♪ On the right ♪ ♪ Oh, I've been blessed by sight ♪ ♪ Beneath His heavenly light ♪ ♪ Teach me Thy grace ♪ ♪ Oh, I've been blessed by sight ♪ ♪ Teach me Thy grace ♪ And then we'll go backwards on the page there, so 439, I have a shepherd, one I love so well. First and last verses of 439. ♪ I have a shepherd, one I love so well ♪ How He has blessed me, how can ever tell? On the cross He suffered, shed His blood and died. Am I forever in His love confined? Follow ye Jesus, ever day by day. Nothing can harm thee when Jesus leads the way. Darkness or sunshine, Their eyes shall dwell with proud appreciation. Gather round, you see, all around. May Jesus lead the way! God bless our son, John, our very own. We normally go forwards, but we're going backwards tonight. 438, there's another good hymn. Pilgrim bound for the heavenly land, never lose sight of Jesus. 438, first verse, maybe in chorus only. 438. For the heavenly Lamb, ever the sign of Jesus. Thank you very much, thank you. That's you all warmed up. We'll sing another hymn by the same author. I haven't had a look but I'm near sure it's the same author that we were singing there, Johnson Oatman Jr., 418. I'm pressing on. the upward way. That's the Christian's testimony every single day of his life. If we're not pressing on, then we are cold, we're backslidden. I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day, still praying as I onward bound. Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. 418, let's stand together as we sing. you I am. Lord, lift me up, and let me stand, my faith on heaven's stable land. A higher claim than I have had, Lord, that I be a higher bride. of the world. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ The angels sighed, and grandshackly the glory bright ♪ ♪ But still I pray, till then I cry ♪ ♪ Forgive me, oh, till I am right ♪ ♪ Forgive me, oh, forgive me ♪ I drink of heaven's red wine. How higher can I apply? Or can I drink of high and dry? Only beyond the mountainside I can apply. Amen. That's good singing. Let's just take a few Very thankful for the good reports of the meetings on Sunday evening. And last night, apologies for not being present. I was preaching last night in the mission in Randallstown, and then I was with the Tinsley family, as you would appreciate, right through Sunday to well into Sunday evening. But we got good reports of the Lord's presence and the evident blessing through the preaching of the word. And we're glad to see you tonight. Trust the Lord will be with us and you'll join now in prayer. and maybe you've got in late, you've had a busy day, and your mind's everywhere, and you just want to settle yourself down, well, now's the time, just as we're coming to the Lord, just to wrestle and battle against all that's tugging at your mind and pulling at the heart string, and just get yourself into a good frame of mind, and then just pray yourself, Lord, speak to me. Now, what a wonderful prayer. That's all it'll take tonight to change your life, to make this night different. Lord, speak to me. And if the Lord does that, well, it'll be a transformation. It'll lift your heart, it'll bless your soul. Isn't that what you need? If you say, what do I need tonight? I'll tell you, we need the Lord to speak to us. For if he's silent to us, we're like those that go down into the pit. Pray now tonight, prepare my heart. Lord, speak to me. Father, we come in the Savior's precious name, on the merit of the shed blood. And Lord, we want an ear for God. We want, Lord, to recognize and, Lord, know the voice of our beloved above the clamor of the voices of this world, the celebration of wickedness. We want to hear the Lord. We want to hear thy voice. Lord, we are like Elijah. We're not going to hear the voice in that which is dramatic, not the earthquake, not the fire, not the lightning, not the thunder, but in the small, still voice in our soul. We pray that the living word would speak to our hearts, that this book, O God, which is alive, would be the word of God to our hearts tonight, and thy servant would be very conscious that he is speaking forth the very words of the eternal God, and that it will come with power and great authority, with instruction and challenge, Lord, We pray, Lord, for preparation of heart. Lord, some have come tonight and they've had their hearts prepared. They've been anticipating this meeting. Others maybe have struggled. The things happened today, those things that are on the mind. We pray, Lord, you will take away every distraction, every wandering thought, and just shut us in with thyself. We are desirous to hear the word from thy mouth, to receive counsel and instruction from God. So hear thy servants' prayers tonight. And Lord, grant that we may know that help from God. Speak to me, Lord. Lord, I pray you will speak to my heart. I need to hear from thee in these days. Lord, I pray that thou would speak, Lord, powerfully to my soul and let thy voice, Lord, ring in my heart and in my life. Lord, I pray that thou will challenge me and thou would, Lord, convict me and thou wouldst be pleased to comfort and encourage my heart as I hear the voice of my beloved. To this end, remember thy servant. Give to him, O God, the infilling of the Spirit with wisdom and power, and in the handling of thy word. We pray, O God, you will bring all things to his remembrance. And God grant that even beyond the preparation and beyond the notes, that he will know the help and liberty and power of God. We pray there'll be nothing in his way, that he will have perfect liberty tonight. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And we pray, O God, that we will learn more of thy blessed ways. Thou holy Lamb of God, Come and teach us, for who teaches like unto thee? Be with us now, and remember all who have gathered, those who are listening on the worldwide web. We pray, O God, that as we gather around the word tonight, that thou wouldst bless us richly. And Lord, we're not unmindful of some who need our prayers tonight. We think of our sister, Christine. We pray for her husband, Ian. Remember Ian's dad, Bobby, in hospital as well. And we pray, Lord, for Sam McCormick, Lord, in the Royal Victoria Hospital, and his dear wife, Olga. And we pray, too, Lord, for little Penelope Carson, back in hospital again. Remember Ruth and Scott. We commend them to Thee. Think of our brother, Paul Keane, Lord, in the City Hospital, and Mayor Montgomery in the Lagan Valley. Think of Ruth Puddick, Lord, recovering at home, We pray for Jimmy and Rachel Quigley, Lord. We think, too, of others who have need tonight. Remember the Tinsley family. We pray for James and the loss of his dear wife. Pray for all the boys and ask that you'll be with them. And, Lord, there are some who need our prayers, who are ministers. We think of the Reverend MacLeod, the Reverend Harris. We just pray that you'll be with Kim and John Wagner as well. And then we remember, Lord, Arlene Gray, and there are many others on the list. We just bring them to thee and pray for them tonight. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and we pray, Lord, as we commit them to thy care, that thou wouldst minister to their physical and to their spiritual needs. So, hear prayer tonight. We offer it with thanksgiving in Jesus' precious and worthy name. Amen. We are glad to see you tonight. We just want to warmly welcome you in our Savior's name. We're glad to have the Reverend John Greer with us, who has been asked to come and to take the week of meetings dealing with the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of the believer. And we trust the Lord will encourage your heart. And if you can be at every meeting, we encourage you to do that. And you might say, well, I can get the set. DVDs or the tapes or the CDs, whatever, that's good and we would appreciate if you would do that, but there's nothing like being present in the meeting. I don't think you can really capture the spirit of a meeting on a DVD or even in a CD. It's always good to be present. So if you can be here tomorrow night, God willing, right through to Friday night, just set aside the time and pray for the meetings. Do pray throughout the day that God would richly bless us as we hear his word. Just before God's servant comes to minister. We'll sing a couple of verses of one hundred and sixty-five. One six five. Still a few others gathering in. Breathe on me. Breath of God. Fill me with life and you will sing verses one and two only and we'll stand together please as we worship. Let's all stand. Be the new bread of God, until my heart is bare, until I wear You may be seated. We would like to again warmly welcome to our pulpit, he's no stranger, I'm sure, to most here, if not all, the Reverend John Greer. We had tremendous time in Bellarmine in the mission with God's servant and the Lord certainly was with us. I remember the rich fellowship not only in the church but also the times he went back to his own home and the fellowship was richly blessed of the Lord. So we're delighted to have him with us. We're going to ask him to come now and minister the Word of the Lord. Thank you. Well, could you turn with me please on this occasion to the Gospel of Luke again? We were there last night. I want to come back to Luke chapter 11 this evening to one of the most wonderful passages that we could ever read or study in relation to the Holy Spirit. And so we're turning to Luke chapter 11. I thank Mr. Martin for his words of welcome. And he has gone down there to be beside his wife and relax. I hope he doesn't go to sleep. Don't mean it that way. Trust the Lord will bless him. And I know he's had a heavy schedule. And may the Lord feed all of our hearts tonight and meet with us as we gather here before him. And so we're at Luke chapter 11. Let us read from the verse number 1 down to verse number 13. Luke 11, verse 1, let us hear the Word of God. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of the disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And he said unto them, which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, Yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, and God will bless the reading of His own Word. We will again just bow together and let us come to the Lord for these few moments before we come to the preaching, and let us all pray that the Lord will help us tonight and even give to us His Holy Spirit as we have read just in this final verse. We pray this evening that Thou wilt bless us as we come now to this time of preaching and to this time of the hearing of the Word of God. O Lord, we approach it with that feeling and that awareness of our utter inability and therefore our dependence on Thee. Lord, I do pray that Thou wilt help all of us tonight to come together as one man with that consciousness of just how much we need Thee. as we come to the time of considering the Word of God. O Lord, how vital it is that we have the help of heaven. Lord, I do pray, and I know every believer here will be praying, that thou wilt grant us that help, and thou wilt breathe on us, even breathe on us by the Spirit. O Lord, we pray for help now, help to hear, to listen, to receive the engrafted Word. Come, O God, in all thy fullness and drive back the old enemy, the one who would resist the preacher and the hearer. O Lord, we pray for the victory of Calvary to prevail over this gathering. We thank Thee for the one who has triumphed gloriously and who has overcome the enemy and has broken the head of the adversary. And Lord, we pray that we might know what it is to preach in the triumph of Christ's glorious victory over the devil and his resurrection from the dead. Oh Lord, we thank Thee for one who's in heaven at Thy right hand as our Prince and our Savior. Oh Lord, we rejoice that all power belongs unto Him, all authority, both in heaven and on earth. And Lord, surely that great statement encompasses a meeting like this. For thou art the head of the church, and, Lord, thou hast an interest in the gatherings of thy people. We know that full well, for thou hast said that thou wilt be there in the midst. And so, Lord, come and stand among us tonight, and make bare thine arm, and bless us, we pray, as we now wait on thee, and we wait around the book. We ask this all in Jesus' name, and for his glory, and for his everlasting praise. Amen, and amen. I want to just take as my text, although I will be looking at much of this whole passage, this verse number 13. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? The verses I've read with you this evening form one complete section of God's Word. That observation is confirmed by the fact that there is one subject really dealt with in this passage, and that is the subject of prayer. We read in the first verse of the Lord in prayer. It's a marvelous verse. It came to pass that as He was praying, in a certain place, wherever that was, we're not told, but there was a certain place, a definite place where the Lord went to pray, and we know that He had different seasons of prayer as we find especially in the book of Luke. The book of Luke is a book that is bathed in the atmosphere of prayer. And in the first chapters, there is so much about the prayer life of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he often went to various places to get alone with his father. And here he is praying, his disciples are with him. And as he prays and comes to the close of that season of prayer, he's asked this question by one of the disciples. And surely this man was speaking for all the others because he says, Lord, teach us to pray. teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. So the chapter begins with a reference to the Lord in prayer and with a request for prayer, to be taught to pray. It doesn't say teach us how to pray. Very often we misquote these words. It's a prayer, a request by that disciple that the Lord would press upon their hearts to really pray. He's not asking for some kind of a mechanical formula. Although the Lord goes on, of course, to give to them what we often call the Lord's Prayer, but it's really the disciples' prayer, is to help them to pray. But the request was, Lord, teach us to pray. What that really means is, Lord, move our souls so that we will pray in the manner that we need to pray and lay hold upon God and cry to heaven. And so the first few verses bring to us the whole issue of prayer and the subject of prayer that goes on then As I've indicated, the Lord, from verses 2 to 4, He gives them a pattern, as it were, for all prayer. That's really what that prayer is about. I know we could quote it or repeat it, and there's nothing wrong with that in a sense, although we must be careful it doesn't fall into only or merely vain repetition. but that this prayer is understood to be a pattern for all true prayer. And so the Lord gives them instruction. And then he goes on to bring a little parable from verse five through to verse number eight. And in that little parable, the issue that's brought up is praying with persistence. And so it is very clear that the whole passage is dealing with the subject of the prayer life of the child of God. I would say to you tonight, I believe this to be true in many, many ways that there is no passage like this in all of Scripture on the issue of teaching on prayer. It's a marvelous passage because here is the Lord Jesus Christ taking time to teach these men about prayer even beyond what they had asked. Because the Lord does answer prayer, you know. in that manner. He is able to answer our prayers exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think, and he did it here. They asked, as it says, Lord, teach us to pray, but the Lord went on to give them far more than what they actually asked. That was a prayer itself. Lord, teach us to pray. And we all should take those words and make them our own. Lord, teach me to pray. We cannot pray as we ought. I hope tomorrow night to bring you to that verse I've just quoted a little part of. It is Romans 8, 26. We do not know how to pray as we ought, and we'll look at that tomorrow night. But here, and again, the Holy Spirit is there in that verse as well. but Lord teach us to pray and the Lord taught them to pray and gave them far more than they perhaps even thought about when that request was brought to him. Now with regard to content, this passage is very full in what it presents on this topic of prayer and therefore it lends itself to numerous studies and to many messages. You could preach as you might say, until the cows come home, or whatever way you want to express it on a passage like this that is so full and so powerful and so packed with truth for the child of God. But I would say to you tonight, I suggest to you tonight, that the objective of Jesus Christ in this passage as he teaches his people to pray is to press upon them the need to pray through for the Holy Spirit to be given to them, because that is what we see clearly in This verse number 13, where this particular section closes, and his teaching and prayer comes to a conclusion, as we can clearly see. And in verse 13, that's what the Lord is doing. He is showing these people, these disciples, that they need to pray through for the Holy Spirit to be given to them. He says in verse 13, if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" And you see, that is a powerful verse, a powerful question really. It's a rhetorical question, of course, but it's in the form of a question that governs everything else that comes before. They've asked to be taught to pray. And the Lord has shown them the need to persist in prayer as well as following the pattern that he has given to them to govern their prayer lives. And he's now showing them that what they need in their lives and in their ministries is the Holy Spirit. And we are looking here at a passage, therefore, where the Holy Spirit is given to the child of God, is given to the church of God with regard to the ministry of prayer. That's the sense to which we arrive as we think about the concluding words of the Lord here in verse number 13. And so He encourages these men to ask for the Holy Spirit and all with regard to the ministry of prayer. It is important, may I say at this stage, to understand what the Lord means in this reference to asking for the Holy Spirit. And the understanding of what he means will come to our minds as a result of just thinking our way through a number of points here before I get right into the message I want to bring to you tonight. A number of points about the Christian and the Holy Spirit. Here he is saying to these men that they need to ask for the Holy Spirit. Let me say to you that those who are to ask for the Holy Spirit in relation to prayer life and prayer ministry are a people who are already indwelt by the Spirit. You see, in verse 1 it says that one of his disciples said to him, teaches to pray, and therefore this group of men, as we well know, of course excluding Judas, If he were there, he probably was, but taking the men, the others, they were men who were already converted, and therefore they were already indwelt by the Spirit of God. There's a difference between the indwelling of the Spirit and what has been brought before these men in terms of asking for the Holy Ghost, which would be an ask or a request to be filled with the Spirit. And there's a difference. There's a vital difference. You see the same thing coming out in the book of Acts. Remember that there they gathered in the upper room and they prayed for the promise of the Lord to be fulfilled because the Lord had said to them that they would be endued with power not many days after that particular time when they gathered in the upper room. And in those ten days when they were in the upper room, they were praying for the Holy Ghost to come. Because when they finished praying, the Holy Ghost came, and he filled them every one, and he took them up and he used them for his glory. But that again was the disciples, men of God, and also women in that upper room, 120 disciples who were there, and they were already converted, and they were indwelt by the Spirit, but they were praying for the infilling of the Holy Ghost. And let us not make that error. That is an error that is held by various people, that in Acts 1 or Acts 2, the men who were praying and were baptized by the Holy Ghost, that that was their conversion. That is just not true. We are not to believe for what that was all about. That was people indwelt by the Spirit being filled with the Holy Spirit for ministry and for service for Jesus Christ. See, the Scripture clearly speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon God's people. to equip them and enable them for service and for ministry. It happened in Old Testament times. Many are the references in the Old Testament to God's Spirit coming upon men. who were men of God, who knew God, who were saved by the grace of God. Because as I said the other night, Sunday night I believe it was, that in the Old Testament days, God's people were saved in the very same way as we are. They were saved by looking to Christ. And so, in the Old Testament there were men of God, and indeed women, upon whom the Holy Spirit came the like of Basaliel whom we mentioned last night, or Gideon in Judges chapter 6, or Samson in the book of Judges as well. And David there, as we read in 1 Samuel 16, what a marvelous statement, that when he was anointed with the oil by Samuel, the Holy Ghost came upon him from that day onwards. That was an infilling of the Spirit upon a man who was already indwelt by the Spirit. And you find the same in the New Testament Example after example, I've mentioned some already, and we've thought about some on previous nights, John the Baptist filled with the Holy Ghost, his parents filled with the Holy Ghost, Zacharias and Elizabeth. We didn't get into that when I referred to John the Baptist last night, but we find that down through Luke 1, you discover that Zacharias was filled with the Spirit, and his wife was filled with the Spirit. But these were people who were already saved, and the Spirit came upon them. to equip them for their ministry and their service. You will also find, therefore, that the same people who were already indwelt by the Spirit as believers, as Christians, because you can't be a Christian without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, were not only filled by the Spirit for service, but they were filled again and again. Just not once, but on various occasions. The disciples were filled with the Spirit in Acts 2. And then they're filled again in Acts 4. The Ephesian believers in Acts 19 are filled with the Spirit. But then Paul says to that Ephesian church in Ephesians 5.18, keep on being filled with the Spirit. That's what the words mean in Acts 5.18. Keep on being filled. It's a need men and women all the time. That we be Spirit filled people. Just not the man in the pulpit, but the people in the pews, that you seek the Lord to be filled with the Holy Ghost on that constant, ongoing basis in order to serve the Lord. As Paul says again, I tell you, Ephesians 5.18, keep on being filled with the Spirit. And the Scripture, of course, uses different terms for that same experience. On one occasion, the Lord talks about being endued with power from on high. And then, with reference to the same experience, He refers to being baptized with the Holy Ghost. And then, a little later, when it actually happens, it's described as being filled with the Holy Ghost. Not three different matters or experiences, but the same experience under three different descriptions. These are actually very elementary matters, but there's so many people confused about these things that we need to say this and make it clear what the Bible's talking about here with regard to these matters. The coming of the Holy Spirit to fill men is for all Christians, therefore. Again, Ephesians 5.18 is addressed to a church, a church of men and women. And undoubtedly, young people too. The Ephesian church, one of the greatest churches of that New Testament era. And therefore, those words are addressed to male and female. They're addressed to what you might call the leaders and the laity. The men in the pulpit, the elders of the church, those in the rank and file membership. It's addressed there to people who faced all kinds of situations because as you read there, keep on being filled with the Spirit. You go on to read of church life and public life and married life and home life and on into chapter 6, the battlefield. And I will be coming to that passage in Ephesians 6. the help of the Lord in a night or two's time to look at being filled with the Holy Spirit or praying in the Spirit in the day of battle. And so, the church of Jesus Christ being filled with the Spirit is for all of God's people. It is the enduement of power from on high and we've been shown here by the Lord tonight that we are to pray for the Holy Ghost. That's the meaning of this verse. One of the most important things that you could ever do when you come to read and study God's Word is find out first what a certain verse means. And the meaning of this verse is clear. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him were to ask for the Holy Spirit to come as those who already have Him in our hearts, and all these other points I've mentioned here as quick as I could to set up the whole scene, were to ask for the Holy Ghost. But we need to be encouraged and helped in praying for this. And this is what the Lord Jesus Christ is actually doing here, and especially in this text. This text, along with the previous context, is one tremendous encouragement, as well as instruction, on this matter of praying for the Holy Ghost. And we can sum up the encouragement of Christ in these words. by seeing it as being comprised of a number of principles that are designed to stir our hearts, to pray for the Holy Spirit to lay hold upon God, that the Spirit of the Lord will come. Ah, brethren and sisters, let me tell you, this is the great need of the moment, for the Holy Spirit to come, for the Holy Spirit to be sought by God's people, that He will come and He will endure us and empower us, that He will come upon the church He'll come upon the free Presbyterian church and other bodies of like mind and like precious faith in our little land that again we will have a moving of God's Spirit among us. Do you not long for that? We've all heard what happened yesterday and what happened then at midnight and so forth and our hearts are grieved and our hearts are vexed. at what has taken place on our land, but let me say to you, the Lord has permitted it. We believe in a sovereign God, and we're getting nothing more than we deserve, let me tell you, on this land that is so wicked and far away from truth. and has despised God's Word and God's standards, and so there's that angle to it. But since God has permitted it, is He not saying to us, now prove me? This is a time to prove God, and the only way we can prove God is by seeing what the Lord is talking about here actually coming to pass. we set ourselves to pray for the Holy Spirit. So there are three principles in this verse. Very simple, very plain I want to leave with you, as I trust will be an encouragement to your heart tonight to pray as never before for the Spirit of God to come upon you and to endure you as an individual and to come upon your brethren and sisters. Every gathering, every meeting, let's see that we need to have the Holy Ghost with us as never before. What are the three principles? Number one, there is the principle of the paternal. I'm sure you know what the word paternal means. It refers to one who is a fatherly individual. And so look at verse 13, and it refers in this verse to your heavenly father. And in those words you have the paternal nature and the fatherly character of our God. Oh, how wonderful that he is described here by our Savior as your Christian, or all believers here, your heavenly Father. That's the principle of the paternal. He's already mentioned in verse 3 in that form of prayer that he gave the disciples. Sorry, verse 2. Our Father which art in heaven, when ye pray, He says, say, it doesn't mean, again, I hasten to add mere repetition or saying words merely, but it's to recognize your relationship with God. He is your Father. He's your Father in heaven. In verse number 13, going back there where it says your heavenly Father, literally those words read this way, your Father from heaven. And so back in verse number 2, it is your Father which is in heaven. Our Father which art in heaven. And think about that. Our Father in heaven. That's His dwelling place with regard to how the Bible reveals the dwelling place of God. We know that God is everywhere. He's omnipresent. But the Bible nonetheless reminds us that there is that realm called the third heavens where God dwells. where the eternal Trinity dwells, including therefore the blessed Father as well as the Son and the Holy Spirit, our Father which art in heaven. And when the Lord uses those words in verse 2, He's showing to you and me this evening that we have access to heaven. Our Father's in heaven, but we can go to Him. we can draw an eye to Him. Isn't that a marvellous thing? Here we are on this earth, here we are in this meeting house now, in a certain location in Northern Ireland, the city of Lisbon, and from here we can go to heaven in prayer, enter into the courts above, draw an ear to our Father who art in heaven, who dwells there, in all His glory and through the mediator and through the blood of the covenant, we can approach Him. Even though He dwells in light unapproachable in His own divine essence, His glorious holiness, yet there's a way to Him. Thank God for that, Christian, and make use of it. Get to the throne of grace, to your Father which is in heaven. And so in verse 2, the focus there upon His paternal nature is of Him. as He is in heaven itself, us approaching Him and He hearing us and regarding us and our petitions. But you know, when you come to verse number 13, the flavor changes. And now we're dealing with our Father answering us from heaven. And that's why I gave you a little reading of these words where the Lord says, you're a heavenly Father. It literally means your Father from heaven. Read it that way. How much more shall your Father from heaven give the Holy Ghost? Do you see it? From heaven he gives the Holy Ghost because of his paternal nature, because he loves his children, because he has a regard for his children. And the Father who's in heaven, to whom we draw an eye in prayer, comes or answers from heaven to give us the Holy Ghost, to send down the Spirit. Remember how the Lord prayed that? I drew your attention to one of those references in John the other night where Christ says, I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter. And He gives them right from heaven to meet all our needs, to deepen our spiritual experience, to have us pray, to have us witness, to have us live as we should and so on. And so He opens the gates of heaven as it were and through the Spirit He comes down to us, our Father from heaven. You know, the whole idea of the paternal runs right through these verses because you'll find that the Lord takes that thought and he illustrates his whole teaching by means of it, the means of the paternal. Because you read in verse 11, shall ask bread of any of you that is a father." Now there it is again, the son and the father. There is the filial status there, the one who's a son. And then there is the paternal status, the one who is a father. The Lord is illustrating the point that God will hear persistent prayer and he stresses therefore this principle of the paternal relationship as it exists on the human level. And then he lifts it to the heavenly, the spiritual level as he talks about God and His people. And he shows to us, therefore, as he speaks here, that even a fallen man has the paternal principle within him. and He responds to His children. And the Lord then lifts that, as I say, to the higher level when you get down to verse number 13, but He's illustrating the whole concept of the paternal in this wonderful way. And the whole point of the Lord is that God the Father in His paternal nature responds feelingly to our cries and to our needs and to our desperation. And what the Lord says, the psalmist says in Psalm 103, as a father pitieth his children. Here's the same thing again, this matter of the paternal. As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. And it goes on to say, for he knoweth our frame. A Christian get a hold of that tonight. He remembereth that we are dust. And the psalmist there is speaking of himself and others, and therefore he's speaking of Christians, God's people, the Lord's people. And our Father in heaven knows our frame. Think about that tonight. Have you come into this house tonight and you're weighed down? Oh, I would imagine there has to be somebody here who's got a burden on his or her heart. There has to be somebody here who's weighed down with the pressures of life. someone here tonight and you feel the opposition of hell and you feel maybe even more than that you feel the raging corruption of your own heart and you know that you're you're nothing but a sinner oh you may be saved by grace but nothing but a sinner in yourself and with regard to who you are and you feel the weight of your own sin and the corruption of your own nature and you're aware of your failures and your limitations and your shortcomings and you wonder does anybody care about you you, care about you enough to help you, and there is someone. He knows your frame. He knows you're but dust and ashes. As Abraham said when he went to Jehovah to pray. And my dear friend, see that tonight and recognize this principle of the paternal. In what way does this principle exist? Well, it exists with regard to this matter of us and God because He has made us His children through the new birth, through regeneration. Children in an earthly family, they hold a place in that family because of natural generation. That's a principle of life, isn't it? There's a father in that home, and he and his wife have come together in marriage, and the consequence is that, as God blesses them, there is the natural generation of children in that family and in that marriage relationship. And my friend, God's children, they are also generated, generated spiritually in the new birth, brought into the family of God. but into that blessed standing with God, through God's mighty regenerating work by the power, yea, by the miracle of the Holy Ghost." I referred to the indwelling of the Spirit, and it's really then, you see, at the new birth or in regeneration that the Spirit enters and indwells the one whom God has regenerated. is a stupendous miracle, where God by His Spirit performs a miracle of grace in a man's, a woman's, a youth's soul, and places into that individual a new principle of life and holiness, all that marks that new principle. That's a miracle. And think about it tonight, you have this paternal figure and glory as it were, this blessed Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by His Spirit has made you His own and has brought you to this blessed level where you're now one of the sons of God through the miracle of regeneration. And on the basis of that miracle, this paternal relationship is formed. And those who are born of God become as heirs and become as beneficiaries. Understand that tonight. When God regenerated you and took you to be His child, He also then placed you into His family. There is sonship in those two ways. There is regeneration and then there is adoption. by which we are given this blessed standing of being the children of God, the sons of God, and of a right to all the privileges of our sonship. And it's all included here. as Jesus Christ says to you, speaks to you tonight, of your heavenly Father, your Father which is in heaven and your Father who hears you and acts from heaven to come and meet your needs and all that's involved and required with regard to Christian living, and you become His heir. Think of those great words in Romans chapter 8 where it says in verse number 16, verse number 17, the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and of children, then heirs. Heirs of God. Joint heirs. with Jesus Christ. Now let me say to you, dear believer, you need to see every day who you are, and live in the enjoyment of that, and pray in the enjoyment of that, and serve in the enjoyment of that. This is a place where we all feel we should be going every day to see ourselves as we are presented in the book, in a verse like that. It's not the word of man. It's not the figment of Paul's imagination when he says that we are not only God's children, but when we are children, we're God's heirs and we are fellow heirs with Christ. Imagine that. You know what it means? Christ is our elder brother. And as our covenant head, he has procured for us everything through his redemptive work that we need. to be saved, to be God's people, to live the Christian life, and it's all applied to us by the Holy Ghost. And so, this relationship, this paternal principle and relationship exists because of regeneration. One other wee thing before I leave this particular principle of the paternal. It exists as well because of reconciliation. If you take the issue that the Lord actually uses here, verse 11, if a son shall ask bread of any of you, that is a father. Yes, there is the relationship there of birth or generation, but between a father and a son, there's the relationship of blood. Because in the veins of the son, there flows the blood of the parent. taking that physical element of things. And there's therefore a thought there that I want you to see. We are God's children, not only by birth, but by blood. And this relationship of the paternal, or this principle of the paternal, as I say, it exists because of the blood reconciliation. and all that Christ has done for us as our Redeemer. One of the great passages that teaches this is Galatians 4, and look at that with me. Galatians 4, that passage, and verse 4 through to verse 6. Let's just read these verses quickly. And it says, but when the fullness of the time was come, God has a time to work, you know. And there was a time for the Lord Jesus to be born. The promised Messiah. was going to come into this world at a certain point in history, for He is the Christ of history. And you see it here in Galatians 4.4, when the fullness of the time was come, when the time had reached a peak, when it was right for God to step in, He did this. What did He do? God sent forth His Son, made of a woman. There's the virgin birth. made under the law, there is the submission of Christ as our Redeemer to the law that must be obeyed and must be fulfilled in precept and fulfilled in penalty and therefore He was made under, that means placed under the law. What a marvelous thing that our Redeemer actually placed Himself under His own law and obeyed it fully. And it goes on to say, here's the great goal, the great purpose, to redeem them that were under the law. that we might receive the adoption of sons." And then it says, and because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Do you notice the connection of thoughts here? Christ has redeemed His people all for the purpose of their adoption of being the sons of God and the reception of the Holy Spirit in that particular level of things where, as I mentioned a while ago, the Holy Spirit enters at the new birth. and they become the sons of God and the paternal relationship is formed, but it's not without the foundation of the redeeming blood of Christ that comes out again. We couldn't emphasize this enough, that there's no relationship with God. He can't be our Father without blood. That is why we love to sing about the precious blood. And that's why we must keep on singing about it and preaching about it. when others are moving away from it and have been moving away from it for years and are disparaging of the blood and speak with contempt of the blood. But here we are finding that there's no paternal connection between God and us except through birth and blood. Get a hold of that, Christian. That's the first principle. Quickly, the second principle then, go back to Luke 11, is the principle of the provision. There's the principle of the paternal, and then there's the principle of the provision. Now, this text rings with this fact of provision. And taking the children on the human level, the Lord refers to it in 13 as well as in the previous verses. And so, there is a fact of life, isn't there, that a good father will make provision for his children. A father who's got a desire for the well-being of his family, even if he's still an unconverted man, taken at that length, he will, because of common grace, because of the fact that the law of God is written in his conscience, and that is part of common grace, he will feed his family. unless he is an absolute brute and so far gone in his sin that he has shared his conscience But we see this every day, the ungodly of the world, they work, they provide for their families, and the Lord's referring to those things in these verses, because He's drawing up, He's setting out this principle of provision, and the context makes that absolutely clear. Look at verse 11. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if you'll ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?" And what I learned from those words with regard to this principle of the provision is that a father out of his care for his children provides for them that which is genuine. They ask for bread. And the Lord says here, if your son asks for bread, will you give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will you give him a serpent? If he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? And just think about it from that angle that I've mentioned. The Lord is showing here that the provision that a good father will make for his children is something that is real and that will meet their needs, not a counterfeit. not something that is a mere pretense. No, that will not happen where there is that fatherly heart. And my friend, what the Lord is showing us here therefore is God will not give the counterfeit to His people, to His children. We ask for the Holy Ghost. I want to tell you tonight, God loves to hear us pray that way. And God is not in the business of giving to His children stones for bread, or serpents for fish, and scorpions for an egg, just to use the language of Christ. God's in the business of giving His children that which is real, that which will benefit them, that which will do good to them. It's the devil who gives the counterfeit. Think of the Holy Spirit As I said earlier, this is the great goal to which the Lord is working. He will give the Holy Ghost to those who ask Him. And think of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a real person. He's a divine person. He's the third person of the Godhead. He's the executor of the Godhead. He's the one commissioned by the Father and the Son to go into all the earth and bring blessing and reverse what the devil has done. and work in people's hearts and change people's lives and bring blessing to the church of God and build up the saints. My dear friend, the Holy Ghost will not give to you something that is unreal. He will give you the genuine blessing and gift of God to your soul. He will not give you stones for bread. rather He will give you that which is real." As I was going to say there, it's the devil who gives the counterfeit. 2 Corinthians 11, that great passage where Paul addresses the Corinthian church about the dangers of Satan, coming like the angel of light, or as an angel of light rather, and the false apostles and all those things that are in that passage. What is the Lord showing there? He's showing that the devil is the master of the counterfeit. Counterfeit experiences. Experiences that are saturated with error, based on error, that lead to confusion, that lead to division. that lead to despair, that lead someone who even may be a child of God into realms where that individual is utterly overthrown in spiritual experience. The devil is a master at that. And therefore we need to see tonight that there is here the principle of provision that is real, genuine, to be for our blessing. The provision is not only real, but it's regulated. If I can use that word just to carry through something that might help you to remember this, it's real and it's regulated because the Lord speaks here of three items, bread, fish, and the egg. given by a father to his son. And the thought and view in the three items that are mentioned here is that the provision in terms of the giving of the Holy Spirit is regulated to meet our spiritual needs and our spiritual situations and our spiritual challenges. There are times when we need bread, there are times when we need The fish, there are times when we need the egg. Now, what does the Lord mean by all that? Well, I'm saying to you, He's showing us in this wonderful way that He regulates what we need for our souls. You see, in the provision of the Spirit, when the Holy Spirit comes, He is the sum and substance of all our provision. I'll show you that in a moment or two. But when the Holy Spirit comes in answer to prayer, there is given what is essential. If you think of the first item, bread, isn't bread, as we often say, the staple diet of life? Didn't the Lord Jesus Christ say, I am the bread of life? And you see, it's the work of the Holy Spirit to give to the Lord's people that which is essential, necessary for their daily walk, for their daily experience. And brethren and sisters, that's what God's telling you tonight. Pray for the Holy Ghost to come upon you again and again, because He not only will not bring the counterfeit, but bring that which is real. But He will bring you something that will be essential to your spiritual well-being. Go back down to verse 3, give us day by day our daily bread. There's bread mentioned there. Or verse number 6, verse number 5, lend me three loaves, there's bread mentioned there. It's very interesting to notice how bread is often mentioned down these verses, and then you come to verse 11 and it's mentioned once again. And what we have been shown therefore is that there is something that's essential for life. And bread is that in the physical dimension. And the Lord's showing you therefore that the Holy Ghost, you need the Holy Ghost. That's what he's telling you tonight. You can't do without the Holy Ghost. It's essential, it's necessary. And when He provides the Holy Spirit for His children, He gives them that which is essential for their well-being of soul. You need the Holy Spirit in order for you to be taught, to be led, to be strengthened, to be built up in your faith. I haven't time, but we could go tonight and look at all the features of this essential ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God's people, talking about His ministry this week among God's people, how essential that we have the Spirit with us. It's essential that you come to the house of God full of the Holy Ghost, that you might pray, that you might sing, that you might enter into the worship service with all your heart and soul and mind. I was just talking today with Mr. Stewart, a young man who's now assisting in Ballymena, and we had a funeral today. And as we're driving along at that funeral, we were talking about the things of God, and I was saying to him about this whole problem that there can be in churches with regard to why people go, as we say, go to church. Let me ask you a question. Why do we come to God's house? Why? We come to God's house to worship. That's it, in a nutshell. We come to God's house to worship, and we should. We need to be filled with the Spirit. We don't come to God's house for the purpose of what we can get out of it. That's the attitude of so many. And that is why the entertainment industry in churches is growing apace. Because there are churches that are failing here. And let me tell you something, they are doing wrong. Because their whole agenda is to entertain. Liven it up. Lighten it up. Provide the music that will get the feet going. and stir up the flesh and have people go away saying, wasn't that wonderful? I felt so good there. My dear friend, you don't come to God's house for the mere purpose of feeling good, because God wants you to come to his house and he might speak to you about your sin. And when he speaks to you about your sin, you'll not be feeling good. You'll be feeling broken. But better to come to God's house and worship Him with a broken and a contrite heart than to go through some charade where you think you're feeling good and all the while you're deceived. The Holy Ghost, God's provision for us. It's essential that we have Him. He's the bread that we need for our souls. In this provision, there's only what's essential, but there's what's enriching. If you take the items here, bread, fish, the egg, take all three of them, and they all are nourishing and enriching to the body, and I believe that's also in view here. This provision through the Holy Spirit is only essential to nurture our spiritual life, but thank God it enriches us. It enriches us. The Spirit does bring enrichment to the soul. Remember what Paul said to the Galatians. He spoke in Galatians 3 verse 3, about he who ministereth to you the Spirit. And the word ministereth means supplies. God supplies to his children the Holy Spirit that they might be enriched. Now, I want you to see this in relation to this text. For if you go back to Matthew 7 verse 11, which is really a parallel with Luke 11, 13, you'll find a little difference there. Matthew 7, verse 11, if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? So how do we square these two verses? Because one is saying that The Father gives good things and the other is saying, and it's the Lord who's speaking here of course, that the Father gives the Holy Spirit. The simple answer is the Holy Spirit is the equivalent of all the good things, all the enriching things, and it's referring to spiritual matters that we need. The Father will give you good things by giving you the Holy Spirit and a fresh moving of the Spirit in your life, in your soul, and in your heart. And this provision, just to get here toward the end of this point, in this provision there is what is energizing. There's what's essential, enriching, and energizing. Because food, why does a father feed his children? That they'll have energy, they'll have strength. And so God, by His Spirit, fills His people, comes upon His people, endues His people, baptizes His people, that they might have power. Do you feel your powerlessness tonight? Is that the way it is? I think we all need to lament that. I think we need to cry to God that he'll have mercy on us because we live in days of powerlessness. Powerlessness in the pulpit, powerlessness in the prayer meetings, powerlessness in the pews, powerlessness in our witness and so on. There is powerlessness everywhere. But let me tell you, the Holy Ghost when he comes, he comes with energy upon the church of God. And he lifts us away from our powerlessness. through His provision in the sense that we're seeing here in these wonderful verses. And so the Lord is pointing us to that as well. And you bring all those points together that we've noticed here about this matter of the provision being regulated, the Lord knows exactly what we need. Illustrated by the fact He gives bread, He gives fish, He gives the egg. It's simply a way of the Lord showing us He knows exactly what we need and He gives us all this for our good and our benefit. And you know what the outcome of all that is? The right requests bring the right answers. We need to pray right. We don't go to the Lord to ask a miss, we shouldn't. We don't go to the Lord with our wish list. We go to the Lord to ask Him for what will be a provision that will be all this, essential and enriching and energizing. Pray with intelligence, Christians. Pray in the light of Scripture. Take God's Word back to Him. Go to the Father tonight and say, Father, Thy Son has said that He, You will give, our Father in Heaven will give us all the good things that we need. And He will give them to us in the person and work of the Holy Ghost and His ministry in our lives. That's how to pray. Lord, give me the Holy Ghost. And then I will have all that I need to live for Thee and to serve Thee. and to walk with thee and to do thy will, and be a blessing in my home, a blessing in my marriage, a blessing in my workplace, a blessing in society all around me." The third and the closing point is this, the principle of the promise. It says, if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" Men and women, that is a promise. So there is the principle of the paternal and the principle of the provision. and the principle of the promise. The Father promises here, Christ promises us about the Father that He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. You know, that's a covenant promise, a covenant promise. God has covenanted to bless His children. He has sworn by Himself because He can swear by no greater to save His children, to keep them, to bless them, to give to them the Holy Spirit. Think of Galatians 3.14 where it refers to redemption again and goes on to speak of the Gentiles, that we might receive The promise of the Spirit, the promise of Abraham as it's called, which is a reference to the Holy Spirit. And there's a covenant promise for us tonight to take to our souls. This promise is a covenant matter. God has bound Himself to bless His people, to bless His church. You may remember with regard to the Isle of Lewis revival, you may have read about this, about one of those prayer meetings. where a man stood up and prayed. And he prayed on these terms and on these lines about God's covenant promise. And I tell you, when you read that man's prayer and what he said, he had to be moved by God to pray it. Because he said, Lord, you're not keeping your promise. And when he prayed that, the place began to shake. and the Holy Ghost came down. And then outside, and the town or the village was alive, middle of the night, people everywhere, up the streets, around the church. That was praying. I know that we must be very careful with these things, but when God moves His children to pray, they're praying to a covenant-keeping God. We talked last night about the promise of the Father in Acts 1, and the same idea is here. This promise, the Father will give the Holy Ghost, it is a covenant promise. Furthermore, it's a constant promise. Let's keep that in mind tonight. With the passing of time, this promise doesn't grow stale. It doesn't become irrelevant or obsolete. It's for the church. It's for the Lord's people. It was for His people at the early church period and at the Reformation and the great revivals, the great awakenings. It was this kind of promise, this blessed promise that the saints of God got hold of and they pled it before the throne because they realized it had a constant enduring impetus. And let me say to you tonight, dear men and women, that that promise still holds good for us. It has to, or we're in serious trouble. We don't believe the Holy Ghost has gone from the earth, or will go from the earth at some point, as some will tell you. We need the Holy Ghost, and God has promised to give him, and then it's a challenging promise. because it challenges us in terms of recognizing that this is God's answer. And what I said at the beginning, these men asked to be taught to pray, and the Lord brought them right through to this point where He showed to them that with all the instruction and prayer that He gave them on that occasion, it was to have them pray for the Holy Ghost. Who are these men? These are the men who are going to turn the world upside down. These are the men who need the Holy Ghost for their ministries, for their labor. Here are men who have felt their own hopelessness, their own, as I said a while ago, their own powerlessness. Here were men who when they heard or saw the Lord pray and heard the Lord pray, they were moved. Teach us to pray. Do you know that the Lord was filled with the Holy Ghost in answer to prayer? This book teaches that. Luke 3, 21, 22, where it says Jesus himself being baptized and praying. The heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended. And He came upon Christ, and Christ discharged His entire ministry in the power of the Spirit. Now, I know He was filled without measure, and that was unusual. That was for Him as a Messiah. And there's an awful mystery there. And when I say awful, I mean a great mystery. One divine person being anointed by another. We can't get our little minds around that, but that doesn't lessen the fact that Christ prayed and the Holy Ghost came, heaven was opened, the Spirit came down and filled our Savior, but it happened in the context of prayer. And so, this promise does challenge us to get before the Lord and to pray and to wait and to cry to Him to come again by His Spirit and bless us, bless His work. Is there someone here tonight who's not saved? You need to ask the Lord to save you. You need to seek Him for that. And let me tell you, it's the Holy Spirit whom you need in your life, in that first sense, to be indwelt by Him, to change you. If you put your trust in Christ and receive Christ, you will simultaneously receive the Holy Ghost, and He will dwell in you forever. Are you away from the Lord as a backslider? You need to come back. You need to get right with God and get your whole life, as we say, sorted out. But who can sort out your life but the Holy Spirit? You need to seek God for a new beginning, restoration, and the Spirit of God will be given you again. He has withdrawn from your life through your backsliding, but He will return again with power. He will give you a whole new life. Seek Him tonight. May God bless His Word to all of our hearts. Amen. Let us all turn to the hymn 657. On Sunday night at the close of the service, we didn't have a hymn. Last night, we did. And we stood to sing those words. But tonight, as we look at 657, singing two verses of the hymn, I think at best that we just keep seated as we are. And I would like you to, since I think you know the words, and some of you know them exceedingly well, I want you to make them a prayer, a prayer of your heart. This is a matter between you and the Lord. And you heard the Lord's servant there speak to one And for all we can tell, somebody could be here. Somebody could be here. You're not a Christian. You've never really come to know the Lord. We want to say it's time that you took that step to seek the Lord while He may be found. That you will call upon Him while He is near. The backslider can come as well. And the earnest Christian, there's room for you. There's that hymn that goes, there's room for me at the cross. And so there is. So we'll sing just the first and the last verses. And as I've suggested, I think it's appropriate, listening to God's precious word tonight. We have come to do business with God. We are asking the Lord to take a dealing with us in our lives that we may benefit by that enrichment, that enduement of power, that we may walk with God in days so atrocious as these. Can we sing these words then as a prayer, as a commitment, as an exchange between you and the Lord, that you can say this for yourself. It's right in line with the message. King of my life, I crown thee now. The Lord has to have the preeminent place in your life, in your thoughts, in your worship. In your times of prayer, in your reading of Holy Scripture, the Lord has to have that place, absolute preeminence, and that is re-echoed here in the hymn, King of My Life. No man, we were reminded of it last night in the hymn, no man can call Jesus Lord, Lord of all, but by the Holy Ghost. There's another grand work the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian, bringing his life more and more into line with Christ, where you can say, Lord, art the King of glory? Oh yes, deservedly so. I, he's the king of glory, he's going to come as the king to display his kingly power, but he's king of my life, my life, my life this very hour, my life tonight. He's the king of my life. Best I know how, I cry me now. Thine shall the glory be. Let's just bow our heads, and if you can, You can even keep your eyes closed. We're just making this a prayer time, singing these verses. Your prayer, my prayer, prayer of this congregation. Maybe the prayer of some listening to the global ministry tonight. Who could say how God is working? And we'll have the key now and then. We'll join in verse one, and lastly, verse five. Right in line, as I say, with the message tonight, fill me, O Lord. And when the Spirit of God comes in, in all his fullness, he'll be filled with his desire, not so much your desire, but his, glory to God. Fill me, that's the last verse. First and last verses, we'll make this our prayer. King of my life, my guardian, I shall adore in thee. Bless, my friend, thy former one, Yes, I believe. Yes, I forget my irony. Yes, I forget my love for you. Then touch my lips with holy fire, till stream of calumny flow. Our man will just pray. Did you talk to the Lord there? Is there someone tonight who, as an unconverted person, is there someone here tonight and you've come to know the Lord just there? Or has there been a backslider who has come? Tonight the Lord has graciously drawn near to you. He may as well have been sitting in the seat beside you. He has touched your heart. He has reminded you so wonderfully of what you had, what you enjoyed back then. And you walk with God in those precious days. And now you're saying, Lord, bring me back. Have me back. Receive me back again. And the earnest Christian who's here, we all need, we'll call it a revolution. We all need a turning over in our lives. There's a prayer in the Psalms that's re-echoed. It's repeated in a sense. Turn us, O God. Turn us. That's the cry of God's people. It's the essence of revival praying. Just as I go to prayer now, if we can help you, you'd like to talk to Mr. Greer, feel free to do that. Or if you're shy about the matter, you'd like to tell me or tell another question or tell Mr. Martin who's here tonight. It doesn't really matter who you speak to. If it's easier for you to talk to someone and say, I'd like to talk to Mr. Greer, you look after that. We'll look after that. But the all important thing is that You do not just propose to turn around, you just not propose to come to the Lord, but that you will know it by God's good grace, you come to him. And tomorrow night we have our children's meeting here, I think, and also Macgabray and Christian Workers are helping with children. It's the same all over the country. But I think I'd have Mr. Greer's consent to say, even if you come in late, there's a seat at the side you can just slip in. I don't mind, although really it's for the preacher to say this, but I'm taking it all myself to say for him. I know that I would be the same. I would say to a Christian worker, you're busy there getting the children in, getting them home safely, and you're going to be late a bit, but sure, it's better coming in than not coming at all. And we do have room there. Just get right in at the back. Just come in quietly with your Bible. Come praying. Do come back. We think this is vital. I believe we're going in the direction the Lord wants us to go this week. And that's no vain thing. We're going to pray now. And remember, if God has spoken to you tonight, again, I speak for Mr. Greer, he'd like to give you some counsel from the scriptures. That's important. We don't just believe in what we'll call a decision and people go away with a kind of earnestness about it and that's all there is to it. No, no, we believe God uses the written word And if you want to speak to Mr. Martin instead, that's grand. Or me, or anyone here who's a Christian. Lord, we need help tonight. We thank Thee for Thy presence. We thank Thee for Thy word coming over crystal clear and applicable to our hearts. We pray for all in this gathering, for those in the congregation who have been at prayer, who have consulted the Lord, who have sought Thy face today. And Lord, Thou hast been here. We thank Thee for that. Thou hast guided Thy servant. Thou hast blessed him. and in blessing him you have blessed us as well. O God, grant now before we leave our places that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. If we, evil as we are, know how to give good gifts to our children, Lord, then you have shown us. Oh, with vastly different proportion involved, that has shown us how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Lord, I ask Thee afresh for the infilling of the Holy Spirit in my life. We know that many here in the congregation, perhaps all without one exception, will do that now. We pray that you'll take us to our homes in safety. Bring us back again tomorrow night. Give Mr. Greer traveling mercies, and even on the journey, bless his soul as he goes down through these miles. And we ask the Lord that you'll watch over us all tomorrow. Keep us close to thee. Help us to do the right thing. Help us to follow the Lord like Caleb, our eyes fixed on Christ. Oh Lord, by thy Holy Spirit, guide us and prompt us. And may we know his keeping grace, Lord, keep us from erring. Erring, whatever way we'd want to put it. Even erring badly, that would be terrible. Or even erring ever so slightly as we might imagine it soon to be. Lord, we need thee to keep us right. We pray tonight that you'll take us away with the best of the blessings. In Jesus' dear name, amen. you