You want to turn your Bibles
to the book of John chapter 17. John chapter 17. I want to bring
a message today, by God's grace, on the subject of prayer. I've
entitled the message, Lord Teach Us to Pray. And I thought there
would be no better place to begin than in John chapter 17. In Scripture,
throughout Scripture, God records for our benefit, and to His glory,
He records the prayers of His people. If you ever wonder what
to pray, I encourage you to read those prayers. In the book of
Genesis, It says that when Enos was born, Enos was the son of
Seth, that men began to call on the name of the Lord. And
we know that Enos was one of those men. He was the son of
Seth. Seth means substitute. All the
children of the substitute call on the name of the Lord. We're
the children of the substitute. Jesus said in Hebrews chapter
2, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. The
Lord Jesus Christ is our brother, the brethren of the Lord. And
the children of God were given to him to save. And so he is
both their brother and they are his bride and he calls them his
sister. In Song of Solomon, my sister,
my spouse. So there's a very, very near
relationship between Christ and his people. But throughout scripture,
all sorts of saints are recorded as praying to God, and their
prayers are recorded by the Spirit of God. And this is for our benefit,
so that we can see and understand the doctrine from what they pray. and also learn how to pray from
their prayers, and even more than that, have words that we
can borrow ourselves to pray. And so if you look throughout
and just catalog in your mind those prayers which are recorded
in scripture, you'll find that Abraham prayed, and Isaac and
Jacob prayed, and even Hagar prayed. Samuel prayed, David
prayed, Nehemiah prayed, Jeremiah prayed, Daniel prayed. All these
men, all their prayers were recorded. Not all their prayers, but all
these men and their prayers were recorded in scripture for us. And Paul prayed, Peter prayed,
and their prayers are here too. And so were the prayers of those
Jesus healed in his earthly ministry. And we're going to look at some
of those. But there should be no other prayer more interesting
to us than the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He
is our mediator. And His prayers, by His prayers,
our prayers are heard. So let's look at these words
from John 17 after we pray the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're just going to read through
it, and then we're going to go throughout Scripture looking
at prayer. Let's pray. Father, thank You that we can
come to You in prayer through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
by Your Word, according to Your Word, that we have warrant to
do so and are even commanded to do so. as your children. And so we delight in knowing
that you have welcomed us with this gracious command. And we
pray, Lord, that you would work in us to avail ourselves of this
highest privilege to enter into your presence by the blood of
Jesus at all times, boldly, confidently, because you receive us for his
sake. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
John chapter 17, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his
eyes to heaven. So here we have a definition
of prayer. It's speaking to God. Very simple,
isn't it? We talk to one another all the
time. Think about this. When you're thinking, bring those
thoughts into the presence of God. as thoughts to be reviewed
by him to pour out the ruminations of your heart, the things you're
considering, asking him to instruct you, asking him to hear the needs
in your thoughts, untangle the confusion, give you understanding,
give you faith and love for him. We speak to him. That's what
prayer is. It's bringing our heart and our
thoughts and our meditations to the Lord with words. And it
doesn't mean that every prayer has to have words in it, because
we often just pray like Hannah of old did in her heart. And
maybe our lips moved, but she wasn't speaking outwardly. But
here the Lord Jesus, for the benefit of his disciples and
then for us, he prays this prayer. He lifts up his eyes to heaven
and he said, Father, The hour has come, glorify thy son, that
thy son also may glorify thee. The hour for which all of history
was created, all the purposes of eternity were made in this. The center stake of the tent
of God's purposes is in this prayer, that thy son may be glorified
and that the father may be glorified in his son. 2. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Not one of those given to him
will fail to have eternal life. He is going to give eternal life
to them, as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent." This identifies to us the blessing that Christ
gives to us, this eternal life. It's to know God. And we know
God in Christ. Jesus said, if you've seen me,
you've seen the Father. And there's no other way to come
to God but by Him. And so we seek to know God in
Christ, don't we? This is our one desire, to be
found in Christ and to know Him. Verse 4, Jesus says, I have glorified
thee on the earth. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, but here the Son of God speaks by the
Spirit of God. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word."
What a statement. They have kept thy word. And
what did they do to keep the word? They simply believed what
Jesus said. Wasn't that the keeping of his
word? They followed him. They were with him. They didn't
leave him. They hung on him. They stake their life and eternity
on the fact that He was the Son of God, the Christ, and that
their salvation was in Him alone. Verse 7, Now they have known
that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For
I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me, and they
have received them, and have known surely that I came out
from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. You
see, that's the keeping of His Word. He gave them the words,
they received them, they knew that he came out from God, and
they believed that he was sent of God, the Father. Verse 9.
I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. He prays for his father's people,
the children given to him. Verse 10. And all mine are thine. So everyone that belongs to Christ
is the Father's, and thine are mine, and everyone that belongs
to the Father are Christ's. It's a single set, if you know
what a set is in math. There's no elements outside the
set, and there's no elements not included in the same. Of
those that belong to Christ, all belong to the Father. And
of those that belong to the Father, they all belong to Christ. There's
no distinction between them. One for one, they're all the
Fathers and Christ. He's given all of his people
to Christ to save and give eternal life to them. In verse 11, And
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and
I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are. Keep through your own name. If
God the Father lets one of his people fall or fail to be brought
to eternal life, according to Jesus' prayer, His own name suffers,
and that's a greater loss than if we were to be lost. Because
He has so identified us as to call us His children, and He
our Father, all by the Lord Jesus. It's amazing how much authority,
how much power, how much is at stake for the salvation of all
of God's elect. The Father Himself, keep through
your own name. When we speak God's Word to the
people of God who believe Christ, we're speaking by the authority,
the name of Christ and His Father. So we tell them that they have
eternal life for Christ's sake. Verse 12, While I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition
that the scripture might be fulfilled. In other words, Judas was never
given to Christ by his father because he was lost. He was called
the son of perdition. Therefore, not all are given
to Christ to save, are they? And now come I to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. Christ's joy is our joy, because
everything that he has accomplished is ours. That's our hope. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them
from the evil. Trouble is God's ordained purpose
for us in this world. But He doesn't just give us trouble. He gives us trouble in order
that He might glorify Himself in the faith that He gives to
us, so that that faith, which is more precious than gold, though
it be tried with fire, might be found to the praise and glory
of God. This is what it says in 1 Peter
1, but here the Lord is praying it. He says, verse 16, they are
not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Our hope is
not in this world. Our confidence is not in this
world. We don't believe the philosophies of this world. We don't trust
the science of this world. We don't live by our own senses
in this world. We don't live by the appearance
of things in this world. We live by faith in the Son of
God. And the things we live upon by faith, we cannot see with
physical eyes. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Jesus goes on, he says, Sanctify
them through thy truth, the truth of the gospel concerning his
Son. Set them apart, make them holy. in their own selves, by
preaching the gospel to them. Thy word is truth. As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world. So our commission is the commission
of Christ, and His is from the Father, and it's the same authority. We go with His word. We are ambassadors
for Jesus Christ, verse 19. And for their sakes I sanctify
myself in his life and his death, especially in his death, in his
offering of himself to God, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth, through the truth of Christ and him crucified.
Neither pray I for these alone, not for these eleven disciples,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. And the Apostle John said in
the end of the book, he said, these things were written that
you might believe. and he was one of them, their
word. And so we are reading his words given by John through the
Spirit of God, through Christ, and we believe Christ because
of his words. that they all may be one as thou
father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in
us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me we believe
the same things we're one we believe the same Christ the same
God and we live upon the same spirit we live by the same spirit
verse 22 and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them
that they may be one even as we are one and that glory could
be understood in a few ways. One way is the glory of the revelation
of Jesus Christ in the gospel and the other way is the glory
which we shall receive because God has given him glory. Verse
23, I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect
in one that the world may know that thou has sent me and has
loved them as thou has loved me. What a powerful verse this
is. The unity, the union between
Jesus Christ and His people, and Jesus Christ and His Father.
We see here the mediator, one with God, one with His people.
So that God looks upon Him and sees His people, and looks upon
them and sees Christ. And all that God is, He is in
His Son, and all that Christ is, we are complete in Him. Amazing
words. Amazing grace. Verse 24, Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me,
for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. What
glory He has. Can you imagine? The will of
God, the eternal glory of God in the Son. His will fulfilled,
His glory made known in His life and death, in His resurrection
and reigning power over all things. And we're going to see that glory
in the face of Jesus Christ. They shall see His face. Revelation
22 verse 4. And he says, in verse 25, O righteous
father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee,
and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared
unto them thy name, his person. And I will declare it, that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. See this intimacy between Christ
and His people and His Father? He joins us all together in one
here. And so, we have a great High
Priest, don't we? He offered Himself for us. Himself
for us. And his prayers for himself were
not for himself alone, but for his people. He prayed for himself
that he might be glorified in order that he might give eternal
life to as many as God has given him. Think about the significance
and the wonder of this. That all Christ prayed while
he was on this earth and his intercession now in heaven is
for his people. What an amazing truth. The prayers
of Christ, the Son of God, are for His people. And He prays
for Himself as one with them. Amazing, amazing. He Himself
has borne our sins in His own body up to and upon the tree. 1 Peter 2, 24. He is able, it
says in Hebrews 7, 25, to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by Him. seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. Intercession is a word for prayer.
It's interceding. It's interposing yourself between
God and the other. And Christ has interceded with
his prayers for us. In fact, in Scripture, the prayers
of Christ are compared to incense. And we're going to look at that
in a minute. And it's by his prayers that our prayers are
heard. He says in Hebrews 7.26, he goes on, for such a high priest
became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily, as those
high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then
for the people's. For this he did once, when he
offered himself. He offered up himself to God.
Amazing. God received Him. God determined
before that He would offer up His Son. He promised to make
it so. He provided Him. And He Himself
delivered Him up for us all. And Christ offered Himself and
God received Him. And in receiving Him, He received
us. That's the issue. The one issue
is, what does God think of His Son for me? Only because God
hears Christ, because He prays for us, are our prayers heard. Look at Hebrews chapter 5, to
show you this. How that the prayers of the Lord
Jesus Christ, while on earth, even when it sounds as if He
was praying for Himself, it was for us, because it was for our
sins that He suffered. and for our righteousness that
he lived that perfect life in love to his father Hebrews chapter
5 verse 7 it says who in the days of his flesh our Lord Jesus
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 in that he feared Christ was heard. Aren't you
glad? That's the issue. Was Christ
heard? Did God allow His prayers to
enter His holy courtroom? His holy presence? Yes. He entered
by His own blood and He offered prayers and supplications to
Him who was able to save Him from death. And He was heard,
it says in verse 7, He was heard in that He feared. Though he
were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered,
and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him." He is the author. And his perfection
was in his ability to save us from our sins. So Christ prays
for us. And this is all of our salvation.
God hears us because He hears His Son. And so we must ever
keep this in our hearts and in the forefronts of our minds,
and in worship, and adoration, and thanksgiving, and praise
to God." Ever keep this in your mind, in the forefront of your
mind, adoring our God, adoring our Savior, admiring Him in thanksgiving
and praise, and speak in prayer of this to God, your Father. And God hears us for Christ's
sake alone. And remember that. Remember that.
Jesus said in John 14 6, No man comes to the Father but by Me. It just doesn't happen. So that's
the first thing I want us to see in prayer is that we come
because we're brought. The priest brings us to God. That's the role of the high priest.
The priest's first job is to offer to God. And that offering
to God is at the same time an offering for his people. He offers
for their sins by sacrifice and offering. That's his job. And
that's what Christ has done. And in so doing, he brings us
to God. Now, in scripture, and I want
to read this scripture to you. I found this as I was studying
here. He says, in Deuteronomy chapter
4, look at this. Deuteronomy, the second giving
of the law to that generation that outlived their parents who
died in the wilderness because of unbelief. In Deuteronomy chapter
4, verse 7, it says this. For what nation is there so great,
who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all
things that we call upon him for? Now, think about this. What does God say about his people,
the Church of God, in the New Testament? You are a chosen generation. You are a holy nation. Remember 1 Peter 2 verse 9? So God's people belong to a nation
like no other nation. It's a spiritual nation, a chosen
generation, a holy nation. No other people have God so near
to them as the church has God near to them in Christ. And where
is He? In every believer. Christ lives
in us. He is near to us in all that
we call upon Him for. Everything that the people of
God pray is kept up in store by God. It says in Revelation
8, which we'll look at shortly, God keeps the prayers of His
people in store. And with the incense of Christ's
prayers, they're offered to God continually. Think about that. Eternity will not put away those
prayers. They'll all be there in God's
presence and heard for Christ's sake. In all that we call on
Him for, He hears us. The prayers of God's people are
kept by God. He never forgets them. They're
ever before Him. He hears for Christ's sake. He
hears us in our prayers for Christ's sake. It is by Christ's own prayers,
which are the incense that comes up to God in eternal remembrance.
He says this in Psalm 141, be set forth before thee as incense,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. This
is what prayer is to God. He says, it's like incense. And
we know that when the high priest entered in Leviticus 16 on the
Day of Atonement and offered the blood of the lamb or the
goat on the mercy seat, that was before he did that, he was
to the room, the holiest of all was to be filled with the incense,
the smoke of the incense. that was on that burning censer,
the coals of that censer, which signify Christ's prayers for
us. So he says in Psalm 141 verse 2, let my prayer be set before
thee as incense, as the lifting up of my hands, as the evening
sacrifice. And then in Luke chapter 1 verse
10, it says when Zacharias was praying, the whole multitude
of the people were praying without, at the time of incense. And then
in Revelation chapter 8, verses 3 and 4, if you want to turn
there, Revelation chapter 8, it says this. I'll begin with
verse 3. And the book of Revelation is
all about the conquest of Jesus Christ to save his people by
defeating their enemies and by saving them from their enemies
throughout time. And maybe one day we'll go through
the book of Revelation as best we can. But here in chapter 8
verse 3 it says, And another angel came and stood at the altar,
having a golden censer. And there was given unto him
much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of
all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of
the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
I believe that's the angel, that's the messenger of the covenant,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ represented here as an angel
who is coming before God with the prayers of his people and
it's the incense that makes those prayers accepted. And so, referring
back to Deuteronomy again, listen, for what nation is there so great
who hath God so near to them as the Lord our God is in all
things we call upon him for Therefore, because the Lord our God is great
above all gods, and because He is so near to us in all things
at all times in Christ by His Spirit within us, so we ought
at all times and in all things to give thanks to Him for His
magnificent mercy, His unspeakably amazing grace, and His infinite
goodness. And so he says in 1 Chronicles
16 verse 8, give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the people. So what a privilege it
is for us, what a high privilege it is for us in our thoughts
and meditations, in all the events of our lives, to remember and
reflect upon the eternal truth revealed to us in the gospel
that Christ by himself has brought us to God, by his sin-atoning,
cleansing blood, by his own prayers to God. And we, in our prayers,
in our prayers to God, are simply echoing the work of his Spirit
in us, according to scripture, taking from God's word warrant,
and words by which we come to God on the basis of Christ and
him crucified." So we don't come to God because of our own strength.
We don't come to God by our own wisdom. We don't formulate prayers
out of our own intellect. To presume to do so would be
a denial of the need for Christ to be our Savior, for Christ
to be our wisdom, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption,
and all those things that He is to us. He's everything in
our coming to God. So we come to God as we are,
as sinners, helpless in ourselves. utterly unprofitable, needing
everything from God, and we come to Him by Jesus Christ. And so
looking to Christ, we come in God's appointed way. We come
by faith in Him. So prayer is simply expressing
my need for God. My need for God. That's the most
basic level. We come and say, Lord, I need
you. Don't we? Psalm 42 says as much. It says in Psalm 42, as the deer pants after the water
brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth
for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? My tears have been my meat day
and night, while they continually say to me, where is thy God?
You trust that Christ alone saves you? Where is your God? You think
that you don't have to adhere to the
philosophies of this world? Everybody does. Where is your
God? You really believe those things?
You must be some kind of an idiot. Where is your God? You're right. I have no knowledge, no wisdom,
no understanding of spiritual things, except what God has taught
me in Christ. And He's all my wisdom. And if
He's not my wisdom, then I have none. Just as you say, I'm foolishness
without Him. And so we point men to Christ
as we ourselves, by God's grace, are pointed to Him. Prayer begins
with acknowledging who God is in himself and in his relation
to me. Jesus said in Matthew 6, verses 9-13, this is how you
should pray, Our Father. That says a lot, doesn't it?
Our, not just yours, all of God's people. We're one body in Christ. Our Father. Father by Jesus Christ. We were redeemed in order that
we might be made the sons of God by adoption. And that was
by God's eternal choice. Oh, behold what manner of love
the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. We call Him our Father because it was His eternal
choice to adopt us. That's what adoption means, to
choose. To choose us by Jesus Christ to be His sons. And so,
we come to Him on the basis of who He is, we acknowledge Him,
our Father, and our relation to Him in Jesus Christ. Because
we're related to Christ by God's eternal will, giving us to Christ
to be His own people, and His bride, and His brethren, then
we're related to God as His sons. We're the brethren of Christ,
we're the sons of God. We're the bride of Christ, we're
the daughters of God. In that way, sons and daughters.
Now, prayer is not complicated. If it were complicated, it would
shut out the weak and the simple. But we're all weak and simple,
aren't we? It says in 1 Corinthians 1, you see your calling, brethren,
how not many wise are called, not many noble. And so, it doesn't
mean not any wise, not any noble, but just not many. And so, we
take our place among the many not wise. But prayer is very
simple. Remember how Mary, the mother
of Jesus, brought to the attention of Jesus at the marriage in Cana
of Galilee? What did she say to Him? She
says, they have no wine. That was a prayer. It was simply
making known to Christ what is evident to me and taking my concern
to Him. They have no wine. And let Him
do. What seems good to him? To which
he answered her, he said, Woman, what do I have to do with you?
Mine hour has not yet come. That was in John chapter 2 because
the wine Jesus was speaking about was the wine of his blood which
was shed to make that covenant so that we might be given all
the promises of God from eternity that he gave to us in Christ.
But he was saying that to her in order to show his relation
to her was not as his mother, as the Catholics blasphemously
say. But he says, woman, what have
I to do with you? In order to show that she was
just a believer. But we come to him in that way. In John chapter
11, when Mary and Martha, his brother Lazarus, fell sick and
was near death, they came and said to him, they said, Lord,
he whom thou lovest is sick. That was the prayer. They left
it with him, with simple words, didn't they? And it's this simplicity
in prayer that's most comforting. It's when God presses us through
affliction and by the limitations of our own understanding and
we find ourselves confused and helpless and unable to take any
confidence in our own consistency or spirituality or whatever you
want to call it. Our own dedication and our own
commitment. and we find all lack in ourselves,
then we're really prepared to pray. And we bring that great
need of our heart to the Lord in just a few words. That's what
happens in scripture. And so the hymn writer wrote
this, I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord. No tender
voice like thine can peace afford. I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. This is the way we come. There's many prayers in scripture
recorded from God's people and they teach us things. They teach
us doctrine. They teach us how we come. And
they give us words from the Spirit of God. and teach us not only
how to come, but to even borrow those words in coming to Christ,
coming to God by Him. Remember these prayers in Scripture,
and I know you know them well, but we should hold them close
to us. In Luke 18.13, the publican,
that sinner, the one men despise because of his renown for sin,
his notorious sinful lifestyle, he comes. And he prays to God,
looking to Christ, asking God not to consider him, not to consider
his sins, but to consider only one thing, the sacrifice. That
God-appeasing, justice-satisfying sacrifice, the propitiation which
Christ is to God. And he says this, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. And Jesus said, that man went
down to his house justified. That's amazing. What a simple
prayer. You can take that prayer. I've often taken it. And I've
prayed it. And I pray that God would have
put it in my heart to do so. That I wouldn't just be mouthing
words in vain repetitions. But that God would make it the
cry of my own heart. Be merciful, look upon Christ
for me. I don't deserve it. I'm a sinner.
I have nothing to bring. I come as a sinner with no hope
unless you find all my righteousness and acceptance in Christ. Peter,
when he was sinking in the water, he had asked Jesus to call him
to him while Jesus was on the water and Peter was in the boat.
And Peter said, if it's you, Lord, bid me come to you on the
water. And Jesus said, come. And so
Peter gets out of the boat. And he's walking on the water.
And then he begins to see the waves. And he realized, ooh,
what have I got myself into? I don't know what he was thinking.
But he got scared. And he began to sink. Here's
a guy, probably the strongest, I imagine, of all the fishermen,
a burly man. These guys would work with their
hands, always pulling in the nets. And he was respected by
his peers as being a leader. And here he is, sinking, about
to perish. What does he do? He prays this
prayer. Lord, save me. Is that too complicated? Lord,
save me. And you know what Jesus did?
We often think of Jesus as just kind of, maybe not a strong guy,
but he reached down in the waters and he grabbed a hold of that
thick arm of Peter's, undoubtedly, and he lifted him up out of the
waters and made him stand. He didn't do it just by his physical
strength, but he saved him from drowning. Lord, save me from
drowning in my unbelief and my sin. And then the woman who came
because her daughter was grievously vexed by a devil, troubled and
afflicted by a devil, she came to Jesus. And finally, at the
very end, you know what she said after all the rebuff? She said,
she came and worshipped him and said, Lord, help me. That's where she didn't know
what else to say. Lord, help me, as she was worshipping
him. Isn't that a lesson in prayer?
And then the leper came to Jesus. A leper was not allowed to be
in the company of others. He was supposed to stand far
off and cover his mouth and say, unclean, unclean, so that others
wouldn't approach to him. But this leper came to Jesus
and he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. That's amazing. He knew that
the Lord Jesus Christ was the Sovereign of the Universe and
the Sovereign Savior, and He knew that if He but willed it,
He could make Him utterly clean. Matthew 8, verse 2. Other prayers
are short but bold. In Psalm 31, verse 3, it says,
Thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for Thy name's sake,
lead me and guide me. Have you ever wondered that?
Lord, You are all my hope. You are the foundation on which
I stand. Save me, lead me, and guide me,
for Your name's sake. Psalm 71.3, Be Thou my strong
habitation, whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment
to save me, for Thou art my rock and my fortress. In Christ we
can say, God has given commandment to save me. Because he commanded
his son, he said, you lay down your life for them and take it
up again, and in so doing you would save your people from their
sins. We take that, don't we? We take that by the warrant of
God's word, trusting God to look upon Christ for us. We have no
other hope. no other confidence, and on the
basis of that, on the basis of Christ and Him crucified, accepted
by God, ordained, appointed, promised, provided, offered,
and accepted by God, now seated in glory and interceding in His
own person. We come on that basis by the
blood of Jesus, confident because God has accepted Christ. Not
thinking of any confidence based on ourselves, but entirely what
God thinks of him. And we say, thou has given commandment
to save me, you put it in my heart to look to him. In Psalm
71 5, for thou art my hope, O God, thou art my trust from my youth,
ever since we were born of God. Isn't the praise of every believer
that God would heal and save them? And Jeremiah 17, 17, just after
that, he says, be not a terror unto me, for thou art my hope
in a day of evil. And don't you sometimes feel
terrified by the prospect of standing before God in judgment?
Or even the afflictions of this world? Be not a terror unto me,
thou art my hope in the day of evil. Elisha prayed for his servant
Gehazi, I think it was Gehazi, when they were surrounded by
the Syrians and they were in the city. And Elisha asked the
Lord to open his eyes and he saw a huge number of angels on
chariots surrounding them. And so he was strengthened. I
find great comfort in the prayers of God's saints, in their prayers,
who freely and openly confess their sins and their utter dependence
upon the Lord to grant them repentance and turn them. Don't you? Don't
you find great comfort in God's people coming to God as sinners
and asking Him and telling Him their only hope is that He would
turn them? And so, in Jeremiah 31 verse 18, Jeremiah said, Turn
thou me. This is his prayer. Turn thou
me, and I shall be turned. For thou art the Lord my God.
Surely after that I was turned, I repented. And after that I
was instructed, I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea,
even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
And I love those prayers of the most notable servants Which are
the evidence that God has used them in the testimony of their
lives. Elijah was a man like that. Remember
Elijah? People thought Elijah was the
greatest prophet that ever lived. And he was in the Old Testament.
And Elijah, it says in James chapter 5, was a man subject
to like passions as we are. So just like you and I have these
sinful passions, Elijah had those sinful passions. And yet scripture
says that he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it
did not rain on the earth for three and a half years. And so
God heard Elijah. And he prayed again, and the
Lord rained fire down from heaven. Remember that? He prayed to God. as the God of his people, as
the covenant God who made a covenant with them in Christ, and he prayed
God would make himself known to them by his own work in receiving
the sacrifice. This is the way Elijah prayed.
He prayed that God would answer him in validation of God's own
word and of his calling by God. He was heard, Elijah was heard,
because the one issue is this. Does God accept the sacrifice
of His own Son? And so that's the basis on which
Elijah prayed. It is only because God accepts
Christ that He turns us in repentance, isn't it? It is in pointing us
to Christ and Him crucified that God accepts us. It's because
he accepts Christ in him crucified that God points us to him as
all of our salvation. This is what Elijah prayed in
1 Kings 18. He says this, listen, Elijah
the prophet came near after the prophets of Baal had been dancing
and cutting themselves and putting all these animals on their altar.
Elijah the prophet came near and he said, Lord, God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, the covenant God of his people in Christ.
He said, Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel,
and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things
at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou
hast turned their heart back again, Bam! Fire fell down from
heaven and consumed the sacrifice and the wood and the water and
the stones and the dust in the trench. Everything completely
consumed because God accepted the sacrifice. The covenant God
of his people in Christ made known himself in accepting the
sacrifice and in so doing, in showing the acceptance of that
sacrifice, he turned their hearts to himself again. And so also
in his prayer, David teaches sinners to come to God that they
might be accepted because of his grace in Christ. Remember
David's prayer, Psalm 51? Be merciful unto me, O God. Be
merciful unto me according to your lovingkindness, according
to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgression. And how many times have you in
the shame of your sin and the fear of what you are in yourself,
been brought to that psalm and taken those words and meditated
on them and asked the Lord, Could my case be heard as David's case
was? According to your lovingkindness,
according to your tender mercies, for Christ's sake, blot out my
transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my sins. And also in Daniel chapter 9,
he does not hold back his own sins against God. Daniel chapter 9, you want to
turn to that? I'm referring to these. These are familiar texts
of Scripture to you. Psalm 51 especially should be
familiar to you. If not, I encourage you to go
read it yourself. But in Daniel chapter 9, one
of the most beautiful prayers in all of Scripture, Daniel is
praying here. And there's a much deeper message
here in this, but I'm just going to hit the surface of it here
in chapter 9, verse 3. After the 70 years had passed,
we're about to come to a completion that Jeremiah had prophesied
that God would send his people into Babylonian captivity. a
great picture of our captivity to Satan and sin and our deliverance
by God's promise in Christ. He says in Daniel 9 verse 3,
I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications
with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the
Lord my God, and I made confession, and said, O Lord, the great and
dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him
and to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned." So he keeps
covenant with them that have kept his commandments and he
immediately takes his place among the guilty. we have sinned and
have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled
even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments he doesn't
leave anything out does he we've sinned we've We've committed
iniquity, we've done wickedly, we've rebelled, we've departed
from your precepts and your judgments. Verse 6. Neither have we hearkened
unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our
kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the
land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to thee, but unto us confusion
of face. faces as it as it this day to
the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and into all Israel
that are near and that are far off through all the countries
whether thou has driven them because of their trespass that
they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, verse 8, O Lord
to us belongs confusion of face to our kings to our princes and
to our fathers because we have sinned against thee Do you see
how freely Daniel confesses the sins of his people and his own
sins here? He doesn't hold back, does he?
He pours it out. Verse 9. To the Lord our God
belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against
Him. Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to
walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants, the
prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed
thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice.
Therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is
written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we
have sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words
which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged
us, by bringing upon us a great evil. For unto the whole heaven
hath not been done, as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is
written in the Law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us,
yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, we didn't even
pray, even though God afflicted us, that we might turn from our
iniquities and understand thy truth. We didn't come to you,
Lord. We didn't pray. We did not confess
our sins in order that we might be turned by your grace and understand
your truth. Verse 14, Therefore hath the
Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us. For the Lord
our God is righteous in all his works, which he doeth, for we
obeyed not his voice. He's saying, everything we've
suffered was according to your word. You promised to do this
and you've confirmed your promise. We're worthy of this. And now,
Oh Lord our God, that has brought thy people forth out of the land
of Egypt with a mighty hand, and has gotten thee renowned
as at this day. We have sinned, we have done
wickedly. Let the record show this is what
we are. And then what he does is amazing
here. O LORD, according to all thy righteousness I beseech thee,
let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city
Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, because for our sins and for
our iniquities of our fathers Jerusalem and thy people are
become a reproach to all that are about us, according to your
justice. Find a way in your holiness,
O LORD our God. to look upon Christ and receive
us for his sake. Verse 17. Now therefore, O our
God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications, and cause
thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary, that it is desolate for the Lord's
sake. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear. Open thine eyes,
and behold our desolation, and the city which is called by thy
name. For we do not present our supplications before thee for
our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. Amazing grace. When you come before God, come
as you are. Make no pretense. Come openly
and boldly, looking to Christ, the blood of Jesus. That's the
way we come. Hebrews 10.19, Therefore come
boldly into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We don't have to hold back. Our
advocate tells us, plead guilty. And then our advocate justifies
us. Amazing. By his own righteousness,
verse 19, O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, O Lord hearken and do,
defer not for thine own sake, O my God, for the city and thy
people are called by thy name. Do it for your name's sake. Do
it according to your holiness. Do it according to your word,
even though we deserve much, even death for our sins. save
us and forgive us according to your mercies." Now that's coming
boldly, isn't it? Why would God even hear a sinner? Why would He even allow that
prayer of a sinner to come into His presence? He wouldn't. unless
it was His will to do so. And so, in our coming, God is
drawing us to Christ. He ever points us to Christ.
We started with Christ's prayer, we started with the basis for
which God accepts us, the blood and righteousness of Christ,
and we showed that His prayers on earth were for His people.
And we showed that God receives our prayers for His sake. And
we showed how God throughout time has prayers from His people
pointing them to Christ and us to Christ through their prayers
as sinners and our great hope of salvation in Him. And so we
come at all times this way. We come by who God is in His
holiness and in His relation to us through Jesus Christ. We've gone too far, haven't we? I just want to say one more thing
here, if I can find it here. We are admonished in scripture
to pray for one another, and we try to do that, but we always
fail, don't we? I don't know about you, but you
always feel so inadequate, forgetful. I let other things interfere
with that more important task of praying for one another. But
we are admonished to pray for one another by bringing the needs
of our brothers and sisters in Christ to our attention. God
does something. He does this. He informs us of
their trials. He tells us of their need, and
of their need for His continuous grace and mercy, so that we see
our own need in theirs. And we see our own need of being
upheld in faith as we see their need. And when we hear others
tell of God's mercies in answer to their prayer, or even the
scriptures that God gives to them to comfort and strengthen
them in their prayer, And we hear the expressions of trust
and their rest in God, our Savior, by their pleas to God, to Christ,
for Christ's sake, in their prayer. And as we think of them and their
needs, as the Lord enables us, so we find our own prayers for
them to be a great God-given blessing. We come to be able
to come. with their concerns, in every
concern, to God through Christ, without pretense, not coming
with our own understanding, but utterly dependent upon God to
give us, to put in our heart to pray, to give us the words
to pray, to incline us to do so, And when we find ourselves
so inclined, thinking of the concerns of our brothers and
sisters, mingled together with the truth of scripture and our
own thoughts about these things, and we express those thoughts,
even if it's not with words, in our heart to the Lord, and
ask him, let the prayers of my heart, the meditations of my
mind, and the words of my mouth be acceptable in thy sight. And
we ask him to do, he doesn't need our prayers, does he? We're
unprofitable servants. But in so praying, we find a
great peace in knowing that God is in control of all things,
and even in grace, gives us this tool of prayer. I hate to use
that word, but something, I'm looking for another word. This
privilege of prayer, to enter into the presence of God, not
only on our own behalf, on our own salvation, but to know God
and to understand Him and to do so for others too. And so
we find great comfort and peace in this prayer. God has given
us this grace. It's a wonderful thing, prayer.
And I encourage you to go back and read the prayers of God's
people. Check out Nehemiah, check out David, and Daniel, and Samuel,
and Paul, and all the saints. It's a wonderful thing. Let's
pray. Father we pray that you would
receive us for Christ's sake, that according to your word we
would come to you and we would be given grace to believe you.
Solomon asked for wisdom, we ask for your spirit that we might
believe Christ and so love him because he first loved us. We
ask that we would be given this grace to forgive one another
for Christ's sake. that we would see that he loved
us and gave himself for us a sacrifice to God a sweet smelling savor
and we would find great delight in knowing God our Father took
delight in Christ our Savior and his sacrifice for us and
for his love for us and so we would love one another We would
find it a great privilege to pray, and we would find it a
great comfort and peace to pray, not only for ourselves, but for
others. And in so doing, serve one another. We ask these things
in Jesus' name. Lord, teach us to pray. In His
name we pray. Amen.