The Lord's Prayer
by Thomas Watson
File 14
(... continued from file 13)
The Third Petition in the Lord's Prayer
'Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.' Matt 6: 10
We come next to the third petition, 'Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
This petition consists of two parts: the matter, 'Doing God's
will;' and the manner, 'As it is in heaven.'
What is meant by the will of God?
There is a twofold will. (1) Voluntas decreti, God's secret
will, or 'the will of his decree'. We pray not that God's secret
will may be done by us. This secret will cannot be known, it is
locked up in God's own breast, and neither man nor angel has a key
to open it. (2) Voluntas revelata, God's 'revealed will.' This will
is written in the book of Scripture, which is a declaration of God's
will, and discovers what he would have us do in order to our
salvation.
What do we pray for in these words, 'Thy will be done?'
We pray for two things; 1: For active obedience; that we may do
God's will actively in what he commands. 2. For passive obedience;
that we may submit to God's will patiently in what he inflicts.
We pray that we may do God's will actively, subscribe to all
his commands, believe in Jesus, which is the cardinal grace, and
lead holy lives. So Augustine, upon this petition, Nobis a Deo
precamur obedientiam; we pray that we may actively obey God's will.
This is the sum of all religion, the two tables epitomised, the
doing God's will. 'Thy will be done.' We must know his will before
we can do it; knowledge is the eye which must direct the foot of
obedience. At Athens there was an altar set up, 'To the unknown
God.' Acts 17: 23. It is as bad to offer the blind to God as the
dead. Knowledge is the pillar of fire to give light to practice; but
though knowledge is requisite, yet the knowledge of God's will is
not enough without doing it. If one had a system of divinity in his
head; if he had 'all knowledge,' yet, if obedience were wanting, his
knowledge were lame, and would not carry him to heaven. I Cor 13: 2.
Knowing God's will may make a man admired, but it is doing it that
makes him blessed. Knowing God's will without doing it, will not
crown us with happiness.
[1] The bare knowledge of God's will is inefficacious, it does
not better the heart. Knowledge alone is like a winter-sun, which
has no heat or influence; it does not warm the affections, or purify
the conscience. Judas was a great luminary, he knew God's will, but
he was a traitor.
[2] Knowing without doing God's will, will make the case worse.
It will heat hell the hotter. 'That servant which knew his Lord's
will,' and did it not, 'shall be beaten with many stripes.' Luke 12:
47. Many a man's knowledge is a torch to light him to hell. Thou who
hast knowledge of God's will but does not do it, wherein does thou
excel a hypocrite? Nay, wherein does thou excel the devil, who
transforms himself into an angel of light? It is improper to call
such Christians, who are knowers of God's will but not doers of it.
It is improper to call him a tradesman who never wrought in his
trade; so to call him a Christian, who never wrought in the trade of
religion. Let us not rest in knowing God's will. Let it not be said
of us, as Plutarch speaks of the Grecians, 'They knew what was just,
but did it not.' Let us set upon the doing God's will. 'Thy will be
done.'
Why is the doing God's will requisite?
(1) Out of equity. God may justly claim a right to our
obedience. He is our founder, and we have our being from him; and it
is but just that we should do his will at whose word we were
created. God is our benefactor. It is but just that, if he gives us
our allowance, we should give him our allegiance.
(2) The great design of God in the word is to make us doers of
his will. [1] All God's royal edicts and precepts are to bring us to
be doers of his will. What needed God to have been at the pains to
give us the copy of his law, and write it out with his own finger
but for this end? The word of God is not only a rule of knowledge,
but of duty. 'This day the Lord thy God has commanded thee to do
these statutes; thou shalt therefore keep and do them. ' Deut 26:
16. If you tell your children what is your mind, it is not only that
they may know your will, but do it. God gives us his word, as a
master gives his scholar a copy, to write after it; he gives it as
his will and testament, that we should be the executors to see it
performed. [2] The end of all God's promises is to draw us to do his
will. The promises are loadstones to obedience. 'A blessing if ye
obey;' as a father gives his son money to bribe him to obedience.
Deut 11: 27. 'If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy
God, to do all his commandments, the Lord thy God will set thee on
high above all the nations of the earth; blessed shalt thou be in
the city and in the field.' Deut 28: 1, 3. The promises are a royal
charter settled upon obedience. [3] The minatory part of the word,
the threatening of God, stand as the angel with a flaming sword to
deter us from sin, and make us doers of God's will. 'A curse if ye
will not obey.' Deut 11: 28. 'God shall wound the hairy scalp of
such an one as goes on still in his trespasses.' Psa 68: 21. These
threatening often take hold of men in this life; they are made
examples, and hung up in chains to scare others from disobedience.
[4] All God's providence are to make us doers of his will. As he
makes use of all the seasons of the year for harvest, so all his
various providence are to bring on the harvest of obedience. [5]
Afflictions are said to be sent us to make us do God's will. 'When
he [Manasseh] was in affliction, he besought the Lord, and humbled
himself greatly.' 2 Chron 33: 12. The rod has this voice, 'Be doers
of God's will.' Affliction is called a furnace. The furnace melts
the metal, and then it is cast into a new mould. God's furnace is to
melt us and mould us into obedience. [6] God's mercies are to make
us do his will. 'I beseech you by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice.' Rom 12: 1. Body is by
synecdoche put for the whole man; if the soul should not be
presented to God as well as the body, it could not be a reasonable
service; therefore the apostle says, 'I beseech you by the mercies
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.' Mercies are
the strongest obligations to duty. 'I drew them with cords of a
man;' that is, with golden cords of my mercy. Hos 11: 4. In a word,
all that is written in the law or gospel tends to this, that we
should be doers of God's will. 'Thy will be done.'
(3) By doing the will of God, we evidence sincerity. As Christ
said in another sense, 'The works that I do, bear witness of me.'
John 10: 25. It is not all our golden words, if we could speak like
angels, but our works, our doing of God's will which bears witness
of our sincerity. We judge not the health of a man's body by his
high colour, but by the pulse of the arm, where the blood chiefly
stirs; so a Christian's soundness is not to be judged by his
profession; but the estimate of a Christian is to be taken by his
obediential acting, his doing the will of God. This is the best
certificate and testimonial to show for heaven.
(4) Doing God's will propagates the gospel. It is the diamond
that sparkles in religion. Others cannot see what faith is in the
heart, but when they see we do God's will on earth, it makes them
have a venerable opinion of religion, and become proselytes to it.
Julian, in one of his epistles, writing to Arsatius, says, 'that the
Christian religion did much flourish, by the sanctity and obedience
of them that professed it.'
(5) By doing God's will, we show our love to Christ. 'He that
has my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.'
John 14: 21. What greater love to Christ than to do his will, though
it cross our own? Every one would be thought to love Christ; but,
how shall it be known but by this? - Do you do his will on earth?
Neque principem veneramur, si odio ejus leges habemus [We do not
honour the ruler if we hate his laws]. Isidore. It is a vain thing
for a man to say he loves Christ's person, when he slights his
commands. Not to do God's will on earth is a great evil.
It is sinful. We go against our prayers; we pray, fiat voluntas
tua, thy will be done, and yet we do not obey his will; we confute
our own prayer. We go against our vow in baptism; we have vowed to
fight under the Lord's banner, to obey his sceptre, and this vow we
have often renewed in the Lord's supper; if we do not God's will on
earth, we are forsworn, and God will indict us for perjury.
Not to do God's will on earth is foolish; because there is no
standing out against God. If we do not obey him, we cannot resist
him. 'Are we stronger than he?' I Cor 10: 22. 'Hast thou an arm like
God?' Job 40: 9. Canst thou measure arms with him? To oppose God, is
as if a child should fight with an archangel; as if a heap of briers
should put themselves into a battalion against the flame. Not to do
God's will is foolish; because, if we do it not, we do the devil's
will. Is it not folly to gratify an enemy - to do his will who seeks
our ruin?
But are any so wicked as to do the devil's will?
Yes! 'Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father ye will do.' John 8: 44. When a man tells a lie, does he not
do the devil's will? 'Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to
lie to the Holy Ghost?' Acts 5: 3.
Not to do God's will is dangerous. It brings a spiritual
Praemunire. If God's will be not done by us, he will have his will
upon us; if we obey not his will in commanding, we shall obey it in
perishing. 'The Lord Jesus shall be revealed with his mighty angels,
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that obey not the gospel.'
2 Thess 1: 7, 8. Either we must do his will, or suffer it.
(6) To do God's will is for our benefit. It promotes our own
self-interest. As if a king commands a subject to dig in a mine of
gold, and gives him all the gold he had digged. God bids us do his
will, and that is for our good. 'And now, Israeli what does the Lord
thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to keep the
commandments of the Lord, which I command thee this day for thy
good?' Deut 10: 13. It is God's will that we should repent, and this
is for our good; for repentance ushers in remission. 'Repent, that
your sins may be blotted out.' Acts 3: 19. It is God's will that we
should believe; and why is it, but that we should be crowned with
salvation? 'He that believeth, shall be saved.' Mark 16: 16. What
God wills, is not so much our duty, as our privilege; he bids us
obey his voice, and it is greatly for our good. 'Obey my voice, and
I will be your God.' Jer 7: 23. I will not only give you my angels
to be your guard, but myself to be your portion; my spirit shall be
yours to sanctify you; my love shall be yours to comfort you; my
mercy shall be yours to save you; 'I will be your God.'
(7) To do God's will is our honour. A person thinks it an
honour to have a king speak to him to do a thing. The angels count
it their highest honour in heaven to do God's will. Servire Deo
regnare est, to serve God is to reign. Non onerant nos, sed ornant
[They do not burden us but adorn us]. Salvian. How cheerfully did
the rowers row the barge that carried Caesar! To be employed in this
barge was an honour: to be employed in doing God's will is insigne
honoris, the highest ensign of honour that a mortal creature is
capable of. Christ's precepts do not burden us, but adorn us.
(8) To do God's will on earth makes us like Christ, and akin to
him. It makes us like Christ. Is it not our prayer that we may be
like Christ Jesus Christ did his Father's will. 'I came down from
heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.'
John 6: 38. As God the Father and Christ have but one essence, so
but one will. Christ's will was melted into his Father's. 'My meat
is to do the will of him that sent me.' John 4: 34. By doing God's
will on earth, we resemble Christ, nay, we are akin to him and are
of the blood royal of heaven. Alexander called himself cousin to the
gods; but what honour is it to be akin to Christ! 'Whosoever shall
do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother,
and sister, and mother.' Matt 12: 50. Did king Solomon rise off his
throne to meet his mother and set her on a throne by him? I Kings 2:
19. Such honour will Christ bestow on such as are doers of God's
will; he will salute them as his kindred, and set them on a glorious
throne in the amphitheatre of heaven.
(9) Doing God's will on earth brings peace in life and death.
[1] In life. 'In keeping them [thy precepts] there is great reward,'
not only after keeping them, but in keeping them. Psa 19: 11. When
we walk closely with God in obedience, there is a secret joy let
into the soul and how swiftly and cheerfully do the wheels of the
soul move when they are oiled with the oil of gladness! [2] Peace in
death. When Hezekiah thought he was about to die, what gave him
comfort? That he had done the will of God. 'Remember O Lord, I
beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and have done
that which is good in thy sight.' Isa 38: 3. It was Augustus's wish
that he might have an easy death, without much pain. If anything
make our pillow easy at death, it will be that we have endeavoured
to do God's will on earth. Did you ever hear any cry out on their
death-bed, that they have done God's will too much? No! Has it not
been, that they have done his will no more, that they came so short
in their obedience? Doing God's will, will be both your comfort and
your crown.
(10) If we are not doers of God's will, we shall be looked upon
as condemners of his will. Let God say what he will, yet men will go
on in sin, which is to condemn God. 'Wherefore does the wicked
condemn God?' Psa 10: 13. To condemn God is worse than to rebel. The
tribes of Israel rebelled against Rehoboam, because he made their
yoke heavier. I Kings 12: 16. But to condemn God is worse: it is to
slight him; it is to put a scorn upon him, and affront him to his
face; and an affront will make him draw his sword.
In what manner are we to do God 's will, that we may find
acceptance?
The manner of doing God's will is the chief thing. The
schoolmen say well, Modus rei cadit sub precepto, 'the manner of a
thing is as well required as the thing itself.' If a man build a
house, and the owner likes it not, and it be not according to his
mind, he thinks all his charges lost; so if we do not God's will in
the right manner, it is not accepted. We must not only do what he
appoints, but as he appoints. Here lies the very life-blood of
religion. It is a great question, therefore, 'In what manner are we
to do God's will that we may find acceptance?'
(I) We do God's will acceptably when we do duties spiritually.
'We worship God in the spirit.' Phil 3: 3. To serve God spiritually,
is to do duties ab interno principio, from an inward principle. The
Pharisees were very exact about the external part of God's worship.
How zealous were they in the outward observation of the Sabbath,
even charging Christ with the breach of it! But all this was outward
obedience only: there was nothing of spirituality in it. We do God's
will acceptably when we serve him from a renewed principle of grace.
A crab tree may bear as well as a good apple tree, but it is not so
good fruit as the other, because it does not come from so sweet a
root; so an unregenerate person may do as much external obedience as
a child of God: he may pray as much, hear as much, but his obedience
is harsh and sour, because it does not come from the sweet and
pleasant root of grace. The inward principle of obedience is faith;
therefore it is called 'the obedience of faith.' Rom 16: 26. But why
must this silver thread of faith run through the whole work of
obedience? Because faith looks at Christ in every duty, it touches
the hem of his garment; and through Christ, both the person and the
offering are accepted. Eph 1: 6.
(2) We do God's will acceptably when we prefer his will before
all others. If God wills one thing, and man wills the contrary, we
are not to obey man's will, but God's. 'Whether it be right to
hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.' Acts 4: 19. God
says, 'Thou shalt not make a graven image.' King Nebuchadnezzar set
up a golden image to be worshipped; but the three children, or
rather champions, resolved God's will should prevail, and they would
obey him, though with the loss of their lives. 'Be it known unto
thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the
golden image which thou hast set up.' Dan 3: 18.
(3) We do God's will acceptably when we do it as it is done in
heaven, that is, as the angels do it. To do God's will as the angels
similitudinem notat, non aequalitatem [marks our likeness to them,
not our equality with them]. Brugensis. It denotes this much, that
we are to resemble them, and make them our pattern. Though we cannot
equal the angels in doing God's will, yet we must imitate them; a
child cannot write so well as the copy, yet he imitates it.
[1] We do God's will as the angels in heaven when we do it
regularly, sine deflexu [without wavering]; when we go according to
the divine institutions, not decrees of councils, or traditions of
men. Angels do nothing but what is commanded; they are not for
ceremonies. As there are statute laws in the land which bind, so the
Scripture is God's statute law, which we must exactly observe. As
the watch is set by the dial, so our obedience is right when it goes
by the sun-dial of the word. If obedience has not the word for its
rule, it is not doing God's will, but our own; it is will-worship.
The Lord would have Moses make the tabernacle according to the
pattern. Exod 25: 40. If Moses had left out anything or added
anything to it, it would have been very provoking. To mix anything
of our own devising in God's worship, is to go beside, yea, contrary
to the pattern. His worship is the apple of his eye, that which he
is the most tender of; and there is nothing he has more showed his
displeasure against than corrupting his worship. How severely did he
punish Nadab and Abihu for offering up strange fire, that is, such
fire as God has not sanctified on the altar! Lev 10: 2. Whatever is
not divinely appointed, is offering up strange fire. There is in
many a strange itch after superstition: they love a gaudy religion,
and are more for the pomp of worship than the purity; which cannot
be pleasing to God. As if God were not wise enough to appoint the
manner how he will be served, man will be so bold as to prescribe
for him. To thrust human inventions into sacred things, is doing our
will, not God's; and he will say, quis quaesivit haec? 'Who has
required this at your hand?' Isa 1: 12. We do God's will as it is
done in heaven when we do it regularly, when we reverence his
institutions, and the mode of worship, which have the stamp of
divine authority upon them.
[2] We do God's will as it is done by the angels in heaven when
we do it entirely, sine mutilatione [with nothing cut away]; when we
do all God's will. The angels in heaven do all that God commands;
they leave nothing of his will undone. 'Ye his angels that do his
commandments.' Psa 103: 20. If God sends an angel to the virgin
Mary, he goes on God's errand, if he gives his angels a charge to
minister for the saints, they obey. Heb 1: 14. It cannot stand with
angelic obedience, to leave the least iota of God's will
unfulfilled. It is to do God's will as the angels when we do all his
will, quicquid propter Deum fit aequaliter fit [whatever is done for
God's sake is done uniformly]. This was God's charge to Israel.
'Remember and do all my commandments.' Numb 15: 40, It is said of
David, 'I have found David, a man after mine own heart, which shall
fulfil all my will.' (Gr. all my wills.) Acts 13: 22. Every command
has the same authority; and if we do God's will uprightly, we do it
uniformly; we obey every part and branch of his will; we join first
and second table. Surely we owe to God our Father, what the Papists
say we owe to our mother, the church, unlimited obedience. We must
incline to every command, as the needle moves the way which the
loadstone draws.
Many do God's will by halves, they pick and choose in religion:
in some they comply with God's will, but not in others; like a lame
horse, which sets some of its feet on the ground, but favours one.
He who is to play upon a lute, must strike upon every string, or he
spoils all the music. God's commandments may be compared to a ten-
stringed lute; we must obey his will in every command, strike upon
every string, or we can make no good melody in religion. The badger
has one foot shorter than the other, so hypocrites are shorter in
some duties than others. Some will pray, but not give alms; some
hear the word, but not forgive their enemies; others receive the
sacrament, but not make restitution. How can they be holy who are
not just? Hypocrites profess fair, but when it comes to sacrificing
the Isaac, crucifying the beloved sin, or parting with some of their
estate for Christ, they pause and say, as Naaman, 'In this thing,
the Lord pardon thy servant.' 2 Kings 5: 18. This is far from doing
God's will as the angels do. God likes not such as do his will by
halves. If your servant should do some of your work which you set
him about, but not all, how would you like it?
But who is able to do all God's will?
Though we cannot do all his will legally, we may evangelically;
which is: (1) When we mourn that we can do God's will no better;
when we fail we weep. Rom 7: 24. (2) When it is the desire of our
soul to do God's whole will, 'O that my ways were directed to keep
thy precepts.' Psa 119: 5. What a child of God wants in strength, he
makes up in desire, in magnis voluisse sat est [in great matters it
is enough to have had the will]. (3) When we endeavour quoad conatum
[as far as we are able] to do the whole will of God. When a father
bids his child lift a burden, and the child is not able, but tries,
and does his best, the father accepts it as if he had done it; so to
do our best, is to do God's will evangelically. He takes it in good
part; though it be not to satisfaction, it is to acceptation.
[3] We do God's will as it is done in heaven by the angels when
we do it sincerely, sine fuco [without pretence]. To do God's will
sincerely lies in two things, first, to do God's will out of a pure
respect to his command. Abraham's sacrificing Isaac was contrary to
flesh and blood. To sacrifice the son of his love, the son of the
promise, and by no other hand but the father's own, was hard
service; but, because God commanded it, and out of pure respect to
the command, Abraham obeyed. This is to do God's will aright, when
though we feel no present joy or comfort in duty, yet, because God
commands we obey. Not comfort, but the command is the ground of
duty. Thus the angels do God's will in heaven. His command is the
weight that sets the wheels of their obedience going. Secondly, to
do God's will sincerely, is to do it with a pure eye to his glory.
The Pharisees did the will of God giving alms; but that which was a
dead fly in the ointment, was that they did not aim at his glory,
but vain glory; they blew a trumpet. Jehu did the will of God in
destroying the Baal-worshippers, and God commended him for it; but
because he aimed more at setting himself in the kingdom, than at the
glory of God, God looked upon it as no better than murder, and said
he would avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. Hos 1:
4. Let us look to our ends in obedience; though we shoot short, let
us take a right aim. We may do God's will, and yet not with a
perfect heart. 'Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord, but not with a perfect heart.' 2 Chron 25: 2. The action was
right for the matter, but his aim was not right; and the action
which wants good aim, wants a good issue. He does God's will rightly
that does it uprightly, whose end is to honour God and lift up his
name in the world. A gracious soul makes God his centre. As Joab,
when he had taken Rabbah, sent for King David, that he might have
the glory of the victory, so when a gracious soul has done any duty,
it desires that the glory of all may be given to God. 2 Sam 12: 27,
28. 'That God in all things may be glorified.' I Pet 4: 11. It is to
do God's will as the angels, when we not only advance his glory, but
design his glory. The angels are said to cast their crowns before
the throne. Rev 4: 10. Crowns are signs of the greatest honour, but
these the angels lay at the Lord's feet, to show they ascribe the
glory of all they do to him.
[4] We do God's will as it is done in heaven by the angels when
we do it willingly, sine murmuratione [without complaint]. The
angels love to be employed in God's service. It is their heaven to
serve God. They willingly descend from heaven to earth, when they
bring messages from God, and glad tidings to the church. Heaven
being a place of much joy, the angels would not leave it a minute
were it not that they take such infinite delight in doing God's
will. We resemble the angels when we do God's will willingly. 'And
thou Solomon, my son, serve [the Lord] with a willing mind.' I Chron
28: 9. God's people are called a willing people (Heb. a people of
willingnesses); they give God a freewill offering; though they
cannot serve him perfectly, they serve him willingly. Psa 110: 3. A
hypocrite is able facere bonum [to do good], yet not velle [desire
it], he has no delight in duty; he does it rather out of fear of
hell than love to God. When he does God's will it is against his
own. Virtus nolentium nulla est [There is no virtue in the
unwilling]. Cain brought his sacrifice, but grudgingly; his worship
was rather a task than an offering, rather penance than a sacrifice;
he did God's will, but against his own. We must be carried upon the
wings of delight in every duty. Israel were to blow the trumpets
when they offered burnt offerings. Num 10: 10. This was to show
their joy and cheerfulness in serving God. We must read and hear the
word with delight. 'Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and
thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.' Jer 15:
16. A pious soul goes to the word as to a feast, or as one would go
with delight to hear music. Sleidan reports that the Protestants of
France had a church which they called paradise, because, when they
were in the house of God, they thought themselves in paradise. The
saints flock as doves to the windows of God's house. 'Who are these
that fly as the doves to their windows?' Isa 60: 8. Not that a truly
regenerate person is always in the same cheerful temper of
obedience; he may sometimes find an indisposition and weariness of
soul, but his weariness is his burden; he is weary of his weariness;
he prays, weeps, uses all means to regain the alacrity and freedom
in God's service that he was wont to have. To do God's will
acceptably is to do it willingly. Delight in duty is better than
duty itself. The musician is not commended for playing long, but
well; it is not how much we do, but how much we love. 'O, how love I
thy law!' Psa 119: 97. Love is as musk among linen, that perfumes
it; it perfumes obedience, and makes it go up to heaven as incense.
It is doing God's will as the angels in heaven do. They are ravished
with delight while praising God; they are said to have harps in
their hands, to signify their cheerfulness in God's service. Rev 15:
2.
[5] We do God's will as the angels in heaven when we do it
fervently, sine remissione [without slackness]. 'Fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord;' a metaphor taken from water when it seethes and
boils over; so our affections should boil over in zeal and fervour.
Rom 12: 11. The angels serve God with such fervour and intenseness
that they are called seraphim, from a Hebrew word which signifies to
burn, to show they are all on fire; they burn in love and zeal in
doing God's will. Psa 104: 4. Grace turns a saint into a seraphim.
Aaron must put burning coals to the incense. Lev 16: 12. Incense was
a type of prayer, burning coals of zeal, to show that the fire of
zeal must be put to the incense of prayer. Formality starves duty.
Is it like the angels to serve God dully and coldly? Duty without
fervour is as a sacrifice without fire. We should ascend to heaven
in a fiery chariot of devotion.
[6] We do God's will as the angels in heaven when we give him
the best in every service. 'Out of all your gifts, ye shall offer
all the best thereof.' Numb 18: 29. 'In the holy place shalt thou
cause the strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for a drink
offering.' Numb 28: 7. The Jews might not offer to the Lord wine
that was small or mixed, but the strong wine, to imply that we must
offer to God the best, the strongest of our affections. If the
spouse had a cup more juicy and spiced, Christ should drink of that.
'I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my
pomegranate.' Cant 8: 2. Thus the angels in heaven do God's will;
they serve him in the best manner; they give him their seraphic high
stringed praises; so he who loves God, gives him the cream of his
obedience. God challenged the fat of all the sacrifice as his due.
Lev 3: 16. Hypocrites care not what services they bring to God; they
think to put him off with anything; they put no cost in their
duties. 'Cain brought of the fruit of the ground.' Gen 4: 3. The
Holy Ghost took notice of Abel's offering that it was costly. He
'brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.'
Gen 4: 4. When he speaks of Cain's offering, he says only, 'He
brought of the fruit of the ground.' We do God's will aright when we
offer pinguia [fat things], dedicate to him the best. Domitian would
not have his image carved in wood or iron, but in gold. God will
have the best we have - golden services.
[7] We do God's will as the angels in heaven when we do it
readily and swiftly. The angels do not dispute or reason the case,
but soon as they have their charge and commission from God, they
immediately obey. To show how ready they are to execute God's will,
the cherubim, representing angels, are described with wings. 'The
man Gabriel (that was an angel) being caused to fly swiftly.' Dan 9:
21. Thus should we do God's will as the angels. Soon as ever God
speaks the word we should be ambitious to obey. Alas! how long is it
sometimes ere we can get leave of our hearts to go to a duty! Christ
went more readily ad crucem [to the cross], than we to the throne of
grace. How many disputes and excuses have we! Is this to do God's
will as the angels in heaven do it? O let us shake off this
backwardness to duty, as Paul shook off the viper. Nescit tarda
molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia [The grace of the Holy Spirit knows
nothing of sluggish efforts. 'Behold two women, and the wind was in
their wings.' Zech 5: 9. Wings are swift, but wind in the wings is
great swiftness; such readiness should be in our obedience. Soon as
Christ commanded Peter to let down his net, he let it down, and you
know what success he had. Luke 5: 4. It was prophesied of such as
were brought home to Christ, 'As soon as they hear of me, they shall
obey me.' Psa 18: 44.
[8] We do God's will as the angels in heaven when we do it
constantly. The angels are never weary of doing God's will; they
serve him day and night. Rev 7: 15. Thus we should imitate them.
'Blessed [is] he that does righteousness at all times.' Psa 106: 3.
Constancy crowns obedience. Non coepisse, sed perfecisse, virtutis
est [The righteousness consists not in beginning but in completing
the work]. Cyprian. Our obedience must be like the fire of the
altar, which was continually kept burning. Lev 6: 13. Hypocrites
soon give over doing God's will. They are like chrysolite, which is
of a golden colour in the morning, very bright to look upon, but
towards evening grows dull and loses its splendour. We should
continue doing God's will, because of the great loss that will
befall us if we do it not. There will be a loss of honour. 'That no
man take thy crown;' implying, if the church of Philadelphia left
off her obedience, she would lose her crown that is, her honour and
reputation. Rev 3: 2: Apostasy creates infamy. Judas came from an
apostle to be a traitor, which was a dishonour. If we give over our
obedience, it is a loss of all that has been already done; as if one
should work in silver, and then pick out all the stitches. All a
man's prayers are lost, all the Sabbaths he has kept are lost; he
unravels all his good works. 'All his righteousness that he has done
shall not be mentioned.' Ezek 18: 24. He undoes all he has done; as
if one drew a curious picture with the pencil, and then came with
his sponge and wiped it out again. A loss of the soul and happiness.
We were in a fair way for heaven, but left off doing God's will,
missed the excellent glory, and are plunged deeper in damnation. 'It
had been better not to have known the way of righteousness than,
after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment.' 2 Pet
2: 21. Therefore let us continue in doing God's will. Constancy sets
the crown upon the head of obedience.
The Lord's Prayer
by Thomas Watson
(continued in file 15...)
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