I want us to turn again to Matthew
chapter six and verse nine. I know that last week when we
were looking at this verse, the opening words of the Lord's prayer,
that patterned prayer, I said I wasn't going to necessarily
return, but I do feel it might be profitable for us to go through
the petitions of the prayer. chapter six, and I reckon you
then tonight to the end of the ninth verse. After this manner,
therefore, pray. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. We have, of course, previously
considered the opening words, the way in which God is to be
called upon and invoked in our prayers, the open with those
words, our father. This is a way in which Christ
instructs his disciples to address God when they would come before
him. And I've said in the past that
to call upon God as father really has reference to that great truth,
the doctrine of adoption. It's true in some measure God
is our father creation, we're the offspring of God. But this
is a word direct in particular to the Lord's disciples, those
who are the adopted sons of God. Christ himself alone is the son
of the Father in truth and love, the only begotten of the Father. But all those who are in Christ
are adopted into the family of God. Remember the word of Galatians
4, 6, because your son's God has sent forth the spirit of
his son into your heart crying, Abba, Father. And that we address
God or should address God in this manner, we remind ourselves
of the tenderness and the gentleness and the goodness of God and our
complete and our utter dependence upon him. Like as a father pityeth
his children, so the Lord pityeth them that fear him. He knoweth
our frame, and he remembereth that we are dust. How kind and
tender God is in all his ways with us. And I think of the lines
of one of Isaac Watts' hymns. It's not in Gadsby's, but the
words are, And will this sovereign king of glory condescend? And will he write his name my
father and my friend? What is the answer to those questions?
Why the scriptures make it so plain that God will do that verity?
He will have us come and call upon him as our father in heaven. And so we've also looked at how
the invocation continues with the reminder that God dwells
in heaven that is in the heaven of heavens in the third heaven
outside of time and outside of space he dwells in eternity he
says the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool
and what a truth is that oh how Jeremiah could rejoice in the
fact that God was in heaven. A glorious high throne from the
beginning is the place of our sanctuary, says the prophet. It's God in heaven. And all that
that entails that God is that one who is sovereign. All the
inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And he
do as according to his will among the armies of heaven and the
inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or
say to him, What do us dare? Whilst we can call upon Him as
our Father, we must not be over-familiar with God. We must remember also
the greatness and the glory that belongs unto Him. He is sovereign
and He is omniscient. From that vantage point of heaven,
He sees all things. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids
try the children of men says the Psalmist. Well, having said
something these last couple of weeks about those opening words,
the way in which we are to come and address God in heaven, I
want us now to turn to the petitions. And there are six, some would
say seven, petitions here. And mark the fact that what we
have is the language of petition. When we come to God, we make
our requests to God. And are we not reminded of that
simple truth here in the Sermon on the Mount? In chapter 7, verse
7, asks, says Christ, as He teaches His disciples, ask and it shall
be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. and seeing that knocketh, it
shall be opened." Well, we see that the principal part of this
prayer is very much the language of requests, petitions, asking
God for certain things. And there are three petitions
that we might say are God-wrought. They concern His name, his kingdom
and his will, and there are three that are man-made. The prayer
for daily bread, the prayer for the forgiveness of sins, and
then the prayer for deliverance, and that's twofold. Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Deliverance from
temptations and also deliverance from all evil. But we come tonight
to the first of the petitions that we have here at the end
of verse 9. Hallowed be thy name. And it is first because it is
the greatest of all the petitions. In fact, it is the basis of all
that really follows in the way of requests unto God. Luther, in his exposition of
the Lord's Prayer, addresses this petition and says, Oh, great,
copious, and deep petition. And I would recommend to you
that little volume of Luther's exposition of the Lord's Prayer.
I don't know if you could see that. You know, one reviewer
said, if you had to sell your library to buy this book, you
wouldn't regret it. It's such a little gem of a book
and I just want to quote a little extract from it before we continue
with reference to this first petition. Luther says, this first
petition is the most comprehensive and the greatest of all and includes
in itself all the rest. For if there were any man who
perfectly sanctified the name of God he would have no more
need to use the Lord's Prayer. And if a man were so pure as
not to appropriate to himself the honor of anything, he would
be altogether holy, and the name of God would be perfectly hallowed
in him. But it is not so in this life,
but in heaven. Therefore, we have need to pray
and earnestly desire as long as we live that God would hallow
his name in us because every man is convicted of being a blasphemer
of the divine name more or less. We have to pray for God's name
to be hallowed because in us there is that propensity to rather
blaspheme the name of God. And faithful Luther is in this
little exposition points out how the prayer reminds us of
what we are, where we are, as sinners. We're confronted with
that constantly. And yet, Luther also faithfully
sets forth the great remedy, which is found only in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But let us come to consider the
words of this particular petition. Hallowed be thy name. And I divide what I say into
two parts. First of all, to say something
with regards to the name of God, and then secondly, to consider
the hallowing of that name. God's name then, first of all,
and we remember how significant names are in Holy Scripture. Proper names are so significant
when they're applied to individuals. They speak, oftentimes, of the
experiences of a person. or maybe the nature of a man's
ministry, or the expectation of the parents when they give
the name to the child. And there are a number of examples
we could turn to, but I just mentioned a few of them. Think
of Rachel. Rachel, the wife of Jacob, of
course, and how she was barren, and how she longed for a child.
Eventually, prayers and pleadings were answered, and she bore Joseph. And then we see that she's with
child again, and in Genesis chapter 35, we read of the birth of the
second son, whom we know as Benjamin. But there, if you read the passage,
Genesis 35, 16, following, you'll see how Rachel dies in childbirth. And as she dies, she calls the
babe Ben-Onai. She says Ben-Onai is to be his
name. And what does Ben-Onai mean?
It means the son of my sorrows. The son of my sorrows. As she
gives birth, she expires, she dies. But Jacob doesn't give
the child that name, never. No, Jacob called the boy Benjamin,
which means the son of my right hand, the son of my right hand. Thinking again of a name that's
given to a child, and I turn you to Isaiah chapter 8, and
that strange name that was given to the child that the prophet
Isaiah's wife bought him, Meher Shalalashbaz is the name. And the The name is such because
of the nature of the Prophet's ministry at that time. He's addressing
himself to Israel, the Northern Kingdom, separated from the Southern
Kingdom of Judah. He's addressing Israel. Israel
was in league with Syria. They were allies and they thought
they could resist the great power of the Assyrians, but not so. And When this child is born,
this name is given to the child as a message to Israel and to
Syria. It literally means making speed
to the spoil, he hasteneth the pride. And these nations, with
their capitals, the capital of Samaria for Israel and Damascus
for Syria, they're going to be overrun by the Syrians. They're
going to become a prey to the Assyrians. And so it was, and
the message is there in the name that is given to the child that
is born at that time. But then when we think of the
ministry of so many of the prophets, how significant their name is,
it's part of their message. A great example of that, of course,
is Elijah. His name literally means Jehovah
is God. northern kingdom of Israel was
so overrun by idolatry. They were looking to the god
Baal, the gods of the heathens round about, Baal especially.
And now suddenly this man appears, Elijah the Tishbite, and his
name declares to the nation that there is but one God, Jehovah,
is God, Elijah. And then, once more in the Old
Testament when we think of Daniel, Daniel is ministering, of course,
at the time of the Babylonian exile, the time of the captivity. And Judah is now suffering the
just judgments of God because of their idolatry. God has visited
their sins upon them. And what does Daniel's name declare? It literally means God is judge.
Danny Howe. God is judge. Well, those are some of the names
that we find and the significance of names in the Old Testament. They tell us something about
an individual. It's part of God's message sometimes
in the words of the mouth of His prophets. And of course,
when we come to the New Testament, we have that wonderful, greatest
of all example That name that is above every name. When the
angel says to Joseph, they shall call his name Jesus. For he shall
save his people from their sins. Jesus. The Greek form of the
Hebrew name, Joshua. And it means salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord. This is the name that is given
then to the Lord Jesus Christ. But what of God's name? Hallowed
be thy name. Well, in his name, God, of course,
is declaring himself. He is declaring his own character. When Moses, in Exodus 3, asks
after the name of God, he declares, I am that I am. Or he says of himself, I am.
And we say, he is and as I said previously that's the very basis
of that name LORD in capital letters that we're so familiar
with in the Old Testament Jehovah it would be translated
from the Hebrew literally as he is he's the unchanging God
he's that one who is the same yesterday and today and forever
I am the LORD I change not therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. In his name God declares then
something of his character and we read it there in the 111st
Psalm and verse 9, holy and reverend is his name. Always very name
is holy. Think of the song of the Seraphim,
those sinless angels, those bright burning spirits O they cry, Holy,
Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of thy
glory. For he is thrice Holy, Holy Father,
Holy Son, and Holy Spirit. And O, that God's name is revealed
to us, of course, in his works. Psalm 75 verse 1, that thy name
is near, thy wondrous works declare. All God's name is in his works.
The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth
his handiwork, day unto day uttereth voice, and night unto night showeth
knowledge. And God's line goes out into
all the earth. The invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. But then, God reveals himself
most fully when we come to his words, or we have this special
revelation, the Holy Scriptures, or scripture given by inspiration
of God, all scripture, the breathing of God. Those holy men of God,
those prophets, they spake as they were moved by the Spirit
of God. And what does God say in the
Psalm 138 too? Thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. He's magnified his word above
all his name. His name is is revealed in his
word, and yet he's magnified his word above his name. What
does it mean? Well, if God's name is God's
character, all that he is, a declaration of himself, what he is saying
is if his word fails, if he doesn't keep his promise, then God is
no more. Remember when God made promise
to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore
by himself, saying, In blessing I will bless them. This is what
God says to the man who is the father of the faith. This is
what God says to his faithful people, to believers. He was
sworn by himself. His word is reliable, as is God
himself. If his word fails, then God fails,
and that is of course an impossibility. And remember that all the promises
of God In Christ Jesus I am, and in Him, Amen. When we think of the Word, we
think not only of the Word that we have here in Holy Scripture,
we think of Him who is the Incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
the Scriptures of the Lord, bear one tremendous name, the written
and incarnate Word, in all things are the same. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ
that God has really fully and finally revealed himself. God
who at hundred times and in diverse manner spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he made the worlds. The world was made flesh, and
dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. All we know these scriptures,
we're familiar with them. And I wonder sometimes if we're
too familiar, we need to stop and to consider and to ponder
some of these statements. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared. What has the
Lord Jesus Christ done? He has revealed God. He has declared
the name of God. Remember how the Lord Jesus praised
at the end of his life in that great prayer, the high priestly
prayer of John 17, I have manifested thy name, he says, speaking to
his Father, I have manifested thy name, unto the men which
thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me. Oh, the Lord, you see, has manifested
that name, the name that we're to make the very subject matter
of this opening petition in our prayers. Hallowed be thy name. For what are we doing then? We're
asking God really to to reveal himself increasingly to us so
we might know more and more of God and of the character of God
the God that he is. You can think of the prayer of
Moses there at the end of Exodus chapter 33 God would have disinherited
the idolatrous children of Israel.
They'd been guilty. They'd been guilty in that they
had worshipped the golden calf, remember? And God would have
disinherited them. You know, Moses comes and he
stands in the breach, as it were. He will be their mediator. He will pray for them. But God
does not disinherit them. And God is pleased to hear his
prayer, to answer his prayer. And what does he say in the course
of his prayers at that time, the end of Exodus 33. Verse 18, he said, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. He wants to see something of
the glory of God in the restoring of the people, that God would
yet fully deliver them, take them not only out of Egypt, but
through the wilderness. He said, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. And in God's answer, verse 19,
he said, I will make all my goodness pass before them, and I will
proclaim the name of the Lord before them, and will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. Here is God's answer then. The
prayer is, show me thy glory, the answer, I will proclaim the
name of the Lord. Well, this is the God, you see,
the God of the covenant, the God who grants deliverances.
I've referred already to that psalm that we read, Psalm 111
and verse 9, but look at the whole of that verse. It says,
He sent redemption unto His people. He hath commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is His name. Oh, it's in the redeeming of
his people, it's in his covenant and his faithfulness to those
covenant promises that we see that God's name is reverent and
God's name is holy. Here then is the subject matter
of the first petition that we have in this great prayer that
the Lord Jesus taught. Turning secondly then, to what
is asked with regards to this name. The hallowing of God's
name. Now, the word that we have here,
rendered hallowed, literally means to sanctify, to set apart,
to separate. That is the basic meaning of
the word that we have here. Literally, to set a thing apart.
I suppose we can think of it in terms, going back to the Old
Testament, with regards to all the furnishings and the various
ointments and so forth that were to be used in the tabernacle
worship. And these things were all set
apart for holy use. They were not to use them in
the course of their daily lives. They were sanctified. They were consecrated to the
service of God. They are set apart. And this
is the word that we have here. Literally, to separate, to set
apart. And what does it speak of then
when we think of the name of God? It reminds us of the uniqueness
of God. It reminds us of the otherness
of God. With the very outset of our praying
then, we want God to impress upon us that blessed truth that
God is so different to us. He is the Eternal One. He is
the Creator. We are the creatures. He is the
Holy One. We are the sinners. He says in
Isaiah 46.9, I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like me. And actually that is God's uniqueness. Are we mindful of that when we
come before Him? with our prayers. You know, the
angels in heaven are so very much aware of that. Job 15, 15a,
the heavens are not clean in his sight. And then going back
to Job 4, 18, his angels he charged with And that's true even with regards
to those sinless angels, those elect angels, those seraphim,
we've already referred to them there in Isaiah chapter 6. They have six wings. With two
they cover their feet. The ground is holy. With two
they cover their faces. They cannot bear the sight though
they're sinless, bright, shining creatures. Yet they cannot bear
the sight of God's uncreated holiness. And so with two wings
they cover their faces, and with two wings they fly. Oh, they're
always ready, always waiting to do the commandments of God.
They're obedient to all his work. And yet, oh, when they stand
there before God, how they recognize his uniqueness. He is their creator. He is their sustainer. Now we must remember then, when
we come to worship God, who it is with a reverence, with a reverence
at name of God, when to speak with awe, it is a solemn thing
to worship the only living and true God. When we think of the
language of the third commandment, thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. It doesn't just forbid all blasphemy,
It reminds us how we must be circumspect when we come to worship
God. We're to be those who are sincere.
There must be no pretense in our worship. There's not to be
that imagined display of holiness
and piety as if we're superior to another. And we're to come
with all humility if we come sincerely into his presence.
Or think again, I know I off-quote those words, but I remind you
again of the language of the preacher there in Ecclesiastes
chapter five, and the opening two verses of that chapter. Keep
thy foot where thou goest to the house of God. Be more ready
to hear than to give the sacrifice of bull. For they consider not
that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth. Let
not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God
is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few. Oh, we're not to multiply vain
words in God's presence. We need to come then before him
with all proper reverence. if we would worship in a manner
that is acceptable. We say, Hallowed be thy name. And what we have here, and I
remind you of this, it's not a statement of fact. It is very
much a petition. It's the imperative mood that
is being used in this verb to hallow, to to sanctify, to set
apart. We're asking something of God.
Let thy name be hallowed. We're not praying for God. God
doesn't need our prayers, but we're praying to God. And how
important it is that we do pray to Him. There's always that danger,
and I suppose as a minister one I trust feels it as a reality
that when we come to speak in public prayer we can so easily
begin to preach to God. We don't come to God to preach
to Him, to tell Him all about Himself. No, as I've already
said, this pattern prayer is principally petitions. We come
to plead with Him, to beg of Him, to implore Him. And this
is what we have here then. It's very much a petition, it's
a request. And in making this prayer, we're
not praying For God, we're praying for ourselves. We're praying
for ourselves. But if we do not know God's name,
if we don't understand His revelation of Himself, His holiness, all
that He is, if we don't feel what we are in contrast to that,
the enormity of our rebellion, our sin against God, then can
we ever really pray the right? We're to pray, Hallowed be thy
name. One has commented here and said,
literally, we're saying, glorify thy name, O Father, no matter
what becomes of our name. Glorify thy name, no matter what
becomes of our name. And that's to be the case in
all the experiences that we pass through in life. In every experience,
those dark experiences, as well as those bright experiences,
those trials, those troubles, those tribulations, those difficulties,
in everything we are to seek first and foremost the glory
of God, the hallowing of His name. And we have the example
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of Christ as he contemplates what is before
him, the bitterness of the cross. The language that we have there
in John 12, 27. Christ says, now is my soul troubled, and
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again. Though the Lord's prayer there
is so much answered, and we are to be those who would follow
his example. We are to pray as Christ prayed
in all our troubles. Father, glorify thy name. Our prime concern, then, must
be that of the glory of God. And we see it, of course, in
the opening question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, what is the
chief end of man? I'm sure many of you know well
what the answer is. Man's chief end is to glorify
God and enjoy Him forever, or when God is glorified. Is it
not that that brings true joy into the soul? of the people
of God. The Lord help us in that we might
heed his own words and make this our chief petition when we come
to prayer. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed, let thy name be holy, let thy name be sanctified, let
thy name be set apart above every other May the Lord be pleased
to bless this word to us tonight and to help us as we come to
him in prayer. But before we pray, let us sing
our second praise. We sing the hymn 556. The tune
for those with a tunebook is 25. The hymn 556. The Lord proclaims
his name and sinners Hear his voice, his mercy ever
stands the same, and will in him rejoice. His name is gracious
still, and freely he bestows the bounty of his sovereign will
on all who feel their woes. Hymn number 556.