Our text for this morning sermon is taken from Matthew chapter 6, Matthew chapter 6. In the last verse of the song we just sang, we said that, I rest in confidence, for thou art my security. What was sung and believed in in the Old Testament in the Psalms is shown with great clarity. In the New Testament, through the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, even in our text this morning, as he gives instruction on how not to pray and how indeed as disciples and believers in him we should pray. Before we turn to it together this morning, let's pray and ask the Lord to bless it for us. Our great God and Father, we do come to you now asking that you might take your word, that you would open it up for us, and by the power of your Holy Spirit that You might write it upon our hearts, that our minds might be transformed by it, our faith informed by it, and that we would be strengthened as Your people. Rebuke us as necessary, dear Father. Strengthen us as we have need and encourage us in the calling that You've placed before us as Your people. We ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. We'll read together from Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 through 16 through 15. Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 through 15. Hear now the word of our God. Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received the reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need. before you ask Him. This, then, is how you should pray. 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 if You have forgiven men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins. So was the reading of God's Word. The Word of God before us this morning is about prayer. In the day of Jesus, just like the day of today, prayer was something of great interest, of significant pursuit of many. There were the Gentiles. There were the Jews, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. There were the disciples of John. And these different groups all had different practices and methods of prayer according to their beliefs. They prayed according to what they believed. Particularly, they prayed according to what they believed about God. And what we find in our text is that Christian prayer, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christian prayer is to be very different from these other kinds of prayer. When teaching the disciples, Jesus warns them not to pray like other people. They shouldn't pray like the Pharisees prayed or like the Gentiles prayed who believed that somehow they could bring God to hear them and to answer them by saying the right words or using the right phrase or the right postures in prayer. Sometimes I wonder if maybe the popular book, The Prayer of Jabez, might fall into that critique. God hasn't blessed you yet because you haven't asked Him yet using the right words. It's worthy to think about. Jesus is concerned that we don't think about prayer that way. You see, those groups thought very much like a new book I found at Barnes & Noble that somehow by what they said and how they said it, God would hear them. And you see, then the answer to prayer is grounded in ourselves and what we do. But Jesus says to His disciples in chapter 6, verse 8, that you must not be like them. And notice why. He says, For your Father knows what you need before you ask. Your Father knows. He already knows what you need even before you ask. Your Father knows. In other words, you must not be like them because as believers in Jesus Christ, you believe in a very different God. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord commands us through the text this morning to pray using the words, Our Father in Heaven. And in doing so, He teaches us some of the most fantastic truths about our God. He teaches us that God is Father. He teaches us that God is powerful. He teaches us, thirdly, that God is for us. God is Father, God is powerful, and God is for us. These are the things that Jesus presses upon His disciples. He presses upon us this morning. The first of these truths, that God is Father. It may not seem like good news to some of us. I was reading recently a biography, a new biography, about Jonathan Edwards, that rather famous 18th century pastor and theologian. And the author of this work observed and explained rather clearly about how the young Edwards viewed his father as a demanding perfectionist, a strict disciplinarian, And often it seems a burden to his young son. I don't know about you, but sometimes I wonder if I might communicate the same to my young ones. You see, for the teenage Edwards, looking to God as father wasn't always a great comfort. And we found the same thing working not too long ago with the inner city residents of Minneapolis. they too had a view of Father that was very mutated by sin. And it's very possible that Old Testament Israel, along with the disciples of Jesus, may have felt the same way. Though Israel knew God to be Father, this belief had very little influence on their lives. And we know this because as we look at the Old Testament, over 1,000 pages of Scripture covering over 2,000 years of redemptive history, we find that God is referred to as Father, directly referred to as Father only seven times. Seven times in the whole Old Testament and not a single direct reference to God being Father in the whole Psalter. That book of prayer. It's a remarkable truth. A remarkable fact. That the fatherhood of God is largely veiled. Not completely veiled. But largely veiled in the Old Testament. And what's striking, I think, is that when we do see the fatherhood of God there, it seems sometimes more a rebuke than a comfort. Take, for example, Deuteronomy 32, verse 6. Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father who created you, who made you and established you? And again, in Malachi 2, verse 10, Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? In these examples, we see that a rebuke is coming upon the people as they observe God as their Father, Creator. Like Adam before them, and along with all of humanity, Israel could know God as Father, as Creator. And yet, as these texts show, there's little comfort in that knowledge for the sinner. Whether God is called King, Creator, Sustainer, or Father. For the sinner, God remains a judge. For the sinner, God remains a judge, the holy God. Looking down upon sinful man. And so there's little comfort there. And yet, we're not left entirely without comfort or good news in the Gospel, in the Old Testament. For the other texts that look to God as Father, the other four texts see Him in reference to His redemptive work for His people. It's not just a rebuke that comes through when they look at their God and Father, but they see their also comfort, for example, in Jeremiah 31. With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back. I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they will not stumble. For I am a father to Israel. There's comfort. There's good news. There's hope. In those words of Jeremiah. And though we find that the fatherhood of God is largely veiled in the Old Testament, it's not entirely absent. And what we find is that in the New Testament, not only is it present, but it's present and at large. The veil is thrown back as the fatherhood of God is set front and center in light of Jesus, In light of the eternal Son of God incarnate. In the New Testament, we come to know the Father through the testimony of His Son. First, we see it when He announces the coming of Jesus through the angels. They said, He will be called the Son of the Most High. And again, the Father is revealed at His baptism. When the heavens are opened and the Father declares that this is my beloved Son. And the identity of both Father and Son is once again pressed in the early chapters of the Gospels when Jesus stands face to face with the devil. The second Adam once again being tempted, questioning the Word of God. Are you, or if you are, the Son of God? And three times by Jesus' obedience and commitment to the Father, the underlying declaration is that I am the Son of God. God is my Father. And we see this emphasis then reoccur throughout the ministry of Jesus again and again and again. God the Father. Over 40 times in Matthew alone, Jesus directs us to the Father. 17 times in the Sermon on the Mount alone, He points us to the Father. Matthew 5, verse 16, Let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. In chapter 10, So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. Chapter 11, All things have been handed over to me by my Father. And no one knows the Son except the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son. And anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. And what we find through these texts is that the fatherhood of God is not grounded in or it does not begin with creation or His people. The fatherhood of God is not dependent upon man or anything He made, but the fatherhood of God is grounded in the eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. An observation that can be confirmed when we look at John 17 as Jesus himself turns his eyes towards heaven and he says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, give me in your own presence the glory that I had with you before the world existed. As we study the Scriptures together, it is abundantly clear that God is Father to His Son. And it is His Son, Jesus Christ, who wants us to know the Father. He wants us to know God as Father. And even commands us to pray just like Him. An address that was unheard of in the Old Testament becomes the common practice for all those who look to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. Believers are not to pray like the scribes or the Pharisees or the Gentiles or those who know a different God. Jesus wants His disciples to pray as He prays to the Father in heaven. And to know the Father that Jesus reveals is to know His heavenly character. That's the second thing that He presses upon us. It's to know that this is the Father in heaven. And it's to know the Almighty God. Perfect in all of His attributes. Perfect in knowledge. Perfect in wisdom. Perfect in justice. and He is perfect in the execution of His power and all that He does. He is the Father in heaven. Our catechism helps to summarize the significance of this for us. It says that Jesus commands us to pray our Father in heaven first so that we would not form any earthly conceptions about God's heavenly majesty. And second, that we would expect from His almighty power all things necessary for soul and body. First, we learn here that He is not like an earthly Father, for He is almighty. He is the One who spoke creation into being. He is the One who reigns in heaven over all, over kings and nations, over the beasts of the fields, over the moon and the stars, in all that He has established. He is the ruler over all. He is the one of greatest identity, position, authority, and power, and therefore He is the one most worthy of praise, admiration, our worship, awe, and respect. The God and Father of Heaven is not like earthly fathers because He's Almighty. And He's not like earthly fathers because He is perfect in His almighty power. He is perfect in all that He is and in all that He does, including His answers to prayer. Psalm 104 sings of His perfections and His power. Let me list a few of them. He is clothed with splendor and majesty. He set the earth on its foundation. the psalmist says. He makes springs to flow between the hills to give drink to every beast of the field. He causes the grass to grow for the livestock. Plants for man to cultivate. Wine to gladden his heart. And the Lord gives bread to give him strength. He made the moon to mark the seasons and the sun to mark the day. O Lord, the psalmist says, how manifold are Your works in wisdom. You have made them all. God is not like earthly fathers in that He's almighty. And children, God is not like earthly fathers in that He is perfect. Perfect in all of His power and in all of His works and in all that He does, including His answers to our prayers. We have seen that Jesus wants us to know that God is Father, that God is powerful. And yet still, still Jonathan Edwards, when we read of his life and his testimony, and many others with him found no comfort in this God. There are many, and maybe some here this morning, who when they see this God, They affirm His fatherly character and His almighty power and all of His perfections. Yet even still find little comfort in this God of Scripture. And the reason is that for the guilty sinner, there is little comfort to be found in the knowledge of God until we can see and be convinced that this awesome God is for us. That He's for us. Though the whole world be against us, the God in heaven is for us. Jesus wants us to know this God that He is for us. And so He prays, Our Father in heaven. The good news of the New Testament, beloved, is that the God and Father of Heaven has designed and secured redemption for all those who would look to the Lord Jesus and believe. In Ephesians 1, verse 5, Paul says that we have been adopted by God the Father through Jesus Christ. And again, in Galatians 4, we read earlier this morning, we are told that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son born under the law to redeem those under the law that we would receive the adoption as sons. And the word sons there is significant because it implies and carries the meaning of inheritance. of inheritance of the Father's wealth and possessions. By faith in Jesus Christ, we too are sons of God, heirs of His kingdom. For God, the Father, is our Father. And it is this great act of grace that Jesus proclaims and anticipates throughout His ministry, throughout His preaching and His teaching. The eternal Son incarnate proclaims to all who would hear, to all who would believe that God is your Father too. And did you know that the apostles picked up this same emphasis and made it a passion of their own? We read in 1 John 1 that we have fellowship with God the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. In 1 Peter 1, Peter writes to the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. The writer of Hebrews calls God the Father of our spirits. And Paul in Romans 1 greets the church, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And again in 1 and 2 Corinthians, the Apostle says grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, in Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, grace and peace from God our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. When the apostles of Jesus Christ came to understand the significance of what Christ proclaimed to them, It became their passion and their first point of emphasis when they addressed the church to say grace to you and peace from God our Father. By grace through faith in Jesus Christ, God the Father has forgiven us our sins. He's declared us to be righteous and He has adopted us to be His own sons, heir of all that is His. This means that He is for us. This means that our God is for us, His children. You might know a good and great and wealthy king. You might even serve this great king. Yet only sons and daughters of the king can have full confidence and assurance that this king is for them above all else. Far more than even the best of earthly fathers, our heavenly Father is for us. And He alone has complete knowledge of all that we need. Jesus presses this point in Matthew 6, verse 8, when He says, Do not be like the scribes or the Pharisees or the Gentiles, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. And therefore, Jesus commands us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven. And then He commands us to ask things from Him. The first, of course, are that His kingdom would come and that His will would be done. And then we continue to pray that He would do things for us. That He would meet our needs. He would give us daily bread. That He would forgive us our sins. That we would not be led into temptation and be delivered from evil. He knows our needs and He wants us to come and lay our desires before Him. He wants us to pray according to His will. And He wants us to bring all of our anxieties to Him as well, we find. Of course, the Father will not give us everything we want. The Father will not give us everything we desire any more than our earthly Father might give to us everything we want or desire. But our God and Father of Heaven will certainly give to us according to our needs those things which are necessary for our soul and for our body in order that we would be preserved unto the final enjoyment of the inheritance to come that is ours as His Son's. Mothers and fathers, the Heavenly Father knows your needs. Children, the Heavenly Father knows your needs. For those of us who are single, out of the home, suffering under the difficulties of old age maybe, He knows your needs. And he not only knows our needs, he's not merely willing to meet them. He's not only able to meet our needs. Dear friends, for the sake of his own beloved son, he's absolutely committed to meet all that is necessary for us, for our souls and our bodies to preserve unto the end. even through the most difficult of sufferings and trials, we can be assured that the perfect will of our Almighty Father is being carried out for the good of our salvation. Paul says in Romans 8, he grounds this truth. We cannot, we must not doubt this truth. For if God the Father is for us, Who can be against us? The One who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also freely give us all things? Our Father in Heaven is not only willing and able to meet our needs. The message of the Gospel is that He's absolutely committed. A promise to bring us perseverance, sealed with the blood of His own Son, signified in the means of grace that we enjoy, declared to us in the preaching of the Gospel, week after week after week, that God is for you. No matter who be against you, God is for you. And there's great hope and comfort in this truth. Jonathan Edwards did finally come to realize it. And the sweetness and mercy and love of the Almighty Father came to inform his faith. And recently another father, husband and father, came to see the same when he couldn't sleep. 3 a.m. filled with fear and anxiety for his work, his family, their future. During that time, he struggled in prayer. And you know, dwelling upon the fact that he was a sinner brought him no help. He found no comfort in the particular words or phrases that he might use. And he could not rest in his own piety or practices of prayer. There was no comfort there, but there was great comfort in knowing that he could turn his eyes to heaven and say, Father, help your Son. Congregation of Christ, when we think about prayer as we look forward to a new year, and when we pray, let us rest in the reality that we have a Father in Heaven who for the sake of His own dear Son is for us. And He will preserve us until we come to enjoy the consummation of that glory He's promised and the eternal inheritance of heaven that is ours as Son's. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we do thank You for how You have been so merciful and patient and gracious to us in your dear Son, Jesus Christ. We praise you this morning of how by faith you have moved to adopt us as your own and given us the great promises that you will meet our needs and bring us full perseverance unto the end. And we humbly ask our Father that as we struggle under different circumstances and trials of this life, whether physical, spiritual, whether they be mental, Dear God, we pray that you would sustain our faith and point us to the Lord Jesus Christ, the life that is ours in him and the glory to come for eternity. We ask this in his name, the name of Jesus. Amen.