Matthew chapter 6. We'll be looking
at the last part of verse 13 this evening. Matthew chapter
6 and verse 13. We'll be looking at the last
part of this verse tonight. For thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen. The title of the message tonight
is, God's Kingdom, Power, Glory, Amen. God's Kingdom, Power, and
Glory, Amen. Now tonight we have come to the
conclusion of the Lord's model prayer. Tonight we have come
to the end of the Lord here teaching us the manner of our prayers,
the matter of our prayers. And He gives us this model, and
here we see the conclusion of this. And He declares this, for
thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Now this conclusion, is it not fitting? Does it not fit properly
here at the end of this prayer? Of course it does. It's right
to declare praise unto God. It is right to declare praise
unto God at the beginning of our prayers. When we go to God
in prayer, it is right and just for us to conclude that God is
worthy of glory, He is worthy of honor, and so then it is also
fitting at the end of prayer to recognize that God is again
worthy of all praise, honor, and glory. It's becoming of prayer
to give glory to God. Now, David says in his prayer
in 2 Samuel 22, verse 4, he says, I will call upon the Lord who
is worthy of praise. I'll tell you what, if we neglect
prayer, are we not saying that God is not worthy of our praise?
Is that not what we're saying? We're saying that God is not
worthy of our prayers. He's not worthy of our time.
But prayer, when we enter into prayer, we must recognize and
we are confessing that God is worthy of all our praise. And so when we kneel before the
Father, we kneel before God, let us consider to whom we go. Let us consider His person. Let us consider His character
and His nature. When we ascend into prayer before
the throne of God, let us recognize that we're not going to each
other. We're not going to another man. We're going to God. We're going before God. And so
it behooves us to address God in such a manner that is worthy
of His character and worthy of His name. We must and should
give glory and praise to the blessed Trinity of God's person,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 1 John 5, verse 7, it tells us
of his Godhead. It says, "...for there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost, and these three are one." Friends, we worship one God.
One God who has manifest Himself, who has declared Himself in the
Trinity of His persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Each one
distinct from the other, yet one God. One God in three persons. God in three persons, blessed
Trinity. When you go to God, do you recognize
the Trinity of His persons? We should. Here, we should see
in prayer, our Lord Jesus in this prayer, in this model prayer,
He alludes to this truth concerning the triune God. I don't know
if you've noticed this or not, but as we went through this,
every one of these petitions were divided into threes. There
were three petitions that were directed to God. Then there were
three petitions directed to God for our needs. And then if you'll
notice here in the conclusion, there are three declarations
the Lord gives here in the conclusion of this prayer. And in these we may see the blessed
trinity of God's person. First of all, prayer is to be
to the Father. He says, "...our Father which
art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." We see God the Father
there, don't we? "...Thy kingdom come." Is not
Christ the King of the kingdom? Can we not see the Son in this
who has redeemed His kingdom? Yes. Can we not see that Thy
will be done? How is the will of God done in
earth, in providence? Is it not by the moving of the
Holy Spirit? Of course it is. God the Holy
Spirit directs men and moves men where He wills. And you think
about those petitions of our knees. Give us this day our daily
bread. What did Jesus say about the
manna? He said, Moses didn't give you that bread, but my Father
which is in heaven hath given you that bread. Who has given
us Christ? Is it not the Father that has
given us the bread from heaven? Yes, He has. He has given us
the bread. When we think about the forgiveness
of sins, who do we think about? We think about the blood of Christ,
don't we? It is the blood of the Son by
which we are forgiven of all our sins. And then you think
about the one we just discussed last week concerning temptation. Who is it that delivers us from
the power of temptation? Is it not the indwelling Spirit
that dwells inside of each one of us? Yes, it is. It is the Spirit of God that
delivers us from the crushing blow of temptation's power. And so then, how wonderfully
does this doxology at the end here fit? The conclusion of the
prayer as it should be in all of our prayers, for thine is
the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. This should be a glorious ending
to our prayers. Believers, when we pray this,
Let us pray to the blessed triune God. Let us recognize and bow
down and confess that He is all our salvation. When we go to
God in prayer, we must confess that God in the Trinity of His
persons is our salvation. We must confess that all of the
blessings, all of the joys, all of the privileges we have, all
of the benefits of our salvation, When we think about all of our
griefs and all of our sorrows and all of our hurts, are they
not from God? Have we not received everything
at His hand? Of course we have. Everything
comes from God. And God does not mean these things
for our destruction, but not for our harm, but rather for
our good. Everything is for your good.
Everything. God has directed everything for
our good. And so this benediction then
is no different. For each of these declarations,
we see the praise and the glory of our great God and Savior in
each one of these declarations that Christ has set before us.
Now, our Lord begins this. Look in your text. He begins
this with the word, for. He said, deliver us from evil,
for. For. Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen. Now, this word for could
be translated because. Because. Now, believers, let me ask you
this. Why do you pray to God? Now, this sounds like a silly
question. It sounds like a redundant question, but think about it.
Why do you pray to God? Why do we pray to the God who
declares Himself to be Jehovah? The God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of David, the God of the
Apostles. Why is it that we pray to Him? Because there is no other God. There is no other God. This is
why we don't pray to each other. Friends, you could pray to me,
but I don't have the kingdom, and I don't have the power, and
I definitely don't have the glory to answer any of your requests. I could do my best for you, but
there's no guarantee I could do anything for you if you prayed
to me. And it's the same with you, if
I prayed to you. That's why we don't pray to each other. This
is why we don't pray to the God of the Greeks, or the God of
Mohammed, or the God of Buddha. And this is why we don't pray
to the God of freewill works religion, because none of these
gods exist, my friends, they don't exist. They're not real. They have no kingdom, they have
no power, and they have no glory. Isaiah chapter 45, flip over
to Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45, and look at
verse 5. This is God speaking. He says,
I am Jehovah the Lord, and there is none else. There is no God
beside Me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known Me. that they may know from the rising
of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me.
I am the Lord and there is none else." And skip down to verse
20. God says, assemble yourselves,
talking to the false gods, to those who claim to be God. He
said, assemble yourselves and draw near together, you that
are escaped from the nations. In other words, you gods that
haven't been destroyed by time and by battles, you come on. You that are left of the gods
that Israel worshipped, you come on if you've escaped from the
nations. And God says they have no knowledge
that set up the wood of their graven image and pray to a God
that cannot save. Tell ye and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time? Hath not I the Lord? and there
is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior, there is none
beside me." Now, how many times does he say that? How many times
does he tell us, there's none beside me? There's no other God. You get all the gods together
and you bring them up here and you let them counsel together
and then tell me, tell me something that I don't know. Why would you worship a God who
cannot save? He said, they're not real. They're
not in existence. There is no other God beside
me. Believers, we pray to the Lord God because He alone is
God and He alone can save. That's why I pray to God. He
alone can save me. He alone can deliver me. He alone
can give me my daily bread. He alone can forgive my sins.
He alone can deliver me from the power of temptation. And
so, therefore, He alone deserves the glory and honor and praise. And He deserves my prayer. This
is the only holy and just triune God and Savior. Friends, the
God of this world cannot save. And I stress this so much because
you have no idea that those people around you, they're worshiping
a God that cannot save. And they'll even confess it to
you. You ask them, who did Christ die for? And they'll tell you,
everybody. And you ask them why they're
not saved. And they'll tell you, He cannot
save you unless you... and then fill in the blanks. They all have different blanks
you fill in, but they're all the same. They all say that Jesus
can't save, and they're right. There Jesus cannot save. He cannot
save because He is not God. He's an idol. He just happens
to have the same name as our God. He just happens to have
the same name. They're just using Him in name
only. I remember when Jesus said, they'll persecute you for My
name's sake. Isn't that what He said? He said, they'll use
My name. and persecute you. But we don't worship such a God.
Our God is just and our God is a Savior. And so then we come
to Him and we bow down before Him for He truly is God. Believer in Jesus Christ, has
not our God chosen us? Has not our God sent His Son
to be our Redeemer and to atone for our sins by His blood? Has He not sent His Holy Spirit
down to regenerate our souls and give us life and faith so
that we will come to Christ, so that we will pray? Has He not revealed our depravity
and our inability and then shown us the success of Christ and
His atonement? Yes, He has done all these things. Is He then not worthy of our
prayers? Yes. He's worthy of my prayers. He's worthy of much more. He's
worthy of much more. But I know this, He has commanded
us to pray. He alone has the authority, my
friends. He alone has the ability. And
He alone should possess the glory to meet all our needs. So then when we pray, when you
pray, Jesus Christ puts this here for us so that you may be
confident in your prayers. You may have confidence in your
prayers. We may be assured of our prayer
success which we have declared in this blessed conclusion. Jesus
Christ said, pray these things for, because, God alone is God,
and God alone hears your prayers. And so then you know that you
have a successful prayer in this. We may pray and have confidence
in God, our blessed Savior, because of this. And Jesus Christ includes
these three. Thine is the kingdom. This should give us great confidence
to pray. You should have great confidence
to bow before your God and to be heard of Him and to answer
our prayers, because His is the kingdom." What does this mean?
This means that God has all authority and sovereignty over everything. God has authority and sovereignty
over all things. Psalm 24, verse 1 says, ìThe
earth is the Lordís and the fullness thereof, the world and they that
dwell therein.î Believers, we pray to a God who
is the King of all the earth. Now I'll tell you what, we don't
have much idea of what a king is. I think we've lost so much
because we live in a society where there are no kings. There
are a bunch of mini kings running around. We've got mini kings
who think they have a lot of power, well they really don't.
You see, when a man was a king, he was a despot, someone who
had absolute authority and power in his kingdom. That's what a
real king is. And our God, my friend, is the
King of all kings. He is the King of all kings.
Everything in the earth is His because He made it. He had a
right to it. You know, kids go out and they
play in the mud and they get the mud and they make them a
little mud pie. And I'll tell you, they'll fight over those
mud pies, won't they? This is mine. I made this. It's mine. Friends, God made
everything. Everything's His. Everything
you possess is His. He made it. It's His by right
to rule over it, to take and to give as He pleases. What did
Job say when God took everything? He said, when his wife said,
curse God and die, he said, oh no, shall we receive good at
the hand of God and not evil? The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Why? Because it's
God's anyway. Our children, my children, they
belong to Him. They're His. I pray for them. But ultimately, they're in His
hands. They belong to Him. He owns everything. And the earth
is His by right. God the Father, to Him belongs
all things in the kingdom that stretches from sky to sky. And
so then, my friend, if you are the child of such a Father, If
you are the child of such-and-one who controls all things, then
let me ask you, what have you to fear? What have you to be afraid of
if God controls everything? What is it that happens to you
that's outside of His control? Nothing. Nothing happens to you
outside of His control. Everything that happens to you
is a direct descendant of God's decree and authority. Everything. And has not God the Father, in
love for His children, has He not given all the authority of
the kingdom to our blessed Lord and Savior? Yes, He has. He has. He who is the King of glory has
given all His kingdom into the hands of His Son. Jesus said
this, all that the Father, who is the King of creation, all
that the Father, who is the Sovereign in election, has given unto Me. He said, I should lose none of it.
Is there anything outside of Christ's reign and control? No,
because God has given Him all things, especially His children. You are in the hand of Christ,
and Christ is in the hand of God. So then, now Jesus is to be our
mediatorial King. He by God is right should have
rule over everything, right? Is not God the Son equal with
the Father? Of course He is. And so He by
divine right had all things as King. But why then does the Scripture
say that the Father hath given unto Him power over all flesh? Because He as man, He as the
God-man earned it. He merited it. He earned God's
favor. He earned the right to rule over
all flesh. And so He says this to the Father,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify, and this is a command,
this is a demand of Christ from God the Father, glorify Thy Son. Why? Could you say that? I couldn't
say that. We could not demand of God such
a thing. God says, I will not share My
glory with another. And He didn't. He shared it with
Himself. That's Christ. That's His Son. And God, He demanded
of God glory. And He says, as thou hast given
Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given Him. Friend, God the Father has given
to Christ all His elect kingdom. Which if you're a believer, that
includes you. That's you. He has given you into the hand
of Christ. And He has also given Him power
over all flesh to accomplish His purpose in saving you. So then all of those things,
all of those circumstances around you, you see that the hand of
the King is moving all of those things around you so that you
might be brought to Himself. That's what's happening. So when
you're not understanding what's going on around you, when you
bow down before God and when you lay down... I like this prayer
of David. I was talking to a man this afternoon.
We were talking about prayer. And this prayer came to me from
David. And it was a very short prayer.
It said, help me. I like that prayer. Help me. Help me. You see, David recognized
that his weakness and the authority of God to help him. In that he
recognized that kingship belongs to God to help him. And God is
going to do all things to bring us to Himself. This should give
us confidence when we pray. That God has given Christ power
over all flesh and all things around us. So then it is also
noteworthy that the Spirit of God, which is poured out upon
all flesh, controls all things in providence for us and keeps
us from all harm. And so then let us offer praise
to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom
belong the kingship." This is the king. God is king. And He
rules all things, and this should give us confidence. Number two,
thine is the power. Not only do we pray and praise
God, who is ruler over all, but we praise Him for His power.
Let me ask you this. What good is a king without any
power? What good is a king without power? It don't mean anything, does
it? So if God were just king, as the world supposes... Now,
I'll tell you, friends, people do not have problems confessing
God to be king. They may even use the word sovereign. But they understand God to be
omnipotent in the fact that He rules over all things except
certain little things. Like when bad things happen.
Oh, God didn't do that. He doesn't have any authority
over that. That must have been the devil. How silly is that? Friends, if there's one atom,
one molecule outside of God's control, God no longer is God.
Because something else has more power than He does. Friend, God
controls all things. He not only has the right to
rule over all things, but He also has the power to rule over
all things. So when God decrees something,
it is going to take place. It's going to happen. Whatever
God decrees happens. God does whatsoever He wills. Believer are God. has not only
chosen us for His kingdom, He's not only redeemed us and called
us, but my friends, He will also keep us by that power. This should
give us confidence because He has moved all things for our
salvation, and He'll continue to move all things until He brings
us home. Is that not what the Scripture
tells us in Ephesians? Has He not done all things to
bring us to Himself and present us to Himself blameless? Of course
He has. That's what He's decreed. What
then will stop God from doing what He has determined to do?
What will stop it? Nothing. Writing to the elect in 1 Peter
1 and verse 5, he's writing to the elect of God, to those who
have a living hope in Christ, he says, who are kept, how? By
the power of God through faith. You see, when I came to Christ,
that was by the power of God. That wasn't by my own will, it
was by the power of God. God gave me the will. God gave
me the new heart. God gave me the new life. And
so how is it that I've continued from that day believing until
now? Is it not the power of God that
has kept us while others have gone astray, gone away from the
gospel? And who shall keep us from this
point on all the way into eternity? Who will keep us in the faith?
Because it always says it is through faith, never apart from
faith. Who's going to keep us in the faith? The power of God
will keep us in the faith. ready to be revealed the last
time. Believer, when our salvation, it's now. We're saved now. You're
saved now. You have the new birth now. But
what you don't have is the old man eradicated. What we don't
have is the old man taken care of. And so then God as our King
has decreed our salvation in eternity will also bring it to
pass in time. You see, our salvation is now,
but it's also ready to be revealed at the last time. It's ready. It's ready. And God will keep
us until that day. And I know every one of you believe
that. I know you believe that. But how many times have we doubted
His power to keep us? How often in unbelief do we deny
the power of God to deliver us from our sins or our circumstances? We say, well, my sin is too great
this time. How is it that God can deliver
me now? Friends, He has the power. He
has the power to deliver us through the blood of Christ. We may say
that our trouble is too great and our circumstances too much
for God to enter in. Don't buy into that either. Nothing
is too great for God. He has all power. And how many of us say, well,
my trouble is so small that I won't bother God with it. I bet you
there are many more of those than the others. How many times
we say, well, I'll just do it myself. I'll just take it on
myself this time and I won't even go to God with it and bother
Him. Surely He's too busy. No. He
has all power and nothing is beyond His authority. Believer, I want you to understand
that when you go to God in prayer and God hears you, it is though
you are the only person praying. It is though there is no one
else in all the world is praying but you. And God alone is attentive
to your prayer. See, we can't do that, can we?
We're distracted all the time by everything. But God is not. God is not distracted. He hears
every word you say. He has that power. And believe
Him, trust Him. He has the power to deliver you
out of every trouble and every trial. So when we go to Him in
prayer, we may have confidence. It says, Our God is in the heavens,
and He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. And what pleased
God? It pleased God to bruise Christ
for us. It pleased God to bring the gospel
to us. And it pleased God that He's
going to keep us until we're brought before Him Himself blameless. He'll keep you. He'll keep you.
How do I know? His is the kingdom and His is
the power. Belongs to Him. He'll do it.
And believer, recognize that we can do nothing apart from
His power. You and I cannot enter into the
things of God without His power. Without His Spirit, we can't. We can know them in our head,
but we can't have them in our hearts. We can't recognize these
things without His Spirit. But with His Spirit, we can know
even the hidden things of God. That is a wonderful thing. The
mysteries of how it is that God can be just and justify us. And number three, we can have
confidence, for thine is the glory. Here, the end is the same
as the beginning. In this beginning, the Lord Jesus
Christ teaches us to glorify God, and here in the end, He
teaches us to glorify God. Why? Because all the glory is
God's. It is His. It belongs to Him. We are to recognize that none
of Adam's race would have been saved had God the Father not
chosen us. Had God the Son not shed His
blood and honored God's law, no one could have been saved.
And had the Spirit of God not given us life and faith, no one
would have ever come to Christ. But praise God that He did choose
a people and He did redeem a people and He did call a people. Otherwise,
there would be no salvation. And why did He do all of this?
Why has God done all of this? Why did He go through all the
trouble for such worms as we are? Why? Scripture says He did all this
according for the praise of the glory of His grace. He's done
all of this for His own glory. And this is what man cannot stand.
This is what man hates most about the sovereignty of God, is that
it gives absolutely zero glory to you and to me. It gives no
glory to us whatsoever. Thine is the glory. God will receive glory for everything. And He is worthy of this glory. God has done all things for His
glory. And it is fitting for us to recognize
this in our prayers that all things we should ask for are
for the glory of God. How do you know if you should
ask for something? Well, you can ask yourself this,
does it give glory to God? Does it give any glory to God?
If it doesn't, then what good is it? It's no good. God is to
receive glory for everything. Why? It's His. It is His right. to demand it of us, and it is
our privilege to give it to Him." It's my privilege to glorify
God for all that He has done for me. And now then lastly,
look at the last word of this, and I thought this was very interesting.
Look at the last word, Amen. How often do we skip through
prayers and say, in Jesus' name, Amen? And just tag that on like
a little ending, like some incantation, as though that's going to get
us anything. What does that mean, amen? Why do we say it? What's the purpose of it at the
end of your prayers? Well, I thought this was interesting
to know that this word, amen, this word, amen, it is another
name for Jesus Christ. Go to Revelation chapter 3. Look
over there, Revelation 3. You can mark this if you want
to. Revelation 3. Revelation 3, verse 14, it said, "...and unto
the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things
saith..." Who? The Amen. The Amen says these
things. And so when we are saying, in
Jesus' name, and it is proper to ask our prayers in the name
of Jesus Christ, because that's saying we don't come in our own
name, in our own authority, we come by the authority of Jesus
Christ. We come into the holy place like
the high priest did. He didn't come in there just
because of his person. He came in there with blood.
So we come into the holy of holies, not without blood. We come with
the blood of Christ. And so it's fitting for you to
say, in Jesus' name. But do you recognize that when
you say, Amen, you're saying the same thing? You say, in Jesus'
name, Amen. Well, Amen, is that not Jesus'
name? Of course it is. So when you
say Amen, you're saying, Lord, answer my prayers, be it so,
in the name of Christ alone. And by this, friends, we are
sure to have what we ask for. John 14, verse 13 says, Whatsoever
you shall ask in My name, That will I do. And here's the reason. That the Father may be glorified
in the Son. Believers, let us pray. Let us
pray. And when you pray, you pray for
the daily bread, you pray for God's glory, you pray for forgiveness
of sins, you pray for the deliverance of your souls from temptation
and trials. But when you pray that, Recognize
that the one you're praying to has all the kingdom in His hand. Recognize that He has all the
power to give you what you ask. And recognize that all we ask
should be for His glory, and we ask this only by the authority
of Christ. Don't come because of who you
are. You won't receive a thing. We aren't worthy to receive anything.
All but when we come in His name. I like that story. A man had
a son and he went to war. And the son, he met another man
in the war. And this man was a derelict. He had no money, he had no family.
And they became good friends in the war. And when the war
ended, the rich man, his son died in the war. But he being
a friend to that derelict, he gave him a little letter, a little
piece of paper. And he said, when you get out
of here, if I don't make it out of here, you go to my father
and you give him this note. And the man, not really trusting
it, held on to it for a while and finally had no place else
to go. And he went to this rich man's house and he came to the
door and he gave him, he said, you don't know me, but I served
with your son and he told me to give you this letter if I
had no place to go. And the letter was from his son.
And he opened that letter and his son had asked his father
to receive this man. in His name. And the Father opened
the door and that man became His son from that day on. Friends,
that's what it's like to ask in the name of Christ. And you
know what? Your Father has all the kingdom
and all the power to give you what you need. Why would you
hesitate? Don't hesitate. Pray with all
prayer. I pray this has been a blessing
to you. This stand will be dismissed in prayer.