Word of Salvation – Vol. 13 No.25 – June 1967
Thy Will Be Done…!
Sermon by Rev. G. I. Williamson on Matthew 6:10b
Scripture Reading: Daniel 4:28-37
Psalter Hymnal: 203; 240; 164; 109
Beloved Congregation,
There is one thing we have said repeatedly in our exposition of the Lord’s Prayer. We now wish to emphasize it once more. The Lord’s Prayer cannot possibly be prayed by anyone who is not converted unto God in true faith and repentance. It can be ‘repeated’ by an unconverted man, of course. For it is quite easy to say the words of this brief prayer! But no man can really call God his ‘Father’ except he be redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And no man will ever have the God-centered attitude required except he be a child of God. Because of the fall of man into sin, it is the very nature of man to desire for himself what really and rightly belongs to God. The Devil said, to our first parents, “You shall be as gods.” Nothing but a radical change of heart can ever bring a man from this sinful self-centredness, in order that he might magnify and exalt the Lord. To say, “Hallowed be thy name,” is to assert the supremacy of God. To say, “thy Kingdom come,” is to make all things subordinate and subservient to Him. And to say, “thy will be done” in earth as it is in heaven is to desire nothing less than “that… every knee should bow… and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
1. GOD’S SECRET WILL.
I lay the emphasis upon this desire of the child of God that all should come to acknowledge the sovereign will of God, because it is quite important to insist that this is the only difference between heaven and earth. In heaven, God’s will is recognized, or acknowledged, whereas it is not so on earth. But in both spheres the will of God is equally supreme in actual fact. When Satan tempted our first parents to set them- selves free from the sovereign will of God, he only deceived them as to the true state of affairs. He said, “ye shall be as gods”, but it was not true.
“Because,” as Jesus said, “there is no truth in him.” And so one of the greatest delusions among the children of men, is the belief that puny men have the power to frustrate the mighty will of God.
But nothing is made more plain and certain in scripture, than the fact that the will of God is in one very real sense done on earth just as it is in heaven.
(1) We see this in the testimony of scripture concerning even the most unimportant events in this world. For the Bible says that a sparrow cannot even fall to the ground except it be the will of the Father who is in heaven.
(2) And the same will of God which determines even the least important things in a similar manner determines the greatest events. For he “hath made of one blood,” says the Apostle, “all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation”.
(3) Indeed, there is not one thing that happens in this world except it be the will of God. For the Bible says that He “worketh all things after the council of his will.” We are born at the time, place, and circumstances of God’s own appointment. And the scripture says that it is also appointed unto men once to die.” So the “most high ruleth in the kingdom of men” and nothing happens in all this world except what God’s hand and… counsel determined before to be done.”
And this is not only true in the whole order of those things that we call natural events. It is likewise true in the spiritual realm, that is, in matters having to do with the eternal destiny of the human soul. It is at this point especially, that the deception of Satan is most acute! For there are vast multitudes of men who violently reject every thought that God’s will is determinative of their own destiny. They believe in the ‘free will’ of man, And because they believe in ‘the free will of man’ they cannot tolerate the thought that their eternal destiny is entirely controlled by the sovereign will of God. But the scripture says that it is! For salvation, says the Apostle, is “not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” And the Lord himself has said, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” So the Apostle concludes that “he hath… mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth!” For what does the Bible tell us as respects those who are saved? Well, it tells us that God “hath chosen (them in Christ) before the foundation of the world… having predestinated them unto the adoption of children.” And what does it say of those who are lost? It simply says that certain men… were before of old ordained to this condemnation.”
Now we all know what the attitude of men is toward this testimony of the scripture! “Why do the heathen rage,” asks the Psalmist, and why do “the people imagine a vain thing? (Why do) the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord?” Well, says the Psalmist, it is because they say: “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” In other words, they want to be free from the sovereign will of God. But the Psalmist says that God will “laugh – the Lord shall have them in derision,” Let all the earth fear the Lord,” we read in Psalm 33, “let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thought of his heart to all generations. And so the Prophet Isaiah says: “To whom will ye liken me? …I am God and there is none else, I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”
And so, even though multitudes of men refuse to acknowledge that it is so, the fact remains that “all things (do) work together …according to his purpose” because He “worketh all things after the counsel of his will.” So that nothing could be more plain and certain than that God’s will is done in a very real sense on earth as it is in heaven. And this petition of the Lord’s Prayer is not the expression of desire that God’s will be done, but rather the expression of submission to this fact on the part of one who is God-centred in his attitude towards the events of life! We could not really pray ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,’ if we did not already believe in the absolute sovereignty of the decretive will of God!
2. GOD’S REVEALED WILL.
The Book of Deuteronomy says: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
In other words, there are two distinct aspects of the will of God, as the will of God affects those who live in this world.
(1) On the one hand, there is the secret will of God. That is what we have in mind when we say that there is a sense in which God’s will is already done in this world just as truly and completely as it is also done in heaven. For God has already determined everything that ever will happen in this world. It is called the secret will of God because it is not revealed unto us until it actually comes to pass in the course of history. God has not told us who will be saved, and who will be lost. “The foundation of God standeth sure,’ says Paul, “having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.” The secret things belong to God.
(2) But on the other hand there is also the revealed will of God. This is what we have in the written word of God. And it is of this too that we must think when we pray, ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
But again we must stress the fact that there is no essential difference between the will of God on earth and the will of God in heaven! For the Bible itself is careful to tell us that the entire will of God is perfectly revealed in the scripture. For, as our text in Deuteronomy says, those things which are revealed in the scripture belong unto us, and to our children, for ever!” “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,” says our Apostle, “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” The angels in heaven do not possess a more complete or perfect revelation of the will of God than that which we have in God’s written word. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”
The real problem, then, is not that men do not have the will of God, but only that they do not acknowledge the will of God which they do have in the written testimony of scripture. Yet how common it is to hear people pray as if they did not have a perfect revelation of God’s will! Let us take one very common example. I spoke to a minister not so long ago, who is troubled by the dreadful power of false doctrine and unbelief in his denomination. And I could sympathize with him in such a heart breaking situation But then he said something very strange. He said that he was praying to know the will of God. He said that he was waiting for the Lord to make his will known, so that it would be clear just what he should do. Now I am not sure just what he was expecting! Perhaps it was some sort of sign. Or perhaps it was his hope that he would receive guidance in a dream. But whatever may have been his expectation, the fact is that such a prayer is directly contrary to what our Lord teaches us in this petition. For the plain fact is that God has made his will known. He has given us a clear revelation in his word. And so the only thing that we need to pray for is the grace to accept what his word says so clearly, and the strength to do what his word commands,
And right there we see the difference between the way God’s will is done in heaven and the way it is done on earth. In heaven, the Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect do not have a different will of God from what we have. And neither do they have a clearer revelation of that will than that which we have in God’s pure and perspicuous word! But they simply do it, without any argument or delay. That is also why there is never any conflict – for them – between God’s secret will and God’s revealed will. In heaven everything happens just according to God’s plan, and the same is true on earth. But in heaven everything also happens according to God’s command, and the same is not true on earth. In heaven there is no conflict in the hearts of sinless men and angels as they contemplate the mysteries of the secret and revealed will of God. But on earth there is conflict in the hearts of sinful men as they contemplate both. There is conflict because there is not that perfect submission to God’s will for which we are taught to pray in this petition! ‘Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.’
3. GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL.
When a man prays this petition, then, it is perfectly obvious that he cannot yet make the claim that he himself does the will of God in that perfect way in which it is being done in heaven. And yet, with equal certainty, he could never pray this petition, if he did not sincerely desire to attain unto this very goal. So we mark, right here, the tremendous difference between the converted man and the unbeliever in this world!
(1) When a man says, ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,’ and says it with all sincerity of heart, he is humbly submitting himself to the absolute sovereignty of God. He is saying, in effect, that he not only knows that God doeth his will in the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, but that he acquiesces in this glorious fact! But with the unbeliever it is not so! “Go to now, ye that say, to day or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain.” “No,” says the Apostle James: “ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”
It is never easy to really say ‘thy will be done’. It was not easy for Job to say it when he was cast upon a painful bed of sickness. Neither was it easy for Jacob to say it when the strange workings of providence deprived him of his beloved son Joseph. Or think how hard it was for Abraham to say this, when the Lord told him that Ishmael was rejected in order that Isaac might become the seed of promise. “O that Ishmael might live before thee,” he cried, so difficult was it to say, ‘thy will be done.” To us, the amazing thing about it all is that in every single instance, we can look back and see that God was indeed ‘doing his will’ and working good to them that loved him. And when we see the beginning from the vantage point of the end, we could well say in every instance what Joseph said to his brothers as he looked back upon the mysterious events of his own life. “As for you,” he said, “ye thought evil against me: but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
But it is one thing to look back and see that God has done his will, and that his will has been good for them that love him. It is another thing to say, “not my will, but thy will be done,” in the hour of trial and tribulations. No one ever yet said that on earth as it is said in heaven except our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, every true believer – deep down in his heart – has felt the sincere desire that it might be so for him. Yes, and in many instances that desire has manifested itself in such a way as to give proof of that faith which overcomes the world. Did not Job say, “though he slay me, yet will I trust him”? What is that but to say, ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven?’ And did not the Apostle Paul say, “I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
(2) We also observe, that when a man sincerely prays, ‘thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, ‘ he likewise desires to yield complete submission to the revealed will of God which is written in the scripture. I say that he sincerely desires to do it, even though of course he cannot say that he has yet attained to the actual performance of that which he desires. “For to will is present with me,” says the Apostle, “but how to perform that which I find not.” But in the same breath the Apostle also says, “brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and stretching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Even the most eminent saints of God claimed nothing more than a small beginning of holiness during the days of their pilgrimage in this world. And the Bible gives us a true picture when it records the amazing defections from truth and righteousness in every one of them. There is not one of them who would not have confessed, with the Apostle Paul, “The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” But this is only one side of the matter. For the same infallible word of God that teaches us to know that no one can ever say, in this life, that he is without sin, likewise informs us that there is in the heart of the true believer a hungering and thirsting after righteousness that enables him to pray – sincerely – ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.’ “I delight in the law of God after the inward man,” says Paul. And the same scripture that records the lamentable sins of the saints, also records their noble triumphs of the obedience of faith. Was it not so when Noah “being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear” and “prepared an ark to the saving of his house?” Was it not also true of Abraham who, “when he was tried, offered Isaac… accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead?” Or again, consider the case of Moses who, “when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter: choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season!” They did not just say, “Lord, Lord thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven!’ But they meant it with evident sincerity. For “as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” And “not everyone that saith… Lord, Lord… shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven,” said our Lord.
4. GOD’S PERFECT WILL.
Finally, we observe, that those who pray this petition from the heart must also be such as desire to attain unto the goal of entire perfection in their obedience to God’s holy will! “Be ye perfect,” said Jesus, “even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.” And nothing less than this is sought by those who pray, ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven!’
Jesus said that our righteousness would have to exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees or we would not be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven. And everyone knows that the greatest sin of the Scribes and Pharisees was just that they went about to establish their own righteousness with God. They made the capital mistake of thinking that they could keep the commandments well enough to merit the eternal favour of God. This is the greatest possible mistake, because it can have only one result. A man cannot trust in Christ for his salvation, if he already trusts in himself. And so these scribes and Pharisees refused to submit to the righteousness of God because of their foolish conviction that they were righteous in themselves! But this is not the only thing wrong with them. For the Bible says that in order to be able to live with such a great self-delusion, they first had to do something to the will of God. Jesus tells us about it in the words of the gospel of Mark. “This people honoureth me with their lips,” said Jesus, “but their heart is far from me… for laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the tradition of men… full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” On the surface it appeared that they were very zealous to do the will of God. And yet, in actual fact, they were not at all concerned to keep the law of God. They were only living according to the much easier requirements of their own Jewish tradition!
Now it is easy for us to see the mistake of the Scribes and Pharisees. And it is also easy to condemn them. But the fact is that there are also many today who claim the name of Christ and yet do essentially the same thing that they did. There are people who realize very clearly that they can never make themselves righteous before God. They also understand that they can never be righteous before God except they have the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to them by God. And so they even make their boast in the grace of God and rest their entire hope in the free gift of righteousness through the Lord Jesus Christ. But then they make their own great mistake. For they then go on to say that they are not concerned to perfect holiness in the fear of God. They say that no mere man can keep the law of God perfectly in this life. And that is certainly true. They also say that no mere man who ever lived has ever had anything but a small beginning, that since no one has ever reached perfection – and since no one can ever reach perfection in this life – there is just no point in trying. And that is not true. In fact, that is one of the greatest delusions possible. For the moment a man thinks this way, it is perfectly obvious that he cannot really say, “thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will is done perfectly in heaven.” And we cannot really pray that God’s will be done in earth as it is in heaven unless it is perfection itself that is the great longing of our hearts.
The Apostle John expresses the truth of the matter in a most remarkable way. He says, “Whoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Or again, he says, “Whoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” It might even sound as if John were saying that a true believer will actually reach perfection in this life. But we know that this cannot be his meaning, since he warns us that we deceive ourselves if we ever once say that we have no sin. So this leaves only one possibility: it is not that a believer cannot sin, but rather he cannot accept that sin! And precisely because he cannot, and will not, accept it, he can and will continue to pray, ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.’ “For though we walk in the flesh,” says the Apostle, “we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
You see, it is because the godly man is a child of the of the heavenly father – and because he does delight in the supremacy of God – it is because he does rejoice in God’s absolute sovereignty in heaven and earth that he cannot ever rest content again until everything is brought low in order that He alone might be exalted. And this is not only true in his attitude towards everything else: it is also true in his attitude towards his own heart! Even there he desires the supremacy of God and so he prays: ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven’.
Amen.