Teach Us To Pray – Part 4
Luke 11:1-13 (4b)
April 14, 2019
As you know, we are currently listening to Jesus’ instruction
About prayer to His disciples.
They wanted Him to teach them to pray, and this was His answer.
We are in that first point which we called:
#1 A PATTERN TO FOLLOW
Luke 11:1-4
In that we have been looking at what we call
“The Model Prayer” or “The Disciples Prayer”
And in this we have identified 6 realities
That our Lord introduces as what it means to pray effectively.
1) THE FOUNDATION FOR PRAYER (2)
“Father”
2) THE CHIEF MOTIVE FOR PRAYER (2)
“hallowed be Your name”
3) THE FOCUS OF PRAYER (2)
“Your kingdom come”
4) THE DISCERNMENT OF PRAYER (3)
“Give us this day our daily bread”
And last time
5) THE HUMILITY OF PRAYER (4a)
“And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”
And I don’t want to go over and rehash those any more than that,
For we’ve been on those points now for the past 3 weeks.
This morning I want to give you the final reality that our Lord gave for us in this PATTERN to follow.
But before we jump into it, I want to call your attention
To some passages of Scripture
That perhaps have caused you difficulty in the past.
Verses like:
Psalms 5:10 “Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You.”
Psalms 10:15 “Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none.”
Psalms 17:13 “Arise, O LORD, confront him, bring him low; Deliver my soul from the wicked with Your sword,”
Or even one which we will be studying tonight:
Psalms 35:1-3 “Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of buckler and shield And rise up for my help. Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
Psalms 58:6-8 “O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth; Break out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD. Let them flow away like water that runs off; When he aims his arrows, let them be as headless shafts. Let them be as a snail which melts away as it goes along, Like the miscarriages of a woman which never see the sun.
Psalms 59:5 “You, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, Awake to punish all the nations; Do not be gracious to any who are treacherous in iniquity. Selah.”
Psalms 69:22-28 “May their table before them become a snare; And when they are in peace, may it become a trap. May their eyes grow dim so that they cannot see, And make their loins shake continually. Pour out Your indignation on them, And may Your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be desolate; May none dwell in their tents. For they have persecuted him whom You Yourself have smitten, And they tell of the pain of those whom You have wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity, And may they not come into Your righteousness. May they be blotted out of the book of life And may they not be recorded with the righteous.”
And we could go on with readings from:
Psalms 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, 140
They are simply referred to as THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS
To imprecate means “to call down evil” or “to pray down judgment”
That is clearly what is expressed in those Psalms when you read them.
• And honestly, you can’t even just over spiritualize them just to be a
reference to the devil and not evil men.
• If you’re going to be an honest reader of Scripture, you have to take them for
what they say.
They are passages that have caused
A great deal of interpretive trouble to many in the church.
For we are well aware of our LORD’S COMMAND:
Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
We are aware of our LORD’S EXAMPLE:
Luke 23:33-34 “When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.”
We remember prayers like the one from Stephen:
Acts 7:59-60 “They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.”
Most Christians are pretty clear in their understanding that
Christianity does not advance through some sort of militant Jihad.
Even when James and John wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans, Jesus was quick to rebuke them saying:
Luke 9:55-56 “But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village.”
If it’s not obvious to you, it should be.
• We are not those who desire the death of the wicked.
• We, like our heavenly Father, take no pleasure in the realities of judgment.
• We forgive our enemies.
• We refrain from taking our own revenge.
• We don’t blow up abortion clinics
• We don’t picket military funerals
• We don’t kill infidels
Those things are clear to us, certainly when we read the New Testament.
And that is what makes these imprecatory Psalms
So confusing to us.
The Psalms are God’s hymn book.
The Psalms are God’s inspired songs for the church.
And yet some of them appear down right ruthless.
How are they to be interpreted?
What are we to do with them?
I’ve heard of many theologians who just choose to leave them out.
• They choose to ignore them as chapters that don’t fit in the Bible.
• They certainly could not imagine singing a song like that in church.
Psalms 58:10 “The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.”
Certainly we would admit that it’s hard to imagine
A Psalm like that being used in a greeting card.
And so what typically happens is that
• Christians read them,
• Sort of perk their heads back in shock,
• Make an internal judgment that we shouldn’t be like that,
• And then just move on.
The issue can become a little more muddled
When we read the book of the Revelation
And find imprecatory prayers being prayed in heaven.
Revelation 6:9-10 “When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
Revelation 16:4-7 “Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
Or even that infamous Hallelujah Chorus in Revelation 19
Revelation 19:1-4 “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.” And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
We see that same attitude that is listed so frequently in the Psalms.
WE RECOGNIZE THE CONFUSION.
• Doesn’t it seem like a contradiction?
• Doesn’t it seem like Jesus would have struck all those Psalms from the Bible?
I mean in all honesty, what are we to do with those Psalms?
What are we supposed to do with prayers like that?
AND EVEN MORE HONESTLY,
Here we are in Luke 11 where Jesus taught us to pray,
And the question we want to deal with is does Jesus include that or not?
Is there any place in this model prayer that Jesus gave His disciples
That would find room for prayers like those uttered by the Psalmist?
And the answer is, “YES” there is.
We’ve actually already discussed one of them.
When Jesus taught us to pray “Your kingdom come”
Now, PRIMARILY that is a request for the salvation of the wicked.
DON’T MISS THAT
BUT IN ITS FULLNESS it is still a request for the kingdom to come
Even in light of the fact that not all men will repent,
And those who do not will be judged by the coming of that kingdom.
Consider the imprecatory Psalm 7
Psalms 7:12-16 “If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready. He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts. Behold, he travails with wickedness, And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood. He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the hole which he made. His mischief will return upon his own head, And his violence will descend upon his own pate.”
It is important that you understand this.
If you miss this, you’re going to misunderstand everything
In regard to the imprecatory Psalms.
The imprecatory Psalms are inspired by God.
They every bit as much the word of God as John 3:16 is.
That means they are not contrary to God’s nature,
But they are a perfect depiction of God’s nature.
They are who He is, just as surely as the love chapter is who He is.
And if you read those Psalms you will notice that even in those prayers of judgment there is also a prayer for the wicked to stop what they are doing.
• There is a prayer that they will repent…
• There is a prayer that they will relent…
• There is a prayer that they will stop being wicked…
Certainly that is our desire.
That is even what we mean when we pray about God’s kingdom coming.
We want sinners to repent.
However, even the heart of God is clear that
Unrepentant men are not simply overlooked, they are judged.
And a prayer for Christ’s kingdom to come
Is not just a prayer for the salvation of His people,
But also it is a prayer for the judgment of His enemies.
• We have read the book of Revelation.
• We are aware of what will happen to this world when Jesus returns.
• We have read the account of the battle of Armageddon.
And when you pray, “Come Lord Jesus” or “They kingdom come”
In one sense that is an imprecatory prayer.
Do we delight in the destruction of the wicked? NEVER
But we also do not delight in the blasphemy of God
And the dishonoring of His name.
So we pray first for sinners to repent,
But we still pray for that kingdom to come.
So yes, imprecations are included in what Jesus taught us to pray.
BUT THE REASON I BRING THIS UP NOW IS BECAUSE
I think it is also seen here in this last reality that our Lord introduces.
This morning I want to give you the last of those 6 realities.
The Foundation, The Chief Motive, The Focus, The Discernment, The Humility
6) THE SOBERNESS OF PRAYER (4b)
“And lead us not into temptation”
To help you better understand why I use the word “soberness”
I would begin by reading:
1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
• Sticking your head in the sand…
• Being naïve to danger…
• IS NOT A WISE PRACTICE
There is a war; we have an enemy; you must be on the alert;
And part of that alertness has to do with your prayer life.
Now, let’s look at the statement.
“And lead us not into temptation.”
We are familiar that Matthew’s gospel adds, “but deliver us from the evil one”
And again, I think that is implied here in what Luke records.
“lead us not into temptation”
First let me just address some of the CONFUSION around that statement.
Some have seen a problem with this statement.
For we read:
James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”
So someone can read James 1 and see that God does not tempt anyone.
That prompts then to ask:
“Why are we commanded to pray for God to not do what He already says He will never do?”
Obviously, in light of James 1, Jesus is NOT IMPLYING that God is going to tempt you to sin if you don’t specifically ask Him not to.
THAT IS NOT THE NATURE OF GOD.
HE IS NOT GOING TO DO THAT.
Now, please understand that God does test our faith.
Genesis 22:1-2 “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
Deuteronomy 8:2 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”
James 1:2-3 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”
God doesn’t tempt us, though He does test us.
But that isn’t even what Jesus is talking about.
• For it would also be strange to ask God not to test our faith when we know that
everything God does is for our good.
• James even said that the testing of our faith produces endurance, and that is a
good thing.
So certainly we aren’t even praying that God will refrain from testing us.
What is Jesus talking about then?
He is telling us to pray that
We will not be delivered into the devastating attacks of the enemy.
What we are talking about here is THE SOBERNESS OF PRAYER.
It is the requirement that you and I be aware that prayer is a serious endeavor.
We are in a constant spiritual war.
WE HAVE AN ENEMY.
He is referred to as A LION THAT SEEKS TO DEVOUR:
1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Psalms 10:9-11 “He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He lurks to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net. He crouches, he bows down, And the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”
Psalms 17:12 “He is like a lion that is eager to tear, And as a young lion lurking in hiding places.”
He is referred to as A THIEF
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
He is referred to as SERPENT, A DEVIL, AND SATAN WHO DECEIVES.
Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
He is referred to as an ACCUSER WHO SLANDERS THE REDEEMED.
Revelation 12:10 “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.”
He is referred to as a SPIRITUAL FORCE OF WICKEDNESS.
Ephesians 6:11-13 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
He is referred to as a TEMPTER
1 Thessalonians 3:5 “For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.”
Matthew 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
He is the ultimate enemy of God and of all the redeemed.
And we are in constant war with him.
HE IS OUT THERE TO deceive you, tempt you, trap you, corrupt you, kill you, accuse you, and see you condemned.
His objective is to deceive the lost that they might never turn to Chris.
Since He cannot steal the redeemed back, his objective is to lead them into sin and kill their testimony.
• His sole objective was to get Job to curse God.
• His objective was to get Peter to deny Jesus.
• His objective is to get you to fall into the same sin as the world and ruin your witness.
There is a constant war being waged.
And the call of Jesus is clear.
YOU MUST PRAY ABOUT THAT
“And lead us not into temptation.”
Pray to God that He will deliver you
From such a deceptive and dangerous foe.
We don’t fight the enemy with karate or wooden stakes or garlic or candles or whatever other superstitious tactic can be devised.
WE PRAY.
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”
We don’t fight with swords or fists or bombs.
We use different weapons.
And Jesus made this clear.
Matthew 26:39-41 “And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
• Do you want to overcome the enemy?
• Do you want to stand against his temptations?
• Do you want to escape his attacks?
Then you had better pray.
Call in God, your ally, to deliver your weak flesh from a battle it can’t win.
It is part of resisting the devil.
It is to pray that God would deliver you from his temptation.
1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
That is certainly what we pray for.
• That the temptation not be too strong…
• That the way of escape is obvious…
And this is so obvious to us.
If you were about to go to war, and you knew that the enemy was hiding behind the bush wouldn’t you pray for God to deliver?
Beyond that, also notice the wording Jesus used:
“And lead US not into temptation.”
THIS IS ALSO AN INTERCESSORY PRAYER.
We pray this for ourselves and we pray this for one another.
And incidentally, this is why I bring up to you these imprecatory Psalms.
I used to be one of those who did not know what to do with these Psalms.
I would read them and they sounded so unlike Jesus to me
That I just passed them off.
How foolish and how arrogant.
This reality became clearer to me at a point when a friend and fellow believer of mine fell into sin.
I begin to pray for them. (and you know how it goes)
• Certainly you pray for repentance…
• Certainly you pray for people to make right decisions…
• Certainly you pray for God to open eyes…
And at times you see that loved one actually desiring to walk uprightly;
You see God begin to move and a life begin to change,
But just as soon as they would make headway, it was like the enemy would come at them even harder.
• He comes attacking…
• He comes relentlessly trying to draw your brother or sister back into the sin you have so longed for them to escape.
I saw it happen first hand.
And do you know what it did for me?
IT MADE ME ANGRY
Righteous indignation.
But look, I know I can’t take matters into my own hands.
I’ve read what Paul wrote:
Romans 12:19 “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.”
Beyond that, we desire even those the enemy uses to repent as well.
So when your brother is struggling you know the answer IS NOT to go attack the one who is dragging them into sin.
But at the same time, I’m not comfortable just sitting back while our children get bombarded by the enemy with his lies and temptations to just say, “Oh well, what are you gonna do?”
We don’t just enter every battle waiving a white flag to the enemy.
SO I WAS FRUSTRATED AND I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO.
I was really at my wits end regarding how to pray.
And then I read:
Psalms 10:12-15 “Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, “You will not require it.” You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none.”
On that day, while in such agony over a struggling brother,
I read that Psalm and it so testified with my spirit.
Now again don’t get me wrong.
• I am well aware that the Bible says that we do not war against flesh and blood.
• I am well aware that our enemy is the devil.
But I am also aware that the enemy uses wicked men
To carry out his schemes of deception and temptation and destruction.
And I am NOT OK WITH just sitting back and letting them do his work.
So did I pray for God to destroy this tempting influence? OF COURSE NOT!
I prayed for God to stop them, and my first prayer is always
• “stop them by leading them to repentance.”
• “stop them by opening their eyes”
• “stop them by saving their soul”
But, on that day, when I read Psalms 10, I also learned to pray
That if they won’t repent, I still want You to stop them.
Do not let them keep leading my brother into temptation.
STOP THEM
“Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer”
And I have to tell you that that is exactly what God did.
And for the first time I understood those imprecatory psalms
And I understood what Jesus was saying
When He taught us to pray “lead us not into temptation.”
• We do not delight in the judgment of the wicked…
• We so desperately long for their salvation…
• We pray that they be moved to repentance and turn from their sin…
But at the same time, that does not mean that
We are content to just let them do the enemy’s work unchecked.
We don’t fight them with worldly weapons.
We fight them in prayer.
In this sense, do you know what prayer is?
PRAYER REVEALS A HOLY DISASTISFACTION
WITH THE CORRUPTION AND BLASPHEMY OF THIS WORLD.
• Prayer is our means of warring against a culture that would insist upon
corrupting our children and leading our brothers and sisters into sin.
• Prayer is our means of warring against a culture that slaughters babies,
that promotes sexual immorality, that honors pride and arrogance; that calls
evil good and good evil.
We do not battle with sword or spear, we battle in prayer.
And this is ABSOLUTELY what Jesus is revealing to us
Here in this model prayer.
It is a command to battle against the defiling influence of the evil one.
TURN TO: Psalms 5
TURN TO: Psalms 10
TURN TO: Psalms 17
And in all of those you can hear the very prayer of Jesus.
“lead us not into temptation”
• God fight on our behalf!
• God silence the enemy!
• God knock out his teeth!
• God break his arm!
• God lop of his horns!
• God expose his nets!
• God silence his lies!
WE PRAY THIS FOR OURSELVES.
1 Corinthians 10:12 “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”
WE ALSO PRAY THIS FOR ONE ANOTHER.
“lead US not into temptation”
But let me also say this.
WE ALSO PRAY THIS ON BEHALF OF THOSE THE ENEMY IS USING.
• On one hand, when they do the enemies work, we ask God to stop them.
• But at the same time we also ask God to free them from the enemy.
2 Timothy 2:24-26 “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”
This is part of how Jesus taught us to pray.
• THE FOUNDATION – you pray to your Father
• THE CHIEF MOTIVATION – is the glory of His name
• THE FOCUS – is for the coming of His kingdom
• THE DISCERNMENT – is according to His revealed will
• THE HUMILITY – seeking forgiveness and offering it
• THE SOLEMNESS – knowing that we are in a war that requires God in the battle.
This morning I would simply remind you that we are in a war,
AND IF WE ARE NOT USING YOUR PRAYER LIFE TO FIGHT THE BATTLE
We are doing a great disservice to ourselves,
To our brothers and sisters,
And even to the lost whom the enemy is using.
There is an enemy and we fight him with prayer.
Ephesians 6:18 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,”
