Now let's open our Bibles to
Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. I want to preach
to you this morning on the subject of the Friend at Midnight. It's
a parable, the parable of the Friend at Midnight. Last week
we read these verses and I preached from the first four on, Lord
teach us to pray. I want to reread these verses,
just a few, so that you can return to the context. But it says in
verse 1 of Luke chapter 11, And it came to pass, that as he,
that is, our Lord, was praying in a certain place, he himself
praying, when he seized one of his disciples, said unto him,
Lord, teach us to pray, as John also, John the Baptist, also
taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When you
pray, say, Our Father. Now, we pray unto the Father
through the Son. We don't pray to men. We don't
pray to Mary. We don't pray to the saints.
We pray to the Father. That's prayer. And it says, and
we have one mediator between God and men. That's the man Christ
Jesus. We pray unto the Father through
the Son on the basis of His finished work. And we have no right or
privilege to go to the Father but through Him. So He says,
say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven,
so in earth. Give us day by day our daily
bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone
that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil." Now, that's what I preached on last
Sunday on the issue of prayer, and I'm not going to go back
into all of that, but that's the subject. It has to do with
praying. And it has to do with, we're
going to see here in the next verses, asking, seeking, knocking. Look at verse 5. He said unto
them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him
at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves,
that is three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine in his journey
is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. That was just
unheard of in that culture. When a friend stopped by on a
journey and you didn't have anything to serve him, that was the height
of embarrassment. And so this friend goes to another
friend to get bread to serve his guest. Verse 7, And he from
within shall answer and say, Now here's the fellow at midnight
knocking on his door wanting bread. And the guy inside says,
Trouble me not. The door is now shut, and my
children are with me in bed. We're all asleep in here, he's
saying. I cannot rise and give thee. He said, I can't give you
the bread. It's too much trouble. Well,
in verse 8, he says, I say unto you, though he will not rise
and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity,
that means his boldness. In other words, this is a guy
who won't quit. He's not going to let the fellow
sleep. He's going to keep knocking until he gets what he wants.
And it says, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
So that's the parable. Very short, very simple. The
fellow won't leave until he gets what he wants. Now, verse 9. He says, and I say unto you,
ask, and it shall be given you. Now notice the difference there.
I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall
find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you." That's why I had Brother Joe read that Matthew 7. This
is sort of a parallel to that, because he's teaching the same
lesson, although it's on a different occasion. Here in Luke 11, it's
not the Sermon on the Mount, but it's on a different occasion,
and he says, ask, seek, and knock. And you'll get what you ask for
and what you seek for, and you'll enter the door you're knocking
at. And he says in verse 10, now listen again, for everyone
that asketh, receiveth. and he that seeketh findeth,
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." He says in verse
11, if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,
will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he
for a fish give him a serpent, a snake? Or if he shall ask an
egg, will he offer him a scorpion? He says, verse 13, if you then
being evil, Does that offend your sensibilities? If you then
being evil, this is the Lord speaking. Now, that would have
been offensive to the Pharisees, wouldn't it? You then being evil. And somebody would have said,
well, now that's not good ministry. That's not good evangelism, because
you see, you've got to let people know you love them before they'll
listen to you. That's the modern day approach, isn't it? So you
certainly don't start off with looking a fowl in the eye and
say, if you then be an evil, or if you then be an evil. But
you see, I want you to notice something. The person who is
making this statement to his disciples is none other than
love incarnate. No one ever loved like the Lord
Jesus Christ. No one was ever kinder or gentler. You know, that used to be a saying
during the senior Bush administration, a kinder, gentler nation. Well, no one was ever kinder
or gentler than Jesus Christ. Am I right? And yet he told the
truth. Now, sometimes the truth hurts.
But that's just exactly what we need to hear, isn't it? If
you then being evil, now listen to verse 13, if you then being
evil know how to give good things, gifts unto your children. Fathers
and mothers, we're talking, people are talking about Mother's Day
today and we thank God for mothers and our godly mothers. They know
how to give good gifts to the children. Now some people know
how to give too much of a good gift to the children. I grant
you. Sometimes we don't always use wisdom. But if our child
comes to us and says, Dad, I'm hungry. Mom, I'm hungry. Give
me a fish. You wouldn't give them a poisonous
snake, would you? They say, give me an egg. Fry
me an egg. You wouldn't give them a rock. You see, you know
how to give your children what you need. Whether you do it or
not, that's up to you. But you know how to give your children
what they need. And so he says, if you, them being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, now here's the key,
and underscore this, how much more shall your Heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? How much more? Now, last week I brought to your
attention this, how a lot of the parables, many of the parables
that we've studied have used comparison to illustrate God's
truth, truth of the gospel, truth of the kingdom. The kingdom of
heaven is like, this is what it's like, that's comparison.
But now this parable is different. It doesn't use comparison, it
uses contrast to teach us a great truth. In other words, he's contrasting
this reluctant person who is asleep being goaded by this fellow
at the door to give him the bread that he needs. And he's showing,
I'm contrasting something for you. He said, I'm going to show
you how different your Heavenly Father is from this fellow inside. How different He is. How much
more. He is. How much better He is
than you who are evil know how to be. That's the contrast you
see. And what He's showing here is
God's willingness, God's readiness, and God's ability to save all
who come to Him for salvation His way. And that's the key.
His way. God's way. Not your way. Not
my way. not the Baptist way or some other
denomination, God's way, through the Lord Jesus Christ by grace. And also how willing and ready
and able He is to give His children all that they need throughout
their lives and all that they want according to His will. You say, you mean I can get all
I want? Yes, according to His will. Well, what if I want all
I want according to my will? Well, that's a different matter.
You can get all you want according to His will. Now, the reason
I make that point is that most commentators, when you go to
this parable, The Friend at Midnight, they always say that the lesson
of this parable is persistence in prayer, but that's very misleading. And I made this point last week.
Certainly we who are saved ought to be persistent prayers. We
ought to pray always. And I showed you several scriptures
about that, how we're to be people of prayer. I quoted John Bunyan,
how he said that prayer is the breath of the regenerate soul. And that we're to pray always
with an attitude of prayer. We're to pray corporately, not
all at once in confusion, but being led in prayer as we meet
together as part of our worship service. We're to pray boldly. We're to pray through the Lord
Jesus Christ. For we have such a high priest,
Hebrews chapter 4 says, that has passed through into the heavens.
Jesus Christ, our great high priest. and therefore we can
come boldly to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace
to help in time of need. Our prayers are to God through
Christ. We are saved by grace are to
be people of prayer. Prayer is an awesome privilege
to be able to pray to our Father. So persistence in praying is
to mark our life. But this parable, most people
say this parable means that if you want something bad enough
from God, just keep on asking, keep on asking, keep on asking,
and pretty soon He's going to get tired, just like you mothers
and fathers do when they keep on asking and keep on asking,
and He's going to give in to you. And that's not what this
teaches. Not at all. In fact, I showed
you over there in Matthew 6 where He told you, don't pray with
vain repetition. Now, if you just keep on asking,
keep on asking, keep on asking, keep on asking, keep on asking,
keep on asking, keep on asking, keep on asking, is that vain
repetition? I think you heard it just now, didn't you? That's
vain repetition. The Heavenly Father knows what
you have need of before you ask Him. You don't have to keep reminding
Him. You're not trying to change His mind. People usually say
about this prayer, you come at the door at midnight, he's asleep,
you keep knocking, you don't get what you want, just keep
knocking and finally he'll give in and you'll change it. That
is not what this teaches. Not at all. It's not teaching
that in order to get God to give us what we want, all we have
to do is harass Him and He gives in. No. This parable, as I said,
is teaching the how much more of grace and mercy and goodness
that comes from the Heavenly Father when His children come
to Him through Christ. That's what it's teaching. And
ask what we need and what we want according to His will. And
Christ is showing His disciples here that our Heavenly Father
is not like that reluctant friend who was in bed asleep. He's much
better. He's a much more God. So that
we may come to Him boldly The psalmist wrote in Psalm 86 and
verse 5, "'For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive, not
reluctant, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon
thee.'" Somebody said one time, salvation
is free and ready for everybody who wants it. And you know, I
agree wholeheartedly. The problem is, now here's the
problem, he said, if you then being evil, the problem is nobody
wants it God's way. I told you about the fellow who
was talking to a man down in Auburn and he said he had it
all figured out. Be careful when somebody says
that. I've got it all figured out, he said. And the fellow
said, well, what have you got to figure out? And he said, well,
salvation's like a big chocolate cake. And he said, everybody
who wants a piece of it can have it. And the man told him, he
said, well, he said, if you use that analogy and you make it
biblical, here's what you would have to say. Salvation's like
a big chocolate cake, and everybody who wants a piece can have it,
but by nature and of their own will, everybody hates chocolate
cake. Now, that's biblical. You see,
the problem is we're sinners and we want salvation our way,
on our terms. That's the problem. And let me
show you what I mean by that. Now, first of all, God is ready,
willing, and able to save His people from their sins and to
give them throughout their lives and eternity what they need and
want according to His will. That's the theme of it. If God,
listen, if God will give us His Son, would He fail to give us
anything we need? He that spared not His own Son,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believe it. Believe what? You see, I hear
people quote that John 3, 16 all the time. But the problem
that people have is believe what? That's the problem. What do you
believe? Somebody says, well, I believe God will save me if
I just do my best. No, sir. That's not salvation
by grace. That's not the love of God. That's
self-righteousness. You see what I'm saying? For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to
do the work, to do for me what I could not and cannot and will
not do for myself. What do I need? I need perfect
righteousness before God's law. How am I going to get that? Well,
you better just buckle up and wake up Monday morning and start
the day right. Well, I can't even end the day
right, let alone start the day right. Am I right? No, sir. The only way I'm going
to be righteous in God's sight is in Christ. through His shed
blood and His righteousness imputed, charged to me." You see, righteousness
from God is a free gift. It's not what you earn, or what
I earn, or what we deserve. Forgiveness is not something
we gain by what we do. It's something God gives by the
blood of His Son. That's what grace is all about.
So, whosoever believe us, you see, believe in what? The gospel
of God's grace. should not perish but have everlasting
life." There's life in His Son. Well, first of all, consider
this, God's mercy, grace, and love for us in Christ. Now, what
can we expect from God, especially when we recognize that He doesn't
owe us anything and that we don't deserve His grace and favor?
In fact, all He owes us, based on our best efforts to keep the
law, is damnation. Isn't that right? That's what
he says in verse 13, if you then being evil. Now that's all men
by nature. We fell in Adam, ruined by the
fall. Evil. Even the best of us, even
the most religious, even the most moral in the eyes of men
in God's sight fall short of the glory of God. We miss the
mark. That's what that means. What
is the mark? Perfection, righteousness, holiness. You say, well, I'm
trying to be good. Well, trying to be, as I said,
if you're trying to be good in order to be saved, trying is
dying. Mark it down. Because, you see,
it's not the hearers of the law that are just before God. It's
the what? The doers of the law. Cursed
is everyone that continues not in what? All things which are
written in the book of the law to do them. That's why I need
a Savior. That's why I need a substitute.
That's why I need Christ. That's why He had to come into
the world as a product of the love of God. What is God's love? It's His mercy and His grace.
It's His purpose to save His people from their sin by the
Lord Jesus Christ, not by helping you help yourself. What can we expect from a God
of grace and mercy? Here now is the story of the
father and the child to illustrate who God is. Here's the first
man, the neighbor. He wouldn't give. He wouldn't
get up and give the fellow what he needed. He didn't want to
be troubled. But finally he did give in because he came to the
end of his rope and he got up and gave the fellow bread. The
second man here is the father. He said to his son, just ask
and you'll get. Seek and you'll find. Knock,
and it will be opened unto you. You see, this is a story about
friendship that translates, or shifts, to sonship. Did you notice
that in this story? Here he says, he says in verse
6, look at it again, or verse 5, he says, he said unto them,
which of you shall have a friend? Now, I like good friends. Bible
says, if you want to have friends, be friendly. A good friend is
hard to find. You think about having a good
friend. It's a joy, isn't it? A friend. But I'll tell you what's
even better than a friend is a loving father. That's right, a father. You may
have the best friend in the world, but there may be times that they'll
be reluctant. They'll be A little bit put out
with you. And I know fathers can get like
that too, but I'm going to tell you something. A father who loves
their child, they'll do anything they can for them, and readily,
willingly, they have the ability. That's right. You see, he says,
which of you shall have a friend? Now, I know Christ is called
the friend of sinners. He is. He's the friend of sinners.
He was the friend of Publicans and Harlots, the Pharisees criticized.
Abraham was told the friend of God. And that has its place. But you see, look over, I read
this last week, but let's read it again. I love this. Romans
chapter 8. Now look here. When it comes to the relationship
of God's people to him, it's not just friends. It's a father
to his children. Look at it in verse 15 of Romans
8. He says, for you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. That's that legal fear
of punishment and promise of mercenary reward that stirs men
up to be religious and go to church. They get in trouble and
then they go to church. That's that legal fear. He says,
but you've received the spirit of adoption. You know? He says, whereby we cry Abba,
Father. That word Abba, it's an Aramaic
word. And it's indicative of the first
word that comes out of a child's mouth when he recognizes his
father. Somebody said Dada, but it's
more like Papa. Papa. When that little baby first
recognizes Papa. And that's what that means. What
a lovely analogy. of our relationship to our Heavenly
Father. Papa. Papa. It's not disrespectful. It's not the big guy upstairs,
or the man upstairs, or Big Daddy, or anything like that nonsense.
It's our Papa. He's our Father. He loves us. He cares for us. He's more than
a friend. He's our Father. And go back
to Luke 11 now. He says, I say unto you, who
says unto us, our Heavenly Father through the Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, ask, and it will be given. You don't have to stand there
and beat down the door on me, son, daughter. You don't have
to stand there and kick, kick, and holler, and scream to get
me up. He said, just ask, just seek, just knock, and it will
be given. You see that? True prayer is
not based on our friendship with God, but on the fact that we're
His children through Christ, by grace. It's the adoption of
grace. We're children of God by divine
election. He chose us. You know, when people
go adopt a baby, they choose the baby, don't they? Huh? I mean, they don't just show
up at your door and say, here, take this. Do they? No. They choose the child. Well, God chose us before the
foundation of the world, the scripture teaches. I know people
don't like that. You know, I wonder why? I'll
tell you why. View them being evil. People
don't mind election as long as they're the ones who do the electing.
They just don't want God doing it. You see, they won't submit
to the sovereign wisdom and love and knowledge of God. He knows
what's best. And he chose us before the foundation
of the world. He justified us in Christ. That means He cleaned us up.
You remember the analogy of the story of Ezekiel's cast out infant
lying on the ground, polluted in its own blood, and he'd come
along and he picked it up and dressed it up and put a robe
around it, a cloth around it? That's what he does. He justified
us in the righteousness of His Son. We wear the righteous robe
of Christ. That's an everlasting righteousness
that will never fade away, never get torn or worn. Washed us in
His blood, clothed us in His righteousness. He redeemed us
in Calvary by giving His Son to pay the redemptive price.
Our debt to God's law and justice was laid on Christ and He paid
the debt in full. That's right. And then He sent
His Spirit to give us life. We're His sons by regeneration.
We're born into His family spiritually. The new birth. Born from above
by the Spirit. And we're His children. And you
know, Christ said this. He said, if the Son therefore
make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now what He means by
that is this. As long as you're a legal slave
trying to earn your way into the Master's favor, You see,
you're not free indeed. You'll never be. Because your
position in the household and family of God will always be
conditioned on your performing your duties. That's salvation
by works. It's impossible. But if the Son, the Son of God,
makes us free by His work, by His paying of the price, by His
blood and righteousness, then we're really free. Then we're
sons adopted into His family, born into His family, and we
have a permanent abiding position in the household of our Heavenly
Father. And it can never be taken away.
It's by grace. We can't even do anything to
lose it. I know people don't want to hear that. I do. I tell
you, I like to hear that. Because I know myself, and you
do too. You see, where a father meets
the needs of his children, not to avoid shame. You know, this
friend at midnight, the reason he finally got up and gave the
fellow the bread, not only did he not want to be bothered anymore,
But it was also a shame in the culture and society not to give
your friend the bread that he needed. Well, listen to me. A father meets the needs of his
children not to avoid shame from society. But you know why he
doesn't? Because he loves them. That's
why. He loves them. He'll give his
children what he needs no matter what anybody else thinks. And
that's our Heavenly Father. Listen to the second thing here.
God's faithfulness to His promises to His children in Christ. Now,
for a friend to refuse to give bread would bring shame because
it was a sign of inhospitality. For a father to refuse to give
good things to his children would bring shame because it would
be a sign of unfaithfulness and lack of love. For God our Father
to refuse to give salvation and all things good to His covenant
children would bring shame to His glory. You see, the Father
is glorified in the salvation of His people through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every attribute of His character
and nature is engaged in the salvation of a sinner by His
grace and mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, if God
failed to save any one of His elected, adopted, justified,
redeemed, regenerated children, He would lose more than they
would lose. He would lose His glory. For
you see, if you want to find the glory of God, the Shekinah
glory, Look into the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 4,
6. That's where the effulgent, shining glory of God as both
a just God and a Savior shines forth brilliantly. Look to the
cross. Are you telling me that there
are going to be people in hell for whom He died? God would not
be glorified then. He would be unjust. You mean
their sins are paid for? And righteousness is established
for them that they are going to heaven? No, sir. Not according
to the scriptures. You see, God has blessed His
children with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And it would bring shame and reproach upon God's character
not to give them what He promises. He sent His Son to die to glorify
Him in the salvation of His covenant people. But now listen to this
one, the third thing here, how to obtain God's salvation and
forgiveness of sins and the blessings of grace in Christ. He tells
us how. Now you know I'm not too big on these religious how-to
books, you know, they write books on how to be born again, how
to do this, and they always go, it's always, let me tell you
something, it's always settled on the sinner and not on God. So I'm not big on it. But now
he tells us how to obtain right here. Here's how. Look back at
Luke 11. He says in verse 9, here it is.
And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek,
and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. You see, we're like men and women going to a friend
at midnight. And we'd say it this way, in
the midnight of our souls, in the late darkest hour of our
soul. When we see our sinfulness, if
you've been being evil, that's our problem. Even sinners saved
by grace, we still have the problem of evil. We studied that this
morning in Romans chapter 7. I'm still a sinner. I'm a sinner
saved by grace, but I'm still a sinner. And you know what?
I'll always be a sinner in this life. Now, in God's eyes, through Christ,
I'm holy. I'm perfect. I'm righteous in
Christ. But in myself, while I walk on
this earth, while I do my daily things, and you watch and look
at me, you're going to look at me and you're going to say, man,
if that guy's a Christian, then I'm the Eiffel Tower. That's why Christ said back there
in Matthew 7, you are judged not that you be not judged. Look
into your own heart. Stop trying to look into everybody
else's. And until you can say, I'm without sin, don't cast the
stone. That's basically what he's saying
in Matthew 7, what he said in John 8, when they brought the
adulterous woman and put her in front. He said, let he who
is without sin cast the first stone. I'm not without sin. I'm
without sin in the eyes of God in Christ, but in myself, I'm
still a sinner. I'll never rise above that in
this life. So here I'm coming in the midnight hour of my soul,
when sin runs deep within my conscience, when I'm walking
through the valley of the shadow of death, the time of trial and
trouble, and the darkest hour of trial and affliction. And
you know what? I have no bread. I have nothing
to offer to God. I'm serious. I have nothing to
pay. I have nothing to stand for my cause in myself, my past,
my experience, my baptism, my church membership. The fact that
I stood behind this pulpit and preached the gospel is nothing
to offer. If I offered those things to
God in my midnight hour, I'd be no more than those preachers
who stood before Him in Matthew 7 and said, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in Your name? Have we not cast out demons?
Have we not done many wonderful works? I have nothing to offer
God except the only thing He'll accept, the only one He will
accept, and that's Christ, His blood, and His righteousness.
That's all I have. You know what? That's great.
I'm not going to say that's all I have like that. I'm just frustrated
that that's... Oh, I'm glad that's all I have.
Christ, the blood of His Son. You know what He said? He said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. You say, well, that
was back in Egypt. No, that's in the midnight hours
of my soul today when I plead the blood of Christ. When He
sees me wrapped up in that robe of righteousness which He gave
me as a gift, the working of His Son charged to me and imputed
to me, God's impressed. That's His glory. If I stand
before Him in my old filthy rags, my works, my efforts, He'll get
him out of here. He stinks. But you see, in the midnight
hour of my soul, I have nothing to offer but Christ. You know,
that word importunity there, as I said, it means boldness.
Sometimes it can mean shamelessness. You know, our glory is our shame,
self-righteousness, but Christ is my glory. Our Lord promises
here that all who ask, seek, and knock as a sinner seeking
mercy and faith in Christ and who look to God for grace and
salvation and eternal life shall obtain it. They obtain the blessing
they seek. And here's the glory of amazing
grace in Christ. When we come at midnight, to
ask and seek and knock. We find not a friend who's reluctant,
but a Father who's ready. You hear me? Somebody said, come to Christ.
I don't know if He'll save you or not. You come to Christ, I
know He'll save you readily. I know He's sovereign. But my
friend, His sovereignty has already been settled in your heart before
you even come. Ask. Somebody said, well, I have
asked, but I didn't receive. Well, what are you asking for? Some ask for salvation on their
own terms. Some ask for wages, not for grace. Do you know that? Lord, give
me this because I've done that. That's wages. That's not grace. You come and ask for salvation
on God's terms, His way, by grace, mercy. That's what the publican
was doing when he said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. God
be propitious. That's what that literally means.
I need Christ. Here he's coming in the midnight
of his soul. And he throws himself at the
mercy of God. And you know what happened? He
went away justified, the scripture says. Ask for salvation in Christ.
Seek. Now, what are you seeking for?
Seek for salvation where God says salvation is to be found.
You know, people are seeking today. Everybody's seeking something.
Some people are seeking salvation in their work, in their families,
in their riches, in their sports or whatever. But my friend, you're
only going to find salvation where it is. You don't seek for gold in a
salt mine. And you don't seek for salt in
a gold mine. And you don't seek for salvation in your own works,
in your denomination, or anything. You seek for salvation in Christ
and Him crucified. You seek salvation God's way,
you'll find it. I have no doubt of that. You
ask for it His way, you'll get it. And then knock. Knock where? What door are you knocking at?
At the door of the church? Knock at the door of grace. Christ
said, I am the door. If any man will enter in, he'll
find salvation. Where are you knocking? And then
look at verse 13. Now he says, if you, them being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask Him? Over in the book of Matthew,
when he says this, he says good things instead of the Holy Spirit,
but they're the same thing. He specifies the gift of the
Holy Spirit here because it's the Spirit who brings salvation
to us in our experience. The gift of the Spirit includes
the whole experience of God's salvation, all the blessedness
of God's covenant promise to His elect before the world began,
flowing to every redeemed sinner by the merit, power, and efficacy
of Christ's atoning blood and righteousness. It's God the Holy
Spirit who convicts us of sin, brings us to the midnight hour,
and drives us to Christ for salvation. It's God the Holy Spirit who
weds the soul to Christ by faith. It's God the Holy Spirit who
gives dead sinners spiritual life and regeneration. It's God
the Holy Spirit who gives us faith to believe in Christ and
rest in Him and make Him the object of our love and affection.
In fact, it's God the Holy Spirit who sprinkles our hearts with
the blood of the Lamb, our consciences being cleaned. It's God the Holy
Spirit who speaks peace and pardon to our souls as He causes us
to look intently upon Christ and find rest and peace. It's
God the Holy Spirit who puts on us all the goodness that God
gives through His Son. And it's God the Holy Spirit
who keeps us throughout our lives as believers looking to and finding
rest and peace in Christ. And when you pray to the Father
in Christ, sometimes you don't know what to pray for, do you? A lot of times. It's the Holy
Spirit who comes as our intercessor, our comforter, who stands alongside
us, literally that's what that means, and prays in our stead
with groanings that cannot be uttered. And you know what? The Father and the Spirit, their
mind and will is one. He's the third person of the
blessed Trinity, co-equal with the Father and the Son in every
attribute of deity. The Father knows the mind of
the Spirit and the will of the Spirit. They're one in the Son. All you got to do is ask, and
seek, and knock. And when you pray to the Father
in Christ, remember these three things. Remember the love of
God that wants the best for His children. God always wants the
best for His children. And He always gives the best
for His children. And remember this, don't only remember the
love of God that wants the best and gives the best, Remember,
secondly, the wisdom of God that knows what's best for His children. Because, you see, we as children,
we don't always know what's best for us. Have you ever experienced
that with your children? They don't always know what's
best for them, but you do, Dad and Mom. Well, our Heavenly Father,
His wisdom is such He knows perfectly what's best for me. So sometimes
when I pray, I'm praying for things that are just not best
for me. But he knows. And then thirdly, remember this,
not only his love that wants and gives the best for us, not
only his wisdom that knows the best for us, but also remember
his power that can accomplish it. He's able, he's willing to
save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him. All right.