I just don't know how in any earthly or worldly setting singing of any kind can compare to the singing of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ here on earth. There is no comparison. We might be smaller or as the world might say not as talented or whatever have you. But the great joy of God's people singing to his praise together is such a blessed encouragement. Well, to the word again tonight, congregation back to Exodus chapter 34. And we'll take up that other verse, verse 9. And in the Heidelberg Catechism, if you would, Lord's Day 48, 255 there. We'll read that answer to that question responsibly in a moment of the catechism. Great help to us to spend time learning about prayer and reflecting in it. And here we see it tonight in Exodus 34, as it properly should be an aspect of worship. And so we know Moses on the mountain has just bowed down his head toward the earth and worshiped. And verse 9 of Exodus 34 is this. Then he said, if now I have found grace in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance. As far as your congregation, the reading of the word of God will keep our Bible near us as we see the very close connection between our text and the catechism. So let's turn there to Lord's day 48. And we'll give an answer to this question. What does the second petition mean? Your kingdom come means rule us by your word and spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Preserve and increase your church. Destroy the devil's work. Destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your holy word. Do all this until your kingdom finally comes when you will be all in all." These things we rejoice about, dear congregation, because they are taught to us in the Word of God. Let's ask His blessing as we Continue this evening, let's pray. Our father, we are people of need. And what we need is exactly what you have promised to give to us. Much grace and help for us in the word and from it. We need your spirit to enable our hearing. Our understanding. And our living. And so tonight we ask, O Lord, that you would be gracious to us and do for us those very things which we ourselves cannot do, but you can. Bless your church in all of this tonight, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, their congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus taught his church to pray commanding that we ask for his kingdom to come. That particular way of viewing life in Christ's church as kingdom life. That particular way of viewing the life of the church is hard for us to grasp for a whole variety of reasons. Harder than some Christians and perhaps easier than for others. To put it quite bluntly, we do not understand kingdom. We struggle with what that means. I wonder, when you are praying that prayer, and we pray the Lord's Prayer often in our congregational life, and I would imagine you pray it around your table and at home in your personal life, what exactly is it that you mean in your personal praying or congregationally when you pray, your kingdom come? What does that mean to you? Now the timing and the occasion of this particular prayer as we've said it about Moses is very helpful. Especially helpful in terms of the kingdom and understanding the Lord's work with his church in terms of kingdom. Here is Moses having been drawn up to the mountain by God and he is bowed down in worship when he makes this very prayer. Covenant family, those reconciled to God, by God, ask Him to bring them under His Lordship. They ask Him to bring them under His Lordship, into His kingdom. As the Catechism reminds us, being in a kingdom means we are ruled by another. We bow to the good, the gracious, and the powerful rule of our Lord. Moses worships in praying, asking the Lord to rule his church. Moses worships in prayer, asking the Lord to rule his church. And we'll note the following four things from the text. First, rule us from among us. Second, rule us by your word and spirit. Third, rule us with Christ's forgiveness and mercy. Fourth, rule us until your full inheritance is gathered. Moses is praying a kingdom prayer. Lord, rule your church. Well, the first thing then, beloved, is that he would rule us from among us. And so again there is Moses following the command of the Lord to ascend, to go up to the mountaintop. God had planned to meet him there. God has descended as Moses ascends and there is that meeting of the glory cloud and the man. The indication there is certainly, as we said it this morning, that God has reconciled His erring people, His sinful disobedient people have been again placed in the right relationship with Him by His work. Dear congregation, we could just settle on that this evening. And it would be so beneficial for us to meditate on that all this week. that God has worked a reconciliation of His own choosing, by His own purposes, by His own methods, with His own people. They have been redeemed. But note here that it is in that state of having been redeemed that Moses is bold, verse 9, to go on and begin asking. What does he ask for? To put it in the most blunt terms possible, Moses is bold to go on to the fountain of mercy to pray asking for more mercy. Sometimes we do not think about the Kingdom of God in that way. Sometimes we do not contemplate God's rule over our life in those terms. That His rule is mercy for us. In fact, the way we contemplate the law of God in terms of that word mercy is extremely important for us to consider. We remember that what's going on here ultimately as we're going to see as we go on in Exodus 34 is God bringing Moses as the representative of the people up to the mountain that he might reissue what to them through Moses? The law. And so as we're contemplating rule and kingdom, we have to understand this, beloved, in the setting and in the context of mercy, God could easily have wiped out those people in an instant. And so what Moses is asking for, in terms of asking for God to rule, is a request for more mercy. Covenant family, at the mercy seat, at the mercy seat of the Lord Jesus Christ, We are to be bold, asking God to be near us, to remain with us. We're asking in terms of the Emmanuel principle. Oh God, rule us from nearby. And so he is a king, the king who dwells very close and personally with us, even by his Holy Spirit as we're going to see in a moment, but as a king. A kindly, fatherly king, but a king nonetheless. Be with us. Now in the old covenant administration of things, this request, this prayer of Moses is actually quite bold. We might say it's almost unusual in the old covenant administration of things for a follower, a servant of the Lord to be bold like this and asking God to be with them because of all of the extremities of sin and all of the interworkings of sin. Mostly it's, Lord, don't get too close to me because I know myself that you are dangerous because of my own sins. And so it's an amazing thing, but it is, beloved, and think about this, it is the desire of the believer, isn't it? Now in greater or lesser ways, that's true. But in terms of the Christian, this is exactly our interest. It is our desire. It's our, our ultimate interest. God, I want to be near you. I want to be, you to be near me. Isn't that the grand blessing that God is working in our lives? The ultimate end of the trajectory of the path that He has placed us on is that issue of nearness, isn't it? Communion now which is limited and which is diffused by all of the situations of our life, that union and communion we have now is going to be led to a fullness of nearness that we can only begin to grasp. Be near us. How? by rule and relationship. This is what Moses is asking for, nearness by both rule and relationship. And it's not the first time in the Old Testament that something like that has been seen. This is what the brothers of Joseph began to understand as they came down to Egypt because they needed to buy grain, and they thought he was dead, and they came before the one who was the administrator over all the things of Egypt, and they bowed low before him, not knowing that they were related to him. Both rule and relationship is beloved indeed. Exactly what God intends for us to understand about His rule and kingly administration of His church. Covenant family, the King who rules us is very near to us because our Lord is also our Father. He rules us as a Father Caring for His children. And so there is a sense in which this prayer, verse 9 of Moses, begins exactly where God actually already is. It begins with a petition of the reality that already exists. God, be among us. Go with us. But then secondly, as the catechism says, and the text makes very clear, rule us by your word and spirit. Now, I'll ask us again, and I ask myself very quickly, as quickly as I ask you in the sermon, is it the case when you pray your kingdom come that you are saying to God and thinking these kinds of thoughts, Lord, rule me by your word and spirit? Is that how we pray? Look at that in terms of what Moses prays next. Let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people. And so it remains to be very important and significant how we ourselves consider what it is we are saying when we pray those words. You know how television shows and movies now almost to a number of have to tell the backstory. You begin the movie and then it says seven years before or a month earlier. Well, what's the backstory to this kind of a prayer? It is that we acknowledge the background that we need to admit is that we are stiff-necked people. Otherwise, why would we need to pray regularly and repeatedly, Lord, rule me by Your Word and Spirit, if we were already entirely sanctified, as some erroneous Christians want to say is possible in this life, perfectly without any sins in this life, as some erroneous theology wants to say, all of which is undoubtedly untrue. If that was true about us, why would we need Him to rule us by His Word and Spirit? We wouldn't need it. But we know the truth, don't we? I know I am stiff-necked about many things. Don't ask my wife, she'll tell you. I believe it's true about all of us. What does it mean though to be stiff-necked? What is Moses praying about here? It means that we are disinclined to bow down. Wanting rather to hold our heads up straight. Something we talked about in the adult Sunday school class this morning dealt with that a little bit. Wanting to determine our own path and destiny. Holding my head straight ahead because I know what I'm supposed to do and I know where I'm going and nobody needs to tell me otherwise. Stiff necked. We are disinclined to bow down. And this is why when we pray we are admitting what a blessing it is that He is a gracious King. to have that mercy of ruling us by His Word and Spirit, such that what we want more and more, the believer truly desires more and more is that we submit to Him. Covenant family, the Lord's rule, the Lord's rule of us by His Word and Spirit, that rule softens our stiff necks, giving us joy in submitting to Him, by word and spirit, says the Catechism. His Holy Spirit uses the Bible like the surgeon's knife to repair the injuries caused by being a fallen person. That's another way to think about fallenness. If you're standing on a ladder and you fall off, likely you're going to be injured. Now that's not a full and complete theological description of the term fallenness, we understand that. But it adheres, it connects, at least in this way, that being fallen means there are injuries, in terms even of the regenerated person who's been brought to new life. The Spirit uses the Word in the repairing, the double-edged sword of the Word of God in the repairing of those things. And sometimes we sigh and say, oh, the repairs are taking so long. I still have this and I still have that. What is He doing? The broadest way of understanding what the Holy Spirit, in using the word, is doing is that He is taking away our inclination to stiff-neckedness. He is taking away, little by little, our complaining of and wanting to have our own wills done. Another way to understand what we are praying in terms of the way the catechism and Moses prayer puts it is our prayer quite simply is this Lord help me. To do as you please. Help me to do as you please. So this prayer beloved rule me by your word and spirit so that I willingly submit to you as a prayer we need to reset. It will be a prayer we need to restart. It will be a prayer we'll need to re-ask at every new stage of our life. Every time we begin a new adventure, as we might put it that way, we need to ask, Lord, rule me by Your Word and Spirit so that I will willingly submit. Every time we begin a new relationship, We need to pray, Lord, rule me by your word and spirit so that I will joyfully, willingly submit. It's even very significant and not at all outside the realm of our praying life that every time we begin a new job, a new part of our vocational life, that we need to pray, Lord, rule me by Your Word and Spirit so that I will joyfully, willingly, and with some fullness submit to You in this new endeavor. Covenant family, His Holy Spirit, His Holy Spirit will, by the Word of God, lead us to new obedience to new obedience in every situation or circumstance of our life. But these are theological truths. These are biblical truths. There's another biblical truth that connects to these things, and it has to do with the heart. With our heart. such that we need to say, and in experiential terms, we need to say that we need to be earnest in praying about these things. You see, beloved, it's a little dangerous for us to make simple theological or biblical assertions about what God is doing, not that those things are untrue. But we need to remember what it is that Scripture says about how the Lord does these things. And that issue of how he does these things includes a reciprocal responsibility that we have. And in this case, it is in terms of prayer. So at a heart level and experientially, we must be earnest in praying about these things. Why? Because we want to be quick to learn from Scripture how the Spirit is leading us. And so we pray, Lord, Open my mind to understand your leading according to the Word of God. We want to, as we mature, be quicker to learn from Scripture what the Spirit is teaching us. We don't want to have to repeat the same old mistakes over and over that the Word is clear about, so we need to pray, Lord, help me. We want to learn to grow to be more and more sensitive to His leading, for instance, by sermons. That's His Word. so that we're praying, Lord, lead me by Your Word and Spirit even in the preached Word so that when I'm there and I'm listening and I'm taking notes or if I'm meditating on these things, I'm beginning to become more responsive, more sensitive to how You're leading me in the preached Word. We want, beloved, to learn how the Lord leads us. And all of these things have to do with our willingness to submit to Him as these things please us. Now let's just think about this one more time before we go on to think of the context that is going on here. Sometimes we can lose the forest a little bit for the trees. What's the broad picture in the text? Perspective is that God is bringing Moses back up the mountain so that he might what? Reissue the law. Excellent reformed theology has now for centuries called the function of the law in the Christian, called it the rule of faith. This is what God is intending. And we're going to see that as we go on in Exodus. But for now, just just settle on this and contemplate it for a moment that God designs to rule us by his word, including and especially his law. It's why the psalmist in 119 says so often, Lord, I love your law. Why does he love it? Because it leads him. God by the law leads him. To glorify God eventually, that's the whole point. And so beloved, we need to understand that the prayer of the Christian is to be ruled. By word and spirit. Third, then, rule us with Christ's forgiveness and mercy. We really should not be surprised that the movement of the prayer of Moses in verse 9 is the way it is. It's in the pathway and the trajectory that it is. It shouldn't surprise us. It is, after all, a fully biblical prayer, right? And so what, by necessity in terms of our Christian life and walk, what must come next? Well, Lord, rule us because we're stiff-necked, Pardon. Pardon our iniquity and our sin. It's interesting that we remember something about what we were looking at this morning in terms of this prayer because now it begins to come rubber hits the road, you know, feet on the street and on the path walking. Do you remember this morning we spoke of the mercies of God in verses 6 and 7? that they are most acutely seen there in the relationship of God with His people. Well, here Moses is praying about that very issue. Why? To remember why, we need to go back just a little bit in the story, in the accounting of what happened. There was God the first time dealing with Moses on the mountain and Moses receiving that first issuing of the law. Moses goes down the mountain and he finds Idolatry going on. Do you remember what he asks Aaron and what Aaron responds to him? Moses says, how could you let this be? What does Aaron say? It's very interesting that even though Aaron has concocted a bit of an excuse to excuse himself and Moses' sight, there is truth in Aaron's excuse. What does Aaron say to Moses? You know how these people are. There's truth in that, isn't there? We know how we are. So Moses here interceding and asking as it were even ahead of time as that representative of the covenant people asking that God even as He's asked Him to rule by His Word and Spirit, His people, He's asking that those ruled people be forgiven because they're not going to keep the rules. They're going to break the rules, aren't they? It's not going to be the last time That as it were, those two tablets are going to be crumbled, as it were, in terms of how God's people live. Satan, of course, as the catechism gets at, will tempt the people again as he does us. And like he did with Adam and Eve in the garden, tempt them to cross over the line that God draws in his commandments. Think about that. The catechism gets at that. Destroy the devil's work. Covenant family, pray earnestly, especially in regards to that. Pray earnestly that we will reject Satan's lies. Which lies? The ones that go like this. That disobeying God leads to a better life. Do you know that that's the lie Satan regularly tells us? Pray that we will quickly confess all our sins. Do you remember that's exactly what Satan told Adam and Eve? Now wait a minute, I've got a better way for you, he said. This is going to end up in a better life. And then they violated God's commandments. And we know the sad reality. And so this really is one of our greatest needs. And it is a point of richest blessing if we have a right spirit within us. Because we will admit our need at this very point, won't we? Moses is fully aware and very quick to ask, O Lord, pardon. Pardon us for we will sin. It will continue to be our strong battle. We want to grow in godliness. Two things of this answer of the Lord's Day and our text at this very point go together very well in terms of the language of the answer. Preserve and increase your church. And what follows after that, as we just talked about, destroy the devil's work. And it's interesting there that the catechism gets a hold of even an application or an extension of the devil's work. When the catechism says every force, which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your Holy word and the history of error and heresies have been exactly that conspiracies against God's Holy word. Now the way this connects so well with our text helps us to realize, beloved, that Moses is praying for exactly the same thing because this is the battle that the Kingdom of God will always be faced with, especially in terms of confessing sin and of seeking forgiveness. Covenant family, listen, the church is strongest, safest, and holiest in this fallen world when we are quickly confessing sin and asking for Christ's forgiveness. This is our first line of defense in kingdom struggle. We don't think of it that way often, do we? Being strong in the church has to do with our own willingness to confess our own sins and to seek mercy and pardon for our own sins. That's where kingdom strength is found. Moses knows that God's people are going to confront many enemies and when we see by Joshua's hand the people entering into that land, what they enter in and begin doing immediately is what? War for conquest, battles, fighting. Those things, beloved, are all to point to us and give us clarity about the battles that we have. The Catechism admits that Satan conjures up evil plans. Plans that we ought to see in our culture, name them for what they are in our culture, but they are plans not about our culture. Don't make that mistake. Those plans of Satan that we see in the culture have this purpose, they are in an attempt to lead God's church to revolt against the word of God. What about worship as entertainment? That's one of Satan's plans, to lead God's church to revolt against his word. What about women and homosexuals in church leadership? It's the same thing. What about the promise of wealth and health and comfort and personal power through religion? It's the same thing. These are plans of Satan for the church to revolt against the Word of God. It's the very same as was in the garden. So we pray. Lord, protect us through our willingness to be quick to confess our sins. to be quick to seek forgiveness from You. Lord, make me soft-hearted. Make me willing to obey. And when I fail You, quick to confess it. Fourthly, rule us until Your full inheritance is gathered. The end of the prayer is interesting, isn't it, in how it lines up again with the catechism. And take us as Your inheritance. Catechism. Do all this until your kingdom fully comes when you will be all in all. Beloved, this is kingdom language. Moses ends his prayer, verse 9, asking the King, even like David reflects on the Lord Jesus Christ in Psalm 110, to be that King, the Lord Jesus Christ, who makes His enemies His footstool so that He might fully take His inheritance as His treasured possessions. These two things go together. It is both a shout of victory over the enemy and the shout of the victory of the King accomplishing what He exactly intended to accomplish in the bringing into the full measure of the church. This is kingdom prayer. And for us, by necessity, because we live in this fallen world, by necessity it is a battle cry. Pray, beloved. Because we are confident that Christ is building His church by preaching, by evangelism, by missions, by teaching, by relationships. He is building His church. Covenant family, our prayer must be that the Lord would use us by ruling us. Use us by ruling us by causing us to seek for pardon. And by having us speak to our neighbors about Him. Use us to gather the nations, to gather them into the full number of the elect. This is kingdom language. Think about what a king wants to do, what a king's purpose is. As he thinks about his throne, and as he thinks about his reign, and as he thinks about his realm, he doesn't want any of those things to contract, to become less. But a king is interested in extending his realm, extending his reign to see more glory come to his kingdom rule. And this is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ does. If we understand the full meaning and the final purpose of salvation and say, no, it's really not about me after all in the final consideration. It is rather about the glory of God in the final consideration. Then we know that this is what the king is doing. And they need, we need, grace and mercy, and from Him patience and abounding in goodness and truth, the very things we saw this morning. Lord, free the nations from the delusions of the devil and bring our neighbors into the kingdom of joy. I wonder again, I'm going to ask the question to us one more time tonight. What do we think about in terms of that prayer, your kingdom come? What I mean by that now is how does God hear that prayer? Well, we do know, don't we, that he loves the prayers of his saints. But do we also know, I think we do, maybe we don't think about it. We do know, don't we, that God loves his people submitting willingly to him. We know that, don't we? Why are we thinking about that? Because He is a King. His law about to be reissued to Moses is the rule of His Kingdom. And it is all glorious. His Kingdom is glorious. His rule is glorious. His law is glorious. And when Moses comes down the mountain, the people will see that in a way that they are not prepared for. And they will not know what to do with the glory of God's kingdom being reflected out of the skin of Moses' face. And they will say, we can't handle that much glory. What glory? The glory of the kingdom. And it is why, beloved, we pray Covenant family, pray. Pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will be the all and all. Who fully satisfies your deepest dreams and goals. Pray that we will say, I am satisfied. In being the treasured possession of my heavenly father. Because, beloved, He is a King. We said that this morning, didn't we? But now we say it in the context of prayer. O Church, pray for growth and vitality and final victory of the Kingdom of God. Amen. So let's do that and pray. Our Father, truly we pray, Your Kingdom come. We've contemplated those words in a variety of ways this evening. We ask that You would help us to be quick in humility to assess our own hearts in terms of why we pray those words. To say that it is right for the Christian and it is good when we say that we willingly submit to You It is our safest position. And it is best for us when we are quickly confessing our sins. And Lord, we believe in your kingdom growth, the gates of hell not standing against the forward movement of the church, but in terms of the kingdom of God, there is for us in these things, peace and joy and the greatest health and vitality. So Lord, help us to think about why we pray those words and help us to pray them. Your kingdom come. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.