In this manner, therefore, pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, who yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Amen.
Introduction
So in this particular section in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is dealing with acts of piety, or acts of righteousness, or the things that the people of God engage in. Notice that Jesus assumes or presupposes that the children of God will engage in these things. It says, when you do a charitable deed in verse 2. Verse 5, and when you pray.
And then in verse 16, moreover, when you fast. So he's addressing and highlighting religious observances that the people of God undertake And he's trying, or he's telling us the proper manner and way we are to do these things. And with reference to prayer, he gives two cautions and then he gives this model prayer. The first caution is that we ought to be, or we must not be like the hypocrite.
The hypocrite prays simply to be seen by men. Jesus says, if that's all that you're after, well then certainly you will get your reward. People will see you and fawn all over you and say, wow, look at that person praying. But Jesus says, when you pray, go into your secret place, go into your closet, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
So don't pray like the hypocrite. Secondly, in terms of caution, he says, don't pray like the heathen. Verse 7, and when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. God is not a being to manipulate through our many words.
This was common among the heathen or among the pagan, is to just use formula or magical rites or whatever it might be to try and manipulate the God to perform in a manner that the petitioner desires. Jesus says, don't be like those heathen. When you pray, use this model prayer, not just recite it in some sort of empty-minded fashion, but rather look at each of these petitions and use these in your prayer closet, use these as well in the church as you gather together. So he condemns ostentatious prayer, thoughtless prayer, and now he gives a model for his disciples to follow.
Last week we considered the preface in verse 9. It says, Our Father in Heaven. That is the preface to the Lord's Prayer, and then follows six petitions. The first petitions are those things that have specific reference to God.
They are God-centered petitions. The latter three, or the second three, are man-centered. Not man-centered in the sense that it's all about me, but they are things that peculiarly relate to man. So with reference to the God-centered petitions, we first see the glory of God's name, secondly, the coming of God's kingdom, and thirdly, the execution of God's will.
And when we get to the man-word ones, we see food, forgiveness, and protection. Food, not just food. but temporal blessings, the things that we stand in need of on a daily basis. So that's the progression. And it's very conspicuous that God comes first.
Just like in the Ten Commandments, God comes first. Before we get into our interpersonal relationships and how we're to relate to parents, how we're to relate to human life, sexual matters, property, the truth, and covetousness. Before we get into all those very important things, the first four commandments highlight our duty toward God. And so that same sort of a priority structure is seen in the Lord's Prayer.
God's name, God's kingdom, God's will comes before we come to ask for our food. Ryle says the glory of God is the first thing that God's children should desire. Now that's something that we need to ponder and we need to consider. That's probably not always the case.
We get ahead of ourselves. We run into the presence of God and we say, Lord, give me, give me, give me. I need these particular things. This prayer calls us to stop, to reflect upon the God to whom we are addressing, our Father in heaven, and then to consider those things which are absolutely requisite in terms of prayer.
Spurgeon says, does not the daily bread often come in before the kingdom? Again, an inversion of the priority here. We come and ask first for ourselves. Jesus says, no, you come first and praise my father and then lay your petitions out before him.
Calvin summarizes all of the petitions this way. He says, Christ embraces therefore In six petitions, what we are at liberty to ask from God. Nothing is more advantageous to us than such instruction. Though this is the most important exercise of piety, yet in forming our prayers and regulating our wishes, all our senses fail us.
No man will pray or write unless his lips and heart shall be directed by the heavenly master. It's a very excellent reminder for us. This is a model prayer. Again, not simply for recitation.
Don't just say it ten times and think that you're going to be answered for your particular petition because you've said it many times. That's not the manner. You're to take the petition, as we're going to do tonight, roll it around, consider it, what's being said, and seek to apply it in various areas in our lives.
The First Petition: Hallowed Be Your Name
So the first one is the glory of God's name. Hallowed be your name. The Westminster Larger Catechism number 190 says, what do we pray for in the first petition? By the way, the Westminster Larger Catechism on the Lord's Prayer and on the Ten Commandments is very helpful.
If you want some things to consider, it's not a huge work, a paragraph at the most. They're very good things to stimulate thought and meditation and concern for these particulars. At any rate, what do we pray for in the first petition? In the first petition, which is, hallowed be thy name, acknowledging the utter inability and indisposition that is in ourselves and all men to honor God aright, We pray that God would by His grace enable and incline us and others to know, acknowledge, and highly to esteem Him, His titles, attributes, ordinances, word, works, and whatsoever He is pleased to make Himself known by, and to glorify Him in thought, word, and deed. that he would prevent and remove atheism, ignorance, idolatry, profaneness, and whatsoever is dishonorable to him, and by his overruling providence, direct and dispose of all things to his own glory." Again, it's a wonderful summary statement about this first petition.
The thing that I think is very intriguing, though, they say before they get into dealing with the particulars, acknowledging the utter inability and indisposition that is in ourselves and all men to honor God aright. This is a petition. We're asking God, hallowed be your name. We're not saying we want something to happen that isn't already true.
No, God's name is hallowed. It is honorable. It is glorious. The petition is, help me to hallow it.
Help me to honor it. Help me to praise it. Help me to esteem it. And help me to live in a manner that is consistent with true religion.
So the confession, or the catechism rather, acknowledging our inability. This is a petition that we pray to God, asking God to help us to rightly esteem and respect Him. It acknowledges the reality of our sin and the natural inclination of our heart to not honor the God of heaven and earth. Prior to our conversion, many of us were blasphemers, we cursed, we said things that we shouldn't have, we invoked God's name only to try and get things out of Him.
Well, even as Christians, as those converted to God, we still need great help, great assistance, the power of the Spirit and constant and earnest prayer so that we may esteem properly that name which is above every name. And so
The Meaning of God's Name
let's look first at the meaning of his name. The catechism links not only his name, his titles, but his attributes, ordinances, word, and works. The meaning of his name, the essence of God. When we speak of God, we refer to the God of the Bible.
We refer to his being, that Exodus 3.14 reality. When Moses says, who shall I say sent me, he says, say I am who I am that I am is the one that sent you. This underscores God's being. It underscores his independence.
It underscores the fact that he is of himself. He's not created. He's not derived. He is not put on this planet by something outside of himself.
He is what he is. The glory of the triune God is involved with reference to this, Hallowed be your name. When we pray for the hallowing of God, we are not praying generically. We are praying with reference to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as he has revealed himself through the Holy Scripture.
So if we really take seriously this first petition and we pray it and we mean it, then this indicates that we need to know something about the God that we are seeking to hallow and glorify. More on that in just a moment. But it's not only his essence or his being or the very deity of God, it is also his attributes. Thomas Watson says, anything by which he may be known.
As a man is known by his name, so by his attributes of wisdom, power, holiness, and goodness God is known by his name. We might speak of somebody, we might refer to this particular person by name, and others might say, he's a good man, he's a man of integrity, he's a man of honesty, he's a man of loyalty. Those are attributes that say something about that particular man. The attributes of God function in that particular way as well.
They ascribe to God certain things that are true concerning Him. The shorter catechism says, what is God? The answer is God is spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. It is being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
All of those things taken together describe for us, or at least begin to describe for us, just who God is. When we consider various attributes of God in the scripture, It helps us with this particular petition. Hallowed be your name. Those attributes of God's sovereignty.
His sovereignty and His power and His majesty and His truth. All of these things help us to flesh out what is meant by this reality of God's name. And as well, His word. The Catechism says His title attributes, ordinances, and word.
It's interesting because God magnifies his name among the nations, doesn't he? He says that throughout the scripture. God's name is to be glorified. God's name is sacred, it's holy, it's awesome.
People ought to fear with reference to the name of the living and true God. But it's interesting, in Psalm 138, the psalmist says, I will worship toward your holy temple and praise your name for your loving kindness and your truth. And then he says, for you have magnified your word above all your name. It's a very intriguing statement.
We have the name of God in great reverence. It is sacred. It is other. It is something that is to be esteemed.
And the psalmist says that God has magnified his word above all your name. Thomas Manton says, there is more of God to be seen in his word than in all the creatures of the world and in all his other works besides. So when we come and we petition God, Hallowed be Your name, it's not just God. That's certainly involved.
It's no less than the name God, but we consider His essence. We consider who He is in His being. We consider Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We consider His attributes, truth, goodness, righteousness, holiness, justice, all of these things.
And we consider His Word. All of this causes us pray, hallowed be your name, that these things would be esteemed and held high, and that men might fear as they ought to do." So that's the meaning of his name, or at least sketching, or a little bit of it. Secondly,
Explanation of the Petition
the explanation of the petition. When Jesus says, hallowed be your name, I've already explained, it doesn't mean we want to create something that hasn't been done. It's not as if we make God's name holy. It's not as if we make it something that is worthy to be praised.
God is holy according to Leviticus 11. God is glorious according to Exodus 15. God is set apart, according to Isaiah 57. God's name is excellent.
This is already a given. So when we pray, hallowed be your name, we're not praying for the very first instance of this occurring. Psalm 8. The psalmist says, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth, who have set your glory above the heavens.
The purpose of the petition is to help us recognize the holiness and the hallowedness and the sacredness of that particular name, to live in light of this reality, to make sure that we esteem it in our private lives, in our families, in our churches, and we pray that God's name would be esteemed in society. If ever there was a time the church ought to be praying this first petition is in a day and age where it's perfectly legitimate to blaspheme Jesus Christ as a matter of course But you cannot say anything against the Prophet Muhammad. You cannot say anything against the President of the United States, who's an incompetent man. Or you are guilty of racism, or bigotry, or your prejudice, but you can blaspheme Jesus like it's nothing.
I saw on the news recently, there's a TV show, one of the channels, a cable channel, is going to put on unless they are swayed otherwise, putting on this show called Black Jesus. And Black Jesus is set in either Harlem or Compton. I think it was Compton. Compton is a black neighborhood, or a black city in California.
And Black Jesus, I don't know if it's supposed to be the real Jesus, who is now living in Compton, or it's a guy who just thinks he's Jesus. But this black Jesus cusses, he smokes marijuana, he carries on, and it's just an utter blasphemous expression of the way that society is going. This is a good time to pray. Hallowed be thy name.
Because men are trashing the very name of the God of heaven and earth. And so when we pray this, we are asking that the name of God be recognized as hallowed. It's not about God becoming hallowed, but rather His being and attributes being recognized as hallowed. We do not add to His essential glory, but we exalt Him.
That's the purpose behind the petition. Leviticus 10.3 at the death of Nadab and Abihu this is what God said by those who come near me I must be regarded as holy and before all the people I must be glorified now when I say the death of Nadab and Abihu I'm assuming you know what happened in that particular instance. If you have forgotten, let me remind you, because I think it underscores this statement in Leviticus 10.3. God had told Israel how they were to worship Him.
They were to sacrifice in a particular way. Chapters 1 to 7 in the book of Leviticus specified how they were to approach God. Very detailed, very fastidious, very particular, the means and manner by which they were to present their sacrifices. At the end of chapter 9, the children of Israel offer up a sacrifice to the Lord that He approves of.
He comes down, fire comes down out of heaven, and accepts that offering that was made by Israel. It says, all of the people shout it. It was an expression of praise, I take it. And then in Leviticus chapter 10, Nadab and Abihu offer up strange fire to the Lord, something He did not command that.
See why Pastor Cam and I at times really harp on this whole issue of we need to worship God the way He says to? We're not free to be creative. We're not free to be innovative. We're not free to determine how it is that we worship the triune God of heaven.
We are simply called to obey him. Well, Nadab and Abihu offered a profane fire. So again, fire comes down out of heaven. But instead of this time accepting the sacrifice, it consumed Nadab and Abihu.
So imagine that, you're at a worship service, and I do something really foolish, and fire comes out of heaven and burns me right up there at the pulpit. That would probably put a little fear in your hearts, wouldn't it? If that ever happens to me, please, let it put fear in your hearts. At that point, we all need a good dose of fear.
And it's in that situation, it's in that setting, and it's in that context that God says, by those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy. And before all the people, I must be glorified. You see, we ought to take seriously the name of God. We profess faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We profess that God the Father is our Father. I wouldn't like it if my children were out doing stupid things, engaging in sinful conduct, and doing it in my name. Well, why is it the case that we'll conduct ourselves as Christians in stupid, sinful ways and not begin to think about the shame we are casting upon our Father's good name? We are identified as the people of God.
We must pray to God, hallowed be thy name. First and foremost, for us, that we may honor and that we may esteem it. Psalm 34.3, O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. Psalm 96.8, give to the Lord the glory due his name.
Bring an offering and come into his courts. Jesus prays in John 12, 28, Father, glorify your name. You see, this is huge. This is where the prayer begins.
And I think that if we're thinking properly, all the other petitions ultimately serve this. When God's kingdom comes, when his will is done on earth, it brings honor and glory and praise to his name. When our temporal needs are met, when we're eating and we're breathing and we're conducting ourselves in this world, when we are being forgiven by our Father and we are being protected by our Father, what is the end result? The end result is that his name is glorified His name is honored.
His name is esteemed, exalted, and praised. That is the purpose behind our lives. We have been saved, not just so we can go to heaven. That's a blessed, wonderful corollary.
We have been saved to bring glory and honor and praise to our God. This is why we were called out of darkness into marvelous light, according to 1 Peter 2.9. It is to proclaim the excellencies of Him who did this, or proclaim His praises. You see, we're not saved simply to sit and enjoy our salvation.
Certainly we enjoy our salvation. The prophet says, I rejoice in your salvation. But we do what we do to bring glory and honor and praise to the name of the living and true God. Calvin says the substance of this petition is that the glory of God may shine in the world. and may be duly acknowledged by men." That's the point.
That's what's in view in this first petition, that the glory of God may shine in the world and may be duly acknowledged by men. So we've seen the meaning of his name. Secondly, the explanation of the petition. Let's
Application of the Petition
consider some of the particulars with reference to the application of this.
Application: As Individuals
First, as individuals, we need to know this stuff, right? See, this is the fundamental difference between Baalism or paganism or heathenism or any of the false religions of the day versus the religion of the Bible. See, God tells us we need to know him when we come to him to worship him and pray to him. We're not emptying our minds.
We are not getting things out. We're not just disengaging and somehow getting in touch with the cosmic forces that are out there. No, the scripture tells us we need to be filled with the knowledge of God most high. We need to know his name, his being, his attributes, his titles, his word.
We need to understand truth about God in order to apply this petition. So you see, it's not enough just to pray, hallowed be thy name. But we also must take means or we must put into practice the things that we are praying. Owen says, he who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.
So when we say, hallowed be thy name, we're not just saying, God zapped me and caused me to always esteem you. Within the petition is this pursuit of knowing who God is so that we can rightly esteem and praise and honor him. that we know his name. Second, that we profess his name. We can never fulfill this first petition unless we're Christians.
We can't hallow the name of God if we haven't come to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Profession of faith, confession of faith in our Lord Christ is absolutely crucial. in order to put into practice this first petition. Thirdly, there ought to be a dependence upon his name. We learned something of that on Sunday morning.
I hope we did. What does the psalmist say in Psalm 46.10? Be still and know that I am God. Trust in God.
Seek refuge and safety in God. We honor the name of God when we are still in God, when we know that He is God and we rest upon Him and depend upon Him. Fourthly, we need to esteem His name in our words and actions. It's always intrigued me that when David committed his sins, the big sins, murder and adultery, Nathan comes and reproves him.
Remember how Nathan does it? He tells David a story and David gets all upset and he's, you know, that, you know, woe to that man. And Nathan says, thou art the man. And he indicts him and he reproves him for his sin with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of Uriah.
It says there, Nathan says, by this you have given cause to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. David, when the nations around Israel see you carrying on like a pagan, they speak ill of the God of Israel. So you see, if we're going to pray, hallowed be your name, we ought to esteem his name in our words and our actions. So it doesn't do us any good to say, oh, how I love God and how I praise Him and esteem Him, and then go out and do things that cause the enemies of the Lord to reproach or blaspheme that particular name.
Again, Thomas Watson says, we hallow and sanctify God's name when we have a high appreciation and esteem of Him and set Him highest in our thoughts. The Hebrew word to honor signifies to esteem precious. We conceive of God in our minds as the most super-excellent and infinite good. We see in Him a constellation of all beauties and delights.
We adore Him in His glorious attributes, which are the several beams by which His divine nature shines forth. We adore Him in His works, which are bound up in three great volumes, Creation, Redemption, and Providence. We hallow and sanctify His name when we lift Him highest in our souls. We esteem Him a supereminent and incomprehensible God." So when we do that, hopefully, and this is the petition, we will live consistently with that esteem.
It doesn't do us any good to say how super excellent our God is and then go conduct ourselves like pagans because it brings reproach upon the name of God. You all know this, most of you, and some of you will. When you have kids and they get out of line, guess who it reflects upon? Or you are a manager or a boss in a job situation or a supervisor in the military.
Was the case. When I was in the military, if an airman went out and got a DUI or did something stupid off base, the supervisor got a talking to as well. because he, in large part, is responsible for his subordinate. The same thing is true. When we go out and act like fools and sinful wretches, it brings reproach upon the name of God.
So we must know his name, profess his name, depend upon his name, esteem his name, and fifthly, and again, this is as individuals, we promote his name. 1 Peter 2.9, I've already mentioned that. We're called out of darkness into marvelous light that we may proclaim the praises of Him. And proclaim there doesn't necessarily mean that everybody's a preacher, or everybody stands behind a pulpit, or everybody sets up a place at five corners and starts telling people about Jesus. Proclaiming His praises, proclaiming His excellencies, can be as simple as that man saying, you know, I was blind, but now I see, and it's as a result of that man, Jesus Christ, telling people what Christ has done for us.
This is a means by which God's name is hallowed. See, I think at times we think God's name isn't hallowed if people don't get saved. God's name is hallowed in the Declaration and the Proclamation of Truth. Every time the Gospel is preached in truth, God is glorified.
That's it. It's not just when sinners are saved. It's when sinners are saved, and it's when sinners aren't saved. It's the proclamation of the truth of God's name.
That brings glory to Him. So that as individuals.
Application: In Families
Secondly, in families. Family religion is a reality. We ought to take seriously the claims of Jesus Christ with reference to the name of God. Deuteronomy 6.
That is a foundational, fundamental passage that every single one of us should have in our minds and hearts when it comes to family religion. When you pray, hallowed be thy name, hopefully you say, God, help me to hallow your name. Help me to esteem it. Help me to proclaim it.
Help me to depend upon it. All those things. But if you're a father, or you're a mother, or you're a grandparent, You pray, Lord God, get a hold of my children. Get a hold of my grandchildren.
I don't want them to blaspheme your name. I don't want them to misuse your name. I don't want them to be like the heathen or the pagan. I want you to get a hold of their heart and teach them the fear of the Lord so that they may proclaim your excellencies.
You see, the nature of the prayer, you don't just say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and then you're done. You think about the petition. How does it apply to me? How does it apply in my marriage?
How does it apply in my family? And in a moment, how does it apply with reference to the church, with reference to missions and evangelism? Hallowed be thy name ought to be something that householders and persons in homes pray for everybody in that home. Notice in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6.4 is Israel's central confession of faith. It is their 1689 London Baptist Confession in one verse. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
As a result of that confession, verse 5, as individuals, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Verse 6, and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." So you see, we pray, God, hallowed be thy name in our homes. We don't want a home that's mixed. We don't want the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light trying to occupy the same space. We can't convert.
We can't save. That's for sure. But we can pray to the God who does convert, the God who does save, and we can pray, God, teach my child the fear of the Lord so that they may honor and hallow Your great name. So that they may esteem You.
So that they may prize You. So that they may read Watson and go, wow, I should see God. has this super-excellent being that is worthy of all adoration. Family religion is absolutely crucial. Joshua confesses this in Joshua 24, his parting exhortation to the children of Israel, an exhortation they certainly didn't plead to, an exhortation they certainly didn't hold on to for the long haul.
But in 2415, he says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You can hear Joshua at the throne of grace praying to God, Lord, teach my children to fear you. Teach my children to hallow your name. Teach my children to honor you and to esteem you and to praise you.
And the same thing is true in New Covenant religion, Ephesians 6.4. You fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. You see, you want well-behaved kids. You want to be able to go to Taco Bell and have them not throw food at each other.
That's commendatory in today's world. But you want something much more than that. You want them to hallow the name of God Most High. And that does not happen apart from His grace.
So you come to the throne of grace and you say, Father, teach me to esteem your name. Teach my son or my daughter to esteem your name as well. So we see the application of this first petition as individuals. We see the application as families.
Application: In the Church
Thirdly, we see the application in the church. You may turn to Ephesians 3. Ephesians chapter 3, verses 8 to 11. Again, just teasing out some of the implications or applications consistent with this first petition.
We pray, hallowed be thy name for ourselves. We pray it for our families. We pray it for our church as well. Ephesians 3, verse 8, to me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ. to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
Isn't that interesting? The manifold wisdom of God is made known by the church. The church is the means by which this manifold wisdom is made known to others. The manifold wisdom, to be sure, is made known to the church.
God does that, and other portions of scripture teach us that. But in this particular instance, the church is to function as a means by which, or a vehicle by which, certain truths concerning God are communicated to others. And in this instance, it says, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the Church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
God so worked in our church that we would be a means of declaring your attributes. That's what Paul is saying here. We want the attribute of God's manifold wisdom to be demonstrated to these principalities and powers in the heavenly places. First Corinthians 11 alludes to this reality, that angels are looking down upon the church at worship.
Angels are gazing upon corporate worship services. I like to think they're getting something more than a guy who's wearing torn jeans, holding a latte with a crooked hat on, who's talking to people like there's nothing big going on. The angels ought to be able to look down and see the trophy case of God's grace, God's power, God's wisdom displayed in the salvation of these particular people. We ought to pray in such a way that God's glory and God's name would be realized in and through the church.
Hebrews 12, 28 to 29. It says, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. You see, church is serious business. Worship is serious business.
We are not to take it lightly. We are not to treat it like it's any other thing, but rather we are to engage in an acceptable form of worship with reverence and godly fear. What does reverence and godly fear sound like? Hallowed be thy name.
We ought to pray that on the Lord's Day, God's name would be hallowed here, that it would be praised here, that it would be esteemed here. We have to have that in our minds. We're not simply here for ourselves. We are here first and foremost for God and for His glory and for His honor and for the magnification of His name.
I think if everybody got a piece of that in their minds and hearts, it would probably dramatically change the way that we come to worship when we know that our primary objective is to bring glory to Him. See, the church doesn't function that way. The primary objective today with reference to church is community, relations with one another. And those things aren't bad.
Community's good. I like community. I'm part of a community. Relationships are good.
Social interaction is good. Getting encouragement is good. But the primary objective when we step foot into this place is that God's name would be hallowed and honored. Let's pray that for our corporate gatherings.
And then with reference to the church as well, as we read in Westminster Larger Catechism 190, that God would prevent and remove atheism, ignorance, idolatry, profaneness, and whatsoever is dishonorable to Him. I mean, if we legitimately prayed that, we're probably praying against 50% of the churches out there. Probably a little higher. I'm just trying to be kind and gentle.
Roger's going, yeah, it's probably higher. But listen. Atheism. What does that do?
It dishonors the name of God. Ignorance. You have people that don't know the Bible. You have preachers that don't know the Bible.
You have men that stand behind pulpits and they don't preach the Bible. Does that ignorance honor God? Is God esteemed through that declaration? Are the people of God being taught to revere and approach Him with godly fear and to hallow and glorify and prize His holy name?
No, ignorance has no place in Christian pulpits. Idolatry. So much of what passes for evangelicalism is probably nothing more than pagan idolatry. Baalism, this whole emphasis on experience and feeling and emotion, that has more in connection with Baal than it does with Yahweh.
Profaneness. profaneness, when we come in and we're not esteeming God. This is something we have to take conscious stock in with reference to worship. There was one of the Puritans, I think it was Richard Steele, wrote a book, How to Deal with Wandering Thoughts During Worship. You ever have wandering thoughts during worship?
No, not me. I'm always 100% focused. We probably all struggle with wandering thoughts, not even in worship, but leading worship sometimes. It's amazing the kinds of things that jump into your head.
It's like, why is that there? Get out. You just want to throw those things out. It is a battle.
There is a real devil. There is remaining corruption. There are these things that are vying for our attention. Profaneness does not esteem and honor the great and holy name of God.
And just in case we haven't covered everything and whatsoever is dishonorable to him. So with reference to individuals, families, and churches, we ought to pray, hallowed be thy name. And then based on Psalm 46.10, we're really going to milk that particular verse.
Application: In Missions
We ought to pray, hallowed be thy name, Lord God, throughout the earth. throughout the earth, because what does the psalmist say? Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.
C. H. Spurgeon says, they forget God. They worship idols, but Jehovah will yet be honored by them.
Reader, the prospects of missions are bright, bright as the promises of God. Let no man's heart fail him. The solemn declarations of this verse must be fulfilled. I will be exalted in the earth among all people, whatever may have been their wickedness or their degradation.
Either by terror or love, God will subdue all hearts to himself. the whole round earth shall yet reflect the light of his majesty. All the more because of the sin and obstinacy and pride of man shall God be glorified when grace reigns onto eternal life in all corners of the world. Psalm 67, verses 2 and 7, that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
So you see, that first petition has reference to missions. When we pray, God, hallowed be thy name. in my life, in my family's life, in my church life, but it doesn't stop there. God, send forth your glorious gospel and teach those people that are currently committed to Muhammad and Islam, teach them to hallow the great name of Christ Almighty. Instead of esteeming him or saying that he is a prophet, lesser, inferior to Muhammad, teach them that he is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Philippians 2, 9-11, Therefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So you see, the first petition is crucial. If we don't pray that God would be honored and glorified and hallowed, then in many respects the rest of it just doesn't ring, or just kind of rings empty or hollow. We need to be serious about the glory and the honor of our Most High God.
Questions and Answers
Well, let us close in prayer, and if there's any questions or comments, we can discuss that.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for this prayer. We thank you that our Lord Jesus gave it to us. God, help us to take these things to heart, to consider them, to roll them around, to see how they apply to us, to see how they apply in our families and church and missions. Give us grace to be bold in our prayers, God, to come to you with faith, with confidence, with the reality and the knowledge that you hear the prayers of your upright, that you love, you delight in the prayers of the upright.
Grant us grace to come to you. Grant us grace, Father, to be faithful in these means. And bless our church. Help us to glorify you in our times of corporate prayer together.
And we pray these things through Christ our Lord. Amen.