Let me say tonight how much I
appreciate you all and appreciate one more time being able to speak to you. Pray the Lord will take his word
and bless it to your good and his glory. I've learned over the years that Driving 500 miles doesn't make
a fellow a preacher, but I'll just do the best I can. If you would turn with me tonight
to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 6. I've been talking to you in these
services about the sovereign will of God. And tonight I want for a few
minutes to talk to you about the sovereign will of God as
it relates to prayer. I want you to look with me in
these verses here in Matthew 6 beginning with verse 5. This isn't John Doe's new current
book on prayer. You can't find anybody advertising
it in the local Christian bookstore. This is the Master's word on
prayer. In verse 5 he says, And when
thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. Well, 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 unto you, they
have their reward. I see them all the time. Just
go to the local Golden Corral. And you'll see Reverend so-and-so
gather his group and call attention to everybody in the whole place
so they can have prayer. That's them right here. And they
have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy father, which seeth in
secret, shall reward thee openly. But when you pray, use not vain
repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall
be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto
them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of,
before you ask. After this manner, therefore,
pray ye, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now there is probably no area
in which men find a conflict with God's sovereign will any
more than in the matter of prayer. And so men foolishly say things
like this, if God is sovereign, if he has ordained all things,
If He has predestinated all things and controls all things, why
pray? You're exactly right. Why pray?
Why pray? Well, let me just say first of
all, we pray because God commands it. In 1 Thessalonians 5, the Apostle
is led by the Spirit, and this is the instruction, pray without
ceasing. He spake a parable, our Lord
did in Luke 18, to this end, that men ought always to pray
and not to think. And then by the Apostle James,
he tells us this. He says, And the prayer of faith
shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And
if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess
your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye
may be healed. because the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject
to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might
not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three
years and six months. And he prayed again, and the
heaven gave rain, And the earth brought forth her fruit. We read about the man Elijah,
the prophet, and he stands up on Mount Carmel after the prophets
of Baal have prayed every kind of prayer and done every kind
of shenanigan in religion that could be done. And then the servant
of the Lord comes forth. And he prays what I believe is
about 64 words. And God brings down fire from
heaven and consumes the sacrifice. But in this matter of prayer,
we have a twofold problem. We have the natural problem that
enmity against God in our own hearts and in our own minds. That's a problem in the matter
of prayer itself. And then heaped on top of that
is all the false teaching of false religion about the matter
of prayer. So the only way that you and
I can ever know anything about what true prayer is, is by what
God says in this book. What our Lord Jesus Christ tells
us in the matter of prayer. Because prayer, as we find everywhere
in our daily life, is about as ridiculously spoken of as you
can imagine. I hear this all the time. Pray
hard. Sometimes when you've got a little
time, if you'd explain that to me, I'd be glad. How do you pray
hard? Or they often say, say a prayer
for me. And somehow that just doesn't
ring true with what I find in this book. Prayer is more than
saying a prayer. As a matter of fact, our Lord
here warns against and forbids these vain repetitions. I could never be a part of worship
where prayer is made out of a prayer book that somebody else wrote
down. So all these things, they all
show us some of the error of prayer in our day, and men imagine
that they're heard, as it's said here, for they're much prayed.
In other words, if we pray a lot, God will do something. If we
pray a lot, in other words, we're going to bombard heaven. And
most that's taught in the name of prayer is simply an idea that
somehow we're going to gang up on God so much that we can get
Him to do what we want to do. If you want to really get disgusted
about prayer, and sadly sometimes it's those who claim to believe
something, just look on Facebook and hear what's said about prayer. It's sickening. It's ignorance. And people say things like this.
I've heard this all my life. There's no telling how many little
plaques and signs that have had this. They say prayer changes
things. You ever heard that? And the
idea, really the idea in all that is, the idea is that prayer
changes God. It changes the mind of God, it
changes the purpose of God, it changes the will of God. Except
there's one problem. He don't change. As a matter of fact, he's immutable. He says himself, That this is
our hope, the fact that He does not change. He said by Malachi,
I believe it was, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. You see, prayer does not change
God's will. It is often God's appointed means
to bring his will to pass. I read what an old preacher had
to say concerning this. He said, prayer is not overcoming
God's reluctance, but laying hold on his willingness. That pretty good? It reminded me of what we read
in Matthew 8. When the Bible says that there
came a man to the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what he said
to him. He knew something about prayer,
though he probably had not read the latest book about prayer.
But he said this, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. You don't have to. I don't deserve
it. I can't make you do it. But if
you will, you can make me clean. Guess what our Lord said? He
said, I will. Be thou clean. So prayer is not
trying to change God and neither is this. Prayer is not giving
God information. You know, we somehow think, and
this shows how low a view of God we often have, we somehow
think that we're going to tell God something he don't know.
We're going to give him some information. We're going to update
him on some things. There are some things that have
gone on and some situations that have taken place and he's not
aware of them. Aware of them? He sent them.
He's the one behind all of them. And men and women reveal in all
these prayers really their desire to be God. They reveal their
desire to rule and they reveal that they think that their thinking
is better and that they know better than God and that their
will is better. But if you don't get anything
else out of what I've got to say tonight, I want you to remember
this. The truth is, in true prayer, God is not changed, we are. I didn't know that for a long
time. I assaulted heaven with claims, I'm going to claim this,
or I'm going to pray hard, or long, or all these various descriptive
adverbs I guess they would be. But the Lord taught me that in
prayer, in true prayer, He's not the one that's changed, but
we are. And what takes place is this,
the Spirit of God brings our wills into submission to God's
will. Is that right? Well, you just
look in this ninth verse, when our Lord, who Himself as we might
say, was a praying man. You might not be a praying man,
I may not be, but there's one thing about the Lord Jesus Christ
was a praying man, praying God man. And so he tells us in this,
which many have called the Lord's Prayer, this is not the Lord's
Prayer. You want to find the Lord's prayer,
you can go to John 17 and really hear, but he says that this is
the way his people pray. This is a model prayer. This
is the believer's prayer. Verse 9, he says, after this
manner. He didn't say rehearse it. He
didn't say just give it as a vain repetition. We're all going to
get together and recite the Lord's Prayer as we say. He's not saying
that. He's saying that this is a form
and a fashion and a model of the things that are to be concerned
in our prayers. And this is what he says. After
this manner, pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name, thy kingdom come, will be done on earth. Somehow we often times,
we don't mind it being done in heaven, but it's on earth where
we have the problem with it. He says, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. When he gives us this instruction,
Just like the Apostle Paul and others of the New Testament writers,
he speaks and in what he says, we know that prayer is not an
elective. We know that prayer is not something
that we can do if we decide to do. He said, when you pray. It's understood. Because prayer
is I don't know if this is an appropriate expression of it,
but prayer seems to be the breath of God's Spirit that He stirred
up in us that comes out of us to God. If there is spiritual life, that life breathes prayer just
like natural life breathes air. He says, when you pray. And when you read these words,
it's obvious that true prayer begins with a recognition and
a remembrance of God. God as He is. God as He has declared
Himself to be in His Word. And as such, we remember we are
coming to His throne. We are approaching Him as the
Sovereign Lord. We are approaching God in His
total and absolute perfection. You ain't talking to your good
buddy. It's not a matter of me and Jesus got a good thing going. He says, hallowed be thy name. That's reverence. Preachers in
our day, they take that to themselves and they speak of God as if He's
a man on the street. We come before God and we are
brought to this right state wherein we can pray to God first by remembrance
of who it is we're talking to. I know how we are. I can meet
Tim on the street, and I'll just hug, slap him, joke with him,
say, hey, man, how you doing? Good to see you, buddy. But I'll
bet there's some people I probably wouldn't do that to. Prayer begins when we begin to
recognize first of all. We rush so quickly to rehearse
it and to get what we want and all that kind of stuff, but my
friend, true prayer begins with a recognition and a remembrance
of who God is. He's the high one. He's the holy
one that inhabits eternity. He's the one who rules and reigns. He's the one who holds our very
souls in His hand, our destiny, our salvation, all our hope,
everything we are, everything we need. We're not coming to
our equal, we're coming before God. When you look in Luke chapter
18, the Bible says there are two fellows went up to the temple
to pray. And there was one fellow, this
Pharisee, and he stands up and he kind of pops his suspenders
and stands up and he's just so grateful that he is not like
other people are. And then he begins to tell God
what he does. There's another fellow. He's
so broken and bowed before God in His infinite majesty and holiness,
knowing himself to be the sinner that he is, he simply smites
himself upon the breast and says, God, be merciful. God, be propitious
toward me, the sinner. And the Bible says that man went
down to his house justified. We're not praying to the president. We're not praying to the high
man in the community. We're praying to the living God. And I'll tell you this. That
attitude of prayer is not merely reflected by language. And by that I mean this. It's
not a prayer in reverence to God simply because we use the
King James English. There are some people who think
you can't pray unless you use the D-thousand of those that
we read in the King James. We just use our daily language. We're just talking to God. We're just opening our mouth,
we're just expressing our heart, but we're doing so in reverence
to the Lord of glory. And this is the truth. We're
never able really to pray, truly pray, apart from a work of God's
Spirit in us. The Bible speaks of the prayer
of faith, does it not? Have you ever tried to pray without
faith? I'm afraid more of our prayers
are made without faith than they're made with faith. But I'll tell
you what, it's a wonderful thing. When your heart is bowed and
your head is bowed and your whole being goes out to God and you're
already feeling the Spirit of God giving you a sense of receiving
that which you're asking for before you even ask for it. Why? Because it's His will. Turn over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Brother Bill quoted it a few
minutes ago. I've quoted it. I've read it.
That 28th verse of Romans chapter 8. And we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. And look at the verses ahead
of that. Look at verse 26. Paul says,
likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. I think that's one thing that
the Spirit of God does first to us in true prayer. He brings
us to the remembrance that we do not really know what to pray
for as we ought. I hear a lot of people pray and
they know exactly what they want to pray for. I'll tell you what, in my wife's
sickness, there's one thing I did learn and that is that I do not
know what to pray for as I ought. I'm praying selfishly. I'm praying
according to my will. I'm praying according to my want.
I'm praying for what I want to see. I'm praying for what I want
done. And the Spirit of God convicts
my heart and says, you really don't even know what to pray
for as you ought. And so we're brought down by
the Spirit of God in true prayer to acknowledge this fact, that
He alone, that His sovereign will alone is the only right
thing, the only good thing, the very best thing. And the truth
is, as Brother Scott said, if we knew what He knew, it would
be the best thing to us, too. We don't know what to ask for.
He says, but the Spirit himself or itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Sometimes when we pray, And we
start out so knowing what we want, knowing what we want to
ask God for, knowing what we want to say and all that kind
of stuff. And the Spirit of God brings us to an end of ourself.
And we're broken before God. We're confessing our ignorance.
We're confessing our self-will. We're bowed and we're broken
and humble before God. and we don't know what to say,
and words won't come to us what to say, and we're just here before
God groaning and moaning in our prayers and our pains. But the
Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered. Sometimes I find myself in all
these situations, like we read about in the psalm, that this
happens and that happens, and they're brought up, they're crashed
down, reeled to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and
it says, and then they call upon the name of the Lord. And we don't even know what to
say. We don't even know what to do. We don't even know what
is best. Oh, you think you know what's
best. He says, "...and he that searcheth
the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints..." What is that? "...according to
the will of God." according to the sovereign, perfect, glorious,
unchanging, immutable will of God." That's what he's talking about
in Philippians 2 when he says, for it is God who works in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. But I do believe. that we meet
that wretched man that Paul speaks about. We do meet that wretched
man in prayer maybe more than anywhere else because we're found
so often trying to pray contrary to God's will rather than praying,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We're praying for our sister,
Phyllis. I've loved that lady for a long
time. You can't imagine things without
her. But our prayers, I'm afraid my prayers all the day is just
selfish. When I know in my head, and the
Spirit of God has to bring me to know it in my heart, that
the best thing for her which would be the best thing for all
of us, is the will of God. We say, Lord, if you will, you
can heal her. I hope he says, I will. I will. I will. You see, he tells us
He tells us, as Paul says in Romans 7, he says, For I know
that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to
will is present with me, but how to perform that which is
good I find not, for the good that I would I do not, but the
evil which I would not, that's what I do. And that's the same
guy I meet in prayer. That's the same fellow I am in
prayer. Lord, I know I ought to bow to your will. I know what
you do is right. I know it's perfect. I know it's
unchangeable. But, but, but the only peace, the only
true peace we ever get in any matter It's when our hearts are
brought to this resolution, thy will be done. When the Apostle John writes
in 1 John 5, he says, when we pray, we ask And when we ask
according to the will of God, we have it. And I'll tell you this, when
we don't have it, there's one conclusion has to be drawn. It wasn't his will. And I can look back over the
course of my life and trying to pray as a believer, and if
I'm not If I'm not thanking him for what he has been pleased
to do, I'm thanking him for what he's been pleased not to do that
I asked for. Why? He said because you ask
amiss, that you might consume it on your own lust, on your
own self, on your own relief, on your own comfort, on your
own honor, whatever it is. You ask not and receive not. You ask and you receive not because
you ask amidst that you may consume it upon your lusts. That's us. That's us. But let me just say this. I do
believe in true prayer. We worship God. Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed
be thy name. We worship God. You see, there's
really no need to pray to one that you don't worship. There's
really no need to pray to one who's not the true and living
God. And through prayer, you really
worship. You bow down. That's when all the sounds of
this world and all the distractions of this world are away. And when there's nobody there
but you and the Lord, and you begin to call out upon His name
and revere Him for who He is and honor Him, and just fall
down and worship Him. And when you find one word to
worship, then you can pray. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. And not only that, we rejoice
and we bow to His sovereign purpose of grace. What is it? Thy kingdom come. That's what I want. If I've got
a fault in that, it's that I want it to come sooner than He's bringing
it. But Thy kingdom come. Your saints called out, your
church worshiping, all of us together taken into your presence
forever. Thy kingdom come. And then in true prayer, we acknowledge
our dependence entirely on God, right down to the next biscuit
and slice of bread. Give us our daily bread. Well, I'd really like to have
it this way or I'd really like to have it that way. No. The best way to have it is
his way. I always think about Elijah when
he was being fed by the ravens, bread and flesh in the morning.
The Lord had provided him bread and flesh in the morning and
he drank by the brook, it says. And then one day he walked down
to the brook to get his drink of water and it says, and the
brook dried up. Well, I'm a goner now. No. You
get too dependent on the means too much and you forget the God
who provides through the means. And then he takes and he turns
to Elijah and he sends him down to the least likely place where
he could ever find bread. Oh, he was starved to death there
at the widow's house. No. God will feed him out of
that meal barrel with that cruise of oil, and He will not only
feed him, but He will feed her and her son, and God will get
glory out of it. Our daily bread. I like to have
a loaf in the cabinet, don't you? That's not the way it works
with God. Our daily bread. I went to a
store a few weeks ago and they had a really good price on wheat
bread by the loaf. And so I bought two nice long
loaves of wheat bread and I brought them home and I put them up.
I said, I can have toast for a long time and ham sandwiches.
I eat a lot of ham sandwiches these days. I ate out of it about one or
two days and I went back to look. And there was my laid up bread,
had mold all over it. You just can't, it's like that
man, you can't store up anything. We need his daily bread. He's the sustainer, he's the
provider, he's the upholder. In true prayer, we acknowledge
our own sinfulness and His grace and mercy to us. And this is
the only basis and the real basis upon which we're to forgive.
What's that? We've been forgiven. You say, I might forgive you,
but I can't forget. Well, you're not forgiving me
then. We forgive because we've been
forgiven. We're gracious because we've
been shown grace. We're merciful because we have
received mercy and because we need mercy. In true prayer, we acknowledge
that all things are His to give or to withhold. Old Lazarus died. They prayed. God brought Lazarus
back to life. Paul, the servant of God, he's
over here, and he's got a problem. This thorn in the flesh, and
he prays three times, especially concerning that problem. Lord,
how can I do this? How can I be your apostle? How can I do the work you've
called me to do? I've got this problem. Some think
it was an eye problem, I believe. What was the Lord's answer? He
said, My grace is sufficient for you. Whatever your problem
is, that won't hinder God from using you not one bit. And if
it was not His will, you wouldn't have that problem. You might have to stay out if
I wait to not preach. Something like that. Why? Because it's the will of God.
It's the will of God. You see, in true prayer, we thank
God and praise God and bless His sovereignty and rest in His
will. Thine is the power. Thine is
the glory forever and ever and ever. Amen. So be it. So be it. The prayer of the Lord's people.
Though it has various names, various situations, the various
distinctions is always basically this. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Thy will be done in my situation,
in my loved one's situation. Thy will be done because I don't
really know what's best to be done. I don't really know what
will work for your glory. I don't really know what will
work for our spiritual good. But you do. Thy will be done
in all things. God bless you.