Forever he's lifted high forever. He is glorified. What does that make you want to say church? Hallelujah Hallelujah amen. Amen. Well good morning Good morning. It's a privilege to be able to Share the word of the Lord with you this morning again. I want to read from a portion of Psalm 119 Now this forever risen Lord Who has now mocked death and sin having defeated it and put it in its place Once for all in the grave as a will for us to be done and that is our focus this morning is on Matthew chapter 6 verses 10 Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But as you read in Psalm 119 we find We find the psalmist who is Captivated by the will of God Look at verse 33 with me Teach O Lord the way of your statutes and I will keep it to the end Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart Lead me in the path of your commandments for I delight in it A little further on he writes I will keep your law continually forever and ever I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame for I find my delight in your commandments which I love I lift up my hands towards your commandments which I love and I will meditate on your statutes It's amazing The psalmist is captured by the law of God by what we'll talk about this morning the will of God He sings of whole-hearted devotion of Continually keeping of loving of delighting in the law of God Haven't you ever heard someone pray like that and just say man I just want to pray like that Well the beauties of the Lord's Prayer is that Jesus answers our hearts cry Maybe that we don't even know we have and he leads us so that we might also pray and sing as the psalmist does Well now take your Bibles and turn them over to Matthew chapter 6 Because what Jesus does in the Lord's Prayer is he leads us so that we might sing as the psalmist sings It's interesting Disciples of all rabbis would ask their teachers Lord teach us John's disciples ask John teach us to pray Jesus here receives the request from his disciples They needed instruction on how to pray we certainly do We certainly do without guidance and constraints on our prayers Someone listening might think that they're a little more than selfish demands of small children You know I know we have prayed those kinds of prayers Jesus comes into our world Comes into our Consciousness with this Lord's Prayer to teach us Matthew chapter 6 beginning in verse 9 Pray then like this Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it isn't heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil What's pray? Lord you have given us instruction in your word on how you must pray And Lord this morning this instruction contemplates your will So we pray that you would open our hearts to this word that we all might be not just here's of it but Doors of it as well a men a men so this morning we look at the third petition Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven now We're still in the part of this prayer where we haven't yet crossed the threshold into asking the Lord specifically for our needs We get to that the next petition give us this day our daily bread so these first three petitions really involve God and our interactions with God and that's where Jesus tells us to begin our prayers But here in this petition your will be done on earth as it isn't heaven This is probably the first place maybe the only place where this prayer kind of makes us a little uncomfortable Because Jesus comes right up to us and says pray like this Thy will be done on earth as it isn't heaven The problem with this is what? We really like our own wills You really like my will be done right you might not like games will be done but you like your will be done And so this petition comes right directly to our hearts Because you wonder why did Jesus include this in the first place? Why is this here? This is a question I always ask these texts why is this here? Well I'm gonna say that from this text itself There are three reasons that Jesus tells us to pray this way one has to do with ignorance One has to do with willfulness And one has to do with giving us an example that we might see the will of God done Those are our three points because we don't know and understand God's will number one Because we're prone to rebel against rather than engage in God's will that's number two And thirdly because we need an example in doing God's will Well I find some of the clearest and most helpful thinking on the will of God to be found in the Puritans 16th century English pastors and so I'm gonna sprinkle in some of their insights to encourage you with what they have to say But perhaps also encourage you to read them So our first point look at verse 10 your will be done on earth as it is in heaven Our focus on for this point is on your will I think Jesus teaches us to pray that I will be done on earth as it is in heaven because we don't know No, we're ignorant. We just don't know what we should pray for The other Psalmists have written of this Psalm 25 verse 4 make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths So thy will, your will, what does it mean? Well one of those Puritans Thomas Hooker, he says it this way it is the purpose of the Almighty touching the accomplishment of anything There is nothing done but the Lord does it and this is an important definition because in it we learn that all things at all times in all places For all people and all creatures is the outworking of the will of God. Psalm 135 verse 6 says this Whatever the Lord pleases he does in heaven and on earth and all the deeps Daniel 4 verse 35 after Nebuchadnezzar kind of came back to his senses he says this all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing And he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him what have you done The big things, the little things probably 16 verse 33 the lot is cast into the lap but it's every decision is from the Lord The will of God governs all of creation. Now historically in our tradition or form Presbyterian tradition we think about the will of God in two big categories God's secret will and God's revealed will we get this from Deuteronomy 29, 29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever So it's a helpful distinction because you know as I do in our experience things happen to us that are out of our control, out of our direct influence We are finite and so we only know what we know and there's plenty that we don't So I want to unpack these two categories God's secret will and his revealed will using three I call them three doors and they're in your notes Secret door the revealed door and the stated door the secret door the revealed door and the stated door first the secret door talking about God's secret will Thomas Hooker again says The secret purpose that he has in himself before all worlds and has not revealed it to creation God's secret will is like a locked door he knows what's behind it we do not and we never will Things like the origin of evil the reasons for predestination Why Godly people get horrible diseases why tsunamis take out whole cities why I was born a white male in the United States of America These things are part of God's secret will and they're either they're actually either done by him or by his agents Over time God is unfolding his secret will but it is two supreme it is infinite it is complex such that it could never be understood by us so it never is revealed to us All the seeming contradictions that the mind of man can discern are plain and unraveled in the secret will of God The second door door number two the revealed will sometimes the secret will of God becomes known to us becomes revealed to us over time history is a record of God's revealed will We don't know what will be revealed in time but as we look back on events we're right in saying those were the will of God Things like Joseph being sold in a slavery in Egypt at the time they didn't know but we know now that was the will of God things like 9-11 Election results the weather all of these things are unknown to us at the time Circumstances that are happening to us but they are the will of God we are passive in these things we receive them as a part of God's plan Well, thirdly the stated will of God Thomas Watson another Puritan says it is written in the book of scripture a declaration of God's will Beloved God's stated will is the scriptures it's what found in the Bible it is the rule books for kingdom living The previous petition was your kingdom come this one your will be done is Worked out in and through what is written in the scriptures the secret will belongs to God The revealed will belongs to God But the stated will belongs to us Remember again Deuteronomy 29-29 the secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law My friends God has not constituted a kingdom and Then failed to give us instructions and how to live with him in this kingdom if the state of North Carolina has got a law code telling us how to live in the state And you can be convinced that the Lord has giving us the instructions we need to live with him in this kingdom They're in the Bible Exodus 24 verse 3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules and all the people answered with one voice And said all the words that the Lord has spoken we will do God left no doubt for his people how they should live Jesus says in Matthew 7 24 to 27 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock And everyone who hears these words of mine it is not to them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand No one none of us can claim that we do not know God's will for us because it is clearly stated for us in the Scriptures So what does this what does this matter to us how does your will and understanding of these three things the secret will of God the revealed will of God and the stated will of God how do these come into our experience Well, we've got to recognize The God does some things secretly he does some things that we'll learn about over time And he does other things that we know exactly what's happening and how we interact with the will of God we have to use these three categories Some things we will never understand some questions we will never have answered We might pray to know but we will never know And we're tempted in those situations to fill in the blanks God allowed 9-11 to happen fill in the blank God gave me this grievous illness fill in the blank God didn't give me riches or beauty or power or position because fill in the blank we do that we like answers But filling in the blanks should never be done because confusion and wrong understanding and even sin might follow When we fill in the blanks we may be totally wrong We may live our lives in the shadows of conclusions that we've made that have really no basis in fact We enslave ourselves to these things
Our relationship with the Lord is it suffers when we fill in the blanks because perhaps what ends up happening is not exactly how we thought and we get mad We get mad at God we get filled with anxiety doubt so forth but the reality beloved is that some things in this life we will just never ever know Thy will be done is us saying Lord there are things in your will that I will never know that's important Secondly some things will be revealed to us over time God will use means to bring about his secret will over time but it is a way of wisdom It's not a short path Proverbs 2029 points to the length of this path the glory of young men is their strength but the splendor of the old men is their gray hair it takes time to Know and understand the will of God But just because God is acting in secret doesn't mean we stop seeking answers We don't know what God may be doing so we pray Famous prayer of Jehoshaphat while he was staring at the invading armies of Israel since second Chronicles chapter 20 He prays oh our God will you not execute judgment on them for we are powerless against this great hoard that's coming against us We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you We should trust the Lord because he has written all the days of our lives even before we knew a single one of them And he's promised to bend all things for the good of those who love God the psalmist rights and psalm 139 Your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book or written every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them Paul and Romans 828 says we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose Thirdly some things we can have immediate answers to because they are written in God's word or they are clearly deduced from it His demands beloved God's demands upon us in his kingdom are not a secret They are known having been shown to us clearly stated in the word if something was essential for you to know for life and godliness It's in the word you're not missing something important if something was critical for your children to know Wouldn't you tell them how much more so has God said to us what is essential for us to know So everything from what does it mean to be married? What do I do with my money? How do I how do I grieve? How do I deal with people who sin against me all of these things are stated in the scriptures when we pray your will be done We're asking God to open our eyes to what is found in the word So difficulties in knowing God's will often come from ignorance and so how do we deal with our ignorance? Let me give you a way to understand the will of God Using these three categories His stated will, his revealed will and his secret will So first you look to the scriptures you search the scriptures as the answer might be found there Peter has written and second Peter chapter one his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness Through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence You search the scriptures we look at those bodies of literature, commentaries, confessions that look at the scriptures and unfold them so that we can see what might be deduced from the scriptures But what God demands of us will be found in the scriptures Secondly God's revealed will Because we're finite because some things are not addressed to us directly in scripture How do we deal with the will of God in those cases? Well I would say ask a godly older person Someone who is weathered the years with the Lord and seen God reveal himself over time and through circumstances Ask the father Jesus leads us to this in Matthew chapter 7 he says ask and it will be given to you seeking you will find not can it will be opened For everyone who asks receives the one who seeks fine into the one who knocks it will be opened Ask a godly older person Ask the father for wisdom and Depend on the Holy Spirit who dwells within all who believe in Jesus Christ to guide a person's conscience But again what is needful for us to know will be known God has either stated it in the scriptures or he will reveal it to us by interacting with the godly older person the father through his wisdom or the Holy Spirit leading our consciences And the last thing is we can't forget that some things are secret some things we just won't know Well Thomas Mann wrote that Christ is not our king when we do our own will Our biggest problem perhaps is not ignorance of thy will be done but it's something else James addresses this in James chapter 1 be doers of the word Not here is only deceiving yourselves So Jesus in the second part of this petition addresses the second issue Our issue our problem is that we are prone to rebel against rather than engage in doing God's will Why would he teach us a pattern for prayer that included us saying Father your will be done on earth as it is in heaven Why would he say pray in this way and that those words would come out of our miles well because those are not natural words for us Because doing the will of God is a battle We are prone to rebel against rather than engage in the will of the Lord So that's why he says your will be done literally it reads be done the will It's the same with the second petition come the kingdom Jesus tells us that we must do the will of God Why it's what he came to do John 6 38 I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me Even at the very end when it was when life was most bitter for him Matthew 26 39 My father if it be possible let this cut pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as you will It's what Jesus came to do it's what the Holy Spirit is currently doing John 16 33 Jesus tells us that when the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth For he will not speak on his own authority whatever we hear he will speak and he will declare it to you the things that are to come So it's what Jesus did it's what the Holy Spirit is doing and it is what disciples of Christ are supposed to do We are supposed to do the will of God on earth as it is in heaven I mean I know that's obvious right it's obvious but it's in the prayer So perhaps it's not quite as obvious moment by moment as we think Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven Whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother So what does it mean why must we pray your will be done on earth? Why when we pray we fail to include that and but leave it out why is that bad why is this command here for us Thomas Matten says first and foremost we love our own will He says the great contest between us and God is whose will shall stand God's will or ours we love our own will God has a will he made us in his image we have a will but our will is falling which means it's crooked it's bent
We may think what we what we want is what God wants and that may be partially true and Christians indeed it is true and growing But if Jesus tells us to pray like this it's proof that we've got a way to go Our wills are not naturally bent to his even Peter Mark chapter 8 verse 34 but turning and seeing his disciples he rebuked Peter He said get behind me Satan It's a beloved moment by moment we will want what we want most of the time much of the time what we want is different than what God wants And our sins are proof of this therefore pray your will be done so our will opposes this the will of the devil opposes us Satan is a real enemy to the people of God He works diligently to convince us that the will of God is inappropriate it's unloving It's out of date old fashioned it's even evil
This is what he is about doing convincing us that doing the will of God is wrong He can't make us do his will Christians cannot be prevailed upon by the devil to do his will but he can lure us and entice us and snare us Paul writes of this in a prayer in 2nd Timothy 2 he's praying those who are like that that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will Our own sinful wills the will of the devil and the will of others others may strongly urge us to do what is contrary to the will of God This is why Paul writes what he does in 1 Corinthians 15 do not be deceived bad company corrupts good morals So these three things they stand opposed to the will of God our will Satan's will the sinful will of others so what must be done? How can we overcome these three things? Well the first essential most important piece of overcoming our rebellion is that you must be converted you must be saved from your sins Only a Christian can do the will of God Someone who doesn't really care about knowing or understanding or doing the will of God that's not a Christian Someone who violates the scriptures and sins regularly with impunity that's not a Christian If you are not a child of God doing his will Jesus tells us you are a child of the devil doing his John chapter 8 Jesus says if God were your father you would love me for I came from God and I am here I come not of my own accord but he sent me Why do you not understand what I say it's because you cannot bear to hear my words you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires To do the will of God is why God saves us that we might be his and that we might do his will So now if you have never turned to Jesus Christ now is the time that you might do the will of God repent and be baptized repent and believe in the gospel Repent and turn back that your sins may be blotted out at times of refreshing might come and that he may send that is God may send the Christ appointed for you Now is the time to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that you might do the will of God or you will not do the will of God But if you're a Christian then you and I we have the privilege of doing the will of God on earth but rebellion and willfulness is a problem. So what do we do? Well we repent, repent of your stubbornness of spirit, repent of your slowness of obedience, repent of your slackness in knowledge Christians you have no obstacles to doing the will of God except what you build yourself. God's will is written down in the pages of the scripture. God's people are around us many of seasons and weathered many things unto wisdom. You've been set free from all that would keep you from doing the will of God. So Christians we cannot act as if we cannot do the will of God. Rather our problem is that we will not do the will of God. Therefore we must repent but our greatest weapon beloved our greatest weapon in doing the will of God. Do you know what it is? It's doing the will of God. You know how you learn how to pray, right? You learn what prayer is. You get some instructions on how to pray and then you pray and then you pray and you pray and you pray and you pray and eventually you become joyful in prayer. You become hungry for the communion of the Lord. And what do you do? What do you do? You pray. Doing the will of God is just like that. Once you come to know the will of God and we talked about that, once you know it and you take those steps of obedience one by one, God rewards every step of obedience. He's not standing back pushing against you so that every step of obedience you take is not satisfying. Doing the will of God is not burdensome. On the other side of the will of God is blessing, joy and obedience. That you'll know if you take those steps in doing the will of God. Well at the very beginning of this message I read from Psalm 119, full of zeal, delight, love that this, the Psalmist had for doing the will of God. When Jesus teaches us to pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He is helping us to attain the same zeal and the same love and the same delight. Because we will falter. I don't know how to do the will of God. So Jesus says, look as it is in heaven. He draws our gaze up to the heavens that we might have a target or examples or a goal or some understanding of what does it mean to do the will of God. What does this phrase actually mean? Well Psalm 103 verse 20 says, bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word obeying the voice of his word. Our doing the will of God can be and should be like what the angels do. When the word of God commands that we obey, Jesus says, if you falter an example or target or goal, then look to how it is done in heaven. Again the Puritans are very helpful here. Thomas Hooker says this way, a child follows the father, though he cannot run so fast as the father. Why would Jesus point to the heavenlies to give us guidance? Why the angels to show us a few things and again, mountain will help me here. All who serve, all who serve the Lord have the same standard. Mountain says, we upon earth are not held to a harder law in task than day in heaven. Secondly, to give us a lofty goal, to give us the highest motivation in our love and our service to the Lord, he tells us to look up. Mountain says that we might not miscarry by a low example. He that shoots at a star will shoot higher than he that aims at a shrub. Why does this matter to us? Because it is hard to believe that anything done on earth would resemble something in heaven. Well there are five ways that our obedience can resemble the angelic examples and there are in your notes. Thy will be done readily. We obey readily. Thomas Hooker says the angels are pressed and ready at hand to do the good will of the Lord upon all occasions. And so to do the will of God as it is done in heaven on earth means that you are ready. Secondly, the will of God is done speedily. A moment ago I talked about repenting of our slowness of obedience. Parents with children, you know what it is like to persist with children who are slow and obedience. The angels are not slow. They are immediate. So we are pointed to them. Again, Puritan says we must shake off all lingering and stiffness of spirit when we see God's will should be done. Thy will be done also means faithfully, thoroughly, not selectively, but all of what is stated in the scriptures is all of our hearts desire. There are hard things in the Bible. There are hard paths that God is asking us to walk down. But the angels walk paths. We note from the Bible there are some very hard paths that they walk down, but they do so faithfully, thoroughly. Next constantly, moment by moment, does the will of God occupy your thoughts moment by moment? What does the Lord want for me? What does the scriptures say? How can I glorify the Lord? It does the angels. And it should do for us. And lastly, corporately, the will of God is something that we do as a family of believers. Because, beloved, I'm telling you, you will lose your mind one day, but there are people out there who do not. I'm thankful that it seems to be the case in my family that when Gabe is losing his mind, Kim is the voice of reason. When Kim is losing her mind hypothetically, I am the voice of reason. Corporately, the Lord's prayer begins with our father, not my father. When doing the will of God, readily, speedily, faithfully, constantly, corporately, we are resembling what is done in the heavens. So this petition, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, is gravely serious, for sure, gravely serious. It guides our obedience. It draws us into an understanding of what the will of God is. It challenges our wills because we want what we want. And it gives us heavenly examples that we might be caught up to do this will. But the will of God is delightful. It's glorious. Take your sermon notes and look on the front page on the front flap. What has the will of God brought? What does that look like? Jesus invaded space and time to become a man to live in the way that we had to live, but could not. So that he would deliver life and life everlasting. That's the will of God. Darkness that sins caused. Jesus came to make light. I am the light of the world he says. The brokenness that sin is caused, he has mended. I am the good shepherd. The hopelessness stirred and fomented by the devil in the world. He has overturned. Now he stands and he mocks death because he has overcome it. And so have all who are in Christ Jesus. I am the resurrection and the life. Life everlasting, clarity and the merceness of sin, wholeness, joy and peace and hope. That's the will of God. That's what he has brought to you and to me. And that's what we can have moment by moment. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But as we do the will of God than others, see the life and the light and the hope of Jesus Christ. So when we pray this petition, we see God answer it. God will be glorified and we will be greatly, greatly blessed. He has given us the Holy Spirit, all who trust in Jesus Christ, that he might do his will and his work for his good pleasure. He has given us these means of grace that we might be strengthened so that we also might do the will of God on earth as it is in heaven. Let's pray. Father, we are humbled, perhaps afraid of this petition, but Lord locked into us doing the will of God, his life, light, wholeness, hope, joy, the pleasure of God that we might have. Father, search our hearts. We are before you. Perhaps some here have resisted you, stubbornly refused to follow Christ. Lord, this day would you overcome those things? Would you draw them near that they might be your son or your daughter and begin to do your will? And Lord, for us, we love to do our own will, but Lord, we long to do your will. And so we ask Father that you would pour out your spirit upon us again so that we would do just that in Jesus' name. Amen.