Duty of Prayer

Driving home: I'm using divinely appointed means of grace to designate and identify those activities disciplines and relationships chosen and ordained by God to be the channels by which He conveys spiritual nutrients to our souls, res…

Just as God appointed diet, rest, and exercise for physical health, he appointed means of grace for spiritual health. This illustrates that means of grace are God-ordained channels, not inherently powerful but effective by His blessing.

I'm using divinely appointed means of grace to designate and identify those activities disciplines and relationships chosen and ordained by God to be the channels by which He conveys spiritual nutrients to our souls, resulting in health and progress in the Christian life. That's what I mean by the divinely appointed means of grace. I'm using the term, both, to designate and identify activities, disciplines and relationships chosen and ordained by God to be the channels by which He conveys spiritual nutrients to the soul, resulting in our health and progress in the Christian life. If I may illu...

11:06 - 12:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Whether through ignorance, arrogance or false teaching for us to attempt to be spiritually healthy in the Christian life but to bypass or to substitute the divinely appointed means of grace is always to result in either …

A hypothetical person substitutes finely powdered, flavored sawdust for wholesome food to save money for missions. This illustrates the folly of inventing human substitutes for divinely appointed means, no matter how well-intentioned, as they lack the necessary 'nutrients' for spiritual health.

Suppose one of us in arrogance indolence or ignorance did not eat a modicum of wholesome food rarely any lengthy sleep and physical exercise. It's evident that we would not ordinarily enjoy any measure of physical vigor and of good health. Unity means for the sustenance of good maintenance of good health namely a balanced proper exercise will be monument of his folly of his indifference of his ignorance or of his arrogance. Furthermore someone might come along and say well I want to save more money to give to the work of God into missions and so much goes out in the weekly budget for food. Fou...

16:46 - 18:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God's will could not be made more plain with respect to any duty than it is with respect to the duty of the habit and the disposition of prayer.

The Greek word for 'without ceasing' (in 'pray without ceasing') is compared to someone continually coughing, meaning periodically throughout the day, not non-stop. This clarifies that 'pray without ceasing' refers to a disposition of prayerfulness, not constant verbal prayer.

What is God's will for me, specifically, concretely, as a child of God, is that I shall pray without ceasing. And the word without ceasing is the word, if you were a Greek in Paul's day, and someone said, how are you doing with getting over Eucharist, cold, and you'd say, well, I no longer have a fever, I no longer feel too bad, but I'm still continually coughing. When you would use the word continually, you wouldn't mean that from morning till night, you just were going, like a machine gun. What you meant is that periodically throughout the day, you've had a paroxysm of coughing.

33:21 - 33:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Honestly assess if you could be described as a man, woman, boy, or girl with undeniable evidence of the habit and disposition of prayer.

An invisible, fair-minded observer follows a person for four weeks and describes their industriousness, organization, and cheerfulness. This analogy challenges listeners to consider if such an observer could equally describe them as a person marked by the habit and disposition of prayer, prompting self-examination.

Suppose any fair-minded reasonably intelligent man or woman could become invisible for the next week or I should say for the last four weeks before you heard the sermon and they were able to follow you wherever you went whatever you did and they were asked to describe you and they would say he or she is a man woman boy or girl of grace great industry they don't waste a lot of time watching the clouds go by seeking to figure out whether they are horses or fairies or whatever no no no no they're up and doing they would describe you as a very industrious person maybe they would say you're a very ...

51:07 - 52:37 Read in full sermon

The point: If your life pattern is one of chronic prayerlessness, face the reality that you are godless and Christless.

The diligence people show in eating, resting, and exercising for physical health is contrasted with their potential neglect of prayer for spiritual health. This highlights the inconsistency of prioritizing physical well-being over spiritual well-being.

them go into that special place where they sit or kneel where they stand or out where they walk and there they give themselves to the shutting of the closet and pray would that be a description of you my friend would it don't answer audibly but answer as honestly now as you'll be forced to answer in the day of judgment could you be described not as the most eminent person of prayer not as one greatly in the disciplines of prayer to the place where you're able to intercede for hours no I'm not asking that and don't anyone question beyond what I ask all I ask as surely as the person who could de...

52:37 - 54:05 Read in full sermon

The point: If your life pattern is one of chronic prayerlessness, face the reality that you are godless and Christless.

Martin asks how long he would last in the pulpit if he preached about 'Christian perverts who willfully deliberately engage in lesbian homosexual activities as a lifestyle.' This extreme example is used to shock the audience and underscore the equally unbiblical concept of a 'chronically consistent prayerless Christian'.

was simply a repeat of the month before and that of the month before and the month before so that the pattern of your life is one that could not justly be described as a life in which there is the habit and disposition of prayer a prayerless man is godless and Christless what would you think of me if I stood in this pulpit and talked about Christian perverts who willfully deliberately engage in lesbian homosexual activities as a lifestyle but they are Christians how long do you think I'd last in this pulpit not long I hope because you know enough of your bible to know that though inherent not ...

55:34 - 57:03 Read in full sermon

The point: If you 'have not' because you 'ask not,' begin by asking God to help you hate your sin enough to pray earnestly for deliverance.

The story of the blind beggar who cried out to Jesus despite being told to be quiet is used to illustrate genuine earnestness in prayer. This challenges listeners that their lack of crying out for deliverance from sin indicates a deeper love for the sin itself.

sovereignly wills to keep you impoverished he says ye have not you don't ask because down underneath the thing you whine about you think you want deliverance from you really love it and you know if you really got earnest and asked you would get delivered so you need to start by asking oh God help me to hate spirit enough to have earnest enough to have the deliverance I know I ought to have remember the blind beggar he really wanted to get sight so when he heard Jesus was coming by it says he started to cry out son of David he said shush you got no time for you be quiet it says he cried he was ...

63:48 - 65:17 Read in full sermon