Hallelujah.  Let’s turn back to 1 John, Chapter 5.  We were talking about this aspect of making sure that we are praying according to the will of God.  We saw in the third chapter, verse 22, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.  And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.”  Believe on the name of his Son, the Lord Jesus.  It reminds me of Hebrews 11; turn there.  In Hebrews, Chapter 11, of course, we are all very familiar with what the Lord is saying in His Word.  In verse 6 he says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is; amen?  To believe on the name of His son Jesus, we must believe that He is and (finish it with me) that he is a (what?) rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  We must believe that He is who He has revealed Himself to be; amen?

It's not enough to believe in God: We have to believe in the God of the Bible, to believe that He is; that Jesus is the Son of God.  It is amazing: People used to be very dogmatic about the family unit and marrying within the religions that they were raised in; now it is nothing to see—you know, we see racially mixed marriages—but we see a greater increase in religiously mixed marriages.  It is nothing for Christians to marry Hindus or Muslims:  Christians.  Well, we know what the Scripture teaches, don’t we?  We are not to be yoked together with unbelievers.  “Well, they believe.”  They believe in a god that man has created; but they don’t believe in “the God,” Creator or heaven and earth; amen?  They don’t believe in “the God” who hung on that cross and died for our sins in our place, and through His innocent sacrifice appeased God’s righteousness so that God can now look upon us, right now, and see us absolutely just and righteous through the blood of Jesus Christ; amen?  “We must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).  A rewarder.

That reminds me:  let’s go to Luke’s gospel, where we were previously.  As we were looking at the passage in Luke, Chapter 11, we talked about the fact that He was teaching His disciples to pray, and taught them this prayer that so many children have memorized.  But the magnitude of the Lord’s Prayer is the establishment of the fact that God cares; amen?

Paul, speaking to the Corinthian church, and talking about the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit, in the midst of all of that, uses one phrase that is so great:  he talks about their “dumb idols.”  He is not talking about all those stupid idols; he is talking about the idols that cannot speak.  You can listen all you want, but they can’t speak; they have no revelation; there is no personal contact; there is no personal relationship.  With anything outside of the living God, religion is dead; it’s vain in every area unless we know the living God with whom we can fellowship (amen?), of whom John said, “We have looked upon, and our hands have handled, …the Word of life.”  What a privilege to get quiet and hear the voice of God.  So many of us would love to have been on Mt. Sinai as it thundered and rumbled with the voice of God that struck fear in the hearts of the people.  This holy, awesome, God said, “Don’t let them rush through onto the mountain.  They will die if they touch it because this is a holy place.”  God is there.  “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”  I want to tell you something:  Your prayer closet is holy ground.  God is there.