Okay, Pious and Elaborate Treatise Concerning Prayer and the Answer to Prayer by John Brown of Wemphrey. We'll be looking at the second part of chapter 13, which is the chapter concerning the right manner of praying to God. John 14, 13 and 14 is the verse that Brown is contemplating. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. So we're up to the fifth thing that is to be studied in the manner of right prayer. And I think there are 13 things that we're going to be looking over today. We'll be looking at five through 13. We've looked at the first four. And there are a number of digressions on several of these points, some of them longer than others. in order to flesh out exactly what it is he is trying to get you to understand. So, let's begin with question 279, what's the fifth thing to be studied in the manner of right prayer? And what he says is this, if we understand that God is the spirit under whom we are praying, then our praying ought to be spiritual. He wants to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. So he's looking for more than just what the Bible would call lip service, or an outward conformity. So that takes on a number of particulars that he wants us to consider, what that entails. So 280 particulars it includes. So the first particular A is that in order for us to pray spiritually, we need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. What's Ephesians 4.23? It says we have to build up a spiritual house to the end that we're a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifice. You'll notice that word spiritual coming up a lot. That's his point. It has to be spiritual. And the only way we're going to do that is, first of all, through the renewing of the mind. What he's pointing at here is something that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians where he says that only the spirit knows the things of the spirit. The mind of man, the carnal mind of man, can't possibly understand, can't encompass these kinds of things. So the mind has to be renewed. It has to be expanded so that it is able to comprehend not just the outward letter, not just the outward conformity or point or principle of conformity, but that inward conformity. that spiritual bent-ness, which we lack, frankly. We don't have that by nature because of the Fall. So there has to be a renewing of our minds. Second, And this is really, I think, an expansion on this. He says we have to have a spiritual frame and disposition while we go about prayer. And he points to Ephesians 5.18. He says, look, this is the problem with drunkenness. This is the problem with being satiated with carnal delight. You cannot possibly approach God in a proper spiritual frame when what you're doing is you're fanning the flames of the flesh. Which is why fasting is so fucked up. Yeah, fasting is exactly the opposite of the indulgences that are being condemned. I mean, the Bible condemns gluttony and drunkenness for that reason. And so fasting is more conducive to that frame of mind. It's a good means to gain better control. All right, third, we're seeing. He gets this one from Romans 8, 26. He says, our petitions are to be framed by the Spirit who helps our infirmities and makes within us intercession for us. We don't exactly know how to pray or for what to pray. So we're, at best, we're kind of turned in a direction. But the Spirit of God in us, if we are believers, the Spirit of God in us is going to lead us in a sense in a way that we do not know. I know there's a big, at least one time there was a big emphasis on this verse in Pentecostal circles. The Spirit helps us pray in groanings which cannot be uttered and an appeal to praying in tongues and all of that. It's not what is in view here. What is in view here is that the Spirit taking up what is lacking in us, even after we're born again. This is not about praying in unknown tongues. It's about praying with that spiritual frame that we talked about in the second point, which is going to allow the Spirit Himself to be at work. We're not going to constrain our prayers. What he's talking about here is really why the Reformed churches have tended to be so averse to set forms of prayer, liturgies of prayer. As helpful as that can be, particularly to get people started praying, we don't have a liturgy of prayer in the Presbyterian Church. We have a directory for public worship which gives us guidance concerning the things for which we have to pray, but there is implied in that the idea that you need to be reliant upon the Spirit of God to pray aright. We're not going to give you a bunch of constraints, but we're going to give you some direction, and you really need to rely on the Spirit of God to move in those directions. Right, fourth. O.D. Our prayers are to be active, lively, and piercing. As he says, not dead and lumpish. I like that word. Lumpish. What he means is we're to go about prayer with the Spirit active in us and through us. and not basically praying kind of like a bump on a log. You know when you're actually engaged in prayer and when you're just sort of going along. And he's saying that we need to be careful that we remain actively engaged in this matter of prayer. All right, fifth, or E, Our soul has to be at work in prayer, not our body only, otherwise it's only going to be a fleshly and not a spiritual service. Now again, there are and have been recognized in the Bible There are certain postures which are more appropriate to praying and others which are less appropriate to pray. It's not that bodily posture is nothing. There is, as in everything we do when it comes to the worship of God, there is a certain amount of reverence that ought to be reflected in our outward comportment. But that's not either sufficient of itself or even the thing that God himself will have respect unto. God is looking at the heart. These other things are helps to us and to those around us that we maintain a more reverential disposition. But as far as the prayer itself, if the soul isn't engaged, you can't possibly be praying spiritually. And if you're not praying spiritually, you're really not praying. Alright, 6th or F, he says we have to approach God in prayer by the Spirit as carried in His arms. He points to Ephesians 2.18 that our access to God who is the Spirit is by the Spirit. So again, although our souls are engaged, ought not be self-reliant in praying. We need to be aware of our need and dependence upon the Spirit of God. Seventh, or G, this is most of our desires, Our most earnest praying should be for spiritual things. So Matthew 6.33, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Very often people People have asked me, or said to me, I prayed about X and nothing. Nothing. Just nothing. You have to ask yourself, were you praying for this seeking first the Kingdom of God? Seeking first His righteousness? Or were you seeking something that was pleasing to the flesh? The fact is that I think even the most hardened unbeliever from time to time will offer up a prayer for something that would please the flesh. but that's not really praying to God. If all that you're worried about are outward things, if all that you're worried about are things that pertain to this life, if your focus is on that, if everything that you're praying about takes its rise from that, you are in disobedience to God in the fact that we're told here to seek first the kingdom of God. I've had people say to me, I just can't do this. I can't worship on my own. I can't maintain family worship. to adhere to or attend where there's some corrupt worship or teaching going on. I've prayed about it. My guess is you haven't. You haven't prayed this way. But then again, they're not resting on the help of the Spirit to get them through that. They're trusting in men of corrupt backsliding. That's exactly how you know that they're not seeking first the Kingdom of God. They're seeking their own comfort. They're seeking their own rest. They're seeking their own pleasure in all of that. if they were concerned with God and His glory first, that thought as an option. See, what happens is a lot of times options are removed from the table once you do that. Things that you thought or you convinced yourself, well that would have been acceptable, you realize couldn't possibly be acceptable if you're seeking first the Kingdom of God. So you're not going to take those things off the table if your first concern isn't God's kingdom and His righteousness, yeah. And even then in those cases where people want to go to a corrupt communication because it might be easier for them because it'll avoid less suffering, well if they're doing the right thing and suffering, that's glorifying God and like the apostles, they can rejoice in that, right? Yes. Yeah, there is, you know, we're called to fill up the afflictions of Christ in our bodies. There is a call to a certain amount of suffering. You can run this question through your head, but if you ask yourself who suffered most in the Bible, it's Jesus. And if you ask yourself who did the most good in the world, it's Jesus. And you have to then say to yourself, well, there probably is a connection. So there's probably a reason why that God is making you suffer in certain ways. You're being brought to suffer in certain respects. But the fact is, if you're seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, it's much more easy to reconcile that to yourself and and find peace in that than if you're not. Because if you're not, you're always looking for a way out that is quite probably not, strictly speaking, lawful. All right, the eighth point, or H. He says we have to remember that when we're seeking temporal things, It should be in its due subordinated place and with a spiritual frame of heart. In other words, we're seeking the things that we do seek in this world, we should be seeking them in order to pursue the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We're not seeking, remember what James says, you know, you ask and you have not because you pray and you want to have these things so you can satisfy your own lust. So God doesn't give them to you. But there are things that you can receive, temporal benefits that are bestowed in answer to prayer when you are praying, seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Remember, you know, if God answers a prayer and you haven't had that But he answers some prayer for some temporal blessing. More often than not, those temporal blessings turn out to be curses. Israel on the quails? Yeah. It happens a lot. 9th or I. He says, in our prayers, our end and design and all of it should be spiritual so that God's name may be glorified. his kingdom might come, he might be obeyed and exalted, and so on. So again, this is about ordering your affections in prayer. You have to order your thoughts, you have to order your affections, you have to order everything. You have to place spiritual concerns above temporal concerns. You need to seek God's glory above your own salvation, even. And I would point out again, I've pointed this out a number of times, but frankly I think one of the great strengths of of our catechisms, the larger and shorter catechisms, is they both begin with a question asking what the chief end of man is. And both of them answer that it's, first of all, to glorify God. Everything else in that answer, you'll see, is subservient to the idea that we ought to glorify God. That thought, if you would just simply meditate on that, you would be so much closer to following these particulars that Brown is laying down here. So the 10th, J, 10th is that our motives to prayer, putting up particular petitions, needs to be spiritual and heavenly, not carnal, low, and selfish." Again, he's telling us we have to examine our motives. It's very easy for us to pray for things that we desire according to the flesh, for selfish reasons, or lower or base motives. It's much harder for us to pray and really desire the Kingdom of God to come, unless and until our minds have been renewed and we have the Spirit working in us. Because those kinds of things, they don't work any pleasure in the flesh. You're not sitting there getting that warm and fuzzy feeling thinking about that. If you just pause here before we move on to the next thing, consider so many churches today construct what they're doing in worship particularly, but in a lot of other activities. These things are constructed in a fashion to please people, to draw people in. How do we make this interesting to people? Rather than challenging people, as the Gospel does, to become interested in God. You know, the whole point of the Gospel is, God is already interested in people. That's why the Son of God was incarnate. God doesn't need to prove anything, and He hasn't set it in the hands of the Church to dumb down this proof? What more could you possibly do to demonstrate God's interest in sinners than God himself has already done in sending his son? There's special music and special programs and interesting trips and jokes and all the things that they do to try to draw people in. Those are things which appeal to people's flesh. People like to be entertained. They like to be caressed. They like to be stroked. They like it when their sense of self-esteem is being raised. The churches that do that are doing exactly the wrong thing. They're doing exactly at a corporate level what people are doing at an individual level when, for example, they drink to excess. They're coddling the flesh. And the Bible commands us to mortify the deeds of the flesh. The Bible commends to us the putting to death of the old man. Think of it as a mercy killing. Because it's either the old man or it's you. Either the old man dies or you're going to die in your sins. in appeal to Christ, you know, you can be strengthened to put to death and mortify sin in the flesh. But if not, it's going to kill you spiritually. All right, 281. What's the sixth thing to be studied in the manner of right prayer? And then a couple of other questions. Why? and what is the correct principle behind praying. So the sixth thing is Brown says we need to be very careful thinking that by our prayers and petitions we could really change God's mind and move him to alter his purpose. And the reason is that our God is a true God and therefore He's unchangeable in Himself and in all His purposes and resolutions. As Job 23.13 says, He's in one mind and who can turn Him? He says, The correct principle is that this is a commanded duty, praying, and the means appointed to the Lord whereby mercies and favors will be obtained. And I would add to that, whereby promises will be fulfilled. Or prophecies will be fulfilled. I think it's a little bit broader than what he's talking about here. So, while you are not going to change God's mind, that is, you're not going to alter God's eternal purpose, when you understand what prayer is, you should understand this. God's purposes If, for example, if God purposes to save someone, His purposes will include moving people to pray for that person. That's what happens in the Old Testament, right, with Daniel. Exactly. And it happens, you can expand that to encompass everything, right? If God purposes to do this or that, One way that we have an indication is his purpose will move his people to pray. Now that presumes we need to make sure that we're numbered among his people. And we need to, of course, make sure that we've observe this hierarchy we just talked about in the previous point. Don't confuse your desires or your purposes for God's purposes. But once you've untangled that, when God moves you to pray about something, very often it's a good indication that God intends to do it. We're not, because of our sinful natures, we're not in a state of perfection. So we're not always going to understand those kinds of spiritual motions correctly. Nonetheless, the more sanctified we are, the more we are likely to interpret them correctly, and That gives us greater reason. As we're sanctified and as we pray, we're actually in a position to take more comfort and find more assurance and more confirmation of all that we believe through prayer. God wants us to command Him in prayer. He's told us to pray for certain things in His Word. He's told us generally to pray about other things in His Word. So when we get to the end of the generalities, sometimes the Spirit moves us in particulars within those generalities. The general rules of the Word. when we're sanctified, when we're in a course of faithfulness, when we're attentive to that, we're much more likely to pray in faith, and praying in faith we're much more likely to see that achieved, the end of that prayer achieved, what the Puritans would call return of prayer. You're going to get an answer. Now occasionally the answer is no, or occasionally the answer is not now. But if God is really moving someone to pray, I think it's a good indication that he intends to do something. So if you don't really care about some situation, don't really care about somebody, it's probably a good indication God intends nothing good for that situation beyond whatever temporal benefits are being thrown that way. All right, the seventh thing to be studied in the manner of right prayer and why. The seventh thing is we have to make sure our prayers are in truth and in sincerity. And the reason is why God hates hypocrisy and double dealing. He's a God of truth. That really shouldn't be a big surprise. God is a God of truth. You don't like it when someone talks to you and their heart's not really in it, right? They're paying you lip service and you know it a lot of times. People don't generally like that. knows infallibly who is and who's not just paying lip service. And the Bible is pretty clear he doesn't like that. All right, 283. How then do we perform all our prayers and uprightness, truth, and sincerity? Let's go through this list. So first, we should hide nothing from God but pour out our hearts when we pray. He points to Psalm 62, 8 and Psalm 119, 26, for example. And even in Psalm 139, where David desires God to search him out and discover himself. So the idea, you want to deal with God with a policy of open transparency. Frankly, nothing else, of course, works, right? I mean, God knows everything anyway. So, praying to God about something and, you know, sort of acting in your prayer like your affections are different than they are, let's say. You're not fooling anyone, except maybe yourself. You're not fooling God. And Sobrano's saying, look, don't do that. That's hypocrisy. If you're praying for someone to be converted, for example, and you really don't even like the person, don't even care about the person, maybe what you should be doing is praying, not just maybe, it's what you should be doing, is praying that you are rightly affected toward that person as you pray for them. You shouldn't stop praying for them, You should pray, but you should also be praying that you would be rightly affected. Again, you can take that principle and apply it in so many things. It may have to do with something that you have to do, a duty that you have to accomplish, but you don't really want to do it. Don't try to fake it with God and pretend like I really want to do this. I really want to honor my parents. But I don't. If you don't, then the first thing you need to do is very openly in your praying to God, say, look, I don't even want to do this, but I know I'm supposed to do this. And I know I'm being commanded to do this. this needs to change. Until you start praying like that, nothing will really change. Because God isn't going to hear the prayers that are coming from painted lips. God hears the prayers of the beggar, right? And the beggar knows that he needs something that he lacks. Correct. And that actually adds the importunity to prayer. Because when you know that you lack something, when you really need it, that's going to make you much more importunate than someone who doesn't even know you need it. Alright, 283B, or the second point here is our lips should not go against or without our hearts. That is, we shouldn't pray for that mercy which our hearts do not desire to have, nor to be delivered from that sin which we desire to hold fast. So again, this is that idea, you know, don't pray, O Lord, deliver me from this sin or that sin. Be a little bit more honest about it. Remember, if you read Augustine's confessions, you know, Augustine basically prays to God at one point and says, oh Lord, deliver me from my sins, but not yet. Right? I want to enjoy them a little bit longer. That at least has, that at least has honesty carrying it. And there's a certain recognition Of course, when you hear yourself say that, it should actually check your spirit. Why don't I want to be delivered from these sins? Why am I content to gad about in these sins? But we need to be very, very careful. A lot of times people you know, pray pretentiously to God. Again, remember, you are praying to the true God who knows everything about you. You're not hiding anything. You might as well be honest about your approach, right? I don't want to be delivered from this sin, but I know I need to be. That'd be a better approach. And I know I need to be, not because of any way I feel, because I know what's been said in Scripture. 3. Be careful not to harbor anything wittingly and willingly in your heart that might hinder return of prayer. In several places, the Bible tells us, if we regard iniquity in our heart, God will not hear us. Psalm 66.18, Job 11.13-15, Matthew 5.23, he references here. And there's more to that, right? I mean, this is exactly why The Bible says he will not and does not hear the prayers of the wicked. They're an abomination to him. God does not hear when we regard iniquity in our hearts. So again, you have to look at it when you're praying If you want to pray a rite, this is a matter of it's me or them. It's either me or it's my sins. One of us has got to go. If God is going to have mercy on me, my sins have to go. If they don't go, I am going, and I'm not going anywhere good. Fourth, D, he says we have to be ready to use all other lawful means, lawful and commanded means, to come by that which we desire in prayer. So if we're praying for grace, and against sin, then we need to pursue grace, we need to avail ourselves of the means of grace, and we need to avoid, suppress, struggle, and strive against our sin. Again, there's no middle ground. Fifth, or E, He says we need to beware of all affectation in prayer. When you pray in an affected way, it's hypocrisy. It turns your prayer into a stage play. God isn't fooled by your theatrics. So be careful. Would that also be, you know, there's that, the mention of the Pharisees who, for pretense, make long prayer and things like that where you're... Yeah, it can be bad for sure. I mean, I understand that's putting on a show for men, but almost like doing that or trying to, I don't know, I've heard people say sometimes they have a difficult time praying around other people because they feel like they don't use the same kind of language they do or they don't know as much as they do or when I hear this person pray they use these long, big words and it's intimidating. That kind of thing where somebody's, I don't know, going over and above to the point where it's just kind of get to the point. It can be that. there needs to be a certain amount of reverence and framing of spirit and framing of words when you're praying publicly on behalf of people. So there's going to be a difference in that regard. There should be. The idea that They, you know, make great pretense and all. Yeah, that's a problem. And sometimes, in fact, probably more often than not, long and drawn-out prayers are pretentious in that respect, particularly when in a public context. Not always. I mean, you know, the Westminster Divines, when they were meeting, Very often, the Divine that opened the assembly that day would pray for an hour. He was probably praying over everything that they were going to consider that day, and had considered maybe the day before, and would come before them. And that's right, I mean, that's what you would expect in that sort of setting. You want to be careful in everything. But yeah, it can turn into pretentiousness. Alright? The sixth, or F, we should singly aim at the glory of God, confess our sins that He may be justified when He speaks, and clear when He judges. We can very carefully, it says, not to sound forth our own praise or commendation. We should be aiming at the glory of God. Seventh, or G, says our affections should be moved and brought on suitably to our petition. So, for example, if we pray against sin, we should detest it and loathe it. If we pray for grace, we should love and prize it at a high rate. And there again, what if you don't feel that way? Then you should be praying that you would. So is part of the idea too, obviously, proper prayer is from the heart first. So any outward dressing that does happen should come from the heart and not be something artificially you're sort of painting on the outside of it. Acting like you're more outraged at this sin problem you have than you are. So your... your pretensions to have some artificial holy ghost going on in you are not fooling God. Right. Because he sees the heart. Right. But if that stuff is coming out honestly... That's a different story. Right. And you're the one that knows if it's honest or if you're... And God knows. Right. And God knows, of course. Does anyone know what David says in the Old Testament? Like, when it's in the Psalms a lot? Like, you know, like, like, search my heart, see if there'd be any way in me, like, I'm being honest here. Yeah, we, I mean, we ought to, look, this is part of the problem with living in the kind of culture we find ourselves in. We're not morally or spiritually outraged enough, frankly, at what's going on around us. We tend to look away when things are said and done, which are not just rude, they're downright wicked. There are things that are downright wicked. And as Christians, it's our job to be in the salt and light of the earth, to do something about it, right? Which we'll get into Alexander Henderson's timeline. Yeah, we have some obligation to say something. And not to let everything pass all the time. I understand, and you know, it's understandable that there are times and there are places where these kinds of responses are going to be much more profitable and you actually have the time, as it were, to pursue it, to make it, from your point of view, efficacious. That doesn't happen It's not all the time. I mean, this is not a matter of, you know, driving around town with your window down and just screaming at people as you go by about every morally objectionable thing you see. On the other hand, very often, in very different contexts where we have the opportunity and ability to rebuke. Rebuke doesn't always have to be stern, but there's an opportunity to rebuke something that is spiritually or morally out of line, and we just pass over. That's a big problem. We really need to get our affections right. Our affections are out of order. When Paul says to the Philippians, he's talking about those who are enemies of the cross. He says their God is their belly, their emotions. People who set their emotions up and are guided first by their emotions. Paul says they're enemies of the cross. Your affections need to be subordinate to your reasoning and your belief. Is that why in the scriptures you see when the heretics would go after the women in the church because they would lead them away captive? Women are certainly in the Bible portrayed as being more susceptible to that sort of emotional manipulation. But when men are men men who are susceptible to that are described as effeminate You know if you want to if you want to understand why? When you hear these these hipsters and people today talking That they they have this very soft-spoken acquiescence in in You know moral degradation The answer is, they're enemies of the cross and they are effeminate, and their effeminacy is precisely because their emotions are being allowed to lead them, rather than their faith and belief. They don't have these things ordered. It's not that we're to be stoics. If we're not to have emotion, But emotion has to be subordinated to and kept in control. It can't lead, it should follow. So your sort of liberality, because a lot of these modern hipster types, a lot of them obviously are very socially liberal in terms of seeking equity for, let's say, downtrodden people, whatever their definition of downtrodden people, that's up for debate, I guess. A lot of the pursuit seems to be out of this, well, I just feel bad for it. That's not the proper... Yeah, you're right. I mean, there's a good reason to be concerned for the poor and to be concerned for people who are being mistreated. There's a case for certain types of social justice. But that case is not, when I see people living like that, I feel bad for them. That's an emotional response. Like there's no social justice for sodomites, because you think, oh, they're both two people, you know, you gotta love them, but there is no social justice for that kind of. No, you can't dismiss the moral dimension, which is what happens when you begin with your emotions. You're going to dismiss that sort of thing, and you can't do that. That's why Paul says people who, God is their belly. They've made their emotions their idol. They are enemies of the cross of Christ. And they'll remain that way. In fact, you see some of these people now, you can't even talk to them. They're offended by everything. These are hyper-emotional people. And I mean, it's like a caricature of what the Bible is concerned about in women. It's way beyond what normal women don't even behave that way. So these people that are behaving that way, it's way beyond what Paul would characterize as silly women being led captive by heretics. It's way beyond that. They're emotionally entirely out of order. And the problem is, one reason is such a horrible thing, you can't reason with someone's emotions. That's right, because their emotions replace fact. They replace everything. They replace a proper sense of right and wrong. Jesus had emotion. All right, he did. In fact, it was Gerhardus Voss who wrote an article for the, I think it was him, I think it was Warfield, but one of them wrote an article for, I think it was Princeton Review, on the emotional life of our Lord. It's a very good article. It's very helpful. to envision, because Jesus shows us the proper place for emotion in life. Like there is a proper place for rage, but it should be dictated by the law of God. Everything should be kept within order. When you have what the Bible would call an inordinate passion. It's an inordinate emotion. Your emotion is uncontrollable. You can't contain it. You can't in any way circumscribe what that's doing, right? You just, you can't, and you keep, you'll tell other people, I can't, I can't, I can't, I just feel this, I just feel this, I just feel this. That's inordinate, and that is sinful, right? It's inordinate. Your emotions are meant to be kept in order, and the order is not to disturb you know, the rational pursuit of the faith. Okay, let's look at the 8th page, 283H. We should pray with our whole spirit, soul, and mind, with judgment and understanding, with will and affection. He says, a hypocrite is a divided man. The sincere man is holy what he is." So again, we're not saying you don't have emotion or you don't have, as he calls it, your affections. Your affections ought to be set in a proper direction. They have to be regulated by faith and a due deference to the law of God. The failure to do this is exactly why you have people say, well, I don't understand how this or that could be wrong when it feels so right to me. Rewind when you said it feels so right to me. You've already told me exactly what's wrong That's not a reason that is sufficient to justify your emotion or the actions that flow from a disordered passion Right ninth or I This is our whole strength should be at the work what's Ecclesiastes 9-10, whatever we do, we should do with all our might, without reserve. So prayer shouldn't be like an afterthought. It's not what you do when you've basically reached the end of your ability to do anything else. It should be pursued with all the strength. And then 10th, or J, He says, we shouldn't labor to express or signify more with our words than is really within. And that's, I think, what you were asking about earlier, using big words and long, convoluted sentences and all of that. Look. what you should be praying is what is flowing out of a heart that is attuned to grace. Don't try to make something appear to be there that's not. And oftentimes it's just merely an Abba Father, something simple. A cry for help, right? Not necessarily a greet. Very often short, sincere prayers are going to be more effectual. When we sit there and agonize, and again I'm not saying there's a time and there's a place. This is why I think when we started this, I suggested maybe keep a prayer diary, keep a list of things, people, things that you're praying about or praying for. You want to be able to just maybe have something to prod you to remember, to make mention of something in prayer. Because again, if you're praying sincerely, not hypocritically, if you're praying out of a right motive, the very fact that you're praying for this or that person or for this or that thing, that's already, I think, an indication that God is purposing to deal with that matter, right, or deal with that person. I can, I mean, on that count I can tell you there's a guy I knew who was witnessing to me at my job years ago. And I left to go to college And he went to a prayer meeting. And at the prayer meeting, they were each asked to put the names of two people on the table to pray for them. And even though he hadn't seen me in a while, I was one of the two names he put on the table. And they were praying for me the night I was converted. That I know. It's a difficult thing to measure from this side of eternity, but if God is putting in your heart to pray for someone or for something, you should do it. Provided it's lawful, according to the glory of God and all of that stuff we've been talking about. All right, 284. 284 which is the eighth thing to be studied the matter of right prayer and then why and the question against what should we guard ourselves, so we When we speak to God in prayer He says we ought to be present in our minds What he means by that is And he illustrates this way, he says, you don't go before a king to talk to a king, and while you're talking, or should be talking to the king, you're gazing off, you know, at the window, daydreaming. Right? Don't do that. And he said, don't do that with prayer. You know, when you're praying, be present. One of those important things, actually be there. Prayer is not something that is effectually undertaken on autopilot. The reason why is, he says it's unseemly for us to be speaking to God in prayer while our minds are are roaming and roving over all kinds of things pertaining to this life. So this is important, this is actually a very important point when it comes to public prayer. You're not just an auditor in public prayer, you should be participating. That is, you should be paying attention to what is being said and continually adding your amen to it. Consenting to it? Yeah, consenting to it. At every point, every petition, you should be adding your consent. You should be present for it. Don't allow yourself to rove. It's a bad thing. It's hypocrisy. It's a sign of hypocrisy. So he says, We should guard ourselves against, this is C, 24C, the wandering of our hearts by remembering what we're about. We should remember who it is unto whom we're come to pray, and we should consider how much advantage we give Satan when we are not present. when you can mark us down, spiritually speaking, as not present. God is watching. He's attending the prayers of His people. He's looking. He sees what's going on in your heart. And Brown is saying there's a sense in which He's, not only can He see, but Satan is aware. You know, Satan is able to read body language probably better than anybody. And, you know, God is marking you either present or absent. You shouldn't be absent. All right, 285, what's the ninth thing? We studied the manner of right prayer. It says we should be fervent in prayer and zealous because we're serving such a great king. Fervent and zealous. So 286 begins to give us a list wherein this fervency should appear. So first, or A, He says our hunger and our desire will be greater after spiritual things than after carnal things. This is how we know whether or not we're actually fervent in prayer. Are you more desirous for your temporal food? or for your spiritual food, for your temporal clothing, or for that spiritual clothing that Christ provides in his atonement. It has to be greater to spiritual things. Second, he says, or deed is true fervor will set us as much if not more on secret and private prayer as on public prayer before others. So if you're fervent, you're going to be fervent not only in public, but in private. This is, you should be at least as fervent in private, if not more, than you are in public. Third, or C. Again, he says, his true fervor will appear in secret as much, if not more, than in more public prayers. So he says, if you seem to be more fervent when you pray publicly than you are when you pray privately, that's not good. Maybe a sign of hypocrisy? Yeah. Not a good thing. And I would just say, here's where, you know, when you read the psalmist or you read different people who are praying in the Bible. Very often you'll read things like, you know, they're pouring out their heart to God. Or they're praying and they're, like Hannah, they're weeping. You know, there's war going on. They are presenting themselves before God as beggars. You expect there to be more fervency in private prayer than in public prayer. And this is tied in with matters of decency and order as well. Fourth or D, it says, if our zeal is for God and His glory, He said we're going to be fervent in our prayers even for our very enemies, that they might be converted. We ought to be praying that the kingdom of Christ is enlarged and Satan is spoiled of his prey. 286E, fifth point. This is where this true Zeeland prayer is. There's going to be more care to have the heart kept warm and the affections boiling than to have what he calls expressions high and raised. In other words, The volume and temperature, spiritually speaking, is going to be higher, probably, than what is on display. In 6 and a half, he says, there'll be care to shake off all sluggishness, all sleepiness and drowsiness, because these make us pray as if we were not praying. 287. Tenth thing to be studied in the manner of right prayer and why. It says, we should not be rash or inconsiderate or hasty in rushing in before the Lord's presence. And the reason is God, the God to whom we speak is great, holy, and jealous. And he doesn't want to have his name profaned or taken in vain. So 288, how do we labor for this cause? A, first. He says we should labor first to have our spirits wakened. A praying man should be a waking man because a sleeping man can hardly speak sense or know well what he says. The second, he says we should labor to have Our hearts freed from the hurry of the things of this world. This world is full of deadlines, cares, concerns. To pray right, you have to cut loose from all of that. Third, or C, we should be composed such that we lay aside other cares, even of lawful things, considering the presence into which we come, the presence of the true God. 288D, fourth thing. We should be sure to observe the frame of our spirit to see if it is in any lively, fit, and suitable frame. Make sure there's no distemper, doubting, faithless doubting. Take a little bit of a spiritual inventory. Fifth, your E. We need to see what spirit we're of so that there isn't any perturbing affection or inordinate emotion of the hard or unlawful desires riveted in the soul. As long as we have all of that emotional or affectional turpitude, we're not going to pray or write. 288F, the sixth thing, we should make sure our hearts are in some measure under suitable apprehensions of his great and glorious majesty with whom we have to do. Be impressed. I think this goes along with the idea, if you were walking into the presence of some very important person and everything in your life, in a sense, depended on it, you really wouldn't be thinking about anything else. You would be focused. Kind of like walking to a job interview, and that's nothing, right? And then seventh, or G, We should have our eye on all inviting occasions so that we don't let any of them slip away. In other words, whenever the Lord, by His dispensations, calls us or invites us to pray, we should take hold of that as an open invitation. It's the 11th thing to be studied in the manner of right prayer and why. So, we need to be careful and watchful when we're about our praying. And the reason why, he says, and this is, I think, a very important thing to consider. Again, we're speaking to the true God in prayer, and we want to be careful that we actually obtain a blessing rather than procuring a curse. So, 290. Commanded to watch in prayer there are five points reasons. Yes First Is because he is a holy pure and heavenly God with whom we have to do and he will not be mocked So we don't want to miscarry and provoke him to anger. 290d, second point, why we are commanded to watch in prayer is Satan is ready and busy. to distract, distemper, divert, and trouble us with sinful thoughts and suggestions and so on. We need to remember that in the midst of all of our praying, every time you go to pray, the more you're disposed to pray, the more likely, at least at first, you're going to meet with some kind of distraction or temptation. From the world of the flesh and the devil? Yeah. Alright, third or C. We have to watch because our hearts are naturally tricky, false and deceitful, and very much prone to step out of the way and forget a praying frame. Fourth or D. He says by neglecting this watchfulness, we actually prejudice ourselves. Because we're not going to be able to lay hold on and improve the assistances as the Spirit gives in prayer. So we do so or fail to do so to our own hurt. The fifth reason for carefulness, watchfulness in prayer, says if we're not careful to watch in prayer, very quickly everything can turn to dead, formal superficiality. and our service can end up being heartless and lifeless. I guess you could also say, if you're not careful, if you're praying against, for example, a certain sin, if you're not careful and watching, you maybe start thinking about that sin that you're praying against and be diverted from the whole purpose of praying against that sin. Could be. Alright, 291. What does this careful observing include? So again, first, A, this includes keeping our hearts in a spiritual, lively, sincere, and zealous frame. Second, he says, and this is important, I think very important addition to that point, he says, when anything is wrong in the soul, he says, we ought to be careful not to foster it, but labor to remedy it immediately. So don't cherish it, don't coddle it, Let's choke it out. 91C, third. We need to be careful that we don't suffer wandering thoughts to lodge there, in our minds as we're praying. On the first observation, he says you should hush them to the door. Show them the way out, but don't dwell on them. Fourth or D, you should not suffer any unbeseeming, irreverent, or unbelieving apprehensions that might be suggested by Satan or anything else to get in the way. Don't do it. 91E, fifth. We need to be careful to keep a harmony between our heart and our tongue. He said this before, but we need to be careful. We don't express what our heart doesn't think. That is hypocrisy. This is going to be a problem. Hypocrisy is a problem. Which is why he keeps going back to this idea. F for sixth. We should be careful that what we utter with our tongues is suitable to His Majesty. Not offensive so that we have no unsavory or impertinent speeches So There should be You're speaking to God There should be a certain amount of reverencing right there should be care don't You know you don't address God in a in common, informal ways. Think about this as though you're coming for, again, a person of high rank and station. You don't want to speak in an offensive manner. Not that God is going to be offended per se. He's not moved by that, but your doing it is indicative of a problem. Something already that's problematic. Seventh, or G, says you need to make sure the heart is kept in an open, receiving, and welcoming posture. an eighth or H, that the heart is kept in a humble waiting and hearkening posture to see what the Lord says and what return of prayer he gives. 292. That's the twelfth thing to be studied in the manner of great prayer and why. It says we should pray with understanding and a well-grounded knowledge so that we'll ask in prayer that which is agreeable to the revealed will of God. And that we do so for our own good and for the glory of God. The reason why, he says, is otherwise you can expect no return but what is contrary to our sinful, rationed, and considered desires. So 293, what does this entail in our part? because there are a few things it entails. First of all, A, we should be well acquainted with the will of the Lord revealed this word. Second, or B, we should be sound in our judgments, not entertaining any error or mistake. Third, or C, we should labor to be free of any carnal interest, because that's going to bias us. And that could be problematic when we pray. Let me just say on that one, by the way, that churches today because of their various views on Romans 13 and other ill-held views regarding magistracy. You have churches that are taking one side or the other in political debates in this country and around the world that are... that are really fights among unbelievers. And people are praying, you know, in an unqualified way for the success or not of you know, say the President of the United States, without any considerations beyond that. And the problem is that while, you know, all of these people tend to do things that are sometimes helpful and sometimes harmful to Christians or to true religion or to people in general. That flows ultimately from the fact that they are not sound Christians, if they're Christians at all, and their individual religiousness whatever it might be, is not and cannot be sufficient to overcome an irreligious, immoral, and godless constitution. So there's a sense in which, you know, when these people go to war, we should be standing back when they're fighting among themselves and just saying, What part do we have in that conflict? It's not to say that we have to remain morally neutral or fail to recognize the validity of moral points. But it is to recognize that, quite frankly, unbelief is a far greater sin, as Samuel Rutherford, for example, points out, than sodomy. Sodomy is against the law of God, but unbelief is against the gospel of God. The grace of God. And the grace of God. So their unbelief is the problem. And to think that that's going to be sorted out on this lower level of morality is to embrace a false worldview. We're not going to be saved by the law, but if they were saved, their laws would reflect that. If they were Christians, things would be much different. So there's a reason why, as Reformed Presbyterians, we don't vote. We don't serve on juries. We don't serve in the military. We don't take notice of office and all of that. And I think it really actually dovetails quite nicely with what Brown is pointing out here. You can't pray a rite when you have that kind of bias that's going to come in. The carnal interest is that I really want the Democrats to win or I really want the Republicans to win or something more broad. It's a party interest rather than I really want... We want the military to do well in their latest invasion. Yeah, regardless of whether or not it's immoral. Right. Latest invasion for the Jews. So, it could be. It is. The problem is unbelief. Unbelief. That's the problem that we have. and why the Jews are so troublesome is their own belief. They form a conspiracy against the truth. The Zionists hate Christianity. Fourth, or D, we should labor to be kept from sinful passions. These will quickly blind our judgment and pervert and corrupt our prayers. This is James and John. would have prayed for fire from heaven upon the city of the Samaritans that refused Christ's logic. This is actually tied very much in, isn't it, with the idea that our affections need to be in control. So we can be outraged at their lack of moral clarity without without going beyond that if our emotions are in better control. 294, the 13th thing to be studied in the man of great prayer and why. He says, look, if we should have right apprehensions of God and faith in his nature and attributes, and he cites Hebrews 11.6, he that comes to God must believe he is. This is the reason why, if we're unbelieving or have unsuitable apprehensions of God, we can't pray to Him rightly, because we have no confidence to find our supplies in Him, nor can we keep a due distance. The last thing that we will address is in connection with this, and that is, to what titles and attributes should our faith be fixed when we pray? This is a pretty good list. So first he says, our faith should be fixed upon God being the true and living God, the fountain of life. He's not like the dead idols. Second, we should be fixed upon God's infinite, His infinite being and incomprehensible being. He is infinite and incomprehensible. Psalm 145.3, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and His greatness is unsearchable. 2.95c Third, His omnipresence. Fixing upon His omnipresence, which fills everything. He's filling everywhere. He's everywhere. And that encourages us, or should encourage us, to pray anywhere we are. There's no place we're going to pray God isn't there. So this gives us a good reason to pray everywhere and all the time. Fourth, we should seize upon his omniscience. It's knowing he tries hard and reigns. Nothing is hid. Fifth, he says fix your faith upon his unchangeableness. He is the same being from everlasting. So he actually hasn't been moved or changed in his mind or purposes and so on. Sixth, we should be fixed upon his all-sufficiency whereby he can supply all our needs according to his riches and glory. Seventh, we should focus on his omnipotency Nothing is too hard for Him. These are all good attributes. Eighth, focus upon His sovereignty whereby He does what He wills and follows what methods He pleases and transcends our thoughts and hopes. 9th or I, we should focus on His riches and riches in grace and mercy. Because that's going to give us encouragement. 10th or J, we should fix our faith upon His truth and faithfulness as a God that keeps covenant forever. Again, that would encourage us to hope and give us reason to be patient and confident of return of prayer. Eleventh, or K, we need to focus upon His holiness, purity, and righteousness. He says that's particularly helpful when we're praying against his enemies. And then 12th or K, we should focus or fix our faith upon his wisdom. His wisdom lets us know that no matter how intricate the case, how difficult, he can see it through to the end. He isn't going to get sidetracked by any of that sort of thing. Alright, in the next chapter we're going to be looking at the right way of prayer being cleared from the fact that God is a Father. So that'll be our topic we're doing next time.