I'd have you keep your Psalter hymnors open to the back, page 63. We'll be considering the Heidelberg Catechism this morning, page 63 in the back of the Psalter. Once you've located that, I would ask you to turn in your Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 6. Matthew, chapter 6, where we will find our text for this morning. And if you have a third hand, you need to turn to Revelation chapter 4. We will begin with the Word of God this morning. Take our instruction from that, and then we will turn to our consideration of that word, our text in the Heidelberg Catechism reading responsibly. So beginning in Revelation chapter 4, beginning at verse 1. Hear now the Word of God. After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. But once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow resembling an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne, there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center around the throne were four living creatures and they were covered with eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had the face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and were covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stopped saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever. The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being. We turn back now to Matthew chapter 6, Where we have been considering the Lord's Prayer, which we will read in its entirety. And I will just draw your attention to the last half of verse 13. You're going to find in a footnote, someplace on your page. This then is how you should pray, Jesus taught. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. We turn our attention now to the Heidelberg Catechism, where we consider the closing phrase of the Lord's Prayer, found in your footnote. Turning to question and answer number 128, I will ask the question, I will have you respond together. What does your conclusion to this prayer mean? For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever means. We have made all these requests of you because as our all-powerful king, you not only want to, but are able to give us all that is good. And because your holy name, and not we ourselves, should receive all the praise forever. Turning the page. Question answer 129. What does that little word amen express? Amen means this is sure to be. It is even more sure that God listens to my prayer than that I really desire what I pray for. This morning brings us to the end of our series through the Lord's Prayer. That pattern of our prayers that Jesus taught us through his disciples, not only here, but in Luke chapter 11, to pray. Before we begin, I would have you make two changes to your outline, minor, but so you don't get led astray as we move along. The title has been changed. In my mind, it won't affect much of the sermon, but prayer's sublime culmination or conclusion. And point two, our established intention rather than motivation. As I've said, we're considering the Lord's Prayer from Matthew chapter 11, the one of two places it's recorded in the scripture. It's given again in Luke chapter 11, when I believe, in my understanding as I read the text, the disciples needed a refresher. And the pattern in Luke does not include everything we find in the pattern we find here in Matthew chapter 6. The address is just a word, Father. It does not include the third petition. And it does not include the words of our text today, this doxology and amen. And it's for this reason, then, for others more academic and dry, there is divided opinion as to whether the words of our text this morning are actually the words of Jesus. Most modern scholars argue that they probably are not. Therefore, nearly all modern translations either set them apart in brackets or relegate them to a footnote, as we see in the NIV. This phrase is included only without qualification in Bibles such as the King James and the Geneva Bible, because both of those are based on what's called the received text, the Greek text that was received and taught by our Reformed Fathers. And I read a lot on this case today, and the case against our text, against it being the words of Jesus Christ to his disciples and therefore to us, is a circumstantial case, clouded by academic conjecture and historical speculation, as is the case in all arguments about the text. And there's much that could be said, but there's much that has been written, but not to be expressed from this pulpit today. I can only give you my conclusion. My conclusion is this, is I do not believe the case against our text has met the burden of proof required to exclude it from Scripture. Let me say that again. I do not believe the case against this text has met the burden of proof to exclude it from Scripture. Even most translators who are leaning toward that exclusion haven't gone so far as to erase it from your Bibles. It's in your footnote. No one's that sure. And therefore, I don't think they've met the burden of proof. So therefore, we proceed according to our catechism with the understanding that our text is the Word of God to be preached and to be applied. And so we turn our attention now to prayer's sublime culmination, its sublime conclusion. The sublimity is evident not only in the simple beauty by which it concludes this pattern of prayer, but also the excellent value it adds to our practice of prayer. With it, we affirm our eternal foundation for prayer. We declare our established intention or our established purpose through prayer and announce our eager conviction in prayer. Simple words. Powerful meaning. With the words, Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, we affirm to our Father in heaven that we know that we are praying to the one true God who has revealed Himself in Scripture. And we introduce this acknowledgement with that little word, for, because, on this basis. And with that word, we affirm that our eternal foundation for the prayers which we have offered according to the pattern of the Lord's Prayer. Those prayers are offered on the foundation of God alone. Nothing in us. This God to whom we pray is king over all. His is the kingdom. Eternally. He's the creator of all things and the divine right to rule over all that He's made is His. And we sometimes refer to the realm of his kingdom in its completeness and its fullness, the kingdom of power, the kingdom of nature, everything that we know, and even that which we don't. In Psalm 103, we confess with David, the Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all. Now, after the fall of Adam, Satan was given sway in this world, over the kingdoms of this world. He is, Paul says, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. He's active. He's been active. A deceiver by nature, he deceives even himself to believe that the kingdoms of this world belong to him. And he deceives men who are put in authority over kingdoms in this world to think that that kingdom belongs to them. And therefore we read in Psalm 2 that the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against our Lord and the Lord's anointed one. And at this the one thrown in heaven laughs. He scoffs. You fools! There's only one king. And that's the Lord God Almighty. And our Father in heaven has since sent his anointed one into the world. Jesus Christ, our Lord. He came to rescue people from the wrath of God. To set us free from the tyranny of Satan. The slavery of sin and the penalty of death. And He came to inaugurate the kingdom of heaven on earth, the kingdom of grace. The Son of God came in the flesh to establish this kingdom, to establish on earth a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people chosen for God, to establish a new creation. And it's in the flesh that the Son of God came to live a life of perfect obedience for His people, fully fulfilling the will of God. He came and died on the cross bearing the sins of his people. He rose from the dead for their justification and he ascended into heaven where he now reigns in the flesh. Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every title that can be given, not only in this present age, but in the age to come. In John chapter 1, we are promised that all who receive him, all who believe on his name, He gives the right to be children of God, to become citizens of this kingdom, this kingdom of heaven on earth. On earth we call it the kingdom of grace. In heaven and in the age to come we refer to it as the kingdom of glory. As citizens of this kingdom now, we long for the day when it will be fully established in that glory. And in that day, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, when all things are subjected to Christ, all things are subjected to Christ, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who subjected all things to Him, to Christ, that God may be all in all. His is the kingdom, in heaven and on earth, now and forever, over all things. And the God to whom we pray is almighty. His is the power. Eternally. We live in a world where we think might makes right. Where power secures authority. And that's how it often appears to be. Whether that might is found in a vault full of riches, in a vast arsenal for war, or in the vault of majority. Any authority it secures is fleeting. It will not last. there's been no shortage of rulers in the history of the world that have learned this lesson the hard way, who believe the lie of Satan that their authority and their power is their own, only to see it taken away. And none more graphically, none more dramatically than King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. You remember the story in Daniel chapter 4. And there we find that God Almighty took away his royal authority and turned him out as a beast in the field for seven years until he would acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. And he does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and with the peoples on the earth. Nebuchadnezzar, by God's grace, learned who is king of kings and who has the power. There's only one king with absolute power. There's only one king with absolute power to accomplish his absolute rule, his absolute authority and that is the king to whom we pray our father in heaven who has revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God almighty he not only has authority and power he is authority he is power there's nothing he cannot do I hear myself say that and I know that you hear it, and I know that we can't comprehend it. He is authority. He is power. There's nothing He cannot do. And unlike men, He exerts His authority, He exerts His power always for good. Good as measured by His nature, not by how we think about it, not our opinions. And in His goodness, our Father in Heaven exerted His power and exercise his authority for the sake of his people by sending his son in the flesh. The gospel accounts, the apostles testify to that divine nature in Christ. In Matthew chapter 7, we learn that the crowds were amazed at Jesus' teaching because he taught as one who had authority. He not only had authority, he is authority. And in Acts chapter 10, Peter testified to the Jews in Jerusalem. He says, you know, you know, you saw, you know how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. You saw his miracles. You saw how he went around doing good and healing all those who were under the power of the devil because God was with him. He not only had the power, he is power. He not only showed good, he is good. And he testifies about Jesus to the children of God, to us, in 2 Peter chapter 1, saying, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. And how is that so? Through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. And this leads us to the third attribute that we are called to consider in this doxology, and that's the glory of God. His is the glory. He is glorious. The one to whom we pray. His nature is glorious. It possesses excellencies and perfections that are beyond our minds to conceive, beyond our tongues to express, and beyond pens to describe. It can't be captured in the human realm. His glory is at the same time a consuming fire to his enemies and a lamp of life to his people. God himself is glory, just as he is authority and power. The creation reveals his glory. We read in Romans that the heavens declare the glory of God, so that all men are without excuse. Every man knows something of the glory of God. But he has revealed his glory more fully to his people, in particular. In the Old Testament, we have the accounts of what's called the Shekinah glory, the brightness of God's presence. In Psalm 104, the psalmist declares to God, he says, O Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty. And to us, God's people, he says, he wraps himself in a light, as with the garment. This is a picture for us to have some conception of the glory of God. When Moses met with the Lord, this glory made his face to shine. So they had to put a veil over it. When Isaiah beheld it in a vision, he was overwhelmed, he was undone in the presence of the glory of God. But the glory of God is nowhere more gloriously revealed than in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the work that he has accomplished in our redemption. The glory of God is in Christ Jesus. It was in him when he was here in the flesh, but it was veiled by his flesh. Except on one occasion on the mountain with Peter, James, and John when his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light and he was transfigured before them. And they had a glimpse of the glory of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And John would later say in chapter 1 of his gospel, we have seen his glory. The glory of the one and only who came from the Father full of grace and truth. When we conclude our prayer after this pattern, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, we are declaring that we have no authority in ourselves. That we have no power in ourselves. That we have no goodness in ourselves, that God would hear us when we pray. But that we are depending only on the nature of our God, our Father, through faith in Jesus Christ. And it is here that we must stand in order to pray as Jesus taught us to pray. For this is our eternal foundation. This closure, this culmination is important. It informs how it is that we can ask what Jesus commands us to ask. Therefore, we confess in question and answer 128 in the back of your psalter, what does this conclusion to this prayer mean? We answer, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever means. We have made all these requests to you because as our all-powerful king, you not only want to, but are able to give us all that is good. And with that, we should understand that only you want to, are able to give us all good. Well, the doxology goes on to instruct us further, and it instructs us in the appropriate end of the appropriate purpose, our established intention through the petitions we raise after the pattern Jesus taught us to pray. Why it is what we're pursuing when we pray. The declaration, Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, reminds us that our Father in Heaven is worthy of our praise. As we've just considered his nature. All that God does, because of who God is, he does to glorify himself. Now if I were to say that about me, you'd think I was a self-centered braggart, that I did everything that I did for me. But God is not a self-centered braggart. God is authority. God is power. God is glory. Just in being God, all that he does brings glory to him. In all that he does, he's simply expressing the fact that all things, as Paul says, are from him and through him and to him. Nothing happens apart from his doing it, and it all brings glory to him. The praise of God is the purpose for which God created all things. As we heard around the throne of heaven in Revelation chapter 4, the elders praised him saying, And you are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for or because you created all things and by your will they were created and had their being. It's for his glory that he created. It's for the praise of God. That's the purpose for which Christ came to redeem his people. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. And so through him the amen is spoken by us to the praise and glory of God. the praise of god is the purpose for which the gospel of jesus christ is proclaimed it was proclaimed to you and now why we continue to proclaim it today here and around the world paul wrote to the corinthians in second corinthians chapter 4 says all this is for your benefit this this continued proclamation of the gospel so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of god the praise of God is the purpose for which God justifies sinners like you and me the reason he does it, the purpose he pursues in justifying people like you and me is that you and I may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light and it doesn't end there the praise of God is the purpose for which we are sanctified so that as we are made pure and blameless for the day of glory, we will bear fruits of righteousness that are in keeping with who we are and by that we will do the will of God to the glory of His name. That's why He sanctifies us. And the praise of God is the purpose for which we are glorified so that at one day, whether before He comes through death or when He comes in glory, we will be joined together with all the saints in the throne room of heaven to say, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. That's where we're going. That's why He's done what He's done for us. And it all brings glory to Him. We could go on. But I would say that the established purpose for the children of God is to glorify God in all that we do. The Westminster Larger Catechism asked the first question, what is man's chief and highest end? His chief and highest end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And Peter spells this out in 1 Peter chapter 4 that even in the mundane activities of our lives as the people of God, we are to do for the glory of God. He said, each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in His various forms. Why? For this reason, for this purpose, with this intention. So that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. So that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. I submit to you, people of God, that this is why the praise of God is the established purpose for which we pursue prayer. The praise of God is the established purpose we pursue through our prayers. And we need this instruction. And we need this corrective because we are prone to think wrongly about prayer. We tend to pray for our own advantage to get something from God. We often pray with the misguided notion that our intention in prayer is to move or to influence God, to see things our way, or to persuade Him to do what we ask. And to the degree that we do, and we do this by degree, through prayer we are seeking an end for ourselves. Our prayer has become self-serving, and it is no longer prayer. It might be a wish, it might be a hope, it might even be a demand. But when we pray for an end to ourselves, it is no longer prayer. And our text redirects the aim of our prayer from earthly things and about us to heavenly things and about God. Instead of seeking an answer to prayer as an end in itself to serve me, We rather ask our Father to give us what we ask as a means for attaining to the highest and that's to glorify his name. When our Father in heaven answers our petitions, petitions that we ask after the pattern Jesus taught us in the Lord's Prayer, petitions that we ask standing on the foundation he's given us in him through Christ, when he answers, he manifests more fully the kingdom and the power and the glory that are his For all to see in heaven and on earth to the praise and glory of His name. He bears witness to who He is in His answers to our prayers. And if what we ask God does not serve this end, it does not in accord with His will. Now that challenged me. I hope it challenges you. The horizon for my prayers is very short. not necessarily even limited in scope, but the horizon is for here and now. It's about me and us, often. But this clause teaches us that it's not about us. Yes, we ask for God's good. We ask Him to give us what we need. We ask according to what He's commanded us to ask Him for, for the greater purpose of bringing glory to His name. Therefore, we confess in answer 128, And here I prefer the older translation that makes plain, this is our purpose. Our intention in prayer. The second part of answer 128 goes on in the older version to say, And all this we pray for, that thereby, that through this means, not we, but your holy name may be glorified. So that all this we pray for, that thereby, through our prayers, not we, but your holy name, may be glorified. Indeed, the blue Psalter hymnal version renders it, this is because his holy name should receive all praise. That is indisputable. But this doxology is our, a doxology patterned after this one is one that expresses to God that this indeed is our purpose. This is indeed why we've come in prayer that no matter what we've asked for from him, it is for the greater purpose that his name be glorified. By that which He gives us. By His ability, by His power, and out of His goodness. We finish our doxology and our prayer with the little word, Amen, or Amen. And even though it comes at the end, it does not mean the end. Children, adults, when the minister says Amen, I hope we all listen to this, and I need to listen to this, because amen is an act of will on our part by which we assert something before the throne of God. It is with this word at the close of our prayers that we express our eager conviction in prayer. Jesus taught us to pray after the pattern of the Lord's Prayer so that we will know how to pray in accord with His will. He's commanded us what to pray for. He's told us this is what to be praying about. And just as every particular command in the law of God can be traced back to one of the Ten Commandments where all is summarized, so also every particular petition prayed in accord with the will of God can be associated with one of these six petitions of the Lord's Prayer. It's our guide. It's our pattern. It is what we use to measure that which we pray for. And having prayed in accord with God's revealed will, According to the pattern of the Lord's Prayer. Imperfectly to be sure, we're not called to perfection in this life. God understands our frailties. But as we have prayed according to his revealed word, we close with Amen to declare our eager desire that our Father would grant us that we've asked for. We eagerly, we seriously, we earnestly desire it. And it also expresses our firm conviction that we have the right to ask for it. as the children of God through faith in Christ. That our Father in Heaven will hear us for Jesus' sake. And that our Father is both willing and able to grant what we ask to the glory of His name. When we're convinced of these things and we earnestly desire what we ask for, Amen. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John chapter 5, this is the confidence we have in approaching God. That if we ask anything according to his will, he will hear us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him. That's confidence. That's the confidence we are called to have in our prayers. And that confidence is not found in us, it's found in who God is, what he's done for us in Christ, what He's promised us in His Word that He will do when we pray according to His will. James, in chapter 1 of his epistle, warns against praying without an Amen, without eager desire and without this firm conviction that Amen expresses. He says, when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. People of God, Jesus has not taught us to pray in vain. He's not taught us to pray empty words. He's not taught us to pray without effect. By this doxology and amen, we are fortified in the assurance that there are no unanswered prayers. that sits heavy. There are no unanswered prayers. That be real prayer. Listen carefully. Prayer is never in vain that is offered from a believer's heart to the one true God, our Father in Heaven, through faith in Jesus Christ. Prayer is never in vain that is asked in accord to what He has commanded us to ask for in the Lord's Prayer, if we pray according to His will. Prayer is never in vain that is offered to the glory of God and not for ourselves. And prayer is never in vain that rests on this unshakable foundation that even though we do not deserve it, and we know that we don't, God will surely listen to our prayer because of Christ our Lord. Such prayer is always answered, people of God. Be assured of that. The answer may be yes, or not yet, Or something better, something beyond what we asked or imagined because of our finitude and our short-sightedness. But prayer offered with a believing heart to the one true God, through faith in Christ. Asked in accord with His will, as is outlined for us in the Lord's Prayer. Asked for the purpose of glorifying God through His answer. and resting on the merits of Christ and not our own will never be answered with a no. Now, I sometimes think I hear a no, and I expect you do as well. But I say to you, people of God, if you think you're hearing no, there's no problem on the receiving end. The problem does not lie with God. Jesus has taught us how to pray. And he's taught us how to pray effectively and powerfully and in a way that glorifies God and gives us all that we need in this life. This is why we confess in question and answer 129, again preferring the older translation. What does the word Amen signify? Amen signifies it shall truly and certainly be. For my prayer is more assuredly heard of God than I feel in my heart I desire these things from him. And the reason I like this older translation is this reason. Is that it identifies that there's a distinction between assurance of faith and feeling of desire. This answer highlights that the measure of our faith is not found in the strength of our desires or our feelings. It's not found in our earnestness. It's not found in anything we can do to drum up greater power in prayer. The measure of our faith is founded on the fact of our total dependence on the God who made us, the God who redeemed us in Christ Jesus, the God who is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, and that who is working for us to the glory of His name. That's where our faith is grounded and measured. And when we pray on the basis of our eternal foundation, that is, the nature of God, our Savior, aiming at our established intention to glorify God, we can offer up prayers with eager conviction that they are heard and will be answered until the day of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Let us pray. our Father in heaven we are convinced today Lord that we are feeble in our prayers and we must confess Lord that we have held you to account for not answering them and we thank you Lord that you've given us instruction through your word for how it is that we may pray in a way that is heard by You and answered by You. We thank You for the pattern of the Lord's Prayer. Lord, help us to be self-consciously applying our prayer life to it. Help us to, with our mind, as an act of the will, to conform that which we pray for to it. That we may know and be confident when we say Amen, that we have prayed according to your will. And Lord, we thank you that you have reminded us in this doxology of who you are, the God of creation, who has redeemed us in Christ, to whom belong the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, and that it is you and your authority and your power and your glory upon which we stand in Christ Jesus, the basis, the ground, the foundation from which we can pray. Knowing that in Christ you will hear us and you'll answer. Lord, strengthen us in our weakness. Focus us in our distractions. Humble us in our self-serving, Lord, that we would be mindful that in our prayers our purpose, our goal, our end, through it all, is to glorify your name. And to see your name glorified in that which you do for us, that we might sing your praises to those round about and to the throne of heaven in our prayers. Enable us for this, Lord. We know that you will, for you've given us your Holy Spirit in Christ. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.