Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to 1 Thessalonians 5, 7. 1 Thessalonians 5, I said
7 and meant 17. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17. Pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. This morning I'd like to try to speak for a few minutes
on this blessed subject of prayer. A subject that is so vital, a
subject that's so wonderful, but a subject that is so mysterious
that the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who must and does
pray, readily admits he knows so little about it. There's no telling how many books,
I mean you go to any religious bookstore and find books that
have been written on the subject of prayer. But after you've read
everything that a man has to say about prayer, you know just
as little as you did before you started. Here's the truth of
the matter. If we're going to be taught anything
concerning the glory of God, anything concerning God's will,
God's purpose, anything concerning prayer, the Spirit of God is
going to have to teach us, and here's where He's going to teach
us. out of this book right here. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. Now I know this. I know that
the Spirit of God teaches God's people through God's Word. I know that. So therefore Let's
make much of what the Lord has to say. And if the Lord blesses
it to our hearts and understanding, we'll hear. If He doesn't, we're not going
to hear. So, I know that God's Word is filled with the teaching,
the revelation of this glorious grace. And since we truly want
to know, he said, ask. He said, you don't have because
you don't ask. Remember when the disciples said,
Lord, teach us to pray. You know what they were saying?
We don't know how. Spirit of God helpeth our infirmities. Why? Because we don't know what
to pray for. I don't know what to ask for. I don't know the
spirit in which to ask. I just don't know. But here's
the thing. I want to pray. I must pray. You ever found yourself just
waking up in the middle of the night, and there you are, you're
praying. The Spirit of God has drawn your
heart to call unto the Lord. On the bed, in the midnight watches. And you're so thankful. Lord,
I'm so thankful that I could talk to you. I don't know what
to say. Would you say something to me?
Lord, would you teach me something? I know this. Prayer is the natural
response. of the new heart. Not the natural
response of the old man. But prayer is a response wrought because of a work of
grace in the heart. That truth is gloriously set
forth in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Here was the way it
was. After Saul of Tarsus, Paul the
Apostle, was converted, he related, after he was converted, of what
he formerly considered himself to be. I mean a real, you know,
warrior. and lover of God. Here's what
he said concerning his faithfulness to God. Circumcised the eighth
day. That's according to the law. Stock of Israel. God's chosen
people nationwide to be a picture of His chosen people in Christ. They were a picture of the tribe
of Benjamin Hebrew of the Hebrews, touching the law of Pharisee,
concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. Here was a man who was a Pharisee,
who was like that Pharisee that went into the temple along with
the publican. Remember that? They went into
the temple to pray and that Pharisee stood and He said, God, praying
with himself, he said, I thank thee that I am not as other men
are. But in reality, all Saul of Tarsus,
the Pharisee, or every other person, me, you, all of us, before
we were converted, in reality, we were nothing more than hypocrites.
that loved to be seen and heard of men. That was it. We wanted
to be seen. We wanted some attention. But
when Saul of Tarsus was converted on the road to Damascus, blinded
by the light of God's glory and Almighty God had him led into
that city of Damascus and sent him to a house of a man named
Judas and then sent a certain disciple, you know, named Ananias
to go over there And talk to him, and Ann and I said, I've
heard of him. And the Lord said, he's a chosen
vessel unto me. Preach to the people, preach
to my people. This is what the Lord said about
Saul of Tarsus. Behold, he prayeth. He was there
praying now. There was a former rebel against
God, one dead in trespasses and sins and therefore unable to
pray. Anybody says that they prayed
to God before they were alive is contradicting the revelation
of God's Spirit. We were dead. Dead. When God calls a man out of darkness,
now he's going to pray. It's just a response. A baby, as tender a subject as
this is, a baby that comes forth as mother's womb. Do you know how you're going
to know that baby is alive? It's going to cry. And you know what happens if
it makes no response? It's stillborn. There's no life. There's no response. There's nothing. A man, a woman, born of God,
prays. They pray. That's the response
of the heart. And now here's a rebel, former
rebel, and praying with a sense of need. Never needed God before. Praying for the first time with
some knowledge of who He is. He expressed that in Romans 7. What did He say concerning Himself?
Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? And praying with the knowledge
of who God is. On the road to Damascus, when
the Lord stopped him, he said, Saul, Saul, who are you? Who
are you? I'm Jesus of Nazareth, the one
you're persecuting. Lord, what would you have me
to do? What would you have me? And now
here he is praying, desiring direction, desiring mercy from
the one who rules in heaven and earth and has mercy and compassion
on whomsoever he will. Before, he was breathing out
threatenings against God's people, and now here he is, breathing
out for communion with God. Those that know him, that's what
they do. They want to know the Lord. You write this down, whenever
Almighty God calls a man or a woman out of darkness, calls them into
life, you know what they do? They pant. after God. This is what David said, Psalm
42, 1, as the heart, the deer panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee. Oh God, I want to hear. God's
people want to hear. They want communion. They want
to pray. They want to speak to. They want
to hear from the God of all grace. So I want us to look for just
a few minutes at a passage of scripture And actually it's in
Psalm 70. Turn over to Psalm 70, and I
want to just read. In Psalm 70, there's five verses,
and actually I'm only going to look at the fifth verse. And
I'm going to make a few points on it, and we'll be done on this
saying of prayer. And I pray the Lord bless these
words to our heart. Like I said, now, the only thing
we're going to know concerning prayer is what God teaches us
through God's Word. But let's just look at Psalm
chapter 70. I'm going to just read those five verses. Make
haste, O God, to deliver me. Make haste to help me, O God. Let them be ashamed and confounded
that seek after my soul. Let them be turned backward and
put to confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back
for a reward of their shame that say, aha, aha. Let all those
that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee, and let such as
love Thy salvation say continually, Let God be praised. Now here's
this last verse. I want you to notice. Here is a summing up of this
prayer that David just prayed. And this right here, this summing
up, is where we learn much concerning prayer. He's praying is what
he's doing. Now listen, as he sums up this prayer, he says,
but I am poor and needy. Make haste unto me, O God. Thou
art my help and my deliverer, O Lord, make no tarrying. Now here's the thing that I know
concerning prayer. And the only way I know this
is that this is what the Spirit of God moved upon that man right
there to write. Here's the first thing I know.
There is, when we pray, there is a confession of what we are. What did David say? But I am
poor and needy. Now, ultimately, and here's the
first thing that we must realize, we want to fly to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Without a doubt, now this psalm
right here, this psalm is concerning and I know this for a fact because
it's what the Lord told the two on the road to Emmaus in the
book of Luke. It started with Moses and all
the scriptures, the prophets, all the scriptures, he expounded
to them those things concerning himself. So I can tell you for
a fact that that first line in verse 5, but I am poor and needy,
let me ask you this, who was the one who being rich, made himself and became for our
sakes poor that through his poverty we might be rich. Who came from
the realm of glory and took upon himself the form of sinful flesh
and humbled himself and made himself of no reputation, no
man ever was humbled like he humbled himself. We can't do
that. I mean, I try to humble myself. I'll tell you, I'm going
to humble myself and I'm so proud of it. I'm just, you know, well,
I'm truly humbled. This is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but I am poor and needy. But also, with His people being
one with Him, and you, that, you understand what I'm saying
right here. We can all enter in to this state right here. We can say with some understanding
he knew exactly what he was saying right there. I am poor and needy. He humbled himself. Don as the servant of God. He made himself answerable for
all his people And his people in him know something
of that humiliation, but not as he do. We know in part. We, once proud and arrogant in
the darkness of unbelief, thinking ourselves to be something when
we were actually nothing, now we can confess. Every believer
will say this, I am poor and I am needy. And I'm telling you
that the longer you sit under the gospel and you're taught,
the more you know it. The older we get, the more the
Lord is pleased to reveal to us, the more we realize. I'm
needy. Last weeks, last Thursdays, last
Sundays, last Wednesdays, last Sundays. I can't go on that. I got to hear His Word right
now. I need Him right now. So we see something of the inward
corruption because of the presence of sin. We see something of that
unsettled affection of the old man. We see something of the
effects of original pollution inherited from our mother's womb. And now in prayer, we honestly
admit what we are. When we pray, we can, on the
authority of the Word of God, approach the Lord and say, Lord,
I call upon you as a poor and needy sinner. That's the best
place you'll ever start. Knock, knock, knock. Not able,
not capable. I'm poor and needy. And look
at the next thing right there. Make haste unto me, O God. Here's another thing I learned
about prayer that I didn't know. Concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
again, I'm going to go back to the Lord. Truly, this supplication
was answered. He truly prayed. I'm poor and
needy. Made himself so. Made himself
answerable. And then could say, make haste
unto me, O God. And the Lord God of heaven did.
You know, when he was crucified, I've read, I've read that many
times those that were crucified suffered for days and days and
days. Now in the case of the two thieves,
the next day was going to be the Passover, and there was the
Passover himself. The one that God would say, when
I see the blood, I'm going to pass over you. There was the
Passover himself, fulfilling all the types, the type that
had been for years and years and years and years, you know,
celebrated by the Jews. There was the Passover, and there
was two thieves with him on each side. Well, the Jews didn't want
to, you know, defile themselves, you know, and let there be a
crucified person hanging on a cross there on their holy day. So they
said, would you, you know, would you break their legs so they
can't hold themselves up anymore? And so they came to the two Jews,
the two thieves, and they broke their legs because they weren't
dead. But the Lord had already given up the ghost. Here was
the Lord Jesus Christ on the morning of His crucifixion. You
know, He had gone through that trial all night before and Peter
had denied Him three times and you know what happened. And here
He was on the morning of His crucifixion. There He was condemned
by those that didn't know Him. He was nailed to the tree and
He suffered. According to God's everlasting
covenant of grace, and before evening, he was in paradise. With that
thief, he cried out for mercy of the Lord. He says, but I'm
poor and needy, make haste unto me, O God. But again, to every
child of promise, everyone that God has everlastingly loved in
Christ, there's a plea right there from us. And we can ask
that very same thing. And obviously, it's not forbidden.
I mean, does the Lord do all things according to His will
and purpose? Yes, sir. Is He going to do everything
according to His timing? Yes, sir. But we can pray according to
that scripture right there that teaches us something about prayer.
Make haste unto me, O God. Listen to Psalm 40 verse 13. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver
me. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Lord, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. I deserve everything
I'm getting. I know that. I'm not asking for
anything other than your will. But Lord, if it please you, would
you help me quickly? Would you make haste? And then
thirdly, I learned something. We learn from this psalm when
we pray. There's an acknowledgment and
a profession of His omnipotence, His sovereign power. And His
right toward us to do what He will. Listen to this. Thou art
my help and my deliverer, O Lord. Make no tarrying. Lord, I'm a
needy person. Lord, would you help me? Would
you make haste to help me? Because here's the reason. You're
the only one that can. What can I do? What can I do? You know, the Lord Jesus in the
days of His humiliation, especially when He was upon the cross, submitted
Himself to the will of God. That's what He's praying right
there. Lord, You're my help. Whatever You do is right. Whatever
You do is going to be the things going to be done. I know that. You know, He submitted Himself
to the Father's will, because it's the Father alone who is
all-powerful. Is He going to do in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth what He pleases?
Yes. Well then, this is what He's
saying. It's what He's saying, Lord, Thou art my help. Who else do I appeal to? The
Lord Jesus Christ, let me read this to you, John 14. verse 10,
concerning his submission to the Father's will, to the Father's
work. John 14 verse 10, Believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you
I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he
doeth the works. This is what David, under the
inspiration of God's Spirit, is pleading. Lord, you're the
omnipotent one. I'm your servant. You're my God. I'm your child. Lord, I bow to
you. I'm needy. Lord, make haste to
help me because you're God. You're the Lord. But in closing
also, is this not the acknowledgement and the profession of every believer?
Do we not believe that He is God Almighty who is the Deliverer?
from the bondage of sin, death, the penalty of the law, do we
not believe that? Do we not believe that He is
going to do whatever He is pleased to do? I was going over my notes this
morning and I thought about this and saying, is he not going to
do whatever he's pleased to do? Let me read this, Daniel chapter
3. I love this passage of Scripture. There were three boys, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. And Nebuchadnezzar made this
big old statue, you know, and he said, now when all the music
starts playing, everybody bow down. Well, the music started
playing and, you know, these three boys, they didn't bow. Somebody goes over and tattles
on them. He said, did you know that those three boys didn't
bow? And so Nebuchadnezzar told him. He said, I'll tell you what
I'm going to do. Come to him and he said, I'm going to give
you another chance. I'm going to have the music start again
and I'm going to tell you this right now. When that music starts,
you bow down. And if you don't bow down, I'm
going to throw you in that fiery furnace. And you listen to the
words of these boys. Daniel 3.16. I'm talking about
the Lord who is the Deliverer. Deliver me. You're God. Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar,
we're not careful to answer thee in this matter. We don't have
to contemplate what we're about to tell you. If it be so, our
God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery
furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O King.
Either in that fiery furnace, take us to glory, or He's going
to cause you to not have to kill us, but He's going to deliver
us one way or the other. But if not, Be it known unto
thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the
golden image which thou hast set up." You know what a believer
says when Almighty God gives them a new heart. A heart for
the sovereign God of this universe. Do you know what they say to
whoever questions them? I'm not going to bow down to
that false God anymore. I'm not going to do it. Now you
do whatever you got to do. But I ain't going to do it. I
am not going to bow down to a God that cannot save. I'm not going
to bow down to a God that needs me to help Him do something. I am not going to do it. David,
under the inspiration of God's Spirit, says, Thou art my help
and my deliverer. You are. Not me and you. Not these false gods of this
world. Lord, You. Oh, what we're taught
concerning prayer by reading and having the Spirit of God
direct our hearts concerning this glorious privilege and grace
called prayer. Whether it's private prayer when
the Lord says, when you pray, enter into your closet. Or whether
it's public prayer, men that close in prayer, you know. Let
us be found praying, not as the hypocrites are, especially in
public prayer. It's a hard thing to pray in
public, it really is. You know everybody's listening.
But when we pray, let us be found praying for the Lord's will to
be done. Oh my Father, the Lord said in
Gethsemane, If this cup may not pass away from me except I drink
it, thy will be done. Isn't that what a believer wants?
Let us be found praying for the Lord's people. I love Philippians
1, 3 to 6. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests
with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. And let us be found praying without
ceasing. We're always upon our knees,
consciously lifting up our hearts to the Lord in prayer. But what
the Apostle means is, let us be found praying frequently. That is, when we're made aware. The Lord brings these things
to our mind. Let's be praying without ceasing
as we're made to be thankful. for His mercy as He causes us
to remember. Let's be praying often as He
brings to our minds, our brethren, our needs of His mercies as He
brings that back. You know, every time, I'll read
this verse and then I'll close. Every time you think of something
of which you want to pray, do you know why or how you remembered
that? Do you think we've got the ability
to bring these things back to our mind? Listen to John 14,
16. And I will pray the Father, and
He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you
comfortless. I will come to you." And then
in verse 26, he says, "...but the Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you
all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you." Do you know every time we think on the
brethren, we think upon the mercy of God, we think upon God's goodness
and grace to His people. Do you know how we remembered
that? The Spirit of God brought it back to our memory, that we
might pray. And then helpeth our infirmities,
because we don't know what to pray for. And what do we do? We admit it! Lord, I don't know
what to say. I want to talk to you so badly,
I'd like to bare my heart to you, Lord, and I don't even know
what to ask. Lord, would you help me? And
the Spirit of God, with groanings that cannot be uttered, those
prayers are presented, and then the Scripture says concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who in the merit of His own goodness
and mercy and grace presents the prayers of the saints to
the Father. With the incense of His merit. This thing of prayer
is so much... I don't understand. I don't understand. But I want to pray. But I do
want to talk to Him. I want to talk to Him. Don't
you like to talk to those you love and have communion with
them? You don't want to be silent to
them, do you? I don't. I want to talk to Him. I want
to pray. Lord, teach me something about prayer. One day, we'll
know as we're known. One day, we'll understand. But
right now, while we struggle, Lord, help us for Christ's sake. Amen.