Use Not Vain Repetitions

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 6

0:04 Let's turn again this morning, those of you who have your Bibles with you, others will see a Bible there in the hymrac in front of you, to Matthew chapter 6, Matthew chapter 6. For the benefit of our first-time visitors, we have been for some months, well over a year now, considering the truths embodied in this portion of Scripture, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, which has been given the title, The Sermon on the Mount. This sermon which our Lord delivered from the side of a mountain, which embodies almost all, if not all, of the basic concepts governing. Revelation, God, the Christian life, the fruits of true Christian experience that are found from Genesis to Revelation. This is sort of a melting pot of all the great principles of truth, and all that precedes the gospel of Matthew at this point in Old Testament Revelation is found in some form of fulfillment here, and all that follows in the teaching of the New Testament concerns.

1:25 Concerning life and practice, at least much of that which follows is here in germ or seed form in the Sermon on the Mount. We have come in our study to chapter 6, which very conveniently breaks down into a two-fold division. The first 18 verses deal with the Christian and his religious life, his almsgiving, his praying and his fasting. And from verses 19 to the end of the chapter, the Christian and his practical life, food, clothing, the concerns of life, meeting my bills, caring for my children, providing for their education, God has something very, very personal and very practical to state concerning these matters. We have already studied verses 1 through 6 of Matthew chapter 6, verse 1. It is a general word of introduction.

2:28 Take heed that ye do not your alms, or better, take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven. This verse introduces the next, what, 18 verses, verses 2 through 18, concerning the whole matter of my religious life. Verse 1. Our Lord warns us.

2:55 Verse 2. Verse 3. Verse 4. Verse 5.

2:55 At the very outset, that this matter of motivation is all important. Take heed that ye do not your righteousnesses. These expressions of devotion, these practices whereby the Christian life is developed, prayer and the response of mercy to human need and fasting, the disciplining of our body to higher goals. Jesus said in all of these things, beware that your motives.

Review of Motive and Manner of Prayer (Matthew 6:5-6)

3:25 Take heed that ye do not turn virtue into vice because of an improper motive. We have studied the matter of almsgiving. Last week we began this section on the subject of prayer, which moves from verses 5 through to verse 15. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the courts.

3:55 Nor can thou set almsgivers in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of man. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. And you remember that we found in these two verses that our Lord is dealing, as he does throughout this whole section, positively and negatively, or first of all negatively and positively.

4:29 He says, don't be like this, but be like this. Now in these two verses he dealt with the two things, the motive for prayer and the manner of prayer. He said, don't be like those hypocrites. Their only motive for praying is to gain a reputation for their piety.

4:46 They pray in the very obvious places with much ostentation and show for one motive to be seen of men. They want the reputation of being spiritual people. Our Lord said, don't have their motive, because their motive determined the manner of their praying. Because their motive was one of being seen, then the manner of their praying was in the public places.

5:14 Jesus said, your motive is different. Not the eye of men, but the eye of your Father. You have one concern when you pray, that you may commune with your Father who is in secret. And if that's your motive, it will determine the manner of your praying.

5:29 Instead of the street corner, the closet. Instead of the obvious place in the synagogue, it will be the hidden place of your own closet of prayer. So much then for the motive and the manner of our praying. Now we come this morning to verses 7 and 8, which begin to touch on...

The Negative Injunction: Use Not Vain Repetitions (Matthew 6:7)

5:52 the matters for which we pray. You have these three things, the motive, the manner, and the matter. Or to state it differently, why I pray, how I pray, and what I pray. And as our Lord begins to touch on this business of the matter of my praying, what should be included in my actual praying, He follows the same pattern.

6:17 He says, don't be like this, but be like this. Verse 7, But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be ye not therefore like unto them. For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.

6:39 Here's the negative example. Just as he said, the manner and the motive of your praying must not be like the hypocrites, so now he says, in the matters about which you pray, be like the hypocrites. Don't be like the heathen or the Gentiles. Then from verses 9 through 15, he gives us the positive instruction, don't be like this, but after this manner pray ye.

7:04 Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And then these other petitions. But this morning we want to focus our attention upon this negative injunction of our Lord in verses 7 and 8, but when ye pray, use not vain repetitions. As the heathen or the Gentiles do.

7:26 Now, who are the heathen? Who are the Gentiles? When this phrase is used in the Sermon on the Mount and many times elsewhere, especially in the book of Matthew, for Matthew was written primarily to the Jews or with the Jews in mind, and the Jews were that particular nation, the Jewish nation, that nation which God singled out in sovereign grace and mercy, to be the vehicle through which he would communicate his saving truth to the world. Now, never forget that God's purpose for Israel did not stop with Israel.

8:05 God's purpose to single out the nation of Israel to make Israel his dispenser of truth and saving light to the world. When Israel forgot this and began to think that she was God's favorite for her own sake, she missed the very purpose of her mission. And becoming self-centered and smug and self-satisfied, she began to be full of sin and uncleanness, and God judged her and sent his wrath upon her as a nation. Now, the Gentiles were all those other nations.

8:43 The heathen were those who did not have the direct communication of saving light and revealed truth, as did the nation of Israel. What other nation could claim that God spoke to them through prophets? No nation but the nation of Israel. What other nation could say that God spoke audibly to her leaders as he did to Moses and some of the other men of God in the Old Testament?

9:07 No other nation could claim this but Israel. So when our Lord says, in your praying, the matters about which you pray, don't pray like people who are unenlightened by the revelation of God's word and God's truth. Don't pray like men who simply pray in manners that are suited to their own depraved, darkened hearts. Don't be like the heathen.

9:36 Now, what do the heathen do? What do the Gentiles do? What characterizes their praying? Our Lord says, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do.

Characteristics and Reasons for Heathen Prayer

9:48 Now, it's interesting that the word that is used for vain repetitions is only used once, in the New Testament. And in checking out the derivation of the word, I came to an interesting thought. It can't be proven, but some lexicographers, that's just a fancy word for a man who gives himself, gives his life, to studying the meaning of words, the history of words. They say that this word possibly came from the name of a heathen king who stuttered.

10:22 And a man who stutters repeats the same word or parts of that word over and over again. And so the word used here has the whole connotation, vain repetitions, is simply the stuttering, the repetition of words, the multiplying of verbosity, just building up an ocean or a mountain of words and somehow seeking to impress God with this vain repetition. Now, our Lord says, don't be like the heathen who are continually indulging in prayers which are nothing but vain, vain repetition. Now, why do they do this?

11:00 Our Lord tells us. For, verse 7, they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. They are convinced that if they can but multiply their prayers, this will gain them some access to God and somehow bend the deity to respond to their wishes. Now, why do they do this?

11:25 By the way, this is the mark of almost all the prayers of heathen religions. This is the mark of all the prayers of degenerate Christianity. The vain repetition and multiplying of well-learned phrases. Well, the first reason is because they have a defective concept of God.

11:48 The key to all true prayer is to know who you're coming to when you pray. Now, the heathen have a defective concept of God when they pray. Defective in two ways. They conceive of God as being so distant and so aloof from their needs that they've got to beg and repeat their petitions again and again and again and again to somehow bridge the distance between themselves and this deity who's afar off, unconcerned with their petty little problems.

12:25 They think, Jesus said, they shall be heard for their much speaking. They conceive of God as so aloof that their much speaking is needed to bend a concerned ear to their problems. A classic example of this is found in the Old Testament in that conflict between Elijah upon Mount Carmel and the prophets of Baal. And I read in 1 Kings chapter 18 beginning with verse 26 these words.

12:58 And they took the book, the book which was given them and dressed it and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon saying, O Baal, hear us. There was no voice nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar that was made and it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them saying, cry aloud for he's a God. Either he's talking or pursuing or he's in a journey or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awakened.

13:28 They cried aloud and cut themselves after their masteries with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass when midday was passed and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice neither was their voice to answer nor any that regarded. Here's the picture of heathen praying. O Baal, hear us.

13:51 O Baal, hear us. O Baal, hear us. From morning till noon. And then it becomes a frenzied dance until they begin to cut themselves and their blood pours out.

14:01 What was their problem? Their concept of God was one of a God so distant, so loose, so far off that they had with all of this business to somehow bring him near. Jesus said, don't be like the heathen who pray the way they pray because they have a God who's too distant or they have a God who's too much like themselves.

14:28 You see, depraved man does not act upon principle but upon expediency. May I illustrate it like an overindulgent parent? A child who knows that his father or mother acts upon expediency and not principle will wrap that parent around his finger. The parent says, look, you cannot go out tonight.

14:48 You've got to do your homework. Now, if that's a parent who acts on principle, he makes that statement, you can't go out tonight. You must do your homework because as a parent he knows it's best for his child. And if he acts upon principle, he acts upon principle.

15:03 Nothing will move him. Tears, tantrums, fits, prostrations, nothing's going to move him. That child can wiggle his ears, stand on his head, cry, stomp on the floor, go on a sit-down strike. The parent is unmoved.

15:17 If he's acted upon principle, the parent says, I'm sorry, you're staying in tonight to do your homework. Right? If it was right to say it in the first place, it's right to stand by it. But you see, a child knows and, oh, a curse, and I trust there are none of you here, but I fear there may be.

15:37 A child knows if you're a parent who merely acts on expediency. And you feel it's best for the child to stay in. You say, now I want you to stay in. But that child knows with enough persuasion and cajoling and begging and pleading and whimpering and whining for 15 minutes, that child can bend you to the place where you say, oh, well, you can go out for an hour.

16:01 But you've got to be back at such and such a time.

16:05 You see, you've not acted on principle. You've acted on expediency. And you couldn't be bothered to hear the whimpering and whining of your child, so you bent your will to theirs. Shame on you.

16:17 You're not worthy of the name of a parent or the role of a parent. If you act on principle, you stand by it. Now, you see, they even project their own sinful weaknesses to the deity. And when they pray, though the very things they may be praying for are dishonoring to the deity, they feel that somehow by begging and pleading and as the prophets have veiled it, by cutting themselves and going through all of this, they'll bend this God to even respond to something that is not for their own good.

16:53 I'm afraid of a lot of our prayings like this. We go to God and whimper and whine and seek to bend Him to give us things that we know are not for our good or for His glory and for which we have no Bible grounds to pray. Jesus said, don't be like the heathen for they use vain repetitions thinking they'll be heard for their much speaking and the reason they do is they have a defective concept of God, a God too distant and unconcerned or a God too much like them who will act upon expediency instead of principle. And then the second reason the heathen pray this way is because they have a defective concept of prayer.

Clarifying the Prohibition: Not All Repetition or Length is Vain

17:36 They think of prayer as some kind of a spiritual battering ram and you come up to the gates of heaven and you ram that thing enough until you break down all these walls of resistance in the heart of the deity and then out from those broken down walls will pour whatever you want. Jesus said, don't view prayer like the heathen. Prayer is not some kind of a spiritual battering ram to break down resistance in the heart of God. No, no.

18:08 Jesus said, don't view prayer like the heathen, sort of spiritual payola,

18:14 spiritual bribery. Here's a man who says, look, this is what's going to be done. Someone comes and says, look, if you'll change your decision on that contract, I'll slip a few bucks under the table, see. Or someone can come to a cop who's about to ticket someone and he takes out a ten dollar bill and says, does this say anything to you?

18:34 Winks at him, takes his ticket, tears it up, takes it, the ten dollars. This happens, you know. Sure it does. And you see, Jesus said, well, the heathen, when they pray, think that they can somehow use prayer as spiritual payola and spiritual graft and you can get God to give you things and do things that otherwise he wouldn't do.

18:56 Don't be like the heathen, Jesus said. Don't have defective concepts of God. Don't have defective concepts of prayer. Now, what do we conclude from the instruction of verse seven?

19:09 Is this a blanket prohibition of all repetition in prayer? Jesus said, when you pray, use not vain repetitions. Does this mean we shouldn't pray long or repeat our prayers? Of course not.

19:22 For I read in my Bible that Jesus prayed all night on several occasions. I read in my Bible some of the servants of God who prayed Daniel for three weeks about a particular need. I read in my Bible that our Lord repeated himself in prayer. You remember in the Garden of Gethsemane he said, O my Father, it would be possible to let this cup pass from me.

19:44 Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. And it says he went back and prayed the same prayer again. You read some of the Psalms and David repeated himself. He said, O give thanks to the Lord for his mercy is everlasting.

19:58 Then he says something of God's mercy and then he repeats it a dozen times in one Psalm. He says, O give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, for his loving kindness, for his mercy endureth forever. Our Lord is not giving a blanket prohibition of lengthy prayers or of repetition in prayer, but he is condemning wrong thoughts of God and of prayer which lead me to think that the mere utterance of words has some value in the face of God. Our Lord is condemning all prayer that does not flow from the genuine exercise of my heart and of my mind.

20:41 That's what our Lord's condemning. He's condemning all prayer that does not flow from the exercise of the lips and is not the intelligent spirit-directed utterance of the heart and of the mind. Now it's obvious what this would include. It would include all the praying of heathen religions, the Mohammedans who bow down five times a day toward Mecca, wherever they are when the call goes out, to pray.

21:12 They bow and they pray and utter the same prayer day in, day out, week in, week out. The mind can be back in the shop and about the business to come, but they're going to utter their vain repetitions. This condemns all of the repetitious prayers encouraged by that system that dishonors the redemptive work of Christ,

21:50 that system that tells people who come with a sense of their sin, you're to say, so many Hail Marys, so many Our Fathers, and so they take the beads and thumb through. Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art Thou, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus, and on and on, beloved Our Lord, says use not vain repetitions. Use not vain repetitions.

22:18 Don't think there's so much you intend Hail Marys and ten Our Fathers. But I want to say Our Lord goes deeper and Our Lord is condemning all extemporaneous praying, such as, as we engage in, unless it flows from a heart that is desirous to seek God and a mind that is intelligently praying according to the revealed will of God. And so this seventh verse, which tells us use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they should be heard for their much speaking, brings in one sweeping condemnation, brings under its scope everything from the heart of God. From the repetitious prayers of heathenism to the semi-pagan prayers of Romanism to the meaningless, heartless prayers of Orthodox Christianity. And in every case, Our Lord says anything that thinks that prayer is simply the mouthing of words instead of the seeking of a heart in the direction of God comes under the title vain repetitions. Now we move to verse 8. Our Lord repeats the warning.

The Remedy: A Right Concept of God and Prayer (Matthew 6:8)

23:35 Be not ye therefore like unto them. Now our Lord must have thought this would be a practical temptation. That's why He repeated the warning. He said at the beginning of verse 7, When ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do.

23:50 Don't be like them. And now He warns us again. Be not therefore like unto them. Why did our Lord have to warn us twice?

23:57 Why did He have to give us this double check? We love it because He knows our hearts. And He knows that the faith the thing that is natural to us is breathing is to mouth meaningless phrases and to parrot well-learned sentences and phraseologies and to have them utterly meaningless to ourselves. And so our Lord gives us this warning.

24:27 Don't be like unto them. But then He gives us the remedy and this is where I want us to focus for a few minutes. Be not therefore like unto them for here's the remedy for heathen praying. Here's the remedy for vain repetitions.

24:42 For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him. What's the remedy? What can keep me from vain repetitions in the matters of my praying? A right concept of God and my relationship to Him and a right concept of prayer.

25:06 Notice our Lord's Lord's words. For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of. He says when you come to pray recognize first of all that God is omniscient. He knows your needs.

25:23 Every one of His children scattered throughout the ends of the earth He knows every single thing that touches your life. We read later on in this chapter the very hairs of our head are numbered. I do not need to be like the heathen who think of God as so distant and unconcerned. Oh no, Jesus said, your Father knows your needs.

25:45 And not knowing it in the sense that a professor knows his stuff in an academic cold way, but in the sense that I as a father know the needs of my child. I know with a tender knowing that longs to undertake to meet those needs. He says your Father knows. If you're to pray a right, Jesus said, you must have a right concept of God and your relationship to Him.

26:10 You must know that He's omniscient, that He's concerned, but basically He said you must understand that He is your Father. That He is your Father. That word Father is used a dozen times in chapter 6 of Matthew. It's the key to the chapter.

26:26 That in all my religious life, in all my practical life, the key is to know I'm living in the presence of my Father. I'm living in the presence of God with all His love. His omniscience and omnipotence. But that God is my Father through Jesus Christ the Lord.

The Fatherhood of God: General vs. Redemptive Sense

26:45 Now it's necessary, I think, to pause for a minute to remind ourselves of what the Bible teaches concerning the fatherhood of God. The Bible makes clear that in a general sense, God is the Father of all men in terms of Creator. But the Bible makes equally clear that no man can call God his Father in this intimate sense of personal, personal identity, this sense of filial relationship until he has come to God through Jesus Christ. For the Scripture says in John 1.12, as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Galatians 3.26 says, Now we are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

27:37 Again, the Scripture says in John 8.44, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. And so, the sense in which our Lord uses the term Father is not the general sense in which God is the Creator of all men, but He is using the term Father in the redemptive sense, for remember Matthew 6 is a description of the Christian and his life of prayer and his practical life. It's not a description of men who are still of their father the devil, who are still of their father the devil, who are still of their father the devil, who are still of their father the devil, are outside of the fold of saving relationship to God through Jesus Christ. He is speaking of those who have seen themselves as needing the grace of God in Christ, who have despaired of ever saving themselves and have committed the matter of their soul's salvation to Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit have been born into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Our Lord says when we pray, we must remember that God is our Father if we have in true repentance and faith come to Him through Jesus Christ. Now what does this mean, He

28:57 is our Father? Well, project it down and then we'll project it back up. What's the relationship between an earthly father and his child? It's that relationship of protection, of provision, of concern, of counsel, of direction, of guidance, all of this on the earthly level now projected upward. Projected upward. And as one man has said, I believe I mentioned it two years ago here in this pulpit, but it bears repetition. If we could take all of the love that ever existed in all of the hearts of all fathers of all ages, now if we could somehow take that love as a test, and if we could somehow take that love as a test, and if we could somehow take that love as a test, and if we could somehow take that love as a test, and if we could somehow take that love as a test, and if we could take that love as a test, and if we could somehow take that love as a test, and if we could take that love as a test, and if we could somehow take that love as a test, and if we could tangible substance and extract it from the heart of every father who's ever lived, if we could take all the love out of all the hearts of all the fathers of all ages and get all of that love in one place, it would be as a drop of water compared to the ocean if we were to compare that sum total

30:08 of love with the love and concern of the heart of God. Now, is this going to make a difference when I pray? It sure will. I don't need to view him as a distant deity that somehow I've got to coerce with a lot of religious mumbo-jumbo and thumbing through beads. I come as my son comes to me and says, Daddy, will you help me with this? And I come to him as a son to a father.

30:37 I won't ever try to coerce God into thinking that, well, if I beg and plead and whimper long enough, he'll give me something he's forbidden in his word. Oh, no, a righteous father, a righteous father never needs worry about his son trying to coerce him very often. He'll learn before long that when Daddy says something, he's got reasons for it and he means it, and I might as well just learn to do it. I thank God for parents like that. Wanted to go to the football games in junior high school. What a shame to do this to a junior high student. Warped him forever. Blessed warping. And I hadn't scrubbed my floors. I had to do every Saturday. It's Christian four.

31:19 So I bawled and hollered and screamed and cried. It didn't make any difference. My tears could have washed the floor, but until they got washed, no football game. Well, needless to say, I didn't try that very often. I learned my parents were governed by principle, not by expediency. And if something was right, it was right. Your father knows what you have need of. And so when I come to him, I never need attempt to coerce him to give me something that I don't need and isn't for my good, but for everything that I need.

Prayer as Devotion and Dependence

31:54 I can come with absolute confidence. Now, the remedy for this kind of praying that the heathen do is a right concept of God and our relationship to him through Christ. And then last of all, a right concept of prayer. Jesus said, For your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. Prayer is basically the recognition of need in the presence of the Father. And that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the one who desires to meet that need. Not begging the distant deity, not battering down walls of resistance, but it's the expression of the Son in his devotion to his Father. It's

32:41 one of the most thrilling experiences for me as a parent. Sometimes in the middle of the day, for no reason whatever, my son will say, Daddy, and I'll say, What? I think he's going to ask me for something. And he says, I love you. He doesn't pronounce his L's too well. It's one of the most blessed shocks that I've ever had in my life. And I think I get it. And he says, Daddy, I expect, will you help me with this? Will you take me here?

33:02 Will you do this? What is it, son? I love you. What is prayer? It's the children of God expressing their devotion to their Father for his grace and his mercy. We're going to see that a little bit later. For Jesus said, When ye pray, say, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The expression of devotion and worship. That's true prayer.

33:25 Not the cowering before an angry deity. Not the carelessness before one who's like us. But coming to a Father who's in heaven with all the reverence due to his place in heaven, but with all the confidence in love because he's our Father. That's what prayer is. The expression of the devotion of a child of God to his Father. It's the expression of desire of a child to his Father. He knows what things ye have need of before ye ask him. He knows my need.

33:59 He knows my need, but in prayer I expressed the desires of my heart to him. In prayer I expressed my dependence upon him. You say, Well, if God knows what we have need of and he loves us, why in the world does he tell us to ask? Well, I don't know all the reasons that he tells us to ask. I know. And that's all I need to know. For mine is to obey, not to understand. But I think one of the reasons is that as the creatures of God, we never find our true place apart from conscious dependence upon him. You remember the Lord Jesus was not only God, but he was man. And he has shown us what true humanity ought to be. And you remember what Christ said? He said, I can do how much of myself? Nothing

34:50 of myself. I can do nothing of myself. Our Lord lived in absolute dependence upon his Father. He says, The words that I speak, they're not mine, but what I hear the Father saying, that I say. The works that I do are not mine, but the Father doeth them in me.

35:07 As a perfect man, our Lord showed us what you and I ought to be by the grace of God. God didn't make you to be a self-determining, self-sufficient creature, sort of wound up to make it on your own. God never made us for that. God made you and God made me that we might take our place in absolute dependence upon him. And Jesus said, Without me he can't do what? Nothing. And what is prayer? Prayer is owning up to that. It's getting on my knees and saying, Lord, without you I can do nothing. I can't be kept from sin today, so I pray lead me not into temptation and deliver me from evil. Lord, I can't forgive my own sins, therefore I pray, forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me. Lord, I can't keep myself from sin. Lord,

36:02 Lord, I can't even put bread on my table without your strength. So I pray, give us this day our daily bread. Giving you a little preview now of what our Lord is giving us in that next section. And so if you and I are to pray aright, we must have not only right concepts of God, but a right concept of prayer.

Call to Scriptural Prayer and Salvation

36:23 I'm sure I'm speaking to people who are content with the fact that you pray. And that's all you're concerned about. Well, I pray and that's enough. Now, God's not content with that.

36:33 I asked you this morning, what is your prayer? Is your praying vain repetitions? Is your praying the multiplicity of words in the presence of an unknown God? Or is your prayer that response of the heart of a child to a father, the response of confidence, the response of desire, the response of devotion and worship?

36:59 Do you conceive of prayer as God's Word does? Our Lord said, When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do. For they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore a life unto them.

37:16 For your Father knows what things ye have need of before ye ask Him. And may I encourage you throughout the week to study some of those next few verses in what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer, in which God gives us through the Lord Jesus an outline that encompasses all that needs to be, all that needs to be included in true prayer. And will you ask God to teach you to pray scripturally? For remember that no prayer is God bound to answer, but prayer that is according to His own Word.

37:54 And when He's given us the outline, and given us the intelligence to read it and to meditate upon it, He is not going to give us answers to prayer if we neglect that outline, that pattern, that prescription of what's in the Word. We are not going to be involved in true prayer. Then if we are not His children through Jesus Christ, beloved, we have no grounds upon which to pray. For until we have come to Jesus Christ as guilty, helpless, hopeless sinners, and confessed our need of His grace as our only hope of acceptance with God, then we've not believed on Him.

38:33 And the Bible says we are the children of God through faith in Christ. We're not the children of God by recognizing what we always were. That's the gospel of liberalism. We're all the children of God.

38:44 Recognize it. Paul didn't preach that gospel. He said we're the children of God by faith in Christ, by recognizing that I'm not His child, that sin has alienated me from God, but that in Christ, mercy and redemption is offered, and I come to Christ in faith. If that's not true, the cross is a mockery, and Jesus came from heaven for naught.

39:08 For if we are all the children of God by nature, and all we need to do is recognize it and fan the spark of divine life, answer a question for me this morning. Why that baptism of Golgotha? Why the agonies of Calvary and Gethsemane? Why the cruel shame of the cross?

39:28 Oh, no, beloved. We're alienated from God by nature and practice, but in Jesus Christ we can be brought nigh unto God. And if you've never come nigh through the cross, I plead with you this morning to come. Then you'll be able to come.

39:44 You'll be able to call God your Father. You'll be able to pray, My Father, who is in heaven, and those of us who've come, will you ask God to give you a vision of the greatness of His Father heart? He's not a distant deity unconcerned with your need. He's not one who can be coerced.

40:04 But He's the righteous, the living, the true God and Father of our Lord Jesus. And oh, that we could just grasp the greatness of His Father heart. I think God would begin to give us things that would astound us and amaze us. May we unite our hearts in prayer.

Closing Prayer

40:32 Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We praise thee that you have condescended to call thyself our Father. We praise thee for the largeness of thy Father heart, for all that's involved in thy willingness to take us, to love us, to love our Father, for all that's involved in thy willingness to take us, to love our Father, for all that's involved in thy willingness to take us, to love our Father, to take us into that relationship of sons and daughters to thyself. And oh God, today I plead with thee for those who may be among us who have never come to thee through Christ, and therefore do not know thee as their Father. Oh God, disturb them with the disturbance of Holy Spirit conviction until seeing themselves hopelessly and helplessly alienated from thee by sin. Amen. Amen.

41:31 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

41:35 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

41:40 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

41:44 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

41:49 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

41:53 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

41:58 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

42:02 Amen. Confidence that our Heavenly Father knows what we have need of and delights to give. Answer the cry of our hearts this morning. For thy name's sake we pray.