Prayer
A Sermon on Hebrews 10:10-25
Scripture
10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice …
Sermon Description
Some say, “Doctrine divides, let’s focus on prayer.” But what is prayer without doctrine? Is prayer really the easiest thing one can do? Can anyone go to God in prayer? In this sermon on Hebrews 10:10–25 titled “Prayer,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that prayer is not easy. It is extremely difficult. Prayer is entering into God’s presence with a clean conscience and pure heart. How can anyone do this? It seems impossible. The conscience condemns and the heart proves the guilt. Yet, prayer is absolutely vital. It is essential to the Christian life. Listen to this sermon as Dr. Lloyd-Jones not only explains the problem in prayer, but shows the solution. Christians enter into prayer through the flesh of Jesus Christ. It’s through His incarnation and His death. The punishment which the law required was placed upon Jesus Christ. It’s been dealt with and, therefore, God cannot punish the sinner again. Since the law is satisfied, the conscience is satisfied. The Christian prays through Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Therefore, the Christian approaches the throne of God with fear, and also with great boldness. Dr. Lloyd-Jones points out: this is all doctrine. Thus, doctrine cannot be separated from prayers.
Sermon Breakdown
- Prayer is extremely difficult and perhaps the most difficult thing in the Christian life. It is easier to preach than pray.
- There are three great difficulties with prayer:
- Entering into the holiest of all (the presence of God)
- An evil conscience (our conscience accuses us of our sins before God)
- A sense of uncleanness (we feel unworthy because of our sinful nature)
- We must have a true heart (be honest and sincere) to pray. We cannot mislead God.
- We must have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. This is the only way.
- It is a new and living way, not the old dead way of ritual and ceremony. The new way is through Christ.
- The new way is built on the incarnation of Christ and his atoning death. His flesh and blood have consecrated the way.
- The new way is sufficient and adequate because it is God's own way. God planned it and commends it to us.
- The new way answers our conscience because Christ fulfilled the law and bore our punishment. The law is satisfied.
- The new way answers our sense of uncleanness because Christ's blood cleanses us from all sin. We are made worthy in him.
- The new way answers the devil's accusations because we overcome him by Christ's blood and our testimony about Christ.
- We must know and walk the new way with boldness and assurance, not looking back to the old way.
- We must look to Christ alone as the author and perfecter of our faith.
Itinerant Preaching
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.