Tonight, we continue on our way through the Heidelberg Catechism. We reach Lord's Day 46, having considered Lord's Day 45, last Lord's Day, which introduced the vital subject of prayer. We understood last Lord's Day through the Word of God and as well with the help of our instructor that there is no such a thing as a Christian who do not pray. There is no such a thing as a Christian who do not pray. Prayer and the word Christian and the status of a Christian, they are intimately connected. It goes together. Without prayer, there is no such a thing as a Christian. But now our instructor moves on and tells us how to pray. How to pray. Well, our instructor wisely goes back to the prayer that our Lord Himself has given us. He lays out the prayer of the Lord in question 119, as you may see that at page 58 at the back of our hymnals. And he cites the prayer as a preamble to the exposition of each one of the parts of the Lord's Prayer, which we consider, the first part we consider tonight in Lord's Day 46, as you may find in page 59. In order to understand what we pray for when we are addressing our Heavenly Father or our Father who art in heaven, we will turn together to Matthew chapter 7. And we'll consider verses 7 through 11, instructions as well coming from the mouth of our King and Lord, Lord Jesus Christ, at the very closing, the very last section of the best sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 through 11. As we seek to understand from the mouth of Christ, this address of the Lord's Prayer. Well, in question 120, if you turn with me to page 59, our instructor reminds us and teaches us, saying, why did Christ commence us to call God our Father? He answers, saying, at the very beginning of our prayer, Christ wants to kindle in us What is basic to our prayer? The childlike awe and trust that God, through Christ, has become our Father. Our fathers do not refuse us the things of this life. God, our Father, will even less refuse to give us what we ask in faith. Question 121, he asks, why the words, who art in heaven? What's the purpose of these words? And he responds saying, these words teach us not to think of God's heavenly majesty as something earthly. And to expect everything for body and soul from his almighty power. Now to understand the teaching of the catechism, we turn to the inspired words of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 7, beginning in verse 7, we read the words that bring life. Lord Jesus imperatively commands, saying, Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? Therefore whatever you want man to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets." Let's start a reading of God's holy word. Let us pray together. Great God in heaven, we thank you for the clarity of your word, for the clarity of the teachings of our supreme master, your son, our savior. And Lord, as we consider the words of the Lord Jesus tonight teaching us about you, oh heavenly father, we pray that you would indeed enlighten our minds, hearts, that we would truly understand what it is to call you our father who art in heaven. Father, we pray that we bring much comfort and assurance to our hearts tonight. Teach us how to pray properly so that we may be heard and answered. Father, deliver us from all lack of faith, from all disbelief, and lead us onto the path of righteousness and understanding. In Jesus' name, Father, we pray. Amen. Now boys and girls, from time to time in my house, something happens that I probably think that you know nothing about. Sometimes one of our kids asks mom for something and when she says no, inadvertently and not announcing, that very same kid comes and asks dad. And not knowing that mom has already given an answer, dad goes and say, yes, of course you can do it. And all of a sudden, you know, that kid is doing something that her mom said no, but dad said yes. And then when mom comes confronting the kid, well, I told you not to do it. And what does he immediately say? But dad said I could. Putting me in trouble. But I know that none of you know anything of that. You have never done anything similar like that before. Because one of the things that we ought to understand when we want to ask something is that we need to know who to ask that thing for. Who should we address? So that there wouldn't be confusion. So that our petition would have been truly answered. You see, we really need to know who we should address in our prayers. That's not only a request, a demand, a command coming from the Lord, but it's also a necessity of our souls. In order to pray effectively and confidently, we need to understand who the Lord is, whom we are addressing. That is precisely the reason why the Lord Jesus begins the Lord Prayer, teaching us to address our Father who is in heaven. He wants us to understand at least two things. that there is this beautiful and close relationship between us, sinners, and a holy God who has received us through grace, in faith, through Christ and the Spirit alone. But He wants us also to understand that because He's our heavenly Father, He will reach out to us, answering to us in all our needs, just as our earthly fathers do as well. As we consider tonight the very beginning, the address of the Lord's Prayer this evening, our Father who art in heaven, and as we turn our attention to verses 7-11 of Matthew 7, let us have this firm in our minds, that we have this almighty, powerful God in heaven. God's almighty power and His fatherly love is supposed to move us to pray with full confidence that we will be heard and that we will be answered. There should be no place for doubt, for disbelief, for lack of faith, for insecurity in our prayers. For we have a heavenly Father, and God's almighty power in fatherly love ought to move us to confident prayer, confident that we will be heard and that we'll be answered according to His will. As we turn our attention to the verses in Matthew chapter 7, we notice again the Lord Jesus coming to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord has already taught His original hearers about the Beatitudes. He has already explained different articles of the Decalogue. What does it really mean to fulfill the law? What it means to murder someone? That begins in the heart. That adultery is also the product of a covetous and adulterous heart. He has also taught them to preach already in Matthew 6, verses 5 on. The Lord Jesus is preparing His disciples on how to preach. The Sermon on the Mountain is really this academy for the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, for those who want to walk with Christ and to grow strong in their faith in the Savior. And at this point in the Sermon on the Mountain, the Lord Jesus then encouraged His hearers to pray. He encourages them, describing to them, first of all, the attitude that they should approach prayer. Look at verse 7. He says, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. There are some commentators who see some sort of gradation here. And ask, seek, and knock. Someone who quietly and silently address the Lord, and then he walks up and begin to search for that which is his asking, and finally reaches a specific door and knocks. So some see a progression, and maybe it is there, but there is one thing that is undoubtedly present in verse 7, which is the ideal of persistency. The Lord Jesus is teaching us that the very first element in our prayer is supposed to be persistency. We are to persist in our addressing to him. We are to earnestly bring in our prayers that which is the desire of our hearts, that which is that we are seeking for, that which is that we are needing. We are to do that with diligence, addressing repetitively, tirelessly the Lord. In a different parable, the Lord Jesus talks about the persistent widow. who is knocking the door and consistently asking for an unjust judge to listen to her case. And the conclusion of that parable is that even an unjust judge, just to be in peace, will answer he who is persistently addressing that person. How much more the Lord, who is absolutely the just judge. So the Lord Jesus commands us not to be Not to lose heart when we address Him in prayers. When we are not being listened, when the answer that we are seeking for does not come, or when it takes too long to come, the Lord is encouraging us Christians to diligently persist in our prayers. But He's also encouraging us to do so with sincerity. With sincerity. Because although these words, these verbs, ask, seek, and knock, they do indicate persistency, they also have embedded in them the idea of someone who opens up his heart to his Heavenly Father. Now perhaps you sit here today and you are a very shy person. You like to keep things to yourself. If you are in some sort of need, nobody knows except you. Even to your parents, you have some sort of difficulty and trouble to open up and to let them know what's going on in your heart and in your soul. Well, first of all, let me encourage you saying that you should not do that. That as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are commended to carry each other burdens, beginning with the ones that are in our own home, in our own house. But what this text here clearly is telling us is that if there is one to whom we should not be shy ever is the Lord. That we are to address him realizing our need, understanding our urgent need of one who can do something that we are unable to do. We realize that we are unable to serve ourselves. That we are helpless. Prayer is to be marked by this twofold attitude, persistency and sincerity. Now, it would be very frustrating if we address the Lord in persistency and sincerity with any doubt of being answered. Perhaps you have already experienced the frustration of asking someone for something that you really, really, really needed and the answer was no. Perhaps it was something in your workplace, a specific day that you needed to take your wife to the physician, and your boss said, no, I need you here in the office. Or perhaps it was something that you really needed to buy for some specific sort of need, and you just couldn't. The answer was no. It's not available. We'll have to order, and it's coming only in six months. You see, the Lord Jesus is giving us assurance that as we persistently and sincerely address the Lord in prayer, asking those things that He commends us to ask, that the Lord will answer for sure. Well, how do we know that? Look at verse 8. He says, for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to he who knocks it will be opened. Notice that there is no shadow of doubt that those who address the Lord in true persistence and sincerity will indeed be answered. The answer is sure and true. Notice as well that the Lord Jesus does not contain your petitions to specific small groups, things that are not necessarily big things, things that are transformative or things that seems to be impossible. No, the Lord Jesus is addressing this command in the most general possible way. Ask the Lord, no matter what it is. and He will listen to your petition. Knock insistently, and He will answer." Now, this implicitly reminds us that the Lord is indeed powerful. For whatever our petition is, whatever we feel ourselves in need of, we can indeed bring to Him. Now, if you ask your dad or your mom, boys and girls, to do some specific things, I'm sure they will be unable to do that for you. Your mom and dad are limited by their own resources to reach out to you and to do that what you need. But the Lord Jesus is clearing that up to us in verse 8, reminding us how powerful God is, how powerful this instrument of prayer is, and how powerful is the one who listens. For he will give, he will show, he will open to anyone that knocks, seeks, and asks. Therefore, our prayers are to be marked by this twofold attitude of persistence and sincerity, but also by assurance that God in His almighty, majestic power will answer our prayers for He's able to do anything above what we think and imagine. Now, does that mean that we can ask anything, anything whatsoever and the Lord will give it to us? Does it mean if I ask the Lord for a million dollars, all of a sudden I will open my door and we'll be there in an Amazon box? Of course not. You see, this is one of the problems when people treat the Bible as a quilt. You probably know those people who like to get verses of the Bible and they sew these verses together and they create some sort of theology. And the great problem of the quilt is that when you cut a specific Bible verse, you remove that Bible verse from the context in which it is present. And the context is absolutely crucial for us to understand what the Lord Jesus is doing here. Now, again, think about this. This is the Sermon of the Mount. The Lord has been teaching, commanding, telling his disciples that they should seek righteousness. That they cannot simply think of themselves free from guilt of murder because they haven't taken someone's life when they have hatred in their hearts. that they cannot be free from guilt of adultery because they have never laid with another woman when they have coveted in their hearts other women. They have lucked with lust. The Lord has been insisting that they should be full of humility, that they should seek all purity, that they should abide in love, that they should despise riches, that they should seek to do the will of the Lord in all that they do and say. Lastly, if you look at verses 1 through 6 in chapter 7, the Lord has been telling them not to be hypocrites. prejudging other people. Now, how can we do all these things? How can we perform all these things? At this point in the Sermon of the Mount, perhaps the hearers of the Lord Jesus are overburdened. Trying to answer these questions. Wow! The standards of this blessed rabbi are so high. Who can reach? Who can do these things? And that's when the Lord interjects by saying, Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. You see, verses 7 and 8 is not about everything, all sorts of things that we want in our life. These things are not about material possessions or about healings or about miracles. Verses 7 and 8 is all about fulfilling the Sermon on the Mount in our own lives. Lord Jesus gives us full assurance that our Heavenly Father, through His almighty power, will indeed answer our prayers every time we ask Him to be humble, to be meek, to be holy, to seek righteousness, to understand His Word, to abandon sin, to cling for holiness, to love Him more, as we bring before Him these petitions, as we ask. As we knock, as we plead, He will open. He will give. He will answer. Verses 7 and 8 is not a recipe for success in material things. Verses 7 and 8 is the promise coming from the mouth of the Son of God that every our spiritual need will be answered properly and pointedly. The Lord will not deny these things from us. Obviously, that does not refrain us from addressing the Lord, bringing Him our material needs. The Lord Jesus Himself teaches us that afterwards in the Lord's Prayer when we ask Him to give us our daily bread. We actually have learned last Lord's Day through Psalm 17 that we are supposed to bring before the Lord those petitions that refers to our body. But you see, in the context of verse 7 and 8, it is particularly to the Sermon on the Mount that the Lord Jesus is referring. It's particularly to the pressure of living according to the ethics of the kingdom that the Lord Jesus comes helping us, succuring us, quickly saying, do not despair. Your Heavenly Father will answer all your prayers. Therefore, Christians, let us affirm in our mind these four directions of how to pray. Four directions of how to pray as we quickly see here in verses 7 and 8. The first one is that we are to be encouraged to address the Lord with confidence in His almighty power. Notice that specifically what we read in the explanation of question 121. When we address our God who art in heaven, we are to expect everything from His almighty power for body and soul. The reason why we have that confidence is because He can answer all that we ask. He will give us and make us find all that we seek. He will open when we knock. He is almighty, powerful to grant us all these things. Let us address the Lord confidently, confidently in his almighty power. Second principle that clearly flows from these verses is that we are to pray with reference, isn't it? For how else would we address he who is almighty, who is powerful, unless truly understanding that he's different from us? Our prayers are supposed to be soaked in true understanding of the person of God. In true understanding that the Lord is to be addressed with reverence. That He's not our equal. But He's almighty. He's highly elevated. And we are to address Him accordingly. With reverence. The third principle clearly that flows from these verses is that we are to pray according to God's will. We are to pray according to God's will. For that's exactly what He commands here in these verses. Our petitions are supposed to reflect the own will of God. Christ is commanding His original hearers with all sorts of life directions. And He is then saying, ask these things and you will be given. Ask to be meek and it will be given you. Ask to be humble and it will be given you. Ask to be lowly and it will be given you. Let us pray according to the will of God. Let us pray confident in His almighty power. Let us pray with reverence. That's precisely the second point in question 121, isn't it? For when we address our Heavenly Father, the Father who is in heaven, we are reminded that God is different from us. That we are addressing one who is dressed in heavenly majesty. That He is not earthly as we are. One who can give us all that we seek and ask and knock for, He obviously is not of our frame. Let us therefore address Him with reverence. Let us pray according to His will. Let us also be reminded that this is our duty. This is our duty. Look at verse 7 and 8 once again. See, perhaps you sit here today and you are very slow or perhaps you see no spiritual growth in you. And the question to you this evening is, are you praying for this? Are you praying for it? What do you pray for, Christian? Perhaps you sit here tonight and all your concern is about material blessings. And now remember, again, as I have already said some minutes ago, it is absolutely appropriate that we bring before the Lord our material needs. But precisely here in the context of Matthew chapter 7, are you bringing before the Lord those spiritual needs that you so much need to walk in this world for the glory of His name? Are part of your petitions about your personal holiness. Are part of your petitions that you would pray more. You see, it would be wonderful if we prayed as much as we talk about prayer. Wouldn't it? We talk about prayer all the time. On the phone, someone is sick. Oh, I'm praying for you. Are you? Someone is on a travel or is traveling somewhere, is on a trip, and say, oh, we are keeping your family in our prayers. Are you? Someone come to you saying, well, you know, I'm experiencing this terrible difficulty in my job. Oh, I'll be praying for you. Are you? It would be wonderful if we prayed as much as we talk about prayer. This text show us the reason why we not receive. Do you see that? Christian, the reason why you don't receive is because you're not asking. The reason why the door is not being opened is because you're not asking to be opened. Now again, let us not mistake this with material financial prosperity. The Lord Jesus is particularly addressing spiritual needs here in this context. And the reason why we continue to be so many times spiritual midgets is because we're not addressing the Lord in faith, in reverence, asking Him, increase my faith, O Lord. Give me more of Your Spirit, Lord. Give me more hunger for You, O Lord. Help me to worship You appropriately, O Lord. Our prayers are weak and so are we. The commentator explains it in this way. How can we leave the Sermon on the Mount? How anybody come up to such a standard? We need help. We need grace. Where can we get it? The Lord Jesus gives here the answer. Our Father who art in heaven. This is where we go, oh dear brothers and sisters, for the grace and the mercy and the power that we so need to live accordingly to God's own holy standards. Don't be frustrated. Just repent of not praying. Don't be frustrated. Just begin to bow down your knees and truly pray. We can pray with confidence because of the almighty power of God. That's the teaching of verses 7 and 8, and that's the teaching of question 121. We can pray with confidence because of the almighty power of God, but we can also pray with confidence because of the fatherly love of God. We can pray with confidence because of the fatherly love of God. That's what we see now in questions 9 through 11. Because now the Lord Jesus will explain why He has given such assurance to His ears. Why can they be so assured that whatever they need in this realm of existence, in this realm of spirituality, whatever they need, they should ask, they should knock, they should seek, and they will find. The answer is very simple. They take. He takes the listeners all the way back to their childhood. It says, What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? See, the Lord Jesus appealed for the parents' willingness to give good things to their children. Now, it is important for us to understand that no one can truly confound a bread for a stone. Lord Jesus is really using purposefully an exaggeration here regarding things that cannot be mistaken. The next illustration follows the same pattern. Verse 10, or if he asks for fish, will he give him a serpent? Lord Jesus is exaggerating to point to that parental love that indeed will move heaven and earth to reach out to the need of the son or the daughter. Parents who love their children will not do anything that will be harmful towards them, that would cause some sort of damage towards them. And as we turn to verse 11, we see this beautiful revelation coming from the mouth of the Savior, which is the doctrine of total depravity. Have you noticed that? Anyone who objects to the doctrine of total depravity needs to rip this verse off their Bible. Because in verse 11, the Lord Jesus says, If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask? Now the Lord Jesus is reminding us here is that even those who are not converted, even those who have no care for the Lord, who have no knowledge of Scripture, even those who are totally depraved, even those are capable of doing something that is dignifying, of doing something that shows some sort of kindness. Even you who are evil give good gifts to your children. Now that does not mean that they are doing anything morally good. For to do something morally good, we need to do something expressly according to the Word of God. With the mind that the Word of God has given us, with the purpose to give glory to God in all that we do. This is only possible for the converted person. It is only possible for the believer. Only the believers can perform something morally good because of the work of the Spirit and because of the redemptive work of Christ. But what the Lord Jesus is saying here is that even evil people know what it is to be kind. How much more he who is absolutely perfect? How much more he who is absolutely just? How much more he who is absolutely dignifying, and majestic, and glorious. He would never do such a thing. Do you understand this, this evening, Christian? Your Heavenly Father would never do anything to harm you. He may put us, indeed, through suffering, but the purpose is not to harm us, but to strengthen us. We may, indeed, experience suffering, But the purpose is not to harm us, but to make us mature. Our Heavenly Father will never send any evil towards us, anything that will harm us. Why? Because He's our Abba. And here we really need to pay attention to what the Lord Jesus says in verse 11. For no rabbi has ever taught what Jesus taught here in this verse. Let me say this again. No rabbi has ever taught what the Lord Jesus taught here in verse 11. You see, the word that the Lord Jesus uses here to identify our heavenly Father, God, the first person of the Trinity, is a word that is precisely used in the context of the house, in the context of the home. It's part of an everyday word. It's like the word dad in English. And no rabbi would ever dare to address God in this way. No rabbi would think that it would be possible. And that what rabbis don't think it's possible is a command coming out of the mouth of Jesus. Now, why does he do that? He has just implicitly said that we need to address the Lord with reverence. And that is rightly so. He's reminding us of our confidence. He's strengthening us the confidence that the highly exalted and majestic God in heaven, who is the ruler of heaven and earth, has adopted us in His Son. Because of Christ, we have been received as sons of the promise, as sons of the covenant. And now, although we address Him with reverence, just as we address our fathers here on earth, We also address with confidence of His paternal love, just as we also have confidence in the paternal love of our earthly parents. The only reason why we can address Him in this way is because of Christ. Because He has commended clearly in this text. The Lord Jesus identified the first person of the Trinity as your Father. You see that? This morning, perhaps you notice at the very end of that scenario regarding the young man, the young son in the parable of the lost son, he repeatedly for twice, for two times, he says, my father, I'll go back to my father. I'll go back to my father's house. And although there is to be a distinction between us and the Lord, that He is not of our frame, that He is distinct from us, yet it is supposed to be a love and an intimacy and a true care for Him as a Father. For He does have a true care for us as sons because of His only begotten Son. See, Paul was so confident of this that he himself commands the Galatians to address the Lord as Abba. If you turn with me to Galatians chapter 4, you will clearly see the Apostle Paul saying that in verse 6. He says, And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. This is the cry of the Spirit. This is the cry of the Spirit of God in our own hearts. And he goes on and says, Therefore you are no longer a slave, but you are a son. And if you are a son, then an heir of God through Christ. This paternal intimacy. in addition of being a revelation of the Son, is the cry out of the Spirit in the hearts of all those who have been transformed and converted. And that's the reason why we address the Lord trusting in His fatherly love, because He is our Father through Christ, because of the Son of God. Notice that that's precisely the teaching in question 120. We are to address the Lord through the commended expression, our Father, because we are to trust Him as children trust their parents. There ought to be the childlike awe, reverence, but also trust and love. God in Christ has become our Father. Now, as we understand this blessed position of our great God towards us, then we understand That He will not refuse us anything. That as we come before Him praying according to His will, He will listen. And that He will indeed give us all that is good and deliver us from all that is evil. Christians, let us therefore address the Lord with this childlike confidence. Perhaps you sit here today and you do not have a very good experience with your earthly father. Perhaps he abandoned you. Perhaps there was not much intimacy there. Well, the Lord Jesus reminds you this evening that the heavenly Father who has adopted you in Christ is absolutely open, willing, and desires to have this fatherly, intimate relationship with you. And He has given you, Christian, He is the Spirit who cries inside of you, Abba, Father, dead, I want to talk. Listen to me. Let us be reminded that we are to address the Lord with reverence. as we expect our own children to address us. But we are addressing as well, never doubting that all that He sends our way is for our good, that all He sends our way is for our own growth, that He would never give us anything that will hurt us. And regardless of the sufferings of the present life, that the Lord indeed, because of your providence and desire towards us, gives us, is not meant to hurt us, but to prepare us to live for His glory now and in the world to come. We can pray with confidence, Christians, when we address the right person. We can pray with confidence because we address our heavenly father, our God, who is in heaven, who is almighty, all powerful, all knowing, who is distinct from us and is open to listen to our petitions made according to his will and to speedily answer them according to his will. But we can pray confidently. Because this God who is almighty is also our Father. As the commentator explains, if we belong to Christ, God is our Father. We are His children and prayer is coming to Him openly and speedily. Let us therefore never doubt. Let us be comforted this evening. Let us also search our hearts. For if we're apart from Christ, there is no adoption. Do you see the implication of this text? If there's no Christ, if we're apart from Him, if there's no repentance, if there was no confession of sin, if there's no profession of true faith, then there's no intimacy. Then there's no relationship. Then there's no true saving faith. And if there's no true saving faith, there is no, no, no communion with the father, the redemptive work has not been applied to us. Let us indeed trust in this almighty God, the only true God who has a fatherly love for us, leading us to pray with full confidence of being heard and answered. Addressing him with reverence and faith, let us pray together. Great God in heaven, we thank you for your word that so clearly teaches us the pattern of prayer that you not only commence, but is also acceptable before you. Father, we pray. Give us the faith. Give us your spirit. So that we may pray according to your own will. Help us, O Lord, to address you in full confidence, never doubting your almighty power. Help us to address you, O Lord, speedily, persistently and sincerely. Never hiding anything from you, O our Heavenly Father. Help us, O Lord, to as a child, to trust in you and to be ready to receive from you and to ask and to knock and to seek. As a child, ask, seek and knock. For all those things which you desire us to receive, O Father, we pray. Deliver us from lack of faith. Deliver us from unbelief. Deliver us from discouragement when our prayers are not listened. But grant us, O Lord, that true desire to pursue those things that are according to what you desire to give us. In Jesus' name, Father, we pray. Help us to pray. Amen.