The occasion of the writing of
that hymn was a man had lost his family. A boat they were on sunk and he
lost everybody. And when he was going back to
that place on another boat and saw where his family had drowned,
He penned the words to that song, it is well with my soul. Turn back to John chapter 13. Let me read this passage again. I've
entitled this message, Asking in His Name. Verse 13. 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. I fear that for many, the passage
of scripture that I just read is a springboard into breaking
the third commandment, taking his name in vain. using this
as a religious formula to get what I want by asking in his
name. I'm asking in his name, therefore
I will get it. And that is impious, it's sacrilegious,
it's irreverent, it's blasphemous, and that's not an overstatement.
And it's missing what he says in the first place. And this
is what I want us to consider. What is the Lord saying when
he says, if you ask anything in my name, I will do. The promise is not whatever you
ask for in my name, I will do. That's not what he says. He says,
if you ask anything in my name, I will He doesn't say, if you ask anything
in my name, I'll give you what you ask for. He says, if you
ask anything in my name, I will do. You see, when I ask for something
in his name, what I'm asking for is for him to do something. Salvation, listen to this very
carefully. Salvation is not what you do
for God, it's what He does for you. And when you ask in His
name, you are really asking the same thing the thief asked from
the cross. Lord, remember me. You're asking him to do. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. You see, he knew who he was.
He's the Lord. He knew he wouldn't stay dead
because of who he was. He's going to be raised from
the dead and come back as a mighty reigning king. Do this. Remember me. Have you ever prayed
that prayer? Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him. Lord, may I be found in Him. Lord, remember me. Now, the Lord
says, whatsoever You shall ask in my name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything
in my name, I will do it. Asking in his name is meaningless
without an understanding of and a knowing of what his name means. Now, this is a promise. If you
put yourself there, if you do this, if you ask anything in
my name, I will do. First, what is meant by his name? Psalm 910 says, they that know
thy name will put their trust Indeed, now four things about
his name. We come only in his name, we
call on his name, we believe on his name, and we ask in his
name. So the big question is, is what
is meant by his name? This is all meaningless unless
we have some understanding of his name. Now his name is first
mentioned in Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. God, the Hebrew Elohim. And it's always in the plural. The one God in three distinct
persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Let us make man in our own image. Elohim is his name. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. We would never know this apart
from scripture, We couldn't guess this, we couldn't figure it out.
We really can't understand it right now, we just believe it.
God is one God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy
God is one God. And he's in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Here's a scripture that I think
is helpful. John 1.1, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God as a distinct person. And the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. This is the one whose name we
know, Elohim, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. And when we ask in his name,
we're asking in the name of the Son, the second person of the
Trinity. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Exodus chapter three? Whatsoever you ask in my name. That's a promise to anybody who
asks in his name. Whatsoever you ask in my name,
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Now look at verse 13. Exodus
chapter three, verse 13. And Moses said unto God, behold,
When I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you. And they
shall say to me, what's his name? What shall I say unto them? And
God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me. unto you, what a glorious name. I am that I am. Now, the setting is when the
Lord appeared to Moses in the bush that burned and could not
be consumed. Verse one, now Moses kept the
flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he
led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the
mountain of God, even to Orem. Now he'd been doing this for
40 years. Where were you in 1985? Some of you weren't even born.
He'd been doing this for 40 years. A lot of water passed under the
bridge during those 40 years, and he was a shepherd. He went
from being somebody in Egypt to a nobody in the desert. Verse two, and the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, and out of the midst
of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with
fire, and the bush was not consumed. Now, I don't know whether he
looked at it, and it was on fire, and he didn't think anything
about it, because maybe lightning had hit it, and maybe a couple
hours later, he looks, it's still burning. Maybe even the next
day, and it's still burning. This bush could not be consumed. Verse three, and Moses said,
I'll turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is
not burned. I can't give a scientific reason
for it, it just keeps burning. The amazing thing about this
bush is it didn't need the energy of the word to continue the flame. And it could not be consumed.
Now this speaks of the deity and the perfect humanity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. This bush didn't need the wood
to continue to burn. Jesus Christ is independent God. What that means is, is he has
no needs. He doesn't need you to do anything
before he can act for you. Oh, what a blessing that is.
He is independent God. He has no needs. Let me remind you, he doesn't
need you. You understand that? He doesn't need you. You need
him. And this bush could not be consumed. That's the perfect
humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. It could not be consumed. God spoke to Moses from this
bush. Verse four, and when the Lord
saw that he turned aside to see, God called him out of the midst
of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither,
but put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place wherein
thou standest is holy ground. Now this is where he makes himself
known as I am that I am. And what a name. Not I was. Not I want to be, not I could
be, not I should be, not I will be. I am that I am. Implied in the name is, I save in the manner which I
save. Who God is, is only known in
the manner in which He saves. This is where Jehovah comes from,
the name Jehovah in the scriptures, the self-existent One. I save
in the manner which I save. And the Lord said in John chapter
8 verse 24, if you believe not that I am, You shall die in your
sins. And they knew exactly what he
was talking about. If you believe not that I am the one who spoke
to Moses in the bush, I am that I am. Jehovah, the self-existent
one. In the Old Testament scriptures,
there are Eight predicates that go with Jehovah that gives us
some idea of what his name means. I am Jehovah that heals thee. Jehovah our righteousness. Do you know him in that way?
Jehovah our righteousness. Jehovah is my shepherd. Jehovah
our banner. I am Jehovah that provides. I
am Jehovah that is present. I am Jehovah that sanctifies
thee. I am Jehovah thy peace. He's all that to those who ask
in his name. Turn with me to Exodus 33 for
a moment while you're in Exodus. This is giving us some idea of
whose name it is we ask. The great I am that I am. Now, Moses makes this request
in Exodus 33, and he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And the Lord answers Moses. And he said, I'll make all my
goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Now here, when he
says, show me your glory, He gives him three things, his goodness,
his name, and his sovereign prerogative in showing mercy. God's good all the time. No matter what takes place, God
is good. Amen. All the time. And then he says, I'll proclaim
my name. This is the name that we ask in. Look in verse five of chapter
34. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the
Lord, the Lord God. merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
and to the third and fourth generation, and Moses made haste and bowed
his head toward the earth and worshiped. And if you and I ever
find out who his name is, we're gonna make haste. We're gonna
bow our heads to the earth and we're gonna worship him for who
he is. Now did you notice he forgives
sin and will by no means clear it. How can that be? How can He forgive sin? And yet
by no means, under no circumstances will He ever clear somebody that's
guilty. This is the gospel. He's made
a way to be utterly just, absolutely just, and yet clear somebody
unjust like me or you. And the way he does it is by
making it to where absolutely just. That's what Christ did
on Calvary's tree. He put away the sins of his people,
and now they stand before God as never sinned in Christ. And God will by no means clear
the guilty, These are cleared because they're not guilty. Christ
made them that way. I find that so attractive. Oh,
the name of the Lord. What a high and holy name we
pray in. I think of Isaiah 9, 6, his name
should be called Wonderful. This is the name. His name should
be called Wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God. The Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. This is the name we ask Him. He who is mighty God, the Everlasting
Father. Somebody says, how can the son
be the everlasting father? Well, I know this. He said, he
that has seen me has seen the father. And all you and I will
ever see of the father is the son. He's the everlasting father. He's the Prince of Peace. The
government shall be upon his shoulders. This is the name in
which we call. I'd like you to turn to this,
Matthew 1. Matthew 1, first chapter of the New Testament,
verse 21. And she, speaking of Mary, she, because God the Holy Spirit
conceived in her, she was a virgin. Somebody says, do you really
believe in the virgin birth? Absolutely. If he wasn't born
of a virgin, he'd have the same sinful nature me and you have.
He couldn't save anybody. Born of a virgin, conceived of
God the Holy Spirit, and she shall bring forth a son, and
thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. What a name, Jesus, Savior. And here's the promise. He shall,
not He'll make available, not He'll offer. He shall save His
people, His elect, those the Father gave Him before time began. He shall save His people from
their sins. And that's exactly what I need
to be saved from, my sins. I love that hymn that Rebecca
sang, my sins, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my
sins not in part, but the whole have been nailed to the cross
and I bear them no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
Oh, my soul, he shall save his people from their sins. This
is the name we ask in, his name. I love what Paul says of his
name in Philippians chapter two, and he became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus, every knee is going to bow. Do you know
you're going to bow to the name of Jesus Christ? You're gonna
bow. Willingly or unwillingly, you're
gonna bow. Every knee is gonna bow at the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and every tongue is gonna confess
that he is Lord. To the glory of God the Father. What a name. Turn with me to
Acts chapter four. Acts chapter four. Verse nine. This is Peter speaking. Let's start in verse five. Acts
chapter four, verse five. And it came to pass on the morrow
that their rulers, and elders, and stribes, and Annas the high
priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as
were of the kindred of the high priest were gathered together
at Jerusalem. And when they had set them, Peter and John, in
their midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have you
done this? Now, you'll remember from Acts
chapter three that Peter said to the man that was crippled,
in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And he rose
up. The scripture says he was leaping,
praising God in the temple. He'd been crippled all his life.
And all of a sudden, he's healed. And it caused a stir, and they
ended up arresting these fellas for doing this. Now look in verse
And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what
power or by what name have you done this? Then Peter, filled
with the Holy Ghost, saith unto them, Ye rulers of the people,
and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed
done unto the impotent man, by what means he is made whole,
Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand
here before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at nought of you builders, which has become the head of the corner,
neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved." Now he could have said, we did this in the name of God
and they would have said, amen, let's go to lunch together. That's not what they said. by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And I love the way he says in
his name, we must be saved. Now listen to this statement
real carefully. If Jesus Christ represents you, if Jesus Christ
lived for you, if Jesus Christ died for you, if Jesus Christ
was raised from the dead for you, you must be saved. be saved. Your salvation is a divine necessity
if he represented you. That's how much he is salvation.
If he represents you, you must be saved. God's justice demands
your salvation. God purposed your salvation.
You must be saved. Now that's the name we're speaking
of. If you ask anything in my name, that will I do. that the Father may be glorified
in the Son. Now turn to Revelation 19. Revelation 19. Verse 11. John says, and I saw heaven opened.
Revelation 19, verse 11. And I saw heaven open, and behold,
a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head
were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in its blood. And his name is called the Word
of God. That's his name, the Word of
God. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that
with it he shall smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God. That's talking about what took
place on the cross. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh
a name written, King of Kings. and Lord of Lords. What a name. There is some understanding of
that when I ask in His name. If you ask anything in my name,
That will I do. That will I do. Oh, my salvation
is completely dependent upon what he does. And I understand
that. And I'm asking in his name, Lord,
I'm asking in the name of your son. We come to the father in his
name, we call on his name, we believe on his name, we ask in
his name. And here's the great end of that from our text. We
do this that the father may be glorified in the son. And to fail to ask in his name
is to fail to glorify the father in the son. You see what a crime
it is to not ask in his name? It's a crime against heaven. to be so presumptuous as to come
into a holy God's presence apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, asking
only in His name. He promises, whatsoever you ask
in my name, I'll do, that the Father may be glorified in the
Son. If you ask anything in my name,
I will do it. Now in closing, We come by His
name, we call on His name, we believe on His name, and we ask
in His name. When we come to the Father by
Him, we come only in His name. Now what does that mean? I'm aware of the fact that the
only reason the Father could accept me and receive me is because
of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I come only in His name. I come only in His righteousness.
I come only in His merits. When I come into the Father's
presence, I don't come pleading my own name or my own words or
my own intentions or anything I intend to do, anything I've
done or haven't done. I come only in the name. the
righteousness and the merits of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
I dare not come any other way. I come only in His name. We call on His name. Romans 10, 13, this is found
so often in the Bible, beginning in Genesis 12, but whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever. Are you in that group? Are you
whosoever? I'm not asking you if you believe.
I'm not asking you if you're elect. I'm not asking you if
you know that Jesus Christ died for your sins. I'm not asking
you if you've been born again. I'm asking you this. Are you
whosoever? Yep. I'm in that demographic. Whosoever. Here's an easy word. Shall call. You call out right now. Not whosoever shall work, whosoever
shall be good, whosoever shall have works that can commit. No,
whosoever shall call, Lord, save me. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord. Here's the important word in
that statement. Remember, the name of the Lord
is who he is. All of his attributes are included in his name. I'm
calling on him to save me as an act of his will. Lord, save
me by your will. Save me by your grace. Save me
by your justice. Save me by your mercy. Save me
by your power. Save me by your wisdom. You're
calling upon all the attributes of God to save you. Remember,
who he is is seen in how he saves. I save in the manner which I
save. Lord, save me in the manner which
you save. We want to be saved on His terms, and that's the
way we come. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall. There's a sure word. Shall, not
might be. Shall be saved. Now listen to me. If you're not
saved, it's because you're refusing to call upon the name of the
Lord. If you whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. And I'm talking about the salvation
that we read of in Matthew 121. He shall save his people from
their sins. You'll be saved from the penalty of sin. You'll be
saved from the power of sin. You'll be saved from the presence
of sin. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. We believe on his name. believe on his name. John 1.12
says, but as many as received him, to them gave he the power
to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his
name. Now, what to mean to believe
on his name? Well, I'm relying on this, that
all of God's salvation is given to me freely for his name's sake. I am relying on his name. God's salvation is freely given
for this one singular reason, his namesake. Not for your sake. for his name's sake. Ephesians
chapter four, verse 32 says, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. If you're forgiven, here's the
one reason. God did it for Christ's sake.
No other reason is needed. I don't want any other reason.
I believe on his name. I'm relying on his name as my
only ground of acceptance before God. My only reason to be saved
is for his name's sake. I blotted out thy transgression
for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Nevertheless,
he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his
mighty power known, and we ask in his name. When I'm asking his name, I'm
asking for him to do something. I'm not saying, give me this.
I'm saying, save me for your namesake. Blot out my sins for
your namesake. Create in me a clean heart for
your namesake. We understand that the only way
we can be heard is as he presents what we're asking for. When I
pray to the Lord, here's my only hope that the Lord will hear
it, is that the Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior, takes that prayer
and presents it before the Father. And it comes before the Father
as a sweet smelling savor. And I am accepted in the beloved. I don't come in my own name.
I don't ask in my own name, but he is. Here's his promise. Whatsoever you ask in my name,
that I will do. That's what I'm relying on, what
he does. Salvation is not what you do for God. It's what He
does for you. I'm relying on His name as all
that's needed to make me accepted before the Father. The Lord said
in John chapter four, verse 12, to that woman at the well, if
you knew the gift of God, who is the gift of God? Jesus
Christ. If you knew me, is what he was
saying. If you knew the gift of God, and who it was that saith
to thee, give me to drink. If you knew the gift of God,
who I am, here's what you'd do. You'd ask. And he would give you living
water. water. If you knew, if you know
his name, here's what you're going to do. You're going to
ask in his name and you're going to understand what that means.
And here's what will happen. He will do. Thank God for that promise. Let's pray together.