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Well, in a few short weeks, I'm going to have a tearful goodbye with my family and kids as I get ready to go to South Africa, and it's always the same thing.
We get together and huddle up. Daddy's getting ready to fly away to a far land.
Maybe it's India. Maybe it's Germany. This time, South Africa. Then I'll look over, and Haley will start to tear up a little bit, and then after that, it's just like dominoes.
Then Luke, and Maddie, Kim, and Gracie wants to know when
I can come back to buy her some special treat. She'll cry eventually, and I always say to the kids, you can entrust
Daddy to a faithful creator, right? Yes, Dad. Well, if we go backwards 200 years, how much more tearful were the goodbyes?
You never knew if you'd see your family again. A man named John Payton, a great
Scottish missionary to the cannibals in New Hebrides, was raised in Scotland, and then he had to go away to seminary, to divinity school.
It was a 40 -mile walk, and his father walked him a long way, and this is what John Payton recalled of that walk with his father.
My dear father walked with me the first six miles of the way. His counsels and tears and heavenly conversation on that parting journey are fresh in my heart as if it had been but yesterday, and as tears are on my cheeks as freely now as then, and tears are on my cheeks as freely now as then, whenever memory steals me away to the scene.
For the last half mile or so, we walked on together in almost unbroken silence. My father, as was often his custom, carrying hat in hand while his long flowing yellow hair streamed like a girl's down his shoulders.
His lips kept moving in silent prayers for me, and his tears fell fast when our eyes met each other in looks of which all speech was vain.
We halted on reaching the appointed parting place. He grasped my hand firmly for a minute in silence, and then solemnly and affectionately said,
God bless you, my son. Your father's God prosper you and keep you from all evil.
Unable to say more, his lips kept moving in silent prayer. In tears, we embraced and parted. I ran off as fast as I could, and when about to turn a corner in the road where he would lose sight of me,
I looked back and saw him still standing with head uncovered where I had left him, gazing after me.
Waving my hat in adieu, I rounded the corner and out of sight in an instant, but my heart was too full and sore to carry me further, so I darted into the side of the road and wept for a time.
Then rising up cautiously, I climbed the dike to see if he yet stood where I had left him, and just at that moment,
I caught a glimpse of him climbing the dike and looking out for me. He did not see me, and after he gazed eagerly in a direction for a while, he got down, set his face toward home, and began to return.
His head still uncovered, and his heart, I felt sure, still rising in prayers for me. I watched through, blinding tears, till his form faded from my gaze, and then, hastening on my way, vowed deeply and oft by the help of God to live and act so as never to grieve or dishonor such a father and mother as he had given me.
But that's it. That's the sermon. Those last few words, vowed deeply and oft by the help of God to live and act so as to never grieve or dishonor such a father.
When we pray thy kingdom come, we'll be soon enough as we preach on that topic.
But right now, our last week on Hallowed Be Thy Name, my desire for you this morning is that we might vow deeply and oft by the help of God to live and act so as to never grieve or dishonor such a father.
That is what we pray when we pray Hallowed Be Thy Name. Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 6.
The Lord's Prayer, the disciples' prayer, actually, and we've been working through Hallowed Be Thy Name, four words in the original, four words in the
English, and four sermons to exhaust this topic. Someone said to me this morning, I think you could probably preach one more after today, and I said,
I probably could, but I'm determined to finish today, Hallowed Be Thy Name. Here is where we have
God himself teach us how to pray. Jesus himself teaching us these 57
Greek words so we might know how to pray to the glory of God.
So we might vow deeply and oft by the help of God to live and act in such a way that we would always honor
God. And as you know, Jesus is teaching us from the backdrop of false prayers, false teachers who repeat things, who pray with agendas.
And now Jesus says, Beloved, this is how I want you to pray. My disciples then and all the disciples now, how do you pray?
And he starts off with a preface. Do you see there in your text in verse 9? Pray then in this way. He doesn't say pray this way exactly or repeat after me or this is how you always pray, but this is the formula.
This is the template. This is the outline. This is the skeleton. And he wants us to make sure that we remember from the beginning that we acknowledge
God as a father and he's close to us like our physical fathers, yet he is over us and above us.
He is not just close, eminent. He is above us, transcendent. And then you see how Jesus teaches us to pray.
Our father who is in heaven. And then he gives the first petition.
And the first petition is the lasting petition because this is a petition that will still be answered even in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name. Remember from last week when we pray hallowed be thy name to God, we're saying
God, you are the active one. You actively work out your hallowed name in the world.
You are the one who is going to have to cause this. How'd you like that song today? Cause us to love you to the end.
This prayer is similar. God, cause your name to be hallowed. But we've seen in the last three weeks that we are some of the vehicles for that hallowed name to be exalted.
So the last week and this week, we'll look at different ways that you can hallow God's name in your life.
I've got 10 or 12 and for those of you that want me to get through all 12, maybe I'll just treat you today and do that.
You're supposed to just say I have several today, so then wherever I end, I end. I think Watson had about 25, so I'm going fast comparatively.
The whole sermon this morning is how to live hallowedly by the grace of God and these could be prayer requests.
And so last week we saw number one, God's name is hallowed when you speak of God with honor and reverence.
When you talk about God as he is revealed in a high way, in a good way, in a revering way, not flippantly and not some kind of swear or use his name for some kind of oath.
Secondly, we looked at this prayer request. God, make your name hallow as you allow me to intensely study your words so I know more about you.
In other words, the more you know about God, the more you can praise him and exalt his name in your life, in your mind, so his hallowedness increases, at least from your perspective.
How about 2 Peter 3, verse 18, but grow in the grace and what? Knowledge of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have beliefs that are equal to scripture is a good way to hallow
God's name and we just need to study the Bible and we looked at that for some time. Number 3, how do we make
God's name hallow? Well, we make his name holy or hallowed when we evangelize biblically.
We looked long and hard last week that when we evangelize, we don't give the gospel that says this is what you get when you become a
Christian, fulfillment and purpose and happiness and everything that you want plus more.
When we see Jesus evangelize, we hear words like this, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple,
Luke 14, 26. When Jesus comes, he comes to those broken hearted, repentant sinners who basically say
I know if left to myself and I die in this state, I will receive damnation, just and holy damnation and I will do anything,
I will give up everything. I will even turn my back on myself if I could only have forgiveness.
It doesn't do us any good to somehow make the word of the cross wise when we know inherently in 1
Corinthians 1, it is foolishness to unbelievers. So we just want to honor God in the way we evangelize and if that means less people make a profession of faith, then less people make a profession of faith.
But when we evangelize, we have one reason to evangelize, that God's glory might be exalted. Not that our parents might be saved, our kids might be saved, our friends might be saved, but that God would be exalted.
When we want to evangelize biblically, we need to use words like repentance. First word out of John the
Baptist's mouth preaching the gospel, repent. First words out of Jesus' mouth preaching the gospel, any guesses, repent.
Peter, repent. Paul, repent. And we want to just be biblical in our evangelism. That will make God's name hallowed.
So much better than watching Dr. Who, the science fiction show from England, and then trying to say, well, let's pick all the similarities between Dr.
Who and Jesus and then we can talk to teenagers and maybe have some common ground. Okay, don't get me started because I already went aggro last week.
I'm trying to be nice. Today is Father's Day. Hey, by the way, on Mother's Day, we did a whole sermon on our father.
And since today is Father's Day, we'll stick with the text. It's one thing to just say,
God be hallowed. It's another thing to think through the issues. And so that's what we're trying to do today. Very, very practically to ask ourselves the question,
God, would you please cause your name to be hallowed in me? We looked at last week, fourthly,
God's name is hallowed when you contend earnestly for the faith. It could be a prayer request.
God, would you make your name hallowed in me as you encourage and strengthen me to contend earnestly,
Jude verse 3. Contend means to do something to the point of exhaustion where you can barely make it.
A couple of years ago when I swam the Alcatraz swim, the mile and a half from San Francisco Island to the shore.
When I got up onto the shore, there was all these people around. And my kids were yelling, you know, yay, dad, and all that stuff.
And I was just frightened to death, and I was exhausted, and my wetsuit was too small. And I had one goal, and that goal was when
I stood up on shore that I just didn't do a facial in front of everyone. I was exhausted.
I had exercise to the point of exhaustion. That's exactly the word here.
This is not, well, you know, we want to contend a little bit, but everybody's going to think, you know, we're a church that is only, you know, what we're against.
No, we're a church for what we're for and what we're against because Jude, Jesus' half -brother said, you must do this.
Any church that says, we're going to let all that against stuff go is disobedient to the gospel.
And I'm sure the maturity and sin level in those churches demonstrate, sadly, their lack of contention.
We want to contend with people like Jehoiada in 2 Kings. Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the
Lord and the king and the people that they would be the Lord's people. And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal and what'd they do with the house of Baal?
We want to be known what we're for. And they tore it down, his altars and his images. They broke in pieces thoroughly and killed
Matan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. Certainly we want to do this with kindness and we don't want to be quarrelsome.
Remember 2 Timothy 2, the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome but kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps
God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth. They may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
Let's move to the new one, number five. How is God's name hallowed in our life? How could you specifically say,
God, hallowed be our name. You make it so. We can't increase your holiness. You are ultra holy.
But we can have your holiness more expressed, more detailed, more refined, more defined in the world.
And God, do it through me. Which comes to number five,
God's name is hallowed when you don't complain about God's providence. When you don't complain about God's providences.
Again, this could be a prayer request. The language in the Greek is God is the actor. So we're saying to the actor, the active one,
God, would you do this? I have a question for you, congregation. Do you believe that God's sovereignty rules over all?
Everything in the world, God is sovereign over. Yes? Well, that's good because Psalm 103 says, the
Lord has established his throne in the heaven and his sovereignty rules over all. So if God is sovereign over everything, my question to you is, what does it say to you about God's providence when you complain?
Who is the ultimate object of your complaint? If God is controlling everything,
God is controlling who you married, who you haven't married. God is controlling if they're saved or not saved.
God has controlled the sanctification level of your spouse and children and people at the church.
And when you complain about someone else, you're ultimately complaining to the Lord. God, you should have worked it out a different way.
I don't like the way your wisdom has ordained this. When it comes to health, jobs or lack thereof, anything that we complain about, our ultimate complaint is to God himself.
His sovereignty rules over all. Thomas Watson devastates me when he says, murmuring is no better than mutiny.
It is a rising up against God. When the sea is rough and unquiet, it casts forth nothing but foam.
When the heart is discontented, it casts forth the foam of anger, impatience and sometimes little better than blasphemy.
Murmuring is nothing else but the scum which boils off from a contented heart.
Let's go to James chapter 5 and take a look at this. I want to try to encourage you to see this text so that we might be more quick to repent of our complaining and more determined not to even start at all.
I do not believe in the middle of our complaints God's name is being hollowed. Do you? God's name is being holy.
I don't believe that at all. And so we go into James, this great sermon, this great letter that talks about real faith and how real faith changes you because it's the
God of the universe who changes you. And he says, with probably more devastation than Thomas Watson, something about complaining here.
And this is one of the things I hate most about myself. I hate it when I complain.
I hate how it reveals my lack of this sovereign
God. And I believe in sovereignty of God, don't you? Of course we do. But how much do we really believe it?
Do we really believe in God's sovereignty when we complain? James 5 .9, do not complain, brethren, against one another that you yourselves may not be judged.
Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. And here we are planning to complain about, yes, people let us down.
Yes, a culture that makes its living on complaining. Yes. But here
James says, with a present imperative, that is to say, ongoing command, never stop, no loopholes.
Can't say, well, here's a King's X, here's the exception clause. With no loopholes,
James says, never, ever, ever complain. That means basically here, all complaining is sin, all sins against God.
Never, ever complain. And this is kind of an interesting word for complain. There's a couple different ones in the
Bible. This one happens to be not the open complaint. How could you do that?
You've let me down. Who are you? Some kind of external manifestation of that. This is this inward feeling of dissatisfaction of someone else.
And who is the someone else here? It'd be one thing if it was the people persecuting the church. What's the text say?
Against one another. This is kind of personally being irritated by someone else.
There may be a little audible sound, but often there's no audible sounds except a, or the
Greek word could mean, oh. It's not open.
It's not, you know, who are you? This is this kind of sighing, groan, inner distress that kind of barely comes out like a steam comes out of the teapot.
If we are to bear with unbelievers, we are to put up with the injustice of unbelievers, then ought we not stay away from complaining when it comes to the people
Christ died for? Yes, it's difficult to do that.
But we know we won't do it on our own. And therefore we have the command. Do you notice the context? Beloved verse seven go earlier.
Be patient. Therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord, the old, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains.
You to be patient, strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand while you're waiting for the
Lord return, waiting for the Lord to return. There will be trouble with people, trouble within the church, and it's wrong to say
I'm going to groan or sigh about it or to complain because it means you're saying to God, God, how could you put them in my life?
God, how can you not let them be so immature? God, won't you speed up their sanctification? It's horrible for unity in a church.
I can't get off on the tangent, but two churches this week have called me and one that I know about that may call me because there is so much complaining and divisiveness and heretical talk in the church that the churches are splitting wide open because of this very, very issue, complaining and slander and gossip.
I personally don't want to be used as Satan's pawn to divide and conquer through complaining.
Do you? And I don't think at our church we have a complaining problem, a unity problem. We want to make sure we just don't by not complaining.
And it feeds on itself, doesn't it? One complains and the next complains and it's this kind of one -upmanship.
Well, that's your complaint. You think that's bad? Well, wait till you hear my complaint. Focus is all wrong.
The focus is not on hallowed be thy name and who God is. It's all on people. Back to that old
Noah kind of joke where if it wasn't for the rain on the outside, you couldn't stand the stink on the inside. Not too many laughs on that one.
I'll just consider that I shouldn't be a comedian. I tell my men when I teach them to preach, never tell a joke.
James gives us a couple reasons not to complain. Look down back at verse 9. Number one, don't complain because you don't want to be judged.
Number two, that judge is close at hand. He's at the door. Look at the first reason, that you may not be judged.
In other words, all complainers, all murmurers, all sires are going to be judged.
This is not something God just goes, you know, he's kind of George Burns God and kind of whatever. This is judgment.
And of course, for Christians, we will not be judged for that sin. But this is a sin that Jesus died for.
Why would we want to continue in a sin that our Lord and Savior had to bear on his body?
The sin of complaining and then we just do it anyway? No, but I kind of like the second reason.
It motivates me a little bit more, if that could be possible. Behold, the judge is standing right at the door.
James is going to appeal to the Supreme Court, the absolute monarch. He's standing right there.
This is not geography. This is not a location or a spot. This talks about how close he is. He's almost there.
He's at the door. You can imagine sitting in the courtroom and you hear the person stand and say, all rise, the doors open and there he comes.
Why would we want to get caught in a complaint against a spouse or another church member or anybody else when
Jesus is soon to return and he returns while we were saying, why did you give me, you know, it's the woman you gave me.
Or the sanctification level that she has or he has is not high enough. The judge is almost ready to walk through the doors.
This is not some kind of theological far -off thing that shouldn't motivate us. This could happen at any moment. Flip over to Philippians chapter 2, just a little bit more on complaining and then we need to move on.
We hallow God's name in our life when we don't sigh against his providences as they are revealed through people and Philippians fills this in for us.
This is a little more verbal complaining. The word back in our earlier passage was more of a sigh,
James. Philippians, it's more of the external talk. Philippians 2 verse 12, this passage of this book of joy and unity.
We dive right into verse 12 and it says, so then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. When it comes to sanctification, when it comes to being more holy,
God is working through you, but you have to work. Both are there. Verse 13, you see
God's side. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
And then verse 14, don't forget it. Do all things, not some, not a few, not on your good days, not when you're not moody, but do all things without what?
Grumbling, complaining literally or disputing. So here we get the
James, don't do it at all, present imperative. And now it's the same thing here.
Don't do this kind of complaining talk. Remember the word? I like the Greek word and you know it as well.
You probably heard me preach it often. Gungismus. And this is very onomatopoetic. It sounds like what it is.
When you hear somebody complaining, it sounds like what? Gungismus. Gungismus.
Gungismus. Boy, that kind of works better, doesn't it? Gungismus. Gungismus. At least the kids will remember.
Well, that sounded like a complaint, didn't it? Why is this so important?
Verse 15 tells us the reason. Why do I love the Bible study? Preaching, just read it.
The text is there. We all can understand it. Why ought we not to complain that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent?
Child of God, children of God above reproach. In the midst of a scoliosis and perverse generation.
A curved, crooked, perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world.
Let me transplant some theology here from Matthew 6 into Philippians. When we aren't complaining, we're showing how great
God is because everyone complains. Except now we've been given the strength and power by the spirit within us not to complain.
And when you don't complain in a complaining culture, you hallow God's name. And you don't act crooked and perverse.
And you appear as a light. Mark this.
Impatience towards others is always impatience with God. Let me repeat that.
Impatience with others, including groaning and murmuring and complaining. And this is at home or at church or at work.
Impatience with others is always impatience with God. He is sovereign over them.
And He's in sovereign over your unbelieving spouse. Unbelieving boss. Unbelieving people underneath you.
And He's sovereign over the believers as well. And you're basically saying their sanctification level of God isn't fast enough for me.
And I don't think we complain a lot at this church in terms of leadership and other things. But I think as we begin to grow out of the building, we want to say,
Lord, as you give us more people, as you give us more evangelistic opportunities and more missionary opportunities, then help us not to complain when we run out of parking and we run out of space and we have to look for a new building or we have to get two services, whatever we might have to do.
I love William Ward Ayer. He said, if you pray for rain, do not grumble about the mud. Let me just give you a few hints if you're a complainer.
Number one, if you're a complainer around the church, would you get yourself a ministry and just go all out in the ministry of the local church?
I think Charles Spurgeon is right when he said, a heavy wagon was being dragged along a country lane by a team of oxen.
The axles groaned and creaked terribly when the oxen turning around thus addressed the wheels. Hey there, why do you make so much noise?
We bear all the labor and we, not you, ought to cry out. Spurgeon says, those complain first in our churches who have the least to do.
The gift of grumbling is largely dispensed among those who have no other talents, comma, or who keep what they have wrapped up in a napkin.
That is wisdom for the ages. So my first advice, obviously, beside asking God for help is to serve.
I could give you some more advice from the Bible. Do you know that sanctification in the
Bible is you put off one thing and put on another. You can't just stop something. You have to try to stop something by the grace of God and do something else.
And so the opposite of complaining would be what? Well, you could either say, give thanks or have joy.
And both of those are commands in scripture. First Thessalonians 5 .18, in everything give thanks for. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Instead of complaining, give thanks. Instead of complaining, how about this command for those who say,
I can't help it. Rejoice in the Lord always. It's a command. I think another hint
I could give you if you're a complainer, that you need to remember how much worse you deserve. If you complain a lot, just imagine how much you deserve.
And you're a Christian and you have a Christian spouse who complains, or you're the complainer and you think, you know,
I could have it a lot worse. Lamentations 3. Why should any living mortal or any man offer complaint in view of his sins?
And my last little bit of advice is that remember that this trial in your life that you could respond to by complaining is a trial that's been ordained by God and God's going to use it for his glory and for your good.
All right, we have to move on. I should have never said this is my last sermon on alchemy.
If you think about it, we could do a series for a year on hallowed be thy name if we're asking
God's holiness to be more manifest in my life because basically what we're saying is help me to obey more.
Well, what areas do we think we need to obey? Well, there's lots of different areas. And I've just picked a few.
Number six, hallowed be thy name. God's name is hallowed when you long for Christ's return.
His name is certainly hallowed when you speak of him with honor, when you study his word, when you biblically evangelize, when you contend for the faith, when you don't complain about his providences.
And number six, God's name is hallowed when you long for Christ's return. Let's go to 2 Peter 3, please, congregation.
And this can be seen as a prayer request or it can be seen as something that we ought to do. And basically, like all sanctification, it's both.
We work out our salvation with fear and trembling and we know it's God who is working in us.
2 Peter 3, you've got a bunch of lying heretic dogs running around saying Jesus isn't going to come back.
You say, well, that's pretty hard. Those are all biblical words. They're lying, they're heretical, and they're dogs, according to Philippians 3.
And Peter wants to tell these Christians who are scattered all over for their faith to remember
Jesus is coming back. And when you remember Jesus is coming back, you act more holy.
And so this is directly tied to my message today, that when you're longing for the second coming of Christ, you're saying,
God, come back soon. But also, I want to act more set apart, more different, reserved for the best use of my master.
We don't study prophecy to learn all the details of the end times. We don't study the newspaper to see all the little prophetic things that go on.
We don't want to run from one prophetic Bible conference to another because we want to understand all the information and we don't want to get all the charts and figure out all the details.
I don't mind if you want to try to figure out the timeline, generally. But why do we do any of that?
We do it because we're supposed to be more holy as we remember Jesus returns. Look at 2
Peter 3, verse 11. All those other people are lying, but God is going to destroy the world with a flood again, but not a flood of water, but a flood of fire.
Since all these things, 2 Peter 3, verse 11, are to be destroyed in this way, global warming will take effect to the nth degree.
Everything is going to be destroyed. What sort of people ought you to be? That's a bad translation in the
NAS. It should be translated, how outstandingly excellent of people you ought to be.
It's more imperative. He's saying you ought to be great, excellent people. It behooves you, you ought to be.
You're under obligation. It's like when your boss says, I have something for you to do.
Get it done when you need to get it done. Or if your boss says, it behooves you to get this done before the day ends.
It is necessary, I place you under obligation. Do not go home until this job is done. That's the language here.
Everything is going to be destroyed one way, in this way. So be holy. And look what the text says.
You ought to be excellent people in holy conducts. The original is plural.
All pervasive conducts, holy conducts. And the second word is plural as well. And godlinesses.
In every area, you should have holy living, knowing that the world is going to be destroyed.
So why be a materialist? You know the world is going to be destroyed. So why don't you heap up treasures in heaven?
Why don't you live a holy life? Just like 1 Peter says, in all your behavior, be holy.
Worship well. What do we do while we're doing that? Verse 12, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.
On account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat.
If your dad goes on a business trip, comes home and you want to make sure everything's done well by the time he gets home.
So you might honor him with your obedience. How much more when the father is coming back?
I shouldn't say the father's coming back. That's wrong. The son is coming back. The father is sending the son back to be technical.
Verse 13, but according to his promise, we're looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, Jesus is coming back. There's going to be a new earth, a new heaven. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found in him in peace, spotless and blameless.
Or could I summarize it? Since Jesus is coming back, be diligent to be holy. I'd love for you to study the second coming of Christ and do so as you say to yourself, not that I want to understand what happens to Israel.
Will the Likud government make it through? But no, God make me holy. Number seven, we've got to speed up.
Somebody saw my demeanor this morning and could realize maybe
I didn't get much sleep last night or something like that. He looked at me, he said, when you preach to me and I go like this to you,
Mike. That means just take a deep breath and keep going. OK, I didn't see you, but I did it anyway.
Number seven, God's name is hallowed when you do not seek the world's approval or use worldly methods.
God's name is hallowed when you do not seek the world's approval or use worldly methods. I don't care if that's politics, numbers, money, resources, million man marches, show forces, boycotts, celebrities.
God wants to do something, he doesn't need our help and he usually does things in such a way where there's no boasting.
Let's turn to 1 John chapter three. This is probably a full sermon, so I'm just going to give you just the taste of this.
Churches today walk the line and say, you know what, we want to be holy yet we want to have visitors come in and feel comfortable.
If you're a visitor today and you're not a Christian, welcome. We have cookies for you. I hope the people are kind to you.
I personally want to greet you, but I hope that you will respond to the church service today by falling on your face and crying to God for repentance and saying, this place is not like anything in the world.
I don't like the music. I don't like the preaching. I don't like the authority. I don't like the no acknowledgement of postmodernism.
I don't like anything about it. That's exactly what every church in the world should be trying to do is to have a high view of God and to say to the idea of consumerism, of a church, well,
I didn't like this and I didn't like that. That is buying into the world's methods of saying, well, let's put the church service together according to what the people like.
May God forgive those people. You can see it in First John. I want to show you a better alternative than the world's love.
This is the best. Look at First John three one. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God.
And such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him.
John, the great beloved apostle. He says, you know, when it comes to the world's pleasures, the world's.
Do you want to be feared by the world? Do you want to be desired by the world?
He said, you know what? If the world hates you, don't forget the Father loves you. There's something better than than the world's embrace.
And that is the Father's love. John knows everybody's going to hate the Christians. They're not going to like them.
They're going to turn their back on them. They'll ostracize them. They'll excommunicate them. They'll unsynagogue them. And John says, you know what?
Who cares? Of course, there will be some family severing ties and that will be very painful, but it will be replaced by this.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we will be called children of God.
We run from the world's approval because we have God, the Father, who has loved us. There is no higher degree of love than God, the
Father, adopting the street urchins that are in this room, giving us his nature, his promises.
Then he says in verse two, beloved, now we are children of God. The best is yet to come.
It is not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.
Why desire the words approval when you're loved by God and you will even be more holy than you are now practically?
How is this tied together? Verse three, and everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself, makes him more holy, hallowed, set apart just as he is pure.
We're not after the words of world's approval. That's not a good thing. That's never an attribute.
That is something to be run from. Should people in the world think we're nice and kind and we believe things, that's fine.
But when the world so influences the church and the church imbibes the world, that is not a hallowing
God's name. I kept thinking today as we were singing these songs, I wonder what people who aren't believers and who have never been to the church think when they come in here.
I mean, they're used to having some kind of rock and roll coffee band and go, huh, they have coffee bands, rock and roll at the church.
The only thing is that the church is not as good as the tweeter center. Oh, they have a bunch of drama too, but what the world does well, the church does poorly.
You know what the church does well that the world can't do at all? Preach the gospel and sing of our transcendent, great, holy
God. We don't want friendship with the world. You want to talk about spanking James 4.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is what? Hostility to God.
That is not receiving commendation by God. It's condemnation. All right.
Number eight, I'm going to give you a few more. We're going to be rapid fire. They're going to be staccato -like.
They're going to be like military order -like. Not because I'm ordering you of my own power or authority, but if they have commands in them, then take that as such, but mainly because of time.
Number eight, God's name is hallowed when you think properly about the substitutionary atonement.
God's name is held up as holy when you think properly about the substitutionary atonement.
I think you would agree that the atonement is important. I think you would agree that the cross is essential.
I think if you have one symbol that defines Christianity, it is the sacrificial cross of Christ.
And I want to make sure as we talk about the cross that we don't say things like this. At the cross, nothing was accomplished there.
At the cross, Jesus died to make salvation only available. That is wrong. Jesus died for potential people to be saved.
That is wrong. Jesus died so that if you do something else that you might be saved.
That is wrong. If you put an if before the cross of Christ and the death of Christ, you are not hallowing
God's name. You are not speaking biblically of the cross. Jesus didn't die to make it possible for sinners to be saved.
He died for sinners so that they would be infallibly, totally saved.
When the scriptures use language, it doesn't say made possible, potential, kinetic.
It says he made redemption. He made propitiation. He made reconciliation.
Let me show you one example. Hebrews chapter 9. We know Jesus' death was of infinite value and it could have saved every member of the human race.
But if his death of infinite value was meant to save every member of the human race, then they will all be in heaven including
Judas and Hitler. But we know the
Father chose some out of the all. The Spirit of God regenerated some out of the all.
And the Spirit of God sent the Son to die for the same some out of the all. And any other language that talks about Christ's death is a dishonor to him, especially when you use the words made possible.
That is not how scripture talks. Hebrews chapter 9. But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all, making possible eternal redemption.
Is that what the text says? Having obtained eternal redemption.
You have to talk about the cross that it actually secured salvation. Not that it made it possible, because securing salvation is the biblical way the cross is talked about.
And our new kind of Arminian kind of trying to make God so super fair, we just talk about what he did.
He died and then if you believe and if you repent, then somehow it's activated in your life. That is not biblical language and it never has been.
It just feels better. But we're not about feelings. We're about hallowing God's name.
If God intended to save every person and did not, what does that say about the glorious work of Christ?
It says it failed. And I don't ever want to talk about the cross of Christ as a failure.
Jesus will redeem every person he died for. True? Absolutely. He said in John 10 that the shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, not the goats.
He says in Isaiah he lays down his life for the many. John 11, for the children of God. John 6, for those given by him.
Acts 20, his church. Hebrews 2, many sons. Hebrews 2, his brethren. Hebrews 2, the children.
John 15, his friends. Jesus Christ's death did not enable men to save themselves, but it saved sinners with definite language, language of procuring.
If God's blood is applied to you, you will be saved. Don't ever say
Jesus died to make it possible for people to be saved. He died as a true substitutionary sacrifice.
Spurgeon said, We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ's death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved.
You are welcome to your atonement. You may keep it. We will never renounce ours for the sake of it.
If you've got an atonement that doesn't track down sinners so they might be saved, Spurgeon says, I don't want that.
I've got a God who says, You know what? I'll choose those in eternity past. I'll die for those same.
My son will die for those. The Spirit will go retrieve them, and nothing, no one, including the sinner, can stop it.
What if you have a family member that's not saved? You say, well, what if they're part of the group and what if they're not? That's not the right question.
The right question is, in the sovereign counsel of God, if they're in the group, Jesus has died for their sins, and the
Spirit will soon apply salvation. All right, last one.
Last one. Last way you can hallow God's name in your life. Can I do two?
I'm going to do two. They're going to be quick.
That's one of the things I love about preaching. One of the things I love about preaching to you.
You want the Bible. I absolutely have never had a time in my life where after the service, someone hasn't come up to me and said,
Why are you apologizing about going long for a sermon? Can you imagine if somebody's in seminary and they say,
You know what? One day, in spite of yourself, you'll be the pastor of a church where they just say,
You know what? Keep going until you're done. We don't care. We want to know the Bible. I have the best.
Bring the books. I have the best job in the world. It is a privilege to preach to you. So all that just to set you up,
I'm going to do two. All right. God's name is hallowed when you show the same honor to the
Son that you show the Father. Just quickly turn to John 5 .23. There are some that somehow want to say
Jesus is created and He doesn't deserve the honor and He's not God, etc.,
etc., etc. If you believe that, I'd love for you to come to my Bible Institute class this fall.
But let's just look at John 5. When you honor the Son like you do the Father, you can imagine the
Father is very pleased. You hallow God's name. The Father's name when you hallow
His Son's name. John 5 .23 and 24.
Let me back up. Verse 22, For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the
Son, so that in the context of judgment, but still, so that all will honor the
Son even as they what? There's got to be a triune God. There's got to be one
God, two persons, three persons, because these two receive same honor. And then look at the converse to this.
He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears
My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.
We want to make sure that how we worship the Son is with all of deity and properly.
And we are with the Father who says of the Son in Hebrews 1, Your throne,
O God, is forever and ever. Lastly, last way to hallow God's name in your life.
God's name is hallowed when you believe that His name will be hallowed even in hell.
This isn't something to do. This is something to believe. That you must believe that God's name is hallowed even in hell.
I can prove it to you to some degree. Look at Exodus chapter 14.
We as Christians do not do ourselves any good and we do not give God any honor when somehow we don't talk about hell, think about hell, discuss hell with unbelievers.
It is so insidious. It is so horrible. It is so terrifying that we would not believe it unless it was obviously all over Scripture.
From Daniel 12 to all the way through Jesus' words, we must believe in hell.
And we must believe that if people on earth, and maybe you're one of them today, if you will not hallow
God's name in your body, in your life now, by following Jesus Christ, over your eternal grave will read the words,
Hallowed be thy name, as God's ferocious judgment pours over you forever and ever and ever.
And one of the worst people who was ever born, God shows in Exodus chapter 14 that he would be honored and hallowed in the life of Pharaoh.
Look at Exodus 14 verse 17 please. As for me, behold
I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, God says, so that they will go in after them and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army through his chariots and his horsemen.
Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.
You say, well that's just on earth. That's true. Herod when he said, oh
I'm God and hallowed be my name, split open and was eaten by worms. You say that's only on earth.
That's true. But the same thing that's true on earth as God hallows his name in the life of Pharaoh and his destruction and death, so too in hell will be the words written over it, hallowed be thy name.
Where God and his longsuffering, his patience, his goodness, his kindness, his reign, his giving you a father, all his goodness will be put aside and then it will be his irrevocable wrath poured out and the saints in heaven will say on that day, hallowed be thy name.
And as a pastor and as a human, I would hate that to happen to you. I would hate that to happen to you, maybe even somebody here who is a kid and says, you know
I grew up in the church and I've been baptized. It's not your parents' belief. It's not your father's belief.
It's not anyone else's belief. It is saying, you know I have so much sin, I can't help myself, that I need someone to save me and to rescue me.
And God, I don't even want you to save me for my sins to be forgiven and I get to go to heaven.
But God, I think your name would be hallowed if you save me so everyone would see what it's like that a great
God and Savior could save such a misfit sinner like me and then turn me into a singer of his praises.
God, more for your sake than my sake, hallowed be thy name. I believe that's a
God honoring prayer. For those of us who are Christians, what a great opportunity we have today, even on Father's Day, to speak about the hallowed name of God so others might honor and glorify him.
Let's pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Lord, I'm so thankful that you've given us these words and you have personally sent your
Son to teach us how to pray. We are weak and we are needy and everything we have, we have received from you in your good hand.
If you've been so good to give us fathers on earth, how much better a father must you be?
Lord, I think about the charges today, commands, exhortations. Lord, they just evaporate without your
Spirit applying them to our lives. We can't be any better even as Christians. We can't try harder or do things more, get up earlier.
On our own, we are weak and frail. Yet, Lord, you are jealous about your nature and your name.
And we know it pleases you as a good father to see your children act more like you. We want to do that.
We want to grow into the name of Jesus Christ, to be more like Christians, to have our practice live up to who we are.
And Lord, today I pray for every Christian here, God, help us not to complain. Help us to long for the second coming.
Help us to study your word. Help us to be consumed not with ourselves, but help us to follow Christ's great teaching instruction.
It's not about us, but it's about your glory. Thank you for that. Thank you today that we could learn from your words.
And Lord, I praise you. I exalt you. I honor you, that you can change the lives of people through a frail preacher.
And I expect, Lord, that you will do great things in our congregation. So much so, that we will praise you and boast in your name as we watch your good hand unfold in our midst.