The certainty of answered prayer is affirmed by Jesus' teaching in Matthew 7:7-11, which promises that God will give good things to those who ask Him. The sermon explains that God's answers to prayer come in three forms: 'yes,' 'no,' and 'wait,' all of which are genuine answers designed for the believer's ultimate good. While 'yes' is the most desired, 'no' is given when God, in His wisdom, knows it is not best, and 'wait' is employed to mature faith and deepen dependence on Him. The core lesson is to trust God's promises and His perfect will, recognizing that the trial of faith is more precious than immediate gratification, leading to spiritual growth and maturity.
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It's been our joy to be with you these days, to be back again at Park of the Pounds. We wonderfully enjoyed your fellowship. We close the school year weary in body with rejoicing in the Lord, and you have helped greatly the weariness of the body. Preaching for me is like eating your meals at Park of the Pounds. It's not work. Administration is. And so I've been able to relax and be refreshed and thank you for this, most of all for your fellowship in the Gospel and for the joy of these days and being with you and the privilege of sharing the Word of God with you. I told Brother Harvey that I heard maybe my cook is leaving in a year up there at Southeastern.
I'll just keep him on my list for a year from this fall. Now, Brother Willie told me that there was no hurry tonight, that I could preach like Paul till midnight. No, he didn't say quite that. But in view of this liberty, I'd like to take just a few moments and talk about how to have a quiet time. Would you like me to take about five minutes on this? At least some suggestions that I have found, and then we will turn shortly to the Scriptures. Let us bow together in prayer. Our Father, we do rejoice in these days, and thank thee for thy blessing upon thy word.
Thou hast said whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And we pray tonight for grace to do what we have heard. May the Holy Spirit burden our hearts in greater measure for a ministry of intercessory prayer. Speak, we pray, to each waiting heart. in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Dr. Ironside was a great blessing to me a number of years ago when I was just a lad and heard him on a Bible conference platform up in New York State. And I recall his telling, how he had his own devotional life. And the point that I remember most about his discussion was the fact that he considered it very important to read through the Bible at least once a year.
And I remember his telling us at Dallas Seminary some years later that he had read through the Bible forty times in addition to any of his studies. And that meant he'd read the Bible through for the last forty years, at least once each time. His principle was, which I think is exceedingly valid, we should know all the counsel of God. And we get lopsided, you know. Like our kids eating hamburgers and French fries, you know, you go out to supper somewhere and that's all they want. For yes and what they want for supper, that's it. And they don't get a balanced diet that way. Now, Dr.
Ironside's method was to have a balanced diet in your Bible reading. He said, read six chapters a day. Two chapters begin in Genesis. Two chapters begin in the Psalms, two chapters begin in the New Testament. And then he said, this way you have your appetizer, you have your meat and potatoes, and you have your dessert. Now, many people don't feel they can read six chapters a day, but if this is at all possible, here is one method. Another method is to read through the entire Bible by simply starting with Genesis and reading through Revelation. This does become discouraging to some people because they get bogged down in the genealogies and get bogged down in some of the historical portions of the Old Testament.
But this certainly is a good way. If you're a new convert, I encourage you reading to the Gospel of John several times and then on through the New Testament and then pick up a method going through it. Now my own particular method is reading through the Bible once a year, which suggestion I got from Dr. Ironside, but I use a bit of a different approach. I do start with Genesis and read through the Scriptures. I've taught through the Bible a number of times, and so the genealogies don't bother me as they might in New Congress. But in addition to reading from beginning with Genesis, I like to read one of the Psalms each day. So starting January first, I read Psalm one and January second, Psalm two.
And then when I finish Psalms, I read one proverb a day. Today is June the second. I read the second chapter in Proverbs. And by the time I get through Proverbs, I'll go back and start with Psalms again and read through the Psalms and Proverbs and twice in the course of the year. You remember there are hundred and fifty Psalms, thirty Proverbs, that's one hundred and eighty times two, make thirty-sixty. So you can go through the Bible through these very nicely twice a year. I like these for the devotional. the worship aspect of a quiet time. Now, if you'll actually divide the chapters of the Bible and divide them by three hundred and sixty-five, you get three chapters a day for six days a week and four chapters a day for the seventh day of the week.
If my mathematics are correct, that's the way it works out. And so you can literally read only three chapters a day. And the fourth chapter on the Lord's Day or some other day, and on the average of this you can read through the entire Bible in the course of a year. Let me encourage you not to get discouraged in your Bible reading if you get a difficult portion, a portion you don't understand. Don't worry about this. Just keep on reading. And the more you read, the more it will dovetail together. There's a whole lot of the Bible I don't know tonight, and I studied it formally for nearly twenty-five years. And there is much in the Bible I do not know. But every time I read through, I get more. And more of it fits together, together, together through Bible reading.
Now, I have a philosophy about rival reading that some people disagree with, and I respect every writer there to disagree. But I don't do my Bible study when I'm reading. Other people do. Brother Willie, you may do this, and this may work just fine for you. For me, I read devotionally, and by that I mean I'm reading something for something for my heart. Of course, I have my formal Bible study with courses I teach at the Bible College and study for such a series as we've had this weekend and so on. And so I have ample opportunity for formal study. But I like to read simply for God to speak to my heart. I'm not ignoring facts. I want to glean every fact I can.
I want to glean the historical, the biographical, the theological. But at the same time, I want God to speak to me. Somebody asked the question one time, well, how much of the Bible should I read today? And the reply came, read till God speaks through your heart. And that's the best answer I've ever heard. Read till God speaks through your heart. He may speak to you in one verse, one chapter. It may take several. But read till you get some food. You'd hate to go all day hungry, wouldn't you? I certainly would. And so read till God speaks to your heart. Griffith Thomas suggested four A's that have been a great blessing to me, and I think I've shared them with some of you in years past right here.
But let me repeat them fairly for you without going into great detail. One A he suggests is attention. Anytime you come to the Word, give attention to it. Get your mind off other things. And it takes time, you know, to give attention to the Word. You must set aside something else. Give attention to that book. The second day he suggests his application. Look now for something to be applied to me. If my wife needs this and my friends need it and somebody else needs it, but I need it. And so I ask the Lord for something for me that day. Application. Attention, application. The third day he suggests is aspiration.
And by this, Dr. Thomas means pray over it. Pray about what you've read, and this has been a great help to me in my own devotional life, to enlarge it, to enrich it, to pray about what I've seen in the Scriptures. If I've seen the Lord, then I worship Him as I've seen Him reveal in the Word. He's put His finger upon sin in my life. I confess that sin of the Lord. He gives me a new challenge to faith. Then I reach out in faith to claim that wonderful truth that God's given me in His Word. And then the fourth A he suggests is action, action, action. It's so easy to give attention, to say that's exactly what I need to get out on our knees and pray about it, but then not act upon it.
Now if you'll take these four A's and apply them to any time you are confronted with a word in a worship service such as this, in a Bible study, in your quiet time, in your family worship, it matters not. Give attention to the word. Application of that word to your own heart. Then pray over it, and then act upon it. Perhaps your Bible reading will become more meaningful to you as a result. Now, after you've read the word, then pray. Pray. Let the word prepare you to pray. Now, what do you pray about? Well, the scriptural prayers begin with worship and adoration. And so are we to do this.
Scriptural prayers include confession where this is needed, and we name our sins to God. And scriptural prayers include the matter of praying for the needs that are before us. Our loved ones certainly, our own personal walk with God, our neighbors and loved ones here for whom we are concerned. We pray for others. We pray for our missionaries. We pray for Christian workers. We pray for our government. We pray for the fields of the world. We become specific and definite as we've heard this week. We pray about these things. Now what time of day is best for your quiet time? I've discovered that this is best for the individual.
The scriptural pattern again and again in Psalm five, for example, in Psalm fifty-five, speak of David having met the Lord in the morning. I like the morning best, but I like that old adage, early to bed in order to rise, to rise. My wife says I haven't been made wealthy yet, nor wise, but keep trying. But I do like that schedule. For other people, it's horrible. You don't have any better sense of to go to bed at twelve and one o'clock at night. Well, you know, I've discovered at my young age that you can't get up in the morning unless you go to bed at night. That's profound. You ponder that one a while. Now, for some people who don't wake up until the middle of the morning, the best time for you is at night. Have your quiet time when you're awake.
But at least when you open your eyes in the morning, commit the day to God. It is the day which the Lord has made and dedicated to him and his will and his glory. Now how long should you have a quiet time? If I'm speaking to somebody who's never really gotten started, start with five minutes. Start with ten minutes. You heard about people who pray for an hour and pray for all day and pray for all night. You start with five minutes or start with ten minutes and let it be meaningful. And don't be legislated by somebody else's time. You'll find it'll grow. First time I talked to my dear redhead, I just tapped her on the shoulder at a prayer meeting at Houghton College and asked her for a date and we talked there just a few moments walking down the stairs.
But on the way down from Birmingham last Wednesday, we noted our clocks and we spent six and a half hours talking before we ran out of something to talk about. The carries were there too, I hasten to add. But this grows on me. Don't worry if the other fellow spends an hour, you spend the time that's meaningful. Don't make it legalistic, make it important to you, a definite time, a definite place. Well, you say, preacher, I'm just so busy. I've got so many things to do. You have just as much time as every other human being. The question is discipline, not time.
The question is priorities. You have to make a value judgment on that which is good and that which is better and that which is best. that which is important, that which is more important, that which is most important. You have to do this every day in other things. You have a choice of three things to do, and you choose what you must do first, and you get to it. And when it comes to a spiritual exercise, we have to determine what's most important and do that first, if it's at all possible. I trust after these days of study on the subject of prayer, that God has indeed challenged our hearts anew to faithful, diligent, ministry of intercessory prayer, and that we shall hear of greater and greater blessing from this place because of what God has done in answer to prayer.
Now our text tonight is Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter seven. An exceedingly familiar text, beginning with verse seven. Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receive it, and he that seeketh find it, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son asked bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask of fish, will he give him a serpent?
If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them at what? Ask him. Our subject tonight is the certainty of answered prayer. The certainty of answered prayer. All of us as believers know what it is to go to God in prayer, to get off our knees and go about the day, not even expecting God to do anything. Because our conversation that day, our actions that day, betrayed the time we spent before God, praying about a given matter.
Does God mean it when he says, ask, and it shall be given you? Does he mean it when he says, Seek, and ye shall find? Does he mean it when he says, Knock, and it shall be open unto you? For everyone that asketh, receive it, and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be open unto you? Is this promise true? Are the promises we've shared together this weekend, yea and amen? Or must we sit here tonight and say, when it comes to the subject of prayer, we cannot trust God or His Word? Now, not one of us will buy that, will we?
We stand up and fight, yea, some of us would die for the full authority of Scripture. We say this is the cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith, the full authority of the written Word of God. Amen and amen. Well, beloved, it follows them that his prayer promises are yea and amen. That's exactly what follows. Now will you notice in these verses, first of all, with me tonight, the nature of the promise. There is the human side, there is the divine side. We saw these very verses in Luke chapter eleven our first day together.
But look at them briefly with me again tonight. The human side is asking. The divine side is giving. Ask, it shall be given to you. Seek and ye shall find. knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth, and he that seeketh, findeth into him that knocketh, it shall be opened unto you. Do you notice, ask, ask, ask is repeated in various forms in these verses. Brother Willie gave me a book by Guy King on prayer secrets and I got to read just a bit of it and there Guy King spoke of this very promise here in Matthew chapter seven. And one going to a friend in need, as it is in the context of Luke chapter eleven.
And he speaks out and asks for his need, and he gets no response. And so he walks through the gates and walks around the yard and walks around the back of the house because he is his friend. He has the freedom to do this. And he seeks for his friend and still doesn't find him. So then he goes to the door and knocks on the door to seek his friend to get his needs. Now, God's appointed way of getting things is to ask. Has it been said often enough this weekend for God to have given this to us? Don't stumble over the simplicity of it, beloved.
It's like the gospel. People say it's too simple. Call unto me and I will answer thee. Show thee grace and mighty things which thou knowest not. Hitherto he asked nothing in my name, asking ye shall receive that your joy may be full. There, there I say unto you, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater works than thee shall he do. And whatsoever ye shall ask, the Father in my name, he will do it, you see. Whatsoever he shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Ask, ask, ye have not, because ye what? Ask not. The Bible is... repeatedly giving us this very, very fundamental approach in our relationship with God.
We come to him and say, asking. And we've seen this week asking specifically, asking believingly, asking in the will of God, asking in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at the divine side, verse nine. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son asked bread will he give him a stone? God's in the giving business. Or if he asked a fish, will he give him a serpent? Why not even a human father would do that? If ye then being evil, he doesn't congratulate us here, but tells us the truth, ye being able know how to give good gifts unto your children.
Oh, don't you love this? How much more shall your father who is in heaven give good things to them who do what? Ask him. Did you notice the word give over and over and over again? We ask and God gives. We ask and God gives. So simple. So simple. But we stand rebuked tonight that we're too busy to ask. We're too busy with so many good things to take time simply to ask. Or we've been so occupied getting the answer that we forgot to ask.
God says, ask, and it shall be given you. Will you notice secondly the importance of this promise? The importance is seen in the fact that seven times in these few verses, he said the same thing. It's important when you say something two or three times. Notice, ask it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, not it shall be opened unto you. Look at verse nine, what man is there of you, whom if his son asked bread, verse ten, if he asked the fish, verse eleven, if ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him.
Could it be simpler? But because our Lord repeats it again and again and again, he is saying, don't miss it. Don't miss the fundamental importance of the principle. Oh, take time to ask. Take time to ask. Cross aside other things and take time before God to pray. How much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them who ask of heaven?
Will you notice thirdly the proof of the promise? And the proof of the promise is the answer. My father used to tell me as a boy the proof of the pudding to the eating, he says. The proof of this promise is the answer to the promise. Now you've heard repeatedly what I'm about to say, but I say it again and again because it's so important that we be reminded again and again. I don't know where the devil gives the Christian more fit than right here in this business of prayer. Do you? Where he plants more doubts in our minds and hearts than right here, that God's really not going to answer, that God's really not interested in my problem, that God has forgotten all about me, that God is no longer concerned.
This is the devil's lie from the pit of hell. We're his children. And he loved us enough to give his son to die for us on the cross. And he who spared not his own son but gave him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us what? All things. That's the Father's heart. Now you've heard repeatedly, there are three kinds of answers to prayer. But will you mark tonight as we review them again that all three are answers? This promise says if it says anything, that God's going to answer, that God must answer.
to keep his word. That's what this promise says. If we ask, we'll receive. If we seek, we'll find. If we knock, it shall be open. For everyone that asks it, receive it, and he that seeketh, find it, send to him that knocketh it, shall be open. If language says anything, if it means anything, this text says God must answer every single prayer. That's a big statement, isn't it? But that's exactly what these verses say. Now, you say, Peter, there's a catch somewhere. No, there's no catch, there's no gimmick.
It's just that there are three kinds of answers. They're all answers, and they're real answers, and they're meaningful answers, and they're the right answers from God. Look at them quickly with me. The first is that answer, yes. that all we all love. We say how good the Lord was. He answered my prayer. The inference is how bad he would have been if he hadn't have given what I asked for. Now I've turned to John chapter four. Text which illustrates for me very vividly this quick answer of yes. And oh, we love this. John four, beginning with verse forty-six. You'll remember the story.
Well, the healing of the nobleman sons. So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a surgeon nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Here's a real need, an urgent need, a son at the point of death. Do you know anything more urgent than that to a person? Then said Jesus unto him, Except if he signs and wonders you'll not believe, that noblemen saith unto him, Sir, come down here, my child, I.
Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth, and the man believed the word. that Jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way. You know the rest of the story. The man went and met his servants coming and inquired when he began to amend and it was the very hour when the Lord said, Thy Son liveth and the man believed in his whole house. Now God delights, delights, delights to say yes to us when we pray. Just as we parents delight to say yes to our children and grandparents to grandchildren and great-grandparents to great-grandchildren around here.
Wonderful when you can say yes. Ah, but we know as parents that there are times when it's best to say no. Isn't that right? The youngster has a knife in hand and he's running around chasing his kid's sister around the bedroom. Well, you know, the modern psychological approach now, don't frustrate the little thing. He must express himself. Oh, let's give me that knife. All right, this is the second answer. There are times when God says no. Now, there are some writers on the subject of prayer who say that the only true prayer is when God says, yes, I disagree.
I disagree. Turn with me please to Second Corinthians chapter twelve. Here is the Apostle Paul praying. You and I have enough confidence in the Apostle Paul to believe that he was a man of God, though human to be sure. A man of prayer, a great prayer, who not only knew prayer but would teach it as he does throughout his epistles. He has a personal problem, and that personal problem was a thorn in his flesh. We are not told it was his wife. No, he was single. And his pockets did jingle.
No, that isn't follow either. All right? No, as far as we know, he was single. We conclude that this is a physical infirmity, something very real to us. We know what it is to have physical problems, physical needs, and we pray about them, and we should pray about them. Now, in this context, and I won't take time for the details of the context, when you look at verse seven now. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, and read the early part of the chapter to see this, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
God then had given to him this weakness in the physical for a specific purpose. For this thing I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me. Can't you hear the Apostle Paul? Lord, you've called me to preach and teach the word. And here I go across the mountains and through the valleys and across the seas to get the gospel. And Lord, you know how much stronger I'd be, how much more effective I'd be in the service of Christ. Lord, if you'd heal this problem, it may have been his eyesight, it may have been something else. And the Lord says, No. Now, Lord, you know how this is a problem to me.
You know how I'm hampered in the work. You know how much farther I could travel and how more effective I could be and how much stronger I'd be, whatever was the problem. Lord, if you just heal this, and the Lord says no. Lord, I'd put up with this thing about as long as I think I can. Now, Lord, you know how faithfully I've served you. I don't know how Paul prayed. I'm just putting words in his mouth right now. Lord, you know how faithfully I've served you. You know how I've given up all to serve you. You know how important it is that we get over there into Europe and get over there into Asia. Lord, you know how we've got to go and go.
And Lord, you know how hampered I am with this thing. It's not like an exceedingly reasonable request. And what does the Lord say? Verse nine. My grace is sufficient for thee. for my strength is made perfect in weakness." That's the nicest way you ever heard know in your life, isn't it? Remember the time we were up in London, our eldest boy consistently acts like his father's, and I've met nearly every schoolteacher he's ever had. And this time the schoolteacher sent home a note saying, I'd like to have Keith, I'd like to have your parents come to the open house.
Well, we've been at this long enough to know what that meant. So our boy, we came to the open house. After the other folks who left the room, we came in and we said, we're Keith's mother and father, and we smiled meaningfully to the teacher and she smiled meaningfully to us. And we are asking, and it says, what's the problem this guy? We said, how's that boy do? She said, well, you have a fine boy. He's just got one problem. Well, what's that? His interest span isn't long enough. That's the nicest way I've ever heard that said.
All right. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. That's God's way of saying no. God said no to the Apostle Paul. And there are times he says no to you and he says no to me. And someone has said when God says no, he always has something better. You believe that? The reason that statement is correct is because it's omniscience that says no.
It's the all-wise God who says no. It's the infinitely loving Heavenly Father who says no. It's the God of righteousness and goodness and faithfulness and fruit who says no. And when He says no, you can be sure He has something better. Did you ever thank him for a no? Did you ever thank him for a no? My first year in seminary, my wife was working on her Ph.T., that means putting hubby through. And so she was downtown working as I was on the seminary campus preparing for the Lord's work, and I was so anxious to preach.
I had pastored up in New York when I was going through college a bit, and I was so anxious to have the ministry of the Word, and at the same time an extra dollar, too, if this would come in to help pay the bill. And my wife is working at a downtown department store, and she was beside a Baptist deacon. And they were working together, and my wife just shared the fact that her husband was at Dallas Seminary, and he'd love an opportunity to preach, and this wife said, well, listen, I'll tell my husband our church has a mission church, and this mission church is without a pastor right now. So my wife came home and told me the story, and so we started praying about it. And the deacon's wife told her deacon husband, and the deacon husband told the pastor, and the pastor came out to see me.
We talked a bit about things, didn't agree on everything, but it looked as if things were fine, and he invited me down to speak to their training union in a night or two to address them. And if I was acceptable to the mother church, then I would be given opportunity to preach in the mission church. Well, I got down there that night and expounded some portion of the word, and those people just sat there and drank it in, and they came up afterwards and said, My, how will you appreciate the word? And I thought, Well, I'm in. And the pastor said, You'll be hearing from me shortly. Now that was in the fall of nineteen forty-four, and I haven't heard yet. Six months later, the pastor was dismissed from the church on serious charges, and God spared me from that whole mess.
How good of our God to say, Later on, there was a Bible church outside of Dallas and needed a pastor, and the pastor was leaving, graduating, and he came to me, and he said, Brother Alden, would you like to candidate for the church? I said, fine, I'd love to. I was anxious again to have a full-time church, and so we talked together, and he said, I'll present your name to the deacons, and I haven't heard from them yet. What did the Lord do? He knew he had teaching for me in Bible institutes and Bible colleges. And so the next fall I was free to accept a teaching position at the Dallas Bible Institute half-time.
And after graduation I stayed there for five years teaching in that school. That was the thing the Lord had for me. And he said, No, over here, because for me he had something better. Has God been saying no to you lately? Thank him. Thank him. Thank him. When God says no, he always has something better. Now there's a third kind of answer and that's the hardest of all, isn't it?
Wait, wait, wait. Who wants to wait in this jet age? When you come up to a signal light that's red and there's a car in front of you and it turns green and in one split second that lady sits there. And you lay on your horn and you get out the window and say, how brave must it get before you move? Sure. We don't like to wait these days. No. No. But there are times the Lord says, wait. Let's look at this in principle in Matthew chapter fifteen. I'm aware of the fact now that the chronology is not long, but the principle is here.
Matthew chapter fifteen, beginning with verse twenty-one. Then Jesus went from there and departed into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out to the same borders and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with a demon. Here is a Gentile woman. A very real need. with a nobleman that was his son, with a Syrophoenician woman that's her daughter, here demon possessed, a burden mother for her daughter, just as some of us here tonight are burdened for our children, for their salvation or their growth and maturity in Christ.
And so she comes to the Savior. And look at verse twenty-three. But he answered her, not a word. Ever been there? Lots of times, haven't we? And his disciples came in beside him, saying, Send her away, for she cryeth after us. Ah, she's just a Gentile, you know. She's a nobody. She's just a nuisance. Get her out of your hair. Forget her. But he answered and said, I am not sent but into the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She was a Gentile. So he was putting her off again. Then came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me.
Or as we say in Alabama, Lord, help me. Now, Lord, I need help. But he answered and said, It's not right to take the children's bread, that of the Jews, and to cast it to the dogs. The Jews consider the Gentiles dogs in that day. He's putting her off again. He's saying, Waits again. She said, Truth, Lord. I love this. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. She won't be denied. Then Jesus answered and said unto her old woman, Great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt.
And their daughter was made well from that very hour. I repeat, the chronology is not long, but the principle is here. Again and again and again and again the woman was put off. And again and again and again the woman came back and say to the Lord who is able to heal her daughter. And the Lord replies, Great is thine faith. We have seen already this week together that this is one reason for perseverance and prayer.
Our faith needs to be tested. It needs to be strengthened. May we turn now to just two portions of the Scriptures as we close. Turn again to James chapter one. Notice this principle of delay. this business of the trial of our faith, which so many of us experience so much of the time. James chapter one, verse two, my brethren, counted all joy when ye fall into various trials. Knowing this, that the testing of your faith, when the Lord says, wait, wait, wait, wait, and some of us have waited a long time.
Knowing that the trial of your faith work is patience. So the Lord puts a premium on this commodity. Patience, some of us don't have very much of it. Amen? I heard one amen. The rest of you all have it. All right. Now he says, let patience have her perfect work, maturing work, it says. that ye may be perfect, literally mature, grown up, and entire. That means complete in every part, lacking nothing.
Do you see from this text that the problem here is not in the daughter or the son or the husband or the wife or the neighbor or the friend or the business? The problem is in the one who's doing the praying. The reason for the delay is not here that God needs time to work in my daughter or in my son. The problem here is that God needs time to work in me. I'm the reason God is saying wait. because God needs to perfect that which is lacking in me, that God needs to mature me, that God needs to keep withholding the answer, so I will learn more and more and more to depend upon Him, to trust Him, to be complete in every part, lacking nothing.
I don't blame God then when He says, wait. I don't get bitter with God then when He says, wait. I don't criticize God or somebody else when he says, wait, I say, Lord, what are you trying to do in me? What's the Romans eight, twenty-eight in this for me? In what way, in what area am I immature? Where are you trying to speak to me and perfect that which is lacking in my faith? Lord, show me. Help me to profit from this. Help me to mature in this. Thank you for it, Lord. In the meantime, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who give it to all men, liberally, and abrade, if not, and I love this, it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing weakly. Will you turn to First Peter, Chapter One? We saw this verse this morning, verse five, that we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold trials. Never rains, but it pours when it comes to testings, eh? Hmm? Peter says you're in heaviness, if need be, through manifold trials, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, and some of us think it is, the very thing that we're being tried with tonight, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Whom have he not seen? Ye love. In whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul." One of the big prayer requests we have in school business is money. The students pay only about two-thirds of their tuition, and so we have to pray much about God's provision. And we need a new building here, you know, a new gymnasium, a new girls' dormitory, a new this and new that, the way you need more new motels here and new apartments and so on.
Same principle. Now Peter says, the trial of your faith is more important than the money. You have to take this from by faith, don't you? But that's exactly what he says. The trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire. Peter says the important thing is that your faith be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. That's the important thing.
Far more important than the answer then is the growth, the maturity of your faith and mind. Oh, let God give it to us tonight. Let's quit blaming God and let's quit complaining about our circumstances and let's quit this impatient business. Instead, keep ourselves in the light of the Word of God and realize that, for we know that how many things work together for good? All. That was a solo, too. Thank you. Ah, but it's the truth. We forget, don't we?
And we do complain, and we do find fault, and we do get irritable, and we do fast back, and we do get sharp. when all the time God's trying to teach us patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. So there's a reason for the wicked. Three kinds of answers. All answers, all answers, yes, no, wait. Let's go back to our text as we close. Ask and it shall be given.
Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh what? Receive it. He that seeketh what? Findeth to him the darkest what? It shall be open. Do you believe it tonight? Do I? Let God be true. His word is ye and amen. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.
The grass withereth the flower faded, but the word of our God shall stand forever. The certainty of the promise. Take heart tonight, dear mother. Take heart tonight, dear Father. Take heart tonight, dear loved one, friends. God's going to answer your prayer. He says he will. You can trust him. Absolutely. Let us pray.
Our Father, how we praise thee for this. We have to bow our heads in shame tonight that all too often we have not expected thee to answer. Cleanse our hearts from unbelief tonight. We have failed. We have been bitter. We have criticized. We've found fault. We've questioned. We've complained. We've paced the floor. We've worried. We confess our sin to thee tonight.
And we claim the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus. Now our Father encourage our faith with thy word this night. Give us that implicit and explicit confidence in thy word that will enable us to bow before thee tonight in faith and say thank you for the answer that is coming to the burdens upon our hearts. With the disciples of old we pray again, Lord, teach us to pray. In the name of Christ. Amen.