 The title of our sermon this morning is draw near to God in prayer draw near to God in prayer We're in part two as we're working through John chapter 16 verses 23 through 33 and we are intentionally Working slowly through this text because of the Lord's rich instruction here with respect to prayer with respect to prayer in this text He is exhorting his disciples in their context in their circumstances. He's exhorting his disciples Exhorting you and I to pray to draw near to God in prayer The disciples are about to live in the reality of What the Lord Jesus Christ calls that day in verse 23? He says In that day you will ask me nothing most assuredly I say to you Whatever you ask the father in my name. He will give it to you That day, right? It's a day when the Lord Jesus Christ would no longer physically be with them It's a day when they're gonna face doubts. They're gonna face confusion Tremendous adversity. It's a day when they're gonna face a ministry and live in a ministry Serve in a ministry for which they would eventually die. They would give their lives for Christ in a day when they would face without him Physically without him face the hatred and hostility of this dark world for their testimony to Christ now We you and I also live in that day, right? We live in that day that day is still this day These days in which we live are the same days after the Lord has Died after the Lord was crucified after he was raised from the dead and after he ascended to the father Now we live in this same day these instructions this instruction this Admonition this exhortation and encouragement Also suit us in our day We don't have the physical presence of the Lord with us. We walk by faith not by sight We face our own difficulties and trials some of you this morning even today are going through significant trials Significant difficulties Paul said that it's through much tribulation that we must enter the kingdom of God So one time or another you're gonna go through hard times. You're gonna go through difficulty. You're gonna go through trials and We just like those disciples did After the Lord's ascension of the father Eagerly don't we eagerly wait for the Savior and we pray Lord Jesus Christ, please come like come quickly But you and I just like these disciples you and I were given a commission We're given the ministry a work to do we have the commission to go into this dark and hateful world with the gospel And we're gonna face their hostility So in reassuring his disciples in encouraging them and encouraging you and I For that day so to speak the Lord tells them and tells us in verse 23 he says Most assuredly right how encouraging is this right if you're in Christ most assuredly I say to you Whatever you ask the father in my name. He's gonna give you verse 24 ask and you will receive that your joy May be full he exhorts them in this passage to draw near to God in prayer to approach God with the access that he's going to secure for them at the cross by virtue of who he is By virtue of what he's done what he is doing in other words were to draw near to him in Christ's name draw near to God in prayer now that serves Several purposes that we started looking at last week several purposes for prayer one So that they'll have what they need they're gonna go into this ministry and They need They depend upon God for all they need to accomplish the ministry that he's given them right so prayer serves the purpose of Them having what they need for Christian life and ministry. God is the one who supplies right God is the one who provides John chapter 14 verses 12 through 13 Prayer is the means by which God provides for them in the work that he's given for them to do John chapter 15 we looked at these texts last week verses five through eight It's the means prayers the means by which God causes his disciples to bear fruit Right, you need wisdom. Where do you go for wisdom? You go to God for wisdom God is a source of wisdom God is the one who provides wisdom and you ask in faith and God gives He promises to give liberally and without reproach man when I first read that I was always praying for wisdom I feel like a fool. I don't know my right hand for my left hand. God. Please give me wisdom, right? He's still working on that But he's faithful to answer prayers. He not You need strength. Where do you go for strength? You go to God that God who is our refuge and is our strength very present help in time of trouble You need faith. You need your faith strengthen. You need faith to face a trial. Where do you go for faith? Right be anxious for nothing Paul said but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving Let your requests be made known to God Maybe you're here this morning This doesn't make any sense to you Because you've never turned from your sin to put your faith in trust in Christ. You need salvation You need right standing with God right now Condemnation hangs over your head. You are polluted defiled cut off from God because of your sin Where do you go for salvation? You go to God? God is a source of salvation. You cry out with David. Oh Lord. I implore you deliver my soul I want to trust in Christ Bible says ask what you desire in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and it shall be done for you The Lord hears the desire of the humble. He prepares their heart Causes his ear to hear a Solomon said that the prayer of the upright is his delight That's an awesome thought isn't it? So one prayer serves the purpose of giving us what we need Lord providing what we need providing the Christian for What they need in service to him Providing the loss with salvation in Christ when he hears the prayer of a humble Secondly though biblical prayer exalts the son prayers here are Made in his name in other words in accord with this person in accord with his Kingdom his work his will and accord with his glory John chapter 14 verse 14 Jesus says if you ask anything in my name, I will do it We'll look at that more today Thirdly biblical prayer glorifies God John chapter 14 verse 13, whatever you ask in my name that I will do So that the father may be glorified in the sun And we pray don't we For God's glory if you're a genuine Christian you desire to see God glorified We talked about three components to that our father in heaven Hollywood be your name right your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is as it is in heaven But notice also if we consider those texts together and even our text today in John chapter 16 Notice also that it's not only prayer that exalts the son and glorifies God. It's specifically answered prayer, right? John 14 13 whatever you ask in my name that I will do so that the father may be glorified in the sun John chapter 15 verse 7 Ask what you desire and it shall be done for you by this My father is glorified that you bear much fruit John 16 24 ask and you will receive it's that Answered prayer that glorifies God exalts the son and brings joy to the believer That's fourth of the on the purposes for prayer that we discussed biblical prayer and specifically answered prayer Is a source of our joy ask and you will receive that your joy may be full How is it that prayer produces joy in the heart of a Christian? We're gonna look at that more today one for the Christian Especially when you go through difficulty when you go through trials and adversity knowing knowing that he hears you and That in Christ he hears you and you have that what you've at that what you've asked for not Sometimes not only in the way that you expect or even in the way that you want right now one person had said that prayers never come weeping home Either I get what I asked or I get what I should have asked Right you we trust God for that because God has promised us in his word But it also produces joy in the heart of a genuine Christian because that which glorifies God Causes joy for the Christian. Amen You're genuinely in Christ you want to see God glorified you want to glorify God with your life the three That which glorifies God the father and exalts the son is always good for God's people always good for God's people So that was the subject if you will of verses 23 and 24 as we were introduced to this segment in John 16 We covered on point one of your notes last week draw near to God in prayer because prayer in part point one is Provided for our joy. So now this morning We come to verse 25 right as we come to verse 25 We want to continue to inform our understanding. This is some of the richest texts in scripture with respect to prayer And how we're to understand prayer Want to get practical about it how prayer works how prayer glorifies God how prayer exalts the son How prayer in his name is answered We're going to look at beginning this morning. Look at how that's done And we want to continue through this text to stir our hearts and minds you and I in christ I'm just more compelled by this text. We must be People of prayer We have this glorious blessing that's been purchased by christ at the cross and sometimes we Are we are to be right when we are christians we live for the Lord? We're to be beggars There is much that we need we should be beseeching the Lord in prayer all the time right praying without ceasing But oftentimes our prayer lives betray a pride a self-reliance a presumption And we don't want that to be said of us. We want to be people of prayer Soul-enriching god dependent god glorifying christ exalting prayer And I want to exhort us from this text the lord jesus christ is exhorting us from this text So now as we come to verse 25 let's look at point two on your notes Point two on your notes a joyful fervent effective God glorifying christ exalting prayer life Is fueled by truth Fueled by the truth look at verse 25 with me These things the lord says I have spoken to you in figurative language But the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language But I will tell you plainly About the father now. How's that connected right? Biblical prayer fueled by the truth and then we have this statement from the lord in verse 25 What is he talking about here? These things he says verse 25 I have spoken to you in figurative language So the greek word translated their figurative language In this context means obscure It means enigmatic cryptic difficult to understand right the things that they've heard from the lord jesus christ to this point Has been difficult for them to understand fully on their side of the cross That side of the cross before his death before his resurrection There was much in what he said that they just didn't get in here in verse 25 the lord's acknowledging that fact Right the language with which I've spoken to you the things that we've talked about To this point have been obscure However verse 25 right The time is coming soon after his resurrection When his statements will no longer be obscure to them Between his interaction with them between his resurrection and the ascension And then between that and the giving of the holy spirit that is going to come soon A spirit who will work to guide them into all truth They're going to plainly Understand in light of the cross in light of the resurrection They're going to plainly understand the purposes and plans of the father in redemption through christ These things that he's speaking to them are going to become clear The example of that now that we have right here in our text is verse 20 look up at verse 20 The lord says verse 20 most assuredly I say to you That you will weep and lament But the world will rejoice And you will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy Now that to them you can imagine right in their context that was obscure difficult to understand What is he talking about? Right enigmatic it was if you will this greek word translating figurative language And then he gives a parable an analogy to help them verse 21 A woman when she's in labor has sorrow because her hour has come But as soon as she has given birth to the child She no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world Now put yourself in their context in their shoes We can understand that analogy right of a woman having a baby. We talked about that when we looked at that text This teaching of the lord jesus christ obscure enigmatic difficult for them to understand on their side of the cross So he gives them this analogy to help them understand. They still don't fully get it right But once the lord jesus christ has been crucified and then has been raised from the dead They're going to get it. These things are going to become clear to them In that day these things will be plainly understood in light of the cross in light of the resurrection Now what does he mean verse 25? What does he mean by these things? there's a sense in which in verse 25 these things That he Is referring to the entirety of their conversation together everything that they're talking about right? There's a lot of things that he said that have been difficult to understand But part of that part of the these things is certainly The specific instruction that he's giving them right here with respect to prayer Right Now how do we get that we get that from the context? Look at verses 23 and 24. He gives a statement about prayer versus 23 and 24 in that day You'll ask me nothing Most assuredly I say to you whatever you ask the father in my name He will give you until now You've asked nothing in my name Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. They didn't fully understand the implications of all that We have now verse 25 that we're looking at together. Look at verse 26 Verse 25 settled in here between his statement on prayer and verses 23 and 24 And now his statement on prayer in verse 26 in that day You will ask in my name and I do not say to you that I shall pray the father for you For the father himself loves you because you have loved me and a belief that I came forth from god right verse 25 then Sort of sandwiched between verses 23 and 24 and this statement on prayer in verse 26 Becomes a clarifying statement. In other words, you're going to understand these things better later In light of the cross in light of the resurrection When they're able to see right the full scope Of god's redemptive purposes in christ Then these words and specifically here this instruction on prayer is going to make sense to you It's going to become plain in other words in that day When my words to you are no longer obscure When you more fully understand what all this means In that day, you're going to pray to the father and you're going to pray to the father in my name You're going to pray to the father with understanding You're going to pray to the father in light of the cross You're going to pray to the father in light of the resurrection. You're going to pray to the father in accord with truth right? You'll have access to the Father for all that you need to carry out the mission and the work that I've given you. You'll have access to the Father for help with the gospel preaching the gospel to a lost and dying world, right? You're gonna have this access to the Father in my name and He is gonna hear you and you'll have what you've asked for and in that day when you pray to Him in my name for what you need in this ministry and He hears you and answers your prayer your joy will be full, right? There's a new order coming. There's a new order coming. It's coming after the cross, after the resurrection. Jesus Christ ascends to the right hand of the Father now always living to make intercession for God's people. God's people then after the cross, after the resurrection, now living under the blessings and privileges of a new and better covenant. And one of those blessings is the fullness of God's revelation. One of those blessings is the fullness of God's revelation. God spoke in times past in various ways through the prophets to the fathers. Now He has spoken to us in these last days by His Son and God's full revelation now given to us in the person and work of His Son, all that contained right here in the Word of God, right here in the Word of God. That prayer, the prayer that they will offer up to God in His name in that day will be prayer that is fueled, understood, informed, and motivated by the truth of God in Christ. It's prayer with an understanding of those things that right now is shadowy to them, obscure to them. And that day they're gonna pray and they're gonna pray with that understanding. Listen, that's the same understanding that you and I pray with today. We have the revealed Word of God, amen. There's no excuse for us. We see what Christ has done. Everything that He's paid for, we're gonna see it more today. Everything that He's paid for, purchased with His own blood on the cross, we should be a people of prayer. That truth is to inform our understanding, right? The Spirit of God works through the truth to quicken our heart, quicken our mind. If you're a Christian, you know what I'm talking about? When you read the Bible and you're just caught up, like caught up into the third heaven with the truth of God in Christ, right? You love the Lord and that truth applied to our heart, applied to our mind by the Spirit of God should fuel our prayer. The psalmist says the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. That's right. Baptist Catechism, question 106. What rule have God given for our direction in prayer? Answer, the whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer. Now, what does that look like practically in the life of a Christian? How are we to apply that? How are we to understand it? What does that look like practically in the life of a Christian? For a Christian to pray that way, it looks like a heart and mind bathed in the truth of God's word. You want to pray in a way that glorifies God? Learn of God in His word. You want to pray in accord with His will, knowing that when we pray 1 John chapter five, right? Knowing that when we pray in accord with His will that He hears us and we have that which we've asked for, you want to pray that way? Submerse your heart and mind and scripture. Heart and mind fixed on who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ has done for us. When you come into contact with the God of the Bible through His revealed word, the spirit of God working in you through His word. When you come in contact with the Lord Jesus Christ in the way that He is revealed by God in His word, when you understand more fully the blessings that God has afforded you by His grace in Christ, are you going to pray? Absolutely you're going to pray, right? You can't help but pray and worship and praise God. So what does that prayer look like practically in the life of a Christian? First, truth will fuel prayers of worship, will fuel prayers of doxology to God. Truth is going to fuel your prayers of worship, the psalmist. I will extol you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation God shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the glorious splendor of your awesome acts and I will declare your greatness. They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness, right? It's the psalmist, the art of the psalmist, just erupting in prayer of worship to God. It was Augustine who said that when the psalmist prays, you pray. When the psalmist rejoices, you rejoice. When the psalmist repents, you repent. When the psalmist is battling, you battle. How do you do that? You do that in prayer. Psalm 43, verse three. Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your tabernacle. Then the psalmist says, I will go to the altar of God to God, my exceeding joy and on the harp, I will praise you. Oh, God, my God, truth fuels your worship in prayer. Truth is going to fuel prayers of Thanksgiving. If you are bathed in scripture, you understand what God has done for you in Christ, then your heart will pray to God in Thanksgiving for all that he's done. Colossians chapter two, verse six. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, established in the faith there is established in sound doctrine, right? Establish in the content of our faith, the truth of God, established in the faith as you have been taught. And what are you to do having been established in the faith that you've been taught? You are to abound in it with Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving to whom? To God. In prayer, to Christ. You are to abound in it with Thanksgiving. The truth will fuel prayers of faith, fuel prayer. Let me give you an example of this. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 with me. Hebrews chapter 10. Truth from God's word will fuel prayers of gratefulness to God, fuel prayers of worship, doxology will fuel prayers of Thanksgiving and he will fuel prayers of faith in him. We see an example of that in Hebrews chapter 10. Look with me at beginning at verse 11. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 11. Here convincing these Hebrew Christians of the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks at the supremacy of the Lord's sacrifice over all those that went before. It says in verse 11. Every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, verse 12, this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down at the right hand of God from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. Now what does this mean? For those who have turned from their sin now and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does this mean for them? Verse 14. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. That should cause you to worship, man. Amen. Look at verse 14. The means by which Christ perfects his people in the sight of God is one offering of himself in a sacrificial death to save them from their sin. One offering of himself perfects the people of God. Those whom he perfects and makes righteous. Verse 14. He has perfected and made righteous forever, forever. That one verse, right? Those whom he has perfected are set apart. They are sanctified, set apart to God in him by one offering. He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Look at verse 15. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us. The Spirit of God also intercedes for after he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with him. After those days says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds. I will write them. Then he adds their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. Now where there is remission of these, there's no longer an offering for sin. Listen, verse 18. If you're in Christ, then you are clean. You are clean. If you're in Christ, you are forgiven. If you're here today and you're not in Christ, you have the filth of your sin corrupting you and defiling you and you are separated from the Lord your God. You have the filth of that sin, just corrupting and defiling every part of you. In the sight of God, you are an unclean thing. But when you turn from that sin, when you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, listen, you are clean. You are made clean in him. You are forgiven. Never. You'll never have to be concerned with ever making an offering to him for sin. Because that offering has been made. And now that one, that man who by one offering perfected forever, those who are being sanctified, that one stands at the right hand of God as your full and final offering. He is then, he is your righteousness. This is the truth. This truth is the truth that the disciples came to understand more fully after the cross, after the resurrection. It's a truth that you and I can lay hold of and understanding grasped onto because of God's revealed word. We can understand these things and it should provoke your heart and mind to worship God in prayer. What is to be our response to this? How are we to respond? Look at verse 19. Therefore, right? Therefore, if you cherish these truths, if you believe them, if they've made their way, the 18 inches from your head to your heart and you trust Christ for them, you believe these things. Therefore, verse 19, brethren, having boldness, having confidence to enter the holiest, the very presence of God by the blood of Jesus Christ by a new and living, a life giving way, which he consecrated for us through the veil. That is his flesh. In other words, he secured for us new access to God by shedding his blood in death by giving up his body on the tree. Verse 21, and having a high priest now, one mediator between God and then the man Christ Jesus, right? We have this high priest over the house of God Christ, our mediator Christ interceding for us. Then verse 22, then let us draw near. Amen. What's our response to these things coming to God? The whole redemptive purposes and plan, plans of God and salvation to redeem his people from their sin is so that God and men, his people could be together, could be reconciled so that we could rejoice and worship in his presence for all of eternity and God would be glorified in us. It's to bring back that reconciliation here. Let us draw near then. How do we do that on this side of the cross? We pray. We pray. We live according to his word. We obey him. We study his word. We know him through his word and we pray. We commune with God. Let us draw near. Verse 22, with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Doesn't that sound good? If you're living in your sin and to have your heart sprinkled from a wicked, accusing, evil conscience. What a great joy it is to have a clear conscience before God, right? Only possible in Christ. Only possible in Christ having your body to picture, right? Your body washed with pure, better than coming out of the Rockies, right? Better than that glacier water they sell for $3 a bottle. Your body washed with pure water. Just that filth coming off in Christ. All that filth. How are we to draw near? Verse 22, how are we to draw near then with a true heart? True heart means a heart without hypocrisy. A heart of complete trust, complete devotion to Christ. A true heart devoted to these things. How is it to be true? It's to be true with full assurance of faith, full assurance of faith. In other words, with conviction about these things, with certainty about these things coming to God without doubting, without doubting unstable, tossed to and fro. No, conviction with certainty. And all that flows from a spirit wrought understanding of what Christ has done for you and I. Let us draw near. Let us draw near. So when you understand those things, right? When you inform your understanding by the truth of God's word, when you come to understand what God has done for us, what Christ has done for us, all the blessings afforded us by the grace of God in Christ. When you understand those things, when you wrap your mind around how corrupted and polluted and defiled your own heart is apart from God, apart from Christ. When you consider that he has washed you clean, forgiven you of all your sin. When you consider that it cost his own blood, his own death on the tree. When you consider the magnitude of these things, what do you pray for? What do you pray for? Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your day. God, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You pray, don't you? For his glory, for him to be worshiped and praised. You pray for him to sanctify you, that you no longer offend him with your sin, that you are made more like Christ, that you're made holy. You pray for sinners to be converted to him, that he might receive the full reward of his suffering. You pray that he would be honored, that he would be worshiped. You can pray for Edna's bursitis to be healed, right? But only in so much as it glorifies God who saved you, washed you clean, right? It changes the way you think about these things, right? God is no longer a genie in a bottle. You just come to and you want for your own selfish desires to be satisfied. We can go to God in prayer for everything, but here specifically in his name, according to his purposes, according to his will for his glory. And if it's to his glory that Edna's bursitis is going to be healed, then he'll heal Edna's bursitis. But your prayers, it informs your prayers. It's going to change the way that you think about prayer. It's going to change the way that you pray. Prayer, biblical prayer is fueled, fueled by God's revealed truth in Christ. You've got to be in the Word of God though. You've got to be in the Word of God. You got to know that revelation. You got to know these things. The deeper that you understand these things, the more they impact your heart and mind, the more that you're going to pray to the glory of God. Heard this, that prayer, prayer apart from means, we've talked about the means of grace and how the Word of God is a means, right? Prayer apart from means is presumption. Prayer apart from the study of his Word. Prayer apart from obedience. Prayer apart from faith is all just presumption. It's presumption means, those things means apart from prayer is unbelief. Means apart from prayer is unbelief. As you study, as you know God more, you understand more of his purposes, more of his plans. The more that you understand and love and are impacted by theology, rich theology from the Word of God, the more that that's going to provoke you to more biblically informed prayer. Remember Paul, just think of examples in scripture, right? How many examples there are? We're thinking about Paul and Romans 11. And Paul, who said many things, as Peter said, that are difficult to understand, theologically. Paul is talking about God's redemptive purposes concerning God's people made up of both ethnic Israel and the Gentiles. And he's talking about that in Romans 11. And listen to this, just listen to this one example of how this impacts our heart and mind and prayer. Speaking of ethnic Israel in verse 28, Romans 11 verse 28, Paul says concerning the gospel, they're enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Cannot be taken away. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience. Even so, these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all. Thinking about that, that one truth, truth of God and how God's redemptive purposes and plans are worked out in history as it relates to the nation of Israel and as it relates to his people in the church and how all these things fit together. It causes Paul, provokes Paul to worship. And Paul responds in verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid to him for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Right. Understanding truth will always provoke you to pray. It's back in John chapter 16. Biblical prayer fueled by the truth. Now another reason to draw near to God in prayer is that point three on your notes. Biblical prayer is mediated by the sun. Again, a glorious truth that should drive us to prayer. Biblical prayer is mediated by the sun and not in the way that you might think. Biblical prayer is mediated by the sun. Look at verse 26, verse 26. In that day, you will ask in my name and I do not say to you that I shall pray the father for you, for the father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the father. Now he says, ask in my name. Verse 26. Right. In that day, you will ask in my name. But then he makes a very interesting statement at the end of verse 26. I'm not going to pray to the father for you. And the reason that he gives for not praying to the father for us is because the father himself loves us. The father himself loves us. Now, in other words, what he's saying here, verse 26, I'm not going to come between you and the father as though you can't go to the father directly. Right? The Lord Jesus Christ died to give us access to the father. And the Lord here is saying, I'm going to facilitate that access that you have to go directly to the father. And I'm not going to stand in the way of it. You have access in Christ directly to the father. Why? Because the father himself loves you. Now we know from the Bible that Jesus Christ, even now, right now, Jesus Christ has been raised. He's ascended to the right hand of the father. And even now he is living to make intercession for his people. Romans chapter eight, verse 34 says this, it is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. First John chapter two, verse one, my little children, John says, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate or an intercessor, an mediator with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Hebrews chapter seven, verse 24. But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, he is also able to save to the utter most those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. He said in John 14.6, that no one comes to the father except through him. So if Jesus Christ isn't going to the father for us when we pray, if he's not praying for us to him on our behalf, then what is meant by his intercession? What's meant by how he mediates for us, right? He's there interceding at the right hand of the father. What does that look like? What does that mean? Now, from our text, we have the Lord standing at the right hand of the father seated at the right hand of the father. There's one positive implication related to that intercession. One thing that it means from our text, there's one negative implication from our text or one thing that it doesn't mean. And then we'll see from our text how it works, all right? So in John chapter 16, now as we come to verse 26, we're talking about how God the Son intercedes for his people when we pray. What that looks like, right? What's happening as that's going on. We'll look at one thing that it means, one thing that it doesn't mean, and we'll look at how it works, how the Son mediates or intercedes on our behalf. First, let's look at one thing his intercession means. And that's provided for us in verse 26. Also, we are to ask in his name. We're to ask in his name. When we began to talk about this last week, we're gonna look at it a little more in detail today. Calvin said this, no man, no man is worthy to come forward in his own name and appear in the presence of God. If you come presumed to come in your own name, you'll be incinerated, right? Our God is a consuming fire and you're a sinner. I'm a sinner. Calvin said that Christ converts a throne of dreadful glory into a throne of grace. That's the work of Christ. That's what the work of Christ does. So when you come, the stain, the guilt, the offense, the shame, the horror of your sin must be removed in Christ. But God, right? Who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us? So that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us. God provided a mediator. God provides an advocate, an intercessor. God provided for us a mediator in the person of his own son, our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he intercedes. There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There is salvation in no other. For there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So when we pray, we pray in his name. We have access by virtue of his intercession. We have access to God the Father by virtue of his mediation. All that he is, all that he's done. We pray because of that in his name. This is one thing that it means. A positive implication of his intercession is that when we pray, we pray in his name. If we're in him by repentant faith in him alone, then because of him alone, we can boldly and confidently come to the throne of grace. We can come in faith. And if you think about this as it pertains to your prayer, when you pray, where is your hope of access to God in prayer? It's Christ. Christ, right? On whom and on what is your access to God the Father? On what is it based? It's based on the mercies of God in Christ. On Christ and what Christ has done. Bible says that when we ask in his name, we have what we want. We have what we asked. So on what is your hope of obtaining what you've asked on what is that based? On whom is that based? It's based on Christ. So when you pray, you pray in his name. Everything about your prayer, your access to God the Father is based entirely in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the promises of God are yes and amen in him. So when you pray, this little tagline that some people put on their prayer, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Not a flippant cavalier or light thing. It is a profound thing. It's a thing of significance. We pray in his name, every prayer that has ever been heard by God has only been heard for the sake of the one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So in Jesus' name I pray, it's not a throw away phrase. It's not a mere tradition. It's not to be said cavalierly. He purchased with his own blood, his own body on the tree, he purchased your access to the Father. That means the ground. Think about it now. The ground of the promise that God is making here, that whatever we ask in his name we shall receive, the ground of that promise is who? The Lord Jesus Christ. When God promises that whenever you pray, you pray in his name, you'll have that which you've asked for. The ground of that promise is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That means, or that is because nothing that is ever prayed in his name will ever be denied to us. Why? Because there is nothing that the Father will ever deny the Son. Think about how that fits together. You think about prayer and the ground and basis of the promise here. When you pray, you pray in his name, all your hopes wrapped up in him, all your desires wrapped up in him, you pray in accordance with his will, you pray for his glory, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, for you Jesus Christ, for the glory of your name, which always entails my good, for your name, for your glory, I pray these things. When you pray for those things in his name, God promises you have that which you've asked for. Why? Because the ground of your hope, the ground of that promise is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. To whom God the Father will never deny anything. So all this, these promises, this praying in his name incorporates all those principles that we briefly discussed last week. Praying for his name to be hallowed, praying for his kingdom to come. All this is praying in his name, praying for his will to be done. It's praying according to his will, as we do in 1st John chapter 5 verse 14, right? We know if we pray according to his will that he hears us and we have what we've prayed for. It's praying from a heart that honors his word, honors him. 1st John chapter 3 verse 22, whatever we ask we receive from him, why? Because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Honors his word, honors his commands, honors him. One commentator said that straight praying never proceeds from a crooked heart, or straight praying never flows from crooked conduct. We pray in his name. Now one thing that his intercession, John chapter 16, one thing that his intercession does not mean, this is a negative implication here, a thing that it does not mean, it doesn't mean that God is unwilling, if we're in Christ, if we're in Christ, it does not mean that God is unwilling to receive us directly into his presence. Christ's intercession doesn't mean that. The Lord here in John chapter 16, by making this statement in verse 26, is protecting us from taking his intercession too far. And we know people that do that, right? Look at verse 26. He says, I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you because you've loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. In other words, in me you have direct access to God. I'm not going to pray for you, you go to God in prayer in my name and pray for what you need. In other words, Jesus doesn't have to go to God and twist his arm for you to get him to give you what you've prayed for. You don't need a priest, right? You don't need a priest going to God to twist his arm to give you what you've asked for. You don't need Mary to plead with Jesus or to plead with God to give you what you've asked for. You don't need to pray to dead saints asking anything of any of them. Why? Because you have direct access to God the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has bought it for you. What a blasphemy, right? What a blasphemy. The Lord Jesus Christ died. One of the greatest blessings of the Christian life is to have that access. The Lord Jesus Christ died to secure it and yet you have billions of people who pleading with Mary to answer their prayer, pleading with a dead saint to answer their prayer. What utter foolishness? We have Christ, amen? Why? Why? Because the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. Jesus is there. Jesus is there even now at the right hand of the Father. Not talking for you, but he's there. He's there as a continuous and perpetual and glorious and everlasting testimony witness to your blood-bought access and fellowship with God. That's what he's there. That's what he does in his intercession. The Lord Jesus Christ is placed there high, enthroned in majesty, right? Exalted in the heavens for all eternity as a revelation of the perfect access won by him of God's people to God. He stands there as a witness to your forgiveness. He stands there as a testimony of your justification by faith in him. He stands there as a picture, as a trophy, right? As an exalted depiction of the satisfaction of the wrath that was once reserved for you. He stands there as the satisfaction of the righteous demands of God's justice. He stands there testifying, witnessing to the fact that the handwriting of the requirements that were against us and contrary to us, that he has taken them out of the way having nailed them to the cross. That's the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. He stands there as a testimony as a witness to what he's done for you if you're in Christ. Not talking per se for you. Does that make sense? Someone might ask, they might make this statement, ask the question. If I've been justified, right? If I've been forgiven, I've been washed clean, I'm right with God. If Christ has secured my eternal redemption, then why do I need ongoing advocacy with the Father? Why do I need intercession, right? In one sense that's right. If you think about the question, that's right. We were justified. We were, if you put your faith and trust in Christ, you were justified, made right with God in Christ. Romans 5-2 again, therefore, having been justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we also now have access by grace or by faith into this grace in which we stand. There was a time when you were justified if you're in Christ. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is our righteousness, present tense. So in this sense, in the sense of his intercession, his advocacy for believers, it's not that the Lord, that God simply looks back at the cross, right? He doesn't just in the same way that we don't simply only look back at the cross. We don't only look back at the cross. God the Father looks at Christ. If you're going to live your Christian life, your Christian life is lived by looking at Christ with eyes of faith, looking to him in faith and living for him. So God the Father doesn't just look back. He looks at Christ. He forever looks at Christ. Your intercessor, your mediator, who Christ, Christ stands forever there for us. Christ stands there for us as the eternal and everlasting ground of our eternal salvation. We will always look to Christ in faith, always. When we're in heaven rejoicing and worshiping God, when we're heaven, we will look to him as the ground for our eternal salvation. We will always look to Christ. He is the eternal and everlasting and perpetual and continual advocate with the Father for us who have been saved. He is the ground, is an ongoing is and forever will be the ground on which we have eternal life. He is the Lamb who was slain from before the foundation of the world. He is forever the Lamb who is slain, right? And he is the Lamb who will be worshiped forever and ever, amen. The death of Christ, the death of Christ wasn't merely the end. It's not the end. It's the beginning, if you will, the foundation of our life in Christ. So his intercession on our behalf, all the blessings that come to us in him were all purchased at the cross and flow out of that death. Theologians talk about his oblation and his intercession, oblation, his blood sacrifice, that which he poured out his own life, his oblation, and now his intercession. Those two things are inextricably married together and inseparable, two distinct things, but they're married together. By virtue of his oblation, by virtue of his sacrifice, he now lives to make intercession for his people and will always and forever and continually will live in the reality of his intercession, having won that intercession for us at the cross, will live eternally in light of that intercession. Forever Christ, his person, his works, the crucified and risen redeemer of his people is stationed there at the right hand of God the Father forever. A perpetual effective intercession, a living and eternal declaration. So now think about that for a moment. Every bliss, every moment of bliss in heaven, every moment of bliss on this side of heaven, every moment of eternal life that we enjoy, every word of worship that falls from our lips, every song of praise that erupts from our heart is seen then as grounded in and owing to our mediator, Jesus Christ the righteous. John Owen said that his intercession for us is not vocal, it's real. You understand the distinction. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24, for Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. What shall we say to these things? Listen to Paul from Romans 8. If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Do you see the connection there between praying and having what you've prayed for, right? How shall it not be with him, with Christ, that he won't freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written for your sake, we're killed all day long. We're accounted as sheep for the slaughter, that's our lot in this life. Yet in all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So what's the implication of these things, right? What shall we say to these things? Listen, brother, sister, draw near to God in prayer. We have this access that has been bloodbought by our mediator, our Lord, the Lord who is our righteousness. One said, let not our prayers die while our intercessor lives. Romans chapter 5 verse 1, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, there are Lord Jesus Christ, praise God, amen. But it's through him, through him that we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So in your Christian life, you've been given justification. If you turn from your sin and you put your faith in trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you've been justified by faith. Praise God, right? That's a promise of God, justified by faith. Turn from your sin, put your faith and trust in Christ, and be reconciled to God. Once you have had that blessed, unspeakable, indescribable gift given to you by God's grace, right? Then you in Christ now stand in that grace. You stand in that grace, and that grace is multifaceted, many splendored. It's a beautiful multifaceted diamond. You have this glorious grace and access to this grace in which you stand. Romans chapter 5 would say, access that, right? Access it. You're battling with sin. You have access to grace that will help you overcome sin. You're facing trials, facing adversity. You have access to grace for your help in time of need, and you can boldly and confidently go to the throne and ask what you will because the Lord Jesus Christ lives to make intercession for you. He is seated at the right hand of God the Father having secured your access with his own blood. So you go, you go boldly, you go confidently, you ask for what you need, right? Without doubting, but you've got to go. You want to learn of God? Go to him in prayer, through his word. We oftentimes in the Christian, I know to my shame, I'm guilty of this, of acting beggarly when it comes to these glorious riches. Listen, when you don't understand these things, when you don't understand these things, you're going to pray for a couple minutes in the shower, alarm goes off, you know, thank you for the day, you know, help me to get through the day better, you know. Listen, don't take it too far. I'm not disparaging praying without ceasing, praying every opportunity that you have, every time, you know, pray without ceasing. We should pray always, rejoice always, right? But listen, if that constitutes your communion with God, a flippant moment here, a quick cavalier moment here, I'll take a few moments and let me just pray about my car, make sure I, Lord, I want a parking place when you're pulling into the mall, right? If that constitutes your, you do not understand these things and you don't believe. When you come to understand these things, when you come to believe, it's going to impact your prayer life. Many of us have prayed in passing, like these things aren't important. Devote time to God in prayer, set aside a time, right? Have a plan and pray to God. We sometimes treat prayer or act toward prayer, conduct ourselves with respect to prayer. Like these things have not been blood bought by the Lord Jesus Christ. They're just flippant, easy cavalier things, right? William Booth said, work as if everything depended upon work and pray as if everything depended upon prayer. E.M. Bounds, other duties become pressing and absorbing and crowd out prayer. Choked to death would be the coroner's verdict in many cases of dead praying if an inquest could be secured. What I want to do for us, what I want the Lord Jesus Christ to do through, what my prayer would be, be through this text, John chapter 16 and us over the next week or so, looking at how the Lord talks about prayer in these verses and all that is intended in them would be for us to be a people of prayer. Devoted, concentrated, fervent, effective prayer. God-glorifying, Christ-exalting, God-dependent, fervent, effective, righteous prayer. See to be a people of prayer. It takes determination, right? It takes folk. If you've ever spent or attempted to spend any length of time in prayer, it's not easy all the time. Sometimes just flows right off the lips, doesn't it? Other times it takes a concerted effort of your will just to maintain concentration for one minute, but you and I are beggars and we have great need of God. We are immensely, fully, completely, infinitely dependent upon God and we need to pray. Amen? We'll talk about that more next week. Let's pray together. Take a few seconds, just a moment here, and pray silently and just ask the Lord to work in your heart with respect to these truths. Let's pray. What do we so desperately need you? We are confronted by the truth of your word and the glory of these things and yet oftentimes we can't even stay awake to apprehend them. Fight against the flesh. Our own hearts and minds just deceived or sluggardly, sinfully rebellious. God, we need you. We need help. Spirit of God, please convict us of these truths. Reveal to us wondrous things from your law and provoke within us dependence upon you in prayer, worship of you in prayer. God glorifying Christ exalting. How would be your name? Your kingdom come prayer. We acknowledge by faith this glorious promise that you've afforded us in Christ, that whatever we ask in his name we have, that which we've asked for. We revel in that truth. God, help us to take joy in that. Build our faith. Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief and cause us for your name to be people of prayer. Lord, we pray in accord with your word. Answer our prayer. We want to see sinners converted to you, but we want to see the saints edified, grown, matured in their most precious faith. We want to see your church prospered. We want to see your name made famous. We want to see Christ receive the full reward of his suffering. We want to see the sun exalted in this wick and deplorable generation in which we live. We want to see you come, Lord, come quickly. And all things may you receive the honor, the blessing, and the power forever and ever. All these things we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.