In Matthew chapter 6 from verse
5, the Lord Jesus speaks of prayer in this manner. And when thou
prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they
love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners
of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say
unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, And when thou hast shut thy door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain
repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall
be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto
them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before
ye ask him. After this manner, therefore,
pray you. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. Amen. This is a prayer of faith. a prayer of communion. It gives
us a glimpse into that true faith and close communion which the
Son of God had with his Father. This is that which exemplified
his life upon earth. that he lived a life of prayer,
a life of constant communion with his father. He lived with
his thoughts, his mind, his desires, his attention upon his father,
his father's will, his father's purposes, his father's glory,
his father's kingdom. He did not have his eyes set
upon men and upon what men would think of him. He did not pray
as the hypocrites prayed, as one to be seen of others. The Lord Jesus' prayers to his
father were not prayed in order that men might see him and see
how holy he appeared. He sought not his own glory but
the glory of his Father. Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. He had a heart of constant prayer,
constant love and devotion and union with his Father. He lived
a life of faith, not of works. He was not as one who set himself,
to work, to fulfil the law of God in order to be seen as doing
before other men. But his life, his walk, was a
walk and a life of faith. His fulfilment of the law of
God was the fruit of a life of faith. Because he was righteous,
because he loved the father, because he believed and trusted
in his father, everything he did was perfect. And as a consequence,
the law of God could not find any spot or blemish in him. But his fulfillment of that law
was not by taking the law and setting himself to keep it as
the Pharisees did, in order that he might have some pride, something
to rejoice in, something to glory in before men. But his keeping
of that law was just a consequence of a righteous inner life of
faith before God. His was a walk of faith. the just shall live by faith. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. as it is written, the just shall
live by faith. The righteousness of God as seen
in the life of Christ and the faith of Christ and the death
of Christ, the righteousness of God which is in the gospel
is the fruit of faith, not of works. It is a righteousness
in which the law can find no fault, a righteousness in which
the law of God is fulfilled to the uttermost, but not a righteousness
of works according to the law, but the righteousness of faith. As Paul contrasts in Romans 10
where he contrasts the righteousness of faith with the righteousness
of the law. For the gospel makes known the
righteousness of faith. the life of faith, the prayer
of faith, the communion of faith, the power of faith, the salvation
of faith, the walk of faith, the man of faith. For the just
shall live by faith. And as with Christ, so with his
people. For his people are in him. and
the father sees his people in him and what he is they are and
what he does they do and the love that God has for his son
he has for his children therefore as Christ prayed so he exhorts
his brethren his the sons and the children and the daughters
of God to do as he prayed so they pray After this manna pray
ye, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory Forever, Amen. A prayer of faith, communion
between Father and Son, between God and His people in Christ. This is what unites them. This is what unites us unto our
God, faith. That faith which comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God, that faith which comes through
the Gospel, that faith which comes when we're born again by
the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel, by the mighty
operation of God that quickens us to life and causes us to cry
out unto our God, Abba Father, Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever amen the kingdom and the power and
the glory oh what sort of a god what sort of a father does the
son address here a god who has a kingdom A God
who has power, the power. And a God who has glory. Thine
is the kingdom, the power and the glory. He is a sovereign,
an almighty, a powerful and omnipotent God. He is God. He is the ruler of heaven and
earth. He is the One by whom all things
are created, through whom God made this world and He made it
when He spake and He spake by His Son. He is God. He is the One who is from everlasting
unto everlasting. Before all things, before this
world ever existed, God was. And the Son of God was. The Alpha
and the Omega, the beginning and the end. The first and the
last. This is a sovereign God under
whom the Son of God prays. A sovereign. He is over and above
all. Over and above all kings and
queens in this earth. Over and above all presidents
and powers. Over and above all empires. Over
and above all great and small. over and above all principalities
and powers, the devils and his angels included. There is none
greater, none greater, none wiser, none more powerful. He is God,
he is sovereign. This is a God who says, who speaks
and it is done. This is a God who commands and
it happens. This is a God who decrees and
it comes to pass with 100% certainty. He speaks and it is done. He
says Lazarus come forth and he comes forth and life enters in. He says let there be light and
there is light. He commands the death of the
wicked and they shall die forever. He holds all things in His hands. For He is all-powerful. Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory. It is all His. The kingdom is
His. The power is His. The glory is
His. It's all His, not ours. Not ours, it is His kingdom,
His power and His glory. The kingdom of God is not man's,
it's not even believers in that sense. It's ours as it is given
to us in Christ, but it's God's. We only have it if he gives it
to us. We're only citizens of his kingdom if he causes us to
enter in. And we know that we cannot enter
into the kingdom of heaven except we be born again. And we have
no means of causing ourselves to be born again. Salvation is
of the Lord's. Salvation is of the Lord. He
is sovereign. He is all-powerful. He says to this dead sinner,
arise and live. And he arises and lives. You
in the darkness and depravity of your sin, You full of enmity
towards God and his ways. You full of apathy and carelessness
with regard to Christ and his gospel are in God's hands. He can either leave you to yourself
and you will be plunged into hell on the day you pass from
this world with a certainty and you can do nothing to prevent
it and you have earned it and deserved it. or He can, by grace,
through His Gospel, through His Son, set His everlasting love
upon you and say, despite all that you are, despite all that
you have done, Despite your enmity towards me and your apathy and
your hatred and your dis-disinterest. Despite everything that you have
done unto me. Despite the fact that in your
heart you took my son and with wicked hands nailed him to a
tree. Despite all that you have done. I love you. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. I will love you to the end and
I have set my grace upon you and I've taken your sin and laid
it upon my son. I've made him to be sin in your
place. I've taken your sins and laid
them upon him and I've punished him instead of you. And because
I've done this and because it's complete and accomplished and
because he's died and risen again, you are mine. and you will never
be plucked from my hands. As he said that to you. Have
you come to stand before Almighty God, full of sin, full of guilt,
full of despair, knowing you're condemned and knowing you deserve
his judgment and come to discover that he says unto you, not guilty. You are mine, you're forgiven.
O ye of little faith, doubt no more, believe. Follow my Son
and enter into heaven's glory. Has he said that to you? He has the power to. He has the
power to. Because he is God. And salvation
is of the Lord. And his is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Then if it be so, this is the
God before whom you and I must stand, this is the God before
whom we must give an account, this is the God with whom we
must deal. Then don't treat this God and
his gospel and his ways and his things and his Son lightly, but
take them up seriously. Take up these scriptures as words
more precious and more vital and more important than any other
that you can read. Take this message as words more
important to your soul than anything that you could hear from men
and this world and its books and its wisdom and its thinking
and its media and all the deceptive voices that would lead you to
destruction. Take the things concerning Jesus
Christ and treat them as those precious heavenly things upon
which your soul's destiny depends. O bow down the knee before this
God. Because there comes a day when
all men, all women, all children, all will bow the knee to the
Son of God. All will bow the knee before
this God. At the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow. There comes a day when all will
bow before Him and His Son. then better to bow now before
the bowing is by constraint and for a moment until you're cast
aside to everlasting destruction better to enter his kingdom this
side of the grave after this manner therefore pray
ye our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead
us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. The kingdom This
God has a kingdom. And he reigns over this kingdom. There is a king over this kingdom. It's his kingdom. And he rules. And he is a good and a righteous
ruler. A good and a righteous king. This is a wonderful, a glorious
kingdom. This is a kingdom that you and
I should desire to be a part of. This is an everlasting kingdom. It will never be destroyed. It will never be brought down.
It will never come to nothing. We live in a world full of nations,
full of countries, full of kingdoms and empires, which are forever
changing. Those nations which are mighty
today were nothing yesterday, and they will be nothing tomorrow.
Those nations of a foregone age, those empires, which were once
great, all powerful, about which you could have never imagined
at that time that they would ever cease to be. Those nations
from a prior day are now long gone. Where is the Roman Empire? Where is the Alexandrian Empire? Where is the Great Egypt? The
rule of Egypt and the Pharaohs? Where is Hitler and his Third
Reich? Where are these nations? They
are as a drop in a bucket. They are as nothing before this
God. They come and they go. God raises
them up for a time, for a purpose, for a season and He brings them
down to nothing. Their leaders become puffed up
by their power and deny God and His reign. And God brushes them
aside. There is nothing solid and lasting
in this world. The riches that these empires
accrue, that these nations accrue, come and go. The riches that
men within these kingdoms strive to hold on to, pass through their
hands like grains of sand. They are fleeting, passing, temporal. But God's kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. It will never be destroyed because
its King is everlasting. In Luke 1.33, regarding the birth
and the coming of our Saviour into this world, it is written
of Him, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there shall
be no end. No end. It's an everlasting kingdom. Isaiah says in chapter 9, regarding
this child which is born, whose name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace, in which we see the unity of the Son with the Father. that the child, the son should
be called the everlasting father. What a verse, what a testament
to the triune God. One God in three persons, the
son is God. He takes the name of God, the
mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. But this
son, it is written of him, of the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end. upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. He's come as the
king to reign upon his throne. He has a kingdom which lasts
forever. A kingdom unlike the world's. This is a heavenly kingdom. A
kingdom in which there is righteousness, justice, peace, glory and power. Consider the figure and the picture
of this kingdom as you see it in David in the Old Testament. The people of God, the Israelites,
not content with having God alone as their king and lord and saviour. Wanted to be as the other nations. They wanted to be a kingdom.
They wanted an earthly kingdom with a king to reign over them.
They wanted their will, not God's will. And in rebellion against
God, they demanded and cried out that they should have a king.
And God in sufferance of them, but also in order to bring about
the type and figure of the kingdom of God, in type and figure in
David and on this earth, as a picture of the heavenly kingdom, God
allowed them to have a king. But the people chose Saul. The people's choice of king was
Saul. who brought countless ruin and
trouble to that nation. And in the end, because of his
great rebellion against God, and the sin in which he indulged,
and his hatred and enmity of David, he was taken away. And God appointed David. God
anointed David, a man after his own heart. God's king, God's
choice of king for his people. A picture of Christ, the anointed. Now in this picture of the kingdom
and the king of Saul and David, We have both a picture of God's
kingdom and his people within that kingdom and the reign of
the king over that people. But we also have a wonderful
picture of the gospel and the contrast between the free will
of man, so called, and the free grace of God. The people with
their choice chose Saul to reign over them. and brought on their
heads destruction and misery and trial and woe but God by
grace did not cut them off utterly but having humbled them having
shown them the error and the foolishness of their own decision
their own way their own works He then comes and grants them
a true King A righteous king. A king who loved God. A king
whose heart was set upon God and his kingdom. And he gives
them David. And here we see his free grace
towards his people. His salvation. God's choice. God's will. Man had a choice. Man had a will. And he chose
Saul. He chose the earth. He chose
that which is earth. They chose a man who in their
eyes appeared strong and mighty. But God took that meek man, David,
and said, this is my king. This is the one that I will anoint.
This is the one who will be great in my kingdom. The people said
of Christ, When Christ, David's greatest son, of whom David was
a figure, came as the king of the Jews, the people said of
him, we will not have this man to reign over us. Man's will
always rejects the Son of God. Man's will always rejects God's
choice. Man's will always rejects God's
will. God said, David will be my king. Man said, no, we'll have Saul.
God said, Christ is my anointed, of whom David is the figure.
Man said, away with this man. We will not have this man to
reign over us. He is not the king of the Jews.
And yet God, by grace, despite their rejection, set forth Christ
as the Saviour of his people. He had him slain upon the tree. He suffered and died in the place
of his people. He bore their sins. He was laid
in the grave. He was buried and he rose again. And he was exalted to a great
height where God says of him, this is my son. Hear ye Him,
this is my beloved Son, this is the Anointed, this is the
King of Kings, this is the Lord of Lords. He is my King over my kingdom. For it is my kingdom and I will
appoint the King and He will rule and He will rule by grace. For thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Oh, what a King. Mark says of
this King, in fulfilment of all these things, in Mark 11 he writes,
and they brought the cult to Jesus. Jesus' command, He sent
the disciples to get a colt that He might ride it and enter into
Jerusalem. They brought the colt to Jesus
and cast their garments on Him and He sat upon Him. And many
spread their garments in the way and others cut down branches
off the trees and strawed them in the way. And they that went
before and they that followed cried saying, Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Blessed be the kingdom of our
father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna
in the highest. They saw that this one that came
riding upon a colt, meek and lowly, was God's anointed, who
would come as the true king. of the kingdom of their father
David. He came in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest, they cried. Oh what a king is set
over this kingdom. And what a kingdom it is. This
God whose the kingdom is, this God who has the power and the
glory, is a God who provides for his people in everything. He's made them to be citizens
of His kingdom. He causes them to hear His gospel. He gives them His Son. He gives
them new life in His Son. He gives them the forgiveness
of sins in His Son. He washes them clean in the blood
of the Lamb. He makes them to live. He sends
the gospel forth and causes them to be born again. He provides
them with their daily bread, their daily food. He clothes
them. Later on in this chapter in Matthew
in chapter 6 Christ says take no thought for the morrow. Because
the Father knows that you need food. He knows that you need
to drink. He knows that you need to be clothed. Your Heavenly
Father knoweth all that ye need, and He will give them all unto
you. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. If you're in this kingdom, He'll
clothe you. He'll clothe you with the robes
of royalty. because you're wed to the King
of Kings. He'll clothe you with righteousness. He'll feed you on the bread of
life, the bread of heaven. He'll give you the water of life
to drink. He'll provide for you in a way
that you cannot comprehend. He'll give you the greatest of
gifts. He'll give you Christ. He'll
give you a husband more faithful, more true than any husband upon
earth can ever be. He'll give you a husband who
loves you to the end, who will lay down his life for you. who has laid down his life for
you. He'll give you the bread of heaven, which will never run
out. He'll give you the water of life,
eternal life, of which you will drink and never be thirsty. He'll clothe you with the righteousness
of God, by the faith of Jesus Christ. He provides for His people
in everything. Who are these people? They are
those and those alone who by grace are born again of God and
made to be the citizens of His kingdom. Ye must be born again,
it says in John 3. Ye must be, ye cannot enter the
kingdom of heaven except ye be born again. Ye must be born again. And those who are born not of
the will of man, not of the strength of man, not of their own decision,
not of their own will, but of God's will, through His gospel,
through His power, are made to be citizens of His kingdom. Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory. The power. The power. For the kingdom of God is not
in word but in power. We read in 1 Corinthians 4 20. It's in power. It comes in power. It's not something that's just
described. It's not something we just read
off on the pages of scriptures and hope to one day see, but
it comes unto us now in power through the Gospel. We who are
born again, we who know Christ, we who hear this Gospel and are
brought to life by it, enter this Kingdom. And the Kingdom
enters us, it's within us. And we know it's power because
we know the power of the Gospel and the power of the Son of God. That power is in the Gospel and
that Gospel makes us citizens of this Kingdom. The Kingdom
of God is not in word but in power. Do you know this power?
Or is your religion all in the head? All just words, all just
form, all just dry in the letter? Are you just making an appearance? Are you just putting on a show? Are you just going to the meetings
and reading the book and saying your prayers and it's all outward
and it's all just a show and there's no life or power in it?
Is it all just to be seen of men like these Pharisees of old
with their prayers to be seen and their appearance of holiness
when they were dead within? Or is the gospel that which brings
life? Is your experience that as one
who's come to an end of man's religion, an end of strife, and
an end of works, an end of trying to be something you're not? Have
you come to the end of trying to be holy, and trying to be
righteous, and trying to be good, and trying to serve God? Have
you come to an end of it all and fallen down upon your knees
as a weak, fallen, broken sinner that cries out, Lord I'm nothing,
I can do nothing. Have mercy upon me a sinner. Have you come to an end of it
all for when you come to an end, Then God speaks in grace, then
He speaks in love, then He speaks in power by His gospel and says,
behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Behold my Son, believe on Him and enter my kingdom. For the
kingdom of God is not in words, but in power. And when you hear
this gospel, when you hear the power of God, when you hear Christ
speak unto your soul, saying live and you live, then you know. There's a great difference between
a living gospel, a living religion, a true religion, and that which
is mere notion and head knowledge and dead. Then you know the life
of God within the life of Christ. Then you know the power which
reigns in this kingdom. which comes through Christ and
His gospel, which comes through eating the bread of life. Like
that manna that God gave to the children of Israel, fresh every
day, He gives bread in the gospel, the bread of life, Christ. You
eat and drink of Christ and know His life, then you know His power. Power. Thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory. The power is God. He rules over
all with almighty power. A mighty arm. His arm is not
weakened, it's not shortened that it cannot save. He can save
to the uttermost. He's mighty and powerful. and
he can overcome every power and every strength which is set against
him. He's over all powers and authorities. He reigns over all the power
and authority of the evil one. Satan, the prince of the power
of the air, is under Christ's foot. Satan can do nothing except
he gains God's permission and Christ's permission and Christ
says alright then. Satan had to seek God's permission
to bring trouble upon Job. He could do nothing to Job except
God said alright and God let him because God was using him
to bring about his purposes. He was working all things for
the good of his people. There is no power and authority
in this world or in the spiritual realm in this world which is
not under the power of God. He is all-powerful. There is
a spiritual realm that we do not see. In this room there are
angels, there are spirits, there are devils. You cannot see them
but the air is thick with them. For whatever spirits and devils
there may be, whatever powers and authorities there may be,
which bring things to pass in this world, which bring tragedy
and torment and war and hunger and famine, which bring all these
things about, when God allows them and when God commands them,
whatever powers and authorities there may be, they are all under
His control. All. Speaking of the end times,
in 1 Corinthians 15, it's written, Satan is in God's hands. All his angels are in God's hands.
And one day he'll be destroyed. when God has finished using him
for his glory. Oh, he's sovereign. Thine is
the kingdom and the power. And what power he has in the
gospel. What power and ability he has
to preach and speak unto your soul and take your hard heart
and break it and smash it and melt it and cause even you to
fall down at his feet if he chooses and believes. Oh sinner, however
mighty you think of yourself, however proud you might be, however
arrogant, you are nothing before this God and his power. And if
He by grace has set His love upon you, you will fall down
and glorify His name. You will believe. You will bring
glory and praise under His name. For thine is the kingdom, Christ
prays, and the power and the glory. All the glory is God's. All the glory is God's. Man has no part in this, no claim. It's all God. All man's religion
brings glory and praise unto man. This is what this whole
chapter contrasts in Matthew. The praise and the glory of man
in religion. The Pharisees and their manner
in praying and in their almsgiving and in their fasting and in all
that they did, that it's all done before others to get the
glory and the adulation of others. Oh, isn't he a good man? Isn't
he devout? Isn't he devout? Isn't he devoted? Isn't he zealous? Isn't he self-sacrificing? Oh, he never thinks of himself.
He's always doing things for others. Oh, what a good man. And how you like to hear others
speak of you as a good man. How we love the praise and the
adulation of others. How we are willing even to give
up many, many things in this world, to give up all things.
How willing we are if we get the praise in return. We think
we've given up something but we haven't. We've traded earthly
comfort for the praise and the adulation and the glory. We've
bought glory with our own deeds. We've not given up a thing. We've just chosen to buy glory
rather than riches. We've just chosen to buy the
praise and the glory of man for our religion rather than the
comforts and riches that others in this world might seek. But
we're still buying and trading and we're still bringing things
to ourselves. We're still proud, we're still
arrogant, we're still glorying. But Christ says, thine is the
glory to his Father. The glory's all God's, not man's. Your glorying is in vain. It's foolish, you've got nothing
to glory in. You're full of sin and corruption,
and even your most righteous deeds in religion are utterly
corrupt. before a holy and a righteous
God. Even your greatest prayers, even your most self-sacrificing
deeds, even your kindest acts towards others, if you take any
pride in them, they're despicable, they're vile, they're as filthy
rags before Him. The glory is His. And the glory
which is His is seen in its greatest light. its greatest shining in
the death of his son because he loved his people and he gave
his only begotten son to deliver that people from their sins and
the son loved that people and he gave himself for that people
He is the greatest gift. He's the greatest gift. People at this time of year give
and receive gifts in the name of Jesus Christ. But He's the
gift. He's the gift of God. He's the
gift. Have you received Him? Have you
received Him if you've received Him? You'll receive His glory
as seen in His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension,
His glorification on high. Oh, the glory in the death and
the salvation which Christ has wrought for His people. In Colossians
1, we read so much of this, so much of the presentation of Christ
as the preeminent saviour, as the one who is glorified in his
death. And Paul writes, giving thanks
unto the Father which have made us to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light who have delivered us from the power of
darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. Oh, the glory seen in having
our sins forgiven because of Christ's blood shed for sinners. Christ in this prayer says, thy
kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Set thy king upon the throne. Not man's choice. Give us this
day our daily bread. Do you pray for that daily bread?
Have you received it? Have you received Christ? He
is our daily bread. and forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. Have you been forgiven? Do you
know that forgiveness which can only come through the blood of
Jesus Christ? Was that blood shed for you? Was his love set upon you? Has he forgiven even you? and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil as Christ through his death delivered you
from evil as he delivered you from all evil as he delivered
you from the evil without and the evil within as he delivered
you from evil if he has and you will know what it is with the
saviour to be able from the heart to say unto your God thine is
the kingdom and the power and the glory thine it's all thine
it's all of grace I did not deserve it I did not earn it and yet
Lord thou hast said it upon me at the end of all things John
in the Revelation, in vision heard this, I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night. Christ has wrought a great victory.
He's answered the accusations of the accuser. He's answered
every accusation of the law of God against his people. In Christ,
through his death, through his blood, they fulfilled that law
to the uttermost. They are righteous. They have
the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus Christ. He's delivered
them. And through that deliverance,
the accuser of the brethren is cast down. The kingdom of our
God has come. Salvation and strength has come. And the power of his Christ has
come. Has it come to you? Do you know
that His is the kingdom, His is the power and His is the glory? And has He made that kingdom
yours? And has the power of that gospel
come unto you? And has the glory in Christ been
made known unto you? Has it? Can you truly cry? For thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen.