Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: Sermon on the Mount

  • Fasting Without Penance

    Fasting Without Penance

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 25, 1989.

    About this sermon

    Rome’s theology of fasting mixes revelation with tradition until the two blur together. Catholic penance obscures what Christ’s death on the cross has already accomplished. A Protestant view of fasting has to clear that layer away first.

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    Sermon transcript

    verses sixteen through eighteen in Matthew chapter six. Jesus is speaking here. And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do. For they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” I’m turning over to chapter nine, verses fourteen through seventeen. Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast, and your disciples do not fast?

    Jesus said to them, The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? Days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.

    We are thankful, Father, that your word has been heard today as it has been spoken forth in truth from those pulpits where that truth is honored and the gospel revered. And we thank you, Lord, for men who preach without compromise, who do so in love, who do so with evidence of great forbearing, like unto that forbearing that is evidenced from heaven.

    And we ask, Father, that you would grant to them and to your people a great sense of contentment Not that there isn’t much to be done, many sermons and messages yet to be preached, much to be accomplished in the lives of your people. But Father, we ask that there would be a tremendous sense of satisfaction in what you have provided. And certainly, a great sense of delight in and satisfaction with the salvation that has been granted to us. Father, we pray that such contentment and satisfaction would be in itself a message that goes forth to the world. Encourage us, then, Lord, in our lives May we delight increasingly with you. May we be filled up to all the fullness of our God, through Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.

    We are looking at the practice of fasting as it has been observed by the Church. And this morning we threw a few rocks at our own house. We covered the territory that belongs to the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches. These are the things, in summary, that we observed. At one time, fasting was a common practice in Reformed and Presbyterian churches, both in the English-speaking world and amongst those churches of the Continental Reformation.

    But fasting now, as I’m sure you know very well, has fallen into near total disuse. Practiced seldomly, if ever, in the life of our churches. Now, there are some who have judged this is a sign of severe spiritual decline, and from a certain point of view, it may well be. In the prose of charismatic renewal, there have been those who have suggested that because fasting has faded away, and because of a certain reading of Matthew 17, verse 21, The church now is in an age in which it lacks, in the most extreme form, any true spiritual power. Fasting gone, power is gone as well. So there are those who would suggest to us that the loss of fasting is a severe loss, and there is a certain perspective on the matter of fasting that would suggest to us that fasting is a proper enterprise, a proper activity for the Church and for Christian individuals. But the decline of fasting may well be not an altogether negative development. not an altogether negative development.

    Not that there hasn’t been, in the history of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches, a grand effort made, at least originally, to be true to the Protestant and Reformational impulse. We pointed these matters out to you this morning. Originally, the Presbyterian and Reformed churches saw fasting as occasional and periodic events. with no prescribed times, no set occasions for their practice. Thus maintaining that very beneficial liberty with respect to the practice as a whole, and underscoring that essential liberty that was being expressed in the Reformation, Also. Originally, the Presbyterian and reformed tradition. Pressed very hard to maintain the connection between fasting and prayer. They went together. They were inseparable. And with respect to that yoke pair. Fasting and prayer.

    Prayer, the prescribed means of grace, always received the greatest emphasis. Fasting, therefore, was an important exercise, resorted to often by the Church on particular occasions. It was an important exercise demanded of the church and the saint alike, but an exercise bound to and having its appropriate end in that means of grace prayer.

    In other words, fasting had no independent value in and of itself. the mystics, and certain within the Catholic tradition, taught otherwise. But finally, the Presbyterian and Reformed Church upheld that Protestant impulse with respect to fasting by their insistence that the act of fasting was in no way penitential. That is to say, fasting as an activity had no power to absolve of guilt. And fasting had no inherent power by which it could positively commend us to God. It had nothing within it that communicated to the one engaged in the fasting a direct moral merit through which God’s favor was then gained. Now that’s what we said this morning with respect to the positive assessment of the practice of fasting within the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition.

    But we also noted some unfortunate aspects in the tradition as it developed. Two, specifically. First of all, there was that movement from a sort of directed liberty to an oppressive obligation, in which fasting began to widen its purview and its application within the life of the Church. It may well be that the Protestants of Presbyterian and Reformed strife were not bound like others to engage in fasts at particular times of the year. Calendar bound, if you will. The fasts began to appear inevitably attached to specific practices like ordinations and installations, like preparations for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. They avoided the prescribed fasts of the high church, but created a schedule for themselves. And the consequence? A predictable increase of legislation to oversee the fasting activity, as well as a rise in formalism and all of the dangers attendant thereunto. But that’s a minor point, compared to the next one that we laid out for you this morning.

    You see, there was a flaw at this very point within the Reformation itself that was carried through into the confessional expressions of both the continental tradition and the English tradition. We can even hear it spoken of by Calvin in his Institute. For fasting, in the mind of the reformers, and as it was then treated by the reformed creeds, was seen to be a means by which we might tame the flesh.

    Asceticism survives, still. So it was, you see, that that particularly problematic doctrine for us of reform strike, namely the doctrine of sanctification, has certain weaknesses even here attached unto it. For you see, the practice of fasting was worked into the definition of sanctification. Fasting was a means of sanctification, a means to holiness. The latent asceticism lingers.

    An unfortunate, an unfortunate emphasis then that in its more offensive forms will concentrate itself in the development of the doctrine of sanctification itself. A weakness that is observed in which a practice, an activity such as fasting, is allowed to rise to the level where it actually threatens to obliterate the purpose of the practice. or the person behind the practice, the person to whom the practice is directed. Holiness then found in the activity and not in God Himself.

    We ought to praise God for John Murray. Lawrence Ayers tells us, if I can put in a plug for the book, Pressing Toward the Mark, he has a little survey there of the life of John Murray. He suggests to us that the most positive contribution of John Murray to our understanding of Reformed Christians is in his doctrine of sanctification, the development, the explication of that doctrine of sanctification, and his emphasis upon definitive sanctification, the accomplishment of sanctification in and through Christ, which then becomes the ground and source of all the expressions of and demonstrations of holiness in us. our union with the one who is in fact sanctified perfectly and fully. Well, we have said then that fasting has not of late shared well among us, but that may well be providential. breathing, space, time to think, possibly to reformulate, to recapture the genius of biblical fasting for benefit to the church and to us.

    But having said this now, we move on. And we look at the Roman Catholic tradition with respect to fasting and where that tradition presently stands, for we will observe similar things. There has been a radical decline. Fasting falling into disuse amongst Roman Catholics, less and less insistence upon it, That may be also calculating in the direction of something better still. Now the development of the fast for the Roman Catholic Church is something that is quite elaborate and complicated. In order to set the tone for our consideration of that development, I want you to listen to a modern-day Roman Catholic, Raymond Garrard, who presents a defense of Roman Catholic practice.

    This is what he says. The Roman Catholic Church has remained faithful to the tradition. I want you to listen to this very carefully. The Roman Catholic Church has remained faithful to the tradition of observing Jewish customs in the spirit defined by Jesus. Listen carefully to what the man says. If I go through this, I want you to be reflecting on just how the words of this man bring to light the inherent weaknesses within the Catholic tradition and set up for us, through this matter of fasting, a paradigm, if you will, for analyzing, scrutinizing the Roman Catholic Church as a whole. The Roman Catholic Church has remained faithful to the tradition of observing Jewish customs in the spirit defined by Jesus, and seeks, by the practice of fasting, to place the faithful in an attitude of total openness to the grace of the Lord while waiting for his return.

    Now, faced with that just at a superficial and innocent hearing, you may not be particularly distressed. But I want you to take note of two things here. First of all, what does he mean by Jewish customs in relationship to the spirit defined by Jesus? And secondly, what is involved in an attitude, quote, of total openness to the grace of the Lord.” What does this man mean by these things?

    As to the first part, the Jewish customs spoken of by him, a survey of the history of fasting for the Roman Catholic Church may prove helpful. Early on, Christians from the second century, at least pockets of them, had entered into a practice in which they submitted to a prescription for fasts. There were Christians, end of the first century, beginning of the second, in which fasting was a prescribed activity. and they picked up on this activity because of their relationship to Judaism. In Judaism, the Pharisees had come to fast twice weekly.

    I said this morning, Mondays and Thursdays. They fasted on those days because they related those days and the fasting involved to the ascent and descent of Sinai by Moses. Along came the Christians. They suggested a better practice would be to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. Because on Wednesday, Jesus was betrayed. On Friday, he was crucified. That’s what they said. That was the prescription. Eventually, the Wednesday fast disappeared. The Wednesday weekly fast disappeared. Remaining intact was the Friday fast. This was a weekly observance.

    There was also more than a weekly observance arising out of Jewish custom. Christians looking to their Old Testament and the customs of Judaism began to play with certain fasts that they found in the Old Testament, using them then in the setting of what they called Lent. Originally, Rome observed a 40-hour fast, stretching from Wednesday through Good Friday. A periodic, a calendar event every year, not just weekly, but this fast prescribed in the yearly cycle. Now that number 40 was significant because it was believed, of course, keeping with the Old Testament background that they were here capturing the sense of the forty-day fast of both Moses and Elijah. And by the fourth century, this forty-hour fast had become a forty-day fast, the entirety of the period of Lent leading up to Easter. But there is still more. Not just the weekly fast, not just then that calendar fast that was associated with that specific event important to the Christian church.

    There arose quarterly fasts as well, and that on the background of Jewish custom. The exilic community, you know what I’m speaking of when I speak of the exilic community? The community of Israel that went into exile in Babylon. And the post-exilic community of Jews observed fasts in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months. So it was that the Roman Church devised a quarterly fast on the background of the periodic monthly fasts amongst the Jews.

    This practice has fallen into disuse. I might say that there is something of a decline with respect to all of these aspects of fasting within the Roman Catholic Church. All that remains presently for prescribed fasting amongst Roman Catholics are the two days, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

    Now, I think the instructive point at this juncture has to do with the marriage of custom with faith that then leads on to prescription, binding the conscience and the practice of the faith. The Roman Church has made no bones about it. It elevates custom and tradition. It binds that together with revelation, and in this it believes it has the adequate foundation for Christian practice and belief. A weakness for Rome exhibited here. Indeed, they may claim to have the new wine, but they seem to be keeping around the old wineskins. Another interesting feature of the Roman Catholic fast. Is this? It’s no fast at all! Are you aware of that? You remember the Puritan of the Protestants in the Reformation tradition? Total abstinence!

    That was what was That was what was described or expected or demanded when a fast was observed. If the weakness of the Roman Catholic tradition is laid bare by the marriage of tradition to revelation, it is also laid bare by this feigned observance claiming that something, in fact, is being observed that isn’t observed at all.

    Who abstains? Only the most extreme of the ascetics, only those who are in the monasteries and in the monasteries. Who abstains? You just refrain from certain kinds of food that you’re allowed to eat nonetheless. You have a meal at midday. You have little collations morning and evening. But a fast, a true fast?

    Not at all. It was never in place. So you use the name, and you claim the benefit, and nothing of the sort, with respect to the thing in view, is in view at all. Why, it’s utter sham. It’s complete hypocrisy. The form stands now. Well, even more than that. Nearly the name of the form stands in the place of that form and its substance. There’s no true fact. There’s no abstinence. Why mature people would sit still for such things is beyond me. But finally, We want to consider this other matter, that we brought up in connection with the quotation from Mr. Gerard. That is, the attitude of total openness to the grace of the Lord through the medium of the fast.

    This same Roman Catholic has said this, The first coming of Jesus cannot be read as absolving the church of its responsibility for penitential act. A.C.T.S. While waiting for the bridegroom to come back to us, penitential fasting has its place properly in the church’s practice.

    Well, penance was never a part of fasting to begin with, and it certainly isn’t a part of fasting as it is surveyed and treated by Jesus, either in Matthew 6 or Matthew 9. Penance was never in view. The marriage of tradition to revelation. the preservation of the names of things when the substance is completely eroded. But here, the preservation of an entire system of religious activity and thought that is predicated upon the practice of penance. The only proper meaning of fasting is as it expounds penance. Do you understand the notion of penance in Roman Catholicism?

    Do you understand it as foundational to the entirety of the discipline? The teaching is this. You, in part, pay for your sins. That’s it. You, in part, pay for your sins. And how do you pay for this? By denying yourself things. By engaging in certain activities. By doing what is prescribed.

    Now the practice of fasting may be in decline. But beliefs and attitudes towards tenants are well in place. If we could conclude that with the decline of fasting in the Roman Church, there was also a weakening of a position with respect to penance, then we would rejoice. For liberty is not far, if that is the case. Part and parcel, then, of the Roman view of fasting is the propriety of penance. Penance!

    An act whereby we contribute to our own forgiveness, by which we are absolved of our sins, by which we cultivate positive merit before God. This, you see, is the very thing against which Luther and Calvin invade. We know that any such view of fasting is utterly contrary to the gospel, for it suggests a method for forgiveness of sins that eclipses, that clouds, that obscures the truth that Jesus on the cross paid it all.

    He was the sacrifice once offered for the satisfaction. Now if you combine these latter two observations A practice by Rome in which the word now stands in the place of the activity, and it’s supposed to be enough. And such activity is to be payment for sin? For my sin? You utterly trivialize the whole matter. seriousness of sin and payment for it. How do you begin in light of such trivialization to reconstruct the magnitude of what was going on at Calvary?

    So, fasting a practice in decline. Amongst Presbyterian and Reformed, even amongst those who have boasted they know it so well, the Catholics. But is this a day of opportunity for the reconstruction of a proper view with respect to fasting and a renovation of that practice to the benefit of the church and even to us as individuals? As I said this morning, and say again now in conclusion, fasting was that minor aspect of the greater enterprise of meeting God never meant to obscure or eclipse that encounter so that It could well be that when the people of God are hungry once more to meet God, the fast will revive. That is truly beneficial.

    One that is expressive of our liberty in Christ. of our desire to know him and our willingness to live for him. Our Father we would hunger for you and in our hunger for you we may find that we are forgetful of our hunger here and Lord we pray that the preoccupations of our meeting with you then would be that vantage point from which we observe all activities even the activity of fasting. But Lord, we ask you that you will preserve us from the faults of our fathers and from the faults of the church as she has expressed herself in times past. Be pleased, Lord, to strengthen us with a knowledge that arises from your words.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Led Into Trial, Not Into Sin

    Led Into Trial, Not Into Sin

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 12, 1989.

    About this sermon

    God leads his people into trial and temptation without leading them into sin, and the seventh petition depends on that distinction. The ‘evil’ in view is apostasy, a sin the modern church has largely stopped naming. Christ, tested in Gethsemane, keeps believers from sinning inside their own trials.

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    Sermon transcript

    So in Matthew chapter twenty-fifth this morning, and we’re beginning with verse thirty-six, we’ll read through verse forty-six. It’s a passage you know well, and then we’ll turn back to chapter six in Matthew to the Lord’s Prayer. Hear the word of God.

    Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane. and sayeth unto the disciples sit ye here while I go and pray on them and he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy and sayeth unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death tarry ye here and watch with me and he went a little further and he fell on his face and prayed saying Oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

    Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What? Could ye not watch with me one hour? Pray and watch that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

    And he went away again the second time and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his disciples and saith unto them, Sleep on now. and take your rest.

    Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let us be going. Behold, he is at hand that doth betray thee.” Then from Matthew 6, verse 13, the first part of it, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. our father we may think in those moments of stupidity that overtake us that we might well do without the word of life while in fact we imagine we cannot do without the word we cannot do without the words of men or we cannot do without the things of this world we cannot do without the bread that we put upon our tables. Father, correct us in our thinking that we would see first of all your word, that spiritual bread by which we are nourished and this unto eternal life and then view all of our activities in light of that which we have received from you in that life-giving gift. We pray, our Father, these things through Christ, our Savior. Amen.

    He was a life beater. And a child abuser. And late in life he would sit in a chair in his living room as if he was strapped to it. Unable to move. Like a man who was beneath an incredible load of guilt. that had built up over the years. Others may well be forgiven. He would not be forgiven. The sins that he had committed were the greatest sins. There would be no forgiveness for him. And as great as his sins were, there was a greater sin.

    A greater sin still. She was a mother of four, married for 17 years. She walks out the door and she says, you were a good man, provided me a home, you gave me my children, but I simply don’t love you. Her sin is great. There’s a sin far greater though.

    He was an elder in a reformed church, respected in his community. He was looked upon as something of a catch in the community because he was a very influential banker. He was also an embezzler. who went to jail for embezzling from his bank 1.5 million dollars. His sin is great, but there is a greater sin still.

    What sins do you know about? What sins can you name? What sins are you all too familiar with? Sins of the heart, sins of the spirit, bitterness, hatred, malice of all kinds, an unbridled tongue, an unrestrained heart, a vicious temper, What of our society and its sins? How many of them we can name?

    We can’t turn on the television anymore without being confronted with the horrors of the sins of abortion and the sins of sexual immorality, ending in disease and death. All of these sins great in and of themselves, serious, their seriousness not to be ignored, not to be passed over in any respect. But there is a greater sin yet, and it is that sin that is specifically in view in the sixth and seventh petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. It is the sin most ignored, most often forgotten, but the most deadly. What is the sin? in understanding what that sin is when we feel the force of the sixth petition. Lead us not into temptation. We turn first of all to that word temptation. To what does it refer? What is its meaning here? What is in view as Jesus chooses and employs this word?

    Does it refer to the everyday temptations to sin? Don’t misunderstand me. I am not minimizing the everyday temptations to sin, and I am not minimizing the sins that I have previously cataloged for you in the introduction to this message. But is Jesus here specifically referring to the everyday temptations to sin that we encounter in our lives?

    Such an approach to temptation generally has a validity within its own context, for we can pray to our God that he would keep us from those sins that arise within our lives day by day, or those sins that stoke us, those sins that overcome us, those sins to which we are tempted regularly, those sins that we find too often. Yes, we are in fact encouraged to pray with regard to them. you might think of a passage like that in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, and with the temptation will provide a way of escape so that you may be able to bear it appropriately. We pray that God would keep us from temptations to sin, in that everyday sense of the terminology.

    But is that what Jesus has in view here, as right as it is in its own place? There is another interpretation for that word temptation. And that interpretation focuses upon its prime meaning. The prime meaning being triumph or test. Thus, if this is accepted, the meaning of the petition would be, lead us, O Lord, Lead us, our Father, not into trial. Now, this latter approach has a lot going for it when we place in connection with it the preceding words, lead us not. You see, these words do imply something to which the Father rightly subjects us. He has a right, you see, to subject us to trial, but we ask him that he not do so. However, if we understand the word temptation in the former sense, of the everyday temptation to sin, have we not overstepped what Scripture clearly teaches elsewhere? You remember James, chapter 1, verse 13?

    Do not say when you are tempted, I am tempted of God, for God himself cannot be tempted by sin, neither does he tempt anyone. So God does not lead anyone into sin. Thus obviating the necessity of a prayer lead us not into sin in that sense. But God certainly does, and he does so rightly, lead us into trial. He does put us to his He does put us to the test. We know that, do we not?

    He has done it with regard to his son. If you back up a few pages in Matthew’s Gospel, you can read about it, the first verse of the fourth chapter. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. Here come the words, to be tempted by the devil. to be tempted. The Spirit leads him into the circumstance where he will be tested, he will be put to the test, where he will be tried.

    This was certainly the case with our father Adam. Was it not he was put to the test, he was tried, and that rightly, appropriately, This is certainly the case with the children of Israel. We have read about it this morning, have we not? In Psalm 95, in our response of reading. Review that Psalm. The children of Israel are tested, they are tried in the wilderness. So it is. God most certainly does, and rightly so, lead us into trial. He rightly puts us to the test.

    The force of the petition then being our request of Him that we be spared the trial and the test. Do we have the right to make such a request of God? That we be spared the trial or the test? Well, have we not just read from Matthew 26? Did not Jesus ask to be spared the trials and the tests? It was right for Him to ask? Your prayers are informed by His prayers. You too may ask, but you be spared the trial and the test.

    But we still haven’t settled the question about The sin. I think you know what’s coming. I think you can perceive the direction in which we are going. What is the sin that is in view in the sixth and seventh petitions of the Lord’s Prayer? We are helped once more by knowing, understanding, and feeling the force of that seventh petition that follows. Not to deliver us from evil. We’ll use the same method. We look at the last word of the sixth petition, we’ll look at the last word of the seventh petition. Now, the word is evil. Or is it? So hang with me here.

    Is the evil that is imbued there a general conception of that evil? Is it something that would pertain to the evil that arises from our own particular sins? Now, again, it is right and proper for us to ask that we be spared evil, that we be delivered from evil in a general sense, but is that what Jesus is referring to here?

    No, you see, if we, well, we are at a disadvantage. If you have some marginal notes there from the New American Standard or some other version, you will notice that in the marginal notes you are told that that word evil in the original has the definite article. It is the evil. The evil. So what is the evil? Some have said that the evil is the evil one, Satan himself.

    Maybe. But if we understand that word evil and be evil along a certain line, we are greatly helped in understanding the flow of the two petitions and why they go together and why they are connected by an accepted conjunction, but. Have you ever wondered about that but? Have you ever wondered why these two Petitions are connected by a but and not an and. Do you feel the force of it now, why they run together? The sixth petition acknowledges the Father’s right to put us to the test, however we ask that we might be spared the test.

    Nevertheless, but, understanding the father’s right to put it to the test we pray then in the seventh petition that we but that we be delivered from that evil that lose because of the test that arises because of the test and what is that evil that evil beyond which there is No evil more serious, more indicting, more damning. It is the evil of apostasy. It is the evil of desertion and defection and betrayal. She no longer gets excited about apostasy, desertion, betrayal, and defection.

    You may have a little difficulty yourself this morning generating any interest in that efficient decision. Let’s talk about AIDS and abortion. Let’s talk about the moral degeneracy of our society. Let’s talk about the divorce rate. Let’s talk about the disintegration of our civilization. Let’s talk about my own particular sins that I’m struggling with all the time. Let’s talk about them one by one. Let’s go at them. Let me tell you.

    There is no sin more serious than apostasy, desertion, defection, betrayal. And most people who have committed that sin don’t know it or acknowledge it. It is the forgotten sin, the most important, but the forgotten sin. Well, if it’s the furthest sin from your mind, it is also the furthest sin from the disciple’s mind. What? Betrayal? Defection? Me?

    In fact, with regard to the whole order of the petitions and the sense and power of them, they were strangers to the sentiment as a whole. Because the day that they envisioned with regard to the kingdom of God, its ushering in with the Messiah, was a day in which trials would be over. Having to be put to the test, that would be a thing of the past. You wouldn’t have to consider that even a possibility any longer. Jesus here is telling his disciples that until the end that they will be constrained to pray this prayer and if you don’t pray it and if you don’t work towards an understanding of it well then are you not living in the lamp? of spiritual indulgence and pride, thinking yourself immune to the sin of apostasy. Not me. Someone else, not me. I will never desert you. I will never betray you. I will never walk the other way. Do you think yourself so utterly incapable of sin that it is not worth your time considering, not worth your effort in prayer? The nature of this spiritual struggle is such that this petition is placed right at the heart of that spiritual struggle.

    Do you not know that you are preserved in this relationship with your God by grace? That you are hovering at the edge? Most definitely is. the sin of which you are capable. But though you are capable of it, you need not despair with regard to it, if in fact you keep before you that one who in his hour of trial, in his test, was successful in it and was preserved from the evil of deserting it is far. That is what is at your disposal presently, the very power of Christ to keep you within the bands, or the bonds, of the fellowship that has been established in and through him. and one further thought.

    You remember all of those things we listed, our little catalog at the beginning. You remember the particular thing that you might be interested in. This being the greatest, and it being clearly in view, your understanding it, and your prayers informed by that understanding. This, the greatest, now gives you the equipment, the ornaments with which to deal with all that.

    If you are starting out, Lord, keep me in your kingdom. If you start out with that, Lord, there is nothing more important to me than I be kept in your kingdom. Do preserve me, Lord. Even though you might put me to the test, deliver me from the evil of apostasy, of deserting you, if you start there.

    Will you not then, having a heart that so expresses itself, go on to view your sins, multiple and particular, in light of that great overarching position that you have made? We look for power. There are practitioners running about in a much in this nation who are offering these little seminars on power and prayer. My goodness! You have the perfect prayer. Seven petitions that can inform all of your prayers as it is given to you freely. avail yourself of it.

    If at all it may be possible for you, it may not be so, that you do not desert, abandon him. Reach not into temptation, but if you do, deliver us from the evil of apostatizing from you. Our great Christ, given us by you our Father, undergoes the test and the trial and is preserved from the evil. We will pray informed by the pattern of his life and the power that is now at our disposal because of that life. Gaining confidence that as we pray, though we are tested, we will not fall. Our prayers answered, they having been uttered in and through Him. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • A Petition That Contains a Ministry

    A Petition That Contains a Ministry

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 26, 1989.

    About this sermon

    The fifth petition, on forgiveness, dominates the Lord’s Prayer more than its brief wording suggests, because it compresses Christ’s entire ministry into one request. It keeps all its shock. We forgive as we have been forgiven because of the covenantal grace of union with Christ, and Matthew 18’s unforgiving servant warns against losing sight of that ground.

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    Sermon transcript

    This reading this morning is taken from Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 18. We are reading from verse 21 to the end of the chapter. Listen to the word of God. Shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him until seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven.

    Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. When he hath begun to reckon, One was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But for as much as he had not to pay, the Lord commanded him to be sold at his wife and children all that they had, and payment to be made.

    The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence. And he laid hand on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou ow’st. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. But he would not, but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

    So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that death, because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on my fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? and his Lord was lost and delivered him to the poor mentors, so he should pay all that was due unto him.

    So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every man his brother their trespasses.” Then from Matthew chapter six, verse twelve, And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

    Father what hope have we except your word? The effect is in the convincing of our hearts and minds. So it is, Lord, if we are without faith, we have no faith except by the movement of your spirit and your sovereign disposition. But if we have faith, O Lord, we beseech you that our faith may be found to be strong and active and energetic, alive and alert to the word that you send. Our Father, we pray that with such faith then, informed by your word, we might live, and so please you. To this end, Father, we listen. To this end, Lord, your word is preached. Be pleased, O God, to bless us through Christ. Amen.

    Is there a dominant petition? Is there a dominant petition amongst all the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer? Now we have moved in our consideration of these petitions to the latter petition. We have moved from the thy petitions, you know the thy petitions, thy name, thy kingdom, thy will, the opening petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. We have moved from those now to the us and our petitions. Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil. The us petition, the latter petition.

    But I ask you, as you survey the petitions, and I count seven of them, I don’t know how many you get. You might get six. I guess that’s the ordinary number. I find seven. I’m comfortable with that, because after all, seven’s the perfect number, and if there are seven petitions, we have the perfect prayer. Makes sense, doesn’t it? All right.

    Here we are in the latter petitions, and the question I’m asking this morning, is there a dominant petition? You might not be prepared for this, because you’re thinking, well, if there’s a dominant petition, obviously it’s going to appear in those first three.

    The ones that have to do with the sovereignty, the express, explicit sovereignty of God, thy name, thy kingdom, thy will. If there’s to be a dominant petition, obviously we would find it there. But here we are in the latter petition, the us and the our petition of the Lord’s Prayer. And this is the point at which I’m asking the question. Is there a dominant petition?

    Let me phrase it differently. Is there a petition that stands out for Jesus? amongst all the visions that are expressed. Well, you see, it appears as if there is one, because there is one upon which he chooses to come after the prayer is concluded. and repetition. Well, the one rep this morning is the fifth edition. Forgive us our debts, we forgive. There is a dominant. According to that position.

    And that is underscored also by the structure of the passage In its totality, if we review it, verses 5 through 15, where Jesus specifically is dealing with this whole matter of prayer. There are certain parallels, you see, that are obvious from these verses as we move through them, that in the end convince us that to Jesus mind, this petition is in fact a dominant consideration. Verse 5, Jesus takes on the hypocrites, the ostentatious among the Jews, those who would parade their pious, using them as a sort of a sort of shorthand for Judaism as a whole. Religion expressed and practiced before men for the approval of men and for their congratulations.

    Jesus, the Jew, skewers Judaism. Jesus, in that first verse, don’t pray like the hypocrites. There are fifty years for me. This is why I don’t want you to pray like. The pattern repeats itself now, and this is seven and eight for seven. It’s not the Jews this time. It’s the gentleman. He takes on the whole world, the Jews and Gentiles together. I don’t want you to pray like the Gentiles, the pagans, either.

    Verse eight, this is why. This is why. He gives the reason. Then we have verses nine through fifteen, and the pattern that we’ve observed in these preceding verses is matched by what we find here. Rather than praying like the hypocrites or the pagans, I want you to pray like this. versus nine through thirteen, and then through the form, he gives the reason. Verses fourteen and fifteen. This is why.

    There is then a dominance assigned to this fifth petition. Jesus himself choosing to comment upon it, pushing it to the floor. so that you might get the point, not miss the point. Don’t move through the prayer and miss the power that’s here, that power that is specifically assigned to this fifth petition. For it is here, you see, that what Jesus has to say about prayer will become most oppressive It will assert itself most obviously in the life of his disciples, in the life of his people.

    Here’s another passage in Matthew’s Gospel, and I’ll use this as a way of illustration. Some have suggested to us that the Matthew account of Jesus’ life virtually the full of any consideration of salvation by grace salvation through sacrifice, at least until we get to the consideration of the change of the cross itself at the end of the gospel. But up to that point, it moves along the predictable Jewish line. Salvation by works is basically in view, no sacrifice under consideration. But then we come to Matthew chapter twenty, verse twenty-eight. Jesus says, I did not come to be ministered unto but to minister and to give my life a ransom for me.

    You see that verse has packed within it the entirety of all that Jesus intends to say and all that Jesus intends to do for his people. It is the compressed statement of the significance of the gospel in its totality. By way of analogy, we move back to chapter six, and we consider the Lord’s Prayer. It’s not just simply that all of prayer is going to be packed into that fifth petition. Now, in some way, I say to you that the entirety of Christ’s ministry, the entirety of what he has come to say and what he has come to do, is packed into that petition.

    There is then a comprehensiveness with regard to the whole. The central, if you can speak in both kinds of terms, the dominant petition to the Lord’s Prayer, this fifth petition, don’t pass it by, don’t envelop yourself in a shroud of disinterest. and then glibly contend to itself that when you recite the words of prayer you know what you’re doing. Don’t be so foolish. For though you might deceive yourself, the Lord himself is not deceiving you. the sense you see in which this petition is what it’s all about.

    To be sure, the petition startled. Now we might not appreciate how much it startled. Even though when we sit down and think about it we are so far from what it may be true we don’t comprehend the sweet. Of this petition and just how much it did start when it was first of all articulated.

    Do you know the disciples? Is there a visit to the disciples in your heart? What are your expectations? What are your hopes? Can you identify with them in any way? Here they are, pure-bred Jews, waiting for the kingdom, looking for the Messiah. When he comes, what’s going to happen? Well, according to them, it’s time for fire. It is time for the consummation. It is time for the end. It is certainly not the day for forgiveness of sins.

    Remember the disciples moving to the Samaritan village with Jesus? The Samaritans don’t want to put Jesus and the disciples up, because Jesus has set his faith to go to Jerusalem. Remember what the Sons of Thunder suggest? You want us to call down fire from heaven and consume these people?

    Remember Peter and the bug and his story. Time to wield one for the Lord. The Messiah comes, the kingdom comes, it’s not the day of forgiveness and grace. The day of forgiveness and grace has ended. It’s the time to put in the sickle for the gathering of the harvest.

    So you see, when Jesus tells them that circumstances are such that they will be compelled to pray this petition, without any apparent end in view. That is startling. You are assigned, my friends, to pray this petition until the end, whenever that may be. Let me suggest to you, it is not yet, but until it comes, this is the petition for you. So it’s sharp. to shock the disciples.

    Because of our own expectations, because of our own convictions, and we may well feel ourselves righteous in them, we might feel ourselves move to righteous indignation, to stand with the sons of furnace and call down fire on a few Samaritans that we know. that the problem we go through life and we have all of these confrontations we get into all these battles with people, even in the church, and there seems to be no final resolution to the matter. If God would just send a little fire and consume me on the spot, then I would be vindicated. Then everybody would know that I was right and they were wrong. Right? I’ve certainly wished for a little fire on occasion. Burn them up, Lord. Burn them up. Nothing left but charcoal. But here I am.

    Here I am disciplined by this petition. And as much as those emotions rise within me, it’s almost as if I’m being slapped in the face by the prayer and constraint of this prayer. So when the petition startles, and their aspects, certainly their appearance, which continues to startle if we think about them. But the petition even startled the Church in a different way.

    Have you ever watched a Calvinist squirm beneath the pressure of his position? It’s very interesting to watch. Now, of course, you know that I’m a rock-ribbed Calvinist, if there ever was one. But it’s interesting to watch the proportions of anguish through which many a Calvinist goes in trying to explain this position. Someone has been introduced to the wonders of the Reformation.

    Haven’t we come to accept the fact that salvation is by grace? We look at this petition, we conclude, well, it’s obvious that the forgiveness in view here pertains to the final judgment, does it not? Especially as it’s explicated by Jesus in verses 14 and 15, the last judgment in view, but are we told here that salvation will be granted to me, forgiveness extended to me to the extent to which I have forgiven others? This sounds like salvation by words.

    I heard one Calvinist suggest, well, what we need to do is introduce some words here that don’t appear in the text, but you see they’re there nonetheless. Somewhere we need to invent some language to help us out of this problem. So what they do, they say, forgive us our debts as we should have forgiven our debtors. That’s how they were, as we should have done it. Not that we did, not that we succeeded, we’ve got to maintain that message of salvation by grace. So the church, the Reformed church, even a good Lutheran, you know, are impressed by the position. They feel as if they must re-translate, introduce some language in order to save their theological We can’t avoid the causal force of the petition.

    Let’s put it plainly. Forgive us our debt, because I don’t see how we can avoid it. I think that’s what the text is saying. I think that that’s what the petition has in mind, especially as Jesus explicates it. our debt, because we have forgiven our debtors.

    Yes, the causal force of it cannot be denied, but admitting the causal force does not make us Roman Catholics. Why, it may even make us better Calvinists who admit it. How so? There are certain things that we must always keep in mind as we move through the teachings of our Savior. I have tried to spell that out for you as we’ve gone, have I not?

    The difficulty has been, it’s obvious in the way certain criticism of the scriptures has progressed, that there are those, as I suggested before in this message this morning, that look at the Gospel of Matthew as a Jewish exercise until we get to the problem, but let me tell you the problem. So salvation by grace is assumed from the very foundation of that document. There is not one text in the gospel that you can read from what you can extract them to move the message of salvation by great. I tried to prove it to you by way by way of Matthew’s construction of his introduction to this sermon as a whole.

    He tells us, Jesus sees the multitude, and when he does, he goes up upon the mountain. I want you to feel the impact of that language. He goes up upon the mountain, and when he sat down, you see what he said? He goes up on the mountain, and when he sat down, by that language that reminds me of Christ going up in his ascension and sitting down at the right hand of God the Father, after the death, after the death on the cross, so that everything that is said in the Sermon on the Mount assumes the cross.

    And that’s when we get to the presentation of the Lord’s Prayer. We don’t forget that. The cross undergirds everything that has been said. But even more, the covenant is affirmed. The covenant character of our religion, our relationship to our God, what is at the heart of the covenant?

    A union between God and his people, by which, you see, as God has made himself like unto his people, condescending to them in their estate. They now, by the work of his mercy and grace, are becoming like him. And isn’t that what is at work in the fifth edition? The mercies that have been extended to us in the gospel are now being reflected by us in our treatment of others. As we have been forgiven, so we forgive, and so we shall be forgiven in light of our conformity to our Father in Heaven, who has been so absolutely and infinitely merciful towards each one of us. And we have no excuse!

    If you’re going to claim that you are in the covenant, that you belong to him, you have to act like him. You have to act like him. And just as he forgave you, so you must forgive others. No, this is not the day for calling down fire out of heaven, to barbecue all your enemies. This is the day for the demonstration of the love of heaven manifest in the cross of Jesus Christ. By such a route, you were forgiven. And now, you see, you are constrained by that to forgive. Indeed, we are saved by faith, not by works. But the faith that saved us works by love. And without works, faith is dead. That’s covenant.

    God the great Lord has made himself like you in order to affect your forgiveness and now you in whom salvation has become a reality are living like him. When you have the opportunity to play the role of the sovereign in the forgiving of sins that have been committed against you. I will say it one more time.

    You have no excuse. As much as your passion as much as your emotions rise within you and you feel as if you have been violated and wronged and you feel utterly justified in the venom of the vile hatred that is boiling within your soul call it to a halt call it to a halt If you don’t, don’t you hear the plea of Jesus? If you don’t, it is a cancer that will eat you alive. And judgment is the only future that you will know. Unwilling to forgive, you won’t be forgiven. Yes, there is a fire coming. But it might not be the one we expect.

    Unify yourself, Lord, in the proclamation of your word. May this petition and all of the petitions grab hold of us. May we be pleased to live in light of the prayers that we are taught to utter. O God, so instruct us that our hearts may be molded in fashion after the heart of our Lord, the one who is gracious to us, And now, because we are loved of Him, we are demonstrating that love and forgiveness to others. We pray these things for the glory of Your name, for the truth of Your kingdom. We pray it, Lord, that we might, in goodness dwell before You, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Tomorrow’s Bread, Given Today

    Tomorrow’s Bread, Given Today

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 19, 1989.

    About this sermon

    The manna of Exodus 16 lies at the heart of the fourth petition’s daily bread, a connection the catechisms have never fully drawn out. ‘Give us today tomorrow’s bread’ captures the petition’s startling shape. The petition asks all along for Christ himself, the eternal Sabbath bread.

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    Sermon transcript

    We begin with the eleventh verse, and we will be reading through verse thirty-one. Here is the word of God. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread. Ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.

    And it came to pass that at even the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? Those that sat under them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you, dear. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded.

    Gather of it every man according to his heeding, and Omer for every man according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so. Gathered some more, some less. Then they did meet it with an Omer. He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his feeding.

    And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was brought with them. They gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating, and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread. Two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, this is that which the Lord has said.

    Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord. That which you will bake today and see that you will see and that which remain it over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink. Neither was there any worm therein. Moses said, Eat that today. For today is a Sabbath unto the Lord.

    Today ye will not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day together, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.

    Abide ye every man in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day, and the house of Israel called the name thereof, Nana. And it was like coriander seed, right? And the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Then from Matthew 6, 11, give us this day our daily bread.

    Let’s pray together. Father, in our hearts, we would strain on behalf of the many raised up to preach. Lord, you have commanded that we pray for laborers for the harvest, and Father, may we force ourselves to our knees. We force our souls and hearts by humility, your spirit himself driving us to intercede with regard to this matter. Lord, your word and servants for it, men of strength and conviction, men of power in your spirit, your word burning within them so that they cannot keep it inside. So Lord, even now, across the continents, in many lands, in those especially where we have friends and know men by name who have been sent to proclaim the word, our God, Give us a heart to pray for them.

    Devotion to them in spirit. Those close at hand as well. May we be a people of prayer. May we be a people of the word. May we see the two come together. Those that you’ve raised up to proclaim your word to your people. Thus we would ask for good preaching good teaching as you would give us good men to proclaim your riches, the excellency of your grace. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

    It certainly wasn’t the first time that he had heard them rumble. Wasn’t the first time that he heard them complain. But today, today of all days, today was exactly one month after their departure from Egypt. They were one month to the day out of the land of their oppression, out of the territory of their slavery. Today, of all days, that they would grumble, that they would complain.

    They had moved eastward from Goshen to the Red Sea. And there, the Lord had caused them to stand and to see his salvation. The waters parted. The people walked through. They experienced a baptism there, moving through the Red Sea as those who move on dry ground. And on the east side of the Red Sea, they had seen the walls of the Red Sea waters collapse and devour their enemies. They had celebrated there. They had glorified the Lord. And from there they had moved southward along the banks of the Red Sea into the Sinai wilderness. They had come to the place that was called Marah, a three-day journey.

    A place called Mara, that name memorializing the waters that were found there. Mara meaning bitter, and the waters there were bitter, but the waters were not the only thing bitter, for we find out that the hearts of the people were bitter also. God, in his grace, in this day before Sinai, comes in a ministration of mercy. The tree is applied to the bitter waters, and speaks of a greater day when a tree, the cross itself, will be applied to the bitterness of man, to the complaints of God’s people.

    So once more, the people tested, detroyed, they move out from Mara to Elam. that little oasis, a bit to the south, more to the east, an oasis of paradise, if you will, where the children of Israel find a spring of water for each of the tribes, twelve in number, and seventy day palms memorializing the number of those that originally went down into Egypt with Jacob.

    The people drink and eat and are satisfied in this newfound Eden, but they can’t stay there. You cannot stay in any so-called Eden of this creation. The people are on a journey. There is a better inheritance. So they break the king. And they move out once more, led abroad. They are in the desert. They are in the wilderness now. The Red Sea, Mara, Elam behind them.

    And once more, Moses is treated to a chorus of groans and venomous complaint. And this time, he is so treated because the people consider themselves deprived, they have no meat, they have no bread. But in this day prior to Sinai, Despite now the obvious bitter attack upon the Lord’s servant, Moses, and the bitter attack upon him who stands behind the servant or above him, God himself, this one, our God, their God, in his grace, sends to them meat and bread. The meat comes in the form of the quails, the flocks that cover the camp at evening.

    This meat is a luxury, it is a one-time phenomenon. It comes and then it doesn’t come again. But the bread, the bread came in the morning, and it will come every morning. Every morning except the seventh morning of each week. In its coming, its appearance day by day, there is even the pattern of eternity and perpetuity found in it. God’s eternal perpetual design to feed his people. So the bread, this miraculous bread that continues for the duration of the forty years, is rewonderous in the wilderness.

    But this story, surveying what we have read and reviewed here now, in Exodus 16, this story is packed, all of it, into the simple fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. the petition that we have taught to recite this way. Give us this day our daily bread.

    As we turn our attention then to the prayer which our Lord teaches his disciples. We can take stock of the movement that we find in that prayer as we consider this fourth petition, because, you see, this fourth petition does signal for us something of a shift. We have now moved from the thy petitions, thy name, thy kingdom, thy will, to the us and our petitions, with which The prayer concludes. There are the three hour petitions, and according to my calculation, there are four us-an-hour petitions, concluding the prayer, giving us seven petitions. This prayer, then, with seven petitions being the perfect prayer, the complete and full prayer, that pattern for prayer made perfectly to our Father in Heaven. It has been observed with regard to this shift that we observe in the prayer itself, that we move from that mode of thought wherein we are literally subjecting our desires to the desires of our Father in Heaven. to that mode where we are requesting our father to subject his desires to ours.

    The movement then being the consideration of our God in his sovereign plan and purpose for all that it is, for all that there is, that his name above all else would be exalted, his kingdom come be realized, that his will be accomplished. in the earth as it is in heaven.

    In that, his kingship and sovereignty manifest. But then, there comes to the fore our needs. The bread we need, forgiveness, protection from temptation, deliverance from evil, Will God, our Father, submit himself to our needs and supply our needs as the King becomes the servant? To do that for us. And observing that in this, then, the perfect prayer, we also are observing the perfection of the Father’s heart, are we not? That perfection is supremely revealed to us in the cross of our Savior, where the great King manifests his servanthood for our sakes, giving himself to us in order that our need may be supplied.

    The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer at the center at which stands the cross. Even though it’s not mentioned, it’s laid between the lines. And it is there. To be sure. But we’ve been saying now, with regard to this petition that the. Material that we reviewed this morning from Exodus sixteen is packed into this fourth petition. And it is only by route of that story which we have read that we will arrive at the proper and full meaning of the petition before us. Unfortunately. Many of us, if not most. Have come to understand the petition only partially. only partially.

    That part which we have come to understand, as precious as it is to us, concerns what has been called our personal request for God to supply our physical needs. Now you may recall your catechism explanations of the Fourth Petition. And you might remember that that catechism explanation moves along this specific line. What do we pray for in the Fourth Petition? In the Fourth Petition we pray that of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life and enjoy his blessing. Question one of the shorter.

    We can all be quite sympathetic with this healthy reform affirmation of God’s creation and our place in that creation. And we can be quite encouraged by this affirmation of God’s concern for our physical well-being, expressed so ably by the Tanakins. But our difficulty is not with the appropriateness of such an affirmation in its place. Our difficulty is with the adequacy The adequacy of such an affirmation in light of the petition when read against the background of Exodus 16. The issue is not so much what the Catechism does say, but with what it leaves out and doesn’t say.

    Generally, during our Church’s history, throughout the history of the Church, there have been three interpretations of this fourth petition. And each of these interpretations revolve around the meaning of the word, which has been translated in our English versions as daily. Give us this day our daily bread. The traditional understanding is in keeping with this translation. And I don’t have to tell you that this interpretation of the petition has much going for it.

    We can even lay it within the context of a finally developed biblical theology and approach to redemptive history. In view is the Pilgrim character of the people of God, who have been constituted by the call of Jesus Christ. And these are utterly dependent upon God, their Heavenly Father, for their daily provision as they move through life and existence in this world. And of importance in this regard is, as well, the experience of Israel as God’s people as they move through the wilderness. There is an analogy, there is a parallel. As those people receive daily the provision, we, too, are receiving daily our provision. Therefore, we are requesting God, so it is said, to be mindful of our creature needs day by day, as He was with Israel in their day by day creature needs.

    And if Israel was cared for, we who believe in Jesus Christ, we who are his church, can expect nothing less. Well, there’s tremendous power in that. And we find ourselves sitting in our pew, we find ourselves pouring over scripture, or reading this petition, or even saying it, and dissenting to that sort of thought, or that line of reasoning, that particular interpretation of the petition. It certainly has a lot going for it. God will provide for us. Here, emphasized, is our faith, our trust in Him. There’s another interpretation, and it runs along these lines. Give us this day our needful bread, it suggests, or our necessary bread, that bread which is necessary.

    Once more, we are brought back to the experience of the people of Israel in the wilderness, and even more specifically, the experience of those people recorded for us in Exodus 16. You will remember that one of the things that is said about the manna Verse 18 was this, that he who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no lack. There is conveyed from that story, and then as that is superimposed upon the fourth petition, this whole dimension of satisfaction, being satisfied with what we have. Therefore, when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, his instruction focuses upon the adequacy of the provision and upon a satisfied heart.

    Now, if you want to get me going on something, and you want a little sermon in the midst of the sermon, Even though you’re looking at your watches and thinking this is going to go on for some time yet. Yeah, you’re right, it is. I may not end up concluding that this petition is moving along those lines, but there is an element of this interpretation to be found in this petition. And if the Christian Church needs anything now More, I don’t know what it is, than a spirit of satisfaction.

    We are all becoming Rachel’s. Do you know who Rachel is? Do you understand Rachel? Rachel is the woman who epitomizes dissatisfaction. She is the figure of dissatisfaction. Though she’s best loved, she isn’t satisfied with that. Give me a son. She gets a son, she names him Joseph.

    Why? Because that means addition. There has been an addition made to me. Looking for even further addition. Because she’s not even satisfied with Joseph. So there is satisfaction for once another child. She gets it, doesn’t she? And that child is his dessert. And so is your dissatisfaction. It is a classic. It is a killer. It is a killer. Appropriate punctuation. It is a killer.

    And what’s the later day? word about Rachel. Oh Rachel, Rachel, a voice arising out of rain, weeping, lamenting, Rachel crying for her children, refusing to be incapable of being satisfied because they were no more. So yes, I could interrupt the sermon and go off in that direction, and I think it’s a great benefit to us all.

    Learning about the satisfaction that is found in Christ. Having food and rain as a covering over our heads, we ought to be satisfied. Godliness with contentment, that’s great gain. I have learned that whatever state I am in, there is to be content. That’s what the Apostle Paul says, and that is the pattern for us. Your dissatisfaction will kill you.

    It’s just another form of grumbling and groaning and complaining in the wilderness. But with both of these interpretations that I’ve suggested here for you this morning, the one that focuses upon trust, the one that focuses upon satisfaction, There is a common problem. They suffer from the same short sightedness. Neither does justice to what is central in that story in Exodus 16. The bread. The men. If we grant that the story in Exodus 16 is directly related to this petition, the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, what is the precise nature, precise character of the relationship between the petition and the story?

    Is it the fact that the bread came daily? Or that it was adequate for satisfying the physical appetites of the people? You see, the focus as we concentrate on those features, take us in the direction of that which is natural. So we are automatically prepared to accept that interpretation of the petition that sees, first of all and foremostly, physical bread at the heart of it.

    But what is the truth about this bread that has been given by God? It’s not natural bread, it’s supernatural bread. And nowhere is this more evident than when the Lord gives the double portion, you see, on the sixth day. It is a miraculous bread. Any other day you gather it, if you leave it over a night, it breeds worms, it decays, it stinks. But you gather the double portion on the sixth day, it is kept over till the next day. It doesn’t breed worms, it doesn’t decay, it doesn’t stink. This is miracle bread.

    It is precisely this feature. The fact that this bread is kept over, you see, on that sixth day for the seventh, which Jesus has in mind in the fourth petition. That’s what’s behind the word. You see that word that we translated daily. is best translated tomorrow, not today or daily, but tomorrow. Jesus is therefore teaching his disciples to pray. Give us today. Tomorrow’s bread. Give us today. Tomorrow’s bread.

    You see, his emphasis is upon the reception of the following day’s provision in the present day, in the day which is current, the day in which we are living. But on what day did Israel receive the following day’s provision? Of course, the day before the Sabbath. In mind, therefore, is not the regular daily provision of bread which the Jews gathered, Nor can the meaning be the adequacy of the provision upon those days when they gathered.

    Instead, tomorrow’s bread is the Sabbath day’s provision for the today of our lives. You see, in this petition, Tomorrow’s bread is nothing less than the bread that comes forth for us out of the eternal Sabbath of God. Before and beyond any physical bread for which we might ask, we are asking for the eternal bread.

    But don’t you know, if God will give you the eternal breath, will he not give you your daily breath? Only if you start with the eternal breath, will you understand it. These, then, are not Earth’s natural resources for which we ask. These are Heaven’s resources. In fact, we can say Earth’s natural bread was never the point of the manna story to begin with.

    For even that bread, the manna, preached to Israel, the character of a bread which would come eventually to satisfy her, for just as that bread came forth from God, so now the living bread, Jesus Christ himself, comes down from heaven. He is the true bread of life, and those who keep on feasting on him today, he being the eternal bread, will be kept from hunger, and in fact, they will never Never go hungry. Never. He that stirred not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? O Lord, if we are to pray for our bread, even that bread that comes to us day by day and is set upon our tables, and even though, O Lord, we have thankful hearts and joy in receiving those gifts from you, may we always put first of all that bread which is of tomorrow, which is given us today, the eternal bread, and we feeding on it, knowing satisfaction to the depths then of our souls, shall not hunger, we shall not hunger again. We thank you, Lord, for the bread you’ve given. The very bread of life. Jesus Christ, your Son.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • God’s Work Alone

    God’s Work Alone

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 12, 1989.

    About this sermon

    Readers usually approach ‘thy kingdom come’ in one of two ways, as personal holiness or as world renewal. Isaiah 65 and Revelation 21 point instead to God’s own work alone. Real prayer starts from the end God has already accomplished, and the petition rests on what God does.

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    Sermon transcript

    The passage from Isaiah chapter sixty-five, we are reading from verse seventeen to the end of that chapter. Hear the word of God. and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying.

    There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days. For the child shall die a hundred years old, but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit, they shall not plant and another eat, For as the days of a tree are, the days of my people and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble, for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them.

    And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.” And then from Matthew chapter six, verses nine and ten.

    After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Lord, we would not forget those we know throughout the world who bear your word with them as seed to be sown. And Father, as we think of them at this time, may we also remember those to whom that word that they bear is sent. And Father, in keeping with your promise and your purpose, the harvest comes forth. For the word goes forth to accomplish that which you have ordained. It does not return to you empty, but establishes your purpose.

    Our God, in light of this glorious expectation and this wonderful certainty, May your servants declare your word today. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen. This morning we come to the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer, the last of the so-called thy petitions.

    How will be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, now in earth as it is in heaven. That’s the rendering of it that we are accustomed to. That’s the one that we say week by week, or even more often as we have occasion, that third petition, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Actually, the literal translation of it is this, Thy will be done as in heaven, so in There have been traditionally two approaches to this third petition.

    Those two could be described in this way. On the one hand, there is that approach that focuses upon what we would call holiness. place that on this side. There has also been an approach that is focused more on what we might call the aspect or dimension of destiny. And we can place that on this side. than traditional approaches to the petition.

    Holiness on this side is something of a focus upon what we have called sanctification. And in regard to that, the place of the law, the law’s work, as it relates to the will, the will of God and the outworking of that will in the world through us. On the other side, we have that word, destiny. And here, not that it isn’t in view on the holiness side, but even more so over here, is a concentration upon the whole of God’s sovereignty, in its comprehensiveness, in its scope, the expansiveness of its scope. We might press it a bit, as we have mentioned sanctification over here. We might also mention another sophisticated theological term on this side as well, that of eschatology.

    Now, the words themselves shouldn’t give you pause. You know what sanctification is, that word we placed on this side. Some of you know well the catechism definition. how we are to understand it as the renewing of the whole man after the image of God, so that that man is enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. That pertains to sanctification. Eschatology, we should not be put off by that word either. We know about eschatology, eschatology, eschaton is a Greek word for last things.

    The two then approaches to the third petition along these lines. If you have a scale or a balance one of those old-fashioned scales or balances, an arm going out on either side, this arm being the arm of holiness, and this arm being the arm of destiny, considered along these lines. But it isn’t enough just to divide the traditional approaches in this way. For on each side there is a further division. There have been those, for instance, who have approached the holiness side in terms of what we would call the personal dimension. There were those who have also approached the holiness side in terms of what we would call the cosmical dimension and consideration. And the same goes for the destiny side, personal and cosmical.

    You have the picture. You have world, fashion, scale, and balance. But each scale and balance has two chains. And the one chain is personal. The other is cosmical. On either side, the same. From those who approach the petition, now, why will be done? As in heaven, so on earth. How do those who have this approach to this petition along the lines of personal feelings understand the petition? Well, they certainly grasp hold of something that is biblically true. biblically right.

    Personal holiness is in sad decline. We’re very easy on ourselves, aren’t we? The whole matter of sanctification, the personal pursuit of godliness, tragically in sad decline. sad decline amongst the people of God. Of course when one starts talking about the matter of personal holiness, finger pointing is very easy. But it’s difficult Of course, for those who point fingers as those to whom they point personal.

    Certainly this is something that is a major theme of Scripture. You remember that passage that beats out of the page from Hebrews twelve without holiness without sanctification, no man shall see the Lord. If you wish then to play fast and loose with this matter, you are but deceiving yourself.

    And how it is then related, how it is then related to the issue of the law and the commandments of God, is there not then that glorious statement that comes to us out of Psalm forty-eight verse, I believe. Behold, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God. As the spokesman there speaks about his personal holiness, his devotion to the commandments and the law of the Lord. certainly nothing that is optional, certainly something that is right, biblically speaking. If this not then carried further by Jesus himself in the Sermon on the Mount, if you just turn the page to Matthew chapter seven, the twenty-first verse, there you have that startling, if not terrifying, passage Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Jesus underscoring that whole matter of personal holiness and devotion, devotion to the commandments of God, to those things which he has prescribed. And what will we do with that incredibly profound and startling passage that comes to us from Paul? First, that’s a loading chapter four verse three here, sanctification and the will of God are brought together unmistakably. This is the will of God for you, even your sanctification, even your personal.

    So there are those who have approached this passage, this petition of the Lord’s Prayer along these lines. that in view is the realization of personal holiness, and we are praying for that personal holiness to be a reality in us. That there are those who have been dissatisfied with this approach as it stood by itself in relationship to this petition.

    Not that they are arguing with personal holiness, God forbid. Their contention is The scope of the petition is much broader, it is cosmical. Larger, expansive, much more comprehensive. So we are not here dealing with personal holiness, we are dealing with a holiness that has worldwide, worldwide impact. and extensiveness that reaches to the ends of the earth.

    There have been those that have approached the whole matter of the cosmical holiness in terms of mission, that as the mission of Christ’s Church is fulfilled, there goes through the world, by way of the gospel, that by which then the nations themselves are renovated and holiness is realized in their midst, because of the place that the commandments and the law of God now play. There were those who had focused not so much upon mission, the mission of the Church, as they have upon societal renewal. As they look at this petition, so when the petition is spoken, I will be done as in heaven. So on Earth, they have in mind a cosmic, a world renovation. This is the objective of the prayer, the petition itself, world renovation, holiness, real, not just personal, but in a societal way. in a way that affects institutions and organizations, the ways in which men do things on the face of the earth.

    So the point of the message this morning is not so much to argue about the validity of various visions for the future of the world and the place that the law may well have someday and transforming society or doing institutions that isn’t my purpose. Nor is it my purpose to say anything that would diminish in our estimation God’s requirement for personal holiness and our expectation that where the gospel is sung holiness will be the fruit. The question isn’t whether or not these approaches by themselves in terms of themselves are not correct, for in fact they may well be fully assertive. A biblical theme, worthy pursuit.

    The question, however, is whether or not this petition has those matters in view. Whether the petition itself is dealing specifically with holiness, be it personal or societal. And the realization of that holiness in the earth as it is in heaven, that is the question. The reason why we may suspect that that isn’t the intention of the petition is this.

    It doesn’t matter how you slice the cake. When you’re on that side of the balance, when I’m standing on this side of the platform this morning, you see, working its way into our consideration invariably is something that we do. Something that we accomplish. I am at work, am I not? In this whole matter of my personal holiness, Is there not a focus upon the energies and the expenditure of energies from men in the accomplishment of God’s will in the earth, be it through mission or be it unto the end of societal renewal? The focus is upon what we do, at least in part. It works its way into the consideration.

    But is that what Jesus intends When he gives us this petition, the third one, thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. There have been those then who have reacted against this side of the balance, this side of the scale. Not because they were disagreeing with personal holiness or sanctification or the mission of the church, or societal renewal. It’s just that they saw something else operative in that petition.

    And that is what we describe with the word destiny. Destiny. Now, I said that there are two chains hanging down from each arm of this scale. There is the chain that is focusing on the personal and then the cosmical, and it’s the same over here. You have the personal with regard to destiny itself. We’re, however, relating our own personal lives to the will of God.

    We have that passage in James, Chapter four, verse fifteen. He’s chiding those to whom he writes a bit, for they’re a bit presumptuous. They say, we’re going to go to this city and do such and such and make this amount of money and accomplish this or that, and James rebukes them. He says, well, if the Lord will.

    The will of the Lord with regard to your own personal destiny. That operative too, at least in measure as you consider Christ. God’s will for him personally as he sweats out the matter of the will of God in the Garden of Gethsemane. Not my will, but thy will be done. And what of Paul? His own personal destiny. He’s on his way to Jerusalem. He meets with the prophet. The prophet tells him, if you go to Jerusalem, you are going to be bound, you are going to suffer. His response? The Lord’s will be done. His own personal destiny will be fulfilled in terms of the will of God.

    And that brought in relationship then to the petition itself. personal destiny. There have been those who have been dissatisfied with just a personal focus with regard to their destiny. In deference to that position, they move again to that which is more expansive, comprehensive, the cosmical, something that is more inclusive.

    They start thinking about the will of God, not just as it relates to a person, an individual, but the entire administration of God’s purpose. You turn to the book of Ephesians, the first chapter, and there you read about the mystery of the will of God that has now been revealed in Jesus Christ, in the gospel events. Christ has died, he has been raised again, and in this now God is summing up all things. He is at work summing up all things in Christ. the manifestation, the revelation of the mystery of the will of God, moving it beyond just the personal, is something that is much more comprehensive and inclusive. But then those who have approached the petition in that respect have been brought up short for they realize that there’s this whole matter of personal destiny drawn in relationship with a petition, that as that is done, it seems that there comes a day when the personal destiny or the cosmical destiny in relationship to the mystery of the will of God achieves the fulfillment that then dismisses the petition. God’s will fulfilled for me, God’s will fulfilled in Christ, his death, his resurrection, his ascension. And this then moves others on, as they reflect upon this petition, even greater matters still.

    Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Certainly not just personal, regardless of what side of the scale you’re on. most definitely cosmical, but in what sense? In the sense in which we are praying that God, by his work in the Church and through the Church, would revolutionize the face of the Earth? By the things in which we participate, the things which we do and accomplish? Or is the focus As we look at it in its cosmical dimensions, something which God does alone, which he accomplishes exclusively, to which we are but the spectators as he does it.

    The language of heaven and earth driving us to that conclusion for the melding of heaven and earth is, from this petition, reaching out to the magnificent conclusion with which all things shall be brought to an end. In heaven comes to earth, and the new heavens and the new earth are reality.

    Thus the significance of Isaiah 65, but even more compellingly, John’s reading of Isaiah 65 in Revelation chapter 21. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he shall dwell among them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be among them.

    And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no longer any death. There shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things have passed away. And he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said, Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

    That is the focus of the third petition. heaven and earth one in the day of the new heavens and the new earth and your affections in your prayers directed toward that end. So there is then the common thread that is sewn through all the first The power of the Father’s name. through a work which he himself accomplishes at the conclusion, when all that oppose him are removed. The hallowing of his name, his kingdom coming in all of its perfection, an act which he is responsible for, and he is responsible for alone. He winning it, and the accomplishment of his will perfectly, fully, summarily, as the realities of heaven become those realities that are also upon the earth, through an act of God whereby he concludes all things for his own glory. As you begin your prayers, be done with lesser petitions and start with the end. And having the end firmly in grasp, understand then everything that leads to the end in light of it. For having settled that matter, every other matter is settled and resolved.

    Now, Lord. Even though we may not be well trained in it. And led to believe other things with regard to it. Clear the slate. But the glory. The incomparable glory. Of our God. and his heavenly kingdom would be apparent to us, and all of our prayers begin with that conclusion, that concluding work by which you shall perfect your purpose, your plan, your will. May we long therefore our God as we are in the flesh and as we are in this pilgrimage. For that day. Come Lord Jesus. Even so.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Petitions Answered by Christ’s Righteousness

    Petitions Answered by Christ’s Righteousness

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 5, 1989.

    About this sermon

    Christ’s own righteousness already answers the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer on behalf of believers. The cross stands at the heart of that answer. God delivers his people from their own cross as he delivered Christ from his, through resurrection and never by exemption.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning our scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 6, we are reading verses 5 through 15. This is Matthew chapter 6, again the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus dealing with the three pillars of piety, almsgiving prayer and fasting. This morning we are reading the section on prayer once more. Heal the word of God.

    And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. And when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.

    After this manner therefore pray Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

    The first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer concerning the Father’s name, the Father’s kingdom, the Father’s will. The first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are set to parallel each other. They are read in a line. We are to understand all three in the same light. If you understand one, then you will understand all three. In getting a handle on one, you have in your grasp the meaning of all three.

    Now the light in which we are to understand these three petitions is given us in the fifth chapter of Matthew, the twentieth verse, Jesus speaking there about that superlative righteousness, that righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of scribes and Pharisees. a righteousness that is so extraordinary that it is unlike any righteousness of this earth.

    Rather, it is the very righteousness of heaven that is given to us by which we then must enter into the kingdom that is promised. Matthew 5 verse 20. This extraordinary heavenly unearthly righteousness is found nowhere but in and through Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, the One who has come from heaven, for the very purpose of making this righteousness plain and clear.

    Presently, then, this righteousness asserts itself. It asserts itself to the end that there might be melded in us, that there might be harmonized in us our actions and our thoughts, our doing and our thinking. That consistency reflected in our teachers and also in all citizens, every disciple of the kingdom. This melding, this harmonizing of which I speak at this point is of a peace with heaven itself. Think of heaven. Your word will match your actions perfectly. There will be no contradiction between what you think and what you do in heaven. It isn’t so presently, is it?

    Yet, that marvelous righteousness of heaven is asserting itself presently because of the ministry and power of Jesus Christ at work amongst those who are His. Heaven, then, where behavior perfectly matches attitude But even more now, our eyes having been directed to heaven, this righteousness of which we speak works itself out in my conformity to my Father who is in heaven. Verse 48 of that fifth chapter. This righteousness, one more time, works itself out in my conformity to my Father who is in heaven. Therefore be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

    But at the very center of this, my conformity unto my Father above, is at the same time his inexplicable conformity unto me here presently in the world, through his Son, through Christ. that one who presently speaks, that one by whom the very administration of heaven is meeting. To the extent then, to which then, to the extent then, to which then, that conformity unto us is laid bare before us in the words of our Savior. To that extent, the love and the purity of heaven is also asserting itself, infruiting upon us here in this creation. The extent to which the Father will go in order to seal that love and purity from heaven in his relationship with us is the cross of Christ. the pattern then not only for his conformity unto us, but our conformity unto him.

    He has laid aside all, as if forgetting himself for the sake of you, and now you lay yourself aside for his sake. He places others above Himself, seemingly. In order that His own may be redeemed, we place others above ourselves in conformity to Him. By that cross, the Father in Heaven interprets Himself to us. By that cross, also, I now explain myself to him.

    Without that cross, there is no revelation of the righteousness of God from heaven. Without that cross, there is no obedience on my part here in the earth. Now it’s true. The cross at this point is as many as three years away from Christ himself in actual experience.

    Yet its weight, its impressive shadow reaches backward and touches every aspect of his public ministry. He states to John the Baptist, at the Jordan River, that it’s necessary for him to undergo a baptism. Think of Jesus being baptized for his own sins. No, but that he might be made conformable even unto us who are sinners, who are in need of baptism. Even then, he says that it’s necessary in order to fulfill all righteousness.

    We see the cross. in the baptism of Jesus. Moving on to his teaching, here, Jesus on the mount, delivering these words, speaking the Beatitudes, whether he is giving us the blessings, or expounding upon the law, or presenting his understanding of the three pillars of piety, almsgiving prayer and fasting, the cross is actually the supporting beam upon which the entirety of the message is constructed. Rip out the cross and you have nothing distinctive, nothing Christian. Jesus is just another Jewish rabble. Yet it is this cross that so many cannot see, and sadly even more, cannot accept.

    It was, for instance, an earthly and cross-less kingdom the Jews of Jesus’ day expected. They anticipated the advent of the Messiah, the coming of the kingdom. They saw them, the Messiah’s coming, the coming of the kingdom, as one and the same. When the Messiah and the kingdom arrive, then, they judged, all hostility, all opposition, all shame for the people of God, for the nation of Israel will be liberally removed.

    In their own convictions, Jesus’ disciples at this point are not especially distinguishable from those who are hostile to him, for they too are earthbound. They too cannot conceive of a crucified Christ. Far be it from thee, Lord, that you should die. But when Jesus speaks, when he gives his message here in the Sermon on the Mount, you see, he is assuming the cross.

    His words are an exposition of it. It may not be apparent to us, but you see, it is as hidden as is His Messiahship. It is as hidden, at this point, as is His Kingdom. It’s laid between the lines. And it is the eye of faith that is poised, set, to receive all, to see all, that God would have for his children, that will in fact survey the whole of the territory while surveying the cross.

    You see, Jesus, as this message to his disciples begins, talks as if the suffering of his disciples has an indefinite future. What kind of a message is this? What kind of an evangelist is this Jesus? What kind of a teacher is he? He starts out with a message about the indefinite future of the suffering of his disciples. He speaks of their privation. They are poor in spirit. He talks about their sorrow. They are those that mourn. He speaks about their humiliation, the meat. He speaks about their languishing, their hungry and their thirsty.

    All of which, all of which are an application, but an application of the cross of Christ to the life of his disciples. The coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom, according to Jesus’ contemporaries, would initiate an era of universal righteousness in which the perfection and the finality of the law of Moses would be apparent to all. And by root of that, swift execution of justice would then be accomplished. We move on to the latter part of Matthew chapter 5 in Jesus’ treatment of the law. Jesus, however, talks as if the struggle for righteousness is ongoing.

    This struggle resounds with the sentences of a higher court than even that court over which Moses would preside, scrutinizing not just the actions, but the thoughts of the heart. from the vantage point of heaven. And this court, which is convened in glory for all of its intolerance to sin, and that is apparent, this court, for all of its intolerance to sin, simultaneously, affectionately draws the disciples to that revelation of the Father in heaven, whose love and mercy is now mirrored back to him in a self-sacrificing, cross-bearing behavior.

    Taking up the cross, so that you are concerned to the depths of your soul about the attitude that your brother has to you. And in cross-like behavior, you march out to meet him even before he is out marching to meet you. That’s Christ-likeness. Not loving your friends and families only, but loving your enemies too. That’s Christ-likeness.

    When the Messiah and the Kingdom would come, it was believed by Jesus’ contemporaries that the goal of all piety, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, will have been reached, thus making all of them superfluous. In the Kingdom, with the Messiah, charity would be unnecessary, for there wouldn’t be any more. would become unnecessary because the prayers of the people will have been answered, and fasting in the celebration of that kingdom would be utterly and completely out of place. Jesus, however, sees no terminus presently for all of these acts of devotion.

    He focuses them with respect to heaven above, that we perform our devotions, our acts of piety, with respect to our God, who sees in secret the secret seeing of the Father, then characterizing the age in which we live, inaugurated by Christ, until our faith is made sight, and until our God makes Himself visible to us. to reward us according to his word.

    So then these acts of devotion spoken of by Jesus and reviewed here focus with respect to the Father in heaven and upon him turning away from the applause of the earth These acts of devotion assume that as the disciples themselves involve themselves in the practice of them, there will be a struggle to forget the world, to put the applause of men behind, to not be concerned about what other people think, but rather in self-denying acts of love and commitment, we demonstrate the cross before the world. The cross itself, then, is what I am intending now as apparent in the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. You see, it is precisely because the disciples bear the cross that they must pray that the Father’s name be hallowed. For as long as they bear that cross in this world, as long as there is that opposition to them because of their identification with the Father in Heaven and with His Son, that name of the Father will not have been hallowed in its perfection, in its completion.

    So then, when the disciples pray in this manner, they are giving expression to their confidence that there is coming a day in which there will be the absolute hallowing of the Father’s name. And the arrival of that day will conclude the need of these disciples and all disciples to bear the cross anyway.

    Bring the day, Lord, in which your name will be perfectly counted. Bring the day. May my heart be set upon that day, first of all, above all else. May that be the chief thing for me, for which I long, to which I look. The perfection of the hallowing of your name. Similarly with the next two petitions then. The arrival of the kingdom. Thy kingdom come. In view is the absolute form of that kingdom.

    Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, the absolute implementation of the Father’s will here, bringing to an end all cross-bearing, all necessity for cross-bearing whatsoever for Christ’s disciples. But until that day comes, these petitions are quite appropriate and quite necessary as the prayer of all those who are now constrained to utter them from their own crosses, those crosses that they pick up daily in order to follow Christ. These petitions are your prayers from your cross. These petitions are your prayers from your cross. Which you now bear in conformity to Christ. Christ Himself is praying for nothing less from His cross. And now you pray. By these petitions then we give expression as our Savior has done before us to our confidence that the Father alone The Father alone can resolve our situation by His intervention and by our resurrection.

    Now, I know the usual line which the exposition of these petitions takes. I know it well, I’ve learned it from the time I was a child. I’ve been taught it by the Reformed divines, no less. great men than that. But you see, the compromise which that instruction invariably entails is this.

    It almost always sets at center or begins to move in the direction of seeing these petitions in terms of the activity in which I personally am involved. as if I was the one who was responsible for hallowing God’s name, bringing in his kingdom, and implementing the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven. That is not what Jesus is talking about, and that is not what he is encouraging his disciples to pray for. It is not you that stands at the center of these petitions, and it is not your ability that is being reviewed here so that you might think well of yourself somehow in hallowing his name, manufacturing his kingdom, accomplishing his will in the earth. As much as those sentiments may be proper in their own ten contexts, they are not proper here, for the intent of these petitions is to call upon the Father in heaven to perfect, to culminate his eternal purposes for his church. by bringing to an end, as only he can, every form of privation, distress, persecution, suffering, and prosperity. They having reached their goal in the glorification of himself. finally and summarily. And we are guaranteed that we shall achieve this goal, are we not?

    Because God has done as much for his son who bore the cross and that one presently teaches us He will bring everything to conclusion for you. And the day of your cross bearing will most certainly end as surely as it did for Jesus. And you have Jesus’ word on that.

    Let us pray. Set before us, Lord, is the sacrifice which you have made. But are we not beckoned by that sacrifice ourselves? Surely The sacrifice which you have made saves us. But now, Lord, because of our love for you, our devotion to you, and our union with Christ, we are made over. We are fashioned afresh so that the image which we have seen is the image we bear. And that which has been displayed is that which we are conformed unto presently.

    O Lord, therefore when we survey the wonders cross, may we also realize that we are sacrificing our all. in a cross bearing which is our own in imitation of our great and eternal Savior. Keep our eye focused above Lord where Christ is at your right hand and while here in the world Lord may we be content to be servants even if we are suffering servants bearing our crosses until the day when you are pleased to bring everything to a conclusion. Until that day, Lord, we pray, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in the earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Hallowed Be Thy Name

    Hallowed Be Thy Name

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 29, 1989.

    About this sermon

    The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks for something specific, and Ezekiel 36’s promise of a name vindicated among the nations gives it eschatological weight. The already and not yet governs this petition as it governs the whole Sermon on the Mount. Those who truly pray for God’s name to be hallowed will stand in the day of his coming.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading from the prophet Ezekiel. This is Ezekiel chapter 36, and we are beginning with verse 16. We will be reading through verse 32. And after we read this, we return to the New Testament passage in Matthew chapter 6. Hear the word of God. Ezekiel 36, verse 16. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings.

    Their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Therefore I poured my fury upon them, for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it. And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries according to their way, and according to their doings I judged them. When they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name. When they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land. But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel hath profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake. which ye have profaned among the heathen whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

    For I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all the countries and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and ye shall be my people and I will be your God.

    And I also will save you from all your uncleanness and I will call for the corn and will increase it and lay no famine upon you. and I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. But not for your sakes do I do this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.” And then from Matthew 6, verse 9, After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

    Your son, our God, stands outside of the tomb, the tomb of a man four days dead. He has called forth faith from those who knew the man. He asks them to believe in him. But before that tune, he utters his voice, the word goes forth, and there is life. So the dead come to life. They rise. They rise unto a life of righteousness. by the word. Oh Lord, may we be those raised to newness of life through the word which we have heard. For Jesus’ sake, Amen. How will it be thy name? The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer.

    It is very important that we get off on the right foot, that we move along the right path at the first petition, so that our course may be established as we move through the other petition. Get this petition right, and you have a leg up on all the other petitions.

    Miss the point! Very likely you won’t get back on track as you move through the other petitions. You remember how Jesus presents is terrible, the first one he gives to his disciples, seemingly, is that one concerning the sower. But you recall the words of Jesus in Mark 4, verse 13, where he says, if you don’t understand this first of the parables, how will you understand any of the parables? If you don’t understand this petition, how will you understand any of the petitions?

    It is important, then, that you get it right. I would say the same with regard to beatitudes. Many of you have been discouraged because I belabored the beatitudes so much. But, you see, it’s so important that we get those beatitudes correctly. If we get the first beatitude right, We are well on our way to understanding the other Beatitudes that follow.

    So it is here with the petition. The first petition sets the tone. You get a hold on this one and there is then that good chance you’re going to understand the petitions that follow. So strain yourself a bit this morning. Stretch yourselves in your minds and in your hearts. Set yourself now, in the time we have, to get the first petition right. Understanding the Lord at this point will help you greatly, not only in following Him in this prayer, but also in being a person of prayer.

    The first petition is the chief petition. It sits atop the heap for a reason. It is the primary petition, the crown of the petition. Among all possible petitions that could have been listed, or even an altered arrangement of the petitions that we have in front of us here in the prayer, of all the possible rearrangement of the petitions. This petition is first. It has primary position. It is the chief.

    This petition, in a very unique way, in a very wonderful way, introduces us to the superlative nature of the true religious spirit. We’ve been dealing here in this section of the Sermon on the Mount with the religious spirit and proper piety, the practice of righteousness. But with the ascendancy of this petition, we are introduced to the superlative nature of that true religious spirit.

    What is religion? What is religion? What is it for us to be called religious, devout, and pious? Do you know what the word religion means? It means to bind, to tie, to bind back, to tie again. Why would such a word be used in relationship to spiritual matters? The whole idea of the binding and the tying has to do with servitude. To service. And to that most hated of words in our modern world, submission. Submission. Many want to live in a so-called religious environment. They want to live religiously. They want to be known as religious people.

    But the whole notion of, and the reality of, that word religion, they are a stranger to those things. to be tied, to be bound. That’s what religion means. The binding and the tying of those who are in servitude and thus in submission. That is what religion is all about. Strangely enough, it is not Christianity that gets it right. It is Islam. And that’s what the word means. Islam means submission. Islam is a rebuke to Christianity regarding the primary feature of the religious spirit.

    But of course there’s more to this word religion than just the binding. You see it’s a binding back and that’s what Islam means. You see, it also includes the notion of redemption, salvation, the binding back of those who are rebellious and recalcitrant. Redemption in Islam is forgotten. It is the absolutization of submission without any concept of redemption. But in so far as they have spoken about submission, they are a rebuke to Christianity. So Christianity seems to miss this all too frequently.

    This petition, the first petition, introduces us to the superlative nature of that true religious spirit and the submission that is brought before us in the expression of that religious spirit, by that religious spirit. Submissiveness, then, is at the very heart of the religious spirit, and that superlatively is expressed by this petition, hallowed be thy name. Now it’s important for us to understand precisely the character of the submission in view. The submission in view in this petition is most frequently misunderstood, misappropriated, misgrasped.

    The submission in view, you see, in this petition does not pertain to my own personal hallowing of God’s name. As if it were a sanctification that was brought before our eyes, I’m praying in this petition then that I might be one in whom the name of God is hallowed or sanctified. No, that’s not what is in view in this petition, even though that is what we are often taught. My recitation of this petition is therefore not a request of God that I might hallow his name, that I might sanctify his name. Neither is it a petition by which, in the repetition of it, God’s name is automatically hallowed or sanctified.

    Now hang with me, because I would venture a guess that most of us have grown up thinking that this First Petition has to do with our own personal pursuit of holiness and sanctification, and the hallowing of that name in ourselves. But the focus of it is something much different than that. You see, what I’m actually praying with this petition is an address to God to which I myself have submitted personally. My prayer is an indication of my acceptance of the chief and most exalted focus of God’s purpose, namely that His name be sanctified and hallowed. And my submissiveness, therefore, is in relationship to that purpose, that the purpose of God, the intention of God, namely the hallowing of His name, may be my chief my chief aim and desire, my chief focus. God shall surely sanctify and hallow his name And what I am praying in this prayer is an expression of the submissiveness of my heart to that purpose and intention of God that he shall surely hallow and sanctify his name.

    Well, he brings all things to conclusion. So the focus of the petition is not upon me first and my circumstance. The focus of the petition is upon the end of the world. When God’s purposes will be perfected and His name will be perfectly hallowed and sanctified.

    And that objective, for the purpose of God, I, in paying the petition, have made my own, I submit to it. everything else in truth, including our interpretation of the petition. We allow everything else to intrude. Every other aim is legitimate. We say, and every other petition has chief place. We make it that way.

    The house, the kids, the husband, the job, whatever, everything else, world conditions, poverty, the plight of the homeless, struggles in Central America, world peace, whatever it is, we may face it. My own holiness, my own sanctification, my own spiritual well-being.

    The hallowing of God’s name in the perfection of God’s purpose. when in fact we shall complete this purpose by bringing this world to an end. Do you like what you’re praying? Will you bring the world to an end? Do you hear what you’re praying? Come, Lord Jesus. Even so, quickly come. And that is my chief, foremost impulse, desire, and ambition. You are being trained and disciplined by the sufficient. Everything else pales into insignificance. Everything. It is the exaltation of God, and the perfection of His plan, and the accomplishing of all that is intended. The hallowed and sanctified of His plan. And that, above all else, is what we want and crave. Is it true? Is it true? Bring me the smoke. Jesus says, pray this way, I will be thy name.

    But this petition also articulates so wonderfully and so perfectly the tension of our present circumstance. First we said that it introduces us to the superlative nature of that true religious spirit, and now we say that it articulates for us so wonderfully, so perfectly, the tension of our present circumstance.

    We are praying that the Lord’s name be hallowed, because presently it isn’t being hallowed. And it will not be hallowed perfectly until God brings his purposes to conclusion, to consummation, until the end of the world. We pray for the hallowing of God’s name above all else, that being most important, because in our present circumstance, his name is not being hallowed. This petition, therefore, is one that is uttered in the setting of distress, when in fact the complete and full sanctifying of God’s name is yet in abeyance. It hasn’t yet been realized. Our prayer, then, through this petition for the hallowing of God’s name is a call for God to act conclusively and finally in vindicating his name.

    It is a prayer for him to bring this world to a close in the incomparable exaltation of his name. You see, the proof of what I’ve been saying here to you this morning is this. The petition is not that we might hallow his name, but that he might hallow it. Which he will do. You can count on it. After consummation.

    So then the petition introduces us to the superlative nature of that true religious spirit. It also articulates so wonderfully, so marvelously, the tension of our present circumstances. We’re praying for the hallowing of his name because his name in the world presently is not being hallowed. And finally, this petition captures the heart, the core. the quintessence of faith. Of faith. For though the circumstances warn of distress, those who oppose God and refuse to hallow his name, yes, they set in opposition to him, yes. But in the midst of that distress, we are not those who despair.

    We are those who pray this petition with absolute certainty. For it is absolutely certain that Christ will come again. It is absolutely certain that this world is going to end. And it’s only if you will live and pray in light of the end that you will live and pray alive. This petition captures the heart and core of your faith. And the disposition expressed here is one of utter confidence that the Lord will in fact act. Do you believe it? Is Christ coming again? Is this world going to end? If he is coming, if this world is going to end, there isn’t anything more important than I can tell you than that you pray in light of the reality of those eventualities.

    Our faith, so well expressed then by this petition. Our faith expressing itself in utter confidence that the Lord will act. But there’s also something else to be said here with regard to this faith, and that in conclusion. The faith that is at work here is a disposition that is utterly confident in the faith of the Lord’s coming actions.

    You are praying now that the Lord’s name be hallowed in light of the day when his name will be perfectly hallowed, and you who are praying that prayer can stand then in that day as those in whom God will perfect the glories of his name. You praying this prayer with comprehension and understanding, you grasping its significance, looking unto that day, you praying this prayer in that fashion, know that when that day comes, you, having prayed that prayer, will stand. You will stand. and you will be vindicated in the great vindication of God himself and he will bless you with his name and you will know that name as you’ve never known it before and in that day he’ll give you a new name which only he knows and that name will completely interpret you as his name interprets him and you will dwell in the blessedness of holiness and righteousness with him forever and as it is portrayed to you in that light you cannot help but want it all the more to come So you pray, Lord, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. Come Lord Jesus, even so, quickly come. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Transcendent, Yet Accessible

    Transcendent, Yet Accessible

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 22, 1989.

    About this sermon

    ‘Our Father in heaven’ raises a real question about what ‘in heaven’ means, and Bultmann’s answer falls short. God remains transcendent even as he becomes newly accessible, and Romans 8’s language of adoption holds that paradox together. Christ’s own Sonship is the hinge that opens that access.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading from Romans chapter 8, and we are beginning with verse 14. We will read through verse 27. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

    For I reckoned that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

    For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Even we, ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to which the redemption of our body.

    For we are saved by hope. but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope, for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth for hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” After this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father who art in heaven.”

    Lord, we know people who preach the word in Korea, and we know those who preach it in Japan and Taiwan and Philippines and Suriname. We know those who preach it in Cyprus and Kenya. Those who preach it in France and Belgium and Uganda. We know many, Lord. who are proclaiming your word around the world, and we know others who proclaim it here in this nation.

    We realize, too, Lord, that you have asked us to pray that you, the Lord of the harvest, would give labors for the harvest, and so we pray and commit ourselves to do so. Lord, to the end, that your word would have its full effect that your people receive its full value. May those that are sent remove from themselves every hindrance to the way of the word within themselves. We pray our God that they may be wholly dedicated unto you and it would please you to bless their preaching and teaching and that the word would have mighty success We pray this in Jesus’ name now. Amen. Everybody’s talking about it. Everybody ain’t going there. Everybody’s talking about it. Everybody ain’t going there. Heaven. Our Father, who art in heaven. What about heaven? What about heaven?

    Jesus’ words here, at the outset of the Lord’s Prayer, are specifically topological. They have to do with spatial consideration. Heaven is a place. Heaven is a dimension. So that spatial consideration, that topological consideration, that being accented by Jesus as the prayer begins, He calling your attention to that. but this placement, this reference to dimension, this reference to spatiality.

    His words here all inspire to accent as well the distance that exists, the distance that exists between heaven and earth. The Father is in heaven. In a unique way, in a special way, the Father is in heaven. He belongs to that place. He is of that dimension.

    Accented, then, is that distance and the difference that exists between that place where God is specifically, especially. and the earth. Not that God isn’t everywhere, and not that we don’t preach from the presence of God. But heaven again set apart, and the distance accented. The distance between heaven and earth.

    We’ve come to speak of heaven as up there. Heaven is up. We speak of it in that way, in a cosmological sense. We look up to the heavens. The heavens are above, but the heavens are also beyond. They are beyond in any near cosmological sense. They are beyond in the deepest theological sense, the deepest spiritual sense. The heavens are beyond.

    That is why every time I read Rudolf Fulton, I laugh. Here is the greatest theological mind of the twentieth century, and he writes an essay entitled New Testament and Mythology, and in that essay he contends that the people of Bible times were quite primitive, and they embraced a mythological cosmology. Heaven was up there, then there was Earth, and beneath there was the region of demons and the devil. A three-storied universe, which these primitive people embraced.

    And we being moderns can no longer accept that kind of description, that kind of cosmology. We have come of age. and therefore we must retranslate all of the categories of scripture into modern demythologized jargon. As I say, here is the greatest theological mind of the twentieth century, as if it escaped his notice that when Heaven is spoken of in Scripture, yes. I don’t mean to back down one bit from that spatial consideration that I gave you at the outset, but is it not apparent to you, is it not apparent to any simple reader of Scripture, someone from the hills of Germany, from which Biltmann himself came, that when you speak of heaven in the biblical sense, you are speaking about a spiritual realm. You cannot comprehend what scripture is speaking of under the categories of a mere cosmology. A pious German farmer, a godly man in his simplicity, knows more than the most brilliant theologian of our century.

    Yes, heaven is up. Christ does ascend. But heaven is also beyond. It is a dimension. spiritual. All of this then adds up in order to place before us the reality of that place of which we’ve been speaking. A place which we have come to think of as one in which there is no distress, there is no pain or frustration, and sin does not intrude at all. It is the place, yes, that is above, it is beyond, it is the place that is spoken of, too, with respect to the future we shall in fact enter. by God’s grace. But all that I’ve said so far is to place before you the truth that heaven as we are speaking of it here is a transcendent consideration. Up, above, beyond, yet to be realized for us in the day in which we enter into it by God’s grace. A transcendent reality, yes. But Jesus’ words about the Father who is in heaven are also meant to convince us of the present accessibility of heaven.

    Does it register for you? You are speaking to that One who is beyond. You are speaking to that One who dwells specifically in that world, that place that is above. You are addressing Him, and you are invited to do so. Heaven and the One who is in Heaven, our Father, is accessible to you now. Yes, the transcendence of that realm, but no less its accessibility for us today. you may talk to the one who is above and beyond. You may speak to him. Now, today. Heaven then in this form of address while maintaining all of these real features up beyond the transcendent is viewed as being accessible to us and close by. Close by.

    Now it has been close by for God’s people, has it not, from the very beginning. They, having access to their God, their petitions appropriate, their petitions heard, they addressing their God and expecting to be heard by Him. But what we are now told as Jesus places these words before us, a beginning to prayer, is that yes, though those things have been true, now they have been made true in a completely new and different way. Have I not been telling you that when Jesus comes, a whole new day of prayer begins, unparalleled, unprecedented in the history of the world. A whole new form of instruction is appropriate, for now it is clearer than ever before what God’s purpose and intention is.

    And how is it, I might ask, that we are enabled to address this one whom we are to address as the Father? Is that something that is ours by right? Is it our birthright? ours because we happen to be born into this world? Is it something that we share in common with all others who are on the face of the earth?

    No, you see, the address that is now articulated by Christ at the outset of this prayer is made possible because it assumes the fullness of His work as the Son. As the Son has opened it all up, now the Father has been manifested in all that He is, in all that He is meant to be for His people, as if for the first time His people can address Him truly. predicated upon, based upon that foundation of the Son’s work. It is the Son, after all, who teaches us to pray this life. The One who came and died. The One who was raised again. The One who, by His death and resurrection, gives you access to heaven. brings near heaven and its realities.

    All of that is true because of the work of the Son. You cannot pray the prayer unless you know the Son. And only those who know the Son can pray the prayer. For only if you know the Son are you sons. You are made sons. Not natively born, but adopted into the family of God, enabled now to cry out, you finish it. Abba Father. Well… Heaven. Everybody’s talking about it. Everybody ain’t going there.

    Heaven, that transcendent realm, that which is beyond, that which transcends, but yet that which is accessible and brought near to us through the work of Christ. Now we can say the same pattern of things. this transcended quality, this accessibility that we’ve mentioned already, we can see this pattern of things if we look also at those things with which heaven is associated specifically, and since we’re in the Gospel of Matthew, we will deal with that and how appropriate it is, because, you know, that in the gospel of Matthew, the favorite phrase by Christ for the kingdom is the kingdom of heaven. Heaven in Matthew’s gospel is specifically related to the kingdom. It is called the kingdom of heaven by him in that form. It is placed before us for our consideration, and that providentially at the outset of the New Testament canon, the New Testament Scripture, so that you’ll never lose your way.

    That is why I become so angry. That is why I become so upset. Having this providentially set before us, before the Church, we go on our way, and it isn’t long before we’re confused and muddled in our consideration, because to talk to some about the Kingdom, it’s as if heaven didn’t matter one bit. It was completely inconsequential to the consideration of the matter at all. Well, I’m sorry, I don’t want to be a Jew. I want to be a Christian after the order of Matthew. and the tone that he sets for the entirety of the New Testament canon.

    The kingdom of heaven, heaven in its relationship to the kingdom as it was with heaven and so it is now with the kingdom. Yes, it is transcendent. It is a transcendent realm. The kingdom is specifically of heaven. It relates to heaven, that is its character. Understand heaven, you understand the kingdom. Understand the kingdom, all right, and you have to understand heaven. It is a transcendent realm. As with heaven, so with the kingdom. It is a supernatural realm. It is a realm beyond.

    It is a realm that is essentially otherworldly. I know that there is an ungodly piety that is abroad in the Church that is concerned with world flight, getting out of the world, forgetting it and ignoring it. But there is an appropriate otherworldliness to the gospel, and we dare not forget that, as our keynote, the keynote that comes to us out of scripture. This one that arises to us, rises for us from the very first book in the New Testament, the kingdom of heaven, that kingdom related to heaven and the transcendental character of each.

    There is a realm, you see, where God’s reign and glory is unparalleled. That is not true of the earth. That does not mean that God is insovereign in the affairs of man, that men here conspire against him and oppose him willfully. There is a realm where God’s reign and glory are unopposed. There is a realm where God’s justice and righteousness are absolute. and in effect, present.

    That’s heaven. That’s the kingdom of heaven. And as that kingdom of heaven is transcendent, it is beyond, it is truly a kingdom into which we one day will enter. through many tribulations, we must enter into the kingdom of God. Acts 14. But what have we said about heaven? Did we not say, yes, it was transcendent, but yet at the same time accessible and close at hand? The same then will be said about the pain of these It is transcended, but simultaneously and mysteriously, wonderfully.

    It is something that is accessible to us. It is asserting itself presently in this world. It is making its presence felt. So says Jesus. From John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven is asserting itself, and determined men are taking hold of it by force. The kingdom of heaven is a reality upon the plane of the earth, mysteriously, wonderfully, so that a man, in understanding its value, goes out and sells all that he has, because he has to have the kingdom. And it can be, he said then, extending the symbol, extending the metaphor, something presently possessed, the treasure in the field, he said, for which the man sells all that he has. can be presently possessed.

    The pearl of great price can be presently possessed. You can have the kingdom of heaven in your grasp. Now. Now. And as it was with heaven, that present accessibility made possible by the work of the sun, so also the kingdom of heaven through the work of the sun. But the best comes last.

    The intro to the prayer says, our father who art in heaven. The kingdom has been related to heaven and now the father is related to heaven in this marvelous way. You see heaven is seen by Jesus as the abode of the father. The abode of the father. And it is a transcendent abode, it is up, it is beyond. But as we have said with regard to everything else this morning, so here as well, the abode of the Father is accessible, it is brought nigh, it is a present reality for those who have known the Son. in respect to all of these things.

    It’s as if we were moving towards heaven, as if we were moving towards the kingdom, towards the Father. But the marvel of marvels is this, that as we have been moving this direction and continue to do so, The grace of God has made plain to us through the gospel that heaven and the kingdom and the Father have been moving this way simultaneously, and they have become presently accessible to us. Here is the circumstance then of your life. keeping in focus the transcendent reality of heaven our father is in heaven but also the wonderful blessed access which you have to him now with boldness will he not draw near to the throne of grace that you might find grace itself in the time of need Do you not know that you have a Father above who will not turn you away?

    Do you not understand that you have a Father above who transcends all fathers here in this creation, who is perfect and utterly faithful, who will never fail you? Never fail you. Whose comfort is perfect. Whose gentleness is without measure. who is powerful to maintain the very things he has promised to give you so that you will come to possess them in full completely in blessedness in heaven there to dwell with him forever That’s the gospel I preach. And I am convinced that that’s the gospel that you must have.

    O Lord, we ask you that though you are exalted, dwell in all of your perfections above in glory, and though you reign in heaven wonderfully, where there is no opposition to your justice and righteousness, yet here in the earth We have been blessed by you so that even now we have access to that kingdom and to that glory which belongs to you in heaven above. Our Father who is in heaven and we encouraged all the more by Christ to pray in that fashion, remembering where you are, but yet how we have been brought near to you, as you have made yourself accessible to us. All of this possible because of the wonderful, incomparable work of Christ your Son, by which we have been made sons of God. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Our Father, Our Inheritance

    Our Father, Our Inheritance

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 15, 1989.

    About this sermon

    In the Lord’s Prayer believers say ‘our Father’ together, so God’s Fatherhood belongs to his people as a body, beyond any one believer. Three means of grace are the ordinary channels through which that Fatherhood reaches them. Galatians 4:7 makes the astonishing claim explicit, that in Christ’s coming God himself becomes the inheritance his adopted children receive.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning, our scripture reading begins with Paul’s letter to the Galatians, where in the fourth chapter we’ll be reading the first seven verses, then we will turn to Matthew, chapter 6. Here’s the word of God, Galatians 4, 1 through 7. Now, I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, different nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all. But his undertutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father, even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant but a son, and if a son, than an heir of God through Christ. In Matthew, chapter verse 9. After this manner, therefore, craves ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We may have come today with hearts that seem to be more stone than a flesh. Lord, we may find ourselves sitting here this morning not moved by the truth of the gospel, unmoved by the things of the spirit.

    Father, we pray that we all may find in you that which turns us about in our thinking and grants to us, Lord, that animation that is from above. Lord, may we be compelled, therefore, by your word and put far from us those things that would deaden our response. For your word is given for our comfort, but also for our correction. Do therefore, Lord, at this time, by Christ through the Spirit instruct us. And in this way, our Father who art in heaven. Now, first of all, it is corporate. It is plural. You need to hear it. It’s not my Father, though, of course, that is appropriate in its place. It is our Father, plural. It is corporate in character. Just who is it that Jesus is addressing? He’s addressing the disciples. There is an individual address here, all that all disciples, that each disciple would comply with those things that Jesus says. But the disciples are here gathered as a group. They are here collectively. They are plural. They are corporate. The hour belongs to them as they are congregated as an assembly before Christ, their Lord. In these disciples then, as they are so gathered, we see the Church in its infant form. The body that is being gathered, collected back, which will be described as the body of Christ. I know that I am liable to be misunderstood. But there is that sense from Scripture that teaches us that we must, first of all, learn of the corporate reality and then understand our individuality in light of it. There is a discipline involved in all of this as well. So this is specifically what conspires against our selfishness, our self-sutteredness. God is redeeming for Himself a people, and you find your place amongst the people as one of His people. The body is made up of many members, not just one.

    There is the corporate dimension of the activity of God. You do not, you cannot survive on your own. Salvation is not meant for you as if for no one else. You will not be in heaven alone, nor can you be as part of the Church of Christ here, claiming to be bounded to Christ, claiming to be of an Indian, alone, solitude. And it is, you see, this beginning for the prayer Jesus teaches His disciples that lends to us that conclusive proof that Jesus’ words in verse 6, where He speaks about going into the inner room, closing the door, and there speaking to your Father who is in secret, here is the conclusive proof that Jesus, by those words, did not mean to encourage a private, individualistic retreat. Rather, you see, the inner room that Jesus has in mind is a very, very large place, so large, in fact, as to accommodate all of the children of God.

    Actually, what Jesus has in mind with those words in verse 6 is a heavenly chamber into which the saints of the Lord gather in order that they might pray before their Father who is unseen. It is a corporate activity as all of the people of God enter into that chamber, close the door to the world, and there commune with the Father. The corporate character of the address, training our vision and disciplining us with regard to the character of the people of God, the nature of our faith, its focus, and its operation. We, not functioning alone, individualistically, separately, but as part of the body, with regard to this means of grace, that we are to speak then of the fellowship and the communion of the saints. The means of grace, I’ve mentioned it again, there are three. What are them? Can we rattle them off? This morning, can you give them to me?

    What are the three means of grace? The word, the sacraments, and prayer, to which some have wished to add a fourth. They want to add, as a means of grace, the communion and fellowship of the saints. But you see, those of a good mind, those of a good theological and doctrinal line, have always recoiled from that. Why? Because they saw that the means of grace always have their flop of context within the fellowship and the communion of the saints. So it’s not as if you can make the fellowship and the communion of the saints as one of the means of grace, though the means of grace function within the context of the communion and the fellowship of the saints. That is why you see, I am so anxious for you that you hear the word of God in the company of other believers, that you read and rehearse and hear the word of God in the company of others, in the company of the saints, in the assembly of the Lord.

    That’s why I become so impatient. It is because I am zealous for that fellowship and communion of the saints, and I am zealous for your soul, because I know that to cut yourself off from the communion and the fellowship of the saints is to cut yourself off from the means of grace. The focus is, first of all, then, on that corporate experience of the fellowship of the saints, in which these various means find their operation, and there, as it has been with the words, so also with the sacraments, do you wish to celebrate the sacraments by yourself? How about at your kitchen table, a little bread, a little wine, just you by yourself or maybe with your family members? How about a private baptism in your bathtub? In the bathtub, in the shower, a private celebration of the sacrum of baptism, you see, is unfeasible. Is it not unthinkable to you? If the sacraments are so to be considered, never to be abstracted then from the fellowship of the saints, much less than this particular aspect of the word, in that it belongs to the people, and in the assembly of the saints, that word is declared for their benefit, as with the word and the sacraments, so with prayer. You tell me about your prayers.

    Your prayers were informed by and disciplined by the power of our Father. For I do prayers perpetually, disciplined by, informed by, and I, and am I. Give me, hear me, resolve my kiss. Then, you see, will you go to hear about the concerns of others? Is it conceivable of you for you to fall down on your knees and begin with someone else beside yourself, to start in your prayers with other people, or to start with an understanding that you’re part of a body, you’re part of a fellowship, that your presence at worship or when prayer is offered is important, nay, I will say essential, that you might know how to pray for one another. The message is getting through. There were 21 at prayer meetings, and the message, I’m confident, is getting through to you. And you know the truth of the things of which I stood. Of course, my hope is that I don’t have to convince you of these things, I just have to remind you. I don’t have to make an argument with you. You already know these things to be true, but I really have to remind you. It should be. You mean this in a modern sense. It should be a wonderfully spiritual experience when we, as a body, say this prayer. When the saying of it together, there is that affirmation of that confession of our corporality, our body nature, in our prayer, life and experience. And in that, we are brought under the discipline of our Lord, being trained by Him to see things in a way that takes us far beyond ourselves, just. This is probably the time for confession. I know that I have the habit of racing you through the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in our service. And some of you have spoken to me about that, especially as it relates to your children and the fact that you feel your children can’t keep up with the pace. And I appreciate that. We shouldn’t pray this prayer, recite it glibly. We should recite it in a measured manner and savor its words and endeavor as we pray together this prayer to bring from it the full and proper meaning. Beginning pronoun is also a possessive and its possession. The power of it, you see, is brought before us when we hold on to that fact which we have been learning, namely that the coming of Christ has meant a new day of prayer and a new day of prayer has come with Him. And when Jesus now encourages His disciples to pray with words like these, our Father, focusing particularly upon the possessive quality of that opening word, our, the power of it all registers upon us in that it describes something which now has become ours, which was not ours only. The Father here is described by Jesus then with this address as that one who has become our possession. He is our Father. The force of it is to suggest to us that the Father now has given Himself to us and He belongs to us. He is one upon whom we can make the claim that He is ours. The idea here therefore is not simply that of suggesting a relationship between us and the Father. He is the Father. We are His children. Yes, that is in view, but it is more for the parentage that is in view as Jesus uses these words. Our Father is parentage in an ideal sense, the sense in which this parent, this Father, is not simply our source of life and our provider like any earthly father, but ideally, idealistically conceived. This one has literally given Himself to us for our good, and He has made Himself ours for our well-being. He is the very substance of that which has been given. Of course now what is coming to expression is the marvel of the covenantal relationship that exists between the Father and the children. Between the Father and us, that covenant has been variously described and often inadequately because it likes to live at the level of the legal aspects of the arrangements that exist. The Father is legally bound. The children before the law are bound as well, and surely the covenant has those legal aspects to it, but it is much more using.

    The covenant is expressive of a relationship, and what perfection is here manifested in this relationship that exists between our Father and us. Yes, it is true. We are His possession, but marvel of marvels, He has given Himself to us as our possession. We possess God. That is why this prayer expresses us, expressive of the unique relationship that exists between God and His people, setting those people apart from all others that are in the world. This prayer is not the common property of humanity. This prayer belongs to the covenantal people of God alone. It belongs to those of whom it can be said that God, the true God, the Father is their possession because the Father has given Himself to them. The sole matter of the covenant as it relates to possession is actually what is spelled out for us in the first question and answer of the short attempts, and if there was no other question than that question produced by the Westminster Assembly, we would have had all we needed to understand the marvels of God’s grace and love and the contours of His gospel overture. What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God. What does it mean to glorify God? It means to demonstrate concretely that you are His possession, that you belong to Him. But the fact is the answer doesn’t end there. It goes on. It says, and to enjoy Him forever. You see how the reflex is introduced? Not only are we God’s possession, but God has given Himself to us as our possession, that we might enjoy Him forever. And that is the goal, the objective of the covenant, and that is why it is not adequate, you see, to describe the covenant simply along the legal lines. You have to describe it, understand it along the lines of the fullness of that relationship that is in view, that covenantal bond that exists between God and His people. We belong to Him. He belongs to me and to us. What is the point of Paul’s description? In Galatians 4, the first seven verses, what is the objective? The objective is to convince the people that they are heirs. Heirs of what? Notice it again, verse 7.

    Of what are you heirs? Your heirs of God. What does that mean? That means that you inherit God. Not the kingdom. Not a piece of property someplace. Not a corner of heaven. You inherit God. He becomes your possession. The kingdom of it has already been given you in the Holy Spirit, who dwells within you. The Holy Spirit is given to me as your possession. Father, corporate character of that first word, and the possessive character of that word as well. Play it from now on. Remember that there are a host of people that belong to the Father, and that you’re one. You’re one of those, and that you with them have inherited God Himself through the work of Christ the Son, by whom you have been made sons. How great you are, how magnificent you are in all of your splendor is very mighty Lord like you, yet you have revealed yourself to us through Christ as our Father. Lord, we are trained by this address to understand that we are of the company of the redeemed, but also that as such we have you as the supreme gift given to us. Now Lord, we ask that as we would pray such a prayer as you have given us through your son, that we would be cognizant of the force and power of those words which we recite.

    That we, not only with our words, but by our lives, may acknowledge that you are, after all, our Father, the Father of your children, of your church, of that body which belongs to Christ. We pray these things through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • A New Obedience in Prayer

    A New Obedience in Prayer

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 18, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Christ’s coming does more than permit prayer. It gives believers a new obedience, exercised through him. The Lord’s Prayer shows three ways Christ has brought in a new covenant, and what the prayer teaches rests on what that covenant has already accomplished.

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    Sermon transcript

    We continue to look at Matthew chapter 6, verse 5 through 15. Here now, the word of God. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.

    Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” But when ye pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. After this manner, therefore, pray ye.

    Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if he forgives men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if he forgives not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Play with me again.

    Your word, our Father, brought forth into being that which is. And are you not able by this word to bring into being new creations, those that are now made afresh, made over for your glory, in which then your praises will be perfected. So it is, our God, your word, not the word of man. Your word is all-powerful. By your word you make all things new. We have been made new, our God, by your word, and we, in the newness of our lives, are determined to live for you. For Christ’s sake, amen.

    Last week we preached on prayer, and that message last week could well be called Christ and Prayer. And in that message I attempted to accomplish two things. One, I attempted to expose the deplorable state to which devotion to and practice of prayer as. But I also endeavored to present to you.

    The glorious state to which prayer is elevated in and through the work of Jesus Christ. My contention is this, that with the coming of Christ and the accomplishment of his work, a new day of prayer has begun. That being the case, We might be severely distressed, if not depressed, by our reflections upon our own condition, our reflections upon our own prayer life. The thesis is this. With the coming of Christ and the accomplishment of His work, a new day of prayer, unprecedented, has begun. How sad it is if the people of God are not participating fully in that new day of prayer. The new day of prayer has dawned then. But this new day has brought not only incomparable blessing for us as the disciples of Christ, the household of God, it has as well brought with it an unparalleled scrutiny of the prayer life, the prayer practices of the peoples of the world.

    This is the significance of Christ’s review in verse five of that sixth chapter of that which has now come to predominate Judaism. And then in verse seven, that which has come to predominate in the exercises of the Gentiles. Don’t be as the hypocrites Jesus warns. Likewise, don’t be as the Gentiles. The Jews do not understand the significance of Christ’s coming and the dawning of the new day of prayer. For they are infected with a prideful confidence, a self-sufficiency that has degenerated to an externalism, a formalism. An exercise which, in the end, is designed to call attention to themselves, not give glory to God.

    And what of the Gentiles? What of the nations? What is their condition? If the Jews are infected by a prideful confidence, the Gentiles are infected by a tragic anxiety. that leads to a skepticism that is resolved through the multiplication of petitions, in hopes that through the multiplication of those petitions they might be heard.

    Christ and prayer. A new day has come. But with that new day of blessing, unparalleled scrutiny of the religious activities of men. But how we ended our message last week, as we drew together our consideration of prayer and the figure of Christ. For if we do not draw them together, we too will end in despair. We will end in a powerless condition, increasingly frustrated with the emptiness of our prayers and frustrated by the fact that we do not have any sense of fulfillment in them, or any expectation that they will, in fact, be heard and answered. So it is essential in this new day of prayer brought by Christ that we understand that when we go to prayer, we do not go to prayer alone, but by our prayers we enter into that one who prays. without ceasing for us. The activities of Christ, then, for us, are more than just the fact that he dies upon the cross for our sins. No, there is an active obedience to the life of our Christ, and that active obedience is for us, as well as that passive obedience of the cross. If you are then looking for power in your prayers, let me direct your attention to Jesus Christ.

    For who is this One who prays incessantly, without fail, as He faces the tribulation and the trial of life, as He faces the cross and the demand made upon Him by the Father in Heaven? Who is it that fails? Who is it that prays without failing, then? Is it not Christ?

    You see, you are entering into Him, and those prayers which He has uttered in His pilgrimage become effectual for you in your pilgrimage. But it is even more glorious yet. for the one who faced the cross at the end of his pilgrimage was also the one who was exalted into the very presence of God. And that one, at the right hand of God now, does not fail to make intercession for you.

    I can’t keep it up, you say. I cannot continue to pray. I always wear out. I always wear down. I’m good for about a week, and then I fall on my face. Don’t you understand? First of all, you must comprehend, grab hold of the significance of your union with Christ before there will be any power, any persistence, any constancy, any regularity. in your prayers. In fact, in being united to Christ, the one who prays, without ceasing, you will be driven to your knees in prayer. So you see, the question isn’t, first of all, am I free? The question is, first of all, do I understand what it means to be united to Christ?

    That’s Christ and prayer. We want to go on this morning and take up the matter of. Covenant. From Christ and prayer to covenant. And we can proceed. With this subject. along the same lines that we preceded with the previous subject. For here, as formally, we note, with the coming of Christ and the accomplishment of his work, the promised new covenant has arrived.

    And the coming of that new covenant, its realization means the heightening, the intensifying and the radicalizing of the relationship of the believer to God in the experience of prayer. Never before has it been like this. So that he that is his belief in the kingdom of heaven The kingdom of God is greater than any of the Old Testament saints. And I’m not concerned about who you pick. David? Elijah? The least is greater.

    In light of what has come in the new covenant. And likewise, as with our former consideration, prayer in the new covenant now leaves the prayers of the Jews and the Gentiles as common expressions, falling far short of the covenantal intention of God in Christ. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile. Now in this day of the fulfillment of the new covenant, those religious expressions by Jew and Gentile are viewed as common expressions falling far short of the covenantal intention of God in Christ. Covenant and prayer.

    The blessings of that covenant, the realization of it. The heightening intensification radicalizing of the relationship of the believer to God in the experience of prayer. How would we unpack all of that? How would we? Define describe. These lessons. Prayer now in the day of the new covenant.

    Brings before us first of all in unprecedented way the fulfillment of God’s Lordship. It brings before us in unprecedented way the fulfillment of God’s Lordship Notice the assertion of that lordship in the prayer which Jesus teaches to his disciples.

    It is, after all, the name of our God which is to be hallowed. It is his kingdom which is here in view, taking precedent, it above all else, his will that is to be done in the earth as well as in heaven. It is to him that we are to look for our bread. It is to him that we are to go for our forgiveness, with him and with him alone. is the preservation and protection of our life against temptation and against the intrusion of superlative evil, that evil which would separate us from him. And as the postscript says, his is the kingdom, the glory, the power forever.

    In an unprecedented way, there is place before us now, as we come to this One who is our God, the fulfillment of our God’s Lordship with regard to us, its emphasis then being placed before us in terms of His sovereignty, His absolute sovereignty, our absolute dependence upon Him, His authority, His right, not ours. And with such an emphasis as that, the only proper response on our part is prostration, submission. In this new day brought by Christ, in the prayers that are offered in this day of the new covenant, There is the unprecedented fulfillment of our God’s Lordship over all, and our acknowledgment of it, and our submission to it. You must begin your prayers. It’s right on the surface. As you move through the Lord’s Prayer, it is right on the surface. You cannot miss it. You must submit. you must submit.

    The prayer in this day of the new covenant also brings before us in unprecedented fashion. The revelation of our God as father. So while we have placed before us the fulfillment of our God’s Lordship, we are not to think of our God in His Lordship as being one who rules despotically and cruelly, actually intended in His authority and the exercise of it to do us harm. No, this One whom we acknowledge to be Lord, to be King, to be our God, is our Father. And that’s precisely how the prayer begins. Our Father who art in heaven. The emphasis there falling upon our God’s affection, His care, His accessibility to us.

    This now being brought before us in unprecedented fashion. Nor, it wasn’t able, it wasn’t capable of being put before us formally. But now it is in light of the revelation of Christ himself the son. Our response then. To this revelation of our God is father is confidence. As his children. Confidence. Submission but confidence as well.

    And finally, prayer in this new day of the covenant brings before us in unprecedented form the realization that not only is our God the Lord, not only is our God the Father, but our God is the servant, our Lord is the servant in this covenant to provide us with what we need. Here’s the genius of the prayer. Notice its development. Do you hear Christ as he lays it out before you? First of all, he gives you all of the thy petitions. Note the thy petitions. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. The thy petitions, those thy petitions asserting the preeminence of God himself, underscoring the sovereignty of his person, But those bi-petitions are then followed by the us-petitions.

    Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. The us-petitions follow the bi-petitions. You see the progression that is worked out for you in the prayer. The prayer becomes the expression of the covenant itself, the relationship that exists between God and His people. It is preaching to you the significance of what God has done in order to accomplish His covenant, to bring it to pass. For the one who is the Lord, whose sovereignty is acknowledged, becomes the servant to His people when they make requests of Him that they be given their daily bread. that their sins be forgiven, that they be kept from temptation and evil.

    He becomes servant to them. Your request becomes His command. And He wants it that way. And isn’t it plain that He wants it that way? For the one who is the Lord, has become the servant and given himself for his people that they might have the full bounty of the king.

    Don’t you see how Jesus is able then to tell his disciples and us through them, ask whatever Whatever you want. Don’t you know your father wants to give you these things? He wants to give you the kingdom. Ask and you shall receive. For the Lord has made himself your servant. And when you pray, you come to him and he presents himself to you as that servant in order that you might have what you need. Now you see why Jesus is able to go on later in this chapter and says, why do you worry? Why do you worry? Don’t you know? You have a Father who goes unseen, who cares for you better than any Father of this creation could ever care for.

    And He’s proved it to you in the cross. where the Lord was indeed the servant for your sake. Now I realize it takes a lot of convincing and you have to have a lot of long talks with yourself. You might even want to read Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews again and again come with fullness to the fulness of grace that you might receive grace in the time of need knowing that you have a high priest with you who is ministering for you and that without fail. The Lord’s Prayer preaches to us the covenant, the bond between God and his people, and of course in the end, the cross, the gospel, our salvation.

    Pray like this, he says. Let us pray. O Lord, sweep away all of our pretentiousness. Sweep away all of our anxiety and skepticism, all of our doubts. Though the world may mock, and it may seem contrary to all appearances of things, may we entrust ourselves to you, the King, the One who is the Father, the One who is manifest Himself as the Servant as well, in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. O God, therefore with boldness we will come Our response being one of jubilation and expectation, realizing that you are a servant to us in our need that we might have what is needful and necessary. Help us, our God, for we would pray as we should, but we must understand better, grasp, hold on better that vital union that exists between us and Christ. And we must see at the center of things the marvel of your activity for us. In giving us your son. But in bringing about a new day of prayer. In the context of. The fullness and fulfillment of your covenant. Thank.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.