Lord, Teach Me to Pray Lesson 4
LORD, TEACH ME TO PRAY – LESSON 4
“Staying in the Word”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
I love 1 John. “If we confess our sins,” [homologeo—homo=same; logeo=say. If I say the same thing about my sins that God says. Many times when I am dealing with people, and we are dealing with confession of sin, I say, “Oh, no, no. Name it.” You know, “God, if I have sinned…” No, it is not “if” I have sinned. Have you sinned, or have you not sinned? If you have sinned, what did you do? “I was a gossip, or I was jealous, or I was envious, or I looked at a man in the wrong way, or I flirted”—or whatever you did, name it. But then he says,] “If we confess our sins, He is faithful (he is talking to Christians here) and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [What does He know? He knows immediately if I am going to name my sin for what it is, even the sins that I can’t remember, even the sins that I committed that I fail to remember, because my heart is right, then He is going to forgive all unrighteousness. He knows that I want to be righteous.]
O beloved, can you believe that this is our final week together? I am so proud of you. You have completed a four week study on the Lord’s Prayer. You have learned Jesus’ way to pray. He has taught you what is on the heart of the Father, and you have learned a way to pray that literally encompasses everything there is about prayer. Someone has said that when you finish the Lord’s Prayer, there is nothing left to pray for, because you have covered every single base. You start with worship and praise and thanksgiving, and they all go together in “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” You have given your allegiance to God. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Allegiance and submission. Then you come to our needs. “Give us this day our daily bread.”
And we come to the final two index sentences today. It is, “Forgive us our debts.” We owe Him absolute righteousness. “Forgive us our debts, just as we have also forgiven our debtors.” I am asking you, God, to forgive me to the degree, the dimension, that I have forgiven others.” Here, of course, you see the body of Jesus Christ. Here, beloved, you see the importance of everything being right between us and God, and between us and one another. God holds nothing against us, and God wants us to hold nothing against others. What is the kingdom of God all about? It is all about forgiveness of sins. It is all about restoring us to oneness with God.
When we look at this one (and I want to look at both of these two index sentences as we bring this study to a close), I want us to look at Psalm 24, and listen to these first six verses. “The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it. (2) For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers. (3) Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place?” [Who can go into the presence of God? Who can stand there in His holy place? Because, what is prayer? Prayer is you and me approaching our Father who is in heaven, coming before His throne, giving our allegiance, submitting to Him, but also asking Him for our needs. Here we are saying, “Forgive us our debts.” Who can approach Him in this way? Listen to what it says.] (4) “He who has cleans hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully. (5) He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (6) This is the generation of those who seek God, who seek Your face—even Jacob (Israel.)”
It is so important that you and I understand that He is a holy God, and we must treat Him as holy. We must take care of sin in our lives. How does this happen? The more you are in the word of God, the more you are going to be clean. Let’s think about the tabernacle. Remember, I told you about that tent of meeting where they would come to worship God? Remember, there was an outer tent, and then there was another inner tent. But what was between that outer tent and the inner tent? There were two pieces of furniture. First, the brazen altar where the sacrifice was made, where we have our sins taken care of, where we make the sin offering, the guilt offering, and the other offering; the meal offering, the burnt offering—all the offerings to God. That is where, in general, we see the cross. And yet, after that, and before you come to the inner tent, the holy place, the holy of holies, there is a laver—a laver where the priests would wash daily before they went into the presence of God. Jesus said, “Now you are made clean through the washing of the water of the word of God.” You and I take the word, and we use to wash ourselves. We use it become clean.
Let me tell you what happened to me. I want you to go to Isaiah 39. I am going to tell on myself, because I feel like God wants me to, because I want you to see, as I leave you, my greatest concern for you, precious one, is that you to remain in the word of God, that you go after in-depth study of the word of God, that you don’t look for something that is just going to tickle your ears, or just help you solve your problems. You look for a study that helps you know God intimately, that helps you know this word, to dig into this word, and to discover truth for yourselves. Why? Because this is the way that we stay clean. “Now you are made clean by the washing of the water of the word of God.”
I was in Isaiah 39. I have written inductive study courses, and we were doing an inductive study course on Kings and Chronicles, and I was teaching it. I was curled up in my favorite place where I have my quiet time, which is in the breakfast room, on a little couch. I can sit there and look outside. I was sitting there, and I was reading. I was studying. In Isaiah 39, I read about what happened to Hezekiah, and how he received letters and a present from the kingof Babylon. He had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had recovered. (2) “And Hezekiah was pleased, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spice and the precious oil and his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them.” [I was reading that, and then I was cross-referencing it, and I want you to go with me to 2 Chronicles 32. I was comparing Scripture with Scripture, because Scripture is the best interpreter for Scripture. In that process, I came to v. 25. Listen to what it says.](25) “But Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received;” [Hezekiah had a lot of benefits, but he gave no return for the benefit he received.] “because his heart was proud;”
I was sitting on that couch; I was reading the word. As I read the word, all of a sudden, God showed me pride in my heart. God showed me pride, not because of something that I had done, but He showed me pride in my heart regarding our ministry and God’s provision in our ministry. All of a sudden the issue was, I was like Hezekiah, and I didn’t know it. I didn’t know that there was pride in my heart. But the word of God, which is alive and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, which is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, the Lord took that word, and it was like a spear came into my heart. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, nailed that pride in my heart. I know that God hates pride. I wept. I was sitting on that couch, and I am telling you, the couch moved, I was so broken before God. I wrote it in my Bible. My suggestion is that when you read the Bible that you keep in your Bible a pencil, so that you can write things. You may want to put them in ink later; you may not want to put them in ink. But this is what I wrote next to Isaiah 39. “Oh, the subtlety of pride. God, deliver me. Beware that God’s blessings don’t become a source of pride. (7/11/04)” Then underneath it, I wrote, “Cleansed; cleansed by the washing of the water of the word.”
If you go back to 2 Chronicles 32:26, you see Hezekiah recovers. This is what it says, “However, Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come on them in the days of Hezekiah.” [O the grace of God; O the mercy of God; O the lovingkindness of God.]
Next to Isaiah 39, I also wrote, “James 4:5-10.” I want you to see, precious one, and I want you to understand that when we have a heart for God, and we want to do what is right, God is going to reveal sin to us. This is what Philippians 3 says, “If this is your attitude, to be everything that God wants you to be, to press on toward the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus, if you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that to you, because He knows your heart.”
In the Lord’s Prayer, He is telling us to say, “Forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors.” That is a heart attitude, to know that if you are going to approach God, you have got to have clean hands, to know that if you are going to approach God, you have got to have a pure heart. If this is your attitude, and there is sin, God, in His lovingkindness, because He is your Father, because He wants the best for you, is going to reveal that sin to you.
James 4:4 says, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? [He uses this expression, and I am not being crude, but He used this expression with Israel. He said, “You lifted up your skirts to every passerby. You are going to commit adultery with them.” When you and I love this world, and when we love it more than we love God, or when we fool around and flirt with the world, we are lifting up our skirts. We are playing the adulteress.] He said, (4) “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity, hostility with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” [What is this world all about? It is all about ME. It is all about moi. It is all about the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, the desires of the flesh. It is all about ME. It is all about US.]
(5) “Or do you not think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: ‘He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us.’?” [He jealously desires for you and me to walk by the Spirit. He dwells in us; we belong to Him, not the world.] (6) “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.’” [O precious one, it is so important that you and I stay in the word of God, that we—yes, we are saved by Jesus Christ, but there is that daily washing at the laver, and that daily washing is in the word of God.]
8) “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” [That is what prayer is all about. It is drawing near to God, communicating with God. But it is not just talking to God. It is letting God talk to you. Remember, this is your prayer book. This is your common book of prayer. I have to move on to the next index sentence.]
The next index sentence has to do with vigilance. It has to do with watching. “Lead us not into temptation.” I have just said, “Forgive us our debts.” Now recognizing that I am to live righteously, I want to be careful. This prayer comes to a close, so to speak, in this final index sentence. (Yes, there is the other one, but you know that it is not in the early manuscripts.) So it comes to this close with understanding my total dependence upon God. “God, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.” God, what I am saying to you is, “I need You. I am weak; I need You, and I am asking You, ‘Deliver us from the evil one.’”
Why “evil,” and why “the evil one”? Well, as you know, some believe that this is a reference directly to Satan. Whichever it is, the two go together. He is the prince of this world; he is the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. So the evil that is coming is coming because he is at work in the sons of disobedience. Remember, he is a liar. Remember, he is the father of lies. Remember, he is a murderer from the beginning. He does not abide in the truth. So this is a prayer of vigilance and a prayer of deliverance. It is not just saying, “Deliver me from the evil one,” but is it, because of the context of this last index sentence, it is saying this: “You are the one that is going to have to deliver me. You are the one that is going to show me, and keep me in this trial, in this testing, and in this temptation.” Why, precious one? Because we see, as Jesus told the disciples when they were praying with Him in the garden, and they fell asleep, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” We go to God, and we say, “Lord, I know my flesh is weak.”
I am just telling tales on myself today, but years and years ago, when I was much younger, I was in Israel. A man picked me up to take me to the doctor. He was a very handsome Arab, and he picked me up. I knew him; he professed to be a Christian, but it was only “Christian-Arab” in name. As we got out of the hotel where he picked me up, some friends passed him, and they said some words to him. I didn’t know what they said; they said it in Arabic. We got in the car; he turns on the engine. He puts his arm back on the seat, and he looks at me; and all of sudden, there is this welling up in my flesh a desire to flirt with this man. Not to do anything else, but flirt with this man. This is the old Kay. All of a sudden, it was a perfect setting. It was a beautiful day, and just a little flirtation—this is what the flesh is crying out for. But I knew that this man needed the Lord, and I knew that flirting and the gospel do not go together. I overcame, because my heart was, “Deliver us from evil.” I know my weaknesses. Jesus said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
After that, I taught in the Garden of Gethsemane on that same verse, and I began to weep. I wept and wept. Why did I weep? I wept because I thought, “Oh Jesus, You understand, because You were praying, ‘If it is possible, take this cup from Me; yet, not My will, but Thine be done.’ And You understood, because You were battling with Your flesh.” We have a high priest that can be tempted in all points as we are, and yet without sin. O precious one, this is precautionary prayer. This is where you and I get on our knees. This is where be beseech God to protect our children, to protect our husband, to protect our loved ones, to protect our missionaries. This is where we go to God in vigilant prayer. You see Jesus doing this in Luke 22:31, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; (32) but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” [You strengthen the brothers. I have prayed for you. It was vigilance. He gives us the example.]
O beloved, what a four weeks we have had together, and all that is going to happen in your lifeas a result of this, is a deepening and a deepening and a deepening of your understanding of these truths. I have come to love you. I haven’t seen your faces. I don’t know how old you are. I don’t know your circumstances, but I will tell you this. In writing this study, when I called you “precious one,” you were precious. You are precious to God, and because you are precious to God, you are precious to me.
Do you know what He wants? He wants you to keep talking to Him. He wants to keep talking to you. Open the book; read the book, and hear the voice of God. And talk back to Him. Let your heart be stayed on Him. Philippians 3 says, “If you have an attitude to be everything that God wants you to be, to press on toward the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus, He will let you know if your heart is otherwise minded.” This is God’s way to pray. Pray, pray, pray. I love you.
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