Since God Is Sovereign, Why Pray? - Part 2 of 2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, The worries of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace. This is LeSaire Braley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. I will call upon the Lord, and who is worthy to be praised?

So shall I be saved, shall I be redeemed? The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. Who is God except the Lord?

Who is God except the Lord? All rock beside our God. All rock beside our God. A higher place he may never be.

A higher place he delivered me. The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. I will call upon the Lord, and who is worthy to be praised? So shall I be saved, shall I be redeemed? The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. I encourage you to write. Let us know that you've listened to the program.

Mention the call letters of the station over which the program comes to you. Our address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. I also encourage you to go to our website at BaptistBibleHour.org. You will find articles and messages there available all the time.

And if you'd like, you can make a donation at the website. We continue today with the second part of the message, Since God is Sovereign, Why Pray? Number three, God's purposes and promises do not replace prayer, but encourage it.

See, it's easy from the standpoint of human reasoning to say, well, if God is sovereign, if God is in control, if God is a God of purpose, his purposes are settled, why pray? Well, you can see an example of why we ought to pray in conjunction with the promises of God, regarding the experience of Israel long ago. Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 10, For thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you. God is saying that his people are going into captivity for seventy years because of their sin and disobedience. But after seventy years, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place.

Now, if you believe God's sovereign, you believe that God promises something that's going to be done, then that verse settles that. After seventy years, they're coming back. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you and expect it in. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto the Lord, and I will hearken unto you.

In seventy years, I'm going to bring you back. In seventy years, you're going to pray, and I'm going to answer. And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord, and will bring you again to this place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. Well, if you use human reasoning, you say, well, I don't see any need to pray about that. God said it's going to happen. But God not only said it was going to happen, he says before it happens, you're going to pray. The same God that is by his sovereign power going to bring about the event is going to put it on somebody's heart to begin to pray about it. And you know what?

That's what happened. We turn to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 9, verse 2. In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet. We just read the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet. That he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. So what did Daniel say? God promised he was going to bring his people back. Well, I just sit back and watch.

Glad it's going to happen. I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. Somebody said, well maybe just one little prayer would have been enough. What's all this fasting, sackcloth and ashes if God promised it? Well, obviously this was an acceptable way to approach God. I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned, we've committed iniquity, we've done wickedly, we have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. There's a confession of his own sin and the sin of his people. Verse 18, O my God, incline thine ear and hear, open thine eyes and behold our desolations, the city which is called by thy name, for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive, O Lord, hearken and do defer not for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and for thy people are called by thy name. God made a promise. God decreed it. And the way by which he fulfilled it was through the prayers of his people. Say, I had a hard time putting that together.

I cautioned you at the beginning. Human reasoning doesn't resolve it. The declaration of God's Word is what we must embrace.

Let's think of another category. Has God promised to provide for his people? Indeed he has. Jesus taught it in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 6 verse 26. Behold the fowl to the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Are ye not much better than they? Verse 32, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. He says, just like God feeds the fowl to the air, he's going to take care of you.

He knows what you need and he's going to take care of you. Now does that mean, okay, if the birds don't sow and they don't gather into barns, I guess I don't have to sow any seed and I don't have to work, I just depend on God to feed me. No, because there's plenty of scripture elsewhere that says the man that won't work ought not to eat.

And that a man must not be slothful but apply himself. But again, somebody may say, well if God has already promised he's going to provide for me, I guess there's no need for me to pray for that. That would maybe indicate I didn't trust God if I started praying. But in the same chapter, in the same message, Jesus says in the eleventh verse, Matthew 6-11, pray like this, give us this day our daily bread. God has promised to provide for us and he also says pray, give us this day our daily bread. Has God promised that he will always be nearest?

Absolutely. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 says, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Do you believe that? God says, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Have you ever prayed, Lord don't forsake me? If you've never prayed that I'd be surprised.

I think most of God's children have prayed that a lot. When you begin to see yourself and you see your faults and your failings, brother was talking to me on the telephone recently. He said, I tell you, I just don't know how the Lord puts up with me.

I'm sure he expressed the sentiment that most of us feel from time to time. Lord, seeing my weakness, my shortcomings, how do you put up with me anyway? But he's promised, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And yet, here's a prayer we find in Psalm 27 verse 9. Hide not thy face far from me, put not thy servant away in anger, for thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

So God has promised not to forsake us, but it is perfectly in order, it is biblically correct to pray, Lord don't forsake me. And then, another vivid example of what we're talking about can be seen in the prayers of Jesus. When Jesus was looking toward the cross, did he understand what all was coming? The prophet Isaiah said, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.

Jesus was not contemplating the thought that maybe his work would be in vain. He saw the suffering, he saw the anguish, but he was satisfied because he knew the results. Well, he understood that though he would go to the cross, have a crown of thorns down on his brow, nails in his hands and his feet, blood streaming down, suffering the anguish and pain physically that would come to him there, and above all the terrible pain of the father turning his back when sin was laid upon him.

But he knew that on the other side of all that, there was something glorious to come. John 17 verse 1, These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and saith, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. Jesus was actually going to be glorified by his crucifixion. As strange as that seems from the human perspective, the fact that he was the lamb of God, slain for sinners, lifted up from the earth that he might draw all men unto him. Here he is, lifted up like that brazen serpent in the wilderness, lifted up as the only hope for fallen sinful men. He's glorified even in his crucifixion and certainly again by his resurrection. Jesus says, glorify thou me. Did Jesus believe that was coming? Certainly he did. Verse 5, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Was that to be expected?

Was that in view? But he prayed, Lord, glorify me with that glory that I had with thee before the world was. Now, furthermore, when Jesus went to the cross in view of the prophecies we've just quoted from Isaiah, that he would see his suffering and be satisfied, that he said that he was laying down his life for the sheep. Did Jesus believe that those that were given to him by the Father were going to be secure? He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. John chapter 10, he says, verse 28, And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my hand. He certainly saw that they were secure in the Father's hand, no man able to pluck them out of the Father's hand. So it might then be argued from the standpoint of human reasoning, since that which would secure them, the price paid for them was by the shedding of his blood at the cross, then certainly there was no need to pray for them.

But let's look at the ninth verse of John 17. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. I'm praying for them.

Who are they? The ones that were given to him by the Father in the covenant. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. And I don't think he's talking about unity just among believers.

He's talking about a unity of these individuals with him, just as he and the Father are one, just these one united to me as their Savior. So, somebody might say, why pray this prayer? Obviously, it's a prayer that ought to be prayed. Jesus never spoke an idle word. Everything he ever did, everything he ever said, every prayer that he ever prayed was perfectly in keeping with the Father's will.

It was the right thing to do. And he's praying, keep them, keep them Father. Verse 24, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. If he saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied, did he not believe even aforetime that he would secure those for whom the price was paid? For he is praying, keep them, that they might be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Jesus prayed for those that were given to him by the Father. He was going to purchase them at the cross, but he prays for them here. And you know what? He's still praying for them.

You say, why? Is redemption not complete? Certainly so. The price was fully paid at the cross, but Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. Isn't that comforting to know that he still prays for us?

Now here's the point. A person either goes to an extreme on one side to say, there are a lot of things God would like to do and he can't. I don't see any need to pray because God's already done everything he can do. I used to wonder about that years ago when I would hear somebody make this kind of an appeal. Sinner, God has done everything he can do and you're still not saved.

That's left up to you. You talk about somebody being in bad shape. If the God of heaven has done everything he can do and they're still not saved, you're in deep trouble. And then they would say, let's bow our heads and pray and pray, Lord, save sinners.

Now it's just been announced that he can't do it anyway because they won't let him. So you've got some on one side that say, I don't even recognize God's power and sovereignty so there's no need to pray. But you go on the other side and somebody says, well I believe in the sovereignty of God. I believe that God's a God of purpose and so what's the use of praying? When you pray, parents, you pray for your children. You pray, Lord, give them good health. Lord, give them a good mate. Bless my daughters to find a good husband, a Godly husband. Bless my sons to find a Godly wife. Bless them with children. Supply their material needs.

Keep them from evil influences. If you pray all of that, would you stop short and not pray for the salvation of their soul? Now by human reasoning, somebody says, if God has an elect people, there's no need to pray. Well if God has elected and predestinated the people, that's settled.

No need to pray. But you see, that thinking is influenced only if you have a limited view of God's sovereignty. If you believe that God's sovereign choice and God's sovereign rule is only with regard to the salvation of the soul, therefore attached to eternal things, but He's not sovereign over the details of life here, then you may feel differently about it. But if you come to the realization, alright, Jesus taught me, I'm to pray, give us this day our daily bread. He's promised to provide for me, but He told me to pray for it, because it demonstrates my dependence upon Him. God's purposes are not going to fail.

All of those given by the Father before the foundation of the world or redeemed at the cross, called affectionately by the Holy Spirit are going to one day stand in glory, lifting up that triumphant chorus, waving palm branches of victory and saying, Thou art worthy for Thou has slain and has redeemed us to God with Thy own precious blood. Would you not want to pray, O Lord, bestow Your amazing grace on my children? And if you pray that for your children and your family, would you not pray it for others? So the question comes, number four, so how should we pray? Well, first of all, we should pray with confidence. The fact that God is sovereign should not discourage us, but encourage us to pray. Pray with confidence because God is sovereign, because He does have all power, because He is in control, because He rules and reigns. Pray because God has promised to hear us. Micah chapter 7 verse 7, Therefore while I look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me. That's reason to pray, isn't it? If God says I will hear you, pray. What a privilege.

If you tried to get an appointment with the mayor of Cincinnati, it might take weeks to get in if you ever got there. You might never get an appointment to visit with the President of the United States if you wanted to speak your mind there. But think about it, you can talk to the God of heaven today without an appointment. He says He will hear you. What a privilege to be able to call upon Him. And we can pray with confidence because we're praying not in our own name. Somebody might say, well I feel unworthy.

Well, the fact you are. We're not going to try to make you feel better about yourself. There's not a one of us can say, it's been a tough battle but I'm finally going to pull things together, I think God might hear me now. He's not going to hear the prayer of the proud and the boastful. You are unworthy, all of us are unworthy, but you're not praying in your name, you're praying for His name sake.

Psalm 79 verse 9 says, Help us O God of our salvation for the glory of Thy name and deliver us and purge away our sins for Thy name sake. For Thy name sake. You're praying in Jesus name. Lord I'm not asking for anything because I deserve it because I deserve nothing. I say with the patriarch Jacob, I'm not worthy of the least of Thy mercies.

But I'm praying I need everything and I'm praying granted for Jesus sake. Pray then with confidence. Pray according to the pattern that Jesus gave.

Where did He start? Hallowed be Thy name, Matthew 6-9. That precedes everything else in the prayer.

That's where we miss it so often. We rush right in with all of our requests and all of our needs, Lord give me this, give me this, grant me this. Let's hallowed be Thy name. Lord above everything else, I want your name honored. I want your name to be glorified.

I want your name to be lifted up. You're praying Thy kingdom come. You're praying, I want God's rule, God's will to be done in the earth. I want God's kingdom to be expanded and displayed. I want His blessing on our church. I want His blessing to be upon every solid Bible believing church where Christ is being honored and the gospel is being preached. Bless your churches and people in this country and around the world. Praying Thy kingdom come.

And then you pray the specifics that follow in that prayer. Give us this day our daily bread, that shows dependence upon Him. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Here's confession, Lord I'm a sinner, forgive me. And I'm going to be forgiving others and then lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Lord give us grace to overcome sin. I'm sure that I could not possibly in this one message answer every question that would come to your mind. Some of them I probably could never answer because Deuteronomy chapter 29 says the secret things belong to God.

And when you try to pry open that box you find it doesn't open easily. But may we learn from these biblical declarations and examples that if the question is asked, because I believe in the sovereignty of God, should I really pray? The question is absolutely, you are to pray. And believing in the sovereignty of God should encourage you to pray, because you're praying to a God who can do something about the situation. And your prayer to Him is evidence of dependence upon Him. I hope that as we have viewed the subject of prayer in connection with God's absolute sovereignty, that you have been edified and blessed. If you would like to get the complete message on CD, request it when writing us. That's to the Baptist Bible Hour, Mach 17, 037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Until we greet you next time, this is LeSara Bradley Jr. bidding you goodbye and may God bless you. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, praising my Savior, praising my Savior all the day long.