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Well, before I get into the sermon today and even the introduction, just to give you a quick update on what's happening this summer at the church. Sunday school we're going to be looking at the Proverbs and then Sunday night we're going to be in the Psalms.
And so summer in the Psalms, summer in the Proverbs, I'd love to have people come out and be encouraged. Summer is usually a time for people taking a little break and so I'll have other men preach on Sunday night in the Psalms and Sunday school in the Proverbs.
I also am going to South Africa this year but some don't know what I'm doing and so I thought I'd just give you a quick intro right now before the sermon. The Mozambique team is going to, any guesses, Mozambique and they're going to be engaged in evangelism to people who have never heard the gospel and so they'll be teaching Genesis chapter 1 to 11 as they teach about God first being the creator, then judge, then savior.
And so they'll be going separately from me. I was going to go with the group but there was a man, an influential man in South Africa, Martin Holt. He read the book, gave an endorsement to my book and then said, I want you to come to Africa and teach that book to our schools of preaching.
And so there'll be about seven schools of preaching there, hundreds of pastors in all the big cities in South Africa from Durban to Cape Elizabeth, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and then I'll go up to Zambia as well.
And so I'll basically teach all day, fly the next day, rest, teach, fly, rest and just go around the country. And they're just paying for me to fly around and teach the important concept that preachers should preach like Jesus.
What a concept and that we should listen to preaching like Jesus. And so if you'd pray not only for the Mozambique team but if you'd pray for me, I'd really appreciate it. Sometimes it's not the safest place so if you have one of those little cards, those little missionary cards, my head's in there because I'm going to a different continent but I won't be with this group.
And so pray for Mozambique team as they go hut to hut in their evangelism and pray for me as I try to influence pastors to preach Christ Jesus verse by verse from the text with passion and authority and preaching for a verdict.
So that's what I'll be doing. I'll be on vacation a little bit this summer so we'll be in and out but please pray for the ministry of God's Word in South Africa, Mozambique and in Zambia. Well, I don't know what the theme is today.
Maybe it's deathbed themes. Who knows? But if I'm laying there dying, read me John chapter 10. I also thought about if I'm laying there dying, I hope I honor God in the way I die. Don't you want to do that?
Now certainly there may be an accident and you don't have time to really say anything except, you know, the first letter to the word ouch, you know, and you're dead. Maybe the Lord will return but if I'm laying there dying and I think of what Wesley said, Christians die well.
I want to die for the glory of God. I want to die in such a way where people will say, only God could do that. That is a work of God. And if I have last words, as I've studied this passage today, I think to myself, God, if it would please you, if I am able, would you let the last words to come out of my mouth be, hallowed be thy name.
I want those to be four excellent words, not just to live by, not just to pray by, but also to die by, hallowed be thy name. We have lots of people around the bed, we're singing hymns, great is thy faithfulness, it is well with my soul.
I remember the first time I was in a situation like that, we thought maybe Grandma Evie would die, it was about 10 or 15 years ago, we're in her room and she said, I'd like to sing some hymns, it's Sunday.
And so I was kind of newer to this whole thing and marrying into this evangelistic, evangelical born again family, so I thought, okay, I'll shut the doors, we wouldn't want to disturb anybody, but that blew the whole thing because Grandma wanted everybody down the hall to hear these words, Jesus is a great Savior, what a wonderful Savior we have, open up the doors and sing.
Matter of fact, let's all kind of tilt our voices so they go out the door, but it's hard to just die a certain way unless you understand who God is, unless you know His will and who He is revealed in Scripture, and unless by the Spirit's grace we try to live in such a way that we can die that way.
So let's open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 6, as we're looking at the greatest prayer in all the Bible, maybe second to John 17, the Lord's prayer is what we commonly call it, we might call it the disciples' prayer.
Hallowed be Thy name, that God's name would be set apart to be made holy. Is anything holy today, as you're turning there to Matthew 6? Is there anything off limits? Is there anything in this life that's sacred?
Do people take their sandals off before they do anything saying this is indeed holy ground? I've met many people in my life that they seem to fear God, there's no fear of God in their eyes. Oh, if God's real, let Him strike me with a lightning bolt.
Is there anything sacred? Is there anyone sacred today? We'll see as Jesus teaches us to pray that God is sacred, God is set apart, God is different and He wants us to realize that as we pray. If this petition, Hallowed be Thy name, is the first part of the Lord's prayer, I think it's the most important part.
Frankly, if you look at this text, verse 10, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven, we won't need that part of the prayer, true? In heaven, we won't have to say, God, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Furthermore, in heaven, we will not have to say, God, give us this day our daily bread, will we? We have to pray for any of our needs in heaven, no. Will there be any sin in heaven? Can we sin in heaven?
Verse 12 is not going to be needed in heaven. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Oh, we'll celebrate forgiveness, oh, we'll celebrate the Savior who's paid for our sins, but there will be no confession of sins.
You will not need that prayer in heaven. Furthermore, there'll be no temptation, no trial, no evil one, because those will be all taken care of, lead us not into temptation, we will not need to be prayed in heaven.
Deliver us from evil, or the evil one, depending on your translation. We'll not need to be prayed in heaven. But the entry point here, the first petition, hallowed be thy name, I think will be the refrain.
It will be the continual stanza in heaven that Jesus Christ, our great God and King, is lifted up. And so this is a very, very important part of the prayer. Now we're jumping into the prayer and you say, well, we should probably have a little review.
And I think reviews are good. And you say to yourself, well, we get about 15 minutes review every time we come to the prayer. We come to any section, you just give us 15 minutes review. Well, I try to make the review different enough, but I also want the review because then you'll remember.
You'll remember what this text says. I think it's important. I talked to somebody today and they said, when we think of thrones, we think of judgment. When I think of this prayer, I want you to know in your mind what you're praying because too often this is some kind of paternoster, we just repeated our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and off we go.
What do we mean when we say this prayer? If this is the prayer that Jesus taught us, then we should know what we're doing. Can you imagine Augustine and Luther, no less, said that there's nothing more wonderful in the Bible than in this prayer.
And certainly it's wonderful because Jesus Christ himself, the Son of God and the Son of Man, the Ancient of Days, taught us to pray this way. I believe this passage contains a lifetime of study. We'll try to get it done in several weeks, but this is Hallowed Be Thy Name Part 2, Hallowed Be Thy Name Part 3 is on the docks, ready in my office to go.
So I don't want to move yet away from this because it just bulges with glory and adoration and information that we need to know so we can honor God in our prayers. I like also preaching this passage because it's Jesus' words.
I believe a New Testament pastor, of which I have the privilege to be, should preach in such a way that if a rabbi comes walking in who's not a Christian, he doesn't say, I agree with that message completely.
That is to say, it should be a message that is Christ-centered, focused on Christ. And that's exactly what we'll do today because he's our teacher. So Jesus comes to this prayer. Remember why and how?
Verses 5 through 8 of chapter 6, remember how he was teaching us we aren't to pray hypocritically and we aren't to pray with meaningless what? Repetition. We ought not to pray with an audience of anyone besides God the Father, Son, and Spirit.
And we ought not to pray just a bunch of gobbledygook. We're not just to pray with a bunch of words. Literally Jesus says, when you pray, don't pray like this. Literally this is what he says, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, bada, don't pray that way.
You're thinking, that's pretty long. That was 15 seconds of bada. How would you like to have God hear you repeating a bunch of meaningless things that mean just the same when he's the Father and he's the Son?
That's exactly what Jesus tells us. We don't pray verse 8 like them. They're an example of how to pray the wrong way. For your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then in this way. So Jesus says, we need to pray like we have a Father.
For orphans and for other people, there's a certain way they need to approach parents and caregivers for food and clothing and shelter, but when you've got a Father, there's a different way to ask for provision.
So he said, pray this way. Pray always this way. Pray often this way. This is the template. And he doesn't say, pray these words, does he? He says, I want you to pray in this manner. To such a degree that when you think of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, when Paul said, pray without what?
Ceasing. This is kind of in our mind, whether we're kneeling or not. Some people think, well, Muslims are the most holy people because at these prescribed times of the day, they pray. We were in Venice, Italy once, and on top of the only car parking garage that there is on the 10th floor, we were up there, and then in the corner at a certain time of the day, down they go to pray.
Some of you think, well, you know, they're holy and the minarets go, and that's a sign to pray. But I believe even this prayer skeleton, our format that Jesus gives us, shows us what real prayer is like.
It's not an hour. It's an attitude. It's not these set times. It's this relationship that we have of communion with God over and over and over. We have the Holy Spirit in us to guide us as we pray. And so Jesus says, pray this way, our Father, realizing that we have a God, realizing that this God is not just strictly a God or Lord, but He is a Father who loves His children.
He's not one of these idols. Think about the backdrop. He's not one of these gods that has to be pleased with rote things. He's not one of these pagan gods that has to be appeased with fruit and other things because He's a stingy God.
No, with security, with protection, with provision, we go to God as Father. I don't know what your kids call you. My father served in Korea, and I was not allowed to call my father, sir, because he said, I'm dad.
Now, certainly, once in a while, I can tell when I say something to one of the kids and they're disobeying, they're like, yes, sir, and they know to hurry up really fast. And if you want your children to call you sir at certain times, I don't care.
But we do not have to call God sir here. We do not have to call God the dreadful one. Our God is a consuming fire God. He's a consuming fire, but when it comes to prayer, when it comes to communion, we can just call God Father.
He doesn't say Abba here, which is even warmer. He says Father, so there's just enough closeness and there's just enough respect that go together when we approach our God. He's not just a God who's close.
He's a God who's where? In heaven. He's close, but he's not collegial. He's our father, but we don't call him as Stedman said, you can call him daddy, but don't you dare call him daddy-o. He was a preacher in the 70s.
Father would say to our minds, we have confidence of his love towards us. And who aren't in heaven, we ought not to be too familiar in some unholy way or some kind of cold way. Why do we pray this way?
One, Jesus told us, two, it gives the father joy, and three, it strengthens our faith. And we dive right into that first petition, hallowed be thy name. Hallowed be your name. What does that mean? Matter of fact, did you start off your prayers that way this week?
After our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And our outline last week was basically different shades of this robust part of the verse, hallowed be thy name, thy first petition. Let me just give you a few in review and then we'll get to the new ones.
The first shade of this great prayer petition, hallowed be thy name. What can we learn? Number one, that this petition toward God should teach us that no matter what our circumstances, we cannot pray selfishly.
Hallowed be your name. It's about God and God alone. It's not about our name. It's not about our kingdom. It's not about our will. It's not about us. I love Psalm 115. We've sung the song here many times.
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name, what? Give the glory because of your loving kindness, because of your truth. We are not to pray, God, you know, I need this job. I need this money. I need this health problem taken care of.
I need these issues. We don't want to pray that way because it would not reflect what Jesus would tell us. We are selfish. We are still sinfully selfish, although we're redeemed. If we're not supposed to start with ourselves, what do we start with?
Well, the obvious inference is prayer shade number two, that we should have concern for God and his glory when we pray. That's what this prayer should impress us with. It is urgent. If you want the Greek, it's an aorist imperative.
With urgent action, don't focus on yourself, but focus on God's name to be hallowed. This is one of those kind of, almost like a roadblock, I'm trying to think of a good illustration. You ever go over those parking lot deals, you go out of the parking lot and they've kind of got those little spike strips and you can kind of go this way, but you can't go that way?
Kind of, that's what I think this is. This is the porthole in, and once you go in with a high view of God and his honor and his adoration and awe towards God, there's no backing up to, well, you know, I've got myself back here.
That comes later. We should pray like Jeremiah when he says, oh Lord God, see if you can spot as you listen anything about himself or his situation. You have made the heavens and earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm.
Nothing's too difficult for you. Who shows loving kindness to thousands, oh great and mighty God, the Lord of hosts is his name. Great in counsel, mighty indeed, whose eyes are open all the way to the sons of men.
No request. And we can think about it this way, very practically, and talk about this last week. Can you say this when you pray, hallowed be thy name? God, I'd love that job, I'd love that promotion, I'd love that spouse, I'd love those kids, I'd love that such and such, but I am willing to submit all those things that if you receive more glory, I will bow to that.
God, I want to be married, but if I can more glorify you and people can have your name more hallowed by me not getting married now, hallowed be thy name. That's exactly what this is about. God, I'd like to make a little more money, I'd like to go up the corporate ladder a little bit more, I'd like to do X, Y, and Z and have a little more influence, but if you want me to do X, Y, and Z here, I will say, hallowed be thy name.
1988, my father diagnosed with terminal cancer. I wasn't a Christian yet, but lots of people were praying that Lee would be healed. Is that wrong to pray? No. But if God's name was to be hallowed the way he intended, here's what would happen.
Lee dies of cancer, and within six to seven months, Mike Ebendroth, the firstborn, because of that very thing, bows his knee by the grace of God to Jesus Christ as Lord. One month later, Pat Ebendroth bows his knee and says, I acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.
My mom leaves a sacramentalist church to go to a Bible teaching church, then she went on to teach the Bible and now is in glory. My brother's a pastor, I'm a pastor, and you say, you know, when you look at all the scheme of things, how do we pray?
We pray in such a way where you say, you know, I'd like my loved one to be healed, but I'm willing to bow to you, God creator, God savior, and God who knows my best father, hallowed be thy name, and I will submit.
That's exactly what he's talking about here. It's God's will. It's God's kingdom. It's God's name that should be preeminent. Number three, what does this prayer teach us? How can we kind of look at this from different angles so we get the fullness of it?
Well, it should impress us right away. We're not to pray for ourselves to start. Number two, we should pray for God's glory. And now, specifically, shade number three, hallowed be thy name should instruct you to pray so God's name would be holy, so God's name would literally be thought of as holy.
Here's the prayer. God, I'm praying that everybody in the universe would treat your name with honor. So much trashing of God. God, I don't want anything said of you in this world that's below you. I don't want anything uttered that's beneath you.
God, I want you to so manifest yourself through your spirit that people would only speak truth of you. That's what I want, God. Nothing else matters. And in a society stained with sin, swimming in sin, drowning in transgression, we say, God, it will take you and you alone to make these people, instead of rejoicing their sins and to call good evil and evil good, that you would have the preeminence and have people say, you are holy.
The world profanes God, blasphemes God, blames God for everything. And this prayer says, God, I want the creatures of this world to give you adoration, to give you honor. And it's happened in the past, hasn't it?
Can't you look back even in Bible history, even in Reformation history, in Great Awakening history in this state where a mighty move of God comes along certainly through the wings of the prayers of His people?
And then people say, you know, I used to think Jesus was a crutch. I used to think Jesus was for feeble-minded people. I used to think that Jesus was good for funerals. I used to think Jesus was good for a curse word.
But now I realize when I say the word Jesus, who that is, and people would fall literally and spiritually to the name of Jesus Christ in humble adoration. This prayer says, God, glorify your attributes.
God, it pains me to have people somehow worship an idol, something that's not true about you. Think about the word holy. I mean, when do we use the word hallowed? When's the last time you were to use the word hallowed?
Some kind of musty old German church, you know, in Köln or something, you go and you go, this is hollow. What does it mean? Well, I always like to think about plates. You have different kinds of plates at your house.
You have paper plates. You have daily plates. And you have some other kind of plates, maybe. You're like us in the earthquake. Sometimes those plates are just ruined. But you have regular-use things and you have special-use things.
I have regular clothes that I wear throughout the week, and then I have special clothes. They're different. They're set apart. And I have some plates that I eat from daily, regularly, often. And then when we have special company come over, we use what?
Special china. Special, different, reserved, set apart. We don't use those. And so the kid's like, can I eat off the china today? Do we even have china, Kim? Do we have china? Of course we do, and it's special.
Thanksgiving, that's the Thanksgiving stuff. So here you've got God's name used regularly, in vain. They're not even talking truths about God to the world. He's just a big blob of love, you know, just oozing love out.
That's all He does. And He doesn't care about justice or holiness or anything else. We say we don't want that common, profane, blasphemous talk. When God's name is mentioned, we want His name to be mentioned properly, biblically.
To be holy means to be set apart. Not for ordinary use, not for common use, not for vain use, but for His glory. Literally, when you think about the word to be holy and to be set apart and to be different from, one of the derivations is to shine.
We want God's word to shine. God, make Your word shine. You and you alone should get the majesty and the glory. By the way, don't be shocked. Do you think God answers this prayer? Why don't you turn to Leviticus 10?
When you pray this prayer, may I just give you a quick warning? You might not like the answer. Can you imagine? God, would You so hallow Your name in this church that we become more pure and more unified?
God, would You so hallow our marriage that we become more pure and more unified? God, would You hallow my actions at work? I just want you to know that this is kind of nitroglycerin-like, and when you pray for this, you shouldn't be shocked at the answered prayer.
Let me show you how God has hallowed His name in the past. Leviticus 10. Now, Leviticus 7, 8, 9, there's been all kinds of instructions for a priest, what to do, how not to do. God is never just saying, you know, you worship me the way you want to.
God prescribes the way He wants worship. Leviticus 10. Now, Nadab and Abihu, you know the story. The sons of Aaron took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded.
You don't make up worship. You don't come to God flippantly and carelessly and thoughtlessly and, oh, you know, God likes to forgive, and I like to sin, and I like to just make up my worship as we go, and God is a consuming fire.
And typically, the fire of God would come and consume the sacrifice. But these two men knew better. These two men had been instructed. These two men offered profane fire. What did they offer? We're not sure exactly.
Some say that they were drunk. Some say that they exposed themselves to some degree. Some say that they wandered into the Holy of Holies. It doesn't matter. The text doesn't tell us. Exodus 30 does say don't offer strange incense or burn offerings.
But Leviticus 10 too, and fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Literally, the fire came down, and instead of lapping up the sacrifice, it lapped up or gobbled up these two men, prominent men.
And then listen here. This is the tie-in to Hallowed Be Thy Name. Then Moses said to Aaron, It is what the Lord spoke, saying, And before all the people, I will be honored. Hallowed be thy name. So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.
The absolute necessity and the mandatory nature of revering God. And Aaron didn't say a word, did he? Not one word. Moses also called Michiel and Elzaphon, the sons of Aaron's uncle, Eziel, and said to them, Now listen, verse 5.
So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics. What kind of fire is this? This is fire that burns the people to a crisp, yet keeps the clothes untouched, unsinged. This is divine fire. This is probably fire that came right from above the mercy seat and just came right out and destroyed them.
This is a serious prayer. Hallowed be thy name. Number four, prayer shade number four. Hallowed be thy name implies that you're praying to God to make you holy. We'll learn more about that next week, but it should be a desire for us.
If God's name is to be holy, God make me holy to show your name as holy. I want, as a child, to have people say good things about you, my father. If I live in a worthy way, I honor my father. So, too, does the child of God honor his heavenly father.
Number five, hallowed be thy name. Let's go back to Matthew 6, please. Demonstrates to you that you should pray for God's entire set of attributes to be hallowed. That is to say, when you think of the word the name, what does the word name mean?
What does the text say? Hallowed be thy name. What's that mean? Hallowed be thy name? Hallowed be Yahweh, God's personal name? No. In our day and in that day, someone's name meant something different.
So our question should be, forget the modern world, what significance back in the Bible day did the word the name mean? I think of name as title. They would think of name as the totality of the person.
I could prove it this way. Give me one word that completely and totally describes God and all his attributes. Just one word. Just one word that can describe God in all his splendor. Just one word. One will do.
Can you do it in one? Well, holy, maybe. You're good listeners, but that's not what I'm looking for. I'm trying to say that the name of God is all his attributes, and we see many names in Scripture because it takes a lot of names to describe this infinite God.
I could ask you this question. Do you love God? Do you reverence him because you know the title? Lord, I call him Lord. No, you love God and honor him and worship him because you know all about his attributes, all about his character, who he is.
If I think of David, I could call David shepherd, warrior, king, writer, musician, prophet, and poet, couldn't I? I have to use a lot more for God. In biblical days, the name means the totality of the person, everything about that person.
When Jesus prayed in John 12, Father, glorify thy name. God, make yourself and all your attributes glorified. I once asked Sinclair Ferguson this question. Dr. Ferguson, thank you for taking time after your service here in Scotland.
Oh, no, no, this was in California. What's God doing right now? I don't know why that was a good question to ask, but I get asked questions like that all the time by kids. I get asked questions like, what's Noah's husband's name?
Now you're saying, Pastor, you misspeak. Noah's husband? No. Somebody sitting right back there asked me that question. Won't mention her name, Amanda. And she said, Noah's husband? But if you look in the Bible, there's a man Noah and a woman Noah in the Bible.
So we get those questions. So I said to Sinclair Ferguson, what's God doing right now? And here's the answer. You're going to like this. God is simultaneously exercising all of his attributes. What's God doing right now?
All of who he is, is simultaneously being demonstrated across the universe. I thought, that is right. So when we pray, hallowed be thy name, we say God set apart not only your righteousness, but your wisdom and your mercy and your love and your kindness and your long suffering.
Everything about you we want is holy. That's what he's saying. And if you turn to Exodus chapter 34, I think I can show you in a wonderful way how the name is illustrative of all God's perfections. It's not just a title.
When you think of the name of God, you just shouldn't say Yahweh, his personal name. You shouldn't think this is God's name, rank and serial number. You should think this is who God is in all his splendor, in all his greatness.
Exodus 34. Now if I ask you nine ways to describe God in the Old Testament, you would say what? If you're like people today on the earth, they'd say harsh, righteous, holy, furious. Here's a little description of God in the Old Testament when you think of name.
Exodus chapter 34. There's been horrible sin. The calf has been produced and Aaron has wanted people to bow down before it. There's been kind of an orgy going around this whole calf called Yahweh. And now Exodus 34.
The text says, Now the Lord said to Moses, Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, his replacements, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered.
Remember when Moses saw the calf and the dancing? His anger burned and he took those tablets and he threw them down and they shattered. Verse 2. So be ready by morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on top of the mountain.
Take two. In other words, And no man is to come up with you, verse 3, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of the mountain. This is hallowed ground.
Don't let the animals come because they're going to die. So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones. Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded, and he took the two stone tablets in his hand.
Now we're getting to the point. Verse 5. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the what? Name of the Lord. He wasn't calling upon the name of the Lord Yahweh or some kind of German derivation, Jehovah.
He wasn't saying that. He was calling on the name, all the characteristics of God. How can I prove that? Verse 6 and 7. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed. Here's a sermon from God.
Basically, Moses says, I want to see your name. Show me your name. Disclose yourself to me. This is a low point in history of the nation of Israel. And God, I need to be encouraged. I need to be reminded of who you are.
I've got this vain people, this obstinate people, and I'm supposed to lead them, and I'm going to call on your name. God, show me your name. Do you see back in verse 5? He called upon the name of the Lord.
Not a title, but the name. Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed. So now God is going to preach using Hebrew words and letters. Here's who God is, full self-disclosure. The Lord, the Lord God.
And then he gives nine things about himself to show the fullness of his name. Oh, there could be more, but for Moses, this is what he needed. He needed these nines, these nine. Nine ways to describe God in the Old Testament.
And let's just look at these so we can understand the completeness of the name. The Lord, the Lord God. What's the first one? God's name shows that he is compassionate. Good thing because these Israelites have been running around dancing, having some party to a God named Yahweh who looks like a cow.
This is a word that says there's a superior and there's an inferior. And that inferior has done something to arouse the passion, the negative passion of the superior. But because of this attribute, the superior doesn't destroy.
The superior has a tender feeling of pity and compassion. He feels not destroy. To destroy, he feels tender, dear love. And he feels that by choice. He doesn't have to do it, but by choice, he says, I will redeem them.
I will restore them. I will give them the nation back in this particular case. He deals gently because he's compassionate. So with weak and failing people, he comes across. I think for a reason, this is number one.
I think it's put first for a reason. In his mercy, he redeems them, lifts them, and carries them the day of old. How do you describe God? What's in a name? Number two, God's name reveals that he is, what's the next one?
Gracious. Most of the time when this word is used, it's used with God as subject, and it's used with the first word, compassion. When you see compassion and gracious, I believe 11 times in the Old Testament, they're just put together because they go together so well.
Of God's own free will, he's gracious. It's of his own choice, he's gracious and compassionate. He's favorable towards the afflicted. He's kind to the needy. He does good to them, not because of who they are, but because he's good.
Three, God's name reveals that he's slow to anger. You see it right there in your text. When Moses said, show me your name, God said, I'm compassionate, I'm gracious, I'm slow to anger. Aren't you glad this is true about God?
And if you're a kid here today, you're going to remember this part of the sermon. Ready? You're a kid. No more sleeping? It's hot in here today. I walked in, it was freezing cold. Now it's burning. It's all that Leviticus 10 talk with Nadab and Abihu.
If you ever walk up here and you see only my suit and I'm not here, I would hope you'd think more about pre-tribulational rapture than you would destroyed by the fire of God. So just give me a benefit of the doubt.
Kids, this word comes from two words. The first word is long and the second word is nose. Long-nosed. Long-nosed God? Ten times it's used in the Bible to refer to God's patience. And there is a holy, righteous indignation.
You'd almost see somebody in the face getting red. When somebody's mad, they show themselves red in the face. But it takes a long time for that fury to come out of his nose because he's got a long nose.
It has nothing to do with a real nose and cartilage. This is just language so we can understand it. We can understand that God is patient. It takes a long time for his anger to come flying out of his nose to destroy.
Matthew Henry said, he waits to be gracious and lengthens out the offers of his mercy. God is not in a rush to crush sinners. God is not in a hurry to judge sin. Oh, he will, but he's not in a hurry and aren't we glad?
Number four, God's name reveals that he's abounding in loving kindness. Abounding in loving kindness. This is loyal love, steadfast love, covenant love. This is where God sets his love on people in Deuteronomy 7 because of an oath.
His own oath. This is love that grants gifts, that gives blessings. A man said, it's plentiful goodness love. I like that. Well, not only that, we've got to hurry. God's name reveals that he's abounding in truth.
That's what God showed Moses. This is God's sermon to Moses. It's a nine point sermon. Forget three points in a poem. It takes a lot to show who God is and when you say name, here's what God showed Moses.
There's more, but this is what Moses needed. That he's going to keep his word. He's faithful. He's reliable. He knows his word. You can trust his word. You can believe what Jesus would say hundreds of years later.
Your word, God, is truth. Number six, God's name reveals that he's keeping loving kindness for thousands. God has got so much covenant love, infinite riches. There's plenty to go around from generation to generation to generation.
Never exhausted, never tank empty. Thousands of generations. Number seven, God's name reveals that he's forgiving. And look at the extent of the forgiveness. There's three different words used for sin, iniquity, transgression, and sin.
Forgiveness here means to lift up. If you see a plane lift up and it's taken away by the air and it's lifted by the pressure, this word means lifted up and taken away, thrown away. What does God do to these kind of sins?
The first one, iniquity. Can you imagine? That word means crooked behavior. For crooked sins, God says, I lift them up and go because that's my nature. The second word is transgression. Now, that's a breach.
Two parties have a conflict and there's a breach. God says, I lift it up and take it away. The third word is sin. People miss the way, miss the mark. God lifts it up and takes it away. God has plenty of forgiveness.
Number eight, God's name reveals that he's just, ultimately. He doesn't say, well, you know, I'm long-nosed and I'll just kind of forget it. He's just. He will not acquit the guilty. And lastly, number nine, God's name reveals that he won't erase the consequences of sin, at least on earth.
While it would be wrong for God to punish children for their parents' sins, certainly those sins of the parents could influence the life of the children. And what did Moses do to all this? When you see God's name, what do you do?
High five? Do a little dance? Get that calf back out? What did Moses do? Verse eight, and Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. Oh, if I have now found favor in thy sight, oh, Lord, I pray.
Let the Lord go along in our midst. That's the Lord that I need to go in my midst, that name of the Lord, because look at all your attributes. I need you, God. Even though the people are so obstinate, I've seen you and your attributes.
And do thou pardon our iniquity and sin and take us as thy own possession. Well, speaking of that, let me give you the final prayer shade, number six. Hallowed be thy name. Stay right here in Exodus. Hallowed be thy name not only stems from God's holiness but also his jealousy.
If you want to understand hallowed be thy name, then you have to understand that God is a jealous God to the point that his name is jealous. How many people, when you praise God at night, God, thank you for watching over me.
I'm thankful for your love. I'm thankful for your kindness. Oh, you're so forgiving. And, Lord, I praise you tonight because you're a jealous God. Has anybody here praised God in the last week for his jealousy?
In the last month, I praise you, God, and I bow my knees because you're a jealous God. In the last year, if you want to understand the name of God, hallowed be thy name, you must understand holiness, but tied together with holiness is the idea of jealousy.
Let's keep reading in Exodus 34 .10 so you can see the context here. Then God said, Behold, I'm going to make a covenant. Before all your people, I perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations.
And of all the people among you, among whom you live, will see the working of the Lord. For it is a fearful thing that I'm going to perform with you. Be sure to observe what I'm commanding you. I'm going to drive out all these Amorites and all these otherites.
Watch yourself that you make no covenant of the habitants of the land in which you're going, lest it become a snare in your midst. Rather, you are to, look at the three words, tear down, three concepts, their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their ashram.
I want you to pulverize, eradicate, and erase their pagan, gross, immoral trees and other things where unspeakable things were done. For, why? I thought we all can just kind of, it's your God and it's my God, and as long as your God can help you, and we're all together for this nice prayer breakfast, and this ecumenical gathering, and national day of prayer, and it's going to help us in social matters, and help us with the horrible sin of abortion, and we can kind of get along, and better in numbers, and tear down, smash, and cut down.
Can you imagine? Why? Why does God want other religions torn down, smashed, destroyed, and pulverized? I'll force the issue. Here it comes. Because He is a jealous lover. He is a jealous lover. Look at the text.
For you shall not worship any other God. For the Lord, whose name is what? Jealous, is a jealous God. His name is jealous. That's part of His attributes, that's part of His characteristics, part of His perfections, and He is a jealous God.
He's not jealous by name only, but by action is the point. It doesn't take you very long to wander around India, where I've been, and see all these places for false worship, where you start saying, God, do something.
And when you pray, hallowed be thy name, that's exactly what you're saying. Now, you say to me, Pastor, jealous. I've known people that I've talked to in my life, and they say, okay, then I'm not going to be a Christian.
If God's jealous, I'm not going to worship that God. What they're doing is they're saying there's a negative connotation of jealousy. Some husband who is irrationally jealous for his wife when she talks to another man in public, that kind of thing.
But certainly God is good, isn't He? God is perfect. Is God's jealousy sinful? No, right? Otherwise, then God would no longer be God. So this must be a righteous jealousy, a good jealousy, the right kind of jealousy.
He goes on to say in verse 17, you shall make for yourselves no molten gods. People cannot take that God's jealous. But I'm saying to you, congregation, that when you pray, hallowed be thy name, you're saying, God, hallow all your names because you're jealous for your own glory.
Here's what I found about some theologians in their discussion about God's jealousy. I think this is fascinating. This is why the sound system should be fixed, is for this moment right here, to teach by contrast.
Some say that jealousy of God is the result of territorial imperative of the primal mind, often explained by the product of an evolutionary process. Another one said, it is believed that even the idea of a jealous God is the result of vestiges of our reptilian brains.
One man said, if God is jealous, then He's little more than having the same motive in homicide and wife-beating. What does it mean when God is jealous? If you believe God is jealous, it's some kind of vestige of your reptilian brain?
Now, jealous does not just mean zealous, enthusiastic. It could mean that, but the connotation here is within a covenant, within a relationship. Jealous means that there's been a violation to an exclusive relationship.
That's exactly what it means. You can't understand God unless you understand He's jealous. And you can't understand God's jealousy until you see the violation that sin makes, not only with Israel, but of course us, between the lover and the beloved.
Eric Thoen said, you want to understand jealousy? Here's how you do it. You understand these five things. A lover, a beloved, a rival, infidelity, and an emotional response to that infidelity. So there's a lover, there's a beloved, there's a rival, there's an infidelity, and there's a response of the loved one because of that infidelity.
Infringement upon the exclusive relationship. Now, doesn't that seem to make sense? God has an intimacy for His people, a love for His people. He's laid down His life through His Son for the people. The Son has laid down His life.
And then those people run off instead of worshiping some kind of poles, they worship things like success and money and amusement and hedonism. And what do you think God's response is? What husband would have a wife run off with another lover and just go, whatever, no biggie, everybody's free to love, nothing big.
Hallowed be thy name. God has purchased a people there. He has, therefore, an exclusive right of their worship. Covenant fidelity. God's glory is to be promoted and exalted because He's jealous. And when there is a deviation from that, God responds with jealousy.
He's not ambivalent when it comes to our infidelities. So much so, when you think about Israel, what did Israel spiritually commit against God? What's it called often in the Bible? Adultery. One man said when jealousy for God's glory is neglected, the creature rather than the creator takes center stage.
Recovery of the pervasive theme in Scripture of God's jealousy for His own glory will ensure that God's people live to fulfill their highest purpose, to bring glory to God. And I would just say all that can be condensed into hallowed be thy name.
God, when people pollute the relationship between you as creator and those as creature, we want that to stop. We want your name to be hallowed. Do something about it. God, we can't do anything about it.
Politics won't help. Moral majority won't help. Telling people to obey the Ten Commandments won't help. To obey the golden rule won't help. God, you're going to have to do it. And we're going to have to pray with Jesus when He prayed in the garden, Father, glorify Your name.
God's jealous. I love... Maybe I shouldn't love this passage. Maybe I love it that it was somebody else when I deserved it. On an appointed day, Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them.
The people kept crying out, The voice of a God and not a man. The voice of a God and not a man. He should have said, I'm not a God. He didn't say that. He loved it. And instead, Acts chapter 12 describes what happened theologically.
And immediately, an angel of the Lord, God, the angel of the Lord, struck him because he did not give God the glory. And I could add, because God is jealous. And he was eaten by worms and died. When you think of hallowed be thy name, I want you to think of God being set apart for worship.
But I also want you to think that He is a jealous lover of people. Righteous jealousy. Hallowed be thy name. I believe there are words to live by. Hallowed be thy name. I think there are words to pray by.
Hallowed be thy name. I think there are words to die by. Let's pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Lord, we are thankful that you are a jealous lover. After our first bouts of iniquity, to just let us go, carried away by sin's effects, it would have been horrible.
But you stopped us. You're a great God and Father. A great King who grants clemency through Jesus Christ our Lord. And Father, certainly today there must be people here who have committed gross idolatries, maybe not with their bodies, but maybe with their mind, not giving you the praise and glory and honor that you deserve.
I pray in your righteous jealousy that today you would arrest them, that you would give them a new heart like you did Lydia, that you would cause them to be born again as Peter talks about, and I pray that you would grant them the gift of repentance and faith, that they might believe in Jesus Christ as the only one.
Lord, we are so thankful as a congregation today because your Son has paid for our iniquities, paid for our sins, paid for our transgressions, and all those days and years and maybe decades of our sinful infidelities against Christ Jesus, all forgiven, all covered, that Jesus would bear them upon His body at Calvary, that you would raise them from the dead.
We thank you for that. Help us not to browbeat people this week about your holiness, but help us to pray. God, would you please make your name hallowed in this world and in this church for your Son's sake, amen.