Amen. In addition to Psalm 103, we have as our scripture readings tonight, a passage from Luke 22, and then also Romans 12, one and two. Spider coming out of my Bible. I think I got them in the communion cup. Never know what’s going to happen in church. Okay, Luke chapter 22, that was a juicy one too. Noticed I didn’t squeal. Okay, Luke chapter 22, beginning at verse 31. The Lord Jesus says to Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.
And he said to them, when I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything? They said nothing. He said to them, but now let the one who has a money bag take it and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me. And he was numbered with the transgressors. For what is written about me has its fulfillment.
And they said, look, Lord, here are two swords. And he said to them, it is enough. And he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed saying, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. And then over to Romans.
Chapter 12, verses one and two. Remember, we’re thinking about the prayer, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And there’s the question everyone asks, how do we know the will of God? As if it’s complicated or we have to seek some spiritual medium. Romans chapter 12, one and two says, I appeal to you, therefore brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Amen. God’s word for us. Think about the beginning of the Bible and how the book of Genesis gives us very clearly. It gives to the early people of God very clearly. It’s Moses intent. It gives them their roots. It gives them their worldview. It gives them their What’s the fancy word, cosmogony? Where did everything come from? But it gives them their purpose in life. We didn’t need, you know, 2,000 years later, the purpose-driven life. It’s written into creation. It’s written into the account.
And so in the beginning, we see God show up on the scene, and we see the work of creation. Our catechism says so well, God’s work of creation is His making all things of nothing by the word of his power in the space of six days and all very good. And we understand that God took what was formless and void and he formed it and fashioned it and he filled it with all good things. Every day at the end of each day, he would give us benediction and it was good. It was good. On the sixth day, he made man after his own image. He made him after his image and knowledge and righteousness. and in holiness and he gave him dominion over everything that he had made. And at the end of that day, his benediction was extra special and behold, it was very good.
And so we understand from God’s work of creation that he intended to make a world and everything in it, to form it and to fill it and to put mankind in it with mandates, with marching orders and these mandates, these marching orders, uh, would give him glory and would show the world what God is like. And indeed the people of the world would worship and serve the living and true God. And those mandates included things like marriage and children and work and worship, just the basics of life. You know, sometimes we’re thinking about the will of God and people want something extraordinary. They want something big. Can we say they want something sexy? Something not boring, right? But simply put, marriage and children and work and worship are a pretty big deal.
And so God put Adam in the garden and required of him obedience. And we know, we understand the covenant of works that God told Adam, Eve, you can eat from any tree. of the garden, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the day you eat of it, you will surely die. So the covenant of works obey me perfectly and live disobey me once and die. And of course we understand Adam being our first parent, our representative of the human race, that what he did, we did. So when Adam eats the forbidden fruit and falls into sin and misery, all mankind after him fall into that state of sin and misery.
The goal though of the garden, the goal of creation, if you think of it, God made the world and everything in it and man would bear his image, man would rule and have dominion over the earth. And not only would children who knew God spread across the face of the earth, garden, Eden would spread across the face of the earth, but especially the knowledge of God. You read in the book of Isaiah and you read of the cosmic redemption that is to come and the reversal of the curses, the reversal of sin in the garden will come to pass one day where the knowledge of God will cover the face of the earth as the waters Cover the sea, the intention of Adam and Eve and the garden and obedience and all the rest will one day be fulfilled. But you understand, you know well your Bibles and that Genesis chapter three comes after one and two. We’ve got creation, formless and void, formed and filled, happy, holy, walking with the Lord. And then you come to chapter three, verse one, and it says, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field.
The serpent did not want the knowledge of God, the righteousness of God and the family of God to exist. He did not want it to spread across the face of the earth. And you can see throughout the whole of the scripture, the seed of the serpent trying to snuff out the family of God. It’s why Herod, When baby Jesus is born, has that local genocide. Every little boy born in this window of time must die. It’s why the Pharaoh wanted the Hebrew midwives to put to death every baby boy born in Egypt after a point. And on and on we could go of examples where Satan wanted to thwart the plan of God. And what was Satan’s point of attack on Adam and Eve?
His question was this, did God really say? And isn’t that attack on God’s word, that attack on the scriptures, it’s what we spoke of this morning with the thoughts of the Protestant Reformation, but isn’t that where Satan always goes? He attacks the credibility of God, the goodness of God, the truth of God. He attacks the scriptures. He attacks the commandments. And so in a sense, when we are going to pray, thy will be done, It’s a big statement against Satan. It’s a big statement against the world. It’s a big statement against our own desires.
Well, Adam and Eve saw the fruit. Actually Eve saw the fruit, right? She saw it. It was a delight to her eyes. She took some, she ate it, and then she gave some to her meathead idiot husband. who was standing there with her. You ever catch that in Genesis? Not the meathead idiot part, but that’s really what he was. She shared the fruit with the garden steward who probably had a implement, a tool in his hand. And if he had been keeping the garden, he would have done his duty and protected. But we know that Adam and Eve fell into sin and misery.
So we come to the third petition, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And what we’re asking for is a miracle. Right? What we’re asking for is that God would perform a miracle in our hearts, that he would perform a miracle in our minds, that he perform a miracle in our wills.
Because as Christians, we struggle with the spirit and the flesh. We know the right thing to do. And like Paul says in Romans 7, we don’t do it. And we know that which is wrong, that which is displeasing to God, and that is the very thing we do. And we have this tension in us, this paradox, this struggle between the spirit and the flesh.
And our confession of faith says so well that the Christian’s life, his sanctification is a lifelong and perpetual battle. It’s an irreconcilable war. Let that sink in. It’s an irreconcilable war, the spirit warring against the flesh, the flesh warring against the spirit, and it will not end until we die. It will not end until death makes an end to our sin in this life.
Now, Adam and Eve in the garden, if you think through what St. Augustine said in the fourfold state of man, Thomas Boston spoke of it as well in the garden, in the state of innocence, Adam and Eve had the power to sin and the power to not sin. Of course, they chose to sin. And in a state of sin and misery outside the garden, man can only sin.
Now in a state of grace, when God in Christ by the Holy Spirit makes us a new creation, we’re back to that struggle. We’re back to the struggle. Do I sin or do I obey God? And so in Christ and new creations in a state of grace, it’s possible to sin. It’s possible to not sin. And so in this prayer, we’re asking God for a miracle.
Lord, help me to obey your will. Work in me against my own sinful fleshly desires. Work in me against my being in love with this present evil age and my being in love with what the world has offered. Think of Edmund and his Turkish delight. We’re asking God to take away our desire for dessert, if you wanna put it in those terms. It’s way worse than that.
It’s don’t wanna make light of sin, but we’re asking God to work a miracle in us where we obey his will, putting aside ours, putting aside the flashiness of the world and even the shiny deceptive temptations of the devil. So your will be done on earth as it in heaven means work a miracle, help us and all people. Help us, Lord, by your word, by your spirit, to control our passions and our desires and renounce our wills. You know, the call to be a Christian is a call to self-denial. Jesus said that so well. If any man follow after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. The life of a believer is a life of cross bearing.
You know, when you’re a kid and you’re in the backseat of the car and you know, whining, are we there yet? When can we stop? What are we going to eat? Uh, your parents, you know, their will is to get on down the road and get to the destination. Your will is to be comfortable, to be happy, um, to, to not be stuck in the car.
And when you’re younger, you don’t see the destination. You don’t see the pain and the gain. Uh, but in the Christian life, we’ve got to have a long look. at what the Christian life is. And the long look of the Christian life is to more and more hate what is evil and to hold fast to what is good. It is more and more to learn and know the ways of God and to pry our fingers off our idols, to change our itinerary so that it meets the standards of the Lord, to renounce our wills. And notice the little phrase without any, Backtalk.
What was the big sin in the wilderness? The people murmured. They murmured in their tents, the scripture says. And you know, murmur is onomatopoeic. And what does a couple million people murmuring sound like? Probably sounds like the hum of locust every eight years in the summer. It’s probably a very distinguishable sound.
And so we want to serve the Lord with a whole heart, with a full heart. And that is impossible to do. That’s why we’re praying for a miracle. Lord bend my will, take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. We have a great example of this. We read of it in Luke chapter 22, the Lord Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal, the night of his arrest, the night before his unfair Jewish trial, the night before his unfair Roman trial, the night before utter agony at the hands of men, but absolute everlasting agony at the hands of Almighty God. And we read of what Jesus will go through in Isaiah 53, the suffering servant was foretold. And it simply says in Isaiah 53, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. It was the will of the Lord to put him through this.
And so when Jesus is praying, He knows the scriptures, but he was also in attendance in eternity past at the covenant of redemption. And we speak of the covenant of redemption or the, uh, I think the Latin is like the pactum salutis where God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy spirit. determined to make a world and everything in it and a people in it for themselves. They would fall into sin and misery, but they would be rescued and redeemed by a redeemer, Jesus Christ. And so here on that, what, Wednesday evening of Passion Week is Jesus. And it’s time to cash the check. It’s time to keep your word. It’s time to do the will of God when it hurts the worst.
Now remember earlier in Jesus’ life, say three years back, Satan offered him the easy way out. He took him up on the spire of the temple. He took him up and showed him all the, or I guess in this case, he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said, if you’ll just bow to me two seconds, half a second, it’s yours. But what did Jesus know? He knew the right way was to go to the cross.
He knew the right way to earn the kingdoms of this world and to become the king of kings and the Lord of lords would be to go to the cross and to suffer. And so to obey the will of God for Jesus and for us is to simply put ourselves in the hands of God and say, not my will, but yours be done. And we can say that very piously. We can put it on a sticky note. We can highlight it in our Bibles. We can underline it. We can bookmark it. You know, if you’re a digital Bible person, you can do all the digital things to it.
But unless it is etched in our heart, and unless God is doing a mighty work, it’s a prayer. And God has to do a mighty miracle in us to renounce our wills and to obey his will, for it alone is good. Our will is depraved. Our will is bent and broken with sin. But oh, don’t we like to think the Lord is so lucky to have us?
You know, we live in a world, we live in a church world, and I guess we, a la Machen, should not call it church world because there’s Christianity and there’s liberalism. But we live in a world where it seems to think the church must rubber stamp its horrible behavior. And so we’ve got to be careful, we’ve got to be careful to hold our allegiance to God and to the scriptures and not to mix our will with his.
I was reading something this week about the history of Rome, something this week about maybe Constantine and the rubber stamp that Constantine gave on Christianity and how Christianity had really thrived under persecution. Christianity had really done well as the church fathers would say, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
Anytime the government rubber stamps church and anytime the church begins to follow the government and its standards, much like Rome did, you enter a dark age. You enter an age where church is institutional and not spiritual. You enter an age where it costs you nothing to be a Christian. And you also enter an age where everybody, use that term loosely, but everybody joins up because it’s advantageous to be religious in the realm, and so people do.
We know that about that in the South. It was respectful in the Southern United States, the Southeastern United States, to be a Christian, to be in church. If you wanted to be a good businessman and have people come to your dry cleaner or your bank, you were there with your family on the pew. Didn’t matter if you had faith in Jesus, didn’t matter what you believed or how you lived, you were there and it made you an upstanding citizen. And so we have to remember history and we have to remember that it’s the heart of individuals, the heart of the, what would you say, the collective community that really matters.
We can have church without the government’s blessing. In fact, most of the world has church without a government blessing. I saw this week in, we’re in China in a certain province where they considered it to be the Jerusalem of the Chinese people. Just to set an example, the Chinese tore down a church, the government, and they built a park and planted right smack in the middle of the park, the Chinese flag. Now that is not in the face of those believers. They lost their house of worship and in place, the God of the age, which is the nation was put there.
And so we’ve got to be careful that we don’t mix other things into Christianity. It could be government, but it could be our will. You know, we’re fighting a battle in American Christianity where a person says, I am a gay Christian, or I am a put an adjective in front of Christian. And the Bible only speaks of being in Christ or not in Christ. You can’t be in Christ and be a gambling Christian. You can’t be in Christ and fill in the word. It’s not our identity. Our identity is that we’re a new creation. We’re no longer of this world, but we are heavenly beings marching to a greater end.
And so to obey the will of God is asking for a miracle. But I want to say to you, it’s very simple. Look at the last statement of the catechism. It says, help everyone carry out his office and his calling willingly and faithfully. All right. Life in Jesus is really hard because of the spiritual battles and the nature of it. But the marching orders are pretty simple. And I love how the catechism puts this.
Help us to carry out his office and his calling, the doctrine of vocation, vocare, calling. We understand that God gives us multiple callings in life. He makes us husbands and fathers and grandparents. He makes us neighbors and friends. He puts us in the marketplace. And so we may have a particular trade. But it’s not just our job that it’s our calling, it’s our whole way of life.
And those callings change. Some of you are retired and you no longer wake up every day and go to work. situation where you work and get paid, but you’re independently, you’re at a point of financial independence where you have a paycheck coming in, though you don’t go to work, and so your vocation changes. Maybe for some it’s taking care of aging parents, for others it’s chasing the grandkids, for others it’s volunteering more, or pursuing the interest that you always had but couldn’t pursue while you were in the workplace. but help us to carry out office and calling willingly and faithfully. I’ve always had a little saying in my mind and maybe it came when I was younger and we had babies, but sometimes our office and calling is to take out the trash at night. It’s that mundane, isn’t it?
It’s that simple. We take the trash out for the glory of God. We don’t murmur or what does it say? We don’t backtalk. Lord, it’s my duty to take out the trash. It’s my duty to change diapers. It’s my duty to go to work, maybe this is not me, but maybe you had to go to work for a long time at a job you did not like, but it paid the bills that took care of your family and you persevered in it because God was teaching you something under the hardships. But carrying out our office, carrying out our calling very simply, very willingly, and very faithfully without any backtalk is really where it’s at.
You know, so many people have over-spiritualized. What is the will of God? And I think most of the time, they want the will of God to be an approval of their sin, or they want the will of God to be an approval of their lifestyle that they know they can’t afford, know they can’t achieve, but they want it anyway. And so, you know, they say things like, God told me to do this, or God has blessed me to do this.
Anytime I hear that talk, my hairs on my neck stand up. But really, obedience to the Lord is waking up, is brushing your teeth, is drinking your coffee, it’s going to work, it’s taking out the trash, it’s changing diapers, it’s getting your kids through school. It’s doing what’s in front of you, doing it willingly, doing it faithfully. It’s the basics, yes, it’s boring, perhaps, unless you look at it differently. But it’s normal kingdom business, just the mundane ups and downs and daily routines of life.
And so we do it willingly and faithfully as the angels do in heaven. I don’t think this is the intent of this petition, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But there will be a day When we live no longer on this earth, we live no longer in these bodies that were born in sin and misery and have been redeemed by Jesus. But there will be a day when we see God perfectly and we live for him perfectly.
You know, I think the Christian, this is just curmudgeon me thinking out loud. I think a lot of American Christians think America is where it’s at. No, heaven is where it’s at. This is a way station along the way. But I also wonder, I wonder if believers think being healthy in this life is where it’s at.
And do you remember several months ago, maybe it was in June, we looked at the question, since Jesus died for our sins, why do we still have to die? And remember the two answers for that question. One is death as an entrance into heaven. And second death is a end to our sin.
You know, we are so caught up and so worried with what the cells in our body are doing. And yes, we ought to be because they can do crazy bad things. And people made in God’s image who are following the creation mandate have figured out how to, in some cases, tame those cells and make them go away or kill them or reverse them. That’s a wonderful thing too.
But sometimes I think we’re so worried about our earthly existence that we don’t think much about that heavenly one where we will live not only in bodies made whole, but spirits made whole. And I think we’re selling ourselves short. We ought to long to be absent from the body, present with the Lord. We ought to long to be with the Lord in heaven where where we sin no more.
That is a wonderful, wonderful goal. But until then, do your office and calling without whining and complaining, right? Okay, let’s pray. Our God, we thank you for the day that you’ve made, for the creation we live in. We thank you for the day and the life of our congregation. We rejoice in the goodness that you have provided for us. And we pray that we would not take lightly the provisions you’ve made for us to grow in grace, and to live together and to spur one another on to loving good deeds so that each of us seeks to live and to do your will. Help us and bless us by your spirit’s power. And we pray with all our hearts that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Hear us and help us, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.