"Petition 3" Sermon: Psalm 103:17-22

"Petition 3"
[Psalm 103:17-22]
March 16, 2008 Second Reformed Church

Jesus said that when we pray, we should begin our prayer by addressing it to God -- God Who is Personal, Loving, and has made some His children by adopting them through Jesus' Blood. Then, we are to ask God that, above all else, His Name -- His Being, would be known and treated as holy. Then, we are to ask that God's Grace would continue to be given through the preaching of His Word and that God's Glory would come, by being fully seen on earth in God Himself and in the restoration of the Creation.

Then, we have the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer: "Thy Will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven." And here we need to understand two things: what is the will of God? And what does it mean that God’s Will would be done on earth as it is in Heaven?

When we talk about the Will of God, we are talking about one of two wills: either God's Secret Will or God's Revealed Will. God's Secret Will is that Plan of God that He chooses not to reveal to humanity. God's Revealed Will is that Plan that God reveals to humanity -- first through speech and inspiration, and now, only through the Word of God, the Bible.

For example, when Israel was enslaved in Egypt, God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let Israel go. It was the Revealed Will of God that Moses go and tell Pharaoh to let Israel go -- we read in the Bible that God verbally told Moses to go and demand their release from Pharaoh. What Moses did not know -- what was part of the Secret Will of God -- was that God was going to harden Pharaoh's heart so Pharaoh would refuse to listen to Moses.

Another example: we are told in the Scripture to go into every nation and make disciples. That is the Revealed Will of God. Jesus said it; it is in the Bible for us to read. However, we don't know who the elect are -- we don't know whom God has chosen to believe, to respond to the message of the Gospel and believe. That is in the Secret Will of God. OK?

So, we could pray the petition this way: "Let everything that You have taught and commanded be done -- by me and everyone else." In this petition, we are asking for two things: Obedience to God's Revealed Will and submission to God's Secret Will.

First, we are asking that God would grant us the will and the ability to obey God's Revealed Will -- everything God has taught and commanded in His Word, the Bible. And we ought to obey because God, our Creator, the Sovereign has commanded it.

And someone may object, "I don't need God to enable me to do what He said in the Bible; I'll do it if I want to, and if I don't I won't."

And if that person objecting is a Christian, then what he has said may be true, but if he is not a Christian, then he is deceived. Because the Bible tells us that it is not possible for a non-Christian to do and respond rightly to God's Revealed Will. Paul wrote, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one" (Romans 3:10b-12 ESV).

Since every human being since Adam, with the exception of Jesus, was born with a sin nature -- with original sin -- that we inherited from Adam, we are all born incapable of keeping God's Revealed Will -- the Bible. Humans are born incapable of doing anything pleasing in God's Sight.

"Well, then," someone may object, "God can't hold it against me if I can't do God's Revealed Will. And there's really no reason for me to pray this petition."

The non-Christian cannot pray this petition, but the Christian can and ought to desire to. As we saw last week, God has already made Christians new creatures through Jesus Christ. God has changed us and is changing us. He has changed our will, so now we are able to follow God’s Revealed Will. And God has indwelled in us the Person of the Holy Spirit to help and guide us. And God gives us His Grace -- He strengthens and teaches us -- as we listen to the biblical preaching of God's Word and receive the sacraments. The more we sit under biblical preaching and the more we receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the stronger Christian we will become, as the Holy Spirit works in us to mature us in all things. Such that Paul wrote, "I can do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me" (Philippians 3:14 ESV).

"But can I reach a state of sinlessness on earth? Can I read and hear the Bible preached enough, and receive the Lord's Supper enough, that I will become unable to sin in this life? And does God require sinless perfection under the Law before we can be received into His Kingdom?"

We cannot reach a state of sinless perfection in this life, but God expects that we will be doing everything in our power, aided by God the Holy Spirit, to obey Him and follow Him according to the Bible. Thankfully, our salvation is not based on our perfectly keeping God's Law, it is based on Jesus' Perfectly keeping God's Law, and Jesus' Righteousness -- this perfect keeping of the Law is credited to our accounts, so when God looks to judge us for salvation, He looks at Jesus' Works. Paul put it this way: "This is why [Abraham's] faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words 'it was counted to him' were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (Romans 4:22-25 ESV).

In praying for obedience to God's Revealed Will, we are recognizing that God has enabled us, by the Holy Spirit and through Jesus, to follow what God has revealed in the Bible. And we are asking that our desire, our will, and our ability to do so would increase. And the best way to achieve that is through prayer, reading the Bible, hearing biblical preaching, and frequently receiving the Lord's Supper.

And second, we are asking for the grace to submit to God's Secret Will. Now, if the Secret Will of God is something good, say, that this church will grow in numbers and spiritual maturity, that we will greatly influence this neighborhood for Christ -- and I do pray that that is part of God's Secret Will -- I pray that is God's future for us -- that's not difficult to submit to. That's not difficult for us to accept, should it come to pass.

But what about the difficult things -- the hard things -- that are part of God's Secret Will? If we believe that God is Sovereign, and we confessed that we do just a few weeks ago when we confessed the definition of the providence of God in The Heidelberg Catechism, "The almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures, so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand" (A. 27) -- can we also receive whatever comes from God's Hand and accept it as part of God's Secret Will?

Now, we're not talking about suffering for our sin. That was addressed when we looked at I Peter a few months ago: if you suffer for your sin, that's your own fault.

But what if it is not due to our sin? What if for reasons we don't know, for purposes we don't know, we suddenly lose our job? Or we're suddenly diagnosed with a chronic or terminal disease? Or one member of our family after another is struck down with disease? Or dies? Can we look at these situations and be upset about them, concerned, devastated, confused, not understand what is happening or why it is happening or what the purpose or good could possibly be of it, and still submit, recognize, understand, it to be part of the Secret Will of God? That's part of what we're praying for in this petition.

When the little boy, Samuel, woke up the Eli, with the message from God that Samuel was a prophet and God was going to kill Eli and his sons, can we respond with Eli, "It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him" (I Samuel 3:18b)? Notice, Eli did not say, "How wonderful! God is going to kill me and my family. Hallelujah!" No, he recognized that the word that came from Samuel was God's Word, and He knew that God is Good, so he accepted that somehow this was the Good Plan of God.

One of the most famous lines in the book of Job -- a messenger came to Job and told him that his servants had all been killed by cattle rustlers, and all of his cattle had been stolen, and the roof had given way on their house and all of his children had died, and Job was heart-broken, and he didn't understand, but he answered this way: "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21b). And let us no dare hear that as "Easy come; easy go." What Job was saying, in the midst of his pain and confusion was this: "Everything I had was given to me by the Lord, and He has taken it away for His Reasons. Nevertheless, He is Good and Worthy of Praise." Could we say that in similar circumstances? That's part of what we are praying for.

And Jesus, a mere four days after He rode triumphally into Jerusalem, is found praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing that the Will of God was for Him to suffer crucifixion and die, and, in His Humanity, praying to God, asking if there might be another way, because, in His Humanity, He did not want to die. Yet, when God makes it clear to Him that there was no other way, He answered, "your will be done" (Matthew 26:42b ESV).

God does not ask us to enjoy suffering, but we are to understand that some suffering comes from the Hand of God for which we will not know the reason in this lifetime. What we do know, what ought make us able to recognize these things as being from the Secret Will of God is what Paul tells us in that famous verse, Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (ESV). And we cry out, "But how?" And for such things, we receive silence.

Paul tells us that we will not always know why things happen the way they do. But what we do know is this: God is Sovereign and Good; God has a Plan and it is unfailingly coming to pass. And God has promised that everything that happens to the elect -- to Christians -- will work together for good in the end. How is that possible? How does it work?

Paul was taken to Rome as a prisoner and decapitated. I'm sure Paul would say that he didn't want to have his head cut off. But, in the Secret Will of God, his death in that way worked together for good in the end.

In this second part of the petition, we are asking that, no matter the suffering and lack of understanding, we will understand that our Father, Who we pray to, loves us and is working all things together for good for us, such that we ask God's help in submitting even to the hard things that come from His Hand, saying "Thy will be done."

And now we ask the second question: what does it mean when we say, "on earth as it is in heaven"? Thomas Watson put it this way: "We must make the angels our patterns, and not our neighbors" (The Lord's Prayer, 163). The angels follow God's Will perfectly and without hesitation. They do not sin and they do not question God's Holy Plan. They receive what God gives and they praise and glorify Him.

On that final day, when we are glorified, we will be made like the angels in the sense that we will not longer be able to sin. Until that day, we are to strive to be like them in their sinless obedience and submission to the Will of our Father.

We see the aspects of this petition in the Scripture that we read this morning: hear it in another translation:

"But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments" (Psalm 103:17-18 ESV).

God is Good and grants us righteousness that we would be able to obey and submit to His Will.

"The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all" (Psalm 103:19 ESV).

God is Sovereign, so His Plan -- His Will -- will unfailing come to pass.

"Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word" (Psalm 103:20 ESV).

The angels are examples of perfect obedience and submission for us.

"Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!" (Psalm 103:21-22 ESV).

Thy Will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven.

Let us pray:
Almighty and Good God, we thank You for the privilege of prayer. We thank You that You have revealed so much to us about Yourself and Your Plan in the Bible. We ask that You would cause us to desire it more, to read it more, to hear it biblically preached more, and to receive the Lord's Supper more, that we would receive Your Grace to understand and stand strong. And we ask that when we are overwhelmed and don’t understand what your Will is and what Your Plan is, we ask that we would lean on those promises that You are Good, You are our Father, Who loves us, and You are bringing all things to pass, according to Your Will and for our good. May we be more like the angels in our submission to You. For You have never lied to us, and You cannot. And so we have the hope of glory. For it is in Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.