Listen, if you can read the Word of God and not be driven to prayer, then you're not listening to what you're reading. Because whatever you read should be cause for confession of sin in your life, or for praise and gratitude to God for the blessedness of what you read. or thankfulness for the plan that's unfolding. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
Pray until you pray. That means, as D.A. Carson explained, pray long enough and honestly enough at a single session until you get past the feeling of formalism. In other words, when you start praying, don't stop after a few moments. With focused effort, the right words should come.
Unfortunately, we live in a world that makes it tough to pray with that kind of tenacity. Phone calls and text messages barrage us, emails overrun our inbox, a few moments on the Internet turn into minutes and possibly even hours wasted. How do you avoid distractions and consistently pray the way God intends? And how will your life change when prayer becomes an even greater priority? Find out as John MacArthur continues his study titled Elements of True Prayer.
And with today's lesson, here's John. I don't think we can underestimate the need and the value of prayer. And I think the longer we study the Word of God, the more we're going to come back to this theme because it is a repeated theme in Scripture. And I frankly believe that Daniel chapter 9, verses 1 to 19, is perhaps the greatest Old Testament passage. On prayer.
And as we go through, I'm going to give you. A little list of eight things that tell us the nature of true intercessory prayer. Number one. Prayer is in response. to the word of God.
You know why we ought to pray? When we find out God's purpose is in His Word, not because God needs our prayers to do it, but because we need to line up with God's causes. Prayer is for us. It's for us. We line our hearts up with His causes.
We see our sinfulness. We see the need of His grace and power. and we submit ourselves to his plan.
So, prayer and the word are inseparably linked. I don't think you can pray properly unless you're in the word of God. Let me illustrate it to you. The longer psalm Psalm 119 expresses this at least in three verses. Let me just read them to you, and then we'll look at some other scriptures.
Psalm 119:24. Thy testimonies. are my delight. And my Counselors. Thy testimonies are my delight.
And my counselors. In other words, when I read your word, your testimonies, they become the counselor. They become that which instructs my mind. And that's utterly necessary. Go on to verse 99 of the same psalm.
I have more understanding than all my teachers. For thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients. Because I keep thy precepts. In other words, The psalmist is simply saying, If I want to get in on your plans, If I want to understand your precepts, I have to commit myself to your word.
And then in prayer, It isn't that I'm praying for God to change what he's going to do. It's that I am identifying myself with his plans. Prayer and the word are inseparably linked together. For I cannot pray intelligently about his plans. Unless I understand what his word says.
I think of the Apostle John. Jesus says to him in chapter 22 of Revelation, Behold, I come quickly. You know what John does? He prays, he says, even so come, Lord Jesus. You say, John, that's dumb.
He just said he was coming. What are you praying for? And John will say, because I'm identifying with the need for him to come. It's a point of identification. with the purpose and the plan of God.
The reading of the word in prayer. Go together wonderfully and beautifully in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And it might be worth just a look for a moment. In Ezra chapter 9, verse 4, Then were assembled unto me everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel. Boy, when they got the law of God and they read it, people began to shake.
And everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, Ezra 9:4 says, because of the transgression of those who had been carried away, and I sat appalled under the evening sacrifice.
Now when the people came back to the land, they came under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. And when they began to read the word of God and the people began to hear what got them in that captivity in the beginning, boy, they began to shake. And so they read the Word of God. And then verse 5 says, And at the evening sacrifice, I rose up from my heaviness. And having torn my garments and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and I spread out my hands unto the Lord my God, and said, Oh my God!
And then he launches into a prayer. And it is a prayer, as all true prayer is, that is born out of a comprehension of the standards and the plans and the principles and the precepts of God as revealed in His Word. You find in Nehemiah chapter 8. A similar situation. All the people gathered themselves together.
Before the gate called the water gate, and spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses. He read from it facing the street, and he read from morning until midday. And they made him even a pulpit, a podium. In verse 5, he opened the book in the sight of the people, for he was elevated above the people. And when he opened it, everybody stood up, and he read, and he read, and he read the word of God.
And then he explained it, and he told them what it meant. And what was their response? If you read further, you'll find That first of all they began to examine their own hearts. They had some praise and they had some confession. Chapter 9 tells us They were assembled with fasting and sackcloth, and they threw dirt upon themselves, and they separated themselves from foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their father.
You see, again, you have the same response. When the law of God was read, the people were driven to their knees. Listen, if you can read the Word of God and not be driven to prayer, then you're not listening to what you're reading. Because whatever you read should be cause for confession of sin in your life, or for praise and gratitude to God for the blessedness of which you read. Or thankfulness for the plan that's unfolding.
That's why in Acts chapter 6. It tells us that. The apostles had to give themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word. They go together. For another illustration, the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 3.
In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul says, I have been given the dispensation of the grace of God, and by revelation God has made known unto me the mystery, and I am passing the mystery unto you, the mystery which was not revealed in ages past, but is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. And he goes on to describe all the truth of the Word of God. And then he says. For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, I pray that you may be able to comprehend.
You see. This love that is revealed in the revelation of God. And so we find that Paul received the word and it drove him again to his knees. The word generates prayer. When it speaks of God, we long to commune with Him.
When it speaks of blessing, we long to praise. When it speaks of glory, we long to receive it. When it speaks of promise, we long to realize it. When it speaks of sin, we long to confess it. When it speaks of judgment, we long to avoid it.
When it speaks of hell, we pray for the lost. And so the word of God is the cause of prayer. And just because we know something is inevitable doesn't mean that fatalistically we get up off our knees and walk away in some kind of a. sickly theological indifference. Daniel's prayer, as all prayer, is born out of a study and understanding of the Word of God.
That is what frames our prayer life. and shapes it.
So first of all, prayer is generated by God's Word. Second point. Prayer is grounded in God's will. It is grounded in God's will. It is generated by the word.
It is grounded in his will.
Now in chapter 2 Or rather, verse 2 of chapter 9, Daniel says, that I know the word of the Lord through Jeremiah says it will be 70 years during which Jerusalem will be desolate. Clearly revealed. But nonetheless, there is no sign of resignation on the part of Daniel. He believed prayer was, as I said, an element of the fulfillment. If God has a purpose.
His people identify with his will. I don't ever pray, and I don't think anyone ever should. As if we were changing the will of God. We are praying to line our hearts up with his will. And his will is always to bless those who are obedient.
Another illustration that I was thinking of in the same idea. In chapter 6 of Revelation, verses 9 to 11, You find some souls under the altar. And these are the saints. The martyrs. Perhaps the martyrs of the tribulation time.
And they're crying out, How long, O Lord? How long until you avenge us on the earth? How long will evil have its sway? And you know, as I read that, I thought to myself, Well, what do you mean how long? You gotta know how long.
It's three and a half years, it's all over the Bible. But even so, even though they could have read Daniel's prophecies. And they could have understood the writing of the New Testament by that time in the future and known all of what God had planned for that time of Jacob's trouble, that seven years, that three and a half of great tribulation. Nonetheless, even though they may have known exactly how long, there was still the longing in their heart that it end. They were identifying with the injustice being done to God, and they hungered and thirsted that His will would be done.
Let me show you one other illustration, 1 Samuel, that I think is very, very interesting. 1 Samuel chapter 12. And verse 19. And I hope you can catch this as I read it. And all the people, 1 Samuel 12, 19, said to Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not.
For we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask for ourselves a king. You know, they were big on getting a king, and they got one. They got a tall, good-looking one who was a loser. They got just what they asked for. And they said, now pray for us.
Pray for us. Because we know we've defied God in this. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not. Don't be afraid. You have done all this wickedness.
Yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And turn ye not aside. For then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake his people. Why?
For his people's sake? No, for what? for his own namesake. Because it's pleased the Lord to make you His people. Hang in there, folks.
God will never forsake his people. Verse 23. Moreover, As for me. God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray. for you.
What? What's to pray for? You just said that God will never forsake them. That God established a covenant with them, that God has his own name at stake in the keeping of the covenant. What do you mean you?
Might sin in ceasing to pray. What's to pray?
Well, you see, that's human reason. Samuel prayed because he was identifying with God's will for the people. that they live within the covenant Blessed. He says in verse 24, only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart. For consider how great things he's done for you, but if you shall do wickedly, you shall be consumed, both you and your king.
That's a strange consequence. God won't forsake his covenant. God won't change his plan, but you could die. The only way to understand that is that individuals who sin Would miss the promises, though God would be faithful to the nation as a whole. The point that I want you to see in that.
Is simply that Samuel, even though he knew the will of God to be inevitable, still recognized that a failure to pray about it was sinful.
Now I don't know how to harmonize all that. I just know that's how a man of God reacts. to pray consistently with the will of God. I never pray, I'll say it again. I never pray.
For God to change His will. I don't want what he doesn't want to give me, right? I don't want it. I only want His will done. And that's not bitter resentment.
That's not some kind of passive resignation. That's not theological reservation. That's an honest. Genuine statement. We seek God's will.
I know Jesus is coming. And I know he's going to come at the exact hour the father determined that he would come. And yet, ever and always I find in my heart the prayer, even so come, Lord Jesus. That you might be glorified. Even Jesus was no fatalist.
Jesus was going to the cross. And even going to the cross, he asked in the garden, Father! Let this cup pass from me. He rebelled against sin. He rebelled against the consequence of fallen man.
And yet he said, Nevertheless, not my will, but what? Thine be done. He rebelled when he cleansed the temple. He was no fatalist. To pray for God's will.
is to pray that God will be honored and glorified. And lift it up. And so we pray. As it's generated from the Word of God. And as it's grounded in the will of God.
But let me give you a third point and we'll stop. Prayer then is generated by God's Word, grounded in God's will, and characterized by fervency. characterized by fervency. Verse 3. And I think here you have a magnificent picture of fervency in prayer.
Daniel didn't pray like two ships passing in the night. Uh Lord, by the way, I got this little thought I want to drop on you while I'm passing by. That's the way so many pray. Daniel verse 3, watch this. I set my face unto the Lord God.
In other words, he didn't just take a passing nod, he fixed his gaze on the Lord God. There was a passion, there was a persistence, there was an intensity in his prayer. And he says, I set my face unto the Lord God, I fixed my gaze. To seek by, and watch this: by prayer and supplications, that's extended petitioning, with fasting, he went without food, we don't know how long, and with sackcloth, and with ashes, all of those cultural indicators of humility. And I went on praying to the Lord, my God.
They say, Daniel, this is a little ridiculous. I mean, he says it's going to be 70 years. What in the world are you getting so upset about? It's going to be 70 years. Put your ashes back in the pouch.
But there's a seriousness here. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. And that's about as persistent as you can get. In Luke, we remember the story, don't we, of the man who came in chapter 11 and kept banging, banging, banging, banging on the door, and the guy gave him some bread. And the Lord said, If a man who runs a bread store, a bakery, is going to give you bread for your much banging, what is God going to do when you pray with great persistence?
I don't know how it works, but we become a part of God's plan. James 5, 16 says this, the effectual. Energetic. Fervent Prayer of a righteous man, what? Availeth much.
Now, I don't think the much is necessarily in changing eternal plans. I think the much may be in changing us. I think the great value of prayer is what it does for me, not what it does to God. Fervency. I set my face, that's resoluteness.
Unto the Lord God. And he uses the term not Yahweh here, but Adonai. Adenai. Which means Lord, Master, Sovereign, in submission to the authority and the sovereignty of God. And yet, even realizing that God is utterly sovereign and utterly authoritarian, I still by intercession and by entreaty constantly for mercy, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes, continue to pray.
It's a tremendous thing. Down in verse 20, you'll note That he's praying for a long time. And even in verse 20, he says, And while I was speaking, and praying and confessing my sin. and the sin of my people Israel, And presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God. Yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me.
Now I don't know how long it was going on. But he prayed and he prayed and while he was speaking and praying and confessing, And presenting his supplication. This is an ongoing thing. Finally, Gabriel touched him. And so we see that there is a constancy.
In Daniel's prayer. This is hard for us, isn't it? It's hard for us. We live in a society that comes to us in short spurts. It generates thinking patterns in that way.
Our attention spans are limited. We watch half hour television programs. We listen to one little song on a record that lasts three minutes. We watch a 60-second commercial. We live life in little short spurts.
The art of meditation and persistence in prayer is extremely difficult for us. But Daniel was one who gave himself to it. with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And for what? to confess his sin?
I mean, my goodness, this man, Daniel, could get that upset about his sin? Where should I be most of the time? I don't come up to his standard. But I say it: the greater your knowledge of God, The deeper your commitment, the more overwhelmed you are with your sinfulness. Hear Paul.
Who said, I am the what? Chief of sinners. From our vantage point, we say it's ridiculous. From his, because he perceived sin in all of its heinousness, From that pure mind, it was a reality. And so Daniel employs every indication of persistence.
He uses every possible. Act of humiliation as he comes before the heavenly citadel with a petition upon his heart. He wears sackcloth, commonly in the Old Testament, a sign of humiliation. Pouring ashes on his head, another one. Particularly find that in Job 2.8.
And fasting. as he prayed. He was fervent in prayer. And I believe God responds. to fervency.
I think the Lord is calling us to prayer. These are very trying times. We tend to forget all the battles that are on all the fronts that we're fighting these days, and we never really identify with the will and the word of God in the way that this beloved Daniel did. And consequently, we miss that intimate communion. You know, when you pray, you don't always have to come to God for an answer.
Sometimes you can just come to God to carry the weight of the plan of God in your own heart.
So that you can be identified with his great and eternal purposes. The Lord is telling us this because He wants us to react to it. If your theology messes up your prayer life, then you've got a bad theology. Bad one. If you're studying the Word of God, Then the natural response is that you commune with the God of the Word.
You know, I find in my own life that as I prepare a message, The whole experience of preparation. It's a combination of prayer and the ministry of the word. I can never separate the two. For example, I come to a verse and I read it and I say, Lord. What a truth!
And I usually get up and walk around because I have to move. Because I get excited about it. Or I'll come to a verse I don't understand, and I say, Lord, I need your help on this. Illuminate my mind, draw me to a scripture that'll explain this. And the whole process of the word is prayer.
And even as I stand here and preach to you, there's a part of me that is pulling down the power of God all the time because I realize my human frailty. There's no way that I can be in the Word of God without being. in communion with God. And as you study the Word of God, if it's anything less than that, it's. Academics No Prayer should be generated by the word.
It should be grounded in the will of God. I get weary of people going around trying to force God to do something. Claiming and demanding things from God. When God wants us to identify with His causes, which are already determined by His own absolute perfection to be the best causes. And I believe that true prayer is characterized by fervency.
Sure, I know only few are going to enter the narrow gate, but that doesn't mean I don't pray. Sure, I know that the things in this world are going to get worse and worse. That doesn't mean that I don't pray that God would still be glorified in the midst of all of it.
Souls would be saved. Daniel prayed that way. Even though he had an absolute prophecy in front of him.
Well, those are the first three things. Bow your heads with me as we close. Father, help us. We focus again on the reality of the need of prayer. You know, it seems to me, Lord, as I look back on the scripture.
There's very little teaching about how to pray. There's just a lot of prayers. I think I hear you saying that it's not something academic. It's something out of the heart. Jesus Prayed a prayer that was a pattern.
Daniel shows us a pattern. May we hear the words of Samuel. Save us. from sinning. in ceasing.
to pray. for one another. Make us people of prayer.
So that you can Make us part. of the fulfillment of the plans and the purposes that glorify your holy name. For Jesus' sake. Amen. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
John's lesson today is part of his series titled Elements of True Prayer.
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Now for the entire Grace TU staff, I'm Phil Johnson with a question. What's the bigger problem, not praying enough or not knowing what to pray for? To find out, join us tomorrow as we continue John MacArthur's series called Elements of True Prayer. It's another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth. one verse at a time on grace to you.
