All right, so take your Bibles, Psalm chapter 4, and as I said to you guys, we're going
to be doing three Psalms before we get on to 2 Corinthians on Sunday.
So we're doing Psalms chapter 4, Psalm 5, and Psalm 6.
And again, I like dividing Psalms up a little bit because there is a lot of similarity.
I mean, there's a lot of prayer, there's a lot of praise to God, and so if we were just
doing the book of Psalms all by itself, it'd be very repetitive.
I believe the reason why the Psalms are so repetitive is because we do need to hear these
things repeated.
The reason why the Psalms are full of prayer is that we need to remember, we need to pray.
Because if you're honest and you think about your Christian life, one of the first things
that drops off your Christian walk when you're distancing yourself from God is prayer.
Talking to God is one of the first things that will drop out of your life, and that's
why I believe the book of Psalms is so important, is to continue reminding us the need of prayer
and the need that we ought to praise God.
So if you look at Psalm chapter 4, or Psalm number 4 I should say, and verse number 3,
look at verse number 3.
But know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself, that's the memory verse,
the Lord will what?
The Lord will hear when I call unto him.
The title of the sermon this morning is, The Lord Will Hear.
The Lord will hear your prayers.
And he sets himself apart that which is godly, he says there in that verse.
Now what you'll see in this Psalm are just the basic ingredients of prayer.
What you'll notice in the first few verses, that it is David who is asking of the Lord.
What does prayer mean?
It just means asking the Lord.
Prayer means ask.
If I say, I pray thee, give me a cup of water, I'm saying please, and I'm asking you, give
me a cup of water.
Prayer is asking.
The first few verses is him asking God.
The next few verses is him believing God.
Believing that God will come through.
And the last few verses is him receiving.
Receiving from the Lord.
Ask, believe, receive.
The basic ingredients of you going to prayer, the reason why we go to prayer, to the Lord.
Let's start with verse number 1.
Verse number 1, Psalm 4 verse 1.
Hear me when I call.
So we see again, the title is The Lord Will Hear.
We see this theme, hear me when I call, oh God, of my righteousness.
Who's the righteousness of David?
It's God.
You know, even in the Old Testament, now I'm just going to go, I didn't really plan to,
I didn't put this in my notes, but how many preachers out there that master themselves
as independent fundamental Baptists, it blows my mind, because what is salvation?
Salvation is we can't keep the works of the law.
We can't be perfect, right?
We're sinners.
The law's there to make us realize that we've sinned against the Lord God, and so how do
we go to heaven?
Well, if we're trying to do it by the law, we're not going to be able to do it because
we've already failed.
That's why salvation is by grace through faith on Jesus Christ, right?
And even David recognizes here that God is his righteousness, right?
When you stand before God, you're not going to stand before him with your own righteousness.
What a foolish thing to think that you can stand next to God who's perfect, who's holy,
who's 100% righteous with your righteousness.
God calls your righteousness filthy rags.
Is that how you want to stand before God, or do you want to stand before God in his
righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ?
My point is this.
Even in the Old Testament days, they knew to be right before God, they needed a God
of his righteousness, right?
It was God who brought the righteousness unto David, because there are some stupid teachers
out there that will tell you that in the Old Testament, or even in the future tribulation
period, some future dispensation, salvation is not just by grace through faith on Jesus
Christ, but that it's by your works.
It's by your efforts to keep the law.
To me, it doesn't make any sense.
If salvation today cannot be kept by the law, how do you expect anyone of any time, which
is of the same flesh and blood as we are, to be able to keep it?
It's impossible, right?
It's impossible.
To me, it tells me, and I almost don't want to admit this, honestly, because like I told
you guys, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I almost like to not admit this, but I'm starting to realize these people don't even understand
salvation now.
If they don't understand the only way to be saved is by God's grace, by believing on Jesus
Christ, that he did all the work, that it's God's righteousness that gets us to heaven,
then how…
I mean, if they believe you can get to heaven some other ways, it's a different time period,
you must not even understand that that's the only way to heaven even now, right?
How is that possible?
Anyway, that's not even in my notes, sorry, I just thought about that as I was reading
that.
But look at this, he says, Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.
Have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
If you can, please keep your finger there, turn to Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 3
verse 21, Romans chapter 3 verse 21, because I'm trying to tell you guys that even in
the Old Testament, they were saved by grace through faith, but let's get some verses
just to support this.
Romans chapter 3 verse 21, Romans chapter 3 verse 21, look, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifest.
So what is the righteousness of God?
It's without the law.
Even when David's praying here and he calls him God of his righteousness, of my righteousness,
that was without the law.
Being witnessed by who?
By the law and the prophets.
The Old Testament law, the Old Testament prophets recognized that it's the righteousness of
God without the law.
It's not just some New Testament teaching.
This is the plan of salvation from the beginning of time to the end of time for all men.
And look at verse 22.
Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe, for there is no difference.
Just in case you're wondering, is there a difference, a way to be saved in the Old Testament
to the New Testament?
No.
There's no difference.
Yes, we have a clearer picture in the New Testament.
Yes, we understand the name of Jesus Christ.
Yes, we understand now fully, it's been revealed to us what the plan was.
But their salvation was always by grace through faith, and they always had pictures of Jesus
Christ, whether they fully understood that or not, they had put their faith on God.
They had put faith on what God had revealed to them through the Scriptures and through
the prophets of the Old Testament.
But we see here, even in the Old Testament, the prophets and the law witness of the righteousness
of God, there is no difference.
There is no difference.
Turn to Romans chapter 4, just one chapter across, chapter 4, Romans chapter 4, Romans
chapter 4 verse 5, Romans chapter 4 verse 5.
And this is a common one, this is a familiar one.
If you're going soul winning, if you want to be a soul winner and knock doors, this
is a verse you really want to maybe not memorize, but you at least want to know the reference
if you need to turn there.
It says here in Romans chapter 4 verse 5, but to him that what?
To him that works, that does the works of the law.
No.
That worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness.
Oh, that's just the New Testament.
Well, let's look at verse 6.
Even as David, who's David?
The author of Psalm 4.
Even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed for righteousness
without works.
Was there a difference in the Old Testament?
It was without works.
It was not by keeping the works of the law.
And I would encourage you if, look, I'm starting to realize this more and more as I pastor
a church, as I start to realize the heresies that are out there, sometimes you're not
really aware of it until things start to come out, but I mean, I'm not even speaking to
you guys, but if there's anyone listening online, if your pastor says people were saved
by works at any point in time, I would say get out of that church.
Get out of that church because you don't even know, they would probably end up corrupt
in the gospel that is revealed to us through Jesus Christ anyway.
To me, you're already halfway there.
You're already halfway perverting the gospel.
You're preaching other gospels for other time periods.
You're already halfway there of denying the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So I'll just read to you very quickly.
Go back to Psalm 4.
So I just wanted to prove that to you, Old Testament way of salvation, the same as the
New Testament way of salvation, without the works of the law, by faith, the righteousness
comes from God.
He comes by Jesus Christ.
If you look at Psalm 4, verse 1, so he's crying to the Lord.
He says, Hear my call, Lord, thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.
Now, I kind of didn't really understand what that meant.
Keep a finger there and turn to Psalm 18, Psalm 18, verse 19, so just a couple of pages
over.
Psalm 18, verse 19, it says, He brought me forth also into a large place.
He delivered me because he delighted in me.
So do you see there that he's saying when he was being, he was delivered, he was brought
to a large place.
And then in chapter 4, verse 1, he says, thou hast enlarged me.
So what I think I've gathered from this is, you know when you're feeling under pressure,
when you're stressed, when you feel like everything's working against you, don't you feel like you're
in a tight place?
I mean, when you say, I'm under pressure, like that usually means there's weight on
top of you, right?
I mean, if you dive deep in the ocean, you start to feel the weight of the water, you
feel the pressure of the water, right?
You're under pressure, you're in a tight space, you know, you feel like you can't get out.
But he says, look, the Lord has enlarged me, the Lord's given me breathing space, God's
given me a place that's gotten larger, so I can escape that pressure, that stress that
I was under.
I believe that's what David is saying here, where he's been enlarged by the Lord, he's
got a way, he doesn't have all that pressure and that stress upon him.
He says, have mercy upon me and hear my prayer.
Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer.
And how new are the mercies of God?
His faithfulness.
How new, it's new every morning.
Great is his faithfulness, the Bible says, right?
It's new every morning.
And again, I encourage you guys, and we'll see this soon, is you need to be praying every
day.
You need to be asking the Lord to deliver you, to keep you safe, to get you through
the day every day, okay?
We all have different pressures in life, right?
You might have the pressures of work, you know, you might feel like, man, I've got so
much on my plate and I have this time period that I need to get it done.
You know, you might be a mother with multiple children, man, it's a hard job.
And if you're homeschooling them and you're trying, you know, you've got a different age,
you know, older kids and younger kids, little babies, it's hard.
You know, you're going to feel the pressures of life.
And you need to come to God and ask him to enlarge you, to give you a place that he can
breathe and help you.
Okay?
You're not going to be able to get through every day of your life alone, you're going
to need the Lord to have mercy upon you and hear your prayer.
Look at verse number two.
Oh ye sons of men, here he's referring not to believers, because a believer is what?
A son of God.
So he's saying, oh ye sons of men, as in the unbelieving world, those that hate Jesus,
cry, maybe not even hate him, but just, you know, that are worldly, okay?
Ye sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame?
So the things that we glory of, you know, we glory of God, we glory of the word of God,
we glory in our church, we glory in souls saved, we glory in knocking doors, we glory
in answered prayers.
You know what the unbelieving world does?
They want you to be ashamed of that, okay?
They want you to be ashamed, well you go to church every week, what, every Sunday?
You waste your Sunday mornings going to church?
You know, you give up your offerings to church, I mean, is that what you do with your money?
You know, do you really do that stuff?
You know, they're going to try to turn your glory into shame.
You knock doors?
You go and disturb people and make them uncomfortable?
You know, they want to turn your glory into shame.
And let's have a look at what the glory of David was, if you can just go back one chapter
in Psalm chapter three, Psalm chapter three, verse three, Psalm chapter three, verse three,
he says this,
So what's the glory of David?
The Lord God, right?
And he's saying there in number four, that the unbelieving world wants to turn his Lord
God into shame, okay?
And he wants the glory in the Lord God, that's what his glory is, and that ought to be what
our glory is.
How long will you love, sorry, verse number two,
Now that word leasing just means lies or false accusations, okay?
So how long will you love vanity, emptiness, the world is empty, guys, listen, I've got
better things to do on Sunday morning than being in church, it's empty, it's vanity,
it's going to waste your time, you're better off, you're being more profitable being in
church this morning than anything else this world can offer you, okay?
Anything else, and he calls the lease in there lies or false accusations, because that is
what the world does to Christians, the world turns to Christians and lies about them, makes
false accusations about them, and I've recently heard a sermon on the reprobates, false accusations
about the reprobates, and I won't even preach on that right now, but at some point I'll
preach on that, but there's lies and false accusations in sermons from fellow brethren
about a doctrine like the doctrine of reprobates, okay?
I mean, you're not just going to get problems and pressure from the world, you're going
to get that from fellow believers as well, okay?
Maybe from ignorance, could be, maybe just the devil trying to get involved and trying
to cause problems, whatever it is, even fellow believers can be a problem to us, and we need
to just make sure our eyes are on the Lord.
We see David, his eyes are not on the men, his eyes are on Jesus Christ, God, his glory.
I'll just read to you Philippians 3.18, Philippians 3.18.
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are
the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly,
and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
So there are the wicked out there, right?
They want to turn what you glory in into shame, but then what their shame, they glory in.
Their sin, they glory in, right?
How many, you know, a guy telling you how many girls they've been with, they glory
in what ought to be shameful, okay?
How people have cheated, you know, other people, and they've been made rich of it,
or whatever, how they've taken advantage of others, they glory in their shame, they
glory in their sin, right?
Drink driving, driving home drunk, not getting caught by the police, they glory in their
shame, I didn't get caught this time, you know?
That is the way the world, they've got it upside down, they've got it upside down.
The things that we ought to glory of, the things of God, they want to make us ashamed
about it, and the things that they ought to be ashamed of, they glory in, okay?
We live in a world that's very different to the way God wants us to live, okay?
And you know, we ought to make friends, you know, we ought to be friendly, we ought to
open up opportunities where we can give the gospel to this world, but don't be surprised
when you realize, you know what, the world and I, we just have nothing in common, because
they're going one way, and I'm going a totally different way, and don't be surprised when
they don't want to hear your conversation and things you've got to talk about, because
to them it's a shame.
To them they're ashamed of the things that you glory in.
And you ought to be ashamed of the things they glory in, okay?
Look at verse number 3, Psalm 4 verse 3.
But know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself.
Now that word godly, what does that mean?
If you want to be godly, it means you're following after God.
You know, you're seeking after the things of God.
You know, your will is becoming more like God's.
You know, if you said to, you know, I don't know, what's, you know, I forgot my son's
name, Samuel, if you said Samuel looks heavenly or something like that, you're saying, man,
because heaven's beautiful, heaven's wonderful, and he's got those attributes like heaven.
You know, if you say someone's godly, you're saying, hey, there's Jesus Christ in you.
I can see Jesus Christ in your life, and you kind of represent God.
It's kind of like the word Christian, right?
You're a Christ follower.
You represent what Christ is.
And it says here that God has set apart him that is godly for himself.
God looks after those that are walking after his path.
He sets them apart from the world.
That's what the word holy means.
You know, we're talking about the Holy Bible, the Holy Spirit, living a holy life.
Holy means set apart, okay?
And if you're living a godly life, God will set you apart.
You will be different to this world, okay?
But he knows of you, right?
He knows of you if you're walking in a godly way, and then he says the Lord will hear when
I call unto him.
Think about this now.
The Lord will hear me when I'm godly.
The Lord will hear me when I'm walking after his ways.
When I'm representing him in this world, right?
Because do you think God's going to hear you when your life is full of sin?
Do you think God's going to hear you when you look after worldliness?
When you set him apart, when you stop reading your Bible?
When you stop attending church?
Do you think God will want to hear you at that point in time?
Or do you think he's more likely to hear you when you're godly?
When you're righteous?
When you're trying to seek after his ways, okay?
2 Timothy 3.12 says,
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
So we see David here suffering persecution.
In fact, many of the Psalms, we see him crying out to the Lord because of his persecution.
But he says, hey, I'm godly.
I'm trying to live for God, right?
And listen to me, when you start living godly, not only do they try, the world tries to turn
your glory into shame, they're going to start persecuting you, okay?
They're going to start hating you.
They're going to start despising the things that you love.
Hey, but if you want God to hear you, guess what?
You're going to need to start living godly.
You want him to start answering your prayers more than often, you need to start walking
in his ways.
And I like what he says here, the Lord will hear when I call unto him.
Are there any doubts in David that God will hear him?
No, he says he will hear.
Lord will hear me because I've been walking in a godly way.
And I'll just read to you Psalm 34.15.
Psalm 34.15 says,
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
Okay?
Again, you want God to hear your prayers, you want him to answer your prayers, then
try to be righteous, try to be godly, and he will hear your cry when you seek after
his ways.
Look at verse number 4, Psalm chapter 4 verse 4.
Now we turn to the asking, he's asked of the Lord, he's confident he's going to hear, now
we turn to believe.
Believe that God will answer your prayers.
Look at verse number 4.
He says, now we talked about living godly and being righteous, right?
Look at this.
He says in verse 4,
Stand in awe, and sin not.
Because obviously if you're living godly, if you're living righteously, you're not sinning,
right?
You're reducing the sin in your life, right?
You're overcoming temptation in your life.
And then he says,
Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still, Selah.
He's got peace.
He's still upon his bed.
Now one thing that I found interesting is that Psalm chapter 4 talks about him going
and communing or praying at his bed.
This is an evening prayer.
This is the end of his day, he's on his way, you'll see later on he's going to go to sleep,
but he's on his way, he's having his evening prayer, he's ready to end for the day, go
to sleep, and he spends time praying to the Lord.
Look at the next chapter, Psalm 5, Psalm 5, Psalm 5 verse 3, so just turn the page if
you need to, Psalm 5 verse 3, the Bible says,
My voice shall thou hear in the morning, O Lord.
In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
So Psalm 4 is this evening prayer before bed, and then Psalm 5 is him waking up in the morning
and praying in the morning, right?
You see that?
The point I want to bring out of that is this, it is always the right time to pray, whether
the morning, whether the night, evening, before bed, I encourage your church to please pray
first thing in the morning.
Go to the Lord with your prayers in the morning, ask him to help you in the day, and then at
the end of the day before bed, and it's harder before bed, I just fall asleep, it's harder,
maybe you want your prayer to be shorter at night, or maybe, some people say I'm a morning
person, some people say they're an evening person, whatever, I'm more of a morning person,
so maybe my prayer will be longer in the morning, but hey, even if you're not an evening person,
end your day in prayer.
Start your day with the Lord, end your day with the Lord.
We see that is David's practice, and that is something that we also ought to do.
But what do we see here?
If the Lord's going to answer our prayers for being godly, we need to make sure that
we reduce sin, that we don't sin.
Now I'm going to give you four ways to overcome sin in your life, okay, because we want God
to hear our prayers.
Now the first one is there in verse four.
He says, stand in awe.
Now some of you guys have heard that song, my God is an awesome God, have you heard that
one?
I mean, it's a stupid song, because it just repeats over and over again, but it's true,
it's true, our God is an awesome God, okay?
And one way to overcome sin is for you to just think about God, to just stand in awe
of Him, okay?
Because when you start thinking about who God is, when you start thinking about His
holiness, His righteousness, when you start thinking about how much He hates sin, okay,
when you think about how much He loves you, that He sent Jesus Christ to die for you,
to give His blood, to give His life for you, that He took all your sins, He took the punishment
for you.
When you start thinking about that, that He gives you a free gift, when He's promised
you mansions in heaven, when He calls you His Son when you believe in Christ, when He
promises you rewards, the things that you sacrifice in this life, He's going to reward
you in heaven, one hundred fold, when you start thinking about all the promises and
who He is, that's going to stop you from sinning, I promise you that.
When you're being tempted to sin and you just stop and think about who God is, that's going
to cause you to go, man, I better not sin, right, because He's done so much for me.
And that's one way you can overcome sin, that's one way David overcomes sin, he just thinks
and meditates just on who God is and what God has done for him, okay?
The second way to overcome sin is, you guys turn to Matthew chapter four, Matthew chapter
four, Matthew chapter four, and I'll read to you Psalm 119 as you turn there, Matthew
chapter four, and I'll read to you Psalm 119 verse 11, it says, thy word have I hid in
mine heart that I may not sin, that I might not sin against thee.
So how do we not sin against the Lord?
By hiding His word in our heart.
This is memorizing scripture.
The second way to overcome sin is to memorize scripture, you're in Matthew chapter four,
look at verse one, Matthew four verse one, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil, okay, now Jesus never sinned, but Jesus was tempted
to sin, okay, because he was not just 100% God, but he was also 100% man, okay, he had
the potential in his manhood to sin.
He had the ability to be tempted and that's why Satan came trying to destroy what he was
trying to do, because Jesus didn't just have to die for our sins, but he had to live a
holy and righteous life without any sin, he had to be that perfect sacrifice.
Verse number two, and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was an afterward
and hungered, and when the tempter came to him and he said, if thou be the son of God,
command that these stones be made bread.
So he knows Jesus is hungry, he's been fasting for 40 days, of course he's hungry, and the
devil tempts him, not even something that is so sinful, right, just bread, hey, make
some bread for yourself if you're the son of God, out of these stones so you can eat,
I mean eating is not a sin, right, but what was the devil trying to do?
Jesus was trying to pray and fast, he had his mind on spiritual things, right, he was
taking down that flesh and making sure his focus before he started his ministry would
be spiritual, okay, he was ready to start this big work, and the devil's trying to bring
him to think of temporal fleshly things, okay, how does Jesus overcome the devil?
He says, verse number 4, and he answered and said, it is written, that's how you overcome
temptation so you don't sin, you say it is written, you memorise the scriptures that
you have had, you know, that you think about, and I would recommend if you're struggling
with sin, if you're struggling with different temptations, you better take the Bible and
find verses that is about that temptation or about that sin and memorise on it, and
when you're tempted, you say no, it is written, and you quote the memory verse, okay, that's
what Jesus did, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God, verse 5, then the devil taketh him up into the holy
city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, if thou be the son of
God, cast thyself down, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning
thee, and their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
the stone, and Jesus said unto him, it is written again, again it is written, thou shall
not tempt the Lord thy God, so we have Jesus quoting scripture, scripture that he has memorised,
okay, verse 8, again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth
him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and saith unto him, all these
things will I give thee, if thou will fall down and worship me, I mean that's the end
goal of the devil, he wants to be worshipped, okay, he wants your worship, he wants the
worship of Jesus, and eventually he's going to get his worship, right, when it comes to
the end times, when he sets up the beast, and people take the mark of the beast, they're
going to be worshipping the beast and worshipping the dragon, they're going to be worshipping
the devil at that point in time, so Satan's goal is to be worshipped, but what does Jesus
do? Verse 10, then saith Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan, for it is written, thou
shall worship the Lord thy God, and him only shall thou serve, then the devil leaveth him,
and behold angels came and ministered unto him, okay, so Jesus cried, if you want to
have victory of the devil, you know people say this all the time, the devil made me do
it, the devil's making me sin, you know, we'll see shortly that it's sin coming from your
own heart, but sometimes the devil does come along, you know one of the devils comes along
and puts thoughts into your mind, yeah that's possible, but ultimately when you sin it's
your fault, you can't blame the devil for your sin, we saw that with Adam and Eve, right,
we saw Eve trying to blame Satan, nope, Eve you made the mistake and so did Adam, you
know, but my point is this, if you're struggling with sin, you know the second way to overcome
a sin is to memorize scripture, you know, let me just give you some quick examples,
if your sin is pride, if you find yourself very proud, very holy and haughty, and you
look down on other believers, other Christians, then memorize Proverbs 16 5, which says everyone
that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord, though hand joined in hand, he shall
not be unpunished, hey memorize that one, if you're struggling with pride, you know,
if you're struggling with telling lies, and if you struggle telling the truth and you're
always telling lies, Proverbs 12 22 says lying lips are abomination to the Lord, but they
that deal truly are his delight, you know, find verses that line up with the sins or
the struggles that you have in your life, what about fear, are you someone that's very
fearful, you're afraid for your life, afraid what the world's going to do to you or can
do to you, you know, Psalm 23 verse 4 is a good one, yea though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me, okay, if you have a problem with fear, right, if you have a problem with
lust, if you have lustful eyes, Proverbs 6 25, lust not after her beauty in thine heart,
neither let her take thee with her eyelids, you know, find a verse with the sins that
you struggle with and memorise them, right, memorise them and when you're tempted, quote
it, Jesus quoted it, it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for you, it's good
enough for you to do, so number one was to stand in awe, think about God, that's one
way to sin, number two, memorise scripture, hide it in your heart, number three is pray
simply pray not to be tempted, now this is something that I'll be honest with you,
I don't pray about very often, okay, and I don't really hear anyone really praying
these things, but yet this comes from the model prayer of Jesus Christ, if you remember
the story where the disciples came to Jesus and said hey can you teach us how to pray
and Jesus gave the Lord's prayer, you know, sometimes people memorise that prayer and
quote it and I'm not against memorising and quoting that prayer, I think it's a good
model prayer to pray, but you know you don't want to pray with vain repetitions, right,
I think it's a good model prayer to pray, but Jesus Christ says in it, and lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil, so when Jesus is given the model prayer, he
says look, lead us, he's praying to God the Father, lead us not into temptation, why
is that important? Because the reason why we sin is because of temptation, turn to James
chapter 1, James chapter 1, James chapter 1, I'll just show you this real quickly,
James chapter 1, think about this, how many times do you pray that God will not lead you
into temptation? Just answer that in your own heart, I don't pray about that much,
I can't even remember the last time I prayed that, okay, or asked that from God, lead me
not into temptation, but James chapter 1 verse 13, James chapter 1 verse 13 says, let no
man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man, so if you're being tempted to do evil, if you're tempted
to sin, you can't say well God made me feel these things, no, that doesn't come from
God, look at verse 14, where does it come from? Again people say well the devil made
me do it, the devil made, no, look at verse 14, but every man is tempted when he is drawn
away of his own lust and enticed, that sin, that temptation comes from you, I'm sorry
to tell you that, but that's the truth, you know you can't blame anyone else, the fact
that you've been tempted to sin comes from your own heart, the lust of your own heart,
verse 15, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished
bringeth forth death, so the reason why we sin is because we're tempted by the lusts
of our own heart, now the devil might put that thought into your mind, but he didn't
put that lust in your heart, it was already there, okay, it was already there, and to
overcome sin one way, just pray that God will not lead you in paths of temptation, if right
now you're finding it hard, you know when you're being tempted to sin, and you're finding
it hard to overcome that, pray that God will lead you, that you won't even be tempted in
the first place, now being tempted is not the sin, okay, but if you give in to the temptation,
you see that that's where sin is, when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin, okay,
being tempted is not the sin, if you're feeling temptation, don't feel bad, that's normal,
okay, we have this fallen nature in us, you know Jesus Christ felt that temptation, but
he did not give in to the sin, okay, and we can also, you know, overcome sin by not being
even led in paths of temptation to begin with, add that to your prayer, add that to your
prayer, I'm going to start adding that to my prayer as I study through this, okay, but
the fourth way to overcome sin, and I'll just read this to you very quickly, I won't go
into this in too much detail, is obviously walk in the Spirit, you know, do spiritual
things, live by faith, right, Galatians 5 16, this I say then, walk in the Spirit, and
you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh, okay, you will not fulfil the lust of the
flesh if you walk in the Spirit, okay, so four ways to overcome sin in your life very
quickly, stand in awe of God, think about who God is, his holiness, number two, memorise
scripture, especially dealing with sins that you're strong with, number three, ask God
that he would not lead you into temptation, you know, ask him to find ways around that
temptation, right, in your life, and number four, walk in the Spirit, you know, live after
our faith, walk in Christ, okay, now go back to Psalm 4, again, why is it important, why
do we want to overcome sin, why do we want to be righteous, why do we want to be godly,
so God will hear our prayers, okay, remember that, right, look at verse number five, Psalm
4, verse five, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord, now first
thing, offer the sacrifices of righteousness, you not sinning and you doing the right thing
is you offering a sacrifice to God, okay, now sacrifice is an offer of worship and obedience,
when you sacrifice to the Lord, now in the Old Testament, you know, we know the sacrifices
of the animals, you know, sacrifice of the lamb and what have you, you know, they bring
that in obedience to God, they bring that in honour and worship to God, because that's
something God's asked him to do, and when you do what's righteous, you do what's right,
when you don't sin, then God says that's your offer of righteousness to him, okay, God wants
you to be obedient to his commands, and again, why, because we want him to answer our prayers,
okay, doing right is a sacrifice, doing what's right is not always easy, sometimes it's hard,
sometimes you know doing right is a sacrifice, but it's a sacrifice God wants you to bring
toward him, and then he says, and put your trust in the Lord, so you can see that his
trust, his faith, his belief is in the Lord, he believes the Lord will answer his prayers,
okay, he believes that God will hear his prayers because he's trying to be godly and he's offering
his sacrifice of righteousness. Think about this as a parent, you know, if you've been
a parent, think about this, you know, let's say you're at the shops with your kids or
whatever and your kid asks you for an ice cream, or they ask you for some type of treat,
maybe even a toy or whatever, are you more likely to give them that request when all
week they've been obedient, when they've listened to you, you know, to you, when they've done their
chores, you know, when they've done all their schoolwork, they've done well, are you more
likely to go, yeah, you know what, I'm gonna give you that gift, I'm gonna give you of your request,
or are you more likely to give them that treat when they've been disobedient all week, you know,
when they haven't been doing, you know, the chores you've left them, when they've been talking back
to their parents or whatever, when are you more likely to answer that request, obviously when
they're obedient, right, obviously when they're doing what's right, you're gonna feel, you know
what, you deserve this reward, you've been doing good, you've been trying to be a good child for
me, you've been listening to me, you've been obeying my commands, you know, God's not any
different, God is our Heavenly Father, you think he's more likely to answer your prayers when you've
been striving for his ways or when you've been living after, you know, after the world, living
in sin, you know, and if you're someone that says I don't have my prayers answered, and I'll talk
about this soon, then think how are you living your life, you know, how are you living your life,
it has an impact on your prayers, I have heard people say God never answers my prayers, I don't
know if you've heard this yourself, I find that weird, first of all I find that really strange,
when people say God never, God has never answered my prayers, he never answers, can you pray for me
because God never answers my prayers, now let me give you four reasons why you may feel that way,
okay, let me give you four reasons, and these are very basic reasons, number one, you might be asking
for just totally unreasonable things, I mean, that might be your prayer life, you just might
be asking for something so unreasonable, you know, God please give me a billion dollars, you know,
that's kind of your prayer life, you know, please give me, give me, give me, maybe that's why God
doesn't answer your prayers, because if you got the billion dollars you'll probably destroy your
life or whatever, right, I remember a friend of mine, and this was when he was newly saved,
when he was newly saved, and he was like yes I'm saved, God's my father, and he says if you ask me
of anything, you know, I'll give it to you, you know, and he got a picture of a car that he liked,
and he would put it before his bed and started praying, God please give me this car, right,
and look, he didn't know any better, he was a babe in Christ, he was just saved, he thought if he
asked God for this car, must have been a, you know, a fancy car, whatever, a nice car, God will give
it to him, you know, but as he matured he realised, yeah, that wasn't God's will for him, right, he
wasn't really praying, you know, seeking God, he was just praying to fulfil his own lusts, right,
maybe, and, but look, this is the thing, if someone says to me, God never answered my prayer, my
question, my thinking, man, are you still a babe in Christ, are you still asking for totally
unreasonable things that, you know, I mean, I have some major concerns if that's the case,
that, so that might be one reason, one, another reason you're saying that is you're probably not
even recognised in answered prayers, because it's much easier to ask of things than it is to
recognise that God has answered that and then thank him for it, I mean, there are many times
where God has answered my prayers and I've just forgotten about, but that God did it for me,
you know, and sometimes, like, for example, I might bring a prayer request and then a month
later someone asks, oh, how's that situation going, has, you know, because we were praying about that,
oh yeah, God answered that, yeah, that's been dealt with, but I've forgotten to recognise God,
I've forgotten to thank him for it, that might be a situation, because it is hard sometimes,
you know, you think, oh, this just must be coincidence, this is just life, I've just
been sorted by itself, and you forget that God stepped in and made that happen for you,
that's another reality, some people just forget, I've forgotten many times that God has answered
my prayers, that's another reasonable, I guess, expectation of you, you know, someone saying that,
you know, their prayers are never answered, but the third way is what we've just seen,
your life may be just full of sin, your life just might be totally disgusting to the Lord,
you may just be totally not even walking in fellowship with him, you might not even be
praying or reading your Bible, you may not have asked the Lord to forgive you of your
daily sins for a long time, and that might be a reason why your prayers aren't being answered,
okay, what does your life represent, does it represent a godly righteous life, or does your
life represent a worldly sinful life, that might be another reason why, you're totally,
why would God answer your prayers if you're not trying to serve him, not trying to walk after his
ways, but the final, the final one, and this is probably the most likely one I think, when someone
says God never answered my prayers, you're probably not even saved, honestly, I mean,
if God, honestly, if God never answers your prayers, and here's our Heavenly Father who
wants to give us gifts from above, and you never have your prayers answered, you're probably not
even saved, honestly, and I've had people say to me things like, oh this lady, she says, you know,
my prayers are never answered, and my response is, ask her what the gospel is, ask her how does
someone get saved, and I wouldn't be surprised if they believe in a false gospel, I wouldn't
be surprised if they're not even a child of God, okay, because honestly, I mean, God answering
prayers, it, it should be a part of our life, it should be something that happens often, I mean, I
can't count how many times God has answered my prayers, and I'm sure if you look back at your
life, and you will recognise that God has answered my prayers in many, many ways, okay, so if God has
totally just not heard you, not answered, you may not even be saved, I wonder what even, what gospel
you even believe in, okay, now let's go, let's go, if you're still in Psalm 4, you're still in Psalm 4,
hopefully, look at verse number 6, Psalm 4 verse 6.
Now it's about receiving, okay, we've asked the Lord, we've trusted the Lord, we've believed that
he's going to answer, now let's talk about receiving the answered prayers, verse number 6,
just take up some water,
verse 6, there be many that say, so these many that say are those sons of men that is referring
to the unbelievers, who will show us any good, Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance
upon us, so the unbelieving world will say who's going to show the Christians any good, right,
they look at Christians like these rejects, you know, they view Christians as not having any,
you know, friendships, like who's going to be with them, who's going to show them any good,
you know, God's not going to show them any good, other people aren't going to show them any good,
because they're too different, they're too weird, right, but how does David respond to that,
how does David respond to the rejection of man, he says, Lord lift thou up the light of thy
countenance upon us, Lord I'm not looking for all the friendships I can develop in this world,
Lord I'm looking for your countenance, I'm looking for your, what's countenance means,
it means your favor, I'm looking for your goodwill, Lord, I'm looking for your kindness,
I'm looking that you would shine your face upon me, Lord, that's what I want,
I don't care if everyone's rejected me, I don't know, I don't care if the world doesn't like me,
Lord please lift your countenance to me, that's what I want, okay, and that's what we ought to be
as Christians, if the world has rejected you, if your friends have rejected you,
if your friends are saying hey who's going to show them any good, say well God's going
to show me good, God's going to shine his countenance upon me as I seek to walk in his paths,
look at verse seven, thou has put gladness in my heart, thou has put gladness in my heart,
you know brethren are you glad this morning, are you happy this morning, are you joyful this
morning, you know if you're not, if you're not, and look it's fine, it's fine if you're not,
but if you're not, ask God for gladness in your heart, you know true joy, true happiness,
true satisfaction will only come from the Lord God, right, you're going to try to find joy in
this world, you're going to try to find joy in your hobbies and joy, and look there is a
season of joy in these things, okay, but often the world will look for joy in their sin,
remember they glory in their shame, that's what they think they're going to find joy in,
and so many have gone the way of the world thinking the world's going to satisfy me,
the world's going to give me joy, but no true joy, and David recognizes this, comes from God
putting that in your heart, you know seeking after his ways, sometimes it's hard, yeah,
but you know when you accomplish great things for God there's going to be great joy in your heart,
and then says well he compares the joy that God puts in his heart, he says more than in the time
that their corn and their wine increased, talking about the you know the the sons of men, right,
so what David recognizes here, and sometimes will recognize this, is that the wicked seem to prosper,
the wicked seem to profit, they're doing, they're not working after the ways of the Lord,
but hey their corn and their wine it's increased, they seem to be doing really well,
you know, I think of Facebook, you know, I mean first of all Facebook's not real world,
right, a lot of people treat Facebook as this real world, but you know even the most miserable,
the miserable person in the world, even the person that's the most depressed can have a great
Facebook account, right, they can do their selfies with their smiles, they can show pictures of where
they've traveled, of all the places they've eaten, they can show themselves living this,
living this you know wonderful prosperous life, and you might look at Facebook and go wow look,
look how much they're enjoying their lives, but you don't see the other side, right, you don't see
the other side, you don't see them, you don't see their tears, you don't see how they suffer with
the sins they've done in their life, they're not going to put that on Facebook, they're just going
to show the happy times, and sometimes as Christians you might look at that and go wow man
look at the wicked, they seem to prosper, but you know they don't have the joy of the Lord,
they don't have the joy that you can have serving the Lord God, right,
look sometimes life gets hard, sometimes you're going to feel miserable, sometimes you're going
to feel depressed, and I'll just read to you Psalm 51 verse 12, Psalm 51 verse 12, David says
to God, he says restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,
and uphold me with thy free spirit, but what does David ask, he says restore unto me the joy
of thy salvation, even David got to a point where he lost joy in the Lord,
even David got to a point when he couldn't even find joy in salvation,
right, and sometimes that's going to happen, when you're having difficulties and struggles
in life, you're going to, and you get miserable and upset, you're going to forget the joy of your
salvation, you're going to get to a point where you don't even, you don't even rejoice anymore
about the fact that you're saved, that your sins are forgiven, that you're on your way to heaven,
and look, I mean that's not a good place to be, but don't get discouraged, because even David
went through that, okay, even lots of men in the Bible, lots of people in the Bible went through
that kind of thing, where they've lost salvation, well joy of their salvation,
but so David says please restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and if you've lost that joy,
if you don't have joy in your life, seek God, look you're not going to get it anywhere else,
because when you've lost the joy again, you're going to try to find joy in the world,
you're going to find, try to find joy in other things that are not godly, but you need to ask
God please restore it unto me, God I want to rejoice, I want to be happy in life, I want to
be satisfied in life, seek his ways once again, because there was a time that you rejoiced in your
salvation, there was a time when you rejoiced in the Lord, you just need it restored, you just need
to get back where you were before, if you're struggling with joy in your life, okay, now look
at verse number eight, verse number eight, psalm four, verse eight, we're almost done here, and
this is my favorite part of the whole psalm, you know because I love to sleep, I love being so
tired, and I'm like honey I'm going to bed, and I just put my head on the pillow and I'm gone,
and then like I wake up, oh no, I'm going to keep sleeping, I love to sleep, right, and I'm glad
that David loves to sleep as well, look at verse eight, he says, so after you know he's prayed,
he's trusted in the Lord, you know, he sees the Lord's going to, you know, I'm going to receive,
what's it, he's receiving the joy of the Lord, right, and then he says this, I will lay me down
in peace, why, because he's taken all that burden off him, he's put it on the Lord, God you know my
struggles, I'm going to give them to you, I lay me down in peace and sleep, I love that, because you
know when you've got a lot of stress, a lot of things on your mind, that's when you find, that's
when you're going to find it hard to sleep, a lot of people that struggle, a lot of people that go
through stress and worries don't sleep much, they're often awake during the night thinking about,
you know, the problems, thinking about how they're going to get out of that situation,
you need to get to a point when you pray to the Lord, and this is, this is knowing, this is how
you know if you've trusted the Lord, is if you can go to sleep and stop thinking about what you've
just been stressed and pressured about, go God, I've left it in your hands, you know, I'm trusting
you that you're taking care of this, I'm trusting you that you're going to answer and I'm going to
receive of you, he says for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety, he says Lord I know you've
answered my prayers, I'm dwelling in safety, you know, he was worried for his life as many times
he was, he says Lord I'm just going to sleep, I've left it in your hands, I'm going to trust in you,
I'm going to believe you're going to answer my prayers, and Lord I'm just going to sleep like
a baby, and I sleep easy, honestly, I sleep easy, even times when I feel like I should be stressed
and worried, I've learned to just leave things in God's hands, and I'm not, I'm not trying to boast
about that, I just, that's a really good place to be in your life, when you can sleep like a baby,
you know, think about how babies sleep, they don't have to wake up and think, oh who's going to feed
me, who's going to dress me, who's going to change my nappies, the baby knows, mum and dad's going to
come around and feed them and take care of business, that's how you ought to be with the Lord,
I'm going to sleep, Lord you're going to just have to do it, you're taking care of my problems, Lord,
you're going to give me the rest and peace that I, that I, that I want, you know, rest, resting is
part of the answered prayer, when you can leave it in his hands, and please when you've left it there,
please don't take that burden upon yourself again, pray, you leave it with God, you leave it with God,
you trust him, and then, you know, you take care of what you can take care of, but other things
that are outside of your control, and that's usually what we stress and worry about the most,
is when things are outside of your control, okay, and look, if it's outside of your control,
it's in God's control, that's it, it's in God's control, go to sleep and rest easy, let's pray.