In the world of professional wrestling, there used to be a pay-per-view that is called King of the Ring. And what happens is that wrestlers are being paired to each other to have a match and whoever wins will advance to the next round until they are down to the last pair of wrestlers. And the one who wins the final match will be crowned as the King of the Ring. And if you are crowd as the King of the Ring, you will have the the shot to the to the championship to be able to compete with the current champion and these wrestlers dito sa storyline of professional wrestling, they fight they compete in that tournament seeking to become the future champion. And in our text today, the disciples were taught to seek something that is uncommon to the people around them in their prayer.
They should be seeking the Saviour’s supremacy. Please turn with me and open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6. And for context, I’ll be reading from verses 9 to 13 but we will have our specific focus on verse 10. Matthew chapter 6 verses 9 to 13 I’ll be reading from the English Standard Version so hear now the very instructions of Our Lord concerning prayer 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. Please pray with me. Oh may these truths of Your word oh God as it is going to be proclaimed this morning. Oh Lord Our Father we pray that indeed the purposes by which we come to you in prayer, may indeed be in accordance to the pattern of our Lord. And Father, our desire is that Your kingdom may be established in the lives of your church, your people and as well as in the world seeking that Your kingdom may be completed and consummated. And we pray Lord that as we desire Your kingdom, we pray that we would actualise it and really show it Lord by desiring Your will to be done in our lives.
We praise you and we thank You in Jesus’ Name, amen.
What we have seen so far in chapter six is that our Lord is dealing with hypocrisy. The whole point of his teaching is found at verse 1 when He warned them to be aware of practicing their righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. Just to be clear, the Lord Jesus was not condemning public acts of piety. Nothing is essentially wrong with that because that would ultimately negate public worship. Hindi Niya dine-deny iyon. But the problem arises when the practice of righteousness becomes only for the purpose of doing a performance, or a show. And that was the problem of the Pharisees whom He referred to here as the hypocrites. They give to be praised by others, they prayed to be seen by others instead of being seen by God. They turned to the means to commune and fellowship with God as an act to exalt themselves. In other words, their motives was the problem. And the reason why they had a motive problem is because their desires were wicked. They were self-absorbed. They were seeking the glory that comes from man rather than from God. And last week, we began working our way through the Lord’s Prayer which we could also call the disciples’ prayer pattern that was given to us by the Lord. And recognising the source with which this comes from, allows us to appreciate the beauty of this instruction. Think about this brothers and sisters, if Christ was the one who taught us how we should approach the Father, there’s no reason for us to look for a better pattern. And that’s how we ought to do it when we approached Him in prayer. But our Lord was simply giving a technique, a methodology for pleasing prayers. But He is ultimately bringing us into the heart of the Father towards His children. He is not a distant God na kailangan nating kulitin. Na kailangan nating mag-babble ng madaming words in order for us to get His attention. He listens, He has a tender heart upon His children. He condescends upon our weakness and the one who knows what we need even before we ask Him because he has intimate knowledge of His children. And therefore, when we pray, we ought to approach Him as a father. We can have that fatherly conversation with Him. And this is of course balanced by a recognition that we ought to revere and have a healthy fear in understanding who God is as we approach Him and thereby regard His name as holy. And that is not just His Name as yung pangalan Niya, His designation, but for who He is – the entire person of God. And as we will see in this section and consider what immediately follows after the instruction of the Lord to hallow the Name of God. When we pray, when we have a good grasp of the character of God, His Holiness, His being. How He is far greater and transcendent in comparison to His creatures that the distance of the Creator and the creature is so great, His sovereignty, His greatness, the beauty and the perfection of His law which represents who He is by the way. That He has revealed and declared in His word to us the appropriate response is to seek that He would reign over everything when we approach Him in prayer. The disciples of Christ should earnestly pray for God’s rule and reign.
And that is our message for this morning The Disciples Of Christ Should Earnestly Pray For God’s Rule And Reign. And what is the essence of Christ’s instruction in prayer? That’s going to be for our first heading King’s Dominion.
And understanding what this Reign and Rule is all about, what then should we long for? That’s going to be the second heading, Subject’s Desire.
And so let’s look at the first point, King’s Dominion. There is no question that this that this is our Father’s world gaya nga ng sinabi ng isang hymn. And that He rules sovereignly by His providence over all things. But we also know that there is a conflicting kingdom of sin and evil that is operative in our world today. Whose god, lowercase ‘g’ by the way is satan who is actively blinding the eyes of the unbelieving to keep them from the gospel who uses the demonic ideologies, philosophies, reasoning of this world to corrupt the minds of the people who entices our fallen flesh in order to to draw us away from a Spirit-filled life dependent upon the Lord. And so when Jesus teaches His disciples ‘Your kingdom come,’ He is instructing them to yearn for His reign and dominion to be established. His absolute rule is what His people ought to seek after when they approach God in their prayer. And so the point of the Lord Jesus Christ here is that the Kingdom’s Cause Must Prevail In Our Prayer To The Father. That there has has to be an evangelistic desire for the gospel to spread in the lives of His people, to sanctify His people. John 17 17 sanctify them with Your truth for Your word is truth. As they seek to grow with the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus that the gospel may be known and dependent upon, and hope by His people. And this desire also comes with a desire to purify His church as Christ’s worship and He exercises His role in their midst. And having that evangelistic desire to spread the gospel, the prayer also includes that we are asking God to also save the lost. We are remembering that we have a story to tell to the nations that this story is the perfect redemption of King Jesus who conquered sin and death by what? through His death and resurrection. And prayer as we would learn has in viewed the physical, the mental and the spiritual well-being of His people. But it is primarily concerned with the glory of God. We can surely argue that what we need first of all is a sense of the majesty of God because when we understand who God is, we would then align and ensure that our prayers is in accordance to His will. And when we hallow God’s Name by embracing, prizing, recognising Him for who He is, it follows that we would desire His supremacy.
The Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would establish His rule which is an everlasting dominion. He will tear down the pride and the pomp of the proud nations. And He will exalt His kingdom over all the kingdoms of the earth. And fast forward in the New Testament, Jesus Christ came and He preached a message of repentance. Why? For the kingdom of God is at hand. In other words, it is here, it has been inaugurated in His first coming. At present His role is being exercised in the church. He has given them the great commission in order to extend His dominion into all the world. But there will come a time that He will come again in the future and he’ll be the great king and judge who would call into account everything that was done in their lives of all of the people in this world. And He would complete His reign, the reign of His kingdom and bring about the final and eternal State. And this kingdom that will be completed in the future is an everlasting kingdom. Kings, nababago iyan at the present time but this is the King that will never be replaced from His throne. He will reign forever and ever. He guarantees the victory on behalf of His people and defeated; and he will defeat his enemies. And so when we pray ‘Your kingdom come,’ we desire that the gospel would be there where it needs to be. And that Christ would hasten His coming. And those who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the great and exalted King, who saves His people from their sins, will receive eternal life and would enter His kingdom and glory in His presence forever and ever. But those who have believed and have surrendered.. but those who have not believed and have not surrendered their lives to the King would eternally suffer the wrath of God because of their sins. Because their sins have not been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb; because their sins are still with them. And so that is a warning for us who have not placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because it is only Christ through His person and work that we are able to approach God and to stand before Him and to stand in His throne of judgment justified, cleansed, holy, undefiled, worthy to come before Him as the child of God. And so if you are here my friend, visiting us for the first time, I plead with you – repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for He alone can save your soul. And when we know this gospel is a glorious message of the King given to us Hs people. We even have the tendency still to take this message for granted.
Receiving its benefits. Minsan nakakaligtaan na natin yung napakagandang privilege na meron tayo because of the Gospel. We take the mercies of God for granted, we preoccupy ourselves even with earthly concerns rather than the kingdom of God. In our scripture reading earlier the Lord has given the antidote. If we are so concerned with the things of the world – earthly things, daily needs, binigay na Niya ang simple answer and the solution to that problem. Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 says but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Anong sabi ng Panginoon dito? and all these things shall be added unto you. Church that is our priority.. straight from the lips of our Lord. And so my challenge for this morning, first challenge is to Yearn For The Progress Of The Gospel.
Yearn that it would further advance. God’s kingdom is not established by political means but through the faithful proclamation of the Gospel by His church. Because it is the good news of Christ’s work that holds the power of God in redeeming sinners and bringing them in to His reign. So when Jesus said that the Father knows what we need even before we ask Him. When He instructed His disciples to pray your kingdom come, it tells you and I that the gospel is what we need. We need the gospel, this is what you and I need brothers, sisters and friends. All men are sinners, we are this we are deserving of the wrath of God.
But then in the gospel when we are reminded of it. We are given, we are refreshed, we have, we are, we are continually reminded of the blessed hope that we have in Christ which enables us to look into into that hope. And at the present time with an eternal perspective. And so do you truly recognise your need for the gospel? And if you do, how are you ensuring that you are able to receive it through the means that God has given us? Pray my dear brethren that God would humble our hearts, kasi not unless nakita natin ang ating kahinaan, not unless that we are humbled by our infirmities, we will not be motivated to pray and to ask God to remind us of the hope that we have in the gospel, to allow us to see of our neediness of Christ. And as we pray, we pray, we also act upon our prayers by bringing ourselves. Nilalapit natin ang ating mga sarili to where it is given. So that we have the strength to be salt and light to the world around us, to be a blessing to our brethren. And so when the church gathers and the gospel is preached, huwag na huwag tayo mawawala dito. As we worship Him, as we fellowship with our brethren. How about the need of the people around you?
Knowing that the gospel holds the power to salvation transferring sinners from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Sa atin bang mga pamilya, against ba sila sa faith mo? When you talk about Christ and open up the gospel to them, ang atin bang mga anak nakaka-discourage whenever we are having our family worship? They continually distract us.. they show na parang they are not interested? Your loved ones challenging you of your belief, giving you a hard time to defend the Christian faith? Especially those the people around us, our co- workers, the people that God has placed in our lives who who unfortunately have not given their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. That should also give us the urge to continually pray and ask God that they too would hear and respond to the call of the Gospel. And that they would also hear, receive, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that they too may be saved. So we could confidently say that that as the holy God of heaven, our Father, who is truly loving and kind and tender towards His children has in His mind our best interest. When he commands us to pray ‘Your kingdom come because the gospel is what we need. The priority of the Gospel to spread to advance in our lives and in the lives of others is what is essential to us. It is the the plan, the purpose whenever we approach Him in our prayer. And whenever the gospel flourishes, we benefit.
Where the gospel is not proclaimed and it’s not progressing, it is to our detriment. And when that happens, when the gospel is flourishing in in our lives and in the lives of others, we grow in the grace and in the joy of assurance in our faith. Our church would be fruitful as we faithfully proclaim the gospel. And that our longing for the imminent return of Christ would aid us in our sanctification. We loosen our grip for the things of this world and we are encouraged and strengthened to tighten our grip to the things, the heavenly things, the things that are from above. And so the Apostle Paul said set your mind so the things above and not on the things of the world. And so brethren, that should that should motivate us, that should motivate you and I to constantly draw near to the Father in prayer. And when you do, always ask that God always seek the Kings Dominion. And longing for His kingdom to come, what follows is that we desire to do His will. So we will be talking about that on the second point the Subject’s Desire.
So much like in the Beatitudes, The Lord’s Prayer has a has a progression. Parang mayroong link na nagdu-dugtong sa bawat isa. And it’s like a platform that builds, that facilitates the next petition. Similar to the Beatitudes. So it follows that when we deserve the kingdom, for His kingdom to come, His will must also be done because that is how the kingdom is exercised and it’s, and it’s actualised when the people, the ones who are under His rule and reign is following and subjecting themselves in the rule of their King. It is done in a way that it is fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven. That just as God is perfectly obeyed in His heavenly throne that the angels would fly to and fro waiting on His call and for His bidding, ganun din dapat ang desire when we pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now what is the the will that is in view here when the Lord Jesus Christ said pray that Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven? Of course it has, it has in view the revealed will that is found in His word. The scripture provides us with the information as to what God desires for His people, what He prescribes and what He commands His people to do. But it also refers to His, to His decreed will which we see take place in His providence. And so in short, whatever that God ordains in His providence, we pray to God, we seek to embrace His will as taught to us by Jesus. It is the saints’ joy to embrace God’s will. It is the saints’ joy to embrace God’s will because this is the joy that we have and the way we express our honour before our Father in heaven. We recognise and respect God’s rule over us by doing what He desires. Our obedience to the kingdom and they should be the result of our love for the King Himself. As a catechism for boys and girls asks how do we love God or how do we glorify God? The answer is by loving Him and obeying what He commands. The Lord’s instruction also implies that the disciples should desire that the world around them would also respond in obedience to the law and will of God. Of course masakit sa atin kapag nakikita natin that people persists in their sins. They wilfully reject and act in defiance against God knowing na kasalanan ito sa Panginoon, knowing that it would ultimately harm them when they sin. Of course gusto natin na sila mismo ay tumalikod sa kanilang mga kasalanan. And for others while we can be happy about how people outside of the church are fighting for the causes that we also stand on, although hindi Sia believers, happy naman tayo doon. But we do recognise that such deeds although it is in the hope to the will of God, being done by sinners who have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we know that even that very act is an abomination to the Lord.
Proverbs 21 verse 27 says the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord and hear this.. how much more when He brings it with evil intent? So even the good things that are done by unregenerate men while it is something that is good, there’s something good that is done in the society around them, if it is not done in Christ it is an abomination to the Lord. And therefore, in such case, we go back to the need for us to pray for people that they would believe the gospel and that that it would truly penetrate their hearts. That God’s rule may be upon them as well. We pray to do what God desires for us to do but we also pray that we would submit ourselves to the will of God even in times of trials and suffering. For it may please God to, for us, for us believers who has a principle, who holds to the truth of God’s word, to become contemptible to the world around us who are upholding sin and unrighteousness. Not that God of course takes pleasure in the groanings and seeing His children suffer that God that is salt of these trials in suffering. The persecution that is happening in the lives of His children would reveal the genuineness of the faith that He Himself has placed in the life of His people and that would be for His glory. And so prayer advances the desire of His disciples to willingly submit to the reign of their King. And as we pray, church, may we echo the psalmists in Psalm chapter 40 verse 8 when he said I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” And so the psalmist here on the basis of the wonderful deeds of God is saving work being their God and their deliverer. He teaches the the people of God ought to be patient, ought to be waiting and ought to be delighting to do His will because the Lord knows and hears the groans of His people. But you know what? In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews cites this passage and said that these were the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry. He delighted and have come to do the will of God the through His obedience we may be saved from our sins, the through His death on the cross, He would accomplish redemption for His people once and for all. That is what the sacrificial system pointed to. The blood of the goats, the blood of the animals that were done in the Old Testament times does not take away sin. But the work of Christ accomplishes, takes away, cleanses us from all of our sins once and for all. Never to be repeated. Because of the work of Christ for us, the great and wondrous deed of the Supreme Savior that He has done for His people, this should encourage us to shape our lives and welcome and embrace the will of God as we plead before His presence. And so my challenge to you brothers and sisters, humbly submit, humbly seek to obey and submit to the will of God.
Since all His ways are perfect, there is no questions that what He desires and ordains is good. It is a hard pill to swallow because in our experience we can suffer greatly for the name of Christ. And despite knowing this, alam natin na mabuti naman ang mga probidensiya ng Panginoon, when things don’t go our way, the way we planned, the way we wanted it to go, we seek to avoid any type of conflict and inconveniences by compromising. We undermine what God has commanded, thinking that isa lang naman eh; it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t harm us to do so. We grumble in times of bitter providences. If you find yourself in that situation, remember brother or sister, God’s wisdom is infinitely greater than ours. Are we wiser than He is? thinking that there is a better way in this situation?
Remember His perfection, His holiness. Do we doubt His goodness and righteousness in what He is allowing to take place in our lives? And know also that affliction and trials, when it comes to us, not that I desire for each and every one of us to to seek, to undergo trials and affliction, but this is ultimately for our good. Psalm 119 71 says It is good for me that I was afflicted, why? that I might learn your statutes. Provided of course that your sins are not the cause why you are experiencing great suffering. If it is, then what is happening to you is discipline. And in fact, when you are under disciplined, when you are being disciplined by the Lord Himself, even such is actually good for you. Because God who loves you disciplines His children. He chastens His children, takes away the sin that is in your hearts na yung feeling mo na-mortify mo na in the past, ngayon lumabas na uli? Of course God is faithful in sanctifying His people. And ultimately looked at the cross where His love flowed greatly for our sake and let that be the fuel for your obedience and endurance. And friend, visitor I warn you that if you are not in Christ, again, turn away from your sins. God’s provision for salvation is only found in His person and His work. Seeking to do His will apart from Christ will get you nowhere. If it’s going to get you anywhere, it’s still going to bring you under the wrath of God. But coming to Christ first of all settles the issue. Repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, embracing Him as the Savior and Lord of your life, takes you away and takes you away from the wrath of God and brings you into His family as His child and that ought to be the motivation of our obedience. Do know as well for each and every one of us and remember that there is once upon a time a Person, not just any kind of person but He is truly God and truly man, when he was about to suffer and die for the penalty of the sins of His people, He prayed in Luke chapter 22 verse 42 and in other parts of the Gospel. Father, if you are willing remove this cup from me nevertheless not my will but yours be done. And in this prayer, and great act of complete submission to the will of God, His life was a perfect life of obedience. He loved God with all His heart, soul, mind and strength. Yun ang tinatawag natin sa theology na active obedience. But He also passively obeyed God in wilfully submitting Himself to the will of the Father to receive the fullness of the wrath of God that would fall upon His people, to suffer for the penalty of the sins of His people on their behalf. So He endured it on the cross despising shame so that those who would believe in Him would not suffer and die for their sins.
So if you have not believed in Christ, come to the Savior, come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Out of a humble obedience and love to the Father, may we always delight in continually submitting ourselves to His desires revealed in His word and revealed in His providences. And when the King is reigning upon the lives of His people, what He desires is what the Subject’s Desires. Yung desire ng Panginoon ay ide-desire ng Kaniyang mga alagad, ng Kaniyang mga anak, ng mga kingdom subjects. And may it be so in our lives, brothers and sisters and friends. So we can see here that Christ’s instruction in prayer reveals the Father’s intimate knowledge towards the need of His children and He has given us that.
That is to seek to continually seek the Saviour’s supremacy over everything. And so may God continually enrich our prayers that we would constantly desire His kingdom to be established in our lives, in the lives of others, that He would hasten His coming and that knowing that He is the reigning King, fully submit to the will of God our Father.
Let us all pray. Father, Oh Lord we thank You because You have given us a wonderful instruction concerning how we ought to approach You in prayer. And oh God thank You because You have graciously blessed us with this great gospel that encourages us to seek the establishment of Your rule and reign over everything. And so Lord as we come to You in our prayers, maging ganun po ang desire namin every time. We have regular concerns with our personal needs, may we recognise first of all that we have a need of the Gospel, that we have a need of reminding ourselves and coming to You and affirming Your majesty. And thereby, oh God, as we recognise and revere Your Name, who You are, we pray Father God that Your desire would be our desire. That we would seek that earth would be like heaven desiring that all people would come in obedience under Your will. And knowing that sin is persisting oh Lord in the present time, we pray Father God that Your church would have the strength, would be encouraged to stand firm in the opposition, uncompromising but at the same time having that compassion for the lost in proclaiming the gospel to them. So Lord, maraming marami Pong salamat for Your truth and Your word. This we pray in Jesus’ Name, amen.