Matthew chapter 6. Let's begin
reading in verse 5. This is the words of our Lord.
And when thou prayest, when you pray, you shall not be as the
hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corner of the streets, that they may be seen of men,
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when
thou prayest, when you pray, enter into thy closet, and when
you have shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret,
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when you pray, use not vain
repetition as the heathen do. for they think that they shall
be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto
them, for your Father knoweth what things you have need of
before you ask him. After this manner, therefore,
pray ye, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. I just want to leave this thought
with you this afternoon. in the middle of verse 6. It's
a wonderful verse. It's an amazing verse. Pray to
thy Father. What a competent, instructive
word that is. Pray to thy Father. I think sometimes
the Lord can speak one little short phrase and there's more
instruction in it and more comfort in it and more encouraging in
it all the books that have ever been written about Him. Pray to thy Father. The Lord taught us how to pray.
He taught us here who to pray to. And you know when He teaches
us who to pray to, He teaches us who not to pray to. Pray to
thy Father. That's who prayer is to be directed
to. And being directed to Him, it's
directed to no other. We're never to pray to planets. We're never to pray to angels.
We're never to pray to saints. Pray to thy Father. In other places, He tells us
how to approach Him to the Father. That's not His intentions here.
But other places, and all through the Scriptures, We are told how
to approach unto the Father in prayer. No man comes unto the
Father but by me. That is the way we approach unto
the Father. By Him. If our prayers are ever accepted,
they will be prayed through Him. They will be prayed in His name,
by His intercessions, for His glory. There is one faithful and merciful
mediator between God and man, and it is by Him that we have
access unto the Father. And here in verse 9, the Lord
teaches us the manner of our prayer. We are not to pray exactly
like this, but He gives us an outline. He gives us a manner.
He says after this manner, pray ye. And notice how He says this. Notice how He begins. Our Father. That's the way we begin our prayer.
Our Father. Isn't there comfort in that?
Our Father by new birth. Our Father because you've sent
forth the Spirit of your Son into our hearts, crying, Father,
Father. Isn't it comforting to know that
the everlasting God, the eternal God, that has no beginning of
days nor end of life is your Father. That when you approach
Him to Him, you can say, My Father. What a close relationship. The
unity. My Father. When you pray, pray
after this manner, Our Father in Heaven. And it tells us something
else here, It's not only our Father, but we belong to this
family because it's not just my Father, but it's our Father. We belong to the same family.
We have the same Father. We have the same Lord Jesus Christ,
our Father, which art in heaven. And notice how we're to address
Him here. He's above us. He's over us because He's our
Father, which is in heaven. He's high, isn't He? Brother
Wayne read this morning in the book of Psalms, where David said,
bow down. Bow down. Bow down your ear. Brothers and sisters, for the
Father in heaven to hear of us, He's going to have to stoop,
isn't He? I often pray, I often pray like this. Oh my Lord, bow
down yourself. Humble yourself. Get down here
in the dust with me. Is it lawful to pray that way?
That's where I'm at. That's where we're at. And He's
so high, if He hears us, He's going to have to bow way down.
He's going to have to be as a Father who loves His child and is willing
to stoop where His child is. And He's willing to do that because
He's our Father. Oh, He's high, the Bible says.
But He has respect unto the lowly. He has respect unto His children. He'll condescend. And look what
else He says. You're not only our Father which
is in heaven, but look how we approach unto His name, just
His mere name, Howard, holy, reverent is thy name. Hmm. Reverent is your name. perfect in holiness, too pure
of eyes to behold evil. We justify Him in everything
He does when we say, Holy is Your Name. We see His judgments
in this world, and sometimes they are devastating. We see
Him by His storms take people from this world. We see Him devastate
communities. Sometimes He brings us low. He lays His rod upon us. He fills
us with pain and sorrow. He leaves us weeping. But when
we approach Him, we justify everything He is and everything that He
does. Holy, holy. Has He ever brought you low?
Has He ever laid you low? How do you address Him when He
does that? Just as you addressed him before,
holy, reverent is your name. I saw Luke Coffey yesterday,
brother Henry's grandson. Almost every time I see him,
I ask him to tell me the story about when he was in school. And the lady, I guess she was
an atheist. And she was trying to disprove
the holiness of God and the justice of God. All the class to come
up and write one attribute of God. What do you think about
God? Some wrote kind and some wrote love and some wrote good. And Luke went up and wrote holy.
H-O-L-Y. And he said the teacher got up
and explained the holocaust. She took quite a few minutes
and went through the holocaust. How could God allow the holocaust? And she says, now in the light
of what I've said, can you come up and put an extension on your
word? And Luke said, I just went up
and put S-T-I-L-L in front of holy, still holy. He is, isn't he? Here's the way
you approach unto your Father. My Father, which is in heaven,
high above us, over us, In your glorious person, in your judgments,
in your works, holy, reverent is your name. I can find a lot
of faults in you. You can find a lot of faults
in me. You follow one another around, you'll see a lot of slips,
a lot of bad character traits. But not in our God. Not in our
Father. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy is your name. And I love what he says here
in the next verse, in verse 10, Thy kingdom come. Our Father has a kingdom. Thy
kingdom. The kingdom of God's dear Son.
That's just called in another place, the kingdom of God, the
kingdom of heaven. And you know something, this
is the only kingdom fit talking about. We talk about our little
kingdom, the kingdom of America, wonder how much longer it's going
to stand. I'll tell you one thing, it's not going to stand forever.
But there is a kingdom that will stand forever. It's the kingdom
of our Father in heaven, the kingdom of His dear Son, and
it will subdue all other kingdoms. It's the only kingdom that is
a spiritual kingdom, that is a heavenly kingdom, that's an
everlasting kingdom. And it's a kingdom full of peace
and joy and the Holy Ghost, and I'm telling you, that kingdom
will stand forever. And when He says, Your Father,
Your kingdom come. Your kingdom come to My heart.
Set up Your rule in My heart. Set up Your rule in every heart.
And Your kingdom come someday and put down all rule and all
authority under You. Mortality swallowed up in lie. Corruption swallowed up in incorruption. And Jesus, the blessed Son of
God, Be the light of that glorious kingdom. And the life of it,
too. He has a kingdom. He has a kingdom. Aren't you glad you're in that
kingdom? And you know there's only one way to get into it.
It's to be born into it. We're born into the kingdom of
men by natural birth, and we have to be born again to get
into the Father's kingdom. That's why we pray, Your kingdom
come. Your kingdom come. And I love this. Look what else
he says. Thy will be done. Boy, thy will. The Father has
a will. Sometimes it's called a will
of decree, a secret will. Sometimes it's called a reveal
will. But the Father has a will. And you know it's good. It's
holy. It's right. And I'd say everything
contrary to this will must be wrong. It must be evil. It must be rebellious. So here's
what we pray. Father, not my will be done,
but Your will be done. Not only in heaven, but may Your
will be done in this earth. I was staying with old man Bob
Palmster. Some of you know Bob and Sally
down at Brother Don. And we were sitting, and Bob
always asked his blessings over his food at the breakfast table
there in his house. We were sitting there one morning,
and I always looked forward to Bob praying. Me and Joe, I think
Joe was there. Me and Sally and Bob. And Bob
began his prayer, Our Father which art in heaven. I thought
he was going to say the Lord's Prayer. Our Father which art
in heaven. Thank You for our daily bread.
Receive our thanksgiving, if You will. We was getting ready to go to worship
that morning. And He said, Father, we're going
to worship. Receive our worship, if You will. And Father, if there be loss
there in our midst, save them, if it be Your will. Oh, and I
sat there and worshiped in that prayer. Because it was all submissive
to the will of God. Thy will be done. That's what we want, isn't it?
It don't matter where that leaves me. It don't matter where that
leaves my children. It don't matter where that leaves
you. If His will is done, that's what we seek after. And that's
the end to which we pray. Our Father, Thy will be done. And here in verse 11, He tells
us something else. He tells us here that He is the
Father. Our Father is the possessor of heaven and earth. He owns
everything. He is the sustainer of everything. And He is the giver of everything
that we have. Every good gift and every perfect
gift that we enjoy in this life, saved or lost, it all comes from
Him. Father, give us this day our
daily bread. And you know that includes everything.
That includes our water. That includes our health. Our
daily bread includes everything we need to sustain us in our
physical and natural life. And He gives it all. Father,
give us everything we need today to sustain us. If it's the means
you're going to use, then give us the ability to use the means. Give us the will, give us the
desire to use the means, and give us the grace to be thankful
when you supply our needs according to your riches and glory. I've heard people say, God hasn't
given me anything. I work for everything I've got. You don't have sense enough to
work. You don't have the ability to work. You don't even have
the means to earn your living if He doesn't give it to you. Everything comes from Him. Father,
give us. Father, give us. That's what
we pray every day. Give us. We're the beggars, aren't
we? We're the ones that's waiting
on Him. The beasts of the field wait upon Him. The birds of the
air wait upon Him. The grass waits upon Him to water
it. Nothing grows. Nothing is sustained
except the Heavenly Father, the God and Father of our Savior
sustains it and gives it what it needs. Our Father, give us. And I tell you, not only is He
the giver of all that's in this world that's natural that we
need, but He's the giver of all grace. For look at this, forgive
us our debts. He's the giver of all grace.
Forgive us of our sins. Forgive us of our transgressions.
Our Lord knows us, doesn't He? Our Master knows us, and He knows
our Father knows us. For a man to claim Some kind
of perfection is contrary to the very prayer that our Master
told us to pray. Don't be backward about confessing
your sins. As soon as you have sinned, while
the guilt of it is upon your conscience, come right to your
Father and say unto Him, Father, forgive my sins. We don't have
to be backward about it. Forgive my sins. That's why we
need a mediator, isn't it? That's why the Father set a mediator
between us and Him. That's why He set between us
and Him an advocate. If any man sinned, we have an
advocate. If we didn't have an advocate,
I'd be afraid to go unto God and confess my sin. I'd hide
my sins like Adam. But we have a mediator. And we
can go say, Father, I've sinned. Father, I've sinned again. Father,
I've sinned again. If we confess our sins, He's
our Father. And He's faithful and just to
forgive us our sin. You're a father. Most of you
here are fathers. You adults are fathers. Did you expect your
children to be perfect? If they come to you and told
you that they'd made an awful slip, would you sympathize with
them? Would you just beat on them and
harass them and discourage them? What would you do? You'd forgive
them, wouldn't you? You being a father would do that,
and our Father in Heaven wouldn't do it. Our Father, which art
in Heaven, forgive us our sins, our debts. And next, look how He prays.
I love this. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. What is this? Is this not a confession
of our utter ignorance, of our blindness and our inability to
lead ourselves? Why would we say, Father, lead
me away from temptation? If we don't know that we're inclined
to evil, why would we pray, lead me from it? If we're left to
ourselves, what's going to happen? We're going to fulfill the lust
of the flesh. If we're left to the devil, he's
going to sift us. If we're left to follow and be
led by some man, we're going to be led off into the ditch.
The only safe leading and guiding we have is from our Father in
heaven. Father, lead me away from evil. Lead me in the paths of righteousness
for Thy sake. Because I don't have sense of
that. to lead myself. It's not in man that walks to
direct his steps. Listen to this passage in Isaiah
42. This is what the Lord said. This shows you how He knows our
ignorance and what He calls us. I will lead the blind by way
that they know not. He said, Bruce, He calls His
children blind. Well, aren't we? Where are you
going to set your next step? Do you have any idea? Aren't
you blind is what's going to take place in the next five minutes?
We're blind, aren't we? We're not blind to Him and salvation
by Him. But I tell you, we're blind as
to the next step we're going to take. So He says, I will bring
the blind by way they know not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I've never been this way before. I don't know what's going to
happen next. Aren't you glad that he's leading? Can't you
pray to that end? Father, lead me. I will lead
them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness
light before them and crooked things straight. These things
will I do for them, and not forsake them, saith the Lord." The only
safe way to walk on this highway is to be led of the Father. We ought to pray that every day.
If He is willing to lead us, we ought to be willing to ask
Him, Father, lead me not into temptation. And he says here,
for thine is the kingdom. Thine is the kingdom. It is, isn't it? It is the kingdom.
It's His. He set it up. He reigns in it. He says who's going to be in
it. It's a kingdom that reigns over all kingdoms. It's a kingdom
that's going to subdue all other kingdoms. It's the everlasting
kingdom of God and of God's dear Son. Thine is the power. Thine is the kingdom, Thine is
the power. Did you know there's no power
but of God? He's the only Creator, and all of us are creatures. Those mighty cherubs, they're
just creatures. And if He took His power from
them, they collapse, they fall. Satan is the God of this world,
but he's just a creature, and you and I are mere creatures.
And Pilate said, don't you know I have the power? You can have
no power at all against me. At all? None at all. You couldn't
even look at me. You couldn't speak against me.
You couldn't lift a finger against me. You cannot command anything
to happen to me. You have no power, no power,
no power, except it were given you. Oh, my Father. You know why we should be careful
about speaking to evil of our president, even though we hate
his policies? You know who put him there? We know who put him there, don't
we? God put him there. And he'll never be removed until
God sets him down. Huh? Like him or don't like him. Like his policies or don't like
him. God set him there, and God pulled him down. And no mere
man will be able to do it. No man can come to Christ on
his own. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. He has the only power there is
in this universe. Thine is the power. And when
you start thinking on these terms, We can understand why he went
right on to saying, Thine is the glory. Whoever has got all
the power has the glory, don't he? Whoever is ruling, whoever
is on the throne, he has the glory. And boy, we see it in
creation. We see it in providence. We see
it in salvation. And we see it manifest in the
face of the Lord Jesus. the power of God. After this manner, therefore,
pray ye. Pray like this. Pray to thy Father. But he says this here, and I
think this is just as important as how to pray. There are some
things just as important as how to pray. And that's encouragement
to pray. Because we need to be encouraged
to pray. And boy, here is courage and
encouragement to pray. Pray to thy Father. Now, if I told you this, I can
tell you this. And this will encourage you,
hopefully, by me just telling you this. Pray to your Father. And there's been prophets who
have prayed. And they have taught us to pray.
Listen to Solomon at the dedication of the temple. He said, O our
Father, what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or
by your people Israel, which shall know every man the plague
of his own heart, when he spreads forth his hand towards this house,
Then hear thou in heaven your dwelling place, and forgive and
do." Boy, that's encouragement to pray isn't it? Elijah prayed
that it may not rain, and it didn't rain for three years. And then he prayed for the rain,
and it rained. Boy, that's encouragement isn't
it? Pray to the God that controls all nature. And James said, the
effectual prayer of a righteous man, a bell of money. These prophets
and these apostles, they encourage us to pray. We encourage one
another to pray. But I tell you, there's no encouragement
to pray like the encouragement that we find right here. Pray
to your Father. Who said that? That was the Son
of God who came down from heaven. who was with the Father from
all eternity, and who knows the heart of the Father. He knows
the decrees and the will and the good pleasure of His Father.
He knows how His Father feels about His children. He knows
what He has given them and laid up for them. He knows the Father
perfectly. And here is what He says. Pray
to your Father. That tells us something, doesn't
it? He knows the Father delights in the prayers of His children.
So He comes down from heaven and He says, Pray to your Father.
He delights to hear you pray. Oh my, I don't know what the
blessings that you and I miss. I don't know how many blessings
you and I miss in our lives simply because we won't pray. You know
what James said? You have not because you ask
not. Is that what he said? Pray to your Father. He is rich. The sacrifices of the wicked
yield their abomination, but the prayer of the upright is
His delight. He delights in it. And why shouldn't
He? Why shouldn't He? He's given
us the Spirit of His Son. He's made access to His Son that
we should come to Him. He tells us that His Son is on
His right hand, and He has this incense, this sweet smell and
odor that He mixes with the prayers of His people. And those prayers
come up to the Father, and they have the smell of His Son upon
them. Revelation chapter 8 and verse 2 and 4. Oh, pray to your
Father. Pray to your Father. That's what
the Son of God tells us to do. Who knows the Father better than
anybody else? And you think about this, the
Son of God is back in heaven now, and He knows what's going
on there when the saint begins to pray. You see, we don't know
what happens to us. We're down here on this earth,
and we begin our prayer, and it's so frail, and it's so feeble,
and it's so strained, and we feel the utter weakness of our
prayer. And we just have to labor. We
have to beg, Lord, strengthen me to pray. Uphold me to pray. Give me Your Spirit that I may
pray. And we have no idea what's going on in heaven while we're
praying. But our prayers, that comes from the weakest saint,
have this sweet incense of the obedience and intercessions of
Christ our Savior. And the Father delights to hear
these prayers. Pray to thy Father. Pray to thy
Father. Something else here in verse
6 that we find out about praying is this. It's a private thing. It's a private matter. When thou
prayest, enter unto thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret. And he that seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly. What is a closet? That's a private
place, isn't it? It's a private place. Nobody
in there but just you. And what it represents to us
here is shutting everything out. Nobody in here with me but my
Father. And you know, it really, really
gets secret. Not just the closet, but when you get in your closet,
shut your door. It really makes it secret. Now, isn't it wonderful when you can
get in secret and all the world of thoughts are gone for a few
minutes? You're in such secret that the cares and the pleasures
of life, they're not even allowed in there. There's no room for
them. Just you and your Heavenly Father. Isaac went out into the fields,
that was his closet, by himself, and prayed and meditated in the
field. Peter went up on the housetop,
remember that, before dinner, and got along just him and his
father. Paul went down to the bottom
of a ship, that was his closet. Where is your closet? Get in
your closet and shut everything else out. And no room for anybody
else in there but you. and your Father in heaven. And the secret of your heart,
that's what he's talking about. The secret of your heart. This is why it's a difficult
thing to pray in public. I know we have to. We have to
pray in public. But you know something? It's
a tough thing, isn't it? To get up here and pray, or anywhere
where you have to pray in public, Because you have to pray to be
heard. I mean, if I just get up here
and speak to myself, that's not going to profit you. How can
you say amen when I'm finished? You don't even want to say it.
So we have to pray to be heard. But if we're just praying to
be heard, it's not a prayer either. It's difficult to pray publicly. I've said this before. My preference
about this may not be yours, and I'm not trying to force it
off on you, but I just seldom pray in a restaurant anymore.
I just seldom do it. And one of the reasons I don't
pray and give thanks over my food in a restaurant is because
my heart cannot concentrate. The waitress, I did it before,
Her sitting down here, me trying to pray, and her sitting down
in place in front of me. Everybody talking, running backwards
and forwards. And I'm saying a few words, but
my heart is preoccupied with all the sounds and all the comings
and the goings. My words may be good, but if
my heart is not in it, the words mean little or nothing. Isn't
that so? your Father which seeth in secret."
That's what prayer is. That's what prayer is. He knows
what ye have need of. When? When you tell Him? No,
before you ever say a word. Why? Because He knows the hearts. Thy Father which seeth in secret. He sees the heart. He searches
the heart. And if the heart is not thankful,
the words of thanksgiving cannot be accepted. It's impossible.
Prayer originates in the heart. It's bred there by the Spirit
of God's dear Son. And that's where it comes from.
The mouth is the vent. through which heart prayer comes. But it originates right here.
And if it doesn't, it's not prayer. Pray to thy Father which seeth
in secret. Listen to Romans 8, 26 and 27. Likewise the Spirit helps our
infirmities, but we know not what to pray for as we ought
But the Spirit himself makes intercessions for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered, and he that searches the hearts knows
what is the mind of the Spirit." What does he search? We search
words. We listen to one another pray.
That's all we hear is words. He searches the heart. pray to thy Father which seeth
in secret." He said in Exodus chapter 2, listen to this, "...it
came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died,
and the children of Israel sighed by reason of their bondage, and
they cried, and their cry came up by reason of their bondage,
and God heard their groaning." and remembered the covenant that
He made with Abraham. They were groaning. What were
they saying? You could not tell. It was not
discernible. And God heard it. God heard it. Listen to Psalm 10, verse 17.
Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble." How do you hear
a desire? A desire that has originated
in the heart and is still in the heart. You can't hear desires,
but God can. Have you ever desired to see
Christ? Have you ever desired more faith
in Him? Have you ever desired to know more of His love that
passed us by? Have you ever desired to be with
Him, to know His presence? What do you desire? Sometimes
those desires are so faint you cannot even discern them. But
He can. He hears them. They are crying
unto Him. And the desires of the righteous
God will grant. He knows them. Thou hast given
to Him. his heart's desire. That's secret, isn't it? Boy,
that's secret now. That's shutting the door. Everything
else is out. Just the heart. Listen to Psalms 39, 38 and 9. Lord, all my desire is before
Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. Isaiah 26, 9,
With my soul have I desired thee in the night, yea, with my spirit
within me will I seek thee early. Where does prayer come from?
Within. My spirit within me. My soul thirsts for God. My soul thirsts for the living
God. When shall I come and appear
before God? My soul is thirsty. What is prayer? It's sighing. It's groaning. It's desiring. It's longings. Things that can't even be discerned
by the ear of man. But God hears it. It's secret. It takes place in the recesses
of the soul. That's where it originates at.
And then it comes through the lips. That's where it begins
at. Most of our prayers are never finished. They never come from
the heart, but God knows them. Our Father knows them. Our Father
in heaven. The mouth may have a great deal
to do with prayer, but it has nothing to do with
prayer except it come from the heart.
Pray to thy Father which seeth in secret. And he that seeth
in secret shall reward thee openly." A man may pray openly, and God
never will reward him. But every prayer that's prayed
in secret will be rewarded openly. All of them. And he tells us
here to beware of people who love to pray in public. It's
a good thing, brothers and sisters, that you don't want to pray in
public. It's a good thing that you're a little bit shy about
that. I have asked people if they'd lead us in prayer before,
and they said, could you get somebody else? Oh, that dear
brother over there, oh, I'd love to hear him. Can you ask him?
Oh, I'm glad that's fine. The Lord says, beware of this
man who loves to pray in the sin of God. Didn't He say that?
They love to pray in public. They love to pray standing on
the street corners. They love to be seen and they
love to be heard of men. And they pray some of the best
prayers, at least in their own heads, that you ever heard. The Lord said, but don't you
be like them. Don't you be like them. Isn't this an encouraging
word then? Pray to thy Father. Pray to thy Father. We won't be too overly surprised
when we come up to heaven and see our Father in the person
of His dear Son, because we've been talking to Him for years.
He knows us, and we know Him. We've been praying to our Father. God bless this world.