Your Will Be Done on Earth as in Heaven

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 103
• Hymn — Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 124
• Scripture Reading — Luke 8:1-15
• Hymn — O for a Closer Walk with God
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — Thy Word Is Like a Garden, Lord
• Sermon
• Hymn — All for Jesus
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

Sermon Title: Your Will Be Done on Earth as in Heaven

Scripture: Deuteronomy 29:29

I. A Mind Set on Heaven and Not on Earth

• A. The Lord's Prayer orients the heart toward heaven — hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done — before turning to earthly needs.

• B. The location of the Father's throne matters: the "third heaven" (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) is the unseen realm of God's uncanny, holy presence, distinct from the sky (first heaven) and outer space (second heaven).

• C. Isaiah's vision in Isaiah 6 illustrates the awe demanded by the God of the third heaven — the seraphim shield their eyes, and Isaiah cries, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips."

• D. Modern culture, described by Charles Taylor as the "immanent frame," confines the imagination to the first and second heavens, effectively eliminating transcendence.

  1. Ancient Near Eastern religions worshipped gods bound to elements of creation; only Yahweh is the God of the third heaven.
  2. When God is reduced to the first two heavens, his revealed will in Scripture becomes unnecessary — knowledge of God is sought through empirical discovery alone.
  3. The church today reflects this loss of transcendence when professing Christians condone what Scripture condemns.

• E. Obedience to God's will is inseparable from knowing where he gives it — from his transcendent, unchangeable throne, not from creation.

  1. God's will, rooted in the third heaven, is immutable and not subject to revision by new human discoveries.
  2. Training the mind on heavenly truth requires disciplined daily doses of the Word, prayer, and worship (Colossians 3:2).

II. A Mind Set on God and Not on Man

• A. The philosophical debate over "freedom of the will" almost always concerns man's will — but only God possesses a truly free will.

• B. The divine name Yahweh — "I AM WHO I AM" — first revealed in Exodus 3 — expresses God's absolute independence and self-existence.

  1. God's will flows entirely from his own being; nothing outside him determines or constrains it.
  2. To be dependent on creatures would be for God to cease being the great I AM.

• C. The doctrine of divine simplicity means God does not merely have freedom — God is freedom.

  1. He does not have a measure of goodness, righteousness, or love; he is goodness, righteousness, and love.
  2. Therefore, true freedom for human beings is found only in conformity to God's will, not apart from it.

• D. Creation was designed to serve mankind (the Sabbath was made for man), but God's service flows from absolute freedom, not slavish dependence.

• E. Christ's high priestly prayer in John 17 — "that they may be in us" — is a prayer that the absolute freedom of the triune God would be shared with his people through conformity to the Father's will.

• F. Even the 250th anniversary of American independence should remind Christians that only God is truly free; human freedom is derivative and grows through absorption into his will.

III. A Mind Set on Redemption and Not on Slavery

• A. The Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) established that Christ has two natures — fully divine and fully human — in one person.

• B. The Third Council of Constantinople (681 AD) further affirmed that Christ has two wills: a human will and a divine will.

  1. Christ's human will is not an individual preference but the common human faculty shared by all — hunger, thirst, the desire for rest.
  2. This is distinct from personal idiosyncratic desires.

• C. Gregory of Nazianzus: "That which Christ does not assume, Christ cannot redeem."

  1. If any common human faculty — including the will — is not assumed by Christ, it remains unredeemed.
  2. Hebrews 2 affirms he became like us in every way, yet without sin, to redeem every faculty of our humanity.

• D. Christ demonstrates the redeemed human will in two decisive moments:

  1. In the wilderness, resisting Satan: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
  2. In Gethsemane: "Not my will, but your will be done" — the perfect human will submitted to the Father.

• E. Outside of Christ there is no freedom of the will — only bondage to sin; in Christ, the will is set free (Galatians 5:1).

  1. Satan's tactic is to convince the saints they deserve bondage and can do nothing but follow the flesh — just as an abusive husband convinces a wife she deserves the abuse.
  2. Paul's answer by the Spirit: "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

• F. The prayer "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" has already been accomplished in Christ, who descended from heaven to do the Father's will perfectly, finishing it on the cross at Golgotha.

• G. Therefore, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2) — not on the flesh sown in Adam, but on Christ, who was sown to the Father's will on our behalf.