Biblical Prayer: Dangerous Prayer

Dangerous Prayer and the Presumption of Prayer

We're up to part four in our study on prayer and today it's the lesson is called dangerous praying. Now don't usually think of prayer being dangerous but let's see as we go along. Now we've already seen that prayer is an essential part of the Christian life.

That's what first three sessions I think have made that abundantly clear. We've examined the purpose of prayer, we've looked at false teaching on prayer, and then we answered two questions over the last two weeks.

Remember the two questions, if God is sovereign then why pray? And secondly, does prayer really change things? That was last week's lesson. For the next several weeks we're going to be examining prayer using the example of our Lord Jesus teaching his disciples in the Sermon on the Mountain Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 to 13, and I'm presuming this will take a number of weeks.

It's interesting in this section of Scripture, Jesus not only gives us an inspired pattern for prayer, you know, which is what we use frequently, our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name, etc., but he also gives some important cautions concerning prayer before he gets into the pattern.

So let's start by looking at verse 5. When you pray you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they had loved to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men.

Truly I say to you, they have the reward in full. For now I just want you to focus on these words, when you pray. And then again in verse 6, but you, when you pray, notice he says go into your inner room, close your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

In other words, according to Jesus, prayer is presumed for the Christian. He doesn't say if you pray, he says when you pray. And we've seen that prayer in previous lessons, prayer is commanded, and now we see Jesus when he's speaking to his disciples, he's just presuming that his disciples are praying people, all right.

And then he issues the caution. Let's look at verse 5 once more. When you pray you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men.

Truly I say to you, they have the reward in full. We know a lot of things about the Pharisees, mostly of course from the New Testament teaching, but the Pharisees knew how to pray and when to pray to make themselves look pious.

The Pharisees were all about the external aspects of their religion, and they loved to make themselves look better than they really were. And there are people even today who use religious activity as a means to make themselves look good.

This is a very common thing. In fact, one of the things, I don't know if they did it this time with the last presidential election, but almost every presidential election before that, they would show the president going to church, and it's a big thing, which church did he choose in Washington that he's going to attend?

And there they are with the big Bibles walking in, you know, and you can see they got to brush the dust off of them. And was that too snarky? Okay. So what does Jesus say? Don't be like them. He says it in very, very plain language.

They love to do this, they love to make themselves look good, and Jesus says don't be like them. That's why he titled this Dangerous Prayer, because you're on dangerous ground if you start to pray and even worship like the Pharisees do.

Jesus says they're hypocrites, they're not genuine, they are actors. And I'm presuming everybody here knows, but I shouldn't do that. Do you know the definition of hypocrite, where it comes from? Everybody know where the word hypocrite comes from?

It's from the Greek, and it means to put on a mask, or the actors. And in the Greek theater, they would actually put on different masks, and they were called hypocrites because they were pretending to be somebody that they weren't, and that's where the word comes into our English language from.

So Jesus says that the Pharisees were hypocrites, they're not genuine. And then Jesus expands on this caution in a parable in Luke chapter 18, verses 9 to 14, and I know you're all familiar, but we're going to read through the parable anyway.

This is Jesus talking, he says, he also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Got to highlight that. Does that sound familiar? He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt.

And then here's the parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, God I thank thee that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer.

I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get. But the tax gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner.

And Jesus says, I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Now I just want to tell a brief anecdote.

Many years ago I was listening to some religious program on television, and they were talking about fasting. And he was giving some lessons on fasting, and he used this text to say we should be fasting twice a week.

And I was fairly young in the faith at the time, but I see just a bunch of smiles already. You're taking the example that Jesus is criticizing and using that as your example as to how much you, how you should fast.

Do you see a disparity there? Is there a breakdown in logic, you know? Jesus says, don't pray like this, or don't do what these people are doing. And then he's coming along, and this was a well-renowned religious leader, and he says this is how we should be doing it.

Well, anyway, what more can I say? So Jesus is talking about the fact that don't pray to be seen and to make yourself look good. But here's the thing. Remember who Jesus is addressing in Matthew 6. Anybody remember who is Jesus addressing in Matthew 6?

His disciples. If you look at Matthew 26, his first sermon, he's addressing his disciples. Now we can presume that it drew a crowd, but initially he's addressing his disciples. The Sermon on the Mount is instructions for how to live in the kingdom of God here on earth, not in heaven.

There is a certain brand of Christianity that teaches that the Sermon on the Mount is, that's how we should behave once we get to heaven, but we don't have to do that here, okay? So his own disciples to believers.

So this teaching on prayer isn't specifically for the Pharisees. It's for the church. And so the caution that he's giving us is to the church, to his own people. The greatest danger for the Christian is not committing heinous crimes.

When was the last time you heard of a pastor being arrested for doing a bank stick-up? I can't remember one, all right. What do we find religious leaders being arrested for? Some subtle moral failure, somebody running away with the church organist or whatever, you know, it's something like that, because sin is very subtle.

Satan is subtle in his schemes, and he usually tries to get at religious leaders, not by attempting to do some heinous crime that is going, you know, that's going to put him in jail for the rest of his life, but just something that's going to make him ineffective in his ministry.

So sin is so subtle that the greatest time of danger for the Christian is when he is performing Christian duties. So what do we see Christian leaders being taken down for? Moral failure, okay, sticking a hand in the money jar, okay, and in fact there are churches that where the collection is taken and is immediately brought into the pastor's office before anybody else counts it, and he, I guess he just wants to bless it, and okay, you get the idea.

And Martin Lloyd-Jones, I love this comment, this is from, he did a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, and this is what he says about this particular type of praying. He says, that is a terrible nature of his teaching at this point.

This thing has entered into our very nature and Constitution as human beings, is something that is so polluting our whole being that when man is engaged in his highest form of activity, he still has a battle to wage with it.

It has always been agreed, I think, that the highest picture you can ever have of man is to look at him on his knees waiting upon God. That is the highest achievement of man, it is his noblest activity.

And he continues, man is never greater than when he is there in communion and contact with God. Now according to our Lord, sin is something which affects us so profoundly that even at that point it is with us and the sailing.

Indeed, we must surely agree that on the basis of New Testament teaching, that it is only there we really begin to understand sin. What the good doctor is saying is that we have to be cautious even when we are worshiping, and especially worshiping in prayer, sin can creep in.

Everybody here know who Joseph Stoll is or was? He's a former president of Moody Bible Institute. I was at a conference that he was speaking at once and I was really impressed with him. He's a genuine guy, you know, down-to-earth type of fellow, an athlete and all.

And he was teaching on this subject of humility and he said, it was actually a confession. He said he was asked to offer a prayer, the prayer, at a conference for Christian college leaders from all over the country.

And so he stands up and he was a little bit nervous about getting up in front of all of his peers and from schools that were much larger than his. And he said, so I was really thinking, he says, and I'm praying now before I get up there, he says, Lord, please keep me humble, you know, don't let me be prideful in my prayer.

He says, and I got up and I prayed and when I finished praying, he said, I was walking back and I said, oh, that was the best prayer. And he says, and I couldn't believe it, he said, I just prayed to be humble and then I was bragging about how humble my prayer was to myself.

And I just really appreciated his candor of sharing that with a group of pastors. We need to be careful, you know, that even in our prayer life, that we don't sin. That's why I titled this lesson, Dangerous Prayer.

And I just highlighted these words. Sin is something which affects us so profoundly that even at that point it is with us and assailing. Here's the danger in this type of prayer. The believer gets on his knees.

He prays for many noble causes. He articulates his prayers very well, but he is ever conscious of those around him. He's pleased with his prayer and himself. And that man rises with full reward, the praise of men.

He has deceived himself and sin has crept into his prayer. Jesus says, don't do that. Don't do that. Look at verse six. He says, but when you pray, go into your inner room and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in secret and your father who is in secret will repay you.

I want to make a point here. Jesus is not necessarily describing the location of our prayers. Now, if you happen to have a place in your inner room, a closet or something that you use to pray in, where you can shut off all other distractions, by all means use it.

It's whatever it takes to be able to pray without distractions is helpful. But that's not precisely what Jesus is mandating here. He made it clear that location was not the issue of prayer and worship when he spoke to the Samaritan woman.

Remember what he said? It's not the location, it's not Jerusalem, it's not the Mount Gerizim, but you know, it's a matter of the heart, all right? And that's why I titled this Prayer from the Heart. He's also not condemning public praying.

I've heard people say, well, he's telling us we should only be praying in secret. You're missing the point if you come away with that, because there's so many examples and commands to pray publicly. The purpose of going somewhere in private is to eliminate the temptation for sinning while praying, okay?

So if you're going in and you're by yourself, you're not performing anything for somebody to come in and see. Susanna Wesley, anybody know how she used to? She had like 12 or 13 or 150 kids. I don't know how many it was, but it was a lot.

Do you know how she used to have her personal quiet time? She'd sit at the kitchen table and she'd take her apron and put it up over her head, and the kids knew that when mommy was under her apron to leave her alone, and they'd go into another room and just leave her alone.

And that was her closet, okay? He is saying in this verse to those who are observing the Pharisees and being tempted, go home and stop making a spectacle of yourself, and which is possible even in our prayer life.

And to prove that, Jesus uses personal pronouns eight times. When you do this, don't do this. You, you, you, you, all right? So he's addressing his people personally. So you go into that inner room, close the door, and then pray.

You need no one else with you to be heard by God. Now the same principle applies to public prayers. You say, well, wait a minute, that sounds, how can I go into my inner room and pray in secret in, in public praying?

I've developed, I came up with a series of questions to ask, and I'm not pointing my finger at anybody here, don't, don't anybody take it that way? These are general, the editorial questions, if you will, all right?

Do you change the way you pray when you pray in public places? Okay. Do you find yourself praying in words that you don't normally use? Do you pray in a certain way because it brings an amen? Do you pray because you're afraid, you, do you not pray because you're afraid what others may think?

So Christian, even when praying in public, go into your inner room and shut the door. In other words, when you're praying in public, shut everything else out. You're praying, when you're praying, you're praying to God.

He's the audience, not the people. Now if somebody else is blessed by your pre-, your praying, that's great, but you don't pray for that reason. Go into your inner room, shut the door. Remember, your inner room is not necessarily a place, it's the condition of your heart.

So when you're praying in public places, don't pray for the approval of men, pray as though you're in your closet. Pray to please God. And when you pray like this, you may not get an amen, but you do have the expectation of answered prayer.

And I know we've referred to this verse before, but it's, it's germane here. So that is what James is referring to in his epistle. James 5, 14 to 16, is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer offered in faith, there's the key, the prayer is offered in faith, will restore the one who is, who is sick. Lord will raise them up if he's committed sins, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins one to another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

The effect of prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Hmm. But Jesus isn't finished yet. He's not only concerned with the attitude of prayer, but he cautions about the method or the manner of praying as well.

Take note that all of this is before he gets to tell you how really to pray. So what he's, what you can surmise from that is that we should be preparing ourselves to come to prayer. And he next addresses wordy prayers.

Avoiding Hypocritical and Wordy Prayer

What do we mean by that? In verse 7 he says, when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. Notice, they suppose they will be heard for their many words.

Throughout history, pagan prayers have been characterized by repetition. The same phrases repeated over and over again. Now it's not a mystery. Why is this so? It's really not a mystery. If there's no meaningful dialogue between a God, quotations there should be, and his people, how can you be sure that he has heard your prayer?

How comforting can it be to pray to a chunk of stone or a piece of wood? I mean, think about it. You're praying and there's people, you know, pouring their heart out with no expectation. And so I had to use Elijah.

This is one of my favorite portions of scripture because Elijah and I have some things in common here. No, we're both blondes. Elijah poked fun at the prophets of Baal on just this point, and I'm going to use just a couple excerpts.

Everybody knows the setup for this. Elijah's confronted by King Ahab and they set up the contest to see who is the true God, and that's where we picked this up. So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many, and call on the name of your God, but put no fire under it.

Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, O Baal, answer us. But there was no voice, no one answered, and they leaped about the altar which they made.

And it came about at noon that Elijah mocked them. That's terrible. And said, call out with a loud voice for he is a God. Either he is occupied or gone aside or is on a journey or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.

And I hear the laughing, everybody knows that he is occupied, he might be in the bathroom, is literally what that means. But he's going aside. They leapt about, they called upon him till noon, from first hour in the morning until noon.

So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until blood gushed out on them. Please do not try this at home. And please do not try it here. Just don't do it.

And it came about when midday was passed, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. I just love the wording of this portion of Scripture.

No voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. And then there's a difference between what happened with the prophets of Baal and the one, the truth, the living God, who hears the prayers of his people and communicates to them through his word.

Elijah built an altar, put the oxen on it, then three times had four containers of water poured over it until the trench around the altar was full. And we continue in 1 Kings 18 verse 36. Then it came about at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.

Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that thou, O Lord, art God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Notice, answer me, answer me, O Lord, answer me. But why does he want the answer?

That the people may know. Know what? That the Lord is God. That's an unselfish prayer. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. Talk about an answer to prayer. And our God has demonstrated over and over again that he hears our prayers.

When we pray, we have assurance that he hears. And then one more time, before he begins to address the content of biblical praying, Jesus cautions in this way. Notice what he says, therefore do not be like them.

A number of times he says that. Do not be like them. And then one last word. There's a difference between meaningless repetition and persistent praying. Okay? Meaningless repetition is wishful thinking.

Why do the pagans repeat the same words over and over and over? Because they think that in their abundance of words, their prayers may be answered. Maybe. Persistent praying is praying with fervency from your heart, expecting an answer.

And I have to give you these verses. Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. The tense of those verbs, ask, seek, and knock, is keep on knocking, keep on asking, keep on seeking.

For everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. Questions? No?