Our call to worship in this evening hour comes from the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians in the first chapter, verses two through four. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. Thus far, a call to worship. Our scripture reading in this evening hour comes from the gospel according to Matthew and the sixth chapter, and we will begin our reading in verse one. where the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, speaks as follows. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father, which is in secret. And thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore alike unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask them. After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Thus far, a reading of God's sacred, infallible, and precious word. May he bless it unto our hearts and to our lives. Dear congregation, our lives would be much more trouble-free if we had the right view of who God is. If we more wholeheartedly believed everything that God has revealed concerning himself and his word, we would be able to withstand all sorts of assaults and temptations to sin. For behind every sin ultimately is a wrong view of who God is. Is it any wonder that when Satan tempted the Lord Jesus in the wilderness, that he tried to get the Lord Jesus to think differently about God. For example, with the temptation to turn stones into bread, he was insinuating that the Lord Jesus Christ did not have a faithful and all-providing Father. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, While He searches the hearts of those who are listening, and He censures sin and warns against it, He at the same time puts right next to it teachings regarding God, and especially God as Father. And when you begin in chapter 6 verse 1, you see how He tells them, for example, not to give alms ostentatiously. For God sees everything. He sees in secret. In other words, He's the all-seeing God. And that ought to govern how we live. The Lord Jesus says, don't pray your prayers on street corners, for your heavenly Father can see your prayers and hear your prayers wherever you are. He is everywhere present. Don't pray repetitiously. because the Lord can see into your hearts. He's all-knowing. He's omniscience. And later on in chapter 6, he says, don't be over-anxious, for your heavenly Father knows what you have need of before you're conscious of it yourself. He's faithful. Do you see how he over and again puts against our temptations, our tendencies, he puts the doctrine the truth about God, and to fortify the people of God in all their manifold temptations and struggles. He not only does that in terms of doctrine, but he does it, as we hope to see tonight with the Lord's help, especially in prayer. How God's people pray depends on the view that they have of God. instructing and teaching his disciples, as we find in the words of our text, which you see in Matthew 6 and verse 9b. He teaches his disciples to view and to address God as our Father, which art in heaven. That will be our text for this evening. Along with Lord's Day 46, question and answer 120 and 121, which I'll read with you at this time. Lord's Day 46, question 120. Why hath Christ commanded us to address God thus, our Father, that immediately In the very beginning of our prayer, He might excite in us a childlike reverence for and confidence in God, which are the foundation of our prayer. Namely, that God is become our Father in Christ and will much less deny us what we ask of Him in true faith than our parents will refuse us earthly things. Question 121. Why is here added which art in heaven? Lest we should form any earthly conceptions of God's heavenly majesty. And that we may expect from his almighty power all things necessary for soul and body. Thus far our catechism. Our theme looking to the Lord this evening is mercy and majesty. Mercy and majesty, the God we address in prayer. We'll see in the first place what Christ's prayer says about God. And secondly, and lastly, what Christ's prayer says to us. Mercy and majesty, the God we address in prayer. What Christ's prayer says about God. And secondly, what Christ's prayer says to us. Congregation, our Father which art in heaven. These are the words that the Son of God in our nature chooses as he teaches his disciples to address God in prayer, to come before the Holy One in prayer. That he addressed God, his Father, is not surprising. Across the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he addresses God as Father a hundred times or more. In the Gospel of John alone, he addresses God as Father 60 times. But that he leads his people to address God in the same way as Father is a glorious and surprising truth, privilege, and gift. Now, Matthew Henry, in his commentary on the Lord's Prayer, he compares the Lord's Prayer to a letter being written by a child to his father, a letter with seven petitions. And he compares the address of this prayer, which is what we're dealing with, to the envelope and what's written on the envelope containing these petitions. Our father which art in heaven Congregation do you think of prayer like that? as an envelope and The address to God on the outside and how then should we address God? our father which art in heaven And really from the outset what this teaches us about God is first of all God's mercy God is merciful He is a father, but he is a father who is in heaven, and that's his majesty. And so the Lord here unites and combines mercy and majesty. When we think of God from the perspective of a disciple, from the perspective of a believer, God is perfect mercy and perfect majesty. And his majesty gives to mercy this awe, this wonder, this might, this majesty. And it gives to majesty, it gives a mercy, a thoroughgoing mercy. Yes, God is a God who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. Make no mistake about this. He is transcendent. He sits above the circle of the universe, and the inhabitants thereof are like grasshoppers before Him. God is majestic. He is majesty itself. But at the same time, He is imminent, He is close, He indeed is high and holy, but He dwells with them that are of a contrite heart and who tremble at His Word. You see, it's mercy, majesty. together. Isn't this astounding, congregation? Especially when we think of these disciples, how the Lord is teaching them to pray. These disciples, like you and me by nature, we're rebels. We're enemies. We're not just wayward children. We are that. But we've turned into violent enemies against God. departing from his way, allied with Satan. Ye are, Jesus says, of your father the devil. We have chosen him over God, who never did us any wrong, with whom we communed in Adam in the cool of the day, and in whose favor there was life. It was the joy of our life and of our soul to commune with Him. And yet, by the instigation of the devil and willfully, we turned away from Him. And how the Lord can say in His Word as He does in Isaiah 1 verse 2, I have nourished and brought up children, but they have rebelled against Me. That's how you and I live all our days, before grace, before God's intervention. The Lord can lament as well, In Malachi 1 verse 6, a son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If I then be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Earthly rulers demand respect, and fathers demand, if it's right, respect for those who are their children. The Lord comes and says of His image-bearers, You and me by nature, he says, where is my honor? Though I be your father by creation. The miracle congregation of the word of God and of the grace of God in Jesus Christ is that God, for reasons known only to himself, has found a way. to be a father to fallen image-bearers like you and like me. And you read, as it were, the heartbeat of the triune God on every page of sacred Scripture. Just to choose one or two passages, Jeremiah 31, verse 20, is Ephraim, my dear son, speaking of wayward Israel, wayward Ephraim. Is he from my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore, my bowels are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. Do you understand that? As that entered into our mind to conceive how it is that the Lord, pure majesty, how he could find a way to speak tenderly, earnestly, beckoningly to sinners. Most memorable in all the Scriptures may be the parable of the prodigal son, who here doesn't know it. When the son who had left his father wanted his inheritance early from his father, thereby, as it were, saying, I wish you were dead, I want my inheritance now. Give me the portion that falls unto me and ran away from the communion of God. That sinner, that prodigal, we read of him that yet a long way off, the father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And this, of course, is what the Lord Jesus Christ had come to declare. He was that manifestation of that look of the father. He was the manifestation of the running of the father. He was the manifestation of what God is towards sinners in redemption, in his grace, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. The whole of his ministry was one loud echo of grace, grace to sinners. all from out of the Father heart of God. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ gathers his disciples around him and would teach them to pray, it is not with hesitation, it is not with all sorts of qualifications, but it is so clear, so earnest, so ready, so eager when you pray, Pray, our, our Father, which art in heaven. What an amazing depth of love lies just in these words. The Lord knew who these disciples were all around him. Yes, he had gathered them. Yes, they had begun to follow him. Yes, he had drawn them with cords of love. Yes, he had brought them from darkness into his marvelous light, but they were all still sinners, very much so. And the next few years would make that abundantly clear. And yet the Lord has no hesitation. When you pray, say, our father, Peter, Say, Our Father. James, say, Our Father, and so on. You see here how the heart of mercy, the Father of mercy in His heart is beating for wayward sinners like you and like me. When you pray, say, Our Father. The Catechism has a wonderful explanation of it. that immediately, in the very beginning of our prayer, He might excite in us a childlike reverence for and confidence in God. which are the very foundation of our prayer, namely that God has become our Father in Christ and will much less deny us that which we ask of Him in true faith, and our parents will refuse us earthly things. He would excite in our hearts reverence, yes, but also confidence, a view of God in His mercy and in His majesty, which is the very foundation of prayer. It's as if, reverently speaking, the Lord Jesus Christ knows that his people's prayers would be nothing apart from him, apart from his instruction, apart from his grace. And so he says, from the very outset, here's your foundation. Here's a strong foundation. Our Father, which art in heaven. Congregation, are you excited? That's the Word that He might excite in us this reverence and this confidence which is the foundation of all prayer. It's as if the Lord Jesus Christ takes His disciples through the gateway of prayer. And from the very first words, Our Father, He makes us to know what is true prayer. It's a view of God. It's a taking hold of God upon His Word. upon His promises, upon who He is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I dare say that the hearts of God's people here, they are excited, aren't they? When you hear it like this, when you hear the Lord Jesus Christ teaching you, leading you, drawing you to the courts of His Father, and He says, say it then, say it then. Father and he puts himself right in the midst of it our father as if to say I'm coming right with you It's not just my father, but it's our father He's your father Dear believer for the Lord Jesus Christ sake as our catechism says that he has become our father in Christ and so the Lord Jesus Christ puts himself in that first word of the prayer our father Well, congregation, since this is the Lord's explicit teaching, we do well to consider a number of ways in which the Lord is indeed a father. According to the scripture, there's 10 ways, at least, in which the Lord is such a father, that we would take some of these thoughts with us the next time we pray. He's a father, first of all, in the general sense to everyone by virtue of creation. Now, this is not the common use of father in the scriptures, but in Malachi 2, verse 10, we read the prophet saying, have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? And in the New Testament, the apostle Paul says in Acts 17, verse 28, speaking here of Jew and Gentile and all people, he says, we are his offspring. So in a certain sense, God is by nature a father of all those whom he has made. We owe our origin to him. We are his creation. And he is a father by virtue of his creating hand. But secondly, and more importantly, and more to the point, God is a father because he is the father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is his son, not by natural generation, not by virtue of his birth here in this world, but by eternal generation. You can read of this in Proverbs 8, verse 23 and 30, where the Lord Jesus Christ and the person of wisdom says, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was made. Then was I by him as one brought up with him, his son. And I was daily His delight. It's speaking there of that close, that intimate relationship between Father and Son, where the Lord Jesus Christ otherwise described as in the bosom of the Father, in that intimate, that close relationship of love between father and son, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Is it any wonder that when the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized, that heaven couldn't wait, but the heavens were rent open and the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Son by eternal generation. But thirdly, and now we come closer to how believers may know and understand, be assured of the fatherhood of God. God is an all-wise God. Young children here, you look up to your parents, don't you? And so you should. And you think of them as very smart, don't you? that may change later in life, but young children, they look up to their fathers and their mothers, how they know what they know. Many of us can remember doing exactly that. How are they so learned, so wise? They have solutions for all sorts of things, but the wisest father on the earth congregation is a fool compared to God. who is wisdom himself. He is eternal and he is all-wise. And so when believers pray to God as their Father, they may go to Him with all their questions and perplexities and doubts and fears and anxieties and find in Him and confide in Him as an all-wise Father. Fourthly, congregation God is a father in the sense that he is always accessible. Nothing is too hard for him, but also nothing need keep his children away from him. I trust fathers here can relate to the fact of being busy with this or that, but your child comes, your young child comes, your teenager comes, and they say, Dad, I need you. If you're a good father and you at all can, you drop what you're doing to have an ear, a helping hand for your son, for your daughter. It's not your child that needs to take a number or make an appointment with you for later in the week. No, a child is welcome anytime. Anywhere. And how much more so with God as father, with his people. No father here lives up to this reputation of being always accessible. But God's ear is always bent towards even the weakest, faintest cry of the believer. Day or night. No matter is too big, no matter is too small for this always accessible Father. But fifthly, and maybe we're here close to the very heart of the matter, God is a father to his children in the sense that he is most loving. Parents ought to love their children sacrificially. And sadly, we as parents must confess that we come short, don't we, so often. Our fatherhood, our parenting is tainted by sin. So much so that some hear the word father and they cringe because of their experience. Indeed, we all have come short. But then this evening, let this father of all mercies and the God of all comforts, may he make up what is lacking in human fathers. And let not our view of God the Father be tainted by the sins of earthly fathers. As the catechism warns us, we ought to form no earthly conception of him. In other words, to carry what we see around us in a faulty way, in human relationships, and impute them upon God. No, God is love. At best, we parents love imperfectly. Our love fails, but his love never fails. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that love him, that fear him. He has compassion towards them. He loves them with an everlasting love, even to the point of Zephaniah three, saying that he rests in his love and he joys over his children with singing. wonder of all wonders. How can that be? I, with all my faults, you with all your sins and stains, that God would love you with his everlasting love and draw you to himself and rejoice over you. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God. You hear it in the voice of the apostle. Behold what manner What kind of love is this? Sixthly, God the Father raises his children up as his sons and daughters. Fathers, train up your children in the way they should go. Fathers, nurture your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Does not God the Father do this with His children? He teaches them, He guides them, He leads them, He calls them. Out of Egypt have I called my son. He not only tells them lessons, but He brings these lessons to remembrance, and He sends His Holy Spirit to teach these lessons perfectly. He shall teach you all things. And He grows His children. He employs His children. step by step. Seventhly, God as Father provides for his children. God is my shepherd. I shall not want anything. I shall not lack anything that I need, body and soul, to do God's will in this life. This chapter is filled with Comforts and encouragements that God sees the sparrow and how much more shall he not care for you? Oh you of little faith The catechism says that we may expect from his almighty power all things necessary for soul and body Unnecessarily everything desirable for our body and for a soul but all things necessary all things that he deems necessary for us To do what the Lord would have us to do in the earth Eighthly, God as father chastises his children. We may be thankful for that as well. Imagine that the Lord never did that. We would wander, we would go astray, and the Lord would just let it be so. Children here, you don't like it when your father disciplines you, do you? And yet in the end, you often grow up to thank your father for his biblical discipline when it was biblical. We need fathers who care enough about their children and for their children to chastise them at times when they are wayward, when they are wrong, when they are in danger. And so the Lord, too, he chastises his people for their good, not punitively, but for their good. If He didn't do this, they would be illegitimate children, Hebrews 12 says. He disciplines us when we need it, in order that we would go His way and not our own. Ninthly, God as Father protects His children. When the enemy comes in as a flood, the Lord lifts up a banner. He knows Satan's devices. He warns us against them in the Word. When Satan comes, as he does invariably in the lives of God's people, the Lord does not allow him to go any further than what will ultimately profit his children's sanctification and their usefulness in the world. God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The word says, no evil shall befall you. Thomas Watson says, notice that it doesn't say no trouble shall befall you, only no evil. You may have troubles and trials and pains, but no evil shall befall you. God's children are privileged so as not to be hurt by anything. Nothing shall by any means hurt you. God shall take the hurt and the malignity of the affliction away, though you see it not by sight. but you understand and receive it only by faith. He protects his children. Tenthly and lastly, congregation, the Lord, as Father, he gives his children an amazing inheritance, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who believe, who are kept by God through his power unto that inheritance. Many earthly fathers leave an inheritance to their children. Some do not. But God's inheritance, there is no comparison. Already in this life, they inherit spiritual blessings in heavenly places, all in Jesus Christ. They are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Well, congregation, this is but a taste of the plethora of all that is involved when you, dear believer, call upon God in obedience to the command of Christ and you say, Our Father. Oh, what a rock solid foundation for prayer, don't you think? Doesn't this excite in you confidence and reverence? Secondly, congregation, what Christ's prayer says about us. Now, there are many in this world that use this Our Father flippantly, and perhaps it has occurred to a number of you already that as we've been speaking about this address in the Lord's Prayer, you've thought, well, I've heard many people call on God flippantly, simply as a common, ordinary thing, misusing this address, and indeed, That does happen, and that is sad. But the question then comes, and the Lord faces all of us with this question in these moments, and that is, can you go through this gateway to call God as Father? He puts it from the very outset, because in a certain sense, the other petitions, they follow upon this. In a certain sense, these petitions cannot cross our lips unless there is that reverence and confidence excited in us from the very outset by the manifestation of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. It's put to us at the very outset. Narrow is the gate, yes. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. But here is the narrow gate. Are you a child of the King? Because congregation, as we already saw, these disciples sitting here around the Lord Jesus Christ and learning how to pray from Him, they're not good people in and of themselves. In most cases, there was weak faith. And there would prove to be a lot of hurdles in their lives, many disappointments that they would bring also to the Lord, denying Him. Fighting striving about who would be the greatest and so on The congregation the fundamental mark of the child of god can be found in john chapter 1 verse 16 as many as received him To them gave he power to become the sons of god even to them that believe on his name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of god You see, congregation, these children, they're begotten by God, but what marks them is their reception of the Lord Jesus Christ. They need Him. The need of their life with all the sin, with all the loss in their life. They need this Lord Jesus Christ. They need all that He is and all that He brings and can do in their lives. And just as we've compared God to human fathers, so we could compare God's children to how children are among us. More briefly, one thing that marks children is trust in their parents. When a child is born, it doesn't need to be taught how to typically to trust their mother, their father, the voice of the father, the voice of the mother is known already. No trust may be difficult for some children more than others. Nevertheless, it is a mark of a child that they trust. They confide. They come to their parent with problems, with issues, even confessing their sins. Do you ever do that, children? You've done something wrong. Something's bothering you and you're in your in your mind and your heart. You come to your mom, you come to your dad and you say, I have to tell you something of sin. So to God's child does that cannot bear that long without running to tell his father to seek forgiveness from his father. Trust. Secondly, submission. Children listen to and submit to their parents, they honor their parents, they seek to yes, they may do it failingly and falteringly. Nevertheless, that is their desire. That is typically the case, especially young children. Thirdly, children seek the approval of their parents. They want to please their parents. They crave that affirmation from their parents. You know that parents. Your son or your daughter, young or older, has done something. They look up to you and in their eyes is that look craving validation, encouragement, strength. And when things have not gone well, consolation and help, support and strength. That's what a child does. There's another mark of a child. Children, when your dad is gone, maybe on a business trip for a week or two or maybe even longer, what goes on inside of you? You miss your dad, don't you? You long to see your dad. You want to be close to your dad. Something aches inside of you when he's gone. And so, too, the child of God longs when father is gone, when a sense of his presence is missing. You long for the Lord's smile, for his nearness. That's what a child does. Perhaps someone says here, you know, I recognize some of these things, but I have such an overwhelming sense of unworthiness in my life. You know, my sin from the past and my sin still today is such that there's no way. There's no way that this father of lights in whom there is no darkness at all could, could ever wish to be, could ever want to be my father. Well, my friend, he's been a father to much worse than you. He's become this father in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the love in the heart of this father was such that he, his son not sparing, sent him to die for sinners in order that they, wayward, Fatherless as they are rebels enemies that they might be accepted On the basis of his righteousness is one sacrifice for sin forever. They would be adopted In other cultures you have it you have it here as well that there are orphans people whose parents have had to abandon them or Have died and they're seeking for a father some go around the streets and the villages of Africa and other places looking for a father Will you be my father they say? Life is hard. They can't do it on their own. The threats are great. People will take them, enslave them, and the rest. They need a father. They look for protection. That's the only thing that they know to do. I wonder if there's anyone here tonight like that. You've been fatherless far too long. Spiritually speaking, you are an orphan. Oh, this man receiveth sinners. and adopts them to be children and heirs in and through his son. He spared not his own son, but gave him up for us all, says Paul. How shall he not also with him freely give us all things? And if you're here today, my dear friend, and you know not God as your father, I know of nothing that ought to be your number one business. To come to know for yourself personally. And that is that He, for Christ's sake, might be my Father. You say that's too high. I know it seems that way. Yes, to flesh and to blood and to sense it is too high. But not to the God of the Scriptures. And not to the Christ. who speaks in the words of our text, our Father, but then come through Christ. Come through the one who says, I am the door. If by me any man, hear that, any man, any woman, any sinner should come, he shall be saved. He shall be saved. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. And then the Lord places upon your lips, yes, your lips, this glorious address, our Father. Sometimes it might seem so great, so high, you cannot attain unto it. William Ames. Puritan he wrote on the catechism. He has a section here and he asked the question should those who lack assurance that God is their father still call him By this our father which in heaven which is in heaven And he gives marvelous advice. He says when with hearts lifted up to God they invoke God as their own father at least Desiring him if they cannot do so by positively affirming it And so I ask you, those who are struggling here tonight, for you, it might be very difficult to speak to God as your father, but is this not your desire? Is this not your longing? Then speak these words with the prayer that the Lord would indeed manifest himself all the more in the Lord Jesus Christ and through his spirit as your father. In congregation, when we look at the experience of God's people, oftentimes this cry, Abba, Father, is born not on the mountaintops of religious experiences, but often in the valleys, in the depths, often in the mire when we're sinking. And there in the midst of it all, when we don't have words for long speeches and all sorts of other things, we cry. Like a child will cry when it's drowning or stuck, it will cry, Daddy! Inwardly, a cry is born in the heart. And that is exactly what Paul speaks of in Romans 8 when he says, The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he teaches believers this Abba cry, this Father cry. And congregation, do you know where we learn most, or most clearly and dearly? This Abba cry. Is it not at the foot of the cross where we see the Lord Jesus Christ? And how does he pray? How does he speak on the cross of Calvary? His first petition, His first word on the cross of Calvary, the first thing that crosses His blessed lips is, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Yes, indeed, in the fourth petition when He addresses God, He doesn't use the Father name, but He cries, My God, My God. Why hast thou forsaken me? In order that you, sinner, might never be forsaken, but accepted of God, an heir of God, a joint heir with this Christ who suffered. And then he comes to the last petition on the cross and he cries out once again with renewed vigor, he cries, Father, into thy hands i commend my spirit he sees the father's hands as it were stretched out lowered from heaven he sees them with eyes of faith and he says father into thy hands my soul for thou hast redeemed me god of truth Congregation, would you know the mystery and the miracle and the marvel of this father address? Encamp at Calvary, pitch at Calvary, never leave it anyways. It's there we learn all the depths and the riches of the love of God, including that father heart of God. Imagine that. And in the place where the Lord Jesus Christ, all sense of the Father's heart was removed from Him in that dereliction He suffered on the cross, it is there, it is there on my knees before Him that I learn the mystery and the marvel and the mercy and the majesty of the Father heart of God for me, a sinner. That's where you learn it, for a first time or again, The congregation, as we close this evening, three applications for believers, and then one for those who are not believers. My dear believing friends here tonight, as this address and the Lord's Prayer excited reverence and confidence in your heart, perhaps in a renewed way, that you would go into this closet of yours to the throne of grace with confidence, not based in yourself, and with a reverence, not that you concoct, but all in Jesus Christ. Do you feel in prayer a strong foundation in these very words of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you truly, as you bring your needs, your sins, your concerns, your failings, your anxieties before the Lord, do you place yourself on that strong foundation of majestic mercy which will hold you, sinner that you are? It will hold you. Then get off the sinking sand of your own good works, your own resolutions, your own attempts, your own desires, your own feelings, your own experiences, and confide, rest on this strong foundation which is in Christ. And because of Him, our Father, which art in heaven. But secondly, dear believers, let this address of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord's Prayer, let it remind you, too, that you share this Father with the whole family of God in heaven and on earth, our Father. We haven't spoken about that yet, but the Lord Jesus Christ puts it in the plural, not just because He is also the Son of God and you. It's not just the two of you, but it's our Father. He's teaching this to His 12 disciples, and this is the cry of God's church of every age. This is the reality of the church here below, but also the triumphant church. They know and they experience now in full the blessedness of the fatherhood of God as they are around the throne. Our father, which art in heaven. Doesn't this make you look at your brother and sister in the faith in a different way? When he or she goes to the Lord, he or she says, our father. You ought to know yourself, bound together with all the children of God, different though they may be from yourself. Are we not to love the brethren and the communion of the saints? Are we not also to comfort all those who are in distress, comfort those with the comfort that the Lord himself has given us? We find another believer in distress and unable to appropriate to him or herself these wonderful comforts of the fatherhood of God, ought we not to assist them? To be a hand and a foot to one another and say, perhaps you can't sensibly say it right now, but I say it for you and I say it with you, our Father. Like that paralyzed man brought a four to the Lord Jesus, they all took a corner of his mat and they took him to the Lord Jesus Christ and he's seeing their faith. They were bound together in faith. So we carry one another before the throne of God, the father of mercies. Thirdly, dear believers, whenever we address God as our father, which art in heaven, Heaven. Let us never forget that we're still on the earth. We're still here below, and he is in heaven, but he'll bring me there. He's drawing me to that place where all shall be well, where all storms will be passed, where all afflictions and trials that I now experience and from out of which I cry, Abba, Father, save me, help me, support me, strengthen me. Rescue me the day is coming When it's not just he in heaven But i'll be with him there All for christ's sake in my father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you And doesn't that humble me? And doesn't that humble you when you think of that our father? which art in heaven? And doesn't it stir up within you a longing one day, one day to be there? To see him face to face and to know it in truth everlastingly. He a father, I a son. Sheer grace, sheer mercy, wonderful majesty. My final word, congregation, is to you who do not know this Father's love. Oh, my friend, the envelope of your prayer may have a lot on there, but to whom, to what is it directed? What's on the outside? If you do not know this Father heart and Father love, Father grace of God, you're so poor. What do you have over the Muslim? The Muslim who has only the prospect of coming before Allah's throne and not knowing anything. And Allah is just, but Allah is not merciful. Oh, my friend, all the love in my heart, I see you as a fatherless soul tonight, unable to meet the trials, tribulations of life, and certainly not those of death and of the eternity to follow. My friend, whoever you are, you need mercy. You need majesty. You need mercy and majesty in Christ and in the triune God. And the Lord stooped so low this evening that he says to you, right in your sin, right in your waywardness, right in your orphanhood, he says, in me, the fatherless findest mercy. Do you hear your name? In me, the fatherless findest mercy. Oh, who is a God like unto him? And even tonight, while you're a great way off, the Father can see you. The Father can come running over whatever mountains, valleys there are between you and Him. And His compassion, His love never fails. It covers a multitude of sins. And He can run this very night and embrace you and fall upon your neck with all your vile sin and sinnership. and lavish you, lavish you with the mercy of majesty and the majesty of mercy for Christ's sake. Amen. Glorious triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teach us to pray, our Father, which art in heaven, Help us to know and feel that strong foundation, that rock-solid foundation of prayer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has taught us to pray thus. And may our refrain be throughout our days, it's mercy. Mercy that's gone before. Mercy that's been underneath. Mercies that's followed behind me and been over me. Majestic mercy. Lord, apply thy word as thou alone can do. Be the after preacher in our hearts and lives. May the word not be picked away by the birds of the air. May Satan, when he comes after us, there's no doubt he will. May he find that thou dost lift up a standard, a banner against him, and that thy love would shield and shelter us. Remember all thy dear people, we pray, especially though in the midst of the fight, beleaguered, assaulted. Be with those who fear greatly that thou art not their father. May they gaze upon Calvary. May they encamp there. May they be there and stay there until they know God. For Jesus Christ's sake is my Father. And Lord, awaken in us to a greater degree a love and a longing for heaven. And for those who are already there of thy people, saved by the same grace available for sinners today. Lord, remember this flock, this congregation. Bless also him who has received a call from this flock. Lord, we pray Thee that Thou wouldst guide his every step. If it is Thy will, bring him here to this place to be an under-shepherd of Thine. But in the meantime, minister to this flock from out of Thy nail-pierced hands, Lord Jesus, and make all things well. And pardon our sins, even in holy things. And we ask this all for the Redeemer's sake. Amen.