Let's open our Bibles to John
chapter 11, the gospel of John, the 11th chapter. And we'll read two verses, verses
41 and 42. Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus, lifted up
his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. I've titled this message Effectual
Prayer. And I know that in every believer's
heart is a desire for their prayers to be effectual. The Lord tells
us in the book of James that the effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. And it is a work of grace that
we would be brought before the throne of grace to seek the Lord's
face in prayer. Prayer to the spirit is much
like breathing is to the body. We draw in through faith that
life-giving oxygen and we exhale through repentance that poisonous
carbon dioxide. And just like with breathing,
the Lord tells us that we're to pray without ceasing. And
what a blessing it is that the Lord would put on our hearts
a desire to pray and a need to pray. And though that's our life, though
that is our experience, we are so unbelieving in our prayer
and in our prayers. And we're so slack, I guess I could say, in
how effectual or how fervent we are in our
prayers. We can't read James without believing
that it's the Lord Jesus that he's speaking of first and foremost
when he says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much. The Lord Jesus is the righteous
man and his prayers are always effectual and so the hope of
our coming before the Lord in prayer is grounded in what our
Lord is telling us here when he said, I know that thou hearest
me always. Why is it that the father always
heard the prayers of the Lord Jesus? Well, if we go back to
the book of James, James tells us that if any man lack wisdom,
let him ask it of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
it not, but let him ask in faith. Nothing wavering because if a
man doesn't come in faith, let not that man believe and think
that he will receive anything from the Lord. For a double-minded
man is unstable in all of his ways. When we come before the
Lord in prayer, we come before him in faith. And the Lord Jesus
had perfect faith and that's what made his prayers always
effectual. Turn with me to John chapter
eight over just a couple of pages to John chapter eight and look
at verse 29. and he that sent me is with me. The father hath not left me alone,
for I do always those things that please him. David said in Psalm 66, if I
regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. For our prayers to be effectual,
we have to come looking to the Lord Jesus as that righteous
man who was always faithful to his heavenly father. Every thought
that he had, every word that he spoke, everything that he
did was in perfect obedience to his heavenly father. And so
we come before God in prayer with the Lord's faithfulness
as the foundation of our prayers. That's why we come in his name. We come in his name looking to
him for all of our righteousness before God and looking to him
for all of our acceptance before God. Father, I thank thee that
thou always hear me. Always. Don't you love it when we think
of what the Lord told Peter on the night before his crucifixion
and he told him he was gonna deny him three times before the
cock crowed And there wasn't anything different between what
Peter did and what Judas did. Peter, in cursing, denied the
Lord three times. What made the difference between
Peter and Judas? The Lord, after he warned Peter
that he was gonna do it, he said, but Peter, I've prayed for you,
that your faith fail not. that your faith fail not. And when you have been converted,
and he wasn't talking about the conversion of the new birth,
he was talking about being brought back in fellowship with the Lord,
teach the brethren. Use that experience to teach
them. But what made the difference?
The Lord prayed for Peter. So we have We have an advocate
with the Father. We have the Lord Jesus who ever
lives, according to Hebrews chapter seven, a high priest who ever
lives, making intercession for us. We have that righteous man
whose prayers are always effectual and they're always fervent. And the Father hears every one
of them. And there's the foundation on which we find hope in our
prayers. As fraught with unbelief as our
prayers are, we come before the Father. I believe that what the
Lord was saying in James chapter 1 when he said a double-minded
man is unstable in all of his ways, let not that man think
that he shall receive anything from the Lord. He's not talking
about the two natures that we have, the faith and the unbelief
that lives side by side within every believer. When we consider
that, we always come to the conclusion that I'm double-minded in everything
I do. But the Lord said, a double-minded
man shall receive nothing from the Lord. And I believe what
he's talking about there in James chapter one is coming to God
in prayer with this idea that that we could
do something to effect the blessings of God by our works. That's double-minded,
it's grace plus works. It is adding to the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ some work on our part to to bend
the hand of God and to open the ear of God that we might receive
the blessings of God. Let not that man think that he
received anything from the Lord. So when we come in prayer, we
cannot come with any thought of obligating God by something
that we've done. We're always coming to him on
the basis of what the Lord Jesus did when he said, I know that
thou hearest me always. And what he tells us in John
chapter eight at verse 29, when he says, the father hath not
left me alone for I always do the things which please him. We have, that's how we come. That's how we come before the
throne of grace. That's how we always come before
God. Our acceptance is in the beloved. So though we desire to honor
the Lord and to follow after him, our prayers are heard for
Christ's sake. And we always pray on the basis
of that. We always come before God claiming
his righteousness for the hope of our acceptance and speaking
to God in his name because he's the one who always did that which
was pleasing in God's sight. Turn with me to 1 John 3. 1 John 3. Verse 22. And whatsoever we ask,
we receive of him, because we keep his commandments. Now obviously,
If we just stopped right there and took that out of the context
of everything that's being said here, we would be denying, we'd
be saying everything I just spoke again. We'd be saying, you know,
we obligate God to hear our prayers because we have been faithful
to keep all of his commandments. When we know that we haven't
been faithful to keep his commandments, haven't honored any of his commandments
to the extent that that the Lord would would accept us on that
basis the only the only way that the Lord is going to accept anyone
on the basis of the law is if the law is kept perfectly and
the Lord Jesus the only one that ever did that now we hide God's
Word in our hearts we desire to honor him if we if we come
before the Lord while we're while we're harboring rebellion and
unbelief and dishonor toward God and our lives, our prayers
aren't gonna be heard. The Lord's not gonna bless that. But to think that whatever we
ask is gonna be given because we keep his commandments? No,
let's read on. And do those things which are
pleasing in his sight, We want to do that which is pleasing
in His sight. Psalm 66 verse 18 applies to
us as well. If I regard iniquity in my heart,
it will not hear me. My sin will separate me from
God. My rebellion against God, God's not gonna, He's gonna come,
He's gonna hear those prayers that are brought in faith toward
Christ. And we're not gonna be able to
come to God and look to Christ in faith. And at the same time,
have our fists raised toward heaven and live in a rebellious,
disobedient life toward God. That just, you see that. Look at verse 23. And this is
his commandment. that we should believe on the
name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave
us commandment. There's the commandment of God.
Now, we believe on Christ. Oh, we're gonna find ourselves
exercising that inhaling and exhaling of prayer continually. We're gonna find ourselves drawing
in through faith that life-giving oxygen to our spirits as the
Lord reveals His face and His glory and His righteousness to
us. And we're gonna find ourselves
exhaling that noxious, poisonous carbon dioxide of sin. That'll
be the pattern of our life, there's no question about that. But it
happens as a result of This is his commandment that we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and that we love one another. You know, in that passage in
James chapter 4, I think it is, where he speaks of Elijah, the
prophet of God who prayed, he's the... He's the man that James
is speaking of when he says the fervent effectual prayer of a
righteous man availeth much and then he speaks of Elijah who
had prayed that it wouldn't rain and for three years God held
back the rain and then Elijah went before the Lord and interceded
on behalf of Israel and God opened up the heavens and rain came.
And in that passage in James, it says that Elijah was a man
of like passions even as we are. So in order for Elijah to pray,
he had to come before the Lord the same way you and I come.
Looking, Proverbs chapter three, trust
in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own
understanding but in all of your ways acknowledge him and he will
direct thy path. All of these precious promises
are to us. We want to trust in the Lord,
but who is the one who trusted in the Lord with all of his heart?
Who was the one that acknowledged him in every way? Who was the
one? That's Christ. We can never come before the
throne of grace and find help in our time of need apart from
looking to the Lord Jesus. as our high priest and as all
of our acceptance before God. He's the only one that could
say as he did in John chapter eight, the father is with me
always because I always did everything that pleased him. And God is
pleased, God is pleased when we look to Christ for all of
our acceptance before God. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
7. Look at verse 25. Well, verse 24 says, this man,
speaking of Christ, has a continual priesthood, an unchangeable priesthood. He's entered into heaven and
he's taking his rightful place at the right hand of the majesty
on high and John tells us he makes intercession for us. We
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
And now the writer of Hebrews tells us in verse 25, verse 25,
wherefore, because we have a priest who is seated in the heavens,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one, our advocate with the Father,
the one who always did his will, we have him, wherefore, He is
able also to save them to the uttermost, all the way to the
end. In all of our unbelief, in all
of our faulty prayers, in all of our unfaithfulness before
God, He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto
God by Him. That's how we come. We come to
God by Him. He's the one who always did that
was pleasing in God's sight. He's the righteous man whose
effectual prayers are always heard. Father, I know that you
hear me always, but I said this that they might believe on me. Seeing, look at the last part
of verse 25. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. Here's our boldness. Here's our
confidence in coming before the throne of grace. It's not our sincerity. It's not our commitment. It's not our faithfulness. It's
that we have an advocate with the Father. We have a priest
who has opened up the windows of heaven and opened up the gates
of heaven and called on us to come. Come. We can come. If we look at our faithfulness
to keep the commandments of God as the requirement of being able
to come into his presence, we'll do what Adam did, we'll hide
from God, we'll run from God, we'll go the other way. Our fear
of God will cause us to not come to him. But if the Lord enables
us to keep his commandment by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
then we can come boldly. We can come with confidence before
the throne of grace and lay out our need and know that for Christ's
sake, our prayers, like Elijah's, like Elijah's, Fervent, effectual,
God hears them. We come in faith, nothing wavering. We're not coming on a works grace
basis. We're coming on grace alone,
Christ alone. And the Lord promises you come
like that. You lack wisdom, you ask it of
God. He'll give it to you liberally. And we know that God has made
the Lord Jesus Christ to be our wisdom. And what we lack, what
we lack is Christ. What we need more of is him.
And so every time we come before God, we're asking the Lord to
cause his face to shine upon us. We're asking him to reveal
himself. Don't you love it where the Lord
here in our text, in John chapter 11, when he looked up to heaven,
He thanked God. And the Lord makes it clear that
that's always the spirit of true prayer. True prayer is with thanksgiving. Paul tells us that in Philippians
when he says to rejoice in the Lord, in him, always. And again, I say rejoice. Let
your moderation be known unto all men. You know, believers
ought to be moderate in their response to everything. They
ought to have some moderation about it. Why? Because the Lord
is at hand. We ought not to be, I mean, there's
times we grieve, there's times we weep, there's times we laugh,
there's times we're happy but, you know, you see people with
just such extreme uncontrolled emotional responses to things
and That's why I believe that's what the Lord is talking about
there. When he says, let your moderation be known unto all
men because the Lord's at hand, be careful for nothing, don't
worry. But in all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be known unto God. And the peace of God, which
path is understanding shall keep your heart and your mind where
in Christ Jesus. in Christ Jesus. I used to think that that meant
that the peace of God could not be understood but now I understand
what that passage of scripture means. What is it that causes
us so much turmoil and conflict of spirit and so much unbelief? Is it not that we don't understand
something and we think that if we can just If we can just understand
it and control it that somehow we could manage it. And that's
where all the conflict comes. And the Lord says the peace of
God is better than understanding. It's better than understanding.
To be able to rest in Christ and know that he understands
everything. The peace of God passeth understanding. Keep your heart and your mind
in Christ Jesus. And I love the next verse. Therefore
brethren whatsoever things are holy and just and good and if
there be any virtue in them. All those things that he speaks
about in that next verse are the characteristics of Christ.
Think on these things. Think on him. Think on him. We have one who ever lives, as
we just read in Hebrews chapter 7, he ever lives, he's able to
save to the uttermost them that come to God by him for he ever
lives to make intercession for us. An advocate with the Father. So every time we come before
God, that's how we come. The Lord tells us exactly what
he has interceded to the Father on our behalf before. And his prayers are always answered. They're always, Father, I know
that thou always hears me. Thou always heareth me. Why? because I've always done that
which is pleasing to the father. He stayed in perfect fellowship
and in perfect obedience to his heavenly father. So we have the
confidence of knowing that everything that he prayed to his father
for, the father gave him. Let's go to John chapter 17 and
see what some of these things are. We'll just look at a few
of them briefly. The Lord tells us in verse nine
of this passage, he said, I pray for them. I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou gavest me. Sometime when you
get a moment, you just read through this whole prayer, this high
priestly prayer where the Lord is interceding to his heavenly
father for us. And notice how many times he
says, them which thou gave us to me. That's who he's praying
for. And then in verse 13, he tells
us what he's praying for the father to do for us. Look at
verse 13. And now come I to thee. And these things I speak in the
world that they might have my joy fulfilled in them. What is the joy that we have
before God? This is our boldness in the day
of judgment. This is our joy before the Lord.
It's our righteousness. It's our righteousness. We have
a righteousness before God. We can come into the very presence
of God Almighty and know that we have acceptance in Christ,
rejoice in the Lord. Father, I pray that you would
give them this joy. What confidence, what comfort,
what happiness, what joy we have in knowing that for Christ's
sake, We have not just the ear, but the heart of God Almighty.
Father, I pray that you would give them that joy. Look at verse 15. I pray not
that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou shall
keep them from the evil. Our Lord is interceding. to his
heavenly father to keep us. And the Lord keeps us, he does.
Oh, we see how many times the Lord allows us to fall into our
sin, but he won't let that result in a falling away. And there's
limits as to what he will allow. in the lives of his children.
I'm so thankful. Keep them from the evil one.
Even in the model prayer that our Lord gave us to pray, that
outline of a prayer, he says that we're to pray that the Lord
would lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Oh,
we live in such an evil world and we have such evil thoughts
and we have such an evil fleshly body and Lord, if you don't keep
us if you don't keep us, we'll become prey to all the evils
of sin that could overwhelm us and take us and we have our Lord
praying Lord, I pray not that you would take them out of the
world, but that you would keep them from the evil. Look at verse 17. Sanctify them
through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Lord, open
the mystery of the gospel to their hearts and set them apart
and make them, that's what the word sanctified means, make them
to differ Make them to believe what you have revealed in your
word and make them to believe on me, the living word and cause
them to find their comfort and their hope and their acceptance
before God and that God has made them to differ. God's made them
to differ. I mentioned Sunday when that
cloud came down and was between the Egyptians and the Israelites
before they crossed the Red Sea. And the Bible says that that
cloud was utter darkness to the Egyptians. They couldn't see
the hand in front of their face. But the other side of the cloud
on the Israelite side was the light of the gospel that led
them all the way through the wilderness. And that's the way
the gospel is, isn't it? We talk to our friends, our family
members. We see and hear what the world
believes about God. One of the reasons that I avoid
acknowledging Easter on last Sunday, is because I don't want
anybody to think that we identify with what's going on in the religious
world when it comes to that holiday. Do we believe in the resurrection?
Obviously we do. Do we rejoice in the resurrection?
Yes. We celebrate the resurrection?
No question about it. And I understand, I have some
mixed, maybe I'm wrong on that, I have some mixed feelings about
it. But when I hear the stuff that people
believe and that's being promoted from Rome all the way down through
American Christianity and it's just blasphemous. And I don't
wanna be a part of it. I don't want anybody to think
that we identify with that. Sanctify them, set them apart. You see that in verse 17, our
Lord's praying. Sanctify them through thy truth,
thy word is truth. And I can say, amen, Lord's done
that. He's done that. He's made me
to see a difference. I know he's made you to see a
difference. Look at verse 21. that they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. Our union with Christ. Our God. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Our Lord's praying, Lord, Father,
make them one even as we are one. What hope, what comfort, what
light, what joy that we'd be able to have such union with
God Almighty. Look at verse 23. I in them and thou in me that
they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that
thou has sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me. So much division in religion
and yet these for whom the Lord prayed have such a unity about
them when it comes to the things concerned in the gospel. And
that which concerns the gospel is their life and makes whatever
differences they might have in other areas not only insignificant
but irrelevant. Irrelevant. The Lord has prayed
that we would be made perfect in one with him. Father, I know that thou always
hear me. You always hear me. For I always
do the things that please thee. None of my prayers, all of my
prayers have always been effectual. And this is what I'm praying
for. Look at verse 24. Father, I will
that they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am
that they may behold my glory which thou has given me for thou
lovest me before the foundations of the world. Oh, what comfort. This is the one who ever lives
to make intercession for us. This is the prayer. He didn't
just pray this one time back 2,000 years ago before he went
to the cross. This is our priest interceding
for us, waiting for us. I go and prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll receive you unto myself. I'll come again. Father,
I pray that they be with me, be with us. Is there any way
that that prayer could not be effectual? And is that not reason
brethren for us to express our hearts in joy and thanksgiving
in spite of whatever trials and troubles the Lord might see fit
for us? Oh, verse 25, O righteous Father,
the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me. Yea, Lord, it's what Martha said. When the Lord said, Martha, he
that believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Yea, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ that should come into the world. Why do we believe that God the
Father sent his Son to earth? Why do we believe? Why we cast
all of our care on him believing that he cares for us? Why do
we believe that? Because the Lord prayed for us.
He prayed for us. Oh, he accomplished the work
necessary and the Father elected us, and the Lord Jesus redeemed
us, and the Holy Spirit regenerates us, but we have Christ as our
intercessor continuing to pray, and we have this hope. Lord,
I said this. Father, I said this. Let's go
back to our text and just read these two verses in closing. Verse 41, then they took away
the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus
lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou
hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me." Effectual prayer. What a privilege, what a privilege
we have to bring everything to God in prayer, in prayer. Let's stand together. Tom, what's
the number? 354, 354. What a friend we have in Jesus, number 354.