There's just absolutely no gospel
that's saving whatsoever, apart from covenant grace, apart from
an established covenant that God made before the world began,
choosing a people, electing them by His own sovereign mercy and
grace. Outside of that, there's no gospel.
There just isn't. What we're just saying is our
hope. David's last words, though it be not so with my house, yet
God has made with me an everlasting covenant. God chose a people
before the foundations of the world, placed them in Christ,
loved them in Christ, David said, this is all my salvation. This
covenant, he went on to say, is ordered in, is this what we
just sang? It's ordered in all things, and
it's sure. It's a sure covenant. The Lord
Jesus Christ has done everything necessary to fulfill the requirements
of that covenant. And that's what David said. This
covenant that God established, God ordered it, and He made it
sure. And what was David's next words?
This is all my salvation. This is all my desire. This is
my only hope. I've got no place else to go.
What a glorious God we worship. Any other gospel that denies
God's sovereign grace in election and predestination is a gospel
that depends upon man to do something to save himself. And it's just
not the truth. I love that hymn. I can't sing
that hymn without thinking about David's last words. May God give us the grace to
trust Him for our salvation. We're going to continue or finish
actually our study in 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Paul, in these final words, gives
to the church some words of encouragement. Words to live by. Pray they will
be such for us this morning. Let's pray together. Ask the Lord to speak to our hearts. Oh God of mercy, God of grace,
we come before your throne thanking you that we have an advocate,
one in whom we have not only our acceptance, but one in whom
we have perfect righteousness, one in whom thou art pleased
to show forth your love towards all your children. We ask, Father, that you would
send your Holy Spirit in power to cause our hearts to be turned
to Christ. That we would find him to be
that one who ordered the covenant of grace and made it sure through
the sacrifice of himself, that precious blood of the Lamb of
God, which taketh away our sins." Thank you, Lord, for the promise
of your presence where two or three are gathered together in
thy name. We ask, Lord, that we would know that and experience
your tender mercies, your illuminating grace we ask it in Christ's name we finished last Sunday in verse
6 and I want us to look at the
last verses of this wonderful epistle to the church at Corinth
to the church at Apopka we have brethren from wheelersburg ohio
to the church at wheelersburg here with us this morning wherever God's people meet God
is pleased to make his word relevant to them and I pray that he'll
do that for us again this morning Paul said in verse 7 now I pray
to God Let's just stop right there a moment. Prayer. Prayer truly is to the believer's
soul what breathing is to the body. And it is necessary. That having been said, prayer
is a work of grace. Prayer's not something you do.
Prayer's not something you disciplined yourself to. Not true prayer. True prayer is a work of grace
that God puts in the heart. God has to set the heart to pray
in order for us to pray properly. Otherwise we're just talking
to ourselves. If God's pleased to to cause
us when we when we say Lord turn thy face upon us Lord cause us
to come but give us faith we're asking the Lord to enable us
to pray to enable us to pray turn with me in your Bibles to
Philippians chapter 3 you're familiar with this verse Verse 3, for we are the circumcision,
this is the circumcision of the spirit, the circumcision of the
heart, this is the work of grace that God does when he gives to
his people a new heart, when he causes them to believe. this
is what we're this is this is this is what brings about that
spirit of prayer that God would do a work of grace in our hearts
causing us to be circumcised to be set apart to be well he
goes on to tell us what that circumcision is look at that
look what he says which worship God in the spirit Lord if we're
going to worship you if we're going to pray right you're gonna
have to move our hearts by the power of your spirit when Ezekiel
was brought to the valley of dry bones he said the hand of
the Lord was upon me and the spirit of God spoke to me and
sat me down You see, this matter of prayer, this matter of being
still and knowing that God is God and worshipping Him is a
work of the Spirit of God. It's not a personal discipline that somehow we sort
of achieve this. No, this is God's work, so that
when we pray, He gets all the glory for it. The only offering
that the Lord is pleased with is that which He gives us. He's
got to cause us to pray in order for our prayers to be pleasing
to Him. James said, the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The Lord has to make us
righteous. He's got to move us by His Spirit. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit. Now he's going to define what
that means. And rejoice in Christ Jesus. All of our confidence,
all of our joy, all of our hope, all of our dependence is in the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not what Christ
did plus what I do. God's not, no, no, look at the
next phrase, and we have no confidence whatsoever in our flesh. Our
ability to pray, our ability to seek God, God, you're gonna
have to set my heart to pray if I'm gonna pray. You're gonna
have to do it. And he does. He does that work
of grace in the hearts of his children. Sometimes through difficulties,
He always teaches us to pray. The disciples asked the Lord,
Lord teach us to pray. Teach us. If we're going to pray
right, you're going to have to teach us. Turn with me to Daniel
chapter 10. Daniel was in that 70-year captivity
in Babylon and longed by the Spirit of God to be restored
to the promised land, to be brought back to that place where the
worship of God would be done in the temple of God and the
sacrifices of God would be made. The scripture says in Daniel
chapter 10 verse 1, and in the third year of Cyrus, king of
Persia, a thing was revealed unto Daniel. Who have believed our report? To whom is the hand of the Lord
revealed? The truth of the gospel comes
only by divine revelation. If the Spirit of God doesn't
open the eyes of our understanding, If He doesn't teach us, if He
doesn't give us the grace to believe, we won't believe. If
He doesn't cause us to pray, oh, we may get caught up in some
sort of vain repetition where we pretend to be praying, but
true prayer is a work of the Spirit of God. It's a work of
grace in the heart. So when we say, Lord, turn us,
O God, cause Thy face to shine upon us, we're asking the Lord
to teach us to pray we're asking the Lord to reveal himself to
us set our hearts to prayer so Daniel has this revelation and whose name was Belshazzar that
was his name that given to him in Babylon and the thing was
true but the time appointed was long and he understood the thing
and he had understanding of the vision and in those days I Daniel
was mourning three full weeks I ate no pleasant bread neither
came flesh nor wine my mouth neither did I anoint myself at
all till three whole weeks were fulfilled So here's Daniel in
prayer for three weeks. Now we won't get into the prophecy
or the content of the prayer, but I want you to move over with
me to verse 12. Well, let's go to verse 10. And behold, a hand touched me,
which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands, and
he said to me now here it is if we're gonna be set upon our
knees and upon the palms of our hands if we're gonna be if we're
gonna have anything revealed to us the hand of God's gonna
have to do it see we we can't take credit for anything can
we there's a wonderful article in your bulletin this morning
that brother Henry Mahan wrote on pride I encourage you to read
it we just don't have anything to be proud of The point that I'm making here
is that self-righteous religious people take pride in their prayer
life. Believers know that whatever
true prayer comes from the heart is what God put in the heart.
And he gets all the glory for it. We really have nothing to
be proud of, do we? Nothing. So the hand of God was upon Daniel
In verse 11, and he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved. Daniel, why is this? Why has
the hand of God been placed upon you, Daniel? Because you're a
man whom God has placed his love on. That doesn't, you know, this
idea that God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, God
wants everybody to be saved, it's a lie right out of the pit
of hell. it denies Christ is glory it
it leaves salvation into your hand and it's just it it it's
a it's a message of great great pride it's what it is self-righteousness
Daniel you're but Jacob I loved Esau I hate it I don't know how
to make that any more clear God doesn't love everybody He loves
righteousness. He hates iniquity. He loves those
whom He placed in Christ before the foundation of the world.
That's who His love is for. Understand the words that I speak
unto thee, and stand upright. And unto thee I am now sent.
And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. Here's a spirit of prayer, isn't
it? Daniel standing before God, trembling. Then said he unto me, you know,
there's just no reason to fear a God who's trying to save everybody.
There's no reason to fear that God. There's no reason to fear
a God that wants everybody to be saved and is doing his darndest
to make sure that it happens and just waiting for man to let
him have his way. Now that's the message that you
hear in religion today. And the truth is that all the
rhetoric and all the ceremony that takes place in that kind
of religion is not worshipping God in the spirit. Why? Because their confidence is in
their flesh. They're not rejoicing in Christ
Jesus as we just read in Philippians chapter 3 verse 3. Their confidence
is in their decision-making. Their confidence is in their
free will. Their confidence is in their
good works. And it's just vain repetition. It's not real prayer. Only real prayer comes from the
heart of those who know that God is absolutely sovereign in
salvation and that He hath done whatsoever He wills. This is
the God that's worth worshipping. that's why Paul said we are the
true circumcision that means that there's a circumcision out
there that's not true who worship God in the spirit and rejoice
in Christ Jesus all of our joy all of our confidence is in his
finished work and have no confidence in the flesh none whatsoever
so Daniel's trembling now before God And what does God say? Look
at verse 12. This is what I want you to see.
Fear not, Daniel, from the first day that thou didst set thine
heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words
were heard. Why was his words? Because God's
the one who put his hand on him. God's the one who revealed. God's
the one who caused him to pray. And God allowed him to spend
three weeks in soul-searching, agonizing prayer. Was it Daniel's
discipline for those third weeks that moved the hand of God? No. From the first day that thou
set thine heart, I heard thee. you're not being rewarded for
your prayer you needed to go through that experience in order
to you for you to appreciate the answer to your prayer. The experience that I've let
you go through for the last three weeks in prayer was necessary
for you. It was necessary for you. God sets our heart to pray and It teaches us to pray. Go back
with me to our text. He really does get all the praise,
doesn't he? He really, really does. You know, in religion, men compete
with one another to see who's more faithful in prayer, and
they talk about how much they pray. Truth is, the child of
God is ashamed of how little he prays. He's ashamed of his
prayer life. He's absolutely ashamed of it.
And that's why he's always saying, Lord, turn my heart. Lord, teach
me to pray. Lord, cause me to pray. Don't confuse praying to God
with talking to yourself. All of us do that, don't we?
We bewail our circumstances. We're full of regrets and full
of wishes. And that's just not prayer. Prayer is something that God
has to do in the heart. Look what he says. He says, verse
seven, Now I pray to God. To God. I'm not praying to myself.
I'm praying to God. Not talking to others. Don't confuse prayer with sharing
your needs with other people. Ought we to share our concerns
with our brethren that they might join us in prayer? Yeah. Yeah,
but that's not prayer. That's just fellowshipping and
joining our hearts together. Don't make another man to be
your priest. Don't think because you've bared
your soul to another man that somehow that's equivalent to
prayer. It's not. Paul said, I pray to
God. I'm not talking to myself. I'm not talking to others. I'm not talking about salvation. I'm asking God to save me. Let
me ask you a question. Have you asked the Lord to save
you? Have you? I mean prayed to God and ask
Him to have mercy on your soul. You haven't just thought about it.
You haven't just listened to the messages about it. You haven't
just talked about it with other people. You've prayed to God.
You've asked God. You know how you know you've
done that? Because you're doing it right
now. That's how you know you've done
that. You never stop doing it. You just keep doing it. Yes,
Lord, save me. Save me. I think I know about when the
Lord was pleased to save me, but you know, the more I grow
in grace and the knowledge of Christ, the more I wonder about
that experience. And the only conclusion I can
come to is I don't know where I was yesterday, but I know where
I'm at right now. I'm asking God to save me. Right
now. Lord, have mercy upon me. Lord,
teach me. Lord, reveal yourself to me. If you're not asking God to save
you right now, I doubt you ever have. Because God's people just
never... That's the spirit of prayer.
That's what God puts in the hearts of His children. Have mercy upon
me, the sinner. We just never get beyond that,
do we? Never get beyond that. We don't talk about some past
experience and place our confidence in that feeling or in those circumstances. Our hope is in Christ Jesus.
We worship Him in the Spirit. We rejoice in Him. We have no
confidence whatsoever in our flesh. Why? Because God's taught
us how to pray. And He continues to set the heart
to prayer. pray to God. What is one of the things he
prayed to God for the church at Corinth? That you do no evil. That you do no evil. When the
Lord taught us to pray, He said when you pray, pray like this. He didn't say to pray this prayer.
We don't just repeat the Lord's prayer or the model prayer. It
just you know in as a as a repetitious prayer but in the content of
that prayer he said deliver me from evil Lord deliver me Lord
evil to will is present with me but how to perform that which
is good Paul said I find not for when I would do good evil
is ever present with me Lord I pray that you would deliver
me from evil. Deliver me from the evil of my
flesh. Deliver me from the evil of this
world. Lord, deliver me. Cause me to flee to Christ. Only God can deliver us from
evil. And I love what Paul says in
the next phrase of chapter of verse 7. He says, not that we
should appear approved. The reason why we pray that God
would deliver you from evil is not so that it'll make us look
good, not so that we can be seen as true apostles, but rather
that you should do that which is honest. It's just honest and
right and pleasing to God. that we be delivered from evil.
It's to His glory. Turn with me to Romans chapter
12. Verse 16. Be of the same mind, one toward another, Mind not high things, mind not high things, the things
that men exalt, the things that men glory in, mind them not,
but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own
conceits. Recompense to no man evil for
evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. And if it be possible as much
as life in you, live peaceably with all men. Now when is it
not possible to live peaceably with another man? When is it not possible? He said,
whenever it's possible, be at peace. Don't be a troublemaker.
Don't be a rabble rouser. We're not trying to stir things
up. When is it not possible to be at peace with another man?
If they insist upon me compromising the truth, then that's where
we have to draw the line. Can't be at peace with somebody.
If I have to compromise the truth in order to have peace with you,
I'm sorry. that gospel becomes a sword at
that point and it divides men. Dearly beloved avenge not yourselves
but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is
mine I will repay saith the Lord therefore if thine enemy hunger
feed him if he thirst give him drink For in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good." With good. Lord, I pray that you would deliver
me from evil. I pray, Lord, that you would
enable us to do that which is honest, honoring, acceptable
and pleasing in thy sight go back with me to our text verse
13 if these things are going to happen God's gonna have to
do it just as prayer is a work of grace so living our lives
to the honor of Christ and being delivered from evil is a work
of grace we just we just can't take pride in anything He has
to do it all. He has to do every bit of it. Paul said in the last phrase
of verse 7, he says, though we be as reprobates, whatever men
say about us, it's okay. They can call us fools, Was it
Agrippa or Festus, one of those two men, told the apostle Paul
after Paul preached the gospel to him, Paul, much learning has
caused thee to be mad. You're out of your mind. You're
insane. And it's true somebody in that room was insane, but
it wasn't Paul. It wasn't Paul. They accused
him of that. Just like they accused Peter
of turning the world upside down by preaching the gospel in Jerusalem.
In fact, the world was already upside down and all he was doing
was turning it right side up. So men are standing on their
heads. They're walking around thinking that things are upside
down. My ways are not your ways. As
the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways above your
ways. God's just, it's just the opposite. It's just the opposite.
Whatever you thought about God before the Lord was pleased to
place His hand upon you and enable you to worship Him in the Spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus, have no confidence in your flesh.
It didn't just need to be tweaked. It was completely backwards.
It was completely upside down. It was completely in the wrong
direction. That's just the way we come into
this world. That's the way we are. God has to turn us around,
doesn't He? Paul said, they want to call
us reprobates, that's fine. My concern is not for what they
call me, my concern is for you. My concern and my prayer for
you is that God will enable you to be delivered from that which
is evil and do that which is honest. Not for our reputation,
not that their accusations against us might be changed, but for
God's glory and for your good, that's our prayer. Look at verse 8. For we can do nothing against
the truth. We can do nothing against the
truth. Now, I've heard the accusations. I've heard them. You've heard
them. What do they say? We all think
you're the only ones that have the truth. I had somebody ask me that recently.
And they were a part of, they were talking about some Jewish
ceremony that was coming up and I made a comment about it that,
you know, well, you know, people are religious and they said,
well, do you think that we're the only ones that have the truth? This particular person is a follower
of that foolishness going on over there in Rome right now. That's just so foolish to me. This canonization of popes and
all this kind of... And they're part of that. And
I said, well, I said, No, I don't believe that the
God you worship is a true God. Yes, God's given me the truth
and I could do nothing against the truth. And John put it like
this, he said, no lie is of the truth. Do you believe that you're
the only ones that have the truth? No. But I believe that all the
God's people are the only ones that have the truth. And that
what they know is the truth. It's the whole truth. It's nothing
but the truth. And God won't allow them to be deceived by
a lie. He just won't do it. Paul said we can do nothing against
the truth. We cannot deny Christ His glory
and salvation. We cannot compromise the gospel.
We cannot be at peace with men when it comes to the truth of
the gospel. We can do nothing against the
truth. We just can't. God won't let
us. We can't compromise the truth,
we can't change the truth, we can't add to the truth, we can't
take away from the truth. And what did Pilate say? Truth? Are you kidding me? Is that what this is all about?
I mean, you got the whole city in an uproar over truth? Don't
you know that truth is relative? Don't you know that nobody knows
the truth? And what did the Lord Jesus Christ
say to Pilate? For this cause came I unto the
world. For this purpose was I born,
to give witness unto the truth. They that are of the truth hear
my voice. You believe not the truth because
you're not of me. You're not mine. Those that are
of the truth can do nothing against the truth. They believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the truth of God. And they just can't deny him.
They can't deny him his glory and salvation. They can't compromise
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. That's what the Lord said. everyone
that is of the truth heareth my voice Paul said we can do nothing against
the truth everything we do look at the last phrase in verse 8
everything we do is for the truth it's for the truth Now the scripture teaches us
to speak the truth in love. Truth is. Truth is. As much as people hate the truth,
the most loving thing that we can do for anyone is tell them
the truth. Tell them the truth. The only
hope they have of believing the truth is to hear the truth. The
only way they're going to hear the truth is if somebody tells
them the truth. How can they call upon Him in whom they've
not believed? And how can they believe on Him
in whom they've not heard? And how can they hear without
a preacher? And that, you know, that's all
of us, isn't it? Just telling people the truth
about Christ. They're not gonna call until
they believe. They're not gonna believe until they hear. They're
not gonna hear unless somebody tells. The truth. We can do nothing against
the truth. everything we do is for the truth
for the truth why because the truth is everything everything the Lord said I am the way I
am the truth I am the life no man can come to the father but
by me We deny the truth, destroy the
gospel, and men's souls will be destroyed. Let's take a break.