to God's Word, and we're considering
the pattern prayer that the Savior taught his disciples in Matthew
chapter six. I'm reading now in verse 10.
The Gospel according to St. Matthew chapter six, verse 10. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, in earth as it is. in heaven. Here we have the second
and the third petitions. Remember what we said last time,
Al, that the first three petitions and it's the requests that we
have in the center of this prayer that are the main emphasis, of
course. And the first three petitions
are concerning God and the honor and the glory of God. And so last time we looked at
that first of the petitions at the end of verse 9. Hallowed
be thy name and thy shadow. Luther says it is a great copious
and deep petition. In many ways it's the basis of
all the prayers that follow. Now we turn now to the second
of these petitions. The opening words of verse 10,
thy kingdom come. And I want us simply to consider
the kingdom and then what it means for the kingdom to come. First of all then, the kingdom. And we observe that here we have
that pronoun of possession as we address God, so we acknowledge
that the kingdom is God's kingdom. Thy kingdom come. The Psalmist in Psalm 103 reminds
us, his kingdom ruleth over all. We often refer to the words of
Daniel 6, when God humbled that haughty man, that great Babylonian
emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, and he was brought to acknowledge
the gods of the Jews, the God of Israel. All the inhabitants
of the earth are accounted as nothing and He doeth according
to His will among the armies of heaven. And the inhabitants
of the earth and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What
doest thou? God's sovereignty is an absolute
sovereignty. And really, to say that God is
sovereign is a truism. Because if He were not, suffering,
then surely he would not be God at all. But what we have here
in the prayer is a reference not so much to God's rule in
his providence. By his providence, of course,
God is fulfilling his great purpose, that eternal decree is daily
being unfolded by the Lord's providential dealings in the
world. But it's not so much that that
he's being prayed for, but more especially, it is the grace and
the glory of God. Not so much the providence of
God, but his grace and his glory. And of course, when we come to
the end of the prayer, we have that lovely doxology at the end.
Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. And so, thinking of the
kingdom, I want us to observe these two things. It's the kingdom
of grace that is being prayed for, but also the kingdom of
glory. And there's a relationship between
each of these. First of all, the kingdom of
grace. And we are living in the days
wherein God in his goodness has granted to us such a day as this,
the day of grace. Behold, now is acceptable time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation, says the apostle to the Corinthians. And when we come to the last
book of scripture there in Revelation 12, 10, we read, now is come
salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power
of his Christ. And those statements, those three
statements, are all parallel statements. They're, in a sense,
all declaring exactly the same truth, but that truth is being
set forth in a variety of ways. There is come salvation and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, all
referring to one and the selfsame. thing. And we see that when the
Lord Jesus Christ himself comes and opens his ministry, it is
by proclaiming the coming of that kingdom, the kingdom of
God, which is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the opening
chapter of Mark's Gospel, we're told after that John, that is
John the Baptist, after that John was put Into prison came
Jesus, into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of
God, saying, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe
the gospel. And that message that was preached
by the Lord Jesus Christ is the same message that he commissioned
his apostles also to proclaim. It says to them here in chapter
10 and verse 7 of Matthew's Gospel, as you go, preach saying, the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom
of God, one and the self-same thing. We'll say something more
about that presently. But as I said, in those words
that we referred to in Revelation 12, 10, we have those parallel
statements. We say that the kingdom of God
is equivalent to the power of his Christ. And the word power
that we have there more literally means the authority. The authority of his Christ. And remember what the Lord Jesus
Christ says at the end of Matthew's Gospel, where we come to that
great commission that he gives to his disciples after he has
accomplished the great work of redemption, how he has been obedient,
obedient unto death, the death of the cross. The Father has
raised him again from the dead. He is vindicated, declared to
be the Son of God, with power according to the spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead in the language of Romans
chapter 1. And so, having accomplished all
that work that he undertook in the eternal covenant, as he is
about to ascend to his father in heaven, the resurrected Christ
says to his disciples, his apostles there at the end of this gospel,
all power, all authority, is given unto me in heaven and in
earth. Go ye therefore and baptize all
nations. How does it run? Let me just
turn to the passage so that I can quote it exactly, not relying
on a feeble memory. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you all the
way, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So it is that one
who has all power and all authority who gives that commission. And he is the one, of course,
who then owns and honors that ministry of the apostles. And
we see that being unfolded when we read through the Acts of the
Apostles. In Acts chapter 5, for example,
him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and
a savior, to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness
of sins. authority to forgive sins, he
has power to bestow repentance, that evangelical repentance is
the gift of the exalted Christ. And as he is the one who is the
giver of repentance, so also he is that one who gives faith. For by Christ are ye saved through
faith, we're told, not out of yourselves, it is the gift of
God. Oh, it is that faith that comes
by the power of God. And in the exercise of that true
ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ does continually demonstrate
His power, saving as many as the Father has given to Him in
that eternal covenant. This is the great work that is
continuing throughout this day of grace, this acceptable time. this day of salvation. We think of the language again
that we find here in Matthew, in Matthew 11, 27 Christ says,
All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. And it's interesting,
at the end of that of that verse. The verb, to will, is the stronger
of the two words that are used repeatedly in the New Testament. It has the strength of willeth. Neither knoweth any man the father
aside the son, and he to whomsoever the son willeth. to reveal Him. It's the sovereign will of the
Son in the revelation of the Father, as it is the sovereign
will of the Father in the revelation of the Son. Remember what the
Lord Jesus says to Peter here in chapter 16, where Peter makes
that confession, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. Flesh and blood have not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. all throughout
the day of grace, and it is that sovereign will of the Father
and of the Son that is being worked out by the gracious ministry
of the Holy Spirit whom Christ shed forth there on the day of
Pentecost. And it's for the coming of this
kingdom, the kingdom of the grace of God. But I said, Here there
is a reference not only to the kingdom of grace, but also the
kingdom of glory. That kingdom that is to be ushered
in at the end of all things, the great consummation of all
things. And again, remember the language
of the Lord Jesus in the course of his earthly ministry. I think
of words that we find now in John chapter five. where Christ
speaks of that judgment that has been committed to him as
the Son of Man. In John 5, 22, the Father judges
no man, but has committed all judgment under the Son, that
all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which
hath sent him. Again, verse 26, has the Father
hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life
in himself, and hath given him authority, or power, to execute
judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. So he is that
one, you see, who will be revealed in that great day of the consummation,
when the Lord returns in power and in law and hope. Christ unfolds
these things in the course of his earthly ministry. Look at
the language that we have later here in chapter 13. Verse 41, the Son of Man shall send forth
his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend and then which do iniquity and shall cast them
into a furnace of fire, they shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father, who hath ears
to hear, let him hear. And then, of course, later still,
as the Lord comes to the final days of his earthly ministry,
we have those familiar words of chapter 25, And there at verse 31, following,
when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory,
and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate
them one from another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats,
and he shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats
on the left, and so forth, you can read that all passage and
the solemn words that we find there at the end of chapter 25. Christ is to come then and he
is to come in power and glory and he has authority to pass
that final judgment. And this is what we're to pray
for when we utter the words of this petition. Thy kingdom come. And there is a connection between
these two kingdoms, the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory. And you're probably familiar
with the statement of the Puritan Thomas Watson in his exposition
of the Lord's Prayer. He says this, the kingdom of
grace is glory in the bud. The kingdom of glory is grace. in the full flower. There is
a blessed relationship between them. The kingdom is one and
the same. Here and now we have glory in
the bud, then we shall have grace in the full flower. And we see
that there is evidently a connection. It will be there of course when
the Lord returns to sit as the judge and to make the final separation,
that there will be the end of all things. But even in the day
of grace, doesn't the Lord Jesus Christ make a division between
men? Grace is discriminated. And we
see that even in the ministry of Christ, when the forerunner,
John the Baptist, speaks of that ministry, here in chapter 3. Verse 10, now also he says, the
axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore every tree
which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into
the fire. I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than
I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand. and he will throughly purge his
floor and gather his wheat into the gardener, but he will burn
up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then cometh Jesus from
Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him." All that
John is saying here concerning the axe being laid to the root
of the trees, All that he says here concerning one whose fan
is in his hand and he is purging his floor and making a separation
between the wheat and the chaff, all of this leads up to that
statement, then comes Jesus. That was the ministry of the
Lord Jesus. Even during the days that he
was in that state of humiliation here upon the earth, how his
ministry was discriminated. Several times in John's Gospel
we're told that there was division amongst the people because of
him. There was division because of his sayings. However, he does
separate the precious from the vile by the very nature of his
ministry, even in the day of grace. And so, also with the
apostles, end of 2 Corinthians 5, Paul doesn't speak of his
own ministry as that that comes to some a sabre of death unto
death, and to others a sabre of life unto life. He cries out,
who is sufficient for these things? Oh, there is then that connection
between the kingdom of grace, the kingdom of glory. There is
always that discrimination, that separation, When we come to these
expressions in the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven,
again, it's the same thing that is being spoken of, but when
we read in terms of the kingdom of God, it reminds us of the
sovereignty of the grace of God. The language again of 1 Corinthians
4.20, for the kingdom of God is not in word, he says, but
in power. or does not the title then, Kingdom
of God, remind us of the sovereignty of the grace of God? And then,
on the other hand, that title, Kingdom of Heaven, reminds us
of the spirituality of that grace. As God's grace is sovereign,
so also it is spiritual. Christ's kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. Remember what he says to Pontius Pilate? where he has to endure that mockery
of a trial. His death is a judicial death. It is a trial of sorts. And when
he is questioned by the Roman governor, he makes it plain,
my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
says Christ, then would my servants fight. His kingdom is not of
this world. It's a spiritual kingdom. The
guy in Romans 14, 17, the kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, it's not external things, but righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Clearly, it is a spiritual kingdom. Again, we're told flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It is spiritual in its very
nature. And so we We're reminded of that
in that portion that I read at the end of Luke 17. The kingdom
of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say lo here
or lo there. For behold, the kingdom of God
is within you. It's a spiritual kingdom. And it reminds us, that expression
that we have in those verses, of what Christ says with regards
to the Spirit. in the great work of regeneration. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sand thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. It's a spiritual kingdom. And
who are those who have an interest in that spiritual kingdom? Oh,
they're those who are poor in spirit. They're those who are
persecuted in this present evil world. Think of the Words of
the Lord Jesus at the beginning of the sermon in the Beatitudes,
chapter 5 and verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, says
Christ, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Verse 10, blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. It is
then for those who are poor in spirit, Those who feel that they
have nothing, they are nothing. All they can ever be is debtors
to the grace of God. But theirs is the kingdom. Those
who are persecuted. Or doesn't God say through his
servant, Zephaniah the prophet, I will also live in the midst
of the unafflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name
of the Lord. These are those who are the subject
of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. This is the kingdom
that we are to pray for. Thy kingdom come, that kingdom
of grace, and that kingdom of glory. But turning in the second
place, I want to say something now concerning its coming, because
this is the burden of the prayer. Thy kingdom come. And what we have here is an imperative.
It signifies that this is an entreaty, this is a prayer, this
is a petition, this is one pleading with God, longing, and looking
for the coming of this kingdom. Let thy kingdom come. And you will observe, this is
a fundamental truth, we cannot come to this kingdom. This kingdom
must come to us. This kingdom must come to us.
The Lord has to bring this kingdom. this reign of grace into our
hearts. It's not us coming. No, none
can be beforehand with Him. He must first come to us. And three things with regards
to the coming. First of all, we're praying for
His coming in the church. Surely this is a prayer for the
church. And therefore it is a prayer
against Satan's kingdom. He is the prince of this world.
But what does John say? John 12, 31, now is the judgment
of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. What has the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished by his death upon the cross? He has vanquished
sin. He has defeated Satan. He has triumphed over death. and over the grave. All death,
where is thy sting? All grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. And so we pray for the coming
of this kingdom, the overcoming of all the powers of darkness. And every child of God as a subject
of that kingdom must have a part to play. It's interesting, isn't
it, what we're told in Acts chapter 8, where those early believers
were persecuted and they were scattered. And in a sense, that's
the situation that I suppose we're in. I know we're locked
down, we have liberty of movement, but we're scattered as a congregation,
or as two congregations at Hedgen and Portsmouth. And they were
scattered. Acts 8, 4, we're told, they that
were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. But the interesting
thing there is that the preaching is not really the formal act
of preaching. It's not the word that is usually
used with regards to preaching. Literally, it means they went
everywhere the word. In other words, everywhere
they went they were witnesses. They were scattered abroad that
they might be witnesses in every part of the earth. And isn't
that what the Lord has left those subjects of his kingdom in this
world for? Look at what the Lord says previously,
chapter 5, verse 13, "...Ye are the salt of the earth." But if
the salt hath lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?
It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be
trodden underfoot of men. Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on an hill cannot be his. Neither do men
light a candle, and put it under a bush, or put on a candlestick. And he giveth light unto all
that are in the house. Let your light so shine before
men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. That's the calling of each and
every one of us, if we're those who are truly the subjects of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that one who is the king,
and he is king in Zion. We pray then for his church and
the witness of his church in this present evil world, and
we look into him as that one who is truly king in Zion, and
we want the Lord Jesus, therefore, to be the ruler in Zion. He is
the head of the body, the Church. And so in all that we do, we
are to look to Him, we look to His Word. That must govern our
lives as individuals, and it must also govern the life of
the true Church of Jesus Christ. The old Scottish covenants used
to speak of the crown rites of King Jesus in his church, how
important that is. We sometimes speak of what's
called the regulative principle. All that we do is to be governed
by the word of God. I'm thinking in terms of our
worship. Christ says in John 4, the hour
cometh and now is when the Father seeketh to worship us. God is
a spirit. and they that worship the Father
must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Well, we have the truth,
we have the Word of God, and that's to regulate us in all
that we would seek to be doing. Again, the opening words of Revelation
11, John speaks of how the angel gave to him what he calls a reed,
like a rod, and with that he was to measure the temple and
the altar and those that worshiped therein. All that that reads
like a rod is the Word of God. It measures everything that we
do. Because we're those who are the subjects of King Jesus. We pray then for his crown rights
in his church. We pray for the coming of his
kingdom in this world and the vanquishing of all the powers
of darkness. But then with regards to this
coming, is it not also personal to us individually. We pray for
the coming of this kingdom in our hearts. Those words again
that we read, Luke 17, 21, Behold, the kingdom of God is within
you. That kingdom of God is an inward kingdom. He who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, it's an inward kingdom. William Tiptoe said, real religion
is in the heart. It's not just a matter of the
head. It's not just a sentient to sound often. No, Joseph Hart
says something must be known and felt. There's something to
feel here. It touches us in our emotions. It comes into our hearts. And
what does it do? Well, there's that subduing.
of all our sins. That's what we long for. Oh,
we're conscious that our hearts are probably a sink of iniquity.
All the evil that comes out of us comes from our hearts, says
the Lord Jesus. And we want him to come and scatter
from us all our doubts and fears, all our unbelief. And how humbling
it is. When we pray such a prayer as
this, Thy kingdom come, are we not saying that we fear that
that kingdom is not rightly established in our hearts? Or we long, we
long to be delivered. We're to pray for it. Thy kingdom
come. What does the Lord go on to say
here? In verse 33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things shall be
added unto you." Or we must seek that kingdom, that righteousness,
that reign of grace in our heart as individuals. And then with
regards to this petition, this entreaty, are we not praying
for the second coming of the Lord Jesus, for His return? And that's how the As the Bible
concludes, remember, the very last chapter, Revelation 22,
"...surely I come quickly," says the Lord Jesus. "...surely I
come quickly, amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Now
we have to ask ourselves, are we those who are looking for
the coming of the Savior, are we yearning for his appearing
the second time, without seeing unto salvation? 1 Corinthians
15 24 then come at the end when he shall have delivered up the
kingdom to God even the father when he shall have put down all
rule and all authority and power and again verse 28 And when all
things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also
himself be subject unto him, that put all things under him,
that God may be all in all. Now, those words, and I would
acknowledge this, 1 Corinthians 15, 28, it's a difficult verse. It's a hard saying. When I was
looking at these things and seeking to prepare earlier today, I thought
of those words at the end of 2 Peter, where he acknowledges
that in Paul there are many things hard to be understood. And there
we have to pray often over the Word of God. We sometimes look
to the commentators and they help us very little. I do find
those strange words that we have there, when all things shall
be subdued unto him, that is the Lord Jesus, then shall the
Son also himself be subject unto him, that put all things unto
him, that God may be all in all. Well we remember how in the covenant,
in the covenant of grace, the covenant of redemption, Christ
as the mediator in that complex person, remember he is God-man,
two natures in one person, he's the God-man, And as the mediator,
he is clearly, throughout his earthly life, subject to the
Father. But then when we think of him
in the Godhead, he is, of course, the Eternal Son, and he is equal
to the Father. He's equal to the Father. So
what is it that's being said there at verse 28? Well, I think
it's best understood by seeing it in these terms. It's Christ
returning, as it were, to his station as the divine and the
eternal Son of the Father. And so what is the prayer of
the God that is the Trinitarian? That Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
may be all in all of salvation. Leads up to that the honor and
the glory of God for thine is the kingdom and the power and
the glory forever. Amen. May the Lord help us in
that we might be those who would pray for this kingdom. We long
to see the coming of that kingdom of the grace of our God. We love to see Satan being defeated
and the church being increased and the church in a pure state
subject to King Jesus. We long to know that Kingdom
established in our own hearts, that blessed reign of grace,
how we need it to come and to turn out all the buyers and sellers
out of our hearts and to subdue all our iniquities. And then
ultimately, how we're to be those who are looking and watching
and waiting for that blessed consummation of all things. Think of the language also hath highly exalted him,
and given him a name which is above every name, that the name
of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and in earth,
and under the earth, and every tongue confess that he is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. So we pray, thy kingdom come. Father, Lord, bless his words
to us.