with me to the book of Matthew
chapter 7. Our Lord continues his sermon
on the mount. He's going to teach tonight something
of the blessed privilege of prayer. This is something every believer
wants to know. What does the Lord have to say
about prayer? We possess, by the regenerating
grace and power of God's Spirit, a heart to pray. We truly want communion with
God. We want to talk to the Lord. We want to talk respectfully. We want to do so rightly. And this evening, He who has
eternally loved His people, redeemed them, regenerated them, is now
going to tell us something about this mysterious privilege of
prayer. Now, he's gonna give some light
on this passage of, I mean, in this passage of scripture on
prayer, and I pray that the Spirit of God bless it to us, but I've
got four points. I wanna talk concerning the Lord's
Word on the manner in which we're to pray, and then he speaks concerning
the absolute promise concerning our prayer. Then thirdly, the
reason or the foundation of His graciousness to us as we pray. And then fourthly, the conclusion
and the assurance of His gracious hand. Now, the first point, the
manner in which the Lord teaches us to pray. He says in verse
7, I'm just going to look at some words, three words. Ask, seek, and knock. Now he gave three
words, three different words concerning praying. Now we know that when we pray,
the Lord had dealt with this in chapter 6, verse 6 of Matthew
in his Sermon on the Mount. And he says, Enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut thy door, pray unto the Father which is
in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly. So we know that we pray privately. There are times that we do pray
in public or some may be together and we'll have some around a
table of food and we're going to ask the Lord's blessing upon
it. There are times, truly, that
we do pray in the midst of other people. But when we pray privately,
This is a very, very intimate, very precious time that every
believer desires. Has a time when they pray. They're with the Lord. He says
you get in your closet, not necessarily a coat closet or something. Get somewhere by yourself. Shut
the door to everything else. And you pray unto your Father
which is in heaven, and the Father which hears in secret. It's just you and the Father. He that hears and sees in secret,
He said He's going to reward you openly. Now, the Lord only
knows exactly the fullness of that last statement. I don't
know. But that's a promise. So when we pray, we get together
only with the Lord. Now let's listen concerning this
instruction He's given us tonight while we're in the closet. He
said that we are, first of all, verse 7, He said, you ask. Now here's the first word of
instruction on praying. He said, you ask. You request
as a suppliant, one who is a beggar. You come before the Father as
a beggar pleading. You ask. If there is something
on your mind, a burden, a care, He said you ask. I know there's
times that things that seem to others that would be so insignificant. Just stuff that you say, well,
the Lord would never want to hear something like that. You
pray without ceasing. Pray about anything that's on
your mind that is bothering you, something that you just want
to talk to the Lord about. You ask Him. I mean, my son would
call me, Gabe will call me, He said, Dad, this may seem insignificant.
I said, Gabe, it's not. If it bugs you, ask me. If I know, I'll tell you. If
I don't, I'll try to find out. You wouldn't turn away one of
your children if they wanted to talk to you about anything,
something that was bothering them. The Lord said, you ask. And then you seek. What this is setting forth is
that in a spirit of worship, We desire the Lord's will concerning
our petition. We don't know. We don't know
what to ask for, but we're seeking, worshiping Him. We're asking
Him, and we're seeking after His guidance. We're going to
ask Him something, but while we're asking, I want to know. I want to know. Lord, Your will. And then thirdly, He said, you
knock. You knock like on a door. Persistently. Now hold your place.
Turn over to Luke 11. Luke chapter 11. I want to read
a passage of Scripture. You've heard it before. Luke
11 verses 1 to 13. Luke 11, 1 to 13. It came to
pass that as He was praying, the Lord was praying in a certain
place. And when He ceased, And I know
that, obviously, the disciples were listening to him. And they
wisely left him alone. When he was done, 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. Lord, you're holy. Thy kingdom
come, praying that God's people, God's elect, be brought to him. That's what he said you asked.
Now is the Lord going to save his people? Absolutely. Now what did the Lord say that
we're to do? You address the Lord as in heaven,
holy, blessed, praise unto you, Lord, I'm praying that your people
be brought to you. 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 then he's going to give an
example. He said, I'm going to teach you something with an illustration. I'm going to teach you what I
just told you. He said, 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 said,
and he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not, the
door is now shut, my children with me in bed, I cannot rise
and give thee. I say unto you though he will
not rise, though he will not rise and give him because he
is his friend, yet because for his importunity he will rise
and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask and it
shall be given you. Seek and you shall find, knock
and it shall be opened unto you. The question here is this, is
the Lord not teaching us in what he just said to ask for what
we need, what's on our mind, seek that which we know not,
the spirit teaches us we don't know, and we knock with importunity. Now importunity, what does that
mean? Well, it's persistence. Yes,
but every definition I looked at, Webster's line, every one
of them said the same thing. Importunity, basically this is
the definition, to the point of annoyance. Asking until you
absolutely are becoming a pest. Persistence to the point of being
annoying. to pray with conviction that
the only one who can supply might teach us concerning his will. Now let me give you, to me, a
really good passage of scripture. The Syrophoenician woman, she
was a woman of Canaan. She was a That was a cursed place,
a cursed land, Canaanites. And this Syrophoenician woman
came to the Lord one day and pleaded her case before the Lord. She had something she wanted
to ask Him. Would you have mercy on my daughter? My daughter, And this woman was convinced
that there was nowhere else to go. She asked, and she sought,
and she kept knocking. Let me tell you what she did.
The Lord had told her, it's not fit to give the children's bread
to dogs. She told him, but the dogs get,
you know. She kept asking and asking and
asking to the point that at one point in this conversation the
Lord's disciples asked, Lord would you send her away for she
crieth after us. I wanted to know what were they
saying when they said she crieth after us. Her shrieks of desire
and importunity were so piercing to them, they wanted her gone. You look up importunity and it's
like the shriek of a raven. It's just annoying, asking and asking and
asking, but her cry of need though it was annoying to the disciples. Lord, send her away. She is annoying. Her need and cries of importunity
to the Lord were precious to the point that when she would
not leave, he kept the things that he told her. Normally, somebody
would say, well, just forget it. I mean, if that's the attitude,
not her. I don't have any other place
to go. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. And every time
he would give her a word that seemed to us to be pushing her
away, she only got more, stronger. Lord, the dogs get the crumbs. I'm not leaving. And the Lord
said unto her, old woman, Two times the Lord said this. One
to that centurion, one to this woman right here. He said, O
woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee as thou wilt.
That woman would not leave because God kept her there. She would
not be put off. She would not be driven away. The Lord said, when you pray,
you ask. You ask. God, as a son, would
ask his parent. Seeking his wisdom, his will,
his pleasure, his direction, and you knock, and you knock,
and you knock with the spirit of persistence. Keep asking. Keep asking. If you've got a burden on your
heart and it appears as though to you that the Lord's been pleased
to not answer, you keep asking. Is it still a burden to you?
Keep asking. With importunity. It's not annoying to Him. He
instructed us to do that. Secondly, I want us to consider
His absolute promise. concerning our prayer. Now I
looked at those three words, ask, seek, not, but let's look
at the whole verse seven and see what it says. Ask, and listen
to this, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and him that knocketh, it shall
be opened. Now let me ask you something.
Have you ever asked, and sought, and knocked at the door of God's
mercy? Have you ever come as a suppliant,
as a beggar, with a burden on your heart, asking and seeking
and knocking for that which you truly desired would only be according
to the Lord's will, that's really what you want, you did, you know,
but you never seem to realize the fulfillment of God's assured
promise. Has that ever happened to you?
It has to me. I've asked for things and I But listen, this word right here
is not just a blank check for any want that we might have. All too often, we're just going
to have to believe God here and know that God's true and we're
not. All too often, we truly seek after our wants. They're
truly things that we truly do want, and we want the Lord's
will. We really do. I'm not approaching
the Lord thinking, I know this is not His will, but I'm going
to ask anyway, just maybe I can... No. When we truly ask, we're
asking, but when we're seeking, and we don't know. We don't know. We're asking and seeking and
knocking, but we don't know. What do you do? If it's still
a burden, keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. But it may be that we're seeking,
asking, knocking with the wrong motive. He says in James 4, 2
and 3, you have not because you ask not. You ask not. Not that we didn't ask, but we
asked for the wrong reason. He said, you ask, but you ask
amiss. You're asking for carnal gratification
that you may consume it upon your lust. Obviously, our true
intention was concerning our own pleasure and our own satisfaction
and not for the glory of God. When we ask and seek and knock,
is it truly not for the Lord's glory? Lord, I'm asking. I'm
asking, I'm seeking, and I'm knocking. Lord, and I'm asking
for your glory. That truly is the desire of a
believer. But the only problem is, often,
We don't know what the Lord is doing. We don't know if it is
the Lord's will that we have what we're asking for. We don't
know. It doesn't keep us from asking and knocking and seeking.
But we have to understand Philippians 4.19 says this, but my God shall
supply all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ
Jesus. That's the thought for me that
I need to remember. I may be asking and seeking and
knocking and saying, Lord, I want Your will, and He may give me
His will. I may not get it. I make my petition known unto
the Lord, and I do pray, Lord, I'm asking for Your honor or don't let me ask to gratify
my own lust. Again, there's a lot of wants
that we have, but God knows our need, and that's what he's promised
to give. That is what we're going to find. That's what is going to be open
to us. That's what's going to be our
true need, what the Lord provides. We have some needs. I'll tell you what we need. Let
me tell you, I'm going to just share some things that I need,
and you just listen in. I hope they're your needs too.
I need His unchanging, and sovereign will and pleasure to show mercy
and compassion to me. I need the Lord to be long-suffering
to me. I need the Lord to settle me
down. I told you this, I used to tell
my kids, a situation never changes on the way you look at it. Maybe
the same situation But just my attitude, I need to change my
attitude toward it. I need to be reminded that I
am a sinner. A sinner that needs a Savior. I need that. I need to have the
chastening and correcting hand of His goodness. Lord, don't
leave me to myself. I will run, I will run in circles
getting away. I need you to keep me. I need
to be taught afresh of my redemption in Christ Jesus alone. I need
to know that. The older I get, I need to be
reminded that the Lord has redeemed me. I need the assurance of His
electing grace, knowing your election of God. Brethren, I
need His kindness, long-suffering kindness to me for Christ's sake. Lord, don't cast me out. He's promised him that comes
to me. I'll never cast you out. Lord,
don't cast me out. I know you're not going to cast
out your people. Lord, don't cast me out. I need His keeping
and preserving grace. I need Him as a shepherd. This
is what I want. This is what I truly want. I know this is a need that I
have. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I need Him
to shepherd me. I need to be satisfied. I want
Him to satisfy me. Meaning for me to be satisfied
in the way He directs my feet, my path. That's what I want. I need that. I need to be taught again that
His righteousness robes me. I need that. I read that. I preach that. I teach this here. I hear what I'm saying. I need
to be taught that truly, before the Father, I am truly robed
in the righteousness of Christ. that there is therefore now no
condemnation to me. I need that. I need to hear His
voice in the scriptures that are being taught in Providence
and in that still small voice in my heart. I need that. I need
to be assured. I'm insecure. I'm very insecure. And I need
the Lord to assure me. I need to be taught I need to
be taught afresh that this Bible is the inspired Word of God.
You realize I'm resting my soul, Carl, on what this says? I'm
resting my soul on this. I'm gonna die soon. I know I
am. Life is but a vapor. I know I'm
gonna die. And I need for the Spirit of
God to teach me afresh that this is the Word of God. and that
I can trust Him, that I can rest in what He's saying. I need the
assurance that my sins have truly been pardoned, put away by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I truly need to rest in Him. All of this stuff that's going
on around me, I mean, it seems like every day with me, it's
a new saga. It's something else. I just,
I need to be able to rest. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and heavy laden, I will give you rest. I need the assurance
in that day when he separates the sheep from the goats, I want
to be found with the sheep. I need that. I need to be found
with the sheep. I want to say as that thief on
the cross, Lord, when you enter into your kingdom, Lord, would
you remember me? Lord, please, please don't leave
me. I know that this heart is desperately
wicked. It's deceitful above all things.
And Lord, I am a frail creature of dust. And I realize that while
I'm in this world, I struggle with the presence of sin. Lord,
teach me. Teach me again. And He said when
you ask, and you seek, and you knock that way, you will receive. You will find, and it will be
opened to you. Thirdly, the foundation of these
things being so. What's all this built on? What
is the foundation? I'll tell you what it is. It's
our relationship to Him and His love for us. He gave an example
here in the next couple of verses on the surety. of Him supplying
our need using the relationship between a loving parent and a
child. Look at verses 9 and 10. He said,
What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he
give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he
give him a serpent? What rational man would mock
or deny his child that truly came to him in need. His own
child. He came, this child, and he's
asking. Though he's a child, he's coming
as a helpless, needy beggar. One that he's coming and he's
making application to a parent that he trusts. He trusts. This child trusts his dad, he
trusts his mama. And he's coming and he's asking
them for something. And he asks for something he needs. I'm hungry.
I'm hungry. Can you give me something to
eat? What parent, if he asks him for a piece of bread, what
loving, caring, rational parent would give him a stone? If this child came and he's in
need, he's not kidding, he's hungry. What parrot would give
him a stone that provided no nourishment, that would do nothing
but harm him if he tried to bite it? Or if he asked for a fish,
would he give him a serpent? Would you give him that which
would bite him? Would you give him that which
would hurt him? He's asking for something that he needs. If that
parent would give him a rock or a snake and that child was
asking for a piece of bread or some fish, you know what that
says? That parent doesn't love that
child. He don't care. There's no empathy there. There's
no desire for his well-being. That child had cast all his care
upon that parent and was forsaken. He was mocked. And the Lord said
that will never happen to one of mine. 1 Peter 5, 6
and 7, Humble yourself therefore unto the mighty hand of God,
that he might exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon
him, for he careth for you. What man is there of you, whom
if his son ask bread, he'll give him a stone, and if he ask a
fish, he'll give him a serpent? And then lastly, the Lord reveals
the conclusion or the assurance of His gracious hand. Verse 11,
if you then being evil, you know what a believer's going
to do when he hears the Lord say that. He'll say, Lord, you're
right. If you then being evil, it means
I look this up. the possessor of a nation, of
a nature that evidences itself with pain and sorrow in this
world. And that's what it is. We're
creatures of dust, as I said a while ago, old wretched man,
Paul said, that I am. If you 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.
If you, who are walking around with this nature of sin within
you, that you're selfish in ourselves, wretched, you know, we loathe
our very seeing what we are, and Paul says, I see in me that
it's my flesh that dwells no good thing. The Lord said, if
you're being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your Father, holy, blessed, good, compassionate
to His children for the sake of Christ, your Father which
is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him. If you know how, What do you think He gives? Our
Father by adopting grace. He said, I made you my sons. I chose you in my only begotten
Son. Made you to be mine, not only
in adopting grace, but in purchasing, redeeming grace through the obedience
and blood of my precious Son. My Son shed His blood that my
will be done in your salvation. If one of His children come asking,
seeking, knocking for His will to be done, He said, if you know
how to give good gifts, There's the key. Good gifts. How much
more shall your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those that
ask Him? Beneficial things to those that
ask Him. Look at Romans 8. I'll wrap this
up. Romans 8, 31-32. Romans 8. I said a moment ago, the Lord
Jesus Christ ever stood as our surety. came into this world
with all of us in Him and laid down His life, shed His precious
blood for our redemption. And the Father who ever sees
that blood, when I see the blood, I'm going to pass over you. When
He sees that blood, He's satisfied. Don't you think He's going to
give us everything, every good thing that we need, that we need? If not our wants, it's not best
for us. There's a lot of things my kids
ask me for that I just didn't think that that was the right
thing. I don't know, I don't think. Yeah, but I, you know, I'll tell
you like my mom and daddy, and it must have been every state
had the same saying, we just changed the things. When I was
in central Louisiana, I'd ask my mom or dad, especially my
mama, I'd say, Mama, can I do so and so and so and so? No,
I don't think so. Mama, oh yeah, but they're gonna, you know,
well, if they're gonna, the Red River comes through Texas, comes
right down through Louisiana, separates Alexandria and Pineville,
Ball, Red River. And it's what she'd say. Well,
if they go over there and stand on the Red River Bridge and jump
over, are you going to do it too? You know, so I'm sure y'all
all had the same thing, just a different river, you know.
No. The Lord is going to give us
what we need. That's the gift. And if it's
not for our good, He will withhold it. because that's best for us. Romans chapter 8, verse 31-32,
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? All things that we need. Every good gift, every good gift,
every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father
of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Do
you know what the Lord is going to give His people? Good things. Good gifts. Perfect things. And do you know what he's going
to withhold from them? Everything they don't need. And we find some comfort in that.
I pray that the Lord bless this to our heart and teach us something
about prayer. This precious privilege to pray. Something that we'll all admit
we don't know a whole lot about. But Lord willing, after us considering
these scriptures, maybe the Lord be pleased to teach us something
about it. For His honor and His glory and His praise and our
good. Amen.