Let's go back to 1 John chapter
5. Now here lately, with prayers
that we have asked God and then witnessed how the Lord has answered
those prayers with brother Ravi and sister Debbie and concerning
Chloe. Prayer has been on my heart quite
a bit lately, the subject of prayer. And if God will enable
me in the coming weeks, I want to try to show from Scriptures
some of the things that God declares about prayer which He has shown
us lately in this latest trial. Tonight, we are going to see
from Scripture one of the things we have experienced recently.
Our text is here in 1 John 5 verses 13 through 16. Now the apostle
John tells us to whom he wrote this epistle. He says in verse
13, These things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God. This is written to you who believe.
All these things he's been writing throughout this epistle, he's
written to believers. And then he gives his first purpose
for writing these things. He says, verse 13, that you may
know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God. He wrote this epistle so that
every believer may have assurance, may have confidence that you
not only believe on the Lord Jesus, that you have eternal
life. So you know you have eternal
life. You have confidence in Christ that you have eternal
life. And since you have that confidence,
you'll press on believing on Christ more and more with more
and more confidence in Him. Now I won't ever believe you
here to get this settled in our hearts. Get this settled in your
heart. If you have Christ, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him as your salvation, having
done everything needed for you so that God receives you in His
person, apart from anything you've contributed or shall ever contribute,
if all your confidence is Christ only, You have eternal life. You have eternal life. Look at
1 John 5.11. This is the record that God has
given to us eternal life. This is a free gift of God by
His grace. We didn't merit this. We didn't
contribute. This was a free gift of God.
God has given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. Christ is all and has done all
that is necessary. He is the wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption of you who trust Him. He that
hath the Son hath life. The problem most people have
with assurance is they start trying to find it in themselves.
That would be assurance in you. Our confidence is Christ. Our
confidence is Christ. Is your confidence Christ? Do
you believe what God says concerning His Son? That He is our salvation? He is our confidence. We rest in Him. And he that hath
the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Now this is important because
the more confident we are that we have eternal life in Christ,
The more our confidence is that Christ is our eternal life. We have eternal life in Christ. The more confident we are in
this, the more confident we'll be for this next thing that John
wants us to know. John wants you to know that the
Lord hears our prayer. Notice the connection between
confidence in Christ for salvation and confidence that Christ hears
us when we call on Him. Notice the connection here. 1
John 5 verse 13, These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that
you have eternal life, and that you may have all confidence in
the name of the Son of God. That's what he's saying there.
And this is the confidence that we have in Him. That if we ask
anything according to His will, He heareth us. You see, unless
I have confidence in Christ, my salvation, then I won't have
confidence that Christ really and truly hears me when I pray. They're vitally connected. The
more confidence I have that Christ is all my salvation, the more
confidence I'll have that Christ really hears me when I call on
Him. And the more we have confidence
in Christ, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears
us, then we know this too. This is the next thing He wants
us to know. Not only that He hears us, but that we have our
petition. Look, verse 15. And if we know
that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions that we desired of Him. I've titled this, The
Petition We Desire of Him. The chief petition that we desire
of God is that His will be done. That's our chief petition. That's
our chief prayer. Thy will be done. God hears the
prayer of His child when we ask according to His will. When we
pray for God's will to be done, God hears our prayer. And therefore,
when that's our chief petition, when that's your chief prayer,
God's will be done, whatever we're asking, the moment you
ask it, you have your petition. You have it. Before it's ever
even come to pass, you have it. Because the only thing that's
going to be done is God's will. Now first of all, we must approach
Christ's throne of grace with confidence in Christ. He says
there in verse 14, this is the confidence that we have in Him.
You see, confidence to approach Christ in prayer begins with
confidence in Christ my salvation. That's where my confidence at
the throne of grace begins, with confidence in Christ my salvation. Now the unbelieving man, the
man that has no faith in Christ, has no confidence in Christ for
salvation, that man can crawl on God all he wants to, God's
not going to hear him. James said, if any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all liberally and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith. Nothing wavering. For he that
wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and
tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything
of the Lord. But those that believe on Christ. I'm not talking about
quantity of faith or quality of faith. I'm talking about,
like Christ said, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
you just You trust He is your wisdom,
your righteousness, your sanctification and your redemption. You trust
He is your salvation. Now that man, he will hear. You have confidence in Christ. No confidence in yourself, but
your confidence is in Christ. You know what the fact of the
matter is, the man who sees himself so weak and so sinful and so
inconsistent that he can't possibly be a child of God, that man ought
to have more confidence in Christ than anybody. He's the greatest
proof that salvation is by Christ and not by us. He said, I'll never leave thee
nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say, we may with confident
faith say, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall
do unto me." Confidence in Christ through faith in Christ. The
Holy Spirit is born witness in our heart. He that believeth
hath the witness in himself. The Holy Spirit is born witness
in our heart. that by Christ's one offering,
He has perfected forever all them that God sanctified in divine
election in Christ. He perfected all His people by
one offering. So there's no more offering for
sin. We don't have to do anything else to try to make up for our
sin with God. It's accomplished. And so, the
Holy Spirit tells us this now. You can come to to God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, having therefore, brethren,
boldness, the confidence of faith, the assurance of faith, having
boldness, liberty, welcome access to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way which
He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say through
His flesh, by Him laying down His life on the cross. He is
talking about us coming to God in prayer. He says having boldness,
having this confidence in Christ now, and having a high priest
over the house of God. Somebody that is there that is
going to speak to God for us. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. You know what that is? That's
having no confidence in ourselves. That's having absolute zero trust
in ourselves and our trust in the Lord. Come with full assurance
in Christ, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience
and our bodies washed with pure water. You know, the first thing,
I'm going to show you how that your faith doesn't have... It's
not how much you know, it's not the quantity of your faith or
how great your faith is. And I can prove that to you.
You know the first thing a child of God does when God's given
him life and He's convinced him of his sin and his need for Christ.
You know what the first thing he does? He prays to the Lord
Jesus. He approaches Him in faith. The very first thing. What was
it that Christ said to Ananias to comfort him concerning Saul
of Tarsus? Ananias was scared to go to him.
I've heard of this man. He's killing believers left and
right. The Lord said, Behold, he prayeth. What was the first
thing that publican in the Lord's parable, what was it that he
did? He prayed saying, Lord, have
mercy on me, the sinner. And the Lord heard them. The
Lord heard. It's not how much you know. It's not how well you're performing. It's none of those things. It's
confidence in the Lord. Confidence in the Lord. Confidence
in Christ. Christ said all things whatsoever
you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. Faith in Him. Through faith in Him. When Christ
is your confidence of salvation, then you have the confidence
to come to His throne of grace for help in time of need. Do
you believe you can come to Christ? Do you believe He is the only
one that can help you in your time of need? That's confidence. That's having assurance of faith
that He is the only one that can help me. And so if you have
not done so, cast all your care on Christ. Put all your confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him alone. And everybody that has confidence
in Christ for our salvation, He has life. He that hath the
Son hath life. And when He is your confidence,
you can come to the Lord in prayer. When He is the confidence of
your salvation, you can come to His throne of grace with confidence.
Now secondly, knowing Christ ever lives to make intercession
for us, knowing we have welcome access through Christ, having
our confidence in Christ, we have confidence that He will
hear us. He will hear us. Do you believe
He will hear you? Do you believe Christ will hear
you? Look at this, verse 14. This
is the confidence that we have in Him. This is not so of just
some believers. This is so of every believer.
This is the confidence we have in Him. That if we ask anything
according to His will, He heareth us. He heareth us. Now notice the qualifier. If
we ask anything according to His will. Now this applies to
this verse and the next verse. I will show you that when we
get to the next one. But here is what Christ taught us. After
this manner, therefore pray you, our Father which is in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth
as it is in heaven. But it is more than simply saying,
thy will be done. Many, many pray a form of prayer
and say, Thy will be done. It's more than that. It's more
than that. One, asking God according to
God's will is to come to God through the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's to pray to God in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, in His authority as
the mediator, as the high priest, as our intercessor. It's to come
to God with with Christ, or through Christ, based on Christ's authority. God's promised to hear him. And
He's promised to meet with us in Him. And to come to God according
to God's will is to come through faith in His Son, in His name. Because that's God's will, for
us to come in the name of Christ. We pray in Christ's name when
we when we submit to His authority as our intercessor, as our mediator,
to be the only one that can present us to God. That's praying in
His name. That's more than even just saying,
in Thy name we pray. It's coming with that assurance
that He's the one that's going to present us to God. That's
God's will, to come through the name of Christ. So that's the
first thing, this is praying, asking God according to His will,
is asking in His Son, in the name of His Son. And two, asking
according to God's will is to pray with a heart that's in submission
to God's will. Submission, first of all, to
His revealed will, which is revealed in this word right here. We see
God's will by reading what this Word says. That's where you see
God's will. There's some particular things
that God is willing for His people to pray for. He speaks of a brother
afflicted in the last chapter of James. He says if a brother
is afflicted, pray for him. If a brother is sick, pray for
him. If a brother has fallen into
sin, pray for him. These are things you come and
ask particularly. Lord, will you bless this brother
who is sick? He goes on, I am not going to
go into 1 John 5 verse 16, but he talks
about a brother there who has fallen into sin. And he says,
pray for that brother. That's God's will. There are
some things that we see that are God's will for us to pray
for. Those are things we pray for in particular. For the gospel to go forth effectually. For Christ's preacher to speak
with boldness the gospel. Those are things we know God's
willing to grant us if we pray for those things. That's God's
will. But then there are things that are secret, God's will that
is secret, the will of His providence, those things He has predestinated.
We don't always know everything that is God's will. When things
start happening in our life, we don't know specifics of what
God's will is in those things. There are things that are hidden,
but we are in submission. to God's will being done in those
things. Whatever He does, our heart is
submissive to it. That's what we want to happen.
Because when the Spirit of God gives you a new heart, He gives
you a broken and a contrite heart. And a broken and a contrite heart
is submissive to God's will. We want God's will to be done
in everything because we know that by His will, He is going
to bring glory to His name. And above all things, that's
what we want. We want God to glorify His name. So we want
God's will to be done. Now, at times, we pray in our
flesh. And we ask God for things that
are just fleshly desires that we want. And when we do that,
The Lord doesn't give us what we ask for. James said, you ask
and receive not because you ask amiss. And here's how we ask
amiss. That you may consume it upon
your lust. It's just a fleshly, earthly
thing we want. It could be something dear, but
it's something that we pray for that is just a fleshly desire.
But even then, God hears His child. He even hears us then. And though He doesn't give us
what we prayed for, the Spirit of God makes us pray. And Christ hears the Spirit of
God and He makes intercession for us. Turn to Romans 8, 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit,
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
You see, even when we are not praying as we ought to pray,
the Spirit of God makes intercession for us. And then Christ who knows
the mind of the Holy Spirit, He makes intercession for us.
Look at verse 27. And He that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of God the Holy Spirit, because He maketh
intercession for the saints according to the will of God. He takes
that which is not according to the will of God and He presents
it according to the will of God for His child. And so that's
why we read, He's able to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for
us. He takes that prayer that's amiss and He makes it right before
God. He intercedes for us before God. There's so much we don't know.
We don't know what to pray for as we alter so many things. And
sometime in the near future, I hope I can have this message
I want to preach to you from that text concerning Lazarus
being raised from the dead. But one thing I love in that
passage is Mary and Martha sent their petition to the Lord Jesus.
And this is what they sent to Him. He whom thou lovest is sick. That was their prayer to the
Christ. He whom thou lovest is sick. That was it. That was it. They didn't say anything else
they wanted. They based it on His love for
Lazarus and they left it there. They left it with Him. He whom
thou lovest is sick. The wisest thing for us to do
is to lay our petition before God asking His will be done and
leave it with Him. Brother Adam, you know when little
Sean comes to you, and I know he'll come up to me sometime
and ask me something. I don't understand what he's
asking for. And I'm sure he'll come to you,
Adam, and he'll say something to you, and maybe he's not asking
you for what he really ought to be asking you. But, you hear
it. You know why? Because that's
your son, coming to you, looking to you to do what is best for
Him. That is what he is talking about
here when he is talking about us coming to God, asking according
to His will. God hears us because we are His
little child, just weak and little and frail and just like that
little boy. But God hears because we are
His son, His child, His daughter coming to Him to do for us what
is best. That is submission to His will.
And this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask
anything according to His will, He heareth us. Just like you
hear your children. Now here is the last thing. Not
only does God hear us when we ask according to His will, we
have our petition. Look at verse 15. And if we know
that He hear us, now you can make a note right here. If we
know that He hear us when we ask according to His will, whatsoever we ask, we know that
we have the petitions that we desired of Him. Now, this is
not what vain religion says about this. We're not talking about
God giving you a new car and a new house and riches just for
the asking. You just ask it and God will
give it. And then they guilt the person that's asking. Well,
if you don't have it, it's because you don't have enough faith.
That's not what we're talking about here at all. The point
of this passage is if we ask anything according to God's will,
then we know that whatever we're asking, We have, right then,
our petition, because God's will shall be done. If you're asking according to
God's will, God will hear you. And not only will He hear you,
if you're asking according to God's will, it doesn't matter
what you're asking. If you're asking God's will to
be done in any situation, whatever it is that you're asking, right
then, when you ask God's will to be done, you have what you've
asked for. Because that's what God is going
to do. Go over to Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36. And while you turn there, I want
to just remind you of some things. From eternity, God predestinated
all things for His people, all blessings for His people in Christ
according to His will. He blessed us with all blessings
in Christ according to His will. And He predestinated all things,
having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
He predestinated us to receive the spirit of adoption, the appointed
hour. He predestinated our redemption
at Calvary. And He used wicked hand, wicked
men with wicked hands did whatsoever He had determined before to be
done. And that's how Christ redeemed us from all our sin. Because
He predestinated it. He sent us the gospel by His
will. Having made known unto us the
mystery of His will. According to His good pleasure
which He purposed in Himself. And it says, And in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. That means nothing shall change
God's will. Nothing. In Isaiah 46.10, he
says, God declares the end from the beginning. from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
I will do all My pleasure. Yea, I have spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. Nothing changes God's will. Now,
why then do we pray? What's the purpose then of praying?
If nothing is going to change God's will, why pray? Be sure
to get this, God uses prayer to make His child submit to God's
will. That's why. God uses the means
of prayer, not for us to change God, for God to change us, to
bring us into submission to His will. He makes us ask that God's
will be done. Now I want you to look here in
Ezekiel 36 at all these things God said He will do. These are
just like those things I read to you now from Ephesians 1.
Now listen to this, verse 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you a heart of flesh, and I will put My Spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments
and do them. And you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people, and
I will be your God. I will also save you from all
your uncleanness, and I will call for the corn, and will increase
it, and lay no famine upon you, and I will multiply the fruit
of the tree and the increase of the field, that you shall
receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen." Now that's
a promise of God to you and me sitting right here right now.
This is what God is willing to do. This is His will that shall
stand and can't be changed. Look at verse 36. Then the heathen
that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build
the ruined places and plant that that was desolate. I the Lord
have spoken it and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord God. I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. God says, I will
do this. But you are going to ask Me to
do my will. Everything he just spoke about
is God's predestination. This is what God has predestinated
that shall come to pass and this is God who works all things after
the counsel of His own will. Men go around saying prayer changes
things. Well, it doesn't change God.
It doesn't change God's will. He said, ìMy counsel shall stand.
I will do all my good pleasure.î So then who does prayer change?
It changes Godís people. It brings you into submission
to Godís will. Weíll either be brought into
submission and bow to Godís way of salvation, Godís way of predestination,
Godís way of providence, everything according to Godís will and weíll
bow to Godís will Or we'll go on boasting about our will and
God will send us to hell. That's it. You're going to bow
to God or you're going to perish. But see, for His child, God will
bring us into submission to God's will. He said, I'm going to cause
you to walk in my staff. I'm going to cause you to walk
in my predestinated ordinances that I've already determined
to be done, that I'm bringing to pass every second of every
day. I'm going to make you walk in my will, God said. See, prayer is God making His
people submit our will to God's will. And so we know that if
we know He hears us when we pray according to His will, then whatsoever
we ask according to His will, we know right then we have the
petition that we've asked for. When we ask God's will be done
and whatsoever it is we ask, from that moment we have the
petitions we desired of Him. Now brethren, all of us ask God's
will be done toward little Chloe. All of us ask God's will be done
toward her. I heard you pray here asking
God's will be done. That was your heart and that
was your prayer. It came out in your prayer. That
was my heart and it came out in our prayer. Lord, Your will
be done. Now, our will was for Him to
heal her. That's what we wanted. But when
we prayed that, we prayed, God, Thy will be done. And since our desire was God's
will being done, we had our petitions that we desired of Him right
then when we prayed for it. Because that's all that God was
going to do, was His will. God's will is the only thing
God does. But what if it had been God's will not to heal her? It would have been right and
it would have been best. And God would have given us grace
to submit to His will. I've seen that happen with some
dear brethren, where everybody prayed, God's will be done, and
Lord, we ask you to heal this person, if it's your will. But
it wasn't His will. But we got what we asked for. God did His will. And He gave
everybody involved grace to submit to His will. If what we ask is
not God's will, God won't give His child what we ask. If what
we're asking is not God's will, He will not give us what we're
asking. But by God doing His will, God makes us submit to
His will and He teaches us what is best and He gives us what
we really want and brings us to rejoice in it. I'll give you
a couple of examples. Paul said, lest I should be exalted
above measure through all this abundance of revelation, God
gave me a thorn in the flesh. And he said, and I prayed, I
asked God three times to remove it. And God didn't remove it.
It wasn't God's will to remove it. But by not removing it, God
taught him, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. And Paul was brought to say,
Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. That was better
for Paul than if God would have removed the thorn in the flesh.
He said, I take pleasures in infirmities, therefore, because
God didn't remove it. I take pleasure in infirmities,
reproaches, necessities, persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake.
Because when I'm weak, then I'm strong. But just imagine if God
had given Paul what Paul wanted. Paul would have been puffed up
in the flesh. He would have never known God's grace is sufficient.
He would have never found out that when he's weak, then he's
strong because Christ is his strength. He wouldn't have known
those things. By God doing His will, Paul found
out much, he found much greater rejoicing in the Lord than he
would have had otherwise. Sometimes you young people, you
set your affection on things that your parents give you. You
give a child, you know, they give you a video game. And you
got your affection. So set on that video game that
when your parents call you to do a chore, do this or that,
you don't show them any reverence because you focused on that game.
And so your parents take away the video game. And you start
begging them to have it back. Just like we beg God for things
that He's taken from us or something He's chasing us with in this
life and we start asking God for it. But your father knows
you don't really want the video game. That's not what you really
want. So your father, he doesn't give
you what you're asking for. Because that's not what you really
want. And by not giving you what you
asked for, he gave you what you really want. Because you really
want a faithful father who loves you and does what's best for
you. And that's what he gave you instead.
And that's how it is with God. The psalmist said, if I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But verily
God hath heard me. When he talks about God hearing
us, he's talking about God giving what we asked for. God hath not
heard me. If I regard iniquity, if what
I'm wanting is just to consume it on my lust, God will not hear
me. He will not grant me that. But in not granting me that,
he says, verily God hath heard me. And He hath attended to the
voice of my prayer. Blessed be God which hath not
turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me. In other words,
by God not giving us what we ask for, that's some of the greatest
blessing we could have from God. By God doing His will rather
than our will, we're given a faithful Father. And that's what we really
want. That's what we really want. Our
Lord said, if a son shall ask bread, if you have a son and
he asks of you bread, will you give him a stone? If he asks
fish, will you give him a serpent? If he asks for an egg, will you
offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
Him? Sometimes He gives us something
totally opposite to what we ask Him, but it's better than what
we ask Him for. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
our Lord Jesus Christ was praying right. He was praying in the
right spirit. He was praying for the right thing. And this
was His prayer. Oh my Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou will.
And so God our Father did His will. He didn't make the cup pass from
our substitute. Instead, He made him sin for
His elect. He made him a curse for us. God
answered his prayer by doing what He asked God to do. God
did His will. Was it better? Was it better
than if He had taken that cup from him? By giving him His will,
by God doing His will, Just as our substitute asks, God brought
glory to His name and the salvation of all His elect people when
Christ justified us from our sins on Calvary's cross. Oh,
it was so much better, wasn't it? That's how it is every time. Every time. If we pray for something,
this really hits home when we deal with our children or our
loved ones and death. If it's a believer, brethren,
and He doesn't heal them physically, He's made them all together whole.
That's far better. And that's far better than giving
us what we wanted. And whatever it is, anything
less than that, whatever it is, just like on the cross, whatever
God's willing to come to pass is always better. than what it
was that we may have been asking for when we said, but Thy will
be done. So, when we ask that, Thy will
be done, we all should ask, Lord, and if Your will is something
that's going to hurt me, would You give me grace to submit to
Your will? Because I need that. But I know
this about our Lord, if He does something and it's going to hurt
you, It is always going to be better for you. It is always
going to be more for His glory and for our good. But at the
time, it hurts. But I know this, if He does that,
He will give you grace to bear that. He will give you grace
to bear that. So this helps us understand all
those different promises of God concerning prayer. He said in
one place, whatever we ask, we receive of Him. He says, Whatsoever
you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son. But now you see what He is talking
about. It is going to always be according to God's will. And it is always going to be
for the betterment, the edifying of His people. Do you always
want to know you have the petition that you desire of God? Do you
always want to know you have the petitions that you are praying
for? then let this be the petition we desire. God, Thy will be done. If that's our petition, He says,
this is the confidence we have that if we ask anything according
to His will, He hears us. And we know that if He hears
us, whatsoever we ask according to His will, we know we have
the petition. that we desired of Him. He knows
what's best. He's going to do what's good
for His glory and for our good. Because what we really want above
everything else is a faithful, heavenly Father. And that's what
He's going to be to His people. Amen.