Transcript
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: Bruce, welcome.
BRUCE: Thank you very much. We now come this morning to the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, dealing as we have been with the Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5, 6, and 7. After looking with some care the first morning at the beatitudes in chapter 5, yesterday we considered
the problems that lie behind the exposition of the rest of chapter 5 involved in the six antitheses between what the Mosaic law declares and what Christ declares to be the fuller, the completer understanding of the will of God. Now, in addition to the Sermon on the Mount serving to provide instruction in the early church
for those who have a Jewish-Christian background with regard to the way in which they should regard the Old Testament law side-by-side with the new covenant, in addition to that kind of theological concern, the early church naturally had other concerns as well, including the concern of how best the followers of Christ could develop in the spiritual life.
It is particularly with this kind of concern that chapter 6 deals, namely with the various aspects and facets of growth in grace, having to do with the development of the Christian character and with the expression of that Christian character in living. Chapter 6 might be entitled, as a heading, "Genuine and spurious
righteousness," for throughout there runs the contrast between what some do and what Christ recommends that you and I do. If you would say that chapter 6 is a sermon, then perhaps the text on which that chapter is developed is chapter 5, verse 20, the on that I drew your attention to yesterday with respect to the antitheses, namely, that unless your
righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom. Spurious and genuine righteousness or piety, this is the theme of chapter 6. Now, the expression of this righteousness or piety is developed in chapter 6 along three different lines. The introductory
statement, a warning: Beware of practicing your piety, your righteousness before man, in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. That initial warning is elaborated in three different respects -- verse 2 with respect to almsgiving, one of the principle ways in which the Jews
exhibited, in a practical way, their concern for others in response to what God had done for them. Verse 2 with reference to almsgiving, verse 5 with reference to prayer, verse 16 with reference to fasting. These three orientations, almsgiving to other people, praying to God, fasting with reference to one's own
spiritual discipline, these three different kinds of outlook -- others, to God, to oneself -- constitute now a development upon this first initial warning, do not practice your piety before men. Now, in case some of your parishioners, or you yourself, I myself use it occasionally -- in case you make use of the King James authorized version, there
you will find, of course, every verse set off as a separate paragraph. It's always wise to try to find a section of scripture that belongs in one paragraph, in one thought nugget. Now, even though in the King James version every verse is set in print as a separate paragraph, I don't know if it has ever occurred to you to observe that even in the King James
version it is possible to observe what the larger paragraph units are. The King James version makes use of the reversed letter P at the beginning of a verse that constitutes the beginning of a paragraph. These are perhaps often overlooked by man readers of the King James version. This reversed letter P that stands,
for example, after verse 5, if you happen to have King James version with you, indicating that now a different topic in this paragraph begins with verse 5, that of prayer. And the last of these topics that I mentioned a moment ago, that of fasting, you'll find another letter P reversed after the numeral 16, which begins that series of separately indented verses, to be sure,
but that's the initial verse that constitutes the paragraph beginning. This is found in other parts of the King James version, up to chapter 20 of the Book of Acts. There, the King James translators grew weary in well doing, we might say. They just stop and no longer after chapter 20 put in this reversed letter P for some reason or other, grew weary in well doing, perhaps, I don't know.
But up to that place, at any rate, it's possible for the user of the King James version to benefit by observing these larger units. Well, let us look now at each of these three that are an elaboration on what Christ teaches about the practice of our religion. Now, notice it begins in verse 2, when you give alms, and verse 5, when you pray,
and verse 16, and when you fast. It does not begin if you give alms, if you pray, if you fast. It is not a condition that maybe you'll do it, maybe you won't. Jesus takes for granted that his hearers will be generous in almsgiving, will pray, and will fast. It's not a question of maybe you will, maybe you won't. The question is, when you do it, what is the right way
of giving alms, of praying, of fasting. Well, in every case, the right way is to do each of these three aspects of piety unostentatiously, in a quiet way that will not arouse other people's attention so that they can laud you, pat you on the back, say what wonderful gift you have subscribed to the One Great Hour of Sharing or to the United Fund drive.
If a person gives more because his name gets in the paper as being a heavy subscriber to the United Fund's drive, well, Jesus gives by clear implication in this first paragraph, "When you give alms, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and the streets, that they may be praised by man. Truly I say to you, they have their reward." They're looking for the reward of praise.
They get it, so it's a closed deal. It's as though the receipt is given to them. Now you have your reward, don't think that you'll get any reward from God. You are looking for the reward of praise from men, you have received that. But I say, when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, a very vivid expression with respect to the idea of
providing help to other people in such a quiet way that perhaps even they will not know who the benefactor is in their behalf. At any rate, you won't feel that you're in a position that you can exercise a little arm-twisting at a later time, that they'll have to repay you because you've been so generous to them now. No, says Jesus. Do it unostentatiously, so that your alms may be
secret and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. Now, there are two or three things that I want to draw to your attention in this connection with reference to the teaching of this paragraph. You know that between the Old Testament and beginning of the New Testament, the Jews still kept writing various pieces of literature,
some of which are in the collection known as the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. There are 14 or 15 books collected in that body of literature, which in the King James version was originally put between the end of Malachi and the opening of the Gospel of Matthew, and in fact there was a law made by one of the translators of the King James version, the archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott,
that any printer who would venture to sell a copy of the King James version without the books of the Apocrypha would be subject to a fine and an imprisonment for one year. Nevertheless, because, I think, of economic reasons, it was much cheaper to provide the market copies of the Old and New Testament minus the books of the Apocrypha, and today it's rather seldom you find a copy of the King James version,
at least in convenient form, and naturally the pulpit Bibles, the King James version still continue generally to have the books of the Apocrypha, largely because the Episcopal Church has a canon law that no copy of the scriptures is allowed to lie on the pulpit without the books of the Apocrypha bound in that copy, because parts of these books are incorporated in the liturgy -- the lectionary, I should say. Well,
this body of literature produced between the Old and New Testament, though not regarded as inspired by Protestant churches, nevertheless is valuable information with regard to the development of Jewish piety, Jewish faith, Jewish understanding of the ways and works of God. And with regard to this paragraph about almsgiving, we can learn something, I think, that will sharpen our
appreciation of the words of Jesus from the Book of Tobit, among the 14 or 15 books of Old Testament Apocrypha. Now, the Book of Tobit was written perhaps 180, 150 BC, it tell the tale of a pious Jew who, despite his very great regularity of practice of his religion, observing the laws of kosher food, observing
the Sabbath day, helping other people, almsgiving and so on, runs into all kinds of trouble and dismay and really pain. It's a book that, among Jews, was about as highly regarded as, I guess, John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" was highly regarded among Protestants of England and America a generation or two ago. Now, the Book of Tobit has a definite teaching
in it about almsgiving. Let me read to you from chapter 12, verse 9 of this book, which was very formative of the religious understanding of Jews in Palestine in Jesus's day. This book that was regarded as teaching them ethics says, "Almsgiving will deliver from death, and it shall purge
away every sin." This specific teaching that almsgiving helps to balance the ledger in God's sight, and that it corrects some of our wrongdoings by adding on the credit side our good deeds, so that it will purge away every sin, that was the common understanding in Jesus's day among his fellow Jews in Palestine with regard to the benefits of
almsgiving. Now, does Jesus sound this same note here? Does He say yes, that kind of teaching is correct, you can earn your standing in God's sight if you're liberal in your charitable gifts. No, He does not say that. And you know we can learn by the silences in Jesus's teaching as well as from the emphases in His teaching. His emphasis here
is not that you do away with almsgiving, but His emphasis is that you do away with ostentatious giving of gifts to others. This is His primary teaching. He is silent, He does not authenticate this view that was current among the rabbis in His day, that almsgiving would earn your standing in the sight of God. Now, another thing that I'd like
to draw to your attention in this connection has to do with what at the surface may seem a direct contradiction between what is taught here, do not let your left hand know what your right hand does, on the surface it does seem, does it not, that that is in contradiction to what Jesus has said earlier, in chapter 5, verse 16, "Let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Well, I think it's only a surface contradiction, and I myself feel that the reconciliation is to be found in the actual living. If I, on occasion, want to gain some additional credit in the eyes of other people
with reference to, I don't know what, some kind of charitable deed or gift, then I should listen to what Jesus says in chapter 6, "When you do your alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." But if, on the other hand, I am sluggish, I do not wish to involve myself in a particular situation where my word could be added
to uphold what is right, I'm timid, I draw back, I do not want to let my weight be felt, then I should listen to the word of Christ when He says that our light is to be allowed to shine out that other people may see us and our witness and what we do and give. So I think that the resolution of these two statements of Jesus is to be found in the way in which
our personality or attitude or outlook upon a given situation may be. And in this way I think that the contradiction is in fact only a surface type of contradiction. Well, now, the next section in this threefold discussion of the ways in which we are to practice our piety, this is the longest of these sections, verse 5
running up to the end of verse 15. I think that in this section Matthew has brought together some teaching of Jesus given on another occasion, and that if you take into account the pattern of each of the paragraphs, paragraph 2 to 4, when you give alms, do it unostentatiously that your alms may be
secret, your Father who sees in secret will reward you; then verse 5, when you pray, do not do this ostentatiously, but do it in secret; verse 6, your Father who sees in secret will reward you. That's about the same length, verse 5 and 6, as the first paragraph, 2 and 3 and 4. Then the paragraph beginning verse 16, when you fast, do not look dismal, and so on,
do not be ostentatious, but do it secretly, verse 18, your Father who sees in secret will reward you. There's a similarity and a sameness of pattern in each of these three paragraphs thus delineated. But I think pedagogically it's a useful thing that Matthew has brought together, under the heading of prayer, in addition to verses 5 and 6,
additional teaching about the subject of prayer that, according to Luke's gospel, was given by Jesus on a different occasion. Verse 7, reiterating about the manner of prayer, and then verse 9 and following, the words of what we call the Lord's Prayer. In Luke 11, we are told the historical setting in which Jesus delivered the words of the Lord's Prayer. There we are told that
on an occasion, some of His followers came to Him and said, "Teach us a set form of prayer, just as John the Baptist has taught his followers a set form of prayer," and in this context, according to Luke 11, Jesus gives to His followers this prayer that they are to make use of. Matthew, I think, has wisely brought at this spot that
additional teaching, given at a specific request of His followers, because here Matthew has introduced and wishes to develop at greater length the teaching of Christ in general on the subject of the practice of our daily religion. Now, this section on prayer reiterates the same note of solemnity,
do not be ostentatious, truly I say to you these people that love to stand on a street corner and be seen of people while they conduct their daily devotions, and it was customary among the Pharisees to do that, they have their reward. But Jesus says, pray to your Father who is in secret. Another warning about the repetitious style of prayer,
of repeating 50 times or more, it may be, the same phrase or prayer, which he says the gentiles do because they think that that way they will be heard by their gods. Do not be like them, says Jesus, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Then there follows this very concise form of prayer,
very closely knit, only the most necessary words in it, only one adjective in the whole of the Lord's Prayer -- give us this day our daily bread -- pared to the bone, just the most concise form, not wordy. Jesus observes His own recommendation, do not heap up words.
Now, have you ever looked in an English dictionary as to the etymology of the word "patter"? The rain patters on the roof, the magician on the stage has a certain lingo, he goes through his patter, his spiel. Well, in English, the etymology of the word "patter" grows out of the first word of the Lord's Prayer in Latin: Pater noster,
qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum, and so on. And during the Middle Ages, when it was customary to say the Lord's Prayer 100 times, 200 times, in Latin, naturally it would be done in a repetitious, staccato-like manner, and coming to the first word again, the second, the third, the 50th time, Pater noster qui es in caelis and so on, blah blah blah, Pater noster -- so that the term "pater" gets impressed
upon the hearer and is applied later to the staccato, mechanical, repetitive sort of thing that we today use the term "petter" to represent. Jesus warns against that kind of repetitious praying. Now, the outline of the Lord's Prayer is very simple, but very definite, too. It's not mixed up,
haphazardly put together, but it follows a very observable order. After the invocation, "Our Father, who art in heaven," there follow three petitions that concentrate on the glory of God, on His kingdom, His will. Then the second part of the Lord's Prayer has to do with petitions for our
personal daily needs, having to do with provision, give us this day our daily bread, having to do with pardon, forgive us our debts, or trespasses, and thirdly, having to do with protection, deliver us from evil. And then the whole of the Lord's Prayer in the form that we are accustomed to make use of it, concludes with a doxology, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, amen.
I think this prayer, in this order, is intended by Jesus to teach us how to put together other prayers, whether we put them together in our private devotions or in leading people in public worship. Namely, this prayer is given by Jesus in a certain order and pattern that observes first that God in His kingdom, His glory, should have our
primary attention, and that then secondly, and in due course, we make petition for ourselves, our own needs, and the needs of others. Jesus, I think, by this would advise us that there is a decent way in which we come to God in prayer. We do not come to God and talk, as it were, off the cuff, haphazardly,
as though we were talking to our dog. We don't pray just with our hands in our pockets in a very nonchalant sort of way. We are to come into God's presence recognizing who He is, and recognizing that His kingdom is paramount, and that we pray, therefore, first that His will, His way, His word may be observed. Now, I don't mean to imply at all, of course,
that God is unwilling or is a snob and will not listen to prayers that are blurted out. Of course He does. God listens to the prayer, Be merciful to me, a sinner. But when we lead certainly in public worship the thoughts and aspirations of others, instead of hopping and skipping from one topic to another in a very haphazard sort of way, there is, I think, in the
very form and pattern of the Lord's Prayer an implication that we should, in our other prayers, be concerned about the orderly way in which we arrange our thoughts and our petitions. Well, so much for the outline of the Lord's Prayer, its two main parts. Let us look now at each of the several petitions, because though they are very familiar to all of us, I daresay there are
some aspects that perhaps have either been overlooked or have escaped us. Notice that it is cast in the plural number: our Father who art in heaven, not my Father, but our Father. Of course it's possible and necessary for us to pray personally to my God and my Father, my Lord, but this prayer is given to the
disciples that they may understand that they belong to a family, and that all of them alike stand in the sight of God as brothers, as sisters of that family, and that they look alike to God as their common Father, our Father who art in heaven. Another term that Jesus undoubtedly made use of in His mother Aramaic language was "abba." He makes use of it, you know, in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The word "abba" is a common domestic word for father or daddy, used at that time, and still used today in Palestine by the Palestinians. Some years ago, when I was on a tour of Palestine, the bus driver of our bus had his little daughter of seven, eight years old with him for part of the trip, and every once in a while she would address a question, "Abba," to her father.
"Abba, what about this?" Daddy. It was a term that was very warm, the children would run out of their cottage at nightfall when they'd see their father return over the fields, come home after a day's labor. Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by using such an everyday term to speak about God. The Pharisees seldom used the word "father"
with regard to God, and if they did, they used a modified form, "abbi," a more solemn, a more serious way, "my father," rather than the everyday common word of the household. Jesus advises His followers that they can look with confidence and trust to God as their father. But it is not just every
father, a father on earth, it's our Father who art in heaven. Augustine said our Father who art in heaven differs from any father here on earth. A parent here on earth can have care and oversight for only a limited number of children, but the Father in heaven, with the riches of glory at His disposal, is able and willing to care for multitudes and multitudes
and multitudes of children. There is no limit to the number that God is waiting and willing to take care of in heaven. Well, now this opening invocation, "our Father who art in heaven," is followed, as I just mentioned, by three petitions that have to do with aspects of God's glory, kingdom, will. And the first one, "hallowed by Thy name,"
is a petition that involves the idea, if when we pray that God may hallow His name, we ask that He will reveal to us more and more of the holiness of His character, more and more of His will and holiness that we may recognize who He is and on what His name stands. His name
already is hallowed whether we pray for it to be hallowed or not. But what we do pray for is that we can appreciate what it already is, He already is holy and righteous. We pray that we may be able more and more to acknowledge His holiness and what His name rests upon, that His word is holy, that His day is holy, that His church is holy, that His name,
in all of these places where it rests, may be acknowledged to be what it is, hallowed. Enable us to reverence all that He is or all that comes from Him. Now this initial all-comprehensive prayer is followed by the prayer "Thy kingdom come." Of course when we say the word "kingdom," kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven,
we are using a phrase that would deserve a whole hour's lecture in itself. This term, which appears so frequently in the teaching of Jesus, has a variety of implications. Maybe the simplest way to try to outline for you some of the aspects of what Jesus's teaching in general about the kingdom implies
is to say that part of what the Bible speaks of when it says the kingdom, kingdom of God, has to do with the kingdom of nature, and part of it has to do with the kingdom of grace, part of it has to do with the kingdom of glory. The kingdom of God with reference to all of nature is, of course, the most comprehensive way in which the term "kingdom" can be used. When the psalmist in the 139th psalm says,
"If I take the wings of the morning and go to the outermost parts of the sea, behold Thou art there. If I make my bed in (inaudible), behold Thou art there." Everything from atom to archangel is within the scope of God's kingdom in this broadest, most comprehensive sense. There are parts of the Bible that speak of the kingdom in terms of the kingdom of grace, that into which a person is born,
lifted by God from the physical into the spiritual realm, the new birth is the entrance into the kingdom that Jesus Christ came to inaugurate by His death and resurrection. The kingdom of glory, finally, will be that consummation in which all that is part of the kingdom of nature, the kingdom of glory, now will be acknowledged and will be consummated and realized to be
under God's sovereign rule. Well, Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom come. We pray that more and more of God's sovereign rule may be acknowledged in this world, and that ultimately the nth degree, the final consummation, may be ushered in. Now, of course God's kingdom will come irrespective
of whether we pray for it to come or not. What does it mean, therefore, that we are advised by Jesus to pray "Thy kingdom come"? And once again, Augustine, in his comments on the Lord's Prayer, says the primary intent that you and I have when we utter these words is, Thy kingdom
come, and oh Lord, may I be worthy to be numbered among the citizens of that kingdom. God's kingdom does come more fully every time you and I speak truth instead of falsehood, every time you and I work for justice to supplant injustice, every time you and I pray and work that God's name may be hallowed, may be recognized that His sovereign rule may prevail in the little sphere that we may govern and have control over,
and throughout the world. The third of these petitions, after praying that His name be hallowed, that His kingdom may come, has to do with the will of God. Thy will be done. The scriptures speak about the will of God in two respects. It speaks about the will of God with regard to the
overarching sovereign will that is from all eternity and does not change, His irrevocable decrees that are fixed from the beginning. But the will of God is also referred to in the scriptures in terms of His wish, His desire, that is geared to conditions prevailing among people as to their will and their purpose.
To Timothy, the word comes that it is not God's will that any should perish, it's not God's will or wish that any should perish, but that all should come to a knowledge of the truth. In the verbal form, Jesus laments over Jerusalem, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee." That word in English, "would," translates the Greek verb "wish,"
how often did I wish, or will, wish to gather you, and you would not. The term "will of God," then, has to do not only with His irrevocable decrees but with His desire, His wish for the welfare of His people. Now, when we pray, Thy will be done, we are praying in terms
that His wish may be accomplished, and that we may fit in to His will and wish, so that we will not run at cross-purposes with it. It would be utterly foolish, of course, to pray that God should change His wish and desire for us, for if indeed He is all good and all knowing, then His will and wish for us is already all good and all knowing, and if
we pray foolishly that He would change that, it would have to be changed to something that is less than all good and all-knowing for our benefit. How unutterably foolish, therefore, to pray that God might change His will for us. No, we pray that we may know His will and may be able to fit into it. Thy will be done. Now, this next phrase,
"on earth as it is in heaven," is a very unobtrusive phrase, but it did exercise the attention of the British Parliament earlier in the 20th century, when they gave some time in public debate how the Lord's Prayer ought to be punctuated, whether it should be punctuated as in the King James version, "Thy will be done on earth," comma, "as it is in heaven," or whether it should be punctuated "Thy will be done," comma,
"on earth as it is in heaven." The Book of Common Prayer is under the legal jurisdiction of the Parliament in Britain, and therefore when the question came about revising the Book of Common Prayer and the way in which, if it should be changed, the Lord's Prayer should be changed in its printed form, this was given some attention. Now, the original
manuscripts of the New Testament do not have punctuation marks. Punctuation marks were inserted by later scribes, say 6th, 7th, 8th century, and punctuation in translations, of course, is provided by editors and translators in order to make whatever is being punctuated the most full of meaning. Now the question is, which way of punctuating this little phrase
makes for the Lord's Prayer the best meaning, the fullest meaning? Thy will be done on earth, comma, as it is in heaven is a less full expression of meaning than to say Thy will be done, comma, on earth as it is in heaven, because in this second way, you have a wider application of the
import of that phrase than in the former way, the King James version way. Now that phrase can be taken with all three petitions, not only with the last petition. Now it means "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name, on earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven, Thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven," and modern speech translations as well as modern texts of the Greek New Testament print that phrase indented in such a way after the third petition so that the reader is aware that it can be applied to all three opening petitions. Actually, it's not very new. That exegesis, already
in the 16th century, is included, I have learned, in the catechism that the Roman Catholic Church brought out at the time of the Council of Trent, instructing priests to tell their people as to the import of the meaning of this part of the Lord's Prayer. There's another aspect about that little phrase that I daresay most of our congregations have never thought about,
yet I'm sure it's involved. Did it ever strike you that when we say the words of the Lord's Prayer, we are acknowledging the existence of angels and of archangels in the company of heaven. That really seems to me to be involved in what's implied by that phrase. Thy will be done, oh, God, here on earth, by us, as Thy will is now being done in heaven by angels,
by archangels, by spirits of just men made perfect. Why else would we make a comparison that our conformity with the will of God here on earth should be like the conformity to the will of God in heaven, unless there are creatures in heaven now being obedient to the will of God? Now the second half of the Lord's Prayer
deals, as I said, with our personal daily needs, having to do with a petition for the provision of our bread, having to do with pardon for our sins, having to do with protection as we walk through this life. The petition "Give us this day our daily bread" again is couched in the plural number, not "give me my daily bread,"
"give us." Secondly, "give us this day our daily bread." That's certainly an implication that Jesus intended us to use the Lord's Prayer every day of our lives. We don't pray, Oh Lord, give us the next month, each day, our daily bread. That would imply that we should make use of the words of the Lord's Prayer 12 times a year.
No, "give us this day our daily bread" implies that Jesus wants us to use this frame, this order, this pattern of the prayer every day. Give us this day our daily bread. We don't pray for our daily cake. We are not to pray for luxuries: Oh Lord, give me a million dollars. If God granted that prayer to me,
it would serve only to my pride, likelihood of becoming worried how to hang onto it, not giving in the future as much attention to the things that belong to the kingdom. Oh Lord, give us this day our daily bread, the staff of life, the necessities that we stand in need of, so that we can earn our livelihood. Give us, oh Lord, the strength to do what we need to do
in this world. Give us this day not only our daily physical bread, but our spiritual bread as well, for man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We need to have sustenance for our soul as well as for our body, so that when we partake of the elements of the Holy Communion, when we read the scripture, the word of life, the bread given
to us to feed our souls, when we give attention to this, we fulfill the complete round of meaning of this petition, "Give us this day our daily bread." Forgive us our debts, or forgive us our trespasses, would be two ways of translating the same Greek word into English. William Tyndale translated it
trespasses, and that form got into the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church; it is still the form used in the Anglican Church and in those churches that came from the Anglican Church, namely the Methodist Church, the American Episcopal Church, a number of other denominations. Whereas the other early translations into English of the Bible, the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, the King James
Bible, and so on, they translate debts and debtors. I put it this way, debts and debtors is a literal meaning of the Greek word (Greek), literally debts. Trespasses is a spiritual meaning that lies behind that literal translation. Debts is used, I think,
in order to teach us that our sins, our acts, by which we have robbed God of His rights and have incurred an obligation or debt, which we cannot satisfy ourselves, and in regard to which we can only appeal to God's mercy, forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven. This really is the most awful of these prayers to pray
if one has hatred in his heart for other people. Then actually these words are a curse, calling down God's wrath: Oh God, let your face be to me as harsh and unrelenting and unforgiving as my face is harsh and unforgiving and unrelenting toward my brother. This means that we can, by our unforgiving spirit to others,
erect a barrier that prevents God's mercy from inundating our lives. But it does not teach us that because we perchance are easy to get along with, forgive everyone, clap our brother on the back, very happy with everyone, it does not teach us that because we may be of this temperament, therefore we twist God's arm and make it obligatory
upon Him to forgive us also. It does not teach us that because we forgive others, God forgives us. It teaches us, rather, that we can prevent our experiencing God's forgiveness by our harsh and unrelenting attitude toward others. The last of these petitions has to do with the most difficult
to understand of the phrases, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." I've given long and serious consideration to what that really means. I've not found any commentator that satisfies me fully. The most I can offer to you this morning is a step or two in the direction of what I think is the beginning of its meaning. It certainly does not mean that God puts a snare
in our way and tempts us, solicits us to evil. We are taught in the epistle of James that God neither tempts other people nor is He Himself tempted. No, the little step that I offer you is that the term "temptation" in Greek, and in English, and the verb "to tempt," also means not only solicit to evil, but test under trial, and this God certainly does.
He tests us. He tests us in various ways, that we may emerge stronger from the experience. But here again we're in trouble, because are we to pray that God will not do what would work for our development and strengthening of Christian character? I don't know exactly how to answer that. I think that the best way to answer it is that in the situation of the early
church, when Christ was telling His disciples in this same kind of context that they will, in the future, be hauled before assemblies of both civil and religious rulers and will be persecuted for His namesake, when they will be asked to curse Christ, receive your freedom, or go to the stake, then, faced with the possibility of apostasizing from the Christian faith
and renouncing Jesus Christ, then in that kind of testing, oh God, deliver us. Bring us not to that pinnacle of danger and risk to our Christian faith, but oh Lord, in such a circumstance, rescue us from the snatches of the evil one. That, I think, lies behind the translation in the New English Bible that the British brought out in 1961, bring us not
to the test, that ultimate, that last test which would risk our falling into the precipice of apostasy. But of course it can also refer, and does refer, to lesser temptations and tests. Oh Lord, with every temptation that comes into our pathway, fulfill Your promise that You will, with the testing, also make a way of
escape. Jesus ended the prayer at this place, but subsequent copyists of the gospel of Matthew began to add what we call a doxology, "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory." By about the seventh, eighth century, copies of the gospel of Matthew in Greek have this doxology. The earlier
copies of Matthew's gospel end the prayer with verse 13. I think that it was altogether appropriate that scribes in the Christian church did provide a suitable liturgical ending to the Lord's Prayer, and they wove together words from scripture to do it. In 1 Chronicles 29, verses 10 and 11, there is a
very long expanded doxology that is used at the end of a prayer in the temple of Solomon, and from those words of scripture, Christian scribes put together three elements so that now liturgically, in a fitting way, the words of the Lord's Prayer come to a conclusion, and I think we are right in making use of this expanded form of the gospel of Matthew, by having our eyes and attention once again lifted from earth to
heaven, beginning "Our Father" and ending on the note of "Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever." In conclusion, I leave with you the thought that Albrecht Bengel, in his wonderful commentary two centuries ago, has with respect to the Lord's Prayer, that not only are we to use the Lord's Prayer every day in this life, but very likely
you and I shall make use of the words of the Lord's Prayer, slightly modified, also in heaven, when it will be appropriate to pray "Our Father, who art in heaven, Thy name has been hallowed. Thy kingdom has come on earth and heaven. Thy will now is perfectly fulfilled, on earth as it is in heaven. You have given us our daily bread for body as well as soul, You have forgiven us our debts
that we incurred in trespassing against You. You have not only taken us from evil, but from the very presence and stain of the wicked one himself, so that now, throughout the endless ages of eternity, Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen."