We're back in the Lord's Prayer, specifically the third petition this evening. So I'll just begin reading in chapter 6 at verse 1. Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward, but you, When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place. And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 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. Therefore, do not be like them, for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him.
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.
Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For 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."
Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:1–18
So again, the context is one of religious observance or acts of piety, specifically almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. And the Lord Jesus gives cautions that we're not to engage in these particular things in a hypocritical fashion, simply to be seen by men or to do these things in order to be rewarded by men, but rather we're to do these things with an internal disposition and a desire to bring glory and honor and praise to our God. And then he gives in this model prayer six petitions, six things that we are to consider or we are to think through with reference to prayer. We need to remember these are petitions.
We're asking God to help us do these things. I think the obvious implication is that they don't come naturally. When we pray, hallowed be your name, our tendency and our disposition is not to hallow the name of God. By nature, we are opposed to God.
By nature, we are at enmity to God. When God saves us by His grace, we need to grow in these things. We need to learn to praise. We need to learn to honor, we need to learn to glorify his holy name.
Again, with reference to the second petition, your kingdom come. When we are in the kingdom of darkness, the last thing that we desire is the coming of God's kingdom. So as regenerate or born-again believers in Jesus Christ, we are now petitioning the Lord that he would bring his kingdom, that he would cause it to flourish, the kingdom of grace in terms of the salvation of sinners, and the kingdom of glory in terms of the consummation of all things. And the same thing is seen in this third petition, that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Again, we'll treat it in a similar fashion to the other two or the two previous petitions. We'll look at what he means generally speaking, and then look to see how we can apply this in particular areas or arenas in our prayer life. So remember, these petitions are not given to us simply to recite. In fact, Jesus says, do not be like the heathen, do not pray like the pagans, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
So we ought not to have prayer beads and just go through it in some sort of a rote fashion, holding our hand out and expecting God to bless, because we've said, 15 our fathers, or we've said, however many, Hail Mary. It's not that way. It's not formulaic. God is not Baal.
We don't put in a quarter and out pops the blessing. Rather, these are petitions that are given to us to cause us to reflect on what God is concerned with. Calvin says that 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 aright unless his lips and heart shall be directed by the heavenly master." So the first three are our duties, or rather our God word references, the Father's name, the coming of the kingdom, and the execution of his will. And then the last three concern us as men, or concern us as humans. Provision for our daily needs, forgiveness for our daily sins, and protection from our daily enemy.
So let's look first at the Westminster Larger Catechism. Again, I think this fleshes out for us so many good things in terms of what is taught in these petitions. Number 192 says, what do we pray for in the third petition? It might actually be 193.
It seems that last week was 192, so I may not have changed the number. But at any rate, the third petition, which is thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. says acknowledging that by nature we and all men are not only utterly unable and unwilling to know and do the will of God, but prone to rebel against his word, to repine and murmur against his providence, and wholly inclined to do the will of the flesh and of the devil. We pray that God would, by his Spirit, take away from ourselves and others all blindness, weakness, indisposedness, and perverseness of heart. and by His grace make us able and willing to know, do, and submit to His will in all things, with the like humility, cheerfulness, faithfulness, diligence, zeal, sincerity, and constancy, as the angels do in heaven." It's a mouthful, isn't it? Big answer, but I think it does flash out a very big petition.
And as we move through the material tonight, you'll obviously hear some more sort of echoes of this at any rate. But
The Meaning of God's Will
let's look first at the meaning of God's will, and then secondly, at the particulars involved. In some respects, we've already done the meaning of God's will. If you were tuned in on Sunday morning when we considered Samson, You'll remember that I mentioned that there are two aspects to the will of God.
Decretive and Preceptive Will Distinguished
There's not two wills of God. It's not that he wills one thing on the one hand and other things on the other hand. He has one overarching decree. He has one eternal purpose that the Bible speaks of.
But the way that he reveals himself is not even different, but there are some things that are secret, or we might refer to that as the decretive will. That has to do with those things that are decreed by God. And then there is the revealed or preceptive will, those things that are given by precept. Remember that we considered the other day, perfect example with Samson.
He should have, in accordance with the preceptive or revealed will of God, married a nice Hebrew girl. He shouldn't have been going after a Philistine. But in terms of the decretive will of God, or the secret things of God, God used that to further God's particular purpose in that scenario. We saw the same thing, or at least referenced the particular instance, with Joseph.
Obviously, the preceptive will of God does not say it's okay for you to want to kill your brother, ultimately throw him into a pit, and then sell him as a slave to Ishmaelites. That is not God's revealed will for our lives. In fact, it is just the opposite. We should love our brother.
We shouldn't throw him in a pit. We surely shouldn't sell them to Ishmaelites. But the decreed of will, or the secret part of this whole idea, was that God overruled it for good. The account of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus was murdered by lawless men, engaged in an act of treason against God, breaking his word, specifically the sixth word in the Decalogue. But we know that God purposed to use this particular event in order to accomplish his will. So the will of God, the secret or the decretive, wherein he accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his particular plan. You cannot change this.
God has determined the end from the beginning. God has determined everything that transpires. If we lived in a universe where such was not the case, it would be randomness, it would be chaos. We have a good and a wise and a holy God who is carrying out His particular plan and purpose.
He doesn't always tell us everything about it. In fact, He overrules the evil actions of men to accomplish His noble purposes at the end. And even on this side of the consummation, we may not understand I mean, when we see death and dying, and when we see trials and tribulations, and when we consider the sorts of things going on under this Islamic state, I mean, certainly none of us can say, well, we know exactly how this works in the plan and purpose of God. No, we don't, but we know that ultimately it does work in the plan and purpose of God.
God has a plan and purpose that He will be glorified, that His people will be done good to, Romans 8, 28, and that the wicked will be smashed, the wicked will be judged, the wicked will be cut off. So we may not see everything, but know that of a truth, God has it all under plan. I remember when, was it Glenn Penner that was here from VOM many, many years ago, gave an illustration. He held up a puzzle piece, I think it was, and he says, you know, when we see this one piece of a jigsaw puzzle, we don't know what the end result is.
And he likened that to this whole idea. We see one piece of a jigsaw puzzle in our lives, and we don't know how it makes sense in the big plan. Well, God knows the puzzle. God knows everything.
God has purposed everything, and every step that will be taken serves that particular end. So the secret will, when we pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, That is inevitable. God's will, the decretive will, the secret will, is going to be executed. What is in view here that we pray is that God's preceptive will be done.
We pray, Lord, give us a heart of obedience. Give our families a heart of obedience. Give our children a heart of obedience. Give our churches a heart of obedience.
May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The will of God, preceptive or revealed, wherein he reveals through his word those things he would have for us to know and to act upon. The revealed will is what Jesus has in mind in this petition. We have promises, we have statements concerning the decretive.
In fact, look at Ephesians 1 verse 11 for just a moment. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 with reference to this idea of the secret will. Just so you can see that what's in view is that we're praying for the preceptive or the revealed will of God to be done. Notice in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11, in him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will." You see, God is doing that.
We don't necessarily pray that God does His will in that vein, because He is doing that. He is accomplishing that. If you go back for a moment to Isaiah the prophet, 46.10, You see, again, this emphasis on the reality that the Lord God has all these things under control, and that what he has purposed will most surely come to pass. Isaiah 46, 9.
Remember the former things of old. For I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done. excuse me, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. And notice in verse 11, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes my counsel from a far country.
Indeed, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it.
Now, I'm sure that if we were Israelites in this particular day, we would not have prayed to God to raise up Cyrus to deliver us from our oppressors. But that's who God is referring to. In the secret plan, or the decree of will, the Lord God had purpose to raise up Cyrus, king of Persia, to be the world empire that would decimate the Babylonians. And when the Babylonians were put down, what did that do to the nation of Israel, specifically Judah?
Judah, under Cyrus, was now allowed to go back to her home country. Cyrus issued a decree. You can see that in the book of Ezra. You see that at the end of 2 Chronicles.
Cyrus issued a decree granting religious liberty to the Judahites so that they could return to their home. So you see, God has his purpose and his plan.
The Revealed Will in This Petition
What we are praying for in this third petition is that the revealed will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. Passages such as Exodus 20, Deuteronomy chapter 5, passages concerning God's law specifically, the Sermon on the Mount, New Testament epistles, those things that God has revealed to us that are pleasing in His sight We pray, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The psalmist said, teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your spirit is good.
Lead me in the land of uprightness. Romans 12, 2, Paul says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That's what we are praying. This is what we are after in this third petition.
John Owen said, the revealed will of God contains not His purpose and decree, but our duty. The revealed will of God. Now, that shouldn't be taken absolutely. Obviously, within God's revealed will, there is the aspect of the decretive also.
He doesn't want people to murder each other with reference to the decretive will. But listen to what Owen says. The revealed will of God contains not his purpose and decree, but our duty, what we should do if we will please him. So everybody got that, the two aspects.
We won't call it two wills of God. Because that's heretical, that there's one will of God in terms of his eternal purpose, but it's administered, perhaps we could use, by decretive and revealed or preceptive. So the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed are for us and our children. Deuteronomy 29.29.
Particulars: Manner of Compliance
So what are some particulars? First, the manner of compliance. The believer in this petition, when we say, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are asking God to help us to obey what he commands. So you see, it would be very disingenuous to pray this petition when we do not have a desire to do the will of God.
In other words, if we are hypocrites, or we are simply going through the motions, and we offer up this prayer, Lord, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, But we are living in rejection, rebellion against God. We have an area in our lives that we're not repenting in. We have sin in our hearts that we are regarding. It is hypocritical and disingenuous to pray this particular prayer.
This is a petition that the children of God employ and utilize so that they may respond favorably to the one who says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say? We are praying that God by his spirit and God through his word would so marshal us and so hedge us in so that we would obey what he has said in His Word. Remember, we're not supposed to try and pattern our life after the decree of will. We don't argue, well, Samson was blessed even though he married a tympanite woman, so therefore I can do these things and God will bless me also.
No, we are to respond to the revealed will. God, help me to obey what you have revealed in your Word. The believer says with the Apostle John, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
We want to do God's will. We want to follow Him. Not because this is our means of salvation. You see, the ethic in the Christian life is not do this in order to be saved.
The ethic is you've been saved in order to do this. It's a fundamental difference to the world religions that teach if you're a good person, you'll get good things. The Bible says you're not a good person. You're a horrible person.
You're a miserable person. You're a wretched person. The only good person that ever lived lived for 33 years. And he ultimately was crucified, delivered up on a cross, was buried, and rose again the third day.
And all those who, by the grace of God, look to that good person will have everlasting life. having looked to him and lived, now go out and live in a manner that is consistent with God and with his word. So it is a petition for us that we may do God's will on earth as it is in heaven. Now, I said that we are not to pray necessarily for the decreed of will to come to pass. However, there ought to be at least an idea or a recognition of the decree of will in this particular petition in this way.
Active and Passive Obedience
I think it was Watson makes a distinction between active obedience and passive obedience. I know we get a lot of distinctions tonight. But if you do any study in theology, distinctions are good. Distinctions keep you from heresy.
Distinctions are most helpful in theological enterprise. in this particular manner. Active obedience. God, we pray that your will, your preceptive will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Help me to actively obey your word, God.
Help me to do what the scriptures say. The scripture says I am to pursue righteousness and holiness and godliness. Let me internalize that and let me pursue those things. When Watson says passive obedience, what he speaks to here is that we would willingly submit to the Lord in the midst of trial.
In other words, the decretive or the secret will may include for us hardship. The decretive or the secret will for us may include tribulation. It may include trial. It may include hard things happening in our lives.
Certainly, if we were in Mosul or we were in that other city that was mentioned in the report tonight in Iraq, we would understand something of the Decree of Will having in it a difficult time and season for us. If we were dispossessed from our homes, if we were thrown into prison, if we were beaten to the point where that poor pastor in China had been beaten, if those things had been our lot, we would be able to understand probably more so John 16, 33. In this world, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I've overcome this world." So Watson suggests that passive obedience, when we pray, your will be done.
Let's do so as well with a mind to the reality that the decreed of will may include some things for us that are hard. And Watson says this, we pray two things, or we pray for two things. For active obedience, that we may do God's will actively in what He commands. Secondly, for passive obedience, that we may submit to God's will patiently in what He inflects.
Now which one's harder? It's hard to do the will of God as it's revealed in the scripture, right? It's hard to submit to the will of God when it's trials and difficulties and hardships. You see, this is a time when you pray to God, help me bear up under the rot, help me bear up under difficulties, help me not to scream or reject or rebel.
Sometimes when trials hit people, instead of them running to God, they run away from God. Well, this ought to be an opportunity for us to pray with what the hymn writer wrote. He says, whatever my God ordains is right, holy His will abideth. I will be still whatever He does and follow where He guideth.
He is my God. Though dark my road, he holds me that I shall not fall. Wherefore, to him, I leave it all. I quoted on Sunday, I think, this past, a few Sundays ago, quoted it yesterday.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. One of the passages that Daniel had asked me to read yesterday was Job 121. You can all turn there because I think that we see something about Job, not just in 121, but in other places in that book that evidence what manner of man he was.
You know, we oftentimes gravitate to 121, and well, we should, because it's a very powerful and most excellent portion of Scripture in this vein, submitting patiently to the difficulties and the trials that we face in this world. Remember the situation, Job lost everything, verse 20, he arose, he tore his robe, he shaved his head, he fell to the ground in worship. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrong. That's incredible. Durham, in his lectures on Job, says something to the effect that a Christian or a believer is best observed to see their carriage their being under suffering.
That's when it's manifest or evident. You see, with Job, it doesn't stop there.
Job's Example of Passive Submission
Look at Job 13. Job 13, verse 15. Again, was Job absolutely, sinlessly perfect? No, Job was not absolutely, sinlessly perfect, but he was a godly and an upright man.
Job 13, 15, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. This must be what Watson is speaking about when he says, for passive obedience that we may submit to God's will patiently in what He afflicts. And then in Job 19, Job 19 at verse 25, For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God." I mean, that is such a powerful statement. It's made its way into the confessions and creeds of the church.
The wording and the language might be a little bit different, but we believe in the resurrection of the dead. We believe in life everlasting. And this is precisely what Job confesses in the midst of great hardship and difficulty and trial. So we see this is the kind of thing that we ought to be inculcating in our prayer closets with reference to the difficulties and trials that we have.
Psalm 119, verses 67 and 71. Verse 67, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. It's affliction that oftentimes teaches us what it is to obey God. It's not a weekend conference.
It's not the latest best speaker. It's not the really polished celebrity pastor that gives us 15 ways to cope and deal in the midst of hardship. It's affliction. that is a teacher or that teaches us how to deal with obedience, it is affliction that brings this about. And then in verse 71 it says, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.
This was the verse that if you remember Johnny Farese had on his website with reference to his situation and it was incorporated into his testimony. I mean when you ponder that, you consider that, I mean this is a man who learned what it was to be afflicted and to learn good lessons from that. And then of course Romans 8.28 We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. You've heard me say it before, it bears repeating.
I think we all affirm 828 when things are going well. We all affirm 828 when everything's going our way. We all affirm 828 when our wives are happy, when our husbands are happy, when our homes are not leaking, and when our children are all obeyed. We affirm 828, oh yeah, God works all things for good.
But as soon as some trial or calamity occurs to the believer, they're inclined to say, where's God? What's happening? We don't see him in the midst of the storm like we see him in the midst of the sunny day. And so this is a good suggestion from Watson.
Not only pray that actively we will be obedient to that revealed will, but grant us a passive obedience, a submission unto that secret will of God should it prove to be difficult in our circumstances.
The Standard: As in Heaven
Of course, note the standard of obedience or standard of compliance in 610. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The compliance isn't, you know, I just want to do my best. Now, we can never achieve angelic obedience.
If you think you can, boy, you've got big problems. There's no such thing as angelic obedience on this side of the eschaton. When we enter into the new heavens and the new earth, God will confirm us in righteousness. But on this side of that particular day, we have remaining corruption.
But that doesn't change the standard. How does Jesus teach us to pray? That God's will, obedience to that revealed will, will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Until well said, the Christian ought to be satisfied with nothing less than the eradication of all evil.
You say, well, that'll never happen. Yeah, I know it'll never happen. But we ought not to be satisfied with it. We ought not to grow content with the reality of abortion.
We ought not to grow content with the reality of the sorts of things that go on all around us. There ought to be a holy longing and a holy zeal and a desire to see such things end. I think that's what Van Til was talking about. He was not a post-millennialist.
He didn't believe in the conversion of every every human being on the earth. But nevertheless, in his ethical theory, he said, as Christians, that ought to be our desire, the eradication of evil. We don't want there to be things that are contrary to God. We don't want there to be enemies to God.
Isn't that how David deals in Psalm 139, after speaking of God's omniscience and omnipresence and omnipotence. He then says, I'm basically lost in the glory of God. And he says, do I not hate those who hate you? I mean, it's such a turn.
He goes from discussing the glorious attributes of God to his hatred for the enemies of God. Well, this is the reality. We do not like those things that are contrary to the living God in heaven and earth. Psalm 103 speaks of the way the angels honor God.
Bless the Lord, you his angels, who excel in strength, who do his word, heeding the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, you ministers of his, who do his pleasure. Hebrews 12.23, that Sinai-Zion contrast. It tells us that as Christians, we've come to Zion.
We've come to the mount of God. And it describes it this way, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. So when Jesus sets that forth as a standard, we pray that thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, there's no imperfection in terms of obedience in heaven. There's no abortion clinic.
There's no sodomy. There's no ISIS, no Islam in heaven. So that doesn't mean we go out and bomb ISIS. It doesn't mean we do, the church.
It doesn't mean that we bomb abortion clinics or anything like that. But we ought to have a holy discontent with the fact that these things are in existence, that they are flourishing and thriving and going forward. You know, sometimes as Christians we evidence a lack of concern. Maybe not we, I don't want to say, I don't like confessing other people's sins, but on the whole we've got to be mindful of the reality that we need to be conscious of what's going on.
So we can pray in an informed manner. I mean, there's a lot of things going on in the world right now. For any Christians, I don't know what to pray for. Pray for Ferguson, Missouri.
That'd be a good place for you to pray for. Pray for Iraq. Pray for Israel. Pray for various parts of the earth.
Pray for Chilliwack. Pray for people that are undone, that are not doing the will of God on earth as it is in heaven. a standard of compliance that is given here that we ought to imbibe. As I said, I'm not suggesting that our obedience to the divine will will be like the angels in heaven, but that is the standard. You don't shoot for the lowest common denominator.
You shoot for what God is pleased with.
Application to the Individual
And then some practical application. How do we pray this with reference to the individual? Four suggestions, again, I don't have the corner on this is how all you people, no, no, these are just some suggestions.
Recognize God's Right to Command
First, we must recognize God's right to command. And knowing me, probably most of these came from either Watson or Manton, because I think those guys are. right on. Good exegetes with reference to the Lord's Prayer. They have good treatments.
If you want to do a good study on the Lord's Prayer, certainly Manton and Watson will not do you wrong. Watson, specifically, I remember being very hearty. Watson, of all the Puritans, is one of the most readable or easy reading. It's almost like every sentence is a quote.
It's just that good. It's almost like too much. It's like, you know, having too much good stuff all at once. You've got to kind of like I mean, I like chocolate, but there's a point where you've got to say, I've got to stop with the chocolate for a moment.
Yeah, I can't have that much chocolate. I've got to think about how good it is. And Watson's kind of like that among the Puritans. I mean, just very readable.
You want good Puritan literature, Watson's a good foray. Manton, very good as well. At any rate, one, we must recognize God's right to command. We won't pray this if we are having a controversy with God's right to command us.
Now, I say this, and we all say, of course God has the right to command us. Not everybody who professes the name of Christ believes this. And how do I know that? Because of the way that we live.
I mean, every sin that we commit, every act of rebellion, every act of transgression, isn't that ultimately raising our fist at God? who has crown rights and the authority to command us to obey, whenever we exercise our free will and sin against Him, isn't it to suggest that we will not have this one to reign over us? So in order to pray this third petition, we need to understand that He is Lord, He is Creator, He is Sovereign, He is Lawgiver, He is our Blessed Redeemer, He has absolute authority to command, and we must not question, but rather we must submit to the divine rule. That might be a good place to even start when we pray. God, help me to recognize your right to command me, not just in some, you know, I know this to be the case, but help me to live in light of this reality, that I don't commit acts of treason each and every day when I go about my daily tasks.
Know God's Revealed Will
Secondly, we must know God's revealed will. If we're going to pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, you can't say, well, it's the secret will. I don't know that. No, the petition is that God's revealed will, God's preceptive will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So in order for me to pray this aright, I have to actually know what's involved. Paul says it this way in Ephesians 5.17. He says, therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Now, this isn't mystery, this isn't difficult, this isn't hard.
Well, how do I understand the will of the Lord? You put your face in the Bible. You pay attention in church. You attend Bible studies.
You listen to preaching. You listen at Bible study. You listen to your fathers or your mothers when they're reading scripture. You listen to your sons or your daughters when they're reading scripture.
This is how we determine what the will of the Lord is. How do we know the preceptive will? We read the scriptures.
Obey God's Revealed Will
Thirdly, we must obey God's revealed will. We must obey God's revealed will. For us to pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and then walk outside and transgress that will is, again, hypocritical and disingenuous. Note what the petition says.
Your will be done, not your will be known. Number point two, we need to know the will of the Father, but just knowing the will of the Father doesn't mean we're finished. We need to know the will of the Father in order to do the will of the Father. Watson says, knowledge is the pillar of fire to give light to practice.
But though knowledge is requisite, yet the knowledge of God's will is not enough without doing it. Knowing God's will may make a man admired, but it is doing God's will that makes him blessed. See, isn't that chocolate? Isn't that beautiful?
That's so glorious, the way he says that. Knowing God's will without doing it will not crown us with happiness. He goes on to say, knowing without doing God's will will make the case worse. It will heat hell hotter.
Knowing it and not doing it will heat hell hotter.
Submit to God's Providential Will
And then fourthly, we must submit to God's providential will, this passive obedience to the decretive will of God. Now, when we speak of submission to the will of God, it's not a knuckle under. It's not an okay if I have to. It's not submitting when somebody tells us, I want you to do this, and you grin and bear it, or you're obviously put out.
I mean, yeah, I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna make sure you know I'm not happy about doing it. That's not the way Christian submission is supposed to be. We are not supposed to do that towards our father. If our five-year-olds did that, what would be our inclination?
Some of us would be inclined to discipline that. You don't do that. You don't show us that sort of anger. You resign to the will of your father.
Well, it's the same thing with the Christian. We don't grit our teeth or clench our fists at his face. We need to do so with faith, knowing he is working out things for his glory. and our good. We are to do so with contentedness, because our disposition tends toward discontent, especially when we're going through hardship and trials.
We need to inculcate and develop and cultivate a contentedness. And then with determination. I mean, isn't that Job? Though he slay me, what?
Yet will I trust him? I mean, if that's not bare determination, if that's not steadfastness, if that's not setting one's face toward heaven like a flint, I don't know what is. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Whatever He throws at me, I am determined by His grace to keep coming because I know that He has purposed this for His glory and this for my good.
I may not be able to piece it together now, but there is a day coming in the future when I shall see and I shall know." So those are some suggestions with reference to the individual.
Application to the Church
For the church, when we pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We ought to pray that we, as the Church, would be obedient to God's will. I know that sounds bizarre and zany, but that's really what we ought to be praying for, that we would obey the Word of God, that that would be reflected in the way that we worship, in the way that we relate to one another, in the way that we endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. We talked, I forget the exact nature of the conversation, but there were a few fellows that were talking outside the building on Sunday and something came up about this idea that we have churches today that in some respects do not mirror the church in habit.
Now, I should re-qualify that. None of the churches today probably mirror the church in habit. But when we target one particular group for a church, what does that do with reference to the reality of Revelation 5? When the Church of Christ is assembled before the throne, how does John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, describe that group?
They are from every tribe, from every tongue, and every people, and every nation. If we have only a Canadian church, is that mirroring? Heaven? No.
We ought to have a desire that there will be people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation in our church. We ought to pray that God will bring other types of people, that we would not be one demographic, you know, a young couple with 2.5 kids in a minivan. I mean, I drive by some of these churches that take minivan sales. It looks like you could just put price tags and shop because it's so many minivans.
I'm not saying it's bad to have a minivan. Don't leave here tonight and say, the will of God is that we sell our minivan, honey. That's not the will of God. But there is a demographic, and churches have cultures, and that's a reality.
I don't think you can ever shun that. But we ought not to seek to foster and protect that culture if someone or others come in that aren't necessarily a part of that culture. We ought to labor, maybe over and above the call of duty, to make them feel welcome, to make them feel at home. It's OK to be single here.
It's OK to be this here. It's OK to be that here. If we narrowly define our church, We are the Free Grace Baptist Church of 30-somethings with 2.5 kids. What are we saying about the rest of the world?
What are we saying about the church in heaven? We are saying that we don't want to be like that. We are saying that we as the church militant do not want to be like the church triumphant. And it should be the other way around.
If the church triumphant in heaven is made up of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, God, send people to our church. Convert sinners that are not like us. Bring us together so that we may evidence something. of what the church in heaven looks like.
Application to Society
In our practice as a church, you can turn to Romans 12. We are going to bring this to a close here in just a moment. But Romans 12, just some real practical things in terms of church obedience to the petition that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I already quoted chapter 12, verse 2.
Notice, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." So if anybody at this point says, well, what does he mean? What is the will of God? Just keep reading the chapter. Just keep pressing on.
Notice, humility, verse 3. For I say, through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. So doing the will of God in the local church in terms of obedience is going to be expressing humility, not walking around saying, Aren't I humble? But being humble.
If you're actually humble, you don't have to tell people you're humble. I'm most proud of my humility. I've mastered humility. You don't need to do that.
If you're humble, it's going to be evident. Mutual service, notice in verses 4 to 8. Whereas we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, Let us use that.
Why does God give gifts? So that we'll use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering.
He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. I don't know about you, but in my life as a Christian, I've heard of people boasting about their abilities to teach. or boasting about their abilities to preach, or boasting about their abilities to serve, or boasting about their abilities to this. You typically don't hear people boasting about their ability to give. I mean, I guess there are some that ring the bell and make sure everybody knows what they're giving, but this is probably the gift that we don't typically seek to cultivate, this whole idea of giving.
It's just an observation that I've made over the years. Not to anybody here, not in specifically our context, but generically with reference to Christianity. But all these things are given to the church or persons in the church. Why?
So that we may use these to build one another up. He then speaks of love to the brethren in verses 9 to 16. This is what it ought to look like. Let love be without hypocrisy.
Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another. with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another.
Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. You see, this is what the will of God is for the local church. And if we are going to pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven, may God form our churches to look something like what he has revealed in the scripture concerning our responsibilities and duties toward one another.
And then, of course, with reference to society, we could go hours. How do we pray? God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God, please, make it such that abortion is criminalized.
That just is not... Good, bad, wicked, euthanasia. I mean, you just name it. We should be prayerful that God would eradicate these things.
If you have a desire to look at Israelite culture in the Old Testament, Isaiah 5 is a great passage to see. In fact, you can turn there. I said we were going to close. We are really going to close here in just a moment.
Isaiah 5, the prophet starts with a parable of the vineyard. the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells the same parable. Nothing new in Israel's history. You're a vineyard, and you've messed up, you've offended God, and God is going to judge you. And then the prophet indicates the various sins that are going on in Israel at the time.
Covetousness, verse 8. Drunkenness, verse 11. Faithlessness, verses 18 to 19. Ethical perversity, verse 20.
If ever there's an application to our society, how do we pray God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven? Look at verse 20. Sounds exactly like what we face. Nothing new under the sun.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Pride, verse 21. Judicial perversity, verses 22 and 23. And then the entirety is summarized in verse 24. the particular issue.
Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness and their blossom will ascend like dust because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised, excuse me, the word of the Holy One of Israel. So those are some things, some suggestions with reference to the individual, the church, and society. Of course, with your family, God, teach my kids to do the will of the Lord. Help my dear wife to do the will of the Lord.
Actually, she's praying, help my dear husband to do the will of the Lord. I don't think that's illegitimate. I hope my wife's praying that I would do the will of the Lord. I hope I'm praying that she'll do the will of the Lord, just not as a weapon.
But those are all some suggestions to employ this third petition so that God's will may indeed be done on earth as it is in heaven. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for this prayer. We thank you for these petitions and the way they direct us first and foremost to you, with reference to the name of God being hallowed, with reference to the kingdom of God coming, and with reference to the execution of your will. We ask, Father, that you would help us to be prayerful as a people, Help us to be earnest in these things, and God, help us as a church to reflect what the church on earth should look like. We pray, God, that you would go with us now and watch over us.
I pray for the Lawsons, that you would give them a safe trip as they leave for Alberta. I pray you'd grant safety to us as we go to Idaho. Bless all the people of God that are traveling to and fro. We pray that you would continue to keep a watch over your people and protect us and grant us grace to worship you in spirit and truth.
Bring us together on this Lord's Day that we may sing your praises and glorify your holy name. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.