The Bible makes it very clear that every single person in our world is going to pray sometime. There are a lot of people around here that have not yet prayed today. Maybe there is somebody here in this room who has not yet prayed today, and there are people that may not have prayed for a week or a month. There are people that say, 'I do not believe in prayer. I am an atheist or I am an agnostic.'

An agnostic is a person that says, 'I do not know whether there is a God or not,' and an atheist is someone who says, 'I do not believe that there is a God.' So if I do not believe that there is a God, why should I pray? Why should you pray to someone that you do not believe exists?

We human beings are interesting creatures. I have been interested in the different stories I have read of atheists who have prayed. Have you ever heard of atheists who prayed? That does not make sense, does it? But it is an interesting thing. Atheists have prayed many, many times. Get on a ship, have a storm at sea, and they become terrified and they cry out to the Lord for help.

I heard of a man who was either an atheist or an agnostic and he did not believe that there was any evidence to prove that there was a God. He was a slave to tobacco. Now, one hundred years ago people did not know how dangerous tobacco was. Did you know that there was a time back in the nineteenth century when physicians actually prescribed tobacco for people? But that is not in our time. I do not think there are any physicians in Wichita today who are prescribing tobacco for anyone, because we know how dangerous it is, and there are many people today who are smoking who realize that it would be well for them to quit.

This man, who did not believe in God, wanted to overcome smoking, and he was having a terrible time because he had this terrible craving to smoke. One day he reached his wit's end, and he cried out "Lord, help me. I cannot quit smoking." Then he realized that he did not believe that there was a Lord, but he cried out anyway.

It is an interesting thing how we say what we do not believe in, and then when we get in enough trouble, we actually start crying out to the Person that we thought we believed did not exist. The Bible teaches us about the importance of prayer, especially when we are living in the end times when things are happening very fast. One of these days we may not even be able to meet together.

What I am going to study with you today is something that could be studied in three or four sermons, but we are going to compress it into one.

I want to look at four things, and I want to start with the importance of prayer. Many Christians have not thought through how important prayer really is. If you believe in the Bible, you know that the Bible teaches very clearly, in both the Old and New Testament, that there is a being in existence who used to be one of the chief angels in heaven, and his name is Lucifer. His more common names are Satan and the devil.

Jesus taught about a literal devil who is an opponent, an adversary. The word Satan is a Hebrew word meaning an adversary. The word devil comes from the Greek word, diabolos, which refers to somebody who is a destroyer. He is called a murderer and a deceiver and he is out to cause you to lose your soul.

The Bible teaches that there is only One Power that can deliver you from the snares or traps of Satan. There is only One Power that can secure you against the devices of Satan. The book of Revelation teaches that not only is the devil a deceiver, but he is also so successful at deception, that in the last days the devil is going to deceive the entire world. That is what the Bible says in the book of Revelation over and over again.

Do you believe that this Book is telling the truth? Revelation 12:9 says he deceives the whole world. Revelation 18:23 says that all nations were deceived. And it tells in different languages several other times in the book of Revelation about the last generation and how the entire world will be deceived. Are you going to be deceived? Let me tell you, friend, if you do not learn how to pray, you will be deceived. There is no question about it.

Prayer is your only defense against the devices of Satan, the only thing that can keep you from being ensnared by Satan. So it is essential to your religious experience if you want salvation. Let us just read a few things that Jesus said about prayer. Open your Bible to Luke 18:1. It says here, "Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart."

There are many texts in the Bible on this subject, showing that we should always be in an attitude of prayer. Paul said one time that we should pray without ceasing. That is, our hearts should be lifted up to God in prayer, even while we are going about our other activities.

Then let us look at one in Matthew 17:14. Jesus is speaking again, "And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 'Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.' Then Jesus answered and said, 'Oh, faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.' And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not cast it out?'" Look at verse 20 and 21: "So Jesus said to them, 'Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind [this kind of demon] does not go out except by prayer and fasting.'"

If you want to be a man or woman of faith, Jesus said, you are not going to be a man or woman of faith unless you pray and fast. So it is an essential part of religious experience. The only way that you can develop a faith that will stand the test of the last days, the only way to avoid being deceived, is if you become a man or a woman of prayer.

Someone is sure to ask, "What does that mean? How do I pray? What do I do?" There are many people that apparently do not know how to pray, or have never been taught to pray and wonder how to do it. They want other people to pray for them because they think that they do not know how.

I used to be surprised, but it has happened so many times that I am not surprised any more, when people wanted me to pray for them, thinking some way that I would be able to help them by praying. Yet they should be praying for themselves. So we all need to know how to pray. Jesus is our example

Both Peter and John, in their epistles, speak of Jesus as being our example and Jesus was a Man of prayer. The disciples were so impressed when they heard Jesus pray that they came to Him and said, "Lord, teach us to pray." They saw that when Jesus prayed, He received divine power into His life. If you follow the rules for prayer given in the Bible, when you pray, you will receive divine power into your life too.

So let us look at seven principles in the Bible about how to pray. Prayer is not complicated. Prayer is simply opening your heart to God as to a friend and talking to Him. Of course, you can pray right now when you are in church. You can pray when you are in a meeting. You can pray when you are in a business transaction, because you can talk to the Lord in your mind even if you do not say anything verbally. He can read your thoughts.

If prayer is opening your heart to God as to a friend, what are you going to talk to Him about? As I have studied the Bible, I have learned that there is one thing that God cannot stand. God cannot stand men or women playing games with Him and pretending things. God knows what is in your heart. Do not tell God something that you do not really mean, because He will know that you are a hypocrite.

The first rule of prayer is to tell God what is really in your heart. Tell Him what you need. Well, somebody says, "Pastor John, I do not need anything." If you do not need anything, then there is no need for you to pray. But are you really in that condition? Are you sure that you do not need anything? Look at the man in the Bible who prayed, and he did not know that he needed anything.

Look in Luke 18:9-12. It says: "He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.'"

He did not feel that he needed anything. What does Jesus say about his prayer? Did he receive anything? No, he did not receive anything from his heavenly Father because he did not feel any need. So if you do not feel that you need anything, there really is no reason for you to pray, because you are not going to get anything.

But if there is someone here, and you know that you have a need, look at what the tax collector did. He knew he was in trouble. He knew that he had a need. In verse 13 it says: "The tax collector, standing a far off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

If you want to know how to pray, the first question to ask is "What do I need?" Do not pretend. Just tell the Lord what you understand that you need. Are you a sinner? If you are a sinner, what is the wages of sin? Death. Would you like not to have to pay that yourself? Would you like to get a pardon for your sins?

The book of Acts tells us about a man, Simon. We have a word in the English language that comes directly from his name. The word is called "simoning." Simon came to Peter and he wanted to receive something from heaven. He wanted to receive the Holy Spirit. He wanted to receive forgiveness of sins and he wanted to receive all these things.

He said to Peter, "I will pay you money if you will give me this." And Peter said, "Your money perish with you. You cannot get forgiveness of your sins by any amount of money." Now you would think that people today would know that, but they do not. People think that if they go to church, and if they give enough money to their church or to their organization, then they are going to go to heaven, then their sins will be forgiven because they paid money.

You cannot find anywhere in the Bible where that is allowed. In fact, I just gave you one example where the apostle Peter himself, not only condemned it, but also told Simon, "Your money perish with you because you thought that you could buy something from God."

You cannot buy anything from God, but if you have a need, you can ask Him to supply your need. Since He has abundant resources, if you feel your need, and if you ask Him about your needs, the Bible says that God likes to give His children more than they ask. That is the way He is. Maybe you should read a few texts in the Bible about that.

Look in Malachi 3:10. It says, "'Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.'"

The Lord says He would like to pour you out a blessing that is so big that you will not even be able to receive it. And He says you need to overcome your selfishness and you need to be a giving, generous person because that is the way He is. "If you will give to My cause, I am going to give back to you more than you give to Me." In fact, as I have studied the Gospel story and I study the life of Jesus, I find that in this world, Jesus was a poor man.

People gave to Him. The Gospel of Luke mentions a number of times certain individuals gave to Him. It names several women who gave to Jesus of their substance, that is, of their money. But I have been very interested to notice, as I read those accounts, that every time someone gave something to Jesus, He gave them something back that was more wonderful than what they had given to Him.

That is the way God is. He does not need our money, but He says, "I want you to give Me your heart." If you give Him your heart, He is going to give something back to you. Do you know what He will do? He says, if you give Him your cold, stony heart He will give you a new heart, a heart of flesh. That is what it says in Ezekiel 36:26.

Notice another text about what God wants to give to His children who ask Him, and who feel their need. "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3. Does God know some things that you and I do not know? The Bible says, "In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." And He says if you will ask Him, He will show you something you do not even know yet.

He will give you a bigger blessing than you can even receive. But, of course, the first thing is, do you feel your need? The person who says, I am okay, and you are okay, the person who goes through life feeling okay, never receives anything from God because they do not feel their need.

Rule Number 1 is that you must feel your need. If you do not feel your need, you are not going to receive.

God does not give things to people that do not think they need anything. He says, "I will pour water upon him who is thirsty." Isaiah 44:3. If you are thirsty, God is going to quench that thirst. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." What is going to happen? They are going to be filled.

Rule Number 2 is found in Hebrews 11:6. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

So what is the second requirement for a person who wants to learn how to pray? You have to believe that God exists and that He is going to hear and answer your prayer. The Bible could actually be called a prayer book, because there are many, many examples of people who prayed and God answered. If you do not have very much faith, just ask for something small.

You will be surprised at what God will do. Say, "Lord, I need this and I am looking to You to help me." The Lord will answer your prayer, and as your prayer is answered on the little things, do you know what will happen after a while? You will ask for something bigger and bigger and bigger.

This is a story of George Mueller, the famous Christian who fed and clothed the orphans of England. We will never know until the Day of Judgment how many orphans he fed and clothed, and it was not because he was rich, it was because he was a man of prayer. He had these orphans in these orphanages and sometimes he did not know where he was going to get food to feed these children, and so he prayed. He said, "Lord, I need food to feed these children."

And, you know, it is an amazing thing as you study his history, those children always had something to eat. Someone says, "Pastor John, I do not have very much faith." Well, then, use whatever faith you have. The Bible promises in Romans 12:3 that everybody has a little bit of faith. It says, "God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." He may not have given you as much as someone else, but exercise whatever faith that you have.

If you do not have enough faith yet to realize that God can do everything, exercise what faith that you do have. Say, "Lord, here is the help that I need in my life." Surely we could at least have as much faith as the atheist who cried out to the Lord and asked the Lord to help him quit smoking. The Lord heard his prayer, by the way. He came to a meeting that night and he told of his experience. He did not think that there was a God, but he found out when he cried out for help, that God helped him.

If you do not have very much faith, just exercise the faith that you have and God will hear and He will answer.

Rule Number 1: If you want to learn how to pray, pray to God about what you need.

Rule Number 2: Believe that He exists and that He will hear and answer. Hebrews 11:6.

Rule Number 3: This is the hard one. I have often wondered if this is not the reason that many people do not experience answers to their prayers. In Matthew 6, Jesus is speaking to His disciples. He is giving them the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is found in Matthew 6:9, and right in the middle of the Lord's Prayer, verse 12, you find this, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." By the way, after the Lord's Prayer is finished, this is the first statement that Jesus immediately explains. You will see it explained in verses 14 and 15. If I want the Lord to forgive me, if I want a pardon for my sins, what does Jesus say I am to do? I am to forgive the people that owe something to me.

Now we live in a world where we are interdependent. None of us are totally independent of other human beings. Is that right? That is right, God has made it that way. The richest, most powerful man in the world is still not totally independent of all other human beings. Just study that out and you will see how that is the case.

When we are dependent on others, do the people you are dependent on, make mistakes? It is a sad fact of human existence, but it is true that sometimes the people that we love the most are the people that hurt us the most. That is often true, and it works the other way around. The people that love us the most, we sometimes hurt the most.

So what are we going to do? Are we just going to try to clobber each other because of all these mistakes? If we are ever going to have peace and harmony, and if we are going to get back together again, if we are going to get ready for heaven, there is going to have to be forgiveness. Not just on God's part, but I have to have a forgiving spirit. If I want God to answer my prayer and I say, "Lord, I am a sinner and I need pardon, I need to be forgiven," then the Lord says to me, "If you want Me to forgive you, then you need to forgive others." In Matthew 18, Jesus talks about this again. He gives a long parable here of the unforgiving servant. It starts in verse 22 and goes all the way to the end of the chapter. We will not read the parable, but look at the last verse, Matthew 18:35. It says: "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother their trespasses."

I am to forgive you. If you have injured me, I am to forgive you from where? From my heart. By the way, that requires divine grace. Sometimes you have to do a lot of praying before you can say, "Yes, I choose from my heart to forgive my husband or my wife or my child or somebody else that is close to me. I am going to forgive them for what they have done." That is hard to do.

But it is necessary to do, because Jesus said if you want your heavenly Father to forgive you, you have to forgive your brother, your sister.

Rule Number 4: If you want to know how to pray, the Bible teaches that we should persevere in prayer. There are many instances of this in the Bible. Now, those of you who are parents, just think this through for yourself. Have you ever had a child come to you to make a specific request, and you said in your mind, "I want to give that child this, but I cannot give it to him right now because he is not ready for it?"

Have you ever had that happen to you? Most parents have had that happen. Your child comes and they request something and you want to give it to them, but you cannot give it to them yet. Do you think that God ever has that experience? He has it all the time. People are asking for things that they are not prepared to receive, so He has to get you ready so that He can give you what He wants to give you.

So it is necessary to persevere in prayer and not give up. There is an example of this in the life of Jesus. This is Jesus' experience as told in the gospel of Luke. You will find that every time Jesus had any kind of trouble, He prayed. That is an example to us. It would be impossible for a group this big to assemble and there not be at least one or two people in this group who are in big trouble right now, that would be almost impossible in this world. So, whoever you are, if you are in trouble, the example Jesus gave when He was in trouble was, He prayed.

Every difficulty should be a call to prayer, and Jesus was in difficulty. Notice what that difficulty was. He had already been praying but now notice, He was in trouble. "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Luke 22:44.

Now this trouble He was in was not on His own account. The reason He was in trouble was not because He, Himself, had done something wrong. The reason He was in trouble was because you and I have done something wrong, and He decided to pay the price for what you and I have done wrong. The Bible said that Christ died for a reason. And what was the reason? It was for our sins. 1 Corinthians 15:3.

But when He was in trouble, on your behalf and my behalf, what does it say He did? He was in agony, so what did He do? He prayed more earnestly. Oh, if we could learn that lesson. People say, "Pastor John, I prayed and it got worse." Well, then, you had better pray more. That is what Jesus did.

Rule Number 4 is to persevere in prayer. We just read one text. There are many other texts in the Bible that teach that.

Rule Number 5: You want to be diligent in prayer. I am going to read to you a wonderful, wonderful statement from a little book that was written a little over a hundred years ago. There is a whole chapter in this book that you might like to read sometime, it is called "The Privilege of Prayer," and it is in this little book called Steps to Christ. Millions and millions of copies have been published. It has been a great help to Christians for over a hundred years. In this little chapter on "The Privilege of Prayer" there is a wonderful, wonderful statement on page 98 and 99.

It is about Enoch. Now the Bible says that Enoch walked with God and he had this testimony before he was translated, that he pleased God. So Enoch was taken to Heaven, it says, without seeing death. And Enoch is still up there. He is over five thousand years old. In the last generation, according to Bible prophecy, there are going to be a people like Enoch that are never going to die, but be translated and taken to heaven.

Do you suppose it might be helpful for us, if we would like to be part of that group, to study the life of Enoch? Enoch was a man of prayer. Let me read to you just a few sentences about Enoch. "Pray in your closet, and as you go about your daily labor let your heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of grace. Satan cannot overcome him whose heart is thus stayed upon God."

Is that not wonderful? How did Enoch walk with God? As he was going about his daily responsibilities. By the way, Enoch was a husband and a father, and he was involved in business as a citizen. So he had cares and responsibilities just like you have. He did quite a bit of traveling, quite a bit of speaking. Enoch was what, today, we might call an itinerant preacher, but the Bible tells us he was also a prophet. While he was doing all of these things, carrying out all of his responsibilities as a husband, a father and in his worldly business, he was talking to the Lord in his mind about everything, everything that he was involved in, he was discussing with the Lord. I just read to you that the devil cannot get control of your mind while you are talking to the Lord, and communing with Him. That is why it says Enoch walked with God, because he talked to the Lord about everything he was doing.

Now, let us look quickly at the last two rules of prayer.

Rule Number 6: This is a really, really important one. You can study about this in your Bible from the book of Jude, where it says that you need to keep your heart in the love of God. It is talking about constant prayer. By constantly praying, you can close the door against impure thoughts and evil imaginings.

Do people in our generation have trouble with that? Yes, they do. People that have been Christians for many years have trouble controlling their thoughts. Sometimes in desperation they say, "What am I going to do? I cannot control my mind." You will never get control until you learn what we have just been talking about, being like Enoch, where you are talking to, and communing with the Lord all the time.

Read the book of Jude. I have told this story before, but there is such a crying need among God's people, I think we had better tell it again. It is about the young lady who had a most terrible, unfortunate experience because her husband divorced her and she was a Christian. So she came to her pastor and she said, "What shall I do? I have these urges and feelings for which I have no outlet, and I cannot control my mind."

So her pastor said to her, I suggest that you memorize a short book of the Bible, the book of Jude. And every time you are in temptation, you begin to pray and you begin to quote the Scripture that you have memorized, and you will find that you will get victory over temptation. You will be in control and not out of control. So she said she would try it.

Sometime later she came back to his office and he wondered what had happened now? She said, "It works. I tried it. I memorized the book. Every time I am under temptation I quote it and I pray, and the Lord delivers me." You cannot be living in sin and be living a life of prayer at the same time.

Finally, Rule Number 7. The text is Ephesians 5:20. We need, Paul says, in everything to give thanks.

It is wonderful to study about prayer, but now we need to look at some things that are not quite so wonderful. The third subject that we are going to look at is, "The Prayer That God Will not Answer." There are several prayers that God will not answer, and we are going to go over them very quickly. The Bible points out to us what prayers they are.

Number One: Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me." If you decide that you are going to live in sin today, and you are going to go and follow the Lord tomorrow, God will not hear you. If you are living in sin and you are not willing to give up your sins, the Bible says, God will not hear you. Your prayers will not be answered.

Number Two: If you cut off the channels of communication between yourself and God, you need not expect that God will hear your prayer.

Now there is a story in the Bible about a man that did this very thing. His name was King Saul. God had worked marvelously in the life of King Saul. He had answered many of his prayers. He had helped him a very great deal. But King Saul, first of all, rejected the counsel of the prophet. So he turned his back on the Word of God. Not only that, He killed the ministers of the Lord, almost a hundred of them. He had them killed. So God was not going to speak to him through His ministers any more. He had cut off every channel of communication between himself and heaven. Then he got into a really bad jam--and even the wicked pray when they get into enough trouble--as I mentioned.

He got into so much trouble that he decided he needed help, but he would not repent. Listen, if you are living in sin right now, God would like to hear your prayer and He would like to answer it and He would like to help you. But the only way He can help you is if you are willing to repent and confess, if you are willing to turn away from the sin, confess it and say, "Lord, I am a sinner, I need a pardon and I am willing to turn away from that kind of a life." That is the only way you can receive an answer.

But if you choose to live in sin and you will not turn around--remember what sin is. Sin is the breaking of God's law. 1 John 3:4. God cannot help you. Saul was not willing to turn away from his sins. He was not willing to repent because he was proud. So the Bible says in 1 Samuel 28 that God would not hear him. God would not answer because he had, by persistent disobedience and rebellion, cut himself off from every channel of communication.

Number Three: The third prayer that God will not hear. You may like to turn to this in Proverbs 28:9. It says, "One who turns his ear away from hearing the law . . ." Now I am sorry to tell you that there are millions of Christians in this category today. It says, "even his prayer is an abomination." People say, "Do not talk so much about the law. Do not talk so much about the Sabbath. Do not talk so much about the commandments. Just talk about the love of God."

Well, what does the Bible say? It says if you turn away your ear from hearing the law, your prayer is an abomination. Is God going to hear your prayer? He is not. Your prayer will not be answered. This is one of the reasons so many people do not have answers to their prayers today.

Number Four: The fourth prayer that God will not answer. James 4:3, 4. The prophet talks about people who pray in order that they may consume their request on their own lusts and desires. He says, you are not going to get an answer to that kind of a prayer. James 4:3, 4.

Number Five: The fifth prayer that God will not answer is the prayer of unbelief. We studied about that one in Matthew 17:19-21 already.

Number Six: The sixth prayer that God will not answer is the prayer that comes from a double-minded person. (See James 1:5-7.)

Now I want to come to the fourth topic that I said we were going to look at. This is the prayers from hell. Going to Hell for Prayer Meeting. I wonder if this might not be the biggest prayer meeting of all time. I want to tell you that none of the prayers from hell will be granted.

This is an important enough subject that Jesus talked very explicitly about it. Jesus revealed to us the two prayers that people would pray from hell, and that neither one of them would be answered or granted. Turn in your Bible to Luke 16 and we will look at the prayers from hell.

Luke 16:19-31. It says, "He said to them, 'You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." (verse 15) In verse 19 the parable of the rich man and Lazarus begins. It says, "There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham a far off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, [Notice, he is going to pray now]. 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'"

Now he has prayed one prayer and that prayer is not going to be answered. It is not going to be granted. But this man is in earnest. I have often wondered if this man was not more in earnest than the saints that come to prayer meeting. But he is praying from hell, and so now he is going to pray a second prayer. Notice what he does.

It says in verse 27, "Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, Father Abraham; [this man is in earnest] but if one goes to them from the dead they will repent.' But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"

These are the two prayers from hell. Neither one of them is granted. Neither one of them is going to be answered. That is, they are heard, they are recognized, but they are not granted. Have you thought through what these two prayers from hell are about? Do you realize why Jesus told this highly figurative story? Do you realize that people all the time, maybe some people right in this room, are praying the prayers of hell?

You see, this rich man that was praying from hell, he had acted out those prayers a thousand times when he was alive in this world, before he went to hell. Let us look at these two prayers and see what they consist of. Remember these are the prayers of hell and God will not grant them an answer.

God gives to you and to me, to every human being, an opportunity in this life to prepare for the next world. That is our duty and our privilege, whether we are rich or poor, whether we have much education or little education. This privilege is open to all classes, to all races, to all ages, to both sexes. This is our first responsibility in life, our relationship to God.

But the rich man did not develop a relationship to God. Now he had a relationship to a church. Do you know who this man is? Well, he calls Abraham his father, so he is a Jew, and do you know what the Jews were expecting in those days? They were expecting the Messiah to come. They were expecting the advent of Christ. Now, what is a person who is looking for the Advent called? They are called Adventists.

Not only that, do you know which day of the week this man went to church? He was a Jew. What day of the week did he go to church? He went to church on Sabbath. He not only was an Adventist, he was a Seventh-day Adventist.

But he expected all of his life that he was going to go to heaven, and he wound up unexpectedly, and what a surprise, when he dies, he winds up in hell. He finds himself unexpectedly in this place and he begins to pray, not to God, but to Abraham. He is looking to the church for salvation. He is looking to his relationship to the church for salvation.

So, he says to Abraham, 'You are my father, I should be with you. Please send Lazarus to put a little water on his finger and to touch my tongue. I am tormented here. I am uncomfortable here, Sir.' And that prayer was not granted. It was heard, it was recognized, but it was not granted. Why? Abraham said he had already made his decision in his lifetime in the world. He chose something else in his life, and now things were reversed, and the natural result of his life is a great gulf is fixed between them.

This is the first unanswered prayer from hell. In this picture of hell, hell's first unanswered prayer is a prayer for a change. It is a prayer for a second chance. It is a prayer for another opportunity. It is a prayer for a change in decree, a prayer for change of decision, a prayer for alleviation, but no alleviation is allowed, not even one drop of water, because it is all finished. It is all concluded. His destiny has been written and signed and sealed forever, and it cannot be changed.

So he prays again. This time he says, 'Well, if you cannot do that for me, please do this for me. Please send Lazarus to my five brothers so that they do not come to this place of torment and be as uncomfortable as I am.' Some of the most solemn words in the entire Bible are quoted in verse 31. "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead."

That is God's truth and it was proved true twice in the New Testament. A man by the very name of Lazarus was resurrected from the dead. A man that actually did come to the people from the dead. Here is the question, Was the Jewish nation converted when he came from the dead? No, they were not. When he came to them from the dead, they decided to get rid of him. In fact, it says in the very next chapter in the Bible that they decided that they had better kill him to destroy the evidence.

It was proved a second time at the death of Jesus, when wicked men professing to be God's chosen people crucified the Lord of Glory. On the third day the Bible says, 'Then he arose from the tomb and there was an earthquake and many, many witnesses. And they went all through the Holy City and they testified to everybody what had happened.' This is the second time a man rose from the dead. Were they all converted? Are the Jews all Christians now? No.

Did God tell the truth in advance? He surely did. But the big question is, Are you praying hell's two unanswered prayers? You see, these two principles are brought forth today by men who have not given their hearts to Jesus. Every day, by their actions, people are saying the same thing. And, my friends, I must tell you this, this parable has special significance to young people because when you are young, you think that life is going to go on forever. You think you are going to have a chance way down the line to give your heart to Jesus and to do His will.

I remember a friend that I had in Texas, a young friend. He grew up in a very godly home but he was like a lot of other young people. He wanted to be saved some day, but right now, do you know what he wanted to do? He wanted to have as many good things in this world as he could get. He told his father, 'I will not be deceived. I know about the national Sunday law, and I know what is going to come, and I know how the Second Coming of Christ is going to be, and I will not be deceived by some counterfeit in between time. I will not be deceived. I will watch. But right now, I am busy with what I am doing.'

Do you realize that these two prayers from hell, people are praying every day? And many, many, young people are praying these two prayers from hell every day. There is no promise in the Bible that God is going to answer these prayers. He said He would not. People are praying the two prayers of hell every day.

This rich man had acted out these two prayers thousands of times in his life. I want to tell you, friend, the prayers that you act out today, are the prayers that you will pray in the future, but they are not going to be granted, because the prayers from hell are not granted.

People want a second chance. So in effect, what they say is, and this is what the first prayer from hell is all about, 'I want another opportunity. Give me some mercy. I want another chance.' What people say today by the way they live, is, I am going to live in sin today, but I am going to follow the Lord and obey the Lord tomorrow. That is the first prayer of hell, and there is no assurance that you even have a tomorrow.

I remember when I was down in Huntsville, Texas. That is where they have the big, Texas state prisons, and I was visiting in one of those prisons. There was a minister talking. He was not a Seventh-day Adventist minister; he was a minister from another church. He was telling an experience that he had, because he wanted the prisoners to realize that life was uncertain.

He was in an evangelistic meeting and he said he spoke for fifty minutes on hell. Well, knowing what religious persuasion he was of, I figured that it probably was a fairly hot sermon. He said there was a young man in the audience that he had been working with, and this young man had not given his heart to Christ. He pled with the people to make a decision to serve the Lord.

By the way, the Bible does teach that there are two destinies. There is not a third one. There is no such place in the universe such as limbo, and we are all going to one place or the other. Did you know that? We are going to one place or the other, period. Jesus said, 'If you do not believe, you are already condemned.' If you are going to change your destiny, you have to believe. You have to make a decision.

This minister was pleading with the people to make a decision to serve the Lord, to surrender their hearts to the Lord. Here was this young man in the audience and do you know what he said? He said, 'Yes, I am going to do that, but not tonight.' It was that very same night that this minister received a telephone call from the young man's relatives. They said, 'Hurry, please, come down to the Emergency Room in the Hospital.'

The minister went down to the Emergency Room. That night the young man had been in a car accident, and when the minister got there, he was already unconscious. There was never another opportunity. That was the end!

The prayer he prayed was the prayer of hell, and he is going to land in hell. If you pray the prayer of hell, it will not be answered. You will pray it someday, out loud, when you are there, if you act it out now. The person who says, 'Yes, Lord, I am going to follow You later but not right today,' that is the first prayer of hell.

This is the second prayer of hell. Have you ever heard someone say, [this has special significance for young people, too], and there are a lot of preachers today who are falling for this, and this is what they say, 'We need to provide more entertainment for our young people. We need to bring some guitars and drums into the church. We need to have more activity so that the people are jumping up and down and clapping their hands. We need to be sure that our young people have plenty of social interaction. We need to be sure that they have inter-varsity basketball tournaments and plenty of music and plenty of food.'

We need music and food and it is good to have social interaction, but I want to tell you, my young friend, the Bible says that if the Word of God does not save you, there is nothing that will save you. You can go to all the social activities, you can have all the music, all the food, all the fun, and everything they are going to have, but if you are not reading your Bible, and if that does not convert your soul, there is nothing that will save you.

The sooner you get that figured out, the better chance for salvation you will have, because there are lots of people that think that if they go to church and if they engage in enough activities and do enough things, that somehow they are going to be saved. That is a deception of the devil. Jesus said, 'They have Moses and the prophets, if that does not convert them, nothing will convert them.'

My young friend, are you reading your Bible every day? Do not think that just by going to church or getting involved in this activity, that activity, some other activity that someway you will just automatically wind up in heaven. It will not happen! This rich man is not described as an adulterer, a wife beater, an idolater or any of those things. He is just a person who was going to church, he was looked up to by everybody in the church as a rich man. But he did not make provision for the future.

He acted out the two prayers of hell his whole life and he got to pray them in hell when he died. Oh, friend, I do not preach about hell very much because I abhor even thinking about it. But it is real. It will be the biggest prayer meeting of all time. People there will literally be praying the two prayers Jesus said they would pray, but they will not be answered. There will not be one drop of water; there will not be a change of condition.

If we pray those two prayers while we are alive, by acting them out, someday we will pray them there, but it will be too late. We need to pray, but, oh, my young friend, whatever you do in your prayer life, do not pray the prayers of hell. Do not say to the Lord by your actions, 'Lord, I am going to follow you someday but right now I have to do something else.'

That is dangerous, it is one of the most dangerous things you can do. And do not think that you can get involved in church and religion and a lot of other things and then some way you will be saved. It will not happen. There is only one thing that will convert your soul and that is this Book. Are you reading it: Are you seeing what it says about how to be saved?

This Book points out the way of salvation and God does not have a spare Book. This is THE BOOK. It is the only way. The Bible says in Luke 16:31 that if that does not do it, nothing will do it, even if somebody rose from the dead, it would not do it. Do not pray the prayers of hell. Give your heart to the Lord today. Say, Lord, I am willing to turn form sin. I am willing to follow the instructions in this Book and start reading this Book and start praying every day, and you will be saved.

There will be people in the kingdom of heaven that never got to come to a church service like this. They read in the Bible and they gave their hearts to the Lord and began to pray and a change took place inside. But there is no other way. Do not be deceived by the devil. Do not act out the prayers of hell in your life here, because if you do, remember whatever prayer you are acting out in your life now, that is the prayer you are going to pray someday, whether you are saved or lost.