Our scripture, again, is taken from the book of Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 9, and it reads his follows. If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. Amen. May God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word. This is an interesting little verse that says a great deal. And so what I want to do and not moving too quickly but try to move rather briefly through this verse, there are six things that we want to look at. The first thing is the idea of the behind the word abomination. This has been a stumbling block for a lot of Christians in dealing with various sins. I've heard Christians who have been very hard on those who have been overtaken in certain sins and they say, well, that's because they almost look at them as if there's no hope. They say because that's an abomination. Well, let's make clear on something. First off, from God's vantage point, all sin is equally an abomination. So there is no category of sin, the special kind of sin in the eyes of God. Anything if sin is the failure to conform to God's law, regardless of what that law is, because God's law is the oughtiness for human conduct. And so any variation from God's law is equally an act of rebellion against the Creator. Now, I do believe that God gives us various categories and he gives us certain words that he uses in order for us to see it in a particular way. Now, as it turns out, the word even though in English when we think of an abomination, if you look it up in most English dictionaries, they will say that which is loathsome or despicable or that which is hateful, there are about three different categories of words that are used in Hebrew to carry the idea of what is used or what is translated in English as abomination. The one that's most common is the one that's found in our text. And the basic meaning is that which is disgusting. I mean, this is that simple. And so in a broad sense, every sin is disgusting before God. But I do agree with one writer who says that God uses this term so that to demonstrate flagrant, well, he uses that which is disgusting in relation because it is flagrantly, it's disgusting because it is flagrantly or it flagrantly opposes God's ritual or his moral requirements. So we know that anything that if God has given us a ritual to perform, then to not do it is a sin. But he designates certain rituals, whether it's offering sacrifices or touching dead things or seeking intercession from the dead. He calls certain things in abomination. There are certain categories of sexual sins that he says is an abomination. There are certain actions and rituals that people can perform and do it in such a way. It's called disgusting before God because it flagrantly opposes God's moral or ritual requirements. So therefore, we can't and we'll look at some of that a little bit later. But what we don't want to do is to sort of elevate and cherry pick certain sins as just more reprehensible than the others. I think one of the reasons for this designation is so that God reinforces to his people just how egregious our sins are. And some sins carry them as demonstrate their egregious nature more than others. There are certain things that are very flagrant and they are flagrant disregard to what God has clearly established. I think that's one of the reasons, for instance, homosexuality is called an abomination. But not just homosexuality, sexual transgressions period, because God has given us the sexual bond for a particular purpose. Its enjoyment is to be received in a particular context. And so that's why in the writer of Hebrews calls basically every sexual sin a sin against the marriage bed. And so it's interesting how we again cherry pick and therefore we allow ourselves to maybe even become haters of those who we see guilty of a particular sin, but we don't have the same sense of moral outrage against others. So that which flagrantly opposes God's ritual or moral requirements is disgusting in the sight of God. But here's the second thing. It is what is at issue in this single verse is the ritual of prayer. It's prayer, which is kind of interesting because we've talked about prayer on a number of occasions and boy prayer is one of those things a few weeks ago we talked or maybe was last week when we talked about superstition and how we can elevate or extract from a broader body of teaching on a particular subject and extract it from its context and it becomes superstitious. The Lord intended the children of Israel to use the arc of the covenant to communicate his presence with them, but it was never supposed to be separated from everything else. So in other words the arc was not to be exalted as an idol. And so even when it comes to prayer prayer is something that is God ordained. In fact, Jesus says men ought always to pray and to faint not. So it is a privilege that has been given by God and therefore it is a ritual. It is a ritual. It's a right that we do. We don't perform it. So with any well we shouldn't with superstitions attached to it, but it is a ritual. It is it is something that God has given us. It is a God ordained means of communicating with God and making our petitions known to him. We are told through and we see it really throughout the Psalms in the different stages in which we can pray. We can pray with delight. We can pray from broken heart. We can pray out of our frustration. So prayer is a great gift from God. And so it is that we have discussed the fact that many people have extracted prayer and we've heard people say that prayer is the key to the kingdom. Nowhere does the Bible teach that the prayer is the key to the kingdom. It is not the key to the kingdom. It is a unique gift to the people of God whereby we can speak to him. And when we consider the alienation that is the result of our fallen status, the very fact that God would hear from us is amazing. And it means it is a gift of God. In fact, other elsewhere in Proverbs we are told that the prayers of the unrighteous are an abomination to him. It's disgusting that those who don't bow to him would want to talk to him. And so therefore in this passage what is at issue is prayer. The ritual of prayer, again as which is given as a God, given means by which we can communicate with him and to make our petitions known. Now here's the third thing. What is disgusting in this verse? What is disgusting is to attempt to approach God or to talk to God while at the same time one rejects God's will in his law. In other words, this is and I think this is a warning against making prayer a superstition. See, prayer is a particular privilege for a particular people. It's not just for anyone but prayer does not emanate just from us. We don't get to just we don't just get to talk to God on our own terms. And so what is disgusting is one who is always willing to talk to God but never willing to hear from him. Now that's now I would argue that when he speaks of God's law what is said of the laws also said can also be said of the gospel but what's the disgusting thing? The abomination before the Lord is for someone and notice the wording here. It's not just one who does it and I think for this reason that I think what what what the writer is addressing is a believer because he says if one turns away his ear suggesting it especially in an Old Testament context that he has the word or the law of God available to him and yet turns his ear away from that and he doesn't want to hear God speak to him but he has everything to say to God God says that's an abomination. So it is rejecting. It's a conscious rejection. It's a conscious rejection. It's a conscious turning away. I don't want to hear. We can say we don't want to hear for a number of reasons. Some people don't want to hear because they think they know everything. And so he can't teach him anything. You know they already know they already know it's if you go to read a verse then they'll finish it for you because they think they already know. And so it's it's interesting that what what what the writer is addressing and it's real simple phrase that is possible for us to get so accustomed to speaking our words that God's word is what become secondary. Isn't that what we see in a lot of settings a lot of a lot of tendencies and evangelical Christianity where we have it's as a matter of fact we have so much attention being given to our praise we praise our praise and then we get sleepy when God speaks to us right. We love to praise him. We praise him till we just wear ourselves out and then when he speaks oh give me a minute. It was interesting in 19 I think it was 96. We had the Cambridge Summit a group of theologians and teachers calling the church to repent or and to return to the standards of historic Protestantism. And James Boyce was gave the opening address in this gathering and he made office it made the observation because what we did what we attempted to do was to recover the solace of the Protestant Reformation and especially on the idea of solace scripture and James Boyce made the observation in his initial address where he called attention to the problem that we were addressing he made the observation that in evangelical churches we have almost a cult around the Bible whether it's phrases or whether it's whether it's its statements cliches you know we are into the word the word the word it becomes a church phrase we're into the word he says but then when you go into many evangelical churches then he pointed to fingers so to speak and a lot of the reformed churches where I've been invited to preach and they'll say well you have 30 minutes or 20 minutes for the sermon they says you know especially in evangelical services where the liturgy is not necessarily temperate to the word of God we talk all of this talk about the word and so we have 20 minutes for that 20 minutes for this 40 minutes of praise and worship and 20 minutes for the word there's something wrong with that you see we we give a lot of effort and a lot of attention to what's going over here what's going on over here and what's going on over there but we have very little very little attention is being given to the opening up of the word and it's for this reason that I think many many ministers have lost confidence in the preaching of the word and so they try to find something that's going to catch the attention of the people not recognizing that if they can't if you can't catch their attention with what God has given in his word you can't catch their attention so it was interesting that he says that so what we have to do and it goes to something that we've said in the past that in the Reformation under Josiah in the Old Testament it came when the word of God had been lost among the people of God it was lost in the sanctuary and the people didn't even know that it was missing but the difference now in this generation if we need a Reformation which I think we do it comes at a time when we have Bibles all over the place we just don't read them we have Bibles on all of our instruments and all of our you know all of our all of our devices we have Bibles and all kinds of translations speaking of James voice our remember one time he was in California for a Christian booksellers convention or one of those conventions and he was scheduled to preach and we saw him at the hotel and he was running or we saw him at the venue and he was running he says excuse me I'm supposed to preach and I left my Bible at home so I figured well I'm going to a hotel and I'm sure they have one in the hotel room he says but can I'm in California and apparently you guys don't put Bibles in your hotel room so I there was no Bible there he says but oh I figured okay that's okay when I get to the booksellers convention I'm sure there will be a Bible that I can buy and he says I went to the Bible display and he says they had all kinds of Bibles they had women's Bibles they had overcomers Bibles had everything but the Holy Bible so for all of our talk about the importance of the word and the importance of being in the word the reality is in many of our churches as reflected in many of our individual lives the word of God does not have as much value as everything else that we have surrounded the practice of our faith with so therefore it's interesting that God says it is disgusting for someone to consciously turn their ear from hearing from me and then open their mouth and pray to me that's what God says but here's the fourth thing there are two important implications in this statement here in Proverbs on the one hand one implication and it's not explicitly stated but it's implied and that is our prayer and I'm going to focus I'm going to return to this thought in a moment under another heading but one one thing is implied is that our prayer to God ought to be informed by his word to us our prayers to God ought to be informed by God's word to us Rosemary Jensen is a dear friend of mine has been for over 20 years now just saw Rosemary last week and she wrote a book a number of years ago and it was in response to her reading I forget which book it was on the the attributes of God and Rosemary who was the former director of Bible study fellowship but she wrote a book entitled praying the attributes of God praying the attributes of God and one of the things that she mentions I don't remember if it's in the introduction but I know this was a discussion the when she was preparing to write the book her premise behind writing the book is that our words to God in prayer ought to be tempered and shaped by what God has revealed about himself so in other words in praying the attributes of God we pray to God as the holy God as as according to all of the attributes that he has revealed to us in his holy word and then that same vein I think our prayers what's implied here is that our prayers are what part of what makes them healthy is that they are tempered by what God has revealed of himself in his word and the reason I say that is because praying is not uniquely a Christian endeavor we see this even in the book of Jonah when the storm comes up on the sea and and the captain of the ship gets concerned and he tells all of the sailors pray to your gods pray to your gods and let's see who answers so the concept of prayer obviously it begins with God before the fall but after the fall people pray according to their own understanding of God and sometimes they even pray to other gods so there is an implied statement here and implied or an important implication and that is our prayers to God should be shaped by his word to us but here's a second important implication and that is there is a propensity in fallen man to attempt to manipulate God through prayer and also to elevate our word over his word we are prone to do that that's that's something that we have to fight against because we know what God has said but sometimes we don't want to hear what God has said sometimes we want to focus on what we have to say and in addition to that we and it's very common among many evangelicals to think that prayer is a way to manipulate God I mentioned in my chapter on I was it oh I'll show I'll show you the way or whatever the book is called by Anthony Bradley but I have a chapter on the word faith or prosperity gospel and and in that chapter we mentioned the diversion of Orthodox Christianity down dangerous paths and it what there was a time when the Pentecostals when word faith people were outside of the camp and they knew they were outside of the camp the reason they started is because they disagreed with various aspects of Orthodox Protestant Christianity but over the years there has become such an overlap that you can hear phrases just go into the bad door of any given church and you will hear phrases and incantations that you would think are coming from word faith and is really coming from XYZ Baptist Church down the street and the example that I use in the book is I'll take you there I think is the name of it but it's with Anthony Bradley but but in the chapter I just reread it the other day we we use as a point of reference if Bruce Wilkinson who was a favorite Bible teacher and considered a conservative Bible teacher for many years many years in fact he had to through the Bible ministry on radio and and in print and everyone was hot and bothered about Bruce Wilkinson as a as a as a as a as a solid teacher of the word of God and then a number of years ago Bruce Wilkinson wrote a book called The Prayer of J.V.S. and he says in the introduction of that book here is a prayer that if you pray it God will always honor this prayer I was thinking about that wow see what is it that we have done with prayer what is it so we have taken the mystery from God's authority and God's power and we've taken the privilege that God has given us in being able to talk to him where he doesn't have to speak to us we saw that in 1 Samuel 3 where it says during that period God didn't frequently speak to the people and if he doesn't speak to them it's not like he's in a hurry to hear from them God speaks of the of the of the famine that he will deliver in the land a famine not of water not of bread but a famine for the word of God for over 400 years from the closing of the New Testament or the Old Testament to the opening of the New Testament there was no new word from God so the idea that we can speak to him and then he speaks to us through his word is a great privilege for those who are redeemed but look at our propensity to elevate our word over God's word and not only elevate our words and our thoughts upon God but also to the point where we try to manipulate him we treat God like the genie in the bottle you see when in the old you know stories with the genie in the bottle the genie that is released from the bottle has no choice but to grant you whatever you ask and so brothers and sisters two serious implications here that God's word ought to inform our prayers and that our human propensity in our fallen nature is to attempt to manipulate God with our prayers that's why we have slogans like well you know just pray and and and he will and we will even twist the words of Jesus that he will give us whatever we desire and then we start monetizing that I've said of one particular preacher he has he is a gifted man because he can find a dollar sign in every verse of the Bible he finds a way to monetize it and so we pray for those things that are not always consistent with what God has revealed in his word and we try to use prayer as a way of manipulating God by by by taking the very tool that he's given us as a privilege and turning it back on him but brothers and sisters isn't don't we have many examples and scriptures that that doesn't have to be as matter of fact James in James chapter 4 James tells the the believers who have become consumed have become consumed with the ways of the world he says he calls them adulterers and adulteresses and he's not speaking of sexual sin there I think what he's really alluding to is they have they they have become unfaithful to the things of God it becomes so worldly in their affection so that James says listen you you've become like the world and if you are like the world then you have become you you're really sounding like an enemy of God and not like a child of God he says for this reason many of you pray and your prayers are a miss the Greek word this translated a miss means diseased and he says and God doesn't give it to you so all of our genius the bottle mentality about prayer and this is what happens to prayer when it's extracted from the balance of what God teaches and when we turn our ear from his word and then freely let our lips fly he says God does not give it to you he says because you pray a miss and if he did give it to you you would only spend it on your own desires so therefore two important implications here that God's words should inform our prayers but also the the tendency of our own fallen nature to try to manipulate God with the very gift that he has given to us and then to elevate our word over his word that brings us to a fifth thing because a sin is called an abomination does not mean that it's unpartenable that's what we have to hear because a sin is called an abomination that doesn't mean it can't be forgiven God wants us to see it as disgusting so that we can consciously turn from that which is disgusting he wants us to be uncomfortable in that nonsense and thank God for his grace thank God for his Holy Spirit because isn't that what prompts us to turn from sin where Paul and Colossian says that if you have if you have been raised with Christ then set your mind on things above we're Christ is seated and set your affections on things above we're Christ is and he gives this reason he says because you died and your life is hidden in Christ and therefore if you are hidden in Christ now look at your body through the lens of who you are in Christ and then you will see in all the things that follows he says sexual immorality and I'm glad he doesn't he doesn't just leave it you know that's that's an open door that's in in whatever direction that falls he's in wait a minute he's he's talking to believers yes he is talking to believers but some of it we don't see until we see ourselves more firmly entrenched in the person and work of Christ and it's then that he says now and he goes on filthy communication then all of these things and then he says now put those things to death put him to death why would we want to put it to death the members he says that remain in the earth put them to death reason we want to want to put them to death is because we see them in us not the world I think there's a lot of energy on the part of Christians to point out the sins and others isn't that we we preach a number of weeks ago about the the the log and eye disease and that's what sin does we it it allows us to razor beam on the moat and someone else's eye but our own fallen condition minimizes our own sin and it always maximizes the sins of others and so we what we will run to and we will do it in defense of our of our hatred and our hard hard of this to certain people who fall under the category of those sins that are openly an abomination and then we treat them as if there is no possibility of repentance well because a sin is called an abomination that doesn't make it unpartnable you know we're told in scriptures there's only one sin that God will not forgive in this world or the world to come and that is blaspheming against the Holy Spirit blaspheming starts with B abomination starts with A they don't rhyme they don't look alike they don't sound alike brothers and sisters an abominable sin doesn't have to mean that the center who is guilty of it is banished from any hope of heaven that's why again I think in this passage the writer is addressing those who regularly frequent the assembly of the saints this is probably a sin that is committed by those who are part of the covenant community those who have access to the word of God and for whatever reason in the season of their life maybe they are wrapped up in self or maybe they have just become so versed in the word of God they don't think they need to hear one of the things that I used to appreciate years ago about J.I. Packer's writing is that Packer in most and especially in his early books but I think it followed through in some of his later books as well is that when he would reference a scripture he would not write the scripture in the text he would reference the scripture and he said years later it was so that the Christian reading the book would put down their book when he referenced John 3 16 you would put down your book or his book and then pick up God's book to see what God's word actually says I find myself guilty of that sometimes I read and I'll see what the verse is and I don't stop reading I'll just say okay well yeah I know that passage I remember what that's talking about and I don't stop reading but the point is brothers and sisters the unpartenable sin is not it's not the abominable sin so it's not he said well the reason we march against homosexuality is or homosexuals is because God caused an abomination well he calls praying without reading and listening to his word and abomination do we do we pick it the prayer meetings where we see all the people in prayer meetings that don't come to Bible study do we do that no you see the abomination so that we would see discussed and that which we ought not be engaged in that we are or that we would be disgusted and that which we have neglected that we should give we should give priority to well that brings us to the sixth and final observation here and that is we return to the point to the first implication and that is a proper understanding of both law and gospel should guide us in how we are to pray a proper understanding of law and gospel should guide us in how we ought to pray you see when we know what God's law requires and we read it and we hear and we see as Jesus what Jesus does by the way in the sermon on the mound he makes he wants to make sure that everyone who thinks they know the law understands that they haven't kept it and so what he does is he enlarges the law so he says you've heard it said that and he's talking to these Pharisees you've heard it said vows out not kill he said he said hey man fry all of them you know no all of the killers they ought to be killed themselves he says okay but I say to you that you've been angry with your brother without a cause then you are guilty of murder I said that point that people back up and we can do one of two things we can either try to justify our unjustifiable anger or we can recognize Lord I'm not as pure as I thought I was you said well here's what you you say that vows out not committed to absolutely yeah I know no way it's okay well I've said this have you looked at a person with lustful thoughts is it well we don't want to get into that you know no no have you looked at a person with lustful thoughts because lust in the heart is equivalent to the D in the in the eyes of God so therefore everyone who thinks that they have not killed everyone who thinks that they are sexually pure everyone who thinks that they have not stolen or lied is their mouth is shut before the law of God God's law knowledge of God's law guides us in our prayers if for no other reason in order make us humble because we're not talking to appear we're not talking to one that we have deserved anything from God's law rightly understood causes us to pray that petition that is taught by Jesus when he teaches his disciples to pray when they said Lord teach us how to pray and he says here's what you should say our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name and then he goes on to teach them to say this forgive us our sins even as we forgive others you see that's that that that is brought to prayer it's a right knowledge of God's law that exposes our our failures and shows us what we are to pray for not just for diveness we also pray because we recognize that we've sinned against him I that's why I like that statement in Hebrews 4 and Hebrews 4 where where the writer says that we have we have a great high priest who has entered in and then he goes on to say this so that we can go boldly to the throne of grace and notice what he says and find mercy now what's mercy mercy is to ask that judgment would be withheld when you throw yourself on the mercy of the court you say I know I'm guilty and I'm just gonna I'm gonna claim my guilt and just do whatever whatever you do whatever you decide and so we are able to go boldly to the throne of grace to ask for mercy and when do you need mercy when you are guilty when we are guilty you can not only find mercy but we can find grace so our prayers should be informed by God's law I do agree with Rose Mary that we do the the revelation of God's attributes in his word in general should frame our prayers so that we know we're not talking to our earthly father we do have intimacy with him but our father happens to be the sovereign Lord of the universe so therefore when we pray a prayer should be governed by a knowledge of God's law and the knowledge of God's law reveals to us that we are law breakers but we know there's mercy because of his gospel and so the gospel should shape our prayers because number one it reveals to us God's gift of righteousness and God's gift of righteousness is the obedience of the law but God gives us in the gospel is what he has required of us in the law and so we can go to God boldly at our time of need and say father it as I your law has revealed that I have sinned against you I've come into it I've had thoughts that I shouldn't have but I confess those things to you but thank you for your gift of righteousness in Jesus Christ so that my failure has been a tone by his blood and thank you that right now you are seeing me as if I had not sinned and so God's law and God's gospel should govern us in our prayers before God and that's why brothers and sisters I don't care how low you slide and I hope you don't I hope you are our keep your hand to the gospel plow and I hope that we never have that tumble down that hill I pray that you don't find yourself and in the midst of rebellion against God but it's you too don't ever think that you are too far away or that you are too dirty or that you are too reprehensible for God to hear your prayers he will hear your prayers isn't it interesting that God would hear the prayers of his rebel children but the ones that he finds disgusting those who consciously close their ears to his word and have the audacity to open their mouth and ask gifts from him here's what the writer says at the one who turns his ear from the word of God even his prayer is an abomination now here's the truth of the matter that sometimes and I just close the light turn off the light closed doors don't let anybody see as our hands go up who of us have not prayed abominable prayers how many of us have turned the deaf ear to what God says so that we can get our word into him knowing that all of our sins from the least to the greatest are purged by the blood of Jesus let us read in this verse a warning to the best of us that it is possible for us to reach a point in our Christian walk where we have more to say and less time to listen and let us see that since God says it's disgusting let's not try to sugarcoat that it is disgusting but thank God that he has saved disgusting despicable people and he's purged us with the blood of his son brothers and sisters you don't have to remain in that state hear it see it confess it in turn here's the response to this he said well what do I do then listen to his word listen to his word of law that condemns and listen to his word of grace that partens not just partens but gives so that when we walk it is our desire to walk like the one whose righteousness covers us let's pray gracious God we do thank you for another Lord's day and another opportunity to hear your word we pray that you would give listening ears and responsive hearts to those things that you have set forth in your word so that our prayers would not be emptied and vain so that we would not be like the Pharisees who think that by their many words that they are being heard before we have boldness to speak to you give us the humility to listen to you let us hear you identify our sins as they are and give us the patience to hear your word of pardon and the person in work of Jesus Christ we thank you for this day we thank you for this time we pray these things in Jesus name amen amen what you