I please God to bless us together
this evening as we continue our meditation in the Sermon on the
Mount and chapter 6. And we just read verse 10 this
evening. The Gospel of Matthew chapter
6 and reading verse 10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. These are, of course, the glorious
words of the Lord Jesus when he was instructing the people
and the disciples how to come before God and how to pray. And having previously addressed
those who've been hypocrites and now he speaks to the way
that we should come and how we should pray. And so in a few
very simple words, We are given such wonderful things to request
in the manner in which we should come and ask for them. And of
course, the Lord directs us to come to God as our Father and
His people are privileged to come to God as our Father. And
so when we come and pray, may we come to God believing He is
our Father and that we are therefore His children. And as such, He
will not turn us away but he will hear and answer our cries,
just like he does a little children, and like we do to our little
children. We're thankful then for the examples
we have in the word of God for this. And so may we come boldly
to the throne of grace that we might find help in time of need. We have a great God, often we
seem to forget how great God is. and how little and how small
our faith is. But nonetheless, if we do possess
living faith, then it will be that which will achieve great
things because we come through the name and merits of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And so we read, thy kingdom come,
thy kingdom come. And it's of interest that before
the Lord Jesus came, born into Bethlehem in the days before
that. The Jews, they used to have an
expression which related to this article before the coming of
Christ, and it was, and it now stands, it stood in their prayers,
in this way, the kingdom of thy Messiah come. Well, they were
looking forward, weren't they? To, with that great desire, that
the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ might indeed come. And now, of course, the Lord
teaches us this prayer, but leaves out the word Messiah, because
the Messiah had come and puts it very simply, just like this,
thy kingdom come. And the coming of God's kingdom
really comes in two ways. First, it is in time. And then of course it is in eternity. But when it comes in time, it's
really through the word and through faith. God gives us his word
indeed, we know he is the word. And then he gives us faith to
believe the truths of God. And yet you see today, we are
plagued so often with an evil heart of unbelief and what opposition
we find in our lives and what the need there is for us to pray
more and more earnestly that thy kingdom might come in word
and in faith and that we may observe it and rejoice in it
and are thankful to know that there is that great and glorious
blessing in the knowledge of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as we read very simple
words like this, Thy kingdom come, may we recognise there
is a great depth in them, and a glorious depth in them. And
it is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus that we do need to be found
in our own hearts. That kingdom which subdues all
the evil, which rises up so often and so hard to resist. But we're thankful we have a
God who is a great God. The devil is great, he's very
powerful, but he's not as powerful as our God. And therefore we
are encouraged, as we read together in the 11th chapter of Luke,
to ask. Yes, we are to come and we are
to ask. And here we have a very important
item that we must ask for. kingdom come, so that we might
be built up in our most holy faith. That we may not be just
left to just, as it were, dawdle along through life, but we may
be blessed with that true, wonderful faith and that wonderful evidence
of God's work in our hearts. Because surely that's what it
is. When the kingdom of God comes upon us, we have the evidence
that we are amongst children of God. We are amongst those
who have been called out of the darkness of nature into the glorious
light everlasting gospel and if perhaps we were fearful that
we weren't sure where we stood, what greater reason there is
for us to come then urgently to pray this prayer, thy kingdom
come, so that our souls might be richly blessed and we may
be able to come and truly Rejoice in God and you see when we're
doing these things thy kingdom come. What does it do? it puts
first things first and how important it is that you and I put first
things first in the 33rd verse of this same chapter we read
but Seek ye first the kingdom of God that's the first thing
to seek and he says and his righteousness and And then he says, and all
these things shall be added unto you. There are many things perhaps
that we need, or perhaps we think we need, perhaps we don't always
need them, but nonetheless, the Lord will add to us all the things
that we do need. But the vital thing is, as the
Lord sets it before us here, you and I are to seek first the
kingdom of God. and his righteousness, thy kingdom
come. Well may we pray it from our
heart. And then to look forward to that great time when the kingdom
of God will be translated into that kingdom in glory. And we
shall indeed be found then amongst the saints in that kingdom. And
that kingdom, of course, will never cease. It is an eternal
kingdom. It is an eternal situation, an
eternal blessing. And how much greater reason there
is, therefore, that you and I do set our hearts and our affections
upon things above and not on things on the earth. The things
on the earth perish, they vanish away, but things of glory are
eternal. Now let us remember that our
adversary the devil goes about seeking whom he may devour. whom
resist steadfastly. And you know we resist the devil
steadfastly by praying to our God that his kingdom will come. Because when we're blessed with
the evidence of that kingdom in our own hearts, you see, there's
not the room for the devil. There is room for the things
of God. Yes, how true it is. There is
room in our heart. And may we pray that the Lord
will come and subdue all the evil which we find in and about
us continually, and yet to realise we have a God who is almighty,
and a God who reigns and always will reign, who is a conqueror,
who has conquered, and may we be therefore more than conquerors
through him. And so, thy kingdom come. And then he says, thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Well, God's will of course is
done. And we see it done so beautifully
and purely in heaven, where there's nothing to distract and everything
to please and to enjoy. But while we're on this earth,
there are so many things to distract and to turn us away from the
things of God and to tempt us to do our will. But you see,
our will, how faulty it is. How often it's sinful, how often
it has a wrong motive. It doesn't have a desire to honor
and glory God, it has a desire to honor and glory ourselves.
So therefore, to be blessed with this faith to come to our Father
in heaven and pray this prayer, thy will be done. Thy will be
done. Perhaps we know it, you know,
in theory, We understand it to be true. If we've been brought
up in these things, we know it's true. But it's a very different
thing to walk it out in our spiritual life, to walk it out in our natural
life, and to submit ourselves to the will of God. And yet we're
told to submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God. And he
goes on to say that he may exalt us in due time. See, as we're
able to seek that God's will may indeed be fulfilled in our
lives, that we're given that grace to submit ourselves to
that will, then we can believe that we will be blessed. as we
submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God. What a good thing
it is to know that we have a mighty God. Yes, a mighty God, an almighty
God, who is able to do for each one of us far more exceedingly
abundantly than we can ask or even think. This is the God that
we adore. This is the God that we worship. This is the God that we come
before and seek in this way as we come in prayer, just like
this. will be done in earth. Yes, we
live on the earth today. May we desire to observe and
to see and to be willing for God's will to be done in our
life. You know, your life and our life
is really nothing, is it? It's just a vapour. But may we
be found living for the glory of God. Not living for ourselves,
but living for His honour and for His glory. And there's a
wonderful blessing in that, and there's a wonderful peace in
walking in that way, because we have peace with God. Well then, may we see this glorious
word here, thy will be done in earth, and may that really come
from our heart. May we really desire it, because
it's a good desire, it's a right desire, it's a God-given desire,
It's a way that we should pray continually, and not only then
to realise that that will must be done on earth, but as it is
done in heaven. And again, it's good to direct
ourselves to that eternal state and to see there what a wonderful
situation it is. When by his grace we shall look
on his face, that will be glory, be glory for me. So we have this
statement, and may these desires be such that we come and read
these simple words and yet recognise what a fullness there is in them
and that we may pray to our Father from our heart desiring that
thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven
for his great namesake and for his honour and for his glory. Amen.