My subject from verse 9. Verse 9. After this manner, therefore
pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I want to talk about hallowed
be the name of God. Hallowing the Lord's name. And
our Lord told us when you pray, don't pray like a hypocrite.
Don't be a hypocrite. Don't let everybody see you praying,
hear you praying, doing it just to be seen of men. And then if
you've got things on your heart, on your mind, and that's troubling
you, he said, get along with God. Get along with God. And
tell Him what your troubles are, and your heartaches are, and
your needs are, and whether you're for self or somebody else, and
He'll reward you openly. And then he says, don't use vain
repetitions. You know, Muslims use a vain
repetition. They just say the same thing
over and over and over and over and over. The Buddhists use the
same thing over and over and over. And those ancestor worships
in Japan, they use the same thing over and over and over. And they
think by just pre-repeating the same things, that they're going
to be heard for their much for saying these things. But he says,
don't do that. Don't be like that. Your father
knows what you have need of before you even ask him. So our Lord
said, this is the way you ought to pray. This is a good way to
pray. Start out with God. Start out with the Father. Start
out with Him. What did He say? Our Father which
art in heaven. God's in heaven. And you know
when Ecclesiastes says God is in heaven and you and on the
earth said therefore let your words be few. We're here on this
earth. We're in the flesh. He's in heaven.
He's way up there. I mean whatever the heavens is,
we can't see to the ends of the heavens. And He's there. And yet He hears us. So He's
showing us that even though we have this great distance between
us, we can still call on Him. We can still look to Him. We
can still go to Him. And your Father which art in
heaven, and then He says, Hallowed be thy name. Now here in these,
verse 9 down through verse 13, there are seven petitions in
this prayer. Seven petitions. The first one
is, hallowed be thy name. That's the first petition. Then
he says, thy kingdom come, down in verse 10. Second petition. Thy kingdom come. We're asking
for God for certain things. Then he says, thy will be done.
Thy will be done in earth, even as it is in heaven. And then
he said, give us, give us. If we get anything from God,
it has to be given to us. He has to give it to us. We don't
earn it, we don't merit, we can't work for it. Give us this day. And then the fifth one is, forgive
us. Forgive us. That's the fifth
one. And then he says, and here's
the sixth one, lead us not into temptation. Don't lead us into
temptation. And the seventh of this, deliver
us from evil. Seven petitions in this chapter.
But I just want to deal with the first one. The first one,
hallowing the name of God. And hallowing the name of God,
that's to be preferred. But you know in that word hallowed
means to make holy. We'll show that in a little bit.
But it's just to be preferred before all things. Hallowing
the name of God and His name is to be preferred before. We
pray that God's name be honored. God's name be sanctified. And
that He'll be done by us, not only in our words. We want to
speak of God highly. We want to honor God with our
words. We want to hallow His name in
our hearts. Oh, in our hearts, and God's
in our hearts. And then we want to hallow God's
name in our lives. You know, when the angels sang,
when the Lord Jesus Christ was come, they said, glory to God
in the highest. That's what this means, hallowing
the name of God. Glory to God in the highest. And that's what it means to hallow
God's name. We want God's name to be the
highest by words, In our hearts, in our lives. In fact, hallowing
God's name to be preferred before we even have life. Because you
know what He said? He said, we pray hallowed be
God's name before we say, give us this bread. Before we do anything,
ask for anything, hallowed be God's name. God's glory is the
most important thing that we have to deal with in our lives.
I really believe that. And you know, our Lord Jesus,
when the lawyer asked Him, what's the greatest commandments in
the law? And our Lord said, on these two commandments hang the
law and the prophets. And the first was this, love
the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your mind, with
all your soul, with everything about you, love the Lord thy
God. And I'll tell you what, beloved, we cannot give God too
much glory. And when he says, hallowed be
thy name, this is the first. This is the first great petition,
and it contains the most weighty thing, and that's God's glory. You know, we've gathered out
here tonight What have we got out here tonight? Hopefully to
honor God, to give glory to God in the way we think, what we
say, the way we worship, and everything that comes about.
And there'll come a time when we'll cease to pray for some
things. There'll come a time when we won't say, Our Father
which art in heaven, because we'll be with you in heaven.
There'll be a time when we won't pray, Thy kingdom come, because
we'll be where the kingdom's at. There will be a time when
we will not say you will be done in earth because it is done and
we will already all be in glory. There will be a coming time when
we will never say Lord give us because He already gave us everything.
We will be in glory. And there is a time that we will
never say again forgive us. You know why? Because we'll be
in glory. And oh, lead us not into temptation,
we'll be in glory. And there'll be a time when all
these things, we'll never ask for them again. But there'll
never be a time, never be a time when we won't seek to glorify
God in eternity, now and especially in eternity. That's all they
do up there. That's all they do. Huh? That's all they do. Oh my, that's
all we'll do. We'll still say glory to God. Hallowed be thy name. Look in
Revelations chapter 5. Look in Revelations 5. We're
going to still say when we get to glory. We'll still say glory
to God. Hallowed be His holy name. Revelations
5.13 Oh, we'll still say. With all these
other things, it won't matter to anything. But we'll still
say glory to God. Hallowed be thy name. And to
hallow God's name is to set God's name above every name. Every
name. And look what he says there in
verse 13. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the
earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all
that are in them, heard I say, blessing, and honor, and glory,
and power, be unto him that standeth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb, forever and ever." So that's what we're going to do for eternity.
That's what we're going to be doing. He said, worthy is the
Lamb. Worthy, he's got all the wisdom,
he's got all the power, he's got all the rights. Blessings
in heaven, blessings in earth, blessings all over. The things
in the sea is gonna bless him. And oh listen, so the hallowed
is the name of God above every name. Now back over here in Matthew
6. Look what he says now. He says,
hallowed be thy name. Thy name. What's meant here by
God's name? Well, it means His very nature. His very nature, His essence.
He's called the God of Jacob. The God of election. The God
of sovereignty. The God of power. And I tell
you what, beloved, He's known by His name. You know, when Moses
said, who am I going to say sent me? He said, just tell them I
am. Self-existent. always eternal always has been
always will be has been are and will be I am when you get back
up here Moses I still I am when you're going Moses I still I
am and he said that's what you tell him and he's known by his
name Jehovah's akin you the Lord our Risen Jehovah Nisai the Lord
our banner Jehovah Shalom the Lord our peace Jehovah Jireh,
the Lord our Provider. Everything about His name. It's
called Adonai. I heard David Plager, a Christian,
talking about God Adonai. You know what Adonai means? Now,
Gary, tell me if I'm wrong about this, but Adonai means the God
that has all sufficiency to give you everything you want or need.
Some of the commentators say He's like a double-breasted God,
and He has everything in His bosom, and He's just running
over with things to give to you. So we got all these names of
God. And then He's not only that,
but He's known by His attributes. All the attributes of wisdom,
power, holiness, and goodness, His character. Oh, people say,
boy, I want to have a good character. God's got that. Who in the world
can be, who's got a character like God? And you know when he told Moses,
Moses said show you my glory. Let me see your glory. And you
know what he says? I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. And then he says I will declare
my name, and listen to this, and cause all my goodness to
pass before you. All my goodness to pass before
you. And God's goodness has been passing before us. When we were yet lost, the goodness
of God was passing before us. And we didn't see it. Now we
see the goodness of God. Oh, we see how good He is. How
gracious He is. How merciful He is. And so His
name means His nature, His character, His attributes. He's known by
who He is. He's known by who He is. And
I tell you, I was talking to Todd Nyberg yesterday, and this
man came to see. All the way from a long, long,
long, which drove several hours to see. And he got down there and they
had a wonderful vision. He was very encouraged and the
fellow went home and he wrote him and asked him, he says, do
you believe, and he commented on some real famous preacher,
he said, do you believe that there is a sense in which God
loves everybody and a sense in which God wants to save everybody? Tom said, no, I don't believe
that at all. Wouldn't it be awful if God only
loved you in a sense? What sense would it be? A sense for a little while? A
sense until He got tired of you? No, the Scriptures don't say
nothing about that. It says God having loved His
own which were in the world, He loved them to the end. He
loved them with an everlasting love. Who shall separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? Tell your wife, tell your
wife when you go home this evening. She says, do you love me? Well,
in a sense I do. There's a sense in which I do. See how that goes over. They won't talk about God like
that. So that's what I'm talking about. We're talking about hallowing
God's name. We're not going to let people drag His name down.
We're going to hallow his name. And I tell you, hallowed be thy
name. What is it to hallow his name? Well, to hallow the name
of God means to set apart. To hallow something means to
set apart from a common use. So we set God's name apart from
a common use because He's not common. He's someone like no
one else. He is God and beside Him there
is none others. He declared the end from the
beginning. From ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying all my pleasure will stand and
I'll do my good pleasure. And so we use it, to hallow it
means to use it for a sacred and a holy and a glorious purpose. That's what we want to do. And
I tell you, that's what it means to hallow his name. It's like
the vessels that was in the sanctuary. Every one of them was hallowed.
You know what made them hallowed? God said, these are not for common
use. They're only used in this tabernacle,
used for my service. And only the priests can handle
them. And then when they set the priesthood apart, the first
thing they've done to set the priesthood apart, says, you know,
separate Aaron and his sons unto me. And the first thing they
had to do was be set apart. Come, you're not, you're not,
you're like the rest of them. You come over here. And they
washed them and anointed them with oil and dressed them up.
They wasn't, they wasn't used to be used for common things.
And to hallow God's name is to set it apart from abuses. Oh, don't it bother you for somebody
to take the name of God and abuse it? But we use it holy, reverently. Give Him the highest honor. Render
His name sacred. The Jews don't even call Him
Jehovah. You know what they call Him?
That His name is so holy, they say it like this, Yahweh. Yahweh. And His name is sacred. It's
holy. And we want to keep it from being
abused. We want to keep it from people
belittling it. And oh my. So we want to hallow
His name. Say it out loud. It's not for
common use at all. Not for common use at all. And
thirdly, when can we say we've hallowed God's name? How can
we say we've sanctified God's name? Well, by having a high,
high appreciation and esteem of Him, set Him highest in our
thoughts. Set Him highest in our thoughts.
Do you ever think in your life that you've ever set God as high
in your thoughts as He's worthy to be set? But when you think
of Him, what do you think? What do you think of Him? When
you think of God, what kind of thought do you have of Him? Is
it high? Always high thought? Always thought
to give Him all the glory? Always hold Him so high in your
mind? and hold Him in your thoughts.
And when you think about Him, you think about Him reverently.
You think about Him as holy. You think about Him as righteous.
You think about Him as so far above you. You think about how
desperately, the way He is, and how weak you are, and how high
He is, and how low you are, and how powerful He is, and how weak
you are. And so, God, we set Him, Hallowed His name when we
set His excellency in His name, high in our thoughts. And to
hallow His name means to honor Him. Honor Him. To esteem Him
precious. To esteem it precious. That's
what it means to hallow something. To honor it. To esteem precious. And I was thinking of this this
evening. He is infinite in all of His ways. He is infinite. He's infinite. His name is infinite.
His attributes are infinite. And we should never set one attribute
against another. But you know, you go outside
and take a flashlight, hold it up, turn it on, and hold it toward
the sky. I think, now I could be wrong,
I think, does it light travel 286 miles per second? Something like that. I mean,
it just, turn it on and it's... Now you can see it here. But
that light's still going right on out through the heavens. But
you can't see it out there. And we have God's light here.
But what we see here goes on and on and on and on and on. You know. You think about how
far it is that you can see. And you go on past that. And
on past that. And that's it. Then you might
have infinity. But He's infinite. He's infinite
in all of His ways. There's nothing about Him that's
finite. His name is infinite. He was
God before He created the world. He's God when He destroys this
one and creates a new one. And He'll be His infinite before
He ever began. And He's infinite since it's
all started. And He'll be infinite after it's all gone. And we're
bound by space and time, but God's not bound by anything. I can only be in one place at
one time. I move around a lot, but I'm still only occupied a
certain amount of space. And I'm only alive a certain
amount of time. But God, He inhabits eternity. The heavens He's thrown, the
earth is His footstool. So, you know, we don't want to
set one attribute against another. They're all glorious. And I tell
you, we love Him being God. I love God being God. I do. I love Him being God. He's
not a pretender. The God who saves sinners is
not a pretender. The God who has the power to
give life to dead sinners is not a pretender. The God who
can create the world and uphold it by the Word of His power is
not a pretender. Oh, we love Him being God. And if it meant, if I had to
change him in one iota, to see my children and my grandchildren
and my great-grandchildren say, that has to go lost, it has to
be lost. Because I wouldn't change God for 10,000. No, I love Him
the way He is. If He could change Him, He wouldn't
be God. And if we could change Him, He wouldn't be God. And
that's what it means to hallow His name. We think of Him like
that. And we talk of Him like that.
And we worship Him like that. Oh, my. We love His works. Oh, His works. Ain't you grateful
for His works? I tell you. I don't even want to run my own
affairs in this world. I don't. I don't want to run
my own affairs. And what do I mean by that is, when life comes along
and you pray for the Lord, if He's going to do something, you
do it. And then if He opens the door, you wait and pray and see,
make sure that the doors He's opened. And if He opens it, you
walk through it. And if He provides the means,
then you know He's in it. But if I manage my own affairs,
you know what happened to me years ago? I didn't want it. But that's
why I say, Lord, you got my affairs. I don't want to live where you
don't want me to live. I don't want to have what you don't want
me to have. And that's what we're talking
about. We love God's works. We love His works. And how many times has His works
been manifested towards you and you didn't even know it was done
until after it was done? Oh, boy, and then there's His
works of creation. Oh, you know what He said after
He made something? He said, it's good. He made something
else, He said, that's good. He'd say something else and he'd
say, that's good. And then he said, everything
is good. And oh my. And I'll tell you what, redemption,
oh, we love him being God in his redemption. that he had not
sacrificed the animal and shed the blood and clothed Adam and
Eve, they would have perished. But that's the first instance
to show us that God sets the price to pay a sinner's debt
and then pays the price to pay off the sinner's debt. And he
done that in his blessed son. The price was set by him and
he himself paid it. Paid it. Huh? Had to be like
you. Owing this astronomical amount
of money. And you know there's no way in
the world you'd ever, ever get it together. And you're on your
way to the bank or wherever you got to owe it and tell them,
sit down, I can't pay it, I don't escape. And then by the time
you get there, somebody's went in there and they got there and
said, well, you don't owe nothing. What do you mean? I owe over
a million dollars. No, you don't owe nothing. Why? Somebody's been here and paid
it for you. That's the way it is in the presence of God. God
said, when we go, Lord, what do we owe? You don't owe me nothing.
You don't owe me nothing but to love me. Why? Your debt's been paid. And I'll
tell you what, about His glorious providence. We know, this are
some things we know. We know, Paul and John said,
we know that all things, all things, all things that comprehends
everything in our lives, that comprehends everything in our
hearts, that comprehends everything, all things work. They're not stagnant, work. They're
being moved about. And they work together. Together. All these things that God's ordered
in our life, they work together. For what reason? For our good. And listen to this. But there's
this qualification here now. Who's it for? To them that love
God and those that are called according to His purpose. Nobody
else can say that about that life. But we say that about our
lives, can't we? And we hallow His name when we
trust in Him. Oh, when we trust in Him. Look
with me in Psalm 31. Excuse me, Psalm 33. Oh, we hallow
His name when we trust in Him. When we trust in Him. You know,
I tell you, 33, Psalm 33. We hallow his name and more we
set it apart for sacred and holy uses when we trust in him. David
said this in verse 21, our heart shall rejoice in him, listen
to this, because we have trusted in his holy name. Oh, we've trusted in his holy
name. You know, beloved, There's nothing, nothing honors God more
than believing in Him. Nothing. Nothing anybody can
do can honor God more than believing in Him, more than trusting Him,
more than confiding in Him. Abraham was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, being persuaded that whatsoever he had promised,
he is able also to perform it. I mean, he took God at His word.
And when you go to Hebrews 11, everybody there is mentioned
in honoring God by faith. Having this testimony, who testified
about it? God did. About their faith, and
their trust, and their confidence in Him. And nothing honors God
more than believing Him. I believe God. That's all Abraham
said, I believe you. He told him something, Abraham
said, that'll happen. And there's nothing dishonors
him more than unbelief. You know what John said like
this? He said, He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. That's what it says. He that
believeth not God hath made him a liar. And I tell you this is
a And a believer, when talking about hallowing God's name, a
believer trusts the most precious things that he has into God's
hands. And you know the most precious
thing you have is your own soul. Do you trust your soul with God?
Trust your soul into the Lord's hands? I've seen some old, old wheels,
old wheels written back in the 1800s and early 1900s, late 19th
century and early 20th century. And they would write out their
wheels and what they'd always say in their wheels, some of
these old timers would, they'd say, and when It's all said and
done. It's the last part of their wills. They give everything, you know,
so this soul gets this, this soul gets that. But into the
hands of God, I commend my spirit at its departing. Put that in
their will. You know, give everything else
away. You know what I'm going to give? I'm going to commit my spirit
to God who comes and takes it. And it's departing. Ah, pretty good thing putting
you in. You can have this, you can have that. God's going to
get me. Yeah, it's all said and done.
The Lord's going to get me. If I can get myself out there,
as long as the Lord gets me. Oh, bless his name. That's what
Peter, I mean, you know, Stephen said when he was, when they stoned
him to death. You know what he said? He bowed
down and said, Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to the charge and
into thy hands, I commend my spirit. That's what he said on
his dying breath. And the Lord Jesus stood up.
That's the only time you see him standing up in the New Testament.
He stood up for Stephen to welcome him home. Oh my. And I tell you what, a believer
puts the most precious, trusts the most precious. He trusts
his wife, he trusts his kids, he trusts his soul, he trusts
everything into his hands. And all I tell you to hallow
his name is to never mention his name, but with the highest
reverence. With the highest reverence. Holy
and reverent in his name. His name is holy. And the scripture
gives lots of names to God. He's called the Most High God.
The Lord of Hosts. The God of Glory. The God of
Grace. The God of Peace. Righteous. Look what He said in Isaiah 57
about Himself. Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57, 15. Call the Most High God, the Lord
of Hosts, the God of Glory, the God that dwells between the
cherubims. Look what He says, Isaiah 57,
15, For thus saith the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity. My, my. Eternity is a big place. Where
do you start and where do you end? Well, that's where he lives. Whose name is holy. I dwell in
the high and holy place. And listen to who he dwells with.
And I tell you, he's way up there, but all at the same time he's
down here with us. I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. to revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite to us up there comes
down here and revives us and I tell you what we never ever
want to use his name lightly vainly using his name and we
hallow his name I'll hurry we hallow his name when we worship
him with a holy spiritual worship That's what I'm talking about.
You know our worship has to be spiritual. We can't add no flesh
to it. When we give Him the kind of worship that He appoints,
He has the kind of worship that He appoints. It's like Nadab
in a bayou. There was fire on the altar.
They're supposed to carry that fire off the altar in their censer.
But instead of carrying God's altar, God's appointed fire,
they went over here and built Him a fire and filled their censers
with their own fire. God killed them both. Why? They didn't worship the way God
appointed. And God appoints us to worship
according to His Word, according to His nature, according to His
character. And I tell you in that the purity of worship. Now
what do I mean by that? Not giving flesh a minute to
enter into a worship service. Just don't give the flesh a minute.
Don't give it any minute. That's why our worship is so
Simple. You know anything more simple
than the way we worship? Come in here, sing some songs,
read some scripture, we pray, preach, pray, sing a song, go
to house. Rarely do our services last a
whole hour. And you go to some of these places
and they start at 10 o'clock, go back by that 12 o'clock, they're
still in there, go by 1, we're on our way home from eating and
they're just now getting out of service. Because they had
to wait until all hearts and minds were clear before they
could get out of there. And one thing you don't want flesh to
do is give him another opportunity to say nothing. But this is the
difference in people who know something about the worship of
God. There ain't a one of you, not a one in this building, would
get up, and interrupt the service and say, Preacher, I want to
testify for God. Preacher, I've got something
I need to say. You would not interrupt a worship
service for nothing. You know why you wouldn't? Because
you know God. And you don't want to hinder
the worship in any way. You don't want to jump up and
say, now, you know, you can get happy and rejoice and say, Amen.
That's different. But to jump up and say, Brother
Donnie, I've just got to say this. We don't do things like
it. You know why we don't? Because
our spiritual worship is spiritual. And it's pure. We don't have
to have no pomp. We don't have to have no flesh involved. And
we give Him heart worship, devotion. And here's the sixth thing. We
give Him, hallow His name when we give Him the glory, the honor
of all that we do. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto Thy name be glory. Under thy name be glory. Not
under us. Not under, but under thy name
be glory. I want to show you somebody that
didn't give God the glory. And look what happened to him.
Acts 12. Acts 12. Look here what happened
to a man who didn't give God the glory. Look what happened
to him. Acts 12, 21. Herod didn't hallow
God's name. But Paul did. He says, by the
grace of God, I am what I am. John the Baptist said he must
increase, I must decrease. Comes one after me, mightier
than I, who shoelaces it, I'm not even worthy. He honored God
out of his name. But look what happened here now.
In verse 21 of Acts 12, And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal
apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a
God, and not of a man. Immediately, immediately the
angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory. And the worm started eating in
his gut, and the worm started eating in him, and he died a
miserable, miserable death as he was eaten alive from the inside
out. Because he gave not God the glory. And that's why we say, Lord not
unto us, but thy name be glory. And then give you one last thing,
and I'm done. John 5, 23. This is the last
thing. Let me show you this, and I'll
be done. We hallow and sanctify God's
name when we give the same honor to the Son as we do the Father. We hallow and sanctify and set
God's name high and holy and apart when we give the same honor
to the Son as to the Father. Look what our Lord said here
in John 5.23. That all should honor the Son
even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which is in Him. You can't honor God
and not honor the Son. You can't hallow the name of
God without hallowing the name of the Son. We give the same
honor because they're one and the same. And all the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in Him. And to take Him, take the Lord
Jesus Christ for all of our salvation, for all of the hope of our salvation
on His merits and His alone, on His righteousness and on His
alone. And all to hallow God's name,
to make it to be high, high, high in our thoughts, in our
hearts, in our words, in our worship, when we read. And we can't Can't make Him high,
no higher than He is, but we can sure make Him higher in our
thoughts, in our way of looking at Him. Our Father, in the precious name,
blessed name of Christ our Lord, thank You for allowing us to
meet here tonight. Thank You for allowing us to speak of You,
in Your holiness, Your righteousness, Your glory, Your power and Your
wisdom. Oh, Lord, when we contemplate
You, we get lost. We get lost. You're so far above
us. And even when we enter into eternity,
Lord, You'll still be so far above us. We'll still be creatures. We'll still be created beings,
even though with new natures and new bodies Without any sin,
we'll still be creatures, and you'll still be God. We'll still
be worshiping you, and you'll still be God. Oh, Lord, bless your holy name.
Thank you for allowing us to meet here tonight. Bless these
words to the saints' heart. Keep them till we can worship
together again. Be mindful of those who are not with us. Through
your providence and through sickness, in Christ's holy name, we pray.
Amen. Amen.