Prayer

moving toward the end of book three. We have prayer, election, and what Calvin calls final resurrection, which is his treatment of eschatology in book three, and then we'll come to book four, the external aids, which include Calvin's treatment of the church, sacraments, and finally the civil state prayer, which is the chief exercise of faith, and by which we daily receive God's benefits. We'll talk a little bit more in a few minutes about the place of his chapter in the 1559 edition of the Institutes. Before we come to the prayer that I want to use this morning, let me just talk a little bit about prayer as it appears here. There's a story I heard once. I'm not sure that this is true. It sounds apocryphal to me, but I'll tell it anyway with that caveat. Wesley and Whitfield were preaching together. We know they did that from time to time, and Wesley, of course, was an Armenian, and Whitfield was a Calvinist. According to this story, they were spending the night at an inn, and each knelt by his bed to pray. Whitfield prayed this way. Lord, we thank thee for all those with whom we spoke this day, and we rejoice that their lives and destinies are entirely in thy hand. Honor our efforts according to thy perfect will, amen. Whitfield's prayer. And his friend John Wesley said, Mr. Whitfield, is this where your Calvinism leads you, apparently commenting on a very brief prayer like that, which he says everything is in God's hands. Amen. Wesley went on praying, and two hours later, when Whitfield woke up, Wesley was still in his knees asleep, and Whitfield said, Mr. Wesley, is this where your Arminianism leads you? Well, I don't think that story, which probably, as I said, isn't true, but rather good story. Don't think it means that Calvinists fail to pray, or at least don't pray very much because they're Calvinists, or that Arminians fail to pray because of human weakness that afflicts us all. But if the story means anything, it teaches us that jealous Christians face real difficulties in prayer. I certainly do, and I expect you to do too, and Calvin in this long chapter in book three of the Institute seems very cognizant of that. The prayer is not easy, that we need to be stimulated, we need to be encouraged, we need to be aroused to pray, and we need to learn how to pray. There's a quotation from Abraham Kuiper, that I'd like to read to you. This is a fairly long quotation, a paragraph in Kuiper's works, and Phoebe Warfield quoted this, and one of his writings said that Abraham Kuiper had written nothing better than what Warfield quotes here. This is what Kuiper said, religion on earth finds its highest expression in the act of prayer, that does seem to correspond with Calvin's title, Prayer, which is the chief exercise of faith. Kuiper says religion finds its highest expression in the act of prayer, but Calvinism in the Christian Church is simply that tendency, which makes a person assume the same attitude toward God in his profession and life, which he exhibits in prayer. There is no Christian, Phoebe Lutheran, or Baptist, Methodist, or Greek, whose prayer is not thoroughly Calvinistic, no child of God, to whatever church organization he may belong, but in his prayer he gives glory to God above, and renders thanks to his father in heaven for all the grace is working in him, and acknowledges that the eternal love of God alone has, in the face of his resistance, drawn him out of darkness into light. On his knees before God, everyone has been saved, that has been saved, will recognize the sole efficiency of the Holy Spirit at every good work performed, and will acknowledge that without the atoning grace of him who is rich in mercies, he would not exist for a moment but would sink away in guilt and sin. In a word, whoever truly prays, ascribes nothing to his own will or power, except the sin that condemns him before God, and knows of nothing that could endure the judgment of God, except it be wrought in him by divine love. And while all other tendencies in the church preserve this attitude, as long as the prayer last, to lose themselves in radically different conceptions as soon as the amen has been pronounced, the Calvinist adheres to the truth of his prayer, in his confession, in his theology, in his life, in the amen that has closed his petition re-echoes in the depth of his consciousness and throughout the whole of his existence, see what Kuiper is saying or feel saying amen to, is that as a Christian praise, Christian ascribes all credit to God, all glory to God, and acknowledges that everything comes from God's grace of sin. And when the prayer is over, Calvinist continues to hold that theology, whereas others, once the prayer is over, laps into something less than full Christianity, which according to both Kuiper and Warfield finds its expression only in Calvinism. One of my favorite books on Calvinist's book, I've referred to before, a little book called The Gospel is Taught by Calvin by Professor who taught at the old Columbia Seminary, over about a hundred years ago now, R.C. Reed, and in that little book he says Calvinism is the only creed that will bear translation into prayer. So, same idea that appears in that Kuiper quote, R.C. Reed expresses it much more succinctly. Calvinism is the only creed that will bear translation into prayer. And in his section, in his little book, dealing with Calvin, and Calvin's treatment about prayer, R.C. Reed tells the story. He says, some years ago, I heard a Armenian preacher close a very earnest and impressive sermon to the unconverted with the statement, now centers, I have done all that I can do, and God has done all that he can do, and so your salvation rests with you, that would be typical Armenian invitation. He then said, Dr. Reed called on me to pray, Dr. Reed was there in that service, and after that closing sentence he asked Dr. Reed to pray, it occurred to me, said R.C. Reed, that it must be a waste of breath to pray to a God who had already exhausted all his resources. God has done all that he can do, so why pray to such a God? If the whole matter rested with the sinner, then he was the proper person to plead with in prayer, not with God. Well, those are some ideas that preface this treatment of Calvin's own prayer, and perhaps illustrate some of the things we'll talk about this morning. Calvin wrote a good many prayers, in fact we have a little book of Calvin's prayers, and I've been using those at the beginning of each of the lectures. Those prayers that appear in that book, or prayers that Calvin prayed, in connection with his teaching in Geneva, and his students noted those prayers down and recorded them, so that we have them preserved for us. But Calvin also wrote prayers himself that he presented to the Christians in Geneva to use at various times throughout the day. One of those is called the prayer for the morning. We'll see later that there are prayers that Calvin created for different times in the day, but here's the prayer for the morning. And we'll pray this now, so we begin our study of what Calvin says about prayer. My God, my Father and Preserver, who of thy goodness has watched over me during the past night and brought me to this day, grant also that I may spend it wholly in the worship and service of thy most holy name. Let me not think or say or do a single thing, which tends not to thy service and submission to thy will, that thus all my actions may aim at thy glory in the salvation of my brethren, while they're taught by my example to serve thee. And as thou art giving light to this world for the purposes of external life by the rays of the sun, so enlighten my mind by the effulgence of thy spirit that he may guide me in the way of thy righteousness. To whatever purpose I apply my mind may the end which I ever proposed to myself be thy honor and service. May I expect all happiness from thy grace and goodness only. Let me not attempt anything, whatever, that's not pleasing to thee. Grant also that while our labor for the maintenance of this life and care for the things which pertain to food and remit, I may raise my mind above them to the blessed and heavenly life which thou hast promised to thy children, be pleased also in manifesting thyself to me as the protector of my soul, as well as my body. To strengthen and fortify me against the assaults of the devil and deliver me from all the dangers which continually beset us in this life. But seeing it as a small thing to have begun and less I also persevere, I therefore entreat of thee, O Lord, not only to be my guide and director for this day, but to keep me under thy protection to the very end of life, that thus my whole course may be performed under thy superintendent. As I ought to make progress, do thou add, daily, more and more to the gifts of thy grace until I wholly adhere to thy son, Jesus Christ, whom we justly regard as the true son shining constantly in our minds. In order to my obtaining of thee, these great and manifold blessings forget and out of thy infinite mercy forgive my offenses as thou hast promised that thou will do to those who call upon thee insincereity, amen. The importance of prayer for Calvin is certainly clear as we read this chapter and as we know something about Calvin's own life. Chapter 20 of book three is the longest chapter in the 1559 institutes. So just in terms of space, Calvin is concerned to deal adequately as much as he can with this chapter. Remember book three start with the Holy Spirit and then faith the chief exercise of the spirit and then long section number of chapters on sanctification and then quite a long section, good many chapters on justification, then we come to prayer, then we come to election and then we come to the final resurrection. Some commentators have said that we have a kind of mixed bag here at the end of book three, Calvin is just kind of throwing things in in order to get in as much as he can before he goes on to book four and deals with the external means which will take him into the doctrine of the church. I don't think that's the case. I think I think Calvin is very aware of his order. After all, Calvin is concerned about order, remember, said I felt I never got the order right until the 1559 edition of the institutes. So he isn't just kind of putting things in really nearly. He has a real purpose in what he is doing. So I think prayer and then election will come to that next week and surprises us that it has been delayed so long way down toward the end of his section on satireology. Not in book one, but book three. Not in the beginning of book one in the decrease of God, but at the end of book three coming after prayer in before final resurrection. And I'll try to make the case next week when we study election that Calvin is very aware of what he is doing here. He does it for a very specific purpose and I think a very wise placement of the doctrine. So I don't think Calvin is just trying to get everything in that he can before book three ends and he thinks, oh, I've got to say something about prayer and then election and then eschatology. But Calvin is consciously moving through a sequence of doctrines that he wants to cover and needs to cover and it's very, very aware of what he's doing. And son of said, it looks like a mixed bag, but others have seen it quite different THL Parker in his book called Calvin an introduction says we might even say that the institutes reaches its climax here in this chapter on prayer. Parker sees everything is moving toward prayer, which is the chief exercise faith. I don't know that we can really identify the climax others have pointed out that it comes in Christology or it comes in justification. I think the best thing to say is that all these things are important for him, but certainly prayer is a central teaching in the institutes as it is in the Bible. Under the idea of the importance of prayer, let me suggest two pictures that Calvin puts before us and in my comments here in this outline, I'm going to kind of range throughout this chapter. Calvin does that too. He has a certain outline in mind and a certain sequence in mind that he tends to move back and forth. So the same idea will come up a number of times throughout the chapter. The first of the two pictures that illustrate for Calvin the importance of prayer is the picture of the treasure, think of a treasure to no guide as the master and the store of all good things and not to go to him and ask of him. This would be of his little prophet as for a man to neglect a treasure buried and hidden in the earth after it had been pointed out to him. That's 321. So that picture comes right at the beginning. There's a treasure and it's been pointed out to us that we have access to that treasure and it would be foolish if we don't go and get it, but a person who doesn't pray, Calvin says, it's like a person who has been given the information, the knowledge of a treasure and then just ignore it. He comes back to this same idea later in 322. So true is it that we dig up by prayer, we dig up by prayer, the treasure or the treasures that were pointed out by the Lord's Gospel and which our faith has gazed upon. I think Calvin's use of this image is a very good one because he certainly is going to emphasize that prayer is hard work and digging up the treasure is hard work too. We know the treasure is there but we have to dig it up and we do that. Our faith has gazed upon the treasure. We know what is there and then we come in prayer to claim it. That's the first of the two pictures that illustrate the importance of prayer for Calvin, the other picture or illustration that I would use is that the father heavenly father. One picture is treasure in the earth, we dig it up, the other is a father and we go to him and ask. As children unburden their troubles to their parents 3, 2012, then we go to God with our prayers. Children go to their parents and you can probably find a good many more illustrations in these chapters in this chapter 2 but here 2, the treasure and the father, dig up the treasure, ask the father. Calvin is aware throughout all this material that there is a problem with prayer and that problem could be expressed in two ways. One way to express the problem is why do we pray if God already knows everything and has already determined what he's going to do? The problem a lot of people have when they think about prayer is probably crossed your mind too as you have prayed. Why are we doing this? God knows what's needed and he's going to work all things out according to his will. And so his prayer then just an exercise in futility doesn't really seem to make a lot of sense. Well, I think Calvin's answer to that objection as we see it spread throughout these pages is this and maybe there are more than one answer but this is certainly one answer. The prayer is not so much for his own sake as for ours. It's not to inform God or to try to get God to change what he's going to do but it does something for us 3, 23. Our hearts may be fired with a cellus and burning desire ever to seek love and serve him. So we pray then our hearts are roused to greater love for God, greater concern for his will and his purpose. I think Calvin would say that we're never so close to God as when we are earnestly praying to him or you might say it this way this is not Calvin's expression but the way I would read it prayer doesn't bring God close to me. Prayer brings me close to God. God is always close to me but I'm not always close to God. But when I'm praying when I'm really praying then I am as close to God as I ever am in this world. So that's one of the problems, problem of prayer. They're actually more than one. We could call it problems of prayer. The other problem I think that we certainly face and Calvin did too is the problem that we pray in God doesn't seem to hear us. That's kind of confusing isn't it? Book 3, chapter 20, section 3, 3, 20 comma 3. So every time I say that today we're in book 20 so that's right. Yeah, I'm just confusing it. That's the short hand for saying book 3, chapter 20, section 3, 3, 23. I say that from now on I'll put comma 3, comma 20, comma 3. Okay, the second problem Calvin sees in prayer and we certainly do too is that God doesn't seem to hear it. We pray for something and it doesn't happen. And here we go again 3, 23. Calvin says this, our most merciful father, although he never either sleeps or idles. Still very often gives the impression of one sleeping or idling. God is not really not paying attention off somewhere, but it seems like he gives us that impression in order that he may thus train us. So the fact that God seems not to hear is far benefit as well. And that is so that he may thus train us otherwise idle and lazy. Calvin is never complimentary of us. So the God may train us otherwise idle and lazy to seek, ask and in treat him to our great good. So the pray is to our great good because it brings us closer to God. To keep on praying because God doesn't seem to be doing anything is for our great good to because it keeps us close to God. So there are problems here and Calvin recognizes those, but he has something to say in answer to these problems. Now let's come to Calvin's description of prayer. It's a very practical orientation to prayer. I think you recognize that as you read this chapter. It's not only a doctrine of prayer, but it's a practical manual on how to pray. In fact, you could really turn this chapter into a prayer itself pretty easily. And it's interesting that in some of the reformed, confessional statements, idle-breed catechism for one, the teaching on prayer becomes a prayer, which seems to me a good way to view it. That what we say of that prayer itself becomes a prayer. Calvin's description of prayer, the chief exercise of faith by which we daily receive God's benefits. And you just go through some ideas that I have put together from Calvin, not again following precisely his order of things, but looking at various points that Calvin makes as we learn to pray. First of all, he just tells us, do it. Pray. It's not enough to talk about prayer to try to understand how it works if we can view the problems that we face when we pray, but we should pray. Why should we pray? Well, I think Calvin would answer that in two ways. First, God commands us to pray. So he comes to that point again and again. If God says we're to pray, which he does over and over in the Bible, then who are we to question that, whether we understand everything about it or not. And why should we pray? God promises to hear our prayers. So we are commanded to pray and we are assured whatever it might seem to us that God is actually listening to those prayers and hearing what we pray. So we're to pray. And we are to pray a lot. We're to pray often. We're to pray at all times, as Ephesians 6, 18 tells us, which I think has to be something of being in a spirit of prayer, an attitude of prayer, never very far from prayer. Why we go about our daily business, but we're also to pray at special times, as James 5, 13 tells us. So one does not eliminate the other. Special times of prayer don't mean that we don't pray always. And praying always doesn't mean that we do not pray at certain times. Calvin says in 3, 2050, it's fitting to set apart certain hours for this exercise. And that is the reason he wrote these prayers that Christians in Geneva could use a different times in the day. Calvin suggests that each day Christians should follow a pattern of prayer. And he has four times on awakening in the morning. That was the prayer we used a few minutes ago. The second is before going to work. And Calvin also has a prayer called before going to school. Or people who are going to school. So before going to work or before going to school, that prayer begins, O Lord, who art the fountain of all wisdom and learning since style of thy special goodness has granted that my youth has instructed in good arts, which may assist me to honest and holy living. Grant also goes on to ask for God's help and God's blessing in his life. Life, life of the student and a prayer before eating, blessing at the table and Thanksgiving after eating. So Calvin, there was the blessing before the meal Thanksgiving after the meal. That prayer begins, praise the Lord, all nations, extol him, all peoples, for greatest is steadfast love toward us. And the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever, praise the Lord. We give thanks, O God and Father, for the many mercies which thou of thy infinite goodness art constantly bestowing upon us and continues from there. And then finally, a prayer at night when going to sleep. Some have suggested in this, this could be that Calvin's pattern of prayer. You see, if you pray, those prayers, you pray at certain times all through the day that this would be a kind of evangelical substitute for the canonical hours in the monasteries. The monks in the monasteries and special times to pray throughout the day and part of the night. So Calvin encourages Christians to pray not in the monasteries, but wherever they are at these particular times. And he furnished model prayers for Christians to use, not that Calvin wanted or expected people to pray only the words that he wrote. But these are model prayers that you can use these words, or you can use your own words. But this is a kind of guide for Christians to learn to pray at these specific times through the day. Now, I want to put another point in here. We talked about model prayers, and I haven't put this in the outline. So this comes next. This could be three under B. Pray often, pattern of prayer and model prayers. And then, of course, the model prayer is the Lord's Prayer. And Calvin does treat the Lord's Prayer in some detail in this chapter. So let me just run through the different parts of the Lord's Prayer, which is the premier model for praying, and make a few comments on what Calvin tells us about the Lord's Prayer. He sees six petitions in the Lord's Prayer. This is not of huge importance, but Augustine and Luther find seven petitions in the Lord's Prayer. And the way that they find seven is to separate, lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. Whereas Calvin puts those together as one petition. Actually, the form of the Lord's Prayer in Luke, I think, omits that second statement. And consequently, Calvin wants to see those words as one petition. So with six petitions, he says, three, the first three point to what is owed to God. So we come to Calibit, I mean, I kingdom come, I will be done. These are prayers that we pray that glory belongs to God, might be given to God. And then the second three are petitions for human needs. Give us this day or daily bread, forgive us our debts and lead us not into temptation. But even though Calvin makes that distinction, three petitions directed to the glory of God, three petitions for human and earthly concerns that both parts are concerned with God. God's glory is furthered by His providing for us our daily bread as it is when His name is hallowed. And both parts, the three petitions for the glory of God, as well as the three petitions for our human needs, both benefit believers. We are benefited blessed when God's name is hallowed as we are benefited by the provision of our earthly food. Our Father prayer begins and Calvin immediately relates this description, the beginning of the prayer, to Christ, or not addressing Christ in prayer, but by addressing God as Father, then we acknowledge our access through Christ. As well as acknowledging God's goodness and love for us. So this is a kind of Christocentric approach to the Lord's Prayer. We pray our Father that we know that we are praying through Christ and in His name. Our Father in heaven, that reminds us that Calvin says that God is majestic and God is powerful. It's not really telling us so much where God is, God is everywhere, as telling us how great God is. He's not limited, he's not bound by earthly constraints. Our Father who art in heaven, and as we say those words in heaven, then we have great assurance that the petitions and the needs that we bring to Him are not requesting more than He is capable of. And notice how Calvin stresses every word here in the Lord's Prayer and that's appropriate. He says we should think about the word hour because that is important that we are praying to our Father. And he makes the point that is usually made by commentators that this place and that is we do not claim God exclusively for ourselves. We recognize that God who is, my God is also the God of other people. And so we pray our Father. But Calvin goes beyond that in his exegesis of the Lord's Prayer at this point. It's not simply saying God is ours, not just mine, but he also emphasizes that I should love other people, especially those of the household faith. And emphasizes love for all people who dwell on earth, especially those of the church. So there's a kind of an active mode there when I say our Father then that reminds me that I have responsibility toward the other people. That are included in that word hour. The first three petitions directed to God and Calvin makes the point that in one sense, we're praying the same thing three times. Hello, be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. There's real similarity in those statements. But characteristically, Calvin says we need that triple list. We need to be reminded of the importance of God's glory three times for us so that we can embrace it and pray it not just once, but three times. So we pray, hello, be thy name. We are praying that the honor, which is due to God, would be given to him. And we pray thy kingdom come. It's interesting at this point in Calvin's treatment of the Lord's Prayer in the 1559 edition of the Institutes, comparing it with 1536 edition of the Institutes. There is some development, some shift. We don't always see this in Calvin, but things don't always stay precisely the same. 1536 when he is praying, thy kingdom come. He's thinking about individual Christians. May the gospel be extended. May people be converted. May there be more Christians. That's the heart of his prayer there. You might say the kingdom comes through the conversion of more and more people. But in 1559, the emphasis has not really changed so much as developed into more and more churches. Calvin's ecclesiology has become much more prominent between 1536 and 1559. And so we pray thy kingdom come. As he says in 320 42, we must daily desire that God gather churches unto himself from all parts of the earth. So you can see in thy kingdom come in 1559, emphasis on churches and a kind of implied missionary emphasis from all parts of the earth. I will be done. We ask God to answer our prayers not as we wish, but as God foresees his vest. We say thy will be done. We're asking God to answer the prayers in the way that he knows is best. Not in the way we perhaps think he should answer those prayers or would want him to answer those prayers, but in the way that is best. When Calvin says thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, he's not thinking of what he sometimes calls God's secret will. That will is going to be done. But he is praying, he says, that we may obey willingly, not concerned with God's hidden will by which all things are ruled, whether they wish to obey or not. But we're praying that we may obey willingly. So again Calvin turns the interpretation of the Lord's Prayer here into a kind of personal application. When I say thy will be done, what I'm really praying is Lord make me willing to do your will. Now I'm just giving Calvin's interpretation of these statements in the Lord's Prayer not everybody would see it exactly this way, but that's certainly the way that he sees it. When he says, the prayer says thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, the angels in heaven are completely willing to do Lord's will and his will is completely done there. We're praying that the same thing would happen on earth, that Christian people and indeed all people would be willing to do the will of God so that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven should we pray for something which we know because God has told us it's not going to happen on earth. God's will in this sense will not be done on earth as it is in heaven and the sense of the hidden secret will certainly is being done on earth right today and has always been done on earth and always will be done on earth. But the will I will be done in the sense of people gladly embracing God's will and following it that's not going to happen we know. So should we pray for something which God says will never happen until the end of the world that is the perfect obedience of all creatures. And Calvin suggests of course the Lord's prayer tells us to pray for that. You might say knowing full well it's not going to happen in the sense that Calvin is understanding the words thy will be done but by this prayer we witness that we hate all that is opposed to the will of God and eagerly offer ourselves to participate in its fulfillment. So when we say I will be done then we are expressing our hatred for rejection and the despising of God's will on earth and we also are giving ourselves to embracing and following God's will on earth. Then the second three petitions give us this day our daily bread. Calvin is very sure here that this means bread that we pick up and eat with our mouths. Not all expositors before Calvin had taken this position. I don't know if modern commentators differ particularly on this or not but arasmas for instance a humanist reformer felt that bread here means heavenly doctrine. Give us this day feed us this day from heaven spiritually would be the way that he would understand it because for arasmas it seemed to be too much of a shocking contrast with those great prayers for God's will to be done and then for the next prayer to be given me something to eat. And to be improper but Calvin was very sure it was proper and said that we come in this prayer to a prayer for sustenance needed for our earthly lives and it's not improper to in the same prayer pray for God's glory and for my food. Calvin emphasizes the word daily give us this day our daily bread and what he says here you probably would expect now having read as much of Calvin as you have he says what we mean here is supply our needs in a proper and moderate way. We're not asking for extravagance we're not asking for luxury we're asking for what we need God knows that we need to eat I give us this day our daily bread and no matter what we think we possess we're able to enjoy it only by God's grace. All we can have will nourish us only if God so ordains and not by the intrinsic value of the elements he's told us this already that God's providence when we partake of a bread we're nourished by God's secret blessing. Now he knows that food has certain qualities that nourish our bodies but he also knows that sometimes food doesn't nourish the bodies of people who are sick or in a situation where the food cannot be properly assimilated so it's not just automatic. When we pray to God for our food we're asking him for the food on the plate but we're also asking him that he might use that food to nourish us and to strengthen us physically and it's our daily bread. It might seem to be a contradiction to say God is going to give us this bread it's his bread but it's our bread and Calvin says by God's grace even if it comes to us by our own work and diligence by God's grace he gives us this bread. So we work hard for it and we buy it hours it's really God's God has given it to us. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and for Calvin this is the this is the evangelical heart of the Lord's Prayer. This takes us back to justification by faith alone in the preceding section forgiveness comes only by God's sheer grace. Calvin likes to use the word debts can use the word sins but he feels that the word debts which is found in one biblical form of the prayer is very appropriate because it tells us that he's not going to use it. It tells us it says before us the the fact that centers were in debt and we can't pay that debt. So of course thinking about sins here these are not financial transactions that we're asking to be forgiven but the great pile of our sins the great the great amount of our sins which we can do nothing about. We're bankrupt and we have all these debts and we pray that God would forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Calvin's point here is the one that is made by most commentators and that is forgiving others is not a kind of condition by which we obliged God to forgive us. The prayer is not saying because we forgive other people what they have done against us then forgive us for the sins that we've committed against you but forgiveness on our part can only be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit in the presence of the Spirit in our lives and so is a witness of our adoption. In other words forgive us our debts and because you have we are enabled to forgive others they are sins against us. Lead us not into temptation Calvin here is concerned to say this I think we pray lead us not into temptation we're not simply saying to God keep us away from any problem any testing any temptation. But we're saying to God make it possible for us to to be strengthened so that when temptation comes when testing comes when problems come and he thinks of temptation here in a pretty broad sense not just temptation to sin but temptations that come from from good things as well as some bad things. Temptations that would appeal to us in terms of perhaps good grades and prestige and all kinds of things that could be and under certain circumstances are good but can lead us astray. So as these things come keep us from falling and enable us to stand and finally for line is the kingdom power the glory Calvin knows that those words are not found in the original text but he thinks they are appropriate words and does not object to their being added to the Lord's prayer God's kingdom and power and glory are invincible and so we're safe in God's care as we could never be in our own. Calvin approves of the words whatever the source of the words he doesn't really get too concerned about that or too hung up when it approves of the words and it does bring us into a full circle because we start with the glory of God and we end with the glory of God. So there's something appropriate about these words and then the amen that strengthens our hope in place Luther said Christians should say a loud amen at the end of the Lord's prayer and every prayer and that's a good habit to get into Calvin would agree. Okay those are comments on the model prayer we just run through these other points here about how to pray we pray we pray often we pray properly pray with reverence with concentration with humility with repentance with confidence. You can look up these texts when we come to the last of those praying with confidence we pray knowing that God can answer our prayers and that God will answer our prayers as I have said already God can and will answer. Our prayers does God always answer our prayers 3 20 52 he cannot disappoint the expectation and patience of his people answers yes God will always answer our prayers he will not disappoint our expectation and our patience.

I think I would if I was preaching a series of sermons on the Lord's prayer I would include those words but make it clear to people that those words do not appear.

We are in our earliest texts and so there is some doubt as to whether they really belong in scripture or not but they have ancient tradition so they represent the faith of the early church and as faith of the early church we can read them profit from them just like we would the early church fathers. So I certainly be clear about it because people will be confused using different text of the Bible and realizing some have it some doubt but I don't think it would be improper to preach on it fact. Pretty pretty good sermon on those words God cannot disappoint the expectation and patience of his people get two things there expectation and patience. We illustrate it with a quote that I found once that I think is helpful from the missionary Ednar and Judson went to verma he said this I never was deeply interested in any object I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came at some time no matter how distant the day somehow in some shape probably the last I should have desired it came so answer comes said Judson someday in some shape maybe not the shape that I was expecting and maybe not the shape that I desired but in some way at some time that prayer he says was answered. So with confidence and finally with perseverance Calvin says pray and keep on praying not only can God answer our prayers but God will answer our prayers three twenty fifty two for unless there be in prayer a constancy to persevere we pray in vain. And this is hard for us because you know after a year two years I've been praying for something for two years now every day and does seem to be in the answer in sight but does that mean I I persevered in the process of persevering I trust in how many more years I'll pray for this I don't know and in what shape the answer will come and when I don't know but I do know that I should keep on praying because unless there be in prayer a constancy to persevere we pray in vain Bible says pray without ceasing. And one said I cease without praying my temptation is to cease without praying but let's resist that and pray without ceasing okay a few comments on the public prayer this is corporate prayer public prayer prayer is part of the liturgy of the church the time Calvin says is indifferent to God that is the times should be set for the convenience of the people certainly worship as we'll see in book four will be on Sunday but it could be at other times in the week as well it's going to be on Sunday plus other times in the week corporate worship Calvin's church in Geneva met not only Sunday but met several times through the week and there were sermons not only on Sunday in prayers not only on Sunday but several times during the week the place would be in the church this does not mean that God inhabits a particular building in a special way or that it has a secret holiness because we can pray to God anywhere but in corporate prayer we come together in the church to pray and the manner of praying and Calvin says that corporate prayer in worship is in two forms it is in spoken word and it is in singing and the last five minutes I want to comment on that when Calvin wrote the 1536 institutes he apparently was not of the conviction that singing would be an appropriate mode for prayer in church in fact he seems to be close to Zwingli's view that singing should be eliminated from public worship but quite soon after that he seems to have changed his mind probably because of the time that he spent in Strasbourg with Busser because Busser was an advocate of singing in worship just as much as Zwingli was an opponent of singing in worship we talk about Zwingli's view of music we're not simply talking about instruments Zwingli would oppose the use of instruments but he had no singing at all in his service and when Calvin came to Geneva in 1536 Farrell who had started the Reformation in Geneva under the influence of Bern which was influenced by Zurich and Zwingli Farrell had no singing in his liturgy either but we see quite soon after Calvin's return to Geneva his new idea in which he now is a strong advocate of singing the Psalms in worship the place where Calvin expresses this view most clearly of all his writings although it does come out in the 1559 institutes in this chapter that we read for today that the place where he puts this force forth most clearly is 1543 in the enlarged preface to the Geneva Psalter which Calvin had planned and seen through to publication even before that Calvin in writing articles for the organization of the church and its worship in Geneva said this it is a thing most expedient for the edification of the church to sing some Psalms in the form of public prayers by which one prays to God or sings his praises so that the hearts of all may be aroused and stimulated to make similar prayers and to render similar praises and thanks to God with a common love when Calvin first went to Geneva to help Farrell he makes the remarks several times that the prayers were so cold and so dead prayers of the people whether those were spoken prayers that the people were repeating or whether it was the prayer of the minister and the people were remaining silent Calvin felt there was a kind of coldness and deadness about the service and so he encourages the use of the singing of Psalms Calvin became convinced that this was the apostolic practice so he was not innovating here but returning to an earlier practice and I think we must remember as we think about this seems startling to us that Swingley would say no singing at all, no singing in church but the corruption of singing in the medieval liturgical pattern was such that singing was in Latin even the priest did not understand generally what they were saying and Swingley as he put it in 1523 as soon as it can be done this barbarous mumbling should be dispatched from the churches it was not identifying, it was not ensued it was barbarous murmuring mumbling but at the same time that Swingley is taking it out, the abuser in Strasburg is bringing singing back in as part of the congregations worship and the new liturgy of Strasburg included congregational singing of Psalms the Tin Commandments the Apostle's Creed and perhaps some other songs as well maybe even I greet the whom I sure redeem our art which appears in the Strasburg hymnal liturgy sometimes attributed to Calvin if so then Calvin wrote a hymn and his view of exclusive Psalm that he would be somewhat compromised by his own writing of a hymn but we can't really prove that Calvin wrote that and I rather doubt that he did but it does come from Strasburg that Calvin says singing is a form of prayer and it's a good form of prayer because it arouses the heart Calvin felt that music had a very strong impact upon the human psychology and that it was both dangerous and wonderful in fact you know Calvin came to the conclusion that we should sing Psalms he said in church and we should sing Psalms speaking to the Genievans outside of church and that's all no other music whatsoever no secular music to be good if people were just singing Psalms all day long wherever they went and that of course was not possible but that was his goal yes sir was was the Church of Rome using music and singing at this time or yes the Church of Rome was using music and instruments and singing but generally it was not congregational it was a group we could call it a choir often the priest and always in Latin and very convoluted complicated music when Calvin comes to introduce Psalm to the Genieva he wants simple new tunes he doesn't he doesn't take secular music and put the Psalms to secular music in fact the Genievans Psalter begins with the text from I think it's Psalm 90 sing into the Lord a new song and he really meant a new song not only new words but new music too that was quite different from Luther Luther was willing to get good tunes wherever he could but Calvin wanted new tunes new music okay read about election and we'll talk about that next week