Robert Moore is a...
I nearly said Robert Moore is a doctor
in this congregation.
You know, I heard a friend of mine
said, I've got a Bachelor's of Arts degree.
He said, I've been born again.
And then he said, I've got a Master
of Arts.
He said, I'm mastery altered.
And then he said, I've got a Doctor's
degree.
I'm devil disturbing, you know.
And Robert Moore is a deacon here in
the church.
And he just said, showed to me and
said, take your watch off and throw it
away.
Isn't he in trouble?
We will not do that.
But I trusted the Lord tonight for 90
people.
And there are about, I think 85 of
us all together.
So there are five sinners running out here
in the mountains of the Adelaide Valley who
are saying, no worries.
It's an amazing Australian term.
No worries.
I just talked to my wife this afternoon.
She said, how are you doing?
No worries.
But it's been tremendous to have you with
us in these times together.
You know, we know so much about the
Scriptures, but oh, the Scriptures know so little
about us.
I want to encourage you.
Memorize God's Word.
Let it become part of your relationship with
God.
I tell you, one of the men that
greatly influenced me in North America is a
man by the name of John MacArthur.
He is the personification of the modern Dr.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
And just the depth of Scripture to get
into God's Word.
Look at chapter 11.
And if you don't have your Bible with
you, say, May God have mercy on my
poor, wretched soul.
But why don't we stand just for a
few minutes for the reading of the Word
of God.
And then we are able to change our
positions.
And what we are going to do is
just to try to take a few minutes
of your time.
That would be great.
Look at chapter 11, verse number 1.
It came to pass that as Jesus was
praying in a certain place, that when He
ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him,
Lord, teach us to pray.
Teach us to pray as John also taught
his disciples.
Verse number 5.
And Jesus said unto them, Which of you
shall have a friend, and he shall go
unto him at midnight, and say unto him,
Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend
of mine in his journey has come to
me, and I have nothing to set before
him.
And he from within will answer and say,
Trouble me not now, the door is now
shut, and my children are with me in
bed.
I am not able to rise and give
it to thee.
I say unto you, though he will not
rise and give him, because he has his
friend, and because of his importunity, he will
rise and give him as many as he
needeth.
And I say unto you, ask, and it
shall be given unto you.
Seek, and you shall find.
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For everyone that asks, receive.
And to him that seeketh, findeth.
And to him that knocketh, it shall be
opened.
If a son shall ask bread, if any
of you that is a father, will he
give unto him a stone?
Or if he shall ask for a fish,
will he for a fish give unto him
a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will
he offer to him a scorpion?
If you then who are evil know how
to give good gifts unto your children, how
much more shall your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those that ask Him?
You may be seated.
There are some of you that somehow have
not been able to be with us, and
we don't want to dwell much time on
that which we have considered over the weekend.
But yesterday morning and last night, and we
said on Friday night, that we want to
spend some time in the New Testament as
it relates to prayer.
Simply because the New Testament is revealed for
us, is hidden for us in the Old
Testament, and the Old Testament is manifested for
us in the New Testament.
It's kind of, you know, if you cannot
come to grips with the Christ of the
Old Testament, you will never be able to
understand the depth of the Christ of the
New Testament.
So in our interpretation of prayer in the
New Testament, you need to realize that everything
that the Old Testament is saying to us
about prayer was manifested in the life of
Christ, and of course in the foundation of
the practicality of what Jesus said about prayer
in the Acts of the Apostles.
And then of course the Apostle Paul would
come in the New Testament, and he gives
unto us this combination of what Scripture is
about.
That's why we were able to say that
if you study the New Testament, and you
explore those 7,957 verses, you will discover
that there were three men in the New
Testament that dominated, as they were inspired by
the Spirit of God, to give unto us
the reality of Scripture, dominated those chapters in
the New Testament.
So who were they?
The Apostle Paul, the Apostle John, and of
course Luke the physician.
The Gospel of Luke gives us 1,151
wonderful verses, the longest book in New Testament
Scripture.
The Acts of the Apostles, which gives us
1,007 verses.
Let me suggest to you, and I don't
want you to think that I do not
have respect for the translation that we are
using, because that's what I use.
But you know, the verses and chapters only
came into being about 1,200 years after
Christ.
And because I love the New Testament, in
fact, if you are interested, I would love
to put the Greek New Testament in your
hands, which you can listen to it on
audio.
And it's a tremendous blessing.
I sit in a plane for 21, 22
hours and listen through the whole of the
Greek New Testament.
And you know, just to let it really
become part of your life.
But K.
W.
Wust, who wrote some marvelous works on the
Greek New Testament, there are three men that
I regard as just excellent.
Robertson in his interpretation of the Greek New
Testament, W.
E.
Vine in his practical looking at the Greek
New Testament, and then K.
W.
Wust, who gave us an expanded translation of
the Greek New Testament and what he has
done, he translated it in English, but he's
taken the Greek New Testament and he's given
you 1,461 passages together.
And those passages, when you study the language,
they really fit together in wonderful ways.
But when you study the Gospel of Luke
and the Book of Acts, you study the
Apostle Paul, 233 verses in his epistles.
Incidentally, the longest epistle in the New Testament
is not the epistle to the Romans.
You say, which one is it?
The epistle to the Romans has got 433
marvelous verses, but the epistle to 1 Corinthians
has got 437 verses.
My wife said to me, why do you
think there are so many verses?
I said, well, they've got so many problems,
you know.
People say to me, I want to be
part of the New Testament church.
I say to them, which one?
A man came to me one day and
said, I want to be part of the
perfect church.
And I said, don't join it, you're going
to spoil it.
And so Paul, and then you say, who
else?
The Apostle John, 879 verses in the Gospel,
404 in the Book of Revelation, 105 in
the first epistle of John, and then 13,
14.
And you bring those three men together, and
brother and sister, plus possibly the epistle to
the Hebrews, if I may say that.
But you bring this all together, and when
you do that, they give you almost 80
% of the New Testament.
So how does that relate to prayer?
I mean, all that you have left is
the 1071 verses of the Gospel of Matthew,
the 678 verses of the Gospel of Mark,
and all that you have left is a
little epistle of James, and Jude in the
New Testament, and 1 and 2 Peter.
That's all that you really have left, you
know.
And so you say, how does that relate
to prayer?
John gives you the deity of Christ in
prayer.
Luke, the physician, because of his emphasis upon
humanity.
You see, I don't know if you know
this, that Luke, in his Gospel, almost gives
us 60% more prayer information than Matthew
and Mark together.
You say, why is he doing it?
Simply because of this.
In Matthew's Gospel, we see Christ as the
King of the Jews.
In Mark's Gospel, we see Christ as the
Servant of God.
In the Gospel of John, we see Christ
as the Son of God.
And how do we see Christ in the
Gospel of Luke?
We see Jesus as the Son of Man.
Listen, Brethren and Sisters, a deity does not
have a necessity to pray, but humanity has.
And so he became a man of prayer.
And so Luke gives us the humanity of
Christ in prayer.
John gives us the deity.
And Paul gives us the Old Testament theological
understanding of prayer as it relates to the
life of Christ and the New Testament.
In fact, when you come to Philippians 4,
and the Apostle Paul said, Be anxious, so
be careful of nothing, but in everything by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known.
And you study those four statements as it
relates by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your requests...
You discover those things become the four pillars
in Paul's understanding of what New Testament prayer
is all about, as it is moved by
the Spirit of God.
And so what is it?
I mean, this is immense, you know.
And this is so rich, when you and
I will begin to study it.
And so we talked about the New Testament
tabernacle of prayer as it relates to the
Greek language.
Then we spoke about the possibility of looking
at 248 possible prayer passages in the New
Testament.
Now, you need to differentiate, because if you
look at Christ and His humanity, as it
relates to prayer, because one of the key
words for prayer is the word asking.
And if you look at the ministry of
Christ, and you need to distinguish that as
it relates to prayer, with people that came
to Him in the four Gospels, and they
were asking Him, in the strictest sense of
the word, when the request came to Christ,
even within the realm of His humanity, is
it possible for us to say, it can
be looked upon as an aspect of asking
for a need as it relates to prayer.
So what have we done?
Out of all of this, brother and sister,
is coming 12 aspects of New Testament prayer.
And those are tremendous concepts.
Fellowship prayer as it relates to worship.
As it comes, gives unto us the secret
of worship in the New Testament.
That is coming out of the acts of
the apostles.
When the early apostles said that we will
give ourselves to fellowship, to breaking of bread,
and to prayer, and to the apostles' doctrine.
And that becomes the pillars for us to
understand New Testament worship.
What else do we discover?
Routine praying in the New Testament.
And if we would have had time, I
would have been able to give you the
passage that we can look upon and do
exposition on that passage.
And then let us go to the rest
of the New Testament and see how that
relates to routine praying.
How do I cultivate that discipline in my
life, where I day by day pray for
those same things, where I don't claim the
promises of God, because I will get so
tired in doing that, because I will subjectively
focus upon the needs of those people that
I pray, and then go to the promises.
But where George Muller of Bristol said, No,
no, no, the promises of God that God
has given to you, you let them claim
you.
And they become part of your life.
And as they become part of your life,
when you pray through the Scriptures, the things
that you are praying about, and the people
that you are praying about, they become the
consequences of the infiltration and the saturation of
Scripture in your life, and you never get
tired to pray for them.
Why did George Muller say that?
As long as he prayed for someone who
was 63 years, you know.
You say, when did that person become a
Christian?
Three weeks after Muller of Bristol died.
Routine praying.
You say, what else do we discover?
Praying in the name of Jesus.
There are seven great themes in the Acts
of the Apostles, and one of those themes
is the name of Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, it just doesn't stop in
the name of Jesus, because listen to what
Christ said when He prayed in John 17.
And He said, Father, the hour has come.
Glorify Your Son so that Your Son may
also glorify You.
And then He made the statement, and He
said, Father, glorify Me with the glory which
I had while I was with You.
And as He addressed His Father, and remember
He was standing in the holiest of all,
because the Gospel of John, Christ became the
New Testament tabernacle.
And when the Apostle John said, the word
became flesh and dwelt among us in the
Greek New Testament, it's the word for tabernacle.
It's the same word you find in the
book of Revelation.
And that Christ became our New Testament tabernacle
in the New Testament.
And brother and sister, in John 17 He
prayed.
And you remember what He prayed?
He said, Father, I have manifested Your name.
And you go to those Hebrew names of
God in the Old Testament, and you know
what you discover, brother and sister?
Here Christ came.
And He became the manifestation of God in
the Old Testament and the beauty of what
His life was all about.
And so when we come and we pray,
you can't pray in the name of Jesus
if you don't live in the life of
Christ.
You see, God can't answer prayer outside of
the will of God.
You say, what else is praying in the
will of God?
Do you know one of the greatest pleasures
of prayer in the life of the Christian?
And oh, brother and sister, we're not just
dealing with the sins of omission, but we're
dealing with the sins of commission.
You know, the things that we do wrong.
We confess those things before.
But there are things that God wants us
to do that we never do, you know.
Those are the things that breaks my heart.
Because God has got so much in store
for us as His people.
And when we speak about learning the language
of prayer, brother and sister, fellowship with God
is one of the greatest gifts that God
has entrusted.
Can I be honest with you tonight?
Some of my greatest difficulties in the presence
of God as I try to cultivate and
learn the language of prayer, where you never
come to the place where you really know
how to pray, but are those times in
my relationship with God when everything becomes quiet
and the presence of God becomes a reality,
and you just sit in the love of
the Father.
Listen, He's our Father, you know.
He's not a slave driver.
He's not a dictator.
He's not that legalistic one that is standing
there with a whip.
And whenever you and I have done something
wrong, you know, this whip would come and
there's this level of condemnation.
That's not the kind of God that you
and I are serving.
And when we have fellowship with God the
Father, brother and sister, it's so precious.
It's so sweet.
And then we pray in the will of
God.
And there's a wonderful passage in the New
Testament.
You need to understand the life of Christ
as it relates to the will of the
Father, because He said, Lo, I've come to
do Thy will, O God.
He said, It's My food, it's My meat
to do the will of My Father.
And then the Apostle John would come to
us when he speaks about praying in the
will of God.
And he said, This is the confidence that
we have in Him that if we ask
anything according to His will, that He hear
of us.
And if we know that He hear of
us, we know that we are the petitions
of those things that we are asked of
Him.
The high priestly ministry of Christ in prayer.
Brother and sister, have you discovered prayer in
the epistle to the Hebrews?
Those wonderful 303 verses that you and I
find ourselves in.
What is Jesus doing this Sunday evening?
Listen to the epistle to the Hebrews.
He is ever interceding for us.
Listen to His high priestly ministry in prayer.
Listen, you are not on your own.
Not on your own, you know, as it
relates to prayer.
Why do you say that?
Let me give you two marvelous passages in
the New Testament.
The Apostle John made a statement and he
said, My little children, these things I have
written unto you that you do not sin.
But he said, When any man sins, we
have what?
An advocate.
It's a wonderful word.
Parakletos is this great explanation of the Spirit
of God.
We have an advocate with the Father.
Who is He?
Jesus Christ the Righteousness.
What does He do?
He is the propitiation for our sins.
And not only our sins, but the sins
of the whole world.
Listen to the epistle to the Hebrews again
about the life of Christ.
Hebrews 4.
You know what He said?
We do not have a high priest that
cannot be tempted to the feeling of our
infirmities.
No, we don't have that kind of a
high priest.
But what kind of a high priest do
we have?
One who is tempted in all points just
like us we are, brother and sister, and
yet without sin.
As a result of that, what does the
writer to the Hebrews say to us?
He said, Let us therefore come boldly to
the throne of grace and the throne of
mercy.
Why?
So that we might be able to receive
mercy in time of need.
He said, what does it mean in time
of need?
It means in the nick of time.
You are not on your own, you know.
Why?
Come unto Me, all ye that are labor
and heavy laden.
He said, take My yoke upon you.
Learn of Me.
Jesus said, Why?
And you shall find rest for your souls.
There remaineth therefore a rest for the people
of God.
Those that have entered into His rest, they
rest from their own works as God has
from His.
You see, there is this place.
You know, Hudson Taylor speaks about this place
and the crucified life as it relates to
prayer.
Brother and sister, where we rest in God.
That's why the Lord Jesus, when He gave
us those eight principles that relates to prayer
and the teachings of Christ as they come
out of the New Testament, you discover that
those eight principles are based upon eight Hebrew
words in the Old Testament.
I want to encourage you, if you can
get a hold of that book by Dr.
J.G.S. Thompson, it's called The Praying
Christ, where Dr. Thompson takes those seven principles,
those eight principles, out of the teachings of
Christ and prayer, and he takes you to
those Hebrew words in the Old Testament, and
he explains to you this thing of lingering
in the presence of God.
You say, what does it mean?
Does it mean that I just sit there?
No, brother and sister, you know, I mean,
we are so dumb.
They are saturated with activity.
Saturated with activity.
They are great words, you know.
So, what is it?
So, there are twelve aspects.
I just want to mention two of them
to you, and I'm going to do it
as quick as I possibly can.
We've got a program in Canada, it says
this hour has got twenty minutes.
The one is the ministry of the Holy
Spirit as it relates to prayer.
Brother and sister, if you have not come
to grips with the ministry of the Holy
Spirit as it relates to prayer, you will
always have difficulty in prayer.
Now, the Holy Spirit is a person.
When He came into our lives, we received
Him as a person.
We received that which there was of the
Holy Spirit, or is of the Holy Spirit,
because you cannot divide a personality.
But now He can be in my life
and He is resident, and yet He is
not present.
But if He is in my life, and
the Spirit of God is present.
Brother and sister, do you know what happens
to me?
God gives me a spirit of prayer.
That's why prayer is initiated by God.
You see, if I am indwelled by God,
the Holy Spirit, there is a sense of
responsibility that we are dealing with.
And you say, Gerard, what is responsibility?
Responsibility is my response to the ability of
God.
I am indwelled by the Spirit of God.
And because of the fact that the Spirit
of God is in me, brother and sister,
He wants me to have fellowship with God.
Now, let me take you to some passages
in the Old Testament.
Do you remember the prophecy of Zechariah?
The prophet Zechariah made this incredible statement, and
this is what he said.
He said, in those days, and he was
speaking about the last days, he said, in
those days, he said, God will pour out
upon them the spirit of grace and the
spirit of supplication.
Now, if you go to the Greek translation
of the Old Testament, and you study these
words, you know, they are fascinating as they
relate to the Hebrew text of Old Testament
Scripture.
But when you come into the New Testament,
what do you and I discover in the
life of Christ?
The Spirit of God.
Have you studied the ministry of the Holy
Spirit in the life of Christ?
It is absolutely tremendous.
Do you remember at His baptism, what happened?
The Holy Spirit came upon Christ in the
form of a dove.
Brother and sister, why did the Holy Spirit
come upon Christ in the form of a
dove?
Because there was no sin.
You see, John the Baptist said, when Christ
will come, and he made this statement, he
said, what will He do?
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and with fire.
Why did he make that distinction?
Because of the depravity of sin.
Fire speaks of cleansing in the Scripture.
You say, can you take this one step
further?
Absolutely.
Do you remember in Acts 2, the Bible
is saying to us that when the day
of Pentecost was fully come, they were all
of one accord in one place, and suddenly
there came a sound from heaven like as
of a rushing mighty wind.
And it filled all the house where they
were sitting.
And then the Bible is saying, and they
filled the house, and tongues of fire came.
You know, the Greek New Testament is emphatic
because what it's saying to us, they came
and they distribute themselves upon each and every
one of those 120 disciples.
And brother and sister, when those tongues of
fire came upon them, something amazing happened, because
there were manifestations of the coming of the
Holy Spirit.
And let me be absolutely frank with you
tonight as it relates to that.
You say, Gerard, what happened?
You see, there were three feasts in the
Acts of the Apostles.
There was the Passover feast in the month
of April.
There was the feast of the first fruit,
the feast of the tabernacles in the month
of October.
And then there was the feast of Pentecost
in the month of May.
And so you see, when the Holy Spirit
of God came on the day of Pentecost,
and brother and sister, the Spirit of God
descended upon them and distributed itself upon each
and every one of them, there was a
manifestation.
You say, what was the manifestation?
They spoke in 16 known different languages.
They never did that again.
The word is dialectos.
You say, why did they do that?
Let me explain to you why they did
that.
They reckoned to us, the theologians are saying
to us, they said, you know, there could
have been a million people in and around
Jerusalem.
And when the Spirit of God came, brother
and sister, those early disciples spoke in those
16 known different languages.
Why did they do that?
They didn't preach the Gospel.
They spoke about the wonderful works of God.
And as people came together because of the
place and the sound of the rushing mighty
wind, this manifestation of the coming of the
Spirit, the tongues of fire that came upon
them, and then they came up and they
spoke in these languages.
And these men came up and said, these
men are full of new wine.
These men are drunk.
It was 9 o'clock in the morning.
And Peter stood up and he turned to
them and he said to them, these men
are not drunken, I should suppose, seeing it
is but the third hour of the day.
But this is that which was spoken by
the prophet Joel.
In the last days God said, I will
pour out My Spirit upon all flesh and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and
your old men shall dream dreams.
Brother and sister, don't you run away from
the exposition of Scripture?
What happened?
They spoke in those languages.
It's the word dialectos.
Now, they never did that ever again.
Those early disciples.
But you say, what is the evidence for
the coming of the Holy Spirit?
Was it because they spoke in those languages,
16 of them?
You know, one of the explanations of the
epistle to the Romans as the way that
the church was found in Rome is that
they were Jews, possibly from Rome, because that
was one of the 16 languages.
And they went back.
And as they went back, we don't know
how the church started in the city of
Rome.
But brother and sister, what was the greatest
evidence of the coming of the Holy Spirit?
It was not the sound of the rushing
mighty wind.
I mean, that came and that went.
It was not the languages that they spoke.
You say, what was the greatest evidence?
It was the purification and the cleansing of
the Spirit of God.
You see, there is no power without purity.
And you remember in Acts 15, when the
Apostle Peter, he went to the household of
Cornelius.
Why did he do that?
Because he was sent of God, and he
went to the household of Cornelius.
And as he spoke to them, the Bible
said, the Spirit of God fell upon the
household of Cornelius.
And so the Holy Spirit was poured out
upon the Gentiles.
And brother and sister, the same happened in
Acts 19.
But you know in Acts 15, there was
the first synod meeting, the first council meeting
of the early church that came together.
And as they were coming together, the Apostle
Peter had to give an explanation.
To what?
To those that were there.
Because you see, here the most unbelievable thing
has happened.
The Holy Spirit of God was poured out
upon the Gentiles.
And Peter was the instrument that it was
done.
And Peter stood up, and he had to
give an explanation.
How could God pour out His Spirit upon
the Gentiles?
I mean, it was impossible for the Jew
to be able to understand it.
And you know these Jews, there were 12
of them, and they had 15 different opinions.
You know how these Jews are?
And ah, brother and sister, the Apostle Peter
stood up, and he made one of the
greatest statements that he ever made.
And this is what he said.
He said, God who knew the hearts gave
unto them, who was that?
Cornelius and his household, the Gentiles, gave unto
them the Holy Spirit the same as He
did unto us.
When did He give us the Holy Spirit?
On the day of Pentecost.
He said He made no difference between us
and them.
And here comes the essence of the life
in the Spirit.
He said He purified their hearts by faith.
Fire speaks of cleansing, you know.
And ah, brother and sister, would you allow
me to suggest to you tonight that when
you study sin in the New Testament, when
you study the efficacy of the blood, when
we speak about the fullness of the Spirit
of God, hey, you know what?
God is able to cleanse us from all
conscious sin.
We are not speaking about sin as perfection.
No, no, no.
We are not speaking about the sin that
we know.
We are not speaking about the depravity of
sin.
I mean, that's the brutality of the consequences
of sin.
And if God will come into this gathering
this evening and show us in one split
second what happened when Adam and Eve sinned,
and what happened when the Apostle Paul sinned
for us by one man sinning to him
to avail, and death by sin, and so
death passed upon all men for all our
sin.
Brother and sister, if you and I would
have a glimpse of the depravity of sin,
none of us would be able to get
out of this place tonight.
But God is able to cleanse us from
the sin that we are conscious of.
So when the Spirit of God is in
my life as a person, and God convicted
me of the sin that I am conscious
of, and I confess it before God, you
say, what happens?
The Spirit of God becomes present in those
areas of my life.
Hey, you know what, brother and sister?
The fullness of the Spirit of God is
not a goal, it's a gateway.
And a crisis without a process, folks, is
an abscess.
You say, what happens?
How does this spiritual life work?
Let me explain to you how it works.
It's a crisis that leads to a process
that leads to a crisis that leads to
a process.
And in the process of sanctification, God consistently
is cleansing us.
But the Spirit of God wants to be
in control of my life.
People often say to me, can you give
us a very simple explanation about the life
and the Spirit?
Not necessarily as it relates to prayer.
And I say to them, oh, I would
love to do that.
And they say, come on, how are you
going to explain this?
And I say, let me use a practical
illustration.
And they say, what is it?
I say, you know, it's like that 747
jumbo jet that is sitting on the tarmac.
What are they telling us?
It's 3,500 tons of steel and metal
and aluminum.
And here's this thing sitting on the plane.
And I mean, I can't stand this thing
flying.
And you know, when this thing takes off
and my wife is with me, I take
her hand and all I see is all
the blood of Jesus.
And she says to me, and I just
sing about the blood.
And sometimes I sing out loud.
People must think, you know, he's really a
crackpot, isn't he?
But I sing.
You say, why?
I mean, for that thing to take off,
brother and sister, it's a miracle every time
it happens.
35,000 flights every day just in North
America.
And so, when that thing takes off, and
I would hold Janice's hand and she would
turn to me and she said, are you
afraid of dying?
I said, no, but I would like to
know how it's going to happen.
And you know, when that thing stands in
the Karmat, brother and sister, and all that
steel and everything, and aluminum, it stands there
packed with people and they're going to go
to another country.
You say, where?
Oh, they're coming from Canada to this boat
in the ocean called Australia.
It's a super liner.
I mean, the place is massive.
And it stands there and you and I
sit in this plane and we are like
the old man and his wife that when
they saw the first train and she said
to him, what do you think?
And he said, this thing is never going
to move.
And so they waited and they got this
train going and she said, what do you
think?
And he said, this thing is never going
to stop.
And you and I sit there and think,
what is going to happen?
They're going to try and get us off
in the air?
And there are these four massive Rolls Royce
engines, brother and sister.
And you and I sit there and there's
a moment when the tower said, you can
take off.
And so as this plane is taking off,
because this is what Paul is saying, there
is therefore now no condemnation to those who
are on Christ Jesus, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Here comes the life of the Spirit.
And he said, for the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set
us free from the law of sin and
death.
For what the law could not do in
that it was dead through sin, God sent
His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, condensed Him in the
flesh so that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
He said, what is the life in the
Spirit?
We sit in this 747, and there's a
moment when the tower gives a sign, and
you and I sit in this plane, and
those massive four Rolls Royce, why is it
on the ground, brother and sister?
There's a law that prevents it from flying.
He said, Gerard, what is the law?
It's the law of gravity.
It cannot take off.
And then there's a moment when those engines
began to roar, and as they would go
down, what is it?
Five kilometers possibly down this runway, and they
started, how did they start?
One mile an hour.
Two miles an hour.
Twenty miles an hour.
Fifty.
I mean, this is a massive thing, and
we sit in this thing, and then it
goes 120 miles an hour, instead of 140
that it is, and you and I would
sit there, and we thought, oh brother, good
night, what's going to happen?
And then we sit there, and if you
have never been in a plane before, the
most amazing thing, there is a moment when
the nose lifts, and you thought, what is
going to happen to the tail?
And this thing takes off.
And as it's taking off, brother and sister,
what are they doing?
Another law comes into operation.
You say, what is it?
It's the law of aerodynamics.
That law of aerodynamics is so powerful that
it overruled the law of gravity.
Why?
Because there are four Rolls Royce engines.
I've had two scares in the last year,
you know.
25,000 feet up in the air.
We lost all cabin pressure.
People's ears began to pop.
It was frightening.
You know, I, in my heart, I was
fine.
I had the peace of God.
The lady that sat next to me, she
was in a terrible state.
I mean, I felt so uncomfortable as the
elderly lady sat next to me, and she
grabbed my hand.
I thought, oh brother, never in my life
has another woman held my hand.
What am I going to do?
And she said, can I just hold your
hand?
And we came into land.
They got the thing down and came into
land.
And she said, do you think we are
okay?
I said, madam, you need to be ready
to meet God.
But she said, do you think we are
okay?
I said, madam, the only thing I can
go around now is the wheels is not
going to come.
Oh!
She said, don't do that.
I mean, she was ready to have a
heart attack, you know.
I had a tremendous time because I landed
up in the lounge because we fly so
much.
And I sat around this table and all
these businessmen sit with their computers doing emails.
And so I began to do some emails
to myself on the line.
My daughter Monica and she said, dad, I
phoned Janice and told her what happened.
She said, dad, are you okay?
I said, yeah, Monica, I'm fine.
And all these men fly with the same
airline, you know, sitting around this table.
And she said, but what happened?
I said, well, we were 25,000 feet
and we lost cabin air and they brought
this thing down right to on top of
the trees in order just to bring us
into the airport.
And you know, it was incredible, brother and
sister.
And as I was telling Monica this, these
men were typing on their notebooks and it
became quiet and quiet because they fly with
the same airline.
And I said, Monica, it was touch and
go.
I said, but you know, Monica, I said,
I have the peace of God in my
heart.
And I said, Christ is in my life.
If I die today, I would have gone
to heaven.
And man, you know, these guys, by that
time, no one was typing.
I thought, this is it.
And I went on and on about the
gospel.
And she said, dad, why are you telling
me all this stuff?
I said, I'll tell you later.
And you know, for ten minutes, I shared
the gospel.
And she just, you know, listened there and
probably went and got something to drink and
came back and daddy was still speaking, you
know.
And then when I was through, and by
that time, you know, these guys were all,
you know, still sick with their fingers, but
they were flying with the same kind of
plane.
And so the moment when I was finished,
they looked at me and went on typing.
I got the gospel in, you know.
But you know what?
What is keeping that plane in the air
for 16 hours at 39,000 feet or
35,000 feet or for 12 hours?
It's the law of aerodynamics for massive Rolls
Royce engines.
And it's not one of those planes that
the elderly man and his wife was in.
And when they heard this thumping sound, because
there were two engines and they heard the
sound and the captain came and said, we
just lost one engine and you're going to
be okay.
Don't worry, we're going to get you to
the airport.
And she turned to her husband and said,
my dear, if we lose the other engine,
we're going to be up here all night.
No.
He said, what is it?
The law of aerodynamics.
Can I ask you tonight, brother and sister,
are you flying?
On your relationship?
Oh, you know, it breaks my heart.
I meet many Christians and their wings have
been cracked.
They sit on the scrap yard of spirituality
in the Christian way.
Are you crippled tonight by evil thoughts or
thoughts of evil?
Are you hindered in your relationship with God?
Is there unreconciled issues that has never been
put right in my relationship with God?
It's the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus.
Let me close.
I made up my mind that we're going
to close at 8 o'clock.
Just about a minute over our time.
Listen.
Let me try to close.
This is the Gospel of Luke.
You know what the Gospel...
Luke 11 deals with task-oriented praying.
Let me explain to you.
Task-oriented praying.
If we were able to do exposition on
that aspect of task-oriented praying, brother and
sister, it's so sweet because Jesus said, asking
shall be given to you, seeking you shall
find, knocking it shall be opened.
In the Greek language, it's in the present
imperative mood.
These are three dimensions of prayer.
And so they are different.
Asking is not the same as seeking.
Seeking is not the same as knocking.
Now, when you go to those three statements
and you say, Gerard, how do I understand
those three statements?
Those three statements need to be looked in
the light of the previous verses.
And they need to be looked in the
context of that which is following.
And in the previous verses, if you take
those three words, brother and sister, and you
put the word, ask, and you go to
those previous verses when Jesus said, which of
you shall I befriend?
And he will come to him at midnight
and he will say to him, Friend, lend
me three loaves, for a friend of mine
in his journey has come to me and
I have nothing to set before him.
And Jesus said, ye from within will answer
and say, Trouble me not, the door is
now shut, my children are now with me
in bed, I cannot give it to you.
You see, there are three friends.
And you look at the word, ask, and
you go back and you see the first
aspect of task-oriented praying.
You go to the word, seek, and you
see an aspect of task-oriented.
These are levels of task-oriented praying, brother
and sister.
And they are beautiful because they are based
upon friendship.
Jesus said, which of you shall I befriend?
He said, which of you shall I befriend
and he will come to him at midnight?
It speaks of the impossibility of the circumstances.
It's in the middle of the night.
Why is it?
Because a friend of mine has come to
me in his journey.
It has to do with someone else, you
know.
A friend of mine has come to me
in his journey and I have nothing to
say to him.
There is a need.
Now, he from within will answer and say,
here comes the silence of God.
Here he comes to the understanding of knocking.
You know this word in the Greek language,
it's emphatic.
It's not our word that speaks of knocking
just for the sake of knocking.
There is an understanding in this statement that
this word, knock, gives you an indication that
it has to do with a character and
a person who is standing behind the door.
Why?
Because he's a friend, you see.
So, you see, asking it shall be given
unto you.
Seeking you shall find.
Knock.
You say, what is the secret?
Here comes the secret.
If you then who are evil know how
to kiss unto your children, how much more
shall your heavenly Father and brother and sister
in the Greek language may I say this
to you, it's in the present imperative mood.
How much more shall your heavenly Father keep
on giving the Holy Spirit to those that
ask Him.
So, you say, what is it?
It's the Spirit of God, you see.
Let me close.
You say, the Holy Spirit.
Oh, here comes a wonderful passage.
It's just precious.
You say, where do you find it?
Again in Romans 8.
Two references to the Holy Spirit in the
first seven chapters of the Epistle to the
Romans.
Now we come to chapter 8.
Nineteen passages speaking about the Holy Spirit.
Now the Apostle Paul came.
And do you remember what he said?
He introduced unto us the ministry of the
Holy Spirit as it relates to prayer.
Listen, brother and sister.
He said, the Spirit, and forgive me for
saying this, our translation said, the Spirit itself
intercedes for us.
Let me be allowed to say to you,
the context of what we are speaking about
is the person of the Holy Spirit.
And so you and I are able to
say, the Spirit Himself helped our infirmities.
He's helping our infirmities.
You say, Gerard, can you explain to me
what He means by infirmities?
Go and do it yourself.
You say, how will I find it?
The first 25 verses of Romans 8.
One after the other you will discover them.
They're right there.
And so the Holy Spirit of God comes.
And what does He do?
He's helping our infirmities.
Why is He doing that?
Because you and I do not know how
to pray, brother and sister, and we do
not know what to pray.
That's why the Apostle Paul said, forgive me
for saying this, but the charismatic movement have
taken this marvelous statement in the New Testament
and they've run with it and they've ran
with it out of its context because the
Apostle Paul said, I pray with the Spirit
and I pray with the understanding.
And brother and sister, that's no manifestation, you
know.
That happens to you when you're dealing with
prayer.
You say, what do you do?
You get on your knees and you pray
with your understanding.
And when you pray with your understanding, God
the Holy Spirit comes.
And what does the Holy Spirit do?
The Holy Spirit of God feeds your understanding.
How does He do that?
He's feeding us with the will of God.
The Spirit of God takes you to the
will of God and the will of God
takes you to the Spirit of God as
it relates to Scripture.
And you pray with the understanding and the
Spirit of God comes.
And what does He do?
The Spirit of God feeds your understanding.
And you pray in the Spirit.
You pray in the will of God.
And so what does He do?
He's helping our infirmities.
Because we do not know how to pray
or what to pray.
Can I share with you something tonight?
You say, you know, do you understand this
thing of prayer?
Not in your life.
Not one moment.
I say, what do you mean?
Brother and sister, there are times in my
understanding of prayer that I get on my
knees sometimes four or five o'clock in
the morning.
But you know what happens?
You know what I say to God?
I say, Lord, I feel like an old
dry stick.
I don't feel like praying.
I feel so dry.
But you know what?
I turn to God and I say, Father,
I have nowhere to go.
If You're not going to come, nothing is
going to happen.
Listen, folks.
Those mornings become some of the greatest mornings
in the presence of God.
It's not the time that I spend with
Him.
You know, it's the time that He's spending
with me.
There are mornings that I just sit there.
You know, there are mornings that I'm so
wiped out physically and emotionally and mentally and
spiritually because you just pour yourself in.
And I go to countries where when you
arrive there, they think you haven't done anything
for three months.
I mean, you have no idea about these
countries.
They're so hungry for God.
And you leave that country and you know
what happens?
They think you're not going to do anything
for the next three months.
I mean, you know, they're as dumb as
donkeys, you know.
I mean, you know, for goodness sake, I
don't know if there are some of these
people how this works.
And you know, I get home and you
are just dead.
Just absolutely done.
And you get on your knees and you
say, God, I can't do anything.
I can't do anything.
I can't think straight.
I am an emotional bastard because I'm so
tired.
My body is done.
Spiritually, I'm exhausted.
And so I've got nowhere to go.
And God comes.
And you know, He just nursed you back
to life.
You say, what is it?
It's the Spirit of God.
What does He do?
He intercede.
Intera, sidra.
Wonderful words in Latin.
How does He intercede?
Groanings.
Stanachmos.
Groanings that cannot be uttered.
God is far more concerned about you than
you are concerned about what you are doing
for God, brother and sister.
You say, why do you say that?
Because the Spirit of God intercedes with groanings
that cannot be uttered.
How does He intercede?
He searches our hearts.
He intercedes for us according to the will
of God.
He is more concerned with the worker than
He is for the work.
You say, what is it?
It's because my life is precious to Him.
Let's pray.
Father God, thank You.
This has been wonderful days.
And I'm sure there are some of us
that would sit here tonight and in our
hearts we would say, Oh, I want to
know more.
Father, the Spirit of God is the best
counselor.
You said with Him, When my Spirit come,
my Spirit shall teach you into all truth.
My Spirit shall testify of me.
And I pray tonight at this last session
here in Adelaide, this group of men and
women, and our pastor and his wife as
they listen to these CDs, our God and
our Father, we pray that we will become
a praying people.
That we will be hungry for God's Word.
And that God's Word will be able to
wash through our lives and that we will
pray through the Scriptures so that it may
become part of our lives.
In Jesus' name, Amen.