Well, we're coming back this
week to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 6, and verses 9 to 13, the prayer
that is known as the Lord's Prayer, but I have called this message
the Disciples' Prayer, because it is the prayer that our Lord
taught his disciples. In these days in which we're
living at the moment of worldwide lockdown, very largely, and everybody
trying to keep themselves to themselves, of course there's
been a big surge in communication of other sorts via the internet,
the social media and the like, and it's very good, it's very
pleasing, isn't it, to the heart, to the human spirit. This last
week I've particularly had lots of contact from people that I
was at school with in the 1960s. As long ago as that. Such a long
time ago. What, 55 years or more ago. And one from a teacher who was
my maths teacher when I was 13, 14 and 15 years old. And he was such a good teacher
and it's so good to see him alive and well and communicating. Communication
is good. But what about communication,
communion with God? What about that? Is that not
the pinnacle of communication that we should desire? The old
catechism, one of the old catechisms is, what is the chief end of
man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him
forever. You can't enjoy somebody that
you don't speak with. that they don't speak with you
and you don't speak with them. I enjoy the company of my wife
because we speak to one another. The chief end of man is to glorify
God, to know Him, to enjoy Him forever. But how do we, who are
earthbound, We who are finite, we who are unholy, we who are
sinful, everything that the living God is not, for he is holy, how
do we commune with him, the infinite God? How do we? Listen to what
Paul says to Timothy about God, who only hath immortality, dwelling
in the light which no man can approach unto. No man hath seen
him, nor can see him. This is the one that we seek
to commune with when we come to him in prayer. What an enormous
chasm there is to be bridged. It's not just a gap, it's a chasm
that is to be bridged between where we are as earthbound sinners,
unholy in the sight of God, unholy judged by the justice of God,
and where he is, dwelling in unapproachable light, the light
of his holiness, of his glory, of his majesty. You say, ah well,
people don't believe that there is a God these days. The fool
has said in his heart there is no God, says the word of God. The fool, you have to be a fool
not to look at this earth on a beautiful morning like we have
here this morning and not see the handiwork of God in everything
as the leaves burst forth How can we not believe in a God who
is over all and above all, who has created all things, who is
holy and pure and infinitely wise, and yet here we are, earthbound. What a chasm to be bridged. And yet, Paul, the apostle, preaching
to the Athenians in Acts chapter 17, where we have it recorded,
he tells us that this God that we seek to come to is not far
from each one of us. Look at these verses in Acts
chapter 17, beginning at verse 23. I'll just read four or five
verses for you. Paul preaching to them on Mars
Hill in the midst of Athens, where you can, well, in times
when travel is allowed, but you can go there, it's still there.
And he says, as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found
an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. Whom therefore
ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you, the true God, God
that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord
of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands,
neither is worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything,
seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and
hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the
face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and
the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord,
if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be
not far from every one of us, for in him we live and move and
have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said,
for we also are his offspring." We're offspring of the living
God by his act of creation. How are we going to communicate,
commune with the Living God? If we find a way of access, what
are we going to say? How are we going to speak? Think
in this country, or whichever country you live in, but in this
country, think of getting an audience with the Queen. things
have to be done right even the Prime Minister with the weekly
audience with the Queen there's a routine that has to be gone
through that is the right way of doing things and the right
way of addressing and the right way of bowing and curtsying and
all of these things not so much I'm sure she would think to the
Queen as a human being who is just flesh and blood like anybody
else but to the office of the Queen How much more so when we
approach, when we dare to approach, to the living God? So in Luke's
account that we read earlier, in Luke chapter 11, the disciples
of Jesus, when Jesus has been praying and when he stopped,
the disciples ask him to teach them how to pray. Lord, teach
us to pray. And here, we have the perfect
sinner's prayer to the one true God. The perfect sinner's prayer.
That's what it is, the perfect sinner's prayer to the one true
God, because it has all the elements that are necessary in approaching
to the one true God. But note, Note, this is not a
prayer to be recited parrot fashion, as a mere form of words, as goes
on in so much religion. You know, whenever there's a
gathering in a great church, what do they do? They immediately
start to recite these words by rote, and you wonder if there's
any sentiment in any heart of those there speaking with the
meaning of what these words convey. No, prayer, and this as the model
prayer, prayer is a vital sign of true spiritual life. It's
a vital site. Out in the garden, I'm looking,
there are plants that at the moment look as though they're
dead. We have some dahlias that have been covered up in a border,
and five out of the six of them look as though they're absolutely
stone dead. And they may well be dead, but
one of them has got the merest little green shoot on it. I can
see it's a vital sign of life. I can see there's life there.
Another one, you just scratch with your nail on the bark of
one of the twigs. Ah, it's green, it's green. There's
a vital sign of life. Prayer, spiritually, is that
vital sign of true spiritual life. You remember Saul of Tarsus
going to Damascus to bind and imprison and kill those who were
of the way of the Lord Jesus Christ because in his pharisaical
venom he was determined to stamp it out and to stop it because
it was against everything that his pharisaical religion as he
thought stood for. and he's arrested by Christ on
that Damascus road. Lord, what would you have me
to do now? He's completely humbled on the
ground before the living God. I, Jesus. I, Jesus. He is the one. Jesus whom you
persecute. He is the one. Jesus whose body
Paul was persecuting, in persecuting believers. And Paul is led into
Damascus, to that house in the street called Straight. And God
says to Ananias, go to him, for he's praying. This is the sign. There's true spiritual life.
The Spirit of God has come upon him and has quickened his soul,
made him alive spiritually to the things of God that the natural
man cannot see nor know, for the things of God, the spiritual
things of God, are spiritually discerned. And who is it that
gives the spiritual light and life to see and to know these
things? None other than God himself by
his Spirit. He is the one who quickens and
makes alive. The living Spirit within a person
seeking to commune with the Spirit who is God. This is what it is.
This is the true sign of spiritual life, this prayer. The living
Spirit within a person seeking to commune with the Spirit who
is God over all. Jesus told the Samaritan woman
when he met her by the well, and she was trying to talk about
religion, and he said, she was asking about where you can worship
God, in this mountain or in Jerusalem, and he said, woman, the time
is coming. when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem. For
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth. Where can I worship God? In spirit
and in truth. Not in this building, not in
that building, not in this place. There's no pilgrimage to a place
where you can pray to God. There's no retreat from this
life apart from that which is into your own closet, the quietness
of your own heart, to pray to the living God. The first glimmer
of spiritual life, of spiritual awakening, stirs up a need to
commune. to commune with God, to pray
to God, to speak with God, to hear His voice. Just like with
a newborn baby, there's a need for air, that's the first cry
of the air in the lungs. There's a need for food, for
that mother's milk whereby it will grow, for liquid refreshment,
for the cuddles of the mother and the family, the human fellowship.
That life, that true life needs those things and so spiritual
life needs communion with God. Do you have a longing to commune
with God, your Creator and Judge? Well here in these verses we
have the pattern, we have the principles that Jesus taught
his disciples. We need to look and see what
does each petition mean? There are seven of them. And
what state of heart do we need to utter each petition? For they
must come from the heart. This rote recitation of these
words is utterly empty, is absolutely pointless. It's just an act of
idolatry if it doesn't come from a heart seeking to commune with
the living God. But before we get to the petitions,
there is the address. Our Father, which art in heaven. Our Father, which art in heaven. God, our Father in heaven. Who
is it that we're taught by Jesus to pray to? This isn't just the
first person of the Trinity. This is the triune God. We're
to pray to the triune God, who is one in essence as God, but
three in persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we address God the Father
of creation, the initiator of creation, the completer of creation,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He's called in many,
many places in the Scriptures, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father who is the essence of God who is revealed
to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God. the expression
of God. He is the express image of His
person, the Word who became flesh, who became flesh and blood, for
the purpose of death that He might redeem His people from
the curse of the law, the Redeemer, the One who came. We pray, this
is the God to whom we pray. We pray to Him, the Redeemer,
the One who was delivered up, lifted up for our transgressions,
the transgressions of His people on the cross of Calvary, to satisfy
the justice of God, which demanded that the soul that sins, it shall
die. And He satisfied, He made satisfaction
to that broken law of God. by He Himself, bearing the sins
of His people, bearing the guilt of the sins of His people, bearing
the punishment and the wrath of God on those sins of His people,
and thereby accomplishing that which made satisfaction. And
the proof of it is what the rest of that verse, Romans 4.25, says. He was raised for our justification. He was raised from the dead.
It was the proof, it was the vindication that the sacrifice
was accepted, that the justice of God was satisfied, that the
people for whom He died are indeed justified justly. God is a just
God and a Saviour. He is both just as God in punishing
sin, and yet justifier of sinners, because the sins of the sinners
for whom Christ died are taken away as far as the east is from
the west. And we address Him, our Father,
the one God, One in essence, but three in persons, through
the mediation of the Spirit of God, who is that Comforter whom
Jesus said would be sent forth from the Father and the Son when
He ascended to heaven. He would send that Comforter
forth for His people. By calling God Father, we express
that He has made us His children by grace. When we call Him Father,
our Father God, we're expressing that He has made us His children
by grace, by the atonement, by the work that Christ came to
do, by the regeneration that the Holy Spirit comes, and for
us as we are, we're born like everybody else. We're just sinners
in this world. We're the enemies of God, enmity
with God. And by regeneration, by giving
that new life, you must be born again, said Jesus to Nicodemus.
You must be born again. The wind blows where it lists,
and you don't know where it's coming from or where it's going
to. So is the Spirit of God. He comes upon whom he will. For it is not of him who wills,
nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. The Holy Spirit
comes and regenerates and adopts those who were, as it says, children
of wrath, even as others. You see, there's an idea that
all people are the children of God by creation, and that's true
to an extent, but It's not true in this sense, that the fall
and sin has separated between God and the people He has created,
that your sins have separated between us. The sin of humanity
has made such a gap that those children created are children
of wrath, even as others. But by regeneration, were adopted
into the family of God by regeneration of the Holy Spirit, by the justification
that Christ has accomplished, by the sanctification that is
made over to his people. we become children of God. And
we address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose children
we are, by union with Christ. When Christ prayed, O my Father,
and then various prayers, by union with Him, by being in Him,
we too can pray, our Father, who art in heaven. We claim the
rights of the family of God. We claim the family of God, the
right acceptance into the holy of holies. We claim the kingdom
rights by virtue of Christ's redemption of his people. And
in this heart knowledge, we heed the call of God's word. Hebrews
4.16 calls us, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. You see, addressing God in this
way, we're told in Romans 8.15, you have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That regenerating
spirit of adoption in the new birth, By that we cry, Abba,
Father, just like the little toddler cries out, Mummy and
Daddy, to its parents. The new-born child of God, by
the Spirit of God, cries, Abba, Father. This is the prayer of
those who are made the children of God by sovereign, effectual
grace. It's the grace of God. the grace
of God, that has made us meet, it says, made us fitted, qualified
us, if you like, qualified by redeeming blood. What is it that
is qualified? It's the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sin. Your sins would separate you
and keep you out of the kingdom of God, out of the citizenship
of Zion, but by redeeming blood we are made nigh. It isn't for
mankind in general. The fall broke that relationship. Your sins have separated you
from God, for God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity
and cannot look upon sin. It's completely wrong for religion
to teach all to recite these words. Because without redemption
from the curse of the law, people remain children of wrath. Did you hear me? Listen, this
is the truth. This is what the scripture says.
Without redemption from the curse of the law, people remain under
that curse. They remain children of wrath,
not children of God able to cry, Abba, Father. Not children of
God, but when we know God in Christ, we who are sinners in
the flesh have access into the holy presence of God in heaven. Ephesians 3 verse 12 says this
about Christ, in Him, in Christ, we have boldness in Him. Why? Because of what He came
to do, what He accomplished, what He has done. We have boldness
and access with confidence What by? By the faith of Him. Whatever version of the Scriptures
you're looking at, it should say, by the faith of Him. Not by your faith in Him. That isn't the basis of your
confidence. It's by His faith, as the man
Christ Jesus, who came who came and accomplished everything the
Father sent Him to accomplish, as the messenger of the covenant,
as the promised Redeemer, as the Messiah, as the promised
seed of the woman, come to put right that which the Fall undid. The prayers of religion that
are not to the Father of His redeemed children in Christ,
by the Spirit's intercession, those prayers are just pointless
words. Now that's hard, I know, and
people don't like it, but it's true. The prayers of religion,
and most of it's superstition, that are not to the Father of
His redeemed children in Christ, by the Spirit's intercession,
are just pointless words. Outside of Christ, People, outside
of Christ, God is a consuming fire. It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God, as a sinner, outside of
Christ. But in Christ, we are accepted
in the Beloved. This is the God to whom we come,
the One who is over all, the one who dwells in eternity, the
one who is everywhere, the one who is omniscient, omnipresent,
omnipotent, can do all things, whose sovereign will cannot be
changed. This is the God to whom we come, the God whom we must
know. We must know Him. Oh, to know
Him. Oh, that I might know Him. that
I might know him, that I might approach him, not with my own
righteousness, which is as a result of the things I try to do, but
that which is the righteousness that is in the Lord Jesus Christ
for all of his people. So then what's the first petition?
The first petition of this model perfect prayer, it is this, our
Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, hallowed be thy
name. What does that mean? Is that
how we approach God? When we pray, you know, always,
when Nehemiah, in that moment when he sent a prayer up to heaven,
in the presence of Artaxerxes, the king, and he was terrified
for his life, because if you looked, the king had said to
him, Nehemiah, you're sulking in my presence, and that was
a capital offense. in that kingdom. That was an
offence which would result in execution. You were not allowed
to be miserable. And he was upset because Jerusalem
was not being rebuilt. And the king asked him, and in
that moment, how long did he have to think? Less than a second. And he put a prayer up to our
Father which art in heaven. And in that prayer I am sure
in his spirit he was acknowledging, hallowed be thy name. He didn't utter the words, but
it was there in his demeanour. It was there in his approach,
in his attitude, that the whole of creation would reverence the
being of God as holy. The being of God is altogether
different from us unholy sinners. Holy, that's what it means, different,
different, so different from sinners, that the whole creation
would reverence His name, would reverence His character, would
reverence His being, would give honour to His being, hallowed
be thy name, respected, revered, honoured. that his name would
be glorified again and again that his name would be glorified
was the purpose of Jesus coming glorify me with the glory which
I had with you before the beginning glorify me glorify your own name
glorify your son that I might glorify you again and again we
see those prayers in our Lord Jesus Christ that the name of
God would be holy and glorified because you see as Romans 11
36 tells us for of him and through him and to him are
all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. To our God who
we know in the Lord Jesus Christ. His glory is shown. How is His glory shown? Religious
folk think his glory is shown in their elaborate temples and
cathedrals and with their robes and with their glorious music
and all of these things. They think that shows forth the
glory of God. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. God's glory is shown in one thing
above all others. God is glorious all around, but
in one thing above all others is the glory of God displayed.
His glory is displayed in his grace, in his saving grace. For as he said, To Moses, show
me your glory, asked Moses. And God said to Moses, Exodus
33, 18, I will show you my glory. You can't see my face, but I
will show you my glory. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. The name of the triune God is
glorified in saving grace. That's how, as Jesus prayed,
Father, glorify thy name. This asks that in God working
out his sovereign plan, he would be revered and reverenced and
extolled as the author and finisher of the salvation of his people.
Hallowed be thy name. The world in which we live The
world that doesn't believe God. The world that blasphemes the
name of God. The world that scorns the name
of God. The world that only acknowledges
God when it wants an object to hate for the bad things that
they consider have happened to them. My wife was taken by cancer
20 years ago. I'll never believe in a God like
that. That's a horrible, you've heard it, I know you've heard
it. The world that blasphemes the name of God, that scorns
the name of God, that calls God a liar. How do they call God
a liar? They don't believe him. They don't believe His Word.
To the law and to the testimony, this book, this Bible, from front
to back, this Bible is the Word of God, by the Spirit of God,
breathed by the Spirit of God, written down, preserved, miraculously
preserved to these days. And men and women don't believe
it. And they call God a liar. Religion doesn't believe it.
Religion all around, religion that sounds like it's preaching
the truth. You examine what they're truly
saying, they're calling God a liar. They say that God hasn't said
that He has a people whom He chose in Christ before the foundation
of the world, and these are the ones for whom Christ came to
die, and His death was for them and redeemed them from the curse
of the law and from their sins. And yet they say God didn't say
that, and they call Him a liar. They reject His right to rule. They say, oh, there's God sitting
on the sidelines and he's so sorry for us at the moment. Oh,
why don't we have a big day of prayer about the coronavirus
and then we can ask God to change his mind and get things sorted
for us so we can get back to normality. No, this is the work
of God. This is the work of God that
he is doing in the overthrow of the kingdom of Satan. This
world rebels against the justice of God in every single way, but
oh, His people, those who have come to Him, those who have been
drawn by saving grace, those who have been drawn by irresistible
grace, His people pray that He would do as His Word promises. His people seek that the will
of God should be done. Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed
be thy name. What does God's word say about
this world and the name of the living God? Philippians 2 verse
10 says this, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow,
of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the
earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. That's what the Word
of God promises will happen. Oh, we pray, hallowed be thy
name. God's name will be hallowed.
Even by those who now reject, God's name will be hallowed.
Hallowed be thy name. That's the first petition. The
second petition is this. Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom
come. You know, as a child, I remember
at my infant school, which was a Church of England infant school,
and every morning we'd rattle off these words and we'd, you
know, there was never a thought in the heart about the truth
of any of them. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our, just like
rope, just like pull the string and let it go and the recording
plays. What is it for the kingdom of God to come? What is it? In Luke's gospel chapter 17,
Pharisees were asking Jesus about the kingdom of God and he answered,
the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. It isn't something
that you say, oh look, there's the kingdom of God. There's the
kingdom of God. Neither shall they say, lo here
or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Where is the Kingdom of God?
It's in the hearts of His believing people. What is it? It's that
spiritual realm over which God has unchallenged rule. Oh, God
has rule over everything. He is omnipotent. He rules over
all. But in this world, the rule of
God is challenged by the Kingdom of Satan and all of his demons. The Church On earth is the kingdom
of God. In the hearts of God's redeemed
people is the kingdom of God. Zion is the term used for the
kingdom of God, that which is that spiritual realm. Heaven
is where it comes to its full complement, its full fruition.
Here we live in this world, in the kingdom of Satan, in the
kingdom of Antichrist. where all around there is opposition
to God's rule. As Psalm 2 says, why does the
heathen, why do the heathen rage? And imagine a vain thing against
the Lord and against his anointed. The kings of the earth take counsel
together against the Lord and against his anointed. And yet
God says, the Lord that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh them
to scorn. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Because he says in verse six of that Psalm, yet have I set
my king. upon my holy hill of Zion. This is his kingdom. You remember,
I mention it often, but in Revelation 13, we see the kingdom of Satan
as it is in the days in which we live, at its absolute peak
of operation. with the beasts, the beast from
the sea and the beast from the land. Those beasts symbolizing
the kingdoms of this world and everything which is against the
satisfied justice of God. Everything which says we have
no need for the satisfied justice of God. And that world, as Jesus
said, he didn't say the world might hate you, my true believing
people, he said they will. As they have hated me, so they
will hate you. This world will hate those who
believe the gospel of God's grace and proclaim it. This world will. No question of perhaps about
it, they will, they will. The more they know what you think,
if you're a true believer and you believe the gospel that God
has revealed, the gospel that has saved your soul from sin
by His grace, they will hate you. They will hate what you
think, they will hate what you say, they will hate what you
stand for. God is bringing this world, the kingdom of this world,
to an end, to judgment, bit by bit, as we saw in Revelation.
All of those horses of the apocalypse, the trumpets, the violins, all
of those things are coming together. This is the work of God, to bring
this kingdom of Satan to an end in just judgment for its sin. And his kingdom will be seen
to triumph. But even now, even when we live in this world, God
has set his king on his holy hill of Zion. Because you read
the first verse of chapter 14 of Revelation, and there he is
with his 144,000, symbolical of his people in the world at
any one time. And there he reigns, even in
this kingdom of Satan, with his people on his holy hill of Zion.
We don't see him absolutely triumphant, Hebrews 2 verse 8, now we see
not yet all things put under him, but he is triumphant. And
we will see it, his word promises it, he will accomplish it. So
we pray that God will call his elect to Christ by the preached
gospel. Why? Why do we pray that? We
pray in accordance with his word. Why? Because it pleased God,
he tells us in his word, by the foolishness of preaching to save
those who believe. He has promised, as he promised
to Paul when Paul was at the city of Corinth, he has promised
that, don't be afraid, I have much people in this unbelieving
city. And where God has his people
who are ordained to eternal life, The responsibility of the Church,
of His people, is to preach faithfully the Gospel of Grace, to preach
the truth as God has revealed it. And those that were ordained,
we read in Acts 13-48, those that were ordained to eternal
life, what did they do? They believed that gospel because
it's by the foolishness of preaching that they believed. And so we
pray that God will accomplish his purposes, that his kingdom
will come by the preaching of the gospel until the full number
of his elect, that multitude that no man can number from every
tribe and kindred is called in and then cometh the end. So we're
confident that all those ordained to eternal life will believe
the truth. Thy kingdom come. And finally
for this message, thy will be done, thy will be done. We pray
that God's will be performed perfectly on this earth as it
is in heaven. At the moment it isn't performed
perfectly on this earth because of sin, even in his believing
people. So we pray, Lord, give us grace. To help, as we read there, he
gives grace to help in time of need. It was Hebrews, wasn't
it? In Hebrews 4, grace to help in
time of need. We pray, Lord, give us grace
to help in time of need. This is a time of need. So that
our will, worked out, will be his will, worked out. That we
might be conformed to his perfect will. What is the will of God?
What is the will of God? What does God will in this world?
John 6, 39, Jesus tells us, this is the Father's will which has
sent me, that of all which he has given me, all the people
that he gave to Christ in the covenant of grace, in electing
grace before the beginning of time, that Christ undertook to
come into time and to redeem from the curse of the law, that
of all those which he has given me, I should lose nothing. Not one will be lost, but should
raise it up again at the last day. This is the will of God,
that all of the people upon whom he set his sovereign electing
love shall be saved. What is it for me to do his will? What is it for me? It's to believe
on Him. What should we do that we do the works of God? Believe
on Him whom He has sent, said Jesus. Believe on Christ. We
pray that God's kingdom will come to full and final triumph
by His elect believing the truth and having their wills conformed
to His. Increasingly conformed. It's
a work in progress while we're still in this life. A work in
progress for our will to be conformed to the will of God. So let's
ask a question that I know some of you often think, should believers
pray for unbelievers when it might not be the will of God
to save them from their sins? Well, the answer is that we do
not know, but we do have a pattern that in this flesh, our Lord
Jesus Christ, as I mentioned last Sunday, even he who is God
from eternity, when he's going to the cross, he prays, Father,
if it be possible that this cup be taken from me. That's what
his flesh wanted. If it be possible that this,
because it was such a dreadful prospect to be made sin for the
redemption of his people. The man shrunk at the thought,
he sweat as it were great drops of blood, if it be possible that
this cup be taken from me nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. If it be possible that those
who are our loved ones, who are outside of Christ, if it be possible
that they be amongst those whom you have ordained to eternal
life, Lord give them ears to hear the preaching of the gospel
of grace, and believe it, and trust, and come to the knowledge
that they are amongst the number whom Christ has redeemed from
the curse of the law. So there's the first three petitions. I've stopped there because that's
a good 38 minutes and that's long enough. We'll look at the
other ones and maybe some more next week, which are the ones
which are more to do with us in this world. But how different
to most that passes for prayer in religion. Do you know why
it doesn't get answered? Do you know why most prayers
of people who pray don't get answered? James tells us, doesn't
he? He says, you ask and you receive
not. You pray and you don't get what
you pray for. Why? He says, because you ask amiss,
you ask wrongly. Why? that you might consume it
on your lust, you ask for the things that this world provides,
you ask for the things that the flesh desires, you ask for those
things to satisfy the lusts of your flesh, and therefore God
doesn't give it, because God says whatsoever you ask in my
name That will I give you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened. Whosoever seeks, find us. Whosoever
knocks, it shall be opened to them. This is the promise of
God. So we'll leave it there, and next week we will look at
more of those petitions in this model prayer.