WHEN PRAYER BECOMES SIN


A. "WHEN HE SHALL BE JUDGED, LET HIM BE CONDEMNED; AND LET HIS PRAYER BECOME SIN." - Ps. 109:7
  1. The context shows:
    1. That the "he" of our text has reference to Judas, who betrayed his Lord with a kiss - Matt. 26:29
    2. In this crime against the life of the Son of God, he used the symbol of love for the act that led to murder.
  2. But the implication is more inclusive:
    1. Many prayers are an abomination before God for similar reasons.
    2. There is much in this text that serves as a warning to all who are tempted to use the privilege of prayer with a sinful motive.
B. WHEN PRAYER BECOMES SIN
  1. When it is insincere:
    1. Hypocrisy is an abomination unto the Lord - Isa. 32:6
    2. "For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate" - Prov. 15:34 EXAMPLES -
      1. The Pharisees - Matt. 6:5
      2. Members of the church who put on a pretense - Isa. 1:10-15; Ps. 50:16-21
  2. When it is based upon selfishness:
    1. As in the case of Balaam, who sought to bend God his own selfish way - Num. 22:12-20
    2. James seems to have this type of prayer in mind when he wrote, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." - Jas. 4:3
  3. When we set ourselves in opposition to the word of God:
    1. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." - Ps. 66:18
    2. "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination" - Prov. 28:9
    3. "Your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear" - Isa. 59:2
C. A MOST IMPORTANT PRAYER LESSON
  1. We should pray like the Psalmist did:
    1. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts." - Ps. 139:23
    2. "And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." - Ps. 139:24
  2. We must ever keep in mind that we all are like an open book before God:
    1. "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thoughts afar off." - Ps. 139:1-3
    2. "For all my ways are before thee." - Ps. 119:168
  3. Our prayer should include words like these, "cleanse thou me from secret faults": Ps. 19:12
    1. It is good for us to make a humble confession of our sin a part of our daily prayer.
    2. Even that man Daniel, greatly loved, included the confession of sin in his prayer - Dan. 9:1-8
  4. It is a terrible thing to contemplate that prayer can become sin in the sight of the Lord:
    1. The Pharisees devoted much time to prayer, yet they had murder in their hearts - Matt. 23:14-35
    2. It is said that a special prayer of praise was offered at the Vatican when word came to the Pope of the wholesale massacre of the Protestants in France.
    3. But let us not forget that if we cherish hatred in our hearts, we commit murder and our prayer becomes sin - Matt. 5:21, 22; 1 John 3:15
    4. Prayer becomes sin when we know the will of God and seek to by-pass it - 1 Ki. 13:1-24
    5. God is no respecter of person; if we sin wilfully, God will not and cannot hear our prayer.
    6. How earnestly we should be when we do some searching of our own sinful and unclean hearts, when we come before the Lord!
    7. May God use these thoughts to cause us to make a clean break with every defiling thing in our lives.


Design © John Bryant 2011