The Disciples' Prayer Explained: Matthew 6 Verse by Verse

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. And again, good afternoon, and once again we're going to go right back to the book and keep on in our study now through the book of Matthew. And as a rule, when I teach the Gospels, I don't go through all four of them verse by verse, because it's not all repetition, of course, but as we go through the book of Matthew, I think we're going to cover most of the highlights of what we want to bring out, even if we will occasionally go into Luke and Mark and John's Gospel. But as I've said so many times before, we don't intend to go just verse by verse every chapter, but we're trying to just cover the overall theme of God's dealing with the human race, beginning with Genesis and winding up, of course, in the book of Revelation. And again, for those of you joining us on television, we always like to make it plain that all of our past programs are available on videotape, a very nominal charge, and we have, thanks to Nancy Carter, Nancy isn't here today, but Nancy has just put in so much work helping us with the table of contents and the labeling and making up orders and all these things, so I want to give her credit for that, even though she isn't here. But if you'll just call us or write to us, and we'll send you out one of these lists of tapes that are available, and then you can take it from there. Now then, if you'll turn with me to Matthew chapter 6, and I'm going to take a look in this half hour at what we normally call the Lord's Prayer. And of course I rebel at that title, because it's not the Lord's Prayer, it's the disciples' prayer. The Lord merely gives it as an example for the disciples to use. Now the real Lord's Prayer is John chapter 17. That's the Lord's Prayer. That's when the Lord pours out His heart to the Father on behalf again of His chosen ones, of the leaven in particular. But here He is instructing the disciples how to pray, and so like I said, I prefer it to be called the disciples' prayer. Let's look at verse 9. Now this is a pattern, and this doesn't mean you have to open every prayer with these exact words, but I think it does give us an indication that as we approach the throne room, even in this age of Greece, now remember that this is still all under the Law. This is still to the Jew under temple worship, He's under the Law, but the format is such that this will even carry over into us under grace, because as we approach the throne room, we still give God His due. We still recognize Him as the Almighty, He is our Heavenly Father, and so we can certainly take note of this. Then verse 10. "...thy kingdom come, but where? On earth as it is in heaven." Now I imagine the average church goer, or believer, or whatever we can call them, they voice these words, and now have the foggiest notion of what they are really talking about. But you see every time that the Lord's prayer is uttered, "...thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven." What are they really requesting? Well this Kingdom that we've been talking about that's been promised ever since Abraham, and it's this Kingdom over which Christ is offering Himself as the King, and it's going to be here on the earth. Now everybody's got the idea that when this so-called earth passes away, and time as we know it, that we go up to heaven and that's where we're going to spend eternity. Well that flies in the face of Scripture. Heaven is going to come down on earth, and the only way we can show that of course is to go back into the Book and let it speak. So I'd like to have you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 11, and again this is only a few of the most obvious. The Old Testament is full of verses like this, but now in Isaiah chapter 11 we have such graphic descriptions of this Kingdom on earth, that the twelve of course were instructed to pray for, over which Christ will one day rule and reign. Isaiah 11, and I guess we almost have to start with verse 1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and Jesse of course is the father of David, and out of David comes this Branch. Christ is also referred to as the Branch in several other places in the Old Testament, so it's a reference to the Messiah. Verse 2. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the King, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord. And all these attributes shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge or rule after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. Now I always have to stop and explain this verse. Today we expect the President, whoever he is in the White House, Republican or Democrat doesn't make any difference. We certainly don't expect him to have his finger on every segment of our national life. It's just utterly impossible for one man to try to keep his finger on every aspect of life in this humongous nation. But what do we expect him to do? To pick out good men who can cover various areas of our economy and of our system, and report intelligently to the President. Because he has to have men like that. But you see when Christ comes to rule, He won't need advisors. He won't need a cabinet. He won't need people to come and give Him advice. That's what this verse says. He won't have to judge by what He sees, whether it's reports or whatever. And He won't have to reprove or react to what someone has told Him, or reported to Him. But He's going to be so absolute in His power and in authority that that won't be necessary. Then verse 4. But how is He going to rule? With righteousness, absolute fairness. No corruption. Nobody is going to get a raw deal. But with righteousness shall He rule, and I think it's a better word than judge, because the word judge here is in the same language as the Book of Judges, and you know what the judges did back there. They ruled. And so He will rule the poor, He'll reprove with equity for the meek. Now I always have to stop and make people flash again ahead. What portion of Scripture that everybody likes to talk about and spend time on are these words used? The words blessed are the poor, and blessed are the meek. What do we call those? The Beatitudes. The Beatitudes then become the very Constitution of this Kingdom over which Christ will rule. The Beatitudes don't fit the church age, although they are a good moral target. But you can't take the Beatitudes and bring them into church doctrine and make any sense of it, because they don't fit. They are again like a square peg in a round hole, but they fit perfectly in the Kingdom, and that's exactly where they belong. So with righteousness He shall rule the poor, and He will reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked because no unbelievers shall go into His Kingdom. Now in verse 5 we read, "...righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins." Now we come into the animal kingdom, and we get a phone call every once in a while. Are we going to have pets in the kingdom? Why every animal is going to be a pet. It isn't just going to be a few like a dog or a cat, but you see look at all the wild animals that are going to be just as tame as our household pets are tonight. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the young lion and the fattening together, and who's in the midst of them? A little child. Sure there are going to be children on the scene, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed together in the same pasture, their young one shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like an ox. He's going to lose his carnivorous appetite, and he's going to revert back to eating grass and forage, as they did I think before sin entered. Now verse 8. Ephesians 1.8-9 8. The suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, which was a ferocious poisonous snake in the Middle East. 9. The weaned child shall put his hand on a cockatrice den, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, and a mountain in Scripture is a kingdom. 10. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the water covers the sea. Now that's what the Lord's prayer is instructing to pray for. Isn't that what the world is looking for tonight? Oh the world wants a utopia of peace and prosperity, and peaceful living between all the various groups and races. But it's not going to happen until the Prince of Peace comes. I think Alice you asked me one time, why are we instructed to pray for the peace of Jerusalem when that city has never had any peace? Well when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, what do you pray for? The Prince of Peace, for His coming, and to bring this horrible age of the curse to an end. Now let's go a little further to the right to Ezekiel chapter 37. Here's the dry bones, and we've made reference to them in earlier programs, but again this is a prophecy that is unique to the nation of Israel. We're not going to take it verse by verse now, because time is flying again. But the dry bones of course are the Israelites, or the Jews out in the Gentile nations, which is their grave really. They don't have a life when they're out of the land of promise, and so the dry bones finally come to life in those first ten verses, and then the interpretation of it begins in verse 11. You all know the account of those dry bones, but I'm not going to look at those verses. Now in verse 11. Ephesians 1.11a "...then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel." That's what the whole vision is about, the Jew. Ephesians 1.11b "...these are the whole house of Israel. Behold they say, our bones are dried, our hope is lost, we are cut off for a part. They have been out of the land thousands of years, almost without hope." Ephesians 1.11a "...therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel." And all we've been seeing it happen now for the last 50 years. I'll bring you into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord, and I shall put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land, and then shall you know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord." Ephesians 1.11a Then you come down into verse 15-16 where the Prophet tells us to take two sticks and put them end to end. One stick is going to stand for the northern kingdom as we knew it back in the Old Testament, and the other stick for the southern kingdom. Now he says, you take those two sticks and put them together end to end, and what's going to happen? One stick instead of two. Ephesians 1.11a You pick that up and look at verse 21. Ephesians 1.11a "...and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, or the Gentiles, whether they be gone. I will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land." Now that's God talking, that's His promise. Ephesians 1.11a "...I will make them one nation, and one king shall be king to them all. They shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided, neither shall they devile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with their transgressions. And I will save them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned, and I will cleanse them, so they shall be My people, and I will be their God." When is it going to happen? When this kingdom comes down from heaven over which Christ is going to be the King, Israel is going to be the head of the nations, and all the other nations are going to be there, but in a lesser role than the covenant people. Now let's go over to one more verse in the Old Testament, and that's Zechariah 14. Zechariah 14, and I guess I'll just start at verse 4. Now this is the Second Coming of course when He actually returns to Jerusalem. Zechariah 14, and His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, in that plain. I mean that's not something that you have to spiritualize and try to figure out what it means. It means what it says. I have to think of a dear gentleman I was listening to who teaches almost identical to the way I do. I was invited to a church where he was speaking, and he rehearsed when he was young that the particular denomination of which he was then an active member did not agree to the Second Coming or the Kingdom or anything like that. But as a young man he went in to his pastor one day, and he showed him verse 4. And he said, that doesn't mean what it says. So he said, I was young enough, I didn't raise any argument, so I left. But he said after about 4 or 5 years, and we had yet another pastor, and he said, this verse kept plaguing me, so I went into him in his study one day, and I said, Pastor the way it looks to me, this means that Jesus is actually going to return and stand on the Mount of Olives. And he said, that preacher looked me in the eye and said, Oh forget that, that's apocalyptic. And he said, that was a good big word for a theologian, and he said, it impressed me and I left. And he said, I didn't know what he was talking about. But now he says, I know better. It means what it says, Christ is going to return some day, and He's going to stand on the Mount of Olives. Let's skip a few of these verses to verse 9, and it's so plain. It's prophecy, it hasn't happened yet, but it's going to. And the Lord in the Old Testament is who? Jehovah. Who is Jehovah in the New? Christ. He made that so plain in John's Gospel. He said before Abraham was I AM, and who is the I AM of the Old Testament? Jehovah. And so here we have Jehovah the Christ shall be King over all the earth. In that day there shall be one Lord, and His name shall be one. Now let's come back to the Lord's Prayer again in Matthew chapter 6. And as I said in my opening remarks, this is under the Law, so the theology or the doctrine of the Lord's Prayer is legal. It's Law. Now keep your hand here in Matthew, a verse just comes to mind. Romans chapter 6, dropping down to verses 14-15. Romans chapter 6, verses 14-15. I am amazed how many people right here in the Bible Belt have no concept of the difference between Law and Grace. I'm not kidding, they don't know that there's any difference, but there's as much difference between Law and Grace as there is between pitch midnight and high noon sunlight. Now look at what Paul says in Romans chapter 6, verse 14. For sin or the old Adamic nature shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under the Law, but you are under Grace. Now what does that tell you? There are two totally different concepts. Go into the next verse. What then? Shall we sin, or in other words, exercise our liberty? Shall we sin because we are not under the Law, but under Grace? And God forbid. But do you see the differences there? You're not under Law, you're under Grace. And the whole book of Galatians is written to prove that very fact, that under Grace the Law has no power over us. Now that doesn't give us license, not at all, but we're under a whole different set of circumstances. Now come quickly back to the Lord's Prayer, and I'm going to show you the difference between Legalism, or Law, and Grace. And very few people can comprehend it. In fact I was just reading an account in some newspaper the other day of one of our hostages who had been released, and he was a very religious individual. In fact it was his faith, his religion that more or less brought him through the hostage experience. So the reporter who was interviewing him asked him, don't you look back at that experience and get awfully bitter and hateful toward those people who tortured you? And he said, No, because after all if I believe what I claim to believe, I have to forgive them or I will never be forgiven, that is by God. Now isn't that sad? It sounds good, and that's what the Law demanded. Now look at it. Galatians 1.11 Give us this day our daily bread, which of course is an appropriate request for any age. Now here it comes, verse 12. Galatians 1.12 Forgive us our debts, or our trespasses, or forgive us our sins, when we forgive those who have sinned against us. Now again most people read over this so casually, and they don't really understand what Jesus is saying. Under Law you could not be forgiven until you had forgiven the other person. Now did you get that? You could not be forgiven until you had forgiven the other. That's what Law demanded, and that's what this religious gentleman was talking about. He said, I have to forgive them, because if I don't I can't be forgiven, that is by God. Now let's turn back to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4.32 Now this is the Apostle of Grace writing. This is the Apostle who just said in Romans, you're not under Law, you're under Grace. Now look what Grace says. Ephesians 4.32 How do you see that? In other words, whether I forgave my neighbor or not, what did God do for me? He forgave me. But the crux of the matter is that if God was gracious enough to forgive me right exactly where I was as a sinner condemned, then who am I to say that I can't forgive the other person? Now do you see what a difference that makes? Instead of me drudgingly saying, yes I forgive you so that I can be forgiven, now I recognize I am forgiven. But if Christ could forgive me who was most unworthy, only because of His grace, now what do I have to feel? Well I can certainly forgive that fellow, because He hasn't done against me like I had done against God. Now turn over a couple more pages in your Bible to Colossians chapter 2. And over the next several weeks this is what we're going to be hammering away, that we're not under the Law as Christ ministered to Israel. We're under Grace, and it's all the difference in the world. Colossians chapter 2, verse 13, where Paul writes to the Believer. Now remember Paul always writes to the Believer, he never writes to the unsaved world. He always writes to the Believer. And so to us he says, "...and you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh Gentiles, he hath quickened together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses." Now then, if God could do that for me, can I do any less for my neighbor? Now that's the teaching. And see this is the whole difference now between Law and Grace. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. 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