Thank you, Scott. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to 2 Samuel chapter 7, 2 Samuel chapter 7. Good morning. Ask the Lord's blessings on our
time together. Our gracious and merciful Heavenly
Father, we thank you for the words of
that hymn and how you have brought us to glory in Christ and the
work that he accomplished at Calvary's Tree. Lord, we pray that our eyes will
be fixed on him And more importantly, Lord, that his eyes would be
fixed on us or that you would be pleased to to shine the face of Christ in our
hearts and Lord that we might be able to worship thee
today. Lord, we thank you for this time. We thank you for this place.
We thank you for the promise of your spirit. Lord, we confess
our complete dependence upon you to visit us and to speak
to us and to cause us to come unto thee. We ask that you would
do it for Christ's sake. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. You have your Bibles open to
2 Samuel chapter 7. When I first started preparing
this message, I admit to you that I really got overwhelmed
with the subject of prayer. David is praying and he says
some things about prayer in the verses that we're going to look
at this morning that are of great encouragement. But prayer, like
all the subjects concerning our God, is infinite and incomprehensible. A lifetime will not be sufficient
to understand it. Eternity won't be sufficient
to really experience it. And so we have to We have to
limit our time and our comments to a few points concerning this
great subject. What an important subject it
is for the believer. Prayer for the child of God's
soul is like breathing is to their physical body and it is
a necessity for them And yet, when they think about their own
prayers and their understanding of it and their faithfulness
to it, they are ashamed of how little they pray. And yet, the
disciples saw our Lord praying, and in Luke chapter 11, verse
one, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. Is that not always our
prayer? Lord, teach us to pray. I want
to learn about this thing we call prayer. And I want to be
able to come into the presence of God. It is in Luke chapter 11 that
the Lord gave us that model prayer. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name and so forth. And that prayer was not given
to us as a pattern to be prayed in vain repetition. It was given
to us as an outline of the things that we are to concern ourselves
with when we pray. David, in his prayer, Well, let's
read these verses together. Begin with me, if you will, at
verse 25. And now, O Lord God, the word
that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his
house, establish it forever and do as thou hast said. David is just affirming in prayer
the promise that the Lord had made. And that's really what prayer
is. And might I also add that David always being a type of
Christ, that the prayers that are, as James said, the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, We want to
learn how to pray but oh how thankful we are that he prays
for us because he's the righteous man and his prayers are always
effectual and his prayers are always sincere and we find such
great comfort in what the Lord told Peter When he warned him
that night he would forsake him, but Peter, be of good cheer,
I have prayed for you. I've prayed for you. We have
an intercessor with the Father. We have a high priest, the Lord
Jesus, who said, Father, I pray not for the world, but I pray
for them which thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they
were and thou has given them unto me and I pray for them that
you would keep them. Well, the Lord knew that those
that the father had given him would be kept. And yet, even
in that prayer, he himself is affirming the promises that the
father had made in prayer. And that's what David's doing
here. Look at verse 26. And let thy name be magnified
forever, saying, the Lord of hosts is the God over Israel,
and let the house of thy servant David be established before thee.
That's our prayer. Lord, let the house of the son
of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, be established, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I love verse
27. For thou, O Lord of hosts, God
of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build
thee a house, therefore hath thy servant found in his heart
to pray this prayer unto thee. You know, it's like the promises
of God are our warrant for praying. We're not trying to come up with
something novel when we pray. Hosea said, when you come before
the Lord, come with words. And then he gives us the words
to speak. I mentioned that passage in James,
the effectual, when are prayers effectual? Well, turn with me
to John chapter 14, John 14. I want to make a statement that
I hope will be an encouragement to you. And that is that every prayer
that a believer has prayed has been answered. Sometimes we say, well, the Lord
didn't answer that prayer. No, he answered it. We pray as
he instructed us to pray. If we pray as he instructed us
to pray, we can be confident that every prayer is effectual. It may not be answered in the
way in which we hoped it might be answered, but That's not the
proper way to pray. We don't pray in order to manipulate
or change God. We don't pray in order to get
God to do what we desire. We pray in order to conform our
will to his. Prayer changes us, doesn't change
God. And when the Lord said, when you pray, look at John chapter
14. And look with me at verse 13. And whatsoever you shall ask
in my name. That's the condition. When are
prayers effectual? When they're prayed in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Praying in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not is not a mantra of words that we close our prayer
with as a formula assuring the answer to this prayer. Praying
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ means that we're praying
according to his will and for his glory. So when we pray, it
is always, Lord, if it be thy will. Lord, you be glorified
in this. And that prayer is always effectual,
because it's always answered. Look at this verse again. And
whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my
name, I will do it. Every prayer that's prayed in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is prayed in faith. Lord, we
lay this at your feet. We trust that you have the power. And the purpose, you have the
power to accomplish your purpose. And your purpose is always good
and it's always right. And it always ultimately results
in your glory. And it always ultimately results
in my good. And Lord, I'm good with that. Lord, that's how we pray. We pray in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And those prayers are always
effectual. And so the effectual, fervent, sincere. We don't pray like the Pharisees
who the Lord rebuked for having long public prayers for the purpose
of impressing other men. We come,
we go to our closet, we close the door, and we pray in secret
to our heavenly father, who hears in secret and he will answer
openly. Prayers are not for the purpose
of impressing men. And we don't, as I've already
mentioned, pray vain repetition, just memorized prayer. No, the
effectual, in the name of Christ, a fervent, sincere prayer of
the righteous man. Our righteousness is in Christ.
We're able to come before the throne of grace with boldness,
knowing that we have acceptance in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
can come in the presence of the holy God and know that he hears
our prayers. What a privilege, what a blessing
to find our help in time of need. So the effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much, availeth much. Oh, child of God,
let us Let us seek the Lord in prayer and let us commit ourselves
to prayer and let us ask the Lord to teach us to pray and
let us be more faithful and more fervent in our prayers. And the fervency of prayer is
not based on the amount of words that we have in our prayers.
To the contrary. The Lord said, I am in the heavens
and you are upon the earth, therefore let your words be few. Let your
words be few. You see, we don't impress God
with a litany of words. Probably the simplest and most
sincere and effectual prayer that a child of God praises,
Lord save me. Lord, save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my sin. Save me
from the wrath that is to come. Lord, just save me. We don't,
you know, the Lord did rebuke the Pharisees for their long-flowing
prayers that they prayed in public. Turn with me to Daniel. chapter
10, Daniel chapter 10. Sometimes the Lord will allow
us, oftentimes, oftentimes the Lord will allow us to struggle
in prayer for a long time. And that's because he's doing
a work of grace in us. He's changing us. Prayer has
that effect. And Daniel, you know, Daniel
knew, the Lord had already revealed this Daniel years before that
the Babylonian captivity where the children of Israel were was
gonna be 70 years, exactly 70 years. And at the end of that
70 years, the children of Israel were gonna be delivered and they
were gonna go back to Israel, to Jerusalem. Daniel knew that
by God's promise and by God's prophecy, he already knew that.
And yet when the 70 years was up, Daniel set his heart to pray. So what is he doing? He's doing
the same thing David did. He's affirming what he already
knew was true. Lord, what did David say? Therefore hath thy servant found
in his heart reason to pray. What was his reason to pray?
The promise of God. Lord, you've given me a promise.
That's my reason to pray. Daniel had a promise. And so
he sets his heart to pray. And look in Daniel chapter 10
at verse 12. After Daniel began, well, look
at verse two. In those days, I, Daniel, was
mourning three full weeks. Three full weeks, he's pouring
out his heart in prayer. And then in verse 12, then said
he unto me, fear not, Daniel. For from the first day that thou
did set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before
thy God, thy words were heard and I am come for thy words. Lord saying, I heard your praying
from the very first you started praying. But I've let you, I've
let you wrestle in prayer, Daniel. The Lord tries our faith in prayer,
doesn't he? And then in his time and in his
way, he answers that prayer. Turn with me to Hosea. Hosea chapter 14. Have you ever, have you heard
the term manifesting? I just heard that recently, I
didn't know, I understand it's a very popular thing going on
in the world right now. That you can create your own
reality, you can manifest something by your words and by your attitude. They also refer to themselves
as co-creators. It's just the old power of positive
thinking. You know, it's the old name it
and claim it kind of mentality that, you know, I can, it's man
setting himself up on the throne of God. I can be God and I can
determine the reality of my future by my attitude and by my words. I mean, I'm all for having a
positive attitude. We should. We have a positive attitude because
we know that our God reigns and he holds a future and we need
not be afraid. But this idea that I can manifest
something and that I can become a co-creator of my own reality,
that is blasphemy. And yet the Lord tells us, you
know, there's always a seed of truth in a lie, isn't there?
You know, it's the skin of truth packed with a lie. Satan always,
he always presents a lie with some element of truth to it.
He has from the very beginning. Did God say that thou shalt not
eat of the trees of the, no. But there was some truth to that.
There was one tree they weren't supposed to eat up. So yes, bring words to God in
your prayers. But he gives us the words to
bring. That's what David's saying. Lord, you manifested this to
me. You revealed it to me. You spoke
it to me. And that's the reason that I
have confidence to pray. My warrant for prayer and my
confidence in prayer is the promises of God. It's not my wishes and
my desires and my aspirations for something. And so the Lord
says to us in Hosea chapter 14, O Israel, my people, my princes,
my prince, who can come into the very court of God, O Israel,
return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity. It's only one thing that keeps
us from prayer, and that's sin. And there's only one person's
sin that keeps us from prayer. That's not somebody else's sin,
it's my sin. I don't pray, that's all on me. And now the Lord's given us this
wonderful promise, oh Israel, return unto me. Your iniquity
has separated you from me. And take with you words. When
you come into my presence, come with words. and turn to the Lord
and say unto Him, He doesn't just tell us to come with words,
He gives us the words to speak. Take away all iniquity. Oh Lord,
put away my sin. Cover them. In the blood of Christ, bury
them in the depths of the sea. Lord, separate them from me as
far as the east is from the west. Lord, save me from myself and
give me faith to believe what you have said about my sin. My sin has been put away. Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. Lord,
if we're gonna be able to come into your presence, it's gonna
be all of grace. Free, sovereign, unmerited favor
of God's love and God's grace. Lord, I have no other claim to
make in being able to come before thee. No other claim. It is my sin that separated me
from you. and the work that Christ did on Calvary's cross is the
only hope I have for putting away that sin? And it is by your
grace that I could come before a holy God and lay out my needs
and my petition and offer my praise and my adoration and my
thanksgiving. Lord, it's all of grace, all
of grace. I have no other words. I have no other claim. I have
no other argument. No other ground on which to stand
other than the grace of God. So will we render the calves
of our lips. Now that's an imagery to Old
Testament sacrifice. We make the sacrifice of our
lips. We don't offer blood sacrifices. We don't bring before God offerings. That offering has been made in
Christ. Not for the purpose of covering
our sins. We bring to him offerings. Offerings
of praise and the calves of our lips and thanksgiving. Offerings
of our I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present yourself a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable
unto God. Why? Because it's your reasonable
service in light of all that he's done for you. And be not
conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing
of your mind in Christ Jesus, that you might know what is the
good and acceptable and pleasing will of God. That's how we come. that a blood sacrifice for the
purpose of putting away our sin or some offering, no, that was
done. That was accomplished. So we
look in faith to Christ, we bring to God the words that he's given
to us, and we render the calves of our lips. Look at verse three.
Asher shall not save us, Now, Asher was a nation that
the children of Israel would get to help them in their campaigns
against Assyria and against, you know, Egyptians, other nations. But what is Hosea saying? Asher can't save us. We can't employ another nation
to come along beside and help us. And it's very interesting
that the word Asher translated means steps, steps. There are no steps that we can
go through in order to secure the blessings of God. The Lord Jesus Christ took those
steps. He walked to Calvary's mount
and carried that cross and offered himself. And now we come, not
looking to our steps, but to his. And we will not ride upon horses,
neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, you
are our gods, for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. How
do we know that? Because the Lord told us, as
a father pitieth his children, so your heavenly father pitieth
them that fear him. We have a father who loves us
and pities us and is there to help us. Oh, he's shown us that
in so many promises, but most clearly he showed us that in
what he did When he gave, herein is love, not that we love God,
but that he loved us and gave his son as a propitiation for
our sins. There's the evidence. There's
the evidence of God's love. So we come, we come before God,
not trying to come up with words of our own to persuade him or
to manipulate him, to give us something that we want. We come
before him in confidence with the words that he has given to
us. Look at verse four. I will heal
their backsliding. I will love them freely for my
anger is turned away from him. I will be a do to Israel. When we know what the Lord has promised, we are confident to come with
those words. So many precious promises. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Oh, Lord, I believe. That's my
warrant for coming, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Lord,
I've got this old flesh that never has believed anything and
he needs help. He needs to be restrained, he
needs to be quieted, he needs to be put down. But Lord, you
said, but I do believe. Believest thou this? Yea, Lord.
Isn't that what Mary said? Yea, Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ that should come into the world. How do we know
that? Because he's told us. Go back
with me to our text. Let's read this again. Here's
the confidence that we have. When we come before the throne
of grace, we're confident that we serve a God who cannot lie. And his word is true and faithful. And he says, bring with you words Look what David says. Let's read
these verses again, verse 25. And now, O Lord God, the word
that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his
house, establish it forever. Do as thou hast said. Elijah, after three years of
drought, knew that it was gonna rain. And yet he went before
the Lord and he pleaded with the Lord to send rain. Daniel,
we already mentioned, knew that the 70 years were up and the
Lord was gonna fulfill. And yet, at that time, he comes
before the Lord and he pleads with the Lord to answer the prayers,
to answer the promises that he has already given. That's what
we do. Jeremiah said, I know the thoughts that I think toward you. Thoughts
of peace and not evil to bring you to your, or to give you your
expected end. And then the next verse says,
then thou shalt pray and I will hearken unto you. You shall seek
me and you shall find me. You see? That's what David's
doing. David is believing what God has promised
and offering up before the Lord the very thing. We do that when
we come together. We've done that already this
morning. The Lord said where two or three of you are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of you. And yet
we would not be so presumptuous as to begin a worship service
without pleading with him to meet with us. He's promised to
do it. And his promise is our warrant
for prayer. Always. Bring with you words. I think I've already mentioned
this in John chapter 17, the Lord preeminently was a man of
prayer. And yet in John chapter 17, he
knew that none could be lost, that he was going to die for
all that the father had chosen would be saved, all Israel would
be saved and all that he was laying down his life for and
yet he prays to his father in John chapter 17 for the father
to keep us, to keep us. affirming in prayer the very
promises that God has made. If any man lack wisdom, James
tells us, and we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is our wisdom. He is personified in the book
of Proverbs as wisdom, and Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, that
God has made him to be our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification,
our redemption. Christ is the wisdom of God.
If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all
men liberally and upbraideth it not. That word upbraideth
means that he doesn't say to us, you've been asking, you've
asked this one too many times. No, he upbraideth it not. That
word comes from the word which means to resent. And our God
never resents his children coming to ask him for something that
they've asked him for a thousand times. And they've abused the
gift that they were given a thousand times. They've been ungrateful,
and yet he says, 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. What is that? Looking to Christ
as the only hope of being able to ask. The only reason why I
can come before the Lord is because of the accomplished work and
glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ, my advocate before God. He is the reason. Let him ask
in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like
the wave of the sea, tossed to and fro, let not that man think
that he should receive anything from the Lord. Let me ask you
something, child of God. How often do you feel wavering
in your prayers? How often in your prayers do
you struggle with your old man distracting you and causing you
to not pray as you ought? That passage of scripture used
to bother me a lot. Let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering, for he that wavereth is like the waves of the sea,
tossed to and fro, let not that man think that he should receive
anything of the Lord. If that wavering of the sea is
the wavering that I experience between my old man and my new
man, then I have no confidence that God would ever hear anything
that I pray. That's not what that's talking
about. It's talking about coming before God on the basis of Christ
plus. That's what that's talking about.
Let not that man think that he should receive anything of the
Lord. Lord, I have no ground. I have no reason to come before
thee. except for the accomplished work
and glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm in need of
grace and mercy. I have no other argument. I have no other plea. I cannot
present you some reason why you should be obligated to hear me
other than what Christ has done. You see, if you come with Christ
plus something. Men do, they bargain with God,
barter with God, and try to say, well, Lord, I did this and I
did, you know, those, no, no, no, no. Let not that man think
that he should receive anything of God. You still have your Bibles open
to our text. I wanna read these last two verses again. Verse
26, and let thy name be magnified forever. That's what it means
to pray in Jesus' name. If you ask anything in my name,
I will do it. And every prayer that's prayed
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is prayed for his glory. And every one of those prayers
are effectual. He has answered every one of
them. Let thy name be magnified forever,
saying, the Lord of hosts is the God over Israel. Let the
house of thy servant David be established before thee. Lord, let thy kingdom come. That's the house of David. It's
the church. It's the people of God. Let thy
house be established forever. according to the promise that
thou hast made. And I love verse 27. For thou,
O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, hath revealed to thy servant. In the margin of my Bible, the
word revealed is translated opened the ear. opened the ear. Normally we think
of revealed as something that we see, but here's the Lord. He has opened my ear. He has
caused me to hear him and to believe what he has said. And
based on the grounds of his word, I come unto thee. Thou hast opened mine ear. And here's what you said when
you opened my ear. I will build thee a house. Therefore hath thy servant found
in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. What has God said? Come unto me. all ye that labor and are heavy
laden. Take my yoke upon you. My burden
is light. I bore, I bore the weight of
it. My yoke is easy. Learn of me. Learn of me. And we come, we're coming based
on that very word. We bring words. Lord, you said,
come, I'm coming. I don't know what else to do
other than what you have said. Lord, you said, look and you
shall live. All that had been bitten by the
serpent, it looked, lived. Lord, I don't know what else
to do but look to Christ. You said to look and I would
live and Lord, I'm... That look is a spiritual look. I had a man listen to me preach
several times, long time, years as a matter of fact. And after
he left, he said to me, You keep talking about looking to Christ,
I'm looking and he threw his hands up and looked to the ceiling.
He said, I'm looking, I don't see. Well, if you're looking for him
in this room, you know, with these eyes, no. You know, we, the scripture The
Lord said that Satan is the father of lies and deceitful and that
false prophets he's raised up. And if it were possible, even
the elect will be deceived. Does that keep us from praying?
Lord, don't let me be deceived. Keep me Lord. Lord, I be, you
see, David said, he gave me words. He gave me words to pray. I love
in Acts chapter four, after the apostles were threatened by the
Sanhedrin, they went back and met with the other believers and they prayed. And they quoted
Psalm 2 because they were experiencing the fulfillment of that passage
of scripture. They said, Lord, just as you
said, this is happening. This is happening just like you
said it. Bringing with you words, David
said, your promise has given my heart reason to pray. and confidence in my prayers. Let's take a break.