Well, I'm out of breath. Somebody
else want to preach? 2 Samuel chapter 7. I want to read verses 18 through 29.
The title of my message tonight is, Prayers, Purpose. Prayers,
Purpose. Beginning with verse 18, Then went King David in, and
sat before the Lord, And he said, Who am I, O Lord, and what is
my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet
a small thing in Thy sight, O Lord God, but Thou hast spoken also
of Thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the
manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto
Thee? For Thou, Lord God, knowest Thy
servant, For Thy word's sake and according to Thine own heart
hast Thou done all these great things to make Thy servant know
them. Wherefore Thou art great, O Lord God, where there is none
like Thee, neither is there any God beside Thee, according to
all that we have heard with our ears. And what one nation in
the earth is like Thy people, even like Israel? whom God went
to redeem for a people to Himself, and to make Him a name, and to
do for you great things and terrible for thy land before thy people,
which thou redeemest to thee from Egypt, from the nation,
and their gods. For thou hast confirmed to thyself
thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever, and thou,
Lord, art become their God. And now, O Lord God, the word
that Thou hast spoken concerning Thy servant and concerning his
house, establish it forever, and do as Thou hast said. And
let Thy name be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is
the God over Israel, and let the house of the servant of David
be established before Thee. For Thou, O Lord of hosts, God
of Israel, hast revealed to Thy servant, saying, I will build
Thee a house. Therefore hath thy servant found
in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. And now, O Lord God,
thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised
this goodness unto thy servant. Therefore now let it please thee
to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever
before thee. For thou, O Lord God, hast spoken
it, and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed
forever. Let us pray. Great God and Heavenly
Father, You who dwell into a light where unto no man can approach,
You are God and there is none else. There is none beside Thee,
none like unto Thee. You declare the end from the
beginning. You speak and it shall come to
pass. You purpose it and it shall stand. We bow to Your greatness
and Your sovereignty tonight, knowing full well that our lives
are in Your hands, our breath is in Your hands. We thank You,
Father, that You are who You are, that You have taken Your
power to Yourself and have reigned. Father, we pray for those of
our company who are sick and going through trials, and those
who are traveling, that You'd watch over them. We pray for
Taos and Sarah as they make this trip out to Albuquerque, that
You'd give them traveling grace and watch over them and care
for them while they're there. We pray, Father, for Harley and Alita Gayle as they
go to California, that You'd bring them back safely home.
Pray for those of our company who are sick, for Jenny. We ask,
Lord, that You continue to bless her. Continue to bless Ralph
and Peggy, Wayne, Laverne, Henry, Mickey, and those others who
have requested prayer. We ask, Lord, Your help for them. We
ask tonight, Father, that You might cause us in our hearts
to worship You in spirit and in truth. Bow us down before
You where we belong. And may the sense of our words
be that of David's. saying before Thee, who art great
and good, who am I, that Thou shouldst bless me thus? We thank
You, Father, in Christ's name, Amen. Now the subject of this text
or the message tonight is prayer, and prayer's purpose Prayer is
a subject of various interpretations and machinations in the religious
world. Prayer is talked about a great
deal. And there is a plethora of opinion on the subject of
prayer. If you would ask two people, they would probably give
you two different views. In religion, prayer is a vital
tool of commerce. In religion, men and women who
claim to have power of prayer built millions out of the ignorant
masses with trinkets such as prayer claws and prayer mugs
and prayer rugs that had been prayed over by some charlatan
cleric, supposedly possessing some inside direct line to God.
Others come on the TV with their desks covered with prayer requests,
and they weep and slobber all over them, and some even going
so far as to command God to answer these prayers. Of course, the
preacher's prayers in those cases has already been answered because
the requests have come with a bounty of the faithful's filthy lucre
as an expression of the hope of the requester. I remember
several years ago one famous preacher who was caught with
his hand in the till and he claimed temporary insanity caused by
the absorption of the printer's ink found on the abundance of
prayer requests. That was his defense in court
for stealing the church's money. Other inventions concerning invoking
God are things like prayer chains, which are designed with the idea
of ganging up on God. Well, the sinner's prayer designed
to put in a fix for someone in getting saved. And there is the
ever popular praying through, which suggests that length and
fervency of prayer will surely somehow activate God. Another
is being, that I've heard lately, is being prayed up. being prayed
up as if to say that prayer is a commodity and somewhere there
is a chart or a receptacle that can be filled and that will ensue
with a blessed life. Not long ago a fellow who apparently
enjoyed the preaching said to me, you must be prayed up. That's what he said, you must
be prayed up. I told him that I was not sure
what he meant. I lied to him, I was sure what
he meant. but he didn't know what he was talking about. And
these practices is the underlying notion that God is not ready
to give to his people, but is rather withholding grace until
the petitioner works up a sweat to get it. And prayer is often
the theme of self-justifiers. who preface the explanation of
doing what they want or to do what they've already done by
saying, I prayed about this. I prayed about this. When you
hear those words, rest assured, you're trying to be impressed
and somebody's trying to cover what they're about to do or what
they've already done. If you've prayed about this,
I'll guarantee if you've really prayed, I'll never find out about
it. and you'll never bring it up. Things like this are designed
to give credence to their action and also to quell any possible
negative response. For when somebody says, I prayed
about it, you just don't want to call them a bold-faced liar,
so you sort of go along with it. You sort of go along with
it. Prayer is not a tool for commerce. It's not a tool for commerce.
Prayer is not a sacrament. that opens up the floodgates
of favor whereby grace is transported to the supplicant. And I know
that the scriptures teach us to ask and it shall be given
if we are children of God. Also to ask in the name of Christ.
It is a guarantee from God that your request will be granted.
Those are the words of God. And believers should avail themselves
to that promise. But what must be noted that this
element of prayer is underwritten by a sense of need and dependence
upon God, not for personal gain or to get something. Those admonitions
were not given to ensure personal gain, but rather given to needy
sinners, needy sinners as an assurance of help in their time
of need. Many use prayer as an objection
to Bible doctrines like predestination or the sovereign providence of
God. It is reasonable to wonder what the place of prayer is and
how it fits with the concept of predestination and providence.
I understand that. None of us really can get a clear
mind on that because we are finite creatures trying to understand
an infinite mind. But these two things do not fit
the scheme of natural logic. If God is in control of all things
and has predestinated all things, He's in charge and runs all things
by the counsel of His own will. Then praying seems to be not
able to fit into the scheme, in a natural scheme of thinking. It's because natural logic assumes
that to do such a thing as praying surely must have a qualitative
response. In other words, if you pray,
you're going to get something out of it. That's the idea. It's kind of like worship in
this day. People come to the house of God, or what they call
the house of God, and if the preacher don't hit a home run
and everybody ain't happy and joyous, they say things like,
well, we didn't get anything out of the worship service today.
Well, you're not supposed to get anything out of it. You come
to worship God, you come to give Him something, to offer praise
and thanksgiving unto Him. Worshipping Him. Worshipping
Him. The common question asked is
this concerning prayer. If God controls all things, if
God is in charge of all things and controls them by His sovereign
will, which clearly the Scripture declares, Why pray? How many people have asked you
that question? When you told them the truth about who God
is. They've asked why pray? It's a reasonable question, don't
you think? Hey Dave. In fact, Dave and I
last week were just talking about this very thing. We were talking
about how our natural minds or our minds could figure out how
prayer fits into divine and sovereign providence. How does it fit? Well, I say it's like a really
fine shoe. It fits real well if you understand what prayer
is and what the design of it is. We see from David's words
here, he understands. He gets it. This is an inspired
prayer recorded by God the Father for our health. And before us
in this passage is the prayer of David. This prayer is based
upon the fact that God has taken him from the sheep coat and made
him a king and guided his steps and done all these things for
him and has promised to establish his house forever and his throne
forever and we know that of course he is speaking about the Lord
Jesus Christ who assumed the throne of David forever according
to the Gospels. God has told him through Nathan
the prophet That though he will not build God's house, that's
a job that Solomon will do. And Solomon is not yet born,
but God said he's the one that's going to do it. God will build
David a house and make his name great in perpetuity. And it's
still a pretty big name in the day in which we live. In the
day in which we live. And this is a promise and therefore
a guarantee that these things will come to pass. If God has
promised it, He's going to do it. He's not like us. He don't break promises. So many
things get in our way of keeping the promises we make. We fall
short on every hand. That's because we don't have
the power to perform what we desire to do. Sometimes it works
out, but it never works out perfectly. And most of the time we're thwarted
in our efforts. Such is not the case with God.
Whatever God pleases, that's what He's done. He does His will
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 God. We're not. He is. And God told David, I'm
going to build you a house. And what He's talking about a
lineage. A lineage. And that lineage is a great lineage.
That lineage is the lineage of Jesus Christ. David was Christ's
great, great, great, great, great grandfather. I'm going to build
you a house. And God's promise will come to
pass. It's a guarantee. You can count
on that. When you find a promise of God
in Scripture for His people, mark it down if you want to.
Be like that old lady who the preacher went to her house and
he opened up the Bible, he's going to read the Scriptures
because he forgot his Bible, he has to use hers. And as he opened
up the Bible and began to read, he'd see TP beside verses. And he said, what of what is
that? And she said, that's the promises of God. He said, what's
the T P stand for? She says, try it and prove. Try
it and prove. If God has promised you something,
it's going to come to pass. And His promises are yea and
amen in Jesus Christ according to Scripture. Yea and amen in
Jesus Christ. Why will God do His promise? Because God is predetermined
or predestined that these things will be done. So David's house
is going to stand forever. Now we know David's house in
the Old Testament is representative of the church in the New Testament. Israel doesn't exist as the elect
of God anymore. They were the elect of God in
nature. But they exist in true Israel,
as Paul said in Romans 2.29. He is not a Jew that is one outwardly,
whose circumcision is of the flesh, but who is one inwardly,
whose circumcision is of the heart, whose praise is of God
and not of men. And he says in Romans 9, all
that is of Israel is not Israel. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. And in Galatians he says, And
we, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But David's house
continues in perpetuity. David's house is meeting tonight
here at Sequoia Baptist Church in Cherokee, North Carolina.
And David does not doubt God. Yet immediately, knowing full
well that God is going to do exactly what He said, yet immediately
upon that absolute assurance from God, we find David in prayer. Immediately. God has said, this
is what I'm going to do, and David believes Him. And yet we
find David in prayer. So evidently, prayer is not a
question against God's predetermination, It has to do with God's predetermination. David said in verse 18, then
King David went in and sat before the Lord, sat before the Lord,
and he said, Who am I? O Lord God! And what is my house that Thou
hast brought me hither to? Who am I? And why in the world
would you who are God, Thou great God, have anything to do with
a worm like me, and promise me these great promises? That's
a good way to start a prayer. The text says, David sat before
the Lord, and you notice the Lord is spelled in all capital
letters. That's Jehovah, Jehovah God. And the Targum interprets
the Hebrew this way, King David came and continued in prayer
before the Lord. That's the way it's in the original
language. And evidently then, the knowledge
of predestination did not hinder David from praying. didn't hinder him from praying.
So when people say, well, you believe press and preach, that's
nature. Why do you pray? Why do you preach? Well, everybody
who believes those things prays and preaches. They all do that. To the contrary, the words of
David declared that the assurance of his future estate and that
of his house as well with all Israel was the catalyst and the
reason why he prayed. Look at verse 27. For thou, O
Lord of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant,
saying, I will build thee a house. Therefore hath thy servant found
in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. Therefore, What's
the therefore? What's it there for? It's saying
this, the reason I'm praying, the reason I found it in my heart
to pray is because you have promised and I know it will come to pass. That's the language right here
before us. The knowledge that his destiny
was established did not cause David to sit back or sit down
and twiddle his thumbs until it came to fruition. Rather,
a wonder that defies human logic, that lays the axe to the root
of religion, that its prayers have power, David, because God
is the sovereign disposer, discovers in his heart that he wants to
pray. That he wants to pray. Could
it be that true prayer is born in the understanding that God
is absolutely sovereign? True prayer is born of that understanding. I ask why I pray, but I don't
ask it to those who believe God is God. I ask why I pray, but
my question is directed to those who do not believe God is in
control. Why, I pray to Him if He's not in absolute control.
Why bother? Pray to me. If He's not in absolute
control, He's kind of like me. I'm not in absolute control.
So pray to me. I can do just as good for you
as He can if He's not in absolute control. So I ask them, why do
you pray? Why do you bother? It's the sovereignty
of God and His absolute control that makes His children bow down
and pray to Him. And David prayed, Lord, do what
you said you were going to do. Did he doubt he was going to
do it? No, he was just saying it. He was praying for God to
be God, for God to honor His name, for God to honor His character,
for God to glorify His name in the fulfillment of all His promises.
And David's prayer is an example of why we pray. It's an example. Prayer is worship. It's worship. Simply, it is personal worship. Now in Scripture, most of the
times in Scripture when we see the word worship, it has to do
with public worship. Gathering together with God's
people to sing hymns and psalms unto the Lord and hear the preaching
of the gospel and praise and give praise and thanksgiving
to His name. That's public worship. That's
public worship. Every time you see the word prayer
or pray in Scripture, it has to do with private worship. The
Lord said, Go into your closet and pray. Go into your closet and pray.
Well, what is worship? What is worship? Worship is simply
this. It is praising God and thanking
God for what He has done and what He has promised. Praising
Him and thanking Him. My old friend Jack Shanks, who
used to run before he got his artificial knees and got all
kinds of health problems, can't run anymore, can't even hardly
walk. He used to run every morning for five miles and he'd stop
in at 7-Eleven and get him a hot cup of coffee on his way back
to the house. And there was a young girl there that always had a
Bible open and several books open and he'd walk in and every
morning she'd greet him this way, Praise the Lord, brother!
Thank the Lord! And he listened to her, you know,
and he'd go in every morning and get his coffee. After about three
or four weeks of this, he came in and she said, Praise the Lord,
brother. He says, For what? And she didn't have an answer.
You see, that was just an exclamation mark on the end of some religious
prattle. It was a punctuation mark. She
didn't know what... We praise God because we know
something. We praise God for something. We praise God for
who He is. We praise God for what He has
done, what He has revealed to us in His Gospel. Worshipping
is praising God and thanking God for what He's done. And it
is a matter of the heart. It's a matter of the heart so
it has little to do with posture and everything to do with giving
God His due. giving Him all honor and praise.
And there is an acronym that is often applied to prayer, the
word ACTS, A-C-T-S. The acronym means adoration,
confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. That's the acronym. These things speak to worship,
adoration, thanksgiving, supplication, and confession. David's prayer
is an outline of what it is to pray. An outline of what to pray
and why to pray. David sat down, it says, and
worshipped the Lord. He continued in prayer unto the
Lord. Now there's just a few things
I want to give you tonight and then I'll let you go home. First
of all, the matter of confession. In reality, Everything a child
of God does is some sort of confession of faith. Every time he worshiped
God, it's a confession. It's a confession of his need
and God's greatness. every time. David said this in
verse 18, Then went King David and sat down before the Lord,
and he said, Who am I, Lord? Who am I, O Lord God? And what
is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto? Who am I, that You
have done great things for me? He said it in another place,
When I look at the stars, and the moon, and Thy handiwork,
what is man, that Thou wert mindful of him? And what is the son of
man, that Thou hast visited him? David's words are a confession
that he is unworthy of the least of God's favor. He's unworthy
of the least of God's favor. And he knows that. And this was
not a hindrance to God's grace. Think about it. He's confessing
not only that he's unworthy of God's favor, but that his unworthiness
was not a hindrance to God's grace. Most people feel that
it's good people that gets the grace of God. If you're really good, then God,
if you'll help yourself, then God will help you. If you're
really good, then God will bless you. David said, I'm nothing. I'm nobody. I'm zero, zilch,
nada. You show me mercy. Your unworthiness
is not a hindrance to God's grace. That's a confession. That's a
confession. David praised and thanked God
for that grace that blessed him in spite of what he was. Marner
said, that's the best definition of grace that I've ever come
up with. In spite of. In spite of. God blesses me in spite of what
I am. In spite of what I am. Then in verse 19, verse 19 is
praise and thanksgiving for the promise of the Messiah. Verse
19 said, And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God,
but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great
while. In the actual reading you have
spoken of it, that it's going to last for a great while. It's
going on and on and on. for a great while to come. And
he says, And is this the matter of man, O Lord God? Is this the
matter of man? He says, For a great while to
come. And that's the same kind of language applied to Christ
by the Father concerning time and tide invested only in the
hands of one person. This world is not in hell because
at present all humanity is in the hands of the Mediator. It's that simple. Christ said in his high priestly
prayer in John 17, as thou hast given me authority over all flesh
that I might give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
me. That means Jesus Christ, God
has invested all of humanity and all of human history in the
hands of the mediator. And of His kingdom, it is said,
His kingdom will never end. He'll never end. Look over to
Hebrews chapter 2, just for a moment. Hebrews chapter 2. Here speaking of Christ as the
anointed of God, it says of Him, For unto the angels hath he not
put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak, but he
has put it in the hands of Christ. Christ is Lord over all. For
to this any died rose and resurrected, that he might be the Lord of
the living and the dead. And also this is a proclamation that
God's gracious dealings with the unworthy are not like the
dealings of men. For as David considered how gracious
God had been to him, he said, This is not the way men do things.
That's what the last phrase of verse 19. And is this the manner
of men, O Lord God? Do men do that? No, men reward
effort. Men reward greatness. Men reward
philanthropy. Men reward people who do stuff.
God rewards His people who can do nothing. and gives them all
grace and mercy. That's not the way of man. There
is a way that seemeth right unto man, but Scripture says the ends
thereof are the ways of death, not the ways of life. Then in
verse 20 is a confession that David's words are not intended
to change anything, but rather are spoken with an understanding
and that God knows what is in his heart. This is how David words this.
And what more can I say unto thee? For thou, Lord, knowest
thy servant. You know your servant. Nobody would think surely that
when they pray that God don't know what's going on until they
tell him about it, do they? David found it in his heart to
pray because God had already told him what he was going to
do. And if you pray unto the Lord, let me tell you, before
you pray, He knows what you ought to pray before you pray it. And
not only that, He knows the words on your lips before you speak
them. Elsewise, He is not God. But
He is God. Look at Psalm 139. David wrote these words. Not
far from the words he just said in verse 20 in Psalm 139. Psalm 139 in verse 4, it says,
For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou
knowest it all together. Thou knowest it all together.
You are a child of God. He knows all your words even
before you speak them. He knows what you are going to
say. Why are you going to say it? Because He put it in your
heart to pray to start with. That's how it got there. Look at Matthew chapter 6. Our
Lord is speaking here in Matthew chapter 6. Verse 8, He says this, Be not
ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what
things ye have need of before ye ask him. What did them do? Don't be like them, He said.
What was it that them did? Them thought that their prayers
was what moved and activated God. I said, don't think that. Because God knows what you want
and what you need for, you even ask for it. You even ask for
it. And verse 21 back in our text
is a declaration that what David knows, he didn't learn by himself. He was a shepherd. A shepherd
boy when God called him and anointed him as king of Israel. He was taken from the sheep coat.
His steps were established by the Lord. His ways were established
by the Lord. He was made king over Israel. All by God's divine work. How
did David find out about it? He found out about it because
God sent him a prophet to tell him what it done. That's how
it always works. Everybody finds out about grace
from someone God has given grace to. and they stand up and tell
them what God has done for them. That's what it is. Everybody
does. I stand before you today preaching
the gospel not because I'm special, because God has put me in this
office and I didn't ask for it to start with. But He put me in this office
because some years ago He sent somebody else to tell me what
God had done. I would have never known. I had plenty of religion,
but I didn't know Christ. I didn't know Christ, had no
interest in Christ, had no love for Christ. Carol and I were
talking just a while ago after we ate, while we were eating
about the fact that this book lives once you know Christ. When you begin to see Him in
every page, in every line, in every semicolon, every colon,
you see Him everywhere in this book. And this book comes alive,
and it's wonderful. And you don't read it down. I
remember when I used to try to read through the Bible, because
you're supposed to do that. I'd get so bored. I didn't know
what it was saying. I didn't care for it, you know.
But I wanted to tell somebody, I read the whole Bible, because
I thought it sounded important. I've had people tell me that.
I had a fellow tell me he read it seven times one time. And I knew
him, he was a crook, I mean a real thief. The guy was a felon, but
he read the Bible seven times, but he didn't get it. And when
you know Christ, this book's a joy. Sit down and read it and
it'll make you laugh and make you rejoice and praise God. Because you see, our Lord said
to His disciples when they said, why do you speak to those men
in parables? He says, because it's given to you. to know the
mysteries of the kingdom. I didn't give it to them. I give
it to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom. How does David
know this? By revelation. Look at verse
21. For thy word's sake, and according
to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things to
make thy servant know them. He had already done all the great
things. He had already purposed it. He
had already set history in its order to bring David to this
throne and ultimately to bring Christ to this earth and Christ
to be enthroned at the right hand of the Father of the Majesty
on high. All of that had already been predetermined and predestinated.
But you didn't know nothing about that, did you? You were born
in this world as dumb as a bag of hammers concerning spiritual
things. You didn't have any idea what
spiritual things were. But God came along, sent a preacher
to tell you the truth, and the light was cut on inside of you,
and you understood. How did you do that? Well, I
went to seminary, and I studied a long time. No, you didn't. The fact is, if you're honest
with yourself, your experience is this. There was a moment in
your life when you didn't believe. It had started in your birth.
And you went to that moment, and you heard the gospel. The
next moment you believed. And there wasn't no great time
span. It was instantaneous. God gave you faith, and you believed. Now you explain that. How somebody
one second can be an unbeliever, and the next second hang his
soul on what this book says. It's a miracle of revelation.
And nothing short of that will do. And David said, I know that,
because you did all these things yourself, with your own heart,
out of your own heart. So I know them. So I know them
in understanding. This is praying unto God, thanking
God for divine revelation. And in verses 22 through 29 it
says this, Wherefore thou art God, O Lord God, Thou art great. There is none like Thee, neither
is there any God beside Thee, according to all that we have
heard with our ears. This is what we have heard. This
is what Nathan the prophet and Samuel has told me and what I
have learned down through the years from the men whom you sit
to tell me these things. You are great. You are God. None like you. God's not like
a man. Not like a man. He's God. He's
not a man that he should lie. And people say, well, I don't
believe this book. Here's what I like to say to people when
they say that. I don't believe the Bible. I'll say, well, have
you ever told a lie? And if they're honest, they'll
say, yeah, I've told a lie. And then I'll say, has God told a
lie? No, God ain't told a lie. Well, who am I going to believe?
I'm going to believe the one that told the trail of lies.
God is not a liar. He is great. There is none beside
Him and none like unto Him. The last phrase is the reason
for the fact of prayer. Let's read on. And what one nation on earth
is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem
for a people to Himself, and to make Him a name, to give Himself
glory, and to do for you great things and terrible for thy land
before thy people, which thou hast redeemed us unto thee from
Egypt, from the nations and their gods." Redeemed from the captivity,
redeemed from the nations, redeemed from the gods of the nations,
the false gods, the idols, the gods of their own imaginations.
For Thou hast confirmed to Thyself a people. Confirmed them. How
did He confirm them? He confirmed them by ratifying
the covenant of grace in the blood of Jesus Christ. And Thou,
Lord, art become my God. I understand this now that You
are my God. And now, O Lord, the word that
Thou hast spoken concerning Thy servant, concerning his house,
establish it forever. And do as Thou hast said. And
let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, The Lord of hosts
is the God over Israel. And let the house of thy servant
David be established before thee. For thou, O Lord of hosts, God
of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build
thee a house. Therefore hast thy servant found
in his heart to pray this prayer unto you. The whole catalyst
for praying unto God is the fact that God has said what He's going
to do and declared it to be so. God's going to do what He's going
to do. His hands aren't tied. He does absolutely what He wants
and He's always in control. And you can't stop Him. You can't
stop Him if He's God. If He ain't God, you can probably
stop Him. But if He's God, you can't. You see, God's scheme
of providence is not only that He has promised His people and
He has declared to His people what they're going to do. His
scheme of providence is that He has fixed it so you're going
to ask for it. You are. David, here's what I'm
going to do for you. I'm going to build you a house.
I'm going to make your name great. Make your name stand in perpetuity
like the name of great men. What does David say? Well, go
to it, Lord. That's fine. What does David
say? Lord, do that. Lord, do that. Why did he say,
Lord, do that? Because the Lord said that's
what he's going to do. He was in agreement with God. Listen. Look over at Ezekiel 36. In Ezekiel
36, God says, His name has been profaned among
the heathen by His own people. They didn't sanctify Him. And
you'd think the next thing He says is, I'm going to take a
rock and crush your head. But He doesn't say that. In verse
21 He says, But I had pity for My name, My holy name, which
the house of Israel has profaned among the heathen, whitherever
they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith
the Lord God, Look at that next phrase, I do not this for your
sakes, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which
ye have profaned among the heathen, wherever ye went." Now, there's
nothing good about this people. There's nothing good about you.
There's none righteous, no, not one. But if you're God's chosen,
then He's going to magnify His name in you. He's going to do
for you what will magnify His name. You say, what if I don't
want it? Oh, you'll find out you'll want it. You will want it if you are His. He says, And I will sanctify
My great Name, that is, set My Name apart, which is profaned
among the heathen, which He hath profaned in the midst of them.
And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord
God, when I shall be sanctified in you before them. When your minds and eyes and
hearts are set on God Almighty and not on this world. And he
says, For I will take you from among the heathen. I'll grab
you out. I'll take you. I'll drag you.
I'll deliver you. And I'll gather you from all
the countries and I will bring you into your own land. That's
Emmanuel's land. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you. I'll wash you. And ye shall be
clean from all your filthiness, and from your idols will I cleanse
you. The clean water there is the
washing of regeneration by the Word of God according to Titus.
He said, A new heart also will I give you, a new heart, and
a new spirit will I put with you. And I'll take away that
stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of
flesh, a heart that's malleable, and a heart that can be contrite
and bruised and touched and moved. And I will put My Spirit within
you, that Holy Spirit that resides to tell us about Jesus Christ.
And I will cause you to walk in My statutes, to walk in My
way. And ye shall keep My judgments, and do them." He said, now, He
doesn't say, if you'll do this, I'll do this. He says, it's what
I'm going to do, and therefore this is what you're going to
do. I thought I was running the show.
Forget it. And ye shall dwell in the land
that I gave you to your father, and ye shall be my people, and
I will be your God. I will also save you from all
your uncleanness. And I will call for the corn,
and I will provide for you, and I will increase it, and lay no
famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit
of the tree, and increase the field. And ye shall receive no
more reproach of famine among the heathen. Look at verse 31,
Then shall ye remember your own ways, in your own doings that
were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight
for your iniquities and for your abominations. But just in case
you forgot, not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord. Be
it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded for your own ways,
O house of Israel. And look down at verse 37. Thus
saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of them,
required by the house of Israel to do it to them. I will increase
them with men like a flock. He said, not all of them are
going to do this. You're going to ask me to do this. I'll be
inquired of you. You're going to ask me. How's
God do it? Oh, He does it real well. He'll bring you to the end of
your sail, to the end of your rope. I'll tell you this, if there's
any other way to go than Christ, you'll go that way. But if you're
God's, He'll fix you where there's nowhere else to go, nowhere else
to turn. We see that the prayer is not
employed to change things, but rather is employed by God in
the accomplishment of His purpose. That's a wondrous thing. How
does that work? Okay, I guess, because it's working pretty good
right now. God ordained my salvation from
all eternity according to Scripture, according to what the Bible says,
not according to what men say, or what theologians say, according
to what the Bible says. He ordained my salvation from
all eternity, and He put it in my heart to ask for mercy. I didn't know I was one of God's
chosen. until He awakened me to who He was, through the preaching
of the Gospel. My mother used to pray for me. She told me, she said, I prayed
like you was one of God's children. I just prayed that way. I didn't
pray like you wasn't, or that I wanted you to be. I prayed
like you was. And I was. She didn't know I was, but she
prayed like I was. Now, did that prayer have anything to do with
my salvation? No. And yet, God put it in his heart
to pray for me. And in that grand scheme of providence,
that was part of the thing that brought my steps to the place
where I was when God enlightened me. I don't know how it works,
but it's part of it. David, you've done all this for
me? I think I'm going to pray about it. I think I'm going to
pray for it. I'm going to pray for it. Paul
knew that God would save the elect. Don't you agree with that?
Read Paul's writings. In fact, if you get in theological
circles where men with degrees of theology talk, they'll say,
well, you talk about predestination election, you're talking about
Pauline doctrines. They call them Pauline. Why do they call
them Pauline? Because Paul talked about them all the time. Now
preachers today say, oh, I don't want to talk about that. It'll
split my church. Well, split it. You'll run people
off. Let them go. I'll lose my job.
Lose your job. Lose your job. Because if you
can't speak freely from what's in this book, you don't need
to be behind this desk. And if you fear men and what men will
do to you, you don't need to be behind this desk. Because
you're not standing up here speaking your words, you're speaking the
words of God. You're rehearsing and being like a parrot and saying
over and over again the same thing, Christ and Him crucified.
All the days you stand behind this desk. That's what you're
here for. I know this, I have no doubt,
I know it because of the clear declaration of the Word of God.
This Word spoken, even this Word spoken tonight, His Word will
not return unto them void, but will accomplish whatever pleases
Him and it will go exactly where it is supposed to go. You say,
what if it does not hit me? It is a guided missile. If it
does not hit you, you were not supposed to be hit. You say,
well, that does not seem fair. It is none of your business.
He does not give account of his matters. He is God now. He is
God. He's the King in all authority. I know this beyond a shadow of
a doubt. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is what God uses
according to His Word to bring His people to His Son. He teaches
them the Gospel and they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. So
I preach the Gospel. I don't give invitations. I'm
not going to press you to do something. I'm not going to try
to shove something down your throat you don't want. And I know this,
somewhere out in this world, their people want this. They
don't even know they want it yet until they hear it. When
they hear it, they'll say, I want that. Like Isaiah chapter 52 and 53
speaks about the glories of the victorious death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, in that He will save all His people. And Isaiah
54 declares that God makes the swifty who forms the tools of
labor, He also makes the waster to destroy him. And then in chapter
55 of Isaiah, he says, Ho! Ho! That word means you're at
the point. A little teeny word, Ho, means
you're at the point. And what that means is this,
there's a Savior who saved His people from their sins, who redeemed
them by His blood and never lost one of them. He did it by His
righteousness and His work alone. And it's God who's in control
of all things. He makes the man who has the skill to do something
and the waster He makes to destroy. And no weapon ever formed against
God's people will ever prosper. You're at the point. Do you like
the sound of that? Do you like the sound of God
doing that? Ho, everyone that thirsteth. If you want some of that, Oh,
everyone that thirsteth, come. Take it. Buy it without money. Drink. Eat. If you want it. You say, well, I don't want it,
Pastor. Well, I'm not talking to you.
I'm talking to the ones that want it. Paul knew that God would save
the elect. Romans 8 and 9 are two of the chapters that are
so full of the election and the predestination of God, and more
of the Old Testament is quoted in those two chapters than all
the other chapters in the Scripture. Over again he says, Thus saith
the Lord, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord, it is written,
it is written, it is written. And yet we find Paul in chapter
9, in the first three verses saying, I'd give my own salvation
if my brethren could be saved. That's what he said. He said,
I bear them record. He said, I'm bent over double
in pain from praying for my brethren according to the flesh. Paul
knew God would save his people from their sins. It did not hinder
him from praying for people. Because you see, we don't know
who God's going to save. So we pray for people. We pray
that God will save them because we know they can't save themselves.
And they won't. Prayer. What is it? It's worship. It's worship. Personal worship.
It's worship. It's praising God. And since
He put the desire to pray in the heart of His people, we can
be sure that it is ordained of God. Because God don't do anything
happenstancely. All things are on purpose. And
He did it for the accomplishment of His purpose. Look at the Scriptures. Men prayed. God put it in their
heart to pray. He had already promised what
He was going to do. Declared what He's going to do, and He's
going to do it. He's ordained that prayer. And somehow, in
the wonder of His Majesty, that prayer is part of His purpose. His purpose. That's why He says
to you, men ought to pray, and not to quit. Not to faint. Pray without ceasing. Be thankful
to God in all things, for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Pray. Pray. But don't get the
notion that somehow you have some kind of power by doing so
and you're going to activate God. Before you pray, think of
all that God has done for you. And then praise Him and thank
Him for what He's done in worship and prayer. That's the purpose
of prayer. It's not to get things done.
is to honor God, to worship God. That's the purpose of prayer.
Father, bless us for our understanding. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.