Matthew 6:9,
I heard Alistair Begg say,

That's true. Every Christian, every Christian can say, “God is my Father.” It's likened to the greatest blessing of soteriology. The greatest blessing, the highest blessing is adoption. We are the sons of God. We can call God ‘Abba,’ just like Jesus could, ‘Abba, Father,’ or ‘Dearest Father.’ And then Jesus, in this same sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, I think He develops the concept of Fatherhood. He tells us He’s a perfect Father and also that He loves to give good gifts to His children.

Every Christian believes that when they pray, they are praying to a real person; not a thing, not a force. That might be the greatest distinctive between Christianity and every other religion in the world. We believe in a face-to-face dealing with an infinite person by prayer who we know as Father. And so we can use that personal name, Father, with confidence and assurance. And to add to that personal dimension when it comes to prayer, we should remember that we pray to a three-person God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we use affectionate language. We know He loves us; He shows us His kindness, compassion every day of our lives, but we also can say we love Him.

And we pray to a God we know who is a living person, who thinks (a person to be a person has to be able to think), speaks and listens. And to help maintain and cultivate intimate prayer fellowship with God, the Bible uses what is called anthropomorphic language, which means we describe God in human terms. Does He have physical eyes? No, God is a spirit. Does He have physical ears? No. Does God have a physical face? No, God is spirit. But anthropomorphic language is used to help us think of God as a person who is near, dear, loving, caring. And let me just mention five divine body parts or specifics of anthropomorphic language that is applied to God.

The Bible says God has a face. Exodus 33, Moses spoke to God face to face, which emphasizes intimacy, transparency, a person to person relationship. It was even used as a friendship relationship, as a friend speaks to a friend, person to person, face to face. That's the first body image.

God has a mouth. We are told God speaks. Scripture is God breathed. It actually has been called the mouth of God. Isn't that why we come to church Sunday after Sunday to hear the voice of God?

He has ears. Psalm 34, “His ears are open to our cries.” Psalm 130, “Hear my voice, let your ears attend to my cry for mercy.” Now His ears are different from our ears. He always listens, He's a perfect listener, He's never deaf to our cries, He never ignores our sighs, He never forgets our prayers. But again, God, the God we worship, is a living person, as real as real can be. He's our Father. And again, He doesn't have a body like you and me, but that anthropomorphic language is used to help us understand just how real and personal God is.

He has eyes. Psalm 32, “My eyes are upon you.” Psalm 34, “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous.” Psalm 139, “He knows my uprising, my down sitting; He knows my thoughts afar off.” Both His eyes and His ears tell us that God is everywhere present and He is what we call omnipresent. He sees everything, He hears everything.

The final body part God's Word uses to help us understand God is real, He's a person, He has an arm, a hand. 1 Peter 5:6, “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.” John 10, “My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” Acts 11, “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and the great number who believed turned to the Lord.” And we can say every day of our lives that God's hand of providence is controlling every situation, every event, from the least to the greatest.

And that should give us confidence, Brethren, when we come to prayer. We can go to God in terms of His ear, in terms of His eye, in terms of His hand. We could even ask God to speak to us in terms of His mouth. But we are coming to a God who is personal, real, and who's always, always willing to help us. He desires to bless us more than you desire to bless yourself. And He gives us what we need when we ask according to His will and ultimately for His glory and for our good. We can be confident that He will hear and answer those prayers.

Revelation 4:9-11,
Revelation 5:11-14,
I think we'd all agree that there are books in our Bible that are more attractive or more appealing than other books. And even preachers and pastors find themselves gravitating to certain books in the Bible. The book of Romans, for example, will always be a great magnet, I think, for many a preacher. But there's another great book that I do think people in general and pastors in particular gravitate towards, and that's the book of Revelation, and for good reasons. There's some bad reasons, but some good reasons. Two good reasons: Revelation has a dominant Christ focus, it also has a dominant church focus; a dominant Christ focus and a dominant church focus.

And it also has a dominant suffering motif and a dominant victory motif. Suffering and victory. One big reason why John wrote Revelation was to help churches to persevere in the midst of trials and difficulties. The word overcome, I'm sure you've seen it when you read through Revelation, it's used 17 times and almost every time there is a promise given to those who overcome. But the biggest way God encourages the Christian to persevere and overcome the world, the devil, and sin is by getting our hearts or our minds focused upon God's throne. That word throne is used 50 times, 50 times in the book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation, we see the Lord God and the Lamb of God on the throne. It's actually called the throne of God or the throne of the Lamb. Just like the Word of God is called the Word of God or the Word of Christ.

And the concept of throne tells us that He is the King of kings, He's the Lord of lords, He's in control. Like when Jesus was on earth, there wasn't any question I don't think among His disciples, who controlled the demons. Who controlled the destruction in terms of the hurricane or who controlled disease and death? They were always convinced, I'm sure, that it was Jesus. And the same Jesus is sitting upon a throne, exercising his omnipotent power and authority. Everything is under His control, everything. And that's why we love that word or that verse, Romans 8:28, that He controls everything, “All things work out for our good.” That means nothing, nothing in your life or in the world at large has not been purposed and decreed by God. Someone has described divine sovereignty as the pillow to rest from anxiety and fear.

And what helps us, not only that God is sovereign, but we also know from our Bibles He is perfectly wise. That means He never makes mistakes. And this is also comforting, brethren, when we think that the sovereign God is the God who is love. The book of Revelation starts off with that very note, Revelation 1:5, “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth, to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.” And that's why we can be so sure that we will overcome, not because of our strength, but because of the power of the cross, the grace of God, the blood of the Lamb. You have Revelation 12, “We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb.” Jesus won and so shall we. That's a great comfort when you get up in the morning, when you have to face life in particular and also the world at large, that we worship a sovereign King.

Psalm 1,
Notice how Psalm 1 starts off, it starts off with that word blessed. It's generally a plural word, oh, the blessedness. And that word blessed can be translated. You could pick up a number of English translations and they would translate it with the word happy. I'm almost hesitant to use that word happy because it's been so misused and misapplied. But the Puritans and Reformers, if you read them, they had no problem using the word happy. But we want to be clear, it's not the superficial happiness, but a full-orbed happiness that doesn't depend upon circumstances. And I think you could argue that the happiest or the most joy-filled men in our Bibles were our Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul, and both of those men had suffered a lot. But how do you explain the blessed man from Psalm 1? Well, let me just point out three things very briefly.

The blessed man enjoys spiritual prosperity and blessing. His spiritual prosperity is likened to a tree that bears forth fruit in season, planted by rivers of water. In other words, it's not a wasted life. It's a life that will count and be rewarded for all eternity.
The second thing we can say about this man is his durability. Verse 3, “His leaf does not wither.” You could say he's a man of perseverance, steadfastness, true faith endures.
And then the third thing that explains him better than anything else is he's a man of piety. And if you want to explain his prosperity, his long-term durability, why is that even possible? Well, it's because of who he is, he's a man of piety.

And verses 1 and 2 capture his godliness or his piety by way of a negative and a positive. And he starts off with the negative. And we could put it into one word, this man practices or has a discipline of rejection. There's a rejection of evil in every form and in every way. He does not listen to the counsel of the ungodly; he does not stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers. He's countercultural, you could say. And Paul picks up this same concept, you could argue, in Romans 12 when he says he does not conform to the world.

And then you have the opposite of that, the positive of piety or the positive of holiness. And I think you could capture it here, at least from one perspective, by the one word meditation. And this is not the typical kind of meditation that the world often talks about, this is a biblical meditation. In other words, he makes good use of his Bible; he diligently is searching and applying his Bible to all of life.

Going back to the past Lord’s Day we were reminded in the Sunday School hour when Dr. Ferguson said,

And he gives that explanation of that figure of speech, 

He made this very point,

That is the same truth Paul echoes in Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”

The point that Dr. Ferguson made, I thought it was very effective, he said,

He used the word anemic which means lacking in strength, energy, force and effectiveness. Anemic, that is the modern Christianity of our day and he compared it to the Christianity of the past. You could call it a robust Christianity that was amplified in the lives of the Puritans and the Reformers. Then he referenced John Bunyan; it was Spurgeon who said,

And Spurgeon knew what he was talking about, he read Pilgrim’s Progress a hundred times, he started when he was age six.

Going back to the blessed man of Psalm 1, all Christians should be growing, and that will require brethren, it will demand that we make good use and regular exposure to our Bibles privately and publicly. I trust every Christian wants to be a growing Christian. That is one of the things Paul would pray when he prayed for the churches. He was excited, he was thrilled when he found that they were growing in faith and in love. So we should pray for that in light of every time we hear the word of God, every time we pick up our Bibles, “Lord, help me to grow in greater likeness to your Son Jesus. Help me to put on Christ and put off the old man.”

Nehemiah 1:4-11,
We see that Nehemiah is a man of prayer. We read of his prayers once he has heard of the condition of the walls and the people in Jerusalem. So this is the prayer of Nehemiah. The prayer begins with acknowledgement of who God is, that God is a great and an awesome God. And as we pray to God, it is always good for us and right for us to remember who it is that we're coming before: God who is the God who is sovereign and in control. His greatness and His might and His power are beyond our understanding. And it is such a privilege that we have to come into His presence and to pray to Him. But He is also a God who is faithful.  Nehemiah says, “God who keeps covenant and steadfast love.” So here Nehemiah is reminded of the faithfulness and the promises of God. And so when we pray, it's always good for us to remember that our God is a faithful God who keeps covenant and who loves us with steadfast love. But then there's also the responsibility of the people of God to be faithful to our responsibilities to obey. He says, “For those who love Him and keep the commandments.”

So again, here he knows that he is responsible to be obedient to God's word, and he confesses his sin. And so part of our prayer should be confession of sin. So we see an acknowledgment of who God is, a reminder of the steadfastness and faithfulness of God, but also an acknowledgment of our sin.

And then just praying for a specific request. Here he is asking for the Lord that He might cause the king to be attentive and to give wisdom to the servant as he prays. Nehemiah prayed when he heard the problems of the people in Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 2, we read again of him praying when he is before the king. And then throughout the book of Nehemiah for those who are familiar with it, you know that he is a man that is constantly in prayer. This is a good reminder for us to be in prayer to our great and awesome God, a God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments. So maybe that would be encouraging to us as we come to pray.

1 Peter 2:2,
2 Peter 3:18,
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” 

Peter reminds us, in a good way, that there are no perfect disciples. We are all imperfect and we always are in need to grow in grace. And I remember someone saying, 

And Peter needed to grow in grace. He writes these two short letters and he does put a strong emphasis upon suffering, but also upon growth. And Peter grew and he wants these new Christians to grow as well. I think he wants to let them know what he learned and that they also, like him, need to grow. But 1 Peter 2:2, notice the growth dynamic that Peter puts focus on here, “Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” And if you turn to 2 Peter 3, again, the same emphasis comes through, this growth dynamic. He wants these Christians to grow. The last thing Peter tells them, the last thing he could say, it's on his heart and mind, is that these Christians are suffering, but he wants them to grow in the midst of their suffering. 2 Peter 3:18, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

I think we would all agree that the two most influential and successful men in our Bible, at least from a New Testament perspective, would be Peter and Paul. Peter is mentioned some 50 times, maybe up to 60 times in the book of Acts; in those first 10 chapters Peter comes into focus again and again. In the latter part of Acts, Paul is mentioned, sometimes named Saul, at least 120 times. So both men are very prominent in the book of Acts. But no question, Paul and Peter were dominant preachers and leaders in the early church.

But going back to Peter and the original twelve, when you read through the gospels, whenever the twelve men are mentioned, Peter is always mentioned first. Which indicates again his unique leadership. But if you study the four gospels, just go through them, you would find that Peter, in many different places, stumbles, falls into sin. And you could come away thinking the man didn't really come to a place in his life where he was stable, a man of character, unless you had the book of Acts, and also the epistles that he wrote. I think they testify to the man's growth in grace. He grew, he was immature, at times impulsive, a kind of a no-it-all individual. Someone has described him as, (I think it was Ted Donnelly),

At least four times he argued, “Who's the greatest?” Remember? Even in the upper room the night that Jesus opened up His heart to them. He's the only apostle, to my knowledge, who is rebuked by Jesus both publicly and privately. But here's the wonderful part of his biography, the man grew. He became a useful, influential servant of God. And there's three areas, I think major areas, where he grew.

I think we can go back to what even transpired in John 21 to think of those two fish miracles. The one when he was first called to be a fisherman, Luke 5, and then John 21, when Jesus comes to him again and to the disciples out in the boat, and He fills that net full of fish. And I think it was for Peter as well, primarily. Peter needed to be reminded that Christ can fill the nets when he can't. Despite his human skill, his expertise, that fisherman couldn't catch fish, not until Christ came along and spoke and performed a miracle. And Jesus was showing Peter by those two fish miracles, “Without me, you can do nothing.” And Peter needed to know that in terms of future ministry, he needed to know he had to depend upon the Lord.

And when he preaches that first big sermon on the day of Pentecost, I'm sure he's thinking, praying, but has this in the back of his mind, “I can do nothing without Christ; without Christ, I can do nothing.” And Christ essentially fills the net with human fish, 3,000 people are saved on the day of Pentecost. But that's a good thing for Peter and all of us to remember; when you witness, when you teach, when you preach, even when we pray, we are in desperate need of the sufficient grace of Christ. “Without me, you can do nothing.” He says we cannot. It's a grace alone, Christ alone salvation.

Second great lesson Peter had to learn, he needed to put on the grace of humility. Jesus exposed his self-confidence in that upper room. He warned them about the rooster, it will crow, and as soon as it does you will have denied Me three times. So Peter foolishly trusted in the arm of flesh. It's interesting when Peter writes his two epistles, he deals with the pride issue. 1 Peter 5:5, “God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.” And I guarantee you, Peter knew that by his own bitter experience that he fell into sin because of his own pride. God resists the proud. So Peter does become a changed man. He grows. We know that from his epistles. We know that even from some of the changes that took place in those gospels. But he learned about Christ's all-sufficiency by those two fish miracles. He learned about his pride and the need for humility by his fall.

There's something else Peter needed to learn. He needed to learn about the devil's power and the nature of spiritual warfare. Remember Jesus warned him, “The devil is going to sift you like wheat.” And the devil uses that little servant girl in front of that charcoal fire where he's standing and points him out and the guy caves, he implodes. Peter learns something about the devil's power and seduction. That explains why Peter, again, why in one of his letters, he warns about the devil. 1 Peter 5:8, “Be alert, sober-minded; your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

But again, as weak as Peter was, as many times as he stumbled and fell, he grew in grace. The proud fisherman became a humble shepherd. And it should encourage us, all of us, when we put our trust in Christ, we begin the Christian life, but we should always be growing. We should be praying that we would grow and pray for others that they would grow. What do we pray? We can pray that we grow more humble, that we grow more loving, that we grow more wise in terms of the devil's devices and stratagems.

Thankfully, Peter's sin failures did not totally negate or keep him from growing. But we need to pray that we grow in grace. That's a strong emphasis in Paul's letter. He's very encouraged when he sees God's people growing in grace, growing in faith, growing in love. So we should pray that even in light of Peter for stronger faith, greater love for our Lord, wiser, more alert when it comes to the devil and his tactics.

Philippians 4:8,
I think if we all did a careful check over people who were the most influential in our lives, we would find that they were Christians, and generally Christians whose lives have been distinguished by joy and thanksgiving. You could put it this way, a joyful, thankful Christian is the most attractive kind of Christian and the most influential. And I think an argument could be made from our Bibles that the happiest person or the most joyful person next to the Lord Jesus Christ was the Apostle Paul. And unquestionably, Paul was a thankful, joyful man. You go right to the back end of his life, reading again from the book of Philippians, “I have learned to be content in whatever state that I am in.” And if you read through his letters, they are suffused with thanksgiving and joy. He puts that matter of thanksgiving before us at least four or five times. Philippians 4:6, “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17,18, “Pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks.” Colossians 2:7, and here he picks up the word abounding, he uses that word “abounding in thanksgiving.” What does that mean? It's not a drip, drip kind of leaky faucet kind of thanksgiving, but it's more like an outflow of a fountain, maybe like the Niagara Falls. It means it's pervasive. It should be. It was constant or it should be in our lives.

And then the matter of joy, just that word joy is used 16 times in the book of Philippians alone. That's why it's called the joy epistle, 16 times. Paul could rejoice when he knew Christians were praying for him, Philippians 1:18. In Philippians 1:25, just a few verses later, he rejoices that the gospel is being preached even by men who were doing it for the wrong reasons, but he's rejoicing because it's going out to the world. He's not happy necessarily with their motives, but he's happy or rejoicing because it's being spread. And he clearly wants us as Christians to rejoice always despite our personalities. “Well, that's not who I am.” No, we have to rejoice always despite our circumstances. Philippians 4:4, again, go to that last chapter, “Rejoice always, again I say rejoice.” Another good description or example of Paul, a man who was a joyful Christian, 2 Corinthians 7:4, just listen to what he says here, “I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.” You hear that? “In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.” No question, his life was wonderfully suffused and distinguished by joy and thanksgiving.

And what's again, quite amazing, is when you think of how difficult his life was. In 2 Corinthians 12, we get a thumbnail sketch of his suffering. He picks up that word danger eight times. Dangers everywhere, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers of his own countrymen, false brethren, dangers of robbers. And then he gives twelve or so different kinds of sufferings: beatings five times, 39 lashings, beaten with rods, stoned, often in prison, three shipwrecks, hungry, thirsty, cold, naked. He also had a heavy burden or a spiritual weight in terms of the churches, “I have the care of all the churches.” And then add to this one, if he hasn't had enough already, he has a thorn in the flesh, whatever it was. We don't know exactly what it was. It could have been physical, it could have been just relational, but it was chronic. That's why he uses the figure of thorn. It was a chronic problem, perhaps even debilitating.

And here's what we have to get a hold of. We never find Paul, never once complaining; never once, never once do you find him grumbling or complaining. Let's be honest, our trials and difficulties can elicit bad attitudes of worrying, fretting, and complaining. Plus, we live in a world that is full of sorrow and pain. The mass media constantly pours negativity into our ears 24/7.

But how then, how then as Christians, do we maintain and cultivate a joyful thanksgiving? That's a good question. Well, we can't do it on our own, but we need supernatural help. Even that word joy is a word used to describe one of the fruits of the spirit. So it's a supernatural joy. We don't have it by nature. We're not born with that joy. It's a Spirit given grace. But Paul also realized when he was suffering, he needed the grace of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ's grace, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

But we can't think that we just sort of sit back and have Christ do everything. We have to be active, we're not passive. And there's a specific challenge he gives to all of us. Again, the back end of Philippians reminds me of the words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones,

In the book of Philippians, Paul shares with us, I think you could even call it, the big secret to joy and thanksgiving as far as our responsibility and our duty. What is it? Think. Philippians 4:8, think, meditate. Here's what he wants us to do, call it mind strategy, this will help us swim against the powerful winds in the worldly currents of bitterness, anger, cynicism, suspicion, and mistrust. Think and meditate. Here's what he says, six of them.


If we practice that every day, you think we would enjoy at least a higher level of thanksgiving and joy?

 Just think of who you are and what you have in Christ. Just think of who you are. You are the most blessed person on planet earth. Jesus begins that Sermon on the Mount with nine Beatitudes. They all start off with that word blessed, some translate it happy or blessedness plural. We have that word used nine times. But here's just a little sampling of gospel blessings that should help us be more thankful to promote our own joy.

1. Christian, rejoice, be thankful that you are a Christian. Be joyful, thankful that you have Christ as your Savior.  
2. Be joyful and thankful that all your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. That word justification that we've heard about recently. You are accepted in Christ. You have a perfect righteousness.
3. Be thankful and rejoice. You are adopted into the family of God, you are a child of God. “Behold what manner of love that we are the children of God.”
4. Be thankful, rejoice that there's no separation from Christ in this life or in the life to come. No separation, no condemnation, no separation. 
5. Be thankful, rejoice that one day you will have a perfect, glorified body and soul. Perfect, glorified body and soul. 
6. Be thankful, rejoice that during the whole Christian pilgrimage, you have a God who listens, a God who cares, a God who loves, a God who will protect you every step of the way. 
7. Be thankful and rejoice that you have a sovereign God who is working all things for your good. All things, not some things, all things for your good. He can even use the bad things, the negative things in our lives for our good. That's something to rejoice in. 
8. Be thankful and rejoice that you hear the word of God regularly and you have Bibles to read. 
9. This ties right back to what you heard this past Sunday here at Grace. Be thankful for what we heard this past Sunday by the ministry of the word of God and by His servants.

Colossians 2:6, 7,
As those who have received Christ Jesus the Lord, those that have been united to Christ, those who have been saved through faith in Christ, as we walk in Christ, we should always abound in thanksgiving. Of all the people in the world, we should be people marked by a spirit of thanksgiving. We should abound, we're told, in thanksgiving. The word ‘abound’ is indication that there are no boundaries to our thanksgiving, there are no limits to our thanksgiving. It should be something that just overflows from us. So I just wanted to reflect upon reasons, so many reasons we have for giving thanks to God. And I wanted to share a few that came to mind as I was reflecting upon this passage today.

First, we should give thanks to God for the person of God, for who He is. We should give thanks that He is a sovereign God who is in control over all things. That He is a faithful God. He never lies, He keeps His promises, He is a just God, He has a perfect righteousness, and He judges all the earth. And as we're told in Genesis, “Shall not the judge of all the world do right?” So we can be thankful for that. And we can also be thankful for His mercy, His care, His love, His comfort, His mercy to undeserving sinners.

And that brings us to our second main reason for giving thanks. We should give thanks for our salvation. Jesus Christ died for us unworthy sinners and by His death, we have been forgiven, forgiven of our sin. We no longer face the wrath of God. We have been reconciled to God. We have peace with God. We are no longer His enemies. But we have been adopted- think of it- we have been adopted into the family of God. We have access to God and so many privileges we have because of that, great and abounding privileges. And we also have the promise, the promise of an inheritance, the hope of heaven, eternal life.

Another reason for giving thanks, we should give thanks for what I call the general goodness of God. Just giving thanks for life, for breath. Each day that we wake up, it's just the mercy of God, is it not? We should give thanks for the health that He has given us, sustaining us. And even in times of sickness and affliction, He gives us grace, grace to endure. God is good and He provides us food and water. He provides for all of our needs. God gives us work. He gives us the ability to think clearly. He gives us gifts, gifts that we might be able to use for His good and for the glory of His kingdom. And He gives us relationships, the joys and the blessings of having families, parents, spouses, children. And He gives us friends, friends to help us and to strengthen us in our lives. So we should give thanks for the person of God, for who He is.

We should give thanks for our salvation. We should give thanks for the general goodness of God, but also we should give thanks for what I call the special goodness of God that we see in His answers to prayer; prayers that we raise up for big things in life, for the salvation of loved ones, for health or the healing of a loved one. But also we should give thanks for the little things. The little answers to prayer that God does. Just the simple things such as the sun shining on a given day; for success at an event that takes place in our lives. What goodness of God, even in these little things. And God's goodness we see in answering our prayers. There are answers that oftentimes rises above and beyond what we can ask or think.

But then also we should give thanks to God for the church, that we are a member of a church, God's people. And we can give thanks for the people of God, for those who are faithful, for those who serve one another and others. We can give thanks for the church where there's the ministry of the truth. For the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. It's the place where God's word is opened up and proclaimed week in and week out. It's proclaimed such that we can learn and so that we can be rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith. And we can give thanks for our brothers and sisters in Christ, those who encourage us, those who exhort us, those who stir us up to love and good works.

Well, these are just but a few of the many, many abounding reasons for us to give thanks to God. We should always, always be ready to give thanks to God, for God is good.

Romans 5:5-8,
Romans 8:38, 39,
Ephesians 3:17-19,
On Saturday, we had our Men's Conference, and the subject was a Christian worldview. And that's simply “How does a Christian think about all of life?” That language comes from Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970’s or 1980’s. But before anyone was talking about a Christian worldview, you could say that the Puritans were practicing it. Dr. Packer, in a book on the Puritans called A Quest for Godliness, (one of the best books overview in terms of what made the Puritans the Puritans), he says, 

And the Puritan Christian worldview began with the knowledge of God. The Christian Puritan worldview was shaped by the God we worship, the glory of God, the sovereignty of God, and the whole being of God. If we don't start there, if we don't start with a high view of God, then our Christian worldview is going to be rather shaky, like a kite in the wind. And it wasn't just an intellectual view of God, but a saving knowledge of God. So the Puritans always had a Christ-centered focus. A true knowledge of God necessitates the love of God, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son.” Romans 8, it's a love that predestines, calls, redeems, converts, sanctifies, and ultimately will glorify every true saint of God. Quoting from Packer,

Fully, unambiguously revealed at the cross.

And going back to the preaching of Pastor Bart Carlson Sunday morning, he dealt with this matter of loving Jesus. He started off with the fact that Jesus loves us. That's something we need to constantly be thinking about and meditating upon. Romans 5, (he referenced that), the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And we can be wonderfully sure and secure in that love, Romans 8:38, 39, “Nothing can separate us from that love of Christ.” Nothing in this world, nothing in the world to come. We never, ever have to worry that Christ will ever, ever stop loving us from the beginning to the end, from eternity to eternity.

And we should always be praying our love for Him, a felt sense of love for Him. I think that was what Pastor Carlson emphasized, he referred to a fresh, increasing love for our Savior. And let's be honest, that's probably where all of us can struggle, go astray. We can fall into a coldness, a lukewarmness, even a deadness. And you have that strong warning, I think he started the sermon off on that strong warning, in the last days where iniquity abounds, the love of many shall grow cold. Yes, you can have a full head, but you can have a cold heart, disaffected.

So to help us grow in our love for Christ, what do we do? Well, we meditate upon His love for us. That's where we have got to start, it starts with Him. He's the great initiator. We love him because He first loved us. And the more we see His love, the more that will refresh, energize, and compel our love. Why do we come to the Lord's table regularly? Well, to grow in our love for Christ as we contemplate His love for us. In that last text that was read earlier in Ephesians 3:17-19 where Paul talks about Christ's love, he talks about it from four different dimensions; its length, its breadth, its depth, and its height. And then he says, “It passes understanding.” In other words, no matter how much you study the love of Christ, no matter how much you meditate upon the love of Christ, no matter how many sermons you hear about the love of Christ, we will never, ever be able to exhaust its meaning or fully comprehend its breadth, height, depth, or width.

And as we come to prayer tonight, let's even pray for more love to Christ, more love to Christ. That wouldn't be a bad prayer to pray every time you pray, “Lord, give me more love for you, a felt sense of that love.”

Luke 23:46, “He breathed His last.”

Breathing. It is something that everyone understands. It's something everybody realizes is a necessity. We are dependent on breathing to live. As I was thinking about breathing, some of the things we know about breathing, we know that we breathe continually, we breathe every moment of every day. It's not something that we just do occasionally. It's not something that we just do for a brief period intensely and then stop.

We breathe constantly, regularly, steadily. We know that we must breathe to receive oxygen, oxygen that we need to live. We breathe continually. But at times, we might find that we need to breathe more deeply. I think all of us have experienced this perhaps at times after physical exertion or stress. We experience this need to draw in deep breaths, filling our lungs with air. We might breathe intentionally, seeking to bring in as much air as possible. And we do so recognizing that we have a greater need at that moment for oxygen, oxygen that we get only by breathing.

But then there are also other times in life when we might find that our breathing is very difficult. We have difficulty that perhaps comes in response to something that might be restricting us in some way or blocking our ability to breathe. Have you ever found yourself struggling to breathe? You are, in a way at times, almost even needing to gasp for breath. And you find it urgent, a desperate need to breathe. It's not an experience that any of us ever want to have, but at times I think some of us have felt that.

So I suggest that prayer is like breathing. We need to pray continually throughout each and every day of our life. We are absolutely dependent on God, and we demonstrate that dependence on God to sustain our lives as we pray to God. We pray to Him constantly. We pray to Him to receive the help that we need in every aspect of our lives. So certainly we pray continually.

But in addition to having a heart in which we are constant in prayer to God, I think we also find that there are times in which we need to have a more focused, a more extended time of prayer. Life can be busy. At times we feel as though we're running like a mile a minute, going from one task to another task, scrambling as it were, just to keep up. And then another task comes, and it seems that it never ends and the responsibilities just keep coming and coming. It can be overwhelming. And in the midst of a hectic life, we must not neglect to pray, to set aside time when we can slow down, and as it were, take a breath, take a deep breath and pray, pray to God for help.

But there are also times, seasons of life when we may feel our weakness, our helplessness, our inability; or when we might be facing a significant challenge or trial, or when we're praying for others who are facing or suffering through trials. And once again at times like these, we need to set aside time, time to pray to God, pray intentionally, with at times an intensity and a fervency as we acknowledge our complete and our absolute dependence on Him. As we confess our desperate need of Him and His strength in times of need like we might be experiencing. And we pray to God for wisdom. We pray to God for grace. We pray to God for guidance. We pray to God for direction in our lives. And as we do, we pray trusting in God, trusting in Him because of who He is, and trusting in Him because of the promises that He has given us in His Word.

But also I would say as we pray, there's another time, another season, we need to be careful that we must not ever allow any difficulty that we might experience stop us from praying. Although we may feel that our prayers are restricted or somehow blocked, they may seem like they're not getting through to God. Perhaps it may seem that God is not answering our prayers. We continue to pray, but He's not hearing, He's not listening. But in times of these, we need to persevere. We must never give up. We must cry out to God and keep pleading to God, pleading to Him for His mercy and His grace, trusting in Him and knowing that when He answers, the timing of His answers is the right and the most perfect time. But also know that His answer for us is for our good and for His glory, even if that answer is no.

So as we come to pray, I would just suggest that when we breathe, may this be a reminder of our need to pray, to pray to God as we acknowledge our dependence on God in everything in our life. But then coming back to where we started, as we think of where Christ breathed His last; when we pray, may we remember that we only have this privilege, this great and amazing privilege, because Jesus went willingly to the cross where He suffered and He died and He breathed His last, so that we might be forgiven of our sins, so that we might have eternal life, the breath of life as it were, and be adopted into the family of God, so that we might have access through prayer to our great God, our God who provides for our every need. And surely God will grant us peace and help in the midst of our times of distress.

2 Peter 1:3, 4,
When we think of prayer we should always come back to the question, “What makes prayer, prayer?” “What makes Christian prayer different from every other kind of prayer?”
There are three things, that came to my mind today, in terms of why Christians pray differently and what makes our prayer so different. There are three P words: person, promises and perseverance.

The most important word about prayer is the person that we are praying to. Not just the person who is praying, that is us, but the person we are praying to. If we are going to have an attitude of reverence and humility, if we are going to hallow His name, we are going to have to understand who He is. A.W. Tozer had a great emphasis upon worship. Here is what he said, 

I remember Dr. J. I. Packard in that classic book, Knowing God, said,

He said that about 50 or 60 years ago, but we are certainly not the generation of the God magnifiers. That is what we should be, God magnifiers. And to help magnify God in our thinking and our praying here are three more words that are helpful; His sovereignty, how big is God; His majesty; the doctrine of the Trinity. Those are three great doctrines to remind us just how big God is.

Sovereignty means He has absolute, ultimate, unrivaled, universal control or reign over all things. That means there is nothing that happens in your life, in my life, that is not under His sovereign control. Romans 8:28, a very favorite text, “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.” Ephesians 1, “He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church.” So yes, from the littlest of things, to the biggest of things, the greatest of sorrows, the greatest of trials, the greatest of joys and gifts. All of those things come under the sovereign purpose, will and control of God. When we come to God need to remind ourselves of how big He is, that word sovereignty helps us.

Majesty. Psalm 93, “The Lord reigns, He is robed in majesty.” That word majesty comes from the Latin that means greatness. “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” Majesty has to do with His unrivaled authority. It also has to do with His glorious attributes or excellencies.

Trinity. In a Biblical context we worship a three person God; Father, Son and Holy Ghost. So here is the God we come to, a God who is sovereign, a God who is majestic and a God who is triune. There is no one greater than Him, no one to whom we can compare.

In 2 Peter 3, he describes the promises, divine promises here as exceedingly great or precious. The same word precious is used in the book of Hebrews when he talks about marriage as honorable. That word is precious. The marriage is honorable, precious. And these promises are precious, but he also describes them as exceedingly great. How are they great? They apply to everything in your life, any situation you face. Promises when you are awake, when you are afraid, promises when you are suffering from high levels of anxiety, promises when you sin, promises of sanctification, of growth in holiness, promises to strengthen you, promises of the resurrection, promises of Christ coming back again, promises of a new heaven and a new earth. So when we come to prayer we make good use of the promises of God, at least we should.

Jesus makes that point in Matthew 7 when He gives us those imperatives to keep on knocking, to keep on asking and seeking. Then He taught a whole parable in Luke 18 on the persevering widow. She is set before us as a woman who persevered and we are to persevere as well. The Apostle Paul brings that matter of perseverance up in at least four of his epistles.


And what does that mean practically? You are praying all the time. You keep on praying in the midst of trials. When you are in trials it is easy to become disaffected, you have to pray to God to help you, to stay the course, to suffer well. You can be praying in the midst of trials and you could also be praying in everyday life in terms of your graces. You want them to grow, you don’t want them to shrivel. You can be praying in light of your marriages. You can keep on praying if you have had a struggle in your marriage, you can keep on praying that God would make it stronger, that God would make it a Christian marriage, a gospel marriage. You can keep on praying for your neighbors and for your friends. Maybe just in terms of loving your neighbors, loving your wife, loving your husband, loving your children. We can keep on praying for the unconverted. We can keep on praying for those who are dead in trespasses and sins.

So let’s approach God’s throne of grace with these three P words in mind to help us think: what are we doing? why are we coming? The person, the promise and the perseverance.

Matthew 6:5-15,
This is the Sermon on the Mount, and just a little broad overview. Jesus is teaching us about prayer. That's really the great discipline that He focuses upon here more than any other, but he puts it in a contrast, in terms of negatives and positives. Remember, a pastor is saying, “If you're going to preach biblically, you have to preach discriminatory preaching, or you have to preach definitively. If you tell that a cow was black, you also have to tell it's not white. In other words, you have to let people know there's a discrimination. And you see that with Christ. He presses issues by way of negatives and positives.

There was a book that we went through in the Adult Sunday school class, I think it's titled, Eighteen Words by Dr. J.I. Packer. And he focuses on different biblical words and the importance of those individual words. He starts off by saying that, just like keys open doors, or keys open windows, key words open minds, and they can open hearts. So God has what you would call key words, a vocabulary sprinkled throughout His word. And some are more important than others, obviously, but they're like anchor bolts that they can fasten us in terms of our understanding the truth of God, and help stabilize us in terms of thinking and living. There are many, many different key words in our Bibles that you could go back to: the keyword election, for example, justification, sanctification, glorification. Those are key words, key words with respect to who God is, with respect to who Christ is. But if I ask this question, “What are two very key words when it comes to prayer if you're going to pray biblically?” They begin with G. You know what they are? Glory and grace. Think about glory and grace. The Lord's Prayer could be shaped by those two words and concepts.

The first word is Glory. Look again at the first petition Jesus gives us, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” That's about God's glory. Jesus is telling us that God's glory is to be supreme, or the ultimate aim when we come to pray. The next two petitions fall under that main point, or petition. What are they, in terms of God's glory? “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” God's kingdom displays God's glory, and when God's will is done, God's glory is manifested. And wasn't that the problem with the Pharisees? They got it so wrong when it came to praying. What were they praying for? Not God's glory, for their own glory, self-praise. Jesus says here, “They love to stand and pray that they be seen by others.” They prayed for self-praise, human recognition, personal reputation, and not God's honor and praise. And remember that Pharisee in the parable of Luke 18, Jesus let us hear His prayer when He goes into the temple. What does he pray? Well, He thanks God that "I'm not like other men," but then he begins to really brag on himself: I tithe, I fast. His prayer was self-promotion, self-exaltation. And if we're going to pray how Jesus taught us to pray, then we have to start with God's glory.

And the second word is grace. Grace means I deserve nothing. Everything we receive from God is grace to us, freely given. So when we make petitions or requests asking God for daily bread, for daily forgiveness, for daily protection, lead us not into temptation, we can be assured of answers because of God's grace, God's mercy. Not because we deserve it, it's always grace given. Every gift you receive is grace-given. The ultimate reason why we pray? For His glory. And the reason we pray, receive temporal and spiritual blessing is because of grace, common grace and special grace. Someone put it this way,

John Newton, in that famous hymn, Amazing Grace,

And if there was one man who got it, who got it straight and got it right, it was the Apostle Paul. Think about him. When he thought of God's glory, what do you hear him saying? He never lost sight of God's glory, and never lost sight of God's grace. Romans 11:36, “To Him be glory forever.” That's at the very back end of all of that further exposition of what the gospel is, for God's glory. And then, in 1 Corinthians 10, “Do all for the glory of God.” And think of his letters. Every one of his letters begins, almost every one of them begins and finishes on a note of grace. He never forgot, “I am what I am by the grace of God.”

So as we come to prayer tonight, let's remember The Lord's Prayer, it’s shaped by God's glory and by God's grace. We are to magnify or hallow God's name, realizing whatever gifts we receive, we don't deserve any gift, whatever we receive, it's because of grace, and say, let's look back to the past Lord's Day, think of how we can glorify God in terms of who He is, and what He's done.

Matthew 22:35,
Jesus is asked a question by a lawyer, and it wasn't a sincere question, but an attempt to trap Him or stir up controversy, and Jesus fires back, you can note that very quickly, no hesitation. And He tells us that we are to love God with all our minds, with all our hearts and souls. But clearly, He wants us to make good use of our minds.

And that's something that you find stressed in the Bible. There's no religion like Christianity that puts such a stress upon doctrine and the use of the mind or the intellect like the Christian faith. And you'll find words as you go through, even look at the book of Proverbs, in words like wisdom, knowledge, think, understanding, ponder, meditate. Paul, just in the book of Romans alone uses that word ‘mind’ six times. So God wants us to make good use of our minds.

But God also wants us to make good use of our emotions. We are to love Him with our hearts and our souls. And again, if you read through your Bible, think of the Psalms, all kinds of emotions come to the fore: sorrow, love, delight, grief, joy, gladness, fear, etc. And I was just thinking, if you go back to the Lord's Day past, it struck me that all three messages dealt with some degree with respect to our emotions. Pastor Calvin Walden dealt with those three commands in 1 Thessalonians 5:16,17. What's the very first one? He started with, ‘Rejoice,’ that's an emotional word. Rejoice always, and then he made the point that this rejoicing is anchored in unchanging realities of salvation, it flows from our relationship with Christ, His work and His promises.

And as Christians, we could also put ourselves on the other end of the emotional spectrum. There's joy, but also sorrow, grief, and depression. And that was emphasized loud and clear by our brother Tim Kooy, in the Sunday school hour, as he opened up Psalm 42. Twice in that Psalm he reminded us that question is asked, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” And again, some describe that as a time when he's in a state of spiritual depression. And why is he depressed? Well, it's not the ordinary kind of depression, he's separated from God's presence and also from the worship of God.

And then in the AM service, we dealt with Jesus from a John 11 perspective. And death overshadows, you could say, that whole chapter, the death of Lazarus, and Jesus puts his emotions on display. “He wept,” John 11:35, it's called the shortest verse in the Bible, “He wept.” And then He also expresses a high level of anger. That language there, “He was stirred or groaned within.” Again, different translations, but it could really be translated, “He was angry, intensely angry, ferociously angry.” So you see that emotion coming through with Jesus there as He stands in front of His friend's tomb. And again, you go back to the Psalms and you find all kinds of emotions in the Psalms, in the Gospels, and also the Epistles.

We come face-to-face with emotions on either side of the emotional spectrum, right? Christians can be weeping and rejoicing at one and the same time. The Apostle Paul, a great, profound thinker, but he also expressed deep feelings of sorrow and joy. Listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians 6:10, “Sorrowful, yet rejoicing.” Sorrowful, yet rejoicing. So he had deep sadness over the hardships and trials that he faced. There was a lot of broken relationships in his life, a lot of persecution, a lot of sorrow, it followed him almost everywhere; yet, he's always rejoicing.

A Christian — this might sound a little bit strange to your ears — but a Christian, I think we could argue, should be the happiest and most joyful person on planet Earth. Right? But we could also be the saddest and the most sorrowful people on planet Earth. Rejoicing always, celebrating the mercies of God, the blessings of God, the promises of God, the future hope of resurrection. But like Jesus and like the Apostle Paul and like everyone we know, we never escape the groanings of this present world. We never escape the sorrows of the graveyard or the coffin. And Jesus and the Apostle Paul also wept over lost sinners. And so our prayers should be mixed, right? If they're balanced prayers, they should be mixed with grief, sorrow, lament, you find a lot of those prayers in the Psalms, lament, but also joy and cheerfulness.

As we go to prayer, let's pray that God would help us to grieve over our own sin, to grieve over sin we see in other people; “Blessed are they that mourn;” but also rejoice in the great salvation we have in Christ. And again, let's go back over what we heard in the Sunday School hour, morning and evening worship. There's much to rejoice in and also grieve over in the suffering of loved ones, the loss of loved ones, unconverted friends and family members.

Matthew 6:9-13,Luke chapter 11:1,2,
When we come to prayer meeting, we often focus upon prayer. And we should. Prayer is a great privilege, and just like in every area of our sanctification, we can always grow. I think prayer is one of those disciplines where we can never say we've got it all together, or that we don't need to grow, or that we have arrived. Probably any area that Christians struggle with the most is when it comes to prayer, and I think most Christians would agree that that is the case. That explains, I think to some degree, why there is so much instruction in our Bible and so many encouragements in our Bible when it comes to prayer, even from the book of Acts. We've been going through the book of Acts in the Sunday school hour, and those two great disciplines come through again and again. I don't know how many times, but well over 30, 40, 50 times, the whole matter of praying and preaching. Those are the two great pillars, you could say, of the Christian life and the church life, praying and preaching.

And no doubt the early church learned to pray from our Lord's only example. He was the perfect man of prayer, and even here, they come and ask Him, “Teach us how to pray.” At least eleven different occasions in Luke's Gospel alone we find Jesus praying. But when you come to Matthew 6 and Luke 11, these are two distinct separate occasions. They're not the same occasion, one is earlier than the other. Probably in all likelihood, Matthew 6 comes before Luke 11, and the first time He teaches them how to pray. It's the Sermon on the Mount. We know exactly where it is, it's on the mountainside. But the second time, in a certain place, we don't know exactly where He was, but His disciples come to Him and ask or request, “Teach us how to pray.”

And we should never grow tired of asking Jesus to teach us how to pray. How to pray more fervently, how to pray more boldly, how to pray more faithfully, how to pray more consistently, how to pray more perseveringly; and how to pray more God-centered prayers as opposed to me-centered prayers. It's not wrong to pray for yourself, but there is a difference between a God-centered prayer and a me-centered prayer. And again, to help us how to pray, Jesus is the perfect example. But if you ask Jesus, “What is the greatest, biggest concern or burden when He prayed?” What would He have said? Well, I think the prayers that He teaches tell us. How does He start things off? “Hallowed be your name.”

This is what Jesus desired more than anything else, that God's name be honored, revered, praised, adored. Every time we come to prayer, that should really be on the top of the list, God's glory. Nothing more important than God's glory. More important than our needs, more important than our wants, more important than our cares. We are to bring our cares to Jesus, our needs, our burdens to God. I'm not saying we're not, but this is more important.

And it struck me, even when Jesus prays that last prayer with His disciple friends in the upper room, what is it shaped by more than anything else? God's glory. God's glory. He asked the Father to glorify Him, but He also asked that the Father be glorified. He uses that word, glory, seven times in the upper room discourse. Seven times. Seven is sometimes called the perfect number. Seven times. John 17:1, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.” Same chapter, verse 4, “I glorified You on earth having accomplished the work that You gave me to do.” Verse 5, “Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.” Verse 10, again, John 17, “All mine are Yours, and Yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” Verse 24, “That they might see My glory that You have given Me.”

When I thought of Elijah this past week, why is Elijah on Mount Carmel? And why is Elijah on Mount Sinai? God's glory. God's glory. The worship of God. He climbs two mountains, you could say, because this is his burden, God’s glory. And that should be our greatest burden. Why do we want sinners saved? God’s glory. Why do we want to grow in grace? God's glory. Why do we want our marriages to be strong? God's glory. Why do we preach sermons? Why do we listen to sermons? God's glory. Why do we teach Sunday school classes? God's glory. Why do we take care of our bodies? God’s glory. Remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether we eat or drink, (pretty mundane activities, we do that every day), whether we eat or drink, do to the glory of God.” Think of that. The most mundane activities of everyday life, eating and drinking we are to glorify God. When it comes to prayer that arguably is one of the greatest, greatest activities, the most important activity that we can engage in. And we should have this on our minds more than anything else, “Hallowed be Your Name." Hallowed be Your Name.

And I hope that's why you're here, to glorify God. We want to give Him the attention, give Him the praise. I think you could say this about most people, “Every sinner wants to be famous.” Every sinner says, “Look at me. Aren’t I great? Aren't I wonderful?” But if we're truly Christians, we want to make Him famous. We want to make Him famous. We want the world to see how great our God is, how good He is, how loving He is. There's no one like Him. So let's hallow God's name.

Matthew 24:3-14,
This is part of the Olivet discourse. It is called the Olivet Discourse, because that's where it was taught or preached by the Lord, He is on the Mount of Olives.

Last Sunday night we had our corporate in-house prayer meeting, and Pastor Mark mentioned that we have four upcoming ministries, and the nearest one on the calendar is April the 18th. Pastor Bart Carlson will be with us. He's from New Jersey, one of the pastors who has been a pastor there for 20-plus years. He will be speaking on the subject of the Christian worldview. And what that means is it will start with creation, and then the fall and redemption. Sometimes that's called the biblical plotline, but it's the big story of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. In creation, we all know that it introduces us to a perfect world and God pronounces it good, and then on the sixth day He pronounces it very good. But it doesn't take very long before the devil and sin enter the picture. And Genesis 3 is the fall, so you go from creation to the fall and in the fall we see a broken world. Romans 8 tells us that creation itself groans, but the fall impacts creation. That's why we have earthquakes and hurricanes and floods. We also have sickness and disease; it impacts our hearts in terms of sin; it impacts our marriages and our callings in life.

But another very sad, grievous effect of the fall is conflict and war. James chapter 4 is a good text to go to. James 4:1, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within?” James is telling us, as one person put it,

External wars grow out of internal wars. It starts with the heart. Personal conflict leads to global war and the Bible is not quiet when it talks about war. There are at least 100-plus references to the fact of war. That word war is used that many times, especially in the Old Testament.

And Jesus also uses that word war, at least on one occasion here in Matthew chapter 24, the Olivet Discourse. It's not the most detailed, but one of the most detailed passages on eschatology, in terms of what's going to happen as we move more and more closer to the end of history. And He tells us what is going to characterize this present age. It gives us a list of calamities or cataclysmic events under the analogy of birth pangs. When a woman is having a baby, her birth pangs increase, it gets progressively more painful, and Jesus is letting us know it will get worse. He mentions here famines and earthquakes and diseases. But notice verse 6 of Matthew 24. He starts off by mentioning that you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. And then Jesus seeks to comfort our hearts by saying, “See that you are not troubled for all these things must come to pass, they must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

Every time you hear of a war, or of a rumor of a war, it reminds us that we are living in this present age, waiting for the age to come in its fulfillment and its glorious consummation. And that comes when Jesus comes back again, that's the final day when He comes back. The new age has already been inaugurated when Jesus came, but it will be consummated or fulfilled when He comes back again riding on a chariot of clouds with who knows how many angels; some think all the angels from heaven will accompany him. But until that day, there will be wars. If you study the subject of war over the last 500 years, there is at least 400 to 600 wars. Great Britain had 78 major wars; France, 16; Spain, 64; and the United States back however many years this was written, maybe 18 to 20.

So that means Jesus' prophecy is coming true. What He said is coming true, even as we talk right now. He wasn't exaggerating when He said there will be rumors of wars and wars until He comes back again. But that also means that all the politicians, all the peace treaties in the world have not stopped wars and never will. I remember Dr. John MacArthur saying this,

And you know where He starts, He starts with the heart, right? It has to start here. The Prince of Peace, He will bring universal peace when He comes back again at the end of the age. And that will be the greatest, the most momentous event in human history. The Bible says every eye shall see Him. When He first came, He came very quietly, He came by way of a baby in a manger; but when He comes again as the King of Kings, He will come in full glory and every eye shall see Him. But here's the reason why we should be praying, “Come, Jesus, come.” That's why we should be thinking of the Second Coming, “Come, Jesus, come.” When we pray “Thy kingdom come,” we're praying not just that it will continue to come, but it will come in its consummation.

And in the meantime, I thought more about this over the last few years, we should be thankful for a government, a Romans 13 government that carries the sword. The sword is there to protect us. The main duty of a government is to protect its citizens, that's why it’s given a sword. That's why we have police. That's why you have armies. But remember this, it's often in the midst of war that Christians serve to be light and salt. Churches have, for the most part, been quick in their response, even other organizations like Red Cross and Samaritans Purse, they have their feet upon the ground very quickly and they're bringing the gospel to this lost world. It's sad to see people lose their lives, that should always grieve us, but even worse to see men, women, boys, and girls lose their souls.

And while Army generals and war commanders use the greatest of weapons, the greatest of bombs and missiles to destroy, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest of weapons to save. Martin Luther, one of the great reformers, said,

And so, when we hear of wars and rumors of wars, as we are hearing right now, let's keep praying that God would do what only God can do, save lost sinners by His powerful gospel. That could happen in Iran. We should be praying for people in Iran, that God would save them, that they come to know Jesus by faith.

Romans 8 — It's sometimes called the greatest chapter, or certainly the greatest epistle. But even this chapter is probably the high point of Romans, the greatest chapter in the world. It begins on a blessed negative, you could say, and ends on a blessed negative. And in terms of our identity, there are two great doctrines that are highlighted here in Romans chapter 8. The doctrine of our justification, Romans 8:1, “There's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That's one great doctrine that helps us understand who we are in Christ. Then there's the doctrine of adoption. If you drop down to verse 14, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

Most of you probably have read a book by Dr. John MacArthur or have several books of his on your bookshelf. The first time I got exposed to him was when I was in Canada, and the first book I bought was I'm Not Ashamed of the Gospel. In that book, he captures Spurgeon's own dealings with the gospel and what was called the ‘downgrade controversy’, and he was fighting against major denominations that were denying the core truths of the gospel. And Spurgeon said at one point that, 

And so Spurgeon, I think he died maybe 3 or 4 years after what was called the downgrade controversy, was censured by the Baptist Union. But he was always fighting for the gospel, and so did Dr. MacArthur all of his life. And he says in that book, I'm Not Ashamed of the Gospel, that the strongest words of condemnation in our Bibles are against false teachers who corrupt the gospel. You think of Galatians 1, He says, “Let him be accursed anathema,” that's the strongest language you could use to anyone who preaches another gospel. And we can always be sure of this, the devil is always seeking to subvert, manipulate or disguise the gospel in any which way he can or undermine it. And you've probably heard of the identity thieves. Well, he's the greatest of identity thieves and no greater stealer, Jesus called him a thief. And he's constantly employing two great weapons, accusation and condemnation to forget who we are.

Justification protects our legal identity. Justification tells us that we are forgiven of all our sins, past, present and future. And justification should produce a tremendous sense of joy, gratitude, and also should impact our prayer lives. It encourages peace with God, we are at peace with God because of our justification. That should encourage honesty and transparency before God. Hebrews 4 says, “We come boldly to the throne of grace.” That's in light of our justification. Not only that, certainly our adoption, but we come boldly to the throne of grace, not an arrogant boldness, but our boldness and our justified security.
But there's another doctrine that gets emphasized here in Romans 8, and that's the doctrine of what has been called our relational security and freedom, our relational security and freedom. We are the beloved children of God, 1 John 3:1, “Behold what manner of love that we should be called the sons of God.”

And these might be the two greatest doctrines that we should keep in mind when we come to pray, who we are in Christ. We are the justified ones and we are the adopted ones, dressed in the perfect righteousness of Christ, but also welcomed as beloved children of God. I thought of those two parables that were discussed or mentioned last Sunday morning in Luke 18. That parable addresses our justification. Like the tax collector, we come home justified. And then, like that prodigal son, Luke 15, we came home to the Father who accepts us as His sons, and we enjoy the privileges of sonship. Those things that the Father does once the son comes home are really gifts of sonship. Think of what they are, the best robe, the ring of authority, sandals, (slaves went around in sandals; sons had sandals). So another manifestation of a privilege of being a son of God.

Those are the two great realities that we must keep in mind probably every day of our life. Who are we? We are no longer guilty criminals running and hiding from God, but sons who now draw near to God and talk to Him as our Heavenly Father. So as we go to prayer, let's just keep that in mind, brethren, who we are, justified and adopted.

I am going to ask you to turn to Acts 17 to begin our time and prime us as we think about going to prayer. Acts 17 is where the Apostle Paul is in that place called Mars Hill. He's been invited there, and engages in what you could call an apologetic defense of the faith. These are intellectuals of his day, the philosophers, the Stoic and the Epicurean philosophers.  But notice, he doesn't begin preaching Christ. He begins by preaching that God is their creator. Look at Acts 17:24, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man.” And then if you look at verse 26, again he goes back to the story of creation, “And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.” And he also tells them that this God doesn't need anything or anyone. Look at verse 25, “Nor is He served by human hands as though He needed anything since He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” 

God is independent, we are dependent, and he reminds them of that reality. Look at verse 28, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” And doesn't Jesus even remind us of our dependency, when you think of the Lord's Prayer. He gives us those three petitions that we are to bring to God, “Give us our daily bread, forgive us our debts, and lead us not in temptation.” So we are dependent creatures. We need food, we certainly need forgiveness because we sin and we need protection from the evil one. We are dependent creatures, God is independent. We are dependent the moment we are born and the moment we die, we're always dependent creatures. I remember someone saying this,

Oftentimes we do. Helpless dependents.

But a great and wonderful way for us to show our dependence is by prayer. Prayer is telling God, we need Him, we can't live without Him. And what makes prayer so special is not simply that we're talking to God, but we are fellowshipping, we are entering into a relationship, a communion with God. By prayer we enter into God's special presence. We draw near to Him. Remember what the writer of Hebrews tells us, “He draws near to us.” I don't know how many of you folk have ever read anything by Dr. John Owen. He was considered to be the greatest of the Puritan theologians, and he has a 16-volume set. In Volume 2 is Communion with God. That's the title, Communion with God, and here is what he says, 

So when we pray those Trinitarian prayers, what are we saying? We are saying we have a unique and special relationship with God. We are going to a three-person God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But what's so sad is that the world we live in doesn't know this God, doesn't love this God, but we do. What a privilege to be able to pray. But here's the great danger, I think, is for all of us as Christians, we want to be so careful that we don't take it for granted. Perhaps there's no greater danger as we live the Christian life then taking prayer for granted.

So we're about to call on God, the Great I AM, the Almighty, the three-person God. We come to our Heavenly Father; we come in the name of His Son; we come with the help or the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And think about this, too. God the Father, just like you as fathers and you as mothers, God the Father loves to hear His children pray. He loves to hear His children pray. What a privilege. He loves to see us come to Him by way of His Son. He loves for us to rely upon the help and comfort of the Holy Spirit. We often think of prayer as a duty. It is a duty, we're commanded to pray, but it's also a gracious gift, and a privilege.

Exodus 20:1-17,
I think everybody would agree that that is one of the most important passages in the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and given by the Lord on Mount Sinai, the giving of the law. According to Romans 2, every one of us has God's law written on our hearts. We're born with a law inscribed upon our hearts. That's why everybody has a sense of what's right and what's wrong. Most people know when they tell a lie, when they cheat, when they kill or murder someone. So Romans 2 reminds us that everyone has that law upon their hearts, and you could say the conscience acts like a little policeman from time to time. When you do something wrong, you hear the whistle telling you, you did what you did, and that it was wrong.

But notice that the Ten Commandments are foundational for worship, especially the first table of the law, the two tables here. But worship is a prominent theme, really, throughout the whole Bible. You have false worship, and you have true worship. True worship is praised and false worship is condemned. Someone has said this, I think it was Dr. Ferguson,

And we might think that's a good thing. But there's a big problem. For the most part, simply put, worship has become very man-centered, or me-centered. We're prone to worship ourselves. That's really what the big problem is. And people often look for churches that simply make them feel good. So we need to understand that true worship is not first about us, or what we like, but it's about God and what God likes. And that explains why Israel, when they come out of Egypt, which was a pluralistic culture, gods galore, hundreds and hundreds of gods; but they almost immediately get a 101 lesson on worship. God gives them clear instructions and directions about worship. The first four commandments have to do with worship.

The first commandment tells us who is the one we worship. It's clear that it is one God, it's monotheism, only one God. Verse 3, “You shall have no other gods before me.” God demands exclusive devotion. And every Jewish boy, I think even from the age of 2 or 3, would memorize what was called the Shema, which was taken from Deuteronomy 6, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul.” And then the second commandment is about hallowed worship. We can't worship God in any way we think or want to. Look at verse 4, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.” The third commandment protects God's name. We are not to take His name in vain or misuse it. We can't throw His name around carelessly, or you could say, ‘loosely.’ Again, if you understand who God is, we fear His name, we revere His name, His name is above every name, it's a majestic name, a holy name, a precious name, a unique name. The fourth commandment also shapes our worship, the when of worship. The Sabbath day is a special day of worship. Old Testament, New Testament, God's people have always had a distinctive worship day. And the first four commandments, again, remind us that we are to worship God, God alone, and that our worship is to be shaped by our Bibles. It was John Calvin who argued this very strongly, and so did the Puritans,

If we don't start with the Ten Commandments we're going to have trouble when it comes to worship.

When you go to the New Testament Bible, I would argue that the ‘who’ of worship is even given greater clarity, beauty and wonder. We worship a three-person God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And again, the greatest question we can ask when it comes to worship, (if you get this right, you generally get the rest of them right), when it comes to worship, who is God? Isn't that what Jesus does when He starts to teach us how to pray, He starts with answering that question, who is God? “Our Father, which art in heaven.” And in the rest of that sermon, it really is about the Father. He mentions the Father 17 times in that Sermon on the Mount. You can shape the Sermon on the Mount by that doctrine, the Fatherhood of God. A personal Father, we call him Father; a transcendent Father, a Father in Heaven; a knowing Father, read on, a listening Father. That's why we can pray to Him, a giving Father, a forgiving Father, and it should never cease to amaze us that we are the sons of God and can call God our Father.

That's what should make prayer such a wonderful thing. We have a God who is our Father, and who loves to hear from His children. We can go to Him anytime, anywhere, with any care, any concern and any burden.

Good evening, Brethren, this is our Wednesday night Zoom prayer meeting. One of the purposes, not the only purpose, but certainly one purpose to come to a prayer meeting, a corporate prayer meeting, is to learn how to pray. We learn by way of principles and precepts, but we also learn from one another and we also learn from men in the Bible who prayed and we're going to focus on Elijah.

1 Kings 18:41-46
I'm going to turn you to another passage of Scripture, James chapter 5. This is where Elijah comes into focus again. He is mentioned several times in the New Testament. But here in James chapter 5, he comes into focus again, this whole answer to prayer with regard to the rain. James 5:17, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” Notice there are two things that are highlighted here with Elijah, first his humanity, he had a human nature like ours, he was fully human. You might wonder why that's being stressed. Why does he tell us that Elijah was just like us? Well, I think it's because there are times where Elijah doesn't look like us. I mean, on top of Mount Carmel he doesn't look like us. He looks so much greater, he looks almost superhuman. Remember what he did after that fire came down? He slaughtered 450 false prophets. Now, he might have had some help from some of the other folk there, but he certainly had blood dripping from his sword. Soon after that mass slaughter, what happens here, he is back on his knees praying for rain, and again another wonderful answer to his prayer.

But what's so surprising and rather stunning is very soon after this Elijah is found sinking in despair. He runs in fear because of the queen, the queen, Jezebel, threatens to kill him. If you turn to 1 Kings 19, you can pick up how this transpires. 1 Kings 19:1-3, “Ahab, (King Ahab) told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with a sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” And then we're told Elijah's response, “Then he was afraid and he rose and ran for his life."

Clearly there's a big difference, isn't there, between Elijah on the mountaintop and you could say Elijah now in the valley. On top of the mountain, he triumphed by faith; in the valley you could say he's running in fear. How could a man so strong before God, so bold in faith, now seem so broken in fear. I think the answer is very simple. There's some other factors here, I realize that, but Elijah has lost sight of God like those disciples in the boat. Remember, fear takes over and Elijah goes into a sinkhole of discouragement, despair, and even what some call depression.

That can easily, easily happen to any of us when things don't go the way we would like them to go; when things seem to be going backward instead of forward, downward instead of upward; when we easily get focused on ourselves and our circumstances. And Elijah's faith is eclipsed by fear. Fear is a powerful emotion, maybe the most powerful emotion. It explains why the Bible, I think 300 times, says, “Don't be afraid." Don't be afraid, 300 times. And James wants us to know here in James 5, that Elijah is just like us. Fear, discouragement got the better of him. Did that ever happen to you? The best of men are still men. We all have feet of clay. We all get discouraged, weary. When we get real discouraged we want to run, we want to quit. What's the answer? What do we do?

Well, the answer is you pray. Prayer gets your eyes back on God. When Elijah was on that mountaintop, he was thinking of God's glory, wasn't he? He wanted the people to come back to God, he wanted them to know God. But now he has lost sight of God and he goes into a dungeon of despair, or depression. He needs to get his eyes back on God. And he does, he does. If you read on into 1 Kings 18 he comes to another mountain, Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai, and that's where he hears the voice. He hears the still, small voice of God. To get him back to where he should be spiritually, he needs to hear God's voice. He needs to learn that the God of the Bible is not just a God of fire, power, justice and judgment like he saw on Mount Carmel; but he's also a God of mercy, a God of grace, a still, small voice. He doesn't just speak by way of the earthquake and by way of thunder, but also by way of a still, small voice. He is the God of gentleness, He is the God of mercy and kindness.And hopefully we are here tonight to get our eyes on God and to get our eyes off ourselves.

Prayer meetings should be faith strengthening exercises to help us run the race. And Christian, you and I have a greater knowledge of God than Elijah had. We have a more full revelation, we have a New Testament revelation. I don't think Elijah knew that God was a three-person God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And we know that there's no one more compassionate, no one more loving. We have the cross to tell us that. Herein is love, no one greater, no one wiser than God, the three-person God. So Elijah is just like us. We get fearful, we get afraid, we get discouraged, we get overwhelmed with life. But we can be like him. Look how we can be like him, by praying, by persevering in prayer. He prayed fervently. That's what he's telling us here, he prayed fervently. You don't have to be a prophet to pray. You don't have to be an elite prophet or Christian to pray, to spiritually lead. All of us can pray. Elijah was just like us and we can pray just like him. So we should pray even tonight, that we would have faith to pray, to take hold of the promise, even like Elijah.

Psalm 90. A prayer of Moses, the Man of God.
This psalm of Moses that starts out the fourth book in the various sections of the Psalms, is a passage I've been meditating on almost all month. It is good for us to use these milestones on the calendar, whether it's Christmas, or New Year, or Easter, that we're reminded of the work of God and the power of God, and the mercy of God to us in our lives. Like the Lord's Day, it causes us in our regular calendar, daily routine, to have exceptional thoughts to pause and reflect on God's goodness to us. This psalm is no different in that time is a key theme.

As I've been reading through and meditating on this Psalm, I noticed, besides the theme of time being dominant in this psalm, there is this great contrast. You see it there in the first six verses between the Lord and us as humans. This great contrast – you see the Lord as eternal and He is timeless; He is all-powerful and He is holy. We are temporal and we are time bound; we have sin, we are not holy and we do not have great power. Our autonomy is very limited. He is perfectly independent; we are woefully dependent.

I notice another theme, and this is a humbling theme, is the fear of the Lord is wisdom. You see it there in verses 11 and 12. This brought back many verses that we have that are fundamental to the beginning of wisdom. Where does wisdom begin, or where does wisdom begin to get established in the heart and mind of mankind? Well, according to Job 28:28, “He said to man, ‘Behold the fear of the Lord.’” That is wisdom. And to turn away from evil is understanding. The fear of the Lord is wisdom. Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice it have a good understanding.” Or Proverbs 9:10, which you may have memorized as a young child, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight (or understanding).”

So as we reflect on this year past and the year coming and the fact that we are temporal and evil and subject to the will of the Lord and the power of the Lord, we give thanks, we bow before the Lord, we give thanks for His mercy and blessings over the past year. That is the right outcome and I believe that is really what will make us not only wiser but holier is to grow in our understanding of the Lord; our fear of Him, our honor of Him, our glorifying of Him.

So I was thinking I would pray for more fear of the Lord, greater fear in the year to come, greater love for God, for His Word, for His people and greater honor for the Lord. Pray for His presence and mercy. You see it there in vs 13 as you go through that last section of Psalm 90, all the prayers and petitions that Moses is asking for. Pray for His presence, pray for His mercy, pray for His steadfast love, vs 14. Pray for His joy, for us to have His joy and gladness, vs 15. Pray for His work in our lives, for Him to be active and us to see it and to honor Him in it, vs 16. And pray for His favor and His blessings, vs. 17. These are things that can only be had when we have a right relationship with God, we are His children, we are seeing Him correctly, we are subject to Him, we are growing in fear and the knowledge of the Lord.

My hope is that this is a good meditation for you. It has been excellent for me as I think on how the Lord has blessed us in this year past and what we desire from our God in the year ahead.

Matthew 5:1-12,
These 12 verses really define or give identity to we who are Christians, and that's important to understand our identity in Christ. This past Sunday, our brother Alex Lanes dealt with this section in the morning, and then again in the evening. In the morning, he gave what you could call a broad overview, focused on those nine Beatitudes several times, and then he did give a Four ‘P’ description, one is ‘Pointing’ towards Christ. Christ wonderfully and perfectly models these nine Beatitudes.

And the very last Beatitude certainly helps us understand what the Christian life will be somewhat characterized by, and that's persecution. The Christian life will be shaped by hardship, trial and a unique suffering of persecution. And remember what Paul said to Timothy, “The godly shall suffer persecution.” And Jesus told His disciples on that one occasion, “The world will hate you because it's hated Me.” And you could go almost anywhere across the globe and you will find Christians suffering verbal and also at times, physical persecution. And we are witnessing over the last five or so years, an increase or a more overt attack upon the Christian church in America. And for the Christian, again, life has always been characterized by persecution, or the hatred of the world. And nothing offends the world more than the exclusive gospel of Jesus Christ, a Christ-only gospel.

There is something else we see in this Sermon on the Mount that makes the Christian life difficult, and that's the reality of sin. Not just out there, it's also in our own hearts.
And our brother again, Sunday night, he opened up that second Beatitude, “Blessed are they that mourn, they shall be comforted." And Jesus is assuming is He not, that Christians will be grieving over their sin. And that word, mourn, is a very intense word. It's really a word that's used for a funeral kind of mourning, an intense, heart-rending emotion. And if we are Christians, nothing should cause us more grief, more emotional pain and agony than our own sin. Like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, “Oh wretched man that I am;” or like Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 6, “Woe is me, I am undone.” And again, Jesus, here in the Sermon on the Mount, doesn't want us to ignore sin or sweep it under the carpet, so to speak, because He goes back to that very subject again in that prayer of prayers, the Lord's Prayer, telling us to regularly seek forgiveness.

But coming back again to the question, why is the Christian life so difficult? Why will it never be easy? Sin will always be sin. We'll always struggle with it until the day we die. The world will always be the world, a Christ-hating world. Not only our own sin, right, but we mourn over the sin we see in others. Maybe our family members, our children, maybe men at work, or the world at large. In the words of the psalmist, (I do think Alex quoted that text,) “Rivers of water run down my eyes because they do not keep your law.”

But there's a third big problem, or evil, that constantly makes life difficult, and prayer as well, difficult for the child of God and that's the devil. Jesus references him in that prayer of prayers again, “Deliver us from evil,” or you could translate it “from the evil one.” And remember what Jesus says about the devil in John's gospel, “He's a murderer, but he's also a liar.” And the very first attack, think of the very first attack upon our parents, really was an attempt to discredit God, or put God under a dark lens of lying, “Has God said?”

The devil loves us to question God's goodness. He loves us to question God's love, His kindness, His gentleness, His sovereignty, His omniscience, His omnipotence. And if we do, and we're always tempted, begin to question God and doubt who He is; if we begin to think that God can't handle our problems, that He can't change our circumstances or change men's hearts, or is somehow limited; and there's lots of people who believe that God is limited, less than sovereign; then that will make us more timid, more fearful, more anxious and less bold at the throne of grace. Why is the Christian life so hard? Why is praying to God so hard? Prayer is one of the hardest disciplines in the Christian life for all of us because there's opposition: the world, sin and the devil.

But here's the great comfort, there's forgiveness with God. There's the comfort, right? Those who mourn will be comforted, those who are persecuted, they can rejoice. Great is He that is in me than he that is in the world. And if we understand what Christ accomplished by His death and resurrection, then we have nothing to fear. And the great hope we have is not only in this life, this comfort in this life, but in the future life. When Christ comes back again He will take us into a perfect heaven and a perfect earth. No more tears, no more pain, no more grief. The Christian life is not an easy life, but it is the most blessed life and the best is yet to come.

Exodus 34:6,7,
This was probably one of the most exciting and thrilling, never-forget moments in Moses’ life. In the previous chapter, Exodus 33, remember, he made that request, he asked God if he could see His glory. Now Moses had seen God up close before you could say, in terms of the burning bush. He also had a number of other close-up engagements with God, he was called a friend of God. And so, if you think of Old Testament history, Moses probably more than anybody else had more close-up dealings with God than anybody else. But he still had a hunger and thirst for God. And look at what he says in chapter 33, God answers his prayer. He wants to see His glory and God gives His glorious manifestation.

My first introduction to the Puritans was my third year at Bible college in Toronto. Dr. J.I. Packer showed up on the doorstep, and he gave some instructions about the Puritans. He compared them to the golden redwoods in California in terms of their stature. If you've ever read that book, Quest for Godliness, where he gives a more full presentation of the Puritans, he says they are described by their maturity. And we don't probably realize it to the degree that we should, but we have been influenced by the Puritans in a number of ways.

He said that there were two great gifts that the Puritans gave western civilization, in a way that we didn't appreciate them before. The first gift was marriage. They gave us a better understanding and appreciation of marriage. Going back to the original creation ordinances, marriage is one of them. Here's what one of the Puritans says,

And then Matthew Henry gives that other. You've probably heard that famous graphic he gives of a wife,

Another man who's done a lot of study of the Puritans, a man by the name of Leland Ryken, here's what he says,

But there's something else the Puritans gave us. They gave us a better understanding and appreciation of marriage, but they also gave or recovered and stabilized the Christian doctrine of the Sabbath. They promoted it in terms of spiritual delight, not legalistic doom. Dr. Joel Beeke probably knows the Puritans better than anybody. He said,

The third thing they gave us, I think they did. They gave us a greater understanding of the doctrine of sin. They call it the greatest of evils. But they didn't just preach against sin, they did that. They knew they had to preach against sin, so sinners would be convicted, but they didn't preach it to drive sinners to despair, at least not believing sinners. But they preached it so we would appreciate Christ all the more. Again, quoting one of the Puritans,

And you can say that of all of us, if we are going to be strong, mature Christians, we have to take sin seriously. We should be regularly confessing our sins. Jesus thought we would, didn't He? Matthew chapter 6, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

And the reason I brought this up is I thought back to the past Lord's Day. You had two messages and two great sins came into focus. Right? We dealt with heart sins. The sin of envy, from Psalm 73, Asaph, he's struggling with that particular heart sin of envy, and then he goes into the house of the Lord, into the synagogue, and he understands himself better, but he also appreciates God a lot more, and he also understands the ultimate destiny of the wicked. And then in the evening, Pastor Mark brought us to that passage in Philippians dealing with the sins of the tongue. So we had sins of the heart and sins of the tongue, Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without grumbling, and disputing.” And then he reminded us that we need to guard our hearts, and to guard our tongues if we're going to live the Christian life.

And the good news, going back to where I started things, the good news is that there's always forgiveness with God. That's what makes God so good. He's a God who loves to forgive. Exodus 34:7, “Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” That's why we should never be crippled or paralyzed by our sin. We could always go to the throne of grace. We should as quickly as we sin, don't delay repentance. But no matter what sin you've committed, no matter how frequent, there's always forgiveness with God. That's because of the cross, because of the goodness of God. He's a forgiving God. So let's give thanks for forgiveness. Let's even give thanks to God when He shows us our sins so that we can appreciate more what Christ has done for us.

Psalm 90:1-12,
Psalm 90, it's the only psalm, I believe, written by Moses. It's really kind of a psalm of sobriety, focuses upon death, not just death, but certainly reminds us of that reality.
This is the first Wednesday of the New Year, and whenever I think of the New Year, at least, from a Psalm perspective, Psalm 90 is the psalm that generally comes to mind.

I think it was the first time I ever preached in front of my mom and dad. It was in Canada about 100 miles away from the Yukon border, and there was an Anglican church my mom and dad were attending. And the Anglican minister asked me to preach. He didn't like what I said after the sermon, he came up and told me, but he asked me to preach. I preached from Psalm 90, and I warned all of them about the brevity of life, and also the whole matter of eternity, were they prepared to meet God in eternity. And it was the first Sunday, I believe, of the New Year and this psalm was the psalm I preached. It's about death.

If you look at verse 3, he takes us right back to the Garden of Eden and the thread of God, You return man to dust. There probably was no one who saw death up close as much as Moses. He saw that generation, the wilderness generation perish in the wilderness. Remember, there were only two of them who end up in the Promised Land; probably up to a million, million and a half people he saw die in that wilderness. And seeing that up close I'm sure it impacted his life, even the reality of death, but also the brevity of life. And he picks up four different metaphors to describe the short life that we live here on Earth. Look at verse 5, “You sweep them away as with a flood.” Then again verse 5, “They are like sleep,” verse 6, “Grass that flourishes and withers,” verse 9, “And their image a sigh or fleeting breath.” Then verse 10, he drops into the whole matter of just a cold statistic of years, 70 years and by reason of strength 80 years. Some really think that the wilderness generation was a demarcation; from that point on, people did not live as long as they did prior to that wilderness generation.

Now, I know death is not a pleasant subject for any of us, and it's because life is a wonderful gift. But you can't read your Bible and escape the reality of death. It pops up everywhere. Go right back to Genesis 2 and Genesis 3, we're all heading towards a grave. And the Bible says it's appointed unto men once to die, and then the judgment. But death can also be a benefit for us in this life. And there are at least three things we learn from Psalm 90.

1. God is the one great exception, God doesn't die. Verse 1, God is from everlasting to everlasting, before the mountains were brought forth. He's always been there, and He will always be there.
2. Secondly, death is not an ordinary life event. It's a judgment of God. No matter how many people try to beautify it, it's really ugly. Notice in verse 7 and 8, death is linked to sin and God's anger, “For we are brought to an end by Your anger; by Your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.”
3. The third lesson is what I really have already emphasized, the brevity of life or the reality of death. It should cause all of us to live a holy life, or to be wise. Verse 12 again, “So teach us to number our days that we might get a heart of wisdom.” Richard Baxter, one of the Puritans, said,

And what does a wise person look like? Let me give you five things, in terms of if he really applies this to his heart, if he's really living according to wisdom in light of his brevity of life.

1. A wise person will prioritize things that are of eternal value, set his mind upon things above. 
2. A wise person or wisdom seeks to redeem or make the most of our time. Time is precious to the wise man. He doesn't trivialize it, he takes it as precious, more precious than gold or silver.
3. Wisdom should give us an urgency to bring the gospel to the world. Richard Baxter again said to preachers, “We are preaching as dying men to dying men.”
4. Wisdom should sweeten our love and commitment to Christ. You could say that about the Apostle Paul, his great ambition in life was to know Jesus. 
5. Wisdom should keep us on our tiptoes, waiting for the day when Jesus comes back again, or when we go home on that dying day, like that thief on the cross.

So here's the big thing that we can't forget when we think about death as a Christian. We don't look at it through the dark lens of Psalm 90, we can do that, but we look at it through the gospel lens of 1 Corinthians 15, “Death has lost its sting, Christ has conquered death.” And that's why the Apostle Paul could say, “Death is my gain.” I gain, I don't lose when I die. And so, as we face another year, let's pray that God would help us to be wise, to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom.

Matthew 16:13-18
Different theologians or scholars have made the point that when it comes to the Bible, it's about Christ, first and foremost. Here's a wonderful way it's been described,

That is a nice way to shape your Bible. I have a book on my shelf by Dr. David Murray, it's titled, Christ on Every Page. Martin Luther said,

But not only does the Bible point us to Christ, first and foremost, but every major doctrine, I would argue, was taught by Christ.

The doctrine of Christology, which is the doctrine of Christ, Christ preaches Himself; all of those great ‘I am’ statements He's preaching Himself. The doctrine of Soteriology, or the doctrine of Salvation is taught by Christ. The doctrine of the Trinity, you just go to the upper room, is taught by Christ. The doctrine of Eschatology, the end times, it's taught by Christ. And He also taught the doctrine of Ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church. He taught that doctrine right here. If you look at Matthew 16 again, you have two doctrines here that come together, Christology, and Ecclesiology. And if you have a good Christology, I think you could argue, I think I would always argue, you should have a good ecclesiology. If you have a good understanding of who Christ is, you will also have a good understanding of what the church is. Remember, the church is the body of Christ, the church is the bride of Christ.

And here in Matthew 16, Jesus wants His disciples to grasp both doctrines. And that's why He raises the question. If you look at the text again, “Who do men say that I am?” And His disciples give an answer, it puts Christ in a very unique category. They compare Him to the greatest of prophets, and then Jesus obviously wasn't satisfied with the answer. He fires the question at them, “But who do you say I am?” And Peter being Peter, blurts out an answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And that is the finest, the most definitive Christological statement in the Gospels. You could say that's Christology at its best. He hits a home run, great answer, and I'm sure Jesus was smiling and acknowledges that this was not revealed by flesh and blood, but by the Father in Heaven. But then Jesus begins to talk about the church. He takes on Peter's confession, verse 18, and He says, “I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock, I will build My church.” Now, there's all kinds of questions and interpretations as to what that means. I don't believe the rock is Peter, but the rock is Peter's truth confession. And if it's a true church, it will always have a strong, clear, Christological confession.

And then Jesus makes one of the clearest statements right here about the church, and His relationship to the church. Look what He says, “I will build My church and the gates of Hell, or Hades shall not prevail against it.” And then He identifies Himself here as the builder of the church, but also the preserver, and the protector of the church. And it mentions here again the gates of hell, and again, there's interpretation as to what that refers to. Does it refer to the power of the devil? Does it refer to death itself? It could be both. But Jesus knows better than anyone, the church will always be under attack. I think Paul has that in mind when he tells those Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20 about savage wolves, or false teachers who will attack the flock, and he also warns about dangers from within their own ranks, men will rise up, speaking perverse things to lead disciples astray.

But we could argue this, as the world becomes more and more anti-God, anti-Christ, it will become more and more anti-church. You can't separate those two things. And without His protection and preservation, the gates of hell will prevail. But Christian be assured, the church is a forever institution. It will never, never cease to be because Christ is the preserver and the keeper and the builder of His church. He never drops the trowel or the sword. The church is the only institution that will be forever. Marriage won't, the nuclear family won't, civil government won't, but the church will. It's His forever family, it's His forever marriage. Christ, the architect and the builder, is going to keep on building, building, building, until He comes back again, and all the while, He'll be protecting, maturing and strengthening the church. And the primary way He builds the church is by the gospel, gospel preaching and gospel praying. And that's why we never, never must stop either one of those corporate disciplines of preaching and praying.

Luke 18:1,
And the Apostle Paul, he picks up that same perspective in Ephesians 6:18,
When we come to prayer meetings on Wednesday night, we do focus most times on the subject of prayer, and the Bible has a lot to say about prayer, and most of it is very, very positive. The promises of prayer, the answers to prayer, encouragements to pray, so that it's just a wonderful, wonderful theology of prayer that, for the most part, is very, very positive. But as wonderful as prayer is, we know it's not easy. Right? Prayer can be very difficult. It might be the easiest thing to talk about, but the hardest thing to do consistently and faithfully.
And I would think that most Christians would say the two biggest challenges that we face as Christians when it comes to prayer, is the challenge of perseverance, not giving up; and the second one may be more common today than it might have been in years past, although the Puritans wrote on this very subject, the second challenge is staying focused, keep ourselves from a wandering mind.

Jesus presses the matter of perseverance in that parable of Luke 18, that widow comes before a wicked judge. And despite all that she's up against, she never gives up, she stays the course. And the Apostle Paul picks up this same perspective on perseverance with prayer in Ephesians chapter 6. It's a wartime context, he tells us to put on the whole armor of God, and then he goes through some of the specific pieces of weaponry that we have, and then he deals at the very back end with prayer, verse 18, persevering prayer. And then he says this, “keep alert with all perseverance.”

I'm sure all of us, all of us have had people in our lives, whether it's a sister, a brother, a parent, children who are unsaved. And I'm sure there have been times where you have prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed; sometimes there's a physical problem, or some other relational problem, and you've committed yourself to a long, protracted time of prayer. But often, often, I think that the matter of the unsaved, our loved ones, is at the top of the list. And you can sense that with the Apostle Paul when he talks in Romans 9. He said, “I'm speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.” And he tells us why, “For I could wish that I myself were a curse cut off from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

And then the very next chapter, chapter 10, he gives himself to prayer. “Brothers,” he says, “my heart’s desire in prayer to God is for them that they may be saved.” And then again, going back to Jesus, in terms of what He teaches on prayer back in Luke 18, He understood the need for perseverance and so does the Apostle Paul. "Christian, don't give up!” That's what they're saying, “Don't give up.” And just as an encouragement, the conversions of Augustine, John Newton, D.L. Moody, and C.H. Spurgeon, from the human side of things, were in large measure attributed to their praying mothers. So when it comes to prayer, there's the big challenge, persevere, don't give up.

But there's another big challenge when it comes to prayer. It's the challenge with regard to distraction or a wandering mind. Ephesians 6, go back to that text, Paul hits that note here as well, verse 18, “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication to that end.” Look what he says, “Keep alert with all perseverance.” We are living, they say, in the most distracted age in human history. And one of our biggest battles is to have our minds staying focused, keeping alert. Or 2 Corinthians 10, “taking every thought captive.” And yes, probably the hardest time for us to discipline our minds, might be when you are listening to preaching and when you're praying. Listening to preaching and when you're praying. Why is that? Well, sin. Big problem, sin makes us less alert. Worry often takes our minds away from the most important things. Remember anxious Martha, “You are distracted about many things.” So, when you're worrying, you're not generally a good person to be in a state of listening and to preaching, or even praying.

But something else we can't forget when we think of distraction, and that's the devil. He's always active. In the parable of the sower, this has come to my mind many times, Jesus lets us know that the devil operates like the birds of the air. And when the seed is sown, he comes like the birds to pick up the seed. That is, he doesn't want that seed to find a resting place, so he comes as quickly as possible to take away the seed that is sown. So I put it this way, the devil doesn't want us to hear faithful preaching and he doesn't want us to engage in faithful praying. The devil is afraid of two things in terms of taking down his kingdom. It's when Christians and unconverted people are sitting under biblical preaching, and when we are engaged in faithful praying. He's afraid of faithful Holy Ghost owned preaching, and he's afraid of faithful Holy Ghost inspired praying. And he will do whatever he has to do to keep us from both.

And so, when we pray, don’t forget perseverance, and don't forget the danger of distraction or a wandering mind. As we go to prayer let's be on guard, let's be listening to the prayers of the men as they pray, but also to the kingdom concerns that we will hear.

Psalm 145:3, 5, 6,
I would think that every Christian wants to pray better and bigger prayers. And how can we? Well, you have to start with God. To pray bigger prayers, we have to be sure how big our God is. David had it right, if you go back to that Psalm, “Greatly to be praised and His greatness is unsearchable.” Something similar in Paul in Romans chapter 11, you remember when he breaks out in that doxology, “Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable His judgments and His ways past finding out.” And the very word that the Lord Jesus uses in the Lord's Prayer is also a word to remind us of how great our God is, “Our Father in heaven.” That little phrase, ‘in heaven,’ points to His transcendent position, His authority and His Majesty. Theologians have used four little letters, so it's even a word you could say, Omni, which means full or complete. And we can speak of His omnipresence, which means He is everywhere present. We can speak of His omnipotence, which means He is all-powerful. And we could also speak of His omniscience, which means He's all-knowing. He knows everything about everything.

And when we come to prayer, we never want to lose sight of His greatness, and we can, we can do that very easily. In fact, we can suffer from little faith like those disciples on the boat on the Sea of Galilee in the midst of that hurricane storm. They didn't see Christ's greatness, His power and His majesty. That's why they were so afraid.

There's actually a book, some of you might even be familiar with it, by J.B. Phillips, it was written back in the 1950’s titled, Your God is Too Small. And the thesis of that book is that Christians can hold an inadequate small view of God. And God even complains to His covenant people that they have wrong thoughts about Him. In Psalm 50 He says, 'You thought that I was altogether like you. I'm not like you, I'm not finite like you, I'm not little, inadequate, frail like you.'

But there's something else we have to remember when we go to prayer. We want to remember the majesty and greatness of our God. But if you go back to the Lord's Prayer again, we also want to remember the intimacy of that new Father/Son relationship by way of the new birth and adoption. He's our Father, and that's not a metaphor. It's not a metaphor, that's reality. We are the sons of the living God. We are the children of God, we can cry, Abba Father. And we could translate that word, it's an Aramaic word, ‘dearest Father’. And our Father wants us to come to Him, He invites us over and over again. Even in the book of Hebrews, you have those three ‘draw near to me’ exhortations. Hebrews 4:6, “Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.” Again, Hebrews 7:26, “Those who draw near to God through Him.” Then Hebrews chapter 10, “Therefore brothers, let us draw near with a true heart, and full assurance of faith.” 

And we have to remind ourselves, probably regularly, maybe even daily, that there's no one, no one who loves you more than your Heavenly Father. And no one who can take better care of you, because He is an all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present father. I find it interesting, the longest and the most definitive treatment we have on anxiety is found in the Sermon on the Mount. Right? And in that same sermon, Jesus picks up the word ‘Father’ at least 17 times. See, He wants to remind us again and again who your Father is. He takes care of the little birds of the air, and the lilies of the field. One Scottish Presbyterian put it this way, 

So there's no situation, no situation in life too hard for your Heavenly Father. We go back to the fact that He is our Father in Heaven, the Omni-God.