Hello, and welcome to this week's service at Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church. We are located out of Prairie View, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago. We are so glad you decided to join us today. This is our next sermon in the series on the Lord's Prayer by Pastor Brett Malin. Our scripture reading will be Daniel 2, 31-45, and Matthew 12, 22-32. Our sermon text will be Matthew 6, 9-13. The Lord Jesus, on that day, in which he taught his disciples how to pray, was in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount. We find the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5, 6, and 7. The way that that begins is, it says, seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, and then it goes on to those three chapters. And it is a very long and glorious sermon from our Savior. I would encourage you to see him in his humiliation, in his time of humiliation, seated on a mountain, teaching his disciples how to pray, teaching them all sorts of things. But I would encourage you to see him now not in his humiliation, but to see him in his exaltation, but still performing the same function, though this time not simply to his disciples and some viewers, He is speaking to the whole world now, teaching the whole entire world how to pray. And he gives them this prayer, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And he says, thy kingdom come. We should meditate upon the name of the Lord and how It must be our desire that in everything, wherever we have influence, wherever we have abilities, that we might see the name of God the Father, and really the name of the triune God, hallowed, that is, glorified, exalted. Therefore, when we pray, we hope that we will not bring anything that diminishes or causes people to curse the name of our God. Indeed, there are many who say that they are servants of the Most High God, but look what they do. They serve in hypocrisy. A hypocrisy which is manifest, or is public, to people all around the world. Well, you certainly cannot do any damage to God Himself, and in Heaven there is no damage which is done to His name or anything like that. that you understand that there are things that hypocrites do, and even some true professing Christians bring dishonor to the name of God. And so, God chides the Hebrews at one time, saying, My name is blasphemed among the nations because of you. That's the exact opposite of what we desire in the prayer So how should we pray? Do you struggle with prayer? How to do it? What are the mechanics of it? Do you struggle to even do it at all? Because you do not want to, because you're afraid of performance issues, whether before other people or even in private. I encourage you to learn from these words from our Savior. Pray with people. Learn how to do so. Cast off your fear of man, but also get alone with God. Get into your prayer closet. Get alone with God. Pray to him. And use this prayer, or use this as a model, that you might hallow, that you might magnify, that you might glorify God's name. And also, when you do so, pray that the kingdom may come. That is what Jesus instructs us about. May your kingdom come. Well, the Old Testament has a lot to say about kingdoms. As you read through your Old Testament, or if you're familiar with having it read to you in church, you understand that kingship is very important. Every nation has a king and eventually the Hebrews say we want the king just like the other nations and eventually God says yes, I'll give you a king Will God work through their sin? but ultimately God raises up one and he was unfaithful that being salt and then we see further on the pages of Scripture we see David What we see on the pages of Scripture is the kingdom of Saul is passing away, it's fading. And we see the kingdom of David, which is rising. And God makes a covenant with David that has its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, a son of David, who would sit upon the throne forever and ever. And we have that in Jesus. There are so many other nations and there are so many other kingdoms they come to Daniel chapter 2 and in Daniel chapter 2 we have prophetic words that are able to see for generations even centuries into the future Nebuchadnezzar who is the king has a dream. He is the king Babylon He does not understand what has gone on. He does not understand this dream his Helpers and those in his nation are not able to be of much help And so they find David and David is able to interpret dreams So did I say David if I said David I mean Daniel is able to interpret dreams now here's what happens He interprets this dream in this way, that you saw a very large figure, and the top of it was gold, and then the next part is silver, and then bronze, and then iron. But it's not pure iron, it's mixed with other things. And what he proclaims is that Nebuchadnezzar is that gold head moving down, Another world empire is coming later that world empire will be the Persians or the Medes and the Persians together and the next will be the Greeks and that represented by the Stomach and the thighs and then the legs which would be Rome As Historians have looked at this and as Bible interpreters Especially those of a more modernist more liberal bank They have looked at this and they said that cannot be That cannot be from the time that the Bible says it was from Why because it's so accurate and if you come to the Bible and you assume anti-supernaturalism Then you're going to come to something like this and you say oh It cannot be before the fact. It has to be after the fact. So many will say that. Many seminaries, many Bible colleges that once believed and taught the Word of God, now will say, no, Daniel was written very, very late. Why is that? Because it's so accurate. Because as we come to understand and read history, this is exactly what happens. In a sense, Babylon, the world empire, but then another one comes after it. Persians, and then the Greeks, and then the Romans. Here's the key that we must understand. The key is not those four kingdoms, as important as they were. The key is the kingdom which comes after them, which is over them, and ultimately destroys them. In verse 45 it says this, The stone was cut out of the mountain with our hands, and it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold. Here's the key that you must understand. These ancient empires wonderful, glorious by human standards. They will not stand a chance when God's kingdom is raised up. God's kingdom in which he places his son upon the throne. A literal son of David, the Lord Jesus. This is exactly what happens in that In the time of Jesus, it is during the feet. It is during the time of the legs, the iron and the clay, when you have strength in this kingdom, but there's also great weakness. There is a kingdom proclaimed by the Bible, and that is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of Christ. And that kingdom ultimately is able to destroy all four of those other kingdoms. Jesus ministers in his life, in his humiliation, in the midst of that last kingdom, the Roman kingdom and the Roman Empire. Jesus' kingdom, though, is not like all of those earthly kingdoms or any other earthly kingdom. Jesus' kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. And all of these other kingdoms are carnal kingdoms. Jesus speaks to Pontius Pilate, John 18. He says, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence. In other words, what we cannot say is, there is the kingdom of England, and there is the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and over there, that plot of land, that is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not at all. Indeed, it's just the opposite. Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is now, which is present, the present reality, it is over all of those kingdoms. A Psalm 2 tells us, and especially tells the unbelieving world powers, tells them to be wise, to kiss the sun, Zion upon that holy hill and Jesus Christ King of kings and Lord of lords and each kingdom must submit to him and to his kingdom It is an earthly it is not an earthly kingdom. It is a heavenly kingdom Also, Jesus teaches us elsewhere like in Luke 17 that the kingdom is within you because it is a spiritual kingdom. It is in you because it is spiritual. Jesus says in Luke 17, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say lo here or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. That's what Jesus is saying. You don't look at the kingdom of God and say, look at it advancing, and watch it. You don't watch it on the 5 o'clock news, or the 24-hour news cycle in which we live. You don't watch it in that way. That's how earthly kingdoms advance. That's how David's kingdom advance. That's how Nebuchadnezzar's advance. Think of it. Nebuchadnezzar, he's just the king of Babylon that goes to war And he spreads that kingdom further and further. He expands the boundaries of his kingdom. And by doing so, he causes others to submit in carnal ways, with carnal means. But Jesus' kingdom is not like that. You do not observe it in the same way. It is invisible. It is invisible to unbelievers. And it can only be seen by eyes of faith. But even for those who have eyes to see, you do not observe it in the same way. But know that it is in you. It does not use earthly or worldly or carnal means to advance. How does an earthly Carnal worldly kingdom advance. It advances by war, by swords loud clashing. It advances by weapons in our day, like guns, and nuclear weapons, and threats, and that sort of thing. How does the kingdom the holy, righteous kingdom of our Savior. How does it advance? It advances by spiritual means. It does so by the preaching of the gospel, by prayer, by sacrament, and by good deeds done by the saints. This is what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10. He says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imagination, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Understand, it seems like Paul is responding to Peter, saying, listen, you don't do that to my king, and he cuts someone's ear off. Jesus says, no, no, my kingdom is not of this world. Otherwise, that would be allowed. No, instead, my kingdom is not of this world. Therefore, Paul says, the means of advancing that kingdom and the weapons of that warfare for that kingdom, they are spiritual. They are preaching prayer and sacraments. Kindness and grace of the people of God who understand that their hearts have been redeemed Therefore they love and they serve and they bless They stand up against Evil, they stand up against wickedness. They declare the truth despite the circumstances They rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep You must understand that this kingdom that Jesus teaches is about, it is a kingdom that is set at odds with, it is the antithesis against Satan's kingdom. See, because Satan's kingdom is spiritual as well. Satan's kingdom is spiritual as well. Jesus's kingdom is opposed to it This is what Jesus says in words that we did read Matthew chapter 12 on today if I cast out devils By the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God is come unto you If I cast out demons If I cast out devils, then the kingdom is come. The kingdom is upon you! Well, you've just seen him cast out demons. So therefore, the kingdom has come. It's very simple in logic. They call it notice-comment. If P, then Q. P, therefore Q. If I cast out demons, the kingdom has come. Jesus goes on to explain a number of things there. He talks about sin against the Son of God and sin against the Holy Spirit There are sins committed against the Son of God and they are forgiven There are sins against the Holy Spirit, one in particular, cannot be ever forgiven. From the context, if you read it in context, I think it makes it clear. There are those people who will ultimately crucify the Lord of Glory, and they'll come to trial if they sin against the Son of God. There are people in the midst of that situation that look at the glorious works of the Holy Spirit manifested through the Son of God. And they say, that's the work of Satan. And Jesus says, that is a sin that cannot be forgiven. He's blaspheming against the Holy Spirit in all of his wonder and glory. One thing, to sin against the Son of God, He came, in a sense, to be crucified. He came, in a sense, for the glory of the Father, many other things, but He came to be sinned against and to be pierced by men, to be rejected by sinners. He came for that. And many of those who mistreated Him are forgiven. Jesus says, how do you conquer, or how do you rob a strong man's house? First you have to bind him. And once you bind him, then you can take the things, the goods from his house. What is Jesus describing? He is describing the satanic kingdom, which ruled over this whole entire world at one time. ruling over it in darkness, in which the nations were filled with idolatry. They were filled with adultery, and all sorts of murder, and lying, and all sorts of disgusting things. And the gospel was only present in one nation, that Old Testament Israel. But with the coming of the Son of God, Jesus has bound, in a sense, the strong man. He has bound him, not binding him so that he has no power, but binding him in such a way that Jesus Christ is taking back everything from Satan's house. Indeed, what Jesus is doing in this age and for the last 2,000 years He is taking the nations from Satan. The strongman has been bound by the cross and resurrection of the Savior. Therefore, Jesus is taking his resources. Jesus is taking the nations so that they might be discipled, so they might be blessed, so that they might be sprinkled, as Isaiah 53 says, so that they might be Baptized, as the Great Commission says. Satan's kingdom is being defeated. You may look at it. You may look at this world right now and you might say, well, look, Satan seems to be somewhat strong. You might say, yeah, he wasn't found so that he has no power at all. He's found, he is inhibited, But the fight continues to go on. You might say, well, I don't believe that, because I don't see that happening. We go back then to Luke 17, and we see, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. So therefore, stop looking at it. You trust in what you see. You trust in what you not see, what has been promised to you. Indeed, when you consider that nation Perishing under the Old Testament. What do we see in the New Testament in the kingdom we see? many nations Coming to Christ and then oftentimes they backslide other nations come to Christ and then they backslide What's happening throughout? People are being saved snatched from the fire Satan is called the God of this world. 2 Corinthians 4, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not. They've been blinded. That's what Jesus is doing. He's shining his light upon people. He's giving them eyes to see. It says, the light of the glorious gospel who is in the image of God should shine unto them. So Satan's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. But Jesus' kingdom comes, and it shows that it's glorious over all of earthly kingdoms, but it shows itself to be over and more powerful then, and greater than Satan's kingdom as well. You might say, well, just because I see it, I don't see it, rather, I don't see it advancing, Is it not advancing? Once again, it comes not by observation, but you must see that it is advancing, at least with your mind's eye. How so? John the Baptist comes, and he comes proclaiming the kingdom. What does he say? Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What do we mean by that? It's at hand. It's almost here. It's coming. What does Jesus begin to preach? Almost as soon as he begins to preach, Matthew 4, 17, from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This happens, John the Baptist saying this in Matthew 3. Jesus saying the same thing in Matthew chapter 4. The kingdom is coming, it's near. What does Jesus say in Matthew chapter 12, just a few chapters later? If I cast out demons, then the kingdom has come, or is upon me. What has happened? On the pages of the New Testament, Jesus, the kingdom has advanced from almost coming, almost being here, being near, being nigh, to the point at which it has come, and it has come in Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and it has come in his preaching, it has come in his miracles, it has come in his presence. Sometimes people read the New Testament and they say, oh, you know those disciples, they're so silly. They talk about the kingdom in one place as if it's about to be here And then another place they talk about it as here Well, which is it? Let me just say let me just remind you that If you look at the bible writers if you look at the apostles and you say oh They were mistaken they didn't understand They didn't understand the things that we understand now, then you've got it exactly backwards. It's not for you, or anyone in our ignorant age, to stand in judgment against the apostles. They knew exactly what they were talking about. Theologians and pastors have come up with I think right and proper words and verbiage to describe what is going on in the New Testament. It's called the already not yet. That is to say, Jesus' kingdom has already come, but it has not yet come. In one sense, it is here. In one sense, it's been here for 2,000 years. But in another sense, it's not here. How so? And what is the sense? It has come spiritually on the nation. Jesus declares this in Matthew chapter 12, 28. If I cast out demons, the kingdom has come. However, it has not come in all of its fullness. It has not come in all of its glory. And indeed, a day is coming in which Jesus will come, not like He came the first time, in humiliation, to be mistreated, crucified, and pierced. And He will not come in that way. He will come in exaltation, and He will come in glory, and all eyes will see Him on that day. And He will begin an eternal state. at that point. So we should not flinch from using such helpful, wonderful verbiage. Already the Kingdom has come, but not yet in its fullness and its consummation glory. However, it should be said But this is a minority position, which I've just given here. I think it's biblical. In fact, I stand by everything that I've said. Accidental things said, mistakes aside. I think, and I think you should think, this is exactly what's going on with Daniel and Matthew and these other places. However, this is not what our brethren, most of our brethren, believe. Most of our evangelical brethren They do not believe that Jesus is ruling and reigning this thing right now. Indeed, they're looking forward to that. Someday. And what a great day that will be now. Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords now. Jesus Christ is over the nations now. The early church, the early Christians, many of them were killed. Why? Because they would not say Caesar is Lord because they wanted to say rightly, Jesus is Lord. During the time of the Reformation, in England, post-Reformation period, those who were of a covenant mindset, that is to say, those who would worship it very similar to or exactly like we worshiped here today. They were killed because they declared that Jesus Christ is king and head over the church. And there were some English officials who said, no, you must say God saved the king and you must declare the king, the earthly king's kingship. And they were willing to be drowned for it. They were willing to be killed for it. For what? For the present kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. That Jesus is presently seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. So often our brethren are robbed. They're robbed of their privilege because they do not see present rulership and reign of Jesus Christ. So we should mourn. And oftentimes, they're so concerned and saying, he could come like in any moment. That's very possible. In a sense, it's possible for him to come right now. Oftentimes, those who believe though, those who believe that he could He's not yet king, and one day he's going to be a king. Oftentimes they're concerned about the immediate coming. They're looking for a time in which Jesus Christ will come down onto the earth, come into Jerusalem, and rule and reign there. What does that say? They're looking for a time in which Jesus' kingdom will make itself just like an arrival to all of the archangels ruling alongside of it. Well, that is certainly not the kingdom that Jesus is talking about. You know, all of its spiritualness and all of its weapons of warfare like the word of God and prayer. We don't know when Jesus will come We do not know whether we will meet him in the air because we have been dead for a year. We don't know if we'll be alive. We've been hauled up. We do not know. We do not know how long this present age will be. Often times we are. prone to consider that the early church, the ancient church, is the first 500 or so years. We say that's the ancient church. Then in about the 500s or so, we have the medieval church, and that takes place for about a thousand years, and then the Reformation It really begins in the 1517, but we'd say there are precursors to it for about 200 years. People calling for reform in the church. And then we obviously live in this modern age, or we call it the modern age, do we not? We look at these last 2,000 years and we say, so much has happened. But is Jesus going to come immediately? He's possibly going to come right away. We are prone, though, to think of the Nicene Creed in 325 put together. That's an ancient church creed. We're prone to think of the creed or the formula of Chalcedon 451. Those are ancient church creeds. And then we think of the Synod of Dort in which Protestants came together in the mid-1500s, and they dealt with doctrinal problems, and they blamed God's truth. And in the 1640s, the Westminster Assembly put together the Westminster Standards. And they said, these are Reformation-era creeds. However, it may be that what we see in this world right now is just the ebb and flow Good and evil and wickedness, but Jesus is as ruler over it all This could go on for another 6,000 years or 8,000 years Would that not change our perspective? What if what we're experiencing is just the ebb and flow of history And what if people in the year 8,000 look back upon us at this time and say of those ancient church people who lived in the first 2,000 years of the church. Indeed, you see, they might look back at the center of Georgia, and they might look back at Westminster and say, those are ancient attitudes from the ancient church. We do not know. We do know this. Whatever the case, whether he comes tomorrow or today, or whether he comes thousands of years from now, whether we are in the modern era, or whether we are in some future generation's ancient era, we must acknowledge that Jesus Christ is King, and we must acknowledge that we must pray for his kingdom, for the coming of his kingdom, that it might come by degree, even despite our observation, and also that it might come in consummation when Jesus comes. 1 Corinthians 15 24 says, Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom of God to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. Time is coming when Jesus will put down all rule, all earthly power, it says. He must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet, it says. The last enemy that is to be destroyed is death. It goes on to say that Jesus will put death underneath himself. And then, at that time, Jesus Christ, the Savior, will, in a sense, and the kingdom back to the Father, having been faithful over his house, being faithful over his nation, and being faithful over the church. When everything is subdued, then Jesus will give it back to the Father. That God the Father is all in all. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 15. 24th or 25th, that God, that is the Father, may be all in all. So what should we pray for? As we pray, we should pray that Satan's kingdom will be destroyed. And we must pray for the kingdom of grace, this present manifestation of the kingdom, that it would be advanced. We must pray, as we pray for the kingdom to come, More sinners would be brought into that kingdom. And we must pray for the glory to come, for the kingdom of glory. That it might come. That all people might see him. That we might look over him and observe the one who took the mills for us. The one who was resurrected. One who is rejected by the Father and by men, and is on a cross, hanging between heaven and earth, innocent, rejected by both, for your sins and mine. That he might rule over all things, that he might be raised from the dead, and that he might be seated at the right hand of God the Father that he might feed your seed for you even as he does now. That one is coming. We do not know when, but know this, it is coming. And we must pray for it coming. At the end of the Bible it says, even so, come Lord Jesus. Let us pray. Thank you for tuning in. Please review our Facebook and YouTube pages for further teachings. We pray you will join us next week. If you are interested in or have questions about visiting us in person, please contact us at secretary at wrpc at gmail.com. Thank you.