Luke chapter 11. After the Lord finished praying,
we read here in verse 1. It says, 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. So today we're going to hear
as the Lord teaches us to pray. Now, in Matthew, Matthew chapter
6, our Lord said a few things before He began teaching us this
model prayer. Let's go over there real quick.
Hold your place here and go to Matthew 6. Matthew chapter 6. And we'll hear what the Lord
said here. Matthew 6, 5. He said, When thou prayest, thou
shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they
may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. Now what our Lord is teaching
us here is that the motive of the heart is the important thing
in prayer. The heart. The heart. The motive
of the heart. Christ says the hypocrite's motive
is he wants to be seen of men. That's his motive in prayer.
He wants to be seen of men. And the Lord says so he has his
reward. He wanted to be seen of men.
And he's seen of men, and that's all he gets out of it. He's just
being seen of men. But Christ teaches His child
to pray to God our Father from the heart. He says in verse 6,
Matthew 6, 6, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy
closet. And when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret. And thy Father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Now our Lord's not
saying here that we only pray in our closet. That's not what
he's meaning here. He's meaning we don't make a
show out of prayer. I rarely pray in a restaurant
with people around because I'm just not going to make a show.
I pray in a restaurant. I just don't do anything that
would make people know I'm praying in a restaurant. And he's saying
here, just don't make a public show out of prayer. He's teaching
us the heart is what matters. Enter into the secret place of
the heart. You can pray without anybody knowing you're praying.
And that's what he's talking about here. God sees in secret.
He sees the heart. I'm a little bit concerned with
social media and so many people always posting, I'll pray for
you, I'll pray for you. And I wonder sometimes how many
people are really doing what they say they'll do. How many
are really praying? It's easy to say, I'll pray for
you and that's it. It never goes anywhere. I would
rather somebody secretly, without me knowing it, without them even
telling me, pray for me than publicly tell me they will pray
for me and not really pray for me. Wouldn't you? Christ also teaches us here that
prayer is not about the amount of words we pray. Verse 7, When
you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think
that they should be heard for their much speaking. See what
a wrong motive that is? The heathen thinks that it's
the amount of words. Speaking all these different
words. A lot of times when men pray, they preach. God already
knows what His gospel is. We don't have to tell Him what
the gospel is. Who are we telling that to? We're telling it to
men usually because God already knows what His gospel is. Some
of the most fervent, effectual prayer in Scripture was just
a few short words. Lord, help. Lord, help. The Lord says, verse 8, ìBe not
ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knows what things
you have need of before you ask Him.î The true prayer is God-given. The Holy Spirit puts prayer in
the heart. God already knows what you need
before you ask Him. We receive the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry, Abba Father. What makes us pray in the first
place? We receive the spirit of adoption. God put prayer in
our heart. It comes from God. The Spirit
helps our infirmities for we know not what we should pray
as we ought. But the Spirit makes intercession
for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. And he that knoweth
the mind of the Spirit makes intercession for us according
to God's will. See, God puts prayer in the heart
and God intercedes for us when we pray. Lord, all my desire
is before Thee. My groaning is not hid from Thee.
That's what the psalmist said. My groaning is not hid from Thee.
When our Lord came to Lazarus' tomb, Scripture says, He groaned
within him. That was a prayer between Him
and the Father. We have no idea what He prayed.
But it was a fulfillment of that Psalm. Psalm 38, 9. Lord, all
my desires before Thee, my groaning is not hid from Thee. God says,
It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and
while they get speaking, I will hear. God already knows what
we need. So it's not about the amount of words we pray. Believers
that are born of the Spirit, the fact is we live in a state
of prayer. Scripture says pray without ceasing
and believers do. It's a state we're in because
we depend upon the Lord every hour. constantly depending upon
God. But the key here Christ is teaching
us is that the motive of the heart, that secret motive of
the heart, true spiritual communion with God our Father, between
God our Father and His child in Christ the Lord. That's what
true prayer is and that's what our Lord is teaching. Now let's
go back to Luke 11. And in Luke 11, our Lord gives us a model
of how we should pray. He is not saying these are the
words you have to pray. Repeat these actual words that
Christ spoke. And that is not what He was giving
us this for at all. He was giving us this just as
an example. Not saying you have to pray these
words. And this is not the Lord's prayer. That's what men call
this, the Lord's Prayer. This is not the Lord's Prayer.
The Lord's Prayer is in John 17, His High Priestly Prayer.
This is just a model, an example. First of all, in Luke 11 verse
2, He said unto them, When you pray, say, Our Father which art
in heaven. Our Father which art in heaven.
Now God is the Father of all men in that He is our Creator. Scripture says we are all the
offspring of God. So all men ought to pray to God. All men do not pray to God. They
pray to a God of their imagination. But all men ought to pray to
God because He is the Father of all men. But He is especially
the Father of His elect people. Our Father which art in heaven. God our Father chose us and made
us His sons. Ephesians 1.5 says, He predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. Whenever John 1 talks about as
many as received Him, to them gave He the power to be the sons
of God, it means the privilege. He gave us the spirit of adoption
and brought us into the family of God. That's a privilege. Behold
what manner of love God the Father has bestowed upon us that we
should be called sons of God. So God is our Father. He is our Father. Our Lord Jesus,
when He arose, He said, Go to my brethren and say unto them,
I sin unto my Father and your Father. To my God and your God. God is our Father. And He is
in the heavens and we are on the earth. And that tells you
our right position. He is in the heavens above all.
We are on the earth below all. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Now that's great motivation
for us to go to Him in prayer. He does whatever He pleases.
That's great motivation to go to Him with everything in prayer. But this is the first thing our
Lord is teaching us. We should acknowledge His authority. as God our Father and take our
place humbly before Him. How do you treat your earthly
father? How do you treat him with reverence
and respect and humbly approach him? Well, how much more our
heavenly father? Secondly, he says here, pray
this, hallowed be thy name, holy. holy be thy name, hallowed be
thy name, reverent be thy name. Remember who it is we are approaching.
That is what he is telling us. We are approaching holy God.
The Lord spake saying, I will be sanctified in them that come
nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified. In other
words, when you approach God, those that really are going to
approach Him and have His ear, they are going to approach Him
in the right way. We will approach Him sanctifying
Him above all as He is, as the holy Lord God of heaven and earth. So we must glorify Him as holy
and He alone is holy. You know, you hear men call preachers
and priests, they call them reverend and they call them their pope
and all this. We don't have a reverend. We
don't have a pope on this earth. There is one who is holy and
reverend. Scripture says, He sent redemption
unto His people. He has commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is His name. We don't give that name to ourselves
or to any other man. And the very purpose for which
God sent His Son into this world is to glorify God. Glorify God. He said, I have glorified Thee
on the earth. I finished the work Thou gavest
Me to do. The very purpose for which God
sent Christ into this world is to glorify Him. And when we approach
Him, we're going to glorify Him. God said, I will be sanctified
in them that come nigh unto Me. We live in a day when you hear
every other breath that people say, you hear them take God's
name in vain. Every other word, men are taking God's name in
vain. And they even have slang they use for God to take His
name in vain. Scripture said, ìThou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will
not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.î God has sanctified
Himself in the hearts of those He saved. He has sanctified Himself
in our hearts and weíre not going to take His name in vain. When
you call yourself a Christian, thatís not taking His name in
vain if Heís the one thatís called you and given you a heart and
brought you to Christ. But men who say they came by
their own will and their own works, they're taking His name
in vain just to call themselves Christians. But we don't take His name in
vain in everyday speech either. This is holy God we're talking
about. I mean, He's the one that gives you life and breath and
everything you have. Are we going to turn around and
take His name in vain? Will's friends look at me like
I'm crazy. If I hear them say His name in vain, I tell them
to use my name. Use my name. Cuss my name, but don't cuss
God's name. Thirdly, Luke 11 verse 2, he
says, Thy kingdom come. Pray this, Thy kingdom come.
By the grace of God, Christ is our king and we are His servants.
Every believer, Christ is our king and we are His servants
and we are in His kingdom. Our citizenship is a heavenly
citizenship. We are in the kingdom of God.
And He came into this world as the King. Nobody made Him a King.
He came into this world as a King. You remember those men came looking
for Him and they said, Where is He that is born King of the
Jews? Christ came into this world King.
And He established His Kingdom when He cried from the cross
and said, It is finished. His Kingdom is established in
righteousness and holiness. And He established it by His
own blood, by His finished work of redemption when He cried from
the cross and said, It's finished. His kingdom is established. God
said, I've set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. That's where
he is, at God's right hand, in the holy Mount Jerusalem. That's
what that earthly Mount Jerusalem and that earthly Mount Zion pictured.
Christ seated in God's right hand in His holy temple in heavenly
Jerusalem, heavenly Mount Zion. God said, I've set my king on
the throne. Go over to Acts 2. This was the
message that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. He stood
up and he told everybody. They thought David was king of
Israel. He stood up and he said, David is not the king. Christ
is the king. Acts 2, 29. Listen to this message. Men and brethren,
let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. Everybody
had this high esteem for King David. He said, He's dead and
buried and His sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore,
being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to
Him that of the fruit of His loins, according to the flesh,
He would raise up Christ to sit on His throne. All those scriptures
where the Lord is speaking to David and you think He's talking
about Solomon. I'm going to raise up your seed
after you and he's going to sit on his throne, it's going to
be forever." He wasn't talking about Solomon, he was talking
about Christ his Son that came through the loins of David. He
said that's what David was declaring when he wrote these things. God
raised up Christ to sit on his throne. He's seeing this before,
speaking of the resurrection of Christ, and that his soul
was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
This Jesus hath God raised up. This Jesus, whereof we all are
witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted,
and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,
He has shed forth this which you now see and hear. You always
hear me talking about Christ, our Head, and our King, who through
the preaching of the Word, He sends forth the Spirit and He's
the one that preaches in our heart. That's what Peter just
said. He said, you see these men right here that are speaking
in languages they never learned? He said, Christ our King has
sent forth the Spirit and the Spirit is preaching the gospel.
Christ is preaching the gospel to you through these men right
now. He's working this. Look, for David has not ascended
into the heavens, but he said, the Lord said unto my Lord, David
called Christ his Lord. The Lord, the God of heaven said
to my Lord Jesus Christ, sit thou on my right hand till I
make thy foes thy footstool. That's what you do when you're
a king. You make your enemies your footstool. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom
you crucified both Lord and Christ. He's the King. and He's the Savior. We've got a King who is the Savior.
So our prayer is for Christ our King to receive all the glory.
When we say, Thy kingdom come, another way we say that is, Lord,
glorify, glorify your Son. Glorify Christ Jesus our King. We want Him glorified in the
preaching of the Gospel. We ask God to glorify Him in
the hearts of His people. And we ask God to glorify Him
throughout this world. We want Christ and our King to
have all the glory. And by asking His Kingdom come,
we pray for God in Christ to call every last one of His blood-brought
children into His Kingdom. We want to see that Kingdom fully
inhabited by all those God elected and gave to Christ and Christ
redeemed. We want to see all of them brought into the Kingdom.
Our Lord, when He sent out His disciples, He said, Heal the
sick that are therein and say unto them, The kingdom of God
has come now unto you. Whenever the Lord sends forth
the gospel and He quickens one of His own and He heals us spiritually,
the kingdom of God has come near you and brought you into the
kingdom. And that's the other thing we're
saying. When we say, Thy kingdom come, we're thanking God. Another
way of saying that is to thank God that He's brought us into
His kingdom. This is how Paul said it in Colossians
1.12, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us fit
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son. He made us fit. That means there is nothing to
be done for us to enter into glory with our King because we
are already in the kingdom. Right now, we are in the kingdom.
We are fit. You wouldn't be in the kingdom
if He hadn't made you fit. Fit to partake of that inheritance
with the saints in light. That means you are fit by Christ
and what He has done for you as those saints are already with
Him in glory. So enough of this business of
men saying, you know, we are growing more and more fit and
more and more holy. No. We are fit. And by praying
Thy kingdom come, we are asking Christ to work righteousness
in this earth for us. Come now, Lord, and work righteousness
on our behalf. You see oppression in this world?
Lord willing, I'll preach on Isaiah 3 soon. And He talks about
all the oppression in Israel. The Lord said, I'm going to stand
and I'm going to judge between My people and their oppressors.
And that's what we're praying for. Because God promised He
would. He said in Jeremiah 23.5, The days come, saith the Lord,
I'll raise unto David a righteous branch. There He is talking about
Christ. He spelled Branch, capital B-R-A-N-C-H. Christ the Branch. And a King,
a capital K King shall reign and prosper and execute judgment
and justice in the earth. He has done that on the cross.
He does that in hearts of His people, but He also does that
in this world for His people as we are going through this
life. And Scripture says because He does it, Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell safely. That's His people. That's you
and me. Judah and Israel. That's us.
His people, His elect, Jew and Gentile. We're going to dwell
safely. We're going to be saved by Him. And this is the name
whereby He shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. So, one last thing, when we pray
His kingdom come, We are praying for Him to return. Lord, come
quickly. Come quickly. Now, fourthly,
here in Luke 11, He says there in verse 2, ìThy will be done
in earth as it is in heaven.î Now, we dwelt with this Thursday
night, if you havenít heard the message. This is our petition. This is the petition we desire
of Him. ìThy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.î There
are at least 13 I wills that Christ spoke when He walked this
earth. Thirteen times He said, I will. And this is the Lord's
will. Let me just give them to you. He said, If I be lifted
up, I will draw all men unto Me. And so we pray, Lord, Thy
will be done. He said this, Come unto Me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And we pray, Lord, Thy will be
done. Make Your people, make them see
how heavy laden they are. Make them see how burdened they
are and draw them to You and give them rest. That's His will.
When the leper came to Him asking Christ if He would heal him,
the Lord said, I will be Thy clean. And we ask the Lord, Thy
will be done. Lord, make Your people clean.
Wash us. Wash us and make us clean. Heal
us of our sinful leprosy. He said this, ìAll that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out.î And we pray this constantly, ìThy will
be done, Lord.î ìThy will be done, Lord.î Please donít cast
us out. According to your will, donít
cast us out. He said, Whosoever therefore
shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before
My Father which is in heaven. I want His will done, don't you?
I want Him to confess Me before God in heaven. I want Him to
intercede for me. That's His will for those that
confess Him in this earth. He said, Follow Me and I will
make you fishers of men. How are we going to be able to
serve Him? Now we're going to be able to serve the Lord. It's
going to be by His will. So we pray, Lord, Thy will be
done. Make us to be fishers of men. Make us to go forth and
speak a word in season and speak it with grace, season with salt
and speak when we have the opportunity that You've given us. He said,
I will make you fishers of men. He said, ìI will give you a mouth
and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain, say,
nor resist.î He said, ìI will.î And we ask Him, ìLord, Thy will
be done.î Give us that wisdom. Give us a mouth to be able to
speak so none can resist this gospel. He said, ìThis is the
will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son
and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and I will
raise Him up at the last day.î That's the Lord's will. That's
God the Father's will and Christ's will. Don't you want His will
to be done? He said, ìIf I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am, there you may be also.î Oh Lord, thou wilt
be done. Not my will, thou wilt be done.
We're going to sit here and pray. for ourselves or one of our loved
ones and ask God to let them stay here and not say, but Lord,
Thy will be done. He said, if I've gone and prepared
a place for them, I will come again and receive them to myself.
It may just be He's come to receive them to Himself. Thy will be
done, Lord. He said, and I will pray the
Father and He shall give you another Comforter that He may
abide with you forever. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. Mmm. I need Him to fulfill His
will. I need Him to comfort me. I need
to know His presence with me always. Supposedly He said, if
you don't go with us, Lord, don't send us forth. I want His will
done. He said, He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them... You know what He is talking about?
Believing on Him and loving our brethren. Believing on Him. not trying to work your way into
glory, trusting Him alone for all righteousness and holiness
and loving one another. Bearing one another's sin and
shortcomings and all the things that most religion kicks men
out for. Loving them. And He said, And
he that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth Me. And he that loveth Me shall be
loved of My Father, and I will love him. And I will manifest
Myself to him. Lord, Thou wilt be done. He said,
Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with
Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast
given Me, for Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the
world. I want His will done, don't you? That's the will I
want done. I will that those you've given
me be with me where I am. That's the will I'm depending
on to bring me to where He is. Not my will, that will. He said,
and this is the last thing, He said, if you shall ask anything
in My name. Remember what we saw Thursday
night, what that means? What is it to pray and ask God
according to His will? First thing is to ask in Christ's
name. He said, if you ask anything in My name, according to My will,
I will do it. You want whatever you ask to
be done? Just pray this, Lord, Thy will
be done. Because that's what's going to
be done. We saw this last night, contrary to what most of the
religious world thinks. Prayer is not us getting God
to do our will. That's not what prayer is. is the believer surrendering
to God's will. And when we desire for God's
will to be done, we have the petition we desire of Him. He
said this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask
anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that
He hears us, whatsoever we've asked according to His will,
we know we have the petitions we desire of Him. The only thing
God is going to work is His will. So if you ask, ìLord, Thy will
be done,î youíll get what you want every time. Because thatís
what Heís going to do. Now look at the next thing. Fifthly,
He says, ìGive us this day our daily bread.î We pray, ìLord,
give us this day our daily bread.î One, that means Christ our bread. Godís given us Christ our bread. Our spiritual life is Christ. Jesus said, I am the bread of
life. He that comes to me will never
hunger and he'll never thirst. You that believe on me will never
hunger and you'll never thirst. Those that rest in Christ and
trust Christ for all, they'll never hunger, they'll never thirst
for wisdom with God, righteousness with God, sanctification with
God, nor redemption with God. We have full provision in Christ
the bread. He's the light. And Christ also
provides our daily bread, day by day. Now you think about that,
brethren. If He's providing our bread,
He didn't say, I'm going to provide you bread for two years today. That's the mistake that the children
have made in the wilderness. He provided them bread. And He
said, now don't you try to save that bread. Don't hoard up that
bread. Because by doing that you are
going to show you don't believe me. You think your salvation
is in that bread. They went out there and they
gathered up extra and came home and said we will be smarter than
God. We will have some stored away in case we don't have bread
tomorrow. Now who do you think, the one who gave that bread is
in control of that bread and you are going to take that bread
and think that is your life instead of the one who gave the bread?
So what did God do? He made it breed worms and stink.
How many people do you know that have saved up this great fortune,
didn't help people along the way, didn't contribute to God's
church, didn't put that money out and sow that seed so that
it could be blessed by God and produce a harvest and God's people
be called in. He didn't use it for any of that.
He hoarded it up because he trusted this is going to be my salvation
when I get old. What happened? God made it breed
worms and stink. God sent some kind of disease
wiping out. Take it all away. God's going
to make His people trust Him. They're going to trust Him. Believe
me. I'm telling you this. You can
ask Melinda. We're just trusting Him day by
day. And He's provided day by day.
And as long as He's providing day by day, if He does that to
my last day, I am fine. I got everything I need. Day
by day. Now that doesn't mean be foolish
and presume upon God. That just means trust Him. He
is going to provide. Don't be anxious. Don't be worrisome.
He is going to provide. He will provide. Look at this
next thing. He says verse 4, And forgive
us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to
us. Now brethren, as believers, as those chosen and redeemed
by Christ, our debts have been fully paid to God's holy law
by Christ. He justified us from all our
sin. He did it freely. Scripture says being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
All our debts are paid, but we're still sinners. In ourselves,
we're sinners. And God will have His people
constantly reminded, we are still sinners. And we still need to
be brought to the fountain every day. Christ the fountain. We
need to come to Christ to be cleansed of our sins daily. And that's why when you hear
us pray, we say, Lord, forgive us of our sins. And it's somehow,
it's probably confusing to people that don't know this because
you hear us say, Lord, we thank you that you've redeemed us,
paid all our debt and put away all our sin. And then we say,
Lord, forgive us our sin. Well, that's why. We need to
be daily cleansed of our sin. We need to be washed, keep our
mind purged so we can stay on Christ. Keep us washed from this
world and washed from the pollutions of this world and washed from
all the hindrances that pull us to the left and right and
up and down in every direction and would turn us from Christ.
We need to be washed from all that so that we can have our
heart on Christ only. Scripture says we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if we try to say we don't
have sin, He said we make Him a liar and His word is not in
us. I have heard men who profess to be believers who said they
went through the whole day and never sinned. They made God a liar because
He said you sin every moment. Scripture says, my little children,
these things are right unto you that you sin not. But if you
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous and He is the propitiation for our sin. He is the one who
advocates for us with the Father and cleanses us from all our
sin. You are going to sin. You are sinning right now. We
have all sinned since we have been sitting in this room. But
we come to Christ constantly and He constantly intercedes
with the Father for us and cleanses us of all our sin. And He teaches
us this, now every believer, we are to forgive men their trespasses
against us. He said in Matthew, if you forgive
men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive your trespasses. And what He is saying there is
this, the sinner who has been shown great mercy, And he's made
to see that God has sent His Son and His Son went and He laid
down His life in our place and His Son paid the wages we owed. That's what you see Christ doing
on Calvary, paying what we deserved. And He paid it all. And the sinner
that's been taught this, he's going to have a heart that's
merciful. He sees that there is sin in
Him every day and constantly and that in His flesh dwells
no good thing. And He is going to be merciful to others. He
is going to overlook the sin of others and not hold their
feet to the fire because of their sin. And when they owe Him for
anything or when they sinned against Him in anything. But
the man who doesn't know Christ, he won't be that way. And if
he leaves this world in that state, God won't forgive him.
I'll give you the parable, I'll just paraphrase it, but remember
Peter said, he came to the Lord and he said, how many times should
I forgive my brother? And the Lord said, 70 times 7.
That's another way of saying without end, forever, always. You constantly forgive your brother.
And he gave this parable and he said there was this man and
he owed this large sum of money. The master came and the master
said, ìI want my money.î And the man said, ìI donít have where
to pay it.î And the master said, ìOkay, youíre going to be cast
into prison and youíre going to pay the utmost penalty.î And
the man falls down at the masterís feet and he begs him and says,
ìLord, please have mercy on me.î And the master had mercy on him,
forgave him all his debt, wiped his debt clean. Thatís what God
did for us. And then that man goes out and
there is another man that owes him a very small amount compared
to that. And anything that any man owes
you and me compared to what we owe God is a very small amount.
And yet this man took him by the throat and said, ìYou pay
me what youÖî The guy fell down and begged, ìMaster, please forgive
me, forgive me.î And he took him by the throat and said, ìNo,
you pay me everything you owe me.î And the servants went and
told the master of the house. And the master came to this man
and he said, I am casting you out, you ungrateful servants.
You are going to pay the utmost farthing. And he said, that is
every man that will not forgive his brother their trespasses.
That is the kingdom of Christ. That is the man who won't forgive
his brother's trespasses. After everything we have been
forgiven, how can we not forgive? Everything that anybody owes
us is just nothing compared to what we owe to the Lord. Now,
here is the last thing. He says, verse 4, ìAnd lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.î That is, another
way that we say that is, we are saying, ìLord, we are totally
helpless.î We are totally helpless. We need You to lead us. We need
You to keep us. We need You to preserve us. Because
we can't do it ourselves. Lead us not into trial. Lead
us not into temptation. Keep us from the evil. We can't
keep ourselves. We are helpless, Lord. And the
Lord intercedes for us and He says, I pray, Father, not that
You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the
evil. And so God does just that. The Lord's my shepherd. He leads
me besides still waters. He leads me in paths of righteousness
for His name's sake. So we're going to end up, when
it's all said and done, we're going to say what Paul said.
He said, At first no man stood with me, all men forsook me.
I pray God it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding,
the Lord stood with me and He strengthened me. And that by
me the preaching might be fully known and that all Gentiles might
hear. And I was delivered out of the
mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me
from every evil work and will preserve me unto His heavenly
kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever. So these are the things,
saith the Lord. Not the exact words, but this
is a model for us on what we pray to God. We ought to refer
to that often. And he goes on to tell us there,
I am out of time, but he goes on to tell us there, because
of our importunity, because we need the Lord, because we depend
on Him to hear us for Christ's sake, He will hear us. He says,
so ask, knock, it will be open to you. Ask, you will receive.
He said he is a faithful father and whatever evil, wicked men
we are, we know how to give good things to our children. He said,
how much more God, our Father, will He not give to His children?
The Holy Spirit. So pray to Him as our Lord has
taught us to pray. We did. We prayed to Him and
asked Him to save Chloe. And it was His will. We asked
Him according to His will. And that was His will. So you
know what we do now? With the same fervency that we ask Him
to save her, we thank Him for doing it. Alright, let's stand
together. Father, we thank You according
to Your gracious will toward us. We thank You, Lord, that
You're holy and that You're almighty and that You're ruling everything
in heaven and earth for the glory of Christ and for the good of
Your people. Lord, we thank You. We pray for Your people everywhere
and we pray that You will send this gospel forth today in power
and keep us and preserve us and make us hear this Word and teach
it to us, Lord, and make us to see the things You work in our
lives, how true it is. Lord, we thank You for every
day providing us with every need we have. There's nothing we need
that You don't provide on a daily basis. Lord, make us trust you. Don't let us get anxious over
these things. Lord, we pray that you would forgive us and make
us forgiving. We pray that you'd make us more
forgiving. The more we seek Christ, Lord, increase our mercy. Make
us merciful children. Lord, we pray that you would
bring this gospel forth to save your people. that that last sheep
might be called home and we might be able to come be with You in
glory. Lord, these things we ask for
Your glory, for Your honor, for the good of Your people. These
things we ask, Lord, knowing our prayer and everything we
do is so full of sin. Forgive us, Lord, for Christ's
sake. It's in His precious name we pray. Amen. Alright, brethren.