Set the tone and then we're going
to go into Matthew chapter 6. First Timothy chapter 1 verse
18 we read, This charge I entrust to you, Timothy my child, in
accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, but
that by them you may wage the good warfare. holding faith and
a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have
made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and
Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn
not to blaspheme." First of all then, I urge that supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, that
is for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may
lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every
way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior
who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth. For there is one God and there is one mediator
between the between God and men, the man Jesus Christ who gave
himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given
at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher
and an apostle. I am telling the truth, I am
not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire
then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy
hands without anger or quarreling. Likewise, in like manner also
that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with
modesty and self-control, not with braided hair in gold or
pearls or costly attire, but what is proper for women who
profess godliness with good works." Let a woman learn quietly with
all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach
or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain
quiet. For Adam was for him first, then
Eve. And Adam not deceived, but the
woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will
be saved through childbearing if they continue in the faith
and love and holiness with self-control." The saying is trustworthy. If
anyone aspires to the office of the overseer, he desires a
noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be
above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled,
respectable, hospitable, and able to teach, not a drunk, not
violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must
manage his own home well, with all dignity, keeping his children
submissive, for if one does not know how to manage his own home,
how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert
or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation
of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought
of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace and to
a snare of the devil. Deacons likewise must be dignified,
not double-tongued, not addicted to too much wine, nor greedy
nor for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of
the faith with a clear conscience and let them also be tested first.
Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.
Their wives, likewise, must be dignified, not slanderers, but
sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the
husband of one wife, managing their children and their own
households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a
good standing for themselves and also great confidence in
the faith that is in Jesus Christ. I hope to come to you soon, but
I'm writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may
know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which
is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the
truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.
He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen
by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world,
taking up in glory." a year's worth of teaching here. But for
us to get the tone and what Timothy is trying to receive and what
Paul is trying to tell us or tell him, we need to hear it.
We need to hear it. When we think about our lives
and we look at even our present day circumstances, for most of
us, we could all put our fingers on certain things that we wish
were different. that we would say if this was
changed or that this was not here, it will be better for us
and for those around us. If we could just remove this
obstacle or this health issue or this relationship or fix this
problem or mend this matter, life would be great. And when
we get those things, it's sort of like getting a check in the
mail that you didn't know was coming or receiving a promotion
at work or a raise. It's like, wow, and we leave
and we go and we're excited and we have a little bit of life
in us and we praise God from whom all blessings flow. But it's not easy to praise God
from whom all blessings flow when the blessings seem low.
When the blessings seem hard. When the blessings are illness
and famine and poverty and divorce. When the blessings are depression
and despair, frustration and anger. And some people would say, well,
what are you saying? Why would you call these blessings for
the scripture teaches James? The apostle would tell his fellow
kinsmen in the faith. He would say that all good things
come from the father of lights. Paul would then remind the people
of Rome who were in Christ Jesus that God causes all things to
work together for good. So even that which we would determine
to be destructive and disastrous are all part of God's plan for
our good. So even the negative, even the
bad, even the suffering are part of God's blessings to us, gifts. One only has to look at the oldest
writing in the scripture, that is the book of Job and see That
God is sovereign over even the manipulation and the movement of the enemy.
And that even what Job lost, his friends, his wife, his children,
his crops, his home, his wealth, his health. That God used it
for Job's good and Job praised God in the end. He praised him. Beloved, knowing this does not
take away our tears. It does not take away our angst.
It does not take away our hopelessness at times. But these powerful
truths, if we are in the discipline of the gospel, will carry us
through. Because Christ carries us through.
He carries us through. And that is why Paul writes this
letter to the elder Timothy of Ephesus, so that I, James, the
elder appointed and called by the gospel, And by the Lord Jesus
Christ for your sake can look after your joy. And can help you as God has helped
me. The purpose of this letter and
purpose of this instruction is that what? That you ought to
teach and know that one ought to know how to behave in the
church. And look how he ends it over
at chapter one, verse 16. The mystery of godliness is displayed
only in the person of Christ. Perfection is only found in Christ.
Beloved, we've already seen that in chapter one. We've already
been reminded that in every teaching. There is a huge problem in the
Church of the United States and even in the sovereign grace circles.
And you heard me years and years ago, probably seven years ago
maybe, use the adjective or use the moniker, if I can say it
that way correctly, the evangelical cult. And inside that ideology,
we see a lot of groups of people who identify as evangelical. That doesn't mean every evangelical
institution is a cult, but there is definitely a cult in evangelicalism. There's a cult in sovereign gracism. And it's a radicalized idea that
everything must be exactly as we see it, as I see it, rather
than how the scripture sees it. Next week, we're going to talk
a little bit about politics for the first time ever. Not particular
politics, but in general politics and the church's place in that
monster. As we've been commanded to pray
for kings. The very fact that it's funny to some of us when
we say we should pray for Joe Biden shows that we have a disconnect
with the commands of Christ and the gospel of grace and the world
around us. And it's okay. That's what we
are. That's who we are. It's part
of the nature that we live in. But beloved, righteousness is
he who is manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen
by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world,
and taken up in glory. We are only righteous because
Christ's perfection is credited to us. So in the best of days,
the greatest Christian that you've ever known, the greatest example
of godliness in human flesh outside of Christ is still not sufficient
for righteousness and it will never be judged in any way except
according to the law which is guilty. And though we may have
scales of justice in our temporal society and we may have the idea
that this crime or this sin or this wrongdoing is not as bad
as this one and I would agree with us. In the economy of righteousness,
there is no scale. In the economy of grace, there
is no law because justice is satisfied. That is the good news. That's what the gospel is. And
so the gospel is not commanding us to get it right or die. The
gospel is you can't get it right and you must get it right. So
Christ got it right. He died. Now you live, you see. That's what it means to be crucified
with Christ. He died. It counted as our death. Why did he die? As propitiation
to satisfy the wrath of God. Why does God have wrath? Who
is he? He is righteousness. He is justice. So we look and we see the Bible. And so Paul is teaching Timothy
and subsequent elders throughout the world and forever until Christ
returns how to teach the church the disciplines of grace. And what was happening? Knuckleheads
stir in division, knuckleheads with their own opinions, knuckleheads
fighting against the knuckleheads. and a whole bunch of knuckleheads. If you want to know what that's
a synonym for, just look at that. Google will tell you. And what the church should be
doing first is that the elders are to teach the truth and to
tell the church, simmer down, be quiet, and rest as we work
through this by the power of Christ. When we are not in the discipline
of grace, our flesh allows us and causes us to depart from
the truth and to divorce intimacy and to destroy families. It ought not be the case for
the church of Jesus Christ. And when someone hears that statement
and they say, yeah, but they, they are indeed by confession,
the guilty party. Because anyone who says, yea,
but they. Are doing exactly what Adam did. Yeah, but the woman, you. Yeah, but the serpent, you. And then the enemy we see in
Job. What? We see in the scripture,
we see how Lucifer came to be an enemy. He thought in his heart I'm as big a supermodel as God
is. I deserve to stand on that stage and be seen. Look at me. Look at me. So what do we do? We're learning
right now. We're learning the disciplines
of the Christian life. Somebody says, well, that's not
gospel preaching. Then it's no sense to be here. It is the gospel of who Christ
is. It is the gospel of who Christ
saved. It is the gospel of His mercy to us to give us the gift
of faith to rest in His sufficient work. And then it is God's sufficient
grace and power that teaches us the so whats and the therefores. that do not make us right before
the Lord. But to ignore those therefores,
to ignore the instruction of the New Testament to the people
of Christ is to literally disobey Christ and to spit in the face
of grace. And I'm speaking to the choir,
aren't I? We're not banging anybody up
against the head. I'm not trying against the head.
We're not trying to cause any type of change of behavior and
modify anyone's life or else. We're trying to emphatically
learn more and more who Christ is, and then because we know
who he is, because we understand the severity of the gospel. The gospel is not a pleasant
message. So why is it a good report? Because of what it accomplished. The gospel is about the righteousness
of God in the flesh. Receiving the wrath of God against
unrighteousness in the place of the guilty. It's the hero
dying for the wicked. Divinely and physically in that
context, the divine God man laying his life down. Therefore, all to him I owe. Therefore,
loving Christ means to love one another. Loving one another means
to put ourselves last. Putting ourselves last does not
mean being a doormat. It means serving the needs of
one another. Love. So Paul's instruction in the
midst of all this stuff is to simmer down and pray and pray
for all types of people because God has elect in all types of
peoples. And we'll get to that grammatically
and exegetically in a couple of weeks. But then we pray and we see prayer.
You notice that Timothy is telling Paul, I mean Paul is telling
Timothy to what? For the church to pray. If we go to Philippians, Paul
is instructing the church. If we go to Corinthians, Paul
is instructing the church. If we go to the book of James,
James is instructing the church. There's pastoral letters. Paul
is instructing the pastors to instruct the church. So nowhere
in the New Testament is there any place that we can personalize
and identify intimately within ourselves, myopically, that the
instruction is for me, myself, and I. Same thing in Matthew 6. That's
where we're going now. Let's go to Matthew 6. Because
Paul's instruction is for the people of God to pray. Now, should
we pray at home? Yeah, should we pray by ourselves?
Without ceasing. Paul makes that clear. Turn our
thoughts to prayers. Instead of thinking, speak to
the Lord. Listen, read the word. But prayer
is the missing foundation. Prayer is, without prayer, let
me do it from the negative. Without prayer, our lives are
like hovering over a black hole. And a lot of good stuff and a
lot of good discipline sort of soars by us very quickly and
then just vanishes into the ether. gone. But with prayer, it's a
stopgap. With prayer, it's a brick wall.
With prayer, there's something to stand upon because it is a
discipline. So Paul is saying pray. Pray
supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgiving for all people and
pray specifically that we live a disciplined, godly, dignified,
quiet life among them. Now we'll get to that next week.
So in Matthew 6, why are we going to Matthew? Why are we going
into the Gospels? What in the world? Well, Matthew 6, if you
look in verse 5, we see Jesus giving instruction
to the masses. He's in the middle of this teaching.
He's been talking about all sorts of things. He's teaching the
people truth about Himself, who He is. and their righteousness
which is imputed to us. It's not our own. It's not obeying
these things. But he's also teaching the people
that the reality of what they had concluded in the culture
by the elites of their spiritual lives was indeed not the right
conclusion. Or were indeed not the right
conclusions. These conclusions were not correct. They were,
what, cultural. They were manipulative. They
were extracurricular. They were outside the boundaries
of what God intended for His Word to be, because that's what
well-meaning academics do, is that they become, in and of themselves,
their own law, and then they become the standard by which
they interpret the Scripture, and then they hold everybody
else to that standard, and then all of a sudden, no one measures
up but them, so everyone must look to them to lead the way. That's a cult. That's a cult. That's the mixing
bowl of manipulation. Beloved, it happens every day.
It happens at work. It happens in the neighborhood.
It happens at school with our children. It happens while we're
sitting there watching television and browsing Facebook and browsing
TikTok and browsing all the other pip pops and tweets and toots
and everything else that comes out our way. I used to know how many words
I heard in my head every week, every day, excuse me. And I used
to know the statistics of how many words I saw, but with social
media, I don't know what it is. I mean, some of us see a million
words a day just in the notifications on our cell phone. Shut that stuff down. But Jesus, Paul, is commanding
the church to learn to pray. So I guess the next question
is, how do we pray? And that's why I wanted to go
to Matthew 6, because a lot of times, first, we think that the
Lord's Prayer is a recitation of what is quoted. I mean, if
I say, what is the Lord's Prayer, people say, Our Father, who art
in heaven. I mean, what does that even mean?
Does he draw up there? You tell somebody, who art in heaven,
a little kid like, what's that mean? He got crayons? I mean, you know,
that's not what it is. Our Father in heaven. Who is
in heaven? Hallowed. What does that mean? Is he scary? It's the hallowed
woods. Hallowed wing. Exactly. Holy. Halloween means holy night. You don't sing Oh Holy Night
on Halloween though, do you? No, you learn a little bit of
physiology and stuff. The knee bones connected to them
and all that kind of stuff with the skeletons walking around. No. Holy is your name. Statements. Listen to Matthew 6. And when
you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. What does the
word hypocrite mean? It's a transliteration of the word in the Greek that
literally means in English, actors. People playing a part. We're
all actors. Life is a stage, you know. It's
not a new philosophy. We're all actors. So when you
pray, you must not be like those who put on a show. That's what
hypocrite means, you putting on a show. You're pretending
to be something that you really aren't. Okay, we're all actors.
Let's get over it. For they love, and what specifically
he's talking about, those who put on an act, for they love
to stand and pray. I remember when I was invited
to go pray at the Capitol in D.C., and we were at the Lincoln
Memorial, and this guy had all the sound system up there, and
he just runs over there. Brother, why don't you pray for
us? And I was, you know, this is a little arrogant. I said,
sure. So I looked around and I saw
all this stuff and this came to mind. And I thought, let me
be the hypocrite against the hypocrites. So I did. I put on
an act. And I prayed in like manner of
a hypocrite against hypocrites. I said, Lord, forgive us for
putting on a show. Because you know who we pray
to? Our Father in heaven. who is
set apart above all things in his name, that we do not know
except Jesus the Christ, who is not the Father. He is the
Son, but he is our God. We don't need a microphone for
God to hear us, you see. That kind of stuff. So here are
these people that love to stand and pray in the synagogues, to
love to be heard. As the old comedian from the
80s would say, the King James Prayers. Oh, Lord, God, thou
art with us. and all the stuff, and they love
to stand and pray in the synagogues, and they stand and pray on the
street corners. Why? That they may be seen by
others. Because when prayer is prayed,
proximity is not necessary. Audible words are not necessary.
So when we pray publicly, we do it audibly that we may stand
together and affirm that which is being prayed to God, not to
one another. but they do it so they may be
seen by others. Truly, and that doesn't mean that everyone plays
in public wants to be seen, but Jesus knew the hearts of these
people. He could make this judgment. That's why I said I was a hypocrite
myself. Because sometimes we just follow the patterns of our
culture and think that it's okay. Truly, I say to you, they have
received their reward. Brother, thank you for that great
prayer. I mean, I participated in the National Day of Prayer
on our campus here just a little week or two ago. It's a fantastic
time to pray. Other men and women went and
read their prayers so that all could hear. Nothing wrong with
that. The motivation is the point. The instruction to the corporate
church is this. Check the motive. When you pray,
go into your room and shut your door. So this is personal prayers,
right? And pray to your Father in secret. And your father who
sees you in secret will reward you. I don't have time to get
into that, but God's not giving out cookies for if we pray correctly.
It's not like benefits. You get to heaven, it's like,
look at all the coins you made. You know, gamified everything. You can't even like anything
without that anymore. And when you pray, do not heap
up empty phrases. for they think they'll be heard
for their many words. Don't be like them, for your
Father knows what you need before you ask Him." So then, instead
of praying like they pray, Jesus says, pray in this way. So this
is not a prayer in and of itself, but it can be, if we know what
it means. Our Father in heaven, holy is
Your name. Your kingdom come, your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our
debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. So there's some proclamations,
there's some things that we are saying when we pray, and there's
a stature of prayer, and then there's some requests. And when we pray corporately,
we need to understand that this is the model. This is the model. So as Paul is teaching Timothy
to teach the church how to pray, we need to recognize that public
prayer in the assembly is perfectly fine, but we don't need to make
a show of it out in the world. We don't need to make a show
like politicians do. Nothing gets votes like praying
for people. Shaking hands and kissing babies. Remember that?
Back in the 70s and 80s. So let's go through this. Our
father. Our father. Plural. Our. Corporate. We're together. We're
standing. We're all children. We're all
under one head and that is father. Which father? Abraham? Jacob? Isaac? Moses? Who is it? Obama? Bush? Biden? America? India? China? Which is it? No, in heaven, that father. Oh,
any spiritual father. No, our father in heaven. Our
father, the one who has given us the gospel of grace, sovereign
and free, the one who has revealed himself to us through his people,
through his prophets, through his apostles, written down in
miraculous fashion, divinely orchestrated, divinely equipped
to establish the security and the validity and the longevity
and the prosperity of his word. It is there we have this father,
the father who breathed into existence all that was not, and
it came into being as if it had always been. From nothing. A little theological tidbit,
ex nihilo, which means out of nothing. God created all things,
and every person in the world believes that. Every scientist believes that. Every biologist believes that
from nothing came everything. But not everybody gives God the
glory and the credit for it. They answer it away in some of
the ways. It doesn't make us better. It makes us. Objects of grace. And it's not
a fight that we need to fight. We don't need to convince people
that there's a father in heaven. We don't need to convince people
that he created the world. We need to pray to our father
in heaven corporately. And if we're all his children, then
we have a requirement, we have an obligation, we have a commandment
to love one another as he loves us. Holy is your name. The word holy,
the word hallowed, the word sanctified, it means to be set apart. It's
to be beyond the normal, set differently, put aside. So for
us to be holy, that means we're put aside. We're not like everybody
else. We're not common. We've been snatched out of common
and put in a different place. We've been put in the body and
the blood of Jesus. We've been put into the kingdom of his light. These are all Pauline phrases
that we find throughout his writings. So here, holy is your name. So
we pray, we're praying to our heavenly father and he is our
heavenly father, not just my heavenly father. This is 90% of my, in my opinion,
in my experience, and it's anecdotal, I understand, but in my opinion
and experience, that this is 90% of the problem with the factions
in the body of Christ throughout my lifetime is that we forget
we are one in Christ. And when the flesh of some people
can't stand that reality because somebody else may not be, act,
know, understand, apprehend, comprehend, or live according
to their standard of what someone must be, then they find ways
of peeling that away. So they can pencil in a little
bit of stuff. Say, okay, here, I'm gonna add some things. What
does it say about adding to the gospel? and binding other people to those
things. Don't do it. John, I like John's
imagery. I like John's expression in the
latter part of his apocalypse. He says, anyone who takes away
or adds to this will receive all the plagues therein. I mean, that's a staunch warning,
isn't it? Anyone who calls as Jesus would
say, one of my children to stumble, better for them to just go away,
to not exist. Because we have a father, our
heavenly father. And so we say, well, I don't
have to feel out that toward unbelievers. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Love your enemies. You've heard
it said, Jesus says, you shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy. But I'm telling you right now, that's wrong. Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of
your father who is in heaven. Because that's what sons do. That's what daughters of God
do. You see? Well, I don't do that. Am I not a? No, that's not how
we rectify and justify ourselves before the Father, faith alone
in the finished work of Christ that God grants us. We rest,
see faith as, we're going to teach some theological things,
faith, repentance, you know, sanctification, this kind of
stuff. We're going to do some of that over the summer when
the crowds are lower. But we believe in the promises
of God. He grants us that faith in the
person of Christ, in the finished work of Christ. There's a rest
there. There's a satisfaction there.
There's a quenched thirst there. There's a satiated hunger there.
That's what divine faith looks like. And then the other side
of divine faith is that we grow in our understanding doctrinally
of these things in a deeper way. But love your enemies. For He,
God, our Father, makes His sunshine rise on evil and good, and sends
rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love
you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors
do the same? And if you greet only your brothers,
what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles
do the same? You therefore must be perfect,
as your Heavenly Father is perfect. So how are we doing? And we'll never make it. Our
perfection is that Christ is our perfection. Christ obeyed
the Father in everything. Thought, word, deed, desire.
Christ is our righteousness. So is that not motivation enough
to hear his words of teaching about how we should pray? Well,
there's a context of Matthew 5 and 6, absolutely, and we know
what it is, but I'm using this as a proof text to show that
Paul knew what it was too, and then he gives application of
that understanding. And if Paul's wrong, we have
no gospel. Your name is holy, Father. So if we're His children, then
we are holy like He is. We bear His name. His name is
set apart. He's our dad. We have the same name. We're
set apart. Hallelujah! Right? This is the beauty of
the gospel. How did that happen? How did
I become a child of God? Only by His love and mercy. See, and if we don't have that
mindset and that stature when we pray, we've missed the boat. God's nothing but a big genie
that we hope we can satisfy. Christ is satisfactory to him.
Hallowed be your name. In this next sentence, your kingdom
come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's a statement.
It's not a request of God. It's a statement. It's a statement
of sufficiency, it's a statement of authority, it's a statement
of sovereignty that we understand and attest to and apprehend the
reality of whose we are and who our Father is and what it means
to be Elohim, what it means to be God, what it means to be Sungtai
or whatever language you want to say it in. It is the whole
purpose of the word God means the highest of all things. That's
what it means. It's not His name. It means the
highest of all things. Our God's name revealed to us
is Jesus Christ. And the Father, His name is hidden. And the Spirit is just called
God the Spirit. One God in three persons, eternally. So these
things, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. This is a recognition of God's authority and sufficiency
and sovereignty. Your will is coming. Your kingdom
is coming. This is what's happening. It is here, it is there, it is
everywhere. What will take place, God, is
your will. If it be your will. Did Jesus
not pray that way? Father. Thank you. Please take this cup,
but not my will, but yours be done, Father. So it's not asking
God's will to be done. We can't ask God for his will
to be done. We can't say, okay, God, we're
going to pray that your will is done. And in the sense that
if we don't pray, your will's not going to be done. That's
nonsense. God's will is done. Now it seems, what is it? Is
this just semantics? No, it's a very fine, not even
a gray line. It's a very fine mist. But if
we're not careful, we open the door too fast, it'll blow it
away and we won't recognize it. But beloved, it is so important
to know. As we started the sermon out
this morning. It is easy to be thankful and
to trust in God when things are well and when things are going,
excuse me, our way. And when things are pleasant
and when resolutions are taking place. But it is impossible to
trust him in the antithesis. It is impossible to hold fast
and go, oh, this, look at my house, it just blew up. Praise
the Lord. I needed to paint that room anyway.
I mean, you know, nobody says that. Some people may. I've met some people like that,
but there's always a pressure. There's always a straw that when
it hits the bag, It crumbles you. And in our weakness, He
is strong. God isn't looking for us to carry
along some of His burdens so that He can say, look at that,
that's my boy, go ahead, run that ball. I mean, you know,
that's my girl, stand firm, be bold. No. Broken. Crushed. Perplexed. Shattered. weak. Your kingdom is coming. Your will is done in this earth
as it is in heaven. See, panentheism and other mystical
ideologies of world religions can easily say, you know, well
God is amazing and powerful and he created it all and he sort
of started it like a top And he's just watching it unfold.
And he's got control of heaven and his abode. But buddy, it's
like a pinball. You don't even know what pinball
is anymore. It's like a pinball machine. And he's hoping we get the timing
right without tilt and get that flapper where it needs to go.
Keep that ball in motion. No, God is in control. His will
is done. It is taking place right before
us. And then we ask God to do three
things. Three things. Give us our daily bread. Now
some of us think, I don't want to just eat bread. You see how
literal we take that? It's about provision. If He is
our Father, He loves us. He's our Father. That's how we're
His children because He loves us in Christ Jesus and satisfied
His wrath for us in Christ Jesus and imputed the righteousness
and the perfection of the obedience to Christ to us so that we can
stand before Him and say, these are my children. So if He's our Father, He loves
us. And if His kingdom is established and His will is done in every
realm of creation, earth and heaven, then by goodness, He
can handle our daily needs. Now, I've heard a lot of commentary
on this, well, what's a need and what's a want? Well, anything
you want bad enough is a need until we figure out it's not,
right? Some people say, well, I need
this or I need that. What happens when relationships fall apart?
Well, I need that relationship. Well, what happens when it doesn't
reconcile? Are we praying for God to change things? What about
when we pass away? We can't change. So there is
a sense in which everything we think we need is something that
we really don't need because what we really need and what
we really should desire is that which God has sovereignly purposed
for our lives above all things. So this is why the testament
of His sovereignty is before our requests. Because it is the
filter through which we ask. And what should we ask for? Anything
we need. We ask in confidence. Knowing that if it is His will,
He will give it. Knowing that whatever the will
of God is for us, if it happens on our terms, or not our terms,
but in our ideas, or what have you, in the way we think it should
be, great, if not, great. Because what happens is where
God is, but we still petition Him. We still ask. Because what
does that do by asking God? It gives an understanding of
where we truly know Our hope comes from and our sufficiency
comes from and the provision comes from. There's no such thing
as a self-made man. There's no such thing as I work
really, really hard and look what I accomplished. If the Lord wills. Yes, hard
work pays off if the Lord wills it because there's a lot of people
that work really, really hard and then they get cancer and die.
There's a lot of people that work really, really hard and then one of their
employees steals everything. And there's other people that
work really, really hard and they never get it going. There are people that study and
just can't get it. People that sew and just can't
sew it. Never reap anything if the Lord
wills, you see? So he puts in perspective, Lord,
you are providing this. Thank you for providing. Thank
you for giving me the strength. Thank you for all that you've
done. Continue to provide as I have need. Lord, I need this.
I need healing. I need happiness. Ask the Lord for it. Give us what we need. Please,
provide for us, knowing that He is the only one who does.
And forgive us our debts. I wish this was literal. Everything I owe to anyone, wipe
it clean. Goodbye, Sally Mae. Goodbye, mortgage. Goodbye groceries. Just go in there and get it for
free. Forgiveness of our debts. He's talking about the debts
of sin. Now some people argue about this because they're not
quite understanding the tension here. Some people think that
forgiveness comes through asking, and that's true. But these are sins that we commit.
our Father corporately. These are things that we may
not know about one another that we may not even be doing willfully.
These are things that we need to just be mindful of that we
may not know about. We know our personal sins, right?
We know our attitudes, our actions, our intentions. We know all sorts
of things about ourselves, and we know that we are not God. We know that we are not the Lord
Jesus. We know that we are not perfect and that we, if given
the opportunity, could go sideways in a second in our actions, but
they all start in the heart and the mind. But what this does when we pray,
Father, forgive us of our sins. Our sins. Because there are things
that we don't do right. There are things that we are
as a church that we are never going to accomplish correctly.
There are attitudes that I have bred in this body that I don't
even know of yet. There are things that I have
not even noticed that I have let go unchecked. There are things
in your lives and the lives of others that one day it may hit
you like a truck and go, whoa, look at this garbage that I've
been involved with. Look at this sin, look at this
gossip, look at this stuff. Look at this attitude and we'll
be defeated. But in the sense of our praying,
we pray, Lord, there is sin in me and there is sin in us. And
we are individually and collectively guilty of sin that the Christ
has died for and set the record straight. Therefore, now there
is no condemnation for any of us and more beautifully for all
of us. There's no condemnation. because
we are the children of God in the Lord Jesus Christ who has
settled the debt for our Father who is righteousness and we are
free, but we are not sinless. And you might forgive me if I
say something ugly to you and kick dirt in your face. You may
have a stature of forgiveness for me, but it goes a long way
when I see that I've sinned and I say, I'm sorry. Because if
we're not saying I'm sorry, it means we haven't seen the sin.
But we don't say I'm sorry in a defeated sense. We say I'm
sorry in the posture of sovereignty, in the posture of fatherliness.
We say I'm sorry boldly. There's the adverb. How do we
say it? Boldly. How dare we boldly say, I sinned
against you. Forgive me, Father. and not cower
and crawl and whine and curmine backwards. Because we're going
to the throne of grace, not the throne of justice. Mercy's been
given already. Mercy is there in Christ. This
is the gospel, right? So the gospel dictates our prayer
life. The beauty of sovereign and free
grace establishes our attitude and our hope in the context of
our prayers. So that when we get the instruction
of the men about praying for politicians, we're going to learn how to pray
and not be bogged down. When we learn to pray for our
enemies, we're going to learn how to pray and not feel suspicious. Suspicion
is of Satan. Every time. Unless suspicion is grounded
in... No, I don't think. Every time. I'm not talking about
in the justice system. I'm talking about in the church. Probable cause does not exist
inside the body of Christ. The lawyers in the room are laughing.
Yeah. Forgive us our sins. as we have
already forgiven those who sin against us. Because Jesus will say, in verse
14, if you forgive others their sins, your Heavenly Father will
also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others
their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins. Your
Father forgiving sins. We are forgiven, but beloved,
how dare we cross, how dare we cross the idea that we are not
to live in a state of forgiveness and reconciliation when that's
the very foundation of our standing before God. And you look at the
illustrations that Jesus gives that he talks about in front
of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And he talks about the guy that
owed like a million dollars. And he begged the king not to
throw him in prison forever. And he says, okay, I'll forgive
you. I'll wipe it clean. Not we'll make payments. I'll
wipe it clean. And he goes out and he shakes down the dude that
owed him a dollar. Beats him up. Has him thrown into prison.
When the king found out about this, he destroyed that man. That's the mindset. This is not
conditional, this is not theological teaching in the sense of tit-for-tat.
It's not quid pro quo. You do this, God will do that.
It's not that way. The gospel is not that way. It
is a gift, it is a standing, it is permanent. But beloved,
if you don't think God doesn't establish temporal consequences
when we disobey Him and we hold animosity in our hearts, you
have got to be kidding me. He does. We will not experience
His judgment and wrath, but we will experience the temporal
consequences of His discipline. Hebrews chapter 4. He loves us.
We're never going to throw our children away when they're learning
to navigate life and learning to keep their mouths shut and
learning not to act like they've grown when they can't tote it,
when their butt can't cash the check their mouth just wrote. Well, that's it. You ate potato
chips in the living room again, I'm done. You better pack a bag,
boy, you got five minutes. Boom, kick him out on the street.
Here's your dog. I ain't feeding it. Matter of fact, the dog obeyed. Bring the dog back. No, we correct it. That's what
discipline means, correction. Establishing the right pattern.
Focusing on that that brings intimacy and aligning things
with the way they should be. Orderliness. Paul is teaching
this letter in attempt to find order in a church that was not
disordered, but had a whole lot of stuff going on that could
cause it to become upside down. So that when the elders of the
church say to the people who are frustrated, disgruntled,
Assumptive and suspicious, there is a manner in which we will
and must and always will follow in order to establish the reconciliation,
the resolution of these things. And you will fall in line with
that. And they buck the system. So
be it. Be gone. Good riddance. Oh, no. I have to call myself back and
say, oh, I got to pray for them. I have to for what? Forgive them.
So that when the decision for them to not submit to the scripture
is established in history as a fact, it is on them and not
on us. How does that look? In our lives
right now, you see? People take offense, but it's
not about offense. It's about God is not offended.
We are, we are free. We forgive our sin, those who
sin against us. And verse 13, this is something
I've been praying for myself and for you every day for months
now. Father, lead me not into temptation. Now hear what that says. That is subjecting our daily
walk, our daily thoughts, our daily desires, our daily interactions,
our plans, and everything else. to God's path. Don't let me fall into my flesh,
Father. So no matter what I've planned
for the day, no matter what I experience, do you grumble under your breath?
See, I grumbled under my breath. If people were to walk, they'd
hear me talk. What was that? Nothing. You don't want to know. And I find that sometimes the
pettiest stuff causes me to get the most frustrated. The pettiest
stuff, stupid stuff, like the imbeciles that drive. Who are
these people? They need to go somewhere else.
Little Shetland ponies in the middle of the desert, that's
a perfect place for these non-driving people in Statesboro. Freshmen, that's what they call
them. Why does that upset us? So it's
a temptation. What does that mean? I need to
go nowhere? No, I need to learn the disciplines of putting the
sovereignty of God and His fatherly affection in the gospel of Christ
as the epoxy fill of my life every day. It's a discipline.
And how does that happen? It starts with prayer. How is
prayer effective? Hearing the Word of God on an
ongoing basis. How is that discipline worked
in and out of our lives? by being in the assembly. You
can't get what I'm laying down by watching it on the television
or watching it on the live stream. You can't get it. Now, you can
understand the principles, but you can't live it. There's no instruction for people
by themselves. There's no instruction without an elder and deacons
and a mass of people who are completely different, who are
in a lot of different ways in different places in life, economically
and socially and everything else. There's no instruction. None. There's no way to answer
any of this in application. That's why so many people find
themselves in a cult. The cult starts with my ideas.
And what I know my God says is right. Well, if you're not in
the context of what God says is right, then you're not right
in the context in which you live. Unpack that later, I might have
made a mistake. Deliverance from evil. Father,
help me walk in a path that by focusing on who you are and what
you've accomplished for us, help me walk in a path where I'm not
tempted to sin. be able to get to the end of
the day and we have more confession than we have praise because we
don't start our day in that context. So if we go and we see what Paul
is teaching to the elder of Ephesus. I want people to pray for all
types of people, for people in all types of position. And I
want you to pray that we, as the church, may lead a peaceful
and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and
it is pleasing in the sight of our God, our Savior. Listen to
that. This is good and pleasing. Christ
alone establishes, not just the example, but establishes the
perfection necessary, but it doesn't mean we lay it down and
don't strive. To disobey in the name of grace
is just stupid. To ignore the truth in the name
of mercy is ridiculous. Paul says it cannot be. A true shepherd of God's people
emulates in the teaching and the instruction and the living
and the learning and the discipline of Christ himself to extreme
failure. But we emulate it just the same.
There are some good people out here in the world who can mimic
the voices of famous people. But they're not those people.
And we could mimic the lifestyle of Christ likeness, but we're
not Christ. Yet in the jury of judgment,
in the scales of righteousness, we are free and innocent. Not
because we grow into Christ to the point that it matters, but
that we are found in Christ forever and ever and ever because his
death satisfied God's wrath. Therefore, let us walk in a manner
worthy of the calling that we've gotten and the Christ that has
saved us and set us free. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for the opportunity to worship. Lord, I pray for my brothers
and sisters who were not able to be here today. Lord, I pray
that you would call them and urge them to be in fellowship.
We need one another. Father, I pray for those who
are sick today and those who can't travel. Lord, I pray for
those who are going through trials. Lord, I pray for our government.
I pray for our kings and those in high places. Lord, I pray
for everyone who is in a position of power that we, as your people,
would live a life dignified and quiet. Father, I pray for the
legalist in us all, and I pray for the antinomian in us all,
that we would just lay that aside and rest in the gospel of grace,
sovereign and free, and that we would live a life according
to the promises that you've given us in your word. Even when it's
impossible to be thankful and it's impossible for us to trust,
we know that You will hold us and guide us through the prescriptions
of Your means of grace in the life of Your people to grow us
and to teach us and to guide us. So we thank You for this
opportunity. We thank You for this privilege.
We thank You for this awesome, glorious, satisfying gospel that
is ours in Christ Jesus. In His name we pray, amen. Let's
take.