Don, I appreciate that. There is taught to every regenerated child
of God. Every regenerated sheep Almighty God has sheep that He,
as brother Don, has absolutely, clearly set forth, that He has
everlastingly loved. Chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, His people, Loved them. Justified them freely by grace
in Christ. Christ. The grace of God. In time they were brought into
this world. He preserved them. Boy, how many incidents did I
think about when you said that? I just, man, just think, I thought. God who never changes. Brother Scott told me after I
got there, I've told Brother Don this, I know I've told Brother
Clay this, he said, he said, when you prepare, when you're
preparing, as you're preparing, as you're going through your
week, thinking, seeking, praying, asking, when you sit down and
study, you open that Bible, it's your commentaries, He said, you lay down the immutability
of God and you build everything that you prepare on that. God
never changes. Does He love His people now?
He's always loved them. Does He do them good now?
He's always done them good. After God's people are called
out of darkness, the Spirit of God who has given
them a new heart, a new spirit, regenerated them, born again, just like a baby that is brought
forth on the day of its birth cries. God's people cry in prayer unto the Lord. God's people pray. They desire you that are here
today called out of darkness, you that hear today that believe
Him, that He's given you life. You woke up this morning. If
not this morning, you have. And before you ever got out of
bed, you called upon Him. He's placed
you, as Brother Don said, in a situation where the messenger
of Satan buffeted you, buffets you, buffets you. And that's brought back to your
mind. You talked to the Lord about it. You ate breakfast. You want to thank the Lord. Before
you got here today, you thought about the Word of God that will
be preached. He wanted to talk to God about
it. He wanted to pray about it. Before these services started,
we had a word of prayer. We'll have a closing word of
prayer. And that's not just ritual. I
know that this world, ritualistically, we want to pray. Turn with me to Matthew 6. I'm
going to preach out of Romans 15, Lord willing. Dawn, that message blessed me.
My heart was stirred. Matthew 6. I understand it. We come together. We're going to pray together.
We want to talk to God. You have a desire. A believer
has a desire. In the time that you set aside,
you try to get alone, and you truly desire, I want some intimacy. Lord, would You help me? I don't know what to say. Lord, I don't know how to express. I would desire an intimate time
with you. Lord, I'm just so sick of myself.
I'm just so sick. I can't even keep a conversation
in my mind without going, would you help me? Men stand up and
they've got an arrogant attitude. They stand, the scripture says,
in the synagogues, they stand on the corners and they come
together in a restaurant They've got a group of people and they're
going to make a big show. And they're going to pray. And I understand it. It's seen
of men. That's what the Lord said. Matthew
6 verse 5, 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." I hope everybody's looking because
I'm praying. 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." Prayer. I read of our Lord praying all
night. I struggled to pray a moment. Prayer. Pray without ceasing. I know that that's the heart
of a believer. A believer is going to pray.
He desires to pray. He's got a heart that just longs
to commune with Him who is His life. Who is life. His life. My life. It's that which a believer exercises
and readily admits. That he feels himself so weak
and frail. The expression of the new heart
that hungers to approach Him who has everlastingly loved Him,
saved Him, keeps Him. I just want to talk to Him. When a believer prays, Turn to
Romans 15. Paul was writing to the church
in Rome. Verse 30, he said, Now I beseech
you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love
of the Spirit. Now think why he asked them what
he asked them. for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake,
and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with
me in prayers to God for me." Three things that a believer
truly believes. He struggles, he strives, he
asks, he seeks, He wants to pray aright. He wants to ask consistently. There's three things that a believer
believes when he prays. In all of his struggle, in all
of his seeking to speak to and to be in communion with Almighty God, Who, when He even considers him,
when I consider the heavens, what
is man? That you're mindful of Him. Stars are not pure in your sight. And to hear of Him who says to
His bride in Song of Solomon, You've ravished me with one of
Your eyes. Lord, I just want to talk to
You. Here's the first thing they believe
when they pray. They believe that Almighty God hears. They believe He hears. This is not just a ritual. First meeting, gosh, man, Clay. It's not just a start of a tradition. This may be the last meeting
that's ever held with this group of people. Brother Don just said
it may be over. This may be it. Today may be
the last day. but to believe that Almighty
God hears. Scripture sets forth in the book
of 2 Kings. There was a man, his name was
Hezekiah. And Hezekiah the king got a letter
one day from a fellow named Seneca Ribb. 2 Kings 19. You want to turn there. And Seneca
Ribb told him, basically, I've pretty well run the gamut on
running over everybody that got in my way. And he said, I'm going to give
you send you notice that I'm getting ready to take
over." And he sent this letter to Hezekiah the king, Sennacherib,
the evil king, sent. 2 Kings 19.10, Thus shall you
speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom
thou trustest deceived thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be
delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou
hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands
by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered." Hezekiah got that letter and
he took the letter And the Scripture says, beginning in verse 14,
Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers
and read it. Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord and
spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the
Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwelleth between
the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms
of the earth. Thou hast made heaven and earth.
This is what a believer believes concerning the one to whom he
speaks, your God. You are the sovereign God. You are the God. I am not speaking to someone
that is a God. I am speaking to God Almighty. Bow down thine ear and hear. Don, right here, this is what
a believer says. You talked just a minute ago
about the Scriptures reveal what a believer really wants to say. This is what a believer wants
to say. Lord, would you bow down your ear and
hear? Open, Lord, thine eyes and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib
which hath sent him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord,
the kings of Assyria had destroyed the nations and their lands and
had cast their gods into the fire, but they were no gods.
But the work of men's hands, wood and stone, therefore they
have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God,
I beseech Thee, save Thou us out of His hand. that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even
thou only. Then Isaiah, the son of Amos,
sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
that which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, king
of Assyria, I have heard." Can you imagine? Can you absolutely imagine God
Almighty, who absolutely, without question,
the heart of God's people. You're God. You can do what you
do as you will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants
of the earth. No one stays your hand. Nobody
questions you. Lord, you speak, and it is, it
just... And Sennacherib sent this letter. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord,
Lord, would you bow down your ears? Lord, would you hear? Lord, would you... And Isaiah
said, the Lord said, for me to tell you, I heard you. Who am I? Who am I? I'll tell you who I am. I am
exactly who God says I am. He said, I set my love upon you. I chose you. I sanctified you. I chose you and my son, my son
stood, died. I forsook him for you. And I heard you. Here's the second thing that
a believer believes. He believes that God cares. He believes He hears and He believes
He cares. 1 Peter 5, 7, Casting all your
care upon Him, for He careth for you. I have four children. Four children that Almighty God
has blessed me with. Four children
that I'm convinced, a few of you here know my kids. Everyone
I know wants to think the best of their kids, speak highly of
them. But I have four children that
I truly believe that God's called out of darkness. God Almighty
is blessed. And I look forward to hearing
from them, talk to them often. These are my kids. And do you
know what? I care for them. I care for them. If one of them asked me for some
bread, I'm not going to give them a rock. One of them asked me for a fish,
I'm not going to give them a snake. You know why? I love them. And
I care for them. And I will do all that is within
my power for them. And my mind is absolutely lost
in the wonder that God Almighty would care. The hireling, the Lord said,
fleeth because he's a hireling and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know
my sheep. I am known of mine, as the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. Thirdly, a believer believes that God's
able, that He is able to do according to His will all that is profitable
for the temporal and eternal good of His people. The Apostle
in 2 Corinthians 9.8 says, God is able to make all grace abound
toward you that ye always having all sufficiency and all things
may abound to every good work. Whatever the fullness of the
Scripture through which the Apostle Paul just... God's able to make all grace abound toward
you. That you always having all sufficiency
and all things. Whatever is best for me right
now. Whatever is my need and is best
for me. But what is always best for me
is not what I would have chosen. I may go to a doctor's office
and hear something that I just, that wasn't what I thought. If you'd have left it up to me,
I wouldn't have chosen that. But God Almighty is able to make
all grace abound toward me. Me. By Him, having all sufficiency
in all things may abound at every good part. It's good that I've
been afflicted. that I might learn of His statutes. Paul said to the church there
in Romans 15, I beseech you, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake,
for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in
your prayers to God for me. I want you to turn to Ezekiel
36. I would say one of, is for me,
one of those passages of Scripture. You know, we think about, we
stand here this weekend, who are we speaking concerning? We're
concerning God Almighty, who we know. We're convinced. We know that He is who He says
He is. He's not trying to do anything.
He's not trying to accomplish anything. He's not trying to
save anything. He shall save His people. In Ezekiel 36, The Lord, beginning in verse
25, this is what He said that He was going to do concerning
His people. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean. Oh, the blood of Christ that
cleanses us from all sin. From all your filthiness, 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. I'll give you a heart
of flesh. I will put my spirit within you. I'll cause you to
walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them.
You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall
be my people. I will be your God. I will also
save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the corn. I will
increase it. Lay no famine upon you. I will
multiply the fruit of the tree, the increase of the field. You
shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings
that were not good, and you shall loathe yourselves in your own
sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for
your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God. Yet known unto you,
be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.
Thus saith the Lord God in the day, that I shall have cleansed
you from all your iniquities. I will also cause you to dwell
in the cities, and the waste shall be builded, and the desolate
land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in sight of all
that passed by. And they shall say, This land
that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, and
the waste of desolate and ruined cities have become fenced and
inhabited. And the heathen that are left
round about you shall know that I, the Lord, builded ruined places
and plant that which is desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it.
I will do it. Oh, I love the surety of God's
Word. I will, you shall. I will do
this and you shall do this. And I will call and it will and
I shall. And I say, Lord, thank You for
that. Thank You, blessed God. Ruler
of heaven and earth. Verse 37, Thus saith the Lord
God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to
do it for them. I will increase them with men
like a flock, as the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem. In
her solemn feast, so shall the way cities be filled with flocks
of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord." I'm going to. I will. I shall. You will come. I shall come. I have called you.
I've chosen you. Yet for all these things will
I be inquired of? You will ask. And Almighty God
in His infinite mercy and grace, who has called us by grace, taught
us by grace, kept us by grace, say, I will never leave you and
I'll never forsake you. And God's people say, Lord, keep
me. I will be the help. Lord, would
you help me? My spirit, the Lord said, He'll teach you of all things
concerning me. And the believer says, Lord,
teach me. Help me. Lord, I need you. Take not thy spirit from Me." God's people, they seek Him,
ask Him, pray. I want you to turn with me in
closing to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 12. 1 Samuel 12 verse 20, And Samuel said unto
the people, Fear not, ye have done all this wickedness,
yet turn not aside from the following of the Lord. But serve the Lord
with all your heart, and turn ye not aside But then should
you go after vain things which cannot profit or deliver, for
they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake
His people for His great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord
to make you His people." Listen to the promise that was just
made. will not forsake His people for
His great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make
you His people." Samuel says, moreover as for
me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease
Him to pray for you. But I will teach you the good
and right way. Only fear the Lord. Serve Him
in truth with all your heart. For consider how great things
He hath done for you. If you shall still do wickedness,
you shall be consumed, both ye and your king. He who has everlastingly loved us, kept
us, called us out of darkness, taught us, brought us together
this morning. How surely we are convinced of
His goodness to His people. Will He do His people good? Yes,
He will. I will, I will, I will. You ask
Him. You have kids? Kids that know
Him not. You say, well, I know the Lord
is going to save His people. I know He's going to save His
people. You ask Him for yours. I'm going to bless, I'm going
to bless my people. Pray for that man right there.
Pray for him. Lord, would you bless our pastor.
Yet with all these things will I be inquired of, saith the Lord.
For Christ's sake, Paul said, I beseech you, strive for Christ's
sake, for the peace of God's people, strive together with
me in prayer.