Well this morning I would like you to turn with me over to Matthew chapter 6 and we want to look at verses 9 to 13. We are in our 21st session on what it means to be reformed. I'm attempting to show you in relation to the doctrine of election that God saves His elect one at a time. but he's not constrained to save them one at a time, that he can save them, many numbers of them at one time, if that's his purpose to do so. I think that this ought to be a doctrine in connection with the doctrine of election, which gives us great joy in thinking about what God will do in the coming days based upon what he has done in the past, but even more especially what he has promised to do in the future for his church. I want to remind you of where we have been. The last couple of Sundays we looked at Romans chapter 9. We saw that the purpose of election will stand and that that is evidenced in Jacob and Esau who were dealt with in accordance with election even from before the point where they were born and had done nothing good or bad and we looked at Malachi chapter 1 verses 1 to 5 and we saw that God's purpose was in regard to Esau to reject him based upon his sinfulness and that he would actually lay his mountains waste and his descendants would would as well, many of them, be rejected. God is a God of mercy, but He's also a God of purpose, we've been seeing. And His purpose is even before we are born. And we looked at Jeremiah chapter 1, and we saw that before God formed Jeremiah in the womb, that He knew him, it says there. and that he had called him to be a preacher, a prophet to the nations. And indeed that he would raise him up to be such a mighty prophet that he would address many nations. in his prophecies. Now we need to understand that that is what God does with all of his elect. He has a purpose in mercy to them. And we need to build upon that to understand that in the future that God is going to do some very mighty things which really ought to cause us to rejoice and really ought to cause us to smile at the great power of God to do these great and mighty things which we do not know call to me. and i will answer you and show you great and mighty things he says in jeremiah which you do not know now in matthew chapter six here i want to remind you as we begin this study this morning of what it says in verse nine in the lord's prayer it says there in this manner jesus says therefore pray our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And then he ends the prayer in verse 13, and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. forever. Amen. Now, it's really good for us to be able to pause and think, if this is the model prayer for Christians, which it is in many ways that all the categories of prayer really are listed for us of what we ought to be concerned to pray about day by day, that one of the things that you need to realize that you need to be praying about is Christ's kingdom's advance. Christ's kingdom's advance in your heart and in the world. at large. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, that God's name would be hallowed, that it would be seen as holy, and that your kingdom would come, dear Lord, and that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven." What does it mean when it says, your kingdom come? If God has a purpose and election, doesn't that mean that God will just save people? Do we need to pray in relation to God's kingdom coming? And if so, in what way do we need to pray? What would you say? I'm trying to stimulate you because I know that you do pray. At least most of you I trust are praying. And when you do pray, do you pray this way, your kingdom come? Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And what does that mean practically? Very good, very good. Brian's saying that God's will and God's ways would be known to the people of the world. And really that's true. People need to know, don't they? in actuality they need to know, not just intellectually. Brian says, and that's really true and that takes, that's the reason that we pray. It takes God's Spirit moving in our heart and in the hearts of other people to open their eyes to the greatness of the glory of Christ. Now really that's a beautiful thing for us to think about here today. Yes, Marilena? Yeah, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, as the King James says, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost or in the Holy Spirit. It's that. In other words, we don't just get together as a church for social reasons. Why is it that the social gospel became so prevalent in the 20th century? Wasn't it because people forgot to pray this way that we're talking about this morning? Thy kingdom come. And what does that mean in relation to me and my heart? Well, I think that it means that we would stop and we would pause and we would consider that that Christ does have a kingdom and he's been given a kingdom like it says in Daniel chapter 7 and it's a a mediatorial kingdom that he will have that is that he stands in between God and man as the only mediator between God and man and he will stand there in that position until the end of the world and then he'll hand the kingdom back over to the Father that God may be all in all But you and I need to understand that what God expects of us is that He expects us to be more prayerful in relation to the subject of His election of people and groups of people and even nations. because that's what I'm going to try to attempt to explain to you here this morning and we'll get as far as we can. Now last Sunday, you remember I turned you to the book of Revelation chapter 7 and verses 9 to 12 and I showed you there that there's going to be a number which no man can count of people that are saved. We need to bask in that truth. I think a lot of times we think you know do not be afraid little flock for the Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom and so he has and so we get the conception in our mind somehow or another that God is not going to do great things on the earth and that the world's going to come to an end with a whimper That somehow or another that God's electing purposes are not going to be fulfilled, and it's all going to come to a crashing end with Christ having to return, and none of his enemies put under his feet. But that's not what the Bible, that's not what the Bible talks about, and you and I need to have a better grasp of this if we are reformed. We call ourselves reformed. Well, what was one of the greatest revivals of all of human history? except the Reformation, out of which all this truth that we're discussing of what it means to be Reformed came. It came because people were praying, and it came because people saw the errors of the papal system in the Church of Rome, and that church had taken over the world to that day, and with its falsehoods was deceiving people. by the multitude. So there were very few people who truly knew the Lord. And yet God shined his light at the Reformation through the Reformers and Martin Luther and just blew the door open to truth so that many people began to see many things, not only from the Bible but the biblical principles of how government and societies ought to take place. and how people ought to act towards one another in society and in families and in churches and as individuals. That's what it means when it says your kingdom come. It means that God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven and the way that that comes about is when God's powerful working is taking place and that you and I are praying for that realizing that the kingdom and the power and the glory belong to God forever for everything that is done. Now there's some good things that we need to realize in relation to this that I want to point out to you here today. I started to point this out to you last Sunday that really the nation of Israel was the first elect nation of the world. God chose Israel. God chose Abraham. God chose Isaac. God chose Jacob. But he made out of Abraham, who is the first Hebrew, a nation, whose descendants, as he was promised, would be like the sand of the seashore in number. And that in him That is, in the promised seed, referring to Jesus Christ that would come from Abraham, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Not just the Gentiles in some general sense, but the nations, all of them, every tribe, tongue, people, and nation are going to be touched by the Lord Jesus Christ in the future. Now that ought to give us great joy. this morning. And again, a great hope, a great expectation, which our Puritan forefathers most definitely had, and which has been largely lost through wrong views of prophecy in our day. I'm going to attempt to demolish it, if I can. So bear with me here. I want you to to turn with me over to Hosea chapter 1 and verse 6. First of all, Hosea chapter 1 and verse 6, very obscure passage I know, but I've got to begin somewhere. So that's where I'll begin. You know where Hosea is, it's after Daniel. I hope you do anyway. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah and etc. Hosea chapter 1 and verses 6 to 10. Who wants to read that for me? Have you got it Dave? Go for it. "...and the Lord said to his neighbor, I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I would ever forgive them, but I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the glory of God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen, When she had weaned little Ruhab, she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, O Adam, for you are not my people, and I am not your God. Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like a sand on the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it is said to them, you are not my people, it will be said to them, you are the sons of Israel. Amen. Now I want you to notice again God's electing purpose, His choice of Judah here. Whereas Israel he says I'm not going to pay attention to you anymore. I'm not going to have mercy on you anymore, verse 6. I'll call you Lo-Ruhamah. but he's going to have mercy on the house of Judah what an amazing thing in fact even though his purpose in the Old Testament was such he goes on to point out what was going to take place coming on down through the future in regard to Israel that they would be as the sand of the sea verse 10 in number which cannot be measured or numbered and yet out of them he would not save all of them in fact he would only save a remnant of them. I want you to turn with me over to Romans chapter 11 Romans chapter 11 and verse 1 I'm gonna read this for the sake of time because I don't have much time it says I say then as God cast away his people now remember many people who are reformed try to say that Israel is simply the church and that God's purpose is no longer with the Jews. But watch what it says here in verse 1. I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not. for I am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham and the tribe of Benjamin now why would he say all that stuff unless God is still going to have dealings with ethnic Israel national Israel even in New Testament times he does and he will in a very mighty way God has not cast away his people, verse 2, whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what does the divine response say to them? To him? I have reserved for myself, look at the language here, I have reserved for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace." In other words, that God would, even in that terrible time of Elijah, when it looked like there was nobody else around, that He still had 7,000 people who hadn't bowed the knee to Baal and He had preserved them. it says there. According to his electing mercy, his foreknowledge, that this remnant would be saved. But then he goes on to talk about something much greater. And I'm going to be opening this up next Sunday because I don't have time to do it now. But look over at verse 25. And I want to give you a foretaste of this. It says, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Now this is an eschatological verse if I ever saw one. It's talking about something that is going to take place in time. It isn't just talking about the whole age. It isn't referring to Israel as the church. It's referring to the Jews who are going to be converted. in a day which is yet to come. Verse 26, And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, a national conversion, for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." I just wanted you to get a foretaste of what I'm going to do next Sunday. I'm going to show you next Sunday that God is well able to save households of people as a group, and He's well able to save nations as a national entity, if He so purposes to do so. And He will, if I'm reading the Scriptures rightly, in the time period of the millennium, which is yet to come. Well, let's pray together. We thank You, O Lord, for these marvelous promises that You've given to us, and we only wish that we had more time to develop this here this morning, but we will you're helping us next Sunday. But we pray, Lord, that there would be a great expectancy in our hearts that even at this Christmas time, when there might be many people who are discouraged at the state of the church in our nation or in the world, that we would together be able to behold your glory and the promises that you have given of what you will do among the nations and in the nations and in the hearts of many people in the days to come. For we pray and ask that you would work in our hearts in this way. In Jesus' name, amen. You are dismissed.