Approaching the Throne [B]

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Tonight we’ll be in Matthew chapter 6 again. Matthew chapter 6, looking at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer. And years ago, I mentioned this morning, working as a substitute teacher when I was in college.

And years ago during that time, I worked for a full week in the same class one time. My cousin was the teacher’s assistant, and she said, the teacher’s going to be out of town all week, and they need a sub. why don’t you put in for it and it’ll be fun.

And it was fun because she was in a pre-K class and I had always only done high school. And so that was a big change. There was one mother, speaking of being late, as we’ve been talking about a little bit tonight, there was one mother who always would bring her daughter in 10 minutes late to class.

Once we’d already started class time, once we all had the kids, had all the kids gathered around in the little circle and we were talking about the days of the week and the weather, and she would bring the child in 10 minutes late, and both of them had big personalities and big voices, and the mother would come in in her bathrobe and slippers, hair curlers and all this, and drop her daughter off, give her a big kiss on the head, and say, bye baby, learn big for mama today, in her best Oklahoma drawl. Learn big for mama. And so every Sunday when I call my mom, she asks me, did you preach big for mama today?

And this morning, I said, Well, I guess I did. I said about 4,000 words, talking about two words, our Father. So I guess it doesn’t get preaching much bigger than that.

But tonight we’re going to look at the remaining eight words of verse 9. And my children allowed me to have a nap this afternoon, so we could be here all night. We won’t be, but we could be.

Starting in verse 9, it says, 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.

And as we discussed this morning, he tells us, After this manner, pray ye, this is not a formula, this is not a script for the exact words we’re supposed to use when we pray, but this is a, it’s not a script, but it’s a formula for the kinds of topics we’re to cover, for the kind of attitude that we’re supposed to have. And it begins with how we approach God. And as we discussed this morning, that we approach God as our Father.

I don’t know if you realized until I mentioned it tonight, but this morning we really only covered the two words, our Father. We approach God, first of all, as a Father, and that’s completely and utterly distinct from the other religions of the world with the exception of Judaism, which Christianity came out of. We approach God as a father.

He gives us the right not just to address him as a sovereign, as a creator, but gives us the right to approach him as a father. And this means three things that we talked about this morning. First, that he loves us, and we approach him knowing that we are approaching a God who loves us.

Second of all, he disciplines us. We shouldn’t just assume that we’re going to get everything we want because God loves us like we love our children. He loves us enough to let us get away with things that we shouldn’t get away with.

And third of all, he’s familiar to us. We don’t serve an unknown God. I think of the people in Athens in Acts chapter 17, when Paul sees their lines of shrines and idols, and they were so worried that as they worshiped all of these various gods, they were so worried that there was a God out there that they were going to end up missing that they had a shrine to the unknown God.

And Paul went to them and said, the God you ignorantly worship, I declare him unto you. Folks, we are not intended to worship God in ignorance. We are allowed to know him.

And our worship and our prayer to him should not be like devotions to the unknown God, but to a God and father who we know and who loves us and who cares for us and disciplines us as a father and has condescended to make himself known to us. And so there’s tremendous meaning in those two words, our father, but it doesn’t stop there. We talked this morning about knowing something about someone by the names and titles that are used for them.

And there are three different things that are pointed out here about God’s name, God’s title, God’s attributes, as Jesus teaches his disciples to approach the throne. And the first we talked about this morning was that we approach God as our Father. Second of all, tonight we approach God as our King.

We approach God as our King, number two. He says, after this manner, therefore, pray ye our Father. And then he says, which art in heaven.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, he is not just up there floating around on a cloud and playing a harp. I know that’s what’s shown in cartoons a lot of times. Please don’t take your theology from cartoons.

I remember both times we lost a child and people would tell us, oh, he’s up there as a guardian angel now. And I know they meant well, but I wanted to rip out what little hair I had left. Say, you’re taking your theology from Bugs Bunny.

They’re not guardian angels. We do not become angels when we die. But ladies and gentlemen, God is not just up there floating around on a cloud and playing a harp.

When the Bible talks about God being in heaven, the Bible portrays that as God’s throne room. Now, does He have a physical throne? Could be.

You know, there’s enough mention in the Bible of the throne of God and even descriptions that I have to believe there’s some kind of throne room in the heavens. Now, where exactly that is, I don’t know. But God is seated at the very seat of power in the universe.

God is on the throne of the universe. And this is kind of the opposite side of the coin from looking at God as our Father. We want to be familiar with God.

We want to know God. We want to approach Him in an intimate way as a Father who loves us. But we need to never forget that when the Bible talks about God being in heaven, He’s up there for a reason.

He is enthroned in glory in the heavens. And we’re taught to approach God as our king. We’re taught to approach God as our king when it says, Our Father which art in heaven.

Can we point to it? We’re taught to approach God as our king when it says, Our Father which art in heaven. And some things about God being our king is that first of all, God is almighty.

Do you realize that? I know I’m not telling you anything you haven’t heard before. We all know up here that God is almighty, but I think sometimes we fail to realize that because it’s not reflected in our prayers.

It’s not reflected in the way that we talk to God. And I’ve told you before that, well, we’ve talked about this several times in discussing the attributes of God, that so many people have this skewed idea of God. They either ignore the Father aspect and they act like God is just a tyrant in the heavens that they’re afraid of, they’re terrified, scared to death of, or they ignore the sovereignty of God and almost approach God as an equal. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of watching people pray on television, on shows, watching characters pray on television and address God as though He is their equal. Folks, I know myself too well, and a God who is my equal is not a God I want to pray to.

Anybody else with me on that? A God who’s my equal would not be a God I would want to pray to. Folks, God is not our equal. Yes, we can approach Him with familiarity.

We can approach Him with intimacy. But ladies and gentlemen, we would do well to remember that He is still the King of the universe. He’s almighty.

He’s almighty. Matthew tells us in chapter 19, But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Folks, there are numerous verses throughout the Bible that talk about the omnipotence of God.

But it boils down to there are things that man cannot do that God can do. And there is nothing that is consistent with the nature of God that is impossible to him. Hear me on that.

There is nothing that is consistent with the nature of God that is possible to him. The Bible makes clear that God cannot lie, that God cannot deceive, God cannot sin, God cannot just excuse sin. There are certain things God can’t do.

And I would submit to you there are things in logic. For example, God can’t make a square with three sides because there’s no such thing by definition. And God, I believe, is the one who originated logic.

That’s why I scratch my head when people say, well, can God make a rock so heavy he can’t lift it and act like they’ve got us over a barrel? No, God can do anything that’s consistent with his nature. I have a friend who said, yes, God can make a rock so heavy he can’t lift it, and then he’ll lift it.

I don’t know what to say to that. But folks, there’s nothing consistent with God’s nature that he can’t do. And we do well to remember that when we go to him in prayer because I think it would strengthen our faith if we really took it to heart, what we say we believe, that God is almighty, that he’s the king of this universe, and there’s nothing consistent with his nature that’s outside of his reach.

I think if we really took to heart what we profess with our mouths to believe, it would increase our faith as we go to God and ask him to pray. Or ask him for things in prayer, excuse me. To remember that God is our king and he is almighty.

I look at the story of the virgin birth, and I’ve shared with you several times. I think we talk about it every Christmas, my view on the virgin birth. I believe it absolutely happened.

And I believe that the attempt by liberal theologians to say, well, that’s not what the Bible teaches really, is dishonest. Because they’ll tell us that Isaiah 7. 14, the word Alma, that is translated there as virgin, when Isaiah says that a virgin will bring forth child, They say, well, that word al-mach just means in Hebrew, a young girl, a maid. Well, that’s true.

It can have both of those meanings, just like some of our English words can have multiple meanings. But the rest of that verse in context says that this shall be a sign unto you, speaking of the coming of the Messiah. There is nothing, I know we look at it and we say, oh, it’s a miracle, the miracle of life when a child is born.

But in the strictest sense of the word miracle or sign, there’s nothing particularly miraculous about any one child being born. And of course it would be to a woman. Men don’t give birth, typically, unless you believe the National Enquirer.

Men don’t typically give birth. And of course it would be a young woman. After a certain age, women don’t bear children anymore.

I mean, that’s just science. So for it to say a young woman will give birth, well, no kidding. But to say this will be a sign unto you, a young woman will give birth, that’s not really a sign.

That points to every one of us who have ever been born. For it to really be a sign, That word has to be interpreted as al-mach, a virgin would give birth to a child. And people have been scratching their heads for hundreds of years, for thousands of years, trying to figure out how is it that a virgin gives birth?

Well, folks, I don’t know, except that it’s God who designed our DNA, and it’s God who can manipulate it as He pleases. And folks, God, one of the other places where the Bible says all things are possible with God, I believe is in Luke, where it’s talking about that Mary is about to give birth, And she says, how is this supposed to happen? Mary was the first one to ask, how does this even work?

And we’re told in Luke that with God, nothing shall be impossible. And ladies and gentlemen, if God could cause a virgin to conceive and bring forth a child, I can’t see anything he can’t do. Folks, if God could take the dead and make them to live again, as Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead.

If God has power over life and death, I can’t really see anything that’s outside of his control. And not only that, but to raise the dead to life and make them live forevermore. Do you realize Jesus Christ doesn’t have to die a second time?

It would be blasphemous to suggest that Jesus Christ had to, or could, or would, or should die a second time. When God raised him to life, that’s it. He’s raised to life forever.

Folks, one day he’ll raise us to life forever. And if God can raise the dead, there’s not really anything that’s outside of His control. If God could push back the waters for the Israelites to cross on dry land over the Red Sea, there’s not really anything that’s outside of His control.

And we could go throughout the list of things that are just amazing that God has done throughout the Bible and look at that and realize we serve the same God who no matter what the Israelites got themselves into over 4,000 years of their history, God was able to look at them and say, I’ve got this, and realize that we serve the same God today. And if He was awesome in might and power back then, He’s no less awesome in might and power today. And we need to be reminded to come to God with a sense of faith and belief that He is who He says He is, and He can do what He says He can do.

That I don’t care, ladies and gentlemen, what the government of the United States says. I don’t care what the Supreme Court ever says. I don’t care what any other leader or power says.

God has not abdicated the throne in heaven. He’s still there. He’s still on his throne.

He’s still sovereign over the affairs of men. He’s still the king. And he’s also all-knowing.

And we’ve already seen this in Matthew chapter 6 as we’ve gone through this a little bit. In verse 6 it says, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. When thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret.

And get this, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. We talked about that last week. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no place that we can hide from the eyes of God.

God sees and knows everything we’ve done. He even sees the heart, which I still say can either be a comforting thing or a terrifying thing, depending on where we are at the moment. When the Bible says man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

Sometimes I’m glad he knows my intentions. Other times I think, oh, I wish he didn’t. Folks, there’s nothing that God doesn’t know.

And God knows our needs even before we tell Him, ladies and gentlemen. God knows our needs sometimes before we even know our needs. And many times we have to go to God in prayer and say, I know there’s a need here somewhere.

I know that this situation needs to be handled, but I don’t even know what I need. And I just trust you to handle this because, God, you know my needs better than I do. Folks, God is a king who sits on the throne of heaven, but do not be deceived into thinking that he’s just floating around out there and doesn’t interfere, intervene in our world.

That was an idea called deism that was popular about 300 years ago until people wised up and I think about half the deists said, well, actually we really think there is no God, and about half the deists said, no, if there is a God, it’s got to be closer to what the Bible says. The idea of deism is that God was like a cosmic watchmaker. He just put the earth together, put the universe together, wound it up and let it go and just sits back and watches it.

Doesn’t really have to do anything with it. That is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible sits firmly enthroned in the heavens and watches over the affairs of men and He’s intimately involved in our lives.

He sees our needs and He can handle all of our issues, all of our problems. And folks, we ought not to go to a God that powerful, a God that sovereign, lightly. I’m not saying don’t go to him for little things. And I’m not saying don’t go to him as a father and intimately, but I’m saying we need to treat the God of heaven with a lot more respect than he gets from a lot of people.

Now, it’s not my job to deal with them about that because God will deal with it. But at the same time, it is my job to warn myself and warn you all. We need to treat God with the respect and the awe that he deserves.

He is our King. He is enthroned in the heavens. Third of all tonight, we approach God as our judge.

We approach God as our judge. He says, Our Father which art in heaven, and then He says, Hallowed be thy name. That word Hallowed, you probably know it from two places.

The Lord’s Prayer and Halloween. The word hallow is sort of an old English word that means holy, sanctified. And you think, what does that have to do with Halloween?

They have on November 1st what they call All Saints Day, where in the early days of Catholicism, or I should say the later days, earlier than now, but later than, well, just earlier than now. After they set up the congregation for the, I forget the name of it, for the recognition of the saints, whatever they call it, and they had a calendar set up with feast days for all of the saints, eventually they got to a point and they realized there are more saints than we have days on the calendar. And what if we forget some of the saints?

And so they set aside All Saints Day on November 1st, kind of like in the worship of the unknown God, they set aside the, the Greeks set aside the shrine, saying, in case we miss a God, here’s his shrine. Well, the Catholic Church said, in case we miss some of the saints, here’s their day, and we’ll just celebrate them all on November 1st. And so it was called All Saints Day. And then, because nobody should be left out, November 2nd is All Souls Day, where we celebrate all the people.

But All Saints Day was on November 1st, And so Halloween, October 31st, was called All Hallows’ Eve, the evening before they would celebrate all the holy people. That word hallowed means holy. That word hallowed means set apart, sanctified.

I’ve told you before, the word sanctified means set apart. When we are saved, when we are born again, we are sanctified. If you want to use the old English word, we are hallowed at that point.

Now, it doesn’t mean that we are in our behavior that we are as righteous as we are ever going to be we should as Christians grow from that point on. But sanctification is instant in that God sets us apart and marks us out and says they are mine. They’ve been bought with a price and they’re mine.

And we’re set apart and then we are supposed to live differently. And then sanctification is also ongoing where he changes us and makes us, molds us into who we need to be in him. Well, this word hallowed is applied to God and his name.

Holy is your name. That even the mere mention of God’s name needs to be treated with respect. And if the name should be treated with respect, how much more should the being?

How much more should God be treated with respect? And to be holy in the sense of God doesn’t just mean set apart. It means righteous.

It means sinless. It means without blame or blemish. And the more I ponder on the sinlessness of God, I realize that even the best of us are so wicked that it’s not just we can’t attain unto the holiness and the sinlessness of I think we can’t even understand completely how a being can be that pure and without sin.

Because we look at God through the lens of our own understanding. And we try to look at God through our own eyes. And we have sinful eyes.

I don’t think I fully understand how holy God is. Ladies and gentlemen, He is perfectly sinless. I’m not perfectly sinless even since I’ve been standing up here tonight, let alone my whole life.

And yet God is without sin. Moses wrote, Because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

That everything God does is right and true and just, and God is completely without iniquity, completely without blemish. God is sinless. God is so sinless that even his name is holy.

Now, I don’t believe it’s biblical where the Jews got the idea of not pronouncing the name of God. What I see in the Bible is that God’s name is not to be taken in vain and not to be taken lightly. And even today, I have Jewish friends who will write things, and they’ll spell God G-D because they don’t even want to profane the writing of God’s name or Lord, L-R-D.

I think that was a little overboard, is a little further than what the Old Testament told them to do. don’t pronounce God’s name, don’t write God’s name. But at the same time, I understand where they are coming from.

Even God’s name is so holy, we don’t want to profane His name. Because He’s sinless. He’s a level of sinlessness we cannot even imagine.

And when we come to God as a father, we do want to come to Him in a sense of intimacy that we know Him. But we also need to not forget that He is the sinless, righteous judge of the universe. And the Bible says fear the Lord, and for years, for generations maybe, we’ve been taught, well, that just means a healthy respect.

Well, we do need to have a healthy respect for God, but I think it wouldn’t hurt us if we were a little afraid, a little afraid every now and then, a little afraid, a little afraid every now and then, like Isaiah was. In Isaiah chapter 6, he gets a vision of God in His holiness, enthroned, and says, woe is me, for I am undone. And if you’re not so good with the old English, that means I am in big trouble here.

Because I’m a wicked man. And I dwell in the midst of a wicked people. And he saw God and saw the angels flying around his throne singing, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

I think God’s people in particular, but really the whole world, would be better off if we got just a glimpse of what Isaiah saw. And realize that God is the righteous judge who’s to be feared. Yes, in a sense of healthy respect, but also maybe in a sense of fear and trembling.

I don’t mean terror that we’re afraid God is just going to zap us, but I know if I went in to meet the President of the United States or the Queen of England or somebody like that, I am not afraid that they’re just going to lop my head off, but at the same time, I would be a little bit nervous. There would be some fear and trembling, I think, some nervousness, some anxiety. And we need to respect God and fear God because he’s not only sinless, he’s different from us.

God, again, is not our equal. This holiness means he’s different. It’s not just that he’s different because he’s never sinned. His makeup, his nature is entirely different from ours.

God is, it’s not just that God is cut from different cloth than we are. God isn’t cut from cloth. Folks, we are created beings.

We are made out of stuff. God created the dirt, and then God created us out of the dirt. Nobody created God, and He wasn’t created from anything.

God always has been. God always will be. God is just entirely different from us.

And we are made in His image, but He is not made in ours. And in this passage, in this verse, in these names that we are given, in these titles that we’re given about God, these things that Jesus calls Him when He teaches His disciples to approach the throne, we’re taught these three aspects of God’s nature. And it may sound to some people like they’re paradoxical, like they contradict each other.

Well, you can’t look at God with this sense of intimacy and also this fear that you’re talking about. I submit to you, yeah, we can. Yes, we can.

That we’re taught that He is all of these things. He is our Father and loves us and takes care of us. He is our King who is in charge of everything.

And He is also our righteous judge whose very character should show us how sinful we are and drive us constantly to come back and repent and confess to him and keep a short list of accounts with him. The bottom line here is that we need to approach God as someone we know and love but also respect. We’re taught that with these names of God.

And he says, after this manner, pray ye. Pray this way. I believe good prayer.

There is good prayer and there is bad prayer. Good prayer begins with approaching the throne in the right attitude and with the right view of God.