Pray Without Ceasing, Part 1

The Christian's Longing to Please God and the Command to Pray Without Ceasing

0:01 If you are a child of God, then one of your basic longings is to so live as to bring pleasure and delight to the God who has redeemed you. To live so as to please God. This is one of the great longings of the heart of a true Christian. And the Apostle Paul assumes that as he begins these last two chapters of the book, the first letter to the Thessalonians.

0:30 So he is not convincing these people that they ought to please God. This, the grace of God, is already done. But he's telling them how they ought to walk so as to please God. And in our studies of this section that sets before us the kind of walk that pleases God, we've come to these three little statements toward the end of the fifth chapter, beginning with verse 16.

1:00 Rejoice! Always pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, to your word. We have already considered several Lord's Day mornings, the injunction to pray without ceasing.

1:22 The order in the original would have us render it this way. Without ceasing, pray. Paul assumes that a true Christian, will pray. The thing to which he exhorts them is, that they might master the secret of unceasing prayer.

1:43 The same order is found with the matter of rejoicing. It's always rejoice. A true Christian has some measure of joy in rejoicing. But it is concerned that the people of God experience continuous joy.

1:59 And so, we come this morning to focus our attention, upon this little injunction, again, so easy to remember, but so difficult to experience, without ceasing, pray. I wonder if there's some connection in these three things. He says, first of all, rejoice always, and could it be that the way to constant rejoicing is to have continual converse with God in prayer, and then, an absolute repose in the will of God, so that in everything we can give thanks? That may be the connection in the Apostle's mind.

2:43 I wouldn't dogmatize on it, but certainly anyone who thinks the issue through, can see that there is a definite connection. He's not simply picked out these admonitions, and thrown them out willy-nilly. The only one who knows what it is to rejoice always, in the biblical sense of that rejoicing, as we've studied it together, is the one who is continually applying himself to the throne of grace, for mercy, for grace, for forgiveness, and who has learned to embrace from the heart every aspect of the will of God, so that in everything he's learned to rejoice in the dispositions of divine providence. Be that as it may, and I believe there is some connection between them, this injunction stands as a duty all by itself, were it not related to rejoicing in the Lord Jesus, the command is there to always, or unceasingly, pray. Now as we think our way through the text, I'm deeply indebted to the outline and suggestions of Thomas Lanton in his sermon on this subject. Some dear friends in the United Kingdom have kept their eyes open for some of the old standard Puritan sets, and have purchased them, and sent them to, and whenever I preach on a text, I look at the index to see if any of those old masters

Defining True Biblical Prayer: The Westminster Shorter Catechism

4:09 have anything that they've said, and often I get a suggestion here or there, but as I read Lanton's sermon and how he handled the text, I found that his approach to it was very much the way I would like to approach it, and so I'm using this morning the basic structure of his outline, and I make no apologies for doing that, I simply say that in case some of you who may be reading sometime would think I was plagiarizing, I'm letting you know that I'm deeply indebted to Lanton's suggestion as far as the outline is concerned. The first thing to which we must address ourselves is what is prayer? If God says always pray, or unceasingly pray, he's commanding us to a specific duty that he has in mind, and since Scripture speaks about unacceptable prayer from way in the beginning till the end of time, He's commanding us to a specific duty that He has in mind, in the beginning of the Bible to the end, we must acknowledge at the outset that God is commanding us to the duty of unceasing prayer, and by prayer He wants us to understand not vain worship or vain unacceptable prayer, but true biblical prayer. So we must address ourselves to the question, what is true biblical prayer? In answer to the question, I know of no better succinct answer

5:35 than that given in the Shorter Catechism. Prayer is, and here's the answer, an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will in the name of Christ with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies. I'm going to leave off the last two things, the confession of sins and thankful acknowledgement of His mercies, and work with this very scriptural definition of prayer. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will in the name of Christ. Let's break that down. What is prayer then? First of all, it's an offering up of our desires, the source of true prayer, is the desire of the heart.

The Source of True Prayer: The Heart

6:35 It is something that flows from the heart. It is not to be found in the mere mouthing of the words of the lips or mere surface notions of the mind. Our Lord says in the seventh chapter of Mark, In vain does this people worship Me, for they draw near with their lips, but their hearts are far, far from Me. Our Lord is not concerned with the mere activity of the lips or the surface motions of the mind.

7:10 True prayer, and the framers of the confession in catechism were wise when they worded it this way, is an offering up of the desires of the heart. David said in Psalm 119, verse 10, With my whole heart have I sought Thee. In answer to the question, what is true prayer? The first aspect of the answer is that its source is the heart.

The Object of True Prayer: The Living God

7:38 Now, who is the object of true prayer? Prayer is the offering up of our desires unto God. The only valid object of true prayer is the God revealed in Holy Scriptures. Hence our Lord, when He instructs us to pray, said, When ye pray, say, and He sets the object of prayer, it is the Father of all who believe in Jesus Christ.

8:04 Our Father, who art in heaven, the God of heaven, who is the Father of all who believe in Jesus Christ, is the sole object of true prayer. The Apostle Paul said, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, of whom every family in heaven and earth is named. Our Lord Himself addressed His Father in these words, Holy Father. This immediately tells us that all of the so-called prayers to the saints and to the Virgin Mary are nothing but verbal gibberish and insult to God, and at their heart blasphemous.

8:47 No matter how sincere the one who is praying. You see, they may be offering these prayers from the heart. They may be offering up the desires of the heart, but unless they are offered up unto God, it is not true prayer. And the sincerity of the heart does not cancel out the blasphemy of the exercise, unless the living God is the sole object of prayer.

9:14 We do not offer up our prayers to the saints. We do not offer up our prayers to something that is a glob of vague, nebulous beneficence and good called God. No, no. True prayer, prayer consciously, intelligently recognizes its object as the God revealed in Holy Scripture, the living and the true God.

The Means of True Prayer: In the Name of Christ

9:41 What is prayer? In answer to the question, the source, the heart, the object, the true and the living God is revealed in Scripture. Now, I want to reverse the phrases from the definition, in the name of Christ. What's the only means by which we can offer up our prayers?

10:01 Offer up the desires of our hearts unto this true and living God, for we are sinners. We have no claim upon God in and of ourselves. All we deserve from Him is His judgment. And so, our definition says, it's the offering up of the desires of our hearts unto God in the name of Christ.

10:26 That is, as those who are joined to the Lord Jesus, who are covered in His righteousness, who are bone of His bone, who ask as those who belong to Him. For He Himself said in John 14, 23, Ask in My name and it shall be given you. 1 Peter 2, 5 says that we are to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable unto God through Jesus Christ. Prayer is a spiritual sacrifice offered up to God.

11:04 Just as really as the priests of the Old Testament brought their incense and offered it up unto God, brought their sacrifice and offered it unto God, so we as a kingdom of priests offer up spiritual sacrifices, one of which is prayer. But just as Old Testament sacrifices and offerings were brought in the appointed means, so the appointed means of these spiritual sacrifices is the mediation and the merit of Jesus Christ alone. The conclusion then is obvious. The only person who can pray is the one who is savingly joined to Jesus Christ.

11:47 This command, pray without ceasing, comes to the children of God alone. And if you are not savingly joined to Christ, you cannot acceptably pray. Because true prayer is the offering up of the desires of the heart unto God in the name of Christ. You can't bear His name.

12:10 And just mouthing some words and at the end tacking on the phrase in Jesus' name is not praying truly in His name any more than if I suddenly show up at some head of state in a foreign country and I say in the name of the United States government I want this and that. Just mouthing that name doesn't constitute me as one who has authority to bear that name. Unless I am so related to the government that I have been appointed as its ambassador, I have no right to be spouting off the name of the U.S. government.

12:43 And so unless you have been rightly related to Jesus Christ, born of His Spirit, joined to Him in true faith, just tacking on the phrase in Jesus' name does not warrant it. None does not warrant an answer to your prayers. That's just the vain, empty repetitions of the heathen who think by magical formulas they'll have access to the deity. So true prayer then has as its means the name of Christ.

The Substance of True Prayer: Things Agreeable to God's Will

13:12 It can only be offered by those who are joined to the Lord Jesus. And then the last aspect in our definition for things agreeable to His will. What is true prayer? The offering up of the desires of the heart.

13:30 The source, the heart. Unto God, He's the object. In the name of Christ, He's the means. Now what is the substance of true prayer?

13:39 Here it is. Things agreeable to His will. Now may I state it in the most common vernacular that I trust will not be shocking to us. Prayer is not just running off at the mouth in the presence of God.

13:54 Too often that's what our prayer is. It's just running off at the mouth. What do we mean when we use that phrase? Well, something just talking.

14:03 And so often I fear our prayers are an insult to God for we're just running off at the mouth. No prayer must be regulated by the revealed will of God and always offered in the climate of submission to the secret will of God. Now let me repeat that. Prayer must be offered in terms of the revealed will of God and always in the context of submission to the secret will of God.

14:37 Our Lord is the beautiful picture of this. As He seeks to grapple with the will of His Father, He says, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done. We read in 1 John 3, we read in 1 John 5 and verse 14, this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, we know that He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, we know we have the petitions we desired of Him.

15:15 When do we pray with confidence? When we pray in the will of God for things agreeable to His will. So our Lord said, If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Here's the picture of a man whose own will is so suffused with the revelation of God's will in the words of Christ, that when his will acts, it's moving along the boundaries of the revealed will of God.

15:48 What a beautiful picture of the power of God's grace to so work upon a man that the actings of his own will have been brought within the boundaries of the will of God. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, that is, your thoughts, your desires, your ambitions are all shaped by my words, then you ask what you will and it shall be done, because your will will be but the expression of my will. True prayer, then, has as its substance things agreeable to the will of God. And when prayer is not agreeable to the will of God, then there is no answer, for God says in James 4, ye have not, why? Not because you're not asking from the heart, not because you're not asking God, not because you're not asking in the right means, but he says you're asking why that you may consume it upon your own lust. You're not asking things agreeable to the will of God, but you're asking things agreeable to your own appetites, carnal appetites. And therefore, he says, you receive not.

17:06 So then the substance of true prayer are those things agreeable to the will of God. And we're shut up to the conclusion again that only a Christian then can truly pray because it's only the Christian whose heart has been brought lovingly submissive to the will of God. The unregenerate man, Romans 8, 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the will of God.

17:29 And you watch carnal men, they'll ask God for anything. The brazenness with which they'll ask God things. I look back upon my own unregenerate days and I tremble at times. I used to be quite a Dodger fan before they went out to Los Angeles.

17:46 And oh, how I used to pray sometimes when my favorite hitter came up that God would help him to hit a home run in a tight spot. What a blasphemous thing as I look back now. I didn't ask God for anything. It was in keeping with my own carnal desires.

18:00 But I wasn't asking Him for more holiness, more sensitivity to sin, more love for the Savior, more panting and thirsting after righteousness, more zeal in His service. Never. You see, only the child of God can pray for those things agreeable to the will of God because only the child of God has had that heart of stone taken out and the heart of flesh given. And the law of God written upon the heart so that he can say, I delight to do Thy will, O my God, yea, Thy law is within my heart.

18:32 You don't separate the man's basic spiritual life from his spiritual exercise of prayer. And so true prayer, what is it? It is an offering up of our desires, the source, the heart, unto God, the object, in the name of Christ, the means, the substance for things agreeable to His will. So much then for the question, what is prayer?

Kinds of Prayer: Mental vs. Vocal, Ejaculatory vs. Extended

19:03 And we are told to pray without ceasing. We are told to be engaged in some kind of consistency and constancy in the offering up of our desires unto God in the name of Christ for things agreeable to His holy will. But this moves us to another question. What are the kinds of prayer in which we do offer up our desires unto God in the name of Christ for things agreeable to His will?

19:38 And I want to give you a series of couplets here that will perhaps help fix them in our memory. There is, first of all, mental as well as vocal prayer. When the apostle says, pray without ceasing, is he saying that whenever we pray we are to engage in verbal expressions of our desires unto God through Christ for things agreeable to His will? No.

20:04 We have the beautiful example of that prayer which is mental and never breaks out into the actual words of the lips. In 1 Samuel chapter 1, you remember the instance of this woman of God who has gone up to the worship and her heart is broken that she is childless and she is calling upon God that He might be pleased to give her a son. In 1 Samuel chapter 1, verses 12 and 13, we read the following. And it came to pass as she continued praying before the Lord, notice the object of her prayers, the Lord. The source, the heart, she had her heart set upon something. She was persevering. She continued in prayer before the Lord that Eli marked her mouth.

21:07 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart. Only her lips moved but her voice was not heard. And then when he asked her what the problem is and she tells him, he assures her God has heard her prayer. Here was prayer that prevailed, but it never broke out into the verbal expressions of the lips.

21:31 She prayed, Scripture says, in her heart. And at times her lips unconsciously moved as her heart was so engrossed in this thing she desired of God. Here was prayer that was mental prayer. But there is also verbal prayer.

21:50 Psalm 5 and verse 3, the Psalmist says, My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning I will direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning. Jesus indicated that much of our praying should be vocal. When his disciples said, Teach us to pray, he said, When ye pray, say, Our Father, who art in heaven.

22:19 And look up. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning. Jesus indicated that much of our praying should be vocal. When his disciples said, Teach us to pray, he said, When ye pray, say, Our Father, who art in heaven.

22:36 And again and again through the Psalms, the only inspired prayer book ever given to the church, you find the Psalmist crying out again and again with these verbal expressions, I cried with my voice unto the Lord. And I would suggest that you refer to it to the Psalms which show that your prayers are vocal, and that your prayers are also fanciful. Then again, I would suggest that where ever it is possible and it is not a matter of inconveniencing other people our prayers ought to be verbalized. The verbalizing of our desires helps to focus them.

23:11 It helps in the problem of a wandering mind. But there are times when it would not be right. It would be exposing ourselves to ridicule or to the mistaken notion that we were Pharisees seeking to pray in the marketplace to be heard of men that our prayers Prayers may only be mental, but they will be the offering up of the desire of the heart, not just a passing thought about God. Paul is not talking about maintaining the spirit of prayer.

23:36 Some of the commentators miss the boat here, and they say he's only talking about continually maintaining the spirit of prayer. Well, you ought to maintain the spirit of prayer, but that isn't what he says. He doesn't say maintain the spirit of prayer always. He says pray without ceasing.

23:50 But that prayer may not always conveniently be verbal. There may be times when it is only mental. Now another contrast. There is ejaculatory prayer, and there is extended solemn prayer.

24:05 There is the prayer that is shot up out of the heart as we are provoked in a given instance to cry out to the Lord. And then there are prayers that are things to which we commit ourselves in an extended period of waiting upon God. Nehemiah 2 in verse 4 is the great example of ejaculatory prayer, of prayer that is shot up from the heart in the moment of need. Nehemiah is called in the presence of the king, and he asks him the question.

24:40 Verse 4, Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king. Well, you see, he didn't have any time to retire to his career. He didn't have any time to go to the closet.

24:54 But there in that context, he shot up a volley to heaven, as it were. And he cried out in that instant, Oh God, help! And then he spoke to the king. The great example of this, in terms of an illustration, of course, is Peter.

25:08 When he is walking upon the waves and begins to sink, he has no time to, as it were, address himself to God, first of all, in praising the Lord for the majesty of His person, falling before Him for the greatness of His glory, His being, confessing his sin, and then making petition. No, by the time he'd done that, he'd have been in his watery grave. So as he begins to sink, he cries out, Lord, save me!

25:35 Ejaculatory prayer. Now, there are times when the child of God must dispense with some of the necessary formalities of a more ordered addressing of himself to God. There is ejaculatory prayer, but in contrast to that, there is extended. And we read in Colossians 4.12, a beautiful example of this.

26:00 Epiphras, a fellow servant who always labors fervently for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Paul would go by Epiphras' hotel room when they were on a certain preaching tour, and as he'd hear him praying and put his ear to the door, he'd hear him in there crying to God for the Colossians, and he'd hear him pleading that they might stand perfect and complete in the will of God. He'd come back by a few hours later, and lo and behold, he's still in there wrestling with God for the needs of the Colossians. Here was extended prayer, not the volley of the moment, but the great pouring out of heavy and deep desire.

26:46 How thankful we should be that God has opened to us these channels at both ends of the spectrum. Ejaculatory prayer. The kind of prayer that can be shot up to the Lord when you find yourself in a difficult situation on Bloomfield Avenue. And if you haven't learned ejaculatory praying and want a good place to learn it, just start driving up and down Bloomfield Avenue for a week.

27:08 When your heart just has to go out to the Lord, Lord, help! Lord, save! Lord, undertake! You're in the office, and a situation emerges, and you just don't know quite how to handle it, and your heart goes out to the Lord, Lord, give me wisdom to conduct myself in a way that will, please you.

27:25 There at school, some of you kids will get an opportunity of witnessing. You're not quite sure how you should capture it. You just shoot up a volley to the Lord and say, Lord, give wisdom and undertake. What a privilege to know that this is a kind of prayer open to us.

27:40 And when the Apostle says, pray without ceasing, he's telling us to know what it is throughout the day to be engaged in this kind of ejaculatory praying. But there is also, in contrast to that, that extended praying, solemn prayer, the kind of praying in which we take time to remember who God is and what we are, to confess before Him our sins. You find an example of this in the ninth chapter of Daniel. We'll look at it in another instance in a moment.

28:11 But when Daniel is not giving this ejaculatory prayer, but he's setting himself to seek the Lord, he doesn't just rush in with his petitions. He starts out with the fact that God is a great, and a dreadful God. A God who keeps His covenant. A God who punishes according to His word.

28:30 And then he goes on to confess his sins and the sins of the people. Then and only then does he begin to petition for a specific need. There is then that prayer which is mental as well as vocal. Ejaculatory, extended.

Kinds of Prayer: Private vs. Public, Ordinary vs. Extraordinary

28:47 Then in the third place, there is private as well as public praying. Private prayer, our Lord commands it for all of His disciples. He assumes that all of them will engage in it, for He says in Matthew 6, When thou prayest, assuming that we will pray, enter into thy closet and pray to thy Father in secret, and the Father who seeth in secret shall himself reward you openly. Secret prayer.

29:20 That kind of prayer will we draw aside from every opportunity, every other circumstance that would distract us from every other concern of life, and we not only literally shut some literal door behind us, but we trust by the grace of God we've learned something of what it is to shut all the doors of the heart and the mind. It's one thing to get away from the world in the closet. It is another thing to get the world out of the closet and shut the door upon it. Secret prayer.

29:50 And dear ones, there's no substitute for it. Some say, well, I've learned the secret, the secret of ejaculatory prayer. Listen, that sensitivity to God that will make you very much at home with ejaculatory prayer won't last long if you're a stranger to secret prayer. And secret prayer is not really valid unless you carry that with you out into the marketplace and engage in ejaculatory prayer.

30:14 The one feeds the other, and the two will stand or fall together. So there is private prayer, but there is also public prayer. For we read, in 1 Timothy 2, 1 and 2, I will therefore that prayers, supplications, intercessions, giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, for rulers, those that are in authority. Where should that prayer be made?

30:39 Well, if you read the context, he's talking about prayer in the place of public worship. Verse 8 of the same chapter, he says, I will that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting. And he's given instruction for the conduct of public, public worship. Chapter 3 and verse 16 of 1 Timothy, he says, I've told you these things that men may know how to behave themselves in the house of God, the church of the living God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth.

31:10 I wonder if we really believe that God's ordained this kind of public prayer. I think sometimes we just feel, well, the pastoral prayer Sunday morning is sort of part of our worship service, part of the tradition of the elders. No, dear ones, the only reason I do this is that I'm convinced that God's worship service is part of the tradition of the elders. No, dear ones, the only reason I do this is that I'm convinced that God's worship service is part of the tradition of the elders.

31:25 No, dear ones, the only reason I do this is that I'm convinced that God's worship service is part of the tradition of the elders. God's commanded it. If I didn't, I'd chuck it out like we've chucked a lot of other things. God commands public praying.

31:32 The praying of His gathered people. Our Lord has given a special promise. He says, When two of you agree on earth is touching what they ask, it shall be done. For where two or three are met in my name, there am I in the midst.

31:46 So there is private praying, drawing into the closet. There is public praying. Then one more contrast. There is ordinary, as opposed to extraordinary prayer.

32:00 We read of Daniel that three times a day he bowed himself toward Jerusalem and prayed. David speaks in Psalm 55, 17 of praying at evening, morning, and at noonday. This is the kind of prayer that is regulated by the needs that we have every day. What do you need every day?

32:23 Well, the Lord gives it all there in His, what we commonly call, the Lord's Prayer. What do you need every day? You need forgiveness. You need power to overcome temptation.

32:32 You need the sustenance of physical life. Give us daily bread. You need grace to be involved in the work of His kingdom. You need grace to forgive your brethren.

32:43 These are the daily needs that if no crisis comes into the life, should drive us continually to the throne of grace. You see, that's why a true Christian cannot long forsake the place of, he may forsake it for a time, but if he's a true Christian, he can't be content in not frequenting the throne of grace because his needs are too obvious.

33:09 He's seen himself a sinner. He knows he has need that God would keep in check this tendency to evil that lies within his breast. He knows that he needs grace to overcome sin. He knows that he needs forgiveness if he's going to maintain fellowship with God.

33:26 So the true Christian cannot long be absent from the throne of grace. The hypocrite will go to the throne of grace to get a pardon, and when he thinks he's got that, he never goes back again. He's never been made sensible of his real need, so he has no more to do with the throne of grace. But the child of God has to come back.

33:49 So there is ordinary prayer in the life of every Christian in which he spreads before God his ordinary needs. Beautifully summed up in the Lord's Prayer. But there are times when there are unusual circumstances, abnormal pressures which call for unusual seasons of crying out to God. So we read in Joel chapter 1 in verse 14 with the impending judgment upon the people of Israel, God says, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, let everyone cry, cry to the Lord.

34:29 He says, even the bridegroom and the bride are to forego their honeymoon and come to a prayer meeting. Now that's putting it in 20th century vernacular, but that's exactly what he says. He says, let the bridegroom come out of his chamber and come to a prayer meeting. Unusual circumstances which mean the setting aside of legitimate things to seek the face of God.

34:55 You say, haven't you digressed from the text? No. Because packed into that little word, pray without ceasing are all these kinds of prayer. Avenues by which God has opened up access to himself.

35:07 Extraordinary prayer. The Apostle Paul mentions this on an individual basis. Joel 1.14 is a call to the people of God corporately because of the great need in the nation.

35:20 There are times when a child of God faces crises, faces crises in his own life. What is he to do? Paul faced such a crisis. There was this messenger of Satan buffeting him.

35:31 Who it was, what it was, I don't know. I have some ideas, but that's all they are. But this thing so plagued him that he felt he couldn't go on ministering unless it was removed. So what did he do?

35:43 He said, for this thing I sought the Lord Christ. What does he mean? I believe he's saying I set apart three specific extended periods of waiting upon God. And it was at the third one that the Lord told him, no Paul, you can go on with this problem.

36:03 In fact, this very problem is going to remain that you might go on a humble servant dependent upon me. My grace is sufficient for thee. But remember, that revelation didn't come until the end of the third extended period of prayer. Child of God, God has given to us the privilege not only of ordinary prayer for ordinary needs, but also, of extraordinary prayer for extraordinary needs.

36:33 And we see in Daniel 9 in verse 3 this same principle so beautifully illustrated. Daniel has been reading in the word of God through the prophet Jeremiah. And as he reads it, he sees that after 70 years the people of God should return from captivity. And he knows by taking into account the chronology that those 70 years are about to be fulfilled.

37:02 And so Daniel's concerned. Here are the people of God still in captivity. There's no indication they're going to return, but God says they shall. This disturbs him.

37:11 So what does he do? Daniel 9 in verse 3. The same Daniel who three times a day engaged in ordinary prayer now gives himself to extraordinary prayer. Verse 3 of Daniel 9.

37:26 And I set my faith unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes and I prayed unto Jehovah my God and made confession. This was not his regular stated periods of prayer. Extraordinary crisis was a call to unusual concerted prayer oft times connected with fasting. The setting aside of even legitimate physical activities in order that one might be given to undistracted prayer.

38:04 You remember when the disciples came down from the mountain. They couldn't cast out that demon. And our Lord said in Mark 9 this kind goeth not out but by prayer. The old manuscript some of them have and fasting but that probably shouldn't be there.

38:23 And it doesn't weaken the case at all. The Lord is saying this kind of need will not be conquered by order. It's an ordinary prayer. It needs concerted focused prevailing prayer.

38:35 This kind goeth not out but by prayer. And so when the apostle says pray without ceasing there is packed into that command all of these kinds of prayer which in their proper place and in relationship to other duties are to be engaged in by the children of God. When the word says pray without ceasing it brings before us the true substance of prayer. What does God want us to do without ceasing?

39:09 He wants us to offer up that which comes from the heart directed to the living God in the name of Christ and agreeable to His will. And He wants us to know what it is to be engaged in that kind of prayer that sometimes is only mental. Other times breaks out into vocal verbal expressions. Sometimes is ejaculatory and just springs from the heart in the moment of need.

39:39 Other times is formal and planned. Private prayer, public prayer, ordinary, extraordinary but in all of these kinds of prayer God's command comes to us to pray without ceasing. Now the next thing we need to address ourselves to and I can only introduce it this morning. We'll have to pick it up here next week, God willing.

What Does 'Pray Without Ceasing' Mean? (Introduction)

40:02 What does it mean to pray without ceasing? If this is what it means to pray, the nature of prayer, the kinds of prayer, then what does it mean to pray without ceasing? Does it mean, as some heretical sects early in the church indicated, that it means that 24 hours a day or every waking moment one is to be engaged in either ejaculatory or verbal prayer? Either privately or publicly engaged in the formal act of intercession?

40:35 Why, this is a ridiculous connotation because this would conflict then with other duties. Pure religion is to visit the fatherless and the widows. Well, how can I visit the fatherless and the widows and be praying? When God says, whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might.

40:52 Well, how can I do whatever I'm doing with all my might and have my mind in it and my heart and my energies? If that's turning a lathe, or spouting water, or spanking my child, or digging the ditch, or whatever it be, and be consciously interceding and praying? No, there are no conflicts in duties. No conflicts in duties.

41:10 So as we address ourselves next week, God willing, to what it means to pray without ceasing, I'll give you the clue. It doesn't mean to pray without any interruption of prayer as our conscious activity. It does not mean that. Well, well, what does it mean?

41:27 Well, you get a dictionary, I'm sorry, not a dictionary, a concordance, and you look up the word unceasing and see how Paul used it. That's what we're going to do next week and let the word itself interpret itself to us comparing Scripture with Scripture. However, in conclusion this morning, let me say two things. Number one, I address myself to those of you here who are not the children of God.

Concluding Challenge: A Call to Repentance and Serious Obedience

41:54 And here again, you've confronted a command that's impossible for you to obey unless you're joined to Jesus Christ. No man can pray without ceasing until he has been given the spirit of prayer. And the spirit of adoption is the spirit of prayer. God had sent forth the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

42:17 And so this duty cannot be met and complied with until the previous duty is met. Repent and believe the gospel. Cast yourself upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. And then the second thing I want to say is directed to those of us who are the children of God.

42:37 Do you take the Word of God seriously? What about this little command this morning? Do you believe it is the will of your Savior that you pray without ceasing? Do you?

42:50 It's what it says. Now until you take that serious enough to say, Lord, I believe it's my duty to pray without ceasing. I don't understand what it means and I'm sure I don't experience it. But Lord, it's my duty.

43:02 And oh, God, teach me. Oh, God, teach me. Teach me what it means. Give me a clear biblical understanding.

43:07 And then, Lord, give me the grace to do what I know to be right. Unless that's our attitude. You know what's going to happen? You're going to sit through these two or three sermons on pray without ceasing.

43:15 Have a few more little facts about prayer that will be nice and informative. But you'll be no different. May God forbid that that should happen. May God forbid that that should happen.

43:24 If you're not convinced that this is your duty and this is your duty, then you're not going to be able to do anything that you're not going to be able to do that is your duty and that no stone must be left unturned in your own life until it can be performed. You're not going to make the necessary adjustments in life, in time, in thought, in attitude that are necessary to comply with this command. I tell you, you can't live with a text like this for a few hours and not have it begin to search you. You begin to see all kinds of implications because, in a very real sense, compliance with a command like this is the great barometer of our spiritual condition.

44:04 So, you can keep coming to meetings Sunday after Sunday and have nothing of the spirit of prayer. You can't pray without ceasing without the spirit of prayer. And the spirit of prayer never resides in a heart that's toying with sin, in a heart that's consciously breathing and quenching the spirit. This brings us into a very subjective, experimental realm of the Christian life and perhaps none that's more vital.

44:29 So may the Lord help us as His people to say from the heart, Oh God, I'm convinced that I can do it. Teach me what it means. Guide pastors as He seeks to expound it and open it. But then Lord, give me grace that I may do it.

44:44 May the Lord grant that this will be true of us who are His people. Let us unite our hearts in prayer.