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Praying at All Times

Grace To You / John MacArthur
The Truth Network Radio
October 28, 2021 4:00 am

Praying at All Times

Grace To You / John MacArthur

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October 28, 2021 4:00 am

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Now prayer then becomes the closing theme in the letter of Ephesians. It is not mentioned as a part of the Christian's armor. The armor ended in verse 17 and prayer is in addition to that and more prayer is in concert with that.

So the Apostle Paul is not saying in addition to these things add prayer but rather woven into this is prayer. The breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit. John MacArthur has been teaching you how to use these spiritual defenses in his current series on Grace to You. But even if you know how to use this God-given protection, you may still not be ready for Satan's attacks.

To activate your armor, you need one more ingredient. You need prayer. Praying at all times. That's the strategy for winning spiritual battles. And it's the focus of John's message today. He calls his study the believer's armor. And with that, let's get to the lesson. Here's John.

In 1671 was born in Germany a man named Johann Burchard Freestein. He wrote the following words to an old hymn. Rise, my soul, to watch and pray. From thy sleep awaken. Be not by the evil day unawares o'er taken. For the foe, well we know, oft his harvest reapeth while the Christian sleepeth. Watch against the devil's snares, lest asleep he find thee.

For indeed no pains he spares to deceive and blind thee. Satan's pray oft are they who secure our sleeping and no watch our keeping. But while watching, also pray to the Lord unceasing, he will free thee, be thy stay, strength and faith increasing. O Lord, bless in distress and let nothing swerve me from the will to serve thee.

Over a hundred years ago, Charlotte Elliott wrote the words for another hymn. Christian, seek not yet repose. Cast thy dreams of ease away. Thou art in the midst of foes. Watch and pray. Principalities and powers, mustering their unseen array, wait for thy unguarded hours. Watch and pray.

Watch as if on that alone hung the issue of the day. Pray that help may be sent down. Watch and pray. Both of these hymns point up the reality that victory over Satan, victory over his hosts, victory in the warfare with which we are engaged involves a tremendous commitment to prayer. That's what both hymn writers are saying. And that is precisely what the Apostle Paul is saying in chapter 6 verse 18. Now he has already discussed the warfare in chapter 6 verses 10 to 13, and he has discussed very clearly the armor in verses 14 to 17, and now he brings on to bear the theme of prayer, and verse 18 begins praying always. Now prayer then becomes the closing theme in the letter of Ephesians. It is not mentioned as a part of the Christian's armor because it's more than that. The armor ended in verse 17 and prayer is in addition to that and more prayer is in concert with that. So the Apostle Paul is not saying, in addition to these things add prayer, but rather woven into this is prayer. All the while we are attending to the belt of truthfulness and the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of the gospel of peace and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. All the while that we are engaged with those elements, the shield of faith, we are at the same time involved in prayer, praying always, all through the procedure of arming ourselves, all through the demands of the battle, all through whether it's the heat of the war or a lull, we are engaged in prayer. Prayer is the very air we breathe. I remember reading about the kind of animal that lives at the dark places of the sea, down deep in the sea.

It's neither fish nor fowl really, but it lives there and it can stay there in the darkness for some period of time, but then it must ascend all the way to the surface and gasp air and then go back again. And so the believer, all the while in his life, in all the vicissitudes and at all times of his life, must ascend as it were to the throne of God to breathe the air of prayer and then and then alone can he be able to exist in the darkness of the world about him. And that's exactly what Paul is saying here. Prayer is like our breath. I've told you before that it's like breathing.

You don't have to think to breathe because the air exerts pressure on your lungs and forces you to breathe. And so as a believer, not to pray is to hold your breath spiritually and the results are all bad. All the while you live the Christian life, all the time you put on the armor, all the time you fight, you are breathing and breathing and breathing as it were in prayer. Prayer pervades all of that. I think in reading Pilgrim's Progress of how God gives to Christian in that wonderful allegory a weapon called all prayer and the instruction that when everything else fails, this will cause you to be able to defeat all the fiends that come in the valley of the shadow. But prayer is really more than Bunyan sees it there. It's more than an additional weapon. It is the atmosphere in which all our living occurs, all our fighting and all our arming ourselves. It is pervasive in that sense. Now the fact that it is climactic in the book of Ephesians is planned by God's Holy Spirit.

It is not by accident. Our Lord urged men always to pray and not to faint in Luke 18.1. And He knows that in the battle when it gets hot, you can faint, you can get weary, you can give up, you can abandon the fight if you don't pray. You really only have two alternatives. You either pray or faint.

There's no middle ground. And so in the warfare that He's just talked about, prayer becomes vital. But it's more than just that context. The reason prayer comes here is because it fits the ending of the total book. The whole letter of Ephesians comes to a climax and a peak and a pinnacle at this point. It's as if prayer is like the musical crescendo in the great anthem of praise that is the book of Ephesians.

Now let me show you why I say that. If you go back in Ephesians, you will find that this book probably more than any other book in the entire Bible presents the resources of a believer. In my mind, I don't see any other book matching it in stature as far as a delineation of the resources that are ours in being in Christ.

It is incomparable in that sense. It is a long cataloging of all those hours as Christians. What Peter says in one simple phrase, that we have all things that pertain to life and godliness. What Colossians 2 says in that one simple phrase, you are complete in Him, is really magnified and exploded to its fullness in the book of Ephesians. All our completeness is here.

All our resources are here. And the key to that is chapter 1 verse 3, blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. And then he goes on to delineate them for six chapters. It's a monumental cataloging of all that is ours in Christ. And it lifts us to great heights. It starts us as it were in the heavenlies. We start in the glories and we stay there for the whole book until finally we come to chapter 6 18 and God demands that we fall on our knees. And prayer then becomes the key, now mark it, to appropriating the resources.

They're all there and they are all ours in Christ. But we cannot simply float around in the glory as it were. We have to come to the reality of being on our knees before God so that these things can be implemented in our lives. And so the book that begins in the heavenlies ends on its knees, as Paul calls us to prayer. Now you might think in a book with such tremendous resources, prayer wouldn't be very necessary.

What would be to pray for? For example, listen, according to chapter 1 verse 3 we are super blessed. According to chapter 1 verse 4 to 6 we are super loved. According to chapter 1 verse 7 we are forgiven and redeemed. Chapter 1 verse 8 says we are given wisdom.

Chapter 1 verse 11 says we are made rich. Chapter 1 verse 13 says we are secure, sealed with the Spirit. Chapter 2 verses 4 to 6, we are alive with new life. Chapter 2 verse 7, we are the objects of eternal grace. Chapter 2 verse 10, we are God's masterpiece. Again chapter 2 verse 10, we are called to a life of good works which God will do through us. Chapter 2 verses 13 to 18, we are one with God and with every other Christian. Chapter 2 verse 19, we are members of God's intimate family. Chapter 2 verse 22, we are the very habitation of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 3 verse 20, we are powerful beyond our own imagination. Chapter 3 verse 21, we are able to glorify God.

What an incredible definition of a human being. Amazing what God has done for us, beyond anything we can even imagine. And when you move from there into the fourth chapter, it just keeps going. In chapter 4 verse 3, we are told we possess the living Spirit of God in us. In chapter 4 verses 4 to 6, we are members of the body of Christ. In chapter 4 verses 11 to 13, we have received gifts and gifted men to perfect us, to do the work of the ministry.

In chapter 4 verses 20 to 24, we have Jesus Christ to teach us to walk a new life. In chapter 5 verses 1 and 2, we have received the love of God so that we can walk in love. In chapter 5 verse 8, we have received God's very light so that we dwell in light. In chapter 5 verses 15 to 17, we have received the wisdom and the truth of God so that we can walk wisely in the world. In chapter 5 verse 18, we have received the power of the fullness of the Spirit of God. In chapter 5 verses 21 through chapter 6 verse 9, we have received the resources to make every human relationship all that God ever intended it to be. Finally, in chapter 6 verses 10 to 17, we have received invulnerable, invincible, fantastic, powerful armor against which Satan is hapless and helpless if we use it. Climaxing itself in the sword of the Spirit, the magnificent weapon of the Word of God which is in the hand of every believer.

Now that's a tremendous picture. That's all what it is to be a Christian. Now by the time you've gotten all that in your head and you recognize your exalted position in Christ and you see the resources for effective Christian living and you know you lack nothing, you immediately then face a problem. And the problem is what you might call a kind of doctrinal egoism. A problem may be defined in 1 Corinthians 10, 12, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he what? Fall. You can actually become what I would call a spiritual atheist.

In other words, you have a full belief in God, you just don't need Him. We are so adequate. We have so much knowledge. We have so much information. We have so many resources.

We understand our position. We know our gifts. We've seen God's blessing. We've had so much success and very little failure and so it's easy for us to just move along and not really acknowledge God at all. We can fall into a terrible sin of feeling we're adequate and losing a sense of dependence on God.

I guess we should pray as one brother prayed that God would give us enough success to know He's there and enough failure to desperately need Him. We have so many things going for us in our society, in our church, in our lives. We've seen such tremendous blessing of God that it's easy to become smug and reduce everything to the how-tos and the gimmicks and the programs and the methods.

And we've got it all and we've done it all and it's all great, you know, maybe our marriage is working out, our kids are good, everything's fine at the church, it's all wonderful. And we become spiritual atheists. We just tune God out. And that kind of passionate, deep, longing, yearning, earnest prayer that God calls from our hearts just isn't there.

The armor is not mechanical and the armor is not magical. It needs God. God infuses into the armor and God infuses into our resources His power and His energy. So there is the latent danger that Christians who have a knowledge of doctrine and some kind of a history of success and a fairly effective grip on practical spiritual principles can become satisfied and they don't need a heart-rending, passionate, constant prayer. And that's a tragedy. And that's why the epistle that begins in the heavenlies ends on its knees, because all of that is dependent on prayer. You look at your life and you say, I know so much but I don't see too much happening.

Well you think the armor or you think your resources are either magical or mechanical and they're not. They're dependent on prayer. The soul of man moving in the presence of God. Now that's what Paul wants us to see, so let's look at it. First of all, I want you to see the general instruction in verse 18.

The general instruction, verse 18. And you'll notice there are four alls praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Now here you have the four alls of prayer. Four times all is emphasized.

This is so great. Each piece put on with prayer. Prayer pervades all that we are and we do. It is the all-encompassing element of our lives.

That's why I say it is the air we breathe. There's no time in our lives when we should not be in prayer. Let's look first of all at the frequency of prayer.

We'll take these alls one at a time. The frequency of prayer. Verse 18, praying always. When are we to pray?

Always. Now some of you have come out of backgrounds where you prayed reading out of a prayer book or where you prayed at a certain set time. You know the Jewish people used to pray at certain times and even in the book of Acts when the early church met, they met for the prayers it says.

And that was really a holdover from their old Judaism. The set times of the day for the prayers. But the New Testament of the New Covenant and the birth of the church brought a new era and that is that there is to be an always character to prayer. We are not praying at the set times anymore. We are praying at all times on every occasion at every time. Jesus gave us indication this was coming when He said in Luke 21, 36, Watch ye therefore and pray always. And the early apostles said it in Acts 6, 4, We will give ourselves continually to prayer.

Continually. Not only to those prescribed prayers, but to all prayer. It was said of Cornelius in Acts 10, he was a devout man and prayed to God always. In Romans 12, 12 it says, continue diligent in prayer. In Colossians 4, 2, continue in prayer. In Philippians 4, 6, in everything by prayer. And summing it up, 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, pray without...what?...ceasing.

2 Timothy 1, 3, the Apostle Paul indicated that he did that. To Timothy he wrote, Without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. We are to pray always. In Acts 12 we find the church praying constantly.

And even though their prayer was somewhat weak in faith, God answered. So that there is a pattern of praying at all times. I used to wonder what this meant because my life was filled with so many things there was just seemingly no way I could pray at all times. And obviously you can't run around with a little book reading prayers all through the day, you know. You go to Israel and you see those Jewish people genuflect in front of the Wailing Wall and go on hour after hour through their prayers.

It isn't just walking around mumbling certain formulas, vain repetition. It is simply living your life in God consciousness. It is that your whole life rises before God in communion and communication. I can look at my own life and I used to wonder how you could pray always, and now I find very few times in my life when I'm not conscious of God. Everything I see and everything I experience in my life simply becomes a prayer.

That is, it's something I share with my best friend. It's something that instantly is communicated with God. If I am tempted, immediately I find that temptation becomes a prayer. Lord, you know what I'm going through?

Help me in this. If I see something good, my first thought is, God, You're the source of every good and perfect gift. Thank You for that. If I see something evil, I say, Oh God, that evil should reign.

Or, Oh God, make it right. If I see somebody without Jesus Christ and I have occasion to meet them, my first response is always, Oh God, it's so sad that they don't know You. Draw them to Yourself. If I see trouble, I say, God, You're the Deliverer. In other words, life becomes an ascending prayer. All of its thoughts and all of its deeds and all of its circumstances become a cause or a point of communication with God. That's the way to live, see?

That's what it means to set your affections on things above. That's what it means to think about Christ, to have His conscious presence in your mind so that everything becomes a prayer, all your life and all your thoughts. And I guess really that's the whole point of the Christian life, you see. You see, the reason God saved you was for fellowship.

Did you know that? He saved you for fellowship. That's what 1 John says, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. Why do you declare the gospel? That you also may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. God saved you for fellowship.

He wants your fellowship. And there's no greater expression of fellowship than prayer. That's when you commune with God. And if you've been saved and you don't commune with Him, you're denying Him the purpose for which He saved you.

You're denying Him the purpose for which He redeemed you. You're saved to enter into fellowship with Him. And so we ought to continually pray the root word in Colossians 4 to continue in prayer is the root kartareo. It means to be steadfast, to be constant. It's used of Moses when it says he endured in Hebrews 11, 27. The term is used in its intensity in Colossians with a preposition added to the front and it means to be intense, to hang in there in constant prayer. The idea is not just some kind of easy going, once in a while dropping a prayer to the Lord, but a whole life of strong persevering, struggling over deep issues.

And you know, it's just a way of life. When your heart is open to God, earnest, strong, courageous, persistent prayer, holding on and not letting go till you're blessed. You know how our Lord Jesus gives two illustrations in Luke 11 and Luke 18? He talks in one portion about the unjust judge and the woman kept coming and begging and begging and begging and finally the unjust judge did what she wanted. And the Lord is saying if an unjust judge will give something to a persistent lady, what do you think a just God will give to His own child if He persists? And later on, remember the guy bangs and bangs and bangs on the door and the man says the store is closed, go to bed, I'm in bed with my wife and kids, I'm not getting out.

He bangs and bangs and finally the guy says it's okay and he gives him the bread. And what Jesus is saying is if a sleepy man who's tucked in and asleep will come down and give bread to somebody banging on his door, what do you think a loving father will give to a son who has a need? And the point in both of them is they kept persisting and they got what they wanted and God is saying if you're persistent and faithful in your prayers and you pray with importunity, then he'll hear an answer. And so life is to be a constant exercise of prayer. Oh, beloved, you can know so much and never think about God. All you ever think about is the things that you've learned and the whole purpose of what you have learned is to draw you into the presence of God. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. To learn more about prayer's vital role in spiritual warfare, tune in tomorrow as John continues his series from Ephesians chapter 6 called The Believer's Armor. John, you've written a number of books on prayer. There's even a book of your pulpit prayers that's available. So I think a lot of us would get the impression that somehow it's easy for you to pray, but prayer for most of us is the hardest of all the spiritual disciplines.

So what would you say to a new Christian? What is the best way to develop a rich, intense prayer life? You need to know how to pray, and that means you need to pray the way Jesus taught us to pray, right, in what we call the Lord's Prayer, but it's actually the Disciples' Prayer. And I've pulled all that together in a wonderful little gift book called Lord Teach Me to Pray. It's very, very important that you pray the way Christ taught us to pray. And in that Disciples' Prayer, he showed us the structure for our prayers. Prayer is essential. It's our spiritual breathing, and James says you have not because you ask not or you ask wrongly. So you want to pray the right way because you're accessing the blessings of heaven.

But I would say something secondly to this. It's very hard to think on your own, just let's say to think, to just create a sitting where you're just sitting there thinking. Very few people can concentrate like that on their own, and that would be true in prayer because you can so easily be distracted. If you want to be able to think things through, what I've learned is you need to have a conversation with somebody. I can stay on message.

I can stay on theme. I can think deeply about something. For example, if I'm talking to you about it, Phil, and you're giving me feedback, all of a sudden that thinking, when I verbalize things and you verbalize back and we refine and we keep each other on the subject, that's really, really productive. It's hard to be able to do that just isolated on your own unless you're pretty trained to do it. And I think prayer is the same thing.

I think the way to cultivate an effective prayer life is to make it a conversation with somebody that you care about, somebody that you love, somebody who's a part of your life, and do it together. And that'll teach you and strengthen you in being able to do it on your own. And I know the Bible says, go into your closet and pray. And you will do that.

You will do that sort of automatically. I have to look at my own life and say, I am more likely to pray about something than do anything else because that's kind of the default. And it's sort of an open conversation with the Lord all the time. But I think when you're starting out to pray, it's really helpful if you can pray with someone or with a small group of people and cultivate the kind of conversation that really is rich. But to get you started, order a copy of Lord Teach Me to Pray. Yes, friend, this book, Lord Teach Me to Pray, will help you ground your prayers in Scripture and develop a powerful and effective prayer life. Order your copy of Lord Teach Me to Pray when you get in touch today. You'll reach our customer service team at 800-55-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. There you can purchase Lord Teach Me to Pray. It's a practical book for any believer, but especially for newer Christians.

So you might want to get a copy or two to give away. Again, to place your order, call 800-55-GRACE or go online to gty.org. And thanks for remembering that Grace to You is supported by people just like you, people who are listening and learning from these daily Bible teaching programs and who want others to benefit. To stand with us financially, particularly important as we get to the end of 2021, click on the donate button at gty.org. You can also express your support when you call us at 800-55-GRACE or you can send your tax-deductible gift to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. And thanks also for mentioning this station's call letters when you get in touch. That's more important than you may realize. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, inviting you back tomorrow when John will continue his look at prayer, the spiritual discipline that connects and energizes every piece of the believer's armor. Be here for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-07-30 10:07:32 / 2023-07-30 10:18:03 / 11

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