Glory & Grace
Matthew 6:5-15,
This is the Sermon on the Mount, and just a little broad overview. Jesus is teaching us about prayer. That's really the great discipline that He focuses upon here more than any other, but he puts it in a contrast, in terms of negatives and positives. Remember, a pastor is saying, “If you're going to preach biblically, you have to preach discriminatory preaching, or you have to preach definitively. If you tell that a cow was black, you also have to tell it's not white. In other words, you have to let people know there's a discrimination. And you see that with Christ. He presses issues by way of negatives and positives.
There was a book that we went through in the Adult Sunday school class, I think it's titled, Eighteen Words by Dr. J.I. Packer. And he focuses on different biblical words and the importance of those individual words. He starts off by saying that, just like keys open doors, or keys open windows, key words open minds, and they can open hearts. So God has what you would call key words, a vocabulary sprinkled throughout His word. And some are more important than others, obviously, but they're like anchor bolts that they can fasten us in terms of our understanding the truth of God, and help stabilize us in terms of thinking and living. There are many, many different key words in our Bibles that you could go back to: the keyword election, for example, justification, sanctification, glorification. Those are key words, key words with respect to who God is, with respect to who Christ is. But if I ask this question, “What are two very key words when it comes to prayer if you're going to pray biblically?” They begin with G. You know what they are? Glory and grace. Think about glory and grace. The Lord's Prayer could be shaped by those two words and concepts.
And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 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. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
This is the Sermon on the Mount, and just a little broad overview. Jesus is teaching us about prayer. That's really the great discipline that He focuses upon here more than any other, but he puts it in a contrast, in terms of negatives and positives. Remember, a pastor is saying, “If you're going to preach biblically, you have to preach discriminatory preaching, or you have to preach definitively. If you tell that a cow was black, you also have to tell it's not white. In other words, you have to let people know there's a discrimination. And you see that with Christ. He presses issues by way of negatives and positives.
There was a book that we went through in the Adult Sunday school class, I think it's titled, Eighteen Words by Dr. J.I. Packer. And he focuses on different biblical words and the importance of those individual words. He starts off by saying that, just like keys open doors, or keys open windows, key words open minds, and they can open hearts. So God has what you would call key words, a vocabulary sprinkled throughout His word. And some are more important than others, obviously, but they're like anchor bolts that they can fasten us in terms of our understanding the truth of God, and help stabilize us in terms of thinking and living. There are many, many different key words in our Bibles that you could go back to: the keyword election, for example, justification, sanctification, glorification. Those are key words, key words with respect to who God is, with respect to who Christ is. But if I ask this question, “What are two very key words when it comes to prayer if you're going to pray biblically?” They begin with G. You know what they are? Glory and grace. Think about glory and grace. The Lord's Prayer could be shaped by those two words and concepts.
Glory
The first word is Glory. Look again at the first petition Jesus gives us, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” That's about God's glory. Jesus is telling us that God's glory is to be supreme, or the ultimate aim when we come to pray. The next two petitions fall under that main point, or petition. What are they, in terms of God's glory? “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” God's kingdom displays God's glory, and when God's will is done, God's glory is manifested. And wasn't that the problem with the Pharisees? They got it so wrong when it came to praying. What were they praying for? Not God's glory, for their own glory, self-praise. Jesus says here, “They love to stand and pray that they be seen by others.” They prayed for self-praise, human recognition, personal reputation, and not God's honor and praise. And remember that Pharisee in the parable of Luke 18, Jesus let us hear His prayer when He goes into the temple. What does he pray? Well, He thanks God that "I'm not like other men," but then he begins to really brag on himself: I tithe, I fast. His prayer was self-promotion, self-exaltation. And if we're going to pray how Jesus taught us to pray, then we have to start with God's glory.
Grace
And the second word is grace. Grace means I deserve nothing. Everything we receive from God is grace to us, freely given. So when we make petitions or requests asking God for daily bread, for daily forgiveness, for daily protection, lead us not into temptation, we can be assured of answers because of God's grace, God's mercy. Not because we deserve it, it's always grace given. Every gift you receive is grace-given. The ultimate reason why we pray? For His glory. And the reason we pray, receive temporal and spiritual blessing is because of grace, common grace and special grace. Someone put it this way,
"We're not the cause, God's grace is the cause, or Christ is the cause."
John Newton, in that famous hymn, Amazing Grace,
"Grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."
And if there was one man who got it, who got it straight and got it right, it was the Apostle Paul. Think about him. When he thought of God's glory, what do you hear him saying? He never lost sight of God's glory, and never lost sight of God's grace. Romans 11:36, “To Him be glory forever.” That's at the very back end of all of that further exposition of what the gospel is, for God's glory. And then, in 1 Corinthians 10, “Do all for the glory of God.” And think of his letters. Every one of his letters begins, almost every one of them begins and finishes on a note of grace. He never forgot, “I am what I am by the grace of God.”
So as we come to prayer tonight, let's remember The Lord's Prayer, it’s shaped by God's glory and by God's grace. We are to magnify or hallow God's name, realizing whatever gifts we receive, we don't deserve any gift, whatever we receive, it's because of grace, and say, let's look back to the past Lord's Day, think of how we can glorify God in terms of who He is, and what He's done.
So as we come to prayer tonight, let's remember The Lord's Prayer, it’s shaped by God's glory and by God's grace. We are to magnify or hallow God's name, realizing whatever gifts we receive, we don't deserve any gift, whatever we receive, it's because of grace, and say, let's look back to the past Lord's Day, think of how we can glorify God in terms of who He is, and what He's done.
Posted in Pastor Devotional