Elements of Biblical Prayer

Review: The Scriptural Regulation of Prayer

0:03 Now, as we proceed in our consideration of what we are calling the private or personal means of grace, namely the study of the word of God and secret prayer, with reference to our own spiritual growth and development, we have thus far gone through at least a brief study of the whole area of the kind of preparation that is needed to make these seasons profitable, and then how we are to read the word of God. And now today we begin our second lesson in the general subject of prayer. And our whole lesson last week was focused upon answering this one question.

0:48 Should the prayers of God's people be self-consciously governed by the scriptures? And the answer that you gave as a class was an emphatic yes. Yes. We should be self-consciously concerned that our prayer in all of its dimensions or our prayers in all of their dimensions be regulated by the precepts and principles of the word of God.

1:15 Then when I asked you to support your affirmative answer with scripture, there were four or five lines of scriptural evidence which you submitted. You, first of all, turned us to the teaching of our Lord, who said, After this manner, therefore, pray ye. Matthew chapter 6 and Luke chapter 11. So there is the explicit commandment of our Lord to pray in a certain way.

1:42 And then secondly, you reminded us of the great examples of prayer in scripture, in which the prayers, if we may use that term, are conscious of regulating their prayers by the precepts, the promises, of the word of God. And then thirdly, you suggested that the peculiar problems of indwelling sin demanded that we self-consciously regulate our prayers by the scriptures. Indwelling sin will cause us to ask amiss, so that though we ask, we receive not, in the words of James chapter 4. Indwelling sin will indispose us to praise, to confession,

2:25 and therefore to deal adequately with the problem of indwelling sin, we must self-consciously regulate our prayers by the scriptures. And then fourthly, we saw that so many of the promises attached to prayer are conditional promises. And the condition that stands uppermost, perhaps next to the matter of faith, is this matter of regulating our prayers by the scriptures. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

2:59 John 15, 7. And then 1 John chapter 5. We know that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know we have the petitions we desired of him.

3:12 All right? In about four minutes, that covers what we took about 35 to 40 minutes to discuss last week. So the first question was, should our prayers be self-consciously regulated by the word of God? The answer, yes.

Identifying the Kinds of Biblical Prayer

3:27 The scriptural reasons. We have given. Now, I gave you a homework assignment, and the homework assignment was this. To answer the question, what are the various kinds of prayer set before us in the word of God?

3:42 If we take prayer, the general discipline, privilege, exercise of prayer, as the whole pie, what are the pieces which scripture tells us comprise the whole pie of prayer? In other words, what kinds of prayer, what dimensions of prayer, what aspects of prayer are warranted by the word of God? Now, it's obvious, at least I hope it is, why I'm proceeding from the first question to the second question, for it's useless to talk about our prayers being regulated by the word of God

4:24 unless we know something about the kinds of prayer that the word of God enjoins upon us. enjoins upon the people of God. All right, for any of you who did your homework, or if you didn't, and you're quick thinkers and can come up with some scriptural answers, and remember, any assertion you make, we want to have it supported with at least one text of scripture, or one example, some allusion to scripture, if you can't actually give the reference. All right?

4:49 What are, then, the various kinds of prayer set before us in the word of God?

4:58 Anyone at all? All right, bud?

5:02 Praise? All right. Now, can you give us? Can you give us a passage which says that this is a part of praise, or an example of the same?

5:17 All right. Nehemiah chapter 1 would be an example of prayer which begins with praise and acknowledgement of who God is. All right? Let's fill up the pie now.

5:29 Edie? All right, so what kind of prayer is this? Oh, it says intercession. But you're still not convinced, because you're quoting him.

6:03 All right? Prayer for others, which may be intercession. Intercession. And then I'll put in brackets.

6:12 Indeed. Okay? All right, there we go. All right?

6:17 Another. Yes, John? Right? Confession.

6:22 Confession of what, John? Transgressions, iniquities, and sin. All right. Confession of sin.

6:28 Psalm 51. All right? Other things that make up the pie of prayer. Yes, Bob?

6:35 Thanksgiving. All right? As distinguished from praise and thanksgiving, would you give some examples of the same?

6:51 All right. Here's the commandments. Give thanks for all things. Anyone want to give some examples?

6:56 Thanks always to God for you.

7:05 All right. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. May I suggest that sometime you scroll through Paul's introductory paragraphs in all of his epistles.

7:13 I went through and noted without any trouble in at least four of them, just off the surface, just flipping through the first paragraph of Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, and Romans. He constantly says, We give thanks to God for you, brethren. We give thanks to God upon every remembrance of you. We give thanks.

7:33 We give thanks. We give thanks. Thanksgiving. Yes.

7:37 All right? What would we call this then? That would come under prayer for others, wouldn't it? Yeah.

7:42 So it would be under intercession, if that's what prayer for others is, and that would be one of the specific things that we can pray for others. We can pray with reference to their physical health and well-being. All right? All right?

8:03 Is that a specific slice? Is it a pie? Or is that how we can hold a pie or how we can eat the pie?

8:11 That's not so much the substance of our prayer as the what?

8:16 The time or the manner of our praying, isn't it? In other words, we can have ejaculatory thanksgiving, can we not?

8:27 Ejaculatory confession. Ejaculatory praise. So when we come under the matter of the kind, not the kind of prayer, but the when, the how of prayer, then this will be one of the things we'll take up. So let's put that over here in a box by itself.

8:46 Ejaculatory prayer. All right? Some other kinds. Yes, Doug?

8:50 The pleading of promises with God.

8:58 You shall sing me and find me when you search for me. I will be found with you, Satan.

9:04 All right? So what kind of prayer would we call that?

9:09 Covenant promise pleading prayer. Put it with a dash. All right? Is that what you say?

9:14 All right?

9:16 Dash pleading prayer. All right. Now that may enter in then, to some of these other dimensions, may it not, into the realm of our intercession. So it could be that maybe that ought to be over here.

9:32 We're not sure now. We're just getting all the materials and then we'll try to sort them out later. All right? Other kinds of prayer.

9:37 All right? Ken?

9:54 Ejaculatory prayer. Praying that God will destroy his enemies.

10:00 And Ken has suggested that he stuck his neck out and what he means by that is saying that this is part of the pie of what ought to constitute our prayers. In this present age or this present dispensation, and I hope we can see the rightness of praying, prayers of imprecation, pleading with God for the destruction of his enemies. All right? Other kinds of prayer.

10:26 Yes, Jim, I'm sorry. Guidance or direction. All right, what would this be a subheading under? Personal needs, which would also be a subheading under petition, one form of petition for specific needs, left out of biblical word.

10:50 That's it, supplications. All right? Supplications. Remember the apostle says, I will that prayers, intercessions, supplications, with all prayer and what?

11:04 Supplication in the spirit. Ephesians 6 is the latter reference. The first one was, of course, 1 Timothy chapter 2. All right?

11:11 We may need to put some more slices in the pie here. All right? Some other kinds of prayer that you've discovered in a year. Yes?

11:21 Worship or adoration. All right? Would you say that that is essentially different from praise, Sally? And if so, how?

11:39 All right, someone want to bail her out? Louise?

11:55 Takes its wings from specific blessings, does it not? Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

12:06 Then he begins to enumerate them. Forgiveth all thy iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who reneweth thy life. Et cetera. Whereas worship is not so much directed to God on behalf of the gifts that flow down from God to us, but for what God is essentially and inherently in himself.

12:29 So the focus of worship is the giver, whereas generally the focus of praise is his what? His gifts. Now again, these things are not ironclad, and that's the problem with cutting them up in the pie. Okay?

12:42 Because when I have a piece of pie, I don't like one that looks like I've got half of the other guy's piece, or he's got half of mine. I like my, you know, pie cut nice and neatly, but these things do overlap, not just one to the other, but sometimes this piece of the pie can be found over here. But for the sake of our understanding, we're splitting it up this way, though in reality the categories are not this hard and ironclad. All right?

13:07 And the other kinds of prayer that you came across, or that you think of,

13:16 mournful prayer, would that be a part of confession? All right? And Jean, you had your hand raised when Louise did. Did you have another one, or is that?

13:28 Oh, okay.

13:30 And the other kinds of prayer.

13:33 All right, will you give me leave to look at my notes for a minute to see if you've included all the ones I put down here? All right.

13:41 Praise, adoration, worship, thanksgiving, supplication, intercession, petition, confession, and entreaty. All right, you've covered all the ones as I went down the list. I tried to collate them. Here they are.

The Christian's Duty to Engage in All Forms of Prayer

13:53 All of these various dimensions of prayer. Now then, what is a Christian's duty? Having asked the question, should our prayers be regulated by the Word of God? And the answer is yes.

14:08 The second question, what kinds of prayer are set forth in the Word of God? And we have these various kinds of prayer. Then the next question is this. Is it the Christian's duty to engage in every form of legitimate scriptural prayer?

14:32 It's your question.

14:35 Is it the Christian's duty to engage in every form of scriptural prayer? In other words, to put the question even more personally and more to the conscience, are you sinning as a Christian if in your prayers you are not engaging in confession, praise, intercession, supplication, worship, imprecation, covenant, pleading, promise, prayers, and thanksgiving, and confession, and all the rest?

15:07 John? Yes, because when the disciples asked Lord Jesus how to pray, he talked of what we know now as the Lord's Prayer. And in the Lord's Prayer, all of those things are included in that prayer. Probably in the order that he would prefer us to pray them in.

15:22 Alright. Do you see the point Mr. Spence is making? That in what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, some prefer to call it the discipleship or the disciples' prayer.

15:30 But may I say, when a certain phraseology is fixed in the consciousness of the Christian public, it's losing business to try to change it. I've given up on certain things along that line. I guess all of us like to think we can alter City Hall, but I think you know the old statement, you can't change City Hall. But it's been called the Lord's Prayer, and it will be called that probably when the Lord comes back again.

15:53 Though more precisely, it is the disciples' prayer given by their Lord. And the assertion, Mr. Spence has made, is that all of these forms of prayer are included, at least in principle, in germ form, in that prayer. Now, since the dimensions of that prayer are not optional, after this manner, therefore, praying, we are commanded to pray within the framework of that disciples' prayer.

16:24 And therefore, if we do not, we are disobeying God in the very, very exercise of prayer. All right? Someone else want to agree with Mr. Spence, or disagree?

16:35 Or take a moderating position? Mr. Klein? I'll take a moderating position.

16:39 All right? And would you like to? I agree. I think there are times when, particularly, particularly through intercession, particularly through the Holy Spirit directing the Christian, his conscience is stirred up by some particular sin he's fallen into.

17:04 And his prayer at that time will overwhelmingly be, I should say, All right. Well, you anticipated my next question, which was going to be this. If we establish that it is sin for the Christian not to engage in all kinds of legitimate prayer, my next question was going to be, must he engage in all of these dimensions of prayer every single time he gives himself to prayer? And Mr. Clark has already given us the answer

17:32 in anticipation of the question, which at least confirms that maybe there's some logic to the way I've lined up the questions by which to guide your thinking. But let's go back then to this previous question if we can hold off in this dimension that Mr. Clark has brought before us. Would anyone to disagree that it is not a matter, as a Christian, it is not a matter of conscience whether or not I engage in all of these kinds of prayer?

17:58 Yes? I was just wondering. Oh. One time.

18:02 All right. Mr. Brown? I would say he would answer yes with the exception of that piece of pie at this juncture.

18:43 All right? We'll give you your liberty to, uh, refuse that piece of pie for the present. And, uh, I think it would be well not to digress on that matter now, but perhaps to come back to it as we enlarge upon some of the various dimensions of prayer. All right?

18:58 So we're still with the question, is it the Christian's duty, then, to engage in all kinds of biblical prayer? Would anyone want to say it is not the Christian's duty?

19:15 Don't be embarrassed. We love people who differ with us, as long as you can support your, difference from the churches.

19:22 Now, if you're just going to throw your weight around, then, uh, you'll get in hot water. Yes. The question purposely, because what is sin?

19:49 What's the good, wonderful, biblical definition of the Shorter Catechism? Sin is any lack of conformity unto, as well as transgression of the law of God. Sin is disobedience. So if Christ has said, after this manner, pray ye, and he has included all these forms of prayer, he has included all these forms of prayer, then if I am not including them, am I obeying the Lord Jesus?

20:14 You see?

20:16 The answer is obvious. I am not obeying him to the extent that my praying does not come up to the biblical standard. The same way, if I as a husband am not loving my wife as Christ loved the church, with a patient, sensitive, tender, understanding, sympathetic love, am I sinning?

20:37 Am I sinning?

20:39 Why? Because I am not coming up to the standard of Ephesians chapter 5. So I think we'll stick by our guns on that, Mrs. Brown, and that's one of the reasons I mention that.

20:51 Sorry, Roger, and whoever's listening to that.

20:55 Whoever's listening to the tape, if you just got your ear blown off, it's because I backed into the microphone. I'll treat you more gently from here on in. All right, there we go. You see what I was doing now?

21:08 I was taking it out of the abstract theory and I was seeking to come home to your conscience with all that we're studying. Because it's not until as Christians we are convinced that we can sin in the very act of our praying that we are going to subject ourselves to the spiritual disciplines necessary to pray biblically.

Culpability and Conscience in Prayer

21:32 You see? All right, Louise? All right, but does their feeling, is the feeling I have of whether or not I'm sinning the measure of whether or not I'm sinning?

21:57 All right, but still is it sin? All right, I think what the problem we're dealing with here is the measure and excuse me if you're using a big word but it's the best one I know of my culpability. If I have light in an area and I sin that's not only sin against God's law but it's sin against light with reference to that. You see?

22:31 And there was provision in the old economy for sins of ignorance but they were still sins. So what will happen as that babe in Christ grows as he understands more and more the nature of biblical prayer he will have to sin. He will have to look back and say oh God wash all my past prayers in the blood of your son. You see?

22:50 So that we cannot say he's sinning in the same way he's sinning if he goes out and kicks his neighbor in the shins because he drives over his lawn with his car when he's backing out of his driveway. There is a difference of degree of guilt and kind and I'm glad you brought up that element Louise because there certainly is the difference. But any lack of conformity unto God's law is sin. sin is sin.

23:13 sin is sin. And even if I'm ignorant now my conscience can't disturb me until I receive light in that area. And one of the areas that we must seek to instruct a believer is in this matter. And that's what I'm attempting to do this morning you see to bring this thing home to our conscience consciences so that before we pillow our heads tonight the Lord will hear some prayers of confession from some of us.

23:36 Father forgive me that I have not been praising you in my prayers. Forgive me that I have not been engaged in biblical thanksgiving. Forgive me that I have not been engaged in intercession. For you remember this was how the conscience of Samuel was conditioned.

23:56 He said God forbid to Saul that I should sin against whom? Against the Lord in ceasing to pray for thee. In other words Samuel's conscience was so conditioned that if he did not intercede on Saul's behalf he was convinced he would be sinning. God had in his providence brought them into such a relationship that Samuel knew that he had a responsibility to Saul which could only be discharged in intercession.

24:31 Now I do not have that responsibility to every individual in the same way. And this is where many times preachers and particularly sometimes bless their hearts well-meaning missionaries bind the consciences of God's people. I never when people say will you pray for me? I never make that promise.

24:52 I say as God enables me and lays your needs upon my heart and as you keep in touch with me to give me a view for prayer then I will pray. You see? So that in the application of these things there are delicate matters but if we can back off from some of those things this morning and just stick with the principles so let's come back then to the question that got us going on our present sphere of discussion. Is a Christian sinning if he does not include all of these various dimensions of biblical prayer in his praying?

Scriptural Mandate for Comprehensive Prayer

25:27 And I think the answer is obvious from these broad principles we've dealt with but then there is a clear commandment that I want us to look at together. Will you turn please to Ephesians and this is the text that keeps going through my mind all during our discussion.

25:50 Ephesians 6 and verse 18.

25:58 Ephesians 6 and verse 18. Having mentioned the Christian's armor what does he then enjoin upon God's people? Taking the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. With all prayer.

26:26 With all prayer. Now how much is all?

26:36 All is all isn't it? So that it's in all prayer that we are to be engaged in our Christian lives as we submit to this discipline of private prayer. Now of course you have the direction for the public worship of God's people which was another passage that was constantly before my mind in preparation 1 Timothy chapter 2 and let's look at that for just a moment and this has reference of course to the public worship of God's people.

27:11 I exhort therefore first of all that supplication prayers intercessions thanksgiving be made for all men. And as I've checked the words and checked the commentators there's pretty much agreement that those these are in one sense synonyms they are not all identical and what the Apostle Paul is saying in essence is that every form of prayer is to be exercised with reference to the needs of all men. And then he delineates some of the specific channels in which this kind of prayer is to be exercised and in which it is to be engaged. Alright?

27:55 Any other dissident voices on the matter of whether or not my conscience as a Christian should be bound to engage in all these dimensions of prayer.

Not Every Form of Prayer Every Time

28:17 Engage in every form of prayer every time. Every time I pray. Now does anyone want to say yes? If you do prove it from scripture.

28:26 Because I think the scriptures are very clear that the answer to this next question is what? No. No. I am not bound to engage in every dimension of prayer every single time I pray.

28:41 Why? Well reason number one is there is no such example of that kind of prayer that I know of in Holy Scripture. In other words the prayers recorded in scripture will pick up some of these dimensions of prayer but I don't know. Now of course this would take a careful analysis of every single prayer recorded in the Bible to see if it included all of them.

29:05 Now the one that might because it is long enough was Solomon's prayer of the dedication of the temple. But as someone said he prayed that long public prayer and from the conduct of his life from there on in it looks as though that is the last time he prayed. Because from there on in we begin to see much declension. Yes Bob?

29:23 Is our Lord saying every time ye pray include all of these or does he simply say after this manner pray ye?

29:41 In other words my prayer experience is to be characterized by the inclusion of all those principles. But do I have the right to infer that it must be characterized by the inclusion of all of those principles every time I pray? I think not. For if that were true the Spirit of Christ dwelling in men and in men in the Old and the New Testament would give us some clear examples of all of those dimensions being included.

30:09 So that reason number one for our negative answer to question four must a Christian engage in every form of prayer every time he prays? Our answer is no. Reason number one there is no precedent in scripture. Reason number two there is no clear command in scripture.

30:26 Reason number three is the one Mr. Clark gave us. It is psychologically impossible Now God has made our psyche the way we are put together as rational beings is a reflection of God's wisdom. And the way God has put us together if the heart and mind are filled with a present sense of the way of sin it may be relatively easy to pick up Psalm 51 and make David's prayer my prayer.

31:01 Have mercy upon me O God. Does he begin with a great lengthy season of praise and adoration? No. Thank God he ends with some adoration but he doesn't begin with it.

31:14 When you feel the load of unconfessed sin upon your heart in terms of some specific areas of spiritual declension there is only one thing you can do when you come into the presence of God. Have you ever tried to praise God? I remember trying to do this for a while because I accepted a rather what I think now was an unrealistic approach to the Lord's Prayer. And I said well the Lord's Prayer begins Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name therefore I must begin I must never bring anything else until I worship God.

31:47 Well here my conscience was weighted down with a sense of sin and failure in a given area. Maybe I'd been impatient and spoken some harsh words or maybe there was a sense of coldness. I for the life of me could not bring myself to worship God's great and holy God. Holy name.

32:05 And yet because I had a wooden legalistic view of what I should do. Any of you have this experience? Am I alone in this? Am I some kind of queer duck in this matter?

32:15 No. It's psychologically impossible. I have to begin where I am. And John Newton knew this in his wonderful hymn Thou art coming to a king large petitions to him bring.

32:26 What does he say in that stanza? With my burden I begin. Lord remove remove this load of sin. You see as long as the spirit is weighed down with the sense of its own sinfulness it's impossible for that spirit to soar in praise in adoration and in intercession.

32:52 Now as Mr. Clark has mentioned if it is an unusual occasion of spiritual declension an unusual instance of failure as it was in the case of David then the primary occupation of that given season of prayer may indeed be the confession of my sins. Now if it's true confession it will have a little bit at least some measure of praise to God for his forgiveness and his pardoning mercy. It will have perhaps some area of adoration or supplication as the Psalm 51 ends up do thy good pleasure unto Zion build thou excuse me the walls of Jerusalem there is some element of this

33:37 but the predominant note will be this aspect of prayer on that particular occasion. Now on other occasions there are times when the Lord has met you with unusual mercies there have been some amazing answers to prayer or maybe one of those strange inexplicable times when the Lord has just made his love and mercy so real to you you could no more lay down beneath the heavy hand of God and confess sin than you could fly. I mean it was impossible so you opened up the 103rd Psalm and you just took off and you went into orbit and you spent the majority of your time in prayer doing what? Praising God for his mercies adoring and worshipping him for his covenant

34:21 faithfulness and it was even hard to bring yourself to pray for other people and engage in much intercession on that particular occasion. Have you had those times? I hope you have. Those blessed times alright?

34:33 Now there are other times when the particular burden is not confession sin nor praise to God for specific mercies though as we'll see in a bit you do seek to remember the God to whom you're coming and to engage in prayer prayers of praise and ask God to cleanse of any sin but the real focus of that particular season of prayer is some burden that God has laid upon your heart for a brother or sister in Christ and you can't shake it. Now there are those times we cannot explain. We pray for certain people maybe our loved ones our family the flock of God and we pray in a general way and we plead God's blessings upon them but then there are other times when you don't even need

35:18 to bring yourself to pray for certain individuals you can do nothing but pray for them. You feel like a mother when it comes time to bring forth a child when she's going to have her baby and she goes into labor there's only one thing she can do she's got to have her baby she can't be distracted there's one thing well there are times when God gives us and that's a biblical analogy God gives us that travailed soul Galatians 4.19 and the great burden the preoccupation of our prayers is intercession or it may be supplication there's a specific need there's a particular crisis and our whole future may be monetarily may be spiritually

36:02 may be in terms of domestic stability everything hinges on that particular personal need well the preoccupation of our prayer then will be supplicating God for that area of need now if I may just interject a little something there may be times when we see God's enemies running through the earth with a high hand and our souls are stirred and we long for the day when the great whore the world system described in Revelation 19 will be judged by the returning Lord upon his chariot upon his white charger with the armies of heaven and we'll find ourselves very much delighted to take some of those imprecatory psalms

36:47 and plead with God for the hastening of the day when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ and all his enemies shall be put beneath his feet we'll turn to a passage like Revelation 19 and we'll rejoice with those who say true in Christ righteous of thy ways for thou hast judged the great whore that did pollute the earth with her fornications and we enter into the song of hallelujah and we may find ourselves because I think Mr. Williams' assertion is right pray in the spirit these imprecatory psalms for the destruction of all of God's enemies and for the exaltation of his son because Jesus Christ will never be fully exalted until he has destroyed all his enemies

37:32 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 until he can comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on his enemies there will not be the full and final exaltation we'll develop that further but you see James the reasonableness now of this answer it is not scripturally warranted to say that every time I pray I must engage in all the dimensions of all prayer there is no warrant in the word of God there is no clear example and it is psychologically impossible so to do alright do you want to react to that now some questions I've been lecturing for the past 7 or 8 minutes yes

Assessing Prayer Content Over Time

38:10 alright yes that's a good question and that again flows out of what we've asserted then it is not sin if in any given prayer experience I do not engage in all of these things but if over a period of weeks 2, 3, 4 weeks I look back

38:55 and see I'm not taking one minute of my prayer time to praise God for his specific gifts to me that's the sin of ingratitude revealing itself when I'm on my knees or if all my time is taken up with confessing my own sin but I'm not interceding for others that's terrible selfishness and I'm guilty of the sin of selfishness and it's manifesting itself while I'm on my knees but we're talking now about judging our content in prayer not in any one or two or three experiences of prayer but over the long dimension the same way we assess the signs of grace in us you don't do that

39:39 by sitting down and evaluating your life in any given one moment of time we talk about the drift of our lives the pattern of our lives the general perspective that characterizes us well in the same way with our prayer so that what I hope will happen is we begin to enlarge upon some of these if some of you say hey wait a minute looking back over the past two or three weeks you know I have not thanked God for his grace to another brother or sister once and yet I look in the epistles and I see every time Paul writes a church he says we thank God for you we thank God upon every remembrance of you he can say to Timothy day and night remembering you

40:23 with tears and with thanksgiving so your conscience then becomes disturbed and says wait a minute here's an element in my prayer that's missing I'm not giving thanks to God for the evidence of his grace to others that's a biblical precedent that's a biblical duty but we must not be conscious again that it's only the earnest Christian who gets in trouble here and there are many of you who fit that category do not bind your conscience so that you get all your liberty in prayer gone because tomorrow morning when you go to pray and you say oh wait a minute now I've got to say did I do no no no don't do that don't do that at all but sit down maybe to this afternoon and look back over your prayer experience over the past

41:07 weeks and months and say Lord what areas am I over now Lord help me when I go to prayer to be able to incorporate some of those things and then begin to look up passages that will guide you and assist you in those areas of weakness alright further questions yes bud yes

Entreaty and the Mystery of Christian Prayer

41:51 well this is why I put one of the things under the matter of entreating where we're pleading with God we know that God sees everything but in prayer we say Lord look upon this thing in other words this thing that is my concern let it be your concern and many times that is what we would call maybe the the entrance way the vestibule of intercession and that's what it was with Nehemiah Lord look upon this look upon this look upon your own covenant promise now Lord be pleased to do this so that that entreating God to take awareness to be aware of the situation was the vestibule into intercession I think that's the way I would like to describe it bud is it's just sort of the entrance way

42:35 this is the door of intercession then that matter of entreating God out here to look upon that situation is sort of the entrance way by which we enter into intercession the same way it may enter into the matter of confession Lord David does this behold he says I was shaped in iniquity he says Lord look upon me I was a sinner from the moment I was conceived and therefore have mercy upon me in doing what I did Lord I was just being consistent with what I am I'm a sinner Lord look upon me as a sinner take pity upon me as a sinner

43:10 he might because the non-Christian can't pray aright and he either approaches God too intimately and too familiarly and is guilty of impiety or he approaches God at too great a distance because he doesn't have the spirit of adoption so there's a sense in which the way a true believer prays ought to be a mystery to the unconverted man the same way his whole life is a mystery that's why the apostle could say the world knoweth us not because it knew him not so the world hearing us pray ought to say

43:53 man they pray to God like God was some great majestic awesome being I don't you know I mean God's up there so what why get all upset but boy when they pray they worship that God they talk about that God as a lofty majestic God I don't know that God they're praying to and on the other hand if they hear us pleading as the sons and daughters of God with such intimacy their reaction ought to be who in the world do they think they are they talk to God like he was their friend well thank God he is he sent the spirit of adoption into our hearts we're more than his friends we're his sons and daughters so we ought to be a mystery to the world in the very way we approach God that's a good point but alright further reaction to this yes Zilla

Balancing Joy and Mourning in Prayer

44:36 the question is you know when we come to reduce these now and look at them individually which will be the focus of our study next time I think your question the answer to will become more obvious there are certain dimensions of prayer that as a general rule ought to be a part of any extended season of prayer you see how guarded I'm being in my use of words and certainly one of them

45:20 would be the matter of confession though the depth of the confession the present sense of the awesomeness of sin if God is sounding the joy bells in my heart should I go get the morning clothes should I yes or no of course not you see so that's again why some Christians buying their consciences in a way God never did and they feel unless they've got the same degree of a crushing awareness of sin every time they pray they're taking sin lightly no not necessarily if God's ringing the joy bells I've got to jump in and say I've got to jump in with it and ring them too you see but now if that's all a Christian knows if someone tells me I've known nothing but complete joy in the Holy Ghost

46:05 for the past six months I smell something fishy something's fishy if he's not known any periods of heaviness because one of the descriptions of a true son of the kingdom is what blessed are they that mourn it's the present tense blessed are they who are mourning for they shall become them so if over a period of time I don't know any holy mourning then it's not because I've gotten so sanctified I don't need it I've become so insensitive that I'm no longer in the place where I feel my need to mourn and that's my sin that's not an evidence of grace and you see that's one of the great problems that's all of the again of striking the biblical balance for the most part in evangelicalism today there are such low views of sin

46:49 such shallow views of sin that you don't even talk about mourning I mean that's all for the Jews back in the Old Testament and out there and that's all in the tribulation when the Lord begins to deal with them and let them have all the mourning I'll never forget A.W. Tozer saying we're a slick bunch he used that term he said we put all the weeping in the morning for the Jews in the past and in the future well we can just go along happily irresponsibly giddy in Christ and know nothing of the mourning well he was striking a very very much needed note when he said that no that's not the picture but on the other hand neither is the picture that constant mourning is a sign of grace because the scripture says the kingdom of God is not eating

47:34 drinking but righteousness peace and what? joy in the Holy Ghost so that element must be present alright? any further reaction to what we've covered thus far? yes, Jerry?

Resting in Christ's Merit for Imperfect Prayers

47:48 very good point to make

49:23 the last thing in the world we'd want as the practical outworking of our times together is that people be discouraged from praying or discouraged in prayer and that's why I've tried to make these qualifying statements and it's good to have that underscored again that at best you take the holiest man who has most mastered all the biblical principles of prayer he must say of all his prayer in all of its dimensions praise and procession thanksgiving and Lord wash my prayers in the blood of your Son that's why the Apostle Paul who probably as a human being more mastered these things than anyone else this side of the manifestation

50:07 of the Lord's glory could say to the end of his life I count all things but loss and do count them but done that I may win Christ and be found in Him he didn't want the perfection of his prayers in any way to be woven into the fabric of his righteousness because he knew they weren't perfect they reflected something of the indwelling sin that still adhered even to this holy man the Apostle Paul so I hope that if any of you have become discouraged you'll realize again that your resting place from coming to God in prayer and praise in any of these dimensions is not anything new but it is the merit

50:51 of Jesus Christ and the present assistance of the Holy Spirit as outlined here in Romans chapter 8 any further question or contribution you want to make to this aspect of our study alright then the Lord willing where we'll pick up next week we'll be taking these matters and enlarging upon them briefly so I'll have to lecture for a little bit and forgive me for doing that but I'll have to do it and try to give a little working definition of these various dimensions of prayer is there any difference between supplication intercession if so what is there any difference and we've already

Future Study and Parallel to Bible Reading

51:35 elaborated a little bit on this between praise and thanksgiving between praise and adoration and worship if so what are those differences are they artificial are they are they just a tempest in a teapot thing should we forget them or are these biblical words significant does the Bible use different words if so why we'll seek to have a little definition and then move to the area that someone has already touched upon what aspects of prayer ought generally to be included in our average season of prayer you see again we're just dealing in the broad principles without seeking to bind people beyond what the word of God would want

52:19 alright any concluding remark anyone wants to make before we close the class yes John in my thinking here I've drawn a parallel between what was already established as his responsibility in Bible reading in the sense that in the long run he must get through the entire scriptures and any tendency to bog down and say the Gospels and continue to read the Gospels only at the neglect of the Old Testament or the Psalms or the proverbial teachings or the Epistles would it constitute over a period of time sin and the same in the prayers here over the long haul we ought to include them all as the same principles we've established for Bible reading should apply now in the same principles to the prayer good point

53:03 remember we established that we should read the word of God systematically because all scripture was given for the total profit of the total man of God and therefore all forms of prayer are given for the total benefit of the praying Christian and in order to bring the ultimate measure of glory to God and good to others so that there is this not parallel equal to but there is a parallel relationship between the two alright any further comment

53:34 if not let's bow together in prayer and supplicate with God that he would teach us to pray and I do hope that that is one of the practical outworkings of our time together that we'll find it very easy to pray with the disciples Lord teach us to pray let's look to God in prayer together