Look at the passage that Glenn
read for us in Psalm 91, so if you would turn back there with
me. My text will be from verse 15. Psalm 91, verse 15. The Lord speaks here and he says,
he shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him
in trouble. I would deliver him and honor
him. One of the greatest necessities
and blessings we have as believers is prayer. James in chapter four
of the book that bears his name says you have not because you
ask not. That's pretty simple, isn't it?
And he says you ask and you receive not because you ask amiss. You ask wrongly that you may
consume it upon your lust. But what a blessing it is to
have the privilege to commune with God Almighty, with our great
God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Yet many times we don't
receive answer to our prayers because we ask amiss. We ask
wrongly. We ask for the wrong reasons. that we may consume it upon our
lust. Oftentimes we ask for things
that we think might be good for us, but the Lord and His sovereign
knowledge and will and purpose knows that that's not the best
thing for us. We ask for things that we consume
them upon our lust. We ask for things that often
would be detrimental to us. Men ask for earthly wealth, but
usually not the riches that are found in Christ Jesus by nature. Men ask for things that often
aren't what they need at all. The Apostle Paul in the book
of Colossians, the epistle there, said, set your affection on things
above. When it's all said and done,
those are the only things that will really matter. Christ said,
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth
or rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through
nor steal. For where your treasure is, there
will be your heart also. Where's your treasure tonight?
Is it in Christ, your substitute, your only hope, the solid rock? Men will ask for knowledge concerning
the things of the world, but not for the wisdom in the things
of God. I'm talking about men by nature.
But one thing is for certain, dear friends, when we pray and
we ask for the needful things, needful things, Christ himself
said there's one thing needful. According to the will and to
the promises of God, we know that God is faithful at promise.
That's what Hebrews 10.23 tells us. And I've heard it said throughout
most of my life, that there are two things for certain in this
world, death and taxes. You've heard that, haven't you?
But every promise of God is certain, sure. And the scripture says,
yea and amen in Christ for those who are the called according
to His purpose. Is that not right? Yea and amen
in Christ for the promises of God in Him. Oh, how often men
read over those two words. All the blessings that we have
are in Christ, in Christ alone. The promises of God in Him are
yea, and in Him, amen. Unto the glory of God by us.
Now I have four things that I want you to consider with me tonight
in this short but amazing verse of Scripture. The first is, we
must pray. It's an absolute necessity, and
yet one of the greatest honors and blessings that God could
bestow upon us. It says, He shall call upon me. He shall call upon me, and I
will answer Him. Have you noticed throughout the
scriptures in your studies when the Lord says, they shall, He
says, I will, they shall. I shall, they will. Oh my, we
call and He will answer. That's a certainty. That sounds
like something to me that's a sure thing, doesn't it to you? It's for our good to pray. Prayer is a must with believers. Does prayer benefit God? Prayer benefits us. God is in
need of nothing. We are in need of everything.
What needy creatures we are. Christ said in John 15 verse
5, He said, I am the vine and ye are the branches. He that
abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
And then He says these words, For without me, without me, you
can do nothing. He that asketh, in another place
Christ said, he that asketh, what? Receiveth. He that knocketh,
it shall be opened. He that seeketh, what? Findeth. These are the faithful words
of our Lord and Savior. And always remember that our
salvation is not accomplished by our faithfulness. The Scripture
is plain. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that understand it. Salvation is of the Lord. And it's by the faithfulness
of our God and our Savior. It's not by works of righteousness
that we've done, but it's God's faithfulness to us in Christ. If He's promised it, He'll do
it for the sake and honor of His Son. The asking, the knocking,
the seeking comes before the receiving, does it not? That's
what it says. You ask and then you receive. You knock and then the door is
open. You seek and then you find. Oh, this is God's way. God has
ordained that we must pray. Isn't that exactly what James
said? He said, you have not because you ask not. Christ, the God-man, He prayed
to the Father and He's our example in all things. He went into the
mountains to pray. He went into the wilderness and
prayed. All through the Gospel accounts, it says that He went
into the mountain, He went into the wilderness, what? To pray
to His Father. God praying to God. Isn't that
amazing? God the Son praying to God the
Father. And in John 17, we hear Him say,
I pray for them, who? Those that Thou hast given Me.
I pray not for the world. Now, it's a common belief among
many that Christ died for the whole world. Will there be any
in hell for whom Christ died? I pray not for the world, but
I pray for them which Thou hast given me, for they are Thine. I pray that Thou should not take
them out of the world, but Thou should keep them from the evil. Neither pray I for these alone,
he said, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word." Oh, I'm so glad he added that, aren't you? No wonder our
text says, he shall call upon me and I will, I will answer
him. God hears us, dear friends, because
Christ sits on the right hand of God in all power and majesty
and makes intercession for us. God hears and answers us for
Christ's sake. Notice that the text says, He
shall call on me. I thought about that. It doesn't
say that he may call on me, that he might call on me, that someday
he will call on me. No, it says he shall call on
me. Well, who is the he it speaks
of here? Well, I read some of the commentators and there's
no doubt that this psalm could fall under the category of a
messianic psalm, but listen, in Christ we have all our blessings
in Him, do we not? So this speaks of every elect
child of God. Every elect child of God will
call upon Him. Do you know why? That's my second
thing. God causes us to pray and call
on Him. Oh, He does. God says He shall
call on me. Do you know why we should call
on Him? Because God will cause us to
call on Him. Oh, it's very plain. He shall.
He shall call on me. Now when I first heard the gospel,
God showed me my desperate need. He showed me that when I stood
up against the law of God, that I was condemned. There was no
hope for me. I can't keep God's law. The law
was never given for us to keep. It was to show us our inability.
The law was our schoolmaster what? To bring us to Christ.
You hear me say that all the time. Show us our need of a substitute. Our need of a Savior. He made
me aware when I heard the gospel. Oh, I'll never forget it. He
made me aware of my awful and my helpless condition, and He
caused me to cry unto Him with a prayer of mercy, begging for
the forgiveness of God in Christ. God causes all His people to
become mercy beggars, doesn't He? Are you a mercy beggar? If you're a child of God, you
are. Begging for mercy. If you truly come to Christ,
you'll come begging. You'll come begging for mercy.
Got to see to that. Got to see to that. God causes
His people to cling to the Lord Jesus Christ. After He called
me and saved me by His grace, He providentially sends trials
and struggles And again and again calls me to call upon Him and
His sovereign grace. And you know what? He still does.
He still does. Be careful for nothing, Paul
said in Philippians 4, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving. Let your requests be known to
God. And as God continues to teach
us, dear friends, and reveals His truth to us, and shows us
more of our unfaithfulness and our desperate need of Him, we're
inclined to pray even more. Certainly the revelation of our
own heart who calls us to pray and cry unto our sovereign God
for mercy? Is it not God that reveals to
us our constant need of Him? Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart
is deceitful above all things. And it's desperately wicked. And who can know it? I tell you,
there's only one who knows our hearts, and that's God. We don't
even know our own hearts. It's deceitful above all things.
It's desperately wicked. And how many times have we read
Genesis 6-5 and it says, God saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth. And every imagination, every
imagination of man, of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. When we're allowed just a glimpse
of our sin, when God by His mercy and grace just shows us a little
bit of ourself, as one old preacher said, gives us a little whiff
of ourself. A child of God will cry. And he'll call upon God
for deliverance. In sickness, we call upon Him
for health, don't we? In trials, we call upon Him for
deliverance. In our sin, our constant sin,
we've all come short of the glory of God. And in our sin, It causes
us to call upon Him for forgiveness in Christ our Lord. Ephesians 1.11 says, In whom
we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him that worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will. Psalm 57, 2. I'm going to have
you turn to some scriptures, but listen to this. Psalm 57,
2. I will cry unto God, most high unto God, that performeth
all things for me. He shall call upon me, and I
will answer. The Lord hath made all things
for himself, yea, even the wicked, for the day of evil. Sounds to
me like God's in control. Sounds to me like God is sovereign. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. He's a God of purpose. Mark 7.37 says, and we're beyond
measure astonished, saying, He's done all things well, speaking
of Christ. Everything He does is well. And
He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Salvation
is of the Lord. I think of that woman at the
well. Christ said, I must need to go
through Samaria. You know why? He had a child
of God to save that day. And he met her at the well. And
you know the story. He told her all the things about
herself, and she was astonished. And at the end of his time with
her, she said, come see a man. This is the God-man. This is
no ordinary man. This is God who was made flesh
and dwelt among us. He must come as a man that He
might redeem man from the curse of the law. She said, come see
a man which told me all things that I ever did. Is this not
the Christ? One of my favorite passages of
Scripture, one that we hold dear to our hearts in Romans 8, 28. And we know what? That all things
work together for good. All things work together for
good to them that love God. That doesn't mean that all things
work together for good for the whole world. For them that love
God. To them who they called according
to His purpose. Do you know why all things work
together for good? To them that love God. It's God
that's doing all things. And He's determined to do good
to you. He shall call upon me and I will. I will answer. Oh God causes
us to pray continually because of our desperate need. He sends
us trials and sufferings that we need. We need them because
they will continually cause us to call out for Him. We read earlier in Matthew 7
verse 8, he that asketh receive it, to him that knocketh it shall
be opened, him that seeketh find it. And our desperate need is
a great motivation for continuing to ask God. Do we ask for anything
that we really don't need? Now if I'm not thirsty, I won't
ask for a drink. But if a man's hungry, hungry
enough, He'll ask for something to eat. If he's thirsty, truly,
truly thirsty, dying of thirst, he'll ask you for a drink. Have
you seen your desperate need before God Almighty? Have you
seen what you are before a thrice holy God? If you have, it's God
that showed you. And He's shown you your need,
and He showed you the only cure and remedy. which is in His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ said, Come unto Me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden. And here are those two words
again, and I will give you rest. They that call on Me, I will.
I will answer. I will answer. Does a man really seek something
that he's not desiring or longing for? Have you ever lost something
of tremendous value to you personally? Maybe it wasn't of real material
value, but it was something important to you. Maybe something that
was your mother's or your father's. And if you have, do you remember
how hard that you looked for that until you found it? Turn with me, if you would, to
the Gospel of Luke chapter 11. Look at verse 9 with me. Along these same lines of prayer
in what we read in Matthew chapter 7. This is the Lord speaking
and in verse 9 He says, And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be
given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it
shall be opened. Now here's where the Lord gives
us the reason why. He's our Father. He's our Father. And He says, if a son shall ask
bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or
if he asks for a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Goodness
gracious, no. Those of you that have children,
we love our children. We want the best for them. We
want to do all that we can for them. And then he says these
words in verse 13. He said, If ye then, being evil,
by nature, that's what we are, isn't it? Know how to give good
gifts unto your children. And we do, don't we? We know
how to give good gifts. We know how to give to our children
what they need. He says these words, and these
words don't adequately describe what is meant here. He says,
if you 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. How much more? Oh, the Scriptures
are clear that His thoughts are not our thoughts, that His ways
are not our ways. He says that as far as the heaven
is above the earth, my thoughts are above your thoughts, and
my ways are above your ways. Our finite minds won't let us
truly enter into the unfathomable riches that we have in Christ
our Lord. We only get glimpses now. We
only see through a glass darkly, don't we? But one day, when we
see Him, we shall be like Him. And we won't see in part anymore. We'll see clearly and plainly,
not clouded by sin, redeemed completely, a body without sin. Oh, dear friends, to them that ask, He will answer. I honestly believe that when
a man or woman grows in grace, they'll grow in prayer. They'll
see more and more of their need of Him. They become more and
more conscious of their need of communion with God and the
Father, and that the joy that they receive from Third thing, I won't keep you
much longer, we see God's sovereignty in answering prayer here, don't
we? Prayer will be answered if it's
asked according to the will and purpose of God. God said he'll
supply all our need, not all our greed. You pray for a million
dollars, more than likely you won't get it. And it would probably
be detrimental to you if you did, because then you'd be trusting
in your money and not God. But our text says plainly, clearly,
he shall call upon me and I will answer him. All those two little
words, I will. what they, how much they mean
to a believer. I will. In these few short words
we see again the power and sovereignty of God Almighty. God causes men
to pray that He should answer them. I will answer Him. God Almighty says. Oh, the sovereign power found
in those two little words, I will. If you're still in Luke, turn
back to chapter 5 with me. I should have told you to hold
your place. Look back at chapter 5, verse 12. And it came to pass when he was
in a certain city, here speaking of the Lord Jesus, he said, Behold,
a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus fell on his face. Oh, that's a good way to get
the Lord's attention, to fall on your face before Him. and
besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me
clean. And the Lord Jesus Christ, God
in the flesh, full of compassion, reached forth his hand." Oh,
I can just see him, can't you? Here's this man. He's almost
unrecognizable as a man. If you could see the pictures
of what leprosy did, to even young men, made them look just
old and on their deathbed. It was a horrible disease. But
I can see him lay forth, put forth his hand and touch that
young man. And he said, I will. I will. Be thou clean. Be thou clean. Friends, one day
I stood before God Almighty. And I have a horrific disease,
worse than leprosy. It's called sin. And I stood
before God because God showed me my need of Christ. And I said,
Lord, I know you can. I know you're able. But if you will, It don't have
anything to do with my will. It's not of Him that willeth.
It's not of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Men want to talk about their
wills. It's not my will that matters,
it's His. Lord, if Thou will, You can make
me clean. You can make me whole. And in
sovereign mercy. He didn't have to. He wasn't
obligated to. It sure wasn't because of anything
good that I had done. He said, I will. Be humble. Be thou clean. And do you know what? Now when
I stand before God Almighty, I stand as holy and as righteous
and as clean as Christ Himself. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us. He who knew no sin. What? That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. I know I've told you this before,
but it comes to my mind almost every time Brother Todd Nybert
once asked me, he says, you know why God, when God looks at you,
He doesn't see sin? And of course, I gave him all
the right scriptural answers. I thought, well, because Christ
died in my place and Christ took away my sin and my sins are put
away as far as the east is from the west. And he said, those
are all right answers. He said, but there's a simpler
one. And I said, what is it? He said, you don't have any.
You don't have any. Rejoice tonight, those of you
in Christ. Those of you who have trusted
Him with everything, you don't have any. Christ died for your
sin, and He in return gave you His perfect righteousness. And
now when God sees you, the sinner, He sees His precious Son covered
by the blood of the Lamb. He put forth his hand and he
touched him and he said, I will be thou clean. And notice the
words there in verse 13, and immediately, immediately the
leprosy departed from him. There's another story in Matthew
8, you don't have to turn there, but Christ came into Capernaum
and there was a centurion that came Begging of him. He said
the Lord to my servant life at home. He's sick with the palsy
He's grievously tormented. Oh I'm sure the Lord could see
that the earnest desire on this man's face and how he must have
loved that servant to come to Christ met him on the road and
He said the Lord said to him. He said I will I will come and
I'll heal him But this centurion, he said, Lord, I'm not worthy
that thou should even come under the roof of my house. I'm not
worthy that you should come to my house and visit me. He said,
but you just speak the Word only. You just say the Word, and my
servant will be healed. Oh, my. Can you see the sovereign
power of God Almighty in answering the prayers of His people? The
Scriptures say that that man was healed that very hour, that
very minute that Christ, that the man beseeched Christ to heal
him. He said, I'm not worthy to come
to my house. You just speak the word. Why? He spoke the world
into existence. Can he not speak healing, spiritual
healing, to the sinner's heart? Job said in Job 42, he answered
the Lord, and he said, I know that thou canst do everything. There ain't nothing you can't
do, God. And that no thought can be withholding from me. David
said, but our God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever He hath
pleased. I hear men say, oh, don't say
that. You tie God's hands. How can
you tie God's hands? He's in the heavens. He's done
whatsoever He's pleased. Job said, I know that you can
do everything. Jeremiah said, Lord, thou hast
made the heavens and the earth, and by thy great power and stretched
out arm, there is nothing too hard for thee. Men's opinion of God is way too
low. Way too low. Behold, I am the Lord. He says,
and the God of all flesh, and there, is there anything too
hard for me? And the answer is absolutely
not. Fourth thing, God's providential
care. If you look back again in Psalm
91, I'll wrap this up. God's providential care. In verse
15, He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. And then the
next phrase says, I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver
him. I will. This is a God of I wills,
isn't it? This is a God of will and of
purpose. It's a God that does all things
after the counsel of His own will. That's the God of this
Bible. God's not trying to do something. God's not wanting to do something,
but He's dependent upon your will to let Him do something.
That wouldn't be God at all. I will deliver thee. Christ in
Hebrews 13 said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. Never. It's a long time, isn't it? Never. In Exodus 11-7 it says, But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue
against man or beast. You may know that the Lord doth
put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. You don't think God has your
back. He's got your back. He's got your front. He's got
everything. The angel of the Lord encampeth
around about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. Psalm 34
7. The steps of a good man are ordered by who? The Lord. And He delighteth in His way.
Psalm 37 23. David said in Psalm 118.6, the
Lord is on my side. I will not fear what man can
do unto me. Proverbs 21, the wisest man that
ever lived other than Christ himself, Solomon said, the king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord. And as the rivers of water, he
turneth it whithersoever he will. I don't fear what men can do
to me. I don't fear what earthly kings can do to me. My God is
in control of all things. And Daniel 3.7 says, If it be
so, our Lord whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning,
fiery furnace. And if you read that story, it
says they put them in there. It was so hot it singed the hair
on your head when you opened the thing. And they threw them
down in there and when they brought them back up, they didn't even
have the smell of smoke on them. That's God's doing. They threw
Daniel into that lion's den. They starved those lions. They
made sure they was good and hungry. He climbed out of there with
not a scratch on him. God shut their mouths. In closing, turn with me to Romans
8. We quoted this mendigo, but I
want you to see this in the light of what we're talking about. We just quoted verse 28, and
we know, Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things, not some
things, not a few things, not most things, but all things work
together for good. For good. To them that love God, to them
who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He did
foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son. God chose a people before
the world was ever made. And He gave them to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Christ said, I won't lose
a one. Every one you gave to Him is going to come. I won't
lose a one. Whom He did forego, He did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. But it didn't stop there. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, those that He predetermined to be children
of God, them He also called, called by His grace, by the preaching
of the gospel, by the foolishness of preaching, the men believed. And whom He called and them He
also justified, just as if I had never sinned, and whom He justified, them He
also glorified." One of these days I'm going to have a glorified
body and I'm going to be without sin completely. My redemption
then will be full. And then the apostle asks in
verse 31, what shall we then say to these things? What do
we say to these things? Well, there's only one thing
we can say. If God be for us, can be against us. What did our text in Psalms say?
I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him. And then
it makes this final statement, and it says, and honor him. My! Me, the sinner, honored before
God Almighty? Absolutely. But it's not in works
of righteousness that I've done. Look at verse 32. He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, all those that God gave Him before
the foundation of the world, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? He shall call upon Me, and I
will answer Him. freely give us all things. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who what? Also maketh intercession
for us. Do you know why God answers us?
There it is, right there. Christ makes intercession for
us. And in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Do you believe in once saved,
always saved? If God saved you, I do. Absolutely. If you saved yourself, then there's
a good chance you won't. If the preacher saved you, then
no. But if this God, the God of the Bible, saved you, you're
saved. I'll never leave you or forsake
you. My mercy endureth forever. Oh, yeah. Yep, absolutely. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's left? Who is He that condemneth? Who
shall separate us from the love of God? Verse 35, shall tribulation
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the
slaughter? Nay, no way! In all these things we are more
than conquerors through Him." There it is again. Through Him
that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, height, depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ our Lord." God delivered up His own
Son, friends. that He might freely give us
all things. He shall call upon me." God's
going to see to it. And I will answer Him. God's going to see to that. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. It's God that makes whole. Who
can say anything to God? Who are thou, O man, to reply
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it? Does not the potter have power
over the clay to form one vessel unto righteousness and another
unto dishonor?" I'm paraphrasing that. But does the clay have
power over the potter? What charge could anyone have
against you and I when it was God Almighty that justified us? Who can condemn us? When it was
Christ, God in the flesh, that died and rose for us. Who can?
He sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for
us. Who can condemn us? Shall man? Shall the kings of this earth?
No, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. We just read
that. No. No one can condemn us when it
was Christ that died and rose for us and sits at the right
hand. If God justified us and Christ died for us, then there's
no one or nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ. We're more than conquerors. How?
Through Him that loved us. That's the only way. God honors
us in Christ, in Christ alone. That's why the psalmist said,
and honor Him. I'll honor Him. You know how
you're honored? In the Lord Jesus Christ, same way I am. God honors us in His Son. He
said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And
you know what? Now when He looks upon me, the
wretched, sinner, depraved man that I am, He said, my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. When God looks at me, He sees
His Son.