May I please God to bless us
together as we continue our meditation in the Sermon on the Mount and
we've come down in chapter 6 to the words that the Lord Jesus
spoke with regards to what we refer to as the Lord's Prayer. So I'll just read in chapter
6 from verse 9 and then I intend tonight just to comment on the
9th verse. But from verse nine we read,
after this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil For thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen. We should be indeed very thankful
that the Lord graciously gave us a very simple and yet profound
pattern as to how we are to pray. And we should note that the Lord
says, after this manner. He doesn't say these are the
precise words that are to be spoken. And just to clarify that
point, this is recorded again in the Gospel of Luke, but the
wording is slightly different. So we should be thankful, therefore,
that we have a gracious pattern given to us by our God. And so the Lord instructs us,
having previously spoken about those who prayed falsely and
prayed in a wrong way, And he now comes and very simply directs
us like this and says, after this manner. And it's really
then he directs us as how we are to address God. And it's
quite clear from these words that the Lord tells us how we
are to address God. And that is in this way. as he
says, our father, which art in heaven. Now, if we just think
about this, we profess, I hope we profess, and may we all be
amongst those who are the children of God. And if we are the children
of God, it means that we must have a father, otherwise we would
not be children. But we are thankful to believe
that we do have a Father, and a Father who is in heaven. And naturally, we have the situation
where we have fathers naturally, and the children come and speak
to their father in a right way. And so here, the Lord encourages
us to come to our father in heaven. And he tells us what to say. And he says, to say this, this
is how we're to pray, our father, which art in heaven." It's a
very clear instruction, isn't it? We should not be discouraged,
therefore, in our prayers to come to our Father in this way. It's a wonderful blessing to
realize that we do have a Father, and therefore to come rightly,
not to pretend that we don't have a Father, because we do
need to know that we do have a Father. because we have the
Blessed Trinity, which is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And they
are three in one and they are united. And so it is our privilege
to be able to come in this way to our Father. And so clear it
is that we're not to pray to saints or to pray to angels or
to images like so many people in the world today do. But we
are to pray in this way, to come to God and say, our Father. We know as we, many instances
farther on, that we have a wonderful high priest. the Lord Jesus Christ,
who we approach unto our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because our Father is, of course,
a holy God, and we are unholy, and because of our sinful condition,
we need to come through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why
it is essential that we come to the end of our prayers and
say, for Jesus Christ's sake, these prayers may be accepted. So we are thankful to know that
we have this testimony of the Lord himself to come in this
right way and to address him in humbleness and yet from a
full heart we come to our Father who is in heaven and we have
a number of instances really which encourage us in that particular
way and we read one of them in the chapter in the fourth chapter
of Paul's epistle to the Galatians And in that chapter we read in
the sixth verse, and these are the words that we read, and because
ye are sons, or of course daughters, and because ye are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, saying,
Abba, Father. And that's an encouragement the
Apostle Paul directs us to the words so clearly, to come to
our God in this way as Abba Father. And also when the Apostle addresses
the Ephesians, he speaks to the people there as the children
of God. And again he says, having predestinated,
that means if God has chosen us before the foundation of the
earth, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ, that means adopted into the family of God. And if we're adopting the family
of God, we have a father. Naturally, there are those adoptions,
aren't there? We're familiar, I'm sure, with the situation
where people do adopt children, especially if they're not able
to have children themselves, they then adopt children as part
of their family. Well, a blessing is then that
we have a great God who adopts his people and the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself. according to the good pleasure
of His will. What a wonderful favour to think
that we are adopted, that God has taken us in hand, and that
we are therefore His children. And we do have a Heavenly Father,
a Father who looks upon us and a Father who remembers us for
good. The Lord gives us another example
about how a father will respond to his children as they come
in prayer. And we come, hopefully do we
not, in prayer, hopefully very often we pray. And as we come,
as we should, to our Father, then the Lord gives us this testimony
at the Gospel of Luke in the 11th chapter, 11th verse. He
says, if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,
we'll know what kind of response that will evoke. If we receive
a request from our children for bread to eat, we don't kind of,
as the Lord says, we won't give him a stone. Or if he ask a fish,
will he for a fish give him a serpent? Well, of course, that wouldn't
be so. And so we have then this illustration. Or if he should ask an egg, would
he offer him a scorpion? The answer is no. If ye then
be evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how
much more should your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him. So the encouragement is for us
to come and approach unto our Father in heaven and to seek
our Father in heaven will bless us with these gifts, will bless
us with these favors, will bless us with these heavenly blessings.
And so we have much to encourage us in this way. We must reflect
on the fact that the Lord, in this wonderful Sermon on the
Mount, specifically directed the disciples, and of course
the multitude who were there also, to address God in this
way. It is important, therefore, that
we are blessed for that grace to come and approach our God
in that way. And so the Lord comes and he
says, In this manner therefore pray, pray ye our Father which
art in heaven. Now we may say well of course
God is in every place. Well of course we know he is
and that's a wonderful blessing to believe that God is here amongst
us here this evening and that God is with us wherever we go
and mindful of us wherever we are. But nonetheless, we have
a picture presented to us as our Father, which art in heaven.
And I suppose in some ways, when we pray, we pray in faith. And what do we do? Well, we look
up, don't we? We don't look down to the ground
just to look at the things on the earth. We look up. We look
up to our Father who is indeed in heaven. And again, we have
encouraging words in the Bible to instruct us in this way. And the Psalmist tells us in
the 33rd Psalm, he tells us, the Lord looked from heaven.
So we have there the illustration that God is indeed in heaven. And that's who we are to approach
unto our Father in heaven. And the Lord God looks down from
heaven. The Lord looked down from heaven and he beholdeth
all the sons of men from the place of his habitation. He looketh
upon all the inhabitants of the earth. And so it is figuratively
this great statement that we are to come and to approach our
Father which is in heaven. And then also in the book of
the Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, who of course prayed that glorious
prayer at the dedication of the temple, and indeed he lifted
up his hands to God and he looked up to the heavens and he tells
us in the fifth chapter of the Ecclesiastes, be not rash with
thy mouth, And let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything
before God. And again, what good advice that
is. Because if we have a right understanding of how holy and
just God is, we should not come to him in a wrong way, in just
a casual way. Even if we have a great need,
that should be in a reverent way, and a solemn way, realizing
that we're on the earth, God is in heaven. How merciful it
is that God hears and answers our prayers for Jesus' sake. And so Solomon says, be not hasty
to utter anything before God, For God is in heaven, again the
illustration, God is in heaven. And thou upon the earth, therefore
let thy words be few. Well, we think of those words
which I often quote, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much. It's not the length of the prayer,
it's not all the frills which go with the prayer, it's the
earnestness and the simplicity and the honesty of praying from
our heart. And so we have here in this,
what we term the Lord's Prayer, such simple statements, and yet
how profound they are. And sometimes perhaps we think
we have to issue a long prayer. Well, may it not be just words,
may it come from our heart with true prayer desiring that as
we approach this great God who is in heaven we may realize that
as Solomon instructs us to be not rash with our mouth and let
not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God for God is
in heaven and now upon earth therefore let thy words be few. Then the The Lord instructs us
in our prayers to say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. And this word, hallowed, really
means or can be also translated as sanctified. And no doubt that
is perhaps an easier word for us to understand. But it does
mean that we should come to God in a right way. Realising how
high and holy He is. Just think of that time of Isaiah
when he saw the Lord high and lifted up. You see, when we by
faith view the God high and lifted up, that puts God in a right
place and puts us in a right place. So that we realise how
small, how insignificant, how unworthy we are. that God should
take notice of us. And therefore, to have this true
desire to come in the words that the Lord sets before us here,
our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And by sanctifying his name is
not meant making him holy, but acknowledging and declaring him
to be holy. and glorifying him and all his
perfections. We can surely sense from that
statement that as we approach unto the majesty on high, We
come to him as a holy God and desire to glorify him even in
our prayers. And how necessary we do come
therefore in a right way to this great and holy God. And then
to also think of this condition. He is sanctified by others when
they fear him. Believe in him, call upon his
name, use it reverently, submit to his will, acknowledge his
mercies, regard his commands and ordinances, and live a holy
life and conversation, all which is earnestly desired. by a truly
gracious soul. You see, when the Lord comes
and humbles us and we realize our wretchedness and our sinfulness
and our lost condition, and then to have a little view of the
greatness and the holiness of Almighty God, do we then not
enter into perhaps something of this statement when the Lord
says, hallowed be thy name? Well, this evening, may we being
encouraged to be able to come in the words of the Lord Jesus
to our God in this way and be able to say, our Father, what
a privilege it is. And if we are called by His grace,
if we are made spiritually alive, quickened into life, then we
do have a Father in heaven and a Father who one day we hope
to see in glory. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. May God bless his word. Amen. Let us further sing hymn number
681.