Session 1 The Barrier To Prayer

Now, Pastor Steve has not only consented to speak for us, but to lead our worship as well. But before he does, I want to pray, ask God's blessing on our conference, and then ask Greg Withrow if he'd come up and introduce Steve to you. Okay? Let's pray. Father, what a delight it is to meet together. And Lord, as our fellowship of churches has developed a history and has grown, we thank you for the sweet and deep fellowship that has grown too. and Lord in these next two days I pray that we would find the ministry of the word of God thrilling to our souls and the fellowship that we'll have together and the prayer times that we'll have together just really bind us together we're looking forward and anticipating your blessings in these next couple days we thank you that we can be here we thank you for all that are here now We pray now this would be a great time around the word in Jesus' name.

And as we sing, in Jesus' name, amen. Steve Camp, Pastor Steve Camp is a brilliant writer, singer, theologian. I can't read your writing. I'm going to wing it. I first met Steve sometime in the 80s. We reconnected a little bit in the late 80s, but we became good friends in the early 90s and have stayed in contact with each other weekly just about, I think, ever since.

I love my brother. In 82, I drove my family 7,000 miles out west on a trip under great strain at the church. We had gone through a horrible split and I didn know what I was going to even come back to And I played fire and ice for 7 miles And my children were ready to blow their brains out But it ministered to me every mile of the trip and put me in a place to be able to come back and drove me to pray and to go to the Lord.

Listen, this man's just a faithful friend. I could tell you about all of the achievements that he's done over the course of his lifetime. He's signed his first contract at 19, his first album at 22. He's played before the Queen. We could go on and on with all of that. But let me tell you, I could care less about any of that in the sense that, not to make less of the things that he's done in his life, but in reality what he is, he's a faithful brother, he's a faithful pastor, he loves the Word above all else.

He will step out on a limb and hang there for it, for the word of God to stay true to it. He would say his crowning achievement for him was being on staff with John MacArthur at Grace Community Church. If you ever pick up John's commentary on 2 Timothy and look in the front, the dedication is made to him. He was really instrumental in getting John really to listen to the words that he writes.

You might put it in the category maybe of pop music in some way, but it's really not. It's classic, solid, theologically sound, biblical material. It's wonderful stuff. Same stuff he gives for an hour and 20 minutes on Sunday every week from the Word of God. He's an able theologian, and he's my friend, and I'm happy to be here with my brother today. thank you very much dear Lord Jesus we would ask that you would minister to our hearts this evening thankful for these faithful brothers that are here thank you Lord for the ministry of the word that goes forth from each of their pulpits thank you for the opportunity to join them what an honor it is to be here to join them in loving service to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Lord based on our own righteousness our own rags of our own righteousness We deserve not Your grace but everlasting wrath Based upon the religious, moral, civil works that any of us may do apart from Christ, we are not deserving of Your mercy, but worthy only of Your justice. and Lord apart from your work of regeneration in our lives we are worthy only of your enmity but in place you have given us freely your unfailing in love and for that we are gracious and our hearts are full of gratitude for who you are and all you've done And we are not worthy of any of this. All praise to the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. And so, Lord, as we begin this conference together, this wonderful journey on this issue of prayer, we confess ahead of time that our knees are not as callous as they ought to be.

Our time in the secret place in the prayer closet is infrequently taken. we have become men of the times rather than on our faces before a holy God seeking You with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. So Lord, we're mindful of Your eternal patience and Your great long-suffering with us. And so Father, it's in that regard we come to Your truth tonight.

We come to Your Word. Thank You for this time together. May You be glorified and honored. eclipse all other thoughts from our thinking. May our hearts and minds be opened. As the psalmist says, open my eyes that I can behold wonderful things from Your law. Even now we would ask, Holy Spirit, that You would illumine its truths to our hearts and minds.

Brand our hearts and minds with its truth. May we not just be hearers of it, but doers of it. May we be more sold out to the Gospel into the person of Jesus today than the world is to its sin. We love You. Thank You for this night together for it in the precious name of Christ we all pray All God people said Amen Amen Well it is a wonderful honor and a wonderful truth to be here I bring you greetings from our congregation at the Cross Church down in Palm City, Florida.

Right now it's about 82 degrees there. we'll take sand over snow any day but I am so grateful to be here in LaRue they say if you're going to make an impact you've got to go to New York, LA or Chicago or Dallas the great cities but they're missing out it's right here in LaRue, Ohio tonight and so what a joy Pastor Tim thank you for opening up the church here for being a faithful shepherd It's an honor to meet you and to be with you. And again, to my dear friend Greg Withrow for those very kind words. I hope you know I didn't pen any of them.

But I am so grateful for my dear friend and brother. It's really good sometimes all that we have are other dear men of God in our lives holding on as we are shepherding not only on the mountaintops and the valleys, but in the septic tanks. of people's lives. And so what a joy it is to be here with you tonight and to go through this series. I hope it will be a wonderful encouragement to your hearts on this series of prayer.

There's going to be five sessions done. I guess a couple of Q&As as well. When Tim had called and said, Brother, could you join us as a speaker? I said, that's great. Who are the other speakers? And he said, oh no, you're doing all five sessions.

I began to immediately pray very, very carefully and forthrightly. Thank you for some of you who have come up tonight and said, in 1977 I saw you in concert, or in 1982. And some of you mentioned that I have MP3 downloads. That's true. CDs, that's true. Records.

One of you was kind enough to recall to my mind that I had 8-tracks at one point as well. and that's always a blessing to hear of that but thank you for this wonderful journey I tell you it's what a delight concerts are easy compared to being a shepherd of God's people music is easy Recordings are easy. Traveling a quarter of a million miles a year for all those years was easy. The Lord still used it, I know, in people's lives, and that's only by His grace.

But boy, I tell you, being, as you know, an under-shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no greater calling and there is no weightier duty. Sometimes the church honors that faithfulness, and other times you feel like you're the one blamed for everything. you know what I'm saying other times it's great fellowship and other times you think Lord what has happened I'm so grateful for my wife Cynthia she says hello by the way we have seven kids we are empty nesters now I thought I was doing good until I met John and Christy is it at the back 16 children so I'm not worthy wonderful wonderful but blessed is the man whose quiver is full I'm so grateful for our president these days a pro-life president aren't you one that is not afraid to stick up for the unborn I pray that you are praying for him and praying for his regeneration in the Lord the cross always waves higher than the flag and though I'm a lover of our nation I read through the constitution once or twice a year so I'm always familiar with the rule of the law of our land we have to honor that and honor the faithful policemen and the brothers and sisters and the armed forces pray for those in authority over us I prayed for Mr. Obama when he became president and a little harder than maybe I'm praying now but I was praying and we pray for his whole family to come to know Christ for God does not delight in the death of the wicked.

And so here, what a time we live in and what a time for us to be marching on our knees. Isn't it true? That the issue is not greater programs, better philosophy of ministry, something a little more culturally relevant or culturally sensitive. It's not understanding social justice warriors, intersectionality identity politics Marxism the rest of it all that has been growing since the great Princeton work of Poplar in the great work that he did in the open society in the 1940s that we have seen society gradually slip.

But I believe, like Leonard Ravenhill said one time, a dear friend of mine, now with the Lord in his wonderful book, Why Revival Tarries, as the church goes, so goes the world. And we need to recapture leadership as under shepherds of Christ. And I believe it begins with prayer. It begins with prayer. So thank you for the honor of being here with you. And I have not arrived at this by any stretch of the imagination.

So if I miss a text, please point it out to me. One of my mentors, Dr. MacArthur, said, you know, wouldn't we all love to have perfect theology? Because then we're full pleasing to the Lord. but we have holes in our theology and we want them filled. And so I always appreciate that humility about our brother. Tonight we're going to look at the barriers to prayer.

It's not the most positive of the themes to begin with, but I think it's a necessary thing to show of what are the major barriers to prayer. There are five things we're going to be looking at this evening in those barriers. we're going to be seeing some of the things that maybe have prohibited the life of prayer and this is for all of the body of Christ but especially for the brothers, the pastors here tonight this is a wonderful joy to co-labor with other men of God as shepherds in the Lord Jesus Christ by way of introduction, if you'll turn with me to James chapter 5 And I just want to direct our hearts and minds to a few passages that deal with this theme of the barriers to prayer. As we all know, whatever those barriers look like, they are rooted in sin.

In sin. Years ago when I had an initial ministry, one of the few evangelicals that was reaching out to people with AIDS in the late 1980s, when that disease of HIV infection was spreading rapidly through the United States, a lot of it was marked by fear. And as I told a group of 10,000 gay and lesbian students, I was invited by them to come and speak at the University of Oregon And I had a chance They said he does not believe like we do but yet he is here to talk to us about AIDS And I began by saying there may not be any cure for HIV but there is for SIN and the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

And that's where we had to begin. And it was a wonderful time of ministry to them. So here in James chapter 5, you know this portion of Scripture well in verse 15. I'm reading from the English Standard Version this evening. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He was an ordinary man, but he was an obedient man. He prayed fervently, with an earnestness, with an urgency, with a continualness, in other words, a faithful striving in the prayer that it might not rain.

And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. And then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will recover a multitude of sins.

Restoration. Restoration. What causes this kind of drifting? What causes some of the things that are building up to the barriers that we're going to look at? Would you turn with me to the book of Jeremiah? Maybe an unlikely source on this theme of prayer, but some of the barriers that Jeremiah had really communicated.

As you know, he is writing here during the time of part of the Babylonian captivity. Assyria had gone into captivity in the early 700 A.D. Judah was delivered about 605 B.C. into the hands by Jehoiakim to Nebuchadnezzar for 70 years. Daniel there was held in captivity along with the rest of Judah. Finally, they were released. But yet, Jeremiah as well as Ezekiel and Daniel and even Isaiah was writing either pre captivity during the captivity Jeremiah was writing during part of that captivity to about 586 B And he addressing the waywardness of this nation of Judah And one of the things that they were marked by, the chief thing, was idolatry.

We're told in Colossians 3.5 to mortify our sin. Not a familiar word today, but put to death the works of the flesh. mortify our sin. As Romans 8.13 says, that we are to kill the sin. I love what John Owen once said. Get killing sin before it kills you. And he's speaking to regenerate people.

We've died once, as the old saying goes, to the penalty of sin, but we must die daily to its power, shouldn't we? And one day when we're home glorified with the Lord and the new heavens and the new earth will be free from its presence. But three times in Jeremiah, he uses this little phrase, cursed be. It could be translated as barren is. But notice the first quality in Jeremiah chapter 11.

Jeremiah chapter 11 in verse 3 he says, you shall say to them, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt in the iron furnace. Listen to my voice and do all that I command you so you shall be my people and I will be your God. Barren is the man, cursed is the man that disobeys the word of God.

This is where all of our issues begin and end. This is the most sacred book we'll ever hold, the most sacred thing we'll ever hold in our lifetime is the Word of God. Are we lovers of it? Can we say with David, oh, how I love your law. Thy statutes are my song. Psalm 119.54 In the house of my pilgrimage.

Statutes for songs. His theology, our doxology. His Word, our music. This is where we live. We have a heavenly song to sing as we're so journeying through this world. But here there are those that forgot their emphasis on the Word of God and don't we see this bubbling up in the church, brothers, of men of God who have been reduced to giving sermonettes for Christianettes as opposed to Preaching the Word in season and out of season.

Barron is the man that disobeys the Word of God. Go with me please to Jeremiah 17. A second issue of the sinful state of Judah here, but yet we can learn from these hard lessons. In Jeremiah 17, verse 5, thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man. Barren is the man. Fruitless, in other words, is the man who trusts in man, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.

He's like a shrub in the desert. He shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhibited salt land. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He's like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green and it's not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

Barren is the man that disobeys the Word of God. Barren is the man that distrusts the will of God. That distrusts the will of God. There's a tendency in the church these days for us for the sake of more numbers and greater offerings and other things to try to reach out with self-carefully cultivated plan or new program or something there as opposed to saying, we have our marching orders here from the Word of God.

The pastoral epistles give us all we need. 1 Timothy is the great handbook of an ecclesiology. Paul tells Timothy, I'm writing to you if I'm delayed in coming so you'll know how to behave yourself in the household of faith. Here's 2 Timothy as the handbook on eldership. What does a faithful servant in the body of Christ look like? Read 2 Timothy.

But then Titus is the handbook on evangelism. How are we to do outreach to the community? Titus was on the island of Crete and Paul gives some great principles there. This is what we see that is prohibiting the church from being growing and fruitful. And I don't mean numbers in the breadth of it, but the depth of it. I think it was Vance Havner one time said that the church in America could be described as being 3 miles wide and only a half inch deep Sadly that sums up so much of modern day American evangelicalism We are to go deeper than wider.

The Lord is the one who adds to the church, right? Amen? He's the one who adds. It's not our... We can add bodies. I think it was Spurgeon that one time said, if you just want to attract a crowd, pour kerosene over yourself, throw the match and people will come from miles around. just to see you burn.

Well, drawing a crowd is easy. Making disciples is something different. Jeremiah chapter 48. And here's the third thing in verse 10. Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord, the ESV says, with slackness. Other translations, I think, get it right.

Deceitfully. they do the work of the Lord deceitfully barren is the man, cursed is the man who does the work of the Lord deceitfully cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed so those three things I hope you'll keep as a curtain in the back of your thinking tonight as we look at some of these barriers of what keeps us from becoming men of God in prayer disobeying the word of God, distrusting the will of God and deceitfully doing the work of God. May the Lord bring judgment to our hearts and bring us back to a right relationship with Him so that we are able to honor Him in spirit and in truth. So here this evening, let's look together through this.

Number one that we see here in the outline before you, we're going to look at some of these things. Five things that really will be there for us in how we are to have an opportunity to see victory come and these barriers overcome as we seek the Lord Jesus Christ. The first barrier I've simply defined as spiritual apathy. Spiritual apathy. Would you turn with me?

There's an Old Testament reference. I added a New Testament one as well, but in Joshua chapter 7 Joshua chapter 7 Here a familiar story that we see in Scripture And even though we don't want to take this great story out of context, we know principally we want to take its principles and apply them. Spiritual apathy. As you know, Israel had defeated Ai.

And here Joshua sent some men, verse 2, from Jericho to Ai, which is near Bethhaven and Bethel. And he said to them, Go up and spy out the land. And the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said, Do not have all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few.

So about three thousand men went up there and the people, and they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shevarim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water. And then Joshua tore his clothes, a sign of deep sorrow and anguish.

And he fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening. And he and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads, a sign of shame and woe and suffering. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, why have You brought the people over the Jordan at all to give us into the hands of the Amorites and to destroy us? Would that we have content to dwell beyond the Jordan.

O Lord, what can I say when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies for the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name? A bit of panic here. And then he says in verse 10, the Lord said to Joshua, notice this, get up. What was Joshua doing?

He was praying. In the form of a question, in the form of a complaint, but he was praying. sometimes there's a time not to pray. And here's one of the reasons why. Spiritual apathy Get up Why have you fallen on your face Israel has sinned They have transgressed My covenant that I commanded them And they have taken some of the devoted things they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings.

Therefore, the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies because they have become devoted for destruction. If you go down to verse 16, Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near tribe by tribe and the tribe of Judah was taken and he brought near the clans of Judah and the clan of the Zerahites was taken and he brought near the clan of the Zerahites man by man and Zabdi was taken and he brought near his house man by man and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah and the tribe of Judah was taken and Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to Him.

And tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me. And here comes the confession. Truly, Achan answered Joshua, truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel. And this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar.

And if you remember, Shinar was the plain around under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar in the plains there of that land of Babylon. That's where he built his 90 foot high gold statue that when the sun hit it, it could be seen for miles around. So this was the birthplace of everything anti-Christ, anti-God. The Baal worship. And he says in 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, and I covered them and took them and see they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath.

He dug a hole. He tried to hide the spoil. so Joshua sent messengers they ran to the tent behold it was hidden in his tent in the silver underneath and they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the people of Israel and they laid them down before the Lord and Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold and listen to this and his sons and his daughters Think of this. And his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had and they brought them up to the valley of Achor and Joshua said, why did you bring trouble on me?

The Lord brings trouble on you today. What a pronouncement. Kind of like Ananias and Sapphira, isn't it? You've stolen, you've lied to the Holy Spirit. The Lord will bring the trouble. The Lord will bring the issue to close.

They burned them. Notice that the whole family was taken to task. The whole family because of his sin. They stoned him with stone and then they burned them and stoned them with stones. and they raised over him a great heap of stones and remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day, the name of that place is called the Valley of Acre.

What an amazing lesson. Apathy. What was the problem? Why was Joshua encouraged to stop praying? Because he was failing to deal with the sin in the camp. Sometimes prayer can be a dodge for cowardice if we are unwilling as pastors through church restoration to confront the sin going on in our churches.

And again, we do this with great humility because we are sinners too, aren't we? And so here we see this. There's a wonderful New Testament example. And again, these are familiar passages to you. Go with me please to Revelation chapter 2 here. Verses 19 to 27.

Here we see the seven epistles written to the seven churches by the Lord. And this is the church of Thyatira. This is the church of Thyatira. They had a female pastor named Jezebel. Don't think that women in leadership in the local church is not a big issue. This is not a misogynistic statement.

I disagree with my friend, Beth Moore. She needs to not go home. Can I say that? But she needs to be brought under the care of the elders of her church and reassess the right ministries that she is honoring the Lord by not teaching men publicly. Women pastors. We had to go through church restoration with a couple at our church this last year.

I mentioned, I put up a Facebook post that if you have a woman pastor at your church you need to have a pastor at your church And it garnered several thousand comments and hits and so forth And I just mentioned it in passing as an example on Sunday morning. This couple left the church. I had to meet with them, call them to repentance. Ultimately, their hearts were hard and we had to put them out of the church with tears, lovingly.

We love this dear couple. But it was on the issue of women in leadership and church leadership. And here this church at Thyatira was being plagued by this. Notice here with me in Revelation chapter 2. It's a serious issue, brother. No matter what the culture says, we have to honor the Lord.

And he says, And to the angel of the church at Thyatira write the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and your later works exceed the first. but I have this against you. Why? You tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess.

Of course she does. And is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality, to eat food sacrificed to idols. I give her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, notice what the Lord does to her. I will throw her onto a sickbed. And those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works.

And I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am He who searches the mind and the heart, and I will give to each one according to your works. She was prostituting herself. She was corrupting, adulterating here at the local church. And he says, you want to commit adultery? I'll put you on a sick bed of your adulterous ways.

You want to lead and teach, as it were, the seducing of my servants to practice anything but holiness. Truth matters. And to the rest of you at Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned that some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say I do not lay on you any other burden. Verse 25, only hold fast what you have until I come. the One who conquers and keeps my works until the end of Him.

I will give authority over the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron This is also mentioned in Revelation 12 and in Revelation 19 It a play on words Here He first came as the sinless Lamb of God When He returns, Revelation 19 says that He will rule them. And that word rule there is the Greek word for shepherd. He is the warrior shepherd that's going to come at His second coming.

And He will rule the nations with a rod of iron in flexible justice. I don't know about you. I can hardly wait for that great day. What a great time. And so He says here, He's going to rule them. He is going to rule the nations with a rod of iron, not with a shepherd's crook.

And here when the earth and pots are broken into pieces, I Myself will have received authority from My Father. I will give Him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Apathy. Brothers, we cannot be timid in confronting sin. walking through Matthew 18. It's a grace to those who fall.

Galatians 6, 1-3, someone is ambushed by sin. We need to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness and humility. Examining ourselves first to see if we're tempted by those same things, but we're to bear one another's burdens. The sin that's encroaching upon someone to cause them to weigh them down. And when they have a fractured limb, we wouldn't expect someone with a broken leg to get out and run a 100-yard dash. they have to have crutches they have to have people help them in and out of a chair maybe until that bone is restored and healed and even stronger than before but that's our ministry if we're going to confront the sin we have to walk faithfully in the restoration in the reconciliation in the repentance never retribution never retaliation never for revenge always to see those who have been fallen restored under right fellowship in the Lord Jesus Christ that's our work that's our work And so here the first point is the issue of the barrier of apathy.

Secondly, in our outline here, spiritual adultery. Not just spiritual apathy, but spiritual adultery. Just two passages. Psalm 66 and verse 18. Psalm 66 and verse 18. Oh, I love this. here's another time when not to pray or that our prayers won't matter.

The fear of confronting sin apathy but then here in Psalm 66 18 if I have cherished iniquity in my heart it literally means to hold it dear. To love it. To love the sin more than the Savior. To be covetous of it. It's a form of idolatry. But he said, if I have cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened, have heard my prayer.

But verse 19, but God truly has listened. He has attended to the prayer of my voice. Blessed be God. Blessed He has not rejected my prayer or removed His steadfast love from me. Literally His covenant love. His loyal love.

See, this is now we go from apathy to a nation to the individual. Are we, as identifying with the psalmist, do we have stored up in our hearts cherished sin? cherished sin the servant that cherishes the sin cannot live in devotion to the Lord we're guilty of idolatry because we become what we worship and the sin will mark our lives David said in Psalm 32 in that great psalm of his forgiveness of the sin of Bathsheba and the killing of her husband the adulterous affair that took place and he says the sin when it was unconfessed it was like on my face it was on my countenance it was like the dew of summer there was a drain and we see that on people's lives don't we? we see someone that is unrepentant of their sin they're in the far country and every ounce of joy in life and vitality in the Lord is just drained from them we can identify with that in our own lives David says in Psalm 19 and keep me back from secret faults, from presumptuous sin, the sin that is arrogant sin, the prideful sin, that it's risen to the point where we don't care what God says. We're shaking our fists towards heaven.

And we think no one will ever be concerned. Cherished iniquity. Cherished iniquity. This is spiritual adultery. But no greater passage deals with this than James chapter 4. Then James chapter 4.

Or as you know, James is the first epistle written in the New Testament. He's the half-brother of our Lord. And Dr. James is dealing with a young group of Jewish Christians in this young church. that is on the verge of having a heart attack. They have spiritual hardening of the arteries. And here James says in James 4, this issue of spiritual adultery, he says, what causes quarrels and fights among you?

Is it not the thing that your passions are at war within you? Unbridled passion. And then he says, you desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain. You fight and quarrel you do not have because you do not ask. Unguarded passion.

Unguarded pleasure. And he says, you ask and you do not receive because even when you ask wrongly, you ask to spend it on your passions. Notice the pronouncement. You adulterous people. some translations say you adulteresses and adulterers. You adulterous people, do you not know? Here it is, brothers.

The friendship with the world is enmity with God. Therefore, who wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it says to no purpose in the Scriptures that he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, but he gives more grace. therefore it says God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil. He will flee from you. Draw near to God. He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners.

Purify your hearts you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning. Your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. What is He saying?

This is the posture of a truly penitent man. A penitent woman who's lived in sin, who has cherished iniquity in the heart, and the Lord has brought judgment upon their lives. It's a grace. He chastens those who He loves. I had one woman at our church several years ago just to say, Pastor, do what you've got to do. I love you.

You've been a faithful shepherd to me, but I've fallen in love with someone else. I just do not love my husband anymore. I love this other man. And after all, isn't that how it should be? how can God use me if I'm not happy? And she goes but you have to do what you have to do I said you don have to fear me I a sinner in need of grace just as you are But I said you do need to fear the Lord that we serve Because He will not be mocked.

And His chastening could deliver you over to Satan so to buffet you so that you will not blaspheme Him. It could be handed itself over by the fear of the Lord under His divine chastening hand. you do not want to go under that divine breakening and I said listen here's the reality I know you to be a Christian but if there's no divine chasing in your life you might have a better marriage than you had with your current husband you might have other children and they might even grow up to serve the Lord you might have your business explode and more money come in but if there is no chasing it proves that you're an illegitimate child you see that's serious chastening is a grace spiritual adultery our hearts have been unfaithful enmity with God enmity with God friend of the world enmity with God oh we have to be careful if we become a friend of the world and we're not saying world leans we are to love our neighbors ourselves, we're to love our enemy we're to go into all the world and preach the gospel but the world system have we embraced it quietly in our lives with our thought life, with our books that we read, with the movies that we pump into our brain. Compromise, it just happens so subtle, doesn't it?

The drifting happens so subtly. We have to guard ourselves. I thank the Lord for my wife Cindy who's a faithful helpmate. She studies the Word. She's a gifted woman of God. And she speaks the truth in my life, especially when I don't want to hear it.

If you have a wife like that, man, treasure her. What a great joy it is. They give great warnings to us in keeping us faithful in Christ. Thirdly this evening, I'm going as quickly as I can, but thirdly this evening, I was told I would have a little flexibility in the schedule, so for the next hour and a half we're going to finish this. Thank you. Number three, spiritual arrogance.

You see apathy We afraid to confront sin Prayer becomes the dodge adultery even when we ask we ask amiss but we need to be brought low our joy turned to mourning our laughter turned to mourning, we need to be prostrate before the Lord in weeping and in tears, confessing our sin, repenting of the world system that's dominated our thinking, our ministry, our methods, our lives, but then spiritual arrogance. Maybe an unlikely passage on this, but I think it's appropriate. In Matthew 6, here in the Sermon on the Mount, we read of this great call to prayer.

But we are reading this of the arrogance that the Lord is warning them about. He deals with almsgiving in verses 1-4 here. But then in verse 5, and the principle is, don't do these things before men as the hypocrites do. Go into where your Father sees you in secret and He'll reward you. So when He comes to prayer in verse 5, He says, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.

Years ago, I was invited to come and minister out at Moody Bible Church with other pastors and some evangelical leaders there. It was the National Day of Prayer. I was confused by this. I thought every day was supposed to be a day of prayer. And here, men, I won't mention their names, but they were arguing backstage who was going to get the prime radio slot at night.

Because it was being broadcast live. I have the bigger name. I have the better books. I have this. And I should be the one giving the prayer at the end of the night. And I thought, wow, give me my mom.

She came to Christ at 13. She died four years ago. She lived faithfully for the Lord Jesus Christ for 83 years. when MacArthur met my mom Ruth. The first time they had great fellowship and he said, Ruth, if I ever get in trouble, I'm calling you. You a godly woman that lived for the Lord And she prayed for all of her kids A faithful woman of God praying But you see, even the prayer meeting is turned into some sort of national spectacle.

Why does it have to be public? Arrogance. We go to the street corners. Arrogance. In Luke 18, we see a parallel passage with this. Verses 11-13, that the Pharisee, the wealthy man, the religious man, he comes into the temple of God and he is praying to himself.

What a phrase. Lord, I'm so grateful I'm not like that man over there. Arrogance. And the sinner, the publican, was at the back of that synagogue, as it were, the back of the temple saying, Lord, have mercy on me. I am a sinner. I do not even belong in here.

And the Lord tells the story by saying, which of those two men went away justified? And so Jesus is saying here, this is the issue. Don't go on the street corners. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues synagogues and on street corners, that they may be seen by others. I'm not against a national day of prayer, but listen, wouldn't it be wonderful to say, take a day off work, stay home, get together with two or three or four people in small groups in your local church and spend the day in prayer and reading the Word and asking the Lord to bring revival and reformation to our own hearts, to our churches, to our nation. but here they do it to be seen by men we promote it we flash it before a lost world we're hypocrites and he says that when you pray go into your room and shut the door oh that's harder no one sees and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you There's a time not to pray.

And there's a time when we're failing to confront sin. There's a time when we're using prayer simply to consume it upon our passion. And there's a time when we're praying out of pride because we want the applause of men than the secret enjoyment of our God. Number four this evening. Spiritual apathy leads to spiritual adultery, is fostered by spiritual arrogance, and it causes us to have spiritual atrophy.

I played basketball in high school. You'll have to take that by faith. Back in the day, I could even get up to the rim. That's really a leap of faith. but I could. I was never a starter. I was like number seven man on the team.

I love the game. I still do. But here, as the years went on, atrophy occurred. One of my older sons, Maxfield, he said, Dad, I saw a picture of you in a scrapbook. He goes, man, you had an eight-pack back then. What happened?

I said I turned 25, then I turned 30, then I turned 40, then I turned 45, then I turned 50, then 55, then 60. I'm 64 now. I said the 8-pack turned into a no-pack. And it's just how it is. He goes, don't you want to get that back? I said, no, actually, I just don't want to creak when I get out of bed in the morning.

You know, I really just want to feel healthy. I want to walk the flight of stairs and not think I climbed Mount Everest. Things have changed. But atrophy can happen spiritually. Just go with me quickly, brothers, on these verses here. What's the call?

Here's the call of God in our lives. If you look at Ezra. Ezra 7 and verse 10. Here we see this great scribe, this great preacher of the Word of God. and he says in Ezra chapter 7 and in verse 10 these wonderful words he says for Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord that's Yahweh there and to do it he studied it he purposed his heart he was obedient to it and then to teach his statutes and rules in Israel there's a process there's a process we have to apply that to our hearts and lives Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 8 The same thing They read from the book from the law of God clearly They gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.

That's our duty as expositors. What does the text actually say? I had a man at Wheaton College come up to me after an event and he said, Brother, you know what this verse out of Hebrews you were quoting tonight means? And I said, what's that? He goes, here's what it means to me. It had nothing to do with the verse it's saying.

And finally, I looked at him. I said, you know what that verse actually means to me? And he said, what's that? I said, it means that Michael Jordan's going to return to the Bulls this year. We're going to win the championship again. And he goes, that's not what this verse is saying.

I said, we're not concerned about what it's saying. We're concerned about what it means to you and what it means to me. Obviously, I didn't think Hebrews was talking about Michael Jordan and the Bulls. But you see, this is the thing. We're to give the sense of the text. We're to study it.

Purpose our heart to it. Those long hours where no one sees us in the wee hours of the morning plowing through the truth of God's Word, asking the Lord to embrace our hearts and open up our minds and draw the curtain from our eyes so we can hold wonderful truth from the lost so we can give it to the people and encourage them to obey the Word of God. The same thing here. in Malachi chapter 2.

Malachi chapter 2. And here it's a wonderful remembrance of the duty of the teacher of God's truth. Malachi chapter 2 in verse 5, he says, My covenant with Him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him and I was a covenant of fear and he feared me. True instruction was in his mouth and no wrong was found on his lips and he walked with me in peace and uprightness and he turned many from iniquity for the lips of a priest should guard knowledge and the people should seek instruction from his mouth for he is the messenger.

Notice the phrase of the Lord of hosts. Literally, the Lord of heaven's armies. That's our calling. But then as we come to 2 Corinthians 2 we find out where the drifting occurs How is it that solid men of God how is it that spiritual muscle can atrophy 2 Corinthians 2 gives us two profound lessons. In 2 Corinthians 2 and in verse 17, the Apostle Paul says, we are not like so many kapalas, peddling God's Word.

It literally means to make cheap retail and merchandise of the truth of God's Word. But as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak Christ. Kapalos. It's only used one at a time in all of Scripture, and that's in Isaiah 1. Verse 22, he says, your wine in the Septuagint, your wine is mixed with water. And your silver is covered with dross.

What is he saying? You've diluted the pure wine of the Lord in order to offer to its people a watered down substitute. And this is what he's saying in 2 Corinthians 2. Some are making the Word of God to be bargain bin priced out cheap retail merchandise sold as something authentic, but yet it's just a watered down substitute. It's a cheap copy. And they do that to feast upon themselves a crowd.

Notice in chapter 4, verses 1-3, Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, we do not faint, but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word By the open statement of the truth, we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. You see, we don't succumb to the culture.

We don't succumb to the times. We don't succumb to disgraceful, underhanded ways. We don't refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God's Word. We are given over to the open statement of the truth. How do we win this issue of the social justice battle that's going on out there? It not by creating a statement that was really poorly proofed text by men who don really understand the social justice political drifting and issues that are going on in our nation Listen, I don't care what the moorings are that are affecting a local church.

How do we bring correction? We preach the Word. We preach the Word. It's not about signing a statement that has no visual effect upon the lives of a congregation. So you sign the statement. So what?

It doesn't matter. It doesn't accomplish anything. Even those that were not mentioned by name in the social justice statement that was signed. I asked my friends who I knew drafted it, I said, why didn't you mention some of the lot of the Gospel Coalition, which I renamed the Gospel Compromise? Why didn't you mention their names? Why were you silent on not calling them to repentance?

Why are you playing footsie with sound doctrine and sound theology and the authority of God's Word? Why not be bold enough to have the courage to say, repent, come back to Christ, and then why do you share the platform with those that are propagating unsound doctrine? Why? Because you love your friends more than the truth? What's happened? These are heroes of the faith.

Compromise can set in so easily. How do we guard against it? You see, it's one thing to speak out against the times. We want to be men of this occur that will bring truth in these rough times. But yet, the psalmist tells us very pointedly, we have to be careful. We have to be careful.

In Psalms chapter 1, again, a familiar text of Scripture. In Psalm chapter 1, here David begins this psalm with a warning and with a promise. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, stands in the way of sinners, sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law He meditates day and night. What is the corrective for any culture drifting away from the identification of Christ and the authority of Christ? of God's Word.

It's to be men of prayer and repenting if we have to, to come back to actually believing that the Word of God is sufficient for all matters of life and godliness. I was taught that. I actually believe that. Sometimes I feel like a fool for trusting some of these brothers, but I actually believe that. No wonder Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, as you know, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead by His appearing in His kingdom.

Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. The time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but have itching ears and accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths as for you. Always be sober minded.

In other words, clear thinking. Endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist. Timothy, fulfill your ministry. And I agree with John Stott. It's impossible to read 2 Timothy with dry eyes because shortly after Paul gives this out of that Mamertine prison in Rome, he's executed.

He's beheaded for the cause of Christ. This is personal. this is personal spiritual atrophy it happens so easily oh brothers we need to get on with our duty we do not follow a cult of personality in the body of Christ we follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior period Calvin withers and Luther fades away but the word of God endures forever I think they would be embarrassed of how men have made holidays off of their name lastly spiritual abusiveness spiritual abusiveness would you turn with me to 1 Peter 3 and we're going to close with this before we sing a wonderful hymn of praise tonight These are the barriers to being truly prayerful men of God and women of God that you here tonight God won't be mocked. If we do not confront sin, if we are drifting into friendship with the world, if we're arrogant to think that our prayers mean more because we flaunt them in the public marketplace.

If we're given over to spiritual atrophy where strong muscle has now atrophied into that which is anything but strength and endurance and proves faithfulness in running the race. Why? Because we've given ourselves over to other things rather than guarding the trust of Scripture and preaching it in season and out of season out of the fear of the Lord. this leads to spiritual abusiveness.

Here's another reason that we should cease to pray until we're right with God. I know that sounds interesting and different, but it's the truth. And this one now comes back to us at home. 1 Peter 3.7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way. that my wife Cindy that doesn't mean that I find out her likes and dislikes and I'm sensitive to her and what kind of food she likes when we go out on a date night or what are the things that she enjoys doing what are her spiritual gifts so I can encourage her obviously we should do that it's part of loving our wives as Christ loved the church but here it literally should read to live with them live with your wives in accordance to the Christian faith to the truth of the Christian faith in an understanding way.

In other words, how God has called us to live with our wives. Showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel. I need just to clarify this. The weaker vessel. She is not weaker intellectually. She is not weaker spiritually.

She is not weaker in giftedness. She is not weaker in an oratory skill or the use of words in teaching women and children or in our home of being a faithful helpmate This is not a misogynistic text What he speaking here this is a term used about the physical proudness of a man Now there are some women that are physically stronger than men No question. There's a couple of Swedish gals that are professional weightlifters in our neighborhood that walk the streets.

Hello, Pastor Steve. How are you? And I'm afraid of them. I really am. their legs are like tree trunks and they, you know, don't be afraid. We're okay. We like you.

You know, it's really wonderful. But what it's speaking about here is physical strength. Physical strength. And he says, treat them, it's an honoring thing, as the weaker vessel, meaning don't use your physical strength to intimidate them. don't use your physical strength to threaten abuse to them do not use your physical strength to hit them to actually abuse them this is a warning this is a warning show honor show honor to her treat her as the one whose physical strength might be more delicate.

Not her mental awareness, not her intellectual capacity again, not her love for the Lord, not her faithfulness to Christ, not her time in the Word. Since they are heirs, co-heirs, some translations say, with you, of the grace of life. That's soteriological. That's the grace of our salvation. We stand in equal ground with that. As you know, I'll just read you one quick verse here.

Galatians 3.28 Galatians 3.28 The Apostle Paul gives this great hope. He says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. It's not a matter of national heritage. It's not a matter of social status. and station in life. It's not a matter of your gender. There only two male and female You are one in Christ Colossians 3 adds barbarian or Scythian and so forth Jew or Greek religious identifications No, he is saying there's an equality of faith and our regeneration before the Lord.

We are co-heirs of the grace of life. But notice this. Husbands, men, if we fail to live with our wives in a way that's consistent with the Word of God and we're not showing honor to them and we're intimidating them physically, we're using our innate strength, as it were, physically to threaten or to actually do abuse to our wives, know this, your prayers will be hindered.

You might as well pray to Siri because she's the only one that's going to listen. you see this is where we must come this is where we must come back to Jeremiah when we set it up in the introduction will we obey the word of God will we trust the will of God will we do honorable work for God we are shepherds under shepherds of Christ but can I tell you something I don't know about you if I don't guard my heart I could fall into any of this I know that praise God for faithful brothers like brother Withrow thank the Lord for my wife and others that speak into my life I've had three great mentors in my life Stephen Olford R.C. Sproul and John MacArthur I so thank the Lord for them but no one else can live the Christian life by proxy for another this is you and I brothers and sisters on our faces before God saying Lord my heart is prone to wander I know this we cannot have someone else live the Christian life for us listen God will not even live the Christian life for us apart from Him we can't do anything it's only by His enabling grace but He longs for us to live faithfully for Him in obedience to Him. Men of prayer.

Men of prayer. You know the word Galatians 6.4. Pardon me, Acts 6.4. It wouldn't be right for us to serve tables. You know the problem with the Hellenistic widows there that was going on? And there was a conflict in the early church.

And here Peter says, find seven faithful men and appoint them to do this task of waiting tables. But we, as His elders, as His pastors must give ourselves to the preaching, the ministry of the Word, and of prayer. Along with the weighty duty of preaching the Word and studying its truth, are we men on our knees? Are we going to be like James, the camel-kneed?

Because he was known of that historically because of the hours he would spend on his knees praying before the Lord. He was known as the camel James are our knees calloused or are they smooth thinking we can do this in our own might and by our own will and for our own glory God help us if we do Father God, thank You for this initial time together. We can only come before You here tonight, Lord, and say with the hymn writer that come Thou Fount of every blessing. tune my heart to sing thy grace that's where we have to be make us men of prayer women of prayer but especially for the pastors here tonight Lord may we be men not given over to just a casualness and apathy afraid to confront sin but we're hiding our cowardice by laying prostate before you but you tell us get up like you did with Joshua take care of this sin then come back to me like the church at Thyatira they had to deal with the sin of Jezebel or the lampstand was going to be removed and ultimately it was Lord have we become arrogant have we become atrophied in our spiritual race and muscle for You Lord, have we sought other things, gimmicks and tricks to feed the churches rather than trusting You that You will build Your church?

Help us to be men of prayer. And Lord, God forbid that we should ever by word, by whim, by insult, by a casual cheap shot to put down our wives to make ourselves look better, God forbid that should be happening. Or that our physical strength should ever intimidate or even cause harm to a precious gift from the Lord. These wonderful, wonderful women that You have given to us individually as our wives. we should show them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life.

Oh Father for all these things we ask that You would bring repentance to our hearts and minds if there any of these things true in our lives May we even as we go back to our homes tonight or our hotel rooms or wherever we're staying tonight, may we spend some time in prayer with You saying, Lord, have I drifted into this? Maybe it's the frog in the water that has reached the point and we're not even aware that we're boiling ourselves to death. compromise is so subtle and we all have PhDs in justifying it. So Father, bring us to our knees where we can say with the hymn writer, tune my heart, tune my heart, Lord, to sing of Your wonderful matchless grace.

For it's in Your precious name we pray. Amen. We are great sinners, but Jesus is a greater Savior. Amen.