The scripture reading this morning is found in the book of Isaiah. We read Isaiah chapter 49, the entire chapter in connection with the preface of the Lord's Prayer that we treat this morning. Isaiah chapter 49. Listen, O Isles, unto me, and hearken, ye people, from far. The Lord hath called me from the womb. From the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name, and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft. In his quiver hath he hid me. and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain. Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb, to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him. Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." And he said, it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth. To them that are in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastors shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them, for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far, and, lo, these from the north and from the west, in these from the land of Sinai. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget. Yet will I not forget thee? Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me. Thy children shall make haste thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold, all these gather themselves together and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy desolate places and the land of thy destruction shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have after thou hast lost the other shall say again in thine ears, The place is too straight for me. Give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone. These, where had they been? Thus saith the Lord God. I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people, and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers. They shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered. For I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children, and I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh. And they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine, and all flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." That far we read in God's holy inspired words. continue to look at Scripture's teaching concerning prayer, we come face to face with the truth of our own weakness and God's greatness. We are a needy people and we therefore need to pray. In fact, apart from God's grace, we are such needy people that if not for God's grace, we would never even want to pray to God. We would never seek God's grace apart from the fact that he had already given us We would never pray for the needs of our bodies and our souls to Him. We would seek to obtain them by our own strength. We would never pray for Him to save us from our desperate misery, apart from the fact that He had already given us His grace. But even as God's people, we are still so weak and needy. We have great difficulty praying the way that we ought to pray. We are so weak and needy, we need to be taught how to pray, not just taught technically, but taught in our hearts how to pray. As disciples of Christ, we need daily to put off the old man and to put on the new, also as regards our prayer life. That's hard work. That's hard work. It's the easiest thing in the world to forget about prayer. It's the easiest thing in the world to be distracted by all the cares and concerns of our lives that we forget to pray, to become so busy we set aside time to pray. It's hard work to pray. It's hard to stir ourselves up to pray to God reverence and with confidence. Truth be told, beloved, if I put my own prayer life under the microscope, it falls far short of what it should be. How little zeal There is. When I looked at my own prayers, and I'm ashamed to say it, but how little zeal in my own prayers. And how often do my prayers simply manifest selfishness? Give me this. Give me that. And how often do I doubt God's promises? The passage that we read in Isaiah reflects the truth of the Church of God in all ages. Zion doubted God's goodness to themselves. Isaiah 49, verse 14, we read, But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. That's our tendency. First, Zion thought of themselves as being forsaken, outwardly left by God, abandoned, and also forgotten, inwardly abandoned by God. That's the way they felt. Was it true? Was it true? Does God forsake? Does God abandon His people? Sometimes in our prayers we forget that. In the next verse, God gives the answer to Zion's weakness. God gives the answer. Can He forget His people? Can he forget his people? Listen to what God says in Isaiah 49, 15 again. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Can a woman who has invested hour after hour getting up all hours of the night caring for her little child? Can she forget the needs of her child that came forth from her very womb? Can she ignore her child's cries for hunger? Well, the obvious answer is it's not likely. But God says, yea, they may forget. Even that. as unlikely as it may seem. Even that is possible. But then the argument is, that may seem unlikely, but will God forget His people? That's even more unlikely. It's infinitely unlikely. God will not forget. He says, yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee? That's God's answer. to Zion's doubts. That's God's answer to Zion's weakness. Yet will I not forget thee? So much so that God says to Zion in the next verse, Behold, look, I have graven thee on my hands. I put marks on my hands." We could think of the marks on Jesus' hands left by the nails. God says, I have put marks on my hands so that whenever I go to work, as it were, whatever I am doing in the whole creation, I am reminded about you, Zion. I am doing everything I do for Zion's sake. Will I forget you? Will I forsake you? What a beautiful truth, beloved, concerning God's care for Zion. What a beautiful truth. In spite of our sins and sinfulness, in spite of our unfaithfulness, God has us graven on His hands. He will not forget us. That's the truth in Isaiah's day. That's the truth for us as well in the church of Jesus Christ. God will not forget us. We often doubt God's fatherly goodness. We often doubt His ability to answer our prayers. And yet, Jehovah is still gracious to us. He is still the sovereign of the universe. He is able to care for us and He is willing to care for us because He is our Father in Heaven. That's the confidence that Jesus wants each and every one of us Sitting here today, he wants us to have that confidence and that reverence towards God when we pray. That's why Jesus teaches us at the very beginning of our prayers to start out with those words, Our Father which art in heaven. Our Father which art in heaven. If we are going to have confidence and reverence, we need to have a proper foundation to our prayers. What are we going to build our prayers upon? On this foundation that God is our Father for Christ's sake. Build our prayers on that foundation and then we will pray with reverence and with confidence We are so spiritually dull, beloved, we need all the help we can get. Jesus provides us that model prayer and these words, Our Father which art in heaven, in order to stir us up, to excite in us reverence and confidence in our prayers. Let's consider that preface to the Lord's Prayer then under that theme, praying to the Father in Heaven. First, let's note that we must have that foundation that it is through Christ. Secondly, that we pray then with reverence. And lastly, with confidence. Praying to the Father in Heaven through Christ, with reverence and with confidence. When we pray, to the Father, we might imagine that we are praying to the first person of the Trinity. But the fact of the matter is, when we pray to our Father in heaven, we are praying to the triune God who is our Father for Christ's sake. Now, that may seem a bit confusing at first. But think about the triune God and how Scripture refers to the triune God as Father. The triune God, in one sense, is Father of the entire creation. He, in a sense, beget the creation. And who was involved in that? Not just the first person of the Trinity, but the whole Trinity. The Spirit moving upon the face of the waters, the Word that was spoken, the Father Speaking that word, the whole Trinity was involved in the creation. It is the Father who begets also children. That's the general idea of a father. Well, what does Scripture say about the triune God? James 1, verse 18, "...of His own will beget He us." That's the triune God. Romans 8, verse 14, "...for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, the spirit of the triune God. They are the sons of God, the sons of the triune God. Who begets us as his children, when we pray to the father, we are praying to the triune God. And think about the petitions of the prayer when we pray each of the petitions, we're not just praying Hallowed be thy name, thinking only that the name of the first person of the Trinity would be glorified. No, we're thinking about the whole Godhead who is our Father. When we pray, thy kingdom come, we're not just praying for the kingdom of the Father, we're praying for the kingdom of the triune God. Now here's the amazing thing, beloved. that Jesus teaches us to pray to that God as our Father. Our Father. And how often, and I speak of myself here, how often do we just take that for granted? When we speak Our Father, we don't think of all the implications of what it means that we're calling God our Father. We forget about the great privilege that God gives us to call upon the Creator of the universe, the triune God, and to call Him our Father. We forget about the amazing love that God has shown to make us His children. God could have left us in our misery. God could have left us as children of the devil and He could have left us on the way to hell. He would have been perfectly just to have done that. Considering the rebellion of Adam and the fact that we are guilty in Adam, God would have been just to cast the entire human race into the pit of hell. But God didn't do that. He didn't leave us in our misery. Just the opposite. He adopted us as his children. He adopted us as His children. How often do we take that for granted? Then as soon as we see and think about the fact that God is our Father, immediately that points us to all kinds of wonderful truths, the most important of which is this, God has become our Father for Christ's sake. God has become our Father for Christ's sake. Without Christ, we would not be God's children. Without Christ, we would not be able to call God our Father. Everything. about having God as our Father centers upon Jesus Christ. God predestinated us in Jesus Christ. Listen to this passage from Ephesians. Ephesians 1 verse 4, According as He hath chosen us in Him, in Jesus Christ. God had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. Without Christ, God never would have chosen us. In time, God sent His only begotten Son into the world to pay the ransom for all of our sins and cover over our guilt without Christ, without that sacrifice God would never have adopted us as His children. If Christ had not died to cover over the guilt of our sins and to give us His perfect righteousness, we would not be the children of God. And without the Spirit of Christ, we would never have God as our Father. We would never call upon Him because we wouldn't have the life of Christ within us. When God justifies us through the precious blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, then He also adopts us as His children. And when he adopts us as his children, then we also have an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens because of Jesus Christ. We already enjoy the firstfruits of that inheritance, but one day we will enjoy all the glories of heaven because of Jesus Christ. We are children of the Father for Christ's sake. Do you know that, beloved? Do you believe that? Not just in your head, but do you know that in your hearts? Do I know that, that God is my Father, that God is your Father for Christ's sake and only for Christ's sake? Not for anything in yourselves. Do you know Him as your Father? Do you know that He pities you in your circumstances and me in my circumstances? If you don't know that, if you don't know that God is your Father for Christ's sake, then think about the prayers you cast up, what will happen to those prayers? If we do not have this foundation, what will happen to those prayers that we send up? They will fall to the ground, as it were, like clay pigeons. But if you know that God is your Father for Christ's sake, if you build your prayer on that foundation and you cast that prayer into the air and it has on that prayer the two wings of confidence and reverence, if it has those two wings on it, confidence and reverence, because we are God's children, because He is our Father for Christ's sake, if we cast that prayer into the air, then it will fly. Then God hears that prayer. Then we can pray with confidence and reverence. Then we have a solid foundation. It's absolutely vital absolutely vital that when we pray, we do not forget that God is our Father for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. Because of what Christ has done, no other reason Then we can pray with reverence and confidence. Those words that Jesus teaches, our Father which art in heaven, ought to stir up reverence in our hearts when we pray. There are two aspects of reverence. On the one hand there is humility and on the other hand there is awe and respect. Humility, reverence includes humility as we look at ourselves the way we are in ourselves, looking at ourselves properly in light of God's Word and what it says about us. And awe when we look upon God as He truly is, as He has revealed Himself in His Word. Both of those go together. If you are truly humble before God, then you will also have an awe and respect for Him, and vice versa. If we have a reverential awe for God, the God who dwells in Heaven, then we will also bow before Him in humble adoration. Think of how the saints in Scripture responded when they recognized how great God is. When they had an awe for God, how did they respond? Isaiah was one example. Isaiah 6. When Isaiah saw that vision of God with the angels around him crying out, Holy, Holy, Holy. How did Isaiah respond when he saw that awesome vision? He says, Woe is me. For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips," he responded with humility. All of God goes together with humility. How did Peter respond when he saw the awesome power of Jesus displayed when Jesus, by His power, commanded, as it were, the fish to go into the nets of the disciples? How did Peter respond? Depart from me. Depart from me. For I am a sinful man, O Lord." His awe towards Jesus led to also a humility. Both of those go together. Reverence includes humility and awe. Humility and awe. In the first place, then, those words, which are in heaven should stir us up to humility. In fact, we need that humility to be stirred up because is it not the case that by nature we are not humble creatures? We are not humble by nature. By nature we are presumptuous and proud. And whenever we come to God with a presumptuous and proud attitude, that's ugly. That's ugly. Pride prays like this. Pride prays God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are. I thank Thee that I am more holy than anyone else. Look at everything I do. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Pride doesn't pray out of need. Pride doesn't pray seeing the need. of the blood of Jesus Christ. Pride doesn't need that. It doesn't think it needs it. It doesn't see the need for the blood of Jesus Christ poured out on the cross. That's pride. And presumption, the twin, Pride's twin. Presumption thinks that God will hear our prayers because of some worthiness in ourselves. Presumption prays like this, God, you owe me this. After everything I've done, after everything I've sacrificed, you owe me this. You should not be giving me this Difficulty. You owe me better than this. That's presumption. We get upset at God when He doesn't do our will. That's presumption. We get upset that He hasn't done our will. We think we deserve better. May God grant us repentance from pride and presumption in our prayers. The first words of the model prayer are meant to stir us up. Or maybe the word is down to humility. To work in us humility. How do they work humility? How do those words work humility in our hearts? We pray, Our Father which art in heaven. And immediately those words remind us that we are needy children, children of the Father, but needy children upon the earth. Our Father in heaven reminds us we are needy children upon the earth who are unworthy of His notice. Who are we? Who am I to draw nigh unto the God of the universe? Who am I to call upon the triune God, the God who dwells in heaven, who rules over all things? Who am I to call upon Him as my Father, as our Father? We need not only God's provision for us, we need not only that he sustain our bodies and our souls, we need his mercy. We need his mercy. As sinners, we need God's mercy. The publican displayed humility in his prayers. How does humility sound when it prays? God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Humility doesn't go to God and say, look at everything I've done. Now listen to me. Humility just begs for mercy, not looking for anything good in ourselves, only seeing that we are beggars before God. That's what the publicans showed. And the idea is expressed by that hymn. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. One side of reverence, the one side of the reverence coin, if you will, is humility. The other side of the same coin is awe and respect. Awe and respect. Those words, our Father which art in heaven, ought to stir us up to an awe and respect of God. We need that stirring. We need that. We need that stirring up to awe and respect because we tend to form earthly conceptions of the majesty of God. We tend to think of God in earthly terms. We might imagine, maybe we don't do it explicitly, but we might imagine that God is like an earthly father. And we see that our earthly fathers are not always so loving and not always so merciful. And then we call upon God and we doubt whether He is really as loving and as merciful as He says He is in His Word. We form earthly conceptions of God. That might be especially the case when we're going through difficult times. And we wonder, like Zion in Isaiah, we wonder, has God forsaken me? Has God forgotten me? Why do we ask that kind of question? Because we have formed an earthly conception of God. We have thought God was like a creature, that he could forget his people, that he would forsake his people, but it's impossible. I say that's especially easy for us to do in difficult circumstances. We might acknowledge, oh yes, God has power, but wonder whether he has all power. Yes, God can help in certain circumstances, but I don't know about this circumstance. And that's an earthly conception that we form about God. Yes, He is a ruler, but is He an absolute ruler that rules over every single circumstance in my life? We tend to form earthly conceptions of God. In a world of sin and pain and sorrow, we sometimes ask, is God really in control? Is He really? We need to be stirred up to awe and respect. In those words, our Father, which art in heaven, reminds us about the God to whom we direct our prayers. First, He is our Father. He is our Father. If He cared, and this is the way we ought to think, if He cared enough, if He cared so much to send His only begotten Son to die for us in order that He might adopt us as His children, then surely, If He has made Himself our Father, then surely He loves us and He cares for us. Surely. And should that not cause us to stand in awe when we see that great love of God towards us? Should we not proclaim As the inspired apostle does in 1 John, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. He is our Father that ought to stir us up to awe and respect. And He dwells in heaven. He dwells in heaven. The psalmist says, but our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever He has pleased. He is high above us. In His authority, He is infinitely high above us. In His power, He is infinitely above us. In His wisdom, He is infinitely above us. He has done whatsoever He has pleased. When we consider that in the beginning of our prayers, I say that ought to excite us to awe and respect, to reverence. What a beautiful thing reverence is in prayer, in our attitudes. What a beautiful thing is reverence. When we come before God with heartfelt reverence for Him as our Father in Heaven, well, then it's inevitable. If we have that reverence in awe and if we have humility, we come before God with that reverence, it is inevitable that we will also come with confidence If we come before God humbly as His needy children, with awe and respect, for His great love and mercy towards us, so when we see His great love and mercy towards us, will that not cause us to come before Him with confidence? If God has such great love and mercy towards us, Will that not lead to confidence in our prayers? Jesus wants us to pray with confidence. He wants us to pray knowing that God has engraved our names on His hands and that He will never forget us. There's never a time, there's never a time in our lives, there's never a time when it's a bad time to pray to God. There's never a time when we are not able to pray to God. A woman might not hear the cries of her hungry child, using the picture in Isaiah. A woman might not hear those cries or might not pay attention to those cries, but God will hear our cries. God says, I will always hear your prayers. God will hear our cries. Why? Because I am your Father for Christ's sake. I am your Father. I will hear your cry, somebody says, Pastor, but you don't know what a mess I've made of my life. I've sinned in so many ways, God says. Your name is engraven on my hand. I will not forget you. I will not forsake you. Yes, but I've been so unfaithful." God says, I am faithful. You are unfaithful, but I am faithful and I will never forget you. I will never forget you. I have graven you upon my hands. Do you believe that, beloved? When we have an awe and respect for God's love and mercy, we will go to Him with confidence. And then in the second place, when we go to God with that awe and respect for His power and authority, that too will lead to confidence in our prayers when we see God's power and authority, not only His love and mercy, but also His power and authority over all things. There ought to be absolutely no question in our minds when we pray that God is able to answer our prayers. God is able He who created the heavens and the earth by the power of His Word, who upholds that very same creation, who governs that creation, He is able also to answer our prayers. The greatest difficulties that we face the greatest sins that we struggle with. God is able. God is able to help His people. He is. That's not just your pastor. That's what God says in His Word. He governs the life of an insignificant sparrow. He governs those minute details. And will we think now that He doesn't have any control over the details in my life and your life? God is able. He has the power and the authority to give us what we need. Do you believe that? that He is a loving and merciful God because He is our Father for Christ's sake and that He is able to care for us. When we have that solid foundation, beloved, then we can build our prayers with confidence. What is the foundation of prayer? God is our Father for Christ's sake. The foundation of prayer then, you see, brings us right to the foot of the cross. God is our Father for Christ's sake. And they say if we build on that foundation, we will pray with confidence We will pray with confidence when we see that love of God, when we see that He is powerful to answer our prayers. Then we will pray with confidence. Romans 8, verse 32, Romans 8, verse 32 expresses that truth I'll read verse 31 as well. Romans 8, 31. What shall we say then? What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Who can be against us if God is our Father for Christ's sake? He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Now, of course, that doesn't mean all things that we ask for, not all things when we ask for something that is harmful for us. Would we want God to give us Everything we ask for, if we ask for something that was going to be harmful for us, if our children asked us for some poison, would we give them poison? Of course not. God often does not give us what we ask for because we ask amiss, because we ask for the wrong things, but he does give us what is good for us. He always gives us what is good for us. That's the God that we serve. That's the God that we pray to, the God who is our Father for Christ's sake, who cares about our good and will give us everything that is for our good. That's the God that we pray to. the God who is our Father in heaven. May God grant us that we may ever build our prayers on that foundation. Amen. Our Father, which art in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy love and Thy mercy and Thy power. We thank Thee for Jesus Christ, who has brought us by His power into Thy family, for whose sake Thou hast adopted us as Thy children. We thank Thee that we are able to come unto Thee knowing that Thou art able and willing to give us every good thing. Forgive us, we pray. Our sins lead us by Thy grace and teach us how to pray. Amen.