Matthew 6:10

Matthew 6:10

I. As it is in heaven. The nature and manner of heavenly employments are not precisely known to us. But of some of the qualities of that perfect doing of God's will we can treat from what we know of ourselves, who, a little lower than the angels, are, like them, beings with reason and affections and spiritual life before God. And we may observe (1) that their doing of God's will is without selfishness. No idol set up within interferes with the proper aim and end of action. (2) Again, their conformity to God's will is all real and genuine the act first of the heart and of affections and desires, then of the tongue and outward bearing. (3) Their work is done without intermission or weariness. They cease not day nor night.

II. Man's glory is to suffer. In this sense let us consider the words, "Thy will be done." Let us regard them as expressing the intelligent resignation, on the part of an imperfect and erring being, of his ways and his prospects, into the hand of an almighty and merciful Father. And thus viewed they imply: (1) A knowledge of the relation between God and himself. God is to him a Father watching over him, careful and solicitous for his welfare. Hitherto He has done well for His people; He has not forsaken them that trust in Him. The most adverse circumstances have in the end proved for their good; God has led them by a way that they knew not. All this dwells on the Christian's mind, and from such evidence as this, strengthened by his own spiritual experience that the Lord is gracious, he learns to trust Him, and to say respecting Himself, "Thy will be done." (2) "Thy will be done." And what if that will be not only afflictive, but dark and mysterious also? What if God be pleased to wound just when we believed we wanted cherishing? What He does we know not now, but we shall know hereafter. I remember, on a glorious day of all but cloudless sunshine, passing in view of a well-known line of bare and majestic downs, then basking in the full beams of noon. But on one face of the hill rested a mass of deep and gloomy shadow. On searching for its cause, I at length discovered one little speck of cloud, bright as light, floating in the clear blue above. This it was which cast on the hillside that ample track of gloom. And what I saw was an image of Christian sorrow. Dark and cheerless often as it is, and unaccountable as it passes over our earthly path, in heaven its token shall be found; and it shall be known to have been but as a shadow of His brightness whose name is Love.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii., p. 134.

Let us view this petition

I. As a description of the kingdom of Christ. When Christ comes to reign earth will rejoice. Israel, renewed by the Spirit, and gifted in the richest measure with humility and fervent zeal, will be the first-born among the nations; and then the Saviour's saying, "Salvation is of the Jews," will find its perfect fulfilment. When the Holy Ghost shall write the law of God in their hearts, then shall be seen the spectacle of a righteous nation; and, imitating them, all kingdoms shall conform themselves to the will of our Father in heaven.

II. As a description of the angelic obedience, the standard and pattern of ours. To do God's will is the delight of angels, and His will is His self-manifestation on earth. Angels are interested in the earth that God may be glorified, even as Satan and his servants are interested in it to retard the progress of God's kingdom and to obscure His glory. The obedience of angels is in humility and perfect submission. They obey because God commands. Thus ought we to accustom and train our hearts to reverential obedience.

III. As pointing to the Lord Jesus, the ladder between heaven and earth, in and by whom this petition is fulfilled. The Son of God has become the Author of eternal salvation to all believers. By His obedience we are constituted righteous. By His sacrifice we have gained the position of children. In Him we are reconciled and renewed; one with Him, we receive the Father's love and the gift of the Holy Ghost; and thus

IV. God's will is done in us and by us. When we think of the will of God, our hearts are at peace. The secret will of God is a mystery, into which it is not for us to search; but we know that, while clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. We see His revealed will in the gift of Christ and the Spirit. We know this is the will of God, that all who believe in Jesus should have eternal life, and that He should raise them at the last day. This also is His will, even our sanctification, that Christ by the Spirit should dwell and live in us, and that, in union with the true Vine, we should bring forth fruit.

A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord's Prayer, p. 203.

The Obedience of Angels.

I. An angel, by his very nature, is a servant doing God's behest. It is laid upon him; it is a necessity and law of his being. With us service is too much an occasional thing put on at times; done and left. It must not be so if you are to be like an angel. It must be an essential part of every moment of life reality; the sum and substance, the whole of your existence; continuous, obedient service.

II. The angels behold the face of the Father, and hence their power and their joy. They go wherever they go straight from the immediate presence of God. So they carry their sunshine; so they carry their might; so must you.

III. And no one can doubt that an angel's obedience is the obedience of a happy being. You will not do much, you will not even obey well, till you are happy.

IV. It matters nothing to an angel what the work is which is given him to do. It may be for a babe, or it may be for a king; it may be for one, or it may be for multitudes; it may be for the holiest, or it may be for the vilest. It is just the same to him. It cannot be too menial or too lofty; it cannot be too little or too much. It is simple obedience. It is reasonable because it is not reasoning service.

V. An angel's response to an order is always instant, and the course the quickest and the straightest. Witness the visit of the angel Gabriel to Daniel. The obedience to the command is always minute, always accurate, and always entire.

VI. If your obedience would be like the obedience of angels, it must always be primarily to Christ. It must touch Him. It must have a savour of Him. There, in that beautiful world where the angels live, Christ is the centre of everything. There is not an eye there that is not fastened on that Master. It would be no obedience at all which did not go up and down upon that altar.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 246.

I. We begin by inquiring into the meaning of the words. They are often uttered and not felt. They are sometimes spoken in a sense which is very different from, nay opposed to, the whole teaching of Christ. We shall gain a truer idea of the prayer if we begin by clearing away the thoughts respecting God's will which are opposed to the idea of a Father. (1) There is a tendency in man to confuse God's will with the thought of an irresistible force. This confusion may rise very naturally from the consciousness of human insignificance. Contemplating the grandeur of God, and overwhelmed before the majesty that rules the universe at His pleasure, man may submit to God's will because it seems to be an awful power which cannot be resisted. This conception of God's will as an irresistible force springs from forgetfulness of the great difference between God's rule in the kingdom of matter and His will in the kingdom of souls. The essential feature of spirit is its capacity for resisting God. (2) Again, there is a tendency in man to confound the will of God with the thought of an unsearchable self-will. This thought may spring from a sense of ignorance. Enfeebled by conflict, a man's own will may be calm, and yet not surrendered to God in the faith that He does all things well. In that spirit he may say in all quietness, "Thy will be done," but because he has submitted to a mere will, not to a righteous will. (3) It is Christ who teaches us to pray, "Thy will be done." And we may therefore feel that that will, though sovereign, is for our highest good, though working darkly, for our greatest blessedness. We may look out from our poor finite thought on life and the universe to the everlasting will of a gracious and loving Father.

II. There is no other rational law of life than this. In a life of obedience, every struggle, every sorrow, every tear, has a bearing on the future. They chasten the spirit, and help to purify it from its earthliness. Every victory over self-will strengthens the soul and makes it "more than conqueror."

E. L. Hull, Sermons, 1st series, p. 191.

How is God's will done in heaven?.

I. It is certainly done zealously.

II. The angels in heaven do God's will reverently.

III. God's will is also done in heaven with cheerful alacrity.

IV. God's will is done in heaven perseveringly.

V. Angels do God's will in heaven harmoniously.

VI. God's will is done in heaven perfectly.

J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 74.

I. Human life is one great want.

II. This want should turn human life into one noble aspiration.

III. This aspiration can only be noble as it is lifted up towards a Father.

IV. This Father must be asked to come in all the power and splendour of a kingdom.

Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 271.

References: Matthew 6:10 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1778; T. Lessey, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p., 234; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. vi., p. 316; vol. xi., p. 164; W. Hubbard, Ibid., vol. xxv., p. 193; R. A. Armstrong, Ibid., vol. xxxi., p. 314; H. Price Hughes, Ibid., vol. xxxii., p. 261; E. B. Pusey, Parochial and Cathedral Sermons, p. 319; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 117; M. Dods, The Prayer that Teaches to Pray, pp. 50, 76; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 152; F. D. Maurice, The Lord's Prayer, p. 25; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, pp. 415, 421; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 1st series, p. 211; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, pp. 418, 431; R. Heber, Sermons Preached in England, p. 193.