His Name Is Holy! – by Rev. Sjirk Bajema 

 

Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 47

Scripture Reading: Revelation 4:1-11

 

Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ…

 

The story is told of two men who approached the imposing statue of a famous and well-loved man. One of those men, a distinguished looking gentleman, gazed into the rugged face – a face so full of strength and tenderness. After a few moments, he slowly reached up and took off his hat. He allowed his white hair to be blown in the wind as he reverently honoured the memory of this great leader.

The other man paid no attention to the statue itself. He sat down on the pedestal and began spray-painting obscene graffiti on the clean concrete base. When he finished his degrading work, he stood up, spat at the statue, and left.

Which man do you prefer? Which attitude would God be pleased with? It’s quite clear! And so it is that our Lord Jesus Christ taught us that the most important request that we can make of God is that He would help us to be reverent before Him. That’s why Jesus taught us to begin our prayer, and our life, with the request, “Hallowed be Your name.”

God’s Name is to be hallowed. That means His name is to be treated as holy. It is to be given the highest possible respect.

So, how do we do this? Our Heidelberg Catechism, that wonderful and clear summary of the biblical position, answers this question, as we have already read together. And the way Lord’s Day 47 answers this question can be seen in two parts. The first of these is that we hallow God’s Name by a true knowledge of Him. So, MAKING HOLY BY TRULY KNOWING. And the second part is that we hallow God’s Name by a life of consecration – a life ourselves being made holy. So, MAKING HOLY BY OPENLY SHOWING.

Making holy by truly knowing

Firstly, MAKING HOLY BY TRULY KNOWING. Go back to what’s going through that first man’s mind as he looks up at that statue. He recognises what that person remembered in the statue has done. There, in a moment of personal reflection, he draws into what he knows about him. And he would be thinking about the difference that he made to his community. Perhaps he’s even thanking God for him or her.

In the same way, what we recognise with this first request of the Lord’s Prayer, is that we need to have that awareness of the true knowledge of His holiness. Without that we can’t even start the prayer! This is how Answer 122 begins. For it says, “Hallowed be Your name means, Help us to really know you, to bless, worship, and praise you for all your works and for all that shines forth from them: your almighty power, wisdom, kindness, justice, mercy, and truth.” This is about a true knowledge of God. To properly glorify and worship God we must first know him truly.

Now, who among us can say that their worship of God, even as it is being done this Lord’s Day, is as it should have been? Our inadequacies as far as blessing, worshipping, and praising God are concerned, clearly show through here. But remember congregation, this is the first request – the first petition – of the Lord’s Prayer that we’re praying for. Our Lord Jesus realises, in a very special way, how we need to focus our lives, and so He tells us to pray the first request.

“Hallowed be Your name.” Notice the thrust is God-ward. If we have a look at the Lord’s Prayer as a whole, we will see that it’s divided up in the same way as the Ten Commandments. Within the Ten Commandments, the first four commandments point out our duty to God, and the last six point out our duty to man. And in a similar way, the first three requests of the Lord’s Prayer are centred upon God, and the last three upon the needs of man. We are taught to say “Your name… Your kingdom… and Your will,” before we say “our daily bread… our debts… and our temptation.” Our Lord Jesus, in the prayer He wants us to use, and to model all our prayers on, shows us that true prayer must begin with an awareness of, and a genuine concern for, the supremacy of God.

 

Congregation, this Lord’s Day we have seen and realised how unworthy we were before God as His Word was read out and we confessed our sins before Him. But why did we do that? I mean, what’s at the root of our sinfulness? How was it that this past week we again went against God’s will for our lives?

Isn’t it our natural impulse to go our way, rather than God’s way? And isn’t it also true that this tendency to want things our way must also be fought against in our prayers? That’s why we start our prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” God’s glory is first – not our own welfare.

So in the Lord’s Prayer, the Christian’s model prayer, the first concern is God. It is God, for who He is, separate from all else! And to properly glorify God and worship Him, we must, first of all, properly know God.

 

You may be familiar with the book, Knowing God, by J.I. Packer. He has that same concern that we know God in the right way, and so he wrote this excellent book for that reason. As one person reviewing this book wrote, “The author defends and restates many of the great biblical themes… he illumines every doctrine he touches and commends it with courage, logic, lucidity and warmth… the truth he handles fires the heart. At least it fired mine, and compelled me to turn aside to worship and to pray.” You see, properly knowing God means that we worship and praise Him for who He really is.

But how do we learn of God? We learn of God first of all from the Scriptures. Once we realise the truth of His Word, we see nature as God’s creation, and so we learn more about God. In the words of Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

The Name of God is clearly written on everything He has made. That’s why David can declare in Psalm 8:1, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” And later the apostle Paul states in Romans 1:20, “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Yet God’s name is not only revealed in creation. The way this world operates, that action of controlling this world called providence, also clearly reveals God’s Name. For in his providence – God’s care and control of this world – we see Him for who He is. And this comes through everywhere and in everything!

We read, for example, that God made Pharaoh hard-hearted. In Exodus 9:16, the LORD says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for this purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” God’s Name is clearly revealed for all to see!

But, why then, are so many blinded to this all-persuasive revelation? The answer to this lies in the fact that all men are spiritually blind. They cannot see how clearly God’s Name is revealed in this world, and in the direction this world is travelling. They are blinded by their sin – the sin that came into this world through their forefather, Adam.

So how can we, now, do what our Lord Jesus lays before us in this first request? We can do it only because of Christ Himself. If we believe in what He has done on our behalf, through His suffering, His death, and His resurrection, then we can see! Because then it is the Holy Spirit who moves in our hearts, causing us to be born again.

From this point on, we begin truly knowing God. And as we learn of God in the right way, we find that He is indeed a God of infinite “power, wisdom, kindness, justice, mercy, and truth.” The highest objective of prayer is to praise God for His glory and majesty, and pray that we may increasingly know Him and treat as holy His Name. This we do, not just through our words, but also through our lives.

Making holy by openly showing

And so we come to the second part of Answer 112. This is… MAKING HOLY BY OPENLY SHOWING.

Remember the distinguished gentleman who gazed up at the statue of the well-loved and respected forefather? He reflected on what that man had done for his community, being thankful for what he did. And, at the same time, he took off his hat. He showed his respect.

So what we look at now is how we ourselves are being made holy by a life honouring the Lord. As the saying goes, “Our lives are living bibles.”

Congregation, one thing we don’t like from others is when they give their word to do something but they don’t do what they promise. Words without the action to back them up are meaningless. They are hypocritical, because they don’t come from a sincere heart. That’s why the second part of Answer 112 tells us that “Hallowed be Your Name,” also means that we ask God, “Help us to direct all our living – what we think, say, and do – so that your Name will never be blasphemed because of us but always honoured and praised.

Notice that what “we think, say, and do” will serve either to honour God’s Name, or it will blaspheme and dishonour God’s Name. There is no such thing as being neutral to the glory of God. We can’t sit on the fence, having a bit of God and a bit of this world.

You can’t, on the one hand, say, “well, yes, I want to glorify God with my life,” and then, on the other hand, go to places a Christian shouldn’t go to, or watch films and videos, or do other things, that obviously conflict with what the Bible says. There’s only one side of the fence we can be on. Otherwise we’re hypocrites – liars.

And when you lie you know which side you’re on. Because there is the father of lies, isn’t there!

What we should do, brothers and sisters, young people, is to follow the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31. He declares there that “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.”

The principle is plain. We are to do all we can to consecrate our lives so that God’s name is honoured through us. But we also know that putting this into practice is a different story.

So, how do we “order our whole life” to make holy God’s Name? We already touched upon this with our first point concerning a true knowledge of God. We know that God has revealed Himself to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. And we know that Jesus Christ, and what He did on our behalf, is clearly shown to us in God’s Word – the Bible.

It’s natural, then, that we are to turn to God’s Word to direct us as to how we are to live. This we need to do every day. Not once a month, or once a year, or whenever the urge grabs us. We have to discipline ourselves every day of the year – and every minute of the day! We need to so immerse ourselves in God’s Word that His Words become our words, and His actions our actions!

Following on from our regular study of God’s Word is our attendance at church services. God has called us here to worship and praise His Name, and also to learn more about how we can worship and praise His Name.

So we are to keep the commandments He has given us – His covenant people. Think back to the third commandment: “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” Now, here in the first request of the Lord’s Prayer we’re asking God to keep that command. To put it in other words, we’re praying to the Lord: “May your name, that name we see in your world, in your Word, and most of all in Christ, be honoured by us and all humanity.”

 

In following God’s commandments we also find that we become an example to those around us. There is no better witness of what God’s Name stands for, apart from the life of Christ Himself, than a man or woman who walks in God’s way. If we have true gratitude in our hearts for what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, we’ll certainly show that!

This doesn’t mean we are all evangelists but we are all witnesses. The kindness we show, the lifestyle we live, and all that we do, is spreading God’s Kingdom across this earth.

In our first Scripture reading we read of how in heaven the saints and angels sing to God, “Holy, holy, holy!” all the time. And that’s exactly what our hearts should be singing right now! Spiritually speaking, we are gazing into His glorious face. For His Name represents all what he so gloriously is and what He has so powerfully done. To call His name holy is lifting your prayer up.

There’s no better way to start! Amen.

 

PRAYER:

Let’s pray…

LORD God, please work in our hearts to make holy Your great and glorious Name. Let us not be hypocrites but, instead, in everything make us hold high who You are, and what You have done for us, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

In His Name we pray, Amen.