Corporate Prayer as a Means of Grace (3)

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins by reading 1 Timothy 2:1-8 and then offers a prayer, reflecting on the terrifying yet now joyful truth that God knows us completely, and asking for grace for the…

Martin mentions struggling with a cold affecting his vocal cords and sinus passages, asking for prayer for God's enablement to deliver truth, illustrating his personal dependence on God for ministry.

For there is one God, one mediator between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony to be born in its own times, whereunto I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I speak the truth, I lie not, a teacher. I am a preacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire, therefore, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without wrath and disputing. Let us pray and ask the help of God, not only in terms of the Spirit's ministry of illumination, as some of you have perhaps already detected, I've been struggling with a cold, that is af...

1:19 - 2:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure that the hands lifted in prayer symbolize a holy life, with a constant effort to keep a conscience void of offense to God and man.

Martin recounts a dear brother who always lifted his hands in private prayer, explaining that this posture symbolized helplessness, defenselessness, and dependence, helping him outwardly express an inward disposition.

Without wrath and disputing. Apparently the ordinary practice in that day in the public setting. Some suggested it was so in the synagogue was that when one prayed he lifted up his hands to heaven. And I'll never forget a dear brother who when I prayed with him privately no one any of you know.

56:24 - 56:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure that the hands lifted in prayer symbolize a holy life, with a constant effort to keep a conscience void of offense to God and man.

He uses the metaphor 'Don't live like the devil and come and expect to pray like an angel' to emphasize the necessity of a holy life for effective corporate prayer.

Don't live like the devil and come and expect to pray like an angel.

58:19 - 58:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask your wife if her heart can add an unreserved 'amen' to your public prayers, and if not, deal with the reasons honestly.

Martin asks men to consider if their wives can genuinely say 'amen' to their public prayers, suggesting that a wife's inability to do so might reveal hypocrisy in the husband's life, making the point about the need for a holy life and reconciled relationships.

I will that the men pray yes and pray in every place but pray out of the context not of a sinless life but a holy life. A life in which there is a constant effort to keep a conscience void of offense to God and man. In which when you pray and your wife is next to you she can without any reservation add her amen to your prayer rather than sit there and bite her lip and say oh God if I hear that man pray one more prayer I'm going to scream. What does your wife say when you pray men?

58:25 - 58:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray without wrath, ensuring there is no horizontal controversy with brethren and that horizontal relationships are as they ought to be.

He uses the vivid analogy of a wife vomiting up her supper due to a husband's hypocritical prayer, underscoring the severe spiritual consequence of unaddressed sin in public prayer.

You can only pray on the nights when she stays home because you know that the hypocrisy would make her vomit up her supper on your lap.

59:22 - 59:31 Read in full sermon