I'll ask you, if you will, to
open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 14. Two weeks ago, I brought a message
to us from one of God's promises, His promise of eternal life.
And our text was 1 John chapter 2 and verse 25, where the scripture
says, and this is the promise, that He has promised us even
eternal life. And I mentioned in that message
the fact that We are all thankful, we should be, all of God's children
at least, are thankful that God is a God of promise as well as
a God of command. Now He has commanded all men
everywhere to love Him with all their heart, their soul, and
their being. And we know that man, because
of our fallen Adam, none of us are able to love God perfectly
as He commands. But thank God he is also a God
of promise. And the promise of promises is
the promise of eternal life. He's given us many promises. The Apostle Peter in his second
letter said that he has given us exceeding great and precious
promises. And we know that the new covenant,
the covenant of which Christ is mediator, and he ordained
and sealed by the shedding of his blood that covenant has precious
exceeding great and precious promises such as I will be to
them a God what a promise God promises I will be to them a
God and they shall be to me a people and other promise in that I will
be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Now last week, I said two weeks
ago, I preached a message to us from that promise of eternal
life and two weeks ago, or one week ago rather, we looked at
the Lord's promise here in John 14, 15, and 16 to send the Holy Spirit. And
in the message I pointed out to us that the Holy Spirit is
God, that He is a divine person. He's not an influence or a force
or anything like that. He is a person, just as the Father
is a person and the Son is a person in the blessed Trinity. And we
looked especially at the promises that the Lord Jesus Christ gave
of the coming of the Holy Spirit to inspire the Scriptures, the
overseeing of the writing of the Word of God. Let's look at
those verses once again in chapter 14, verse 26. But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
he shall teach you all things. and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. The Holy Spirit
promised to inspire the apostles and those who wrote the Bible,
the scriptures, to bring all things to their remembrance and
to teach them all things. And then in chapter 15 also we
saw in verse 26 But when the Comforters come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." And we
know that the Bible is a hymn book. from cover to cover, from
Genesis 1-1 to the end of the scriptures, it's all about Christ. God the Holy Spirit testifying
to us of Christ, pointing Christ out to us as the only Savior. And then in chapter 16 in verse
13, We saw this promise as well. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of
truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak, and he will show you things to come. So we have this promise
of the Holy Spirit coming to bring to remembrance, to teach,
and to show them things to come. And in all of this he is testifying
of Christ. All the scripture speaks and
points us to Christ. Don't spend your time, don't
waste your time listening to a man who uses the Bible for
anything other than to preach Christ and Him crucified. I know
over the years I've heard and seen a lot of men use the scripture
for a lot of different things, but the Bible is a message of
Christ. The Holy Spirit, when he has
come, he shall testify of me. Now this morning I want us to
look at another promise that we have here in John, and that
is our Lord's promise to answer prayer. His promise to answer
prayer. If you turn back to chapter 14
of John, let's read beginning with verse 12. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall
he do also. And greater works than these
shall he do, because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever you
shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name,
I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and
he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But you know him, for he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. And then one verse
in chapter 15, verse 7. If you abide in me, and my words
abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done
unto you. The promise of answered prayer. And as we look at this promise
to answer our prayers, I have four truths that I want to emphasize
to us today about prayer. First of all, prayer was prominent
in the life of Christ. Let me say that again. If we
had an account of everything, John said, if we did, the world
would not be able to contain all the books that should be
written. But if we had an account, a diary, of the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we would see over and over and over again that
Jesus Christ was a man who prayed. Prayer was prominent in his life. Look at just two places with
me in Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1 and verse 35. Mark 1 and verse 35, and in the
morning, rising up, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, rising up
a great while before day, he went out and departed into a
solitary place and prayed. And then again in Luke chapter
6 and verse 12, we are told that he spent the night in prayer.
Luke 6 and verse 12. And it came to pass in those
days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night
in prayer. Prayer was prominent in the life
of Christ. And there are two truths that
I believe we should realize when we think about the fact that
prayer was prominent in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. First
of all, his praying is an example to us. Now I think that sometimes
us preachers are hesitant to speak about Christ as being our
example, and the reason for this is that we know that some have
taught that his atoning work, that his atonement was an example. In fact, there's a theory called
the example theory of the atonement, and this teaching believes that
he died more like a martyr. And his death is just an example
to cause us to want to live for God. In other words, there was
nothing on the part of God that had to be answered. That the
Lord Jesus Christ did not need to do something to satisfy God
in order for God to be just and the justifier of the ungodly. And we know that's not true.
His death is not an example. There are three words that I
would call our attention to in the Scriptures concerning His
death. His death is a ransom. That's what He said, you know.
His death is a ransom. And His death is an atonement. And His death is a propitiation. And all of these words are teaching
us of the need we had in order for God to save us, to reconcile
us unto Himself. There had to be a covering or
a removal of our sin. And that God's wrath had to be
propitiated, had to be placated. And we needed to be ransomed.
We know what a ransom is. When someone has taken a prisoner
and they're held and there's a ransom demanded, then usually
it's money or something like that and the person pays the
ransom, the prisoner, the one who's in confinement is set free. The Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't
die as an example, He died as a ransom. as a propitiation,
as the atonement for the sins of His people. And let me tell
you something, a ransom that doesn't ransom is no ransom. An atonement that doesn't atone
is no atonement. A propitiation that does not
propitiate is no propitiation. The Lord Jesus Christ actually
ransomed His people. He gave His life for His sheep. He gave Himself for. The Apostle Peter says it like
this, Christ also suffered for us. In other words, He suffered
in the stead of our suffering. He suffered in the place of our
suffering. He suffered as a substitute for
His people. And everyone for whom He substituted
Himself and paid the ransom is sure to be set free. Why? Because he paid the ransom. That's
why. Because of who he is. A man came
up to me the other day and he said, I've got some good news
for you. I've never seen this man before in my life. And he
said, I want you to know God loves you and Christ died for
you. I said, how in the world could
you possibly know that? You just come up to a stranger
and tell them that God loves them and Christ died for them? I say this, my friends, Christ
died for sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world to
save sinners of whom I'm chief. Can you take your place this
morning as a sinner? And say, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. But just to tell people that
God loves them and Christ died for them, well, if that's the
truth, all the world is going to be saved. No. But back to my point. Back to
my point. He is an example. Christ is an
example to us. Not in his atoning work. But he's an example to us in
faith. He believed God. And so should
we. He loved God. And so should we. He had a zeal. And I'm convicted. You know the scripture says,
the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. When he went into
that temple, and that was called the house of God at that time,
and he saw all that commerce going on in there, and all of
the selling and money changing and all of that. What did he
do? He took a scourge right and drove those animals out and overturned
the tables. The zeal of that man, he was
zealous for God, for his father, for his father's house. And I'm
afraid so many of us are just lukewarm and lethargic and cold
in our service of God. We've lost our zeal. Our Lord,
he's an example to us of a man who was full of zeal, full of
love, full of faith, and full of meekness. Full of meekness
and humility. He said, learn of me, for I am
meek and lowly in heart. And he was faithful in attending
the Jewish synagogue as well. Scripture tells us in Luke chapter
4, as his custom was, he had lived in Nazareth for his early
years, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath. In other words, if you had visited
Nazareth on a Sabbath day, you didn't need to go around asking,
where could I find Jesus today? Where would he be today? You
could know he's going to be in the synagogue. And for him at
that time, that's the place where he should be because that's where
the Word of God was read for a believer, for a child of God.
Where will you find David Pledger on Sunday morning or Sunday evening?
Well, if he's not dead or sick, you should find him in church.
He professes to love God. He professes to be a believer.
That's where you'll find him. He's an example to us, and he's
an example not only in his attending the synagogue, but he's an example
to us in his attending the worship services, because we have his
promise that where two or three are gathered in his name, he
is in our midst. He's here today. You say, how
do you know that? Because I know he's faithful. I know he's truthful, and that's
what he said. I believe him. He's an example
to us in every area of life. But his prayer, not only is it
an example to us that we should be men of prayer, And that doesn't
mean that you have to always go into a closet, or as he did,
into a mountain. But get along if you possibly
can. But the thing about prayer is
you can pray everywhere. Everywhere. And it doesn't have
to be a long prayer. It doesn't have to be all night.
But pray. But a second thing about his
praying, his praying that we read of while he was here in
the flesh reminds us of his intercessory. He continually makes intercession
for us. Right now. Right now, He's praying
for His people. He's always praying for His people.
Look with me in Luke chapter 22. We have this example given
to us concerning Peter. Luke chapter 22 and verse 31. The Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not. Now the Lord did not pray for
him that he not be tested, that he not be sifted. God allows us to go through temptations
and testings. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful. Who
will with the temptation? And we see a promise here. He's
faithful. And our Lord told Simon, Simon,
Satan's desired to have you that he might sift you. You know the
way they sifted wheat, they'd throw it up in the air and the
wind would blow the husk away and the wheat would fall down.
Sometimes it seems like that's what's happening to us, doesn't
it? Sometimes we feel like, well,
he's just throwing us up in the air and letting us hit the ground,
just up and down. He's desired to sift you as wheat,
Simon. But notice, I have prayed for
thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. Well, look down in verse 61.
He was sifted, wasn't he? And he did deny the Lord, just
like the Lord told him he would do three times before the rooster
crowed. But down in verse 61 we read,
And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. Now Peter was somehow
in that high priest courtyard or something, and the Lord Jesus
could see him. And Peter has, I don't know him! He's denied him flat out with
curses. But the Lord's prayed for him.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture says, he looked upon
Peter, and that's all it took. That's all it took. And Peter remembered the word
of the Lord, how he had said unto him, before the cock crow
thou shalt deny me thrice and Peter went out and wept bitterly
he was converted and when he was converted he strengthened
his brethren who was it you find in the early part of Acts so
prominent in preaching the gospel on the day of Pentecost standing
up and proclaiming the gospel There's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. He told those
leaders, those Jewish leaders. He was not intimidated by them.
He had been converted again. There's an initial conversion.
I understand that when we first turn from our sins and turn to
Christ. But as we live our Christian
life, we are converted many times during our experience. Just like
Peter. But aren't you thankful today
to know that the Lord Jesus Christ is interceding for us, that he's
praying for us. So first I said prayer was prominent
in the life of Christ. Number two, prayer is a special
privilege for God's children. Now the Lord gave this promise
here that we are looking at in John 14 and 15 to the eleven
apostles. And thus it is given to all of
us who believe on Him through their word. To have an audience,
to have an audience with God Almighty is a special privilege. I think sometimes we become so
familiar with these things that it loses its reality. And this is just a very simple
illustration, but suppose Let's just take the governor of Texas.
Suppose you called up to Austin today and said, I'd like to talk
to the governor today. Do you know there's a process
you'd have to go through if you were allowed to speak to him?
But you just don't call up some important person in this world.
How much more God? And yet, we have the privilege
of prayer. And not only the privilege, but
the exhortation to pray, to come to Him. You know, in Psalm 62
and verse 8, we read, Trust in Him at all times, you people.
Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. And God's people, we do trust
in Him. And so we are exhorted to pour
out our heart before Him. What do we mean when we say pour
out our heart? I mean, we have the privilege
to speak to God Almighty, and we know that He's never indifferent
to our calls. He's never indifferent to the
cry of His people. We have the privilege to tell
Him all that's in our heart. Is something bothering you today?
Something troubling you? Some sorrow? some concern, some
fear, some doubt, whatever it may be, the privilege just to
unburden your soul to God and to know that He hears and that
He cares, casting all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you. That's what the Scripture says,
the privilege of prayer. Nothing that we bring to our
God may be too large or nothing may be too small. And think about
this promise, call upon me in the day of trouble. What kind
of trouble are you talking about? I'm so thankful he did not designate
exactly what kind of trouble, aren't you? Whatever kind of
trouble you're in. If it's financial trouble, if
it's physical trouble, spiritual trouble, whatever kind of trouble,
call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee. and thou shalt glorify me." The
privilege of prayer. Third, I want us to see in this
passage especially how that prayer is connected to the Word of God. This is where some people make
a mistake. They think, well this is just
a blanket statement here that no matter what I ask, and some
people will say well it doesn't work you know I asked for a million
dollars one day and I asked the second day and I asked and I
asked until I got tired of asking and I never received a million
dollars so it doesn't that's not what this scripture is saying
at all the word of God the connection of prayer with the word of God
it's so important And I have two points to make here. First
of all, what would the Word of God be without prayer? Think
about it. What would the Word of God be
without prayer? I've got in my hand here the
Word of God. Now what would the Word of God
be without prayer? If we just extracted every prayer
and every reference to prayer from the Word of God, what would
this book be without prayer? What about Abraham? You can just
begin in the Old Testament and come forward. What about Abraham?
Abraham prayed. He prayed for Abimelech, the
scripture says, and the Lord healed him. He interceded for
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, didn't he? First he started out
and he said, Lord, if there be 50 righteous men in the city,
will you destroy the whole city? God said, no, if there be 50
righteous men. There came down to 10, wasn't
it? There wasn't 10 righteous people
in the city of Sodom. Sometimes people say, well, surely
you don't believe that just this few people are being saved, do
you? I don't know how many are being saved. But I know this,
that was a large city, and there were not 10 righteous people
in that city. I know this, in the days of Elijah,
God said, I've got 7,000 who have not bowed their knee to
Baal. 7,000 among a nation. Take prayer out of this book. What would the Word of God be
without prayer? Moses prayed. You read of him
praying. God would destroy the nation
of Israel because of their unbelief. And Moses prayed and interceded
for them. And God relented. God did not destroy the nation. And you know there's two books
in the Old Testament that the name of those two books literally
is, Ask of the Lord. 1st and 2nd Samuel. Ask of the
Lord. You say, why would any mother
name her child, Ask of the Lord? Simple, isn't it? Because she
asked him of the Lord. Hannah. She was childless. And she had
an adversary. And she prayed. She named him
Samuel because she said, for this child I prayed. Don't tell
me God doesn't answer prayer. You try to convince Hannah that
God doesn't answer prayer. For this child I prayed, here
he is, I know, I know God hears and answers prayer. How do you
know that Hannah? Because here's my son. For him
I asked, I prayed, and God heard my prayer. The Lord has given
me my petition that I ask of him. And who could read the scriptures
and not be thrilled reading about Elijah on Mount Carmel with those
450 or 800 false prophets and prophets of Baal. And he prayed
that very simple prayer. They'd been hollering and all
kinds of commotion around their altar, the prophets of Baal,
you know. Moses came and prayed a prayer that you can read in
about two minutes and the fire came down from heaven and there
was that altar and the water had been poured upon it you know
several barrels of water poured upon the altar and was around
the trench and the scripture and this is strange the scripture
says the fire it ate up the sacrifice first then it got the wood then
it got the stones And then it licked up the water. That's God. That's God. There's no doubt about it. God
answered. What about the prayer of Hezekiah?
Let's look at this one in 2 Kings just a moment. The prayer of
Hezekiah when Jerusalem was circled about. 2 Kings. Jerusalem was
encircled by the armies of Assyria. and the king of Assyria was boasting
and bragging about all the gods that he had conquered and all
the lands and kingdoms and he had never come up against the
God but he did this time and there's no doubt he had the nation
of Israel outnumbered, stronger force 2nd Kings 19 in verse 14
Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers
and read it and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord
and spread it before the Lord Wouldn't it be wonderful if God
would give us a leader of our country who would see the evil
that confronts us all over this world and people that are dead
set on destroying us and what we believe and our values. And
in the White House, he'd go into one of those rooms, the blue
room or the green room or the oval office, and stretch out
before God and pray like Hezekiah prayed. This Hezekiah He knew. They were goners unless God did
something. He went into the house of the
Lord, the scripture says, and spread out that letter, that
threatening letter from the king of Assyria. And Hezekiah prayed
before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwelleth
between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of
all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth.
Bow down, bow down thine ear, and hear, open, Lord, thine eyes,
and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent
him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of
Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, and have cast
their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the
work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed
them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou
us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. And then you
skip down to verse 32. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city,
nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor
cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the
same shall he return and shall not come into this city, saith
the Lord, for I will defend this city to save it for mine own
sake and for my servant David's sake. And it came to pass that
night that the angel of the Lord went out and smoked in the camp
of the Assyrians, and hundred and fourscore, that's eighty,
hundred and eighty-five thousand He prayed, and God answered the
prayer. You say, well that's all in the
Old Testament. Well, let's look at a place in the New Testament.
Turn with me to Acts chapter 12. God hasn't changed. He's
the same God today as He was in the days of Hezekiah, as He was in the days of Abraham
and Moses. In Acts chapter 12, here we have
Peter put up in prison. Verse 5, Peter therefore was
kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church
unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought
him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept
the prison. Well, I don't think God can get
him out of this jail. Well, you just don't know the
truth about God. Here's two guards outside the
cell, here's two guards inside the cell and Peter's asleep and
he's chained to this guard and he's chained to this guard. And
prayer, the church went to prayer. The angel of the Lord came upon
him and a light shined in the prison and you know Peter was
asleep. Peter, you're gonna die tomorrow.
Herod's already cut off James' head. He's gonna get you tomorrow. He was asleep. He was asleep. We worry, don't we? We get so
anxious about things. God help us to believe Him. I
believe Peter believed God. If he cut off his head, he'd
be in glory. He was asleep. Light shined in
the prison and he smoked, Peter. Peter, wake up. He raised him
up, saying, Rise up quickly. And his chains fell off from
his hands. And the angel said unto him,
Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he
saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow thee.
And he went out, and followed him, and wist not that it was
true, which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision.
When they were past the first and second ward, they came unto
the iron gate that leadeth unto the city, which opened to them
of his own accord. And when they went out and passed
on through one street, and forthwith the angel departed from him,
and Peter, when Peter pinched himself. Is this really happening
or am I still dreaming? When he came to himself, the
scripture says, Now I know of a surety that the Lord has sent
his angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod." Look back at our text in John
chapter 14. Our Lord said, greater works,
in verse 12. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also,
and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to
my Father. Now these greater works, they
must mean conversion of sinners. conversion of sinners. As others
have pointed out, when God saves a sinner, when a sinner is converted
by the grace of God, it includes all of the miracles that our
Lord wrought. He raised a dead man. Lazarus, come forth. When God
saves a sinner, there's a resurrection, a regeneration, a new life given. He opened the eyes of the blind.
When God saves a sinner, I can now see. One thing I know, once
I was blind, but now I see. He opens, he unstops the ears
of the deaf. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me. He cleansed lepers. And by the
leprosy of sin that had plagued our very soul, he cleanseth us. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth
us from all sin. And he loosed those who were
under the dominion of Satan, and he sets the captive free. And this is done as these men
went out preaching the gospel of Jesus' greater works. And
notice, because I go to my Father, It was because he was in heaven
and had poured out his spirit upon these disciples. But I said,
what would the Word of God be without prayer? But listen, what
would prayer be without the Word of God? Think about that. What would prayer be without
the Word of God? In our text, in chapter 17, He
said, If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall
ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Now, to abide
in Him means that we keep on depending upon Him. I think too
many people believe that what the Lord is saying here, when
you come to the end of your prayer, you just say, In Jesus' name.
It means much more than that. Certainly we conclude our prayer
in Jesus' name, but praying in His name, asking in His name,
means much more than just tacking that on to the end of your prayer.
It means really to pray as He would pray. He always prayed
in submission to the Father's will. He never asked anything
that was not in submission to the Father's will. Remember in
the garden, He said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as My will,
but as Thou wilt. That's what it means to pray.
And when we pray in the will of God, and how do we know the
will of God? The Word of God. That's how we
know the will of God. This is His revealed will. We know God has a secret will,
and that's not revealed unto us. But this will, this is revealed. And as we get into the Word,
this is one reason it's so important to read the Scriptures, to study
the Scriptures, to hear the Scriptures taught and preached, because
we learn God's will. And we pray in Christ's name
according to His will. Now, I'm going to close. I'm
not through, but I'm going to close. Let me just, my fourth point,
give it to you. Prayer is another ministry of
the Holy Spirit. He lives in each one of us who
know Him, and He helps our infirmities. We don't know what to pray for
as we ought, but God the Holy Spirit helps us in asking and
praying according to God's will. He is that other comforter. Our
Lord promised that other, another comforter, He said. Another advocate. We have the Son of God, Jesus
Christ. He's our advocate. He's making
intercession for us on high. We have that other advocate. He lives in us, and he helps
us to pray. I pray the Lord will bless this
word to all of us here today.