Join me this morning in Acts
chapter 4 as we look at the results of these two, Peter and John,
being arrested. They were used of the Lord to
cause the healing of a man. It brought their arrest. They
stood before the Sanhedrin court. and gave a reason for the hope
that lied in them. They declared the gospel to this
group. And as I think about that, I just can't help but think that
they had one of the best pulpits that they'd ever get right there. Why are you preaching this? And
let's hear it. And after they're left, you know,
I think there would be some people would say, I think I'll get out
of Dodge. This is not a healthy place to be. Things are going
to go downhill from here. And yet they went to their own
company, their own fellow believers, those who knew the gospel. They went to them. And it tells
us there in the book of Acts chapter 4 beginning with verse
23, and being let go, they went to their own company and reported
all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. They made their report. They
shared what had taken place. They shared why it had taken
place. They came to their own folks, to their own believers,
to their church, to their assembly. That's truly what a church is.
It's an assembly of believers. It's not a building and it's
not a corporation. It's a group of believers that
come together wherever they may be. Now, that does not negate
that there is a church, and I'm still going to use it in a small
C sense, that is every believer that has ever been on this earth
and congregation at the feet of Jesus, that church universal,
it's there. But we have here, while we walk
this earth, places where we can go and hear the gospel. Now,
you and I may wish we had more of them. We may have more of
them closer to where we live. But at this moment, there isn't.
And yet I find out that there is not one extra church. And there's not one too few because
they are all set aside by the sovereign purpose of God. And
there's not one pastor too few or one pastor too many. They
are all called by the sovereignty of God to do what they are intended
to do. So when we say God should have
a church here, he will if there are sheep there. And that's His
promise. So as we look at this, now in
verse 24, here's the response. They didn't plot how they're
going to take care of that council. They didn't plot on how they're
going to handle it next time. They are caused to do this, to
pray. And when they heard that, they
lifted up their voice to God with one accord. They lifted
up their voice with one accord. They were intent on praying the
same thing. They were intent on being unified. And in order to pray as we should,
we're going to have to agree on some things. And number one,
we have to agree that God is the absolute control of all things. And He is working out things
sovereignly according to His purpose. And you know, we have
to come to the agreement that He has knowledge of what we have
need of before we ask. I?m not surprising God with my
prayers. I?m not informing God with my
prayers. God already knows, and He knows
the strife that we?re in. In fact, He?s purposed it. So, they lifted up their voice
in one accord and said, Thou art God, which hast made heaven
and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them is. You know, you can read anything
on the internet. And I just looked up what makes
a good prayer or something. I forget. Well, I should write
those things down. But the internet, there was somebody that wrote
there are five key points to prayer. Number one, confession. Number two, petition. Number
three, intercession. Number four, thanksgiving. And
number five, praise. Now, did you notice any difference
between that description of what makes good prayer and what we
have here as prayer? You know, the Lord shares with
us, look over with me to the book of Luke, if you would, Luke
chapter 11. In Luke chapter 11, we find that
the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, Luke chapter 11, verse
one, In Luke 11, verse 1, it says here, the disciples requested
some instruction. The disciples requested some
teaching on this subject. And it says, it came to pass
that as he was praying in a certain place, Now, that's the Lord Jesus
praying. We don't have record of that
prayer. We don't know what was said in that prayer. In fact,
we don't have a lot of the prayers of the Lord Jesus or the prayers
of the saints mentioned in the scripture because prayer is a
secret thing. Prayer isn't a lone thing. Prayer
is with God. It's not for show. Never has
been, never will be. But here we have that the disciples
request because they see this. Now there's one, and we'll just
mention it in a little bit, that there is one of the greatest
prayers of all the Bible, John 17, and that's that great high
priestly prayer of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it was
not said to be heard by everybody. It was a conversation between
God the Son and God the Father. But thank God that His Holy Spirit
wanted that to be placed in the scripture so that we can read
it and see how much care that this great high priest had for
those he represented. So it's there on purpose. But
notice this in Luke chapter 11, it came to pass that as he was
praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples
said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his
disciples. And he said unto them, when you
pray, say. Now he did not say that this
is the prayer that you pray all the time. This is a model prayer.
And it kind of sets the tone how our prayers should be. Now,
The person who gave that information said confession is number one.
No, no, no, no. Confession is never number one.
Praise of God is number one, always. We're going to find that
in that prayer of those disciples there in Acts chapter 4. And
here in this instruction, in this model prayer, he says, when
you pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven. So we begin by
honoring Him. Number one, we honor Him as Father.
He's the one that produced us. We did not produce ourselves.
We are produced by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit through the new birth after the preaching of the gospel.
So God, Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You are holy, holy, holy. We cannot approach your throne
on our own. We cannot come into your presence
on our own for we are unholy. But when he gives us his holiness,
we have free access. And then it goes on, hallowed
be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on heaven as
it is on earth. You know, the preaching of the
gospel and the declaration of the gospel and the results of
the gospel is the kingdom of God. We're not looking for Him
coming and sitting on some physical throne. He's sitting on His throne.
He's at the right hand of the Father at this present time,
always has been, always will be. He gave up that blessed position
for about 33 and a half years for the benefit of coming down
here and laying down His life, our ransom for the church or
the ransom for the sheep. And then, by God's promise and
by the Lord Jesus Christ's activity on the cross, He was welcomed
wholeheartedly back into the presence of the Father, because
He accomplished exactly what He said He would do. Nothing
was left out. He was able to say, It is finished! And when it was finished, he
spent about 40 days with his disciples, instructing them,
telling them what's going to happen. And then he ascended
back to the father. Now, the next activity by the
son on our behalf is he's going to descend with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. There's not
going to be a silent return. He's going to come with power
and great glory. And then he shall set everyone
down in front of him, well standing, right hand, left hand. There's
gonna be a judgment, yes. Some have already been judged
at the cross. Christ Jesus took their judgment. Others are gonna
face judgment on their own. Those on the left-hand side.
All right, and then here we have the point of requests. James
says we ask and get not because we ask and miss. I hate to say this, but sometimes
my prayers are all requests. I forget the order of things.
Hallowed be thy name, Father in heaven. Oh, how glorious it
is. Sometimes in our haste, we're
in such dire consequences that we forget some of what we're
to say, and we come out. He just said, here, give us this
day our daily bread. One sentence. I don't know how
many letters or how many words that was in the Greek, but it's
not very many in the English language. Give us this day our
daily bread. That covers all the requests.
And then, forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone
that is indebted to us. You know, that is the privilege
of believers, is to forgive as we have been forgiven. I've had people say, I can forgive,
but I can't forget. Well, Lord help you. Lord help
you, because if you can't forget it, it's going to eat on us. All our life it will eat on us. So we pray that He would take
that away, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Well,
hallelujah. There's the Lord's model prayer
that He gave to us as we find it. Now, the greatest prayer
that's recorded in the Bible is the Lord's great high priestly
prayer in John 17. And we've been going for the
last three or four Saturdays, been going through the 17th chapter
of the book of John. And this last, yesterday, we
went through that passage, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word
is truth. And we went over, where's our
sanctification come? We went over to the Old Testament
and how many places it said, with regard to our sin, it's
put behind us, buried in the sea, far as the east is from
the west, and it was just glorious to go through what Jesus Christ
accomplished on the cross and how he put our sin away. It's not ours anymore. Now, I
appreciate the lesson so much today as we go to 1 John there,
and I'm convinced that anybody that God ever saves, they cannot
and they will never apostatize. They will be enduring to the
end. Now, if they apostatized, it
means they never knew it to begin with. They cannot know it. God
will not allow his people to apostatize. And he will not allow
his people, what is that favorite thing? Commit the unpardonable
sin. It's an impossibility for a believer
to commit the unpardonable sin. The unpardonable sin, if you
please, was placed on Christ, and He bore it away. All right. If you turn with me to the book
of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 1, verse 15, we find a dear lady,
a sister in Christ, the mother of Samuel, the mother of Samuel. And she is praying over here
in the book of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 1. Verse 15, it truly tells us a wonderful
definition of prayer. as those saints on that day,
when they got together after Peter and John had been arrested
and finally let go, and they got together, together as a church,
as an assembly of the saints, those who believe the gospel,
those who believe God is their salvation, that Jesus Christ
is the forgiver of their sins and the payment for their sins.
He is the great high priest and on and on it goes. Here we find
in the book of 1 Samuel 1, verse 15, that Hannah is in, well,
let's just back up here a little. That's the verse 13. Now, Hannah, she spake in her
heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore,
Eli thought she had been drunken. Now, I don't know. That'd be hard. I wouldn't want
to be in that position. Why he said that, I don't know,
but she doesn't get upset about it. She has no problem with it
because she's not drunk. She didn't go to church drunk,
and her conversation is not a drunken conversation. It tells us, He
thought she'd been drunk, and He put away thy wine from thee.
Now, Hannah answered this. What a glorious statement she
makes about prayer. This is how those saints in that
day, in Acts chapter 4, are praying. This is what they are saying
in essence. Hannah answered and said, no
my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither
wine nor strong drink. Now this is prayer. But have
poured out my soul before the Lord. Now that's prayer. Poured out my soul. I can just hear her saying, praise
God, what a glorious, almighty, all-purposeful God. And she understood
why she didn't have children. It was because God had not given
her children. And then He's going to give her
a child by the name of Samuel. Well, she's poured out her soul
before the Lord, and she has that to say. Turn with me. At
the dedication of the temple, in the book of 1 Kings 8, 1 Kings
8, if you'd turn there with me, 1 Kings 8, at the dedication
of the temple after it had been constructed, Solomon has this
to say. And this is just fits along with
what we read in the Acts chapter 4 with regard to the disciples
as they come back, they share what had taken place with them,
and then they are in prayer. Oh God, that He made heaven and
earth. You've made all things. Here
in the book of 1 Kings 8, verse 22, And Solomon stood before
the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation
of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven. And he said,
Lord God of Israel, there is no God like Thee. in heaven above or in the earth
beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with all thy servants
that walk before thee with all their heart, who hast kept with
thy servant David my father that thou promisest him, thou speakest
also with thy mouth and hast fulfilled it with thine hand
as it is today. Therefore now, Lord, God of Israel,
keep with thy servant David, my father, that thou promised
him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to
sit on the throne of Israel, so that thy children take heed
to their way, that thou walk before me as thou hast walked
before me. And now, O God of Israel, let
thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto my servant
David. What's he say here? Thou art
the God that keeps a covenant. You've made a promise. Isn't
that wonderful as we come to God in prayer that we can know
in our heart that he's going to keep every promise he's ever
made, that he will not leave us nor forsake us. He will hear
and answer prayer according to his purpose. And that is what
we pray. Thy will be done. And when it
doesn't fit what we thought he would do, Lord, make it acceptable
to me. May I agree with you on this
even though it hurts. May I come to the conclusion
that yes, you are in charge. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. Elijah s prayer there in 1 Kings
chapter 18, if you d move just a little further, 1 Kings chapter
18, We find when Elijah, I don't know, I've heard that all along,
that that was Elijah's test with the prophets of Baal, or God's
test with the prophets of Baal. That's not, there was no contest
here. The prophets of Baal were not
even in the contest. They had no ability to be in
the contest. Now, they thought they were,
but there was nothing that they had that would put them in the
contest. We're going to find out as Elijah speaks here in
1 Kings 18, verse 36. 1 Kings 18, verse 36, these words. It came to pass at the time of
the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came
near and said, now he's calling on this covenant God again. God,
you made some promises and we're thankful that you did and you
fulfill every promise. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. I lay down my life, a ransom
for many. I am the good shepherd, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. what promises God
made. And here he goes on to say, Lord
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and that thou
hast, that I have made done all things at thy word. Hear me,
O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord
God and thou hast turned their heart back again, then the fire
of the Lord fell. Wow. Now, all those prophets,
Baal, 500 of them, cut themselves quite a bit. They didn't have
water all over their sacrifice. They'd just been out there in
the hot sun, and nothing happened. Religion, nothing happens. Nothing spiritual happens. I
remember my brother saying with me, sharing with me one time,
you know Norm, religion, there's nothing to it. And I said, you're
right there. There is nothing to it. Can't accomplish anything.
Just leaves a sacrifice out there. And you know, the sacrifice of
religion is generally that he's the sacrifice. He did it all
for everybody and therefore he didn't accomplish much. And the
church says he didn't do it for everybody. He did it for his
elect and he accomplished everything he promised. So it is an honest
thing. For the Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, A prayer in the New Testament that really
speaks to the heart of every believer is found in Luke chapter
18. Would you turn with me to the
book of Luke chapter 18? What a prayer this is. What a
short prayer it is in comparison to the prayer that has just been
offered by a Pharisee. Now, he wanted his prayer to
be known and the Lord shared with us in the book of Matthew
chapter 5 about prayer. Don't be as the heathen and just
repeat words and don't be as heathen. Get on a street corner
and start praying, you have your reward. Find a closet. Now, there are times for public
prayer. We have them here. But, we trust that we pray in
our closet. Alright, here in the book of
Luke, chapter 18, it tells us in verse 13 and 14, And the publican,
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto
heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, Now notice this prayer. Isn't this a long prayer? And
doesn't this have lots of fluff in it? Doesn't this have a lot
of statement about his self-worth and all the things he's done
and all the ties he's paid? Absolutely not. This prayer is
simply and greater than simply, we have to say this, one of the
greatest prayers in the Bible by a human being. And this is
the prayer of God's people, the prayer of the church. God be
merciful to me, a sinner. What a prayer. God be merciful
to me, a sinner. Jesus said this, I tell you,
this man went down to his house justified. What's that mean?
His sin was as far as the east is from the west, buried in the
deepest sea, thrown behind God, never to be remembered again.
That's what God did with his sin. He put it away. What a prayer
we have here in this passage of Scripture. Now, if you'll
go back to the book of Acts chapter 4, As we look into the body of this
prayer, we find not only did they pray correctly, not only
did they pray to God, but notice as they open their mouth and
begin, they didn't start with, oh, look at the problems we're
in. Lord, let me tell you what just happened to us. They started
with praise. Acts chapter 4, there in verse
23, the scriptures share this. Oh, in verse 24, excuse me. And when they heard, they lifted
up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art
God, which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that
in them is. This just coincides with what
we read in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 3. Through faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. That's the faith that God gives
us. And until we have that faith, we will never come to the real
conclusion, that reason that God created the heavens and earth.
We will always have a fuss about it, and we'll have to prove that
this thing happened so we can say the Bible is right. That's
exactly opposite of what the truth is. The Bible is right. Therefore, when we go anywhere,
we're going to say, this is God's work. This is His handiwork. Just as these disciples brought
out here, Thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is. You made that 71-member Sanhedrin
court. You made this religion. You permitted
this religion to come along and take away the glory from the
Father so that the glory of the Father can really be seen by
those He reveals it to. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By
faith is how we can understand that. And you know, if we, I
was just sharing that with a young man on Wednesday, talking about
my faith. All he wants to talk about is
his faith. You know, the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews
is a wonderful account of faith. But when I get to Hebrews chapter
12 verse 2, I find out where all their faith came from. He's
the author and finisher of our faith. We don't have any, Abraham
didn't have any on his own. Isaac didn't have any on his
own. David had none on his own. Jephthah had none on his own.
We can have human faith, we can say I'm gonna sit on that chair
and it holds me up, but that's not saving faith. Faith that
is saving faith is what God gives us. And so it is faith. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. And you know, if we really believe
Hebrews chapter 11 and verse three about the world's being
created by God, we really believe that He has done this work according
to His eternal purpose. We also have to come to the conclusion
that when there is a salvation, it is a creation by God, a new
creation. A creation that?s never been.
Now, it?s been purposed, but never been. Would you turn with
me to the book of 2 Corinthians? If you can believe, if God has
given you the grace to believe, just as we read here about these
saints on this day pouring out their heart before the Lord and
beginning to address God as the one who has created the heavens
and the earth, they also have to agree on this, that if they?re
saved, it had to be of God. Couldn't have been themselves
no more than heavens and earth could have been created by just
mere chance the book of 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 would you turn there
with me 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and there in verse 17 Therefore
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 or 17 therefore if any man be in
Christ and He is a new creature. Now, most of the time that that
particular Greek word is translated in our translation, it's creation,
a new creation. You know, this comes as an activity
of the new birth. God gives us the new birth. We're
a new creation in Christ. All things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Now, I loved what my pastor that
brought me the gospel said about that verse of scripture, not
all old things have passed away. we're still sinners saved by
grace. We have the promise that they will not be held against
us. We have the promise that they were paid for. We have the
promise that the Lord Jesus Christ was successful in all His venture
on the cross. But we do find out that all things
became new. Now, that's all spiritual things
become new. We didn't know anything, spiritually
speaking, before we're given this new creation. We think we
do, but we come to the conclusion that, my goodness, I thought
I knew something, just like Saul of Tarsus thought he knew something
about the Bible. But he didn't know anything that
the Bible was speaking of Christ. He thought it was works, works,
and that's what he's imposing on people. And if you believe
that you can be saved by grace and not by works, I'm taking
you and arresting you and bringing before the council and hopefully
I can kill you. But when it came to his salvation,
he realized God revealed to him that it was all of grace. And so a new creature, creation,
how much did you have to do with your creation, first creation? I just love going back to the
book of Genesis there when God created Adam and Eve. What a miracle it was. God could
take the dust of the ground and form a man, and then he's inanimate. He can't think. He has no ability
of moving a finger until God comes onto him and breathes into
his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul after
God did his work. You know what? That's just the
truth of the matter when it comes to our salvation. We're an inanimate
object. We can't think spiritual things,
and yet we find as a new creature, all things become new. You know
what? We have a new view of God that
we never had by nature. He is absolute ruler of heavens
and earth. We have a new view of salvation.
It's all of Christ. We have a new view of sin. That's
what I am. And he came to save sinners.
We have a new view of everything spiritual. You know, I said it
wasn't very long after the Lord saved me. I said, I got a brand
new book. I have an old Bible I had all marked up, but I have
a brand new book. The Bible became an absolutely
brand new book. And you know what? I still find
out that there are brand new verses of scripture. Once in
a while, as Mike and I were talking this morning, I have to go through
and see if that verse, the inks are running, because where did
that come from? God opens up the meaning of some
scripture and we say, hallelujah, all things have become new. Just as he shares here in this
passage, new creation in Christ Jesus. Turn with me, if you would,
to the book of Galatians chapter six. The Book of Galatians, chapter
6. In order to pray true prayer,
they had to be a new creation in Christ Jesus. In order to
pray, they had to honor God. In order to pray, they had to
be born again. What a gracious prayer that that
sinner man had. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Now, did he pray and then get grace? Or did he get grace and
then pray? Well, we know the answer to that.
God showed him grace and mercy, and then he was able to pray.
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He had life. He went down to
his house justified. In the book of Galatians chapter
5, there in verse 15, if you'd turn there with me, Galatians
chapter 5, Excuse me, Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter
6 and verse 15. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. What's he saying there? Religion
is of no value. Doesn't matter whether you're
a Jew or a Gentile. Doesn't matter whether you've been circumcised,
you're not uncircumcised. We just can't get there from
here, but a new creation. Circumcision availeth, neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature, new creation that is brought out. Now if you go back
with me to the book of Acts chapter 4, we're going to have to bring
this to a close because we want to do some celebrating. Acts chapter 4 and there in verse
25. They've just praised God for
being the Creator of heaven and earth and all that in them is,
even a council of 71 that found fault with their preaching. And
then in verse 25, who by the mouth of thy servant David hath
said, Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up, and the councils were gathered
together against the Lord and against His Christ. For of a
truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
both Herod and Pontius Pilate were the Gentiles, and the people
of Israel were gathered together. Now, as I used to love to hear
Paul Harvey, You remember his saying that he always said at
every one of them, now for the rest of the story. You're not
here bemoaning the fact that this is going on. What does it
tell, and with this we'll close, for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. the rest of the story. And we'll start here next time,
Lord willing, and we'll pick this up and look some more at
this prayer.