Would you open your Bibles with
me to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. I have the
last few messages been speaking of the manner of true prayer. And I want to continue that message
today as we get fully square into what is known as the model
prayer, the disciple's prayer. In the book of Luke chapter 11,
when the disciples heard the Lord himself praying, they asked
him the question, Lord, teach us to pray. And here in Matthew
chapter six, that's exactly what he's doing. He says in verse
nine, after this manner, therefore pray ye. Here's how you pray.
Now we have to be taught the issues and the essence, the nature
of what true prayer is. And I want to emphasize these
things. I'm going to take several messages going through this prayer.
And each part shows something that we need to know in order
to approach God rightly in prayer. And I also want to emphasize
that this prayer, it begins in verse nine, our Father. It's a special part of worship,
communication, and communion with a holy God who is the spiritual,
eternal Father of His children, His people. Not everyone can
pray this prayer rightly. We can repeat the words now,
and people do, but we need to know what it means and what it's
about. How can I? God is a holy and
just and righteous God. How can I, a sinner who deserves
nothing but condemnation and death, how can I approach God?
and be accepted, be received. Come to him in prayer and he
hear my prayer. You know, a lot of people, they
throw that word around. Does God hear my prayers? Well,
God hears everything. God knows everything. God is
everywhere. There's nothing that gets by
him. Nothing takes him by surprise.
You don't pray to God and he says, oh man, I never thought
of that. No. In fact, the Lord told him here, he says, he says,
don't pray like the heathen who think that God hears them because
they pray much or they pray a lot or they get these prayer chains
going or they pray loud. He said in verse eight, be ye
not therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what
things you have need of before you ask. So understand when you pray,
God's not your little secretary. He's not taking notes so that
he might forget what you want. And then who has the right to
pray? When he says our Father, now
this is the first issue, I mentioned this last week, but I pray that
God the Holy Spirit will seal this in our minds and our hearts.
And seal it good. And we need to hear it often.
The first point in the manner of true prayer is recognizing
and realizing the glorious fatherhood of God. Now when we speak of the fatherhood
of God, we're not talking about that general relationship of
God as creator and as all people on earth being the created, that
kind of a relationship. Because God did create us all.
But we fell in Adam. And I brought this out last week,
how we fell in Adam into sin and death and rebellion and forsook
God. And now as we are born in this
earth from our father Adam, fallen, for as in Adam all die, the scripture
says, Adam brought sin into the world and death passed upon all
people because all sinned in Adam. Now we're sold out to another
father. And I gave you that example in
John chapter eight, where Christ looked at the Pharisees who claimed
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as their father. And he
says, you're of your father, the devil. You're following the
dictates and the deceptions of your fleshly father, which is
the devil. And that's what all of us do
by nature. As we're born into this world, you weren't born
saved. I don't care what you say, the Bible won't back you
up on that. You must be born again. That's what the Bible
teaches, or you can't see or enter the kingdom of heaven,
the kingdom of God. So what is it about this Our
Father? Well, the Bible teaches us that
in order for a sinner to approach God, in a fatherly son or daughter
relationship, and this is a spiritual relationship, it's a relationship
that's born out of God's electing grace, God's justifying grace,
God's redeeming grace, God's regenerating grace, in order
to have that privilege, and it's an awesome privilege, to pray
to God. That's not, listen. That's, you
know, it's not like the guys, you know, the two old guys, they
were talking about the Bible, and neither one of them knew
much about it, but they both thought they did, like people
today. And one old man said, well, I can quote to you the
whole Lord's Prayer. And the guy said, you cannot. He said,
I can, too. He said, I'll bet you $5 you can't quote it. The
guy said, all right, you're on. And he started quoting. He said,
now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake, I pray to the Lord my soul to
take. The other guy looked at me and said, I didn't think you
could do it. Here's your five. That's what most people think,
you know. They take prayer as a casual thing. Something that
just anybody can do. But it's not so. If God is not
your spiritual father, he may hear what you say, but you have
no communion with him. The Bible says that the prayers
of God's people please Him without faith. It's impossible to please
Him without looking to Christ. When you pray, what is the basis? What is the ground of your coming
to God? You can't pray through Mary.
I don't care what they say. You can't pray through Saint
Paul or Saint Peter. There's only one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And He's our standard, and He's
our basis, our ground of prayer. And that's what this fatherhood
of God is all about. God, our Father. Well, in order
to have that kind of relationship with God, there's gotta be two
things done. There's two requirements. And we can't meet any two of
them. We can't do it in our power, our goodness. The first one is
a legal matter. There's got to be a legal issue.
God, listen, God's holy and just and we're sinners and deserve
nothing. The court of God's law and justice
condemns us for our sins. And those sins have to be paid
for. Justice has to be satisfied. And that's what Christ did on
the cross when he paid for our sins charged to him as our surety
and our substitute and our redeemer. That legal issue has to be settled
for God to be glorified, for God to be honored, before we
can say truly from our hearts, God our Father. That has to be
done. That's why in Hebrews chapter
four and verse 14, When he talks about the basis of prayer, he
starts it off in verse 14 saying, seeing then we have a great high
priest who has passed through into the heavens. And on that
basis, let's go boldly to the throne of grace. We plead the
blood of the lamb. We plead his righteousness imputed
to us. That's our basis. That's the
legal issue settled before holy God. And that's what Christ did
as our high priest. He is our high priest, the high
priest of his people, the people that God gave him before the
foundation of the world. He offered himself without spot,
the lamb without blemish, and died the death of all the sins
of God's people charged to him. and establish that righteousness
in which we appear before holy God in every way, in salvation,
in blessedness, in prayer, in worship. It's Christ. Justice has been satisfied. That's
what the word propitiation means. The turning away of God's wrath
based on a just ground. The issue is settled. We don't
owe a debt to God's law and justice. And if that's not settled in
your mind, then here comes the second part of this necessities
for prayer, to call God our Father. It's a spiritual matter. And
that is we must be born again. We must be given spiritual life.
We must be given a new heart. We must be given a new way of
thinking. We must be given faith in Christ,
looking unto him. We must be given repentance of
dead works. Now I want to show you a couple
of verses that establishes that clearly. Turn to Galatians chapter
four. And again, these things have
to be settled before we come to God in prayer. Verse four of Galatians chapter
four. He says, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth his son, made of a woman, that's his incarnation, who is
Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, made of a woman, not by the seed
of man, but created in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy
Spirit. That holy thing, the angel said,
unique person. And so he was made of a woman,
And then he was made under the law. Now what does that tell
you? If it's under the law, it's legal.
You see what I'm saying? The law, in other words, he became
responsible to the law of God to satisfy its justice in the
place of his people. All of my salvation was conditioned
on Christ. And so he had to be made flesh,
just like me, yet he without sin, And he had to be made under
the law. That legal matter has to be settled.
That's the heart of the gospel. Christ was made sin for us, Christ
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And he did that, verse five, to redeem them that
were under the law, to pay the debt, to settle that matter,
to satisfy justice, to bring forth righteousness. Now he did
that in order that we might receive the adoption of sons. There's
an adoption. Now you know if we do things
right according to the laws of the land, do you know adoption
is first and foremost a legal matter? You have to do it by
law. There has to be legal issues
taken care of before you adopt a child. And in the Roman culture
back then, that had to be done. If a Roman citizen was going
to adopt a child, they had to do it legally. But look here,
and it says in verse six, and because you are sons, now I want
you to notice the language here. It doesn't say in order to become
sons, children of God. Because you are, because Christ
has redeemed you and God has adopted you, because you are
sons, listen to this, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your hearts. There's regeneration, there's
conversion, there's the new birth. In other words, the righteousness
of Christ imputed to us is not only the ground of our justification,
our salvation, it's also the source and spring of spiritual
life. Randy read that in Romans 8,
we'll go there in just a moment. But the spirit of his Son into
your hearts, for what reason? Now look at it, verse six. Crying,
Abba, Father. Abba, Father. What does that
Abba mean? Well, there's various attempts
to translate it. I don't know if anybody's got
it for sure, but I was listening to brother Tim James one time
and he was preaching on that. And he said, it's kind of like
saying Papa, Papa. It's a, it's a love relationship
with our heavenly father. And so he says in verse seven,
wherefore thou art no more servant, but a son. And if a son, then
an heir of God through Christ. Now look at Romans 8. This is
the passage that Brother Randy read. And remember what he said
up into this passage. He says, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Now what is it to be in the flesh?
Now think with me on this. When I used to read these verses
as a lost religionist and I'd say in the flesh, I would think
about the dregs of society. How about you? all the immoral,
the thieves, the drug pushers, and all of that. But you know
what it is to be in the flesh? It's to be an unbeliever, an
unregenerate person. You may be religious, you may
be moral, you may be the pillar of society among your peers,
but if you don't know Christ, if you don't believe in him as
he is identified and distinguished in this book, You're living after
the flesh. You may be trying to keep the
law. Cain, that's what Cain was trying to do, wasn't he? Brought
the works of his hands. Not the blood of the Lamb, but
the works of his hands. God rejected him. You see, that
dishonors God. A sinner trying to keep the law
in order to be saved, in order to establish a right relationship
with God, dishonors God. Can you take that? Natural man
can't. You mean I've tried to be the
best I can be and God wouldn't accept that? I mean exactly that. And you know how I know that?
Because God sent his son into the world in the likeness of
sinful flesh. To do what? To die for my sins. If I can get there by my works,
I don't need Christ. You don't need Christ if you
can get there by your works. So to be in the flesh is to be
an unbeliever. So look here in Romans 8 verse
13. He says, for if you live after
the flesh, you may be religious, you may be immoral. But if you
don't know Christ, you're living after the flesh and you'll die
in your sins, is what he means. But if you through the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body. Now, what
is it to mortify the deeds of the body? It's put them to death.
How do we do that? We repent of them. We do like Paul in Philippians
3, I count it all but loss for Christ. I count it all but dung,
that's dead, isn't it, for Christ. Christ is my only hope, he's
my only righteousness, he's my salvation. And he says, you shall
live. Verse 14, for as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now what
does the Spirit of God lead us to do? To believe in Christ and
repent of those dead works. Verse 15, for you have not received
the spirit of bondage, legalism, works salvation, conditional
salvation, again to fear, but you've received the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry. There it is again. Papa, Papa,
Abba, Father. Now when you go to this prayer,
back here in Matthew six, our Father, which art in heaven,
my soul, don't just pass over that like it's a commonplace
thing. That is an awesome privilege
of the power of God's grace. Our Father, which art in heaven,
and remember last week I said that's not talking about up there
and just low, he's high above us. Only God could devise a way
to save sinners like us and still be just. Only God could devise
a way to save sinners like us in mercy and grace and still
be just and righteous and holy. To save sinners like us and not
pervert his justice. To be both a just God and a savior. Oh, hallowed be thy name. Oh,
my soul. You realize how awesome that
is? I mean, well, I can't even describe
it. I'm like those two West Virginia
farmers who went to the beach and looked out at the ocean.
One said, man, I didn't realize it was that big. And the other
said, and that's just the top of it. We're just seeing the
top of it, aren't we? Oh, my. Well, he goes on. Hallowed
be thy name. Hallowed, that means high and
lofty. There is no God like our God.
So the first thing in this prayer is the glorious fatherhood of
God. The second thing is the gracious,
glorious kingdom of God. Look at it in verse 10. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done. There's the
perfect will of God in earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom. They're praying here in this
time in history for the coming of a kingdom. But hasn't God
always ruled over the whole universe? Well, of course he has. He's
never stopped. The psalmist wrote this, Psalm
103 verse 19, listen to this. The Lord hath prepared his throne
in the heavens and his kingdom ruleth over all. That's never
stopped. Oh, but this world is chaos.
It's out of control. Not out of God's control. It's
out of our control, but you want to know something? It's never
been in our control. We've lost control. We never
had it. And it looks bad, doesn't it?
Looks bad. But God's in control. He rules
over all things. He's working all things after
the counsel of His own will. None can stay His hand or say
unto Him, what do you think you're doing? You ever said that to
your children? Catch them doing something, you
say, what in the world do you think you're doing? You know
why you say that? Because you're in control, you're
the authority, and they're under your rule. But nobody can say
that to God. What do you think you're doing?
Oh my goodness. I'm doing what I want to do,
you worm. That's the way God is. He doeth that which pleaseth
him. So yeah, this world's always
been his kingdom, but here in this prayer, when he teaches
them, pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done as it is in
earth, as it is in heaven. The reference here is to His
spiritual kingdom of grace. His spiritual kingdom of grace
established by the Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of kings,
the Lord of lords. It was established by Christ
in His death on the cross. To save His people from their
sins and bring forth righteousness His kingdom is ruled by a scepter
of righteousness. And that's good for the people
of God. Why? Because we are righteous in Him.
It's bad for the people who don't have Christ. God's gonna judge
this world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained
and that He hath given assurance unto all men and that He has
raised Him from the dead. Do you realize that? When we
stand before God at judgment, the standard is the righteous
scepter, the righteousness of Christ. Do you have that? A kingdom of righteousness established
by the Lord our righteousness. So here, the prayer is for the,
in their time, in this historical period, the prayer I believe
that he's specifically telling them to pray is for the future
work of Christ to accomplish God's sovereign will in the salvation
of his people. That's the establishment of the
kingdom. Listen to the Lord's words himself. This is when Pontius
Pilate was questioning him. And Pilate basically said, are
you a king? And in John 18, 36, Jesus answered,
my kingdom is not of this world. Now he's king over this world,
but the kingdom he's talking about is his spiritual kingdom
of grace. in his church, his people. He
said, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of
this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
hence, not from here. Well, this is also, I believe,
this thy kingdom come, thy will be done. in earth as it is in
heaven. This also includes a prayer for
God's spiritual rule over the hearts and the lives of those
whom he brings willingly to submit to his authority and his rule,
especially his way of salvation by his grace through Christ. The Lord said unto our Lord,
thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. Christ said to enter this kingdom,
the elect of God have to have a perfect righteousness. Remember
when he told them, he said, accept your righteousness, exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5 20. And
then he said later on, well it's right here in Matthew 6, when
he told them over in verse 33, but seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. All these things will be added
unto you. So that's clear. To enter his kingdom, Christ
said the elect have to be what? Born again by the Spirit. John
chapter three. Except you be born again, you
must be born again or you can't see the kingdom of heaven. Except you be born again, you
cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. So our personal entrance into
that kingdom comes by the Holy Spirit bringing us in the new
birth to Christ, the King, the King of righteousness. And he
tells us in Romans 7, 14, and 17, the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
Listen to these words, Luke 17, 20, when he was demanded of the
Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered
them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation.
It's not what you see and feel and circumstances. Neither shall
they say low here or low there for behold, the kingdom of God
is within you. It's a kingdom of the heart.
And the work of the establishment of his kingdom has finished.
It's finished on the cross. But now we, today, we can still
pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in
heaven, especially in the sense of we pray for the salvation
of all of his subjects. And we pray for the coming kingdom
in his second coming. His coming to receive us under
glory. And so then he says, thy will
be done in earth as it is in heaven. We're never, listen,
God's will. This is one of the main things
about prayer. Thy will be done. And I'm gonna talk a little bit
more about that next week, but let me just say this. We are
never to pray for things that God has instructed us not to
pray for. Things that are opposed to his
revealed word. I mentioned that last week. But
you know, God has a secret will. Do you believe he has a secret
will? Well, if you don't, tell me what's
gonna happen tomorrow. Anybody tell me that? I know
what you plan to do. I know what you think you're
gonna have for supper tomorrow. You ladies, you might have already
planned that out. Are you 100% sure that's gonna
happen? And the answer's no. But God
does. He has a secret will that he
has. It's mainly in his providence, isn't it? And then God has a
revealed will. And what is his revealed will?
The things that he's revealed to us in his word that we know.
He's let us in on it. And for example, let me give
you a good example of what I'm talking about. The Bible teaches
us that God has revealed one way of salvation. Not but one
way. Not two, not three, not four,
there's one way. And that way is the glorious
person and finished work of Christ. Is that not true? It's by his
grace. Sovereign grace. God's revealed that. And God
has revealed that he chose a people before the foundation of the
world that he intends to save and they're gonna be saved. But
now here's God's secret will. We don't know who they are until
God reveals it by bringing them to Christ under the preaching
of the gospel. So it would be useless for me
to pray for God to save any sinner under another way. You get my
drift? I pray first when I pray for
people, and I do. Lost people, I pray for them.
Do you know the first thing I pray for? God, bring them to where
the gospel's preached. Because I know that's the only
way you're going to save your people. How do I know that? He's
revealed it. He's going to teach them, John
6. He's going to teach them. And they're going to learn who
the Father is. And they're going to come to
Christ. So in Providence, pray that God's will be done. And
then in areas that we express our desires to God, we know that His will prevails,
doesn't it? I may pray for something, and
I may want it badly, and it may not be against God's revealed
word, but it may not be good for me. But God knows best. And I'll talk a little more about
that next week. But understand this matter of prayer. It's an
awesome thing. It is such a privilege for God's
people.