And every time and place where God's people have desired to know God, to grow in their knowledge and love of God, to know their duty to God, they've been obligated to go to him for direction. God has spoken from heaven and preserved his word for our instruction. It is at the center of our worship of God that we turn to His Word for instruction, for encouragement, for direction. I invite you now to turn with me in your copy of God's Word to the book of the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 31. I'm going to read the first verse, and then we're going to read verses 31-34. That's on page 658 in your pew Bible. Let's give our attention now to God's Word. At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel And they shall be my people. And then dropping down to verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each brother say, saying, know the Lord For they all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. If you'll turn with me now to the New Testament and Paul's letter to the Ephesians. We're reading these portions of Scripture to for their illuminating value on the passage that we're going to be looking at in the Lord's Prayer. That petition my will be done, and it's incumbent upon those who would pray that petitioner right. To have some knowledge of the Father in heaven to whom they're praying and what his will might be. the Jeremiah account, we saw the intent and the proactive plan of God to be a God to his people. Let's listen now to what we hear from God in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. I'm going to be reading chapter one and then some verses from chapter three. Paul and Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, The gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. For this reason, because I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ The Father of Glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe? According to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave him to be as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Dropping down to chapter 3, I want to read from verses 14-21. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. That's got to be with us now as we look for understanding and application of his word. Father, we thank you for that prayer which your son taught his disciples and us to pray. We thank you for the testimony that we have throughout your word concerning the meaning of those petitions and what our motives should be in praying them and our expectations in your answering them. Please be with us as we give our hearts and minds to our consideration of your word this evening. May your covenant blessings bring it home to us and bring it to bear in ways that will build us up in our knowledge and love of you. We pray this in our Savior's name. Amen. Turn with me to Matthew six. This is now the tenth installment in this series. We've been going through the first three petitions were on the third one and the second sermon on that one motives and expectations. Our last time together, we looked at your will be done. on earth as it is in heaven and what that petition might mean as the Lord Jesus taught it to his disciples and as it's recorded and preserved for our instruction. This evening, we want to wonder what our motives need to be in order to pray to write and what our expectations should be in praying it as God would have us to. I think because of the time between this sermon and those which have come before, we do well to remember that our Lord Jesus is teaching this prayer to his disciples in response to their request that he would teach them to pray. And that their request concerned more the pattern and conduct of prayer to actually pray. Not just petitions to pray, and that's very important for us, because while our Lord Jesus is giving his disciples and us actual objective petitions to pray. More importantly, he's giving us a model prayer that characterizes the disposition of God's people when they pray. For this reason, it's always been the understanding of the church that while we may pray these petitions as we find them recorded, they represent a model of prayer as well, and which is helpful to follow as we shape our prayers. What we've observed on the last few sermons because our Lord Jesus focuses in the beginning of this prayer exclusively on the prayers approach to God. And giving priority to the things which concern God himself more than his creation. More than the prayer himself more than mankind. We want for that not to be lost on us. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name on earth as it is in heaven. May your name be hallowed. May your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I labor this because so important for us. The sin that is present with us will always be seeking to get us to the part of our prayer when we're laying petitions that concern our needs, our desires, the needs and desires of our fellow creatures to push those to the front so much so that they oftentimes completely eclipse anything like praise, anything like focusing on the glory of God, anything like desiring the things which concern his honor and the promotion of his kingdom. And so often our prayers are much more like a grocery list and a gimme gimme. List and that ought not to be. So I remind myself and I remind you that in the model which our Lord Jesus sets before us. And actually, as it takes up text and print focusing on God desiring For him to have pleasure in his creation and in us, for his name to be promoted, for his kingdom to be enlarged, for his will to be done, takes up fully half the prayer. Looking at this petition and what our motives and expectations might be, let me lay three things before us. Our need argues for us to consider motives and expectations of this petition. God's honor and mankind's happiness in the second place require right motive And looking for expecting the answer to prayers that God prescribes in his word. And thirdly, our life and love of the Savior. Constrain us will constrain us to pray this way by will be done. On Earth, as it is in heaven. In the first place, then our Lord Jesus is teaching his disciples and he's teaching us to pray this way. Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. And to pray it with a motive. Felt need. Of God overcoming our natural inclination. We, the least of us, the least of human beings, that is the meanest, the weakest, the most backward and uneducated human being, the most broken and depraved human being is created in God's image. and thereby capable of being the beloved of the Lord. We're not sure of exactly who all the elect are. Those that God chose before time, as we read. in Ephesians chapter one, who were in a mystery that you and I can understand in his son before the foundation of the world. Loved before time. The least of those sinners who's being reconciled to God. He is capable of glorifying Him, of doing His will, as our Lord Jesus did, as it's done in heaven. It's a remarkable petition that the Lord Jesus is putting into our mouths, into our hearts, shaping our desires For you and I to be able to come before the throne of grace and ask our Father in heaven for his will to be done as it concerns us, as our service concerns his honor and his kingdom, as our life influences others, is a remarkable petition. And you and I don't, it's so easy to become complacent and take it for granted. I need to pray like this. I cannot afford, you cannot afford to follow the direction of your heart and desires. Of your own will, when it concerns prayer that's going to be glorifying to God, that's easy to do. Unbelievers pray like that and carnal believers. Even those filled with the spirit because of indwelling sin are tempted to pray carnally what James is rebuking in his epistle. We pray for wrong motive. You may be praying for the right thing. You might even be using the right words, but our desires are off base. I pray for the right thing with the right words, but so that I can consume it on myself. And he says, you're not going to have your petition from God. So many of the prayers that we pray. I don't have a clear prescription in God's word. the loved one who is sick, the child who's dying, the job and income I'm in jeopardy of losing. We don't know exactly what God's will may be for us, and we shape our prayers based on our felt need, the desires of our hearts, our desire to play our part well. This is all putting the best spin on motive, right? Rather than greed. Lost selfish interest. Concern to get ahead. To be successful. Not to be a failure. I need to pray this way. Thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Because sin is present with me. Tempting me to be self-centered. The unbelieving world is around me, trying to press me into its mold. And the powers of darkness seek to ambush, to derail, to disorient, to discourage the believer at every intersection. Primarily by trusting in themselves, by drawing them off a trust in the Savior. You and I will never, in this life, because of who we are, because of what our office is, our rank, our social status, we will never daunt or threaten or discourage the powers of darkness. It's not because God is saving great people That the kingdom of darkness can't prevail against the church. It isn't even because God is saving rabid sinners and making them into saints. That the kingdom of darkness can't prevail against the church, it's because the Lord Jesus is on the throne at the right hand of God. Because he never grows weary of interceding on behalf of his church. It's because when they touch the anointed ones, when they touch the beloved of the Lord, they aggravate the Lord of glory. We need to pray like this, we need for petitions like your will be done, Father in heaven, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven be done by me. On Earth, as it is in heaven. Because of our own hearts, because of our nature, because sin is present with us. We also need to pray like this because our Lord Jesus instructs us to, and we have his example in the Gospels of his praying like this. First point, then, was we need to pray like this. Second point, God's honor And mankind's happiness requires that we pray like this. Father in heaven, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Are you married? Are you a good spouse? Do you want to be a good spouse? How are you going to be? Are you a parent? Do you want to raise your children well? How are you going to do that? Are you an employer? Do you want to be a good employer? One that people wish they could work for. How are you going to manage that? You want to be a good employee serving dutifully. So that other companies are trying to hire you. How's that going to happen? Do you want to live? As you shall one day wish you had. On the day of judgment. without regret, without shame? How's that going to happen? Our hearts, even our sanctified, our consciences which are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, are a very unreliable guide. We need the Word of God's instruction We need the Holy Spirit to be present with us, applying the life and love of the Savior, motivating us, you see, to think and to speak and to behave in ways that primarily are glorifying to Him, honoring to Him, giving Him pleasure. And then, in the second place, that edify and instruct and help others God's honor and mankind's happiness. In other words, the lives of men and women, boys and girls who are touched and influenced by us, not only in the present. A day is coming when, if the Lord tarries, you will no longer, I will no longer, we will no longer be on the stage of life. It's one of the wonderful hopes that you and I can have now. That when we are no longer here, the echo of our lives will continue to influence men and women, boys and girls for good. That's a wonderful hope. It isn't the first thing that moves us. Glorifying God and enjoying him is. But it's the second thing that should motivate us. To be used of God. To so live as will conduce to the happiness, the welfare, the blessing, the good of others. Not only as we live, but after we're dead and have departed this life and aren't here to influence others anymore. And you all feel the influence of those who are no longer here. Parents, grandparents, men and women not related to you, whose actions, whose decisions, whose self-denial, whose sacrifice has affected your life and experience. So much so that if you could bump into them this evening, I'm sure that you would express appreciation for how their life influenced yours or is influencing yours. In order for us to live as we shall one day wish we had, in order for us to glorify and enjoy God, in order for us to love our neighbor, we need to pray this petition and other petitions like it. Thy will be done. on Earth as it is in heaven. Thankfully, not only as a motive, but our expectation, because God has given us this petition to pray, we can expect to see answers to this prayer. The wonderful mystery of Providence is that you and I can pray for good. without knowing the specifics of what we're praying for and that God will be pleased to answer that prayer. He'll direct our feet. He'll direct our hearts. He'll direct our lips. He'll direct our hands. He'll direct our mind into paths that conduce that lead to his glory and the good of others. It's one of the great privileges of being the redeemed of the Lord. He's leading us. The sheep don't have to know where the shepherd's going. They just have to follow him. He's good. He's going to bless them. That's why we read that passage in Jeremiah. He's not going to turn us over to wolves. He came into the world and laid down his life that good unmeasurable might be secured for us. We can pray without any fear of personal harm or cost. Thy will be done. I desire it. Lord, grant me that your will may be done in my life, by me, through me, as it is in heaven. So His honor and mankind's happiness, my own mixed in. And if we had time, we could break that down and look how that's true as we pray to God, our Creator, and more importantly, as we pray to God as our Redeemer. The third place, moving right along, is that saving grace, that is the life and love of the Savior. I commend Sinclair Ferguson's work. John 15 to you, if you'd like to read a wonderful. Exposition of that passage, we talk about grace, but grace is nothing. There is no grace apart from the person and work of the Savior. When we're talking about grace, we're talking about Jesus. And we're talking about obedience. Perfect obedience. We're talking about unimaginable pain, suffering, payment for sin, grace, gifts received at Christ's expense. There is no grace apart from the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Very important for you and I not to think of grace as some kind of fluid that God keeps in a big tank in heaven and pours out or runs through spiritual umbilical cords to us that somehow just makes us alive and makes us his own. It's the blood. It's the sweat. It's the righteousness. It's the obedience. It's the moment-by-moment love of the Lord Jesus Christ for a sinner that makes the difference in his life and nothing else. The life and love of the Savior powerfully applied by the Holy Spirit working in perfect concert With the father's will to save those who he gave to his son and in perfect harmony with the obedience of the son and his sacrifice and his intercession at the right hand of God. There is no grace. Apart from our Lord Jesus. So when we talk about grace, we're talking about gospel and we're talking about our Savior saving grace, the life and love of the Savior. Powerfully communicated and applied by the Holy Spirit, critical part of the formula. It's not enough for me that that's happening in the lives of others. It's not going to touch me. It's not going to help me. It's not going to be any advantage in the gospel or in grace for me if it doesn't come to me. If it doesn't come to you, others will be saved by it assuredly, but you will not if it doesn't come to you. Coming to you, though. By the effectual working of the Holy Spirit coming to you by the eternal counsel of the father. His purpose in Christ to have you as his own for you to be the bride of his son, you can be well assured. That you will be not only enabled, but constrained. To pray like this. Nothing will be farther from the heart desire of an unbeliever than to pray, Father in heaven, your will be done. The sin of our first parents was the inverse of that. What plunged mankind into enmity with a true and living God was an unwillingness to pray this prayer and to look for its answer in our life. On the day that Eve, I believe the lie, reached out and took the forbidden fruit and ate it, The desire and prayer of her heart was, my will be done on earth. This prayer is really the antidote to sin. Particular sins is also the antidote to sinfulness or depraved nature. And of all the petitions, and I it's probably not right to say this, because certainly hallowing our father's name. Desiring his kingdom to come. Are on a par with this petition, but to pray for you and I to pray this petition a right from the heart is a distinguishing evidence of the spirit of God being in us redemptively. be willing for God to have the preeminence, for God's will to be done. Not only for God's will to be done, but for it to be done by me as it's done in heaven, with joy, with gladness, spontaneously, with pleasure and satisfaction, regardless of the cost to me. Life and love of the Savior power communicated and applied by the Holy Spirit will enable his disciples will enable you and I. To pray this petition with the right motive. And to have the privilege of seeing God's answer to it. In ways that accord are in accord with his eternal purpose in his son. To this end, you and I, as in all the petitions that our Lord Jesus gives us here, need to be truthful with in our relationship with God. In other words, not be thinking of our relationship with God as some sort of argument or contract that binds God or obligates God to love us, even when he doesn't want to. It's always God's initiative. It's always God's pleasure, or it's not going to happen. And it should be. It's one of the reasons why those of us who have the privilege of reading God's Word and studying it in the context of no holds barred, in the light of God's sovereignty, have the potential of being inestimably blessed in this life. Nothing is more calculated to frustrate and shortchange God's blessing, his word, than a man thinking that he or she is responsible to bring it to pass. When human beings think of themselves like that, they are invariably thinking more highly of themselves than they ought. You and I can trust God completely to be who and what he is. That his will is perfect. It's good. It's just. It will promote his glory and our good and the good of the lives that are touched by ours. Remembering that, and remembering also that the petitions we have here are not an incantation or magic formula that you can pray regardless of the disposition of your heart. Always be willing for God to come after you with a scalpel, sometimes with a saw. Search me. See if there's any wicked way in me. Deal with anything. Father in Heaven, deal. Please deal with anything that will frustrate or short-circuit or deprive me of praying as I ought. And we have a living Savior at his right hand. We have the Holy Spirit, the sovereign Holy Spirit with us as our gift from the Father and the Son to make sure these things come to pass so we can come to petitions like this with great hope that God is going to stir us up to pray as we ought. May this motivate us and fill us with expectation as we look for his answer to the prayers that he leads us to pray. Father, we thank you for the instruction that we have out of your word. We thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit to bring it powerfully to bear upon our lives. instructing our minds, warming our hearts, kindling a fire of love within them for yourself and for our neighbor down to our enemy, and also empowering. We thank you again this evening that you empower the wills of your people to choose and to do the things that are pleasing to you, healthful for us and beneficial for others. May we all have clear evidence in our lives this evening and throughout the coming week of you working powerfully within us that we are your workmanship, created in your Son for good works, which you prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We'll be careful to give you the praise and the thanks and all the glory in the name and at the expense of your Son, our Lord Jesus. Amen.