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Reading again from the Gospel of Matthew and chapter six. The Gospel of Matthew and chapter six, Beginning there at verse five. And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have received their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee. And in praying, use not vain repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask. After this manner, therefore, pray ye.
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
And to that passage, let's add another taken from the Gospel by Luke. The Gospel by Luke, chapter eleven. And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come.
Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. For we ourselves also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his shamelessness will he arise and give him as much as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be. And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he shall give him a stone, or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? And finally, some words from the Epistle to the Ephesians. Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter one and verse fifteen. For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and which you show towards all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in
the saints, what the exceeding greatness of his power to us, Lord, who believe, according to the working of the strength of his might, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
Chapter three and verse fourteen. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inward man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, unto all generations, forever and ever. May God give us good understanding of his word. So then this afternoon we come to consider further our topic for the weekend, the topic of prayer. Last night we thought of the purpose of prayer and of the various postures that people rightly adopt when they pray to God, expressive of the needs of their hearts and of the need of their situation.
Now, this afternoon, I want to turn to think with you about proportions in prayer. The way in life we express our sense of proportion by the things we pray for, and the way that we ought in turn to think about what, uh, life's true proportions are, so that we make sure that in our prayers, we pray most for the most important things. For that reason, I want to base, uh, our lesson this afternoon on the Gospel of Luke from chapter ten onwards, because it seems to me that in that passage of the Gospel of Luke, our Lord is addressing himself to the question of life's proportions.
You may remember that that section of Luke begins in chapter ten and verse thirty eight with the well-known story of Mary and Martha, and how Martha came to the Lord Jesus complaining about Mary. Lord, said Martha, speak to my sister. Yes, speak to my sister. When you get along in that section of Luke and come to chapter twelve and verse thirteen, then you meet a man, and he, if you please, is saying something very similar. Lord, he says, speak to my brother. Life is full of women saying to the Lord, speak to my sister.
Is it not? Full of men saying to the Lord, Lord, speak to my brother, for my sister has got things all out of proportion, and my brother has got things all out of proportion. Lord, speak to my sister. Lord, speak to my brother. Ho, ho, what's wrong now? Well, Martha, do you see, was entertaining the Lord, and so was Mary meant to be, when Mary left off the work and went and sat at the Lord's feet and heard his voice. And Martha felt injured, you know, felt it wasn't fair, Mary going off and getting all the spiritual benefit, while Martha still had to see about the souffle and the pavlova in the kitchen.
You'll see. And Martha wanted to treat the Lord to such wonderful meals that weekend. Any woman would, wouldn't they, when the Lord came visiting? And Martha had got such elaborate cookery going that it was taking all the woman's time to get it ready. I'm glad the women give a lot of time to the pavlovas, aren't you? I love them immensely. But you know, the question was that the Lord was visiting them perhaps just for a few hours. There wouldn't be many times when the Lord came that way and stayed in their house. It was a question, therefore, of how you should apportion the time. A lovely thing, making the Lord's bed, doing the dishes, cooking the food for the Lord to enjoy.
But come there needed some sense of proportion, surely. To put the Lord, of course, in the best room of the house, seat him comfortably down on a seat, and then say, excuse me a minute, and be lost for the next three hours while you're getting the pavlova ready, with no time to speak to the Lord, only time to bring the meal in and gobble it up and the Lord depart. What a sad misuse of time, what a sad lack of sense of proportion that would be. For what think you, I'm sure the Lord liked the Pavlovas as well, but what think you that he would have loved most? A tremendously elaborate meal? Or just a simple meal with the chance to talk to Martha.
What do you think he would have preferred? I think I know. Much as he loved all that Martha was doing, he loved Martha more. He would have gone without the sweet, you know, at that meal, in order to have the extra time to sit there and talk to Martha and enjoy Martha's company. And when Mary left all the cumbered work and sat at the Lord's feet and heard his voice, and Martha came complaining, Lord, speak to my sister. He gently corrected Martha, didn't he? He said, you know, Martha, you're busy about very many things, and they're all very good, but if you strip it down to, uh, the bare necessities, but one thing is needed.
Few things, if you take another reading and found in another manuscript, few things are really necessary, or in fact, one. And in this, uh, life when we can't always do everything that we'd like to do, we've got to choose, haven't we? We've got to make up our minds. We've got to select the most important things in life and put them first, and make sure that we spend the maximum amount of time on the things that are of maximum importance. Or if we're not careful, we shall get busy about ten thousand and one things, and the little things will squeeze out the time and energy that ought to have been given to the bigger thing.
We're on a journey, Luke reminds us, doesn't he? The Savior at this point was on a journey, journeying through this world home to glory. And we too are on a journey. And you know, there's a difference between being on a journey and being settled down. This is the time when folks are, time of the year, isn't it, when folks are thinking of their holidays, getting those beautiful brochures that tempt everybody from the travel agents and looking where you can go. Shall it be Bangor? Shall it be Port Rush? Can we rise to it this year, a holiday in Spain, perhaps a beautiful hotel? Or will it have to be a caravan holiday this year? And, uh, well, even perhaps a tent.
Well, now there's got to be a tent. Ah, you'll have to revise your list of the things you can take with you, you know, uh, won't you? If it's going to be a cruise deluxe on, uh, the Queen Elizabeths, well, you can take four or five great chunks in your cabin and not many more chunks downstairs for all your evening gowns and dresses and goodness knows what have you. But if it's going to be a tent in Donegal, you can't afford to take four great pan portmanteaus, Three tin openers. No, you have to say, well, no, it's got to be the bare minimum here. What are the essential things? What are the essential things?
It's the same with that other man, wasn't it? He said, Lord, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. You know the man is taking a lot and giving me nothing, and has got things seriously out of proportion. Yes. Said our Lord, well, to start with, who made me a judge and divider over you? And anyway, you ought to be careful yourself, man. There was a rich farmer once, wasn't there? And his fields brought forth in their process till he hadn't got anywhere to store his goods, and he said to himself, what on earth shall I do? I've got so many goods, I know where to store them.
I know what I'll do, he said, and so he solved his storage problems. And he built bigger barns, and there he stored his goods. And when he'd done it, he said, so thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. And the voice that night said, You fool. What a stupid solution to your storage problems. You've overlooked one very big fact, that you're not going to be here much longer. The very night your life is going to be required of you. And then who shall the goods be when you run and sort them on earth? Where you must necess- of necessity go and leave them, or a fool, when you could have sent them, you know, on in advance, home to glory.
We do need to get our sense of proportions right, don't we? And it seems to me, you know, that there's nowhere on earth that reveals what our sense of proportions is than our prayers. For we will pray for the things that we think are most important, shall we? Checked up on yourself recently? What are the things that you ask the Lord most for? Obviously, they're the things that you regard most important.
We will be wise people, therefore, to listen to the Lord himself, shouldn't we? The disciples said to him, teach us to pray like John taught his disciples to pray. Our Lord taught us, taught them, not just a pattern that we repeat in parrot fashion, but a pattern of praying that gets its proportions right, and the most important things first, so that we might know, and by constant habit, we might begin to get our sense of proportion right in life.
In a minute, we're going to look at that, uh, pattern prayer that, uh, is given us. It's given us in Matthew, of course, it's given us in Luke. But now for a moment, I want to turn aside from Luke, uh, to consider the passage, the similar passage in Matthew. We didn't get time to look at it last night, and we ought to look at it now. Praying. Why should I pray? Because there is a reward for praying. So our Lord says that when you pray, be careful to see that you pray in such fashion as you get the true reward of praying.
Some people pray, said our Lord, and they get, uh, the wrong kind of reward for praying. How is that? Well, he says, don't you be as the hypocrites are, for when they pray, they love to stand praying in the synagogue, in the street corners, and they offer such a long and beautiful prayer, but they one eye half open to see whether people are admiring what they say. And while they seem to be talking to God, actually, they're talking to their fellow men and wanting to be seen of men so that men should say, what a marvelous prayer, what a tremendous man he is to be able to pray like that.
Uh, and uh, when they prayed, they got the reward they went in for, the praise and admiration of men. But that's all the reward they're ever going to get, says Christ. They have their reward, and that's the end of it. They prayed to be seen of men. They were seen of men. They prayed to be admired of men. They were admired of men. And there's the thing ends. What is the true reward of praying? The true reward. Answering that question will involve us in another question.
Why pray? Well, says our Lord, don't be like the Pharisees, but yes, and don't be like the Gentiles when you pray. What do you mean, don't be like the Gentiles? Well, they think that they are heard for their much asking. They think that, uh, the way to get things out of God is to pray, of course, and that the more you pray, the more you get. The more words you use, the more times you pray, the more you'll get. It's a kind of putting of pressure on God, and the, and the more pressure you put on God, the more he'll give you.
Two prayers, two benefits. Three prayers, three benefits. Ten prayers, ten benefits. Thirty five prayers, thirty five days indulgence. The more prayers, the more benefits. A kind of an arithmetical, mathematical, uh, business calculation. Prayer to the Gentile is putting pressure on God. The more pressure, the more benefits. Don't you be like that. And we are sometimes, aren't we? Because we make a mistake that's very easily made. We say we should pray more, so we should.
If we prayed more, we should get more blessings, so we should. Then it creeps into our heads that somehow by the praying, mechanically we get the blessing, that isn't so. The idea is that the more pressure we put on God, the more we extort. That isn't so, and I'm glad it isn't so. Aren't you? If I had to twist God's arm before he blessed me, I don't know that I'd want to go to heaven, would you? A God who wasn't thinking of blessing me at all until I turned up and I said, you know, God ought to be doing a bit better than this.
Let me see if I can, you know, wake God up to his duty and, uh, suggest ways that God could be blessing me a bit. But if I had to do that by my prayers, I'm afraid I should be disappointed when I got home to heaven, wouldn't you? I should have said, goodness me, God could have done more than this. Let me make a few suggestions to God by way he might improve heaven. And, uh, that won't do. When we pray, we pray to a God who is both all-wise and all-loving. Prayer isn't a refined form of twisting God's arm to get something from him. And it isn't giving him any information.
Don't you pray like that, said our Lord, for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask him. He's not waiting for information. Oh, I didn't know you needed that. Oh, well, now you told me, I, I, of course I'll give you. No, we are to make known our requests to God, not because he doesn't know already. Well, why then, you say? If God knows what I have or need already, and uh, he loves me, why should I have to ask at all? Well, I don't know whether I'm right to compare the Almighty with humble human beings, but have you ever been in a house, uh, where mother has prepared a most delightful tea party for her child's birthday, and the other infants around the area, there they are, all come into this birthday party, you know, everything she's cooked on the table is for them.
They hadn't got a clue the marvels of cookery that Mother, if she set her mind to it, could produce. There, all these marvelous things on this table. And little boy, you want to grab something. No, no, no, says Mother. No, you don't. No, no. No, you ask first. But I thought the thing was there for the boy. Yes, it so is. You say, is it the asking that persuades mother to give the bit? No. She intended to give it anyway. Why does mother make the child ask? Well, first to teach it good manners, and secondly to get it across to the infant mind that he's not to take these things for granted.
Oh, how easily children do, don't they? Oh, how easily grown-ups do. Take 10,000 and one things for granted, don't we? Our health, our food, our clothes. And sometimes only when the supply dries up does it dawn on us that all these years we've been taking them as though for granted. And that's a sad thing when it happens with a child, that a child takes everything it's given for granted and in the end ceases to be grateful for anything. And more than that, isn't it? There's those goodies on the table, marvelous.
But you know, there's something more than the goodies on the table. There's mother who provided them. They didn't just drop out of the sky. The child is taught to ask mother, that the child might come to see that it's by mother's gracious giving that he enjoys the thing and get to know mother. In later life, when the old, when the child has grown up and is as bald as bald can be, and his mother is ninety six, well, now he doesn't want little jelly babies on top of a sponge anymore. But the impression that mother was a wonderful mother.
Oh, how she slaved for us when we were kids, and what birthday parties she gave us. Of course, he wouldn't thank her for it now. He doesn't want jelly babies. But he learned mother. The memory of her will go with him to eternity. Why prayer? Why us? Not to give God information, but to be taught that our good things come from God, and in the taking of them, to get to know God himself. And with that, we come to what both Matthew and Mark are talking about.
Matthew and Luke, proportions in prayer, when you pray... Well, now that's a point. When you pray, what would you put first? And what would you put second? If you could only ask the Lord, say, a half a dozen things, what would you ask for first? Oh, Lord, I need, I need a job. Lord, I need a husband. Um, I do need a new car. Help my daughter, she's ill. What would you put first? Well, our life's most important thing.
When you pray, say first. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Why should I pray that first? Oh, obviously for the most important thing for me in life is that God's name becomes something sacred and holy above all else to me. Why is that?
Well, what is the most valuable thing in praying anyway? Or let me use an illustration. Here's a mother, and she wants, uh, she thinks it's a very good thing for her boy to learn the piano. She's anyway. So she starts bright and early, and the boy started off at seven years old. He's got to start to learn the piano, much to the grief of the next door neighbors. So he learns his piano thing, but it's difficult to persuade him to see the point of practicing half an hour every day when you could be out kicking a ball around the street.
That's his idea of proportions. So mother has to give him a reward for playing the piano, whole little box of juju sweets, reward for playing the piano. So he dutifully practices the piano, and he gets his little box of sweets. That's the reward you get for playing it, he thinks. And he grows up a bit. Gets to the age of, uh, shall we say thirteen. Hi, now the night is over and a little bit of trichoski here and there, much, uh, sorted out. And of course, when mother has her friends in, well, the boy is summoned in his best suit.
He is to sit down at the piano and show the guests assembled how well he can play. And all the guests say he's a genius, marvelous, never heard playing like it. And the boy's head begins to swell. Oh, he's found another reward for playing the piano, not Juju Sweets nearly, but look at the admiration he's getting from all the guests. Oh, what a reward. If you're not careful, he'll play two pieces that night. Yes, that will be an embarrassment, you'll say, because he found another reward for playing. Reward for playing the piano. Ah, but see the young gentleman grown to forty five, the manager of a factory and coming in at half past ten at night, worried out of his wits, and all the pressures of life.
And he gets by the piano, there's nobody about, and he plays the piano. We say, well, little box of juju sweets. Reward for playing the piano. So he dutifully practices the piano, and he gets his bunch of sweets. That's the reward you get for playing it, he thinks. And he grows up a bit. Gets to the age of, uh, shall we say, thirteen. Hi, now the night is over, and a little bit of trichosty here and there, much, uh, sorted out. And of course, when mother has her friends in, well, the boy is summoned in his best suit.
He is to sit down at the piano and show the guests assembled how well he can play. And all the guests say it's a genius, marvelous, never heard playing like it. And the boy's head begins to swell. Oh, he's found another reward for playing the piano, not juju sweets nearly, but look at the admiration he's getting from all the guests. Oh, what a reward. If you're not careful, you'll play 2 pieces that night. Yes, that will be an embarrassment, you'll say, because he found another reward for playing. Reward for playing the piano. Ah, but see the young gentleman grown to forty five, uh, manager of a factory and coming in at half past ten at night, worried out of his wits, and all the pressures of life.
And he gets by the piano, there's nobody about, and he plays a piano. You say, what reward are you expecting, Sanju, you sweet soul boy? No. Well, the applause? No. Well, what is the reward of playing? Reward of playing, he says. Well, playing itself is. And the music. And the pleasure of it. And you know why Tchaikovsky wrote that bit like that, and what Tchaikovsky was trying to say. And before you know where you are, the man is in fellowship with Tchaikovsky and some of the most brilliant minds that ever wrote music.
Why pray? What reward are you getting for it? Well, the first reward is God himself. Doesn't make God. And for God to become something superlatively wonderful and glorious, and his name becomes sacred. And some of the sacredness of heaven begin to fill my soul. Because there are sacred values in this universe, you know. And the most sacred thing of all, the most wonderful thing of all, is God.
Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed means set apart, set apart as something that is valuable, something that you wouldn't want to spoil, something you'd want to keep and treasure and guard. You know, I dare say you've got, uh, various kinds of cups in your house, if I were to come to see you. You've got cups like I have, old thick, their business is a bit chipped at one corner, but they have to do mugs, if you like, without any saucers. They use them on ordinary days, Monday days, you see. Then you have another kind of, I don't know, china cups, perhaps, that you get out when you've got visitors.
Ooh, but then if I came into one of your rooms up the corner, there would be a beautiful china cabinet there, its glass door, and there would be cups the like of which you never saw. They never come out. Well, it would have to be the queen. If it came out, of course, why wouldn't you have them out? We don't want them getting broken. Why not? Look at that. Beautiful cups. To have them in a china cabinet, see. Your pride and joy just to join to sit down and look at them. Life has all sorts of things, does doesn't indeed, it and some things in life, the most valuable things, are sacred. And the most, if I might use the term thing, in all life that is valuable?
God himself. For my own sake, if I want to be wealthy, I've got to be made to see that the wealth and the value is in God. And in this life, how easily sacred things get trampled down, do they not? And holy things be transgressed and become cheap. Some of them blaspheme that very name by which you are called, says the apostle, and God's name becomes in the dust.
You know, I speak to you now, don't you, that, uh, where I work, we've got lawns in front of the building. Nice lawns. We've got lawns as big as we ever had in the front of Queens. And on high days and holidays, when we invite mums and dads to come and see, uh, Johnny take his degree and things like that, well, of course the visitors walk on the lawns and enjoy them and the strawberries and the cream and all that kind of thing. That's what we've got them there for anyway. And the parents come, we want a decent lawn to put down to the parents. There it is. Shall I tell you another thing? So that there should be decent lawns and it look decent and decent lawns for parents to come and have strawberries and cream on from time to time.
Ordinary days of the week, we don't walk on the grass. We walk round the path. See, if the five or 6 thousand dollars walked right across the lawn every day, there wouldn't be any lawn. So we, we've got paths round. And we keep the thing as something valuable, and we don't want to trample it down. Shall I tell you a little secret if you tell nobody else? That nowadays, in this last four or five years, we get students, uh, they are so important that I'll walk right across it, make great paths across it. Well, they're in a hurry. Doesn't matter to them, they're ruining it. I don't say they've got any idea of the value of a lawn.
And the thing gets trampled. Oh, how easily in this world, not just green grass, but life's sacred things get trampled. Because men have lost the idea of sacredness and he, him from whom sacredness comes, God himself. Therefore, our Lord said, when you pray, what's the most important? Father, hallowed be thy name. Or if we lost the sense of this sacredness, life itself would become cheap, wouldn't it? For what are we?
Apart from God. If it's just a materialistic universe and there is no God, then we're three pounds ten worth of chemicals, and that's all we are, to be thrown out on the scrap heap of eternity and into oblivion. My whole value of a human being is that I'm made of a creator who is my supreme value. So God first, and his sacredness first. And second, you say me.
No, no, no, no, no, no, not second. No, no. No, God second as well. Thy kingdom come. We'd like our own way, wouldn't we? We do like our own way, I know, because I do myself. Full of suggestions, aren't we? How God could improve things. Yeah, how would you like the job of inventing heaven? What would you do? Go on, invent a universe. Have a go. Run it. Store it with angels and archangels too.
Do you know, it suddenly comes to my head that many of the notions I've had in my head, wouldn't it be good if we did this, have come unstuck, and it wouldn't be good anyway. You just have to imagine the responsibility of planning eternity. The question, therefore, is, by whose will does the whole thing run? Whose will is it, whose design and whose purpose is it that the thing is geared to fulfill? I'm a very late comer on this planet, you know. I won't tell you how long I've been here, but it's a remarkably short time compared to what the place has been about.
It wasn't my idea that invented it. All the good things I have come by somebody else's genius, namely God's. I'm here by his mercy, by his sufferance, by his will. It... if you won't mind my saying it, I was his idea. In fact, you don't think it was a very good idea, but it remains. I was his idea. It was his idea to have human beings. I dare to believe it was his idea to have a David Gooding and a Joan Smith and all the rest of them. Not my idea.
And the heaven I read of in his word for forgiven sinners, that was his idea too. I should be a very wise man to say, look, as for the running of things and the purpose it's meant to achieve, let me find out what the creator's idea is, what the redeemer's will is. Let me pray. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. God first. And when you've done it, don't pat yourself on the back, say, what a self-denying person I've been.
Of course not. It is in our own interest to put God first. Just like the old compass, when it's left, will go back to the north. So with fallen men, the compass point of their lives will turn back to their own selves. And even the redeemed must train themselves in their praying to get things in their proper perspective and put God first. Then my need.
For we're not meant to be stoics and pretend we don't have any needs. Of course, we've got needs. And God loves to hear them. What are my needs? Three things. Give us today my daily bread. Why should I pray? We've already considered it. Isn't that God, uh, wouldn't give it to us unless we asked, but he asks us to ask him that it might rivet on our attention, that we get it not automatically, but from him.
Of course, we work for it. He gives us the strength to work. Of course, the farmer has to go out, uh, and sow the field and reap the corn. It's God who gives it, isn't it? You say, I wish I'd been living in the days of the wilderness. Why's that? Well, because I shouldn't have to work. The man that just came down from heaven, you know. Well, so it did. But even they had to go out and gather it and cook it, didn't they? And you know the miracle that puts a bit of wheat on the end of a stalk every year is no less a miracle, because our scientists can't do it themselves yet.
The men are coming down out of the sky. I do well to remember it is by God's grace and his miraculous workings in nature that I get my food, that the food come to me not impersonally as a battle against the forces of nature, but my food comes to me as a result of a cooperation with the Creator, as a son would cooperate with his father. You know, it isn't just with the forces of nature that we have to con- con- uh, contend, is it, as we go about getting our daily food, but we have to contend with market forces and all sorts of political theories and difficult economic conditions.
What a sorry thing it would be as if we were dependent on them and only them for our daily bread. What a lovely thing it is to be able to bow and come to the source of the daily bread and know that ultimately it is in his giving to get what I get from his hand. It will begin to undercut envy, wouldn't it? And greed. And instill more gratitude to realize the very sausages I eat come from the divine hand.
Along with my daily bread, and I need it every day, the very next thing I pray for almost in one breath is forgiveness, for I need that every day as well. Two absolutely indispensable necessities, my daily bread and daily forgiveness. For in all the multitude of years I have lived, and all the multitude of days I have, should I haven't lived one day perfectly yet, have you? There hasn't ever been one day in all my long history but what at the end of it I needed forgiveness, and I don't get it automatically.
And to pray. Ah, says some theologian, but my dear good man, how can you have to pray? Surely this passage is for the Jews. You don't have to pray for forgiveness of sins. I mean to say, you were told when you first trusted Christ that you have forgiveness. By his one sacrifice for sin forever, he's put away your sin forever, and there is no condemnation. What are you doing asking for forgiveness? Oh, but then surely, that Jew you were talking of, he doesn't get forgiveness by his merit, does he?
He gets forgiveness on the same terms I do, doesn't he? If he gets forgiveness at all, it's only through the blood of Christ that anybody ever got forgiveness, surely. That's number one. And secondly, I'm not going soft on my theology, I hope. Yes, for the believer, there is no condemnation, there is no penalty. In that sense, the believer does not come into judgment, but there is such a thing as a father's discipline, isn't there? And if as a believer I misbehave and I don't repent of it, one Corinthians eleven tells me that God will discipline me.
So I should be a wise man to come and confess sin and ask his forgiveness, shouldn't I? Because if I don't, he'll discipline me. For this cause, says the apostle, many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned ourselves and if we judged ourselves, we should not be judged. We are judged, of course. We are chastened of the Lord so that we shouldn't be condemned with the world. So that if I examine myself and I discern myself and I judge myself, I shall not be judged. And judging myself will mean that I come and I ask forgiveness, that God will spare me, because I've seen sins, and I now admit the thing of sin.
I shall need to do it every day. And in that very moment I come. I'm required to be able to say not merely I will forgive, but I have forgiven. For I have forgiven those that have trespassed against me. I'm required to come and say it. If I don't say it, that's a very bad thing, isn't it? Or at least rather if I don't do it. Our Lord told a parable once of a servant who had offended his lord, and his lord threatened to discipline him by prison, and the man besought his lord, and the lord forgave him.
Then that servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him a miserable little pittance, and he demanded payment from his fellow servant, and the fellow servant couldn't do it and begged for time. But servant number one wouldn't listen, and he thrust his brother into prison. And the other servants came, and they told the lord. And the lord of that servant, he called servant number one, and he said, you fellow, you, I forgave you all that debt, didn't I? And I let you off the discipline, and you wouldn't forgive your servant? Well, now you yourself will go through the discipline. So shall my heavenly Father do to every one of you, said our Lord, if you don't forgive from your hearts those who have sinned against you and have repented and sought your forgiveness.
So I need to pray. These are the important things in life to pray about. And there's one more thing, and what's that? I am to pray, lead me not into temptation. Why do I need to pray that? Well, someone will tell me, Mr. Preacher Sir, the Bible says that God doesn't tempt anybody. He is not tempted of evil, therefore he doesn't tempt anybody. That is perfectly true. God doesn't tempt anybody. But he allows us to be tempted, doesn't he? He allowed Job to be tempted by the devil.
It's a comfort to my heart that the devil wasn't able to do it just when he liked and how he liked and in what proportion he liked. No, Satan had to ask permission of the heavenly court before he could tempt Job. And Satan had to ask for permission to tempt the twelve apostles before he could try and sit them as weed, but he was allowed to do it. God will sometimes allow our circumstances thus to come that, uh, Satan is allowed to tempt us. I shall pray, therefore, lead me not into temptation. Why? Well, not because I want to, uh, object to and frustrate the will of God.
But I know my own heart, surely. And I don't come to God and say, God, ready for any examination you might like to put, uh, uh, uh, upon me, God. Now, now try me in anything. I, I, I, I right ready, very confident. Peter did, didn't he? When our Lord said to Peter, Peter, you're going to deny me. Oh, Peter said, no, well, Lord, I thank you, yes, for that remark, but uh, yeah, you see, you are mistaken there, of course. Times before you've been mistaken, I've had to put you right. Well, you are mistaken this time again. That's quite wrong, he said. Oh, I mean, these fellows here all deny you, in fact, but I wouldn't, you see, I'm right ready for this.
I mean, I faced it, I'm right ready for anything, prison, death, maybe. You are. How different was our Lord? Sinless Son of God that he was. He said to his disciples, you pray that you don't enter into temptation, and he himself went and prayed. Father, let the hour pass. Peter, who thought he was sorry, would have done better to say, oh Lord, yes, I am weak. Don't lead me into temptation. Or leading me there.
I shall only survive by your supernatural grace. Proportions in praying. You say, what about the new settee I wanted? Where's that got to? Well, I expect it comes in the daily bread, don't you? But God is interested in settees, you know, he made us that shape so that we can sit on them, and he who made them us that shape so that we could sit on such things... intends that we shall have things to sit on. We needn't be afraid of asking for the settee. Come, thy estate down to the cause, give us this day our daily bread.
But pray let's get it into proportion. It is in our prayers where our sense of proportion gets sorted up. And we've more to say upon the topic, but it's gone four o'clock and the preachers likewise have to keep to proportions. And right now. I was thinking of teach me that way. Number one, what is your image of the invisible God when you focus on him in prayer, since we worship an invisible God? I don't have any image. And I think I oughtn't.
Except if I want to know what God is like as a Christian, I think of the way the Lord Jesus behaved, how he spoke, what he said, how he acted, what he's done. But as for having a mental image of God, I don't have one. And I think we're not meant to try and have an image of God. He goes beyond all our imaginations. We know of him through his word, through what he has done, and supremely through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And you, of course, will remember that we don't even have a picture of the Lord Jesus still with. And that, I think, is deliberate.
Do you consider that there is a difference between entering into the holy presence of God and coming to the throne of grace in prayer? Is there a difference in your mind? Not in my mind, there isn't. Not like the person wants, uh, confirmation of something they have in their own mind. Well, I, I, I don't know exact, I'm not sure what the question means, but there is a sense, is there not, which we're always in the presence of God, for in him we live and move and have our being, Jews say. And in that sense is, uh, that we are in the presence of God. But if we come into the holiest of all, as Hebrews chapter, uh, uh, ten puts it, I take it that is in the sense coming into the divine presence.
Right. Keeping on the same subject, coming into the presence of God. Uh, we approach through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has made the way available. We have the Holy Spirit that helps us to pray. The Lord Jesus, uh, told us in his instructions to address the Father. Is it in any way wrong to address Jesus Christ in prayer rather than the Father? We don't address the Holy Spirit. Is it also wrong to address the second person? Well, I noticed that in the days of his flesh, people addressed requests to the Lord Jesus.
If he's the same today as forever, uh, then it can't be wrong to address requests for him now. You'll see. Eh, moreover, uh, in John chapter fourteen, I think is the passage, our Lord, uh, seems to say, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it. If you ask me anything in my name, I will give it. Admittedly, that reading depends on a variant reading in the manuscripts, but I believe it is correct. So that, uh, I wouldn't say it is, uh, wrong to address, uh, prayer or worship to the Lord Jesus now.
Uh, certainly after his resurrection, Thomas addressed worship to the Lord Jesus in the highest possible terms. He said, my Lord and my God. John chapter five, our Lord says that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father, because he and the Father are one. A change of direction now, concerning listening to God, a two-way conversation where we speak to God in prayer, and we also listen. This listening is quite a problem to some of us. How, how would you advise any assembly, any church, to listen to God?
As an assembly, not just as individuals, but as a group of people. How do we listen to God as such? Oh. Uh, yes, I th- I take, uh, I take your point and the difficulty of it, yes. Eh, I, for one, cannot speak of any voices ever coming out of the blue at me, so to speak, uh, uh, hearing a voice from the blue. Eh, I think there are various ways of listening to God, one through his word. We need minds, uh, that are filled with his word. God does use his word to speak to us. And he uses his word when we read it.
He uses his word, uh, that is stored in our memories, that his Holy Spirit brings to our memories. I think the Holy Spirit also himself, uh, communicates with our spirits. Romans chapter eight says that the Spirit witnesseth with our spirits. Now, if you ask me how it's done, I can't tell you. But the Romans eight affirmed it, that the Holy Spirit witnesses alongside with our spirits and has spiritual communication therewith. Another way that God speaks to us is through prophets. I still believe, please don't throw me out, uh, I still believe that, uh, God has prophets.
Not, uh, folk who go down the street and consult like Samuel did or Saul did for half a crown and get an answer. But God does speak to us through our fellow members of the body, and a word comes sometimes without them knowing it is a word to our hearts, you'll see. Eh, uh... I myself think it is important to observe what the Lord Jesus said before he went away, I will manifest myself to you. Uh, I take that literally. I don't think it means that we see visions and hear voices. On the other hand, after the resurrection, before our Lord ascended to heaven, he spent forty days appearing to his own.
And I think he gives us in those, uh, occasions little examples of what he do. To the two on the road to Emmaus, they came near a stranger. They didn't even know it was the Lord anyway, but there was something about it as they talked the Bible with him that, uh, moved their hearts very strongly. They discovered eventually that it had been the Lord talking to them. I think our Lord still does that, not every day of the week. There are times when he comes, and, uh, very often we recognize it when it's finished, what has happened. Similarly, Mary in the garden.
She didn't get a long theological exposition from the Bible, because Mary, well, she was a very good soul, was Mary. Perhaps she wasn't, you know, theological Bible study wasn't necessarily Mary's absolutely strong point. Uh, she loved the Saviour, and in the garden the Lord made, appeared to her and made her relationship with God so very real. And similarly, for those who were working in the boat, our Lord so interposed that when the miracle was over, they realized it had been the Lord. I think very often it is thus beyond our powers of explanation that believers sense that God has spoken and represents a very real approach of the Lord Jesus.
