Christian Quotes

Text: Matt. 6:5-13

Once again tonight we are going to be looking at this model prayer that the Lord gave to His disciples and to the church. You remember that we’ve already talked about the invocation: “Our Father, which art in Heaven” and how it reminds us of our intimacy with God and that we are part of a large worldwide family of those who are God’s children by new birth. It also reminds us that because God is our Father, nothing is too small for us to bring to Him in prayer because as a Father He cares intensely about us; and because He is our Heavenly Father, His omnipotent power makes Him able to do anything.

After the invocation, we looked at the first of the 7 petitions: Hallowed be Thy name. This is a prayer that God’s name will be reverenced and held sacred throughout the world. It is a prayer that men and women, boys and girls will come to know God and that as His children they will honor and obey Him and treat His name with the sacredness it deserves.

Then last time we looked at the second petition: THY KINGDOM COME. Jesus is a King, and some day soon He is coming back to earth to set up His Kingdom—a Kingdom of righteousness and joy and peace. But until He comes and sets up His visible Kingdom, He is already setting up His Kingdom in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls—those people who surrender their lives totally to Him and acknowledge Him as their King. So when we pray “Thy Kingdom come” we are praying for two things: we are praying that His invisible Kingdom of grace will be extended—that more and more people will surrender their lives to Him; that the gospel message will go forth with power throughout the earth; and we are also praying for the coming of that great day when His Kingdom of Glory will be manifested and visible on the earth. Thy Kingdom Come.

Tonight we want to look for a few moments at the next petition: THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

The will of God is a huge subject and in some ways a very difficult subject. Whenever we think or talk about the will of God, questions immediately come to our minds. Questions like:

What is the will of God?

How can I know the will of God?

Why should I pray that the will of God be done? Isn’t God’s will always done? I mean, isn’t God going to do whatever He’s going to do, whether I pray or whether I don’t pray?

Are my prayers that God’s will be done really going to change anything in the end?

The answer of course is that God’s will has at least two aspects: His decreed will (or sovereign will) and his preceptive will. His decreed will is that which sovereignly and efficaciously brings to pass whatever He decrees. For instance, when God created the universe, He spoke and the world came into existence. When He said, “Let there be light,” the lights simply came on. When God commanded Lazarus to come forth from the grave, he simply came forth.

The preceptive will of God is what He has commanded for His creatures. For example, it is the will of God that you have no other gods before Him, that you honor your father and mother, that you love God with all your heart, and that you love your fellowman as you love yourself.

The difference between those two aspects of God’s will is that with the decreed will of God, He speaks and the thing is done; but with regard to the preceptive will of God, it can be disobeyed and violated, and it IS violated every day by millions of people the world over.

This concept of the will of God is central to our understanding of the Christian life and of the Scriptures. And we know that it’s important in our prayer lives because we find it right here in the middle of the Lord’s prayer.

The question is, then, which aspect of God’s will is Jesus talking about when He tells us to pray: “Thy will be done”? Is he talking about the decreed, sovereign, efficacious will of God, or is He talking about the preceptive will of God?

Well, I think we can figure that out by the context: “Thy will be done IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” His words here suggest that there is some kind of discrepancy between how God’s will is being done on earth and how it is being done in heaven. So, I think we can safely say that He is not talking about God’s sovereign, decreed will here; He is talking about His preceptive will. His decreed or sovereign will is always performed the same in earth as it is in heaven, but His preceptive will is not.

In heaven, His preceptive will is done perfectly and completely and joyfully. Those who dwell in heaven have been brought into complete conformity to God’s preceptive will. They render complete and joyful obedience to all of God’s moral requirements and commandments. They love God with all of their being and do nothing that is contrary to His will. But we know that this is simply not the case down here on earth.

So that’s why we are told to pray this way. It goes right along with the previous two petitions: “Hallowed be Thy name” and “Thy Kingdom come.” When we pray those things we are praying that God’s will shall be done, that His preceptive will shall be obeyed. His Kingdom will never fully come on earth until everyone obeys His commandments. His name will never be truly and fully hallowed on earth until mankind as a whole submits to and performs the will of God.

When we pray “Thy will be done,” we are praying for ourselves, that our wills will be strengthened to do God’s will and we are praying for other Christians, that they also will be strengthened to choose God’s will above their own. And of course, we are praying that men and women, boys and girls, who have not yet submitted their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, will bend the knee to Him, will bend their wills to Him, that God’s will might be done in their lives also.

Our Lord not only commanded us to pray this way, but He Himself modeled and demonstrated this very thing. You remember when He was in the garden of Gethsemane. He knew that His hour had come, and His spirit began to be very heavy. In that moment He prayed these words, with which I am sure you are very familiar:

“Father, if thou be willing, remove?? this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

What was this cup that He talked about? Was it the extreme physical torture that He knew He was about to undergo? The scourging, the beating, the mockery, the crown of thorns, the nails in hands and feet; the excruciating, lingering death on the cross where the whole body cries out to die and yet can’t quite die—every muscle and every cell crying out in unimaginable pain? Was that the cup? No! the cup was GOD’S WRATH, God’s HOLY WRATH against the sins of all mankind—your sins, my sins, and the sins of every human being that has ever lived and is living now and ever will live. That cup of wrath was more terrible and more horrific than any amount of physical suffering.

What was Jesus praying in the garden? He was saying, “Father, if there is some other way, I would rather not have to do it this way. What you have set before me is more ghastly than I can contemplate. I’m entering into my grand passion and I’m terrified, but if this is what you want, this is what I’ll do. Not my will, but your will be done, because my will is to do your will.”

I notice that in answer to this prayer, God sent an angel to strengthen Jesus. The angel came from heaven with God’s answer to Jesus’ prayer. That answer was: “You must drink the cup.”

This is what it means to pray “Thy will be done.” It means that we accept God’s answer, whether it’s the answer we wanted or whether it isn’t. God’s answer only intensified Jesus’ agony. We read that after the visit of the angel that He prayed more earnestly and that His sweat became as great drops of blood falling to the ground.

Jesus didn’t want to drink the cup of God’s wrath, but He did it anyway because He knew it was God’s will. He drank that bitter cup to the last drop. And in that moment, Jesus didn’t give us words to show us how to pray; He gave us His life as an example of praying that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What about you? Will you pray that prayer? “Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.”

Is the will of God being done in your life as it is in heaven?

In heaven the will of God is done constantly, not intermittently. It is done joyfully, not grudgingly. It is done completely, not selectively. The dwellers in heaven don’t pick and choose which parts of God’s will they want to do and omit the parts they don’t want to do. How about you and I? Do we obey God’s will only when we feel like it?

“Not everyone who saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN.”

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Amen and thank you for your attention.