War-Time Prayer

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

The Armor of God and the Need for Prayer

Well, before we get into our text, those three verses in Ephesians chapter 6, we're going to orient ourselves back into where it is that we find ourselves. As we inch closer to the end of this letter, you'll remember that last week we heard our brother Sam explaining to us, reinforcing, reminding us that we are engaged in a very real cosmic battle that is being waged all around us.

As you are seated in your seats at rest, there are spiritual forces of evil. That's the phrase Paul uses in Ephesians 6 -12 that are marching against God and against his elect and to think there is even a bounty on your head also.

Last week, our brother Sam focused a considerable amount of his time and energy looking at the armor that God has given us to defend ourselves from these evil attacks and then to do battle with the devil and his troops.

We heard how God has given us a belt of truth, a breastplate of righteousness, shoes given by the gospel of peace, a shield of faith, a sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And now when many Christians read these paragraphs or this paragraph in their Bibles, many put a period at the end of verse 17.

After all, this is how most children and even adults are taught to memorize this passage. We're led to believe that once we put on that whole armor of God and taken up our sword, that that battle is now over.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Many of the commentaries who are most familiar with this passage and with the grammar within this passage have relayed that this is not an afterthought added to the armor of God, verses 18 -20.

But this is, in these three verses, we find the very capstone of that armor. Once a Christian has put on his armor, he must then go to battle. And verses 18 -20 deal with our strength and with our strategy in that battle.

One writer summarizes it this way. He says, Paul provides the main defense and the main means for the church, not just to stand fast in our armor, but to advance in an inexorable worldwide march, fearful to her enemies.

Not through instruments of death, but through instruments of life, that is, by prayer and by gospel proclamation. John MacArthur adds to this, he says, His prayer is the spiritual air that the soldier of Christ breathes.

It is the all-pervasive strategy in which the warfare is fought. And yet I would suggest that this poses a very real problem for the church today. For one, most of us think that we are the ones that are in the best armor, shining and well-maintained.

But as our brother pointed out last week, it is more often the case that many Christians are insufficiently prepared for the war that is already being fought. Sadly, in most churches, we do not find a unit of fit and battle-ready soldiers standing at attention in the pristine armor of God, with the light of the sun gleaming off our swords.

But in many cases, in many churches, we find a ragtag group of soldiers at varying degrees of alertness. You can picture this, like a group of children at cadets, some with helmets but without breastplates, some with shoes but others without belts, some with their swords sharpened, others swords that are dulled and rusty, and still others who have no idea where they last left their sword.

And yet, for those who have their armor and who have their swords, let's be real for a moment, that if prayer is the spiritual air that the soldier of Christ breathes, many of us, even who might look impressive in our armor, are in fact short of breath or even nearly depleted of oxygen altogether.

All because, I would suggest, we have forgotten what it is to breathe. We have forgotten what it is to walk with the Lord, our God, in prayer. We can confess, we confess that we can recall times when we were men and women of earnest prayer, there were seasons of great praying.

But those times, for some of us, for many of us perhaps, seem like a distant memory rather than a present reality. Sadly, many today live in a state of chronic spiritual hypoxia, where we have learned to limp along, to feign a close walk with God, to couch our spiritual lethargy in a host of biblically sound words.

But if someone were to look under that armor that we show up in on Sundays, if we were to peel back the breastplate, how many of us would it be the case that they would find that we are mere shells of a Christian man or Christian woman?

That many of us, I think we must confess, are guilty of neglecting the capstone of our spiritual lives as Christians, namely prayer. And today, dear saints of God, I want to remind you of what it means to be engaged in the greatest aspect of our spiritual battle as Christians.

One of the greatest privileges, one of our highest callings, it is to pray. Prayer is the life breath of the Christian soldier. Prayer lies at the heart of God's battle plan for the advancement of God's kingdom.

Prayer is the greatest privilege of the Christian life. And here Paul shows us that we must pray and how we are to pray. So let's look at this passage that is before us and let us learn then, once we have our armor on, to pray.

Praying at All Times in the Spirit

Paul writes in verse 18, Praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication, to that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Here is Paul lays out, if we can call it this, the battle plan for prayer. The battle plan for wartime prayer. He identifies, at least what I have seen, as three different ways that we are to pray. And the first is this, that we are to pray, in verse 18, at all times.

Here is Paul lays out the battle plan. He gives us this, the Christian who is truly battle ready, who is walking in greatest conformity to God's revealed will, is the Christian who is not sometimes praying, but always praying.

We often hear about people wrestling with God. I remember being a young man, coming to people and saying, I want to know God's will for my life. We hear young people especially sharing that with others.

What is God's will? Well, let me tell you what God's will is for your life. If you want to remain in the center of His revealed will, it is to pray and to pray without ceasing, to always be walking in communion with the living God.

Paul was coming from a Jewish culture, that recognized that prayer throughout the day was important. But it wasn't prayer all the day, but prayer at fixed times during the day. There was the morning prayer, and then the afternoon prayer, and then the evening prayer.

Rabbis attributed the time of these prayers to Abraham in the morning, and then to Isaac in the afternoon, and then to Jacob in the evening, based on accounts in Genesis. And we see this in places like Psalm 55.

You don't have to turn there, but I'll reference it, where the psalmist says, Evening, and morning, and at noon, I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. Similarly, we see it in the life of Daniel, praying three times in the day.

So, by Paul's day, a truly spiritual man, would be sure to come before God at least three times per day. But Paul was not at all interested in commending this Jewish practice. Nor would he commend the Muslim practice, which sought to improve upon this, by praying five times a day.

But here, Paul would have us, here God would have us, to pray all day long. And we find, I think, ample scriptural evidence for this practice. I'm going to give just a couple quick references. If you're writing notes, write them down, and then we'll look at them later.

You can look at them later. But in Romans 12, in verse 12, Paul says, Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. In Colossians 4, he says, Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Continue steadfastly. Or one that we're probably most familiar with, in 1 Thessalonians 5, in verses 16 through 18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Or even in the Old Testament, in 1 Chronicles 16 .11, Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually. Commentator, one commentator has said, Genuine believers pray inside and outside of the foxhole, even when the shelling stops, because their mortal enemy never sleeps.

I'm reminded of the words of Satan, in Job chapter 1, in verse 7, When the Lord asked Satan, Where have you been? He says, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it. If the devil is always on the move, then we ought always to be praying.

There's a man in the history of the church, a man named John Fletcher, who made it his life's aim to pray without ceasing. I would imagine that that has been all of our aims, but he made, I suppose, tremendous progress.

And E .M. Bounds tells the story in one of his books. And I commend E .M. Bounds, if you've ever heard of him. He has a number of books on prayer. E .M. Bounds. And he says this about John Fletcher, He stained the walls of his room by the breath of his prayers.

Sometimes he would pray all night. Always frequently in great earnestness. His whole life was a life of prayer. And he used to greet people on the street corner when he would find them, and say, Do I meet you praying?

It was his constant motto that he would not rise from his seat without lifting his heart to God. Dear Christian, does this sermon meet you praying? Or does it only find you playing the part of a praying Christian?

How many of us, we come, and we want to come and bring our best when we are with God's people, but how many of us are hiding a secret mistress in the closet of our lives, and that is the mistress of prayerlessness.

We claim to love and praise God, and yet we refuse to make time to walk with Him throughout the day. Paul says that we are to pray at all times. But not just that, but then to pray in the Spirit. Now what does it mean to pray in the Spirit?

Does it mean that we should be engaging in ecstatic utterances, that there should be loud cries when we meet to pray, and that people should be on the floor, and that others should be speaking in tongues, and others interpreting those tongues?

I would suggest not. But then, what does it mean to pray in the Spirit? It means, I would suggest, to pray in accord with the Spirit, in submission to the Spirit of God. Paul talks about this, actually, in Romans 8, verse 26, when he says this, and some of us would be familiar with this, Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, in our weakness of praying.

How?

For we do not know what to pray, for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Therefore, to pray in the Spirit is to pray with the Spirit of God, according to the priorities of God, revealed in the will, in the Scriptures of God. It is not a man-centered praying, but it is a God-centered praying in its orientation.

And then, praying at all times, in the Spirit, we are to pray with all prayer and supplication. See these words, all. All prayer and supplication. In accord with the broad scope of God's revealed will, our prayers are to be varied and manifold.

We are to pray with all prayers and supplication. We are to pray varied prayers according to the various commands of Scripture and the various needs that appear. So what does Paul mean? What is the difference then between prayer and supplication here?

Well, prayer denotes a general kind of praying. A prayer for general needs of all types of praying. Well, supplication here denotes a more specific kind of prayer. An urgent prayer. A prayer of petition, of request, even of pleading with God.

When was the last time you went to God, not just praying, but supplicating, pleading on your face, prostrate before God, crying out, Lord, save my neighbor. Save my lost family member. Save this person in my life.

Lord, get glory for yourself in this world. That the banner of Christ would be raised above Edmonton, that all would hear, that they would see the Lord Jesus Christ in his gospel and believe on him. Lord, bring revival.

When was the last time, dear saints, you not only prayed, but that you supplicated? It is all kinds of prayer at all times. My beloved brethren, does this describe your prayer life? My hunch is that most people in this room are fully aware of this divine command to pray without ceasing.

And my hunch is as well that all of you have sought at various times, maybe at other times given up, but have sought at various times to maintain this kind of praying. And for some of us still, this command even, when we hear it, it hangs over our heads like a cloud raining down from time to time shame and guilt that we do not praise, we ought to pray.

It would be very unfair as one who has the privilege to proclaim God's word, to tell you to pray, pray some more, don't cease, and then let's move on. But to teach you how it is that we pray, how is it that we pray without ceasing?

And so I want to give you some very, very practical counsels for this. How do we pray without ceasing in the spirit, in all prayer and supplication? I want to give you first a very, very basic piece of counsel, and that is this, that dear saints, most of us do not pray as we ought to pray because we do not plan to pray.

We have not developed a habit and an established pattern of maintaining regular times of prayer with God. In my life, I can say with 100 certainty that my best times of prayer did not come when I left it up to chance and to whim and to some sentimental feeling boiling up inside of me, but it was when I disciplined myself and made resolute plans to pray.

When I said, I will go to bed now, two hours before I normally do, because tomorrow I have an appointment with God, and regardless of whether I am tired or not, I am going to make that appointment. We must plan.

There was one quote from John Piper that was formative in my early Christian life as I was working through this, and he says this, he says, unless I am badly mistaken, one of the main reasons so many of God's children don't have a significant life of prayer is not because they do not want to, but because we do not plan to.

We get up day after day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be part of our life. Don't we feel that? That it should be part of our life, but nothing is ever ready. We don't know where to go.

Nothing has been planned. No time, no place, no procedure. He says this, and we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences and prayer. The opposite of planning is the rut.

If you don't plan a vacation, you will just stay at home and watch TV.

If you don't,.

Sorry, the natural unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the ebb, the lowest ebb of vitality, and yet there is a race to be run, a fight to be fought, and if you want renewal in your prayer life, you must plan to see it.

Some of us, our greatest hindrance to prayer besides our smartphones is our bedtime. That we get hung up with various things and we stay up too late and then the time that we had planned to pray, we wake up and it is snoozed away.

Some of us would be well served to get a prayer journal, to get a sheet of paper, to get a card, to get something to put in your Bible and to write down things to plan how it is that you can pray. Some of us, most of us I would suggest, need to have a time of concerted prayer each day that gives birth to a day of praying without ceasing.

And then I like what Albert Martin says, if any of you who are familiar with the Reformed Baptist, Albert Martin, in only a way that he can say it, some of us, all of us need to make a plan for, these are his words, a protracted season of private prayer.

Meaning this, to set a day in your week, to set a day once a month where you take a holiday or take a morning on a Saturday and you go and you spend that time with God alone in prayer and you let nothing get between you and that protracted season of prayer with God.

Many of us would benefit from praying Scripture. That's another one that we can do. We've heard the story of George Mueller, many of us, who was perhaps one of the greatest or most notable prayer warriors since the closing of the New Testament canon.

How he started orphanages not just to care for children but to demonstrate that God is in the business of answering prayer. And in doing that,.

Would you believe it,.

For the first 10 years, George Mueller floundered in prayer. He was like many of us, would go to the Lord and find his mind wandering or spend 20 or 30 or 40 minutes and found that only the last 5 or 10 minutes he actually prayed, he actually communed with God.

And what did George Mueller do? What was the secret then to his notable prayer life? That he found that it was not by simply getting up and praying with an empty mind but praying with an open Bible. And he spoke about how he would go with his Bible into the open fields and he would commune with God, read a verse and then pray it back to him.

So that he had an endless supply of prayer requests. An endless supply of things that he could pray, of praises that he could offer to God, words of confession, words of thanksgiving, words of supplication.

We should be praying Scripture. Most people close their Bibles when they're ready to pray. I say open your eyes and open your Bibles and pray this Bible that God has put before you. We should record the answers to our prayers.

How many of us pray and we get the answer and we are like those who were healed by Christ. We find our healing and we forget about Christ and we just keep going. But when we record our answers we see that the Lord, in fact, is always answering our prayers and always giving us an occasion to praise Him and to give thanks.

There's a story of Philip Henry who's father, Matthew Henry. I'm sorry, he was the father of Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator. And he had two children at one time who were desperately sick. And he wrote in his diary, after an extended season of praying for them, he said, If the Lord will be pleased to grant me my request, this time concerning my children, I will not say as the beggars used to do outside my door, I will never ask of Him anything again.

But on the contrary, He shall hear me oftener from me than ever. And I will love God the better and love prayer the better as long as I live. And then, to pray without ceasing. It's not that we are in our closets praying 24 hours a day.

But that we live with what John MacArthur has called a Christ consciousness. That at every moment, that every trial, at every moment of prayer, we bring that before the Lord. It was Martin Lloyd-Jones that said we should heed every impulse we have to pray.

If the Lord brings a saint from this church into your mind, at Tuesday at 3 .15, pray for that person on Tuesday at 3 .15. And then pray for others that you had planned to. And then we must leave margin in our lives for prayer.

We are so busy. We are too busy. And so then we become too busy to pray. But we can never be too busy to pray. You'll notice I'm quoting a lot from men who have come before us. It's because they lived in a generation, I'm convinced, where many of them knew a manner of praying that we have never seen in our generation.

R .A. Torrey says, we have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little. Many services, but few conversions. Much machinery, but few results. We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power.

But we can never be too busy to pray. We must leave margin. There's certainly many more things, but time constrains us. Next we see Paul give us this. Not only to pray at all times, but to pray for all the saints.

In verse 18b. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. To complement this unceasing life of prayer, we are to be, in Paul's words, to be alert. That can be translated as saying to remain awake.

And what Paul has in mind here is not what one early church father had in mind, John Chrysostom, if you know anything about him. I've been reading about the early church fathers the last number of weeks, and I came across a story earlier this week where he came across a passage similar to this one.

He said, the Lord has it in His will that I remain awake. And so he went to the mountains, he found a cave, he made his dwelling in the cave, and for two years he remained standing. He would fall asleep standing, leaning against a cave wall.

Well, it should be no surprise that when he came back to civilization, the archbishop, the first thing he did was send him to a doctor. And there he lived with a number of physical maladies for the rest of his life.

This is not what Paul has in mind. But rather, Paul is telling us that we should be vigilant. We should be on the lookout for ways that we can be praying and praying specifically for the saints. Like a watchman on the city wall.

Picture this with me. We should always be scanning the horizon. Looking for specific ways that we can be interceding for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Making supplication for them. We should be asking the saints as often as we are able, how can I be praying for you?

I'm always encouraged when I see two brothers and a sister or three sisters off in a corner praying for each other. We should be vigilant, diligent in our praying for each other. Looking for every opportunity.

And we should be persevering, Paul says. That is, giving an intense effort and a devotion to our praying. There should be, I would suggest, and maybe some of you are acquainted with this. I think there should be very few casual prayers offered.

I'm not talking about the kind where we come before the Lord with a sense of familiarity and say, oh Lord, I'm having difficulty here. Please help me. But I mean a prayer offered that we would not care if it was answered or not.

An atheistic kind of prayer. But we should come with an intensity in our praying. John Calvin said at one time that if at any time we are colder or more indifferent about prayer than we ought to be, it is because we do not feel the immediate necessity, the pressure of it.

And he says, let us constantly reflect on how many of our brethren are worn out by varied and heavy afflictions. Are weighed down by sore perplexity and are reduced to their lowest distress. And then seeing the great need in our own souls and seeing the great need of those around us.

Let us pray. So we pray alertly. We pray perseveringly. And we pray, he says, here's that word all again. We pray for all the saints. Not just our friends. Not just those that we have a special affinity for.

Not just those that like to talk about the doctrines of grace on this side of the room at the end of church. But we pray for all the saints. Would that it would be the case that our Lord, picture this with me, that our Lord would be bombarded each week with the earnest prayers and petitions of young men praying for old men.

And young women.

Praying for old women and then the elderly, the seniors of our church and of other churches. We don't have many seniors. But approaching the teenage boys and girls and saying, how can I pray for you this week?

That we would find the most vivacious extroverts of our church gently approaching the most introverted brothers and sisters in our midst and asking them, how can I bring your deepest needs before the throne of grace.

That are praying for one another would demonstrate our unity and that our unity would lead to that kind of praying. But how then do we pray for all the saints? I want to take us through a few case studies on how that is that we pray for one another.

I want to take us first to Exodus 32 in verse 11.

And let us look.

At the life of Moses and how he prayed for his people, the nation of Israel that he had the privilege and the difficulty of leading through the wilderness. In Exodus 32, we find Moses coming down from Mount Sinai when the nation had just built for itself a golden calf to worship.

And after putting a stop to this worship, this unbelievably foolish idolatry that God would lead them through the Red Sea and by a pillar of cloud and fire by night, they would worship this lamb. After putting a stop to this, he went before the Lord and he cried this, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

Why should the Egyptians say with evil intent did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? You can hear him pleading. You can hear the supplication here.

He says, Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham and Isaac and Israel. And he goes on. And then we find in verse 14, And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

When was the last time you saw a brother and sister in Christ story? A sinful pattern even in our collective group? And you went before the Lord and said, Lord, please forgive us. Deliver us from this.

And then to accompany that praying by approaching that brother or sister or those brothers and sisters and say, Let us not tempt the Lord by sinning against him in this manner. But let us go to the Lord now in prayer and confess our sin.

And let us never do this again. Or see in Samuel. In the life of Samuel. In 1 Samuel 12, in verse 23. We can picture that where the nation of Israel stubbornly said, We want to be like all the other nations.

We want a king. And after Saul was appointed king and his kingship was confirmed. Then the people all of a sudden were met with a sense of sobriety. And they said, Would you please pray for us that we have added to our evils by requesting a king.

And listen to what Samuel actually says here in 1 Samuel 12, 23. Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord. How would Samuel be sinning against the Lord? He says this, By ceasing to pray for you.

And I will instruct you in the good and in the right way. Samuel considered it a sin to neglect praying for God's people. I will tell you this, we have this command in Scripture.

And if so,.

We are not praying for one another. We too are sinning against God.

Or Nehemiah.

In chapter 1, when he heard that there was a remnant in the province who had survived the exile and was in great trouble and shame. That the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and that its gates were destroyed by fire.

He said,. And as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. And I continued fasting and praying before the God of Heaven. And I said,.

Oh Lord,.

God of Heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love and keep His commandments. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servants that I now pray before you.

Listen to this unceasing nature.

Day and night.

And for who? For the people of Israel, your servants. Confessing the sins of the people of Israel which we have sinned against you. And then he adds in his own confessions. Or the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1.

And in verse 9, he hears from Epaphras, his beloved brother, how he had gone and proclaimed the gospel amongst the church there in Colossae. And he says in verse 9,. And so from the day we heard about this church, we have not ceased to pray for you.

And then here it is. Look at what he's asking for. This is one of the greatest things that we can glean from these early texts. Not only the Lord's attitude towards us, but the attitude that we are to have towards our fellow saints when communing with the Lord.

If you don't know.

How to pray for a brother and sister, turn to Colossians 1. Turn to Ephesians 1. Turn to Philippians 1. Find those prayers and pray this for them. Think of how your praying might be strengthened next time.

If you say, I pray for Alex that he would be filled with the knowledge of your will, O God, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Oh, that he would walk.

In a manner worthy of you, fully pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. That he would be strengthened, O God. Strengthen him with all power according to, not his might, but your glorious might.

For all endurance. That he would persevere and patience with joy. That he would give thanks to you because you have qualified him to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Oh, if that prayer were answered concerning me or concerning you on any day of the week.

How that day would be remarkably different from every other day that went before it. Or Epaphras, who Paul references in Colossians 4. Some might say, that's just the Apostle Paul's prayers. We're not an Apostle.

We shouldn't pray like that about other Christians.

False.

What does he say in Colossians 4 .12? Speaking about Epaphras, who was likely one of the men who planted, if we can call it that, the Colossae, the Colossian church. He says, Epaphras, who is one of you.

There's nothing special about this man. He is one of you. A servant of Christ Jesus. He greets you. Always struggling on your behalf in his prayers. That you may stand mature. Notice the similarities with Paul's prayer and Epaphras' prayer.

That you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. That word struggling. Agonizima in the Greek. To agonize. It conveys an intensity, a fervency in prayer. That he is being poured out,.

As it were,.

As a drink offering for these people bringing before God their every need. Or lastly, our Lord Jesus. He said, in the Gospel of Luke, Simon, Simon, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat.

But what? But I have prayed for you. Or in John chapter 17, the longest recorded prayer of Christ. Let me ask you, dear saints, what was he praying for? Or to frame the question differently, who was he praying for?

He was praying for you. He was praying for all those who belong to him and all those who belong to him who would come after and listen to how he prays. In John 17, 10, he prays that he, that is Christ, would be glorified in them.

In verse 11, that the Father would keep them. In verse 13, that they would be filled with the joy of Christ. In verse 15, that the Father would keep them from the evil one. In verse 17, that the Father would sanctify them in the truth of his word.

In verse 19, that his, that's Christ's atoning work would sanctify them. 21, that they would be in unity. Verse 24, that they would enter into Christ's eternal dwelling. Verse 26, that they would be filled with the love of the Father and of the Son.