Duty of Prayer

Introduction: The Necessity of Sanctified Repetition and the Manifesto's Focus

0:06 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, January 10, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:17 And now let us seek the face of God for His help and blessing upon the ministry of the Word as we here in this place open that Word, and our brethren in Pinebush and also in Englewood likewise open that Word. My wife and I were speaking yesterday as she was sharing some of her meditations on the matter of God's ubiquity, that He is in every place, His immensity, His eternity, and I in turn said I had been meditating on similar things, and what a wonderful thing it is to know that if all of God is in every place, there's enough of God, all of God, for all of His people in all places. And it is that which greatly encourages. It encourages us as we pray. So let us plead that the God who we trust will be here in all that He is as God will likewise be present with our brethren.

1:16 Let us pray. Our Father, our pathetically limited, shrunken, human, mental faculties stagger when we attempt to think of You as the God who fills heaven and earth, the God who is from everlasting. To everlasting, who has no beginning and has no end, the God who, though He fills heaven and earth, You are here present with us, not a part of You, not an aspect of You, not one or two of Your attributes, but, O Lord, all that You are is God. You are to us in this place, and we pray that You would, out of the fullness of Your own, Your own being, and out of Your grace and mercy, minister to us by the Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are opened, it may be evident that they are being preached, not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And what we pray for ourselves, we pray for Mike and Tony as they labor in the Word this morning, in Englewood and in Pinebush, and for all of Your servants in every place, across the face of the earth. O our God, amidst the saber-rattling there in the Middle East,

2:46 amidst the pathetic poverty and tragedy of starvation and famine in Africa, amidst all the turbulence of our sin-sick world, O Lord, come with refreshing and saving grace in the midst of Your gathered people today. Look in pity upon...

3:08 this gathering that here meets in Your presence, and according to Your perfect knowledge of our need, minister to us with power, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

3:28 In writing to that congregation, which was especially dear to his heart, the Apostle Paul either penned or dictated the words that are found in Philippians 3 and verse 1, where we read, To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe. Paul was conscious that he was repeating himself, but he acknowledges that in so doing, he was not irked, he was not irritated at feeling the necessity to repeat certain emphases, and he was convinced...

4:13 that such repetition was in the best spiritual interest of the Philippians. In expressing a similar concern for the suffering saints in his day, and within the sphere of his pastoral concern, Peter writes the words recorded in 2 Peter 1, verses 12 and 13, Wherefore I shall be ready always to put you in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and are established in the truth which is with you. And I think it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Now it's clear from these texts of scripture that neither Paul nor Peter suspected that the true people of God would be bored, irritated, or restless and indifferent when sanctified repetition was used as a tool for the promotion of their spiritual safety and their spiritual stability. Now it's in the spirit of this apostolic understanding and use of sanctified repetition

5:37 that we find ourselves coming today to message number 65, in our present series entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. For the sake of our visitors, I should explain that this series began in the spring of 1991, as we anticipated our 25th anniversary as a duly constituted church in the fall of 1992. Well, that anniversary has come and gone without any fanfare or special meetings or any fun. It's been a long time since we've had any formal celebrations.

6:15 However, the declaration of those biblical truths which have formed the structural backbone, the heart and the living soul of this assembly will continue, God willing, for several more months. We are presently considering the ninth affirmation, or tenet, in the Manifesto, and it is this. We are determined to maintain the faith of God. We are determined to maintain the faith of God.

6:43 We are determined to maintain the faith of God. We are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. This affirmation obviously has three points of focus, the biblical doctrine of conversion, the biblical doctrine of the Christian life, and the biblical doctrine of the mission of the church. Our present focus of concern, is that which relates to the second of these three, namely, the Christian life.

The Fifth Principle of Christian Living: No Substitutes for Means of Grace

7:19 Following the basic outline of the booklet entitled, Living the Christian Life, I'm attempting to set before you not a fully comprehensive doctrine of the Christian life, but rather I'm attempting to give a selective emphasis, which has as its general principle, those aspects of the Christian life where there is widespread confusion, false teaching, and therefore, peculiar liability to error in this congregation. Therefore, we've examined four major principles of the Christian life thus far. They have been as follows. There is no one master key to living the Christian life. There is no one master key to living the Christian life.

8:13 Secondly, there is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life. Thirdly, there is no cancellation of any of the faculties of our redeemed humanity in living the Christian life. And fourth, there is no post-conversion crisis experience promised or commanded as essential to living the Christian life. Now today, we're going to discuss, we begin to take up the fifth crucial principle of living the Christian life, and I'm stating it this way.

8:51 There are no effective substitutes for the divinely appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. There are no effective substitutes for the divinely appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. We shall follow the same general outline we have used previously, beginning with the principle explained, and then secondly the principle demonstrated, that is, proven to be true from the Scriptures, and then the principle applied. First of all, then, the principle explained. When I state as the fifth major principle of living the Christian life, a principle by the grace of God, which we are determined to maintain in days to come, as we have maintained in days gone by, that there are no effective substitutes for the divinely appointed means of grace, what do I mean by that combination of words? Well, I shall explain the principle by asking and answering, too, two questions.

Explaining 'Divinely Appointed Means of Grace' and 'No Effective Substitutes'

10:15 What do I mean by the divinely appointed means of grace?

10:22 The term means of grace is not found in the Bible.

10:27 So you can't take a concordance and look it up, and by comparing Scripture with Scripture, come to a basic and accurate understanding. It is a theological term. But like the term the Trinity, which is not found in the Bible, and many others, it is a helpful term to express a truth which is indeed taught profusely throughout the Word of God. And I'm using this term, divinely appointed means of grace, to indicate the following.

11:06 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 illustrate, as God has divinely appointed, a balanced diet of wholesome food, adequate rest and regular exercise as the means by which He ordinarily keeps us healthy in body,

12:30 so He has ordained means by which He conveys the grace essential to keep us healthy in our spiritual spirit. What are food and rest and exercise but divinely appointed means calculated under the blessing of God to result in a modicum of good physical health? They have no inherent power except by the wisdom, appointment and blessing of God. But by the appointment and blessing of God, they are the means of maintaining good physical health. And so when I speak of the divinely appointed means of grace, I'm speaking of those things which God in His wisdom and sovereignty has appointed in order to be the means of sustaining us in a state of spiritual health. And those means can be divided basically into two categories. The individual or private means of grace and we'll seek to identify them.

13:57 And then the corporate or public means of grace. Now I'm fully aware that historically the means of grace as a term has most frequently been used to apply to the public ministry of the word and the administration of the sacraments. I am conscious of that. I trust I have enough knowledge of both church history and the history of theology.

14:21 But I'm using the term in a broader sense and I am neither novel nor the first in doing that. And I think it's necessary that we understand what I mean by the use of that terminology. Second question as I seek to explain the principle. What do I mean by the words?

14:41 There are no effective words that substitute for these divinely appointed means of grace. Well what I mean by that is this. If any of us through ignorance, arrogance or succumbing to false teaching seek to bypass or substitute the use of these means appointed by God we will not prosper in our Christian experience. 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 spiritual illusion or patent spiritual declension. Further the blessing of God will not rest upon the arrogance the indolence or ignorance which does not recognize or refuses to use these means. There is an arrogance there is an indolence and an ignorance that is inexcusable that either does not recognize or flatly refuses to use these means.

16:09 And where that is so there will be no true progress in grace. Further God's blessing will not rest upon the devices of man's intentions, inventions which are set forth as a substitute for these means. People get weary of the divine means of grace and in their arrogance and pride and sometimes misguided zeal they invent their own. Now again let me illustrate.

16:46 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. Found a way to take finely powdered sawdust and by properly flavoring it putting in various emulsifiers I can form it into that which looks like everything from hamburgers

18:11 to carrots to pears. Therefore out of I will feed myself and my family that which has the appearance of wholesome food. Well it won't be long before the folly will be known by the entire family. No matter how well intentioned you may be in making up your sawdust burgers or sawdust carrots and your sawdust pears God never deposited in the stuff of wood pulp the nutential in physical health.

18:55 How sincere your so we can give the aid and all of you putting together your would not meet the needs and sustain your physical health or that of your family. Likewise anyone who for whatever motive no matter how sincere it may be can substitute his own for the sustenance and development of the spiritual life in place of humbly and prayerfully using God's means will eventually reap the fruit of his folly. He'll be spiritually malnourished he may well have the signs of death upon his spiritual brow. In summary then this is what I mean by this principle in living the Christian life there are no effective substitutes for the divinely appointed means of grace. Now then let us move from the principle explained to the principle demonstrated or proven from the word of God.

Prayer as the Primary Individual Means of Grace: Habit and Disposition

20:23 As I've already stated these divinely appointed means of grace can be subsumed under two categories the private or the individual means of grace and the corporate or the social means of grace and I will have time only to begin to address the first category this morning namely the identity and indispensable importance of the individual or private means of grace. What are those activities and disciplines which God has chosen to be the means of the health of the believer's soul? What a balanced diet adequate rest and regular exercise are to the health of the body? Well at the head of the list in answer to that question for anyone at all sensitive to the teaching of his Bible is what I am calling the habit and spirit personal prayer. The habit and the spirit personal prayer life.

21:50 When I say habit and the spirit of personal prayer what I mean by these words is that the healthy child of God will be marked as one who has so ordered his life and its priorities to have as a general activity of concentrated prayer disposition of prayerfulness while engaging in the other necessary duties he has as a child of God. I have tried to encompass those two aspects of biblical truth by the words the habit and the disposition secret prayer disposition of personal prayer to focus upon this tremendously vital principle that as a prime individual means of grace there is no effective substitute for specific regular of giving oneself to this one activity of prayer

23:17 means of seeking the face of God whether in confession praise, petition, adoration, supplication whether by any of the other aspects of prayer by the habit of prayer to that activity when if someone came upon us engaged in it as they did upon Jesus it was said they found him while they knew what he was doing he was praying that's the habit of prayer then when I refer to the disposition of prayer I'm referring to that attitude of the soul in which while the hands and the feet and even much of the mind may be engaged in another legitimate activity someone might come upon us and say the man is teaching the man is preaching the woman is changing her child's diapers that man is driving into the city in his daily commute yet in the midst of that there is a disposition of prayerfulness there is that disposition illustrated in the life of Nehemiah who in a critical situation when he was asked the question why is your face sad? it says I prayed unto the Lord

24:42 and I said unto the king there with the king's wine cup in his hand when you came upon him you would not say he's praying you would say he's holding the cup for the king as the king's cup bearer but God takes us behind the scenes and said he was praying that's the disposition of prayer and so I want you to understand what I mean by the words that when we consider these private individual means of grace at the head of the list is this means of grace the habit and disposition of personal prayer now as I attempt to demonstrate that there are no effective substitutes for this particular means consider with me the following argument number one prayer as habit and disposition is the believer's duty and then I'll demonstrate on what grounds I say that then we'll note secondly prayer as habit and disposition is the believer's privilege and we'll look at the scriptures that demonstrate it then thirdly we will see that prayer as habit and disposition is both the birthmark and the temperature gauge of the true Christian first of all then prayer as habit and disposition is the believer's duty

Prayer as the Believer's Duty: Commanded by Christ and Apostles

26:11 so it is our duty to have both the habit and the disposition of prayer I answer first because Christ and his apostles commanded believers to pray turn please to Matthew chapter 7 Christ and his apostles commanded believers to pray here in the sermon on the mount which has often been called the Magna Carta of the kingdom of heaven our Lord setting forth the great principles by which the kingdom of grace which he came to establish will operate among his people here in the seventh chapter speaks and says ask Matthew 7 7 ask an imperative and it shall be given to you seek imperative and ye shall find knock imperative and it shall be opened unto you then the promise for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened and that our Lord is referring primarily if not exclusively to prayer then becomes evident as we read on or what man is there of you who if his son shall ask him for a loaf will give him a stone or if he shall ask for a fish will he give him a serpent

27:40 if he then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask so we have the child and the father in heaven giving good things in response to the asking what could be a clear description of one of the major aspects for things agreeable to his will in the name for his glory according to this passage it is not a matter of my choice as to whether or not I as a follower of Christ shall be an asker a seeker and a knocker where is it that I ask that I seek and that I said if a man love me he will keep my commandments he that loveth me not keepeth not my words and this is as clear a commandment of Christ

29:09 in this context as is the command that so often is quoted in this place if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee the duty of ongoing mortification of sin here is the duty Christ commands his people to pray Luke chapter 18 in a passage that we studied in some detail several months ago we read in Luke 18 1 of our Lord Jesus he spoke a parable unto them to the end that they ought and that word ought is the standard word to denote moral obligation he spoke a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray to faint and the assumption is that among the true people of God they have taken the ought-ness of prayer kiss or notice how they are described in verse 7 shall not avenge his elect that

30:26 they announce nothing practice by his grace and what was true of our Lord commanding his followers to pray is true of the apostles Colossians chapter 4 I'm simply seeking to demonstrate that prayer as habit and disposition is the believer's duty Colossians chapter 4 and verse 2 as the apostle is bringing this glorious epistle to a conclusion seeking to underscore practical duties of the Christian life he writes in Colossians 4 and verse 2 continue steadfastly in prayer watching therein with thanksgiving here is a present imperative continue steadfastly in prayer you Colossians do you want to know what your duty is among the many duties that I have set before you therefore which are upon the earth Colossians 3 5 Colossians 3

31:56 12 put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved and all the graces it is in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy and of the Holy Spirit and all the graces it is our duty to put on in the strength of Christ and in the power of the Spirit here is an equally clearly revealed duty continue steadfastly in prayer and in the context here he is talking about the habit of specific prayer with all praying for us also here our specific request in the area of intercession for others with reference to the progress of the gospel. But then notice that according to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, prayer as disposition is also the believer's duty. For here in chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians, as Paul is giving a series of concluding directives to these young believers, he says in verse 17, Pray, another present imperative, pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you.

33:21 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.

34:00 Five minutes later. Well, that's the word you would use. So when Paul says, pray without ceasing, he is not saying forget all, the other things, the other duties I've laid out for you in the previous part of the epistle, and while I was among you and taught you other things. No, what I'm telling you is that amidst the fulfillment of all of your other duties and responsibilities, maintain the disposition of prayerfulness.

34:26 Pray without ceasing, just as you are to maintain in everything a disposition of thanksgiving, knowing that all that comes into your life comes within the orbit, and knowing that the sovereign will and purpose of God is the will of God for you, both to maintain the spirit and disposition of prayer coupled with thankfulness. This is the will of God. So the scriptures could not be clearer that prayer as habit and disposition is the believer's duty. Therefore, we are bold to assert that among the divinely appointed means of grace, and in particular, the private or individual means of grace, at the head of the list of them stands this issue of prayer. 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. But then we know that it is our duty not only because Christ and his apostles commanded believers to pray, but because Christ and his authorized penmen expect us to pray.

Prayer as the Believer's Duty: Expected by Christ and Authorized Penmen

35:43 You see the progression of thought? Because Christ, and I say his authorized penmen, because I'm going to quote a verse from one who was not an apostle. So that wasn't a slip in the homiletical arrangement. It was a deliberate attempt to be accurate, for had I not picked it up, someone else would have.

36:02 As you kids all found out, I was the big dummy last week when I had leap year with only 365 days. It was very, very humbling to labor so to be accurate with the calculator on the hours and minutes of a year and to forget that leap year has 366 days. And the number of you kids and adults as well, and I assure you, I have been duly reminded of my public display of ignorance. But be that as it may, I've chosen these words deliberately.

36:33 Christ and his authorized penmen expect us to pray. That's why we know it's our duty. Look at Matthew, Matthew chapter 6. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, as our Lord is seeking to contrast the kind of religious experience that will mark his true followers as over against the hypocritical, sham experience of the scribes and of the Pharisees, notice his assumption in Matthew 6 and verse 5.

37:07 And not if ye pray, but he says, and when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have received their reward, but thou, when thou,

37:33 in inner chamber, this is private, secret prayer, not only these going even beyond family prayers, prayers at the table, prayer meetings, but thou, when thou prayest, individualized, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee, and in praying, use not therefore petitions as the Gentiles or the heathen do. You see what our Lord is assuming. Our Lord,

38:16 that is, be emphasis, upon the habit of prayer, of deliberate turning aside from other activities, that's the shutting of the door, the engagement of all faculties in spiritual concentration upon seeking the face of our Heavenly Father. And if anyone's here who's so deluded to think that you can maintain the disposition and the spirit of prayer without the habit of prayer, you're self-deceived. Your communion is with yourself, and not with the living God. He who does not frequent the secret place in habits of prayer will know nothing of communion with God in the disposition and spirit of prayer amidst his other duties. Why? Because God has ordained this means of prayer. And Christ expects that all His followers will engage in it.

39:18 He does not give us the times, the limits, the frequency, but that they will pray is clear. Likewise, the great apostle in Ephesians chapter 6 expects that these believers will pray.

39:37 He has come to his final area of instruction, verse 10, finally Ephesians 6, 10, Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, then underscoring the reality of our conflict, He sets forth the various pieces of the armor. And though there is a debate and discussion among expositors and preachers as to the precise place that verse 18 has in all of this, this much is clear. The admonition to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might is inseparably joined to the duty that is outlined in verse 18, the expectation that the people of God who take this admonition seriously will be a praying people with all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the Spirit and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. He expects that the believers who are serious about being strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might will engage in all the different kinds of prayer and supplication that are available to them

41:05 in the will and purpose of God. Likewise in Jude, one of the inspired penmen of the New Testament,

41:16 we read in the book of Jude and verse 20,

41:23 another indication that we are assumed and expected to be a praying, but ye beloved, this is against the backdrop of the influence of false teachers and the pressure of ungodliness and skepticism, mockers walking after their own lust. In the midst of that, how do we thrive spiritually? How do we keep up our figure? How are we kept from being infected with the viruses and with the deadly germs of a godless, skeptical, anti-Christ society?

42:02 He tells them, but ye beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Here's the imperative, keep yourselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love of God. How?

42:22 By an occasional pious thought? By the occasional looking at a devotional piece of literature? By merely, coming to church and occupying space in a pew? No!

42:38 And some of you are witnesses to that sad reality. Ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying.

42:49 The holy assumption is that all who are serious about being kept in the love of God will be a people who pray, who not merely say prayers, but whatever praying in their heart is, they're concerned to know that reality. They're concerned to know a reality in prayer that goes beyond merely telling daddies at family worship. There is a concern to have spirit made it real with a real God in the face of real spiritual enemies and real dangers to the soul.

43:35 It is expected they will pray. So these passages clearly indicate it is our duty to pray.

Prayer as the Believer's Duty: Exemplified by Christ

43:46 Duty to maintain the disposition and the spirit of prayer. Christ and his apostles command us to pray. It is our duty because Christ and his authorized penmen expect us to pray. Thirdly, it is our duty because Christ, our great example, was a man of prayer.

44:08 1 John 2 and verse 6, a text you had opened up several weeks ago in the adult class when Pastor Lamar was teaching.

44:18 1 John 2 and verse 6, where John is dealing with those whose profession in some cases was not matched by their life and their experience and he challenges these that their and their lives will match and will be consistent. He that saith he abideth in him. He who says he is saving united to Christ for that's what a Christian is. He is united to Christ as the branch is united to the vine.

44:53 John 15, he who says he abides in Christ, he has life in virtue of spiritual union with Christ, ought, here's our word of moral obligation, ought himself also to walk even as he walked. That is the patterns of life that are revealed concerning our Lord Jesus in the gospel records and in any comments made about him in the inspired, writers of the book of Acts and the epistles. Christ is the model and the pattern of his people. Not an ideal to be looked at who sent that he lived the perfect life.

45:37 He lived and walked the most admirable way. No, it is more than that. What he did and what he was in the real life situations in which scripture sets him before us is the pattern for us to follow except in those areas where there's there is the uniqueness either of his function, his identity, his work, but in the ordinary course of what a man is before God and amongst other fellow men. He is our pattern.

46:09 Well, surely as we were reminded even this morning, if anything was true of our Lord Jesus with no inherent indwelling sin to wrestle with, with no haunting memories of past sins, that would drive him to the throne of grace praying with David, remember not against me the sins of my youth. With no prayers of personal penitence. With no prayers born of the haunting remembrance of the past. With no prayers wrung out of the agony of Romans 7.

46:48 Wretched man that I am that I would not with none of those things to drive him to the throne of grace. Our Lord, who is evidently a man of prayer, in his first public appearance we are told in the Gospel of Luke that when he went down into the waters of Jordan and the Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove, it says, as he was praying.

47:20 The Scriptures tell us that he went out since in Luke 11 the disciples come upon him and they find him praying and they say, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples to pray. Mark chapter 1 tells us after a day of men this activity into the evening hours healing and pouring out his virtue in the midst of the vast needs of suffering humanity. We read in Mark 1.35 a great while before day Jesus went out into a secret place, a desert place, to pray.

48:02 We read on the Mount of Transfiguration that as he was praying he was transfigured before. When he said of that horrible experience of his own crucifixion, my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. What did he do? He said, sit ye here while I go yonder to pray.

48:28 Anything was true of our blessed Lord. He was a man the face of his father with reference to crucial decisions the night before he selects the twelve. Seeking the face of the Father for grace and equipping his soul for his ministry as he stands in the waters of Jordan about to be anointed with the Spirit and to launch his public ministry. Who knows what the incidents were in Luke 11.

48:59 Maybe it was the sheer joy of that intimate communion with his Father when he was praying.

49:08 He could say as he did in John 12. Here is to me always. Surely, if we claim to be united to Christ as the branch is in the vine if we say we abide in him we are under solemn obligation to walk as he walked which means among other things to walk as men and women who know both the habit and the disposition of prayer.

49:39 Therefore, I rest my case with regard to prayer as habit and disposition as the believer's duty upon those three categories of biblical evidence. Christ and the Holy Spirit and his apostles commanded believers to pray. Christ and his authorized penmen expect us to pray. And Christ is our example mandates that we pray.

Application: Self-Examination and the Danger of Prayerlessness

50:08 Now that's all the time I have to this morning before I come to some concluding application. Prayer as habit and disposition as the believer's privilege and prayer as habit and disposition as prayer as the birthmark and temperature of the true Christian will have to await another exposition. But let me seek to bring this home into the realm of your own conscience this morning. Let me ask you a very simple straightforward question.

50:39 Would anyone with any semblance of justification in reality describe you as a man a woman a boy or girl in whom there is undeniable evidence of the habit and the disposition of prayer?

51:04 Simple question.

51:07 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 organized person they notice you weren't standing all the time in the middle of the bedroom or the dining room or the kitchen scratching your head where do I go next to attack the pile of unfulfilled work around me and end up doing nothing paralyzed no they'd say that person gets up in the morning and they move with deliberate purpose from one thing to another you're a very industrious person you're a very organized person they might be able to describe you as a very cheerful person whatever would be accurate would it be equally accurate to say and this much is also clear he or she is a person marked by the habit and the disposition of prayer oh there have been one or two days when I've not seen

52:37 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 describe you as one who made conscience about having adequate food you were there to get your three squares no matter how pressured or busy you were you might have missed a meal here or there but the pattern of your life over the past month is one in which it's evident you thought it important to take in nutrients to sustain your physical life they could say you believe that if you're going to be healthy you've got to get adequate rest and though some nights you were awakened and disturbed with a sick child or a nursing baby or some other concern by and large

54:05 you got your seven or six or eight or nine or five how many ever you particularly know you need to function well and they'd be able to say well they obviously believe they've got to eat to be healthy they've got to rest to be healthy and though you may not have a local membership in some health club or have your own health club in your basement it's evidence you know you can't be a couch potato and honor God you do something to get some modicum of physical exercise if your work itself doesn't demand that of you and if the person could say those things without having to strain their consciousness of reality could they also say and it's equally clear to me that he or she believes prayer is his duty prayer is expected prayer is a part of following the example of Christ could that he said of you yes or no don't answer audibly but answer inwardly could it if not I want to state something very bluntly if not and if last month was not simply a horrible month of temporary backsliding if last month

55:34 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 deceived first corinthians six nine but dear people listen the bible knows nothing of a chronically consistent prayerless Christian the bible knows nothing the mark of the wicked according to psalm fourteen David describes the wicked this way in psalm fourteen and verse four he begins by describing them the fool has in his heart there is

57:03 no god then the moral declension always follows when god is ruled out now notice how he describes them in verse four have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread to the truth you're a woman boy you are wicked because what you say by your prayerlessness is I don't need god what you say by your prayerlessness is I don't take my sin seriously I have no errands at the throne of grace to cry my jealousy my avarice my covetousness my antilence my touchiness I have no eyes to my besetting sins that the virtue of his cross their power is upon me

58:31 your prayerlessness is wickedness because it shows you're not concerned about the sins of your heart man or woman boy or girl you don't feel the reality Jesus said without me you can do nothing and the one who believes that goes to the one who alone can give him grace to do all things I can do all things through him who strengthens me you're a wicked man a wicked boy a wicked girl a wicked woman if you are a chronically a chronically prayerless man woman boy cannot enter a period of prayerlessness I didn't say that but if is that you call on my friend face it I don't care if you have family devotions and read the bible and say prayers and pray over your meals and come to trinity church every time the doors are open if the room there is business to be done at the throne can't be done in any of these other places and you'll be found there and if you have no such business you have no root of the matter in you so I don't

60:00 my dear friend prove me wrong from the bible they call calls you not Albert N God calls you and remember in the day of judgment you'll be with him not me my unconverted man woman boy or girl you've got business at the throne of God you need to go before this God and confess your wickedness confess the pride that has kept you living in creature independence not acknowledging all the while you're struck it's almighty God that gives you life and breath and all things go to God and be humbled tell him that you've not taken seriously the sin of your heart because it hasn't broken out into sins that would make you an occasion to be written up in the local scandal sheet or to be taken to the local court to think the sins are matters of indifference we all have a problem we've all got sins yes the difference is that the Christian takes it seriously enough to go into the presence of God crying for cleansing confessing his sin crying for grace to overcome and though he may see little or no progress or even regression that stirs him up all the more

61:29 to cry to God for more grace there are no there are no effective institutes for the divinely appointed man the means of grace in living the Christian life and I say now to you who are the people of God could that those areas in your life that every time you look yourself in the mirror either literally or spiritually stand out and mock you for their stubborn resistance to all the other means of grace could it be that the answer does not lie in having to find some deep hidden when your mother seven months and you say if only

62:23 simple this mighty means is there with respect of thinking there's some exotic insight that will liberate me there's some yet undiscovered exotic means if I could oh no no my friend lies open before us all I close with this text from the book of James ye have not because this is that simple you have not not because he says

63:48 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 determined to get deliverance he wanted those eyeballs to function no longer was he content that would register light and shape and patience was the only one who could do it and he cried through every discouragement till his eyeballs saw because he was determined to have sight my friend that's why you don't cry because down underneath you really love

65:17 that stinking rotten sin you're wallowing in and all the while you think you've conned yourself into thinking you really hate it no you don't until you hate it enough to cry enough to know the mighty deliverance of Christ you really don't hate it you say pastor you've been saying some pretty blunt things this morning prove me wrong really start crying in earnest then come back in a month and tell me God's done nothing he's turned a deaf ear though the world's though the Bible says call upon me and I will and show you great and mighty things which you know not I've called and he doesn't answer go boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find and say I've gone and obtained nothing and found nothing well if so then we might say could it be that you're regarding iniquity in your heart and Psalm 66 18 says if we regard iniquity in our heart the Lord will not hear but then David says verily thou hast heard we can know that we are not deliberately countenancing iniquity oh dear people of God whatever this coming year holds one of my prayers for me has been oh my father take me deeper into the school of prayer in this coming year teach me what it is as never before to wrestle with you

66:46 to prove your promises that this blessed means of grace will be mightily operative in my life and in my ministry as never before no substitute for it dear people if you're utterly prayerless you're graceless go to Christ the only one who can save and deliver and change you from a prayerless into a praying man or woman boy or girl and if those areas in your life that are chronic problems where you just seem to be stuck in the mud up to the axles and you move nowhere could the answer be just this simple I didn't say it is I said could it be that this means of grace has barely been tapped and if you will simply begin to earnestly pray as Jesus taught us to pray lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one who knows what progress in grace you would make in the year that is before us let us pray our father we thank you for your holy word and as we bow before it this morning we confess with shame that we have not availed ourselves of this blessed means this solemn duty as well

68:15 as this glorious privilege forgive the sins of prayerlessness forgive the sins of half-hearted prayers forgive the sins of distracted prayers of formal prayers of lifeless prayers forgive the sins oh lord of hypocritical prayers and oh wash us in the blood of your son and so give to us increased measures of the spirit of grace and of supplication that this divinely appointed means of grace will be effectual in us in ways we have never known before have mercy upon the utterly prayerless among us as they've seen themselves mirrored in the word may they not go away and forget what they've seen but may what they've seen drive them to seek your face until they become a believing and pray man woman boy or girl seal your word to our benefit and our salvation we ask in Jesus name amen