Let's open our Bibles to Matthew
chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, I'm continuing
a series of messages entitled, The Manner of True Prayer. Where the Lord is teaching his
disciples to pray. And as I've said, Throughout
these messages, you know, many people call this the Lord's Prayer,
our Father which art in heaven, but it's really not the Lord's
Prayer. As I said, the Lord's Prayer is in passages like John
17, where you see the Lord himself praying to the Father on behalf
of his people. But this is the disciples' prayer.
This is the model prayer. This is the Lord teaching us
how to pray. And he says that back up here
in verse nine. After this manner, therefore
pray ye. This is how. Now I've already
dealt with the foundation of the manner of true prayer. And
it's in two words here, or in this first phrase, our Father,
which art in heaven, especially the first two words, our Father.
Who is able, who can pray acceptably to God? Those who can truly,
from scripture, call Him our Father. And so we see that true
prayer is based upon a right relationship with God. And how
in the world can sinners like us, and that's what we are, I
hope that doesn't offend you, I hope that just identifies you,
like it does me, how can a sinner have a right relationship with
a holy God who must punish sin, well, most people kind of reason
in their minds, they'll say, well, I've got to do good. But
the problem with that is, is you can't do good according to
God's standard of goodness. Now, you can do good according
to man's standard, and you can look pretty good, I can do the
same thing. But goodness, according to God's standard, can only be
found in the person and work of Christ. When the Bible says
there's none righteous, no not one, that's what he's talking
about. He's not talking about there's none moral or there's
none responsible or none accountable. He's saying there's none as righteous
as God requires because that kind of righteousness can only
be found in the person or work of Christ. That's why salvation
is by grace and not by works. If you could work it, you don't
need grace. If you can make yourself acceptable
to God by your efforts or your sincerity, then why are you here? I'm preaching to sinners. You
see what I'm saying? You don't need grace if you can
do it. And so salvation is conditioned
on Christ, and that's the foundation. And there's two requirements.
for a sinner to acceptably call God truly our Father. One's a
legal requirement, and that is the sins of God's people have
to be paid for. Justice has to be satisfied.
You don't believe that? That's why Christ came to die
on the cross, folks. To satisfy the justice of God
in place of his people. as our surety, as our substitute,
our redeemer. He had to pay the price, and
the price was his blood. What can wash away my sins? What
are we saying? Nothing but the blood. You see,
it's not my faith or my choice or your faith or your choice
that washes away your sins. It's Christ who does that, and
by God-given faith, we believe in him, we plead him. My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
That's the issue. And so unless you come to God
in the name of Christ based upon his merits, not your own merits,
not my merits. See, my worthiness is not in
me, it's in Christ. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. That's the call of the faithful. Worthy is the lamb. He is my
righteousness. It's by His blood alone that
I have access unto the Father. There's a legal ground there.
There's a legal matter. God will not charge me with my
sins. He charged them to Christ. God
charges me with His righteousness. Blessed is the man. Romans 4,
6, blessed is the man whom the Lord impute righteousness, charge,
account, righteousness without works. You understand that? A lot of people don't know that.
They think, well, this is just a matter of love. Well, it is
a matter of love, but it's love based on a just ground. Herein
is love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and did what? Gave his son to be the propitiation. What is a propitiation? It's
a just ground. It's God's wrath turned back
based upon that just ground. And what is the just ground?
The blood of Christ. the righteousness of Christ,
nothing else, nothing else. And so that's where God's love
abides. The second thing it has to be
taken care of is a spiritual matter. We have to be born again.
We have to have the spirit of God giving us life, entering
our hearts, as the scripture says, to cry, Abba, Father. We
have to be made aware of who God is. And that's what I wanna
talk about today, in the perfect will of God. We have to be made
aware through the word of God, empowered by the spirit of God,
of who God is. He's a holy God. He's a just
God. He must punish sin. He cannot
let it go. Yes, he's a loving God. Yes,
he's a merciful God. Yes, he's a gracious God, but
not at the expense of his law. and his justice and his righteousness.
He must be, as Isaiah said in Isaiah 45, a just God and a savior,
a righteous judge as well as a loving father. And so whenever
God, whenever he expresses love and grace and mercy and compassion,
it has to be on a just ground or he'd deny himself. And so
he makes us aware through the preaching of the gospel wherein
the righteousness or the justice of God is revealed, Romans 1,
16 and 17. How? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he brings us to himself. And that's when we say, our Father
which art in heaven, high above us, hallowed be thy name, holy
is your name. Don't try to bring God down on
your level. Somebody told me one time, I'm
just tired of hearing about this aloof God. Well, you're gonna
go meet him. and you ain't him, and you can't
make him down on your level. No, sir, he's to be worshiped. Hallowed be his name. That means
holy, separate. There's no one like God. If you've ever seen a portrait
of God, get out on your knees and pray, God, erase that out
of my mind. If you've ever seen what you
think is a portrait of Jesus, get out on your knees and pray,
God, erase that out of my mind. It's not a portrait of Jesus.
I think I read in the paper last week about somebody who saw a
vision of Jesus. You don't know what Jesus looked
like. Here's how we know Jesus. We know him by his word, the
doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of his person. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God, manifest. in sinless human flesh. That's
who he is. He's the God man. That's who he is. Unto us a child
is born, a son is given. The word made flesh, tabernacling,
dwelling among us. What did he do? What did he accomplish? Notice I didn't say what did
he try to do. What did he accomplish when he died on that cross? The
Bible says he saved his people from their sins. He didn't try
to. He didn't die because he wants
you to let him. No, he saved his people from their sins. He
says in verse nine, now here's where I'm going today. Thy kingdom
come, the kingdom of God established in Christ, the King of kings,
the Lord of lords, I talked about that last week. But here's the
next, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Now, in order
to pray to a holy God in the manner that we need to pray,
we need to know something about the will of God. The will of
God. The perfect will of God. And
when I talk about the will of God, you know, people all the
time going around, they say, I just wanna know what God's
will is for my life. Do you really want to know that? You think you really not want
to know that? I'll tell you what, a lot of things written in the
Bible are out and out statements about what we call the revealed
will of God and people don't believe it. So do you really want to know
the will of God? Well, I mentioned this. The Bible teaches us this,
that God has a revealed will by way of commandment. And then
God has a secret will, things that only God knows. And he reveals
some of those things as time marches on. I mentioned this,
for example, I can tell you what happened five minutes ago. That
was God's will. I can't tell you what's gonna
happen five minutes from now. But when it's over, I'll know
what God's will for five minutes from now. And there's a verse
in Deuteronomy chapter 29. I wanna show you this. And you
might wanna mark this in your Bible. I rely on this verse pretty
heavily when I'm talking about the will of God according to
the scripture. And you understand now, Deuteronomy,
you know what Deuteronomy means? It means the second law. That's
what the word means, deuter-second-onomy, that's the law. And what it is,
here's Moses having brought the children of Israel on the brink
of the promised land after having wandered in the wilderness for
40 years because of their disobedience. And they're about ready to go
over into the promised land and Moses is reading the law to them
a second time as a congregation. And he reads the words of the
law. You say, well, that's the Ten Commandments. Well, that's
part of it. That's the heart of it, the Ten Commandments. But there's a lot of laws. There's
the moral law. There's the ceremonial law. That's
the law of the Levitical priesthood, the law of sacrifice, the law
of ceremony, the law of feast day. I mean, all kinds of laws.
Someone counted them up. One time I think they said, Steve,
you may know this, 600 and some laws. And he's reading this law
to them. But he's also marveling with
them over the providence of God in their lives. You know what
the providence of God is? That's his government. God's
in control. God is in control. He's on his
throne. And somebody says, well, now
God says, for example, thou shalt not kill. Now that's God's revealed
law, his revealed will by way of commandment. Thou shalt not
kill. It's a sin to take another's
life. That's what he says. But when
you think about providence, God's workings each day, as I said,
we know them as it unfolds. Some of it we'll never know.
And here's what Moses told him at the end of reading, one segment
of reading that law. Look at Deuteronomy 29, 29. He says, the secret things belong
unto the Lord our God. What are the secret things? Well,
that's what God has not revealed to us. That's his secret will. What God's gonna do tomorrow.
And let me tell you something about God. He's not looking down
through a telescope of time foreseeing what you and I are gonna do and
then responding to it. God doesn't respond that way. That's not the God of the Bible.
And I'm gonna show you that in another verse in a minute, but
several verses. But the secret things belong
unto the Lord our God. Things God has kept secret. But
those things which are revealed belong unto us. and to our children
forever that we may do all the words of this law. Whatever God
says in his law, that's his revealed will by way of commandment, and
we're responsible to obey it. Now, of course, we know the children
of Israel did not obey it as a whole, generally speaking.
Why? Because they were sinners. But
you know what? So are we. I heard a man actually say one
time, he said, boy, if I'd have been back there, I'd have done
better than them. Really? You know what that is, talking?
A big ball of self-righteousness. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Oh, except me? No. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now, you know what that means?
It means we've missed the mark. It means we may be out here trying
to be the best we can be, but we're still sinners, we're still
gonna miss the mark. Because what is the mark? The
glory of God. Where are you gonna find that?
In Christ. You say, I'm just doing my best
trying to love everybody as myself. Well, I kinda doubt that, but
if you were, if you were, you'll still miss the mark. Because
your love's not going to equal Christ's love. You say, I'm trying
to do my best to be the best person I can be. That's OK, but you're going to
miss the mark. You say, well, not me. I don't miss the mark.
Well, you don't need salvation. You don't need what I'm preaching
today. You don't need grace. You say, well, God helps those
who help themselves. Well, what verse is that in the
Bible? Somebody tell me. It's not there. It's just man's religious reasonings.
God helps the helpless. You know the Bible says God justifies
the ungodly? The ungodly? What is it to be
justified? It means to have all our sins
forgiven. All of them, not just some of
them now. If you're justified before God,
all your sins are forgiven. To be justified means to stand
before God righteous. How's that possible? The Bible
says that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how it's possible in Christ. I stand before God in Christ,
washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness. And that's
the only way that I can stand before God. So here it is. They say the will of God. Well,
some things about God's will are openly revealed in his word.
I mentioned this a couple weeks ago. For example, God's will
in salvation. God has revealed his will. Thy
will be done, you pray, in earth as it is in heaven. In other
words, somebody says, well, God's doing His will up there in heaven,
but now here on earth things are just run amuck. No, God's
in control down here too. But God, for example, remember
this, God has revealed His revealed will by way of commandment in
the matter of salvation. And God has revealed His will
in Choosing a people before the foundation of the world and His
will to save His people from their sins. He's not willing
that any of them should perish, but all should come to repentance.
And what is God's will in salvation? God has revealed His will to
save His people from sins by His grace, His mercy, through
the merits of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the
only way. There's no other way. That's what God's will is in
salvation, his revealed will by way of command. The gospel
way, the way of grace, the way of the cross, the way of the
blood, the way of righteousness, there's no other way. I told
you about the lady who came and visited our church last year
and she talked about her church believes in progressive Christianity. And I'd heard that term. I asked
her, I said, well, what do you think progressive Christianity
is? She said, well, they believe that there are other ways of
salvation than by Jesus Christ. And I said, well, that's not
progressive Christianity. That's false Christianity. That's
digressive Christianity. There's only one way. Christ
said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. Peter said, there's none
other name given under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. There's one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There's one way. Every other way is a false way.
You say, well, that's being awful exclusive. Well, I'm a disciple
of Christ. I follow his teaching. And that's
what he said. There's God's will in the law.
Love God perfectly, love our neighbor as ourself. We break
God's revealed will in the law all the time. When? When we don't
love God perfectly and when we don't love our neighbor as ourself. But there's also, as I said,
God's secret will that cannot be broken and cannot change.
His sovereign will. And which God has not revealed
to us beforehand. We think about that. We read
his word. We follow it. We see his word
in Providence. I want you to go to Isaiah chapter
46. Isaiah chapter 46. Here's an example of God's sovereign
will right alongside God's revealed will by way of commandment in
his way of salvation. Isaiah 46 and verse 9. Now, here's
what's happening. Isaiah is predicting that in
the future, the southern kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem would
be going into captivity. But he's also predicting, because
God revealed this to him, that they would be brought back out
of captivity. Later on, Jeremiah, I think so
many years later, Jeremiah told him it would be 70 years of captivity. So he even got a revelation from
God as to how much time they'd be in captivity. But Isaiah is
saying that God's gonna punish this nation. But look at verse
nine. He says, remember the former
things of old, for I'm God and there is none else. There's no
other God. I'm God and there's none like
me. There's none even to compare with God. Now look at verse 10. Declaring the end from the beginning. You ever read that phrase before?
You know what that means? Now let me explain to you this
way. I can declare the beginning, maybe from the end, not always. In other words, I can tell you
how today started. I can't tell you how it's gonna
end up. You can't either. But God is greater than me and
you, and he says he declares the end from the beginning. He
declares it. Now he's not a crystal ball gazer.
He's not looking down through a telescope of time and saying,
oh, that's what's gonna happen. God declares it because God determines
it. Now chew on that a while. People
don't like that, but that's the way it is. God determined all things beforehand. I can't explain that to you.
I can't even wrap my mind around it, but I know it's true. You
know why? The Bible says it. I had a man tell me one time,
he said, I can't wrap my mind around that. And I said, well,
join the club. You know, we're not God. We're human. Somebody said, well, if that's
the case, then we're not accountable. No, now, secret things belong
to God. The revealed things belong to
you and me. We're only responsible for what God tells us, what he
lets us in on, but look at it. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient time the things that are not done yet done saying
my counsel shall stand you see the word counsel there you see
it's C-O-U-N-S-E-L It's not C-O-U-N-C-I-L is it? What's a what's a counsel
C-O-U-N-C-I-L that means when a group of people get together
and they give their opinions and they come out to a conclusion
The counsel here is the wisdom and knowledge of God alone. He
didn't confer with us. He didn't look down through a
telescope of time and see what we would do and then determine.
You see, it's his counsel, it's his knowledge. It's all of him
and in him. And he said, my counsel shall
stand and I will do all my pleasure. I'll do what I want to do. I always use the example of children.
You ever had a little child who told you, I'm going to do what
I want to do? You look at him and you say, well, we'll see.
We'll see if that's the case. Sometimes we look at our heavenly
father and say, I'm going to do what I want to do. And he
says, we'll see. We're his children if we're in
Christ. Verse 11, he says, calling a
ravenous bird from the east. Most commentators, and I agree
with them, you know who that's talking about? That's talking
about the future idolatrous conqueror who would deliver Judah and Jerusalem
out of the hands of the Babylonians. His name was Cyrus. God had already
determined this. It's his counsel. It's what he
wanted to do. He's not a God of unfulfilled
desire. The man that executeth my counsel. He didn't say, now Cyrus, do
you want to do this? Or if you'll just cooperate with
me, well, come on now. No, he said he's executing the
counsel of God from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I'll do it. You see that? Okay. That's the kind of God that created
us and put us here on this earth. How are we to respond? What are
we to do? Well, look at verse 12 and 13.
Hearken unto me, listen to me, heed me, you stout-hearted. What is it to be stout-hearted?
To be self-righteous. That are far from righteousness. Man in his religion, man in his
philosophy, man in his efforts, he's still far from righteousness. Verse 13, God says, I bring near
my righteousness. You see, that's what I need.
I don't need man's righteousness. It's not good. It's not good.
I need God's righteousness. It shall not be far off. What
he's talking about is it shall not be something that you can
achieve or attain. You see, man in his works religion
is always trying to achieve, always trying to attain his goal
of righteousness and holiness, peace with God, blessings from
God. It's always something he's reaching for. But God says, I'm
gonna send near my, it won't be far off. And my salvation shall not tarry. You don't have to wait for it.
You don't have to wait till you're good enough, which you can never
be. He says, and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel
my glory. Now you know who he's talking
about? That's Christ. What did Israel reject? They
reject the rock of offense, Christ, who came up. God's gonna do it. Turn to Daniel chapter four. Saw on the internet the other
day what people call a picture of Jesus, and then they had a
picture of the devil sitting across from each other on a table
having an arm wrestling contest. You ever see that? My friend, that makes for religion,
but it's not scriptural. Not scripture at all. The devil's
already defeated. He was defeated on the cross
when Christ died and was buried in a rose again the third day. That was his defeat. Oh, he's
still active now. But his end is in sight. And it is inevitable. And it's
coming close. But here's a heathen idolatrous
king named Nebuchadnezzar who lifted himself up so high that
God in his providence brought the man down, put him out on
the backside of a field acting like a jackass, eating the briars
and growing his hair. I mean, it was just crazy. And
when he came to his senses, listen to what he says here in Daniel
chapter four, verse 34. Daniel 4, 34. He says at the end, well, look
at verse 33. The same hour was the thing fulfilled
upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven for men. He did eat grass
like an ox. His body was wet with the dew
of heaven. His hairs were grown like eagle's
feathers and his nails like bird's claws. Now this is the king of
Babylon. Verse 34, and at the end of the
days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and
mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing
and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand
or say unto him, what do you think you're doing? There's no arm wrestling match
here. None can stop him or even question him. What do you think
you're doing? One more, turn to Ephesians chapter
one. Let somebody say, well now that
was the God of the Old Testament. Well the same God of the Old
Testament is the God of the New Testament. Here he's talking
about salvation in Ephesians one. His purpose to save before
the foundation of the world, to save a people from their sins
by virtue of the merits of Christ. Having, and verse nine says,
made known unto the mystery of his will, his will in saving
sinners by his grace through Christ, no other way, according
to the good pleasure which he had purposed in himself. Verse
10, that in the dispensation and the fullness of the times
he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. There it is. God's will. The book of James
tells us this, that when we make our plans, we set forth what we're going
to do today, tomorrow, the next day. We ought to keep this in
mind. James said this in James chapter
4. He said, what we ought to say is, you say, well, tomorrow
I'm going to go to work, or tomorrow I'm going to go here, go there.
What we ought to say is, if the Lord will. If the Lord will. We're to pray under the will
of the Lord. That's one of the keys to prayer. Let me give you
this in closing. Concerning the will of God. Now
that's what he said. Thy will be done. In earth as
it is. It doesn't say my will be done. It says thy will be done. Well,
what are we saying here? Well, what is the true manner
of prayer? Well, prayer is a matter of faith in Christ. We pray unto
God through Christ based upon His merits alone. That's our
only access to God. You may have had a good week
or had a bad. That's why I had Robert read that Psalm 34. It's a prayer, actually. The
psalmist said, I will bless the Lord when times are good. That's
not what he said. What do you mean blessed Lord?
It means you'll worship the Lord. You'll praise the Lord at all
times. Why? Because all times are in
His hands. You ever read Ecclesiastes 3?
To everything there is a purpose and a time, time to die, time
to live, time to scatter, time to gather. Why is that? It's because all my times are
in God's hands. I don't know what God has in
store for me tomorrow. But I know this, my only hope
of salvation is coming to Him in Christ. And that's what I'm
going to do. And I know after I've done it
that it was His will all along. Think about it. I wouldn't have
done it on my own. The natural man will not receive
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. See, they're spiritually discerned,
and man by nature is spiritually dead. What's got to happen? You
must be born again. He's got to give me life. So the manner of true prayer
is having faith in Christ, resting in his righteousness alone, forsaking
all mine. The manner of true prayer is
worship to God, giving glory to God. Hallowed be thy name.
Thy will be done. It's submission to God. I know
there's all kinds of things that I want that I pray for. What I believe are good things. Not just selfishness. But here's
what I've got to pray. Thy will be done. God knows better
than me. I'm totally dependent upon Him.
He's got more wisdom than I've got. I might pray for something. I pray for my health. Pray for
your health. God may have something else.
It may be God's will to heal us permanently. If we're in Christ, we go to
be with Him and never to be sick again. Prayer is an act of thanksgiving.
Thank you, Lord. for saving my soul. Thank you,
Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and so free.