sing these hymns of praise. Seems
like when we sing hymns about the blood, everyone just sings
a little bit better, a little bit louder. Amen? Let's open our Bibles today to
Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, reading the first 13 verses here. And it came to pass that as he
was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples
said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught
his disciples. And he said unto them, when you
pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily
bread. And forgive us our sins, for
we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And he said unto
them, which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him
at midnight, and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves,
for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing
to set before him. And he from within shall answer
and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children
are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because
he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise
and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. And if a son shall ask bread
of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or
if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or
if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him? I have some thoughts this morning
for us about prayer from this passage of Scripture. First,
and I have four divisions in the message, but first, the Lord
Jesus prayed. Notice that in verse one, we
read, and it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain
place. Now Luke tells us that he prayed
in a certain place, but he doesn't tell us where this place was. We know from the gospels of several
places where the Lord Jesus Christ prayed. Let's look at a few of
these in Luke's gospel. If you turn back to chapter three,
Luke chapter 3 and verse 21, we know that at the river Jordan,
when he came to be baptized of John the Baptist, he prayed.
Verse 21 says, now when all the people were baptized, it came
to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven
was open. So we know that one place where
the Lord Jesus Christ prayed was at the River Jordan when
he was baptized. A second place, if you look with
me in Luke chapter six, I'm sorry, Luke chapter nine, with three of his disciples on
what is called the Mount of Transfiguration. If you look in chapter nine,
verses 28 and 29, And it came to pass about an
eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James
and went up into a mountain to pray. So we know on the Mount
of Transfiguration, he prayed. And as he prayed, the fashion
of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and
glistening. We also know that he prayed the
night before his crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane. And it seems that that was his
most common place to pray. And I say that because when Judas,
the traitor, when he led the soldiers out to arrest the Lord
Jesus, he knew where to go. And he knew that because the
scripture says the Lord often resorted there with his disciples,
the Garden of Gethsemane. And that would just make us think
that every believer, every child of God should have your prayer
closet. I know it doesn't have to be
the same place every time, but what a blessing it is if you
have a place. Maybe a room in your house where
you especially kneel and seek the Lord's face in prayer. Maybe
it's in your car. Maybe it's out in your fishing
boat or wherever, but someplace. I don't believe there's anything
sacred about places. Our Lord told that woman in John
chapter four, who was a Samaritan and they were convinced that
you could only worship God in Samaria. Our Lord told them that
neither in Samaria nor in Jerusalem. But the hour was coming and now
is when the true worshipers of God will worship him in spirit
and in truth. And yes, the temple in Jerusalem,
our Lord did call it a house of prayer. And so no doubt the
Jewish people resorted there to pray. But we are blessed in
the sense we may pray everywhere. And I love that passage about
Hagar when she was put out of the house, out of Abraham's house,
and she prayed and she called God, thou God that seest me. Gave him that particular name,
thou God that seest me. And we know that the God of the
Bible is a God who not only sees us, but he hears us when we cry
unto him. And then we know that the Lord
Jesus Christ prayed all night. We find this in Luke chapter
six. We won't turn there. But he spent
the entire night in prayer before he chose his 12 apostles. With these examples, we see that
the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us. He teaches his people. He teaches believers. By His
example, the Spirit was poured upon Him without measure, yet
He prayed. Now follow me here. The Spirit
of God, the Holy Spirit, was poured out upon Him without measure,
and He remained upon Him, the Scripture says, yet He prayed. He was incarnate wisdom. needing not that any should teach
him, yet he prayed. He was infinite in his power
and boundless in his resources, yet he prayed. So he teaches
us to pray, not only by his example, but he also teaches us to pray
by his word, his written word, because we read in In Luke's
gospel, he gave a parable, Luke chapter 18. He spoke this parable
unto them that man ought always to pray and not to faint. So that's my first thought. The
Lord Jesus prayed. He was a man of prayer. He was
a man who sought his father's face in prayer. We want to be like him, don't
we? Yes. So my second thought is the Lord
Jesus taught by repetition. Notice in verses two through
four, and he said unto them, when you pray, say, our father,
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
Thou will be done as in heaven so in earth. Give us day by day
our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we also forgive
everyone that is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil. You know they say repetition
is the best teacher and will not go wrong in following his
example. He taught by repetition. And I say this because we know
in his Sermon on the Mount, which is not the same as here in Luke's
Gospel, but he taught this same prayer. There's a few words different,
that's true, but more or less he taught by repetition. And
the scripture tells us, for precept must be upon precept. Precept upon precept. In other
words, the word of God upon the word of God. Line upon line,
line upon line. Comparing one verse with other
verses. Comparing those things that are
spiritual with things that are spiritual. Here a little, and
there a little. One of the teachers told me recently,
well it's been back several months ago, She began her class, and one
of the students said, I already know that story. Well, I think the teacher said,
yes, and you've heard it once, and you'll hear it again, and
you'll hear it again, and you'll hear it again, and you'll hear
it again. We've all heard, and I don't
especially like to call these Bible stories, because it's Bible
history, Bible histories that we're looking at. But yes, it's
line upon line. And they start off, we started
off, some of us, thank God if you're one who started off, your
parents took you to Sunday school or church when you were just
a toddler and you heard first about Zacchaeus and you got a
little older and changed classes, you heard about Zacchaeus again.
You heard about the Lord feeding 5,000 with a few loaves of bread
and fish, and you heard it again, and again, and again, line upon
line, precept upon precept. Why? Because our minds, we don't
hold things in them like we should. We can remember, and I speak,
no, I'm not gonna say that. Yeah, I am. You may have heard a dirty joke
when you were a teenager, and you still remember it. You're
in your 50s, 70s, 80. It's still there, isn't it? And
yet, we can hear a message, the word of God, and a week later,
it's gone. It's gone. line upon line, precept
upon precept. The Lord Jesus Christ, he taught
by repetition and we can't go wrong following his example. Well, what do we learn here about
prayer from his model prayer? Well, some people see prayer
as a way to change God's will a way to change God's purpose. And then there are others who
see prayer as asking for anything and everything that we might
desire. That's the way they look at prayer.
Some believe prayer is going to change God's purpose, God's
will. And some believe, well, if I
want a new car, I just have to ask for a new car or a new house
or a new job or whatever. We're going to ask for things
that we desire and God has somehow bound himself to answer our request. Now both of those things are
errors. Both of them are errors. We know
that the God who hears and answers prayer doesn't change. He doesn't
change. And why, listen, why would anyone
pray to a God who does change? He might change in one direction
today and change in another direction tomorrow. No, the God of the
Bible is a God who is immutable. He doesn't change and his purpose
doesn't change. The scriptures tell us that he
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. So we
know that's not true. We don't pray to change God.
Who would we be? Who would that make us if we
know more than God? We think we know more than God,
that we've got to direct him and tell him what's best and
what's right and what he ought to do. That's not the God of the Bible.
No. God is infinite in wisdom, and
we're going to instruct Him? We're going to teach Him? We're
going to show Him a better way? No. And there's no promise in the
scriptures that tell us that no matter what we ask for, that
He's going to grant that request. You know, in the book of Job,
and men tell us that Job is the oldest written book in our Bibles. But that Old Testament saint,
he knew a lot of truth, didn't he? He knew Christ. And one thing
he tells us about God, he is of one mind, and who can change
it? He's of one mind. He has one
purpose, and it's an infinite purpose, and he works all things
together for good to those who love him, to those who are the
called according to his purpose. What an encouragement do we have
to prayer in 1 John 5, verses 14 and 15. Let me read you these two verses.
I know you're familiar with them, 1 John 4, 14 and 15. But this
is the truth. This is the word of God about
prayer. And this is the confidence that
we have in him. That if we ask anything according
to his will, he heareth us. If you ask something that's not
in accordance with his will, we have no assurance that he
hears us in the sense that he's going to grant that request.
I've heard people say, well, you know, if two or three agree,
I get my friend and let's agree on this. You've met people like that and
heard people speak like that. No, John said we have this confidence
that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth
us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that
we desired of Him. So that's another reason we study
the Word of God, to find out the will of God. What is the
will of God for my life? And when you have the will of
God, which is revealed to us in the word of God, then you
take this word of God and you pray it to God. Like Jacob prayed,
Lord, thou saidest. He took what God had told him
and said, now, Lord, this is what you said. Now do it. Yes. That's the confidence we
have. Well, let me show you something
we can learn from this model prayer here. We learn first from this model
prayer that prayer is meant to honor. It's meant to worship
and it's meant to be submissive to God's will. Our Father which
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We come into his presence
as his children, reconciled to him through his son and the shedding
of his blood. He's our father by adoption. Now we come in the name of Jesus
Christ, who is God's son, not by adoption, but who is one with
the father. But all of us, we come into his
presence in the name of Jesus Christ as his children by adoption. And we're jealous because he
is our father. We are jealous for his name.
Now, when you read the name of God, that's speaking about the
being of God. Hallowed be thy name. We're jealous
for the God that we worship, the God of the Bible. He's a
God to be worshiped. He's a God to be adored. He's
not some wannabe God. No. We're jealous for His glory. He said, thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain. We hear people and It's a sad commentary that we
live in a time and among a people, and I trust it's none of us,
that most people, when something happens, the first thing out
of their mouth is, my God. What is that? That is taking
God's name in vain for the most part. God's children, we reverence
Him. We reverence our physical fathers, don't we? We honor our
father and our mothers. How much more our spiritual father? How much more do we reverence
him? That's the reason, well don't,
I'm not going there. Contemporary worship. I realize that can mean different
things to different people. But I guess I'm just of the old
school. I believe that worship should
be done in a reverent manner. I do. I believe the hymns we
sing, the prayers, our demeanor as we come together, everything
about our service should testify to who the God is that we worship. He's to be honored and glorified. When we ask, so when we come
into his presence and we say, our father, and what a privilege
that is just to be able to come into his presence. And we know
we do so through, through his son, through the way he is a
way that he's opened up into the very holy of holies. In the
Old Testament, those priests, they could go into the Holy of
Holies in the tabernacle one day out of the year, and yet
we can go there 365 days a year. We've been made priests unto
God too, yes. And we have one high priest,
great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he takes our prayers,
And with his incense, that is his prayers, he causes our prayers
to be heard by the Father. Yes. Our Father, which art in
heaven, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now in praying
that petition, we acknowledge God's sovereignty. We acknowledge
that he is sovereign in all things. The psalmist said, thy throne
is in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Now we ask,
and this is important here, we ask that his will be done on
earth as, in the same manner as his will is done in heaven. Now how is his will done in heaven. Well, who is in heaven? Well,
the holy angels are there. And the revelation we have in
Revelation chapter four, they're all around the throne and around
the elders. There's myriads of angels and
they do his will. How is his will done in heaven? Well, Thomas Watson, a Puritan,
said, in these eight ways. First of all, his angels do his
will regularly. It's not just now and then. No,
it's always, regularly, entirely. They don't have to do something.
They do it entirely, sincerely, willingly, fervently. to the best of their ability,
swiftly, constantly. Think of the example of Jonah. Now, God willed that Jonah take
the gospel to Nineveh. That's God's purpose. That's
God's will. And he's going to do it. He's
going to go to Nineveh and preach the gospel. That's God's will. But did Jonah do God's will here
on earth as God's will is done in heaven? Of course not. What did Jonah do? We know he
first of all went the opposite direction. He got on a ship not
going towards Nineveh, but going towards Tarshish in the opposite
direction. And what does God do? Does God
say, well, I better give up? Looks like my purpose is not
going to be accomplished, not going to work anyway. Oh, no. God willed he go to Nineveh.
God willed that he preach the gospel in Nineveh. He's going
to go to Nineveh. God prepares a fish, a great
fish, to swallow him up and then deposit him on solid ground And
Nineveh, Jonah rather, make his way towards Nineveh and began
to preach. I tell you what, he didn't have
much gospel to preach, did he? 40 days and Nineveh shall be
destroyed. I'm glad I don't have to preach
that. I don't have to stand up here before you and say, 40 days
and you will be destroyed. No, I want to preach some good
news, don't you? Isn't that what we want to hear? The gospel's good news. Jonah
was preaching 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. And yet God
granted them repentance. Yes. But the point I'm making
is God's will was not done in that case as it is in heaven. His will was done. God's will
cannot be undone, cannot be not done. He wouldn't be God. But we pray and ask, and we begin
with ourselves, let me, let me, Father, do thy will as thy will
is done in heaven. And we learn Another important
thing about prayer, and that is submission from our Lord's
praying, when he said later, oh my father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And we always, we always must
pray in submission to his will. Now we learn from this model
prayer that prayer is suitable for fallen men, fallen men alone. You know, many people call this
the Lord's Prayer. And we've all heard it sung,
I'm sure, many times at weddings, the Lord's Prayer is sung. Beautiful,
beautiful, I love to hear it. But it's not the Lord's Prayer.
It's a model prayer. It's a model prayer. This prayer is suitable for fallen
men alone. It wasn't suitable. This prayer
was not suitable for the Lord Jesus Christ because he is not
a fallen, he was not a fallen son of Adam. He was not in Adam's
loins when Adam represented mankind. No, we know that he is the seed
of the woman. He never needed to pray, forgive
me my sins, for he had no sins. The Lord Jesus Christ is sinless. He who do no sin, did no sin. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is
sinless and never could have prayed, forgive me my sins. He
never had any of his own to ask for forgiveness. Now think about
this, put on your thanking cap just a moment. When our Lord
was on the tree and all the sins, all the sins of all his elect
people from all ages, were made to meet upon him, were laid upon
him, even then he could not pray, forgive me my sins. Why? Because there would have
been no basis for forgiveness. There can be no forgiveness without
an atonement, without that propitiation that he was making at that particular
time. God's justice had to be satisfied
before any sin could ever be forgiven. He couldn't pray, forgive me
my sins, even when he was weighted down with all the sins of his
people. Because without a sacrifice,
without the blood offering that God's justice required, there
is no forgiveness of sin. No. This is not the Lord's prayer,
but it is a model prayer. which is suitable for fallen
men and women. Three things. We are in a tin
of clay. That's where we live. We live
in this tin, our body, which is made out of clay, made out
of dust. And we know when the soul departs,
the body's going to start returning back to the dust. But while we're
here, while we're living in this tin, we need bread. We need bread. Give us this day our daily bread. And he didn't say, give us this
day our yearly bread, our life bread, no. Give us this day our
daily bread. He's promised, as thy days, so
shall thy strength be. That's a precious promise, isn't
it? When you think you can't go any further, when you think
you've reached the end of the road, Remember this, God's promise
is to his children, as our days shall demand, so shall thy strength
be. Yes, this is a prayer that's
suitable to fallen individuals. We need bread and we need it
for today. We don't need to worry about
tomorrow until tomorrow comes. The Lord's teaching me, and I
trust all of us, don't borrow from tomorrow's troubles. Please help us to learn that,
Lord. Let us not borrow from tomorrow's
troubles. When that day comes, when tomorrow
comes and those troubles come, He'll give us the grace at that
time. Anticipate and look for trouble. Let's wait when it comes. God's
not going to change. He's still here. He's still faithful. This is suitable for fallen men
because we've sinned and need pardon. Forgive us our sin. And this prayer is suitable for
fallen men because we all still carry about with us that fallen
nature, that old nature. And not only that, but we have
an enemy who goeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he
may devour. Lead us not into temptation and
deliver us from the evil one, from evil. This prayer is well suited to
those who have been made new creatures in Christ Jesus. Those
of us who are dead in trespasses and sins will only pray this
petition when we've been made alive. Those who are still dead
in trespasses and sins The only part of those petitions they
will pray, a lost person will pray, is give us this day our
daily bread. And then the question is, are
they satisfied? Are they satisfied with their
daily bread or are they still asking for more? Are they satisfied
with food and clothes and shelter? I don't need to tell you this,
but we are so blessed in this country. We are so blessed. You see, some of the people in
the world and starvation and famine and all those things,
how the Lord has blessed us. I know you know that. I know you're thankful, and I'm
thankful that we know it. Lord, help us to be more thankful.
The third thing, and I'll be quick, but the Lord Jesus assures
us that our petitions will be granted. He assures us by giving
these two illustrations. First of all, of an ungenerous
friend. And yes, this man was his friend. He was his friend. And he went
to him at night and knocked on the door and said, listen, buddy,
I've had somebody come up unexpectedly and I need to set some food before
them and I don't have any. Would you get up and give me
three loaves of bread? And he said, no, no, can't do
that. I'm already in bed. Children
already gone to sleep. No, no. But he did. He did. Why? Because he knocked and he knocked
and he knocked. Now, the illustration is, if
an ungenerous friend would do that, How much more your God
and Father, who is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,
how much more will he give us those things that we have need
of? And then, of course, the example
of the father. He has a son who asked him for
bread. and he gives him a stone, he
asks for a fish, and he gives him a serpent or an egg and gives
him a scorpion. Would our Heavenly Father be
like that? Would he? Of course not. Of course not. Then my last,
those two examples are to strengthen our faith. to strengthen our
faith, to pray, to ask, as he says there, ask. Everyone that
asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that
knocketh it shall be opened. And then those two illustrations
to show how much more willing is God to answer the prayers
of his children. And then we have, in God's word,
in the Lord's word, we have examples of prayer being answered I have
two examples, but I'm gonna skip over one. Let me show you one
that's one of my favorites. Turn with me to 2 Kings. 2 Kings, this is one of my favorites,
examples of how the Lord hears and answers prayer. 2 Kings chapter
19. Judah has a good king on the
throne. His name is Hezekiah. And the
king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He has Jerusalem besieged. And he sent a letter to King
Hezekiah, and he demanded unconditional surrender. And what does Hezekiah
do? Well, let's read it in verse
14. And Hezekiah received the letter
of the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went
up into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.
Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel,
which dwelleth between the cherubims, thou art the God even thou alone. Of all the kingdoms of the earth
thou hast made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down thine ear and
hear. Open, Lord, thine eyes and see
and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach
the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of
Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. and have cast
their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work
of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed
them. Now therefore, O Lord our God,
and notice he doesn't command, I beseech thee, save thou us
out of his hand. And why? that all the kingdoms
of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. He's beseeching the Lord to do
this, that he, that is God, might be glorified. And then, you know,
if you look down to verse 35, and Osinakorev, he was a proud,
haughty, king like most men who are lifted up to those places
of authority. Oh boy, that's a dangerous place
for any man. He was proud, he was haughty,
but he didn't know the God of Israel. He didn't know the God
of Judah. He didn't know Hezekiah's God. And it came to pass that night
that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of
the Assyrians an hundred four score and 5,000, 185,000. What
size army did this man have? Well, over 200,000, it would
seem to me. And God, by his angel, killed 184,000 that night. And Sennacherib packed up his
bags, went home. And he was destroyed there. I
think it was his own sons killed him. What an awful end to that
proud, haughty man. But what a demonstration of God
hearing and answering prayer. May the Lord bless his word to
all of us here this morning.