Hallowed Be Your Name

The Lord's Prayer begins with, Our Father who art in heaven. That assumes the existence of God. You live in a secular world.

You live in a world that is doing everything in its power to erase from human memory or thinking any idea whatsoever that the world in which we live comes from the hand of God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. Welcome to Renewing Your Mind as we begin another week of messages by Dr. R.C. Sproul.

R.C. served for many years as co-pastor at St. Andrew's Chapel and preached through entire books of the Bible, including all four Gospels. We are pleased this week to feature selected sermons from those series today from the Gospel of Matthew and a sermon on the importance of how the Lord's Prayer begins. We continue this morning with our study of the Sermon on the Mount as we are looking at the portion found in Matthew chapter 6, and I will be reading verses 9 and 10. I would ask the congregation please to stand for the reading of the Word of God. In this manner, therefore, pray, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This portion of the prayer taught to the disciples by our Lord is not just a ritual of religion, but in these very words we hear the truth of Almighty God. This is His truth. This is His Word. Let us respect it and receive it as such.

Please be seated. Before I look at the text this morning with you, I'd like to ask a very simple question of everyone who is here. I don't want you to answer it out loud.

I just want you to answer it in the silence of your own mind. And the question is this, why are you here this morning? That's the question.

Let me qualify the question. I'm not asking you why are you here this morning instead of playing golf or being at the beach or sleeping in? Now the question I'm asking is more fundamental than that. I'm asking why are you here in this universe at all? The oldest and most puzzling question that thinking people have ever posed is the question, why is there something rather than nothing? I've been hearing a lot recently from otherwise intelligent people who declare with assurance that is a scientific fact that the universe in which we live has come into being out of nothing.

Now I just want to assure you since you hear this day in and day out that that statement is neither a fact nor is it scientific. Whenever we ask the question for the reason for anything, if you have an upset stomach and you go to the doctor, the doctor is going to ask you questions and do an examination because he's going to try to find out the reason for your ailment, the cause of your predicament. And the way he goes about it is that he considers the possibilities that may explain your condition. And when we consider the possibilities of anything in that consideration, the first thing that we do is to eliminate the impossibilities. And once we've eliminated the possibilities, then we examine the possibilities and look at them closely to see which possibility has the most evident reason. Now when we ask the question, why are you here? Why am I here?

Why is this world here? And we consider the possibilities, the first impossibility that we can eliminate from our discussion and from our investigation is the impossibility that anything by any means can ever come from nothing. The most fundamental principle of science, of physics, and of metaphysics is the principle, Ex nihilo, nihil fit. Out of nothing, nothing comes. And the reason why out of nothing, nothing comes is simply because out of nothing, nothing can come. It's impossible for something to come out of nothing, even for God to come out of nothing.

As all and omnipotent as God is, even God cannot bring Himself out of nothing. And so we know this also for a fact that something exists. If nothing else, you exist. And if anything or anyone exists today, that means that always and ever something has existed.

Again, I've told you this before, but I don't want you to forget it. If there ever was a time that there was nothing, no God, no matter, no energy, no nothing, then nothing could possibly be now. And since there is something now indisputably, then that equally proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there has always been something. Oh, I hear the naturalist say to me at this point, oh, you're doing philosophy again. You're doing theology again. You're not doing science. Well, I want to remind that person and anyone who thinks in that way that when you look at proofs, I'm going to make this statement and make it quickly.

Some of you are going to miss the import of it, I know. But we distinguish between formal proof and material proof. If you want me to prove that I have glasses up here with me, I can lift them up and show them to you.

You're looking at them. You're saying something physical. That's material proof. I'm giving you material evidence for the existence of these glasses.

Okay? That's a material proof. A formal proof is a rational proof, a logical proof, a mathematical proof.

Two plus two equals four. So you have formal evidence and material evidence. Which is a higher form of proof?

The answer to that is easy. Formal proof always trumps material proof. Logic always beats physical evidence. And when the logic of the question is clear that nothing can come from nothing, all the so-called mountain of evidence that somebody tries to produce is always trumped by the formal principle.

Don't ever forget that. Now why am I talking about questions like this when the title of the message today is, Hallowed be Thy Name? Well, the reason is this, that there is a certain logic that is found in the Lord's Prayer. There is an interconnectedness of all of the elements that Jesus taught us to pray for. And the first petition, as I've already indicated to you before, that He gives us is the petition, Hallowed be Thy Name. That is when His disciples say, how should we pray?

What should we pray for? The very first thing that Jesus tells us that we should pray for is that the name of God would be regarded as holy because He is holy. And what does it mean that He is holy? It means that He is other and different from anything that we experience or find in the material universe. That God the Creator differs from all creatures. And the primary way in which God differs from all creatures is that because He is uncreated and He is eternal, whereas all of us are created, all of us have a measurable age. We are not eternal.

We are temporal. And if nothing else separates the Creator from the creature, it is that high transcendent element of God's own being, God's own being, so marvelous, so majestic that He is worthy of the adoration of every creature. Now even though the term Hallowed be Thy Name is the first petition of the Lord's Prayer, it is not the beginning of the Lord's Prayer. Jesus didn't say, when you pray say, Hallowed be Thy Name.

No. He says when you pray at the beginning of your prayer, you have to distinguish the one to whom you are praying. Again, if I remind you of a very simple axiom, the two things that you must always remember when you're praying is first of all who you are and second of all who God is. That will immediately set the structure and the atmosphere of your conversation. And so Jesus says when you pray, the first thing you do is you identify to whom it is you are praying, our Father who art in heaven.

Let me just consider that form of address for a moment. In the nineteenth century with the rise of European continental liberalism, the efforts particularly in Germany was to reduce Christianity and all world religions to their primary core. And along with this came the effort to reduce the essence of Christianity to its core. And people like Adolph von Harnack said that the essential message of Christianity is the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. That's the essence of religion.

Now how many times have you heard that? How many times have you heard that affirmation, the universal fatherhood of God, the universal brotherhood of man? Well, whatever Harnack taught, let me remind you that that concept is as alien to biblical Christianity as it can get. Because the Bible does not teach the universal fatherhood of God. The Bible teaches the universal Creator that God is the universal Creator.

And it teaches the universal neighborhood of man, that all of us are each other's neighbors, and that we've all been made by the same Creator. But the language of family, the language of fatherhood, the language of brotherhood has a very narrow and special meaning in the Scriptures. In biblical categories, God has one Son, His only begotten Son. So in one sense, the only person in history that ever had a legitimate right to call God Father was Jesus. And yet, when He tells His disciples how to pray, He doesn't say to them, when you pray, get down on your knees and say, Oh God, the Father of Jesus, hallowed be Thy name. Rather, He says, when you pray, pray by saying, Our Father. How can we ever legitimately address God as our Father?

When by nature, the Bible tells us, we are the children of Satan, that we are children of wrath, and God is not our Father. The only way we can call upon Him as our Father, dear friends, is because He's adopted us. The Scriptures tell us that it is only by the Holy Ghost who has linked us to Christ and has brought about our adoption into the family of God that we can now say, Abba, Father. So that every time we pray the Lord's Prayer, we ought to be reminded that we are praying as God's children, but as His adopted children. And our elder brother is the only natural child of God, even Jesus Himself. Now there was another sense in which the Bible and the Old Testament spoke about the Son of God, metaphorically, symbolically. Israel, the nation, was referred to as God's Son. Do you remember that when we looked earlier in Matthew's Gospel and we read of how Joseph was warned in a dream to flee from the wrath of King Herod, and so he took his wife and the baby Jesus and fled into Egypt to escape the murderous wrath of King Herod.

Do you remember that? And we also remember that after the danger passed and Herod was removed from the scene that the the scene that the Word of God came to Joseph telling him it was safe now to come home in order for the Scriptures to be fulfilled. What Scripture was that? That it may be fulfilled which the Word of God said, Out of Egypt have I called my Son. You see, the original import of that statement, Out of Egypt have I called my Son, referred to the Exodus when Israel as God's child was put into bondage and God delivered them after hearing the groans of His Son, the nation of Israel. He delivered them from Egypt. And you remember how the Lord's Supper was originally rooted in the Old Testament Passover, and that Jesus enjoined the Lord's Supper in His celebration of the Passover on the night before He was killed.

And what happened at the Passover? You know the story of the blood that was put on the doorposts, then the angel of death came at the bidding of God, and He was coming to do what? To bring the worst plague of all against Pharaoh and against Egypt. He is coming to slay the firstborn son in every Egyptian household, including in the household of Pharaoh and the firstborn of their flocks.

What was the significance of that? God was saying to the most powerful ruler on this planet, Pharaoh, if you will not respect My Son, I'm going to kill yours. And that night, Pharaoh wasn't saying, our Father who art in heaven, because the kings of this world have no respect for the Son of God.

The Son of God, in its metaphorical manifestation in Israel, or in its perfect manifestation in Christ, or in its manifestation in the adopted sons and daughters who we are. You live in a secular world. You live in a world that is doing everything in its power to erase from human memory or thinking any idea whatsoever that the world in which we live comes from the hand of God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. Get rid of creation, you get rid of God. Get rid of God, you get rid of law.

Eliminate the Creator, there is no need for a Redeemer. And there is nothing sacred left. Before God's will can be done on earth, before God's kingdom can come to earth, the way it has already come to heaven, and the way His will is done right now in heaven, the name of God has to be hallowed. There is no blasphemy in heaven. There is nothing profane in heaven. No one in heaven, seraphim, cherubim, or the spirits of men departed in the assembly on high, ever there does anything else but the will of God, and they do it joyously, happily for His glory. And Jesus is saying to His disciples, look, I came here from heaven. My Father, who dwells in heaven, sent Me here, and I know that the world is blinded to Him and blinded to heaven.

But your inheritance is in heaven, and you cannot be a Christian while at the same time assuming that this world is all there is, because the radical because the radical proclamation of Jesus is that He comes from the presence of our Father who is in heaven. What a great reminder to honor the name of our God. We live in a generation that refuses to believe in Him, so our challenge in these days is to stand firm and to hope in God. We just heard a message from Dr. R.C. Sproul's verse-by-verse sermon series from the Gospel of Matthew, and you're listening to Renewing Your Mind on this Monday.

Thank you for being with us. Dr. Sproul took nearly two years to preach through the entire Gospel of Matthew as he was pastoring St. Andrew's Chapel here in Sanford, Florida. When you give a donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries today, we will send you the hardbound edition of R.C. 's commentary on Matthew. This is a great week for you to fill out your library. Each day we're offering a different expositional commentary from Dr. Sproul, so request Dr. Sproul's commentary today on Matthew when you call us at 800-435-4343.

You can also give your gift and make your request online at renewingyourmind.org. Your financial support of Ligonier Ministries propels this teaching around the world. Online, in print, and over the airwaves, we are proclaiming what truly matters, and we're supporting the church in training others, and your gifts make it possible, so we thank you.

Well, tomorrow R.C. will be in the Gospel of Luke, and we will learn about the surprising reaction of the disciples when Jesus calmed the wind and the waves. You would think they would throw their sowesters in the air and say to Jesus, we've seen you do some great things, but this beats them all.

That's a wondrous thing. I can't wait to go home and tell my wife and my kids what you did out here on the Sea of Galilee. But that's not the response they had. Instead, they were very much afraid, and tomorrow R.C. will explain why. I hope you'll join us for the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.