Let us turn once again to the
Word of God and turning now to the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews
in Hebrews 11 and verse 6. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
6. I'm sure a familiar word, a familiar
text. But without faith it is impossible
to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11, 6 But without faith
it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must
believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. As I said, they are familiar
words. The subject matter that we come
to consider then is that of the prayer of faith. It's told quite plainly in the
opening clause of the verse that without faith it is impossible
to please Him. The whole chapter, of course,
is dealing with the subject matter of faith. In the opening verse
we read something of the definition of what faith is, the substance. The margin says the ground or
the confidence of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. It's the only definition of faith
that we really find anywhere here in Holy Scripture. But it
introduces us to this remarkable chapter in which the Apostle
goes on to speak of many examples of faith as he relates something
of the experiences and the life of faith of those from the Old
Testament dispensation. He refers to the very beginning,
Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, And so he goes through those
great saints of the Old Testament Scripture and what they were
able to accomplish by faith. And without faith we're told
it is impossible to please God. In Romans 14 Paul says that whatsoever
is not of faith is sin and it is the truth that unbelief is
the greatest sin of all. It's the greatest sin of all.
And when the Holy Spirit is spoken of by the Lord Jesus and that
ministry that He comes to exercise here upon the earth, of course,
He comes as the Spirit of Christ to bear testimony to the Savior,
to take up the things of Christ, to reveal them, onto sinners,
but he has had other aspects to his work as he comes. He is
to reprove, to reprove the world, to convince the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment. And the Lord says, of sin because
they believe not on me. Of sin because they believe not
on me. or one belief is the greatest,
the worst of all sins. It pleads to our very fallen
nature. We are very much spiritually
the sons of Adam and Eve, as sin was at the root of their
sin, so it's the root of all our sinning. Well, as we come
to consider the words of this text, and say something with
regards to the prayer of faith. Two things I want to dwell on
for a while this evening. First of all, the object of our
prayers, and then secondly, the exercise of praying. First of all, the object. It is vitally important, surely,
to know the One who is the object of true prayer. the one to whom
all real prayer is to be addressed. And it's interesting, isn't it,
what we have here in the middle of this text, because it says
we must believe that He is. We must believe that He is. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. And how striking is that expression
He is. It's the third person, of course,
of the verb to be. We say He is. What does God say
concerning Himself? Well, He uses the first person
when He speaks of Himself and He says, I am that I am. That is the name of God. And it is from that name that
we derive the word Jehovah, or Lord, as we see it so many times
here in the Old Testament Scriptures whenever it appears in capitals. It is, of course, that name Jehovah. He is the great I Am that I Am. He is the Lord of hosts. He says,
I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. And as that one who is God, we
have to recognize something of His greatness, something of His
glory. We see Him to be one who is omniscient,
omnipresent. In other words, He knows all
things, and He's in all places. And remember how Certainly in
the 139th Psalm, David is very much aware of those attributes
in God. In words of that Psalm, O Lord,
Thou hast searched me and known me, Thou knowest my down-sitting
and my up-rising, Thou understandest my thought afar off, Thou compass'd
my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word in my tongue, but, O LORD, Thou knowest
it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge, O God, is
all-knowing, is omniscient. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain on
it. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit,
or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? as God knows all
things, so God is in all places He fills heaven and earth, there
can be no escaping this one and yet there is that sense in which
it is a comfort when we remember that God knows everything and
He knows everything about us and isn't that evident in that
prayer of David that we read the 142nd Psalm He says, when
my spirit was overwhelmed within me, thou knewest my path. And it's true for us also, when
we feel overwhelmed, when no one seems to understand us, when
we scarce know ourselves, when we're full of confusion, God
knows. God knows. The Lord knoweth them
that are His. And that God who knows us is
the one who is a present help, a very present help it says in
every time of need he's a God at hand and he will hear the
cry of his people and he will appear for them well this is
the one who is the object of our prayers then he is the Lord
God and as he is in all places and as he knows all things so
he is that one who is also all-powerful. We speak of him being omnipotent,
the omnipotent God, sovereign over all things. Our God is in
the heavens, says the psalmist, and he hath done whatsoever he
pleased. And remember how one of the greatest
emperors the world has ever known, that's man Nebuchadnezzar the
great Babylonian emperor how he was humble before the God
of Daniel brought to make that confession as we have it in Daniel
4.35 where Nebuchadnezzar says all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will among
the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth and
none can stay his hand or say to him, what doest thou? Oh, this is the God then that
we come to address our prayers to. And nothing is impossible
with Him. Power belongs unto Him. He is
able to do, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. he is omniscient, omnipresent,
he is omnipotent and then there's that sense in which he is altogether
beyond our comprehension because he is one God and yet he's three
persons and we cannot find him else Job puts those questions
there in chapter 11. Canst thou by searching find
out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? He asks. It is I as heaven. What canst thou know deeper than
how? What canst thou do? The measure
thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the seas. Oh,
the immensity of God. the one who has created all the
universe, the vastness of the universe, and what is it to God?
We cannot begin to comprehend the wonder of who God is because
of that great mystery of the doctrine of God, the doctrine
of the Triniton. He is one God and yet he subsists
in three persons. And the wonderful thing is this,
that we We come to know God in prayer. What a blessing it is
that God has given to us his ordinance of prayer. Think of
those words of Paul writing in Ephesians 2.18. He's speaking
of the Lord Jesus, he's speaking of the Christ, the Son of God,
and he says, through him, Through the Christ we have access by
one's spirit onto the Father. Speaking of prayer, and in the
very action of prayer we are communing with God. Prayer is fellowship with all
the persons in the Godhead. There is a blessed ministry of
God the Holy Ghost. We have access, Paul says, by
one Spirit. We need Him, the Spirit of grace
and of supplications. And we often make reference to
those words in Romans 8 concerning the Spirit, how He helpeth our
infirmities, for we know not what to pray for as we ought.
But the Spirit itself helps our infirmities. He makes intercession
for us. with groanings that cannot be
uttered. And we're told, He that searcheth
the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Oh, when we're moved by the Spirit, we will come in that wondrous
meekness of Spirit. We will come submissive. We will
pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. Our petitions will be
in accordance with the will of God as the Spirit is pleased
to help us. And so in prayer we know the
Spirit, we know His gracious dealings, His leadings, His sovereign
operations upon our own spirits, leading us, guiding us, directing
us. But as there is that minute of
the Spirit, so there is also that mediation of Christ the
Son of God we have an Advocate with the
Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and He is the propitiation for
our sins always our Advocate not only
an Advocate but also the Great High Priest we have not an high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities
we are told but was tempted in all points like us we are yet
without seeing and in the light of that Paul makes a deduction
therefore he says we are to come to the to the throne of grace
beholden that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need and this one who is our mediator we know he's God We
know He's God. We've referred to those words
in Isaiah 44, 6, where the Lord of Hosts says, I am the first
and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. Well, those
very words, of course, are the same words spoken by the Lord
Jesus to John, there in the opening chapter of Revelation. He says,
I am the first and the last. He is the Alpha and the Omega.
He is the I am that I am. As he says in John 8, if you
believe not that I am, ye shall perish in your sins. Before Abraham
was, I am. This is the one by and through
whom we are able to come to God because he is God manifest in
the flesh, touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Oh, he is
pretty to stand between God and man. the ministry of the Holy
Spirit, the blessed mediation of Christ the Son of God. And then what does Paul say in
that verse, Ephesians 2 and verse 8? There's a meeting with the
Father. All through Christ we have access
by one Spirit unto the Father. unto the Father. He's an advocate
with the Father. Oh, He has entered heaven itself.
He came from God. He has returned to God. He has
accomplished all the Father's goodwill and pleasure. And having
finished His work, He has now risen and descended on high and
entered heaven. One God and one Mediator. And who is this God? He is that
one who is so kind, so gracious, so good. All thou art good and
thou doest good, says thee. Psalmist, this is the God that
we come to with our prayers. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He knoweth
our frame. He remembers that with us. What
a blessed privilege then it is to pray, to pray in the prayer
meeting, to pray in the secret place, to commune with God, for
God to discover something of himself in all the fullness of
his glorious triune being, that he is Father, Son and Holy Ghost
and all the persons of the Godhead involved in our approaches before
him, we who in our very nature were alienated and enemies in
our minds by wicked works but made nigh by the blood of Christ
and able then to enter into that holy place and commune with the
Lord God himself. This is the object then, this
is the object of our praying. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. He is the Great I Am. He is Jehovah, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. But let us in the second place
say something with regard to the exercise, the exercise of
prayer. Without faith it is impossible,
we're told, to please Him. And it goes on to speak of coming
to Him, he that cometh to God must believe. And then again
that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. So
there are these two aspects mentioned quite specifically in the text
with regards to what the exercise of prayer is. It's a seeking
God. It's a seeking after God. Remember
the words of Isaiah 55, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found,
call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake
his wife, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord. Oh, what an exhortation is this,
Seek ye the Lord. He may be found. He is one near
at hand. But what does this seeking after
God mean? What does it entail? What's involved
in seeking after God? Well, here we see there must
be diligence. It says he is the rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. And diligently seek is in fact
the rendering of a single word here and it's an intensive form
of seeking that's being spoken of spoken of literally to seek
out to be careful to be thorough in this seeking we can think
of that woman that the Lord speaks of in the gospel remember the
parables that we have there in Luke 15. Christ speaks first of all that
the shepherd gives a hundred sheep and now one has gone astray,
lost, and the shepherd goes and seeks after that sheep. But then the Lord goes on after
that to speak of the woman with her ten pieces of silver. Luke
15 verse 8, I the woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she
lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house,
and seek diligently, there we have the word again, till she
find it, and when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and
her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found
the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth. But what seeking, what searching
is being spoken of here? Now this woman goes to some trouble. Lighting a candle, sweeping the
house, seeking diligence. Well that's the idea that we
have back in our text here in Hebrews 11, 6. It's that sort
of seeking. Doesn't the Lord God Himself
say, You shall seek me and find me when you shall search after
me with all your heart. With all your heart. Oh, there
are three aspects, surely, in that sort of seeking. It's whole-hearted,
it's with singleness of mind, and it's in simplicity of spirit. All of these things are involved
with this sort of seeking after God. It's whole-hearted, and
yet it's also a broken-hearted seeking after God, because we're
told The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and
a contrite heart that will not despise. So we are whole-hearted,
we are broken-hearted because we come mindful of what we are,
mindful of our sins, confessing our sins, acknowledging our many,
many transgressions. Whole-hearted, we are broken-hearted
sinners. And how can we pray in this fashion? Well, God himself is the one
who speaks forth and calls out of his people such prayers as
this. The psalmist says, when thou sayest, when thou sayest,
seek in my face, or when God says it, when thou sayest, seek
in my face, my heart said, thy face, Lord, will I seek. This is the exercise of prayer
then, there's that seeking, searching after God. Again, the psalmist
says, seek the Lord, seek Him evermore. Or we can think of
Jacob, when he becomes Israel. There at Peniel in Genesis 32,
he wrestled. Oh, he wrestles. The angel wrestled,
Jacob wrestled. The angel touches the hollow
of his thigh and Jacob has to give over wrestling,
but he's cleaving now, he's clinging. But you see, it's all part of
his praying. He will not let the angel go
unless he blesses him. If we're those who are the true
Israel of God, we must be like Jacob was Erepenia. And he called
it Peniel, of course, because there he had seen the face of
God. That's what prayer is, as I said. It's communing with God
in all the fullness of His glorious Trinity of Beings. Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. There is in the exercise this
seeking, and the seeking isn't in vain. Ye shall seek me and find me. When ye search after Me with
all your hearts, ask and it shall be given you, says Christ. Seek and ye shall find, knock
and it shall be opened unto you. God is the rewarder, it says
here, the rewarder of all, of them that diligently seek Him.
No seeking in vain. But besides seeking, there's
also the coming. he that cometh to God without faith it is impossible
to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is
or there is a coming but how can that be how can we come to
God we are told later on at the end of chapter 12 that this God
is a consuming fire or the purity of God before God,
the sinless angels, the burning seraphim, they have to veil their
faces, as they cover their feet, they bow their heads, they cannot
bear the sight, God is a consuming fire. How can sinners ever approach
this God or come to such a God as this? Well, as we said, there
is a mediator, one God and one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus. And that one who is the mediator
between God and men is also spoken of here in chapter 9 and verse
15 as the mediator of the New Testament. Always the mediator
of the New Testament. That covenant of grace, it's
a testament. Now has the testament been sealed?
It's been sealed by his death, by the shedding of his precious
blood. Oh, this is the one by and through
whom we come, the mediator of the covenant. Remember what the
apostle says later in chapter 12 where he contrasts Mount Sinai
and Mount Zion. He speaks of the mount that might
be touched, Mount Sinai. the blackness, the darkness,
the tempest, the sound of a trumpet and then he says in verse 22
that ye are come unto man's iron and unto the city of the living
God, to heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written
in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirit of just
men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escape not, who refuse
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Oh, we're not to
turn away. How does the Lord Jesus Christ
speak to sinners in the Gospel? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and he that cometh to me, I shall he know
why he is cast out, he come. That is Gospel. Sinners are to
come. What is this coming? Is it not
the way of faith. He that cometh to me, Christ
says, shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. There in John 6.33 it is clear
that coming is equivalent to believing. Now coming isn't some
physical thing, it's spiritual. It's the exercise of faith. And
in that sense we have to recognize that the The object of our prayer,
the Great I Am, is also, of course, the object of faith, looking
on to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and he sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. This is the one through and in whom we come. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, he that believeth in me shall never thirst, he says.
And isn't this coming a mark of election? It's a mark of election. The elect come. Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee, says the
Psalmist. Or as we seek after him, are
we not coming to him? but without faith it is impossible
to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him
and as I said the whole chapter then goes on to speak of God's
elects God's elects are those who come to him who seek after
him Would you like to pray to Him? Now, remember what we said
at the outset. Alas, we are beset by unbelief. It clings and cleaves to our
old nature. And often times how it is a struggle
to pray. How we have to wrestle not only
with God, we have to wrestle with ourselves, with our fallen
nature. But it's all part and parcel of that blessed exercise
that's spoken of here in the text or the Lord grant that we
might have such faith as that to seek him and to come to him
and to pour out our hearts before him tonight the Lord help us
in as we turn from the word and turn again to the Lord will First
of all sing his praise and then we'll turn once more to prayer.
The Lord bless to us his word.