I want you to turn this morning
again to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. I'm entitling the message from
this passage found in Luke 11 verse 1 down through verse 4. We'll just take a simple, easy
study through these four verses. And I'm entitling the message
where the Lord is instructing and teaching His disciples to
pray And the title of the message is, What is a True Believer? What is a true believer? The Lord in these verses here
gives us a description of a true believer and what a true believer
is. Now, have you ever asked yourself
this question? Am I a believer? Am I a believer
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, the Lord describes
who a believer is in these verses and what a believer does. A believer
believes and he prays. He prays to the Father. We're
to pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Many of
you remember the old preacher from England, John Bunyan, who
said, Prayer is the life breath of a believer. It's the life
breath of a believer. Believers live praying, looking
unto God, trusting Him. And believers, by His grace,
they die in faith, they die praying, looking to the Lord. Prayer is
not something that's mechanical. Prayer is a cry of a believing
heart to our Heavenly Father, our Father which art in heaven.
Believing Him, trusting Him, looking to Him, prayer is the
breath of faith. Total dependence upon Him. Saving
faith is totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I love to read the prayers
that are recorded in Scripture. I love looking at those. But
I like this one especially, it's found in Luke 18, where the public
can pray this way, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. And the Lord said that man was
justified. Justified, be merciful to me,
the sinner. And then I like what the man
who was full of leprosy came before the Lord and fell down
before him and worshipped the Lord and he said, ìLord, if you
will, you can make me clean.î And the Lord said, ìI will. Be
thou clean.î There were two short prayers. The Lord heard that
request and the Lord answered that request. Now, this scripture
here found in Luke 11 is often called the Lord's Prayer. I remember
when our kids were very young and in elementary school and
when we would have a PTA meeting. You ever been to those PTA meetings? The person who was the PTA president
always read this prayer, and he said, we're going to read
the Lord's Prayer. Well, I've got news for you. This is the
disciples' prayer, it's not the Lord's Prayer. Be certain the
Lord's Prayer for His people is found in John 17 that we read
just a moment ago. That is, His high priest intercessory,
meditatorial prayer for his people, where he prays, that all that
the Father hath given to me be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory. He said, Father, You've given
me power over all flesh, that I should give eternal life to
as many as Thou hast given to me. Now, aren't you glad we have
an Advocate, a Mediator? One who right now, right now,
this very moment, that sits on the throne of God, making intercession
for us right now, who is able to save to the uttermost all
that come to God by Him, seeing that He ever liveth to make intercession
for us. There's just one God. The true
and living God. There's just one mediator. And
that one mediator is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man
comes to the Father but by and through me. Now what is found
here in Luke 11 is the disciples' prayer. It's also given to us
on another occasion, the Lord uses this prayer and repeats
it in Matthew chapter 6. I hope to turn there at some
point in this message and read a portion of that. These verses,
so often quoted by many people, yet few have any idea of what
is being taught. They just go through the mechanical
reciting of this prayer, A lot of people even, they put this
prayer to a song. Many of you have heard people
sing this prayer by the way of a song. But few know what is
really being taught here, and I hope the Lord will be our teacher
today. Look at verse 1, And it came
to pass, Luke 11, Verse 1, it came to pass by the eternal sovereign
decree and purpose of God, that as He was praying, now the Lord
was a man of prayer. The Lord was often, often He
would go aside into the wilderness and pray. Often He would pray
and commune with His Father all night long. He was a man of prayer,
as he was praying in this certain place, and when his prayer was
ended, one of his disciples, evidently they were listening
to the Lord praying, maybe he was praying out loud. One of
his disciples said to him, Lord, would you teach us to pray? I'd
like to pray like that. When they saw his devotion in
prayer, his sincerity in prayer, the cry of his heart unto his
Holy Father, this disciple said, and his disciple said, Lord,
would you teach us to pray? Teach us to call upon God. John
also taught his disciples. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God Almighty, manifest in the flesh was a real man. totally
dependent upon his Father to care for him, to sustain him
in this great work of redemption. He prayed, Father, I finish the
work you gave me to do. The Lord laid help upon one that
is mighty, that he might perform the great work and complete the
great work of redemption for us. And we see the Lord Jesus
Christ as we read through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, we see Him oftentimes praying, praying unto His Father,
calling upon His Father. Now when the disciples observed
His passion, His sincerity, they cried out. And let's make it
our cry this morning, Lord, Would you teach us to pray? Teach us
to call upon God. That's a good place to be, is
it not? Sitting at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ, sitting at His feet and asking for help, asking
for instruction, asking for direction, and then listening. Instead of
posing, well, Lord, what about this? Lord, what about this?
What about... No. Sitting and listening carefully
what He is teaching. In my prayer for us today, may
the Lord be pleased to teach us this morning how to pray,
when to pray, and what to pray for. How to pray, when to pray,
and what to pray for. My question again, and the title
of this message, what is a true believer? Are you a true believer? Am I one? We are told in scripture
to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith, whether I
am a believer. Now, we can look at these verses
here, found in verse 2, 3, and 4. And we can go through these
verses, and you in your heart, looking at these verses, will
be able to determine by the Lord's grace, by the Lord's purpose,
if you're a true believer or not. When you walk out that door
this morning, you'll be able to determine, as the Lord reveals
Himself unto you, from this word, whether you are a believer or
not. Well, that's pretty high expectation.
Let's see what the Lord is teaching us here. Now, number one, a true
believer is one who calls upon our Heavenly Father in prayer. A true believer prays to the
Heavenly Father. A true believer takes his place
before the throne of God, before the throne of grace, before God
Almighty, and he cries for mercy. That is a true believer. You see what's being said here?
Our Father which art in heaven. We call upon God who is our Father. We do not pray to saints, dead
or living. We do not pray to angels. We
certainly don't do Hail Mary and pray to Mother Mary. We don't
pray to Mary, saint or angel, but rather the believer, the
true believer calls upon God who is God, our Father, which
art in heaven. You see, our God is in the heavens.
You remember David was asked that question by the heathen.
You remember Psalm 115? David, where is your God? You remember what he said? Our
God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that's what He did in heaven, earth, seas, and all deep places. You see, a believer, a true believer
calls upon Almighty God, the true and living God. who inhabits
eternity, and we call upon the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, begging for mercy. Now, God is a God of all men
by creation, and by sovereign rule, but He is only the Father
of His covenant people. He is only the Father of His
chosen. We do not preach and believe
the universal fatherhood of God. He is the God of all creation,
but He is only the Father unto His covenant children, unto His
covenant people. And He is our Father by His choice,
not ours. You remember he said, you haven't
chosen me, but I've chosen you. Paul said, we are bound to give
thanks to God for all, we are bound to give thanks always to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has
chosen us unto salvation from the beginning. He has chosen
us. You see, a true believer is one
who has been adopted into the household of God, into the household
of grace, elected unto salvation, elected and put in this family
of God, this family of believers. We're called the children of
God. We're made sons of God by His doing. He has loved His own with an
everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness He has drawn
us unto Himself. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called sons
of God. All men everywhere are not sons
of God. All men everywhere are sons of
Adam. Right? But all men everywhere
are not children of God. We're only children of God by
His adopting love, by His everlasting and electing love. Behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should
be called sons of God. The Apostle Paul in Romans 8
put it this way, for you have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear, but have received the spirit of adoption whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. Father, Father. You see, a true Son of God is
one who is adopted into His family by His grace. Listen to this
scripture, Ephesians 1. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, A true child of God calls upon the Heavenly Father
as a son of God, adopted into His family by that everlasting,
electing, covenant love of God's grace. A true son of God, a true
believer, is one who has been bought with His blood. Not only chosen, not only adopted,
but He owns us. A true believer has been purchased.
The apostle says, you are no more your own, you are bought
with a price. Therefore, glorify God. We are
not redeemed with corruptible things, silver and gold, vain
conversation, but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. A true son of God is one who
was bought by the blood of Christ. God purchased the church with
His own blood. And a true son of God is one
who was born, born into the family of God. Turn just a few pages
over to John chapter 1. You see, he's describing who
a true believer is. Our Father which art in heaven. Here's how we're sons of God.
Not only by electing love, by adopting grace, and by the call
of God, but we're born into the kingdom of God. John chapter
1 verse 12, But as many as received
Him, to them gave He power, that is, right or privilege, to become
sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were
born Not of blood, natural generation, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man. We believe on His name because
we've been born of God. And that's talking about regeneration. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature of his own will. begat he us with the word of
truth." You see, a true believer calls upon God, the true and
living God, as our Father, Sovereign, Eternal, Holy, Majestic, and
we take our place before His throne, and we look to Him to
provide all things for us. A little child in the home. two,
three, four years old. Does he go out and provide anything
for his own well-being? Daddy does it all, doesn't he?
And our Heavenly Father, my God, shall supply all your need according
to His riches in glory through the Lord Jesus Christ." So a
true believer had been adopted into the family. He called upon
God and said, You're my Heavenly Provider. You're my Father. Secondly, a true believer regards
the name of God as holy and reverend. Holy be Thy name. A true believer has a high respect
for the very character of God Almighty, for all the attributes
of God as He's revealed in this book. That word there, hallowed,
means holy. Holy and reverent is Thy name. Now, don't ever refer to any
man who is in the ministry as Reverend Jones or Reverend Smith,
because holy and reverend is His name. Just call me Tom, or
just call me preacher, or just call me sinner, but don't call
me reverend. Psalm 111 verse 9, He sent redemption
unto His people. He commanded His covenant forever.
Holy and reverend is His name. So a true believer reverences
His name. God has given the Lord Jesus
Christ a name which is above every name, that at that name
every tongue shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. No other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. A true believer, a true son of
God, a true child of God has a reverential awe, fear, and
respect for God Almighty, who is the sovereign, holy God. Now, a lot of people always say,
well, God is a God of love. Well, if you're going to quote
that scripture, quote it correctly. God is love. But let us never
forget that the central attribute and character of Almighty God,
as He's revealed in this book, is holy. God is holy. His mercy is holy. His grace
is holy. His pardon is holy. His justice
is holy. His love is holy. Holy, holy,
holy Lord God Almighty. When Isaiah got a glimpse of
the throne of God, that was a description of it. And true believers bow
before the sovereign God who is holy. 1 Peter 3.15 says, "...we
sanctify the Lord God in our heart." What does that mean? How do we sanctify the Lord God
in our heart? We set Him apart and regard Him
as holy, almighty, and sovereign. A true believer then, worships
God as he's revealed in this book. That's what a true believer
does. He worships God as he's revealed
in this book, as he's revealed in Holy Scripture. He worships
God in spirit and in truth as the absolute sovereign of heaven
and earth. You remember the Lord taught
that lesson to a pagan king named Nebuchadnezzar? And Nebuchadnezzar,
when he was taught of God, made this confession, All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and the God who is God does according
to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
this earth, and none can stay His hand, or none can say unto
Him, Lord God Almighty, what doest Thou? You see, a true believer
worships God as He's revealed in this Scripture, and he believes
everything about Him as He's revealed. A true believer worships
the Lord Jesus Christ as God, our Savior. When the Apostle
Paul describes what a true believer is, do you remember Philippians
chapter 3? He said, we are the true Israel
of God. We are the true circumcision
of God that circumcised in the heart. We worship God in the
Spirit, we rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have no
confidence in the flesh. Not yours, not mine, not any.
You see, a true believer regards God as holy and reverent is thy
name, and a true believer is one who worships God as he's
revealed in this book. Are you a true believer? Here's
a third thing we see, a further description of a true believer
found in verse 2. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, In heaven, as it is in earth, thy kingdom come. A true believer has a vital interest
in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. In the gospel
of God concerning the King, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is King
of King and Lord of Lord. Remember our Lord said, my kingdom
is not of this world, it is a spiritual Kingdom. Thy kingdom come. That is, a true believer, thy
will be done. A true believer submits, bows
to the absolute authority of the king. Yeah, he's Lord, but
I don't like it. That's not the attitude of a
believer. He is Lord, and I'm thankful. And I submit unto the
Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Rob Barnard came years ago,
1950, and preached that first meeting in Ashland, Kentucky,
and a young 28-year-old preacher, was sitting on the front row,
who was very religious but didn't know the gospel. And Rothbarder
stood up and said, don't tell me who your Savior is, tell me
who your Lord is. If He's not your Lord, He's not
your Savior. See, He's God our Savior. He got the attention of everybody
in that town. When God sent Rothbarder to that
town in 1950, that town has never been the same. He was a John
the Baptist of his day and that town has never been the same
because the gospel was preached there of the Lordship of Christ. That's what Peter said on the
day of Pentecost. This same Jesus whom you crucified,
God had made Him both Lord and Christ. You see, this is a God
with whom you have to do. You see, a true believer owns
his Lordship. We own Him as Lord over us in
all things. Lord in creation, right? Lord
in providence, right? Of Him, through Him, and to Him
are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen? And a
true believer submits to his Lordship in salvation. And I
mean by that, He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. When
we talk about sovereignty, we talk about the sovereignty of
God in salvation. We read it there in John 17.
Father, You've given me power over all flesh, that I should
give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given me. We call
that sovereign mercy, sovereign grace, sovereign power. You see,
a true believer finds himself at the feet of
the sovereign God at the throne of grace, and he submits willingly,
and he prays, Thy will be done. That's a true believer. You see
what the Lord is doing here? He is describing what a true
believer really is. When we pray, We pray to understand
what the will of the Lord is, and then we bow to His will when
it is known. You see, our Lord worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. A true believer is
submitted to the will of the Lord. We pray as the Lord prayed,
Thy will be done in earth, in heaven, and in our heart, and
in our lives. and we bow unto it. I love the
words of Job. When Job lost his family, lost
his riches, lost his health, he lost everything material. You know what he did? He submitted to the will of the
Lord. And that's what a true believer
does. Job said this, "...Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
You see, a true believer is one who bows to the sovereignty of
God in all things. Now, here's the fourth thing. Luke 11, verse 3. Again, the
Lord is describing what a true believer is. Luke 11, verse 3.
Give us day by day our daily bread. A true believer is totally dependent
upon the Lord to supply our every need. That's a true believer. A true believer is totally dependent
upon the Lord Jesus Christ to provide all things for us. I love what the Lord said to
Abraham. On Mount Moriah, the Lord will provide. He is the
God who does provide. The Lord did provide the Lamb,
and the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. The apostle
put it this way, My God shall supply all your need, According
to His riches in glory, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us
day by day our daily bread. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
bread of life. And that's the bread we need
day by day, is Christ. If you have Him, you have all
things. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and we're complete in Christ. We feed,
that is a true believer feeds upon the Lord Jesus Christ daily,
day by day. He said, without me, you can
do nothing. A true believer is totally dependent
upon His mercy to save us, are we not? Are you depending upon
anything else? You're not if you're a believer.
Totally upon His mercy. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. A believer
is totally dependent upon His grace to justify us. We're justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
A true believer is totally dependent upon His love to draw us. For
He said, no man can come to Me except the Father would send
Me, draw him. He's loved His own with an everlasting
love, therefore with love incontinent, He does draw us unto Himself.
And a true believer is totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus
Christ to put away all our sin. Lord, give us this day everything
we need. And He does in Christ Jesus. That's a true believer totally
dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ and all of salvation that's
found in Him. Now, here's the fourth thing.
Look at verse 4. Verse 4 says this, Forgive us our sins. Now, what does that mean? A true believer is a sinner. Now, he wouldn't teach us to
pray for forgiveness of sin if we weren't sinners. You see,
a true believer knows that in himself that he is I am. Sin. I'm not talking about what
you have done, doing, or will do. I'm talking about what we
are before God. A true believer knows he is a
sinner. That's what he teaches us. A
sinner. A true believer is a sinner. He's a sinner in Adam, right? When Adam stood, we stood. When
he fell, we fell. In Adam all died, Romans 5.12.
A believer knows he's a sinner in Adam. A believer knows that
he's a sinner by birth. We're born in sin, shapen in
iniquity. Our children come forth from
the womb speaking lies. Why do they do that? Did you
ever teach your children I always tell the truth. Why do you have
to do that? Because by nature they're born
with a lying heart, with a corrupt nature. We are sinners. Believers know that we are sinners. In Adam we've sinned. We're sinners
by birth. For sinners by nature, children
of wrath, even as others, without God, without hope, and without
Christ. And we are sinners by choice
and by practice. I cannot not sin. Did you get that? I cannot not
sin. Sin is connected with everything
I think, do, and say, because it's contaminated with the corruption
of this flesh. The flesh is never sanctified.
When it talks about the sanctification of the believer, that which is
born of the flesh, flesh. That which is born of the Spirit,
is Spirit. It's the Spirit that's sanctified.
That new man in Christ Jesus that's sanctified, not the flesh.
The flesh is flesh. You see, believers know that
he is a sinner, And a believer also knows that sins are only
forgiven and put away through what? I'm going to repent hard
enough, long enough, enough, cry, weep, mourn, and eventually
my repentance is going to put away my sin. Forget it. Never
happened. True repentance acknowledges
that the Lord Jesus Christ put away my sin with His own blood. That's what true repentance does.
A true believer is one who has been granted repentance to acknowledge
the truth. A believer is a sinner who knows
his sin is forever put away by the Lord Jesus Christ, that he
came once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all that temptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ came
to save... came to save... What's that last
word? Came to save sinners. Paul said,
I'm the chief one. You see, a true believer takes
his place before God as a sinner and confesses his only hope of
forgiveness, pardon, righteousness is Christ and Him crucified that
He died for the ungodly. David described the blessedness
of the man to whom God imputed righteousness without works.
saying, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now, here's the next point I
want to make in our message today. A true believer, notice what
it says there in verse 4. Forgive us our sins, for we also
forgive everyone that is indebted to us." Now, I want you to find,
hold your place there, I want you to find where the Lord gives
this prayer on another occasion, and He adds this. Turn to Matthew
chapter 6, verse 12. Matthew 6, verse 12, Matthew 6, verse 12, "...as we
forgive our debtors, lead us not into temptation, deliver
us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the
power, and the glory forever. Amen." Now read two more verses,
"...for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you." But if you forgive not men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Oh, what's
he saying here? Now we know he's not saying that
our sin is put away by what we do. That's not what he's saying.
But what he's saying here, and here's a lesson for us, a true
believer is one who has been forgiven and he is forgiving
of others." That's right. You remember Paul said, we are
to love one another and to forgive one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. A man who has an unforgiving
heart, an unforgiving spirit, is a stranger to salvation and
mercy in Christ Jesus. Our Lord said to Peter, on this
lesson of forgiving, were to forgive our brothers who sinned
against us. And Peter said, well, how many
times? How many times, Lord, should I forgive my brother?
Seven times? Peter thought that was pretty
generous. I'm going to forgive my brother if he sins against
me. Seven times? Lord, I'm going to forgive him.
Remember what the Lord said? How about seventy times seven? That is, you always forgive your
brother. You see, God's people have been forgiven. And believers,
because they have been forgiven, they have a forgiving spirit. They're not hard, cruel, and
mean. They're kind, loving, generous,
and gracious. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance, these things. Now, here's the last one, back
in Luke 11. Verse 4, the last part, "...lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil or the evil one."
A true believer is so weak so frail, so totally dependent upon
the restraining grace of God, if the Lord does not keep me,
I will surely perish." lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us, rescue us from evil. I like what David prayed in Psalm
103, the Lord knows our frame, He knows we are but dust. Thanks be unto God who does restrain
us and keep us by His power, who has delivered us from the
power and dominion of sin, from the archenemy of our soul, and
he said, we're kept by the power of God. Now, let me give you
an example of this, if you'll find Luke 22. Luke 22. You remember what the Lord said
in Luke 22, 31 to Simon Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath
desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I
pray for you, I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, when
thou art converted, strengthen the brethren." Thank God we read
in Scripture, He's able to keep us from falling and to present
us faultless before the presence of God, glory with exceeding
joy. Now, considering these verses
that we've looked at just now, are these words, words that describe
you? Are you a believer? Are you a
believer? I can say by the grace of God,
yes. Yes, by the grace of God I am
what I am. Yes, I'm a believer by His grace. Yes, I'm a believer by His will. Yes, I'm a believer by His power. We believe according to the working
of His mighty power. Now, if you're not a believer, Ask the Lord for mercy. He's
never turned a mercy beggar away. We're told to come boldly to
the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, find grace to help
in time of need. The Lord said, Ho, everyone that
is thirsty, come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, no merit,
come, buy, eat. Come, buy wine and milk without
money, without merit, without price. Salvation is the free
gift of God. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." Well, I'd call. If you're a sinner
and you know it, call upon the Lord for mercy. He does delight
to show mercy unto sinners.