Grace to You Weekend

John MacArthur: What do we mean when we say "hallowed be Your name"? We're not making God holy; He's already holy. We're simply recognizing it. We're treating Him as holy. We're acknowledging His holiness. We're affirming that we recognize His holiness. And that's essential as we come to Him in prayer.

Phil Johnson: Welcome to Grace to You Weekend, featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Scripture tells us that God is holy, absolutely pure. So what good is it to pray that God's name be hallowed? Can the prayer of a sinner add anything to a holy God?

John MacArthur answers that today as he looks at a marvelous example of prayer in Scripture, the model prayer that Jesus taught His disciples. Word by word, it contains profound lessons for your prayer life. John will continue unpacking those lessons today, focusing particularly on what it means to pray for God's name to be glorified and for His will to be done. And now, with the lesson, here's John MacArthur.

John MacArthur: I would invite you to turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, verse 1. "And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.'"

And He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation."

In this text of Luke 11, we come to Jesus' specific instruction on how to pray. The question that launches it is at the end of verse one: "Lord, teach us to pray." Teach us to pray. To that, Jesus responds, "When you pray..." No set time, no set posture, whenever you pray. Say: first thing, "Father."

Here is a model, a pattern, a format, a framework for prayer that begins with addressing God in a way that the Jews really never did. Collectively they did, but individually they did not. This invocation says that you have the right to approach God—the Creator, the Sovereign, Eternal, Holy One—and to call Him "Papa." Let's just call that "God as source." That's where we start. But even more intimately, "God as Father."

Secondly, I want to see the next statement here: "hallowed be Your name." Let's just say that's "God as sacred." God as sacred. What do we mean when we say "hallowed be Your name"? We're not making God holy; He's already holy. We're simply recognizing it. We're treating Him as holy. We're acknowledging His holiness. We're affirming that we recognize His holiness. And that's essential as we come to Him in prayer.

This is a protection against sentimentalism. This is a protection against overuse and abuse of "Abba," which is so prone to be sentimentalized. The truth is, when you pray, yes, you go into His presence as Abba, but immediately you're pulled up short to the realization that the absolute priority place in your heart belongs to the glory and the honor of God. Whatever it is that you're bringing in, it is directed at that.

Jesus says, "Father, glorify Your name." That's the model. That's what this is saying. Augustine said it's not that God's name is not already holy, but we pray that men may regard it as holy and that God may become so near and dear to us that we esteem nothing more reverent than Him.

Prayer begins clearly with us being on our face—the prayer that God would use His fatherly goodness and His eternal riches at His disposal on behalf of His people to glorify Himself, for us and through us. Romans 11:36: "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen."

The third element here is "Your kingdom come." This looks at "God as sovereign." That's critical in your prayers. You come to God as a loving Father who's the source of everything you need, you come to God as sacred, absolutely holy and pursuing His glory, and you come to God as utterly and completely sovereign.

Immediately after the celebration of intimacy and the celebration of worship comes submission. Do whatever advances Your kingdom. That's the point. Do whatever advances Your kingdom. "Here I am, Lord. I have one prevailing request: do whatever advances Your kingdom." God does what He does because He purposes to do it, but the means by which He does it is our prayer. Just as God saves us because He determined to save us, but the means by which He saves us is our faith.

Do whatever advances Your kingdom. The Talmud says that prayer in which there is no mention of the kingdom of God is no prayer at all. The vain repetition of the Pharisees and the scribes somehow seeking to badger God into doing what they wanted is a far cry from what our Lord is telling us here.

The kingdom of God was a central matter in His preaching. The kingdom of God is the sphere over which God rules. There are two elements of it. There's the universal kingdom, that is to say God is the ruler of the entire universe. But there is the redemptive kingdom, and that is the kingdom of those over whom God rules by virtue of salvation.

What we say is, "God, whatever it is that brings the fullness of Your redemptive purpose to pass, do that." Jesus came preaching the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom. He was sent by God to preach the kingdom, to announce that the kingdom was in their midst. The kingdom was available. The King was gathering His people. He told them how to come into the kingdom. He told them what it required.

He said the kingdom already existed because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets are in the kingdom. He said in Luke 17:21, "the kingdom is in your midst." He was talking about the salvific kingdom, the realm of salvation over which God rules. We really are saying, "Lord, I just want You to do what builds Your kingdom and brings You glory through salvation." You're praying for the advance of the gospel. You're praying for the salvation of the lost. Let Your kingdom come down.

In the prayer in Matthew 6, which I purposely didn't use because I wanted to use this one to make it clear to you that this is not a formula, it's a structure—and that's why the two are not the same—but in that prayer in Matthew 6, He says, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." What's going on in heaven? The exaltation of God, the worship of Christ, and the dominance of holiness.

It's where God is praised and worshipped by the saints. This is a prayer to bring that down. Bring heaven down. That's why I've been saying for years, the church is not to be the place where the world comes in, it's to be the place where heaven comes down. That's what we're praying for. Bring Your heavenly kingdom down. Build Your kingdom. Exalt Yourself, exalt Your Son. The true church is the answer to this prayer. You're the answer to this prayer.

I think you would say that immediately if I said to you, "Would you want to pray something that was contrary to the redemptive purpose of God?" No. Then this is how you line up. God, before I ask anything for myself—you know there are no personal requests yet. Have you noticed that? Before you ever get to that, you've got to go through this. This is the structure. By now, you're so lost in wonder, love, and praise, your next words are probably going to be, "the rest I leave to You." I mean, you're almost there.

There is an utter yielding up at this point. Glorify Yourself. Lift up the Son that He may draw His own. Build Your kingdom. I want You glorified. I want Christ exalted. Paul understood this. He gave his life, he said, purposefully so that people would believe. He said to the Corinthians, "And their praise would redound to the glory of God." His whole life was given to add one more voice to the Hallelujah Chorus that God might be glorified.

You're really praying redemptively here for the purposes of salvation to be fulfilled. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, it says God our Savior desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. This is God's purpose, that those whom He has called would come to salvation. What's our part? I entreat or I urge that entreaties, prayers, petitions, thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires men to be saved.

What are we praying for? We're not praying for the political wisdom of people; we're praying for their salvation. Pray. You say, "Well, God already knows what He's going to do." But again, the means He uses to do what He does is our prayers. Daniel was praying because God had already revealed what He was going to do. And yet I want to add something here. You can't cave in at this point.

You can never really make a truce with evil. You can never be indifferent to the lostness of the world. Jesus is weeping over the city of Jerusalem. Paul says, "If I could, I literally would wish myself accursed for the sake of my brethren." You can never be resigned to a passive attitude. There can never be some kind of gray acceptance of the way things are. You can never let your theology stifle your zeal for intercession.

David Wells wrote, "What then is the nature of petitionary prayer?" He said this: "It is, in essence, rebellion. It is rebellion against the world in its fallenness, the absolute and undying refusal to accept as normal what is pervasively abnormal. It is, in this, its negative aspect, the refusal of every agenda, every scheme, every interpretation that is at odds with the norm as originally established by God. As such, it is itself an expression of the unbridgeable chasm that separates good from evil. It is the declaration that evil is not a variation on good, but its antithesis."

To come to an acceptance of life as it is, to accept it on its own terms—which means acknowledging the inevitability of the way it works—is to surrender a Christian view of God. This resignation to what is abnormal has within it the hidden and unrecognized assumption that the power of God to change the world, to overcome evil by good, will not be realized. We have to rebel. We rebel against evil in the world. We rebel against the dishonor of God and the dishonor of Christ.

I remember reading about Henry Martyn, the missionary in India, who first came there, went to a temple where the Hindus were worshipping with sacrifices, and it was a vile experience. He ran from that experience, and he went to his room and took his journal and wrote this: "I cannot endure existence if Jesus is to be so dishonored." I think we understand that. We never come to a truce with that.

It isn't that we distrust the purposes of God; it is that we share the passion of God. It is that we are prompted by the Spirit of God to feel the way He feels. Psalm 69:9, the psalmist writes, "Zeal for Your house has eaten me up. The reproaches that fall on You have fallen on me." What a statement! He's saying, "God, when You're dishonored, I feel the pain."

Jesus experienced it, didn't He? He went into the temple and He cleaned the place out. In a sense, He said, "I'm the fulfillment of Psalm 69," for He quoted it: "Zeal for Your house has eaten me up." What is the passion of that prayer? The passion of that prayer is that God would not be dishonored, that Christ would not be dishonored, that the kingdom would come, that salvation would come, that the Lord would build His church, that He would be glorified.

This turns prayer into worship of the highest kind, from the heart—a passion for His glory. When prayer is used as a device for eliciting health and success and other favors from some celestial vending machine, is this Christianity? I think not. Jim Packer said the prayer of a Christian is not an attempt to force God's hand, but a humble acknowledgment of helplessness and dependence.

Verse 3, we get to our side of this prayer. "Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation." Once you've put God in the rightful place, you can get to you.

We don't have time to develop all of this, but suffice it to say each of these requests is tied to a promise. Each of them. The Old Testament says, "I've never seen God's people begging bread." The New Testament says, "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus." God already promised to give us everything we need. Seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he says, "Don't worry about giving, don't worry about giving generously. Sow bountifully, reap bountifully, and God will give you bread for your food." Why are we asking? Because you always ask consistent with divine promise. The second one, "forgive us our sins," that is based on a promise. "If we confess our sins, He's faithful and still righteous to forgive our sins."

Do what You said You were going to do. Meet our physical needs, sustain our lives until our lives fulfill Your full purpose. Forgive our sins the way You said You would—our violations of Your holy law. Forgive the debt we've incurred with You as we desire to do the same for others. Every believer who comes to the foot of the cross knows God is the supplier. God is the source of everything. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights in whom there's no variableness nor shadow of turning.

God is not only our supplier and our Savior, He's our safety. We know that—the end of verse 4, "lead us not into temptation." Is God going to lead us into temptation with a view to exposing us to the evil one, as Matthew 6 says it? Is He going to purposely lead us into a temptation so that we can fall? No. God doesn't tempt, James 1, does He? He allows us to go into *peirasmos*, trials. He allows trials so we can be strengthened, not so that we can be crushed.

We know He's going to feed us. We know He's going to forgive us. We know He's going to protect us and direct us in paths that produce righteousness, not sin. What we're really praying for is what He's already promised. Such a very simple prayer: "Lord, You're the priority. And when it comes to me, all I ask is that You fulfill Your promise on my behalf to sustain my life for Your glory, to forgive my sin for Your glory, and to protect me from the evil one for Your glory."

Whatever it is that You do about this illness, or whatever it is that You do about this dilemma, or whatever it is that You do about the suffering and the pain, Lord, may it honor You and may it manifest the fulfillment of Your promises.

Phil Johnson: You're listening to Grace to You Weekend, featuring the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. The title of John's lesson today: "Prayer and the God Who Hears You." Now, when it comes to praying, there's a bit of a balancing act. On one hand, God is the sovereign ruler of the universe, and we need to remember that when we come before Him. But as John has been pointing out, God is also our loving Father, and as His children, we can pray to Him with confidence.

To help you keep that balance and pray in a way that pleases Christ, let me remind you of John's book called *Alone with God*. This helpful resource looks at Jesus' masterful teaching on prayer in what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, and it will enrich your own prayer times. It makes a great gift for those you love. Order John's book *Alone with God* when you get in touch today.

Call 800-55-GRACE, or visit our website, gty.org. The cost for *Alone with God* is reasonable, and shipping is free. Again, to order John's book *Alone with God*, call 800-55-GRACE or visit gty.org.

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You can also make a one-time donation or set up a convenient recurring donation online at gty.org or when you call 800-55-GRACE. Now for our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for joining us today. Remember to watch Grace to You television Sundays on DirecTV channel 378. Then be back next week as we begin John MacArthur's study called "The Sinfulness of Sin," a series designed to show each one of us the magnitude of our sin and the incomparable breadth of God's love and forgiveness. It's another half-hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You Weekend.