Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Luke chapter 18 and reading
for our text verse 1. Luke 18 and verse 1. And he spake a parable unto them
to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. the Gospel according to Luke
chapter 18 and verse 1. And I felt this evening to bring
before you, to bring before me, some incentives to prayer. Very often we get very disheartened,
very downcast, we end up backward in prayer, and we don't pray. and I felt that it would be a
good thing to look at the Word of God and seek that we might
be really encouraged this evening in prayer. What is prayer? Well, in this passage, the Lord
followed up with the parable, a earthly story with a spiritual
meaning, where that immediately follows our text, and he follows
that one with a real life example of two men going up into the
temple to pray. And here not only is the comparison
of two men, but there is a comparison of two prayers as well. Both were said to be praying. And yet the prayer of the Pharisee,
we are told that he stood and prayed thus with himself. God,
I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortionous,
unjust, adulterous, or even as this publican. I fast twice in
the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. That was his so-called prayer.
Then we read of the publicans, standing afar off, would not
lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,
saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. And our Lord tells
us that this man, the publican, the tax collector, the one that
sought mercy, went down to his house justified or free from
guilt, free from condemnation, rather than the other. how much pride was in the prayer
of the Pharisee. And so it's not just any prayer,
it is prayers as set forth before us in the Scriptures. We think
of the Syrophoenician woman, Lord help me, a very short prayer,
but very effectual prayer. What is prayer? It is man, speaking
to God, coming to God through a mediator, through our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, coming to God on His warrant, on His
command, knowing that these scriptures testify that I will for this
be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. They're set before us in the
word many things that we cannot do for ourselves that God can
do for us and the way that he has ordained that he will do
them for us is that we pray and we ask him for these things. We would remember that when we
pray that we are making supplication, we're coming before the God of
heaven and of earth, the King of kings and Lord of lords, never
losing sight of his greatness, his majesty, his might, not only
in those things that we ask him to do, but also who he is, having
a perfect plan and counsel. And so we are not coming with
demands. We are not coming in a way that
We are treating our God like a puppet and He must do exactly
what we say. It's a great mercy that we come, if
the Lord will. And we should remember that many
of our prayers in our lives, many of the prayers of the people
of God, there's been many days, many years, Before they have
been answered, sometimes they've been answered in different ways
than what they thought. Time is a very important thing
regarding prayer. And so we must not be discouraged. And the very parable that is
before us was spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ. that men ought
always to pray and not to faint. In other words, he knows full
well that men are liable to faint. Men are liable to give up praying,
to be disheartened, to withhold prayer. We've sung of it in our
hymns, haven't we? And so we would aim this evening
to encourage in prayer, encourage to wait on the Lord and to look
to Him in that way that He has appointed. And so I want to look
at four headings and really, even if your mind wanders after
those four headings, if those remain with you, those remain
with me, then they alone will give us some meditation, some
help to continue in prayer. Now first one, I'll name them
first, and then we'll go back over and look more deeply into
them. But the first is our Lord's example. May we never forget that. Our
Lord is a real man. He shows us the example of continuing
in prayer. The second is the Word of God
directly exhorting to prayer. Our text is part of this. It's our Lord telling us that
men ought always to pray and not to faint. So we should look
for the Scriptures and be mindful as we read the Word of God of
those direct, clear commands, clear directions, to pray. The third is the experience of
God's dear people in scripture. Right through the scriptures
we read of the lives of God's children and their lives are
lives of prayer. So again as we read through the
word of God and read the lives of the people of God may we Have
this in the back of our minds, where is prayer in their lives? What example do they show the
generations that have followed? The fourth is our own experience
of answers to prayer. We can very easy forget those
times that we have cried to the Lord And he has answered our
prayers, and I would include with this, not only experience
that we have had of the Lord answering our own prayers, but
when we have heard of our fellow Christians, our brethren, sometimes
not even heard of them, we have seen answers to prayer of those
that we walk with. So we're not going there to the
scriptures, We're going to a present day and seeing the Lord's dear
people walking out this, and that is to be an encouragement
to us in the times the Lord has answered our prayers. So let us then go back and look
at these points in some more detail. Firstly, our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. We read in Luke 6 that our Lord
went into a mountain and continued all night in prayer. What an
example that that is. Our Lord, a real man, on earth,
Emmanuel, God with us, great is the mystery of godliness,
God manifest in the flesh. But this part of being a man,
and that man communicates with God through prayer, our Lord
Jesus Christ so clearly walked down. In one way, it is a wonderful
testimony that he truly and really was man. made like unto his brethren,
sin accepted of the seed of Abraham, and praying unto his father. Our text is that men ought always
to pray, not to faint, continuing in prayer. And the Lord did that,
not just one occasion, but many occasions we read of him separating
from his dear disciples, and going on his own to have that
communion fellowship with his father. We would especially remember
that which happened as he neared to the cross, as he comes into
Gethsemane, a garden where he oft resorted with his disciples,
and no doubt many times prayed there. And we see him separating
but a stone's cast from his disciples and praying the same words three
times. Father, if it be possible, let
this cut pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. And we see him pressed down with
the weight of his people's sin imputed on him. laid on him the
iniquity of us all. And it's under that sense of
the weight of sin and in agony that he is praying. What an incentive
that is. When things are weighing upon
us, when our sins are weighing upon us, when we're separated
from our brethren, when we're struggling, in ourselves to fulfil
the will of God and to pray those same words is not vain repetition. If it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Prayer relative to our cup. What is our cup this evening? What is our cup that is in our
hand, put in our hand to drink it, to walk it out? Whenever
we think of that cup, whatever is our lot, our path, what did
our Lord do in that path? He prayed. And he sought that,
even coming apart from his dear disciple. They couldn't help
him. Many times we may feel the same. Brethren cannot help, close
as they may be, as his disciples were, his particular path, they
couldn't. fully enter into it, but he could
go and pray, and you and I can follow our Lord in that path
as well. Later, when the soldiers came,
and Judas came, and Peter had the sword, and our Lord said
to him, put up thy sword within its sheath, thinkest thou not
that I could pray my Father and He presently give me twelve legion
of angels, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled?
How, Lord, subject to the Scriptures being fulfilled, would not pray
to rest them, to twist them, to overturn them? And yet knowing that He could
pray, He could ask for these things, but it would not be right
to ask. You know, again, a real example
of our Lord walking apart. We do not know, of course, what
is before us, but sometimes we have a persuasion of what the
Lord's will and purpose is and what the Lord has told us. And
it governs what we can pray for and what we can't. And with our
Lord, he desired that the scriptures might be fulfilled. We think especially of our Lord
upon the cross, how that many of his utterances were prayers. Father forgive them, for they
know not what they do. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? His last breath, Father, into
Thy hands I commit my spirit. These are His prayers. These are the breathings of prayer
in offering the great sacrifice for sin, in making that atonement
for His people's sins. We think of what is recorded
in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 7 relative to that. We read, who in the days of his
flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him
from death and was heard in that he feared, though he were a son,
Yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and
being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him. And in the previous chapter,
at the close of chapter four, having set forth the Lord Jesus
Christ as our High Priest that is ascended into heaven, that
cannot be touched, not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
he is touched by them, yet tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin. We have this great encouragement
to prayer, to come to the throne of grace. Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time. of need. What an example of prayer. We think of the public and again,
God be merciful to me a sinner. We think of the amount of times
we have need and here is prayer. Find grace to help in times of
need. Maybe not the thorn taken away
like Paul, sword first, but my grace is sufficient for thee. but to go back to John 17, where
our Lord speaks that beautiful high priestly prayer to his Father
on behalf of his people. The chapter begins, These words
spoke Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father. And following that chapter, you
can read through him, the beautiful utterances of prayer, of what
the Lord has done, what he will for his people, that his Father
would keep them from evil. Verse 15, I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. Sanctify them through thy truth,
thy word is truth. And then in verse 20, neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word. This beautiful chapter is the
Lord's prayer for his people, for those immediately there,
his disciples, but for those that should believe, and that
includes us, through their word. He says again, Father I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am
that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Our Lord walked
that path of prayer and we have a little sample here in John
17 of the Lord's intercession in heaven. But he will have it
that his people come present their petitions of his sufferings,
his death, his merits, his name before the Father. May we remember
that the Lord has bidden us to ask in his dear name. But in
this first point, let us not forget our Lord's example, the
path that he walked, that example he set. The Apostle Paul says,
Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ. And where we know
the Apostle Paul's writings, we will know that he also walked
the path of prayer. So may we be encouraged in this. May this give us a real incentive
to pray and to continue in prayer. our Lord's example. But then secondly, the Word of
God. What does the Word of God say
directly concerning prayer? There are many texts, of course,
that we could bring before you this evening. I'll just mention
just a few. In Matthew Our Lord here is speaking. He
says, Our Lord directing to pray and to ask. We think of the Apostle
Paul. mentioned how that he was a follower
of our Lord. In the context of our text here,
we had the parable of the publican and the pharisee. And you might
say, in Saul, the apostle Paul, there was both those characters,
the pharisee first, and then the publican. Because when the
Lord met with him and converted him on the Damascus road, the
thing that he said to Ananias in sending him to him was, Behold,
he prieth, which would seem a strange thing. to be said of someone
that was a Pharisee because they were well known for their prayers,
but really praying this time. And so it's not surprising that
the Lord used, in the inspired Word of God, the Apostle Paul
in giving several directions to We have it with Peter as well,
but with Paul especially, he writes to the Romans and he says
to them in Romans chapter 12 and verse 12, rejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. And you have this
picture of the tribulation, these great troubles. Impatient in
that, enduring in it, and still praying, still hoping, actually
rejoicing in hope. Then when he writes to the Colossians,
he says to them, that they also are to continue in prayer, in
Colossians 4 and verse 2, continue in prayer and watch in the same
with thanksgiving, with all praying also for us, that God would open
unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for
which I am also in bonds." Of course, continuing, it implies
there's been that beginning, beginning to pray. But, as in
our text, the Lord is dwelling upon this tendency, we might
begin, but how to continue? How to be constant? How to be
importunate? how to be continuing when it
doesn't seem to be that those prayers are being answered. And so the scripture exhortation
is continuing in prayer. Then when Paul writes to the
Thessalonians, his first official to them in chapter 5, verse 17,
pray without ceasing. Not again, such a short text,
just like the Lord helped me, three words. But such to the
point, giving that very clear direction, clear message of the
Holy Spirit who is the author, the inspirer of the Word of God. His message to you and to me,
pray, without ceasing. Now I know of course we go about
our daily lives, but very often there can be a breathing of prayer,
but it is meant not to give up, not to stop praying. Still pray,
says the hymn writer, for God will all explain, nor shalt thou
seek his face in vain. Then when he writes to Timothy
in his first epistle and chapter two, he exhorts in the first
verse that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving
of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are
in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. That is, not every
single individual, but all men of every nation, kindred and
tongue, all men, whether they are kings, Whether they're a
poor man or a rich man, whatever station they hold in society,
we're not to think, well, they're excluded from our prayers. We
cannot pray for them, mustn't pray for them. Their direction
here, the Holy Spirit through Paul writing to Timothy is for
all men. And then later on in verse 8
of the same chapter, I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting
up holy hands without wrath and doubting. The very clear directions
of the word of God to pray, to be instant in prayer. how our Lord exhorted to ask,
and it shall be given thee. Seek, and ye shall find not,
and it shall be opened unto you. And he said, if ye, being evil
ye fathers, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him. And so it is in prayer, asking
for the Spirit. The Lord delivers from perhaps
using that excuse in prayer, well, I haven't the Spirit. Well,
unless the prayer is really indicted, and I know it is, then I'm not
going to pray. The Lord says, no, you ask, you
even ask for the Spirit. He gives graceful grace, the
spirit of grace and of supplications, and then he gives that grace
of the answer to those supplications. The Word of God directs us to
pray. Well, there are many, many other
very clear directions, but I want to pass on to the experience
of the Lord's dear people in the Word of God. We sung in our middle hymn of
Moses. This was when the children of
Israel came out of Egypt and they were attacked by Amalek,
attacking the weak. attacking them from behind. And
Moses, he went up the mount and held up his rod. Joshua's fighting
with Amalek. And all the time Moses held up
his rod, then Amalek was beaten. Aaron and Hur held up his hands
so that they didn't fall down. It's a beautiful illustration,
really, a prayer invoking The power of God. On one hand, there's Joshua using
the means, the normal means of fighting with sword and spear,
but there is prayer. The two go together. I often think of the example given,
I think in one of Mr. Anspotton's books, of a two girls
running to catch a train. And they thought that they were
likely to miss it. So one of them said, let us stop
and pray that we might catch the train. The other one said,
no, let us run as fast as we can and pray while we are running. And they were joining the two
things together. Not stopping running and praying. Not just running and not praying. but running and praying. May
that be a word to us as well, the same as what Moses and what
Joshua did. Sometimes we might think of the
brethren. Some are more prone to be men,
women, much of prayer, and others more of action. But in a way,
what a teamwork was here. Israel had these two characters,
Joshua and Moses, and one is praying and one is fighting,
and they are working together, and the Lord gives them deliverance. We think of Solomon in the dedication
of the temple, the longest prayer that is recorded in the Word
of God. And as he sets forth many of
the things that may come upon the children of Israel, and in
each time he is saying, if the people of God come into these
situations, and if they then pray toward this temple, then
hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling place, and when thou hearest,
forgive. It's a beautiful intercessory
prayer, and after he had prayed, We read that the Lord came down,
the sacrifice was kindled from heaven, the smoke filled the
temple, and the Lord visited Solomon in a dream afterwards
and told him that his prayer was answered. It really is a
beautiful example of prayer, especially when we think The
temple was a type of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and
here in prayer it's been dedicated as pointing all of the people
of God in all their times of need to look unto the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Daniel followed that in Babylon,
so many miles away from Jerusalem, And in his day also the temple
was destroyed. But three times a day he opened
his windows toward Jerusalem and prayed, exactly as what Solomon
had prayed and envisaged the children of Israel would do,
and had asked that the Lord would hear and answer those prayers. And how much they were answered
in Daniel's case. We think of Elisha and Elijah,
Elijah especially. He's referred to in the epistle
of James. And we're told there, Elias was
a man subject to like passions as we are, in James 5 verse 17. And he prayed earnestly that
it might not rain. It rained not on the earth by
the space of three years and six months. He prayed again,
and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. You know, what an example of
prayer. The Lord bringing about His counsels,
His purposes, and there is a man just like us. And how we see
that when he went to flee from Jezebel to Mount Horeb, how he
needed strengthening, how he needed help, just like we are. But here's an example set before
us. The Apostle Paul often in his
epistles, in fact, probably all of them, he asks for an interest
in their prayers. Whoever he wrote to, he assured
them that he was praying for them, and he sought an interest
in their prayers. He valued the prayers of others,
and he knew that his prayers for others were not worthless,
they weren't useless. It was walking out a path the
Lord had appointed. We think of Peter, when Peter
was in prison, he was asleep, he wasn't praying, his hands
were bound, his feet in the stalks, the doors shut and guarded. But
the church was praying. The church was in the house of
John Mark, and there they were praying. And the Lord heard,
the Lord answered, sent his angel, Loose Peter. Peter came to the
house, and when he knocks and Rhoda was sent to listen, she
hears Peter's voice, and She didn't open it. For joy, she
runs back in and tells them, and they didn't believe her.
They said, it's his angel. He continued knocking. When they
opened the door, there he was. You might say, how did the Lord
answer such doubting, unbelieving prayers? Prayers that, why do
you think they would have rejoiced immediately? Why, this is what
we've been praying for, instead of saying, it can't be him. But
it's encouragement to us, isn't it? When we feel the unbelief,
we feel the doubts, we feel the same as them. The Lord heard
their prayers. A church praying for one of its
members in distress, in need. We mentioned before about the
Apostle Paul. Behold, he prayed. The first
time that he really, really prayed. And then we read the time that
he was in prison in Philippi with Silas. Again, feet in the
stops, being scourged. And there they were singing the
praises of God and praying unto God. God sends a great earthquake. The doors open, their bands are
loosed. The centurions going to kill
himself, thinking the prisoner's escaped. And Paul cries out to
him, do thyself no harm, we're all here. And the Lord used it
for the conversion of the whole of that centurion's house. They
spake unto them the word of the Lord. He sprang in, what must
I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. what things were done by prayer. You think of the apostles in
the pattern that was set right at the, in the early church,
right at the beginning in Acts of the Apostles as they begin
the record of how they are continuing to walk. You have in chapter
one and verse 14, the listing of the apostles, the 12 apostles,
And then these all continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and
with his brethren, a prayer meeting set before us there right at
the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles. And there were
several times when they had gathered for prayer, the house was shaken,
the Lord blessed them when they prayed. The example of the Lord's
dear people may be Be mindful of this as we read through the
scriptures. May we always think, and may
from this time forth we think of this, what are they doing?
Are they praying? How are they using prayer? What
answers did they have? How did the Lord appear for them
and help them? What a difference prayer made. So we have the experience of
the Lord's dear people in Scripture. But then lastly we have our experience
of answers to prayer. We are very prone to forget,
to lay aside and to really not think of what the Lord has done
for us in prayer. The devil is very, very quick
as well to take away from us What a miracle, what a wonder
prayer was. There are many times that I've
been in a difficult situation, or something lost, or something
that we needed the Lord to appear. There's been much prayer, and
the Lord has answered. But then the devil has said,
well, it would have happened anyway. That wasn't really an
answer to prayer. and he minimises it. We have
it in the Proverbs, it is nought, it is nought, saith the buyer.
When he goeth his way, then he boasteth, like someone answering
an advert, something is for sale, and the person comes along and
they say, oh look, there's a dent here, and there's something wrong
here, and there's something wrong there, and they beat them down,
they get them for a lower, lower price, then they go their way
and they boast to everyone what a good deal they've got. But
we have the devil trying to do that as well with the people
of God, wasn't really prayer. It's not, it's not, it's no real
answer, no real miracle. And he would try to rob God of
his glory and the praise due to his name. You remember when
the Lord healed those 10 lepers and only one returned to give
glory to God. Where are the nine? In the book
of Samuel, we have the example of Hannah, and she comes after
she'd had Samuel. For this child I prayed, and
the Lord hath given me my petition that I have asked of him. Clear
answer to prayer, Samuel. But in the next chapter, we read
her in prayer again. This time she's not mentioning
Samuel. It is all in praise. All which
is speaking to God is in praise, in thanksgiving, is in adoring. And it'd be a wonderful thing,
a blessed thing, if our prayers always resulted in that. It is
to offer our supplications with thanksgiving. Sometimes we leave
that out. But where the Lord answers to
prayer, then there's that returning again with thanksgiving, and
that reinforces what has been done, reinforces something the
Lord has done for us, appeared for us, and doesn't it allow
it to just be a coincidence, or would have happened anyway,
but we're able to more clearly see that the Lord has done it. Sometimes I use the device, if
you like, in my mind, going back to when I was in need, going
back to before the Lord appeared, before that appearing in Providence,
before the help given, and to imagine myself, what if this
had not have happened? What if the Lord hadn't have
heard prayer? What if it was in the same position? I was still
asking for this, still praying for it. And in the light of that,
and then realizing, well, actually, the Lord has appeared, then we
can give thanks clearly. And so may we think back, you
and I, on what the Lord has done in our lives in answer to prayer,
and maybe if we struggle with ourselves, to think of others
that we've known, parents, loved ones, brethren in the Church
of God, those who have prayed to the Lord, asked of Him, they've
been able to testify to us and to the church, how the Lord had
answered their prayers, appeared for them, and that's been strengthening
to the brethren. And where that is the case with
us, let us not be slow to speak to the Lord's honour and glory
of what he has given to us and appeared for us in answer to
prayer. You know, the strength of prayer
How the Lord could ever give to a hell-deserving sinner anything
is what the Lord has accomplished at Calvary. It is the payment
that has been made, the debt that has been settled, the peace
God and sinners reconciled in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
that throne of grace, the mercy seat, sprinkled with the precious
blood of Christ. That is why we can come boldly,
And that is why the Lord can righteously and holily give answers
to prayer, not for our good, not for what is in us. May we
always remember that in prayer. We're not bringing our good works
and saying, Lord, I've done my bit, you do yours. Remember our
text and the context of it, the example for mercy, and yet very often
we hear ourselves say or others say that, well, the Lord knows
my life, how can he ever give me anything? How can he answer
my prayers? It's not that we should sin that
grace might abound, but prayer is appointed for sinners. Sinners
to approach a holy God sinners to plead the precious name of
Jesus and to ask and to stand by and see as the Lord works
wonders and appears for us and answers our petitions in his
own time and way. But until he answers them, may
we know that we are walking in the path our Lord walked. May
we know that we are walking in the path that the scriptures
exhort us to May we know that we are walking in the path that
the dear saints of old in the Scriptures walked out as well.
And may we know that we're walking in the path that I trust the
Lord has already given us to experience those answers to prayer. The Lord bless us then with being
encouraged to this end, the end in our text, that men ought always
to pray, and not to fight. Amen.