997. Dealing with the Doxology

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today we're concluding our study series from Matthew 6, The Lord's Prayer, and Dr. Sam Horn will lead us in this final message. We have been talking about prayer our entire semester and numbers of sermons in this series from what I can gather have come back to this central passage on the Lord teaching his disciples to pray. And so I thought it would be appropriate for our last chapel on the last sermon on prayer that we come back to a particular portion of this prayer and that we glean from it understanding and help and encouragement along the way. When we come to this prayer I want to remind you of things that probably have been said. I know when I preached earlier from this text we noted that this was an example, a pattern prayer that Jesus taught his disciples how to pray when they had observed him pray.

Luke makes the context a little clearer for us. Matthew is weaving this into the sermon but Luke is actually talking to us about this event and it's clear that the disciples had been observing the Lord's praying and they instinctively knew two things whenever they heard the Lord pray. And I think if you and I were actually listening in, physically present when the Lord was talking to his Father in heaven, we would have the same response. They instinctively knew that God was hearing this man's prayers. And all you have to do is read through the Gospel accounts and it becomes very, very clear that when Jesus opened his mouth and asked his Father for things, his Father granted them in amazing ways. Think about the feeding of the multitudes.

Think about the raising of dead bodies to life. So it became very evident to these men who were hearing Jesus talk to his Father that when he prayed, God listened to his prayers. And it also became immediately evident to them that they didn't pray this way. Now remember, when we come to the Lord's prayer, this is not in the context of prayerlessness. I mean there was a lot of praying that was going on around the context of this prayer. There were the hypocrites that were praying. There were the Pharisees that were praying.

There were the Jewish people as a whole who were a people who prayed on a regular, consistent, weekly and even daily basis. So this is coming out of a context of prayer. And one of the things we noted was that in the heart of this prayer and in the structure of this prayer, God is helping us to arrange our thinking and to adjust our priorities and to accommodate our lives to things that matter to God. And it's in the very structure of how the prayer is laid out. We talked earlier in the semester about the fact that the first half of the prayer is laying out God's divine purposes that he is intensely interested in. These are things that matter supremely to God and we can see them as we sort of unfold the prayer.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. So the priorities of the exaltation and adoration of his name, the priority of the extension and the expansion of his authority through his kingdom and the execution and the performance of his will. And when you give your life to those priorities, when the mission of your life, wherever God sends you, however God equips you, wherever God chooses to place you, whatever God chooses to do with you, when those priorities become the driving focus of your life, that wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, I am here to exalt God's name. I want the people who I'm in contact with, the people around me to come to the right conclusion about who God is and what he's really like. And I want to make sure that I'm investing my life in whatever I'm doing in the expansion and the extension of his authority over man. I want men to come and women to come in right relationship to God through Christ. I want to expand the authority and influence of Jesus' gospel. And then obviously the doing of his will.

I want to bring my life and I want to help others come to a place where they understand, they recognize, they know where to go to find out what God's desires are, what God's directives are, what God's will is, and to do it just like it's being done in heaven that it may be so on earth. And so those priorities sort of order the first part of the prayer, and then there are petitions that we are invited to pray in light of those priorities. Lord, if I'm going to do these things, I'm going to need daily provision. I'm going to need daily bread. I am going to need daily pardon.

You're going to have to pardon me for the times I failed to do this. And Lord, you're going to have to protect me in the midst of these priorities from those who oppose and who come against or in the trials and tribulations and sufferings of life, you're going to have to deliver me from evil or deliver me from the evil one. So that's sort of the broad structure of the prayer that the Lord taught his disciples to pray. And I want you to come to the very end of verse 13, and I want you to know or notice that there is a phrase that may not be in the Bible you are reading. How many of you are reading a Bible that is not a King James or not a new King James?

Can I see your hands? You have your Bible open to something other than that. So your scripture is going to end with the word evil, but deliver us from evil. And then there is this phrase for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen. So the question is, what do you do with that statement? So I want to preach a message on that statement this morning. And the first thing that we want to talk about is the authenticity of the statement and its appropriateness in our praying. All right, we got to talk about this. And so as we look at a statement like that, and I'm preaching to you out of a King James Bible, some of you are holding a different Bible. What do you do with this doxology that isn't in some of your Bibles? And so the question is, is this authentic?

Is this authentic? Why is it missing from some of your versions? So let's talk about that. All right. One of the things that we need to immediately notice is that if you're holding a King James Bible and you go over to Luke chapter six and you read the prayer in Luke chapter six, it's not in Luke chapter six.

Okay. So this is not a deficiency in the scripture. It's not that the scriptures are adding or subtracting or in some way not reporting what actually happened. Luke is actually going to give you the context of the prayer. And it's not in that prayer in Luke six.

It's not in some of our oldest New Testament manuscripts. How many of you have taken a New Testament introduction? All right. How many of you have been through that class? All right. How many of you have had a class in textual criticism? Anybody had a class in textual criticism?

All right. So, you know, the value and the thinking behind the manuscript evidence that is behind our Bible and that stands before the text that we use. And so this doxology is not in any of the Latin manuscripts that were used in the western regions of early Christianity. It was not mentioned by any of the early church fathers in the west when they quoted the prayer in their writings. For example, Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine, second, third and fourth century church fathers, don't mention this doxology when they talk about the prayer. It was familiar in the eastern region, Asia Minor, and it is reflected in the majority of the fifth century texts that, you know, sort of as the Byzantine texts. Let me also say that it is included in a very early document from the second century called the Didache, which was a manual for the formation and the order of worship in the church. So we're looking at a reading here that there is some debate about, and I'm preaching it to you in a seminary chapel a little bit differently than I might preach it in a church that I was visiting.

Can you see why? I mean, here we are on Sunday morning and I'm preaching and the first thing out of my mouth is, I'm going to preach to you about something that's not in your Bible, but I want you to read it in your Bible. Do you see how easy it is to sort of create doubt and to create consternation? And so I want to acknowledge that as we talk about this, because there's some value in what we're talking about here today. And as you study this text, you're going to have to come to a decision about how you handle that doxology. There are and there have been some very careful thinking that has started to grow in relationship to the value of looking at early Byzantine readings on their own.

This is a view of how you make decisions about textual matters like this that is called eclectic. And it's probably a little bit of what we learned here many, many years ago. And certainly has been something that I've tried to practice in my life.

So is this doxology authentic? There certainly are early manuscripts that don't have it. There is an early Church Fathers document in the second century that does have it. So apparently it was at least familiar in the second century. And we do have it in a multiplicity of Byzantine documents from the fifth century.

All right. So we're not pulling this out of the air. Here's the second thing that we need to ask when we talk about the authenticity of this.

We really need to be asking ourselves this question. Given this question, is it appropriate to pray this doxology in the Lord's Prayer? How many of you have ever prayed the Lord's Prayer? Is there anybody that has not prayed the Lord's Prayer? That's a better question.

When you pray the Lord's Prayer, how many of you have prayed this doxology? All right. So my question is, when you did that, were you appropriate?

And the answer to that is yes, on two important grounds. Let me give them to you. All right. Number one, everything in this doxology is taught elsewhere in your Bible. Everything in this doxology is taught elsewhere in your Bible.

Let me give you an example of this out of the Old Testament. First Chronicles 29, verse 11, 12, and 13, you listen to the doxology out of Matthew in your mind, and you listen to David's prayer. David said, yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all.

In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. So you have a text here in your Bible right out of your Old Testament. And in a moment, we're going to see the significance of that text that teaches you everything that Matthew records.

Here's the second reason that this doxology is appropriate. It follows the pattern of biblical prayers in Jesus' day. Jews were praying people.

We noted that at the front end of our text. And frequently, they would end their prayers either with a benediction or a doxology. There is a very famous doxology that came at the end of a synagogue prayer called the 18 benedictions.

And it went like this. Blessed be the name of the glory of his kingdom forever and ever. So these prayers that we have in our scripture and that were standard practice in Jesus' day certainly would reflect the doxology that we have here in this text before.

So why did Jesus leave it off? And I have a suggestion. And that's all it is.

You're not obligated to my suggestions, but I do want you to think about this. This prayer was intended to be a pattern prayer. This was not intended to be a rote prayer that you would memorize and that you would repeat word for word. Now, it's not wrong to memorize the prayer and it's not wrong to pray it word for word. But it is not a magical incantation that if you just say 50 times, you'll get X.

Or if you say it 75 times, you'll get Y. This is a pattern prayer. And Jesus intends for his disciples to arrange their own praying in their own way, in their own words around these six major ideas. And they would come to the end of their praying and they would close it with some form of appropriate doxology or benediction.

Now, you do that already. As a believer, looking at the New Testament texts and the New Testament practices, we have learned a way to end all of our prayers. And it's what? We pray these things in Jesus' finish it.

Name. So I think the Lord here is making clear that this is not an actual rote prayer, but this is a pattern that should be shaping all of our praying. Now, that brings us to the second thing that we want to talk about quickly. And that is, OK, if this is an appropriate way to pray, what is the background and the context of this particular doxology that is in our scripture verse out of the King James this morning? And I've taken you back to that text in First Chronicles, chapter 29, verses 11 through 13.

And there's two things that I want you to observe about First Chronicles 21 or 29 rather. Number one, this is a prayer that is being offered by Israel's greatest Old Testament king. And his desire was to build for God a house. And so this prayer is coming in the context of God having said to David, you are not going to build me a house.

I am going to build for you a house. And David has gathered all of his resources. He's challenged all of the people to give all of their resources. And they come together with this immense amount of treasure and supply for the building of the house that Solomon is going to build. And David prays. And in the middle of this prayer, he utters a doxology that reminds us that the kingdom belongs to God and not to him. That the authority and the power, the sheer capability belong to God and not to him. And that the splendor and the beauty and the radiance belong to God and not to him. And it's significant that the one offering the original doxology is the forerunner of the one who is going to become the living visible expression of the house that David wanted to build. In other words, Jesus didn't come just to replace the temple. Jesus himself becomes the visible expression of the person and the character of God. He says to his disciples, if you have seen me, you have seen the father. So when you start thinking about the background of this, it is incredibly significant that David's greatest descendant is the one standing before his disciples who are going to take that message to the world.

And he teaches them this prayer. And that brings us to the final thing. And that is this. So what do I do with this?

What is the function and how do I apply this? So let's talk about the function here for a moment. And I want to make an observation with you and you may need to think about this a little while. But there is a difference between a benediction and a doxology. And they are both found regularly in the prayers of scripture. One of the best examples of this is in Romans 16. Let me have you turn over to Romans 16 very quickly and let me show you a benediction and let me show you a doxology in Romans chapter 16. We get to the very end and Paul is closing out his letter, his appeal, his epistle to the Romans.

And he says this in verse 20. Here's the benediction. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. And then here's the benediction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Amen. And a little bit later on in verse 25, he comes to the final paragraph and he says, Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all the nations for the obedience of faith. And then here's the doxology to God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. We have numbers of doxologies in the scriptures and they consistently point us to something that, that the writer wants us to know or see or appreciate about the one that we are praying to.

A benediction is, is reminding us that this person we're praying to is going to do something for us. A doxology is pointing the other way and it's pointing us to the person to whom we are praying. And there's something in the doxology that we're supposed to recognize and appreciate and embrace for ourselves because it will make all the difference in the thing that we are bringing to God in that prayer.

So what does this doxology do? The function of this doxology is to give us hope and to give us courage when we go out to exalt God's name. What hope do we have of really accomplishing this in the face of incredible pressure and relentless opposition? What hope do you really have of convincing anyone of the exaltation of God's name?

I mean, bring your best argument on your best day. And what hope do you have of convincing anybody of the truth of what you're saying on the strength of your words? What is the hope that you will extend the authority of God through the gospel throughout the earth in a place where his existence is denied by the vast majority of the people who live on the planet? I mean, what real hope do you have when his truth is willfully suppressed and ignored by the majority of the people who even claim to believe in him? I mean, what is really the hope, the confidence that you have of living your life for these overarching priorities in the face of opposition and unbelief and pressure and even great personal cost? I mean, what hope do you have of executing faithfully God's will in your own weakness and in your own strength?

I mean, aren't there just days when you are so frustrated with your own inability to be faithful to a particular thing that God is asking of you or demanding of you and you continually fail and you continually give in to a sin and at some point you sort of want to throw up your hands and say, what business do I have saying to anybody else the will of God needs to be done in your life when I can't even begin to do it in my own life in this place and in this time with all of the training and all of the knowledge that I have? Have you ever been there? And you know what the answer to all of that is? The doxology. This doxology gives you confidence and it gives you hope in the face of a task that seems overwhelming and in possibilities that come before you and persecutions that come against you. So how does it do that?

How does it actually function this way? And I think that that's the value of what it is doing here and what it is repeating in the rest of scripture. It reminds us of God's authority.

The strength of everything that God is asking us to do in the first part of the prayer is not coming out of our own desire. It is coming under the authority of God. It is His kingdom. Lord as we think about taking this message to a people that are going to resist it and be appalled by it and stand against it. We are bringing this message into a realm that belongs to you.

It is under the control of somebody else but it is actually your realm. That's why you can go to a restricted access country where it is illegal to preach the gospel and not have a qualm of conscience about going in there with the gospel to take this message because that place is under God's authority. Now it may cost your life but it is under God's authority. Yours is the kingdom and then it reassures us of God's ability. Yours is the power. The idea here is that you have the capacity and the ability to do everything that we need in order to accomplish this mission. Lord I don't have the strength to take this word to these people.

I don't know that I have the courage to stand and face and pay the price that might be asked of me or my family in doing this. Lord there is an area of my life that I just can't seem to find the strength to obey and overcome consistently and God says I have all the power. I mean that is Paul's whole point to the Ephesians that the incredible power of God is to us word. It is directed to us for thine is the kingdom and thine is the power and then we rejoice in God's attributes that are reflected when we live this way and when we struggle this way and even when we die this way. We are reflecting the beauty and the splendor of God because we live and we die for that which matters most to us. And the doxology reminds us that there is no deeper treasure, no greater treasure, no deeper joy, no lasting good in our life other than God. He is the splendor.

He is the shining brilliance. He is the one that we are pursuing and whether it be through life or death as the apostle Paul talked about. Whether it's in supply or in want, in hunger or in supply, in being fed or in being clothed or being unclothed.

It doesn't matter. I'm doing what I'm doing in the power of God and I'm doing what I'm doing because of the authority of God and I'm actually doing what I'm doing because I value God. His is the glory. And the last word of this prayer is an interesting word. It's the word Amen. It shows up throughout our text.

We're so used to this word. It's a word we say at the end of all of our praying. It's a word that is literally transliterated from a Hebrew term that means truth, veracity, and it came to mean this phrase, let it be so. It shows up in most of the doxologies in the New Testament.

Romans chapter 1, Romans 11, Romans 15, Ephesians 3, Philippians 4, Hebrews 13 all have doxologies that end with this word. And it's a way in which the writer and the reader are brought together in a commitment to the truth that is being stated. Lord, may this be so. May this be so in the church, may it be so in the world, and may it be so in me.

Because yours really is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Father, thank you for our time this morning. I pray that it would have been something that would please you and would certainly be an encouragement to each of us. Lord, we thank you for a semester where you have brought us each week to another aspect of praying. Lord, we recognize that it is through prayer that you move in us and through us. And we're reminded in this simple text that you really do have the authority and the ability and the glory to do everything that we ask you in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, Amen. You've been listening to Dr. Sam Horn with the final message from our study of the Lord's Prayer. We hope you'll join us next time as we study God's Word together on The Daily Platform.