May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn
to the Gospel of Luke and chapter 11, and we'll just read a clause
in the middle of the first verse. The 11th chapter of the Gospel
of Luke, and a clause in the first verse, which is, Lord teach
us to pray. a question it was, that was put
to the Lord Jesus by one of his disciples. And we perhaps should be encouraged
by such a statement as that, because the disciples had had
many opportunities, without doubt, to observe the prayers of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And indeed he had given that
prayer in the Sermon on the Mount and told them how they should
pray. And now this disciple asks the
Lord. He's just ceased praying. They've heard his prayer and
they say, Lord teach us to pray. And the Lord Jesus very graciously
immediately responded to that request and he set forth what
we might term the pattern of prayer. And then he follows on,
further on in this chapter, with important considerations so that
we might not be discouraged in our prayer life. But he commences
here by saying When ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name, 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. Now, this prayer is very, very
similar to the one the Lord Jesus spoke of in the sixth chapter
of Matthew. But it is not identical. And
we should be encouraged because of that to believe, therefore,
that we do not have just a form of words that we must follow,
as it were, in paraphasion. But there is just a pattern of
words that we have as an example for us. as we come in prayer
to our God. But we are thankful that the
Lord does give us a pattern here and perhaps many people in the
world today are familiar with the pattern of this prayer is
of course often referred to as the Lord's Prayer and so it is
the Lord's Prayer. But we should be conscious of
the direction that we're given in these words. And so the Lord
commences and says Our Father, which art in heaven." And it
is interesting that sometimes there seems a reluctance to address
God in this way. And yet these are the very words
that the Lord Jesus adopted, not only here but also in the
6th of Matthew, to come in this way, to say, Our Father, which
art in heaven. because it is our Father which
we are coming to. And it is our Father because
we are the children of God. And as we come, we should come
as little children. And little children, they come
to their natural Father. That's obvious, isn't it? We
see it. It's evident. And so, here we have a gracious
encouragement to us today to come to our Father. Now, we know also, of course,
through the Word of God, that we can only come through the
one mediator to our Father in Heaven, and that mediator is,
of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way that you
and I can come in prayer to our Father, and the reason for that
is that our Father is a holy God, and we are unholy, and therefore
we cannot approach directly unto our Father in Heaven, but we
can come through the merits of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have this wonderful introduction
to come like this, when you pray, say, Our Father, which art in
heaven. It is, therefore, our heavenly
Father. It is that spiritual Father who
does live and reign, that God who ever was, the eternal God,
who was in time past. He was the same yesterday and
today and forever. He is the eternal God. And it
is therefore our privilege today to come to that God who is eternal. Our Father which art in heaven. We need to come rightly. We need
to come reverently. Because this God is indeed sanctified. He is holy. So the Lord tells
us, hallowed be thy name. We are to remember and to acknowledge
that we come before a holy God. And it is a wonderful privilege
for us as unworthy sinners to approach unto the majesty on
high. But we should realize we need
to come in a reverent way. That doesn't
mean to say that we have to adopt a special form We can pray, of
course, in any posture and in any position, but we need to
come in a reverential way, realising that we are approaching the Majesty
on High, that God who holds our breath in His hand, that God
who could instantly call us from this earth, and yet we have this
great God who understands and knows all about us. So it is
a blessing to come therefore in this way and to realise, yes,
hallowed be thy name. And therefore we have a gracious
introduction as how we are to approach unto God. We are to
come and acknowledge his greatness and who he is, before we start
asking and requesting. And then the Lord tells us to
ask in this way, thy kingdom come. This obviously has a double
aspect. It has an aspect where we are
asking the Lord that his kingdom might come into our hearts. That
means that He might reveal himself unto us as our God, as our great
and glorious God. Thy kingdom come. The kingdom
of God to come into our heart. Well, this of course strikes
immediately the centre really of religion, isn't it? It's not
just initially asking for temporal blessings. Now we do have needs
for temporal blessings and we come on to that in a moment.
He gives us this order really of coming to God and it is a
good order that we ask in this way, Thy kingdom come. Oh Lord, I need to know the blessing
of the Lord in my own soul and it's a very, we might think,
a broad statement and it is really. Because what it means is that
as the Lord's Kingdom may come upon us and into our hearts,
it comes in a different way to each person. There is a general
way, but there is a specific way to each one of us. And the Lord knows what that
will be and how it will be. Sometimes we may prescribe a
certain scheme that we have hatched up in our mind, our preconceived
idea. But here we have this clear statement,
Thy kingdom come. Oh Lord, come to me. Come to me. Thy kingdom come. Well, it's a prayer, you know,
which we will have to often pray. It may be a prayer that we pray
initially in our in our life. And the interesting consideration
is that if we truly pray this prayer, Thy Kingdom Come, if
that emanates from our heart, it must be because that prayer
is indicted by the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore we can believe
that the Lord has a good seed in our heart, a seed to seek
Him. In this way, Thy Kingdom come."
Well, it will be a blessing, won't it, for us today if we
can observe the Lord's favour toward us in giving us the true
desire to pray in this way. Thy kingdom come. And not only
has that then a personal application to us, it also has an application
to the Lord coming and returning in all his glory upon this earth. And this may seem something which
we may be reluctant to pray for. Thy kingdom come. The Kingdom
of the Lord to come. When the end of all things on
this little world comes about, Thy Kingdom come. That may not be very easy for
you and me to pray, because we may not want the Lord's Kingdom
to come. We may want to continue our life.
We want to continue with the projects which we are planning
or which we are involved in. and to have these come to an
end, that they don't actually occur, might not be the things
that we really want to desire. Well, it would be a wonderful
blessing if the Spirit of God indicts prayer in this way and
makes us willing for His Kingdom to come. Thy Kingdom come. So that's not only in a natural
spiritual way, and in a continual spiritual way, but also to desire
that the Lord will come again, in all his glory, in return,
as he has said, that we shall see him come in light manner.
When every eye shall see him, thy kingdom come. And perhaps
we are not prepared, are not willing, to ask the Lord to come
in his way. Thy kingdom come. Well, there
is then a reason to pray for the next statement that we have
here. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done. Thy will be done. You know, they're
probably familiar words, aren't they, to most of us. Thy will
be done. but often wonder how really meaningful
they are in our individual lives. If we are really honest in our
hearts to come in this way and to say, Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Not our will,
but Thy will. The will of God in our lives. Thy will be done. It's a very
simple statement, isn't it? All these statements are really
very simple. And we are grateful to the Lord
that they are simple. But to come in this way and to
be able to say, Thy will be done. Now, we know, as he says, the
Lord's will is done in heaven. We know in heaven there's no
sin, there's no opposition. We know that the angels in heaven
bow down and do the Lord's bidding, and there's no anger, there's
no disagreement, there is complete agreement in everything that
occurs in heaven. And so the Lord tells us, thy
will be done as in heaven, so in earth. That means so in your
life and my life. And that means so in everything
that occurs in this world. And we may sometimes become very
troubled and very concerned about all the very difficult things
which occur in the world and perhaps no more than occurring
at the present time. We look round and we perhaps
are distressed, well I'm distressed anyway, and I look round and
see the evil and the inroads of Satan. But may such a statement
as this calm our minds, as we are able to come to God and pray
like this, Thy will be done in earth. The will of God be done. Because then we can believe indeed
that everything is working out in accordance with the gracious
God's wonderful plan for mankind. And the wonderful plan there
is for his honour and for his glory. And so to come in this
way, not only then in our own little lives, but also in a grace
and general way with regards to the world at large. Thy will
be done. Well, may God give us grace to
pray like this. As I say, they are very familiar
statements. But our heart is very often deceitful
and often we're foolish in our own estimation of our own sincerity. We can sometimes think we're
sincere in our prayers, but sometimes we need to closely examine them
to understand the true sincerity, that whether we are sincere in
our prayers. And so as we pray like this,
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Well, it's important,
isn't it, that it is so, that we're honest. You see, we come
like this, and we may have said, like this disciple, Lord, teach
us to pray, Lord, teach me to pray. I don't seem to have the
right words. I just seem confused sometimes. I just don't seem to have the
the real desires I should. Lord, do help me, Lord, teach
me to pray. And then just think of these,
this development we have here, this pattern that the Lord has
given to us. And to be able to come from our
hearts and pray in this way would be a wonderful favour. It would
be the mercy of the Lord if he gives us the real desire to pray
honestly in such a way as this, Thy will be done, as in heaven,
so in earth. And so having developed our position
like this then, to bow down to the Great God, the Holy God,
to acknowledge that we desire His Kingdom to come, and that
His will be done, And he comes and says, give us day by day
our daily bread. Well, we can of course look upon
this in a double aspect as well. Firstly, we can think of it in
our natural life. We do need natural provisions,
don't we? Perhaps in our western world
today, In the environment we live, there doesn't seem to be
quite the same urgency and prayer for daily supply of food as perhaps
there was a century or so ago in our nation when there was
much poverty. But there is still much poverty
in the world. And so, let us not forget to pray like this. Let us not just think, well,
my bread is secure. everything, I have much and I
have plenty and I don't really need to pray a prayer like this.
Well, the Lord has set it as a template for us and he's told
us, give us day by day our daily bread. I believe as we may therefore
realise that everything we have, God supplies. We should not think
that We are sufficient of ourselves. We might be tempted to if we
possess many things. We may be tempted to think, well,
I needn't really pray for that today because I have it all.
The Lord might take it all away. And so it's important that we
follow this word and give us day by day our daily bread to
show us that it is God that supplies our need. We don't supply ourselves. And I believe in doing it this
way, it will soften our heart as we realise the Lord supplies
our needs. Give us, day by day, our daily
bread. The Lord supplied Israel, didn't
he? In the wilderness, day by day, with manna. There was that
supply, a part of course from the 7th day, the Sabbath day
when there wasn't that supply because they had to go and collect
it on the sixth day. And we see then, the same is
today. Israel passing through the wilderness.
We're passing through the wilderness. And we need God to supply our
needs day by day, in a natural way. And also, of course, we
need spiritual food, don't we? We need spiritual bread, don't
we? And the Lord says here, give
us day by day our daily bread. We need spiritual food day by
day. And so we see there the need
to pray in this way, because we can sometimes be very hard-hearted
and very lukewarm really, in not praying for a situation like
this. that we might be given spiritual
food in the form of bread, and again, let's just analyse that. Bread is very simple fare, isn't
it? But it's very adequate. It's that which our body needs.
And so as we pray in these terms, to think of the Lord supplying
our need in this way, day by day, we might think, well, that's
the same food I had yesterday. Is it that which keeps alive
our soul? And as we consider it and ponder
it, what is it? It must be, must it not, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I am the bread of life. Surely then our prayer must be
to this end, that we might, day by day, be blessed with that
feeding upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That means to consider what he's
done, consider his glorious work, wonderful plan of salvation,
his great gift to mankind, the gift of eternal life, to be fed
with his spiritual food day by day, so that our souls may be
revived. We live in an evil world. We
live in a world where we're often bowed down perhaps like Martha
was, cumbered about with much serving. Remember, the Lord said,
Mary hath chosen that good path. Where was she? At the feet of
Jesus. She was listening to His words.
And so, day by day, may you and I be concerned to hear the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore pray like this. Oh,
give us, day by day, our daily bread. day by day, a touch from
the Lord Jesus Christ, a view of the suffering Saviour, a view
of Calvary, daily bread, daily food. Oh, my friends, a spiritual
man would not be weary of this food. He won't think it's, well,
so repetitive to get fed up with it. the healthy, lively soul
will feast upon Christ. And so, give us day by day our
daily bread and then forgive us our sins. Again, there may
be the temptation to think, well, the Lord of course has died for
me and all my sins are forgiven. Well, that's right and true of
course. But we sin every day. Sad, sad it is that we are deep-dyed
sinners and we don't really seem to improve. As I ponder that,
I believe there is a growth in grace, I believe there is a turning
away from sin and as the Lord gives us grace to to do just
that, but I believe then that is balanced by the Spirit of
God revealing to us more sin. Sins that we never knew existed
in our hearts. We never knew we were occupied
in. And therefore we have to come
day by day and to cry like this, O Lord, forgive us our sins. We need that forgiveness. We
need the the cleansing blood of Christ, apply to our conscience,
and take away our sins. Yes, oh, says the Lord, this
is the way to pray, and forgive us our sins. Well, the Lord has
shown us our sins. We'll need that forgiveness.
And the Spirit of God does show us our sins, and it shows us
that perhaps we're like those lepers. What do they have to
do? They cried out, unclean, unclean. Or perhaps that's true of us.
We look into our hearts, we come and say, Lord, I'm unclean, unclean,
unclean. Therefore, we understand the
need to come and pray like this, forgive us our sins. Yes, to
be indeed washed, to be cleansed from all our sin. Simple, isn't
it? Simple prayer, isn't it? My friends,
as the Spirit of God touches our heart and reveals to us our
Then we shall flee to that fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Flee to the Saviour and forgive
us our sins. And then the Lord draws our attention
to an important consideration. For we also forgive everyone
that is indebted to us, or everyone that sins against us. So we have
to constantly, perhaps, remember to forgive others. There was an occasion when the
man came to the Lord Jesus and said, how often should I forgive
my brother? Seven times? The Lord said, I
say unto you, seventy times seven. Well, we know in simple terms
that's 490. Really what it means is a continual
forgiving. We are never to hold back forgiveness
to one another. We surely expect the Lord to
forgive us, don't we? And we've been pretty base people,
haven't we? And we've sinned against God,
haven't we? Again and again. And we expect God to forgive
us. So even if people sin against us, again and again, keep on
forgiving them. Keep on, again and again. Never hold anything back. And pray for this right spirit. So he says, for we also forgive
everyone That is indebted to us. It's spoken here as a statement. As though, if we're asking for
forgiveness, we have automatically, in our lives, forgiven any that
have sinned against us. Oh, my friends, you see, I believe
the world would be so different, wouldn't it, if we were able
to follow the gracious instructions of our Saviour here. Yes, there
are those who may aggravate us. There are those who may constantly,
as it were, sin against us. Well, here's the Word of God.
And you know, we need much grace to pray for this and to observe
it and to desire it, that we might be true Christ-like in
our lives. And so he says, and forgive everyone
that is indebted to us. And then he comes and tells us,
and lead us not into temptation. What a good statement this is. Oh, how many temptations there
are, aren't there? We don't want to be led into
temptation, do we? Lead us not into temptation. We see them, don't we? All around
us. Temptations. And we easily fall into temptation. Don't forget the devil is always
on the outlook to produce something into which you and I will fall.
He always pretends to us, well you can just do that, And his
usual phrase is like this, there's no harm in it. It's the normal
way he phrases things. There's no harm in it. Well,
there is harm if we move away from the clear leading and direction
and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. lead us not into temptation. And there are those things in
our lives which the devil is very aware of. He knows how weak
we are with regard to certain things. Yes, very easily we can
find ourselves ensnared. And as I said sometimes, those
things which are temptation to me, might not be a temptation
to you and vice versa. Sometimes which may on the surface
appear to be very innocent. That's what they want us to think.
They're innocent. We can become involved in them.
We can walk in that way. There's nothing wrong in it.
We find very quickly we are ensnared. Lead us not into temptation. The gracious words here of the
Saviour himself. And how we need this, to pray
this prayer don't we? Constantly. We may think ourselves strong
and perhaps again one of the biggest temptations that the
devil puts before us is we see someone else doing something
and we foolishly say, I would never do that. My friends, that
you and I would have to prove if we fall into that temptation. And say words like that, we will
very soon prove how weak we are. Because really that was just
like Peter, wasn't it? When he said he would die for
the Lord. He would never deny the Lord. Well, he was a strong character.
He knew his own strength. He would never do that. Peter very quickly learnt his
weakness. My friends, that applies today.
Peter is not the only person. God chose us today. We are no
better. Never say, I would never do that. But pray earnestly for this.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, every
evil. There's evil around us, isn't
there? We live in an evil world, don't we? We have an evil heart. Evil is all around us. And so
we see these gracious words of the Saviour, deliver, deliver,
I will be delivered from evil. It's a good prayer, isn't it?
Deliver us from evil. Now then, if we come here in
this way and pray in this way, with this template before us.
Again, it does not have to be identical words. We have a template
here in perhaps the order and what we should pray and how we
should pray. So may we be blessed with following
the example of this prayer. Moving on just briefly, The Lord
then, as he speaks in these verses, remember the request was, Lord
teach us to pray, and he gives the example of a man coming and
asking for some bread to eat. And well, the example is that
the person initially appeared not to want to agree with the
request, but because this person carried on requesting it. Eventually
this man got up and gave him the food he wanted. And the evidence
there is that we should not faint in our prayers. We should press
on, press on, because the Lord will hear and the Lord will indeed
grant us our requests if they are in accordance with his will,
because The Lord said this, I say unto you, though he will not
rise and give him because he is his friend, yet, because of
his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needed.
And I say unto you, ask, 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." Those are encouraging words, aren't they? These are
the words of the Saviour. We may perhaps be willing to
give up, willing to turn away and say, well, I shan't pray
any more. There's no point in praying.
God doesn't hear my prayers. God does hear your prayers. God
does hear. Just because He hasn't answered,
in accordance with your timetable. Don't give up. Encouragement
is, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that seeketh findeth, and him that knocketh,
it shall be opened unto you. Well, he just goes on then to
say about the gifts that the Lord gives. Would he give wrong
things? No. If he being evil, know how
to give good gifts unto your children. How much more? It's a lovely expression, isn't
it? How much more should your Heavenly Father, who you pray
to, give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Well, it's a wonderful
statement, isn't it? So we have here then, this morning
set before us, this gracious answer given to this disciple. Lord, teach us to pray. Well, my friends, here's the
evidence, here's the testimony, here's the template. May we be
encouraged by it. May we believe the words of the
Lord. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus. My friends, they are true. May
we not fall to the ground. May we have faith to lay hold
of them. And may we know the blessing
of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, encouraging us in our prayer
life to continue in this way, and to not give up, but to pursue
the narrow way, till Him, by faith, we view. Amen.