When Thou Prayest

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount's Section on Religious Life

0:07 Let us turn again this morning to the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew chapter 6.

0:15 Just briefly now, by way of review and introduction, we have come to this section in the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter 6, which is very conveniently divided into two main areas of thought. First of all, in verses 2 to 18, we have the Christian in what we might call his religious life. Our Lord touches on the matter of giving, of praying, and of fasting. Verses 19 to the end of the chapter, our Lord deals with what we might call the Christian and his practical life. The Christian and his religious life, the Christian and his practical life. We have thus far in our study of the first section considered the general word of introduction in verse 1.

1:25 Take heed that ye do not your alms or better your righteousness before men to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven. And at the very outset, our Lord indicates that the all-important factor in our praying, in our acts of mercy, and in our fasting, is the matter of our motivation. Not so much what we are doing, but why we are doing it. And we need continually to keep this before us, that our Lord's warning is, Take heed that ye do not these things with an improper motive, otherwise the very purpose for which God gave them is nullified.

2:09 And the reward of grace that God intends to give, when we give as we ought, when we pray as we ought, and when we fast as we ought, all the God-ordained benefits are nullified if our motivation is wrong. Take heed that ye do not these things to be seen of men, or in other words, with a self-centered motivation. Last week we covered the subject of almsgiving, or the general subject of those acts of mercy which we as Christians show in the face of legitimacy, or in the face of ultimate need. What is to be my attitude in this matter of showing mercy or giving alms? It's always to be with a regard to the Father's eye, and not with regard to the eye of men. And you have that contrast in verses 2 to 4. The hypocrites, they do their deeds of mercy with reference to the eyes of men.

3:12 The true child of God continually seeks to do his deeds of mercy with his own eyes. With his only thought being the eye of his Father. Now in verses 16 to 15, our Lord deals with the subject of prayer. This morning we will focus our attention primarily upon verses 5 and 6.

Overview of Prayer in Matthew 6:5-15: Motive, Manner, and Matter

3:36 In the entire section, verses 5 to 6 to 15, or verses 5 to 15, our Lord deals with three basic things relative to prayer. He deals with the motive for which we pray. He deals with the manner in which we pray. And then He deals with the matters about which we pray.

3:59 So you have motive, manner, and matter. Or, to change it, you have why we pray, that's motivation, how we pray, that's the manner, and what we pray for, that's the matter. Now again, it's interesting that our Lord gives specific, detailed instructions about these three things touching our prayer lines. And I emphasize, and will at the expense of being tedious, it's not enough to simply run off at the mouth when you go to pray.

4:31 I may pray, but the question is, is my praying conformed to the pattern of the Word of God? I may say prayers, but is my motive and manner and matter of prayer that which is well pleasing unto my God? This is the crux of the matter. Now to think our way through verses 5 and 6, we'll follow the same outline as we did last week.

Defining the Kind of Prayer Jesus Addresses: Deliberate, Secret Communion

4:57 The subject introduced, the command issued, and then the promise attached. Now an outline is nothing but sort of a verbal or mental pick and shovel to sort of dig out some of the truth, and if you get a good shovel that works, use it. And I think the basic outline helped last week to approach the subject of almsgiving this way and now we'll approach the subject of prayer this way. So then, first of all, the subject introduced in verse 5, and when thou prayest.

5:29 Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, verse 6, but thou, when thou prayest. It's obvious that the subject dealt with is prayer, but now we've got to narrow it down. There is what some people call the habit, or attitude of prayer. This should be the continual experience of a Christian.

5:52 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 says, Pray without what? Without ceasing. There's that attitude in which we seek to maintain communion with God, and the minute our minds are free from the occupation that demands our attention, whether it's children or office work, or whatever our hands are doing, our minds and our hearts, like a spring under tension, continually revert to the Lord, and to thoughts of Him. Now, our Lord is not dealing with that.

6:22 This is not dealing with what we might call the attitude of prayer, which should be continuous. Nor is our Lord dealing with what we might call ejaculatory prayer, those kind of prayers when in an emergency, you lift your heart up to the Lord. The classic example in the scriptures is found in Nehemiah, where Nehemiah is standing before the king, and the king says, What do you want? And it says this, I prayed unto the Lord of heaven, and I said unto the king.

6:49 You see, he just lifted up his heart in a brief moment of intercession and prayer, and then he spoke. Now, that should be our experience throughout the day. We face a problem as a parent. Here's a situation.

7:02 We don't know whether our child has lied to us. It's one of those situations. Maybe we should let it ride. Maybe we should press it through till they tell the truth.

7:10 What are you going to do? Well, as a mother or father, you cry to the Lord. You say, Lord, give wisdom. And then you do something.

7:16 You cry to God in that immediate instance. Perhaps you're driving down the highway, and you see a situation developing, and it looks like you're about to be involved in an accident, and you lift your heart to the Lord, and then God sends an immediate answer. But our Lord is not talking about those two kinds of prayer. Now, they are legitimate forms of prayer.

7:33 The matter of the attitude of prayer, the matter of ejaculatory prayer, where we cry to God in the midst of our circumstances of life. But it's obvious that our Lord is dealing with a specific kind of praying. For He says in verse 6, When thou prayest, enter to thy closet, shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret. Our Lord is dealing with prayer in terms of those periods of time in which we give ourselves to conscious, deliberate communion with God.

8:08 Either to praise Him, to worship Him, to confess our sins, to be gracious to Him, or to plead with Him for personal needs, or to intercede before Him on behalf of others. Now, keep in mind that whatever our Lord is saying about prayer, He's dealing with this particular limited form of prayer. He can't be dealing with ejaculatory prayer. Nehemiah didn't have time to go into his closet and say, Lord, what shall I do?

8:38 He was standing before the king. If you're driving down the highway, if your car is in motion developing, you can't say to everything, stay right as it is. Car is in motion while I get out of my car and find the nearest woods where I can get on my knees and pray. No, our Lord is not dealing with that.

8:55 He's dealing with this kind of praying where we draw aside to meet with God with specific ends in view. So much for the definition. Now, notice our Lord's assumption. This is all under the introduction.

The Assumption: Every True Christian Prays in Secret

9:08 Our Lord's assumption is this, verse 5, and when thou prayest, verse 6, but thou when thou prayest. Our Lord is assuming, and we touched this in the introduction briefly, now we want to develop it more fully, our Lord assumes that every true disciple will be a praying man or woman. And prayer in this sense are drawing aside for specific seasons of personal communion with the living God. When thou prayest, and he's talking about this particular kind of prayer, and our Lord assumes that every true Christian will pray. Now this thought is well nigh been lost in our generation of professing Christians for we have multitudes, and I know there are some here, I should say I'm convinced in my own heart that there are some of you here this morning who profess Jesus Christ, but who are absolute strangers to secret, private, secret, private prayer in the sense that our Lord is dealing with it here. Where you draw aside in the secret place in worship of the living God, in praise of His person and His work, you're an absolute stranger to what it is to go into the presence of God swallowed up with a sense of your sinfulness

10:33 that at times literally presses you down to where your face is on the floor pleading with God for cleansing and for purging by the precious blood of Christ. I'm convinced in this group this morning I'm talking to men and women and fellows and girls who know nothing of what it is to draw into the secret place and there bear upon your heart the need of men and women in intercession. Listen to me my dear friend, if you are without this kind of prayer you are a stranger to the grace of God. Our Lord nowhere teaches that there is any such creature as a prayerless, Christian.

11:13 The Word does teach that a Christian may be overcome by degrees of prayerlessness. The Word and human experience indicates that a Christian may go through times of spiritual dryness and neglect of the closet. I realize all of that. But nowhere does the Bible teach or does our Lord assume that there is any such creature as a true Christian who does not go into the closet and develop the habit of prayer.

11:42 I read in Psalm 14 where the Psalmist is crying out to God in terms of the oppression of the wicked and he says this, a very interesting text, Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the Lord. As the Psalmist thinks of the wicked men who have oppressed him and who live about him, he says in verse 3 that they have gone aside, they have become filthy, there is none that doeth good, they abuse the people of God and then he says another characteristic of a wicked, unregenerate person is that he calls not upon the Lord. That's the mark of an unsaved man. As much as the deliberate, perpetual practice of sin is the mark of an unregenerate man, so the deliberate, perpetual absence of the place of prayer is the mark of an unsaved man. Now this is not just my peculiar approach to the Scriptures, but this has been the teaching of all of God's noble saints as they've studied the Word.

13:03 I'm reading from a Presbyterian preacher who preached 130 years ago right here in New York City and listen to what he said, We do not ask whether you pray in secret now and then, whether you perform this duty on the Sabbath or some occasional seasons of unusual alarm or solemnity, in other words, you get a good case of the flu and you pray and ask the Lord to help you, or you get in particular straits of circumstances and you cry to God. No, we're not talking about going to God and whimpering about your problem. No, he says I'm not talking about that. But he says, Is prayer your habitual practice?

13:41 Has it been your practice ever since you hoped you were brought out of darkness into marvelous light? No matter how punctual you are in other duties, no matter what evidence you have of your conversion from any other source, if you have not this, you may set down everything else as nothing. The lack of this is decisive evidence against you. A prayerless Christian?

14:06 No, it cannot be. It is a mark of the highest delusion of the grossest stupidity to cherish the hope of having made your peace with God and at the same time to live in the neglect of secret prayer. To live without prayer is emphatically to live without God in the world. Oh, that God would once again fill His church with such faithful application of truth.

14:37 To live without prayer is to live without God. And as Jonathan Edwards says, He who lives without God is not a Christian. Some of you were here Wednesday nights when we read through the section of Bishop Ryle on the subject of prayer. May I read just several phrases that are so very clear on this point?

14:58 The habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian. God has no dumb children. It is as much a part of the new nature to pray as it is of a child to cry. A true Christian sees his need of mercy and grace.

15:14 A true Christian feels his emptiness and weakness. So a true Christian cannot do otherwise than come to the throne of grace to pray. I see in the Bible many men of different backgrounds and characteristics, but one common thing, one thing they have in common, they pray. Converted people always pray.

15:35 Then he goes on to say, but this I do say, that not praying is a clear proof that a man is not a true Christian. He cannot really feel his sins. He cannot love God. He cannot feel himself a debtor to Christ.

15:48 He cannot long after holiness. He cannot desire heaven. He has yet to be born again. He may boast of election, grace, faith, hope, knowledge, and deceive ignorant people.

15:59 You may rest assured it's all vain talk if he does not pray. Now I ask you this morning as we come to this section in which our Lord deals with the subject of private prayer, do you pray? Do you pray? Do you know what it is to go into your closet to privately, secretly commune with God?

The Warning: Sin's Influence Even in Noble Prayer

16:28 To spread your weakness before Him and lay hold of the supplies of His grace? To spread your sins before Him and lay hold of His cleansing and His mercy? To spread before Him the needs of your life and the lives of others? And I take time to ask the question and to pause, not because I have not plenty to say from this passage this morning, but because, beloved, as your pastor, I remind you again, I only see you here and at your best in your home in public.

17:01 When are you in private, alone with God? Our Lord assumes that every true Christian will pray. And then our Lord warns in His introduction, and it's a sobering warning, He said, When ye pray, don't be like this. A little bit later He says, When you pray, don't do this, indicating that even when man is engaged in his most noble activity, there's no activity in which a creature of God can more nobly express that for which he's made than the activity of prayer.

17:45 It's in prayer that as a creature I acknowledge that God is everything. It's in prayer that I acknowledge His mercy and His grace. It's in prayer that I move in the hands of omnipotence when I intercede for others. What activity is more noble than this?

18:02 But our Lord warns us, even when we're engaged in this most noble of all activities, sin will be there to rob us of the blessing that God would give. And so He warns us that sin in the form of wrong motives, sin in the form of wrong thoughts about God and about what we should pray for, sin will rear its ugly head right in the secret place of prayer. Do you know anything of this? This is the greatest, one of the greatest griefs to a true Christian.

18:37 That when he draws aside to meet with God, he's plagued with thoughts of self that would mar and spoil and stain even this blessed, blessed privilege of communing with God. So much then for the subject introduced. We've defined the kind of prayer that our Lord is dealing with. Specific seasons drawing aside to commune with God.

19:02 We've seen that our Lord assumes that all true Christians will pray and I say again, if you are without prayer, you are without grace. And then our Lord warns us that even here we must beware lest sin rear its ugly head. Now we come to the actual command and we have the same pattern as we had in the previous. We have a negative command and then a positive command.

The Negative Command: Do Not Be Like the Hypocrites

19:26 The negative one, verse five, when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. Now, what did they do? Our Lord tells us. For they loved to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets.

19:45 What did they do? It's interesting that our Lord adds something here. I never saw this till preparing for this week. They did not merely pray in the streets, for they'd only have the traffic of one street, but when you get in a corner you've got the traffic from two streets.

20:01 And they were careful that on their way to the temple they would stop to pray not in the middle of Main Street, but when they get to the corner of Broad and Main, see? So they'd have the traffic from both ways. They'd give the impression, I'm so holy and I long so to commune with God, I can't even wait till I get to the temple to pray. So right in the corner they bowed, no not bowed, they lifted up their head and began to pray.

20:30 But isn't it interesting that they were able to time their burden so that it overpowered them right on the corner? Ah, yeah. They were able to time it such that the minute they hit the corner such a burden to pray came over them. They had to lift up their eyes to heaven and pray.

20:45 They loved to pray. What did they do? They loved to pray with ostentation and show in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets. You have a beautiful picture of this matter of praying in the synagogues.

20:59 In Luke 18.10, you remember it says, two went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a Republican, and the Pharisee stood thus by himself saying, I thank thee I am not as others. Can't you just see him coming into the temple and looking to see where the greatest crowds were and where he'd be most noticed and under the guise of downcast eyes finding that strategic place where he'd be under the surveillance of everyone in the temple and then piously looking up his eyes and beginning to pray. Now that's what they did.

21:31 Now why did they do it? Well, our Lord tells us right here. For they loved to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that, here's why they did it, that they may be seen of men. They had no thought whatever of praying in order to acknowledge their weakness in the presence of the sovereign of heaven and earth.

21:56 They had not one thought of praying so as to bear their guilty, foul, polluted hearts in the burning presence of a holy God. No thought of praying so as to bring down blessing upon the head of others. There was absolutely one thought that governed all of their praying. It governed where they prayed, how they prayed, and that thought was this, to be seen of men.

22:23 In other words, they wanted to gain the reputation of being spiritual. So much so that they would even pause to pray on the way to the temple so that people would say, ah, look what a man of God he is, so burdened, so in love with God that he can't even wait to get to the temple. He's got to stop on the street corner and pray. The only motivation was self.

22:50 Their own reputation was their most cherished possession and if they have to use, as we saw last week, even the needs of men to empty their pocketbook, to parade themselves and to puff up their own reputation, they'll do it. And here if they even have to prostitute this most noble thing that a man can do, commune with God, if they've got to prostitute even that, in order to puff up self, they'll do it. For they are committed for life to this one principle, I must increase at any cost. See?

23:30 And our Lord says our motivation was obvious. You say, well that doesn't happen in our day, does it? I tell you, dear ones, this thing has searched my heart. I saw an example of this.

23:39 I've seen many in my own life. I won't share them. They're ugly. But I saw one a few months ago at a conference that was disturbing and disgusting.

23:49 We're gathered at a communion service. It was a gathering of preachers and one of the men who was dispensing the elements was asked to lead in prayer and here we were remembering the very death of Christ as we shall do tonight for our sins. And this man was asked to lead in prayer thanking God for the poured out blood of the Lord Jesus or for His body that was given for us. Do you know what he did in his prayer?

24:13 He very quickly circumvented the issue at hand and began to spin out this yarn. And Lord, you know about this fellow that I led to you this past week and how he came to me and how I led him to you. And he began to use prayer as an opportunity to tell the whole group that he had won a soul to Christ. And he said, well, you know what?

24:31 I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to turn a soul to Christ. And then when he's all done and our eyes are lifted he wipes an imaginary tear away from his eye. See what we're talking about?

24:44 Have you ever found this in your heart? Hmm? The only motivation to be seen of men and it doesn't need to be as obvious as the scribes and Pharisees as these hypocrites who made it so obvious by pausing in the street corner. No, we would do it.

25:03 We have more sense than to be so obvious as that. But oh, the subtleness of the human heart that we'd pray in a certain way simply to gain the approval of our pastor or our friends or I would pray in a certain way to gain the approval of certain ones here. We can even modulate the tone of our voice to bring the approval of men. Sin would track us down and meet us even in the activity of prayer.

25:34 Now, what did they do? They prayed with ostentation. Why did they do it? To be seen of men.

25:40 What were the results? It's right here. That they may be seen of men. Here's the results.

25:45 Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. They've got what they were fishing for as we said last week. Wanting the praise of men, wanting men to think them to be something, they've gotten exactly what they fished for, even the praise of men. Now, may we apply this for just a moment.

Application of the Negative Command: Selfish Motives and Covering Sin

26:08 Our Lord is saying and giving us the instruction about the manner and the motive of our praise. He's going to deal with the matters for prayer. Next week for a couple of weeks the Lord willing. But here in the matter of the motive and the manner of our praying, Jesus said don't be like those play actors.

26:27 Don't use prayer as a means to selfish ends. And don't use prayer as a covering for sin. For I read in Luke chapter 12 and verse 47 that the Jesus condemning the scribes and Pharisees says, they devour widows' houses and for a pretense they make many prayers. You see, they felt that by giving the impression in public of spirituality they could cancel out the reality of their sin.

27:01 And I've said and I'll continue to say that it's much easier to bang on benches and beat on chairs and have praying marathons than to go home and face your sin and deal with it in the presence of God. It's much easier to groan and moan for hours than to get on your face and say, Oh God, I have sinned. And so our Lord warns us. He said, Don't be like those play actors for they use prayer as a means to puff up their reputation.

27:35 They use prayer as a means to cover their sin. Don't be like them. Their motive determined the manner. Their motive to be seen, therefore the manner, publicly.

The Positive Command: Enter Your Closet and Shut the Door

27:50 And that's the positive instruction. Verse 6. But thou, when thou prayest, here's the positive instruction, enter into thy closet, or better translated, inner chamber. Some of us, that's the problem.

28:04 Not us. In that parsonage you've got enough walk-in closets to live in, but many older homes, not enough closet space. So when we think of closet, we say it'd be kind of uncomfortable praying in there. But our Lord here is using a term that meant inner chamber.

28:19 The missionaries tried to find out what this was and I can't. I don't seem to have been able to dig up what it referred to, but apparently it would be comparable to our private bedroom. This would be the closest parallel. So our Lord is saying when you pray, don't pray out even in the living room.

28:36 Not literally. This is, we'll see what He's driving. But go to the most secret place possible, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who's in secret and my Father in secret shall reward thee openly. You see what the whole key to our Lord's instruction is?

28:54 It's these words. Inner chamber. Shut door. The Father who's in secret.

28:59 The Father who sees in secret. Four times our Lord uses words. Secret. Hidden.

29:05 Away. Shut door. The whole emphasis of our Lord's instruction on the matter of prayer is bound up in those words. And if we can get hold of what they mean, I believe we'll be able to do that.

29:20 We've begun to lay hold of what our Lord wants us to know concerning prayer. Now if you go into a room, nobody's there, and you deliberately go into that room to do something and you shut that door, what are you telling people? You're telling people there's only one person that matters in all the world when I go to pray. And that's the God who I meet when I pray.

29:44 Now our Lord says this is to be your objective. The scribes and Pharisees, the market and broad to pray, they had no thought of God. God was as far from their thoughts as the man in the moon. Jesus said, don't you be like them.

30:00 When you pray, your one objective is to be this. You're going to meet God. You're going to see His face. You're going to hear His voice.

30:09 You're going to praise Him. You're going to worship Him. It's your Father that's the secret to prayer. Your whole objective is one issue.

30:19 Nobody's here but God. And then our Lord says, not only go into the inner chamber where God is, where you meet Him, but He says, shut the door. Now I believe there's two things involved here. First of all, shut the door as far as you're concerned.

30:35 If you go in to pray and you leave the door open, what you're saying is I've come to meet God but I'm still conscious there are some things to be done out here and I'm going to keep one eye to the throne and one eye to the throne. Exclude yourself from all thoughts of worldly concern. You're going to meet your Father. Shut the door for your own benefit so that you don't in any way come to pray with the thought that well, prayer is important but other things are just as important so I'd better leave the door open and one eye I'll watch what's going on here and one eye I'll know.

31:12 Our Lord says we need to be shut in with Him for our own benefit and then I think our Lord is mentioning why leave the door open anybody passing by can see me on my knees so that we can say oh well I go into my closet to pray I don't stand in the street corner but the Lord says don't even leave any opportunity for your wicked heart to be swelled up with pride by letting people know that you have gone into your closet. As one old preacher said and I thought it was so interesting says the hen goes into her inner chamber to lay her egg but she cackles so loud everybody knows about it. You got it? She lays her nest out of sight from everybody else and she lays her egg in secret but she cackles so loud everybody knows about it. Of course we don't do this too. Oh beloved I found this wicked thing in my heart in conversation with people to say well you know when I had my devotions today such and such just a subtle way of letting them know I was in my closet rather than just simply saying you know there's something that's been precious to me and sharing it because we've left the door open. Oh yeah we've had our devotions in secret but we've left the door open and now that somebody's come by we want to open a little bit wider and say look I was in the closet subtle isn't it?

32:40 The effects of sin that would mar and spoil and prostitute the most holy action of the redeemed soul. So our Lord said your objective by going into the closet is to meet God you're to shut the door for your own benefit in terms of being exclusively shut in with God and then no thought of others and now he says pray. Now notice the order in verse six enter into thy closet when thou hast shut the door pray. I believe on the basis of this we can state that no one truly prays until he's done these first two things not literally but in spirit.

33:18 Have you got it? This does not literally mean that I've got to go into a literal closet and shut a literal door but it means if I pray whether I'm praying in the bathroom or in the cellar or in the car pulled over by the side of the road if I'm truly praying I've got one objective and what is it? To meet God. I've got one concern to see his face to hear his voice I shut the door I'm not doing it to impress men.

33:42 When anyone prays from this pulpit whether it's me or one of the elders this should be the one concern. I desire to petition God for needs in my life and the creation of the world and in the congregation and in the world. My thoughts should not be what will please the ears of men for I'm coming to meet God. To pray publicly I must learn this attitude of entering the closet and shutting the door.

34:11 You see? Even my public praying must have one regard the Father. What men think what men will conclude about how I've prayed or how long I've prayed this is not the issue. And so the principle of understanding all true prayer is this and until we know what it is to go into the closet and shut the door in attitude there's no true prayer but when we've done this notice what our Lord says pray to thy Father who is in secret.

Pray to Your Father Who Is in Secret

34:43 Now that little phrase has fascinated me and I still haven't laid hold of it. I don't think what it all that it means but I think I got a little light. What does it mean when Jesus says the Father who is in secret? I can understand what he means when he says the Father who sees in secret but what does he mean the Father who is in secret?

35:06 I thought the Father was everywhere. Well he is. Do not I fill heaven and earth the Bible says. Jesus said lo I'm with you to the ends of the earth.

35:15 What does he mean the Father who is in secret? I believe this is what our Lord is saying. The best commentary I know from the Old Testament Isaiah 57 15 let me quote it Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth every city whose name is holy I dwell in the High and the Holy place with him that is of a humble and a contrite spirit. That's it.

35:42 When it comes to praying the only place the Father is is in the place of secret. You see you can't commune with the Father in the marketplace when your purpose is to be seen of men he is not there. But if your purpose in the marketplace is to be seen is to meet God then God is there in secret right in the marketplace in the kitchen in the basement in the bedroom wherever your one desire in prayer is to meet God there God is in secret waiting to meet you. Isn't that a wonderful thought?

36:18 It's the Father who dwells in secret. If I'm going to pray and meet God I've got to go where He is where is He? Wherever I'm shut apart from every other thought but meeting God where my only concern is to see His face and to hear His voice that's where I can meet God in the pulpit in the pew in a prayer meeting wherever it be the Father is in secret. You see He may not even be in that bedroom if I go in there to impress my wife that I'm a man of prayer I'm going to be seen of men the Father's not there He's in secret and it's only when I'm going in with that one objective to meet Him that God will meet with me.

The Promise: The Father Will Reward You Openly

37:01 So much then for our Lord's positive instruction notice the contrast the motive of the scribes and Pharisees the hypocrites to be seen of men therefore the motive determined the manner of their praying they prayed in the streets the motive of the Christian is to be that of meeting God therefore the manner will be to meet Him in secret. Now notice the promise with which our Lord concludes this section Pray to thy Father who is in secret and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Now the promise is contingent upon those two conditions or upon those conditions that our Lord mentions Enter the closet shut the door pray and the Father shall reward thee openly. Beloved prayer is something more than self reflection prayer is something more than just getting in tune with the infinite prayer is living vital communion with the living God pulling out before Him that which will bring blessing to us in the process worship praise adoration confession and when our Lord says the Father shall reward thee I believe He has reference to the personal reward that comes

38:29 when I take my place before God as a creature of the dust and who can explain the paradox that comes to the Christian when he is bowed in brokenness in a sense of his uncleanness before God at the same time he knows that he is the most noble creature in all the world the blessed paradox here I am broken before a sovereign with a sense of my meanness and my littleness but at the same time I am rewarded with the consciousness that this is the very end for which I was made to worship Him to praise Him to take my place before Him as a little creature of the dust then when our Lord says the Father shall reward thee openly I believe He is speaking of the reward that comes in answer to prayer that is obvious I go into that closet and spread before God some personal need the need of some loved one some friend and then God in His mercy answers the cry of my heart then I see the transformed life I see the situation that was like steam and walled up with gates of brass I suddenly see the gates of brass broken and the mighty power of God operating in that situation that is the Father's reward then I believe our Lord had referenced the reward that will come in that day in that day when all true Christians who are praying people will hear the Father's words well done

Conclusion and Call to Prayerful Living

39:56 good and faithful servant enter into the joy of our Lord now in conclusion this morning will you take to heart what our Lord says about the motive and the manner of prayer for until we do we are not ready to deal with the matters for which we pray that follows and our Lord never touched what we pray for until first of all He touched why we pray and how we pray I ask you this morning do you pray you young people profess to be Christian as the Holy Spirit has the Holy Spirit given you a sense of your weakness and sin that drives you to your closet to pray not because it's something that mom and dad told you to do and Sunday school teacher and preacher or high B.A. leader but because the Holy Spirit showed you that you desperately need grace for every day to please your Lord and so you pray because you need Him you pray because you know you've breathed Him and you want to know His forgiveness I believe even a six year old who gets truly saved will be a praying six year old wherever grace comes prayer comes in a six year old or a sixty year old and how can it be otherwise Jonathan Edwards tells in his account of the revival that hit New England under his ministry of a little girl

41:25 three years of age her mother used to come in find her in her closet weeping praying for her little neighbors her little friends who didn't know the Lord Jesus now that's a rare exception but I believe God allows that to bring out the principle that grace in a three year old or a thirty year old will be grace that makes a man or woman pray and if you're without prayer beloved you're without grace if you know nothing of secret prayer you know nothing of the reconciling face of God through Christ and I plead with you to cast off your false hope and ask God to make you a new creature and give you the spirit of adoption because what does the Bible say if we have truly come to Christ it says we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry what Abba Father the spirit of renewing grace is the spirit of prayer and we don't have one without the other and now those of us who can say by the grace of God yes though I fail in my praying though there's much to be desired I thank God that I do pray I know what it is to pour out my uncleanness in His presence to pour out my helplessness before Him to spread my need to plead with Him for others not just selfishly praying when I get in a pinch and going and weeping to God but you know what true spiritual prayer is

42:53 oh beloved may we hear His voice today our motivation must be one to meet God not to get the reputation for being men and women of prayer not to get the reputation for being spiritual our Lord says don't be like actors that you go into your closet with one motive and that's to meet God to see His face and then our Lord gives us the wonderful promise the Father will reward us oh may we be taught to pray shall we look to God Father we thank Thee for the words of our Lord Jesus Christ these words that we've sought to expound and study together today Lord help each one of us to recognize that these are not suggestions but You've told us in Your word that as Your disciples we're to embrace whatsoever You command us and that if we loved You we'd keep Your commandments oh Lord Jesus

44:11 may Your words come to us just as fresh and powerful as they fell upon the ears of those who heard You utter them many hundreds of years ago for those in our midst who are prayerless people Lord show them that they are graceless disturb them we pray help them Lord to have grace to cast off everything else that they think commends them to Thee as they face the fact that they are prayerless and therefore graceless Lord may they flee to Thee from mercy and then our Father for those to whom Thy grace has been revealed help us we pray oh Father forgive us when we've prayed with the motive of being seen of men when we've had more regard to the eye and the ear of our fellow man than the eye and the ear of our God Lord we thank You that You're the God who's in secret and whenever we draw aside You're there to meet us Hallelujah oh burn these things into our hearts deliver us from shoddy praying that is not governed and disciplined by the word of God forgive us Lord when we've grieved Thee by simply opening our mouths and allowing the first thing that came to mind to pour out with no thought or regard to the instructions

45:40 of Your word Lord forgive us for this forgive me and oh help us as a people to pray not only with the spirit but with the understanding to pray with prayers that are shaped and molded by the principles of the word and then we thank Thee that the promise will be ours the Father will reward Thee openly Lord give us the reward of grace in the answer to our prayers that our Lord Jesus may receive glory and receive the full travail of His soul we ask in His own worthy name Amen