What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer Oh, what peace we often Oh, what
needless pain we bear. Oh, because we do not carry every
pain to God in heaven. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged
Just take it to the Lord and ask Can we find a Prince so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness, so take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden, Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge, Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake
thee? Take thee to the Lord in prayer. In His arms you'll take and He'll
deal. Thou wilt find the soulless there. In his arms he'll take and she'll
be I will find the soulless there If you want to be turning to
a scripture, it's going to be hard for you to find, so I'll
let you go ahead and be turning to the book of Joel. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, chapter 2. No one rightly or fully understands
the relationship between God's sovereignty, that is, the fact
that God Almighty is in control of all things, as we read in
Hannah's prayer, that He indeed does do—He is the first cause
of all things. It's very clear. The Scriptures
are very clear that God is indeed God in the true sense of the
word that he is in control said in a recent article that if God
is not God then who is somebody must be God somebody must be
in control if God is not in control who is the devil man who is somebody
must be in control of this thing but the scriptures say God is. God is God. But we cannot rightly
understand the relationship between God
being in control of all things and us being responsible. We
are responsible creatures. We're not robots. We're responsible
creatures. The Scriptures are clear concerning
man's responsibility, too. And if you try to reason these
things out, you cannot. So you might as well quit. We
might as well just quit trying to reason these things out, because
they seem to be opposite. All sorts of questions rise in
our minds when we start trying to reconcile. They don't need
reconciliation. Somebody said friends don't need
reconciling. Truth doesn't need reconciling. The fact is that God's ways are
not our ways. The scriptures are very clear
about this. God's thoughts are not our thoughts,
his ways are not our ways, and the minute a man or a woman or
whoever says, I think, mark it off. Just erase it. Forget it. Don't listen. He said
our thoughts are not his thoughts, and his ways are not our ways.
And the scriptures also say this, that his ways are past finding
out. Why don't we quit? Why don't we just bow to his
ways and quit trying to find them out? Now, no man has stood
in the counsel of our Lord and received special instructions
from him as to how and why he does things like he does. Nobody,
and I don't, no man can say that, but he giveth not account of
his matters to anyone, the scripture says. Nobody, not Jimmy Swaggart
or whoever, nobody's got an inside track on this, on God, on what
he does. And we're not to try to figure
things out so much as to just believe. Just believe what he
says I'm trying to he didn't call on us to understand necessarily
as to believe what he said everything without exception. Now listen
listen to the scripture. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning." Now, that's very clear. That means that God
is already, in his mind, everything is already taking place, right? He's omniscient, he's omnipresent,
he's eternal. There's no beginning, no end,
there's no time with God, right? So everything in God's eyes,
in God's mind, is already taking place. That's what that seems
to imply to us. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. He declares the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times, things that are not yet done,
say, in my counsel, shall stand." That's very clear, isn't it?
You have years to hear it. Listen to this. The Scripture
says, "...forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." It's
written. You know, there's a book in heaven.
It's called the Lamb's Book of Life. And in it are the names
of all of the people that God has determined to say. That's
true in it. And as scriptures say, there's
a seal on that book, right? And it says at the end of time,
God or Christ himself is going to take the book from the father
on the throne and open the seal and read the names of that book.
That book was written before the foundation of the world,
before anybody was born, right? That's exactly what the scripture
says, exactly. He says, I am the Lord, I change
not. Henry, he's the same God today
as he was two or three or four thousand years ago, five thousand
years ago. Old Testament, the God of the
Old Testament, is the same God now. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Now, since all things have been
unalterably and unchangeably decreed by God, that means there's
nothing we can do to change it, right? That's exactly right. Nothing we can do to change things. He said, no man can stay by hand. God will work, the scripture
says, and who shall let it or prevent it? That's true. Yet, I hear people say things
like this. Prayer changes things. Where is that written? I wish
somebody would show me that. It's not in the scriptures. Prayer
changes people, but it does not change God's unalterable, unchangeable
decrees. No, none of God or all of his
works are from the beginning. No, it does not change things. It
changes us. It changes our attitude. But
it does not change things, because he said, and we read it there
in 1 Samuel, I, the Lord, do all these things. OK, here's
my first question regarding this thing of prayer. Why pray? We talked about this, didn't
we, John? Then why pray? Why pray? Or why do anything
for that matter? And this is a a hyper-Calvinistic
or hard-shell attitude or doctrine or mindset. God's going to elect
the people. There's no sense in hearing the
gospel. God's going to save you. You're going to be saved no matter
what. That's not what this book says. Man is responsible. Well, then why pray, though?
Why? Number one, God said to That's
good enough. That ought to be it, right? God
said so, because God commanded it. He said, listen to these
scriptures, call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Shall. I like the shouts
in the Bible. I shall, I will. That can only
be applied to God Almighty. Only God can say, I will. Only
man says, I want to. Man can never say, I will. He
said, boast not thyself of tomorrow. We can't even say, I'm going
to get up in the morning, I'm going to do it. No, we're not promised
the next 10 hours, the next hour, are we? But God says, I will. When God says it shall, it shall. And he says, call upon me in
the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and you'll glorify
me. That's Psalm 50. He says this, O give thanks unto
the Lord, call upon his name. These aren't invitations, folks.
These are mandatory. These are commands. This is not
an invitation or a request, but a command, because God commanded
all men everywhere to repent, right? What is repentance? It's
to call upon God for mercy, right? We're a hell-deserving, hell-bound,
by nature, creature. And God says call. and I'll give
you mercy." Well, I don't understand. If he's determined, call! Don't
try to figure it out. Just call, OK? That's what he
says. Well, who's going to call? Whosoever shall call in the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Right? Paul said that in Romans,
chapter 10. Now look at Joel, chapter 2.
Verse 32. Have you ever looked at this?
This is the verse that the Apostle Paul was quoting there in Romans
10, 13. Joel chapter 2, verse 32. Who
will call? Who will call? It shall come
to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be delivered, shall be saved. That's what Paul said. There's a colon there, folks.
There's not a period, is there? That means there is something
following here. Four, in Mount Zion, now that's always referring
to the Church. Mount Zion is always a picture,
a type, a symbol of the Church. Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem,
shall be deliverance, look at this, as the Lord hath said,
and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. Who shall call? shall call. Who's going to love
him? You know, all things work together
for good to them that love God, who are the called according
to this verse. Who's going to love him? Them
that he first loved, that he first knew. We love him because
he first loved us. It's the same thing with this
calling. And men got the cart before the horse if they say
man calls and then God reacts. No, God acts, men react. God never reacts to anything. God acts and things react. Now look at Ezekiel chapter 36
with me. Back a couple of chapters to, or a couple of books to Ezekiel
chapter 36. Look at this. This is, this is
great. You'll see the sovereignty of
God and the responsibility of man here, as we saw it there
in Joel chapter 2. You have both, two sides telling
one truth. Look at Ezekiel chapter 36, look
beginning in verse 21. God said, I had pity for my holy
name. Ezekiel 36, 21. I had pity for
mine holy name, which the house of Israel hath profaned among
the heathen where they went. It's the same today. God's name
is being profaned. They're talking about God as
an old man upstairs. He's trying to do this. Men won't
let him. He wants to save you. You won't let him. He's a pitiful,
helpless God. And poor God. Men just won't
let him have his way. They're profaning His name, Mark
10. They're profaning His name. His
name is to be lifted up and exalted as God. Men are to be profaned
and brought down in the dust. And God said, but I had pity
for my namesake, verse 22. Therefore, say unto the house
of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, and this is said to the
church also, Do not this, what? Salvation. I do not this for
your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy namesake, which
you have profaned among the heathen, whether you will. Now look, verse
23, I will sanctify my great name. Verse 24, I will take you
from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and
will bring you into your own land." Verse 25, "...then will
I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean from all
your filthiness and from all your idols. I will cleanse you."
Verse 26, "...a new heart also will I give you." A new spirit
will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will
put my spirit within you. Verse 28, You shall dwell in
the land that I gave to your father, and you shall be my people,
and I will be your God. Verse 29, I will save you from
all your uncleanness. I will call for the coin. I will
increase it. Verse 30, I will multiply. Who's going to do this? Who's
going to do this great work of salvation and restoration of
Israel? The people? Men? God, that's
very clear. And I will, and look down at
verse 37. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
yet for this be inquired of, though. I will yet for this be
inquired of, though. They're going to ask me to do
it. And I'm going to do it. I've already determined to do
it, but I've determined to do it by them asking me. That gives
glory to God. Yeah, it does. So why pray? Number one, God commands it. God commands it. And number two,
God has chosen these means for his glory. Look at Psalm 32 with
me. to give him glory. Prayer glorifies
God. We touched upon this last Wednesday
night. Look at Psalm 32. There is no
clearer verse regarding salvation being of the Lord right here.
It talks about the imputation of righteousness and the non-imputation
of sin, verse 1 of Psalm 32. truly happy, blessed of God,
is he whose transgression is forgiven." Now, God just can't
forgive sin. He's got to put them away. His
justice must be satisfied. He's got to put them away. He
can't just up and say, well, that's you shouldn't have done
it. That's OK. I'll forgive you. Oh, no, they've
got to be paid for. The soul that sinned must surely
die. Well, that's what he says there
in verse one, whose sin is covered. How's it covered? Under the blood
of Christ. He slew his son to pay for the
sins of his people. Verse two. Blessed but truly
happy is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not, or doth not
charge iniquity." Who is that? Who is he talking
about here? Anybody who trusts Christ, anybody
who looks to and trusts and believes in Christ to take his punishment,
to take his sins upon him. and believes in him for that
righteousness that we must have to cover our sinful souls. That person's sins are not charged
to their account, but the righteousness of Christ himself is charged
to that person's account. And that person's sins are charged
to Christ's account. And he took them and paid for
them. And that person is innocent in God's eyes. In whose spirit
there is no guile, and that's the only way there will be no
guile, that is, within us, any sin. The only way there will
be no guile or hypocrisy or sin or unbelief within us, that is,
in Christ, when we're in Christ. Well, look down at verse 5. He
says, I acknowledge my sin unto thee. But see, we're going to
be brought to ask Him. We're going to be brought to
repentance, and we're going to be brought to ask Him for this.
We're going to be brought to Christ. We're going to come to
Christ, not of our own free will. We don't have a free will. We're
dead in sins, dead in trespasses and sins. God is going to woo
us and draw us by the power of His Holy Spirit. And we're going
to come, and we're going to be asking Him for this. We're going
to do it, all right. But it's God which worketh in
us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And I acknowledge
my sin unto thee. Why did you do it? The goodness
of God led you to it, David. The goodness of God did that.
In mine iniquity have I not hid. That's coming clean before God,
is to confess all your sins. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and he forgave the iniquity of my sin. See,
I mean, think about it. Verse 6, for this, what? For the non-imputation of sin,
for the imputation of righteousness, for the forgiveness, for the
covering of sin, for this shall every one that is godly, that
is in Christ, pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be
man. There you have it. You have the
sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. So, I said last Wednesday
night, that prayer glorifies God. Prayer, when we pray to
God, we acknowledge him as God, a right prayer. We acknowledge
his person and his power. We pray to God. We pray to God,
who alone is able. We acknowledge him as being God
overall, and when we pray, we glorify his wisdom. When we come
to him rightly as God, at whom we're in his hands, We say to
him, you're the only one who knows how and what and when to
do what to do in my life. You're the only one who knows.
Your will be done. And we magnify or glorify his
love and mercy too when we pray to him. Prayer glorifies and
magnifies all of his attributes. We glorify his love and his mercy
like a little child calling upon its parent. Call him upon his
Father for the things he needs. You parents, you delight to have
your children ask you for things, don't you? And you delight to
do them for them. You delight in it. There's nothing
that brings you more pleasure and more joy and really more
respect as a parent than for your children to come and ask
you for things. Now, when they get a little older and start
thinking they know some things, they won't be asking you so much.
They'll be doing things themselves, won't they? Don't need Mom, don't
need Dad, right? But what honors you and what
exalts you as a parent is for that child to come and ask you
questions. Mom, would you explain this to me? I'd be delighted
to. But if they insist on doing things
themselves, you leave them to themselves. And they'll make
a terrible mistake probably. But prayer glorifies God and
His attributes. Number three. Prayer, why pray? Because God commands it. Number
two, because it glorifies God. Number three, it's good for us. It's good for us to pray. It's good for us. It's for our
spiritual good. He says, ask and you shall receive,
that your joy may be full. So you'll know you've got a God
up there. So you've got a Heavenly Father who delights to do these
things for you. So you'll know that your joy will be full, that
your faith will be increased. The disciples said, Lord, increase
our faith. One man said, I believe, help
thou mine unbelief. Draw nigh unto God and he'll
draw nigh unto you. And I've said this before, it's
the same with a parent and a child. When a child acknowledges the
parent, the child will incur the favor of that parent. and
the closeness of that parent. That's exactly what he said in
James there. Draw an eye unto God and he'll draw an eye unto
you. Well, why does any man draw an eye unto God? Because God
drew them. No man can come unto me except
the Father which hath sent me. Draw him. We don't do this of
our own free will and volition. God brings us to it. Nevertheless,
we draw an eye unto God and he'll draw an eye unto us. Thirdly,
to receive promises. Like we saw there in Ezekiel
36, God had promised to do all these things for the people,
but he said he was going to be prayed to for it. That's what
he ordained. So the same thing holds true
with us. You know, Abraham, God promised
Abraham that he was going to bless his seed and multiply him
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore, that in
his seed he was going to bless his seed. But Abraham pleaded
with God for that child, pleaded with him. Though he was promised,
though God promised him. Jacob, God promised Jacob he
was going to bless him. But Jacob wrestled all night
with the Lord. He said, bless me, bless me. David, God promised
David he was going to sit on the throne. But David, the whole
Psalms, the book of Psalms, the prayers of David, praying and
asking his God for these things. All the things, the things of
God are ordered and sure. But he'll yet be inquired of
for this thing. It's the way God is. And it magnifies
his wisdom in doing things. Only he could do it like this,
as to make man responsible and himself give himself all the
glory. Only he could do that. Well, if you ask and hear God's
precepts, you'll stand. and not fall. So prayer delivers
us from temptations also. Temptations. I've said this before.
Let me hurry. As long as there's a good communication
in a relationship, like between a husband and a wife or a parent
and a child, As long as there's good communication, there's a
good relationship there. And it's the same thing with
prayer. If there's a breakdown of communication, there'll be
trouble and suspicion and envy and jealousy and malice and anger
and infidelity, and everything will crop up. So he said, "'Acknowledge
him in all thy ways, and he shall direct thy path.'" That's Proverbs
3, verse 6. Listen to this. Prayer. This
is my last point on why I pray. Prayer sanctifies things. That is, it sets things apart.
That word sanctify means to set apart. Sometimes it means to
make whole. But it means to set apart. Paul
said to young Timothy that everything is sanctified by the word of
God in prayer. And prayer. Now listen. Listen
to me very carefully. In other words, we can't expect
anything to be for our good unless we pray to that end. Right? We cannot expect anything
to be for our eternal good unless we're praying and looking for
and seeking that purpose. That's exactly what Christ says.
We'll see it in a minute. Not my will be done, but thy
will be done. Thy will be done. on earth as
it is in heaven. If we pray about everything that
it will be for our spiritual and eternal good, then this is
the way that God makes things blessings to us. Yes, it is. Did you hear what I said? If
we pray about everything that it will be for our spiritual
and eternal good, this is the way things are sanctified or
made a blessing to us. This is good advice here, good
advice. This is the way things become
a blessing. And thinking along these lines, this will make you
keep from praying wrongly. This will make you keep from
praying amiss or consuming upon your own love. You say, Lord,
I only want what is for your glory and for my eternal good.
That will make you quit praying for a lot of things, won't it?
A lot of things. It will give you some discernment.
So we ask that question, why pray? Look over at Matthew chapter
6 with me, and we'll dwell here for a few moments. Matthew chapter
6. Why pray? God commands it. And secondly, God has ordained
it for his glory, and prayer is good for us, and prayer sanctifies
things in our lives. Now, this brings me to my second
heading. First of all, why pray? How do we pray? How do we pray? I'm not going to give you a cure-all
booklet for it. You've seen all these how-to
books? Write me and I'll send you how to live the Christian
life. Or how to do this. That's not what I'm going to
do here at all. I'm not going to tell you how
to in the sense of how much or what posture to be in or what
place or what form to say it in necessarily. The Spirit, true
prayer, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit must give utterance. Groanings
that cannot be uttered, the Scripture says. The Holy Spirit must give
a true spirit of prayer. And sometimes prayer doesn't
even come, a good prayer sometimes doesn't even come out in words. that publican in the temple,
when he got, you know, the Pharisee, could be he spoke in a very eloquent
voice, you know, in English accent, and spoke very articulately.
And God didn't pay attention to his prayer. And that old publican,
all he could do was beat on his chest and say, mercy, mercy. God heard that prayer and justified
that old boy, accepted him, put his sins away. Because of his
much speaking or his eloquent speech or his brilliant oratory?
No! He said men ought always to pray. And we saw that that means that
we ought to pray every day. I will say this much we need
to pray every day and it's not so much as getting in a particular
down on one knee and close your eyes and so forth. I don't see
it saying anywhere in the Bible close your eyes anyway. I don't
see that. That seems like a good way to
concentrate. I don't know but I don't see
where it says that. I really don't. But he says every
day, but that means an attitude. That is, always have an attitude
of thanksgiving and praise. That's what prayer is, chiefly.
We're going to see that in a minute. And to pray in every condition,
rich or poor, especially rich. People tend to forget God when
things are going well. And when they get real sick,
then they start calling on God. No. Pray, pray, call on God always. Always. Pray without ceasing.
That's what Christ is saying. Men ought always to pray. Pray
in everything. about seemingly unimportant things.
Now, we don't we only carry this extreme. I say, Lord, should
I get up and go to work in the morning? Now, use some wisdom
here. Should I, you know, should I
wash my car? You know, you got more wisdom
than that, more discernment than that. But in everything, seemingly
unimportant things, things that might have some consequence anyway,
pray about it. And he says, pray always. That
means never quit. Keep praying, you're eighty.
80 years old, don't stop now. Don't stop now. Don't be praying
more fervently now than you ever have. You're getting closer.
Well, he said, look here at the text, Matthew 6, let's get into
it. Verse 5, now he says, and when thou prayest, not if, he
didn't say if, he said when. When thou prayest, thou should
not be as the hypocrites are. Well, they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corner of the streets, that they
may be seen of men. When you pray, don't do it to
be seen. That's what he's saying. Don't do it to be seen. Christ
said, Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. That
is the honor and respect and admiration
of people. If I yet seek to please men,
I'm not the servant of Christ. Do I try to persuade men or God?
Do we want to be seen by men or heard by God? Heard by God. In this passage right here, you
can't do both. You can't do both. We're to praise
in sincerity and discreetness. Discreetness. Now, this would
almost certainly eliminate. Now, don't even make me mad at
you. But this would almost certainly
eliminate. Most public prayer would like
prayer in a restaurant. Is that what this says here when
you pray don't be as the hypocrites are they love to pray standing
in a synagogue in the corner of the street to be seen how
can you pray. In a restaurant without being
seen you're a better person than I am if you can be totally unconscious
of everybody and everything around you you're a much better I'm
a pious person than I am, because I hear rattling dishes and people
clamoring and talking. I see eyes looking at me. That seems like that would eliminate
that, wouldn't it? Well, look at this. Let's go
on. Verse 6, he says, But thou, when you pray, get in your closet.
Now, that ought to eliminate it, shouldn't it? Somebody, old
Ralph Martin, one time, sat down to eat. He sat down to eat. He was with some other preachers
or somebody, and he dug in, started eating. And one of the men was
kind of shocked and said, Brother Barnard, aren't you going to
pray? And Barnard just kept eating.
He said, How do you know I didn't? See? I'm praying now. Thank you, God, for this food.
Why do I have to get in a certain posture? To be seen of men. That's
why they do it. That's exactly why they do it.
You see, I don't want to get down on people. People are ignorant
about this, but Christ plainly said here, didn't He? Don't do
it to be seen of men. Avoid it at all costs. It's Phariseeism. It's hypocritical. Don't do it.
Get in the closet. That's what He said, didn't He? And when you shut your door,
pray to your Father which is in secret, and your Father which
sees in secret awards you openly. That's what he said about almsgiving
over in verse 1. Take heed. Be careful. Make sure
you don't do what you do, your works of compassion and good
works and so forth, to be seen of anybody. Otherwise, it ain't
a good work. Otherwise, you have no reward
or acceptance of your father, which is that deed anyway. Well,
he says, get in the closet. Now, he's not calling the closet
a sanctified place. I don't see where he ever got
in the closet. What he's saying, though, is get in a place, go
somewhere where nobody will see you. Get alone between you and
God and pray and talk to your Father, not to be seen or heard.
That's exactly what Phariseeism is. That's what legalism is,
doing everything you do to be seen, to appear to be religious,
to appear to be holy. of four people and it's a stench
in God's nostrils. Six things, seven things are
an abomination to God. First is a proud look. Look at
me. God hates it. The scripture says
it's an abomination to God. Every high and lofty look will
be brought low, God said. Well, you say, what about public
prayer in church? Now that is ordained. That is
sanctified. Through many scriptural examples,
they prayed in the church. We're brothers and sisters here.
We're family here. You pray with your family publicly. And our Lord himself prayed in
front of his disciples, prayed for them. So public prayer in
the church is not forbidden, but it's encouraged. It's encouraged. Let me say this note to you men
that lead in prayer. This needs to be said. Maybe I'm private, but this needs
to be said. I know you're self-conscious.
about this thing of leading in prayer. I am. I don't like to
lead in prayer. Just to be honest with you, I
don't like to do it. You don't need to do it, Terry and Rick
and Henry. You're so self-conscious, and
you really don't want to be seen and heard, and you feel so incapable
and insufficient for the task. But nevertheless, you're praying
for people. It's a necessary thing. It's
a good thing. It's God-ordained that we should pray for the people,
and you're praying for people, so we need to pray so as to be
heard. Don't let this make you shy away
from public prayer, but we're to speak up so everybody can
hear us and pray. If you're going to get a blessing
from your prayer, you've got to hear what you say. That's just good advice. I wanted to say that. Look at
verse 7 with me. When you pray, don't use vain
repetitions. The Muslim people and the Hindus
chant slogans. Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah Beating themselves on the back with whips
and falling prostrate and crawling for miles. Isn't it? The Catholics
are still doing the same thing, Father. Counting beads and going
through the motions, doing this and that and the other, calling
and chanting. Don't use vain repetitions, he
said. As the heathen do, they think that they shall be heard
for their much speaking. Much speaking. Notice that word
there. Somebody says it's better to
have prayer without words and prayer without heart. He's not
condemning praying much praying here. I don't think it was too
much to worry about, but he's not condemning much praying,
but much speaking to the difference. He doesn't say don't pray too
much, said not much speaking, much speaking, saying not pray. Too much saying sometimes like
I said while ago your feeblest prayer your feeblest prayer may
be one in which you can utter a thing. You don't know what
to say. I mean you're you're. Your feeblest prayer but that's
the one that. That God noticed listen to this. Keep your foot
when you go to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools." What's the sacrifice of fools?
A fool's voice is known by a multitude of words, the Scripture says.
For they consider not that they do evil. Not talking. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.
He says, Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart
be hasty to utter anything before God. God's in heaven and you're
on earth. Let your words be. So much speaking is condemning
there. Humility is the key here, and we're not to preach a sermon
when we pray. God's not impressed. He's not
impressed with our quoting the scriptures. If God leads you
to quote scriptures, and if he blesses you in scripture recall,
it'll bless the people and so forth, fine. But don't try to
impress people with preaching a sermon. I've heard them pray
that way. Not here, but I've heard men pray that way. And
don't repeat the same things over and over again simply because
it's the right thing to say. Don't do that. God doesn't acknowledge
orthodoxy so much as he does in your heart. If you're not
listening to what you're saying so much, it's what's in your
heart. Look at verse 8. Be not ye therefore like unto
them, that is, the heathen. Your father knows what things
you have need of. Before you ask him. You know,
children, children don't come to parents with big, long, and
effective speeches. Do they? Mom and dad can see
right through them. They know when they're trying
to butter them up. Don't they? And the parents say, just speak
up. What is it you want? Right? How about that prodigal son?
He had his little speech all made up, didn't he? He said,
he got to the end of his rope and he said, The hired help in
my father's house had more than I have. I'm going to go today,
and here's what I'm going to say. What should I say? I'm going
to say, Father, I spin against heaven and against you, and I'm
not worthy to be called a son. Yeah, that'd be good. He'd like
that. And don't make me as one of the
hired help. Yeah, he'd hear that, wouldn't
he? Make me as a hired help. I don't deserve to be a son.
OK, that sounds pretty good. I'll go tell him that. And he
went on the road and he got and he said the father came running
out to him and he tried to say his little speech. Father, the
father said, shut up and bring the can. Bring the rope. The
father already had everything prepared. It was what was in
his heart, not what he was saying, what was in his heart, right?
God knows what we want better than we can tell him. God knows what we want even better
than we can tell it. That must be so. Because we don't... I heard a man pray in my study
the other day. He started out his prayer like
this. God, I don't know how to pray. And I was blessed in his prayer.
The Lord blessed him to pray. Now, look at in the following
verses, he gives an example of prayer here. He doesn't he's
not telling us so much as how and what to pray or instituting
a formal prayer. And this is what people do. So
they get it all wrong. Just what he said not to do.
People, you know, you see him at ballgames and what have you,
when somebody, when there's a catastrophe or something, everybody huddles
around. Our father, which art in heaven, repeat after me. Hallowed
be thy name. Chant. hocus-pocus domino. Right. It's like a magical chance. That's not it. It's from the
heart. And he's not telling me now, say this exactly like I
say, repeat after me. And this is what these Huckster
songwriters are doing, aren't they? Come on down the aisle
and pray the sinner's prayer with me. Repeat after me. Father,
father, I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner. That publican in the temple didn't
have to be told what to pray, did he? He didn't have somebody
to coach him. And you're a sinner, aren't you?
Yeah, I think so. God's the one who saved you.
Well, if you say so. No! God had already moved in
his heart and called him, oh, have mercy. If anybody got in
his way, Henry, he said, get out of my way. God have mercy.
Get out of my way, soul winner. You don't have to convince somebody
what to say if God's moving, God's working. Oh, no. So, he's not telling us to pray
exactly these words. He just told us that, didn't
he? Don't use vain repetitions. So, let's look at it here. After
this manner, he didn't say after these words, after this manner,
in this way, in this attitude, in this spirit, pray. Look at it. Verse 9. Our Father,
which art Now, he says, our, doesn't he? That means we're
not to just pray for ourselves. Intercessory prayer, we're to
pray for others, and in the company of others. But there's proof,
our, our fathers, and for others. And he says, our Father, it's
to him we pray, not Mary. Right? He doesn't say pray to
Mary. Just pray to your father which
is in heaven, and your father which is in heaven that hears
you in secret will bless you. And Christ is the mediator. He
tells us to pray to the father, but Christ as the mediator sitting
at the right hand of God takes that prayer, and the Holy Spirit
takes it and makes it acceptable, and Christ himself is praying
for us as the intercessor. But there's one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Not Mary, not St. Jude, St. this or St. that. We pray to
the Father, which is in heaven. And you know, this has to be
to believers here, doesn't it? It has to be. No man can call
Father, call him Father. Call Jesus Lord, but by the Spirit.
No man calls him Father unless he's been given the spirit of
adoption. Right? So every man can't call him Father.
Our Father, to whom we pray. Saints and believers can come
to God in the spirit of adoption, crying, Father, we don't understand
this, Rick, do we? We don't understand this blessing,
blessing of all blessings, that we can call this holy God, this
high, exalted God, our Father. Father, oh my, we don't understand
this blessing, we just don't understand it. So we don't come,
listen to this, don't come flippantly. You don't come to your earthly
fathers flippantly even. No, no. You don't even come to
your earthly fathers in a flippant and careless, irreverent manner. But you come to this high and
holy Father. Holy Father. Can you imagine
a man being called Holy Father like the Pope? Call an old man your Father.
He said, you've got one father, one father, which art in heaven. You see how he qualifies it there?
Our father. Yes, he's our father. And we
can come to him as little children in this spirit of adoption. We
can come to him with everything we want to ask him, everything
we need. But remember, he's in heaven. You're on the earth. Let your word be peace. Right? Now, look, the first three Petitions
in this prayer are relating to God's honor and his glory. The
God's honor and his glory. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
be praised for his coming kingdom. He prays for his will to be done.
Three things there. The first thing, he's praying
for God's glory. God's honor. The glory of God. And the last three are for our
temporal and spiritual good. Now listen. Did you hear what
I just said? The first part of this prayer,
these three things, are praying for God's glory. The last three
parts of this prayer are for our good, our temporal. What
did Christ say? Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His glory, and all these things will be added unto you. He's showing us how to pray it.
First. See? First. Now look at what he says.
And this is what's missing in this generation. Our father, the charred in heaven. What are the cherubim, seraphim,
cry around the throne of God 24 hours a day, 365 days a week. Year after year, holy, holy,
holy. Can we say anything less when
we approach this God? Dare we? Talk to the man upstairs. Holy, holy, hallowed be thy name. All honor and glory belongs unto
him, because he's worthy. He said, don't stand up and be
counted, be still and know that I am God. Don't stand up for
Jesus, bow to him, and acknowledge and confess that he's Lord, to
the glory of the Father. And look at this, he says, thy
kingdom come, thy kingdom. He's talking about the gospel
here, but in Christ's home preaching. The gospel of the kingdom. What
did he say to some people? The kingdom of God, the kingdom
of heaven is among you. I am here. Thy kingdom come. The dominion of the king. The
gospel. Salvation of the Lord. That's
what he's talking about. He's saying that we should pray
for the furtherance, for the preaching, for the success, for
the salvation of God. His gospel to be spread out. God's glory. in Christ, the king,
and that's that's where God gets most glory in the salvation of
sinners. Yes, it is. That's where he gets the most
glory. And Christ tells us to pray for the success of the gospel,
which glorifies God most of all. Here's an interesting point.
Listen to me. You don't have anywhere to go to gain performance.
The the old Jews, they used to say that. They used to say that
unless a prayer contained the name of God, Jehovah, God our
Savior, in an exalting form, the name of God and the kingdom,
prayer for the king, that is, the coming Messiah. They said
unless a prayer contained the name of God and the kingdom,
the coming of the Messiah, it was no prayer. It was no prayer. They didn't consider it a prayer
at all. No good. Won't avail anything. And that's
what Christ is exactly what he's telling us to do. Acknowledge
this Holy Father and pray for the furtherance of the gospel.
Pray that you might hear that gospel and believe that gospel.
And he says, pray for God's will to be done. Our Father which
art in heaven, holy is your name. Lord, send your gospel. Pray
that your gospel might go forth in power, the salvation of souls,
the glory of the Father, and that your will may be done. in
earth as it is in heaven. Your will may be done. To pray
in the will of God is to pray for the will of God. You hear
that? To pray in the will of God is
to pray for the will of God. To pray for the glory of God
costs what it may, costs what it may. And to pray for His will
is to pray and exalt Him Listen, to pray for God's will to be
done, like this right here, means to pray for Him to reign over
me. Right? He's not telling us, now,
make Jesus Lord. Oh, no. He's telling us to pray
that He'll make Himself Lord over us. Thy will be done. Thy will be done in my life.
I'll make Him Lord. But pray that you'll see that
he is already Lord, and that his will will be done. And it
will be done. Not my will be done, Christ said,
but thy will be done. Verse 11. Now he begins these
petitions for us, temporal and spiritual. Give us this day our
daily bread. He says we're to pray for daily
provisions, no more. Daily provisions, no more. You
can say we pray for just any old thing. daily provision, daily
manna, daily manna. Paul said, food and raiment.
Having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. That's
all that's promised anyway. It is. But we're to pray for
a daily supply of just what we need, just what we need. And
I believe this spiritually speaking, too, a daily supply of grace
and Christ. the bread of life. Give us this
day a better knowledge of Christ. Oh, that I may know Him. Oh,
that I might win Christ and be found in Him. Give us Christ. Reveal Christ a little more clearly
to me this day. Show me Christ, the bread of
life. Show me Christ, my only hope. Give us this day our daily
supply of Christ. Let us feed upon Him this day.
Amen. Yesterday's no good. I've already
forgot the message I heard Sunday. Give us another one this morning,
verse 12, and forgive us our debts, forgive us our debts as
we forgive our debtor. You know, sins are called debts,
debts, because they're owing to God's glory. All have sinned
and come short of God's glory. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. This is the essence of all sin,
we haven't given God the glory. And this is what makes self-righteousness
such an evil and wicked and detestable and abominable sin to God Almighty. He doesn't give God all the glory.
Right? And so, sin is to come short
of giving God all the glory and all the praise and all that's
due unto his name. All, everything. What do you
have that you haven't received? Now if you've received it, why
do you glory as if you have not received it? Glory, why do you
glory? Do you hear that? As if you,
and we all do it in, what's the word I'm looking for?
We don't, maybe unintentionally, but we give ourselves a glory,
don't we? But he says, not to give God
all the glory in everything. In everything, he is saying.
Everything that does not glorify diminishes the glory of God. And our purpose on this earth
is to glorify God. This is it. Everything we have,
we receive. We owe God Almighty. We owe. But we can't pay. But Christ can. And Christ did. So we don't owe any more but
thanks and praise. So let's go on. He says, as we
forgive our debtors, as we forgive our debtors, The intercessory
prayer is pleasing to God Almighty. It's pleasing. Sometimes, I've
known this by experience, if I can't, I don't know what to
pray for myself. I don't know what to pray, I don't know, I'm
not necessarily in a spirit of prayer, I just can't seem to
muster up a spirit of prayer. You know, everybody here knows
what I'm talking about. You try to get in a frame of mind to
pray, but you just can't. Try this. Stop praying for somebody
else. It'll generally work out the
way you're giving some liquor to. You don't know, you ask to
consume it upon yourself. Well, if you pray for somebody,
this is what Christ did, Stan. He never prayed for himself,
except in that garden. He said, if it be possible, let
this cup pass, but no, not my will be done, but thy will be
done. Right? Other than that, he never
prayed for himself, for his own relief. He prayed for others.
Every time. Every time, every time. And he's teaching us here, forgive
us, forgive us, us, our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And look over at, well, let's
turn there in a minute. He says, verse 13, lead us not
into temptation. God doesn't tempt any man. He
can't tempt any man. He can't be tempted, and he doesn't
tempt any man. He's saying here, keep us from falling into temptation. He can. He can restrain us from
evil, keep us from falling into temptation, lead us and guide
us by your Spirit, enable us to walk after the Spirit, not
after the flesh, and fulfill the lust thereof. Enable us,
keep us from temptation, and deliver us from evil. He's principally
talking about the evil one, the evil one who is walking this
earth, who is walking to and fro in the earth, as we read,
seeking whom he may devour. And what's our hope? That Christ
prays for us. That's what he said to Peter.
Peter, Satan has desired you to sift you like wheat. But I
pray for you. I pray for you. And make no doubt
about it, if you don't hear anything else I say this evening, remember
this. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Now that ain't talking about us, principally. That's talking
about Jesus Christ, the only righteous man to ever live. And
his prayers, his intercessory prayers, our Mediator's prayers,
they avail everything of the Father. He said, I know you hear
me. At Lazarus' tomb, didn't he?
I know you always hear me. But for their sake, I prayed
this. And that's what John 17 is. That's the reason he prayed
in John 17. For our sake. For our sake. That we might know, we've got
somebody that knows how to pray, and he's praying to the Father.
And we're going to get exactly what we need. But he tells us
now, but pray in this manner. Deliver us from evil, from the
evil one. Deliver us. And he gets right
back to where he started, didn't he? For thine is the kingdom. It
goes right back to glorifying God. Thine is the kingdom. You're the king, you have all
dominion. I'm your servant. Do what you will. That is the kingdom. and the
power. You're God. That's who you are. I'm man. You're God. You're the creator, I'm a creature.
You do with me what you will, what you want. You're the potter,
I'm the clay. You're God. Thine is the power and the glory. Let God be all the glory. All
honor and praise and glory, strength and blessings. You go through
the Revelation, look how they pray. that everything they could
think of, every adjective, wisdom, and power, and honor, and glory,
and blessing, and strength, and such, to God, it all belonged
to him. All of it. What do you say to
that? Amen? That means so be it. That's the way it's going to
be. That's the way it's going to be. Well, he says, if you
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive
you. But if you forgive not their trespasses, neither will your
father forgive you your trespasses. And I think you may be alluding
over to Matthew chapter 18 here. If you want to turn, you can
real fast. Matthew chapter 18, he gave this parable, and then
we'll quit. Matthew 18, verse 23, he gave
this parable. He said, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain
king who took account of his servants. And that's us. God's
a king. Is it going to come a day when
God's going to judge this world by that righteous man whom God
hath ordained? That's Christ. He's going to
judge this world by that perfect standard, Jesus Christ.