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You'll keep a finger here. Go to Proverbs chapter 28. We'll come back to 1st Corinthians. Go to Proverbs chapter 28, if you don't mind. We're going to look there in verse 9. I think this is going to be basically the verse that just really sounds forth through this sermon. The one thought that I think is just the most crucial thought for this sermon, look at verse 9. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. I think we need to get that verse settled in our heart. And the title of my sermon tonight is Abominable Prayers. Abominable prayers. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. What is that saying? It's saying there's a guy who doesn't want to hear the word of God. He doesn't want to hear the Bible preached. He doesn't want God's commandments, so he turns off his ears. He doesn't want to hear it. Maybe he's not going to church, that way he doesn't hear it. Or maybe he's just shutting off the brain or just going in one ear and out the other. But he doesn't want to hear the law of God. But notice he does pray. He goes to God and he offers some kind of prayer. And God says, look, if you're going to turn away your ears from hearing my word, if you're going to not do what I just clearly instructed you to do, your prayers are an abomination unto me. Go back to 1st Corinthians chapter 11, if you would. I'm going to read for you just a couple of verses and we'll get there. In James chapter 5, the Bible says in verse 16, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The Bible says a righteous man when he prays, it availeth much. In Proverbs chapter 1, when it talks about wicked ungodly people, in verse 28, the Bible says, then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. The Bible says the wicked ungodly people, the unsaved, God doesn't hear any of their prayers. In Isaiah chapter 1 verse 15, I'll read you another verse. It says, and when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. So I'm giving you a couple of examples here. We're not going to look at all of them, but we see a righteous man, God hears his prayers. The ungodly, the unsaved, the Bible makes it clear, God doesn't hear their prayers. But even the guy in the middle, the guy who's maybe saved, but he decides to turn off his ears from the law, decides to forsake what God, he doesn't hear those prayers either. Look at 1st Corinthians. Let's look at verse 3. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. So we kind of have an authority structure here. It says Christ is at the top, and the authority figure for the man is Christ. Who's my authority figure? This Bible. The King James Bible. The Bible says that God is the Word, and I'm obedient to this Bible. This is my final authority, but this is my only authority in my home. In my home, the only authority above me is Christ, is the Bible. But then it says the head of the woman is the man. Now, you say well how many of 40 figures does the wife have? She actually has two. She doesn't just have one. She has Christ and her husband. So she has to obey Christ and all that he commands, but then if her husband gives her a command that's not in the Bible, but it's also not against the Bible, she has to follow that too according to the Bible. Because he's the head over her. He has to make the rules for his family. So if she's going to be obedient to Christ, she's also going to obey the commands of her husband. Not just what the Bible says directly. Look at verse 4. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonor his head. But every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonor her head. For that is even all is one as if she were shaven. So the Bible's saying look, when someone's praying or prophesying as a man, if they have long hair, if they have, you know, their head covered, he's dishonoring his head. You say, how do you know that's, you know, long hair? How do you know his head covered? Is it like a hat or is it like, you know, some type of bonnet or something? Well, go to Exodus chapter 28. Keep your finger here and go to Exodus 28. Because I was thinking about this. Have you been in a church and a guy's wearing a hat and some old guy gets real angry at it? He's like, take off your hat. Now, I'm not saying that it's good to wear a hat in the church of God, but there's a lot of people that don't understand 1st Corinthians 11 and they teach that your head covered is not your hair. It's like a physical object. It's like a hat or a scarf or some kind of prayer shawl or some weird junk. And that's, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, but I want to address this real quick. Go to Exodus chapter 28 and we're going to look at something. Is it wrong to wear something on your head? Like is that, would that be wrong to preach or to prophesy or to minister unto God with something on your head? Look at Exodus 28 and let's look at, uh, have that mark. Let's look at verse, uh, let's look at verse 37 and now start putting on the blue lace that it may be upon the miter upon the forefront of the miter it shall be and it shall be upon Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts and it shall be always upon his forehead that he may be acceptable septed before the Lord and now sort of border the coat of the fine linen and now shall make the miter of fine linen and now so make the girdle of needlework and for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats and now so make for them girdles and bonnet shall thou make for them for glory and for beauty and now so put them upon Aaron thy brother and his sons with them and shall anoint them and consecrate them and sanctify them that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. Now maybe that word miter, you might not know what that word means. It's just talking about like a headdress or some type of garment that a priest would wear on his head. So in the Old Testament, when he's given instruction to Aaron and unto his sons, he said, look, they're supposed to have a headdress. They're supposed to have a bonnet to be accepted before him. So why in the world would God be like, well, it's just dishonoring to Christ if you're wearing anything on your head. If the whole Old Testament priests were supposed to be wearing a miter, we're supposed to wear a bonnet on their head. That would just contradict the Old Testament. That wouldn't make any sense. But that's not what the Bible's saying in First Corinthians 11. Let's go back to First Corinthians 11. Now I'm not saying that I think we should just all come in here with a baseball cap and, you know, our cowboy hats like, you know, we should be respectful to church and certain things like that. But what if we were meeting outside as a church and it was really hot in Phoenix and people had a hat on? Am I going to say that's wrong to pray or prophesy with a hat on? Well, if the Old Testament priests were wearing a hat, I don't see a command from God that says that's wrong. But First Corinthians 11 is talking about something that's wrong. He's not as we talking about some kind of hat or some kind of bonnet. Let's look at verse 13. Jump down to verse 13. It says, judging yourselves is it calmly that a woman pray unto God uncovered. Now that word calmly, that just means pleasant or attractive. Is it really attractive to see some woman that's wearing some kind of hooded thing over her head or disguising her face? He's saying he's just asking the question. Is that even calmly? Look at verse 14. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. So what's the covering that he's saying? He points it out blank blank in verse 15. The covering is the hair. And he's saying it's a shame for a man to pray with a covering having long hair. That's disgraceful. How do we know Jesus Christ didn't have long hair? Because it's really clear right here that'd be a shame. That'd be a shame unto God. And we know that Jesus Christ did all those things that pleased the Father. He wasn't disobedient to God's commands, past, present, future. But we see the woman, if she's praying with short hair, God's looking at it like she was shaven. I like the way that he words that because in today's society, there's a lot of women today that have really short hair. But you know what? Most of them don't have their head shaved. Most women even today, if they had a bald head, they'd be really embarrassed to go outside. It's just a shame. They would be like, I don't want to go out with a bald head. But you see people have a buzz cut or a boy's haircut or all kinds of short hair. The Bible's saying when God looks at that, he thinks it's just like you're being shaved. He says you might as well just shave it all if you're going to look like a man, if you're going to look like a boy. But is God going to hear your prayer as a woman when you have short hair? When you turn your way, you turn off your ears to God's clear command. I mean, the Bible's making it real clear that men should have short hair and women should have long hair. So when a woman cuts her hair off, is God going to hear that prayer? No. If the person that turns off his ears from hearing the law is an abomination to God, he might as well not even pray to God. You know, I was thinking about this in a real practical sense. You know, I have a couple of kids. You know, my kids and we were sitting down to dinner and I tell them, hey, you got to eat your chicken. You know, you got to eat your meat, you got to eat your vegetables. And he looks at me and he just goes, no, no, I want cake. I want candy. Now would it be good for me to, okay, yep, here, here's some candy. You think that's really what I'm going to be like? Even if I wasn't even saved. I mean, the unsaved, they're not going to handle that. They're going to be like, no, you got to eat your dinner. But that's what it's like when we as God's people, we have the clear commands of God straight from the Bible and we just say, no, I'm not going to do that. No, I'm going to have short hair. No, I'm going to have long hair. I'm going to have a mane as a guy. Then God's going to say, hey, when I go up to pray, he's not going to grant that petition. He's not going to care. I don't have a teenage kid yet, but I mean, if I told my kid that you got to go clean your room, he's like, no, give me money. Give me the car. I want to go out. I'm going to say, you better get your butt in that room and clean your room. I'm not going to answer that petition. I'm not going to answer that request. Now, of course, do my children have to be perfect for me to help them out or to give them good gifts or give them good things? No. And the Bible doesn't say that we have to be perfect for God to hear our prayers, but he makes a real clear distinction that when God makes something real clear in the Bible and you understand it and you decide, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do what the Bible clearly says. Well, now your prayers are just an abomination. He's not even going to hear them. And there's so many women today that are in just complete rebellion to God. They don't want to have the long hair that God commanded them, which is one of the easiest things to do. How hard is it to not cut your hair? I mean, we talk about all the commands in the Bible. I mean, turning the other cheek, you know, going out and preaching the gospel every day, going all the time, reading your Bible every day, going to church two times a week. That's much more difficult than your hair. I mean, even the heathen, they get haircuts and don't get a haircut. I mean, it's not real hard for me to get my haircut. We have so many people that just want to turn off their ears from hearing God's word. They don't even like to hear this verse. And then their prayers are just an abomination. And my first point tonight is adherence to the law. Adherence to the law. You want your prayers to be answered? We got to adhere to God's word. We can't just be saved. Oh, every prayer God's going to answer now. Everything we pray, every prayer God's going to hear. No, we got to adhere to the law if we want God to hear our prayers. I don't want to just go through my whole life and pray every day or pray all the time and God's never hearing it. God's actually not only not hearing it, he says it's an abomination. He doesn't even like it. It's way worse if my kid doesn't clean his room that he's nagging me for extra stuff. I would rather just be quiet. Don't even ask me for anything else. If you just sit there nagging, oh, I want money, I want money. Go clean your room. Go clean your room. But we have women today, you know, they'll be in these independent fundamental Baptist churches with this short hair and then they have the altar column. They'll get down, they'll pray, they'll make all these positions for God and God's not hearing that prayer because they're not turning their ears, they just turn their ears off to the word of God. They can't follow a simple command. And this is so true in the baby boomers today. You go to one of these old independent fundamental Baptist churches, it's pretty much all old people. And what I've noticed is pretty much every woman over the age of 50, they all have short hair and they all wear a pair of pants. Why? Because they're just in constant rebellion to God. That's what that generation is like. They don't want to follow God's laws. They turn their ears off from God's laws. And guess what? All their prayers are just abominations to God. He doesn't want to have anything to do with that. There's so many women like this. And you know, you say, well, you're just, you're just on the women. You just don't like the women. You know what? I believe that it's the men that are to blame for that. It's the men that are the problem. Why? Because Christ is the head of the man, but the man's the head of the woman. And the man should be the one that's telling his wife, hey, you're going to have women hair. You're going to have long hair. You're going to dress like a woman. It's the man that lets his wife just follow after Hollywood, follow after the world. It's not her fault that she got sucked into this junk. It's the man's fault for letting her do it. And the men, they're supposed to take charge of their home. And you say, well, what's long hair? Who decides that? I believe it's the man. It's the husband's responsibility to decide that. It's the man that tells you, hey, it's this long. It's to your shoulders. It's to wherever it is. I think it's the man's responsibility to give that guidance to his wife. Now God said long hair, obviously that can be interpreted a little bit different, but it's pretty clear the difference between short and long. God didn't say middle hair or something in the middle. It's the man's responsibility to make those decisions, to make those rules and to lead his wife. Paul said that he was talking about being married as being leading a sister. The man is supposed to lead his wife in the commands of God. I don't want my wife's prayers to just not be heard, not be answered because I'm not man enough to just tell her, hey, you're going to follow God's word. Hey, you're going to follow me. You're going to follow my commandments. But there was a, you know, this is one of those things that I've always pretty much believed, always thought about. There was a, when I was in junior high, there was this girl that I pretty much was the only girl I liked in school. I was kind of always a one, you know, one woman man. I always liked just kind of one person at a time. And there's this one girl, I thought she was the cutest girl in school. And it was for several years. I never like talked to her. I was too shy to talk to her. I was like really short. But I would say, I think it was like the eighth grade or the ninth grade. One day she had cut her hair all the way down to like a boy's length and it just immediately turned me off. I mean, I didn't think she was pretty anymore at all. I wasn't interested at all. Why? Because it's just natural that men have short hair and women have long hair. It's more attractive. It's more calmly as the Bible would say. This isn't something that's just, well, only the Christians think this. No, everybody thinks this, but it's just Hollywood and the perverted TV that will brainwash us. That'll trick us into thinking, well, we need to look like men. We need to dress like men. No, the women should look like women. Women are a great and gorgeous and beautiful thing and to be greatly praised. I want my wife to look like a woman. I don't want her to look like a man. I'm not some sexual deviant or pervert. I'm not attracted to men. I'm attracted to women. And you know, most guys are attracted to women. You know, most guys, if you just ask them point blank, they like long hair. Why does so many ads still have women with long hair? I mean, you see the real seductive advertisements. It's always this really long, flowing hair and curled out. Why? Because that's what's most attractive to men. Because God put it in our hearts. But you know, the Independent Middle Baptist Church I was going to, the pastor there, his wife, she had very short hair. She had really short hair. And you know, we never went to 1 Corinthians 11 the whole year that I went to that church. And I think there's a reason why. Because when you're the man of God, you're not going to get up and rip on sin when your own wife's sitting on the front row in that sin. You're not going to get up and preach against women having short hair when your wife has it on the front row. I mean, you're not going to be a big hypocrite. It's so important for the wife to follow all of God's commandments too, not just the husband. Why? So the man of God can get up and preach. So he can preach the Word, all of it. So I can teach even the least commandments. I had a discussion with my wife and I said, look, I wouldn't want you to be partaking in one of these things and me to become a pastor. Because if I'm not going to preach the least of commandments, I'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven. I've got to preach even just the most simple, basic least commandments, like hair length. But we have to adhere to God's law if we want him to hear our prayers. You know, everyone in that pew has 1 Corinthians 11 in the Bible. You know, when they see the pastor's wife not obeying such a simple, obvious, clear-cut verse in the Bible, you know what happens in their mind? You know what happens to the person in the pew? They start excusing their sin. They start saying, well, I can have a beer, you know, after work. I mean, the pastor's wife's got short hair. I mean, why can't I drink a beer? Why can't I go watch a rated-R movie? Why can't I go into the world? Why can't I skip church? Why can't I do these things? And it just gives a license to people to not follow the clear commands of the Bible, to not take a strict interpretation of the Bible. It's a shame under the Bible. It's a shame under Christ when the pastor's wife isn't even going to follow the clear commands of the Bible. Now, I'm not saying that the pastor's wife has to be perfect or the pastor has to be perfect, but when you just turn your ear off from hearing the law, when you turn your ear off from hearing a clear command of the Bible, it's just a shame and a folly under the church. They don't have as much respect for the pastor, for the man of God who's going to get up there, and he's not going to rip on sin when his wife's doing that, when his wife's in that sin. He's not going to preach on other people's sins, because you know what happens when you go and you rebuke somebody for something like that? Let's say somebody was drinking in the church and he comes up and says, hey, buddy, you know, the Bible says drinking is a sin. Well, doesn't the Bible also say that women shouldn't have short hair? What's your wife doing, buddy? Isn't that normally what happens when someone comes to you and they start telling you something you're doing wrong? The first thing that comes out of their mouth, what about you, buddy? What about the mote in your eye? Well, you see, the man of God is supposed to try and be blameless. He's trying, he should be above reproach. Why? So then when he rips on sin, it's not a stumbling block under other people. Because when you're in some kind of obvious, just clear cut sin or rebellion to God, it turns people off from wanting to follow God too. It's a shame. It's a folly. We ought to be able to live above reproach. You know, women ought to not decide, what do I think? They ought to decide how is it going to affect others? How is it going to affect others if I dress this way? How is it going to affect others if I'm, you know, disruptive in the service? Or what if I just come in 20 minutes late to the service? Or what if I, you know, don't have long hair like I'm supposed to? Or what if I'm disrespectful of my husband? What if I'm talking bad about my husband to other people? You know, why should decide, hey, it's not just me that it's affecting. You know, if some woman decides, you know, that something that's not real clear in the Bible is okay for her to do, she should also take into consideration, how is other people going to perceive this? The Bible says to sustain from all appearance of evil. We should take in consideration all of our actions, even how others may perceive them, not because we care about what man thinks, not because we have fear of man, but so we don't pass the stumbling block in front of our brother. The Bible talks about doubtful disputations and Romans, about how maybe you, you know, have a clear conscience about it, but you know others might struggle or might see that as kind of a problem. Maybe it's just doesn't do it. It's going to negatively affect other people. The Bible says in verse Timothy, even so, must their wives be great, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. I don't think that's just for the pastors. That's for everybody. It's just a shame. I would be completely embarrassed even if I was in the pew tonight and my wife was dressed like a man. My wife had had a short haircut, had her hair balled. I would be ashamed today. The Bible says, you know, in first Samuel 17 to 16 verse 14, but the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. I was thinking about some people in the Bible. You know, Saul was the king of Israel. Saul was God's anointed, but he turned his ear away from the law. He disobeyed the simple commands of God and it got to a point, go to first Samuel chapter 28. I want to show you this. Saul got to the point where God didn't want to answer any of his prayers. God didn't want to hear what Saul had to say. Why? Because he just turned his ear away from the simple commands of God. He decided it's not important for me to follow that rule. It's not important for me to wait for the priest to come and offer the offering. I'm going to offer it because I just want to. Look at first Samuel 28. Look at verse five. The Bible says, and when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams nor by Urim nor by the prophets. We see one of the most important guys on the planet, the king of Israel, God's anointed, handpicked by God. He's not hearing his prayers. Why? Because God's not a respecter of persons. It doesn't matter who you are. If you decide to turn your ear off from God's clear instruction, from God's clear word, he's not going to hear your prayers. He's not going to hear it. And I don't want you to go your whole life praying thousands of prayers to God. And it was all in vain. It was all an abomination to God. Go to Judges. Go to Judges 16. There's another guy named Samson. You know, this guy's interesting because there's something special about his hair. You say, does God really care about hair? I mean, you're talking about hair. This is the Bible. Well, Samson, he received great strength because he had a Nazarite vow in the God. Because he didn't, you know, drink any grapes, juice, or eat any grapes or any raisins. And not only that, the Bible instructed him to never have a razor come upon his head. He was never supposed to shave his head completely. You know, Hollywood and all these perverted films, they'll make you to believe that Samson was supposed to have girl's hair. That he's supposed to have this really long hair. That's not what the Bible said. And even if he did that, that would have been a, you know, a disobedience. The Bible said that Samson was just not supposed to shave his head. He wasn't supposed to be completely bald. He was supposed to pull it or just to keep it short. Go to Judges 16. Look at verse 17. We'll see Samson even give us, you know, that instruction. Look at verse 17. That he told her all his heart and said unto her, there hath not come a razor upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God for my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. Now what's the spiritual significance of Samson and his hair length? It's the simple truth that when you follow God's clear commandments, when you follow his word, he's going to give you power. You're going to have untold power from the Lord, from the Holy Spirit inside you. You can do all things through Christ to strengthen the few. But if you turn your ear away from the law, if you stop following God's laws, your prayer is going to be abomination. You're not going to have the strength of the Lord. You're not going to have him with you in the fight. And we see when his hair is shaven, when Delilah tricks him and shaves off his head, he loses his strength. He loses his power. Skip down to verse 21. Look at the end of that verse. It says, and he did grind in the prison house. He was under the bondages of sin and his affliction because he was disobedient to the Lord. But look at verse 22. Howbeit, the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. And we know that, look at verse 28. Skip down. And Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee and strengthen me. I pray thee only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistine for my two eyes. And we know that Samson, he tore down the two pillars and he killed even more people in his death than during his life. But we see when his hair began back to grow. Now he's back in obedience with God. Now he's back in the covenant down here with God. Now he's following God's commandments and guess what? God hears his prayer. God hears his prayer because he went back to obedience. The Bible doesn't teach that we have to be perfect or sinless. The Bible says that we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. At any point, any Christian can get right with God. They can be back in God's graces. Go to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. Don't, I don't, this is not a discouraging message for those that want to live right, for those that want to live godly, for those that want God to hear their prayers. It should be an encouragement but we should be warned that if you decide to turn off your ears from God, if you decide to just be an obvious rebellion to God's word, he's not going to hear your prayers. It's just vain. But go to Hebrews 4, look at verse 14. The Bible says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passing through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to hell in time of need. If we adhere to God's word, if we turn away from our sin, you know daily sin, if we forsake our sin, God is willing to have grace on our lives. This isn't the grace of salvation, this is the grace for our daily lives so that we can hear our prayers. God's ears ready to hear your prayers. But if you're just going to be in constant rebellion and say, well, I want to have short hair as a woman, God's not going to hear that prayer. But if you decide, hey, I want to get right with God, I want to follow God's laws, even though you may not be perfect, God's always ready to forgive, God's always willing to have that grace. You know why you can come boldly? Because Jesus Christ's punishment and death and burial and resurrection is enough payment to cover all your sins, every single sin. So whatever sin you may be in or committed, God's willing to forgive right now. If you confess your sins and you forsake it, go to Psalms chapter 4. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 7 14, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will hear their land. Famous version of the Bible, but he says, look, not only do you have to humble yourself, not only have to pray, not only have to see my face, you got to turn from your wicked way. You got to decide, hey, I know this is sin. I know this is wrong. I'm going to forsake it. And then you'll hear your prayer. Then his ears are open. Then he wants to hear Psalms chapter 4, look at verse 1. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? How long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing Seelah? But know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call unto him. Why does he know that the Lord will hear him? Because he's saying, I'm following God's rules. I'm being godly. I'm being righteous. I'm following God's commandments that I know. Now, I mean, maybe hypothetically there's something in the Bible that you just weren't aware of or you were ignorant of. I'm not saying that God's not necessarily going to hear the prayer of somebody that's seeking God with all their heart and they're just ignorant of it a few points. But when you have that knowledge, when you have that understanding, when the Bible's made very clear to you and you just willfully sin, God's not going to hear that. Flip over a couple, are you still in Hebrews? No, Psalms. Go back to Hebrews if you don't mind. Look at one of the places, Hebrews chapter 10. The first point is that we need to adhere to God's law if we want our prayers to be answered. The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. You know, when we are living right, you know, I think to myself when we are, when someone does give back slips or maybe they kind of do something that wasn't right and they know and they feel bad, a lot of times it's just a natural reaction that your prayer life just kind of drops off. You stop praying and you want to pray because you just kind of feel guilty because you just have the weight of your sin. And it usually even stops you from wanting to do that. But if you decide that you were going to pray and not to confess your sins or get right with God, it's just an abomination. But go to Hebrews 10 and let's look at verse 26. The Bible says, For if we sin willfully, after that we receive the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment, suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under the foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, and in holy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, vengeance no longer than to me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." God's going to judge his people. God's going to judge the saved. If we decide, hey, I'm just going to willfully sin, I'm just going to despise the commandment of God, I don't like it that I have to dress a certain way. I don't like it that God wants men to look like men and women to look like women. I'm just going to do it my own way. I'm just going to do it the way that Hollywood and Satan and all these God-hating faggots want me to dress. God's just going to say, your prayer is an abomination. You're just like these freaks and these perverts. I'm just going to turn my ear off from you. But my second point, go to James chapter 4. My second point is not only do we have to adhere to God's law, but our prayers also have to be authentic. There has to be some kind of authenticity to our prayers. Look at verse 1. From which come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lust, that war in your members? Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts. So hypothetically, even if you're adhering to God's laws, if you're just asking amiss, if you're not asking with the real authenticity of God's faith and love and charity, if you're not asking a God to God that is what the Bible says, you're not going to receive it. You say, well, God, I want to be lazy and stay home, but will you just please give me a bunch of money? God's not going to hear that prayer. That's not an authentic heart towards God wanting to seek God and follow his commandments. Even if you were going to church and doing the right thing, if you're not going to, you know, be authentic in your prayers, God's not going to hear it. Go to Matthew chapter 6. It also said in James 4 that he dolters and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. So even the same person that decides they just want to, you know, live in the world and follow the lusts of the flesh, he's an enemy of God. He's not on God's good side. Just because you're saved doesn't mean that God wants to hear your prayers. That could be abomination. Look at Matthew 6 verse 5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men, barely I say to you, they have their reward. Look at verse 7. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. So we see a couple of people. They're not authentic in their prayers. They're just praying to be seen of men. They just like to get up and make some big public prayer. Look at me. I'm going to make the prayer breakfast for the president. I'm going to pray this great. I want peace on earth and bless America. God's not hearing that prayer. That's not authentic. That's not from the heart. And just like the Catholics who have these vain repetitions, who just pray the Lord's prayer hundreds of times, that's not authentic. That's not coming from the heart. That's just a vain repetition. God doesn't hear that. God wasn't saying pray these exact words over and over and over. No, he was giving you an example of how to pray, but he wants it to come from the heart. He wants it to be from a free will offering that you're making. You know, hey, God, you know, giving glory and praise unto him, not just something you're repeating, but something you actually mean from out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. God wants those prayers to come out because you have love in your heart towards God because you want to praise God. But we see the Pharisees, see the Sadducees, we see all these hypocrites. They just want people to see them and think all this guy's spiritual. This guy's really religious. This guy's really, you know, this guy loves the Lord. Did you hear that public prayer? But the Bible makes it clear that the Pharisees were not like that. Go to 1 John chapter 5. I'll read for you a score of scriptures real quick. The Bible says in Matthew 23, Jesus said, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. And Mark chapter 12 says the same thing in verse 40, which devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayers. These shall receive greater condemnation. So we see these Pharisees, they were just making for pretense with feigned words. They didn't really mean it. They're just getting up there making a long speech, making a long prayer just to make it seem like they're really spiritual, really, you know, Godly. Look at 1 John 5 verse 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. If you are authentic, if you really do mean it and you're praying what the Bible teaches, faith and love and mercy, if you're praying prayers according to God's will, he's going to answer. He says, look, you can have confidence to know that when you're, you're following God's commandments, when you're praying according to his will, his ears are ready. He wants to answer your prayer. It's an encouragement to those that seek after God. It's an encouragement to know, hey, God wants to answer your prayers. God's ear is ready. But if you decide to turn your ear away, if you're not authentic in your prayers, it's an abomination. God doesn't want to hear it. God doesn't like it. It's not going to profit you anything. It's actually negative. He said, not only are you not getting anything out of it, I'm, I'm despising it. I hate it. But we see if we ask according to his will, if we get right with God, if we seek his face, if we get on our knees and we pray and we're praying according to his will, he's going to answer it. He's going to answer our prayers. We know that he hears us and he know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Go to Romans chapter two. So my first point was that we need to adhere to God's law if we want to have those prayers. We not only need to adhere, but we need to be authentic in our prayers. And I was trying to keep like an alliteration theme, you know, for my sermon. But you know, there's some people, they're not getting their prayers answered and they pretty much know it. They know, you know, nothing's, you know, my prayers aren't getting answered. In their heart they realize there's something off. So they say, well, what can I do to kind of help me boost my prayers? What can I do to really help me? And my third point is accoutrements or accessories. They try to get some physical object and they think that that's going to somehow help them get their prayers answered to God. You say, what about accoutrements? Look at Romans chapter two verse 22. Thou that sayeth the man should not commit adultery, does thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, does thou commit sacrilege? Now this thing is really common. When I started thinking about it, you know, the Catholics, they have this thing called rosary beads where they have these beads and they think by having these beads, it's going to be some kind of magical, mystical thing that's going to help them in their prayer. But you know, if you just type in rosary beads on Google and do an image search, like 99% of them, they have like a crucifix at the bottom. They have a graven image of the Lord Jesus Christ on these beads. You think God's going to hear a prayer when you got an idol in your hand? No, sir. Go to, uh, first Corinthians chapter eight. I'll read for you a couple of verses on idolatry. The Bible says in Acts chapter seven verse 41 and they made a cap in those days and offered sacrifice of the idol and rejoice in the works of their own hands. Psalms 135 15 the idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Colossians three five says, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, in order of affection, evil concubicence and covetousness, which is idolatry. First Samuel 15 verse 23 for rebellion is the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as the iniquity and idolatry because thou has rejected the word of the Lord. He had also rejected thee from being King. Why did Saul get rejected? Because he turned his ear away from the law. He said it was like idolatry. If these people that have the rosary beads, they're literally committing idolatry. They have a crucifix of the Lord Jesus Christ, which God said to make any likeness of anything on the earth, male or female or creeping beasts, anything that has a life of breath in them. But first Corinthians eight, look at verse four as concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered and sacrifice and idols. We know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one. Look, the idol is nothing and these, these prayer accoutrements, they're nothing. They're not adding anybody's prayer. They're not helping anybody out. The only thing they might be doing is giving you more abomination when you're praying into God. The Catholic that has the rosary beads in their hand today, none of their prayers are being answered because they just turned their ear away from the law. You know, they took out the idolatry from their 10 commandments. Why? Because they despise Moses. They despise Moses law and God's not going to hear their prayers. You know, it's not just the Catholics. There's all kinds of weird things that people want to, you know, add to their prayer. Prayer shawls, feathers, charms. What do you think about the Jews? They got this weird hat on their head. I mean, where do you get that from the Bible? But they think because of these things, they're going to somehow, you know, get a special prayer from God. And I've seen so many people, you know, lately, they think that women from first Corinthians chapter 11 are supposed to have this prayer shawl or they're supposed to cover their head with some, you know, blanket or something. I was looking at this website called headdresses.com and they were quoting a guy named John Bunyan because like from the 1600s, he wrote a book called Pilgrim's Progress. I don't know. I've never read the book. He's like really popular amongst the Calvinists. I've read a few excerpts. This guy preaches a hardcore work salvation in that book. He doesn't believe the gospel, but apparently he hated women. He was a misogynist because he has all these comparisons saying from first Corinthians chapter 11, hey, women need to have a headdress on. They need to have a prayer shawl. Women, you know, they're not as good as men. They're kind of like angels. He tries to make this comparison and say, well, the angels, they can't, you know, look at the glory of God. They have to bow down. So the woman has to cover her face when she's in church. I mean, the guy just hates women over and over and over. But we already read verse 11. It's the hair that's a covering. It's super clear. But you see, amongst the Puritans and all these, you know, even amongst the homeschoolers, they want to wear this like prayer shawl. They want to wear this thing. It's like a dolla tree is what it is. That's not helping your prayer. And if you're going to turn your ear away from the law, God's not going to hear your prayer. If you're just going to rebel against God's commands of idolatry, if you're just going to reject the word of God, he's not going to hear that prayer. He doesn't want to hear your prayers. I think the prayer shawl is the best way to not hear your prayers heard. That's the worst thing you can do. Go to 1 Peter chapter 3. That's where we'll finish. Idolatry can be a figment of the mind, a fantasy, according to the dictionary. That's what I think these prayer shawls are. That's what these rosary beads are. It's just a figment of their imagination. It's just paganism. And if you look at the Hindus today, you look at the Muslims, you look at all these false religions, all these paganist religions, they do all the same things. They got their rosary beads and they got all their accoutrements. It might look a little bit different. It's all the same junk. But God doesn't want you to have some special, you know, apparel or some special thing that you're wearing. He just wants you to follow his word. He just wants you to follow the commandments. He said, I want my prayers to be heard. Just follow his word. Just follow his commandments. Just confess your sins and seek, you know, following the word of God and be authentic in your prayers. Say, I'm going to look at the Bible says, how should I pray? Should I pray to consume it upon my lust? Should I pray for that mansion and that fast car and all these, you know, things, these lusts of the flesh? Or should I pray for people to get saved? Should I pray for, you know, people to be faithful in church, for our evangelists to be safe when they go out, for people to not only get saved, but get right with God to get back in church? Please God, help me to be a, you know, a good witness unto my family members to help them show them the light of Christ so they can live righteous. We should look to God's word to figure out how we should pray. Look at first Peter chapter three verse one. Likewise he wives being subject unto your own husbands that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. Look, wives are really important. Why should a wife look like a wife? Because she can affect so many people when they look at a godly woman, which is such a rare thing in today's world. It's so hard to find. It's attractive to people to want to follow God's word. But you know what? Then the pastor's wife won't even follow the simple commands of God. It's repellent. It's disgusting. They don't want to have anything to do with it. They don't want to be zealous. They don't want to get the sins out of their life because they're like, well, the pastor's wife's not bawling off his commands of God. Why should I have to? But we see when a woman decides, you know what? I'm going to be subject unto my husband. I'm going to obey my husband. That's so attractive. That's so appealing. That's so common. Look at verse two. While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear, who's adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and wearing of gold or putting on of apparel. Let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. These women, they want to put on the prayer shawl. They want to put on the hat. They want to put on, you know, whatever accoutrement to pray. God's like, that's not the ornament I want you to put on when you pray to me. No, I want you to put the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. When a woman has a meek and quiet spirit, God says, I like that. That's attractive. I want to hear her prayer. I want to answer her prayers when she's praying for her children, when she's praying for her husband, when she's praying for her family. Well, she's got a meek and quiet spirit. She's got a chase conversation. She's obeying her husband. I'm going to go ahead and bless her. But the woman that's just rebellious to her husband, that doesn't want to follow her husband's commands, that just wants to argue and bicker and just be this, you know, nagging wife and not obey the word. He doesn't want to hear their prayers. Look at verse five. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also trusted in God adorn themselves, being in subjection of their own husbands. You know, why do women wear fancy clothes and jewelry? Why do they do that? It's because they want people to notice them. They want them to look beautiful. They want people to look at them and say, this woman is beautiful. And there's actually nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be attractive. But God's saying, look, it's not the physical appearance that matters. It's not the putting on of the fancy clothes. It's not the diamond necklace. No, it's the meek and quiet spirit. That's what's attractive. That's what God likes. That's what godly men like. They say that woman's attractive. They notice your good works and that's what's attractive to them. That's the adorning that you should care about. Some women spend hours and hours putting on all kinds of makeup and doing their hair and getting all these clothes. But you know, the godly women, she's getting in her Bible. She's reading the book. She's going out soul winning. She's obeying her husband. And God's saying, this woman's a thousand times more attractive than that woman. There's nothing wrong with trying to be attractive, but why are we doing the way that God wants us to do it? Look at verse six, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, whose daughters he are and as long as you do well and are not afraid of any amazement. Likewise he husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor under the wife as under the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered. But he made it really clear. Why are you harping on this? Why are you saying this? Because I don't want your prayers to be hindered. I don't want you to just disregard God's clear commandments to obey your husband, to follow the commandments of being like a woman so that your prayers aren't hindered. Why? I want all of the women in our church is prayers to go up to God and to hear him for them to be according to his will. I don't want my wife's prayers to be hindered. You know what? It's the man's responsibility to help his wife do that, to follow God's rules. Let's skip down to verse 11. Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open under their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. God wants to hear your prayers. God wants to answer your prayers. But there's so many abominable prayers being prayed today because people have turned their ears off from God. They've turned their ears off from the King James Bible. They've turned their ears off under the commands of God. They go out and preach the gospel. They preach all the commandments of God, not just the popular things, not just the things that everybody can agree on, but the whole council of God. And there's so many people that turn their ears off and all their prayers are just abominable. God's not hearing them. God's not answering them. But if we adhere to God's law, if we get on our knees and we pray to God and ask for his forgiveness, if we're seeking him and we're authentic, God's going to answer that prayer. God wants to answer your prayers. If you're praying according to his will, but you know what? The face of the Lord is against them to do evil. Saved and unsaved. They reject his word. They don't want to do anything. He's not going to answer that prayer. Just like a righteous parent's not going to answer the requests and petitions of his child. I'll leave you with Proverbs 28, 29 again. Just get this verse in your heart. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Let's close in prayer. Thank you God so much for your word. Thank you so much for the grace offered unto us that we can at any time come unto you and we can seek you. And if we adhere to your law and if we ask petitions according to your will, we know that you hear us. We know that through Jesus Christ, our prayers can be answered and that you'll give us the desires of our heart if we seek you with all our hearts. I pray that when we think about our prayers in the future, that we think first, Hey, am I adhering to God's law? Am I authentic? I don't need any accoutrements. I just need to adhere and be authentic. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.