“Your Kingdom Come, Part 3”

(Matthew 6:10)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
1. The second petition in the Lord’s Prayer has many aspects.
a. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come.”
b. But that means that several things must happen:
(i) That His redemptive kingdom would continue to advance.
(ii) That, as a result, Satan’s would crumble.
(iii) That God would gather His elect people into His Son’s fold.
(iv) That He would give them the grace to push forward.
(v) That He would keep them in the kingdom: preserve them.
(vi) And that He would bring His eternal kingdom.

2. Last week, we considered the implications of this petition/request for us:

a. That we would not be deceived about our condition, but know whether or not
we are His.
b. That we would continue to push forward – be zealous for personal holiness,
for good works, to advance the kingdom – that we would strive to enter the
narrow gate.
c. That we would also take confidence in the fact that Jesus is the One who has
gone before us, who prays for us, who guarantees that if we have trusted in
Him, we won’t fall.

B. Preview.
1. This week, let’s consider the others yet to be brought in.
a. All the elect have not yet been saved.
(i) How do we know? If they had, Christ would have returned.
(ii) Paul tells us, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this
mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening
has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; and
thus all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:25-26).
(iii) When the fullness of the Gentiles have been gathered together:
(a) Then God’s reason for partially hardening Israel will be finished.
(b) Then all the elect will have been brought savingly to Christ.
(c) Then Christ will return to defeat the final enemy: death (1 Cor. 15:26)
– which He will do at the resurrection.

(iv) These things haven’t happened; so there are still others to bring in.

b. This means evangelism and missions are still important.

(i) We generally use the word evangelism to refer to bringing Christ to those
in our own country.
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(ii) And missions to bringing the Gospel to other countries.

(iii) They are both really the same: wherever there are people without
Christ, they need to be evangelized.

2. When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are asking that this work of
evangelizing the nations would continue.
a. We are praying that God would raise up more laborers to send into His
harvest.
b. And we are praying that God would make the Gospel powerful to save by
His Spirit.
c. Let’s consider these two things this evening as we continue to learn what the
Lord tells us should be the burden of our prayers.

II. Sermon.
A. First, when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are asking God to raise up more
laborers and send them into the Harvest.
1. Look around you. Do you know anyone who isn’t a Christian? Do you know
anyone who hasn’t heard the Gospel?
a. All of us must know of some.
b. They’re in our families, neighborhoods, workplaces.
c. Many have heard; many haven’t; many have heard distortions of the truth.
d. But no one will be saved apart from the truth. Paul writes, “How then shall
they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is
written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good
things’” (Rom. 10:14-15).
e. Yes, God will bring in His elect, but He does it through the Gospel, not apart
from it.
f. And He has ordained that we who know Him would be those messengers.

2. And so we are to pray what Jesus taught His disciples in another place: that He
would raise us up, and others, to bring that Gospel to them.
a. He said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore
beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Matt.
9:37-38).
b. We are to pray that He would raise up more workers: many more are needed.
c. And we are to pray that He would give strength to the workers He has already
raised up to serve Him faithfully in this way: to us to get the Gospel out.

B. But we are also asking Him to make His Gospel powerful through the Spirit.
1. The Spirit is the One who gives the Gospel its effectiveness.
a. His role in the economy of salvation is to take what Christ has done and
apply it to the elect.
b. Without the Spirit’s work, the Gospel falls on dead ears.
(i) It is not dead. It is the living Word of God.
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(ii) But just as deaf ears cannot hear sound, so the ears of the dead cannot
listen to the Gospel: to them it’s foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18).
(iii) Just as blind eyes cannot see light or color, so the eyes of the spiritually
blind cannot see the glory of Christ.
(iv) Only the Spirit can give the faculty, the ability, to see and hear Christ
speaking in the Gospel.

2. He does this by way of the new birth.

a. As we saw last week, He plugs the sinner into Christ, which makes alive.
b. He opens the eyes of the blind.
c. He unstops the ears.
d. He makes the heart of stone to beat.
e. He works faith and repentance.
g. No one can believe without His work.
(i) We are all born dead in trespass and sin (Psalm 51:5).
(ii) We could not keep the Law of God, could not please Him (Rom. 8:7).
(iii) We were all walking according to the dictates of sin (Eph. 2:1-3).
(iv) None of us were seeking for God (Rom. 3:10-11).
(v) But God in His mercy quickened us to life/caused us to be born again
(Eph. 2:4-5).
(vi) When He did, faith was born, Christ was trusted in and sin turned from;
we were saved.
(vii) This is not something we could do; it is something we didn’t do.
(viii) The new birth comes from God, which is why we must pray that He
would pour out His Spirit to make the Gospel effective to salvation.

3. But something we don’t often think about today is that not everyone of God’s
elect who hears the Gospel for the first time is immediately saved:
a. There are some who will never respond to it because they are not of God’s
elect.
(i) It’s like pouring water on a rock: it doesn’t penetrate.
(ii) It doesn’t, because the Spirit doesn’t apply it in a saving way, or even in
a common way, as we’ll see in a moment.

b. There are others who do respond at some level, but eventually fall away:
(i) Some profess Christ, join a church, are baptized and participate in the
Lord’s Supper.
(ii) But they never really savingly trust in Christ.
(iii) Some remain in the church their whole lives in this condition.
(iv) Others eventually apostatize/leave the church.
(v) They go out, as John says, because they never really were of us (1 John
2:19).

c. And there are still others who don’t believe at first, but eventually do.
(i) Perhaps you’ve heard some statistics: some must hear about 20 times
before they’ll accept Christ.
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(ii) Some are witnessed to and prayed for, for years, before they come.
(iii) Their eyes seem to be opened a little bit to God’s truth, but not fully.
(iv) They’re affected, but not saved.
(v) Why? What’s going on in their lives and in the lives of those who
continue for a while but then fall away?

d. It’s because of the work of the Spirit we call awakening.

(i) Awakening is a work short of salvation.
(ii) It is the Spirit’s working on a man’s natural faculties, particularly, his
conscience, without uniting the person savingly to Christ.
(iii) It is a work of conviction that brings fear of coming judgment.
(iv) It is meant to get them to seek after God that they might find Him (Cf.
Pilgrim before conversion).
(v) Some find – if they are God’s elect – but not all – the non-elect/reprobate
never will.
(vi) Awakening is a work of common grace.
(vii) It often comes before salvation, but doesn’t result in salvation in
everyone who experiences it.

III. Application:
A. And so we are taught to pray for several things:
1. We must pray that the Lord would raise up workers:
a. That He would raise us up to do this work.
b. That He would raise up other of His people.

2. We must pray for the Spirit’s work to advance God’s kingdom through the
Gospel.
a. That He would make the Gospel powerful.
b. That He would use it to awaken – that it wouldn’t just go in one ear and out
the other.
c. That He would use it to convert the elect.

B. We must also be confident that as we witness to others, the Lord will gather His
people in.
1. This is the way God saves them.
2. If we go out in faithfulness, the Lord will use us in some way to bring His
children home.

C. But lastly, we must know how to help those awakened, but not converted.
1. We must be able to help them discern their state.
a. Do they really love God? Not just for what they think He has given them?
(i) Do they love Him for who He is?
(ii) Do they love Him for what He has done and is doing?
(iii) Do they love Him for His justice and righteousness?
(iv) Do they love Him for His sovereignty?
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b. If they don’t, then they don’t love God; if they don’t love God, then they’re
unconverted.

2. Ascertaining their condition, we must point them in the right direction.

a. We must point them to Christ.
b. We must tell them to repent and believe.
c. If they can’t – if they don’t find it in their heart to love God – then we need to
point them to God – to seek for His mercy to do so.
d. They should pray, read, listen to sermons, join in worship, until God answers.

3. Many of us here went through this process, but never really knew it.
a. We may have heard the Gospel many times before we were converted.
b. There was a process going on in our lives.
c. Finally, the Lord brought the new birth, our eyes were opened, and we
haven’t turned back since.
d. Someone doesn’t need to tell us to seek before we seek; the Lord can and
does put us on that path Himself.
e. However, just because that is the case, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be ready to
help someone.
f. And so let’s pray that God would advance His kingdom, that He would raise
up workers, that He would use us, that He would make His Gospel powerful
to save, and that He would give us the insight we need to counsel those who
are awakened. As Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “Finally, brethren, pray
for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it
did also with you” (2 Thes. 3:1).

4. As we prepare to come to the Lord’s Table, think about these two things:
a. What we saw this morning: there is no salvation apart from Christ – the one
who comes to God must come through Him; He alone can establish through
His Gospel.
b. Christ gives us the strength we need to do what He calls us to do: remember,
we must not pray thinking the Lord is going to raise up someone else to do
this work – our attitude should be, “Here I am. Send me” (Isa. 6:8).