Our scripture reading this morning is found in the epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13. We read the entire chapter. Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds as being as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the rule over you, who who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar. whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you, the rather, to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now, the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation. For I have written a letter unto you in few words. Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you. Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints, they of Italy, salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen." That far we read in God's holy inspired word. Before we turn to the Catechism, we read from Scripture Hebrews 13, verses 20 and 21. We'll be referring to those a few times throughout the sermon in connection with Lord's Day 49. There we read, Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. It's based upon passages such as this and many other passages of scripture that we find the teaching of Lord's Day 49. Question and answer 124 of the Heidelberg Catechism. There we read, which is the third petition? Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. That is, grant that we and all men may renounce our own will And without murmuring, obey thy will, which is only good, that so everyone may attend to and perform the duties of his station and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels do in heaven. Beloved congregation, in our Lord Jesus Christ, we consider today the third petition of the model prayer that Jesus gives to His disciples and to us. The first petition forms the foundation and really the basis for all the other petitions when we seek God's glory in all things. Hallowed be thy name. And the next petition is one of the means by which God sanctifies his name. So we pray, thy kingdom come. That's how God is glorified. And then the third petition provides yet another means by which God's name is glorified, namely the doing of his will. So we pray, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. We pray not that our will be done, but that God's will would be done, just as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, not my will, but thy will be done. Because God's will alone is good and holy, we pray that. The fact that we make that petition indicates and it should indicate that that is our desire. We want God's will to be done. Obviously, we still struggle with the old man of sin. Our desire to do God's will is not perfect, as we would like it to be. But God put a right desire in the hearts of His people. The fact that we desire it is God's work. And therefore, each one of God's children desires truly to attend to and perform the duties of our station and calling. So we pray, will be done. That's essentially what the inspired apostle prays. In Hebrews chapter 13. When he says, now the God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will. We pray that because We need God's grace. This is a request to God. May it be that God would do this. We need God's grace if we are ever going to be mature spiritually in the faith seeking to do his will. Let's consider the third petition of the model prayer. Under that theme, praying for God's will. First, let's know what will we must forsake. We must forsake our own wills. Secondly, whose will we must submit to. That is God's will, and lastly, the reason we desire this praying for God's will, what will we must forsake, whose will we must submit to and the reason we desire this. implied in the petition, thy will be done, is that Jesus would have us forsake our own wills. We must forsake our own wills. Not, of course, to earn anything with God. Not because we might lose our salvation if we don't. in order to show our thankfulness to God for what He has done. Not to renounce our own wills is to walk in sin. God doesn't give us that option. Well, if you want to walk in sin, go ahead and do that. God would have us renounce our own wills. But if we are truly children of God, redeemed by grace and given the Holy Spirit, then that's exactly what we will want to do. We will want to, by God's grace, renounce our own wills. Maybe we don't say it in so many words, but sometimes the essence of our prayers is just the opposite. We say, Lord, I want this or I want that. Cure me of this disease. Take away this annoying situation out of my life. Give me a better job. Give me a husband or a wife. Give me a child. But Jesus does not teach us to pray, my will be done. But he says, after this manner pray, thy will be done. He teaches us to pray, thy will be done, because our souls are so dull, because we are selfish by nature yet, so that we seek our own wills far too much. Not that it's wrong to ask God to cure us, If that is his will, not that it's wrong to pray for those things, but when we insist on our will as opposed to his will. After this manner, pray, thy will be done. That applies. Whether we are talking about God's will of decree. or whether we are talking about God's will of command, whether we are talking about that will of God which determines all things that come to pass, or God's will of command according to which He sets our duties before us, we ought to pray, Thy will be done. When God decrees hardship for us, our wills naturally recoil from that. On the other hand, when God commands something, our wills rebel against that too. Children will remember perhaps that definition of sin, that sin is spelled with a large I right in the middle. Sin draws our attention to ourselves. Sin says, I want this and I want that. It's all about me and my will. That's what we are like by nature. Without the new life of Jesus Christ, without the grace of the Holy Spirit, we would have no desire whatsoever to do God's will, to submit to his will. By nature, then we say, don't tell me about God and don't tell me about his will. Psalm 14 describes that condition. Psalm 14, verse 1, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. By nature, there is none that seeks God. There is none that seeks His will. And because we still have that old nature clinging to us, We are still inclined. God's children are still inclined to seek our own selfish wills. Our old nature does not want to obey God's will. Even if we do obey God's will, we still do not do so as readily as we ought to. Indeed, often we do so grudgingly and with murmuring, just like a child, a parent tells them to do something, they might go and do it with a scowl or a pout on their face. We're the same way. God tells us, sets before us what our duty is, and we do it perhaps, but grudgingly. When we pray, Thy will be done. We are praying that God would be pleased to work in us. So that we and all men would renounce those selfish wills. In the first place, we need to forsake our wills when they go against God's will of decree, when they refuse to submit to God's will of decree. When God clearly ordains particular circumstances in our lives. We need to renounce our own wills, for example. If God ordained that one of us should be struck with terminal cancer or some other great trial, we need to learn to renounce our own wills. Renounce the will, that is to say, that refuses to be content with what God has ordained for us. If God ordains that you currently find yourself in the single state or the married state, be content with that. If God ordains a great earthquake and a tsunami that destroys entire cities and you happen to be in one of those cities, maybe your whole family is taken away. God has ordained that. Be content even with that. The inspired apostle in Philippians speaks of that contentment. Philippians 4, verse 11. He says, Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned, and this is by God's grace, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." The apostle had learned by God's grace to renounce His own will. In the second place that I will be done. Is a petition that God would teach us to forsake. The will that rejects his will of command. Scripture declares God's will regarding all kinds of things in our lives. This is God's will for you. We find multitudes of exhortations in the chapter we read, Hebrews 13, beginning of the chapter. Verse 1, let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them which are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. This is revealing to us God's will. But our old man rejects these commands and every command of God, our old man wants nothing to do with those exhortation. And on the other hand, our new man wants to do these things. That's why we pray, Thy will be done. Work in us so that we do these things which Thou has commanded us without grumbling and without complaining. Thy will be done. That negatively, we must forsake our own will. But also. God would have us submit to his will. We pray thy will be done because we know it is our duty to submit to God's will. I say again, not a duty in the sense of a prerequisite in order to become saved, not a duty as a condition to keep our salvation, but a duty in the sense that this is the thankfulness that we owe to God. Here again, we may refer to those. Two distinctions, God's will of decree and his will of command. Thy will be done. Primarily is aimed at God's will of command. We want ourselves and all men to do those things which God has commanded and not to do those things that God forbids. But the petition also includes a desire that God would accomplish his will of decree. In the first place, then, thy will be done is asking God to work in our hearts and the hearts of others so that we would keep his commandments, that is, The idea of keeping is not fulfilling perfectly to the nth degree, but keeping His commandments in the sense of desiring and striving to fulfill those duties which God sets before us. That's what we pray. Thy will be done. That's what the Catechism says in Question and Answer 124 in this Lord's Day. Grant that we and all men may renounce our own will and without murmuring, obey Thy will. Lord, we want to obey Thy will. Grant it to us. Do you desire that, beloved? Do I desire that to do God's will? Do we pray for that? That's what the inspired apostle prayed for in Hebrews 13. Verse 20, now, the God of peace. Make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Working in you. See, that's not our work, that's God's work. We're praying that God would do a work working in you, that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Christ Jesus, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Make you perfect. Now, the God of peace, make you perfect. The idea there is not that God would in this lifetime make us perfectly holy. But that idea of making perfect is the idea of restoring us or causing something to be useful, causing something to be in a condition in which it will be useful, that will function well. That same very same word. Is translated to mend. As in mending fishing nets, we find that in Matthew 4 verse 21. And going on from thence, he saw two other brethren, James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending. Making perfect if we wanted to use the words of our text. mending their nets. And he called them. So when the inspired writer says in Hebrews 13, 21, that God would make the saints perfect in every good work to do his will, he is praying that God would work in their hearts so that they would sincerely desire and strive to do God's commands. That God would make them spiritually mature so that they would strive after those things. You understand, not just a desire like a farmer who desires to have a crop but refuses to plant, we would say, what kind of desire is that? But rather, our desire should be like the desire of the farmer who desires a crop and knows that God calls him to till the soil and to plant. And just as the farmer is willing to do what it takes in order to bring about that crop, so we should be willing to strive mightily against our old man, against the world, against the devil. We should be willing to pluck out our right eyes figuratively and cut off our right hands. We can't do that by ourselves. And that's why we pray, Thy will be done. We're asking that God would do a work in our hearts so that we would do those things that are necessary. We pray that God would work in us, that we would desire and strive to obey His will. Overcome. the rebellion in my heart and in the hearts of others. That's our prayer. Because we cannot do that in our own strength. I will be done. Concerns God's will of command, but it also concerns God's will of decree. Someone might ask, why would we pray that God would accomplish His will of decree? He's going to do it anyway. And that's true. God will perform all of His decrees. Not one will be left undone. Isaiah 46, verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. God will do his will. But more than just asking that God would accomplish those things which he had purpose to accomplish, We're asking when we say that I will be done. We are asking for grace. That we would submit ourselves to God's will of decree. Our corrupt nature strive against God's decrees, especially when God decrees hardship for us, when God decrees something that we don't like, Paul. had a thorn in the flesh that God had decreed. So thy will be done is asking God to give us patience. To submit. To his will, patience and contentment. With whatever trials God sends our way. We have to be careful, however, that our petition, Thy will be done, doesn't simply turn into some sort of fatalism. We must not make God's will of decree the guide of our lives. If God puts us by His decree, causes us to be out of work, Thy will be done is not now a substitute for seeking work and sending out resumes. When God, in His decree, sends a particular situation into our lives, we must not say, Thy will be done, and not do anything about it. But we ought to know that God is pleased to use means to accomplish His will. So, yes, we pray thy will be done. And at the same time, we seek to use the means that God would have us use. And if we pray thy will be done, we also have to be careful that. We don't. Read into God's decrees. More than we should. We may be looking. Let's use that example again for work and God may open up a lucrative job in the oil patch. And somebody could say, surely it is God's decree that that opportunity opened up for us. Does that mean that God wants us to take that? Not at all. That does not mean that. It may very well be that God is simply putting a test before us, opening up that opportunity so that we see our responsibility to remain with a faithful church. We say, I can't go up there. I know God has opened up that opportunity by His decree, but that doesn't mean He wants me to take it. It may be a test to strengthen my faith and my resolve to remain in a faithful church. Thy will be done. Thy will of command and Thy will of decree. What is the reason that we desire to do God's will? The first reason is that we recognize how unholy our own wills are. We recognize that we ourselves are prone to wander from God's will. So we pray with desire that God would lead us in paths of righteousness. We pray in the knowledge that God has placed us in a particular station and calling. And as His children, we want to perform the duties that God sets before us. That's God's work in our hearts. So we pray, knowing that God's will alone is good and holy. The reason we want to perform those duties set before us is that we want to please our Father as His children. That's the idea in Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews 13, verse 16. We read, but to do good and communicate, forget not. And that communicate has the idea of sharing. But to do good and to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. We want to please our Father. God delights to see the fruits of his work in us. He delights to see us doing his will. In fact, our petition, I will be done to reflect our desire to please God. Just as the angels seek to please God, that's why we pray that I will be done on Earth as it is in heaven, even as the angels work in heaven to please the. We want to work. on the earth to please our Creator, to please our Savior. Psalm 103 describes the work of the angels. Psalm 103, verse 20. Bless the Lord, ye His angels that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word. Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts, ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure. The angels in heaven Don't do God's will grudgingly when God says, go out and do this or that. They don't say, well, if I have to, that's not how they do God's will. They do it willingly. They do it cheerfully. And we pray that God would put that same attitude in our own hearts. We want to be that faithful Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We know, of course, that that degree of faithfulness will not be given to us in this life, but God will give it to us. God will give it to us one day when He takes us into glory. We will one day be in God's presence and we will do His will as faithfully and cheerfully as the angels do. Why do we want to please our father? Why do we want to do his will as readily and cheerfully as the angels do in heaven? Well, that brings us back to the very first petition because we want God's name to be glorified. And that's what the inspired apostle says in Hebrews 13 again. The God of peace that brought again from the dead, the Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever." That's why we pray, Thy will be done. Because we know that in the way of God's will being done, His name will be glorified. That's the way God works. Thy will be done. May God grant to us that His name would be glorified as His will is done. His will of decree and His will of command. Amen. Our Father, which art in heaven, we thank Thee that Thou art working a work in Thy people. We thank Thee that Thou has placed in our hearts a desire to do Thy will and to submit to Thy will also of decree. We pray that Thy will would be done, may it be done for Thy name's sake. We ask these things, asking also that Thou forgive us where we have not submitted to Thy will. Forgive us in Jesus' name and go with us by Thy grace. In His name we pray, Amen.