when the Lord began to draw me
to Christ. And I say that because no man
can come unto me except my Father draw him. That's what He said. How does the Father draw us?
He draws us through the workings of His providence. He draws us
through calamities and all sorts of things that happen in our
lives. He arranges his providence in
such a way as to bring you to Christ. And when the Lord first
began to draw me to Christ, I began to see some major discrepancies
in things that I'd been taught all my life. I started going
to church when I was about five years old. And I went every time
the door was open until I was old enough to leave home and
join the Navy and get out on my own. I've been taught that
salvation was at least in part mixed with the works of men. I've been taught that. Taught
that. You do certain things and God
smiles on you with favor and he does some things and you do
some things And I've been taught that it was kind of a, I don't
know what you'd call it, kind of a sharing type of thing between
you and the Lord. And that man, at least in part,
salvation was due to him and by his works. However, I found
out that the Scriptures didn't square with this at all. Not
at all. The Scriptures teach that salvation
was by the free and sovereign grace of God Alone. Over and
over and over, he says, not by works. Not by works. Not by works. And the more it
says that in the scripture, the more man clings to his works. I began to discover that. There
were some discrepancies here in the way I'd been taught and
the way these things were stated in the scriptures. I didn't understand
them. I just saw the discrepancies. And I've been taught that Christ
came into this world on the behalf of all men. All men celebrate
Christmas. All men do these things. The
death of Christ, his labor as a man in this world, those things
for which he came to do and accomplished, that these things were done that
he came to represent all men. He came on the behalf of all
men. His death was a universal offering for all men and was
made effectual by man's decisions. In other words, Christ died for
your sins, and if you choose to accept Him, then that death
is made effectual. And again, the Scriptures declared
something quite different. The Scriptures declared that
God chose a people in Christ before the foundation of the
world. and predestinated them, those
he chose in Christ, predestinated them under the adoption of children
in Christ, and by the death of Christ made them accepted in
the blood. Not by something that they would
do in time, not by something that they chose to do, but they
were accepted in him, in him because of their union with him
in whom God chose them. redeeming them by His blood and
freely forgiving them all sins. And He did this, He said, according
to the riches of His grace. You read the first seven verses
of Ephesians chapter 1, and you'll see that it says that exact thing.
And then thirdly, I taught that God loved everybody. God smiles,
God loves. Isn't that what the bumper stickers
say? Well, I don't know if He does or not. But I can tell you
this much, he didn't love Esau. Esau couldn't put that bumper
sticker on his car. Esau have I hated. That's what
he said. Jacob have I loved. Esau have
I hated. God said he hates all the workers
of iniquity. So all the workers of iniquity
can't put that bumper sticker on their car either because he
don't love them. The Scriptures declared that
God chose a people in Christ before the foundation of the
world, and that He loved them. He loved them. I taught that God loved everybody,
wanted everybody to be saved, but really couldn't do too much
about it, because if He did, He'd violate their will, whatever
that is. The Lord said, cannot I do with
my own what I will? We're the clay, he's the potter.
Can he not make? Who art thou that replies against
God? Shall the thing formed say unto
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? You see what I'm saying? There
is no violation of your will. Your will's in bondage till you
fall in nature. And you've got only one hope
of salvation, and that's the sovereign will of God, the redemptive
will of God. The will of God to save a people
for the glory of His name. I learned that all these things.
The scripture says this. He said, through Christ, we have
obtained an inheritance. being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Isn't that what it says? I learned these things at the
beginning, but what I never would have imagined at that time was
that everything that I'd ever learned was contrary to the scriptures. All of it, everything, not just
the major parts of salvation, not just that salvation is by
grace and not by work. You know, here's another thing
I discovered way back younger. I discovered God was sovereign.
You know what that means? That means he does what he will,
when he will, to whom he will. Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, that old
evil king, you know, he stood up there with his fingers in
those suspenders. I kind of picture him standing
there on that great hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the eight
wonders of the ancient world. And he was standing up there
with his thumb in them suspenders. And he said, it is not this great
Babylon that I built for the glory of my name and by the might
of my power. And God smote him. Caused his
hair to grow like eagle's feathers and his fingernails like bird's
claws and made him go out there and eat grass like an ox. Left
him out there for a while. When he brought him back, he
said, when my reasoning returned unto me, he said, now I know. God ruleth in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He's sovereign. He's
sovereign. I learned these things, but what
I just could not have imagined at the time that everything that
I'd learned from the time I was a child until the time that the
Lord began to work in my heart, everything was wrong. Everything. My concept of salvation was wrong. My concept of love was wrong. My concept of death and judgment
was wrong. My concept of love was wrong.
It was all wrong. All wrong. And ever since, and
I believe this is common to every believer, ever since the Lord's
been teaching me what's right. What's right. To be saved is for God to make
you be able. He's to make you able to be partakers
of the inheritance of enlightened saints. That's what it is. Saints
who no longer dwell in darkness. He called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. He called you out of death and
ignorance and gave you wisdom and revelation. He delivers the sinner from the
power of darkness. And then the rest of our days
is just a continual enlightening to the glory of God in Christ.
Now, as a believer, as a believer, I want to submit myself to the
will of God. I've learned what this will is.
It's His redemptive will is to save. And I want to submit myself
to that. I don't want to fight against
that anymore. I don't see God as this cruel, tyrannical God
who was unfair in his election of certain men. They were all
deserving of hell. Election is by the grace of God.
Isn't that what it says? Even so, at this present time,
there is A remnant according to the election of grace. And
if it's by grace, then it's no more works. Otherwise, grace
is no more grace. It's by the grace of God. To
be saved is for God to make us able to be partakers with the
inheritance, of the inheritance of enlightened saints. And as
a believer, I want to submit myself to the will of God. I
want to submit myself to the word of God. I'm not interested
in lining up with somebody else's counsel or somebody else's creed. I'm not even interested. I wouldn't
walk across the street to debate with them on it. I think I've come to the place
where I believe I can say from my heart, let God be true and
every man a liar. That's where Paul was at. He
said, let God be true. Let's go here and see what God
says. Yeah, but the Baptist say, huh? What Paul say? Let God be true
and every man a liar. Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian,
whatever the name. You holding on to a lie, let
him be a liar. Let God be true. I want to submit myself to the
will of God, the Word of God, and I want to submit myself to
the Son of God, my Savior, and my Lord. Did you know Christ
is Lord of the dead and the living? He's Lord. I used to vision him
listening to the preaching growing up as a little child, just like
these two sitting here on the front and some of the rest of
you sitting back here. I grew up sitting there on the
pew and I'd listen to the preacher and I'd get bits and parts about
what he was saying. But I always had this vision
in my head of Christ being this tender person. He didn't really
have anything to do with authority or judgment or anything like
that. He was just a, he didn't want
to do anybody any harm. And if he was hungry, he'd feed
you and, you know, and all of these things. And I don't want
to take away from anything that our Lord did as a man. I'm just
simply trying to make the point, that ain't how it is. Jesus Christ
is Lord. You know what he told his disciples
before he sent them? Here's the great commission.
He tells them over there in Matthew, I think it's Matthew 28, he said,
all power in heaven and earth is given unto me. Now you go
preach. Huh? Paul said, In Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him,
now listen, who is the head of all principality and power. Jesus
Christ, He is not some poor defeated reformer up in heaven walking
back and forth over the banisters of heaven just wringing His hands
and crying His eyes out because somebody won't believe on Him.
He is Lord. He is seated at the right hand
of God. And He's Lord, absolute Lord. He arranges providence itself. He arranges it. If He don't arrange
it in your favor, you're a goner. You see, religion leaves man
thinking, well, what can I do for my Lord? What can I do? The gospel leaves man saying
this, what's my Lord going to do with me? Because He's Lord. Now listen to him, he's Lord
for the salvation of his people. That's what he tells us in his
prayer in John 17. Thou hast given me power over
all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given me. That's why that power is given
to him. As a preacher and a pastor, I
want to say things to you that will edify you and benefit you
in your walk of faith. And Paul expressed this. We talked
about it a little bit in our Sunday school class. He gave
these pastors and teachers till we all come in the unity of the
faith. That is, being in agreement as to the author of it. Faith
is the gift of God, isn't it? By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. It's the gift of God, so we're
in agreement as to its author, we're in agreement as to its
source, we're in agreement as to its foundation, and we're
in agreement as to its objects. He said, till we all come into
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. It's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. That's what it is. That's what
salvation is all about. I was never told that as a kid.
It was always about what we did. Coming to the front, kneeling
down, praying, doing all these things, paying tithes and celebrating
the Sabbath day and keeping this and keeping that. All that was
about. The gospel is not about that.
The gospel is about the Son of God. Salvation is in Him. He
that hath the Son hath life. It's finding out who He is. You
can't call on Him of whom you've not heard. How are you going
to do that? It's not being preached out here. I listen. I read their articles.
It's not being talked about at all, what I'm telling you this
morning. How are you going to call on Him in whom you have
not believed? And how are you going to believe in Him of whom
you have not heard? And how are you going to hear
without a preacher? And how in the world is he going to preach
if God don't send him? Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Now, of all the things that I've come to know over the years,
nothing was more contrary to my upbringing than prayer. Prayer. I don't know today if I know
how to pray. I swear. Prayer is so foreign
to how I was raised. Prayer in our home and at our
church was a ceremonial thing. It was ceremonial. It was for
the most part a wish list. Had little to do with a man's
heart reaching out to God. Had little to do with man praising
God. And it had nothing to do with
his petition for those things which he needed. And recognizing
our ignorance, the Lord taught here in Matthew chapter 6, He
taught His disciples something about how to serve Him and something
about how to pray. So I thought we might just go
through. This is the disciples' prayer. And I thought we might
just go through this and see if the Lord won't teach us some
things about it. Now this, here in Matthew 6 verses
9 through 13, our Lord gives to His disciples an outline for
prayer. Here's the outline. Here's how
you're to pray when you approach Him. It wasn't given to be memorized
and quoted and repeated. The Lord told them back in verse
7, He said, when you pray, don't use vain repetition. Don't take
something, memorize it, and say it over and over and over. You
know, as a little kid, I don't know why these things come to
me while I'm preaching, but as a little kid, I knew that the
bottom line, I had to go to my dad to get whatever it is I wanted.
I tried to go through, Mom, but it didn't work. You go ask your
father. And when I come to him, I just came to him, asked my
father. I knew who he was. This is my
father. He puts the food on the table.
He puts the clothes on my back. He's the one I run to when I
need protecting. He's my father. He loves me. So I just went up to him and
that's what I tell him. Dad, I need this. I need that. Can you imagine
going to your father with some vain repetition and just come
up to him and start, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy... Well, he'd run me out of the room if I started saying
something like that. Then why do we do that to our
heavenly Father? Huh? He said, this is what the
heathen does. This is how the heathen pray.
Don't you pray that way. I remember before they passed
all the laws being taught this prayer, and we quote this prayer
in school. We do pledge the allegiance,
and we do what they call the Lord's Prayer. And that's what they called it,
the Lord's Prayer. But it's not the Lord's Prayer. It's the disciples'
prayer, and it's a model and an outline for all prayer. Now,
let's look at these verses. just one verse at a time and
see if the Lord will teach us something about how to pray.
He said, After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father, which art
in heaven. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
If you're a believer, you've come to know something about
the source of your salvation. And the source of your salvation
is your Heavenly Father. That's where it all began. That's
the spouting head. That's the spring right there.
That's the well spring. The Father. Blessed be, isn't that what Paul
said there in Ephesians 1? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He's our Father as He is
the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So to be a believer
is to know something of the true and living God, and to know that
He's the fountainhead, the wellspring, the source of all salvation.
James tells it like this. He said, every good gift and
every perfect gift cometh down from heaven, comes down from
above, comes down from the Father of lights, the Father of all
revelation, the Father of light, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning." So He's the source. He's the source. And when we pray, we go straight
to the source. Our Lord has opened a way for
us to go into the holiest of all. We go right straight to
the Father. To the Father through His name. In Ephesians 5, Paul tells us
to be filled with the Spirit. What in the world does that mean?
For one fills himself with the Spirit as he yields himself to
the things of the Spirit, the Word of God, the worship of God,
the preaching of the gospel and prayer. And being filled with
the Spirit, renewed in our minds by the Holy Ghost, being shown
the things of Christ, we speak to ourselves in hymns, he said,
in spiritual songs, in songs making melody in our hearts that
is rejoicing, in this marvelous grace and the glory of our Savior.
Now listen to this, Ephesians 5.20, giving thanks always for
all things unto God and our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. If we're going to pray, we're going to pray our Father
who art in heaven. We're believers. God is our spiritual
Father. And if God is our Father, we
are His sons and heirs and join heirs with His Son. Because we
are sons, Paul said, God has sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. We're join heirs with His Son
because we're one with Him by divine and eternal union of grace. And we're one with Him by way
of a new birth, being born of God. And by that faith, which
is the operation of God in our hearts. And the Scripture tells
us there's no other way to know God as your Father than through
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we know He's our Father. Christ spoke to His disciples
in John 14 about going to His Father's house and preparing
a place for Him. And He said, where do I go you
know, and the way you know. And they said, well, wait a minute.
We don't know where you're going. And how can we know the way?
He said, I am the way. I am the way. I am the truth,
and I am the lie. And they said, well, just show
us the Father, and we'll be satisfied. He said, have you been so long
time with me, Philip? And have you not known the Father? When we pray, we begin with the
Father because we know that He's the source of all of our blessings
in Christ. And then He tells us, Our Father
which art in heaven. That's the seat of His throne.
That's the capital of His universe. That's the high and lofty abode
of God. Our Lord called heaven His Father's
house. His Father's house. Alright, here's the next thing.
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You know, the Jewish scribes
for years, hundreds and hundreds, thousands of years, we didn't
have printing presses. And when they copied the Bible
on the original scrolls, it was done by hand. And whenever they
would come to the name of God, whether it be Jehovah Sid Canoe
or just Jehovah or ever. When they come across the name
of God, any word that was describing the name of God, they'd get a
brand new quill and they'd put ink in it and they'd write that
and they'd destroy that quill. And that's a hallowed be thy
name. His name is sacred to a believer. In His name is where His glory
is revealed. And I'll tell you, if He ever
reveals to you His glory, the glory of His justice, inflexible
justice, we can't even imagine such a justice. The perfection
of righteousness and all of these things that He reveals in His
name, hallowed be His name. God's name is who He is. It's
His character. It's His love. It's His justice.
It's His holiness. He's almighty. He's merciful.
He's wrath. That's His name. And God's name is hallowed. It's
to be revered. And God will not, and I hope
you'll hear me this morning, God will not tolerate any false
conceptions of His name. His name's been declared by the
prophets. His name's been declared through
the tithes. His name's been declared through
His Son. His name's been declared through
the gospel. And there's no excuse. There's
no excuse for any abuse. And God will not tolerate false
conceptions of His name because He's manifested His name before
all men in the person and work of His Son. We say, well, God is holy. Somewhere
in this book here it says the holy Bible. That word holy means
the wholeness of God's character. God won't compromise one part
of his character so he can magnify the other part. And that's what
religion has him doing. Only in Christ is that name complete
and uncompromised. There's no part or portion of
God's name that's not manifested, honored, and glorified in Jesus
Christ our Lord. And we're to reverence that name
at all times and in all things. That's what He's actually, that
verse I quoted to you a while ago, how you're going to call
on Him in whom you have not believed. The verse just before that said,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's His name that's declared
in the gospel. I'm not going to stand up here
and tell you come to Jesus and not tell you who Jesus is. I'd
just leave you to whatever concepts that your imagination can conjure
up. The gospel is to declare to you
who He is and what He's doing. So the believer prays to his
heavenly Father with reverence to His name, realizing something
of the greatness and awfulness of the living God. They hallow
His name. And then thirdly, he tells us
here in Matthew 6, verse 10, Thy kingdom come. Two things
I want you to think about when we think about God's kingdom.
First is the absolute sovereignty of God. He's king in His kingdom. You listen to people live any
way they want to, does anything they want to, goes about and
then they talk about being saved. That's a lie. That's a lie. If He brings you into His kingdom,
He's going to bring you under the authority of His king. And
this idea of accepting Jesus as your Savior and Him not being
your Lord, you just missed the greatest experience of grace.
You just left it completely out. God's kingdom has a king. He's
not a president with councils and boards of directors and committees
to keep him in line and advise him on what to do. He's Lord. He is sovereign over all things
and especially over his kingdom. Paul gave Timothy a solemn charge
as a preacher and a believer and as a citizen of the kingdom
of God to fight the good fight of faith until the appearing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to what he says here.
Which in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate. Huh? the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords." God's kingdom has to
do with His sovereign purpose of grace to save a people for
the glory of His name. And then secondly, this kingdom
is His elect, His church, His chosen. They said, tell us when
Your kingdom is coming. Give us some signs. And He said,
the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. You can't see
it coming. Because the kingdom of God is
in you. It's in you. Believers, when they're saved,
are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of
God. They're in His kingdom. And His kingdom is established
in the hearts. Thy kingdom come. We pray for
that. We pray for His kingdom. His
power. His authority. His kingdom. And then he tells us this. Here's
the next outline to our prayer. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. You reckon God's will is done
in heaven? Huh? Satan challenged God's will. God told him that he was going
to raise up a man and set him on the throne. And in that man,
He's going to invest the glory of His name in that man. He's
going to set him on the throne. He's going to be king over His
kingdom. And Satan said, oh, he said,
wait a minute. A man? I'll ascend up there. I'll sit on it. He's history. He's gone. And everybody that
bought into his lie was gone with him. Now, he said, thy will
be done on earth just like it was there. It will be done here. That's what believers pray for.
And I tell you this, if God's will is not done here, you're
not going to be saved. It's His will. It's His
redemptive will. When Christ came, there in Hebrews
chapter 10, if you've never read that before carefully, you need
to read it and study it. There in Hebrews chapter 10,
He said, therefore, when the first begotten came into the
world, And then he made reference to this. He said, in the volume
of the book it's written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. And then he talks about that
sacrifice that he made, the fulfilling of that will, and perfecting forever those
that he sanctified through that offering. That's the will of
God. We pray thy will be done on earth
because we're praying for his redemptive will. I know the will
of His justice is going to be done. It's His redemptive will
that I'm concerned with. That's what I pray for, His redemptive
will. That His redemptive will be done
here this morning in the hearts of those who are listening to
me. I can't do anything with you. I couldn't do anything for myself. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. All right, Matthew 6.11, here's
the fifth fact. Give us this day our daily bread. There's a lot that was written
about this petition, but I believe it basically refers to all the
necessities of this life. He said, when you pray, you're
not letting God in on what you need. Your father already knows
what you have need of before you ask him. This refers to all the basic
necessities of life, and it's called our daily bread. It's
ours by the virtue of our purchase. We were bought in Christ. Ours
by virtue of the promise of God. He promises to take care of us.
Ours by virtue of our union with Christ. And then it's called
our daily bread. I'm going to tell you something
here. Believers live in the present. Because that's all you have. If you're living in tomorrow,
you're living in a vacuum. Right now is all you've got.
Right now. You may be here tomorrow. You
may not. The old must die, the young may. And he says this,
if you'll read Hebrews chapter 3, he says this three times and
he capitalizes it each time he says it, today is the day of
salvation. Today if you'll hear his voice,
that is the voice of the Spirit of God who speaks through the
preaching of the gospel, today if you'll hear his voice, harden
not your heart. Today, we have the present. We
live in the present. Give us today our daily bread.
I may not need it tomorrow. If I do, the throne room's open. I can go and ask for my daily
bread tomorrow. But today, today's all I have. Believers live in the present. in this world, not in the future.
And there's little for them here. And what is here is polluted,
corrupted. It's undesirable. But the Scripture said the believer's
hope is laid up for him in heaven. We understand that, don't we?
It's laid up for us in heaven. It's not here. It's not here. And I tell you, if we're going
to labor in his kingdom, that's the only reason we left here,
is to labor in his kingdom. If we're going to labor in his
kingdom, we need daily sustenance, don't we? I have to eat. Didn't take me long to figure
that out when I shoveled gravel this week. Been a while since
I had a shovel in my hand. I was hungry in a few hours. Oh, that the glory of God would
come into our hearts in such a way as to teach us to pray
for only what we need today, and that to enable us to fulfill
our calling. That's all we need. All we need. The Bible never speaks of tomorrow
when it's talking about the believer, except to tell him not to be
concerned with it. That's the only time he brings
it up. But we're concerned with you all the time, ain't we? Get
a check in the mail for $100, man, I wish I had $200. I'd be
good for the week. You might not have the week. Exhort one another, he said,
while it's called today. And God warns the believer about
covetousness. Covetousness is the unreasonable
desire after that we have not with a dissatisfaction for what
God has given us. That's covetousness. And do you
know what he calls covetousness? Idolatry. It's idolatry. Give us this day our daily bread.
All right. Sixthly, verse 12, Matthew chapter
6. And forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. One Scripture comes to mind here
more than any other, Ephesians 4.32. Be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. If you have trouble forgiving
others, their debts, their trespasses, their offenses toward us, it's
due to a lack of experience in our own soul. of the forgiveness
of God to us. That's why we can't do it. If we knew in some clarity, if
we knew in some plainness of our own forgiveness before God,
it wouldn't be very hard for us to forgive others. I tell you, beware of people
who hold grudges and refuse any kind of reconciliation. It's
the experience of grace that makes one gracious and the experience
of mercy that makes one merciful. Forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors. And then he tells us, and lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. As long as we're
in this world, we're going to be tempted. You're going to be tempted. We're
in this world. The world surrounds us. It's
like being in a dirty pool or something. Here you are, and
you're in here, and you can't get away from it, no matter how
you go. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. I'm told by the old writers that
means the evil one. Deliver us from the evil one
and his snares. He's a master of deception and
lies. And this present evil world who's
under his rule and under the deceit of Satan and our evil
nature, which is ours till we die. And then lastly, Matthew 6, verse
13. For thine is the kingdom. He
bought it. He designed it. He brought it
to pass. Thine is the kingdom. And the power. And the glory. Forever. Isn't that what he says? Do we know that? I tell you,
if you know the things that I've talked to you about this morning,
that's the greatest incentive there is for prayer. Understanding
who God is as our Father. and who Christ is, and what He's
done for us, and what He's doing. Why am I still here? I have a
righteousness. My sins are forgiven, so why
am I here? Why don't He just call me up
into glory? Because He's granted me another gift of His grace,
and that is to be a fellow laborer with Him in the Kingdom of God.
And when that purpose is over, we're out of here. We're gone.
We're gone. When the last sheep called in,
that's it. We're gone. If we know these
things, our prayers are going to be outlined around them. And
that's what He told His disciples. You don't pattern yourself after
these bunch of hypocrites. You pray like this. Here's an
outline. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. And so on. Now pray like that. Oh, God, teach us something about
prayer.