when i was studying uh... on
this message on essentials of true prayer and it's you know
here in chapter six uh... i mentioned last week how christ
what he's doing here is he's he's showing uh... the reality
of obedience and worship and things such as almsgiving and
prayer fasting which represents uh... self-denial of the kingdom
of heaven, what it should be like for a true child of God,
a sinner saved by grace, who knows that we have no recommendation
unto God but Christ and Him crucified and risen, who knows that we
have no hope of salvation but to be washed from our sins in
His blood and clothed in His righteousness. And so the kind
of obedience in whether it be charitable giving or whether
it be in prayer or in self-denial, that's what he's describing here.
And he said, and here in verse five, he picks up with prayer,
prayer. And I was thinking when I was
putting this lesson together, you know, there's a lot of different
particulars that people who call themselves Christian get caught
up in what I call the traditions of men and superstitions of men. One of the things I can think
of is angels. People's thoughts on angels.
A lot of it is just superstition. I mean, there are angels. And
somebody said, well, there are guardian angels. Well, maybe
so. I know that he's given angels charge over us, all of that. But a lot of the other stuff
is just mythology. and it's just tradition. Another
particular is the issue of prayer. And I wanna show you that as
we go through. In verse nine, he begins what we call the model
prayer. Some people call this the Lord's
Prayer, but it's really the model prayer. If you wanna see an example
of the Lord's Prayer, read John 17, all right? But we'll look
at that next week more. I'm gonna deal with the model
prayer next week. But here in verse five, listen
to what he says. He says, and when thou prayest,
and notice he didn't say if thou prayest, it's when. And that shows us there's no
question about this issue of prayer. If we're truly children
of God, we are to be people of prayer. Somebody said that prayer
is like the breath of faith, you know, something like that.
Well, okay, we're to be people of prayer. We're to pray. The
Bible commands us, I've got this in your lesson, pray without
ceasing. Pray without ceasing. Now think
about that. That's 1 Thessalonians 5, 17,
then I've got a lot of cross-references. Now when he says pray without
ceasing, that doesn't mean that we're to be on our knees all
the time, or holding our hands up all the time, or audibly talking
to God all the time. We have to do other things, you
know that. But what he's talking about is
that we're to be in a constant attitude of prayer and awareness
that God knows our hearts, that we are his servant, we are his
people, and acknowledging our sinfulness, our weakness, acknowledging
God's wisdom, God's righteousness, God's power, and God's strength.
We're to be in constant awareness of that, okay? And that's a prayerful
attitude. And then he says in verse five,
and when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are,
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the
corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I
say unto you, they have their reward. Now, we dealt with that
in the issue of almsgiving, charitable giving, those who do it to be
seen of men. Yes, that can refer to those
who just want to make an open show of religion. It's almost
like they don't even try to hide their hypocrisy. They're just
actors. You know the word hypocrite comes from the Greek word that
means an actor. They're playing a part that's
not really them. And so there can be people who
just say, well, I'm going to do this just to make a vain show. But what it mainly refers to,
and I'm convinced of this if you look in other passages, mainly
refers to those who think that these activities, whether it's
charitable giving or prayer or self-denial, is their witness
before men. In other words, they do this
thinking, well, I want somebody to see me do this because I want
them to know that I'm a Christian. That's not what prayer is about.
Did you know that? Prayer is not an open show to
prove you're a Christian. Or somebody says, well, I want
people to know that I'm spiritual or people to know that I'm right.
Prayer is not commanded or to be done to let people know anything. Did you know that? I told you
about the situation years ago where I was having lunch with
a guy and they brought the food and I just started eating and
he looked at me like I had a third eye and he said, aren't you going
to pray? And I told him, I said, well, I already did. I just didn't
let you see me. Cause that's what the scripture
says. You know, when it says here, look at verse six, he says,
but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. When thou
has shut thy door, pray to thy father, which is in secret. That
word secret, you know what it means? Hidden. It means concealed. Somebody says, well, what are
you trying to hide your religion? Well, that part of it, We're
to be witnesses for Christ publicly. We're to tell people the truth.
Our witness is the gospel. But the prayer of a child of
God to his or her heavenly father is a private matter. Did you
know that? It is, it's a private matter.
It's not to show anybody anything. But it's a child depending upon
his or her father. And it's a very personal thing,
see? It's not to be done as a display
in any way. And you say, well, I have the
best intentions. Well, he says here, he says, to thy father
which is in secret and thy father which seeth thee in secret shall
reward thee openly. Now, we're gonna turn to some
scripture here in just a moment, but think about this. Why do
people pray? Well, somebody says, well, I
want to give thanks. Okay. Well, that's right. This
is Thanksgiving week. We're going to be celebrating
Thanksgiving day. Well, what is Thanksgiving day
for a believer every day? Isn't it? And it's okay if people
want to set aside a national holiday like that, you know,
for that reason, but Thanksgiving every day. Well, let me give
you an example of superstitious prayer. I had a man tell me one
time he said he wouldn't touch a bite of food without praying
over it first. Now, is that biblical? No. That's superstition. And somebody
tell me where in the Bible it commands us to pray before we
eat. It's not there. You say, well,
Pastor, don't you thank God for your meal? Yes, I do. I thank
God for the food that we have. But let me tell you something.
The next breath you take, before you take it, you better
thank God for it, huh? In public prayer? You can't do
that. But I thank God. Every good and
perfect gift cometh from the Father of lights. with whom there's
no shadow of turn. Every good thing we have is from
God, it's a gift from God, we didn't earn it, we didn't deserve
it, we ought to thank God for it. But does that mean we're
gonna make a public display of prayer just so people can, as
they say, see our witness or see that we're Christian or see
that we're, that's not what it's for. And I know this cuts against
the grain of modern religion, you know, but listen. If you can't eat a bite before
you give public prayer, then don't take a breath before you
do that too. That's what I would tell you
because every gift, everything is a gift from God. And we're
to live in that attitude as believers. There's nothing I have that's
good for me that is not a gift from God. And I thank Him for
it. That being said, verse six tells
us there are times when God's children have to get by themselves
and speak to their Heavenly Father. And that's what this is about.
In prayer, here's what we do. We go before God, our Heavenly
Father, not before men, so as to impress Him in any way, for
any reason. And it's God who justifies His
people based upon Christ's righteousness imputed. It's God who gives us
a new heart that longs to commune with him in grace and mercy,
and God knows our hearts. Now look over at Hebrews chapter
four. Now, the last part of this chapter,
I believe, is talking specifically about prayer and worship, but
before it talks about that, look at verse 12 of Hebrews chapter
four. It says, Hebrews chapter four,
verse 12, for the word of God is quick, that means it's life-giving,
and we know that is in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. It's
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, God
knows our hearts, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes
of him with whom we have to do. We cannot fool God. Now, we can
fool men, and most of the time we can fool ourselves, but we
can't fool God in any matter, not even in prayer. We're met
here to worship this morning, to feed upon God's word. God
knows our hearts. He knows the thoughts and the
intents. We do pray in public worship service. We're leading
in prayer, you see. That's what this is about. We
come to church. We come to hear the word preached.
We come to sing hymns to the praise of God. We come to pray
together with one person leading, not the confusion of everybody,
you know, Diving in at the same time, but we have one person
up here leading in prayer, and that's fine. It's public prayer.
The scripture talks about that. That's when the early disciples
came together to read the word, to study it, to hear the message,
to pray together, and to sing hymns. But we're never to go
out among men and just make a public display of our prayers. And that's
what he's saying here. And God knows, you say, well,
I have the best, well, God knows the heart. And his word surpasses
all of our intentions and our motives. Those who seek to glorify
and please God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, are
rewarded up. Now hold your finger there in
Hebrews four, because I'm going to come back to that. But look
back at Matthew five. It says that those who do it
to be seen of men have their reward. In other words, what
they're aiming to get from men, they get. If you want somebody
to think you're spiritual and they think you're spiritual,
there's your reward. If you want somebody to applaud
you or to say, boy, I'll tell you, you sure are a powerful
prayer warrior, you're gonna hear that. Well, you've got your
reward, all right? But, and that's the only reward
you're gonna get. But those who pray to the Father
through the Son, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, he says,
enter into your closet. This is private. This is a matter
between you and God and nobody else. And when you shut the door,
pray to your Father, which is in secret. And thy father which
seeth thee in secret shall reward thee openly. The father rewards
us openly because we have it openly declared in his word that
he'll hear us and he'll accept us and he'll believe us. He'll believe that we're sincere. And the thing about it is, what
you see here is that prayer presupposes a right relationship with God.
Now we're going to see that more next week in the model prayer
when he says, our father, which is in heaven. All right. We'll
look over at Hebrews chapter four and look at verse 14. I
know after he tells us now, God, God knows our hearts. You can't
fool God. He says in verse 14, the next
thing he says, and I'm glad it's, it's put in this order. He says,
seeing then that we have a great high priest. Now right there
is the foundation of all true prayer. The fact that we who
are sinners saved by grace have a great high priest. That's the
whole issue right there. You have no right, and I've had
people say, well, shouldn't we tell everybody to pray? Well,
now, here's what you gotta think about. There is no true acceptable
prayer to God except that which comes through Christ, the great
high priest. Now, that's it. Somebody asked
me one time, said, doesn't God hear the prayers of an unbeliever?
Well, God's aware of them. He knows all. He's omniscient.
He also hears when an unbeliever stands up and curses him. He
hears that. Does he accept it? No. Well,
what does the Bible teach? God knows our hearts. He knows
our motives. He knows our intentions. And
it says in verse 14, well, here's our only hope, seeing them we
have a great high priest. What is the high priest? Remember
the high priest went into the holiest of all one time a year
under the old covenant with the blood of the lamb and sprinkled
it on the mercy seat. Christ is our great high priest. Christ is our lamb of sacrifice. Christ is our altar. Christ is
our propitiation. Christ is our righteousness. So what's he telling us here?
That prayer does not merit earn anything from God. God doesn't
accept us because of the frequency of our prayers. He does not accept
us because of the eloquence of our prayers. He does not accept
us because of the repetition of our prayers. And he does not
accept us because of the sincerity of our prayers. Now hold your
finger there at Hebrews 4 and look back at Matthew 5. Look
at verse 7. Verse 7 says, but when you pray,
use not vain repetitions. You know, there's some religions
that teach chanting, repeating a certain word over and over
again, as if there's some power in just saying a word or some
power in repeating a word. That's superstition. That's not
biblical. It's not Christian. Somebody
said, well, can't we quote the Lord's Prayer or the model prayer?
Sure, we can. But you can quote it and not
know what it means. And what it's about. I mean, how many
people quote the Bible and they have no idea what the Bible really
teaches in its main message? What did Christ tell the Pharisees?
He says, you do search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life. Here's what you're missing. They are they which
testify of me, he said. They used to sew verses of scripture
from the Old Testament into their garments, their phylacteries.
And they claim to believe every word of the Bible, just like
the fellow who called me one time years ago. He said, he heard
me say the word predestination. And I said, he said, he didn't,
he wanted to tell me, he said, I don't believe in that predestination.
I said, you don't. And he said, no. And I said,
do you believe the Bible? And he said, every word. I said,
well, predestination is one of those words, friend. And I said, what you need to
do is go into the scripture and find out what it means. And then
he said, well, we can't understand all that. I said, that's not
what I said. Whether you understand it or not, what does God's word
say? That's the issue. So vain repetitions. And he says,
look at verse seven. He says, vain repetitions as
the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard for their
much speaking. In other words, if we say it
enough or get enough people to say it, you ever heard of these
prayer chains? In other words, if we can get a lot of people
here doing it, God might hear us. Now, come on. Now, where is that in the scripture?
It's not there. You say, well, is it wrong for
people to pray for somebody? No, it's not wrong for a believer
to pray for anybody and everybody. Paul wrote to Timothy, we're
to pray for all people, all sorts of people. We're to pray first
for their salvation, aren't we? And we're to pray that God will
bless them with his grace to save their souls. We're to be
compassionate that way. But if it's one person, you know,
think about, you remember back in, I think it's the book of
first Kings where Elijah and the prophets of Baal, I didn't
cite this so I'm not gonna turn to, I think there were somewhere,
if you know this, correct me if I'm wrong, I think there were
somewhere like 450 prophets of Baal. And they were praying and
dancing and chanting and all that. And then old Elijah got
up and prayed, it was either Elijah or Elisha, I can't remember.
They got up and prayed like, I think it's a 63 word prayer,
and fire came down from heaven. He just spoke to God. whether
anybody else heard him or not. But look here, it says, he says,
they think they'll be heard for their much speaking. And he says
in verse eight, look here, of Matthew five, he says, be not
ye therefore like unto them. For your father knoweth what
things you have need of before you ask him. Prayer is not informing
God of anything. God already knows. And again,
it's not because he's a crystal ball gazer either. Somebody said,
well, I better let God in on this secret. No. Well, let me
just say a few words and then I can sit on this issue. And
then next week we'll go into the model prayer. But here, here's
the thing about prayer is a great privilege of God's grace. And look back at Hebrews chapter
four. It's a great privilege of God's grace in Christ where
centers approach him. on the merits of Christ, our
great high priest. Look at verse 14 of Hebrews 4.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into
the heavens, literally that would be passed through the heavens.
Now what does that mean? Well, it means he went to God.
Just like the high priest went into the holiest of all, Christ,
our great high priest, went into the very Holy of Holies, into
the very presence of God for his people. Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. Now, on what basis did Christ
go into the Holy of Holies as the representative, the surety
and substitute of his people? It was on the basis of his having
done a work, finished a work. And what did he do? He made an
end of sin. He finished the transgression. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He satisfied the justice of God
and guaranteed the salvation of all for whom he died and was
buried in a rose again. And that's our profession. You see, our profession is not
look at me and how much I'm praying. Our profession is not look at
how much I'm giving or how much I've denied myself. Our profession
is Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. He is our
righteousness. I'm gonna talk about that this
morning. Jesus Christ, the righteous, he's my advocate. And he says
in verse 15, for we have not an high priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points
tempted like as we are yet without sin. Christ was tested in his
humanity just like you and me. I'll give you, and somebody said,
but he did it without sin. Now let me give you an example
of what that's talking about. You remember when Christ went
after his baptism, he went up on what is called the Mount of
Temptation, and the devil tempted him? All right, he had not eaten
for 40 days and 40 nights. Now, could you imagine how hungry
we'd be if we didn't eat for 40 days and 40 nights? Well,
Christ, Jesus, Christ, the Lord of glory, God made, in his humanity,
he was just as hungry as you and I would be. And so when Satan tempted him
with the bread, you see, he was just as hungry. But here's the
difference. If I had gone without eating
40 days and 40 nights, and Satan come and tempted me, I'll tell
you what, if I didn't give in to him, I would at least think
about it. How about you? But when he came and tempted
Christ, it wasn't even in Christ to give in to it or even think
about giving in to it. He wanted to relieve his own
hunger, just the same as we would, but not at the expense of the
glory of God. That's the difference. Christ
wept, he sorrowed, he grew tired, all of that. You see his sufferings
in the Garden of Gethsemane, that wasn't him doubting his
father or doubting his work, that was him showing forth the
infirmities of the flesh without sin. All of that. So he knows our frame. He knows
what we're going through. But he says in verse 16, let
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of what? Grace. And always remember grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. That's what prayer's all about.
And let me give you this and I'll close. Somebody, you know, one of the
things that people have a hard time understanding is God's sovereignty
and man's responsibility, especially in this matter of prayer. If
God knows, if God's determined all things and decreed all things,
and he knows what I have need of and what he's gonna give me
and what he's gonna withhold from me, then why pray? All right? Number one, God commands us to
do so. All right, now that ought to
be enough right there. You say, well, I can't understand
why. Well, it doesn't matter. Do you ever command your children
to do anything they don't understand why you're doing it? Well, that's
the way God is with his children. Secondly, prayer is an act of
faith and humility and worship. It's an expression of our total
dependence on God. We are to acknowledge that we
are totally dependent on God for all things. And then thirdly,
prayer is a God-given means to accomplish his will in the lives
of his people. You see, God is the God of predestination. He's the God who works all things
after the counsel of his own will, but he operates for his
glory and our good by means, and prayer is one of those means.
It's like God has a chosen people, and he's gonna save them, but
he's gonna do it by means of the preaching of the gospel.
He's gonna command them to seek him. and to follow Him and believe
in Him. Well, prayer is a means that
God blesses His people. Prayer, you know, somebody says
prayer changes things. Well, it doesn't change God.
It really doesn't change anything. It changes us, maybe. You could look at it that way.
But that's how God has determined for His glory to bless His people. And we'll pick up next week with
the model prayer. All right.