Okay, you may be seated. Matthew chapter six. And our Lord is dealing with
the subject of prayer here. in the first part of Matthew
6. And this example he gives us
is probably the most well-known and often repeated prayer in
the whole world. People wrongly refer to this
as the Lord's Prayer. And you people well know, though,
this is not the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer The prayer
of our great high priest, our Lord and Savior, is found in
John 17, one of them anyway. This is the prayer he taught
his disciples to pray, so it would be more rightly considered
as the disciples' prayer. And he begins dealing with the
subject of prayer here. Let's get right into it. Beginning
of verse 7, we touched on verses 5 and 6. on the hypocrisy of
praying to be seen. In verse 7, he begins dealing
with prayer. He says, when you pray, not if,
but when, when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the
heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their
much speaking. He said the heathen use not vain
repetitions as the heathen do now he. He may have been referring
to. Arabic or Indian cultures which
as you may know they chant. different prayers, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, or mantras or different what they call prayers with the
chanting of words. And they think they're storming
heaven, but they're going to be heard by God for the much
repeating of the same thing. And our Lord may have been referring
to that, he says, thinking they will be heard for their much
speaking. And I immediately thought of
the prophets of Baal over in the second Kings, was it 18?
How that they prayed from morning until noon, calling on the name
of Baal. Baal, hear us. Baal, hear us.
Morning till noon. Very zealous, very fervent, but
just repetitious words to their false god. And our Lord is warning
of that, but there must be much more here. And that he's talking
to his disciple. He talks about vain repetitions. And long prayers. In this subject
of prayer, he talks about vain repetitions for saying the same
things over and over again and long. Prayers now. Repeating certain things each
time We pray is not forbidden. Our Lord is not. Is not forbidden
us to say some of the same things over and over again, we're taught
to pray in his name every time we approach the father. And I've
heard people pray, so-called Christian preachers, and I've
heard them pray and in the course of their prayer, never mention
the name of Jesus Christ, not even in closing. God will not
hear that prayer. I don't care how fervent it is.
I don't care how zealous it is. I don't care how sincere it is.
I don't care how eloquent it is. I don't care how theologically
correct it may have been. It's not theologically correct
if they don't pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ or that
is through him. Because there's one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. In other words,
God will not be spoken to nor will he speak to anyone except
through his perfect son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because our
prayers are too full of sin, we're too sinful for God to even
look upon us. But through Christ, through faith
in Christ, through the person and work of Christ, God heareth
us. He hears our prayers. So we certainly
pray the Lord's name over and over again. You know, we're such. We're such. Finite creatures
in our understanding is so small that we we have to say the same
things over and over again at time, the same words of thanks,
same words of praise, especially you men that pray publicly. It's
a hard matter in pray publicly and you catch yourself saying
the same phrases over and over again. Well, that's OK if it's
from the heart. What our Lord is dealing with
is using vain repetitions or repeating sayings with no heart
or no understanding, no meaning, no sincerity. And you've seen
these people. I'm constantly making fun of
them, but it's a perfect illustration. You've seen these people on TV.
Thank you, Jesus. You've seen them with their eyes
closed, you know, going through these. Thank you, Jesus. Haven't
you seen them? Surely. Over and over again. Thank you, Jesus. Might as well
be saying, Obey, Obey, just over and over again, or Allah, Allah,
Allah. Vain repetitions. Vain repetitions. And the Lord forbids that. Forbids
that. Or, now, we all do this. Everyone in here is caught up
in this hypocritical of prayer, especially at the
dinner table. We sit down and we go through
a little motion of prayer, and we say the same thing kind of
by habit. Thank you for this food. Bless
it to the nourishment of our bodies. Lead us and find us in
your favor. In Jesus' name, amen. You know
you've heard many people pray that way, and perhaps you've
done it yourself. I'll remind you, it's better
to have a heart without words than words without heart. It's
better not to have said anything. It's better to have just said,
thank you, Lord. That's sufficient. If you're
going to go, if we're going to go through a little repeating
of some little prayer just to get it out of the way, might
as well not have said it. Right? Now, long prayers. Our Lord deals with long prayers.
They're not forbidden. He doesn't forbid long prayers.
There are several in the Bible, several long prayers. However,
most of the prayers recorded in the scriptures by various
different people are shorter and can be read in a short period
of time. The secret prayer, secret prayer. Remember, our Lord is dealing
in this matter of prayer between us and God, secret prayer. Secret prayer and its length,
or how long it is, is something between you and God. Something between you and God.
However, and every man I've read, every wise man I've read, says
that in public we should consider others, and this is to us men,
not to be wearisome, or you ladies may lead one another in prayer
when you get together. We should consider others and
not be too wearisome to them. Remember, remember this verse,
Ecclesiastes 5 verse 2. Remember, God is in heaven and
thou art on the earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. Be few. All right, verse 8, he
says, Be not ye therefore like unto these heathen or the Pharisees. He's been talking about the Pharisee.
Be not like unto them. Your father knoweth what things
you have need of before you ask him. And I know you've heard
people pray in this manner. They go into great detail about
every aspect of that day of their lives or something. Lord, we
were coming here and I said to my wife and she said to me and
while we were coming here, we had a flat tire. Lord, you know
that we fixed the tire. I've heard people pray like that.
We fixed the tire and we thank you for the spare wasn't flat
and going on. I'm serious. I've heard people
pray like that, and I think, are they informing God? Is God
not around, or was he not aware of what was going on or something?
We're not, when we pray, we're not informing God of anything. And us men have a tendency to
do a little preaching in prayer, don't we? Well, I do. I don't know about you, Greg,
but I do. Do a little preaching in prayer.
Prayer's not preaching. Prayer is pouring out your heart
to God. We're not trying to impress God. We're not trying to impress
men with our knowledge and our piety. There is a purpose to
prayer, and there's a way to do it. And now our Lord begins
to tell us the purpose and the way to pray. So let's look at
it, beginning with verse 9. And this is recorded over in
Luke, let's see, Luke chapter 11. Right before the Lord gives
this, remember the disciples asked him, Lord, teach us to
pray. And that's not included right
here. But nevertheless, they asked him over in Luke chapter
11, Lord, teach us to pray. There's a lot there. We need
to be taught to pray. The Lord needs to give us the
desire and the zeal to pray. He needs to impress us with the
need to pray, to talk to our Heavenly Father. As I say it,
most relate problems in relationships begin with a breakdown of communication.
Husband and wife stop talking. You're not going to solve your
problems. Parents and children stop talking. You've got real
problem. Stop talking to your heavenly father. You've got problem,
you've got problem. So the disciples said, Lord,
teach us to pray that not only means teach make us pray, but
it also means the Lord teaches how to pray. And he gives this
answer here. All right. After this manner,
therefore, verse nine. After this manner, therefore,
pray ye. Our father. Which are. In heaven. Now, there's a real thought there,
a real message right there in our father. God, we're going
to approach the thrice-holy God, or God the Father, Son, Holy
Spirit, three in one, the holy God of heaven, the omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent, almighty, holy God of heaven, our Creator,
the fearsome, awesome God, sovereign God as our Father, as a child
would to a parent. Yeah, we have the permission
of the son himself. He said, go up to your God, my
God, your God, and call him our father, our father. How? How can we call God our father? Now, I read some different commentators,
and they said there's a sense in which God is the universal
father of all men. I don't agree with that. There
seem to be some scriptures that indicate that, but I don't agree
with that. I do read several times where it says that Christ
is the only begotten son of God. Right? Adam. Now, they talk about
God as being the father in the sense that he was a creator of
all men. Now, wait a minute. God created one man, didn't he? Everybody else came from that
man, Adam. Adam is our father by nature,
right? Adam is our father. We came from
Adam. God created Adam. There was a
sense in which God was Adam's father, OK? He created him. Nevertheless,
Terry, he wasn't from the bosom of the father. He wasn't from
the seat of the Holy Spirit. Christ was, though. was the seat
of the Holy Spirit, the only begotten son of God. But we,
though, are made sons of God. How? A legal transaction giving
us the spirit of what? Adoption. God adopts us. He handpicks, hand chooses his
family from a pack of wild wolves. of maggots like we are, hand
picks, hand chooses. We're bound to give thanks to
God for you, brethren, beloved Lord, for he hath from the beginning
chosen you, elected you, given you the spirit of adoption. And
all that believe in Christ have been chosen by God and given
the spirit of adoption, whereby we can cry and call him our Father,
but only through the Lord Jesus Christ. The man out there that
hates God? He doesn't care for God, he doesn't know God, he's
on his way to hell, cannot call the Holy God his Father. No sense,
no way, shape, form or fashion that he can say that. God is
his Judge, not his Father. So only through Christ, only
through Christ. Our Father, though, what a thought.
What a thought. Our Father, which art in heaven. Our Father. Sons by adoption. Now, since we can call God our
father, what does that mean to you? That
you can call God your father. What is your father? What is
your earthly father, if you have a good relationship with your
earthly father? Can you not go to your earthly father if he's
still living, or could you not have when he was living? Gone
to your earthly father and asked him anything, expecting to be
heard? Could you not come boldly? Could
you not come expectantly? Could you not come actually looking
forward to it? Daddy, daddy got a favor. And
even when you sinned against him or rebelled against him or
disobedient, you could still come to him. If he was a loving
father, you still come to him with expecting him to be understanding
and kind and compassionate. Our father, which art in heaven,
And we can approach Him in the same way, same way. We can come
boldly. We can come confidently. We can
cast all of our care, no matter how small, out how seemingly
small to us. Like I said, now, we don't use
in public prayer, we don't use great repetitions or go into
great detail and all, but in private. That's between you and
God, OK? Nobody can tell you how to pray,
how long to pray, what to say in private. That's between you
and God. And as somebody said, what you are in private in prayer
is what you are before God, is what you are. It's a test of
your true spiritual condition before God, what you are in private
before God. Somebody said prayer is not what
you do, prayer is what you are. Prayer is not what you do, prayer
is what you are. Just think about that a minute.
Father in heaven, high and lifted up. Remember that. He's our Father,
but he's in heaven. God's in heaven. We're on the
earth. Let your word be fulfilled. He's
our Father in heaven, high and lifted up. He's not like a man.
Now, we can't approach him literally in the same way we do our earthly
fathers. He's still high and holy and
reverend is his name, right? Holy, we're still to approach
him with fear and respect. Besides our earthly fathers,
we have at times have been disobedient and even argumentative with our.
Earthly fathers can't do that with a father. With a heavenly
father. And this is how we're approaching
our father, which art in heaven, hallowed. Hallowed be thy name, holy, holy,
holy. That's what the word hallowed
means. Holy. Holy. There's something you can repeat.
If you're going to repeat something, repeat that. The angels do. The
seraphs do. The cherubs do. Holy. They cry
that 24 hours a day. Day and night before he's thrown
onto. Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God of
hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Holy. Holy. Holy. Holy Father. Better be calling him the Holy
Father. not poke wicked. The fourth, the forty-fourth.
We got one, we have one Holy Father. Call no man your father
anyway. In a sense, your spiritual father.
He's our Holy Father. Only one, only one. Now, this
thing of calling him the Holy Father, hallowed be thy name. Prayer, one time Barnard was,
Barnard was riding down the road with a man, and the man, as they
were riding along, the man asked him, Brother Barnard, what do
you think about prayer? And that's all he asked, and
Barnard didn't say anything. And the man, he's the one that
recounted this story, he said they wrote on it, It seemed like
30 or 40 minutes, and Barnard never said a thing. And the man
said, I know he heard me. Finally, Barnard spoke up and
said, Now, a wise man studies to answer. Proverbs says that. Barnard spoke up and said, Well,
it's got something to do with the will of God. That's all he
said. But that's a lot, isn't it? And
somebody else said prayer is a true form of worship. Real
worship. We often, people in our generation,
wickedly think of prayer as God just some sugar daddy and all
we do is just keep going to him, asking him for our need. Somebody
else said this, we treat God like a lawyer, we only go to
him when we get in trouble. No. Prayer is a true form of
worship. And worship always involves praise
and adoration, and that's where you start in worship, isn't it?
Not asking for things. You start by praising him for
who he is. Praising him for who he is. Praising
him for who he is that gives us the right to come and stand
before him and praise him. If he were not who he is, we
would not have a right to stand before him. If he were not who
he is, in all of his character and attributes, we couldn't even
call upon him. In other words, if he were not
merciful, gracious, loving, compassionate, good, tender, and all these things. But we must come to God first,
praising him. Praising him and worshiping him.
Listen to these verses of scripture. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent
is thy name in all the earth. who has set thy glory above the
heavens." Listen to this one, "...O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his holy name together. Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Hallowed be thy name, Lord Jehovah,
God our Savior." That's what that means, Jehovah. God, our
Savior, Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus, what a name. Savior,
Messiah, Redeemer, hallowed, holy, what a name, what a name,
what a name. Verse ten, and say this, thy
kingdom come. The Lord tells us to pray for
the furtherance of his kingdom. Christ first tells us to pray
to the glory of God, to his great name, and then he says, pray,
pray to the glory of God, and then secondly, pray for the means
of showing forth his glory. In other words, the first thing
he said, hallowed be thy name, is for the glory of God. Now
he says, thy kingdom come, and that is for us to pray that God's
glory will be seen throughout the earth. Thy kingdom come,
period. We recite this prayer so much
we lose sight that it is in phrases here. Thy kingdom come, period.
It's not, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. No, it's, Thy kingdom
come, period. We're to pray that God will show
forth his glory in our generation. And how is God glorified on earth? How is God's glory seen by human
beings, by men and women? How? Through the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're to pray for the declaration
of the gospel of his glory. And I like to hear you men pray,
because nearly every time you pray, you thank the Lord that
he has given us the gospel. The gospel is called the gospel
of his glory, or the glorious gospel. And we're to pray that
God will continue to leave us with that gospel, not take it
from us, and that God will bring more people in to hear that gospel,
to show forth his glory, that God will give us the means, the
strength, the courage, the zeal to take that gospel out to others,
that they might see the glory of God. You see, God is glorified
supremely. The supreme glory of God is seen
in the gospel concerning his Son. The glory of God is supremely
seen in the gospel concerning God's Son. His justice is magnified. His justice is honored, that
is. His mercy is revealed. The law of God is magnified.
The love and grace of God is displayed. Only in the gospel
are all these things brought together. So we're to pray that
the gospel may be furthered. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. You remember that? Over in Exodus
33. Show me your glory. What did
the Lord say? How did he answer him? What was
the first thing the Lord said to Moses after he said, show
me your glory? Well, he said, I'm going to make
my goodness pass before you. What is the goodness of God?
Where is the goodness of God sent? In the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have a good God, not only
a just God, but a Savior as well. He said, I'm going to make my
goodness pass before you. I'm going to proclaim the name
of the Lord, the Lord, Jehovah, God, our Savior. Then he said,
I'm going to be merciful and gracious. That's the glory of
the Lord, John. The glory of God is seen in his
mercy. And he's great. God gets great
glory in saving an old wretched, vile sinner like me and like
you. It's a trophy of his grace. The worst, the worst sinner on
earth is the greatest trophy of God's grace. That's what Paul
said. Paul said, God came to save sinners
and I'm the chief. And he did this for me that he
might show forth a pattern. To everybody that should thereafter
believe. To show you how, you see, the lower you are, the higher
it makes God. And that means the farther down
God has to reach to pick an old vile wretch up, and the farther
up he brings you. The lower you are, the higher
he brings you, right? And the more glory he gets for
that. The deader you are and the more stinking you are, the
more glory God will get for it. They say, well, it's just sin
that God's grace may abound. No, God forbid that. Nevertheless,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, much more abound. And he delights to show mercy.
He delights to show mercy, his mercy and his glory. The reason
he delights to show mercy is because he gets so much glory
from it. In the end, when this whole thing is said and done,
he's going to parade us before the angels. And show unto the
angels and all the multitude of heavenly hosts what he made
out of a bunch of no good, worthless worms. Look at these. Would you
look at what great things the Lord hath done. And the angels
are going to say, I never thought it. I never would have believed
it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Look at them. Look
at them. What we look like now and what
we look like then. is as different as the earth
is from the heaven. Now listen, God, he says, pray
for God's kingdom to come. God's kingdom is come. God's
kingdom is come. Christ is God's king who has
dominion. King, dominion. The dominion
of the king. Christ is come. The son of God
is come that you might have life. God's kingdom is come. Christ
and his people And it increases daily. And he tells us to pray
for the increase of that kingdom. Thy kingdom come. And it will.
And it is. The Lord adds daily to the church
such as should be said. Acts 2 said. Daily there are
being added to God's kingdom, even right now. We don't see
much of it. We see one every, well, I don't
even remember the last time, every two years or more. But
nevertheless, God is adding to his kingdom such as should be
saved. And it's like a great king on
the earth. He's known for his great riches and his great holdings. And the more his kingdom encompasses,
the kings of old, they just went out and grabbed what they wanted,
didn't they? They just started moving throughout the world and
just grabbing everything they could get. And God will have
the glory in this thing. Somebody said the reason, that's
the reason we believe that babies who die in infancy, or babies
who die, are all saved, because Christ is going to get all, the
Father is not going to have less people in heaven than Satan does
in hell. He's going to get the victory,
even in numbers. A multitude which no man can
number, as the sands of the seashore and as the stars of A lot of
people. Then he tells us to pray verse
ten, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in
heaven. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. Now he first told us to pray
for God's glory. Then he secondly tells us to
pray that God's glory will be seen by the gospel. And now,
he tells us to pray that God's glory will be seen in us. Did he not say, did not Christ
say, herein is the Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. You bear much fruit. Now, a little
theology for you, but you need to know something about this.
God has two will, well, two, three wheels that we can consider.
Number one, God has what is called his decree. Well, or he makes
decrees. Purposes, OK, purposes, plans. I don't like the word plan, but
purposes. OK, God decrees all things will have that will happen. That's his decree. It will God's
will that he decrees for things. is being done in earth as it
is in heaven. God has spoken it, he'll do it.
That's his decreed will, the Father's will. Christ said this. Every single name written in
the Lamb's Book of Life by the Father given to the Son will
be saved. That is the Father's decree,
his will. OK? All right, he has another
will here that the old writers call God's revealed or preceptive
will. All right? Preceptive will. We
studied through Psalm 119. He talked about, show me your
precepts, teach me thy precepts. All right? Preceptive will. God
has instructions for his people that are his will for his people. All right? Preceptive will. The
will of God for his people that defines our course of life and
our conversation. OK, and this is the will of God. Paul said in First Thessalonians,
chapter four, verse three. This is the will of God. Even
your. Somebody say go ahead, Terry
sanctification. This is the will of God for you. How many times have I said it
from this from this and that pulpit that the purpose in salvation
is not just to make us happy in a sweet by and by with Mama.
What is the purpose of salvation? What's this all about? Why did
God choose to save the people? Why is God saving the people?
To make them like Christ. To make them holy like Christ.
To have a people, peculiar people, zealous of good works that they
might show forth His glory. The person of His Son. And this
is the will of God, even your sanctification. That word means
to be set apart for God's use. Are you with me? Am I losing
you? I'll quit right now if I am. Sanctification means to be set
apart, okay? When we were separated, when
our sins separate us from God, that means we go our own way.
We forget God. We don't want to have anything
to do with God. We don't think about God. We don't pray to God.
We don't seek God. We don't read God's Word. God
who? That's the natural man, right? He's not sanctified to
God. He's sanctified from God. He's
cut apart, cut off from God, OK? Your sins have separated
you from God. God's purpose in salvation is
to bring us to him. Set us apart from those, from
everything that keeps us from God. And bring us to himself,
back to him, so that we do think about him, so that our affections
are set on God, so we do talk to God. So we do become God conscious. OK, and we become like God's
son. In character, thought, word,
deed, all of these things. He is molding, making, conforming
the people to his son. Set apart from and different
from the world. You're not of the world, Dickie
Patton. You're in it, but you're not of it, if indeed the love
of Christ and faith in Christ is in your heart, if God has
regenerated you. Okay? We're set apart for God's
glory. And this is what he tells us
to pray. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. All
right? We come, he tells us in his first
three things, his first three petitions, things we pray to
God concerning God and his glory, for his glory, God for his glory,
and that his gospel, the glorious gospel of God would be expounded,
and that his glory will be seen in us by conforming us to Christ. Now he comes to telling us what
and how to pray concerning ourselves, concerning our own temporal and
spiritual needs. This is much like the Ten Commandments.
The first part is for God, and the last part is toward man.
All right, now look at verse 11. Give us this day our daily
bread. The Lord tells us to pray for
daily bread. Now, I'll remind you what he
also said. He said, having food and raiment
therewith to be content. Having food and raiment. And I'll remind you of this also.
He said, take no thought. for what you should wear, what
you should eat, and what you should drink. Really take no
anxious thought for it. Your father knows you have need
of those things, doesn't he? He said, Consider the sparrow.
Consider the lilies first. Are you worried about what you're
going to wear? I don't think too many of us worry about that.
We have closets full. They may not be up to date in
the latest styles. but we have plenty of clothes
to wear. He said, if you're worried about
that, don't take thought of that. Consider the lilies of the field.
They don't spin. They don't sew their clothes.
Do they? But the Lord, the Lord dresses
them up, doesn't he? They're sure beautiful. And he
says, take no thought for what you shall eat. What you shall
eat, he said, and then he uses the sparrows, little birds. And
once again, most of us don't have to worry about that. It's
very obvious. We have more than enough to eat,
don't we? We have enough in our bellies right now to sustain
us for the week to come. Don't take any thought for what
you eat. Most of us have a cupboard full of food, or at least a refrigerator
or something with enough food in it to last us for a few days.
And all he tells us to pray for is daily sustenance, right? Daily bread, daily nourishment. Now, I have to think that our
Lord is dealing with more than just more than just food, don't
you? Because I do remember him saying
one time, man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeded forth from the mouth of the Father. Now there's
the bread, the word of God. And more specifically, who is
the word, the bread of God? The manna. Who is the manna of
God that we feed upon? Christ. Christ. He is that staff
of life, God's word. Christ, our portion. I've said this so many times,
but that old woman sat down on an old crusty cake of bread,
you know? A woman who trusted and believed Christ, and she
had an old crusty, dry, moldy piece of bread, and it was all
she needed. And she gave thanks, and she
said, Thank you, Father, for all of this, and Christ too. My, my, that's all I could ask
for. Food, rain. Food and rain. He doesn't say
anything about a house there, does he? No. The Father knows
you have needed those things. And we're always going to have
a place. The Son of Man didn't have a
place to lay his head, did he? Foxes have their holes, birds
of air have their nests. The Son of Man didn't. He always
found a place to sleep, though, didn't he? Among his friends. Forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors. Forgive us our debts. Now, this
is repentance, isn't it? Repentance. Forgive us our debts. What do you owe to God? Or rather,
how much do you owe to God? Everything. Everything. To God's mercy, grace, and His
providence. By the grace of God, we are what
we are. And we owe God especially for
that unspeakable gift, don't we? Eh? Oh, the debt, the debt we owe
to God Almighty for everything that we have and everything we
are. And what about the sin debt that
he paid off? It would be like a man owing
100 billion zillion dollars. And going down to the bank and
then promptly informing him, you're debt free. Somebody came
in and paid all of your debts. What? Yeah, you're free to go. And by the way, he left you a
blank check. A blank check. My, my. A sin debt. That's what
was against us. A sin debt. How much we've sinned
against God from our youth up and God just cancels the debt.
How? Can he just do that? Can he just forgive it? Can God
just up and forgive it and say, that's all right, forget that.
Can it? You're shaking your heads up
here. No, it can't. It's got to be paid for, right? Sin has
to be paid for, but we sang it. What was the song we sung? Jesus
Christ paid it all, all the debt I owe. You see? All the sin debt
I owe was laid on him, and he took it to the cross and paid
for it with his own precious blood. That was the payment required
for the anointment, for the forgiveness of our sin, for the redemption
of our soul. Blood, death, the soul that sinneth
will surely die. Well, I've seen it. I've come
far short of the glory of God. And I have to die. Christ died
in my place. So who is he that condemned it?
Christ died. Right? Christ died. So forgiveness
is based on Christ's person and work. His person and his work. And remember now, he said, look
at this, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do
you remember what he said back in Matthew 5? Blessed are the
merciful. They're the ones that are going
to obtain mercy. And he deals with this a little more in a
minute. I've got to hurry, though. Verse 13. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. How I need this. I need to pray
this daily. The minute I wake up. Oh, lead
me not into temptation. Now, he's not talking about God.
God doesn't tempt people with sin. When he says, lead us not
into temptation, God doesn't lead men over here and tempt
them and say, here you go. see how you are. No, God cannot
be tempted with sin, neither does he tempt anybody with sin.
What this is saying in our language is, Lord, in the course of your
providence, don't allow me to get into any situation so as
to be tempted by sin. Lord, would you keep me from
any situation that would make me fall into sin? OK? Lead me, but don't let me go
into temptation. Lead me. Steer me away from sinful
situations. All right? Now, we ought to first
pray to God for His guidance and safekeeping from sin, and
then pray for strength to overcome it, overcome it by the blood
of Christ. Pray to Him, because He's the
only one that can do it for us. He's the only one that can help
us. Verse 13, he says, deliver us from evil. And everybody I've
read says that that means the evil one. Deliver us from the
evil one. Christ said to Peter, Satan hath
desired thee. Satan hath desired thee to sip
thee like wheat. And everybody who's had the slightest
interest in God and the things of God, would have to admit that
it seemed like he'd been turned over to the devil himself. He'd
become more bombarded with evil thoughts
and sin and temptations like never before. The minute you
begin thinking about these things and reading and trying to look
into the things of God, that's when all hell breaks loose, it
seems like. It does. See, you've left the
allegiance of your father, the devil, And now you're entered
into the camp of a new father, and he doesn't let go easily.
But thank God, one who is stronger than him can bind him. You can't. I know these preachers say, step
on the head of the devil. You can't do that. Christ can, though,
can't he? He can. He can step on the head,
and he did. Not only can he, but he did bruise
the head of the serpent. That is his power over you. I
know you feel like that. Let me illustrate this, if I
don't get anything else said, this will help you. At times
we feel like sin has dominion over us. Does it? Does it really? Did not he promise
us in Romans 6, sin shall not have dominion over you if you're
not under the law, you're under grace? I know there are times when we
feel like sin has dominion over us. I'm talking to believers
here, those who trust Christ. Come on. No, it doesn't. Where am I right
now? Fifteen. I don't know how many
years ago, many years ago, this time on Wednesday night, I've
been sitting down at the bar. I've been here, I've been there,
I've been out there and there, right? I'm not. Now, I'm not
doing this by habit or duty. I'm doing this because I want
to. Now, who did that? Me? If you told me that many
years ago that I'd be doing this now, well, you're crazy. No way. You and me, Rick, out
the other day? No way. Now, I'm not what I want
to be. I'm not what I want to be. I'm
not anywhere near what I want to be. I'm not what I'm going
to be. I'm not anywhere near what God
is going to make me. But thank God, I'm not what I
used to be. I'm not the same. I'm not the
same. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. It doesn't rule and have dominion over you 24 hours a
day. Once God begins to work, he begins
to separate that. begins to put the desire on things
above and puts this in the background. Is it so with you? Deliver us from the evil one.
He will. He's promised us very present
help in times of trouble. Very present. Call on that. I'll be with you. Verse thirteen,
let me hurry. Lead us not into temptation,
deliver us from the evil one, for thine is the kingdom. Thine
is the kingdom. Lord, this is your people. This
is your gospel, and you have a people from every tribe, kindred,
nation, and tongue under heaven, including this old boy from eastern
Kentucky. A people even from eastern Kentucky,
and I'm one of them. Thine is the kingdom, and I'm
a member of it, so I'm yours. Pray this way. Lord, I'm yours.
Do with as you will, and thine is the power. Everything is under
his sovereign rule. Lord, everything is under your
sovereign rule. Pray this way, he said. Everything is under
your sovereign rule, including me, especially me. And if I'm
to be kept, if I'm to remain faithful, you're going to have
to keep me by your power. Right? And that gospel is your
power. It's a circle and a cycle. Pray
for the gospel. You pray for his safekeeping
through the gospel. And thine is the glory. Thine is the glory. Do this for your glory, Lord.
Don't do it for my sake. Not unto us. Not unto us. Not
for our sake, but for your name's sake. God, would you get glory
for this? I'm the worst of the bunch. You'd get great glory
if you'd save me. I'd tell everybody about it.
I'd tell everybody about it. Do this for your glory, not for
my sake. Do it for Christ's sake. Give
glory to your Son. Dine is the kingdom, dine is
the power, dine is the glory. You know, there's not an Arminian
on earth who prays like an Arminian. Every Arminian prays like a Calvinist.
They pray that God will do the saving, God's will, God's this,
God's that. Why? Because that's the way it
is. Everything is in the will of
God. Everything is in the power of God, right? It's inconsistent in men to claim
to believe that it's in man's power and then go praying to
God to save them. Isn't that hypocrisy? You pray
to men, that's what they're doing, begging men to accept Jesus,
and then they go back to God and pray to God to save them.
Now, who should we be praying to here? Everybody prays like a Calvinist.
Thine is the kingdom, thine is the power, thine is the glory.
Do this for your glory forever, forever, eternal glory. Amen."
That word, amen, every single epistle and prayer is ended with
that, amen. That means that's the way I'd
have it. Like Selah, think about it. I thought about it, and that's
the way I want it. That's what I believe. Amen means
to set your approval to it. Amen. Amen. That's the way I
believe it. That's the way I want it. That's
the way it is. So be it. And then he says here, in repeating,
or for emphasis, he says, now, if you don't forgive men their
trespasses, your Heavenly Father will not forgive you. He said
up there, you know, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtor. And he emphasizes that if you're
not merciful and gracious and forgiving to others, don't expect
God to hear your prayer. I don't care how orthodox it
is. Don't do it. Do you notice how he said us
to forgive us? We lead us not into temptation,
us. The whole spirit of that prayer,
like Christ praying, is intercessory. God delights in intercessory
prayer. He delights in it. He'll answer it. I know my own
personal experience. It seems like the prayers that
God has most conspicuously answered for me is the times when I felt
really led to pray for other people. Most of the time, I don't
feel like my personal prayers are answered. They are. But times
when I Feels like the prayers of mine have been conspicuously
answered, obviously answered, is when I felt a special need
to pray for somebody else. And I see it happen. Whatever
it was I was praying for, for those people. Did not the Father
always hear Christ when he prayed? How did he always pray? Think
about it. How did he always pray? He always
prayed for everybody else. He didn't pray for himself, did
he? He ever lives even now to make intercession for us. All
right. Come up here, Sherry. Let's sing
as a closing hymn. I hope you know it. 346. 346. and she's one of the best at
winging it. Let's stand and sing this. 346. You want to play it? Play it through a little bit
before we sing it. This is my heart cry day unto
day I love to know that we'll end
our way Teach me to pray, Lord, teach
me to pray. Just sing the first verse, and
that'll be our benediction. Starting with the first verse.
Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray. This is my heart cry day unto
day. I love to know that Will and thy ways teach me to pray, Lord,
teach me to pray. Living in thee, Lord, and thou
in me, constant abiding, this is my plea. I was helpless and free. I was with me. You're dismissed.