Welcome to the Hedgemaker broadcast. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied to the nation of Israel many long years ago. He hath not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge, for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. He also said that the Lord sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found none. Hedgemaker Baptist Ministries, located in beautiful Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is attempting to stand in the gap and make up the hedge in these days of spiritual compromise and theological apostasy. Our biblical and historical Christian heritage challenges us to fill in the gaps left by those who have moved away from their biblical foundations. Listen now as we build up the wall and make up the hedge through sound preaching from God's Holy Word. We have some hindrances to prayer. Things that keep us from getting answers. It's obvious that sin will hinder prayer. One of the conditions for prayer is obedience. Let me just take you through these verses. You know these verses, but just as a way of introduction, I'm not going to preach on sin itself as a hindrance to prayer. But let's look at these verses. Psalm 66, 18. It says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So there's a hindrance to prayer. If I regard iniquity in my heart, a hindrance to prayer. In Isaiah, chapter 1, we have Isaiah's prophecy. It's kind of like a court case that Isaiah is bringing to the nation of Israel. Very similar. to the court case that Paul is bringing to the Romans in Romans, the first three chapters of Romans. The Lord is the judge and the prosecuting attorney here in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse number 15. And when ye spread forth your hands, and the context is with the observance of the feasts and things like that, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear, because your hands are full of blood." The word because, of course, is not there, but that's the reason. So the shedding of innocent blood will hinge a prayer. And of course the things that are there in that chapter where Israel is not observing and following the Lord. We also find in the book of Isaiah, go to chapter 59, Verse number 2, that our iniquities separate between us and God. Isaiah 59 verse 2, But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sin have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. So iniquities hinder the work of the Lord. And then Micah is a contemporary and very similar as well to the prophecy of Isaiah. Micah chapter 3 and verse 4. Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them. He will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. There's a couple of verses that tell us that iniquities, our sins will keep the Lord from hearing us. And then, before we leave this introduction, in the book of Jeremiah, there are a number of places where Jeremiah is told not to pray for disobedient Israel. I think that's interesting. So, prayers for the disobedient will not be answered. Jeremiah 14, verse 11. Then saith the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people, for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry. And when they offer burnt offerings and an oblation, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. And then go to, back up to chapter 7 and verse 16, some more verses that tell the same thing. here in Jeremiah, 7.16. Therefore pray thou not for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee. Chapter 11 and verse 14. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. and then chapter 13 and verse 17, but if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock was carried away captive. So there are some times when the Lord says that he would not hear the prayer for the disobedient. Now, that's general, that's pretty obvious, that God does not answer the prayer of the disobedient, or those who would regard iniquity in their hearts, shed the innocent blood, or be separated from God because of disfellowship. Now, I want to give you another list, though, of hindrances to prayer, and these things would be matters of sin, They are, each of them is specifically listed in Scripture as a hindrance to prayer. And the first one will be improper armor. Improper armor. You can guess where that's going to come from. The book of Ephesians chapter 6. Let's take a look at Ephesians chapter 6. Improper armor will hinder prayer. Ephesians chapter 6. Now once again, while I go through this list, I'm not giving this list to you are to me, to use as a whip, to scourge us and say, oh, see, that's why your prayers aren't answered. You know, we beat ourselves up enough with that. But these are truths from God's Word, hindrances to prayer, and so improper armor. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the, what? the whole armor of God." That little word, whole, is significant. Put on each piece of armor, put on the whole armor of God. Why? "...that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God." and then begins to list the whole armor that you may be able to stand, to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, you need a girdle of truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, so you need the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and so you need gospel shoes. Above all, taking the shield of faith, so you need the shield of faith. wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, so you need the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And then in verse number 18, he ends the listing of the armor with the matter of prayer, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Now we have some thoughts about the armor. A soldier cannot properly fight without armor. You have to have armor. You must have armor in order to fight Satan. And prayer is one of the avenues of that warfare. So a soldier cannot fight without his armor. So he cannot pray without his armor. So the armor, or the lack of armor, would be a hindrance to prayer. Now let's quickly talk about each piece of the armor. The first is the girdle of truth. A girdle, of course, is a belt, and a belt holds things together. Truth is a belt that holds the rest of the armor in place. If we have no truth, Christianity crumbles to pieces. Truth is set by Paul in counter distinction to deception. Truth is absolute. We try to mix truth with a lie, and then we call it truth, but it is not truth. And as we go through the pieces of armor, we're going to ask six questions. The first is, are you willing to fight? Are you willing to pray, we could say? You and I are not willing to fight, not willing to pray, if we do not pursue the truth. So our prayers need to be in a context of truth. The second piece of armor is the breastplate of righteousness. Here we're going to ask the question, am I enabled to fight? What enables you to fight is righteousness. What enables you to pray is righteousness. Remember, this is not our own armor. Righteousness must be imputed righteousness. Self-righteousness is not good enough. Practical righteousness is good in man's eyes, but not in God's sight. Notice again that the breastplate covers the heart. Living right is a heart matter. The righteousness of Christ covers the heart. The breastplate fastens upon the girdle of truth. We know what is right because of truth. The third piece of armor is a set of shoes, and the shoes are the preparation of the gospel of peace. The gospel represents evangelism, and evangelism must follow truth and righteousness. Many Christians are not involved in evangelism because they are not following the truth and living in righteousness. The gospel brings peace to the troubled soul. It is interesting that we are talking about warfare. but the garment is an instrument of peace. The goal of warfare is to bring peace. In order to have peace, you must battle against evil. Gospel shoes are necessary to walk with God correctly. Now, the first mention of the gospel brings about the need for shoes. Satan was to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman there in Genesis 315, thus creating the need for shoes. The question that the gospel asks is, am I ready to fight? Or in the case of prayer, am I ready to pray? And Paul answers the question in Romans chapter one, verses 15 through 17, where Paul said that he was ready to preach the gospel and that he was not ashamed of the gospel. Since we're talking about prayer, we can ask the question, am I ready to pray? And the answer should be, I am ready to pray because I am following the truth and following after righteousness. The fourth piece of armor is a shield of faith. Above all does not mean to forget about truth, righteousness, and the gospel evangelism, but add to the first three. Faith will ask the question, can I defend the fight? Faith is needed as you journey through life. We get saved by faith, and then we must walk by faith. I believe we ought to pray by faith. In fact, Jesus taught us that when we pray, in faith believing. The fifth piece of armor is a helmet of salvation. Salvation has three aspects or phases to it, past, present, and future. When we get saved, we are saved from past sins. As we go through the Christian life, we must be saved from present sin by confession of that sin, 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin. 1 Thessalonians 5, 8 mentions the helmet of the hope of salvation. Now, a helmet covers the head. like the breastplate covers the heart. The helmet asks the question, can I win the fight? Winning the fight is often a matter of the mind. Christ has provided all that is necessary to win the battle. But if the Christian does not believe he can win the battle, he will not win. A matter of the mind. The sixth piece of armor is the sword of the spirit. The helmet needs to be put on before you pick up the sword. The sword often attaches to the belt and it is the most offensive weapon. Do you know how to use the sword? Since the sword is the word of God, do you know how to use the word of God? So the question here is, do I know how to fight? Do I know how to pray? We've been stating that you and I need to learn how to pray in and through the Word of God. We must know the Word of God and how to use it. We need sword practice at church and at home. And then if we want to say that prayer is a seventh piece of armor, that tops off the armor. And he says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance. and supplication for all the saints. So the first hindrance to prayer that we have listed is an improper armor or an improper use of armor or partial armor. All that would be involved there with that. A second hindrance to prayer that we could talk about here in the message is a neglect of giving. Jesus was speaking in Luke chapter 6. And verse number 38, he says, give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running together, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye meet, with all it shall be measured to you. Again, often in our prayers, we are asking the Lord for things. But if we do not have a giving spirit, give, and it shall be given unto you. then it seems that the Lord is going to block those prayers. We could also cross-reference that with the passage in Malachi chapter 3 and verse number 10, where we are told to bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Of course, the context there is about tithing and different ideas about tithing there. We just talked about the storehouse, which probably references the storehouses that were included in the temple to provide for the temple worship and the things of the Lord. I, for one, bring that over into the New Testament with the New Testament local church being the place of worship. and that being the storehouse, as it were, and so we ought to give our tithes to the New Testament local church. But anyway, the purpose in that is that your meat might be in the house, and God says, I will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing to you when you bring all these things into the storehouse. So giving And of course, in the New Testament, we could call it the principle of giving, if you don't like that word tithing. But giving, it's the Lord's prayer. Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our trespassers. So we're saying in our prayers, Lord, give this person this or give me this. And God is saying, In Luke 3, 638, give and it shall be given unto you. So in order to get things from God, we need to learn the art of giving. And so a neglect of giving will, I believe, hinder our prayers. Another hindrance to prayer would be the lack of forgiveness. Once again, we reference that Lord's Prayer there in Matthew chapter six. Let me go ahead and read verses 12 through 15 of the Lord's Prayer, Matthew chapter six, verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. For if we forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you." So here we are asking the Lord in prayer for forgiveness. And yet we are unforgiving toward others, then that is a hindrance to our prayer lives. So we need to learn the art of forgiveness. And we learned that, of course, from verses like Ephesians chapter 4 and verse number 32. It says, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. So the pattern of forgiveness is laid down for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. He who had no sin forgave us of all our sin, took upon him the sin of the world, and became sin for us. He is the ultimate forgiver. and we ought to learn the art of forgiveness. And thanks included with that forgiveness, by the way. So a lack of forgiveness is another hindrance to prayer. Another hindrance to prayer would be a wrong husband-wife relationship. As the Apostle Peter is writing to the scattered strangers throughout all of Pontius Galatia, and I forget the names of the other places there, he is going to tell us about husband-wife relationships. In chapter 3 of 1 Peter, likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chast conversation coupled with fear. And he goes on to talk a little bit more about the dress of really both the wife and the husband. And verse five says, after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement, likewise ye husbands, dwell with them, dwell with your wives, according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life." And then that last phrase of that verse, that your prayers be not hindered. So the wrong kind of a husband-wife relationship can hinder our prayers. Wives who are not submissive to their husbands are not going to have their prayers answers. I think by the same token, husbands who are not leading their wives will not have their prayers answered. But also in the context, it's not just about leadership and submission. He's telling the husbands in verse number seven to dwell with the wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and being heirs together of the grace of life. So there's a teamwork that needs to be there in the husband-wife relationship. So the right husband-wife relationship is a help to prayer. The wrong kind of husband-wife relationship is a hindrance to prayer. Peter here specifically says that your prayers be not hindered. So our prayers can be hindered if we do not have the right kind of husband-wife relationship. If wives are not subjected in subjection to their husbands and if husbands are not dwelling with their wives according to knowledge and giving honor unto their wives as unto the weaker vessel as being heirs together of the grace of life. So there is a ministry together in this husband-wife relationship. So make sure your husband-wife relationship is correct. and that your prayers be not hindered. And I might add as well with this that you can only do your part. If your wife is not in subjection, you as a husband can still be right with the Lord by giving them the knowledge and the honor and so forth and treating them properly so your prayers are not hindered. And the same way around, if the husband is not who he ought to be, a wife, who is in proper subjection to her husband and the proper relationship will have her prayers answered as well. Even though it is a joint union, my wife can get her prayers answered even if I'm disobedient to the Lord. So that's the idea, the right husband and wife relationship. So a wrong husband-wife relationship. Now, we're not perfect, of course, and we're not perfect in any of these matters, in our giving, in our forgiveness, in putting on the full armor of God and putting it on properly, but we do what we can and do what we must. And so same thing with our husband-wife relationships. We may not have that perfect husband-wife relationship, but we ought to have a relationship that does not hinder our prayer life. And then a final hindrance to prayer we might examine in this message is a lack of persistence. I'm sure that you're very much like me. When we go to prayer, we want answers to our prayers immediately. I mean, after all, we live in an instant society, an instant this, an instant that. We want answers to our prayers. We want answers to all of our questions, our problems, everything immediately. And of course, life doesn't necessarily happen that way. In Matthew chapter number 15 and verses 21 through 28, Jesus is dealing with a Cyrethnesian woman. It says, Then Jesus went thence and departed unto the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil, but he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour." What we find with this Syrophoenician woman is that she was persistent. And following the instructions on the Lord's prayer, the Lord taught us about persistence in prayer. A persistent friend will knock at a neighbor's door until he goes away with what he needs. In the same way, we are to continue asking of the Lord for what we need. That story, of course, is told in Luke chapter 11, verses 5 through 13. I'm not going to take the time to read all of that. And then Luke chapter 18 and verses 1 Let me go ahead and read that passage of scripture for you. Luke chapter number 18, verses one through seven. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded men. And there was a widow in that city. And she came unto him saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward, He said unto himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said here what the unjust judge saith, And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them. So the point is that men ought always to pray, rather, illustrated by this widow who comes before the unjust judge and her continual coming. And so we can hinder our prayers by a lack of persistence. If we stop praying for a certain thing, we didn't get the answer yet, we stop praying, that is indeed a hindrance to prayer. So there are indeed some things that will hinder our prayer life, an improper armor, a neglect of giving, a lack of forgiveness, the wrong husband-wife relationship, and a lack of persistence. So may God help us to pray the way we ought to and to keep on praying, and we pray like the disciples. Lord, teach us to pray. Father, as we close this service in prayer, we ask you to Help us to remove any hindrances to our prayer lives, whether it be not using the full armor of God, the proper armor, or whether it is a matter of forgiveness, a matter of getting the husband-wife relationship right, or whatever it might be, help us to be able to pray correctly and freely. Amen. This is Dr. Lee Hennise, and we want to thank you for listening to the Hedgemaker broadcast today. Most of our broadcasts are portions of a sermon that I have preached the church. Hedgemaker Baptist Ministries is the preaching, teaching, and writing ministry for myself. You can visit us on the web at HedgeMaker.org. And let's be encouraged to stand in the gap and make up the hedge until Jesus comes again.