I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. I intend,
probably next week hopefully, to get back to Deuteronomy study.
But I've sort of hit a snag. You that, Brother Larry and Brother
Wayne, I'm sure can relate to this. When you're going through
the books, sometimes you hit a snag. And boy, I've hit a snag
and I can't get past it. I just can't get past it. So
the Lord helped me to, we'll get back to that next week, but
I want to look this week at just some prayers that, not all of
them, but just five prayers that we have recorded in the Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in these three Gospels, and I want us
to just consider them, read them, and look at them for just a few
minutes. It's very interesting. I'd love to look at the prayers
because uh... you can you can see what prayer
something about what prayers about because here they stood
before the lord praying to him and it helps us to understand
i think even though we don't see him now what goes on behind
the scenes when we're seeking the lord maybe but here in matthew's
gospel chapter six in verse six i thought about this as I was
thinking today about prayer, Matthew chapter 6 and verse 6.
But thou, when thou prayest, He doesn't say if, does He? He
says when. You know, that's a Christian
that don't pray is, well, what do you call that name for those
things that just can't be? You know, it just can't be, can
it? The Christian life begins with prayer. It continues with
prayer and it ends in prayer. It begins with something like
this, God be merciful to me a sinner. And it ends with something like
this, Lord Jesus unto your hands I commend my spirit. The beginning
of life is prayer. It is the breathing out of the
soul to God. It may be in audible words, understandable
words or it may be groaning in the soul. But it's the breath
of the soul. And the man that don't pray is
obviously not a Christian. That can't be so. If we have
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ in our hearts, then
we pray. So He says here, when you pray,
enter unto thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, Pray
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly." And I was thinking about the
beginning of prayer. And I first thought I would start
with a manner of prayer. You know, where do we start in
our lives when we really begin to pray? I used to pray a lot
when I was lost. I prayed a lot. But it was sort
of like Saul of Tarsus. when the Lord told Ananias to
go over there and lay hands on him because now he prayeth. He
prayeth. And where do we begin our prayer?
And I looked at the manner of prayer. What do we say when we begin
praying? But I thought this is the beginning
of prayer here in this verse. It says here when you enter,
Now, the manner of praying there in verse 9, the Lord said when
you pray, pray after this manner, but you notice verse 6 comes
before the manner in which we pray. When you have entered your
closet, the place to pray means more than anything else, this
closet, this secret place. And the reason I say that is
because this is not necessarily It doesn't exclude, but it's
not necessarily talking about our closets. Sure, it would include
that, but it goes deeper than that. It's a metaphor for that
secret place. And what is that but the heart?
A place that nobody sees. Nobody knows what's going on
there but you and the Lord. It's the heart, the spirit, the
soul of an individual. And I thought, well, that's the
beginning. That's where prayer comes from, the heart. It's the most important thing,
then, about prayer is the heart, the closet, the secret place,
the most secret place. Here's how David said it. When
thou sayest, Seek ye my face, my heart saith, Thy face, O Lord,
will I seek, my heart. And Isaiah said, With my soul
have I desired thee in the night, and with my spirit within me,
my spirit will I seek thee early. So that's the inward part. That's
where prayer must come from. The Lord Jesus, well, here in
verse 5, He talked about the Pharisees when they prayed. He
said, You pray just to be seen of men. That's the motive behind
your prayer. In another place, He said, you
draw near to Me with your mouth, and you honor Me with your lips,
but your heart. The whole problem, He said, with
your prayer is your heart is far from Me. So words matter,
but words mean nothing. How we say them means nothing.
If it doesn't, come from the heart. It has to be out of that
secret place where only a man and God knows it. If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Trust in the
Lord with all your heart. Lean not into your own understanding
when you seek me with all your heart. So that's the first thing.
And it's so important that nothing else I'll say tonight about prayer
will mean anything if it doesn't come from the heart. We're going
to see in a minute a very short prayer. It's a short prayer. But the reason it meant something
and the reason it was so effectual was it came from the heart. It
came from the heart. Look now at Luke 18. Luke 18. Having said that about the heart,
this is why this prayer here means so much. Luke 18. We have two prayers here. We
have two prayers here. Here is the beginning of the
manner of prayer. Here is what we actually say. Look here how the Pharisee prayed
in chapter 18. The Lord Jesus said here in verse
9, And he spake a parable, Luke 18 now, he spake a parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. Two men went up into the temple
to pray and one was a Pharisee and the other a publican. Now
notice how the Pharisee prayed. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I am not like other
men. I am not as other men are. extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, I fast twice a
week and I give tithes of all that I possess. Now here is something
else we see about prayer. This man may have been praying
from his heart. He may have been just as sincere
as he could be. But there is something else that
is important about prayer that is essential. Not only must it
come from the heart, but it must be regulated by truth. It must be an honest prayer.
And this man wasn't honest, was he? He wasn't honest. He was
praying from a heart that had been deceived and a heart that
had not been taught the truth. He was judging himself by his
outward actions, what he did, what he didn't do, and this man
did not know the truth about his heart. Outwardly, he may
have did all of these things that he said he did. No doubt
he paid tithes of all that he possessed. No doubt he didn't
do what he said he didn't do. He never did extort anybody.
He never did mistreat anybody. But his heart was sinful, and
he didn't know that. And how do we know he didn't
know that? He never prayed this way, would he, if he had known
that his heart was as sinful as it I'm not like other men. Oh, yes, you are. Yes, you are. There is no difference in anybody. We're all born sinners. We've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So we see something
else here about prayer. It not only has to come from
the heart, but it has to be regulated by the truth. That heart, if
it's heard of the Lord, it has to know the truth about itself.
And that's what we see in this next man's prayer here in verse
13. And the publican, standing athwart,
would not lift so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon
his breast, saying, God be merciful unto me, a sinner. Now that was
a short prayer, but I'm telling you it was a truthful prayer,
wasn't it? And it came out of the depths of his soul, out of
the recesses, the secret places of his heart. This man wasn't
just speaking this with his lips because he knew this was the
way he should pray. It came from his heart. When
you seek me with all your heart, you shall hear me. And there's
two things here he tells us that he knew. First of all, he knew
that he was a sinner. His heart knew that. His heart
agreed with the Word of God. I have sinned and come short
of the glory of God." And you know something? He didn't have
one good thing to plead about himself. Not one thing. He said, Lord, I'm a sinner.
I was born in sin. I'm a sinner by nature. I'm a
sinner by deed. I've been a sinner by choice.
And it hasn't profited me at all. Look where it's brought
me. It's brought me into this perishing condition. God, I'm
a sinner! Now that may not sound like much
because we hear people repeating this sinner's prayer all the
time, but when it comes from the heart, when it comes from
the closet of a man's soul, that's different, ain't it? That's different.
An old heart, I think, used to say a sinner is a precious thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
He's taught him that, isn't He? So here's a man that's been taught
the truth about himself. And you notice secondly is this,
he knew the truth of this, that he couldn't save himself. He
said, I'm such a wand, such a sinner that I can't save myself. That's why he was smiting on
his breast. That's why he's so earnest about it. My salvation,
if it comes to me at all, must come from God. and it must come
to me in a way of mercy." Now this man was taught of God, wasn't
he? And boy, he prayed. He prayed to that end. A prayer don't have to be long
when the heart knows its need and knows how that need is met
by the Lord. And this word merciful here,
it's always when I read this, Since I found out what this word
means, it literally means perpetuous. Be perpetuous to me, a sinner.
Atone for my sins. And what does this show us right
here? But he brought in the cross, didn't he? He brought Christ
right into his prayer. What he's basically saying, Oh
God, save me for Christ's sake. Forgive my sins for Christ's
sake. Receive me for Christ's sake.
Be propitious for the blood of Christ's sake. Now that's just
a short prayer, but it teaches us there when it's from the heart.
And God has taught a man that. Then it's effectual. The Lord
will hear where He's put that in his heart. Look at another
place. Look at Matthew chapter 15. I
think this is one of my favorite prayers. of all the prayers in
the Gospel that we see. Matthew chapter 15. This is a persevering prayer.
A persevering prayer. Remember this lady? Matthew chapter 15 and verse
21. I like this prayer because this is a woman. This is a woman
now seeking the Lord. Think of her modesty, especially
back in those days and in that culture. And here she is seeking
the Lord of glory with all of these men, twelve apostles standing
around the Lord, and here she comes in the middle of that situation
seeking the Lord. In verse 21, Then Jesus went
thence, and departed to the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold,
a woman of Canaan," here's another thing, she was a Gentile woman,
"...she came out of the same coast, and cried unto him, saying,"
here's the way her prayer begins, "'Have mercy on me, O Lord! Thou Son of David, my daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil.'" And notice verse 23,
"'And he answered her, Not a word.'" Now, that's a discouraging thing,
isn't it? I mean, can you imagine? He answered
her nothing. Not a word did he speak to her.
And you know that teaches us something, doesn't it? It teaches
us that prayer is a privilege. But God is not obligated to hear
prayer. He is not obligated to hear prayer. If He is silent to a man's prayer,
He is not obligated. He can be silent and just. He
does not do it when it comes from the heart, but that is what
it teaches us. And it teaches us to pray for
grace. Pray for grace. That is what
we need. Grace. Let us come boldly to the throne
of grace. And I tell you what grace will
teach us. It will teach us to pray for grace. Grace teaches
a man to pray for grace. But he answered her not a word,
and his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us." I remember Brother Mahan preaching a message
on this and he said she wasn't crying after them. I don't know
where they got that idea. She was crying after him. She
wasn't speaking to Peter or James or John or Matthew. She was crying
to the Lord. But that's another discouragement.
They come and said right in her presence, Lord, send her away.
Now look at this. Boy, He does something here and
He allows her to take Him in His own words. If He had kept
silent, finally she would have went away. But notice what He
does. He encourages her to pray by
speaking to her. He answered and said, I am not
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Oh, can
you imagine, maybe the imagination that suddenly hit this woman.
I'm not even one of his anyway. Woman, you're not even mine.
I'm not sent to you, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But you know, instead of taking this negative, she said, at least
He's spoken to me. He has opened the door. So what
does she do? Then came she and worshipped
Him saying, Lord, help me. Boy, He opened the door for her,
didn't He? Now you look at the wrassling
in verse 26. And He answered and said unto
her, It is not fit, it is not right, it is not meet to take
the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the rich man's table. I read where one man said about
this Lord wrestling with this woman. He said He pushed her
away with His left hand and pulled her back with His right hand.
I love to think of that, don't you? That's His spiritual wrestling
in prayer. And this teaches you and I not
to give up quite so easy because the Lord will have us wrestling
with Him. And this is why we need the Holy
Spirit, isn't it? Because we don't know how to
wrassle. We get discouraged too easy.
But He holds us up. The Spirit in us is the right
hand of the Lord. He wants us to be like Jacob,
wrassle with Him. And don't be discouraged if a
thought comes to you here how sorry you are. I mean, He called
her a dog. A dog. The Lord not only teaches us
of ourselves in prayer, but He brings us to confess the truth
of it. Woman, you're a dog. Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. That's what I am. And then we learn to plead for
a blessing, not because of what we are, but in spite of what
we are. When you come to the Lord in
prayer and you've got these thoughts, of your failures, you've got
these thoughts of your sinfulness, your doggedness, don't let that
discourage you. It may very well be the Lord
humbling you and bringing you to confess, Lord, I am weak,
I am a dog, I am nothing, I have all these infirmities and these
failures, and then use that as a right or a grounds for pleading
mercy. She come for mercy, didn't she?
That's what she said, Lord be merciful. And now He's called
her a dog, so she just used that as an excuse for a blessing,
a blessing of mercy. If we felt worthy and we come
because we have never failed, then we don't begin our prayer
with, Lord be merciful to me. Is it mercy indeed that we need
when we come? This woman was humble. She'd come humble because she
came and said, Lord, have mercy. That shows humility, doesn't
it? But she was bold. She wouldn't let Him go. And
that's what the Bible says in Hebrews 4, 15, 16 in that area. It says, Let us come boldly.
How do we come boldly with humility? It seems like those things contradict,
cancel one another out. But you know what? When we come
humbly, it's because we see ourselves. And we have this awful need.
And hell is opposing us. My daughter has a devil. Hell
has been opposing us. And here His own disciples are
opposing her. She came humble. And yet she
came boldly because who she was coming to. And Paul said, Let
us come boldly to the throne of grace Because we are coming
to our faithful high priest that can be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. So we come humbly because of
what we are, our awful need, but we come boldly because of
who we are coming to, our blessed Savior who can be touched, who
was tempted in all points like as we are. And because He invites
us here. Jacob was wrestling with the
Lord And right in the middle of the wrestling, up towards
the end of it I guess, he looked at Jacob and he said, What's
your name? Remember Jacob was saying, I
ain't going to let you go until you bless me. And he said, What's
your name? Why did the Lord ask him that?
Well, he had lied. Is your name Esau? Boy, that
had been a long time coming hadn't it? You lied to your daddy. Didn't you tell him you were
Esau? What is your name? What is your name? Reckon Jacob's
going to turn loose and say, man, I can't go there. I lied
to my dear old dad and him blind, mistreated him, betrayed my brother.
I can't go. No. He said, my name's the old
deceiver. My name's the supplanter. My
name's Jacob. When the Lord deals with us about
our utter weakness, ain't no sense in denying it. If He deals
with us about our sins, there is no use sweeping another rug.
Just confess it, truth, Lord. And then He says, I bless you. I bless you. I love what James
tells us in James 5. He tells us about how Elijah
prayed. I love the way he says this. He says, Elijah was a man. Now
we think of Elijah as a great prophet, don't we? Man, he was
a great prophet. He walked up to the Jordan and
just gave it a whip with his shroud and man, it just parted.
It went across, taken up to heaven in a chariot. But he said, Elijah was the man
subject to like passions as you and I. I mean, he knew his infirmities. He had some weaknesses just like
you and I did. He had felons too. He had failed
too. He had to repent too. He was
a man of lack passions and yet he prayed earnestly that it wouldn't
rain. For three and a half years it
didn't rain. He was a man that was just like us, born like us,
lived like us, saved by grace like we are, and yet he sought
the Lord earnestly that it would not rain and it rained not for
three years. Three and a half years it was
dry, a drought. And then this man that was like us went back
up to Mount Carmel and got on his face and he said, Lord, would
You send the rain? And he sent his servant to look
out over the sea to see if there were any clouds coming out of
the west. He came back and said, No, as
clear as it can be. Elijah got on his face again
and said, Lord, I am here at Your Word. Let it be known that
I'm your prophet. He said, Go check. And he came
back, No, nothing there. And you know he prayed seven
times. He prayed seven times. That's why we call it persevering
in prayer. And it was the seventh time that
his servant went and come back and he said, There's a cloud
about the size of a man's hand. He said, You better get down
off this mountain. God's going to send a flood. But that's persevering
prayer, isn't it? The Lord helped us to give us
faith. And that's what enabled this
woman to do this. He said there in verse 18, Jesus
answered unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee
even as thou wilt. Faith wrestles. It takes the
Lord at His Word, finds a promise. Don't give up so easy. I love
that prayer, don't you? You want to see an arrogant prayer?
You want to see an arrogant prayer? Look over in Mark chapter 10. I'd have never confessed that
Christians can get caught up in arrogance if I hadn't found
it in the Bible. And then when I found it in the
Bible, I started looking at it myself. And it's so easy to pray
arrogantly without even knowing it. Look what he says here in
Mark chapter 10, an arrogant prayer. And first of all, consider
the context. Look here in verse 32, the last
portion of verse 32, Mark chapter 10. And he took again the twelve. The Lord Jesus took the twelve
and began to tell them what things should happen unto Him. Behold,
he said, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered
unto the chief priests, and to the scribes, and they shall condemn
him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they
shall mock him, and scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and
shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise again. Now look in verse 35, And James
and John, the sons of Zebedee, came unto him, said, Master,
We would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we desire.
And he said unto him, What would ye that I should do for you?
And they said unto him, Grant unto us that we may set one on
thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. beaten on his chest, or this
woman crying mercy. Why in the world would these
two men wanted to set one on his right hand and one on his
left? Ruling over people. They wanted to rule over people. Another place, this same two
fellows said, Lord, do you want us to call them fire from heaven
and consume these Samaritans? Ain't that a good Christian attitude?
You want us to consume these fellas? Oh, thank God for unanswered
prayers. Somebody wrote a song about that,
didn't they? Thank God for unanswered prayers. Boy, I tell you what,
we would ruin ourselves and ruin a lot of other people if the
Lord answered all our prayers and our desires. Thank God for
the Spirit of grace that would guide us in our prayers. James,
James was here. when this was a James and John,
the two brothers. Another James wrote this, and
I think he may have had this incident in mind when he wrote
this. Listen to what he said. From whence come wars and fighting
among you. Boy, those Jews that he wrote
to must have been in an awful shape in the church. Now consider
he was writing to churches, and he said from whence come wars
and fighting among you. Come they not hence even of your
lust that war in your members? You lust and you have not. You
kill and you desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and
you war, yet you have not because you ask not. You ask and receive
not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your
own lust." Is that possible? Is it possible for a man to ask
the Lord, Lord exalt me over other people. Exalt me where
I'll have the advantage over somebody else. You often think,
you've seen these sports guys playing in sports and they're
giving all this stuff and praying, Lord help me whip that other
team real good. Ain't that silly? You think the
Lord hears that stuff. Boy, He taught me that. He taught
me that when I was a teenager in high school. I never will
forget this. I was lost. But the Lord taught me a lesson.
I remember I got fouled and our game was on the line and I was
ready to shoot a foul shot. And I said, Lord, please help
me hit this foul shot. And I'm telling you, it's like
a voice that spoke out of heaven to my soul. Nobody saw it. Nobody
heard it. But boy, it went on to my heart.
And what the Lord seemingly said to me was, You ungodly wretch,
You call upon Me for some trivial thing like this? And I tell you,
I don't know if I looked around to see if anybody else heard
what I heard in my soul. It wasn't an audible voice, but
boy, He made me to know. And a man that will go and ask
the Lord for something like this, help me to win this ballgame,
help me to reign over other people, help me to have the advantage
over other people, Boy, that's asking a mess, ain't it? That
we may consume it upon our own lusts. Have we ever did that?
Could we possibly do something like that? Some of these people that used
to debate a lot, they would pray before they went, Lord, help
me win this debate. They have a lot. Ain't that something?
Look at what the Lord Jesus says to them in verse 38. But Jesus
said unto them, you don't even know what you're asking for. Can you drink of the cup that
I drink of, and be baptized with the baptism I baptize with?"
And look how quickly they answered that. They said unto him, We
sure can. They didn't even know what he
was talking about, did they? Oh, how proud, how proud. And
Jesus said unto them, You shall indeed drink of the cup that
I drink of, with the baptism I baptize with, you shall be
baptized. But to sit on my right hand,
and on my left hand is not mine to give, it shall be given to
them for whom it is prepared. And when the ten heard it, they
began to be much displeased with James and John. But Jesus called
them to Him and said unto them, You know that they that are counted
to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their
great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not
be among you, But whosoever will be great among you shall be your
minister. And whosoever of you will be
the chiefest shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give His
life a ransom for many." Man, an arrogant prayer. God help
us. The Lord help us. One more. Fifthly, look over in Luke, just
over to your right. Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. I like this prayer too. This
is a very short prayer, but I tell you it has so much in it. It
tells about the attitude, the true attitude of a Christian
standing in the presence of His Lord that is so good. Here in
verse 4, the Lord had been preaching in Peter's little boat, his fishing
boat. And then in verse 4 when He finished
preaching, He said to Peter, Simon Peter, launch out into
the deep, and let down your net for a catch, for a draft. And Simon answering said unto
Him, Master, we have toiled all night, and we've taken nothing. And listen, you know I'm a good
fisherman. I know where the fish are. Nevertheless,
can't you hear him saying that? This word means in opposition
to, in spite of. In spite of that, you don't know
if you tell me to. If you tell me to, I'll do it. At thy word,
I will let down my net. And when he had done this, they
enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net was breaking. And they beckoned unto their
partners which were in the other ship, that they should come and
help them. And they came and filled both the ships, so that
they began to sink. And Simon Peter saw it. When
he saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished and all
that were with him at the catch of fishes which they had taken. He was astonished at the goodness
of the Lord. He felt so unworthy of it that
he prayed, Lord, depart from me. I tell you, that's a better
prayer than James and John prayed, wouldn't it? He felt so unworthy
of the Lord's goodness. Did Peter really want the Lord
to depart from him? Well, of course he didn't. But
he was amazed, he was astonished at the goodness of the Lord to
him, showing him of all people such favor. And who did this
favor come from? A mighty Lord that had power
not only over the sea, but over the fishes of the sea. And this
gracious Lord, this mighty Lord that He would love me, and be
so good to me." While James and John thought that they were so
worthy to sit on the right hand and the left hand of Christ,
Peter didn't even feel worthy to be in His presence, did he?
Oh, I'm not even worthy. Such goodness and such love and
such mercy and greatness. I'm not worthy of Your presence. You know there'll be goats on
the Day of Judgment, spiritual goats, that will be amazed that
they're not among the sheep. They'll knock at His door. They'll
argue with Him. Lord, Lord, surely you've made
a mistake. I'm telling you, we're sheep. We're one of them. I don't
know you. And then there'll be sheep that
will be amazed that they're not among the goats. They will feel so unworthy. Peter could understand how the
Lord would despise him, how the Lord would depart from him. What
confounded him is how the Lord could be so good to me and love
me, this sovereign Lord. One feels like he is worthy of
the Lord's salvation. He is worthy of grace and life
in heaven. Why not me? He would say, why
not me? And another feels he is worthy
of nothing but hot displeasure, worthy of judgment. He thinks if he makes it to heaven
at last, it has to be a miracle of grace, the greatest of grace. If the Lord passed him by and
refused him mercy, He could understand that. But the Lord visited him
in love and grace and says to him, live, and then says to him,
where I am, there you shall be also. That's enough to confound
the poor humble heart, ain't it? I've said this before, brothers
and sisters, if the Lord saves me, vows me, wretches me, If
He saves me, if I make it to heaven at last from this lowest
state that I'm in here, the Lord will never hear the last of it
from me. I'm telling you, He won't. Sometimes Jade gets so,
I do something or give her something, she gets so excited and starts
hugging me and grabbing her and I have to hold her off. Settle
down now, settle down. That's the way the Lord may have
to do me. I'm telling you, when I see Him, He brings me up at
that place. I'm going to get at his feet.
I'm going to hold his feet. I'm going to shout his praises.
Ain't that the way you feel? That's the way Peter felt. Lord,
I'm not worthy of your presence. Depart from me. I'm a sinful
man. But you know, old Peter is there
in heaven today, isn't he? He's there today. And you will be too, if you're
in him. Well, that's five good prayers,
and I'm sure you can find your own.