In Matthew chapter 6, our Lord Jesus was praying one
day, and when He finished praying, His disciples who were listening
to Him said, Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to pray. And this Sermon on the Mount
has a great deal to do with prayer, with many things. But it begins
like this in chapter 5 verse 2. And He opened His mouth and
taught them. He taught them. Lord, teach us
to pray. Our Master did everything for
us. He was born for us. He lived
as our representative. He fulfilled the law in our stead,
bore its curse, bore our sins, put our sins away by His own
death. He did so many things, and He
did it all for us. The thing about our religion
is it's done, isn't it? It's done. Somebody said the
difference between our religion and the lost is these two little
words. Theirs is D-O, and ours is D-O-N-E. Christ finished the work. He
finished the work for us, all of it for us. He did a lot of
things for us, and He teaches us things. And one of the things
He teaches us is to pray. And that's the thought I want
to give you this morning, to pray. Now I want you to look
with me in my text in Matthew chapter 6, and let's begin here
in verse 8. I'm sorry, verse 5 through verse
8. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 5.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are,
Well, 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 to be seen of men. That's the only reward. Oh, my
soul, what poverty it left these men in. The only reward they
got out of their praying was men seeing them and bragged on
them. What a reward. But thou, when
thou prayest, enter unto thy closet, and when you have shut
your door, pray to your Father which is in secret, and your
Father which seeth in secret shall reward you openly. But when you pray, use not vain
repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they shall be
heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore lacking to
them, for your Father knows what things you have need of before
you pray." And what's the first thing our Lord Jesus teaches
us here about prayer? Well, it's this, that the children
of God do pray. He didn't say if you pray, but
He said when you pray. He mentioned that prayer in Verse
5, verse 6, and verse 7. And every time, he says, when
you pray. When you pray, don't be like
the hypocrites who love to pray in public. I appreciate men who
have the gift to pray in public. But a man who has the gift to
pray in public and don't have the grace to pray in private
is in trouble. He's in trouble. When you pray. Don't stand out on the street
corners to be seen and heard of men. Enter your closet. When you pray, don't be like
the heathen, he said, who repeat the same words over and over
and over and over again. Don't do that. Because your Father
knows what you have need of even before you pray. You don't need
to keep repeating and repeating and repeating. He knows who you
are. He knows where you are. He knows
the situation that you're in. He knows you. He knows your needs. He has perfect understanding
of you and your situation. Therefore, speak to Him accordingly
when you pray. He knows your downsettings and
He knows your uprisings. And our Lord taught us here who
to pray to. He teaches us who to pray to.
We're never taught, and the Lord Jesus would never teach us to
pray to the Pope. He would never teach us to pray
to a priest. He would never teach us to pray
to an angel, or to a saint dead or living, or to a post, or to
a stick, or to a stone. He taught us to pray to one,
didn't He? Pray to thy Father. When you pray, pray to thy Father. And He even went ahead in the
passage right after this, and He said, pray like this, Our
Father who art in heaven. That's who we're to pray to.
Our Father who is in heaven. When you pray, pray to Him. In another place, our Lord taught
us how to pray to our Father. That is, how to approach Him.
Isn't this so important? Lord, teach us how to pray. Well, pray in your closets. Don't
use vain repetition. The Father knows you. He has
perfect understanding of you. When you pray, pray to your Father.
And when you pray, pray through me. That's what he said, wasn't
it? I am the way, I'm the truth,
I'm the life. No man comes to the Father except
by me. We even approach Him to the Father
in prayer in His name. I want you to hold that scripture.
I want to show you a passage over in Ephesians chapter 2.
This has always been such an encouragement to me in prayer.
Look in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 18. True prayer involves
the Trinity. It would be impossible for someone
who didn't believe in the Trinity to pray. It would be utterly
impossible if you didn't believe in the Father and in the Son
and the Holy Spirit to pray. Because prayer involves the holy,
sacred Trinity. Look here how he says in Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 18, speaking of the Jews and the Gentiles,
that Christ upon the cross has reconciled us in His body. And look what he says in verse
18, for through Him, through Christ, we both, Jews and Gentiles,
have access by one Spirit unto the Father. See that? We have
access to the Father, how? Through the Son, by the grace
and the aid and the help and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Now, you can't pray without the
Trinity, can you? Without the faith and the understanding
of the holy and blessed Trinity. There's only one Father to pray
to. There's only one Son that we can approach unto God with
by His marriage, by His sacrifice, by His intercessions. And it's only through the Holy
Spirit that we're able to do that. One mediator between God
and man, and that's the man, Christ Jesus. And you know, since this is so,
since we have access by this one man, by this mediator, It's
a free access. Whatever cost was involved, He
paid it. It's not upon you now to bring
a price to approaching to God to obtain access. We do it freely
through the Son. You don't have to have merit
to approach now. The merit is in Him. And you
don't have to be so concerned about the words because you've
got a mediator. that sifts it all out and presents
it to the Heavenly Father. Access through Him. And since
it's totally through Him, completely through Him, it's a continual
access. I tell you, most of the time
anymore, brothers and sisters, I'll be honest with you, I don't
know if it's in my own heart, I don't know if it's the time
in which we live, I don't always feel like praying. Prayer sometimes is a laborsome
thing, is it not? That's why the disciples said,
Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to pray. But you know
what encourages me? I pray where I feel like it or
not. I pray where I'm in the right frame of mind to begin
to pray or not. I pray if I'm up, if I'm down,
because my access is in someone else. And it's free, and it's
complete, and it's total. The door is always wide open
unto the throne room of my Father in heaven, because it's through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look back over here in our text
again. The Lord Jesus not only tells us who to pray to and how
to come into His Father's presence through Him. But notice here
in verses 9 through verse 13, he gives us this wonderful pattern
of prayer. It's a pattern. And that's what
we should use it for. We can get up and read this prayer,
we can get up and say this prayer, but really it's a pattern. He
gives us a way, an attitude of prayer. who God is and what He's
like and how we approach Him and what we say when we're there.
He gives us a pattern. And look here in verse 9 at this
prayer. After this manner, this is a
pattern. Therefore pray you. Now look at the first way that
we're to pray. Our Father, which art in heaven. The Lord Jesus taught us to pray
that. Our Father, and where is He? Well, He's in heaven. He's
a great and glorious God. He's so above us in every way. He's over us in every way. As high as the heavens is above
this earth is our Father. Our Father who art in heaven.
Oh, here you and I are, and look at us. What are we? We're just
dust, are we not? We came out of the dust and to
the dust we return. We're just worms and we're grasshoppers. We're nothings upon this earth.
But who is our Father? Oh, He's glorious. He's high. He's not only in heaven, but
He's above the heavens. That's our Father. And our Lord
Jesus came to this earth and said, I want to teach you to
pray. Pray to your Father who is in heaven. What's our Father like? How do
we address Him? Well, hallowed, holy, separated,
be thy name. There's none like Him. He's not
like us at all. He's eternally different than
we are. He's holy. He's hallowed. His name is holy. His thoughts
is holy. His will is holy. His purposes
is holy. He's holy. He's fearful and praises. And He does wondrous things.
But this is not only the way we address Him, but this is our
desire that everybody approach Him like this. This is what we
pray publicly. Father, this is what we wish. This is our prayer that in every
aspect We and others may approach unto you just like we have approached
unto you. Hallowed be thy name. Does it
bother you when you hear the Lord God of heaven brought down
on our level? Can you endure to sit and hear
somebody pray and debase the glorious God in heaven? and bring
Him down to our level or even lower than us, that bothers me,
doesn't it, you? We want people to come into His
presence and say, I would be Thy Name. There is none like
You. There is none like You. And notice what else the Master
teaches us to pray. He said pray after this manner.
We pray to our Father who has a kingdom. Thy kingdom come. The kingdom of God. God has a
glorious kingdom. The kingdom of heaven. The kingdom
of God's dear Son. He has a kingdom. And you know
something about this kingdom? It's going to outlive all kingdoms.
And it's going to crush all the kingdoms of devils and men under
its feet. And it's going to reign forever
and ever and ever. And this is what we pray. Father,
Your kingdom come. Come where? Come into my heart.
Set up Your rule in my heart. Rule in me. Rule in my children's
heart. Rule in the nation. Rule in the
world. Bring all under subjection to
You. Your kingdom come. But you know
everybody can't pray that, can they? There's people that pray
that. But if this kingdom comes, it
will destroy them. Because they're not children
of the Father, you see. They pray it with their lips.
But that's not what they desire. They live in pleasures of sin
and the world. And if the Kingdom come, as they
pray for, it would sweep them away in all their sinful pleasure.
But all you this morning, you want to see His Kingdom come,
don't you? Satan has ruled in this darkness
long enough. Sin has reigned long enough. Lord, Your kingdom come. Set it up. Put down the kingdoms
of this world and set up Your kingdom. That's what we long
for. A kingdom of peace. A kingdom
of righteousness. Well, it's already here, is it
not? It's already in our hearts. But we want the full manifestation
of it, don't we? We want everything restored. Everything made new and us made
new where righteousness reigns and there is abundance and peace.
Thy kingdom come. And look what else he said, pray
like this, Thy will be done. Oh, a man is happy that can pray
this in his heart. No matter if it lays me low,
Thy will be done. And when a man is taught finally
that the will of God is the only will that's good. Man's will
is contrary to God's will and therefore it's evil. Anything
that's contrary to our Father's will is not good. It's not good
for anybody. It's not good for us. And to
be taught that and come to Him in prayer and say, Father, Your
will be done. Not my will in anything, but
your will in all things, because your will is good. It's good. In heaven, in heaven, is the
Father's will done there in heaven? Well, sure it is. Who could violate
His will in heaven? That's His house. I'm just a
poor, feeble man, but I rule my house. He rules in heaven. His will
is done. And isn't that a holy and happy place? I tell you,
it's a holy place. It's a happy place where His
will is done. Lord, Your will be done in my
heart, in my life, in everything. Your will be done. And you know
what? Boy, when we see that, we're a happy people. We are
a happy people. And here in verses 11 through
verse Verse 13, our Lord teaches us three things. Our utter dependency upon the
Father. Look at this. Give us our daily
bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Verse 11. Give us our daily bread. Are we so dependent upon our
Father in heaven that we won't even have daily bread if He don't
give it to us? That's so, is it not? People
don't recognize that. Lord, have mercy upon us. How
seldom we recognize it, that we go so unthankful, unrecognizing
that the Lord has supplied even the crumbs that we have left
on our table. He's given us our food and our
drink for our natural being. And if He withholds it from us,
and all He has to do, to starve us all to death is to shut up
the heavens where they won't rain. Let us have one season
and famine would come and we would starve. Aren't we daily
dependent? And it's not just our daily bread. When he says our daily bread,
he means everything that sustains us naturally. We're to recognize
that our Father supplies it by asking Him for it. But you know it's the spiritual
bread too. Don't you need to be fed spiritually? Our souls need to be fed. They
need to be revived. He that gives us life has to
sustain that life within us. Give us our daily bread. And
here we're awfully dependent on this. He says there in verse
12, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Oh,
aren't we utterly dependent upon Him for that? Daily? Praying? One dear man asked me,
Do we sin daily? I said, Did the Lord teach us
to pray daily? Forgive us our debts. Debts! And what can we pay? What do we have to take to the
Father in heaven and offer it to Him as a price for our forgiveness? Oh, we have to add what we find
in other places. Freely forgive us of our debts. Graciously forgive us of our
debts. And we are indebted. Our debts
are sins against God. And if He ever calls in the bill,
its woe be to us. So it behooves us every day Did
we sin every day? You see sin in you every day,
don't you? Well, confess it then. Go right
to the Father through Christ Jesus, the Savior, and say, Father,
forgive me. I've sinned again. I've done
it again. For the 500th time in a row,
I've done it again. Father, forgive me. And what
does He say in His promise? He is faithful and just to forgive. Yes, but you've done it before.
And yes, He's faithful to forgive it again and again and again. Does He put any limit upon forgiveness?
Does He not say 490 times for us a day? If I turn and say unto
you, I've sinned against you 490 times, you forgive me. How
much more will He forgive? Oh, forgive us, our Father. And he says here in verse 13,
look, we are utterly dependent upon Him for this, for guidance.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Don't
lead us into temptation. How in the world would it be
said that God led us into temptation? By just leaving us alone. By just letting us direct our
steps. Set down in purpose in the way
that we're going to go, and then let us try to fulfill that purpose
and get ourselves in an awful mess. Oh, lead me. Lead me beside the still water. Lead me in paths of righteousness. Father, I am utterly dependent
upon You. I cannot set my next step in
front. There is where I'll fall. Guide
my steps. Uphold me. in your way. And then He closes it like this,
Thine is the kingdom. Thine is the kingdom. His is the kingdom. His is the
only kingdom that will stand and subdue all other kingdoms.
Thine is the power. You are the Omnipotent. You are
the Almighty God. You are the Creator. And all
we are merely creatures that move and have our being because
You've given us the power to do it. And in the light of all
of this, notice how He closes it, Thine is the glory forever
and ever. Amen. If we pray a prayer that
we cannot end it like this, then let's don't pray it. It's not
fit to be prayed. If we're praying a prayer that
does not end with Thine be the glory, Forever and ever, Amen. And isn't that our desire? For
His glory to shine upon us. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, to shine in our hearts, to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. His is the glory. And Moses said,
Lord, show it to me. Show me Your glory. I want to
see it. And He alone is glorious. And
that's what we pray for. Because all the glory is His.
Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto us. Something else about
prayer. The Lord Jesus taught us to pray. He encouraged us to pray. I want you to hold Matthew and
look over in Luke chapter 18. In Luke chapter 18. Look what he says in verse 1. And he spake a parable. Luke
18 and 1. He spake a parable, a whole parable
to this end with this goal in mind. For this reason, he preached
this parable to us. That men ought always to pray
and not to lose heart. Not to turn cowards. Not to give
up, not to faint. A whole parable that we should
pray and not faint? The Lord knows us better than
we know ourselves, doesn't He? He knows how backward we are,
even as children of God, to pray. For years now, this has happened
to me and it's probably happened to some of you. Every time I
go to prayer, there's a little voice somewhere in my mind that's
saying, as soon as I start, I hear this little voice and it always
whispers, that's enough. I just started. Yes, but that's
enough. And I have to fight my way through
that to pray. No wonder David said, hold up
my steps in your goings. Hold me up in your ways. In your
ways of what? In your ways of prayer. Because
I get so discouraged and unbelieving, I need to be encouraged to pray.
Oh, give me your Holy Spirit. You know that's the place where
our Master said how freely He gives the Spirit to them that
ask Him. You know what that's in reference
to? Prayer. Give me your Holy Spirit. Hold
me up and encourage me to pray. Well, here he encourages us.
He speaks the parable to this end to encourage us to keep on
and keep on and keep on and always pray and not to turn cowards. Next time you get up after three
or four minutes, just call yourself what you are. Well, I'm a coward. And take your sea shield and
take your sword and go at it again. And ask the Lord to uphold
you in it. But notice this parable, a very
familiar parable, and look what he says. There was in a city
a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there
was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge
me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while,
but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God,
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge
her, lest by her continued coming she weary me. And the Lord said,
Hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his
own elect? which cry day and night unto
him, though he bear long with him, I tell you, he will avenge
them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man cometh, will he find faith on the earth?" Notice here in
verse 7 and 8, the Lord said, "...and shall not God avenge
his own elect? I tell you," in verse 8, "...he
will avenge them speedily." How does He know? He seems to speak with authority
and knowledge of the Father, doesn't He? Why would He do that? How can
He do that? How does He know what the Father
thinks? Will He know how the Father receives
the prayer and answers the prayers of His elect people? Oh, nobody
knows the Father like the Son. This is what's so encouraging
when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, teaches us to pray.
When He comes down from heaven and says to us as it were, now
listen, I just left heaven. I know my Father. I've been with
Him for all eternity. I know Him perfectly. I know
His will. I know His purposes. I know the
love that He has in His heart for you. I know what He's laid
out for you. You don't know Him. You know
very little of Him. But I know Him perfectly. And
here's what I'm telling you of your Father. He loves to hear
you pray. Now, that may sound to you familiar
and vulgar, and I don't mean it to sound that way. But that's
just the truth. That's getting it down where
a little child can understand it. The Son of the Eternal God
comes and He says, The Father loves to hear you pray. all the
sacrifices of the wicked. That's abomination to Him. But
He delights in the prayer of the righteous. Don't that encourage
you to pray? Isn't it wonderful then that,
brothers and sisters, we could take the words of the Son of
God with us and encourage us to pray? He told us to pray. He told us to come to the Father.
He told us the Father loved to hear our prayer, that He'd answer
our prayer according to His own will and in His own time. That's
encouraging. You think we pray too much? You
think we're praying up? You think we need to be a praying
Lord? You think we need to let go of some of the things that
we're doing and spend more time in prayer? I do. And this is what this is about,
encouraging us to pray. The Master knew it. He knew how
backward we are to pray. He knew how the things of the
world and the cures of this life entered in and choked prayer
from our hearts. So He encouraged us to pray by
saying, listen, I've come from my Father. He sent me not only
to redeem you, but to teach you to pray. What a wonderful thought
that is. He opened His mouth And He taught
them. And what did He teach them? To
pray. I like to imagine sometimes the
dear saint bowing in prayer and praying to his Father in Heaven.
And the Father with a smile on His face looks over at His Son
and says, You taught them well. You taught them well. They are
praying. They are praying. Look back in
our text again one more time. Matthew chapter 6. Prayer is a mysterious thing.
Look in chapter 6 again. And look in verse 6. And thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. That's a dark place, ain't it?
And when thou prayest, shut thy door. It's even a darker place
now. A secret place, isn't it? A secret place. Pray to thy Father
which is in secret. Ain't that amazing? The Father's
in secret. He is in secret. You don't feel Him, do you? Do
you hear His voice speaking to your ear? Do you see Him? He's in secret. And look at this. And the Father which seeth in
secret. It's so secretive. Everything
about prayer. It's so mysterious. And here's
one of the mysterious things about it. When it leaves you,
it's all muddled up. It's just all confused up. There are some words that's audible
and there are some words you can't make out and there's all
this groaning in the heart and it leaves you and sometimes it's
just a confused mess. Is it not? We understand what
the Apostle Paul said, meant when he said, we know not what
to pray for as we ought. We don't even know how to pray.
It is the Spirit that makes intercessions for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. It leaves us, it leaves our lips,
and it goes up through the clouds and the star heavens, and it
enters the Father's presence, His throne room, but it comes
by His Son. who is seated there, and he puts
his sweet incense of intercession and obedience upon it, and he
suffers the prayer, and he separates it all out, and he gives it to
the Father. And the Father says, My soul,
what a wonderful prayer. I love it, He says. I love it. It don't leave you that way.
But when it gets there, it's all cleared up. And it's the
Spirit that maketh intercessions according to what? The will of
God. And it's Christ that maketh intercessions
and washes it and presents it to the Father. But it's all in
such a mysterious way. It's secret, isn't it? It's secret. And He will reward you how? Openly. Openly. Now, here's something that's
a mystery. This is a mystery. Who determines what it is to
be blessed? How does He reward you openly?
Now, there's a mystery to that. There's a mystery to that. You
pray sometimes for your children, that the Lord would save them.
Lord, save my son. Lord, restrain him from evil. And what happens? Well, God lets
him go. Instead of saving him, instead
of restraining him, He lets him go. And here you are, you're
all grieved about it. I wanted you to save him. Not
only have you not saved him, you've removed constraints, and
he's open and profane. Is that the way you reward me
openly? Who determines what a blessing
is? We find a blessing even in that,
do we not? When you begin to whisper to
us and teach us in a most effectual way, salvation is of the Lord. I don't save anybody because
he's your son. That's my prerogative. And is there not a lesson in
that when He presses it upon the heart and the children rebel
and finally you're brought to the place that you take sides
with God against your own children? Is there a blessing in that? Oh, there's a blessing in that.
When you take sides with God against yourself. and against
the world. Is that not a blessing in death?
Has he not rewarded you? No, it's not like you thought.
But your thoughts are not his thoughts. Prayer is a mysterious
thing, is it not? Listen to Mr. Newton. Listen
to how he said it. We'll close with it. Here's the
way he rewarded Mr. Newton openly. I asked the Lord, that I might
grow in faith and love and every grace." That's a good prayer,
isn't it? That's a wonderful prayer. I
imagine the Father smiled when He heard that. "...that I might
more of His salvation know, and seek more earnestly His face. T'was He who taught me thus to
pray, and He I trust has answered prayer." But He has done it in
such a way, He almost brought me to despair. I hoped that in
some favored hour, at once He would answer my request, and
by His love's constraining power, subdue my sins and give me rest. But instead, He made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart. He let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul in every part. Yes, more. With His own hand,
He seemed, intent to aggravate my woe. Crossed all the fire
designs I schemed, blasted my gourd, and He laid me low." Is
that openly? Openly rewarded. Lord, why is
this? I trembled and cried. Will you pursue your worm to
death? This is the way, the Lord replied. I answer prayer for grace and
faith." Not like we think it. I had my opinions how he might
answer my prayer, but he laid my opinions low. He burned all
my plans and my wishes and my desires and laid them at His
feet in ashes, answered them the way He purposed He desired
to answer. These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set you free and break your schemes of
earthly joy that you may seek your all in Me. He rewards you openly. And just
because you can't figure out how He's done it yet, don't cease
to pray. And don't be offended at Him.
He's His own interpreter. And soon He'll make it plain
why He's answered your prayers in such a manner. But don't forget
this, brothers and sisters. Pray to thy Father. Pray to thy
Father. And with that, let us.