Do You Know Who You're Talking To?

Matthew 6 and the Model Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter six. We are continuing this morning in our study of the Sermon on the Mount. We have been in this series now for, well, more than eight, about seven or eight months, I guess.

And we have been going verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount. We have noted that the theme of the Sermon on the Mount is corrective in nature. Jesus is intending to ensure that his apostles know the errors which have cropped up in the teachings of their day.

Primarily among the Jewish leadership. He wants them to know that errors have come into the teaching and he wants them to know what those errors are so that they can be corrected. Over the past few weeks, we have noted that Jesus has made a point about prayer.

And he is giving corrective teaching on prayer. He first tells us that prayer should never be a show which is done unto men. For if we do our prayers as shows unto men, then we are getting the reward that we want, which is the respect of people rather than the attention of God.

He also says that we are not to pray in vain repetition, which means that chanting and any type of repetitive words that have no meaning are forbidden. But Jesus does not just stop with prohibitions. He also demonstrates what prayer is supposed to look like.

He provides for us a model for prayer. People often refer to Matthew 6, verses 9 -13 as the Lord's Prayer. I want to correct that this morning if I might. This is not the Lord's Prayer. This is the Lord's model prayer.

Because this is not a prayer which Jesus Himself would ever pray. Jesus would never say, forgive me of my debts as I forgive my debtors. Jesus would not need to say, forgive my sins. But He gives this prayer to us as a model.

If you want to know what the Lord's Prayer is, go to John 17. There is the prayer of Christ for the church. There is the prayer of Christ for His people. That's the Lord's Prayer. That's the prayer He prays on behalf of His people.

This is the model prayer. We include this prayer as a part of worship service. Each Sunday when we come in and I give the pastoral prayer, at the end of the pastoral prayer we include this model prayer.

The reason for that, if you've ever wondered why we do that, is that we believe that there is an instructional purpose for worship. We come into worship for a multitude of reasons, to praise God's name, to participate in communion with Him, to give.

But we also come to be instructed. So part of our instruction is the recitation of the model prayer. It is not meant to be prayed mindlessly. It is not meant to simply be our version of vain repetition, for that would be wrong.

It would violate Jesus' teaching. But what it is meant to do, it is meant to serve as a model for righteous prayer. So we rehearse it every week as a reminder of its principles, and as an expression of fidelity to the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus taught us to pray this way, so we pray this way. Well, this morning, and in the weeks to come, we're going to study this model prayer. We will be taking a break at Father's Day, to look at a specific Father's related message.

However, for the weeks to come, this week, next week, and a few weeks after Father's Day, we will be looking at the model prayer, and examining its teachings, and how does it teach us to pray? What does it teach us about prayer?

And how should it affect our individual prayer lives? That will be our study. So today, we're going to look at the first statement in the model prayer, which is verse 9. So let us stand and read this together.

Verses 9 and 10, rather. Jesus is speaking, and He says, Pray then like this, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Our Father and our God, we thank You for this opportunity to study Your Word.

I pray now, Father, as I seek to give exposition of Your Word, that You would keep me from error, as I know I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error. So I pray that You would protect me from that, that You would protect the congregation from that, and I pray also that You would open the hearts of Your people to the truth, that we would know the truth, and that the truth would set us free.

In the name of Christ we pray, and for His sake. Amen. When you were a child, did you ever have a time when you were disrespecting your mom, and she looked you dead in the face and said, Who do you think you're talking to?

Maybe it's just me. By the looks of your face, I think we all can relate to that statement. We've all heard it, and maybe some of us have even said it to someone else. Who do you think you're talking to?

It's a reality check for whoever it is that hears that statement. It's a reminder that they are speaking disrespectfully. It's a reminder that there is a line that exists, a line of respect which dare not be crossed.

A person in a position of authority deserves to be addressed with words of respect. Knowing this, we turn our attention to the way that God is often addressed in our society, and we see the great disrespect which often accompanies the address of God.

We know that God is blasphemed in the media. We know that He is blasphemed by unbelievers. It's sad, but it's not surprising. You should never be surprised to see a sinner acting like a sinner. You should never be surprised to see an unsaved person acting like an unsaved person.

That's how they act. That's what they are. It's in accord with their nature. People tell me, people ask me, can you believe this person did this? Yes, they're not saved. They have no fidelity to Christ.

Why would I be surprised by any different? Or I would be surprised if they did different, rather. But the problem is not the world disrespecting God. As we said, that's the very nature of the situation we're in.

The problem is that there is a very real sense in which God is treated flippantly and by extension disrespectfully by people who call themselves Christians. Just listen to people pray. They are irreverent.

They are impious. They are demanding. They are disrespectful. The WordFaith movement has spawned an entire generation whose prayers seem more like the whinings of a spoiled child than they do the petitions of a devout saint.

Now, to be clear, I want to make sure I say this from the outset, I'm not saying that our prayers must be perfect or that they must be lined with King James English, though there are some who do that very well, Mr. Paul, and I appreciate those who attempt to do that, but I'm not saying that that's necessary.

It's not bad, but it's not necessary. It's good. What I am saying, though, is that many in the modern church have no idea to whom they are speaking, and thus they enter into their prayers with no sense of reverence at all.

John MacArthur said this, he said, this is an utterly irreverent age. And that's a short quote, but it's powerful. He said this is an utterly irreverent age. He said a study was done, and he went on to say, that a study was done recently which found that the majority of people, and I think that it was somewhere around 70 of people, have never in their lives attended a formal event.

People take a casual and cavalier approach to everything today. Nothing is special anymore. Nothing is sacred anymore. Everything is just. Everything is fun. There is no more seriousness in our culture.

Everything is up for grabs. Everything is worthy of contempt. As a result, people take this cavalier approach to everything, and the casual approach to everything, and they refuse to take anything seriously.

And that includes entering into the presence of God. Beloved, Jesus is not your homeboy. I'm sorry, He's not your homeboy. Our prayer should not begin, Hey, big guy in the sky, listen up. I'm sorry, but we are speaking to the God who created the universe from nothing.

He created man from the dust of the ground. He spoke us into existence, and we should enter into His presence with awe and wonder. It is no small thing to enter into the presence of God. Jesus bought that ability for us with His blood.

Should we so trample His blood under our feet by considering it an irreverent thing? We are able, as Scripture says, to enter into His throne room boldly, but that does not mean disrespectfully. Beloved, the problem, and I mentioned this in last week's sermon, the problem with the modern view of God is that it has brought Him down so much.

It has debased Him so much that He has ceased to be in the position of authority and respect where the Scripture sets Him and where He stands as our God and King. So with this on our hearts this morning, I want to begin with the two addresses which Jesus gives us as the opening of the model prayer.

We're really only going to look at v. 9. I read v. 9 and 10, but we're going to deal more with v. 10 next week because today I want to look specifically at two things. I want to look first at the fatherhood of God and second, at the holiness of God because those are the two things that Jesus said should be on our hearts when we enter into the presence of God in prayer.

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. The fatherhood of God and the holiness of God together in our minds. So we're going to see why those two things make up how we are to enter into the presence of God.

So let's look first at the fatherhood of God. Again, it says in v. 9, pray then like this. Jesus is telling us this is the model for prayer. He's saying do this this way. This is the rubric. This is the plan.

This is the syllabus. This is how you ought to do this thing. Begin with the fatherhood of God, our Father in Heaven. One of the most precious blessings which is given to the believer is the ability to identify the God of this universe as our Father.

The problem is that has become tainted. The whole idea, well, God's the Father of everyone. There's this false teaching out there about the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man that is not biblical.

Because while there is a sense in which God is the Father of all mankind in the sense that God is the Creator of all mankind, but that is not the sense in which Jesus is referring to here when He says call God our Father in Heaven.

Because when Jesus commends us, when Jesus rather admonishes us to call God our Father, it is in the context of the redeemed relationship. We are created by God, but that does not mean that we are automatically in a relationship with Him.

The relationship that we have with God is established not at birth, it is established at the new birth. Turn with me to John 1 and I will show you this very important truth. John 1, verse 11. This is one of the saddest and yet most blessed passages of Scripture in the Bible.

John 1, verse 11. Speaking of Jesus, He came to His own and His own people did not receive Him. What a terrible reality that is. Jesus came to His own people. He came to those whom God had chosen out of the world to be the instrument of blessing and yet they did not receive Him.

That is a horrible atrocity, but it is a reality. And yet it goes on to say, but... that is that great word which creates the distinction between what was and what is. His own did not receive Him, but to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become what, beloved?

Children of God. Children of God. That was what was given to us by Christ. And it goes on to say, it says we were born not of anything that we have done, but we were born of God. And that is a precious blessing that we have.

The Apostle Paul describes this more clearly for us in Galatians chapter 4. If you want to turn there. I just want to point out the reality of this new birth relationship that we have that we can call God our Father.

Turn to Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4. We read this as our opening text this morning. It says, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

See, we were not sons. If we were already God's children, we wouldn't need to be adopted. We wouldn't need to be brought in. If we were born and birthed as His children, then we wouldn't need to be adopted.

But we have received the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying Abba Father. The word Abba there is the Aramaic term. It is the expression, the same that we would use for a child calling out Daddy.

It is the childish expression of the word Father. He says we cry Abba Father so you are no longer a slave, but a son. See, before we were slaves. Before we were redeemed, we were in the slave market of sin.

We were there under the power of Satan. We were under the power of the flesh. We were under the power of the world, our three great enemies, the flesh, the world, and the devil. We were there. We were sold under sin, slaves to sin, the Scripture says.

But we have been redeemed, purchased out of, is what the word redeemed means. We were purchased out of that slave market. And now, what does the text say? You are a son. And if a son, then an heir through God.

An heir to the blessings. That wasn't what you were before. That's what you are now. Having come into a relationship with God through Christ. You went from being an outcast. You went from being one who had no family, spiritually, to now being in the family of God and being able to call God your Father.

Paul says this again in Romans chapter 8. I call your attention there to Romans 8 and 15. Romans 8 and verse 15. The Apostle Paul says a very similar thing. He, of course, wrote Galatians, so it makes sense that he would say similar things in his epistles.

And he says this again, using the term Abba, using again that idea of slavery, using again the idea of adoption, he says in verse 15, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba, Father.

There's that term again. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

The blessing of the new birth is that we have been birthed into a new family. And because we have been birthed into a new family, we have a new Father. And that Father is God. You see, we were created by God.

But just because He created us did not make Him our Father. In fact, before we were created, we had a Father. I'm sorry, before we were born again, we had a Father. But it was not God. The Bible says that prior to our conversion, we were of our Father, the Devil.

I'm asking you to turn a lot today. It is on the screen. If I'm asking you to go a lot around and you're having trouble keeping up, you can look at the screen. But Ephesians 2, verse 1, expresses where we were before God became our Father.

Whose authority we were under before God became our Father. Ephesians 2, verse 1. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. By the way, just from the perspective of Reformed theology, this is a very important verse on the discipline and doctrine of total depravity.

You were not sick in your sins. You were dead. And dead means dead. And dead always means dead. It is dead. Just in case you're missing it, you were dead. You were unable to do anything good spiritually before God, before God worked a miracle of regeneration in your heart.

That is what the doctrine of total depravity says. And that's what this says. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. And it goes on to say, in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.

That is a euphemism for Satan. That is a euphemism for the devil. The prince of the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Whose children are these? These are children of the devil.

They're children of disobedience among whom we all once lived. This is the thing that bothers me. I think people sometimes, the problem with most people's conversion is they think they were good and got better.

The problem is you were dead and got made alive. You were actually a son of disobedience. Well, I don't think I was that bad. Then you're probably not saved now because you probably don't understand what badness is.

If you don't think you were bad enough to need salvation, then you probably have not yet received it. But verse 3 says, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

That's where we were, folks. We were not by nature children of God. We were by nature children of wrath. But thanks be to God. He rescued us out of Satan's hellish grip. He adopted us into His family so now we can call Him Father.

We who were estranged from God have been brought into the family of God. It's a miracle of miracles, folks, and yet the world looks on it as if it is a flippant and simple thing. And it is not. It is an amazing thing.

This portion of the Lord's Prayer tells us... This first short phrase, Our Father in Heaven, tells us something about this prayer. It tells us that this prayer is for believers only. This is not some universal prayer which is meant for everyone.

This prayer is for Christ's people. Charles Spurgeon said this, I believe that this prayer was never intended for universal use. Jesus Christ taught it not to all men, but to His disciples. And it is a prayer adapted only to those who are the possessors of grace and are truly converted.

In the lips of an ungodly man, it is entirely out of place. That's a powerful statement, but it is the truth. This prayer is for people who have been adopted into the family of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is wholly inappropriate for anyone else. This is not the universal prayer of mankind. This prayer is for those who have come into a relationship with God wherein they can now call Him our Father. By the way, the word our there does make a distinguishing section in the prayer.

He is our Father. The our is not in reference to the general mankind. The our is faithful believers, God's children, His people. This prayer is not the prayer of the heathen. Because God is not the Father of the heathen.

He is not the Father of the rebel. He is not the Father of the pagan. He is not the Father of the Buddhist, the Mohammedan, the Mormon, the atheist, or the quote-unquote orthodox Jew. None of these can lay rightful claim to the fatherhood of God because they have rejected the work of the Son.

Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Me. No one lays claim to the fatherhood of God outside of the Sonship of Christ. I'll say that again to make sure that it sinks in.

No one lays claim to the fatherhood of God outside of the Sonship of Christ. So when the word our Father is used, it is used with exclusivity. He is our Father because of His Son. It's a glorious and sublime truth and we are blessed to be able to say that we understand it.

We are blessed to be able to say God is our Father. But it doesn't stop there for it goes on to say, pray this, Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. So in the second portion of the sermon today, I want to address that phrase, hallowed be Your name, as we look at the holiness of God.

We've looked at the fatherhood of God. We've looked at many passages which teach us about the fatherhood of God. But let us now look at the holiness of God. The root word of the word hallowed there is the word hagios in the Greek.

It's where we get the word holy in English. So in essence, it says, holy be Your name. By the way, many of you are probably familiar with the once a year kids go out and they get candy. They dress up and we call that Halloween, right?

Have you ever made a connection in your mind between hallowed be Your name and Halloween? Well, there is a connection because Halloween is on October 31st, which is the day before All Saints Day in the Roman Catholic Church.

So Saints Day would be preceded by Saints Eve or Hallowed Eve, where we get the term Halloween. The saints, the holy ones, that's where that term comes from. Hallowed means to be called holy. The holiness of God is not something which can be adequately described in a small section of a sermon.

Men have taken to write entire volumes on the subject of God's holiness. I could talk all day and all night and into the weeks to come and yet not break the shell of the holiness of God. I encourage your reading though.

I do want to encourage you to read the book The Holiness of God by Dr. R .C. Sproul. If you never have The Holiness of God, if you've never read it, and if you don't understand The Holiness of God, it will change your way of looking at God completely.

And it has been used to minister to many men and women over the years to help them understand God better. That being said, I do want to attempt in this portion of the sermon to address the issue because Jesus has said we are to pray, hallowed be Your name, holy be Your name.

What does that mean? We talk about holiness. What is holiness? The word holiness means in its simplest form, separateness. It also has the connotation of uniqueness. There is none like unto God, Isaiah 46.

There is none like Him. I like the term otherness. Some people kind of look at me funny. What do you mean otherness? He is not like anyone. He is wholly other. That's W-H-O-L-L-Y. Holy. He's completely other.

God has no equal. There is none like unto Him. This is something that is constantly repeated throughout the Scripture. That God is holy. That there is none like Him. And to enter into His presence is to enter into the presence of the One who is completely and utterly unique.

Which means that when we enter into His presence, we should be in awe of His being. You know these guys on TV? Oh, I went and talked to God. I was in His presence. We were chilling out having ice cream on Hallelujah Boulevard.

You are a liar, sir. The people who were in the presence of God in Scripture were broken by the experience. God told Moses, you cannot even look. I will put you in the cleft of the rock and I will cover you as I pass by, but you will not look at Me and live.

And as I already noted, Isaiah looked in the presence of the Lord seated upon His throne and what did he do? He pronounced judgment upon himself. Woe is me. And that's not like today we go, oh, woe is me.

Woe is a pronouncement of judgment. Woe unto you, Coruscant! Woe unto you, Bethsaida! For if the things which had been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented. Jesus commands the woe onto these evil cities.

And Isaiah pronounced the same woe on himself in the presence of God. Ryan Swartzley said this. He said if you could only use one word to explain the God of Scripture and the purpose and plan of redemption, it would be the word holiness.

If somebody said you can only use one word to describe God, one thing you could say to describe God's nature, His purpose, and what He does, it would be the word holy. The holiness of God is the attribute which undergirds all other attributes.

It's not one of His attributes. It's that which sustains the rest. His love is a holy love. His justice is a holy justice. His mercy is a holy mercy. And His knowledge is a holy knowledge. And on and on and on and on.

It is the virtue of virtues. For it is the very nature of God. Holiness is the only attribute of God which is described to the third degree in Scripture. People always make a big deal. The Bible says God is love.

It doesn't say He's love three times. And I'm not saying God is not love. God is love. But never make you think that love is God. That's the problem. God is love, but love is not God. That's an important distinction.

If you don't know what I mean by that, talk to me later. I'll help you explain what I'm saying. God is love. God is just. God is wrath. All these things the Bible says. But only one does it say three times.

That He is holy, holy, holy. Only one attribute of God's nature is described to the third degree. In Hebrew dialect, if you say something a second time, it is to show emphasis. Jesus said, Simon, Simon.

Verily, verily. It's to show emphasis when you show two. When you say it three times, it means it is the highest degree. To say it twice is to show emphasis. To say it three times is to the highest of emphasis.

And what do the angels who surround the throne of God say? Holy, holy, holy. The only of His attributes which is described to the third degree. We should never, ever consider entering the presence of God without first considering His holiness.

Jesus tells us that. He says, when you pray, pray like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. I want to ask you to turn one more time and we're going to finish in Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 10.

There were two men who were charged with the priesthood of Israel. They were the sons of Aaron, the brother of Moses, the high priest. They entered into the presence of God disrespectfully. And we see in the text what happened as a result.

Leviticus chapter 10. Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized, and sometimes the text will say strange, fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.

And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. Now just stop and think. Here's these two priests. They've been taught how to be priests by their father. They have been under the instruction of divine revelation from the very prophet of God, Moses.

They knew what it was they ought to do and they knew what they ought not to do. And yet, they chose in irreverent fashion to bring into the presence of the Lord that which He commanded not. And the text goes on to say they forfeited their lives as a result.

Now Aaron was not pleased. As you can imagine, any father in this room who would have just experienced the death of not one, but two children, two sons, Aaron is not displeased. Aaron is destroyed. His heart is broken.

His eyes are welled with tears. Then Moses said to Aaron, verse 3, this is what the Lord has said. Among those who are near Me, I will be sanctified. And before all the people, I will be glorified. And Aaron held his...

The New American Standard Bible says this a bit better, so I want to give you the translation. By those who come near to Me, I will be treated as holy. What was the sin that God found so atrocious in the life of Nadab and Abihu that He would strike them down in the prime of their life, strifling with His holiness?

Beloved, I want to share with you something that's very important. This word, hallowed be, your name, hallowed be in the Greek, is a single word, and it is a verb, and it is in the imperative, which means it is a command.

Those who come unto Me must understand that I am holy, and they must sanctify Me in their hearts, says God. When entering into the presence of God through prayer, it is essential that we understand to whom we are speaking.

Many within the church today do not realize what an absolute, precious blessing it is to be able to enter into the presence of God, and neither do they stand in awe of His holiness when they do enter into His presence.

Yet, the very opening of the prayer, which is the most well-known prayer in history, tells us two things about how we are to enter into prayer. We understand that God is high above us in His holiness, but He has drawn near to us as our Father.

And those two things together make up the right understanding of how we are to approach Him in prayer. Let's pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. And today, Father, I pray that Your Word would strike the hearts of Your people, would lay them open before You, that they might be moved toward a closer walk with You.

Father, it does no good to tell trite stories about an impotent God. We need to know the truth so that we might be formed and molded to what You have called us to be. I pray that this message would strike the hearts of Your people, conform them to Your image, O Father, through Your Word, and use this for Your ends.

I pray also, Lord, if there are those here who are not born again, who are not in Your family by faith in Your Son Jesus Christ, that You have used this message as a moment of conviction for them and that You would use this to draw them to You.

Help us to understand, Father, who it is we are speaking to when we look to heaven and speak to You. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray and for His sake, Amen.