(Mt Pleasant) 7. Prayer in the New Testament - Part 1 — Gerhard Du Toit

We want to thank you again for being with us this morning and if you have your Bible with you, I would like you to open it with me at two passages in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 5 and then also in Luke chapter 11.

Matthew chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 5 and then also in Luke chapter 11. If you are a visitor here this morning, we have been making material available, and so when you leave at the end of a service, there is a table and there are some sheets of some of the things that we have shared in the last number of days since we have been together.

And so we would appreciate if you would like to take some of those with you and then you can go and use them in your quiet times at home. Matthew chapter 5 and then Matthew chapter 6 and then Luke chapter 11.

Jesus Teaches the Beatitudes and Christian Character

Matthew chapter 5 reading from verse number 1. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the earth is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted are the prophets which were before you.

You are the salt of the earth, but if a salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is then so good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men. You are the light of the world.

The city that is set on a hill cannot be hit. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Jesus' Teaching on Secret Prayer and Forgiveness

Now, chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew. Chapter 6 and we will read from verse number 5. Jesus said, When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.

Verily I say unto you that they have received their reward. Thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. And thy Father which seeth in secret, he shall reward thee openly.

But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them for your Father. Know of what things you have need of before you ask him.

Now after this manner therefore pray ye. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you. Now, just quickly go over to Luke chapter 11 if you will. Luke chapter 11 and reading from verse number 1. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he sees that one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.

And he said unto them, now when you pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in heaven as it is in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins.

For we also forgive everyone that is indebted unto us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And Jesus said unto them, which of you shall have a friend? And he shall go unto him at midnight, and he will say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to say before him.

And he from within will answer and say, Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give it to thee. I say unto you that though he will not rise and give it to him, because he is his friend, and yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given unto you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks, receiveth. And to him that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give unto him a stone? Or if he shall ask a fish, will he for a fish give unto him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer to him a scorpion?

If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him? Let us just pray together. Father, we are so grateful this morning that ever since we started on Thursday evening and our free sessions on Friday, twice when we met yesterday, and right into this last day of this Little Easter Convention, is there a sense that we have become conscious of the presence of God.

We thank you for those great times of prayer, times when many of our hearts found themselves being broken in the presence of God. Father, we thank you that even during this very brief weekend, where we have become so conscious of the fact that when it comes to the reality of Scripture, that we have just scratched the surface and we have just touched the tip of the iceberg when it would come to the immensity of the teachings and the reality of the promises of God's Word.

And yet, Father, some of us, we have found ourselves being awakened in the middle of the night and found ourselves praying and have sensed how God has been stirring our hearts and how the Spirit of God has been working in our relationships with you.

And I want to thank you for this Word that has been ringing in my heart that you have said unto us in the New Testament that that which I do now, you will not be able to understand as such, but you will understand it hereafter.

And Father, we are so thankful that when we sit under the exposition of your Word and when we allow the Spirit of God to take the Scriptures and confront us with the reality of the price and when we submit to God's Word, is there this glorious possibility that it can become part of our relationships with you and that you can bring a change into our lives and that you can help us to cultivate a life and a ministry of intercessory prayer.

Now, Father God, we have come to the last day and we have only these three sessions left before we bring this weekend to a close with a little gathering possibly tomorrow morning when we come together.

And yet we want to ask you that as we ponder upon your Word today, Father, we thank you for the Holy Spirit of God who has never come to speak of Himself or about Himself, but His ministry predominantly has been to bring us back to the life of Christ and to bring us back to the Word of God.

And I ask this morning that as we get into the reality of your Word, that somehow that the Spirit of God will be able to find a resting place in our relationships with you and that our hearts will become broken so that we will be able to submit ourselves to you.

Lord, the greatest burden that has been prevailing upon the inadequacy of my own relationship with you is that during this weekend that you will set men and women aside and that you will set them apart unto yourself and that you will pour out upon them a spirit of prayer and that our lives in the days, in the weeks and in the years to come, that our lives will never ever be the same.

And I confess again this morning that Father, I am not able to do this and neither any pastor or preacher would be able to take a human life and a body and a soul and a spirit and make from them a man and a woman of intercessory prayer and yet we know this Sunday morning that when the Spirit of God comes that suddenly we will be captured and we will be captivated and we will find ourselves in the midst of the revelation of the brokenness of God that will give unto us an unquenchable desire and that will bring unto us a sensation of desperation, of a hunger and a thirst after God that will be able to change our lives for time and for eternity.

And we say to you this morning again, our God and our Father, the only way that you are going to send revival to this country of Australia is when you are going to pour out upon your children a spirit of prayer that will let us climb underneath the burden of God that will bring unto us the brokenness of spirit that will sanctify us and set us apart unto yourself and that will allow the Spirit of God to become precedent so that we will receive a spirit of prayer that will be able to lead us to the will of God in prayer so that it might be surrounded with the promises of God as it relates to prayer.

And so this is what we ask you this morning. Bless your word to us, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. You know, it's fascinating when you and I will begin to study the New Testament and we come to what we would consider as the Gospel of Matthew that you will discover that the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew spent the majority of His time in what we would consider as the region of Galilee.

Christ's Ministry in Galilee: Teaching, Miracles, and Reactions

And the reason why we are saying that is because from Matthew 4 right to the end of Matthew 18 will you come across two very significant statements. And the first one is simply this, that Christ, or rather that Matthew 4 said, after these things, the Lord Jesus departed into Galilee.

And then if you very systematically would go through the chapters of Matthew's Gospel, will you discover that right up to the end of the 18th chapter, because in the beginning of the 19th chapter, Matthew made this observation and this is what he said.

He said, after these things, Jesus departed out of Galilee. So what we are looking at here is all those chapters, according to Matthew's Gospel, Christ spent within the realm of Galilee. He went into Galilee in chapter 4 and He left Galilee in the beginning of the 19th chapter.

Now, if that's possible for us this morning to say that was the dominating aspect of His ministry in Galilee, you and I need to ask ourselves, according to Matthew's Gospel, to what degree did Christ minister?

And so when you would study that, you will come to the realization that there were three aspects of the ministry of Christ. There was the teachings of Christ from Matthew 5 -7. Then we would come across the miracles that Jesus did from Matthew 8 -10.

And from chapter 11 -18 will you come across the reactions that came from the life of Christ as He communicated with men and women. And as the Gospel of John said unto us, He came unto His own and His own received Him not.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the sons of God. And so we discover this inner reaction that came from the life of Christ as people responded and reacted to the fact that He was the Son of God.

You say, Gerard, why did they do that? Well, you need to understand that every simple word, brother and sister, that came from the lips of Christ, never, ever, ever neutralized people. They knew exactly where they stood with Him.

That's why in the 6th chapter of John's Gospel, when Jesus turned to those followers of Him and He said to them, you do not follow Me because of who I am and that which I am about. You are simply following because of the miracles that you are seeing Me doing.

And then He turned to them and He confronted them. And He said to them, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of God and you drink His blood, and we know that He was speaking about Calvary and the crucifixion and the cross.

He said, if you are not going to do that, you will never be able to become part of what my life and ministry is about. And you remember how the Lord Jesus, when He said that to them, the Bible says, many of His disciples left Him and they didn't walk with Him anymore.

And you know, if we were in 2007 or 2008 in the Western world, as it relates to the Christian church, the majority of us would grab our great New Testaments and run after these people that they didn't follow anymore, and say, you know, maybe there is a way that we will be able to work around this one.

We don't want you to go. Do you know what the Lord Jesus did? He turned to those disciples of Him that were still standing around Him and He said to them, so what about you? Why don't you also go away?

And you remember how they turned to Him and Peter said to Him, Lord, where shall we go? You've got the words of eternal life. And you know, brother and sister, when it comes to the Christian life, you will discover that the Apostle Paul made this statement and he said, to some he said, we are the fragrance of life, and he said to others, he said, we are the fragrance of death.

And so when the reality of the life of Christ is relevant in my Christian life, and I am in a position where Jesus said, as my Father has sent me, so sent are you, and I live a Christian life that demanded a supernatural explanation, is there a sense that the atmosphere and the presence of God that I carry with me, and when I am intoxicated to the supremacy and the centrality of the life of Christ, that there is always a two-fold result and the consequences.

To some it becomes the fragrance of life, and to other people it becomes the fragrance of death. And you say, why do you say that? Because the life of Christ never ever neutralized people. They knew exactly where they stood with the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

The Spirit's Conviction of Sin in John and Acts

And let me explain to you why I am saying that to you. If you study the Greek New Testament, you will discover that there are two words that are speaking to us about the conviction of sin. And you find both of those words in the Acts of the Apostles.

Now Jesus came in John chapter 16 and He said, when the Holy Spirit comes, the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they do not believe in Me.

Why don't people come to Christ? You know why they don't come to Christ? It's because most of the times they don't believe that God is able to save them. Instead of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see Me no more.

Of judgment because the Prince of this world is judged. And then when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and God poured out His Spirit upon the early church, you remember the Apostle Peter preached his first sermon.

And after he spoke to them and he said to them, these men are not drunk as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day, but this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel. And the last days God said, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your old men shall dream dreams.

And I explained to them the Gospel of Christ. And brother and sister, you remember what happened. The Bible says they were pricked in their hearts. And so when they were pricked in their hearts, they said to the Apostle Peter, so what must we do?

And Peter turned to them and he said to them, repent and be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was the gift of salvation. And you remember 3 ,000 people were gloriously saved on the day of Pentecost.

And yet brother and sister, there is another word in the Greek New Testament you say, what is it? It was when there was a man with the name of Stephen. And you remember the way the church was growing in the book of Acts.

And the church was growing to the degree that they needed to have proper administration. And those early Apostles in Acts chapter 6 made this statement. And this is what they said. They said, we will give ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

And there were a number of men that was chosen. And one of those men was a man with the name of Philip the Evangelist. And the other was a man with the name of Stephen. Now you remember what happened to Stephen in the book of Acts?

The Bible says he was a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit. And in Acts chapter 6, in Acts chapter 7, he preached the only recorded sermon that we are aware of. It is a sermon of about 66 verses. In fact, if I can be honest with you, it was not really a sermon.

He simply quoted the Old Testament. And as he systematically went through the Old Testament, there was a moment when he began to apply in a theological way the Old Testament. And he turned to those who listened to them.

And he said to them, you are a stiff necked people. And you remember what happened? The Bible says they snatched upon their teeth. And they resisted Stephen's ministry. And as they were doing that, there was a moment that as they snatched upon their teeth, the Bible says, and here is the other word in the Greek language, the Bible says they were cut to their hearts.

Do you know what that word means in the original tongue? It means that someone took a saw and he took them and he said they were sawn asunder. The Spirit of God in his conviction was so relevant, and brother and sister, so real, that they resisted to such a degree that they stoned Stephen.

And you remember, as they stoned Stephen, the Bible says his face was like the face of an angel. And he said, I saw the Lord Jesus. And he was standing. Why was Christ standing? It seems to me if God the Father turned to God the Son and said the first matter, because what is Jesus doing?

He's sitting at the right hand of the throne of God interceding for us. But when Stephen was stoned, it seems if God the Father said to God the Son, rise to your feet, the first martyr is coming into the kingdom.

And do you remember, there was a young man with the name of Saul who stood there. And he said, I consent. Do you know what that means in the Greek language? He said, I put the final stamp upon the stoning of Stephen, and it became the instrument for Saul of Tarsus to become a follower of the Lord Jesus.

A Christian Life That Confronts and Convicts

You say, what is it? You see, it's the life of Christ, brother and sister. I wonder this morning if I can ask you, does my Christian life and your Christian life make a distinction? And the society in which we live, do we carry with us the sins of the preciousness of God?

I was in a Baptist church in Western Canada some time ago, and the Sunday morning, the Spirit of God broke into that Sunday morning service, and there was an incredible consciousness of God in that meeting.

We were so broken up, and people, men and women, were at the altar of the church, and my own heart was just broken before God. And at the end of that service, I didn't realize really what was happening in the lives of many of those people, but at the end of the service, I didn't know that there was some young man in that service and God mightily convicted him by His Spirit.

I came out of that service this morning and I got into the vehicle. I was driving back to my motel room where I stayed in that city, and as I was driving back, just as I was coming out of the parking lot, there was a little truck in front of me, and there was a young man sitting behind the steering wheel of his truck, and I look at him and I thought, you know, there's something wrong with him.

He looks so disturbed. He looks so disorientated. He looks so confused. And I followed him in the distance, and he was driving erratically, and we came to the stop sign, and I kind of kept my distance, and then he turned to the left, and he just put his foot down, and the dust and everything, and it was flying down his throat.

And I said to myself, there's something wrong with this young man. And I wonder if he's on drugs. Is he drunk? Is he disorientated? What's going on with him? And I followed him to the next stop sign, and I had to turn left back to my room, but I was so captured that I didn't realize what I was doing, and he turned right, and he just went flying down his throat, so absolutely erratically, and before I knew what I did, I turned right instead of left, didn't realize what I was doing, and I followed him.

And as he was flying down his throat, it was a dirt road into the field, and his brake lights went on, and he just turned into this dirt road, and he went flying down it. And I said to myself, there's something wrong with that man.

And so I drove by, and realized I was supposed to turn left instead of right, and as I was driving by, the Spirit of God began to speak to me about this man. And so I kept driving, and I thought, I need to find out what's going on, and eventually I turned around, and I was on my way back, because I had to do it every way.

Anyway, and as I was coming back, I looked to my left, and this little truck was still standing in the field, and I thought, well, maybe he's on drugs, there's something wrong, and I drove by, and God just said, Gerard, I want you to go to this man.

And I turned the vehicle around, and I came back, and I came into this dirt road. Then he was standing there, sitting in this little red truck, and brother and sister, I parked behind him, and I thought, you know, maybe he's got a gun, maybe he's on drugs, maybe he's drunk, maybe he's going to commit suicide, what is he going to do?

I will never forget this. I came to this little truck, and he was just standing like, sitting like this, and he had his hands clamped around the steering wheel, and he sat to his head on the steering wheel, and I look in, and the tears were just streaming down his cheeks.

And I knocked at the window. And he looked up to me, and he opened the window, and I said, I said, my young friend, what is wrong with you? You know, he said, I just heard you preached. And he said, I'm desperately lost, and I'm just trying to find God.

I said, what do you mean? He said, I'm under such conviction of sin. And God saved him right in that truck that morning. I wonder if I can ask you this morning, do we know this concept of what the Christian life is all about?

Brother and sister, never neutralize people, you know. Charles Grant and Finney, that amazing, controversial individual that did many things that very few people can understand, were so saturated with a sense of the presence of God in the midst of the revival, that you would come into a factory, and as you walk into this factory, the presence of God was so vivid, and it was so real, and it was so overwhelming, that people just came under conviction of sin.

And I want to say to you this morning, I want to say this to myself, because you know it's a problem. None of us, we've got the Christian life together. If you know anything about the inadequacy of my relationship with God, there are many times that my wife finds me three o 'clock in the morning in the corner of my library, under a blankness in the coldness of Canada, sobbing my heart out before God.

And she lifted up and said, Gerard, what's going on? And I would turn to her in great brokenness of soul and spirit, and I said, my darling, it's the reason for my existence. Can I ask you a question this Sunday morning on this service?

Why did God come into our lives, brother and sister? Why did He save us? Why did He reach down from Heaven? Why is it that I am so important to God, that if I was the only lost sinner on this planet Earth, that He still would have sent His Son to die for me on the cross?

So you say, what is it? It's the ministry of Christ, you see. We've got this treasure in urban vessels. And I wonder this Sunday morning, if you would allow me to ask you, can you explain, brother and sister, why is it that we are with such a lack of brokenness in us?

Why is it that we walk through country or place after place, and our hearts are not even broken before God? It's the life of Christ, you see. What did it cost? It cost absolutely everything. And so you say, what about these teachings of Christ?

Teaching, Preaching, and the Sermon on the Mount

Well, it's absolutely fascinating, you know. Because you will discover in the Gospel of Matthew that before the Lord Jesus started with His public ministry, brother and sister, before He did the miracles, before He went out there and performed ten of those glorious miracles in the Gospel of Matthew, do you know what the Scripture said to us?

The Bible is saying unto us, when He saw the multitudes, He went up into a mountain, and when He was set, He called His disciples unto Him. Now why in the world would Christ do that? Why is it that when He saw the multitudes of people, and He realized that these are the people that He wants to reach, He's going to die for these people, He's going to give His life for them, but the Bible says that when He saw them, He went onto a mountain.

In other words, He separated Himself and He called His disciples unto Him. And brother and sister, what did He begin to do? He began to teach His disciples. Why in the world would Christ do a thing like that?

Why would He not bring these multitudes together and begin to teach them? No, no, no, no. You see, this is what happened. He realized that through the lives of those early disciples, He's going to reach these multitudes of His people.

And the Bible says He called His disciples unto Him, and He began to teach His disciples. That's what He was doing. Teaching His disciples. Why was He doing it? Because they were going to be the ones that are going to reach the multitudes of people out there in the world.

And you know, if you look at the evangelical world today, brother and sister, that's exactly what has happened. 680 ,000 people in the underground church in China gloriously last year. I've got a friend of mine who was in China recently with a little pastor out in one of the provinces of China right in the country area.

And when he was standing with this little pastor who has been in prison, because last year, 80 of those pastors have been in prison. But you know what has happened, brother and sister? He stood in this little village, and as he stood there, my friend Garth turned to this pastor, and he said to him, how can we pray for you in Canada?

How can we pray for this community? And this little Chinese pastor turned to him, and he said to Garth, we only have one problem in this little community. And my friend Garth said to him, what is the problem?

How can we pray for you? And the little Chinese pastor looked at him and he smiled. He said, you know what's the problem? Every single one of them has been born of the Spirit of God. Every single one of them.

And they weren't half born, you know. They weren't spiritual abortion. They were born of the Spirit of God. And so, brother and sister, the Lord Jesus came, and this is what he said. He called his disciples.

And what did he do? He began to teach his disciples, you know. He began to spend time with them. You see, that's why teaching informs the mind. You say, Garth, what does preaching do? Preaching challenges the world.

Brother and sister, it's possible that you and I, through the years, we could have sat under the greatest preaching. And it has challenged us. And it has come to your heart, and you responded, and you were broken, and you sought God.

And three, four, five, seven weeks later, there was absolute nothing left. You say, what do you mean? Well, you see, my world was challenged. And I responded. I trusted God to cleanse me. I asked God to fill me with His Spirit.

And yet, brother and sister, it didn't last. But you see, the difference between teaching and preaching, preaching is challenging us, and it breaks us, and we respond to it. But when the teaching of God's Word comes, it's informing my mind.

I'm exposed to what God is saying in His Word. And then it challenges my will. And when I responded to the Scriptures, it becomes part of my relationship with God. And that's exactly what Jesus did. Don't you know what He did?

He started one of the most fascinating things. I love the Sermon on the Mount. I trust that, you know, before you die one day, that at least, you know, we will be able to memorize the Sermon on the Mount.

You say, why do you say that? Because, brother and sister, the Beatitudes is speaking to us about Christian character, you know. The rest of the Sermon on the Mount is speaking to us about Christian conduct.

The Beatitudes is speaking to us about the imputed righteousness of God. The rest of the Sermon on the Mount is speaking to us about the imparted righteousness of God. The Beatitudes is speaking to us about the description of the Christian life.

And the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, you know what it's doing? It's speaking to us about the description. How do we live? And Jesus started with a great word. And do you know what He did? Isn't Christ wonderful?

You know, it's not like us, you know. You know, when our children do something wrong, and we told them that they shouldn't do it, and then they do it wrong, and we've got this famous thing. Didn't I tell you that?

I told you that. Christ never did that. He didn't turn to those disciples and say, you know, aren't you a hopeless bunch of individual characters? No, no. You know what He did? He said, bless it. Bless it.

Brethren and sisters, I wonder this Sunday morning that you discover the greatness of God's plan for your life. Ah, you remember the prodigal when he came back to the father. You know, the father had all the right to throw this fellow in the dungeon.

He took his inheritance, he went to the far country, he spent it and wasted living, the Bible says. But you know what the father did? It's fascinating in the Greek language. Even within the context of the parable, it seems that the father every day was standing at the gate.

I'm waiting for him to come back. I'm waiting. Have you ever discovered the greatness of the love of God? And there was a day when he said, I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to my father, Father, I've sinned against Heaven in my sight, and I'm not worthy to be called thy son.

Make me as one of thy hired servants. And you remember what happened, brethren and sisters? The Bible says, the father ran to him. He fell on his neck, and what did he do? He kissed him. He said unto his servants, Bring unto my son the best rope.