The Prayer That Teaches To Pray

In the sixth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, beginning with the sixth verse, we read,

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:6–13).

Let us link with this the following verses from Luke 11: “And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil” (Luke 11:2–4).

I took my title for this address from a little book entitled, “The Prayer That Teaches to Pray.” I couldn’t think of a better title, although I have never read the book, but I want to deal with this prayer which we commonly call the “Lord’s Prayer” and show how it was intended of the Saviour to guide and direct our thoughts in order that we might pray with the spirit and the understanding also.

Let me say, however, that it is hardly correct to speak of this as the Lord’s prayer. It is much more correct to call it the disciples’ prayer. It was given by our Lord, but it was never prayed by Him. On no occasion can we imagine our blessed Lord using this prayer. He was ever the sinless one. He could not pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” or “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” He had no sins to confess. Therefore, He never needed to pray for forgiveness.

In fact, the prayer life of our Lord shows us how different He was from us. We find some of our most blessed moments on Earth praying with other believers. We love to come together for a prayer meeting. We love to join with fellow Christians in presenting our petitions to the Lord. The Saviour never could enter into this. He never knelt down with His disciples and said let us pray. He prayed for His disciples, but He did not pray with them. He could not join with them because His approach to God the Father was altogether different from theirs. They had come to God as sinners. He approached God as the eternal Son who could say “I have done always those things which please Him.”

Instead of praying with other people we find Him leaving His disciples and going apart to pray. In Gethsemane’s garden, He separated Himself even from the three who were closest to Him and there bowed and prayed to His Father. Then in the seventeenth of John we do not read that He turned to His disciples and said let us pray, but He lifted up His eyes to heaven and prayed. And just as we could not use the words of the seventeenth of John in prayer, for it gives distinctly the Lord’s prayer, so He could not use the words of this prayer that I have read, the disciples’ prayer, because it contains expressions that could never come from His lips. Let us understand that it is the disciples’ prayer.

It was given to His disciples before He died upon the cross. It was given to them in order to teach them how to pray while they were waiting for the coming in of the new dispensation of His grace. It was not given as a permanent form which they were to use in public prayer in Christian congregations all through the centuries. It was given to guide them during the time they were waiting for the fulfillment of His promises, until the Holy Spirit would come teaching them to cry, “Abba, Father.”

In the sixteenth chapter of John’s Gospel, He made a very remarkable statement to them. See the twenty-fourth verse, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” This was spoken several years after our Lord gave the outline which we generally call the Lord’s prayer and He speaks to them of a different kind of prayer which will be theirs in the future. In the future they are to come to the Father in His name. They have addressed the Father directly, but not in the name of the Lord Jesus. This prayer does not contain the name of the Lord Jesus. That in itself should show that it was not intended to be the permanent prayer. But when the Comforter came to guide into all truth he guides us to pray extemporaneously with the blessed assurance that whatever we ask of the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus will be granted.

Then observe another thing. This outline was specially for private prayer. It was never intended for use as public prayer. You see the Lord was speaking of private prayer—“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret: and they Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” And then in verse nine, “After this manner pray ye.” Our Lord was pointing out the impropriety of making prayer a means of attracting public attention as was done so frequently by the Pharisees, as is done. I am afraid, by some professed Christians today, as is done by the Mohammedan world. We are told that the Pharisees loved to pray in public places in order that they might be seen and heard of men. Jesus said, When you pray you retire to your closet. You shut yourself in alone with God. Then you pray in accordance with the order that I am giving you.

Now in the Christian dispensation the Holy Spirit of God has said, “I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.” So it is perfectly right and proper to come together and pray in public. It is perfectly proper for me to go down on a street corner to a street meeting and offer prayer to invoke the blessing of God on the testimony going forth.

On the other hand, there always remains the preciousness of private prayer alone with God.

Then observe something else. He did not give it with the thought that His disciples would repeat it over and over again as a set form. For instance, you will go into some services and perhaps a half dozen times, the preacher or the audience will repeat what is called the Lord’s prayer and sometimes it is perfectly shocking the way it is done—just hurried through. Oftentimes it is used at funeral services or weddings, and yet it has nothing to do with a funeral or a wedding.

“And when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.” He warns against repeating the same thing over and over again. We have no intimation anywhere in the rest of the New Testament that this prayer was ever used by Christians after the day of Pentecost. I have no doubt that it was used before that time. But you can search the book of Acts through and there is no reference anywhere to believers ever using the words of this prayer as a set form in the early church. We go to all the epistles of Paul and James and John and Peter and Jude and there isn’t any reference to this prayer as a set form. We may go clear back to the first centuries of church history and until we come to the fourth century of the Christian church, we never find this prayer used liturgically, but in the fourth century, they began to glide off into ritualism and liturgy. Then they began to use this prayer and they added the last lines, which are missing in all the best manuscripts, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen”—taking that portion from Chronicles in order to round out the prayer and make it fit for public service. We have no record before that of its use in a public service.

In addition to all this, we need to remember that this prayer was not given in any sense to the general public. One reason for not using it frequently in a public group is that there is always the danger that unsaved men might imagine that in this prayer we have the way of salvation and life for them. We might imagine unchristian men saying, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us,” and thinking of this as the divine way of salvation. But this prayer was never intended to be put in the mouths of sinners. It is the forgiveness of a saint that is referred to, not the forgiveness of a sinner.

But now, having said all this, let me say something more. If there are Christians who believe that they receive help from repeating these words in public service, there is nothing in the prayer inconsistent with Christian relationship. There is nothing in this prayer that could not be uttered in public with other Christians or in private. Therefore, I do not hesitate to join with others in so using it.

But now let us notice the prayer itself. It is very evident that our Saviour did not mean us to keep to the exact form because of the fact that we have the substance of the prayer in the Gospels twice, but it is different in each place, so that he who learns this prayer from the eleventh of Luke will use different words from the one who learns it from the sixth of Matthew. That in itself shows that it was not meant to be used literally.

Here in Matthew’s Gospel, when he is stressing secret prayer, he says, “After this manner pray ye,” not in these words necessarily, but “after this manner.” It will always be right to pray after this manner. That is, we are given here an outline of the way in which we should approach God. There are certain things in regard to this that we might well take to heart. The simplicity, directness, order. And I am afraid there are a great many prayers spoilt by their length. Mr. Spurgeon said of a certain man who could pray for half an hour at a time, “Dear me, the good man prayed me into a good humor and then he prayed me out of it.” Prayer should be brief and direct. There are certain things when we come together in a public assembly we should invariably bring before God. Our services, missionaries, state, and national government. These things are good and acceptable to God who would have all men to be saved and to walk carefully before Him; we need to be on our guard against indirectness.

I have heard people sometimes pray for many things and I have stepped up to them and asked, “Do you expect to get all that?” And they said, “Get what?” They had no expectation that God was ever going to grant the request. Our Lord teaches us to be direct and orderly in our prayers.

Any young Christian who says, “I go to my closet to try to pray, but I don’t know how,” can study this prayer and see what our Lord Jesus Christ emphasizes.

Observe, first of all, we have God put in His right place. Worship comes first. “Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name.” Let us think of that for a few minutes. Although it is put in the plural, it is the believer speaking individually and directly before God. It is the cry of an individual believer who is in relationship with God as Father. This is not true of the unsaved. The unsaved therefore have no title whatever to use of this prayer. They have no right while they are rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ to come to God and say “Our Father who art in heaven.” He has said of them, “Ye are of your father the devil and the works of your father ye do.” The only people who can rightly use this prayer are the children of God. Can you honestly come to God and say “Our Father”? God is not the father of men by natural birth. By natural birth they are all children of wrath. They become children of God by a second birth. That is why Jesus said, “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The Holy Spirit is called the “spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father.” Both Jew and Gentile come to God through His Son and cry Abba, Father.

Abba is the Hebrew word for father. Pateer (father) is Greek. Abba is a word for baby lips. You know you have to have teeth in order to say father. A baby has no teeth and can’t say father, and so we have abba for baby lips. In all languages, we have such words for little babes. We say papa or dada. The Greek word for father is for people who have teeth. God’s youngest babes and His oldest can come together in saying Abba, Father.

These were believers before the cross and they come to Him and say, “Our Father who are in heaven.” God is in heaven and we are on Earth. Nobody in the Acts of epistles ever says, “Our Father in heaven.” Why not? I think for a very good reason. The veil is now rent and through grace we are raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. We come directly to God and say Father. Suppose I have a son down in a distant place. I tell him, “Son, if you ever get in a tight fix and you don’t know what to do, apply to your father.” He is in distress, and someone says to him, “What are you going to do?” “Well, I will write to my father in Chicago.” But if he is here in Chicago, he says, “I will go to my father.” He never says, “my father in Chicago.” Why? Because we are both here! And so now, on account of that intimate relationship that comes from the fact that we are a heavenly people and we have been raised up and seated together in heavenly places in Christ, we simply say, “Father.”

So the very first petition has to do with worship. “Hallowed be thy name.” In fact, the first three petitions have to do with God’s honor and glory. “After this manner pray ye. Hallowed be thy name.” Come to God first seeking to glorify Him. If it was simply a question of worshiping God, I fear we would never come to Him, but if we are in trouble, we come to Him. If we are sick or in trouble, we say we have to pray about it. If we prayed more before the trouble came, we wouldn’t have so much trouble to pray about. You see, it is the believer coming to the Father to worship Him. The Father is seeking worshipers.

Then notice the next petition has to do with the coming glorious kingdom. “Thy kingdom come.” That was the prayer for that age, for the King to come and set up His kingdom. We are looking for the personal return of the Lord Jesus and so in the rest of the New Testament, it is not so much “Thy kingdom come” but “Even so come, Lord Jesus.” The Jewish believer naturally looked for the kingdom and we will rejoice above everything else when we see the Bridegroom.

“Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” No other prayer should ever be offered until you can come to the place where you can say “Grant that thy will may be done in me here on Earth.” Are you ready for God’s will to be done in you absolutely, supremely? Have you come to the place where you can say, “Father, not my will but thine”? You are not in condition to pray for anything else until you can do that. How is God’s will done in heaven? Immediately, with no questioning or delays. How foolish we often are. We often imagine that we would be happier and better off doing our own will than God’s, and sometimes we foolishly try it and trouble is the result. God’s own sweet and precious will is the happiest thing on Earth.

And then having thus adored God and given the will of God its place, we have the prayer for our temporal necessities. “Give us this day our daily bread.” In Luke’s Gospel, it is “Give us day by day our daily bread.” The point is, give us sufficient bread for today. Now it takes faith to pray like that. “Lord, give us sufficient bread for today, with plenty of meat and vegetables and a good bank account so that we will have enough for the morrow” is the way most of us would say it. But our Lord taught, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all these things shall be added.” You know the things that you imagine you are going to need next week you may never need at all. Before that time comes, you may have gone home to heaven. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” We are entitled to come to God each day for our needs of that day.

Now before the cross He taught us to say “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Since the cross, we have that turned around. The epistle to the Colossians, third chapter, thirteenth verse, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” Now you see, when the prayer was given the Lord Jesus had not yet died and so the sin question was not yet settled. Since the cross, because we have been forgiven, we are to forgive. The spirit is the same, of course. I have no right to come to God expecting Him to be gracious to me if I am not gracious to my brethren who seem to me to have failed. Here they were told to pray “forgive us our sins.” Nowhere in the epistles are we told to pray for forgiveness, but it is, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” I remember a brother praying “Forgive us anything that Thou hast seen amiss in me.” But this is not confession. Confession is definite. I have to go to God and tell Him of my actual failures. But the principle abides even in this dispensation, that if I would be forgiven, I must forgive.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Does God ever lead people into temptation? Men are often exposed to temptation. David found himself in the way of temptation and you know what the result was. If he had prayed "Lead us not into temptation” he might not have fallen. And in the matter of Hezekiah, “the Lord left him to try him and to see what was in his heart.” “Lead me not into temptation.” Don’t trust me in the place of temptation for I can’t trust myself. Protect me from temptation that would be too much for me, and deliver me from evil or from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Do you see in this what the Lord meant? These are the things that we shall bring to God as we come to Him in prayer or when we gather in the congregation: God first, true worship, needs of the daily life, and our actual spiritual condition, so that we might find strength and sustenance in order to go on glorifying Him.