with confidence to the throne of grace. And he says, this is the confidence. And really that word means fearless freedom of speech. Fearless freedom of speech. That means when you come into the presence of God, your tongue is loosed and you could

just ask for the moon. You have got that much confidence in God. And you are fearless, You'll ask for anything. Nothing dismays you because you know that all things are possible when they're brought to the face of God. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Now, is it God's will for lost people to be saved? It most certainly is. Second Peter chapter 3, verse 9, he says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should be brought to repentance.

1 Timothy 2, verse 4, God is willing that all men might be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. Now you can apply that to a thousand and one things. Everything that you know is according to God's will. You can pray with confidence according to God's will. You can pray with confidence according to God's will. And I believe that you and I can pray with assurance for lost people to be saved because we are praying according to the will of God. And I've heard some people pray for

lost people and they'll end their prayer like this and they'll say, Lord, if it's your will that so-and-so be saved. And I want to just cry out in the middle of that praying. And the next time I'm in that situation, I'm going to do it. I just want to cry out and say, you stop praying like that, if it's your will. While if it wasn't God's will, Jesus Christ wouldn't have died on the cross. If it wasn't God's will, he wouldn't have given us the Bible. If it wasn't God's will, he wouldn't have sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us. If it wasn't God's will, he wouldn't have instituted the church. If it wasn't God's will, he wouldn't have sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us. If it wasn't God's will,

he wouldn't have instituted the church. If it wasn't God's will, he wouldn't have it in the book that we can ask anything according to God's will and he hears us. And it is God's will that men be saved. So you have the principle of answered prayer. Principle number three

is the principle of absolute propitiation. Now, this is very important, and right here is where we get to the crux of the matter. 1 John 2. 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2. I want you to see something tonight, perhaps that you've never seen before. My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not.

And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now he's talking about Jesus Christ. Now notice verse 2. And he is the propitiation for our sins. Do you believe that? We believe that. Now notice that next statement. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Propitiation is a word that very simply means covering. Covering. A covering of our sin. Jesus Christ is the covering, the atonement. He is the propitiation for our sins, those of us who are saved.

But listen, not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Now there is a doctrine, and that doctrine is absolute propitiation. And that doctrine says that when Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross, he made atonement not simply for those who would be saved, but He made atonement for everybody, even though they

would not be saved. Did you know that no man goes to hell for his sins? Let me read John chapter 3. John chapter 3, verse 18. Jesus has already paid for the sins of the whole world. John chapter 3 tells us what sends a man to hell. Verse 18, John chapter 3. Let's begin with verse 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might

be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. Why? Why is he condemned? Because he drinks, because he lies, because he steals. Why is he condemned? He is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The only reason a man goes to hell is not because of all the sins that he has committed. He goes to hell because he refuses to accept the payment of those sins which was made by Jesus by his shed blood on the cross of Calvary. Jesus is the propitiation, the covering for the sins of the whole world.

Every lost man in this world already has his sins paid for by the blood of Jesus. But he must appropriate it. He must receive Christ to be his own personal sin bearer. But when Jesus made atonement, he made atonement for the whole world. For the whole world. It is not a limited atonement. It was a universal atonement.

Now there is the ground of intercession. There is one of the most important principles of intercession, the principle of absolute propitiation. You have a perfect right. This is why Jesus said, if you shall ask anything in my name. Why do you suppose the Bible over and over again, the New Testament over and over again says that we are to pray in the name of Jesus? because the name of Jesus stands for all that Jesus has done. What has Jesus done? He has shed his blood and he has made atonement

for the sins of the whole world. So I can go and in the name of Jesus, and that name represents his blood atonement, in the name of Jesus, I can pray and can claim lost souls to be saved because it is merely claiming what is rightfully God's already. I am claiming what Jesus purchased on the cross. Now, if he hadn't done that, I wouldn't be able to pray for them.

But Jesus has already purchased them. They belong to him by the right of redemption and the right of atonement. You know what my job is? You know what your job is as a Christian? It's to go out into the world and to claim and possess His possessions. And I can go in the ministry of intercession and I can lay claim on lost souls because Jesus has already purchased them with His blood. All right. Next, there is the principle of applied priesthood. Principle of applied priesthood.

Listen to what the Bible says in 1 Peter 2, verses 5 and 9. You also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Listen to verse 9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. Revelation chapter 1 and verse 6, it says that God hath made us to be kings and priests. Now, are you a good Baptist? Have you ever read this little green book on what Baptists believe and why they believe it?

Did you know that one of the fundamental tenets of Baptist faith is the priesthood of all believers? The priesthood of all believers. You are a kingdom of priests. You know what a priest is? A priest is a person who goes to God on the behalf of someone else. A priest is someone who has access to the throne room of God on the behalf of someone else. That's what the high priest did in the Old Testament. He went, first of all, he got himself right, cleansed. Then he went into that Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement for the sins of the whole people.

When Jesus, our high priest, entered into that Holy of Holies, not made with hands, but into heaven itself and poured out his shed blood there before the Father for the redemption of sins, he was going to the Father on our behalf. Now Jesus says, as my Father has sent me, even so send I unto you the world. You are a kingdom of priests and you are to approach the presence of God on the behalf of other people. The priesthood of believers. Now I want to show you how this works. I discovered something tremendous the other day in a story that I have just read a thousand times over.

Luke chapter 5. You remember the man that had the palsy? And these four friends brought him. And the crowd to hear Jesus preach was so large and so compacted together they couldn't even get through. And so they went to the roof and they raised the roof and they lowered him down. All right. Luke chapter 5, beginning with verse 18. And behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with palsy.

And they sought means to bring him in and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went up on the housetop and led him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.

Now notice verse 20. And when he saw their faith. I drew a little circle around T-H-E-I-R. And when he saw, when Jesus saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Now do you see what I saw there?

That's intercession. That's priesthood. When Jesus saw their faith, He said, Your sins are forgiven. It was their faith, it was their faith that wrought that man's forgiveness. It was their faith.

I want you to know, it is your faith that God honors in the ministry of intercession. Alright? Let's look at this again in Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. Luke 7, beginning with verse 6. The centurion wanted Jesus to come and heal his servant.

Then Jesus went with him. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee, but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers. And I say unto one, Go, and he goeth. And to another, Come, and he cometh. And to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

Now notice verse 9. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent returning to the house found the servant whole that had been sick. It was the centurion's faith in the healing power of Jesus that brought about the healing of his servant from the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't say anything about the servant, whether the servant had faith or not, but it was the faith of an intercessor. And Jesus honored his faith.

Now if we had time, we could go and look at some other scriptures. In Matthew 17, verse 15, I believe it is, you remember when the man that had the son possessed of a devil, he came to Jesus on behalf of his son and said, Have mercy, have mercy on my son. And Jesus cast the demon out of his son. Why? Because his father had interceded for him. In Matthew chapter 15, the woman from Canaan, she had a daughter who was sick,

and I believe that it's in verse 17 in Matthew chapter 15, where that woman comes to Jesus and she says, have mercy on me for my daughter is sore vexed. She doesn't say have mercy on my daughter. She says, have mercy on me. She had the place of an intercessor. She had taken the place of intercession and the burden for the suffering of her daughter was so great and her anguish and her identification with that daughter's condition was so intense. She went to Jesus and she said, Have mercy on me and heal my daughter. And I want you to know when God can use you as an intercessor

is when you come to the place where your heart is burdened and broken for those who are outside the will of God and those who are lost, and you can cry out to God with that faith that lays hold and say, Have mercy on me and do something for that lost man. And God honors it. And you ought to be encouraged to enter into the ministry of intercession because of the principle of applied priesthood. I want you to know

that you are a priest of God and you are expected of the Lord to go into his presence and intercede on the behalf of others. There is one more, and it is the principle of available power. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 16, beginning with verse 18. You remember this is that great confession at Caesarea Philippi when Simon Peter had revealed to him by the Father that Jesus Christ was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Verse 18, Jesus says, And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth

shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. The Greek says literally in verse 19 that whatever you bind on earth will have already been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have already been loosed in heaven. There is the principle again of appropriation. It's already been done, now you must appropriate it. Notice what Jesus says, I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And whatever you bind shall be bound, and whatever you loose shall be loosed. Now I've heard this verse preached and explained so many times this way, that the church is indestructible and no matter how much the devil attacks it, and no matter how much the devil assaults it, no matter how much the devil fights the church, the gates of hell will not prevail fights the church, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And when the devil attacks the church and hell attacks the church, the church will stand. And we've had the picture there of the church being on the defensive. But there's one thing wrong with that. Have you ever known of a city to go to war and take with

it the city gates? When a city goes to war, it doesn't take with it its gates. It leaves its gates hooked there to the wall. Jesus is not picturing here the church on the defensive. He is picturing the church on the offensive. He is saying, I'm going to build my church. You are to bind and you are to loose. And when you exercise the authority that I have given to you, the gates of hell will have to yield to you. They must yield. They won't stand. And God expects the church of the living God to assault the gates of hell and to go inside that gate and to take from those which belong to the devil

and spoil his goods. And Jesus says when you attack, when you mouth the offensive, the gates of hell, they have to yield. There is no question about it. Listen, evangelism, winning people to Jesus, is not our going out in the day and trying to win a victory for Jesus. Do you know what evangelism is? It is going out on the field of battle and picking up the spoils of the victory that Christ won at Calvary. We fight a defeated enemy. And when I take the place of intercession,

when I make myself available to God for the Holy Spirit to pray through and to witness through, and I go out in the power of the Spirit, the gates of hell must yield to me. They have to. They don't have any choice. Because Jesus has already won the victory. And he says, what you bind on earth will have already been bound in heaven. What you loose on earth will have already been loosed in heaven. The principle of available power.

Well, how is this power released? We have all this power in heaven and earth. How is it released? Let me read James chapter 5 and verse 16 for our final verse. The apostle says, James 5, 16, Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed.

Now notice the last sentence in that 16th verse. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Now I'm going to read that out of the Amplified Translation. And what the Amplified Translation is, is a translation that amplifies and expands the meaning of the Greek text.

It is one of the best study Bibles that's ever been translated because it brings out all the meanings and the ramifications of the Greek which the English just cannot bring out. Let me read that in the Amplified translation. The earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working. Praise the Lord. What is it that makes this tremendous power available?

It is the heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man. Now, if you're not righteous, forget about it. And he's talking here about practical righteousness, not imputed righteousness, because everybody who's saved has imputed righteousness. We are righteous in God's sight. He's talking about everyday, down-to-earth holiness, right with God-ness. When a man is right with God and he continues in that prayer, his prayer, his continued prayer, makes tremendous power available,

dynamic in its working. Now, friend, if that doesn't encourage you to pray for lost people and pray for the needs of God's people to be met and pray for broken homes to be restored and pray for addicts to be cured and healed, I don't know what will. I say it again, the matter of intercession is the secret weapon of the church. And we've been falling all over ourselves trying to go out here and win victories for Jesus when all the time we've had all the power of God himself available at our knees. At our knees. I want the Spirit of God to encourage you to pray for the lost to be saved.

You have every right to pray with assurance and pray with confidence because God has made tremendous power available that's dynamic in its working and it is through the heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man. Now I want us to bow our heads for just a moment. Every head bowed, The continued prayer of a righteous man.