Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Matthew chapter 6 and verse 8. Specifically the end of that verse, your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. The whole verse reads, Be not ye therefore like unto them? For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.

This morning the The subject was encouragement to obedience. And this evening, encouragement to ask in prayer. Not just prayer, but to ask in prayer. We know that there are many aspects to prayer, to real prayer. And asking is not the only aspect of prayer, but it is an important one. We think of the ingredients of prayer sometimes using the acronym ACTS.

First is adoration, giving praise and honour and glory unto God, same as our Lord did. as in this passage that he begins, our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name with the Lord's Prayer. And then with the saying confession, confession of our sin and of our iniquities, that must be a part also of our prayers if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. And then there's the T of Acts, which is thanksgiving, to give thanks unto the Lord, to remember to do so.

Off we can leave that out, and it also betrays that we're not watching for answers to prayer and don't actually see things of which we should give thanks. But it's a good thing to go through life looking for those things that we may give thanks to God for. And then the S is supplication, or asking, which is what is upon my spirit tonight.

Our text says, your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. And the point is that we are asking of the Lord, asking of our Father things. I want to look firstly at our Lord teaching by showing what we should not be like. Our text begins being not. be not ye therefore like unto them.

And he has spoken of those that made long prayers and thought they would be heard by their much speaking and those that were praying very openly. And then secondly, your father knoweth what things ye have need of. Not what things we want, but those things that we really have need of. And then lastly, that encouragement to ask in our prayers. Actually put into words and ask the Lord.

But firstly, the Lord teaching by showing what we should not be like. It is good to notice the Lord's methods of teaching while he was on earth. And we can expect that he will use similar things in our lives as well. If we were to be like those around our Lord, and we saw people openly praying in the corners of the streets or obviously making a show of their religion, that is what those that were listening to our Lord here, they would have seen, they would have known these things.

We read them, but In our eyes, we haven't actually seen it, but it is described in the word. But our Lord draws attention to this, and he says, be not like unto them. So sometimes we may see, see a practical walking in a way which the word says, don't do that. Don't walk in that way. And yes, there's the other side, where the Lord would give us godly examples, and like the Apostle Paul, he follows in me, as I also am of Christ. But in this, the Lord uses the illustration of those using vain or empty repetitions.

He says the heathens do this. We think of those on Mount Carmel when they were trying to make out that Baal was the true God. But Elijah had made the trial and they'd agreed to it. The God that answered by fire, let him be God. Well, Elijah only needed to pray one short prayer and the fire came from heaven and consumed that sacrifice. But the prophets of Baal, they were crying, they were cutting themselves with knives as lancets, and that went on for a long period of time. They thought that they needed to do that. They needed to keep crying, keep saying the same thing. In their case, O Baal, hear us.

Remember what is said before us in this verse seven. is not repetition, it's vain repetition. Our Lord, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed the same words, praying the same things. That wasn't vain. That was real. It was short prayer. And in His agony, Father, if it be possible, let this cut pass from me. But our Lord adds this here, they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them. It is not by much speaking. I find this very encouraging.

Very encouraging to pray short prayers, but to really ask in prayer. We don't have to, though we may pray for the same thing one day after another, yet in different occasions, different prayers. But it's not just thinking that, well, we must make a long, long prayer. We must have an eloquent prayer. It must be something that the Lord sees good in our prayers, why he will answer. He dismisses this idea that we are not to be like them. We think of in the gospel according to Luke and chapter 18, where we have our Lord speaking of the two that went up into the temple to pray.

And he says one was a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not, as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

And there's not one thing to be asked, not one thing that is sought for. And then we have the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. It's all asking. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Often in the Word, we are shown two types. And I've said this before, like Cain and Abel, One offering an acceptable sacrifice and one not. Able of blood sacrifice came one of his own works and the fruit of the land. And so the Lord uses that. This is what you're not to be like. This is what you are to be like.

And the Apostle Paul uses this same method when he is teaching the Corinthians. In his first epistle to them, he says in chapter 10, verses 5 through 11, he uses the illustration of the children of Israel going through the wilderness. And remember when he was writing to the Corinthians, they were not ones that had experienced it or seen them.

That was thousands of years before. So it's the same effect with us. We read of what the children of Israel did in the wilderness. And when we read what happened and what they did, We read in verse 4, they all did drink of the same spiritual drink, they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, that rock was Christ.

Then he says, but with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples. to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And he goes through a list here. So he looks at them as an example as to what we shouldn't do. Our Lord was doing that with the prayers of the hypocrites. Here is an example.

You don't pray like them. Paul is saying, here's the children of Israel. Don't lust after evil things as they did. Neither be idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed as serpents. Neither murmur ye.

Now some of them also murmured and were destroyed of this destroyer. Now all these things happen unto them for ensamples or types and they are written for our admonition or our teaching upon whom the ends of the world are come. And this same principle, this same way, is what our Lord teaches by. not by following a good example but avoiding a bad example. And perhaps one of the reasons why this is used, it is natural with us to be able to see another's faults and not our own. And this is why Nathan was sent to David to convict him of his sin by telling him a parable so that David thought he was seeing someone else, what someone else was doing. And when he could see what was wrong and condemned what was wrong with that person, how they took the poor man's lamb and gave, slew it and gave to their traveler that came to them, not. all of the rich man's herds that he could easily have taken. When he was able to see how wrong that was, then Nathan said, thou art the man. He had taken Bathsheba, killed her husband, taken her to be his wife. And David fell under it. He confessed. He said, I have sinned.

But the Lord uses this when we can see another's faults. And that's why we're to pray for those that despitefully use us, those that we can see their faults. But when we see another's faults, the Lord has a message for us. Don't you do that. In Romans 2, we have a most solemn word where the question is just asked, thou that teachest. that thou should not commit adultery, does thou commit adultery? Thou that teachest that thou shalt not commit sacrilege or worship idols, do you do the same? It's a common thing, that we can condemn people for doing the very things that we are doing, but here our Lord is saying, you look at what they're doing, and you don't do that.

And maybe be mindful of this, to think when we see people doing things that we would condemn or say that are wrong, ask this question to ourselves, am I doing the same thing? Am I actually doing it? Maybe in a different way, but actually the same thing.

And so this first point is the method that our Lord is using to teach and to instruct. And when we think of God's promise that all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, let us recognise how the Lord teaches. It may be a sweet token for good, When we realise the Lord has used a method on us to teach us something, and He's used it, and it's His handiwork, it's like He has done before. Often that is the way the Lord's people, they know the shepherd's voice because of His dealings with them.

Sometimes you might have a case like you go past a building site, you don't see the builder, you don't know who is working on it, but then you see how they're doing the work. You see the method they're using, what happens first, what next? And you might recognize it and think, I know who's doing that building because of what they're doing and how they're doing it. their method, their attention to detail, their carefulness. God is known by the judgment that he executeth, but the Lord is known also by his handiwork.

That is why Bethuel and Laban, they were able to say when Abraham's servant came and his prayer was answered regarding Rebekah, they said, the thing proceedeth from the Lord. How did they know that? Because Abraham's servant was able to tell of his prayer and of the answer to prayer. And it was in such a way, a remarkable way, that they recognised that it was of the Lord.

Again, what an encouragement to prayer. It leads to be able to recognise our God as a prayer hearing and prayer answering God. Maybe the subject, the words of nine, will be an answer to some of you that have asked, Lord, show me a token for good, show me a way that I may know that you are my God and that you're dealing with me as one of your children. And the way that is directed is if the Lord would say, will you ask?

You may know your petitions and then watch for answers. And when you have the answers, you see how those answers come, and in that you'll get your token. You'll get your evidence. One that never asks won't get those tokens, won't get those answers. And so it's encouragement to ask in that.

So let's think of the method the Lord uses to teach, to admonish, to warn against wrong ways, but to point in a right way. I want to look then secondly at this word, your father knoweth what things ye have need of. I want to notice first the use of Father has not been very common, used in our churches to use the name of Father in our prayers, and often the thought is, well, how can we know that God actually is our Father?

When Paul writes to the Ephesians, he tells what we are actually by nature. In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 3, he says, among whom, or children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.

Children of wrath, not children of God, children of wrath. Then when we go to Romans chapter 8, then we read the other side, verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, or Father, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. So not all that are born into this world are the children of God. The Lord is not their father in that way. In one sense, he is the father of us all. If we trace right back through the line right down to Adam, then God is our father.

When we come back to the passage, which is our text, and it is the Sermon on the Mount, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, going right through the Chapter 7 as well. And it begins in this way from Chapter 5. He says, seeing the multitudes, those multitudes there, he went up into a mountain And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, those that were his followers. Now this is not yet, because he has not yet chosen the 12, but they were followers of the Lord. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, So in the sense here he is primarily he is speaking to his disciples. But there are all the multitudes there and they are all hearing as well.

In one way it replicates our ministry, our preaching today. If we could look at any of the epistles, those epistles are written to churches. They're written to God's people. Those are already called. Yet we preach many times from those words in those epistles. Many times, and sometimes we are accused of that, we only preach to the elect. We only preach to God's people.

But our Lord often, He was speaking to those that were professed followers of Himself. But there were others all the time round they were listening. And many of those that were listening who first felt they were not the Lord's or didn't show any evidence of it in listening, they were blessed and they were favoured in their souls. And there comes a time with God's people when they are brought from darkness to light, from a child of wrath to a child of God. And so in that sense, when we gather, when the church is gathered and the word is preached to them and the lambs are fed and the sheep are fed and the brethren are strengthened, it doesn't mean to say that everyone in that assembly are sheep, are lambs, are brethren, but the food is there, the word is proclaimed, and it's set forth, and in that way, the Lord speaks here of his Father, and I believe it's the right way, when the word is set forth, and even in a mixed company, to Call unto the Lord as our Father.

There's some beautiful examples, and especially where the Lord would seek to encourage in prayer. And it is always the beauty of the Father knowing. And even in the gift of the Holy Spirit, there it is through the Father. So I believe it is the right thing here. When we come to our text, be ye not therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.

And if we are a true follower, if we desire the things of God, we might think, well, we are like the multitude. We are like those that are gathering Like those that I felt when I was exercised in the things of God, and the Lord's Supper was observed in the front of the chapel at Melbourne, and I sat at the back, and I felt the long distance of seats between me and those there. And they were the excellent of the earth, and they were blessed, and I wasn't blessed. But I longed to be blessed, and I wanted those blessings. That's a good place to be. to be listening and desiring those blessings, listening to what the Lord has to say to his people.

You know, one of our leaflets out the front of the chapel here, message, message of hope or encouragements for those in downcast. But there's messages there divided into two parts. One they are to those that are God's people. Those that know they are and then can take specific encouragement from the Lord that the Lord gives to his children. But then there are others there that are to all that are in need. They're encouragement to all.

But those that are for God's children, as if those that would hear and say, oh, that I would be amongst them, put me amongst the children, put me in a position so clearly that I will know that God is my father, that I am his child. He is dealing with me as a child. And I give that what is before us this evening. If we are brought to obey the word in asking, In that very thing, the Lord is able to give us a token that He is our Father. If the Lord knows what we have need of, He also knows the trembling heart. He knows the lack of assurance. He knows the fears. He knows those that would believe, but feel their unbelief. Those that feel unworthy. Those like the publican can't look up, but God be merciful to me, a sinner. So this beautiful way of addressing God or realizing that God is our Father, that we can come to Him and ask things of Him.

Later on in this chapter, verse 31, we have, take no thought, saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink? The Lord had already just drawn their attention to the grass of the field and Solomon in all his glory, not arrayed like one of the lilies, but he says, Take no thought saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. So here is in our text, your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him. later on in the chapter he is identifying some of those things that he knows we have need of for our body to eat and drink or our clothing and points out that all of the gentiles or the unbelievers they seek after these things but he gives a greater a more important thing to lay before our Father. Now this doesn't mean to say that we don't ask when we have need of a job, or schooling, or direction, or guidance, or things in a temporal thing, for our clothing, for a place, for our home, or for a husband, or for a wife, that you think, well, there are many in the world, they have those things. They may, but they don't seek after them, they don't seek the Lord for those things. But the Lord would say there are more important things than that. Don't neglect that more important thing.

Remember when the Lord came into the house where there was Mary and Martha, and both of them were God's children, both of them loved the Lord and the Lord loved them. But one chose to be serving the Lord in much busyness, careful and troubled about many things, really temporal things, the food, what they should eat. But the other Mary was concerned with the bread of life, the word of the Lord. She sat at his feet and heard his word. And the Lord commended her, said that good part, that one thing needful, the one thing needful.

Sometimes you might think it is the Lord himself, where he is absolutely vital. But what he's taught there is that one thing needful is to sit at his feet and hear his word, have our ears open to the word of God, to be reading the word of God in our case, to be hearing it read, and in our subject here, to have time with the Lord, communion with the Lord, praying to the Lord, asking of the Lord things that this world and those in unregeneracy will never, ever ask for. And so there's a real encouragement here.

Yes, not to say that we don't pray for some things at all, but that the Lord not only knows our natural need and he opens his hand He satisfies the desire of every living thing. He gives his reign to the just and unjust, him that serveth him, him that serveth him not. But he says of his people, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. And it's a blessed thing if the Lord has opened our eyes to ask for something that we would not ask for by nature. that we have a petition for the Lord, something that maybe a year ago, two years ago or more, we would not have asked of the Lord, because we didn't feel our need of it. That is what the Lord says here. Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of.

You think of Esau. Esau was very upset when Jacob stole his blessing. He thought he would miss out on lands, on flocks, on natural wealth. Well, Jacob went away for 20 years and then came back. And when Jacob had attained from the Lord that peace and they met in peace, Jacob offered him all flocks and herds present.

But Esau says, I have enough, my brother. He didn't want them. But did he have enough? In his own eyes, he had got what he thought he missed out of by losing the first birthright blessing. But he got it. So having got it, he hadn't got more trouble with Jacob anymore. But he hadn't got Jacob's God. He hadn't got the blessings for his soul. but he is satisfied with what he actually had.

And it's the same thing if we are satisfied, if we're like the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3. And she felt that she had need of nothing. She said, I am rich, I have need of nothing. And it's spoken against her, thou knowest not that they are wretched and naked and poor. But when a poor sinner feels that they are a poor thing, a naked thing, that they have need of spiritual blessings, it is the Lord that makes His people feel their need and then to seek unto Him for those things. So what are some of those things? that your father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Or if we take some of the parallels, our Lord says, labour not for the bread that perisheth, but for that which endureth to eternal life. Evermore give us this bread. There is petitions after that spiritual bread. Do we pray for that? The Lord knows we need. Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He knows that for his people. Spiritually alive, they need the word of God. Thy words were found, Jeremiah said, and I did eat them. They were to the joy and rejoicing of my soul. Ask the Lord. The Lord knows our need of spiritual food. He knows our need of life. I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly. You will not come unto me that ye might have life.

What about grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he not to be sought for that? Hebrews, our great high priest, let us come unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Specifically, put us something that we ask the Lord for. We're not deserving of it. That is what grace is, undeserved favour. Asking for that. Asking for patience. You think of the word, you have need of patience, that after you've done the will of God, you may inherit the promises. And we need that patience, we need that endurance. The Lord knows before we ask.

When the Lord passed by, or was going to pass by the man that was blind, calling out by the way, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And he stops and he calls the man. And the man casts away his garment and he comes to the Lord. And the Lord asks him what he will that he should do unto him.

He might say, surely the Lord knew he was blind. He knew what he was going to ask for. He knew that he'd want to be able to see, but why did the Lord ask him? And make him ask, make him tell the Lord what he wanted the Lord to do. He was an example for us. The Lord knows our need. When we feel our need, we may know the Lord knows that need because he has put that felt need in our hearts. And that then is what we are to ask. the blind man, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And that is what he did. We are to notice when the Lord would do something for his people, he gives them prayer for it first. We read that before they call, I will answer. How far before they call? You go back to eternity. But many times we might have answers to prayer. And the answer has begun before we have begun praying.

We might pray that someone might help us or meet us at a certain point. And that person has been moved to come and journey to us maybe a day or two before we've ever felt our need or before we've ever prayed. But the Lord has known what our need will be And he's put in process the answer before we've ever got it. We might be looking for a job position and praying that a position might be made. And in a company a month before, there's been decisions made that a certain job is going to be made available and then advertised. And all of these things have happened a long way before we've prayed. But the Lord has known our need and put the answer in progress already. And we have to notice these things. The Lord already knows what we have real need of.

And so, in many of these things, it is the spiritual need of a living soul to be delivered from Satan's power, to be made willing to walk in his ways, to have an open ear, to hear his voice, to be given a quiet, a meek, a humble spirit, to be given faith, to be able to believe, to be given assurance, Your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. There's nothing that takes the Lord by surprise, and in the spiritual life of his people thou only hast wrought all thou works in us. It is God that worketh in you, and that includes prayer, May this then be a real help to us, those things that we really need, those things that are vital for our soul salvation, those things that we cannot do without those things that God himself has impressed upon us as so needful. The one in the temple, God be merciful to me a sinner. He felt so much the need of mercy.

Want to then look lastly at this encouragement then to ask. If we go to the next chapter, chapter 7 and verse 7. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. A verse I found so helpful in the ministry. Ask for a text. and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Seek in the word of God for the text. When you have it, I might look at it and say, what does that mean? Knock and it shall be opened unto you. And often that is a three-step thing. I may walk in before I bring the word to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth, and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

And then gives this beautiful example, what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If he then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

And in Luke it says, give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. You might think, how can we pray rightly without the Holy Spirit? But here we have the scripture saying, if you feel the need of the Holy Spirit, and we do, absolutely vital, the teacher, the comforter, ask the Lord for him. We think also of the passage in John 16, where the Lord then also encourages in the path of asking. He says to his disciples in verse 23.

In that day you shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name. Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. You see what he joins to it. Without the asking, how shall their joy be full? But he says, ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.

Prayer, asking, and an answer brings joy for the people of God. You think of Hannah, for this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition. that I asked of him is one aspect in prayer, above really all others, that is used to convey comfort, assurance, tokens for good to the people of God.

Because it's from a poor sinner on earth, he presents his petitions upward. I remember we have with Jacob, with the vision that he had with the stones for his pillow, and the ladder up into heaven, and the angels ascending and descending, our prayers ascending and answers descending, and there is the tokens for good, the real evidence. You think of our Lord, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, shall abide with you forever, tarry at Jerusalem, till ye be endued with power from above.

And when that Holy Spirit was given, what a token that the Lord's intercession, he prayed the Father and he was given. And what tokens for us, when we can say also, I prayed for this, this is what I needed, I've sought the Lord for it, and it may be something Very scriptural, you can say this, I know is a right prayer because it is in the word of God. And the Lord then has answered. We give him thanks, but also we have that beautiful token. So may we do that, coming boldly to the throne of grace, coming in prayer, and asking, and be mindful of what we ask. and watch for an answer. And when we have an answer, take courage, be really encouraged, ask for more, and be more and more emboldened than this to come before the Lord, not hesitant perhaps at the beginning, but more boldly to ask a Heavenly Father that He will give those things that we have need of, Your Father knoweth how comforting just those words have been to many of the people of God. Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.

And may we remember the Lord's warrant for giving and answering prayer. Every blessing comes to us through Jesus' precious blood. Everything is paid for The reason why it is given is given justly, righteously, because the Lord has suffered, bled and died for his people and can do with his own what he will. He is bound up with answers to prayer. How that prayer can be answered? Why the Lord answers? It is Christ that died, yea rather risen again, who maketh intercession for us in heaven. May the Lord bless this word and encourage you, encourage me, to pray, to ask. Amen.