John 16, read verses 23 and 24
with me. We did not look at these verses,
we looked at verse 33, you remember, on Wednesday. We're going to
cover all the verses in chapter 16. Verses 23 and 24. In that day,
Christ says, ye shall ask me nothing, barely, barely, I say
unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he
will give it you. Hitherto have you asked nothing
in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that
your joy may be full. The Lord says, ask, ask, ask. He's urging us, He's exhorting
His disciples. That's us. That's me. I'm His
disciple. Are you? He's speaking to us. He's urging us and exhorting
us to pray. To pray. And He's promising us. He's promising us that God will
answer us. That He is our Father because
He's His Father. And because we love Him, the
Father will answer us. Our Lord in Luke 18 spoke a parable
to this end about the widow. He said that men ought always
to pray. They ought always to pray. Paul said it. He said, pray without
ceasing. Pray without ceasing. Why? Why
do we need to always pray? Because, he said, and we know
this from experience, without him, we can do nothing but sin,
that is. James chapter 1, go over to James
chapter 1, we'll be looking at this a little bit, because James,
who was standing there when the Lord said that, he wrote these
things, he took these things and expounded on them. James
chapter 1. James wrote of asking, asking.
This is how he begins his book, doesn't it? His letter. James
said over in chapter 4, do you think the scripture says in vain,
the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth in? No, that's why he wrote that.
The flesh lusts against the spirit, Paul said. So you cannot do it. You cannot do the things that
you would. But then Paul wrote, but with Christ, I can do all
things. But not without Him. You cannot
do anything. Anything. James 1, James speaks
of asking. Verse 5, he says, if any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Wisdom. Ask of God. Ask for wisdom to not be a fool. We once were foolish, Scripture
says, doesn't it? We need wisdom to keep us from
many foolish and hurtful lusts. We need to be wise to walk in
the fear of the Lord, to walk by faith. We need to be wise
to the ways of God. This is the way. Walk therein. We need to be wise to the wiles
and the ways of the devil, don't we? and not fall for his traps. We need to be wise to refuse
evil and choose the good as the Lord said of Christ, the Messiah. We need to be wise in speech.
Our speech with grace seasoned with salt. Ask, ask, ask. We need wisdom from above. And we need to start every day
by asking. We need to start every day by
calling on the Lord. Ask the Lord, and when we call
it, in everything, give thanks. Everything with thanksgiving.
This is the first thing. You don't start asking before
you start thanking. But with everything, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God. We need to start every
day. Lord, bless your holy name. Lord,
thank you. Now, when Jacob almost, you know,
the Mac almost preached from Genesis 32 today. A man wrestled
with Jacob. But he said in his prayer to
the Lord, he said, Lord, I'm not worthy of the least of all
your mercies and truth that you fill me. Then he start asking,
Lord, thank you. Lord, give us, give me, give
us. Remember, pray for others. Give us wisdom for the day. Verse five, if any of you lack
wisdom, If you don't realize you lack
wisdom, you lack wisdom. Verse 6, let him ask in faith. What's that mean? This is exactly
what our Lord is speaking of in Christ's name. He is our faith. Look at chapter 3. Chapter 3
of James, verse 13. Who is a wise man? and endued
with knowledge among you, let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom." But if you have envy and strife
in your heart, anybody? Glory not, lie not against the
truth. Paul said, you didn't learn that
from Christ. It's carnal. This wisdom, that
kind of attitude, descendeth not from above. It's earthly,
sensual, devilish. We're in the end, strife, there's
confusion. It's every evil work. But the
wisdom that's from above is first, pure, peaceable, gentle, easy
to be intrigued. Isn't this Christ? This is Christ,
isn't it? Full of mercy. good fruits without partiality,
without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
of them that make peace. Keep reading. From whence come
wars and fightings among you? Do they not come? Come they not
hence of your own lusts, desires, that warn your members you lust
and have not? You kill. Lust means an insatiable
desire. I gotta have this. I gotta have
that. No, there's one thing you gotta
have, and that's Christ. Wisdom. You lust and have not
to kill or do anything. You ever heard anybody say, I'll
just die. If I don't get this, I'll just
die. A desire to have and cannot obtain,
you fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. You
ask, you do ask, he said. You read it with me, verse 3.
You do ask, but you receive not because. Why? Asking for the
wrong thing. Asking amiss that we may consume
it upon your own lust. And this is why he calls us adulterers
and adulteresses because he says the friendship of the world is
idolatrous. Covetousness is idolatrous. We're
all guilty of it. We're all guilty of them. We
ask amiss. We ask for our only selfish desire. What should we ask for? James
said, wisdom. That wisdom that is Christ. That character, conformity to
his image, that is Christ. Pure, peaceful, love, gentle,
easy to be intrigued, merciful, gracious, kind, forgiving. Let
this mind be. ask, ask, ask. We need grace. What do we need to ask for? Look
at verses, let's see, 5 and 6 of chapter 4. There it
is, verse 5 and 6. Do you think the scripture says
in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? And we're
no match for him, so we have to ask, don't we? But he giveth
more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. What do we need to
ask for? Grace. We need grace. All grace. Because without Him, we can do
nothing. Without this gift of grace. Grace
is every good and perfect gift. Now we're told to ask for bread,
aren't we? We're told to ask for everything. Give us this
day our daily bread. You know, if we don't ask for
things, we take it for granted it's just going to come. But
when we ask for it and God gives it, we give Him the glory for
it. Even the simplest of things. The people in the world think
bread comes from Kroger's. Right? What's the big deal? You just go to Kroger or Walmart
and get all the bread. It came from God. He grew it. He gave it freely. Abundance
of it. But surely isn't He speaking
of more than just physical bread? Give us this day. Surely. Our
Lord said that. Man doesn't live by bread alone.
but by every word. So that's, we need to ask for
physical bread and give him the glory when he gives it, but more
than that, ask for Christ the true bread, the word of God. Start every day asking, Lord,
give me bread that I may go in the strength thereof. Give me
your word to feed upon. We're told to ask for all things,
but we need great grace is what we need. We need grace. We need
restraining grace. of the tongue, the hands, the
feet, the mind, restrain us, keep us from evil. We need constraining
grace, the gift of love, to love. That's not in us by nature. We
need constraining grace, the love. Others, not ourselves,
We need constraining grace to seek His will. We won't seek
it. We need constraining grace to read God's Word. We'll read
something else. We need love to serve one another. That's why we're here. He didn't
create a people. He didn't save us to serve ourselves. We need constraining grace to
serve the head, the body. We need constraining grace to
give or we'll be selfish. We need constraining grace to
forgive or we won't forgive, we'll hold a grudge. We need
grace, don't we? Oh, how we need grace. We need
grace to forbear. We need grace of love, of joy,
of peace, of long-suffering, of gentleness. Those things don't
grow in this natural heart. We need grace of gentleness,
of faith, of meekness, of temperance. We need grace. We need all grace. We need more grace. We can't
live on yesterday's grace. We need grace today. He giveth
more grace. For who? Those that ask. Those that ask. Go back to our
text. John 16. John 16. He says in verse 23, now a couple
of things that we see here. He says, in that day, that meaning
when Christ goes back to the father. He's telling them he's
going back to the father. And he says, in that day you'll
ask me nothing. What he's saying is you'll ask
the father in my name. While he was with them for three
years, they asked him everything then. They didn't need to ask
the father, although he told them to pray, didn't he? Father
to pray to the father. And yet, there he is. And they asked him for everything.
But he said, I'm leaving. And in that day, verily, verily,
I say unto you, truly, whatever you ask the Father in my name,
he will give it to you. Hitherto have you asked nothing
in my name. But ask, and you shall receive,
that your joy may be full. Now, two things to be seen here.
In that day, the day the Holy Spirit comes and teaches us all
things. The day the Holy Spirit comes
to teach us all things, like he said he'd send to his disciples. You won't have to ask me, Christ
said, but you'll ask the Father and the Holy Spirit will lead
you and guide you into, remember, all truth. All truth. You'll take the things of Christ
and show them to you. Secondly, Christ says, the day
I sin, you'll be asking the Father for me, in my name, in my name. You'll be asking the Father in
my name. And he says in verse 26 and verse
27, look at it. At that day, you'll ask in my
name. And I say not unto you that I
will pray the Father for you, but the Father himself loveth
you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came
out from God." What a blessed verse that is. I believe. I love
Christ, don't you? Not like I want to, but I do
love Him. If I asked you, Simon, Polly, do you love the Lord Jesus
Christ? Well, you'd be ashamed of your
love, like Simon Peter was. But he didn't have to stop and
think about it. Yay, Lord. You know I love you. Yes, I do. Because you love me, Christ said,
and had believed that I came out from God. You believe Christ
came from God, that he's the Son of God? You believe with
all your heart? You really believe? I do, don't
you? Yeah, you do, don't you? Well,
he said, the Father loveth you then. And he hears you. He will
listen to you. He will hear you for that reason. When you love him, why? Because
he first loved you. And God, you know, the scripture
that says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Spirit. What's that? Who does God love
supremely? Christ. And that's the love he
puts, he sheds abroad in the heart of his people. They love
Christ. They love his truth. All right, so he says here, you'll
ask the Father and you'll ask in my name. And whatsoever you
ask in my name, The Father will hear you. The Father will give
you. And your joy, that your joy may
be full. All right? What does that mean
to ask in His name? Stay with me. This is important. This is like everything our Lord
says is important. He's not merely saying that you
just say in Jesus' name, like a mantra. like just repeat Catholicism,
you know, repeats over and over and over and over and over, same
thing. They don't pray to God the Father, they pray to Mary. Hail Mary, Mother of God. Christ said, you'll pray to the
Father, our Father, which art in heaven, you'll pray in Christ's
name, in the name of thy blessed Son. Not merely saying, in the
name of Jesus. Christ said this one time, he
said, well did Isaiah the prophet say of this generation, this
people draw near with me with their lips. It's not to merely
say in Jesus' name. And it's certainly not saying
that this is what false religion says. This is what the health
and wealth gospel says. You ask anything in Jesus' name,
anything, God will give it to you. Ask anything. You need a
mansion? Ask for it. Need a Mercedes? Ask for it.
That's what he said. Not saying that. You know, Satan
is given by God some ability to give things. You remember
when our Lord was tempted by Satan? He said, worship me and
all these things I will give you, for they have been given
to me. Remember that? He's called the God of this world.
And 2 Thessalonians 2, I believe it is, says that those that receive
not the love of the truth, God sends them strong delusions.
First, that's lunatic. God sends them strong delusions. They pray in Jesus' name for
this and that and the other, and Satan's the one that gives
these things. And they think, well, see, I
got lots of faith. Look how rich I am. That's not saying that at all. We're going to see what it means,
what we will ask for. And it's not mere name dropping.
Have you ever dropped, have you ever used someone's name to gain
favor? You ever done that? I just did
it the other day. I was wanting someone who had a business who
was, had a big waiting list of people and I needed their services
and somebody they knew real well told me to use, tell them that
so and so sent you. And I did. I said, Billy Bob
said for me to call you. Oh. So I went right to the head
of the list. That's not what he's saying either.
Just to get favors, you know, in Jesus' name. A lot of people
do that. That's not it at all. What is
it? What is it to ask in His name? Go with me to 1st John, chapter
1. 1st John, chapter 1. What is
it to ask in Christ's name? Well, first of all, it is to
ask in faith and with the heart, man believes. And then with the mouth confession,
maybe it's to ask in faith, it's to come to God by Christ, it's
to call on God by faith in Jesus Christ, His blood, His righteousness. is to come to God whom you know
is holy, just, righteous. You fear God and you come through
a mediator. You come through a blood atonement,
a sacrifice. You come through Christ. You know, God is of two pure
eyes to behold iniquity. And you come to this God whom
we fear. I'm not contradicting anything here. This is what scriptures teach
us. We can come boldly by faith,
but we're still fearing only. You know God. We come unto God
by Him. Good illustration here. Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth knew why he's seated
at David's table, doesn't he? He'd never lost sight of why
he's there. For Jonathan's sake. What if
he kicked back? What if Omar Fibichef kicked
back and said, hey, send somebody to get me something to eat. What if he got lifted up in pride? Would David have been angry?
When he came to David the first time, he was trembling, wasn't
he? This was a former enemy. But
David spoke peace to him. He said, I've shown you mercy
and I've sent to fetch you for Jonathan's sake. And you're going to sit at my
table as my son for Jonathan's sake, didn't he? And he never
forgot that. Never forgot it. That's a good
illustration. Good illustration. We ask in faith.
We come unto God by Him. We come unto God by Christ. And it's to ask according to
His faith, Christ's faith. The life I now live, I live by
the faith of the Son of God. How many times does it say that?
You all know this, don't you? You read this. We know this.
It's not a grammatical error. It's truth revealed in a two-letter
word. The faith of Christ. His faith for us. and His faith
in us. 1 John 5, look at this, 1 John
chapter 5, look at verse 13. These things, 1 John 5, 13, these
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Remember
that in light of the next message. that you may know you have eternal
life and you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this
is the confidence we have in Him. That if we ask anything according
to His will, He heareth us. And we know that He heareth us,
whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we desired
of Him. He asks according to His will.
If we ask anything according to His will, in the name of Christ,
according to His revealed will. What's His revealed will? What
is God's revealed will? Somebody tell me what His revealed
will is. What is it? Somebody. Tell me. You have it. This is it right here. This is
the revealed will. This is the Word of God. He made
known unto us His revealed will. And according to His Word, we
ask for things. needful. We ask for things, spiritual
things. We ask for things He tells us
to ask for. What does John deal with all
the whole chapter of John, 1st John? The whole book, what is
it about? Huh? What's it about? He doesn't mention one single
material thing. Not one. You need to ask for
this. You need to ask for that. You
need to ask for a husband. You need to ask for a wife. You need
to ask for... No! It talks about forgiveness of
sin. It talks about love. It talks about these things. This is the will of God, even
your sanctification. This is the will of God that
everyone believeth on the Son, seeth the Son. This is the will
of God. This is the revealed will of God. First John, no material things
are mentioned. It's all about forgiveness of
sin. It's all about love for God, for His truth, for each
other. Ask and receive, he said. Like
in James. James doesn't talk about things. He doesn't talk about things.
Ask for things. He didn't ask for things. No,
ask for wisdom. Ask for grace. Christ came not
to give us things, but to give us the things of God. He came,
the Spirit of God comes to take away the love for things and
set our affection on what? Things above. Romans 8, go over
to Romans 8. And you see where we started
here with James, he said, we ask amiss. We're asking for the
wrong thing. He's not going to give you everything
you ask for. That'd be bad, wouldn't it? It'd
be real bad. Sometimes I've asked for things,
he's given it to me just to teach me a lesson. Romans 8. See, here's our problem. We don't know what—we're so foolish
by nature, we don't know what things to ask for, although he's
told us. Romans 8, 26, the Spirit helps
our infirmities. We know not what we should pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit itself, Himself, maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He knows, He searches
the hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, God, because
He makes intercession for the saints according to the will. God, Lord, God, give me, if it's
your will, give me this." You don't get it. Good. It wasn't his will. It would have been bad for you.
It wasn't according to his will. James said, we ask amiss, we
ask for the wrong thing, we ask for riches and we ought to be
asking to be rich in faith. Shouldn't we? rich in faith and love and joy.
The Lord says he'll give it to man. He'll give liberally. Any man like wisdom? Let him
ask and God'll give liberally. Remember Solomon? The Lord said,
ask anything. Didn't he? Ask anything, I'll
give it to you. What did he ask for? Wisdom. And he gave him more wisdom than
anybody. And on top of that, he gave him riches. And he gave
him the wisdom to use those riches. If you didn't have wisdom and
had riches, you'd use it on yourself. To your own, you'd drown in these,
in riches. But he'd give you wisdom. I know
some rich believers, the Lord made them that way first and
then rich in things and gave them wisdom to know what to do
with it. And then John 16, go back to
our text. You know, we can ask anything.
We can ask God, our Father, anything. Yes, we can. You might not get
it. But as you mature, As you grow
in grace, you'll see. Boy, you know, there really is
one thing I need. There's just one thing I need. Oh, Paul said that I might know
Him. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. Oh, that Christ might be formed
in me. This is the one thing needful. If I have food and I have raiment,
oh, let me be content. and give me what I really need. Give me Christ." Boy, he'll honor that. He'll
give that. He delights to give that. John
16, verse 25, now here he says, these things I've spoken unto
you in Proverbs, to the disciples, hidden meanings, time comes where
I'll no more speak unto you in Proverbs, I shall show you plainly
of the Father. That day you'll ask in my name
and I say not unto you, I'll pray the Father for you. The
Father himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed
that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father
and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and
go to the Father. His disciples, like a light,
clicked on Him. They said, Oh! We say, Oh! Now! They say, Lo! Lo! Now! Now we see! Now speakest thou plainly! Speakest
no proverb! Now we're sure! Now we're sure! that you know all things and
we don't need, none of us need to ask you. And by this we believe
that thou camest forth from God. Have you ever said that? One
time the Lord asked him, do you understand? He said, oh yeah,
we understand. Being long-suffering as he is,
he said, We just said, I have many things to say unto you,
but you're not able to bear. No, you really don't understand. Do you now believe? I believe
probably that every one believer in here, true believer in here,
believes with all your heart these things that we've been
looking at this morning. But do we really? What you really
believe is what you'll act on. Yes, it is. You'll do it. If
you really believe something, you'll do it. Our Lord said,
Behold, do you now believe? The hour cometh. Yea, is now
come. It's just a few minutes. You'll
be scattered. Every man to his own. And leave
me alone. What about us? Will that happen
to us? Can that happen to us? Do you know yourself? Huh? You'll no sooner leave this building,
be out from under the word till... These thoughts will be scattered. the evil one will come. Somebody
in this room will come up and bow their ear and steal it away. Thorns and cares will choke out
the word and we'll be once again in unbelief and doubt. Oh, I believe that? Do you now? Oh, do you now? Is our salvation
dependent on our faith Is our salvation dependent on us believing
and remaining faithful? This is why the next verse he
said, I have spoken these things unto you, that in me you might
have peace. In the world you'll have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Do you
now believe? Do you? Oh, I know He believed
because I gave you the faith, he said. He gave us this faith.
But it's true faith. It's true life. And it's got to grow, you've
got to go through all these trials and tribulations, fictions, trial
of your faith, work with patience and patience, experience, experience,
hope, that your love for things is taken away and your love for
God grows stronger and your need of Him becomes all-consuming. Do you really believe? No, we
don't believe. As Brother Shanks used to say,
we don't have belief. But as we grow older, go through
things, we realize, you know, there really is one thing needful. One thing. Until you say with
David, from the depth of your heart, one thing have I desired
the Lord, and that will I seek after. Oh Lord, here's a good,
here's a good prayer. Lord, give me total Commitment to thee. Total communion
with thee and total conformity to thy dear son. We don't have
that yet, do we? Ask.