I'm looking at the words of this
song. You'll see a good overlap with the end of our life and
the living of our life. He says, soon I shall pass the
gloomy veil. Soon all my mortal powers must
fail. Oh, may my last expiring breath,
his loving kindness sing in death. That is a prayer that I have
too. And then I like this next verse.
Then let me mount and soar away to the bright world of endless
day and listen and sing with raptures and surprise. Surprise. Because eye has not seen or ear
heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things
that God has prepared for them that love him. Surprise. Endless
ages will be spent by God showing to us the exceeding kindness
towards us in His grace in Christ Jesus. That's Ephesians 2.7.
So we'll be surprised, won't we? I like what John Newton said.
I think it was John Newton. He said, there's three things
that are gonna surprise me when I get to glory. First is that
there's going to be a lot of people there I didn't expect
that would be there. And the second thing is there's going
to be a lot of people that aren't there I thought would be there.
But the most surprising thing is that I'll be there. But it's
not really surprising, is it? When we know that it is the Lord
Jesus Christ that is our entrance, our justification, and our life. So, since it's on Him, it's not
a surprise in that sense, but it is a surprise. Because we
never go tired of that surprise, do we? If you want to turn in
your Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 11. And I trust and ask that the
Lord himself would speak to each one of us. I've entitled this
message, Lord Teach Us to Pray. My subtitle here is, A Sermon
to Me, For You. Because the Lord is really teaching,
I need to be taught to pray, I do. The Lord teaches his people
to pray. Luke chapter 11 and verse one,
we're gonna read from verse one through verse 13. And it came
to pass that as he, Jesus, was praying, that's amazing, isn't
it? Jesus was praying. As he was
praying in a certain place when he ceased, one of his disciples
said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. As John also taught his
disciples, And he said to them, when you 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. And he said to them, which of
you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight and
say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine
in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before
him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not.
The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.
I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, the Lord says,
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 needeth. Importunity means his incessant
requesting, his insistent and urgent and unceasing asking. Verse nine, and I say to you,
ask, and it shall be given you what a promise Seek, and you
shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. And now he gives an illustration.
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will
he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he
for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will
he 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? What a promise, huh? He gets right to the most essential
part here, doesn't he? Ask your Father for His Holy
Spirit. Let's pray. Our precious God
and Father, we come to you drawn by you through the operations
of your Spirit in our heart and by the gospel Your word that
is unfailing and true, we come to you in asking you by the precious
blood of Jesus Christ, your Son, and our only Savior and Lord,
that you would receive us for his sake, and for his sake alone,
and receive us with him, receive us as you've said in your word,
as you receive your Son. Because all of our salvation
is in him, all blessings from you are in him, And so we ask,
Lord, that you would give to us from your word today, as you
do to your children, help us to understand and lay hold on
your promises and find all of them in our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, amen. It seems strange to us that the
Lord Jesus Christ would be praying here in verse one, doesn't it? I want you to think about what
prayer is, what prayer is, and the importance of it. What is prayer? We find a man
praying to his God, utterly dependent upon God to do his will. And yet the man is praying to
God to do his will. God will do his will. And yet
He, as it pleases Him, has ordained and is pleased to answer the
prayers of those who depend upon Him. And that's an amazing grace,
condescension of God. Think about yourself now as a
man standing, or a woman, or a boy, or a girl, because there's
no difference with God. Each one of us, each one of you,
must come to God, and must come to Him in prayer, and we will
not be heard except God receive us for Christ's sake. But we
must come to Him. We must ask Him. We must seek
from Him. We must, as it were, knock and
keep knocking. This is God's way. And we know
it's His way. He plainly reveals it to us.
Do you live? Do you breathe? Does God give
these things to you? You better know He does. Can
you do anything that pleases God? Can you be accepted by God? Is anything you do acceptable
to God? Well, how will it be acceptable?
How will you even have the right thoughts to come to him? How
will you know what to say? How do you know his will? All
these things are questions that come up in our mind. But here
is a man utterly unable to do one thing of all of God's will
in himself, depending entirely on his God, bearing himself,
opening his heart, laying before God his own word and trusting
on God according to his word to hear his prayer. And God is
pleased in such a case to not only answer it, but to show that
it was he himself who drew that man and who put the words in
his mouth so that he might fulfill his will and bless that man or
that woman or that boy or that girl. That's prayer. We coming to God at all times,
but at special times too, where we know in our heart that God
has to hear us for us to live, to be accepted, to have any blessings
from him. We want to be accepted by God,
don't we? It's man's sinful rebellion that
separates himself from God. In Hosea 13.9 it says, oh Israel,
thou hast destroyed thyself. That's our part, that's what
we've done. We've destroyed ourselves. By
our sin, we have separated ourselves from God. And the next part of
that verse says this, but in me is thy help found. We can
ruin ourselves, as Spurgeon said in the article I put there, but
only God can save us. We can't save ourselves, but
we have ruined ourselves. And now we stand in an utter
dependency upon God, relying on Him, according to His word,
to be gracious to us. And prayer is coming to God with
that in our mind that God has promised. This is the only basis
for the hope of it, that God has promised to hear sinners
in prayer, crying to Him. in their need to hear them for
Christ's sake and to bless them as he blesses his son. It says
in the book of James that Elijah was a man of like passions like
we are and yet he prayed and God withheld rain from the earth
for three and a half years and then he prayed again and God
gave the rain. Here's a man depending on his God. He knows who alone
can accomplish what needs to be done. He knows who rules the
world. He knows who holds the hearts
of men in his hand, who prepares the hearts of men. And he accomplishes
his will even through the wickedness of men. He knows the greatness
of the enemy against his own soul. He knows He has no power
or strength against. He knows He doesn't even have
the strength to do God's will. And yet He comes to God for all
things. That's what prayer is. It's coming to God, waiting for
Him, depending on Him, and seeking from Him to give to us what we
need. And what do we need? But His
saving mercy and grace. Now it surprises me that the
Lord Jesus Christ prayed. It says in Romans chapter 8 that
it is God's good pleasure to conform us to the image of his
dear Son, to make us like Christ. In this life, through troubles,
by the operation of his Spirit, through Through faith in His
Word, through faith in the Lord Jesus, those things He gives
to us, those spiritual things that we have with the spiritual
life God gives to us by His Spirit in Christ. And it pleases Him
to conform us to the image of His Son, and so what do we know
about our Savior? We know this, He prayed. He depended on His God and Father. And no matter what enemy was
against Him, He didn't take up arms against them, but he submitted
himself to God, his Father, to deliver him, to accomplish his
will, to give him his spirit so that he might accomplish that
will, which he did. He declared the truth, he declared
God's will. He came to speak it, and he came
to fulfill it. And most importantly, he accomplished
that will when he submitted himself to his father in obedience unto
death, even the death of the cross. That's the way he accomplished
it. But you see in the Lord Jesus
Christ, this constant praying to his God, He said this, I'll
read to you a few scriptures here. He said this, that it came
to pass in those days, in Luke chapter 6 and verse 12, it came
to pass in those days that he went out, the Lord Jesus, he
went out into a mountain to pray and he continued all night in
prayer to God. Now, Think about this, this is
the son of God in our nature, without sin, and yet he's praying
all night. He's praying all night to his
God, what a prayer that must have been. All night long, every
word of it, in perfect alignment with the will of God, in utter
dependence upon him. He wanted, he came to do God's
will and he wanted to do it, it was in his heart to do so.
He also says this, that in Mark chapter 11 verse 17, Jesus said,
my house, this is quoting from scripture, and he says this about
his father, my house shall be called a house of prayer by all
people. No, it doesn't mean that everybody
in the world is gonna say that building over there is the church
of, is the building of God and that's a holy place and when
I go there we're gonna pray there and therefore it's called a house
of prayer for all people. That's not what this means. It
means that the people of God who are the temple of God in
whom Christ dwells by his spirit, they collectively are the house
of God and they shall be a people Out of all nations, called by
all people, they shall be a people of prayer." That's what God's
people do. And that's why they're called
that. My people, my house, shall be called a house of prayer by
all people, by all kinds of people, because we're saved by the Lord
out of every nation, every tongue, every kindred and tribe. Isn't
that amazing? That was Mark 11, verse 17. And
then, It says this in Hebrews, we have
gone over this, but I want to point this out to you again.
In Hebrews chapter five and verse seven, notice how the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed while he was on earth. Hebrews chapter five and
verse seven, it says, who in the days of his flesh when, excuse
me, who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers,
And supplications, what is this? This is speaking out with our
mouth from our heart to God with his words in our heart and our
mouth. Prayer is not just taking random
thoughts and saying, Lord bless me or something like that. Prayer
is not expressing our will to God. Prayer is expressing God's
own words as from himself given to us to bring again to him that
he would do his will. And so he says, who in the days
of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death and was heard and that he feared. He had the
power of death, didn't he? But he committed himself into
the hands of his father to deliver him from death. This is the submission
I'm talking about, the dependence. And he did it in prayer. Did
he have any doubt that God was going to deliver him? Of course
not. But it was according to God's
will that he do so as a man, the God-man, in utter dependence
on his father. by his spirit. And so he says
in verse nine, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect in the
suffering, in his dependence on God for us, he became the
author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him, meaning
all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
the obedience God gives to us. And so we see that the Lord Jesus
Christ himself prayed It says this in Mark chapter 14, if you
want to look at this, notice how the Lord Jesus submitted
himself in utter dependence upon his God and Father in prayer. In Mark chapter 14, Jesus is
in the garden of Gethsemane. just before the soldiers came
and took him, and charged him, and beat him, and nailed him
to the cross, and then according to the will of God. Look at this,
Mark chapter 14 and verse 32. He says, and they came to a place,
he and his disciples, they came to a place which was named Gethsemane,
and he saith to his disciples, sit ye here while I shall pray. There we have it, see, the Lord
Jesus praying. And he taketh with him Peter
and James and John and began to be sore amazed and to be very
heavy and saith to them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death,
tarry ye here and watch. And he went forward a little
and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the
hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, All
things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless,
not what I will, but what thou wilt." This is prayer of our
Savior. That's what we ought to be conformed
to the image of His Son. What are we doing? We're living
this life moment by moment, day by day, year by year, seeking
the glory of God and coming to Him in prayer in order to bring
that glory to our God and Father as He would be pleased to do
in our salvation by Christ and in depending on Christ in our
life, living upon Him. And so we see this in the Old
Testament too. Men of old prayed because they
were in great need. And because they depended greatly
on God. Hebrews 11, 6 says, he that cometh
to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. Seek him how? Seek his grace. Seek him in prayer. Seek him
according to his word. Seek his will. Look at the book
of Nehemiah in the Old Testament. I'm going to get there, too,
with you. It's gonna take me a minute to
get to Nehemiah, if you need a moment. If you go to the book of 1 and
2 Chronicles and keep going, you'll pass Ezra, you'll come
to the book of Nehemiah. Now, Nehemiah was the cupbearer
to the king of a country that was not the people of God. Yet they were captives there,
the nation of Israel were captives there, and he was serving this
king as a cup bearer, meaning that he would be the one who
first, who made sure that everything that went to the king's plate
and to his cup was safe. He was the most trusted, the
most trusted servant. And so I will pick this up. And
verse 1 of chapter 1, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekeliah,
and it came to pass in the month Kislu in the 20th year as I was
in Shushan, the palace that Hananiah, one of my brethren, came, he
and certain men of Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews
that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning
Jerusalem. And they said to me, the remnant
that are left, the few people that are left, of the captivity
there in the province are in great affliction and reproach.
The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof
are burned with fire. So essentially he's saying that
everything that has to do with the people of God is being destroyed.
Verse four, it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat
down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before
the God of heaven and I said, I beseech thee oh Lord God of
heaven, you see how he comes to him? The sovereign Lord God
of heaven and earth, I beseech thee, Lord God of heaven, the
great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that
love him and observe his commandments, let thine ear now be attentive
and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy
servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for
the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children
of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my Father's
house have sinned." He doesn't conceal the problem. Why was it destroyed? Because
of sin. It was, as Rommel said earlier,
it was a chastisement of God upon them. Verse 7, We have dealt
very corruptly against thee. We have not kept the commandments,
nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commanded thy servant
Moses That's amazing. Notice what he said in verse
5 again. And yet he says, we haven't done it. We haven't done it. Verse 8,
Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy
servant Moses, saying, If you transgress, I will scatter you
abroad among the nations. But if you turn to me and keep
my commandments and do them, though there were of you cast
out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather
them from thence and will bring them unto the place that I have
chosen to set my name there now. These are thy servants and thy
people whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy
strong hand." See what Nehemiah is pleading? You are God. These are your people. You have
redeemed them. They'll have sinned against you
by your great power, by your strong hand. Verse 11. O Lord,
I beseech Thee, let now Thine ear be attentive to the prayer
of Thy servant and to the prayer of Thy servants who desire to
fear Thy name, who desire to fear Thy name. We need it, we
must, but we need it from You. You have to give us this fear.
And prosper, I pray Thee, Thy servant this day, and grant him
mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cupbearer.
In chapter 2, notice the first couple verses. And it came to
pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes
the king, that wine was set before him. And I took up the wine,
and I gave it to the king. Now I had not been before time
in his presence. Wherefore the king said to me,
Why is thy countenance sad? Why do you look sad? That's a
dangerous thing when you're the cupbearer, isn't it? You're looking
sad. Why are you sad? You're supposed
to be happy. Is there something wrong? Do
I need a new cup bearer? Something wrong with my wine
maybe? Wherefore the king said to me, why is thy countenance
sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow
of heart. Then I was very sore afraid. Notice, and I said to
the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance
be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchers, lieth
waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then
the king said to me, for what dost thou make request? And what
did Nehemiah do? What do you want, Nehemiah? Uh-oh.
So I prayed to the God of heaven. I gotta take a moment here, and
I gotta seek the Lord's will. What should I answer the king?
Isn't that our question, the big question? How am I gonna
answer the king? So he prayed. So the point here is that men
of old, not only did the Lord Jesus Christ, but men of old
prayed. They prayed to God in heaven.
They prayed to God in heaven according to His law, His covenant,
His mercies, His redeeming work, His people, His temple, all of
His will. They acknowledged their sin,
but they credited God with deliverance. They knew He was able. It wasn't
His will. He would have to do it, as Rommel
said, according to a sacrifice. He would have to redeem them
by blood without the shedding of which there is no remission
of sins. And so he utterly depended on his God. Here is a man standing
before God in this life with all the dangers of life. Life
and death were in the power of the king that he served. And
yet he prayed to God because he knew that really the issues
of life belong to the Lord our God, don't they? So here we see
the need, our need of prayer. To be conformed to Christ's image
is to be one who prays. And all of God's people, called
his house, are people of prayer. So what do we learn from this?
Well, this is what we learn. Look at Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four, when
the Lord was praying and the disciple heard him praying, Lord,
teach us to pray. Because they knew his prayer
was right and God heard him. Philippians chapter four says,
verse six, be careful for nothing. And that's the way the King James
reads, but really it just means be anxious for nothing. But in everything, By prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known
to God. This is the way we pray. Prayer and supplication. We're
coming to God, the first thing we do when we come to the Lord,
our God is what? We consider what's the one way
he will accept us. And how is that? Is it enough
to believe God? Are Christians those who just
believe God as God? Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. The only way God can accept any
man, no man can come to the Father but by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. He's the way to the Father. He's
the truth we must believe. in order to be right with God,
in order to know God, in order to be pleasing, and he's the
life, he's our life. We receive these things only
through him as our life. Just like we receive bread and
water and breath and everything from God, we receive all spiritual
life from the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he tells us, don't be
anxious for anything. But by prayer, by prayer and
supplication, supplication is breathing out our need for God
according to his word. It's taking from within us those
concerns we have, God's word, and mixing those things together. It happens in our heart. It's
God's doing, and yet we're active in it because that's the way
God works with men. And when we find ourselves troubled
or thirsty and hungry for God himself, what are we to do? Pour
out our hearts to him in supplication and prayer. And when we do, we're
unloading our anxieties on him. We're putting them in his care.
And we're leaving them there. We can't make it happen. We can't
even work up a desire in our own heart to come. The very first
prayer we pray is, Lord, bring me, turn me, turn me again, Lord
God of hosts, and cause your face to shine, and then I will
be saved. Until you turn me, I was not
turned. Until you drew me, I couldn't
see Christ. Until you took my sins away,
I was blinded by my sins. I was fearful and I thought God
was austere and took from me what he didn't deserve. And yet
it was me all the time and hating God in my heart because I didn't
know him and I was terrified of him. And he made himself known
to us in Christ. This is what happens when we're
pouring out our prayers and supplications. We're coming to God by Jesus
Christ with his word in our hand, as it were, in our heart, on
our lips, confessing and supplicating God. for his saving mercy in
Christ, for his help now in life. He has a will. We pray his will
would be done, that he would work all things in our life according
to that will, and for our salvation, for our good, because of Christ.
This is the way we come. We do this, and we cast our cares
upon him, for he careth for you, 1 Peter 5, 7. And here he says,
be careful, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, everything,
we come when we take food, we come when we drink, we come when
we lay down to sleep, when we rise in the morning, when we
brush our teeth, when we go to work, when we're at work and
we're confused, when we're impressed by those who require of us in
whatever way, whether it be the government or our bill payers
or our medical condition, or most especially the condition
of our heart before God. What does God think of me? How
will he accept me? Am I his or am I not? Bring it
to the Lord in prayer. Pour out your heart before him
and look again to Christ. This is what he's saying here.
Pour it out. Pour out your heart with thanksgiving, prayer, supplication,
with thanksgiving, because what do we want but what God himself
delights to give to us? That's what thanksgiving comes
from. We know and we trust God to give us all that is good.
Has he ever done you wrong? Has he ever done anything wrong?
And yet we see trouble in our life. What can we conclude? This is from the Lord. The Lord
Jesus Christ submitted to this, this death. God had appointed
it. And so God has appointed our
lives. And we're to live in the trouble, in the trial, in the
long patience and the suffering in our life, and with a joy,
bringing it all to the Lord. This is from your hand, Lord.
Redeem it. Redeem me and give glory to your
son. Take glory to yourself in saving
me. I'm worthless. I'm an unprofitable
servant. I can do nothing of all that I need. So we bring
it to the Lord and we lay it at his feet and we roll ourselves
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says this, make your
request known to God. How often do people say, please
pray for me? Have you gone to the Lord God
of heaven and earth? Have you poured your hearts out
to him? Children, have you? Do you lie awake before you go
to sleep at night and pour out your heart to the Lord? Do you
hold nothing back and say, I'm a sinner? Lord, save me for your
namesake. Do we as parents, as grandparents? Our life is short. God holds
it in his hand. Lord, make this life your life. Allow me to give all that I have
to the Lord Jesus Christ for his name's sake, for his glory. What is my life? I have nothing
that you didn't give me. And like a child bringing a gift
to her parent, we just bring ourselves to the Lord and say,
Lord, make my life acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. That's what we pray. In thanksgiving,
prayer, supplications, make your requests known. And the peace
of God, which passes all understanding. How did this happen? I was fretful,
I was anxious. I unburdened my heart to the
Lord with his word given to me, expressing his will that he revealed
in the gospel. And I was suddenly, without even
thinking about it, it seemed like the whole thing was just
unburdened. Maybe it happens that way, maybe
it takes time. Whatever it is, we just trust
God. Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? What did they say
to King Nebuchadnezzar? He said, you've got to bow down
to the idol I've created. And they said, well, and or be
cast into the burning fiery furnace. And he said, well, we're not
going to be careful in our answer to you, O king. Our God is able
to deliver us from your hand. First, know that. But if he doesn't,
we will not bow down to your idol. Now you see, that's a man
who's depending on God. In his heart, a woman, a child.
It doesn't matter. We are all in his hand. And so
we all need to come to him in this way to pray. And when we
come, what do we do? What's the first thing we do
in coming to him? Don't we just wait? It's like
a little child who comes to his dad. Dad, I'm really hungry.
Could I have an egg? And what is he gonna do, run
away? No, he's gonna wait, I'm hungry,
dad. I need a piece of bread, because
I'm hungry. He comes to his father, and Jesus
said, which one of you, being evil, would not give that to
your son? And how much more would your heavenly father? He cares
for you, therefore, and he alone knows your need. Go to him and
ask him to give you according to your need. I don't know my
need. I'm unaware of it because I'm
so thick-headed and proud. And I think myself to be okay
without depending upon your grace moment by moment. So go to him,
Lord. I have great need and I'm not even aware of it. I'm so
spiritually dull. You see, we just come to him.
We open our hearts. A child, when he breaks down,
he's gonna tell his dad everything. And that's what the Lord does
for us. So the first lesson we learn,
the first lesson we learn in prayer is that we need God. But we've separated ourselves
from Him and we must go to Him. And the only way that we can
be accepted by God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we do
not come to God as God alone. but as God, as we know Him and
can approach Him in our mediator, in the Lord Jesus Christ. People
all over this world will claim to know God and believe God,
and they'll claim they're gonna go to heaven when they die and
all these things. But unless you come to God through the Lord
Jesus Christ, drawn by the Father to His Son, you will not come
to God. Look at Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, Jesus said
this, see here the sovereignty of God. See here the justice
of God and the mercy of God. We are in his hand, aren't we?
We are in his hand to do with us as it pleases him. This is
the very first principle. These are the ABCs of the gospel. We are in God's hand. He who
made us must save us. Does that make sense? Of course it does. Look at this
in Matthew chapter 11. In verse 25, let me read up here
a little before that, verse 20. Then the Lord Jesus began to
upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done,
because they repented not. And he said this in verse 21,
Matthew 11, 21. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which were
destroyed, they had repented, they would have repented long
ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, These cities
where the Lord Jesus himself walked and taught and did miracles,
I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which
art exalted to heaven in the eyes of the world, shalt be brought
down to hell. For if the mighty works which
had been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have
remained unto this day. Wow. Sodom and Gomorrah burned
to ashes. And Chorazin, this city where
Jesus was, a city in the land of the Jews, saw God in human
flesh and heard His word and saw His miracles and they repented
not. And Jesus said, it will be more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you. Verse 24, But I
say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of
Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. And at that time
Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. You see how
we're in God's hand? When you come to God in prayer,
are you gonna come as a wise and prudent, or are you gonna
come as a babe? Has God taught this to us? Has
he showed us our sin? Has he showed us that we have
no spiritual knowledge, and without him, no spiritual life? Has he
made us dependent on God as the sovereign ruler of heaven and
earth? The one we depend upon to reveal to us his will, And
verse 26, he says, even so father, for so it seemed good in thy
sight. It seemed good to God, therefore
it was done. All things are delivered unto me, Jesus said of my father.
In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ is king over all and over
all of God's people and over all of God's will and all of
his glory. Everything that is the father's was given into his
hand. And no man knows the Son, but the Father. That means the
Son of God has to be beyond all human understanding. Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal Him. Only the Lord Jesus Christ knows
God the Father, and only He can reveal God the Father, and He
does it by His sovereign will. That's what He says here. Only
He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. How dependent are
we therefore on the Lord Jesus Christ? How dependent are we
on the Lord Jesus Christ if He alone can reveal and bring us
to the Father? We're utterly dependent upon
Him. What should we do then? Go to Him. Look what He says
in the next verse. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. What's the qualification? What qualification do you need
in order to come to Christ? I am heavy laden. I'm burdened. Burdened by what? I'm burdened
by the barrier that my sin has presented. I'm burdened by the
ignorance of my spiritual mind. I'm burdened by my inability
to come to God. I am burdened. Unless you bring
me, I am lost. Unless you save me, you must
condemn me. because I'm the enemy of God,
we come to Christ burdened, heavy laden, and he says, I will give
you rest. I'll unburden you. I'll take
away that heavy laden, that heavy load, which was the guilt of
our sin, the condemnation from God for it. Take my yoke upon
you, Jesus said, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in
heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke
is easy, and my burden, and what is that yoke? Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Look away from yourself
to Him. God directs us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Where is my salvation? What hope
do I have to appear before God? How can I come to Him? Look at
my Son. Behold the Lamb of God, which
takes away the sin of the world. So we see here, this is what,
look at John chapter 6. God directs us to, this is the
first step in our prayer. This is the thought of our heart.
This is the desire of our heart to come to God. But how do we
come? To the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've seen me, Jesus said,
you've seen the Father. John chapter 6 and verse 37. The Lord Jesus said, well let
me back up here. He says in verse 33, The bread
of God is He which cometh down from heaven and gives life to
the world. Verse 34, John 6, Then said they to Him, Lord,
evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said to them, I am
the bread of life. which God sent down from heaven,
he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth
on me shall never thirst. You'll never lack. You'll be
totally satisfied when you see your eternal life, your standing,
your acceptance, your blessing, all in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 36, but I said to you that you also have seen me and you
believe not. That's coming, that's what coming
is, is believing on the Lord Jesus as revealed in the gospel. Notice, this is what Jesus says,
what will we do about this problem? You've spoken, you've done miracles,
we believe not, how can we possibly be saved? Here's the answer. All that the Father gives me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. How do you know that God the
Father has given you to his son? You come to Christ. You come
to Him as your acceptance before God, as the acceptance of all
that you do and say and think and pray and praise God for. And you pray, God, receive me
and receive what I do and think and praise you for. Receive my
worship for Christ's sake. and for his sake alone. Don't
look upon me. Don't look upon my sin. Don't
look at my earnestness or my sorrow or my sincerity. Don't
look at those things. Receive me for his sake that's
coming to him. And him that cometh to me, Jesus
said, I will in no wise cast out. That is a promise, isn't
it? The savior of sinners calls to
sinners and said, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. How are we gonna come then? I'm
gonna come because I don't want to be cast out and I want to
be received by God. I want to know him. I want to
live upon him. I want God to give me his life,
what seems good to him. Verse 38, For I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent
me, the will of my Father. And this is the Father's will
which has sent me, that of all which He has given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
That's the resurrection. Verse 40, And this is the will
of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth
on him may have everlasting life. What is everlasting life? It's
looking to Christ, seeing him as God has revealed him in the
gospel of his grace. And so seeing him, not just seeing,
but seeing him and believing, that's what it means. We see
him, we rely on him. And we're persuaded that He's
all of my salvation. And so we totally rely on Him.
And we're glad to trust him alone because we found no other able
to save us. No one else could bring us to
God. And then in verse 44, he says, no man can come to me except
the father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him
up at the last day. When God the father is going
to save a person, he draws him to his son. That's the only way
we can come. So when God teaches us to pray, what is the first
thing he says? And we'll go back to Luke chapter 11, and I'll
have to wind this down. He says, came to pass that as
he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples
said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his
disciples. And he said to them, listen,
when you pray, say, our Father. That's coming to God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it's only in the Lord
Jesus Christ, only by the Lord Jesus Christ, that God will call
us His sons. He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children to Himself by Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1 verse 3 and
4. It's by Jesus Christ that we're
the sons of God. God chose us in Him, God predestinated
us to the adoption of children to Himself, and God made us His
children by Jesus Christ. He was born of a woman, born
of a woman, born under the law, made under the law, that He might
redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons. Galatians chapter 4, verse 4
through 6. So it's by Jesus Christ. So to say, our Father, in our
minds, in our hearts, in all that we are, we're saying, Lord,
like the publican, God be merciful. Look to Christ as my propitiation. To me, the sinner. Your word says I'm a sinner.
I agree. This man over here accuses me. I agree. I'm a sinner. I
have no plea, no defense. My only answer. is that Christ
would answer, would plead, would advocate, would intercede for
me. Oh God, be merciful. I am the sinner, but look to
Christ, the propitiating sacrifice. You appointed that you received.
So we come to God by Him. God has taught this to us. Our
Father. No man comes to the Father but
by me, Jesus said, and you're drawn by the Father to Christ.
And so we come as sinners and we see God has answered his own
law. He laid all the requirements
to make me holy and without blame on himself and did it in his
son. Oh, thank God. Lord, hear my
voice. Hear me, see my need and save
me for Christ's sake. You said that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. I am a sinner. Lord, receive
me and save me by your own blood, according to your will. Our father,
that's the way we come. We're not just accepted in a
way of, well, okay, you can come, but don't get too close. Stay
outside the gate there, or just stay right there in the gate.
Not too close now. There's a place for children
and there's a place for you. We're gonna withhold what you
deserve, but we're not gonna give you anything. You're a bum. That's not the way God does it.
He doesn't do like we do. All of God's people, no matter
what they are or are not in themselves, no matter what they've done,
all are received as Christ for Christ's sake. And they're given
all that God gives to his son. And I wanted to read this one
more verse to you in Romans chapter eight, and then we'll have to
close on this. Romans in chapter eight. He says
this, listen to the beautiful words, the beautiful words that
God has given us here in the gospel. It's always my favorite verse
in Romans 8. Romans chapter 8, look at verse 30. He's talking
about a chain of purpose and salvation that God has established
before the world began. that he would have a people to
himself and do it by his son. It says in verse 29, for whom
he did foreknow before the world began, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son. That means it's going
to happen. that he might be, the Lord Jesus, might be the
firstborn among many brethren. Notice, brethren. What does that
mean? We're all related. We're all
brethren. We're brethren with Christ, and
that means God is our Father. Not just sons, but daughters
too. Verse 30. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. There's the chain.
Can't be broken. If you're in glory at last, it's
because God knew you in love before and predestinated you
to be conformed to the image of his son, called you by his
grace, justified you for Christ's sake. and He brought you to glory. Verse 31, what shall we then
say to these things? Exclamation point, if God be
for us, who can be against us? He, here's the verse, he that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Take that verse,
read it, memorize it, pray it, stand upon it, and do it again. As they say, repeat. Just do
that. And then notice the next verse.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? They're
the ones that God's chosen to salvation. Who's going to lay
anything to their elect? It is God that justifies. Who's
going to assault God's justice and say, how could you justify
this naked ruined sinner? God did it. Verse 34, who is
he that condemneth? Can you condemn one that God
justifies? No, it is Christ that died. He rather that is risen again
who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession
for us. Jesus prayed all night. Jesus
prays for his people now and unceasingly. He there at the
right hand of God with himself, having shed his blood and brought
it into the holiest of all and was accepted and earned our eternal
redemption. He rose from the dead. and shall
bring us to himself, he's interceding for us, he shall save us to the
uttermost, those who come to God by him." Come to Christ,
in your heart, look to him, and with your lips, with God's word,
you take the words God has given you, and you come say, Lord,
receive Christ for me. Let's pray. Lord, teach us to
pray. Don't let us live in our life
detached as if we're dealing with life as oncoming traffic
and we just have to dodge and bob and weave in order to get
around it all, trying to reach a destination we have designed
for ourselves. But we pray, Lord, that you would
bring us to yourself in our heart and in prayer. We would be caused
and moved to ask you and seek you and knock and not stop asking,
seeking, and knocking and all through the Lord Jesus Christ,
coming to you as our Father by Him, asking you to accept us
for His sake and bless us as your sons because of Him, because
of your grace you've given to us in Him. and help us to know
that it is all of your work, all of your doing, so that every
anxious thought and all of our thanksgiving and all of our worship
and praise would be directed toward you in all of our life.
We would stand as men and women and boys and girls before God
our maker and our savior and we would ask him to do in us
and for us and through us all his will and take glory to himself
for Christ's sake, our savior, in his name we pray, amen.