Coming under conviction for a sin, or coming under the sudden and undeniable impression that you should pray for someone or something does not mean you should drop everything and run around a corner or into a phone booth like Superman.
[This sermon is one of a series entitled "Sermon on the Mount, Concentrating on the Beatitudes," which is being preached on Sunday mornings by Pastor Tim Senter.]
When we opened the scriptures last week it was a decidedly negative event. It was not negative because scripture is negative. It was negative because it deals with sinful human hearts bent upon evil, even when they try to worship God in prayer. To say that Jesus would not understand a particular thing imputes ignorance upon God and attempts to strip Him of His omnipotence. God knows the wickedness in your heart (Lk 16:15).
When we studied these things, we found more here than just admonishment to a wicked heart which requires change to become more Christlike. We found that there is a command to not be hypocritical in our prayer, that we should truly be praying to and worshiping God in our prayers. The hypocrite, as we found him, would have people believe he was prayerfully worshiping, yet would be concerned with man’s perception of their prayers. The point is not where or how you pray, the actual focus is hypocritical prayer. Many have abused this passage to try to say we should not stand and pray, or publicly pray, or be visible or public even in our places of worship in prayer. Those claims miss the true meaning of this verse. The subject is not prayer; it is hypocrisy.
Many in our society desire to have nothing to do with God until their judgment. They want nothing to do with others who love Him either. They shun God in every possible way, including forcing their atheistic religion upon those around them. As this world spirals deeper into sin, the atheistic religion becomes ever more acceptable. Atheist efforts have resulted in convincing many people that religion is private, a personal matter, or a matter that is not supposed to be shared. We are supposed to keep our mouth shut, be faithful only in private, and not share our faith with anyone else. Christians are not supposed to have any influence upon our society, visibility in public places, and especially in our public prayer life. Christians are not supposed to pray as scripture says we ought, but as we are told to – or not at all. This, we are told, is what Matthew 6:5-6 teaches the Christian. Be mindful of the fact that those who thus interpret this scripture are doing so for their own devices. The people who incorrectly reference this scripture are ignorant of the rest of scripture and God as a whole. It amazes me how often we listen to unbelievers tell us how believers are supposed to worship.
A true interpretation of the meaning in these passages is far and away different from what the atheist would have you believe. The scripture at hand is not focused upon saving the world from our prayerful witness or worship. On the contrary, Matthew 6:5-6 deals with the Christian not the infidel; and the Christian is to ensure they are worshiping God – not man – when they pray. The scripture tells us not to listen to man’s desires, or be concerned with them, but instead be concerned only with honoring God and His desires in our prayers.
Today we look at the positive aspect of this encouragement to proper prayerful worship. Look at Matthew 6 and verse 6 please. Satan, that ole’ serpent, is wily and sly. He is as wicked as the day is long, and sneaky as a weasel on the hunt. He has been trying to quiet the witness of believers since creation. He first attacked through Cain who fell prey to jealousy and slew his brother Abel. Abel was slain for his righteous witness of worship to God. Today, believers are slain in other more subtle and conniving fashions. Consider this as we study our passage in Matthew 6.
When I was going through seminary, one of the hot button issues that concerned me was our military praying in the name of Jesus and not just “God.” Many would argue that offering a secular prayer so as not to offend people is acceptable. This way at least people hear your prayer. I asked them, “Who are we to be fearful of offending, God or man?” I thought it quite offensive that someone would want me to compromise my position with God for their own comfort. They would have me forsake my relationship with God for them. They must think themselves rather important to display such arrogance. A prayer given by, through, or for such arrogance would never be heard. That is nothing short of audacious. Surely, God will understand won’t He? He will understand all right. He will understand that you hold Him in such low regard that when confronted you give in to Satan’s minions over Him. I also offered an alternative – to explain why we would pray as we do as Christians – in Christ’s name. Living in South Carolina at the time, I wrote to Senator Lindsay Graham concerning this issue. What I told him was,
“John 14:13 Jesus is again talking to His disciples this time reassuring them, ’And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’ We are to submit our requests in Jesus’ name. Jesus tells us we can even praise God the Father by praying in the name of Jesus Christ. John 14:14; 15:16 as well as 16:23&24 and other scriptures mandate that we call upon and pray in the name of Jesus Christ.”
I also provided a brief explanation of the oaths of enlistment and the officer’s oath of commission. Both of these oaths place the support and defense of our Constitution before anything else. Obedience to, support and defense of the Constitution is more important than following the orders of the President and the orders of officers in the armed forces. This means that our rights as citizens, bound by the Constitution are of more importance to the soldier than any command or directive given even by the President of the United States of America, the Commander in Chief himself.
On a related subject dealing with the First Amendment to the Constitution, I recently wrote a short article in the form of a letter to the editor of the Lander Journal in our town. You may see it if it is published. In that letter, I attempted to alert people to scrutinize what other people write concerning documents and especially in letters to the editor. I tried to inform people that they should be inquisitive and investigate what they read to learn more. People can read meanings into things that they want to be there. I took the time to exegete the First Amendment to the Constitution to exemplify the point. This is what I found:
Historically, the first 10 Amendments of our Constitution were taken from the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was generated for the people in response to concerns that the original Constitution might eventually permit a tyrannical central government to evolve… The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to specifically curtail governmental authority…
Contextually, we begin with the founding document that opens with “We the People…” The people themselves then give the individual articles the authority and position they have. Their personal freedom is being exercised as they choose their government, its construct, and the authority it is given. … we find the First Amendment stands for a personal freedom to exercise – not limit – religious belief. This is the first personal freedom referenced and it levies the first restriction on government. … It does not call for government activity, but a restriction thereof, or inactivity if you will. Historically, and contextually our study shows the Constitution denies governmental authority to curtail the freedom for any one to practice their religion, including the solicitation of others for conversion to a religion. This is clearly a “free exercise thereof” for any religion, …
Grammatically, we find the amendment is a single sentence. … Here we find the main theme of this sentence is that “Congress shall make no law.” … The key phrase of concern then is, “Congress shall make no law…” Those things that follow explain the restrictions inherent in the opening statement. They are individually connected within their phraseology, and literarily connected in the whole.”
Our founding fathers, as we learned when we studied the 15 periods of thankful and repentant prayers during our inception, were God fearing, Christ honoring and praying men. Denial of public prayer for worship to Christ would be offensive to them. Yet today we have organizations that would do just that – require laws to quiet the witness of believers in Christ and their public prayer life. Some even use these passages in Matthew 6:5-6 as proof texts for this purpose.
What do these texts tell us then? Are the secularists/atheists/humanists correct? Do these texts tell us to only pray in private or not? We should consider that, “Praying to God is done in your secret room.” Just as any worship, any faith, any real change that takes place in a person is from the heart, “prayer is from the heart.”
The biggest failure in expositing these two scriptures is in not recognizing the subject in verse five. Hypocrites pray to and for other men, but pretend to pray to God. That is the warning. If that is the case, then what are we as real true believers to do? Read More…
Mountain View Baptist Church is a Biblically based ministry that concentrates on feeding souls with the Word of God. In God’s Word, we are told we can know we have eternal life (1 John 5:13). If you are seeking this assurance, this is the ministry for you.
