|
||||||
| SERMON #122 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: MAT 6:13 The word temptation deserves a very close look and more understanding than we often give it. Notice how James addresses the issue of temptation in JAM 1:1-3, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. [Now notice the Apostle's very first item of address.] My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." So temptations are for the trying of faith to work patience in our heart, but the prayer the Lord Jesus teaches us says, "lead us not into temptation..." We must understand the petition Jesus is teaching us. You see, we can be tempted without yielding to temptation. Yielding is sin. Christ was tempted; it is not sin to be tempted, but yielding is sin. Our text says, "And lead us not into temptation..." We want the Lord to keep us from yielding or entering into temptation. There is a difference between being tempted and yielding to temptations. In other words, on the pathway of our lives, we find the Lord gives us many trials of faith because "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." The Lord Jesus was tempted, but He never yielded or entered into temptation. The message is: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." The sixth petition in the Lord's Prayer also begins with the word AND. "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." The Lord does not have any frivolous words in this prayer or any of His messages to us. All of His words have meaning, so what is meant by this word and? The little connecting word and teaches us another very valuable lesson that we may not overlook. We cannot separate justification from sanctification. Justification is to be delivered from the penalty of sin which is paid for by Christ. Sanctification is to be delivered from the pollution of sin. The preceding petition, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," MAT 6:12, speaks of our justification. Then the very next verse says, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," which deals with the work of sanctification within our hearts. That connecting word teaches us that we cannot plead the blood of Christ, claiming we have been saved with our sins pardoned, and then continue to walk in sin. We must understand that throughout the gospel the teaching is that repentance comes before pardon. In the last chapter of Luke, as Christ was sending forth His disciples into their ministry, Jesus gave them their commission. The Lord Jesus said in LUK 24:46-47, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Take notice that the preaching of repentance comes before the preaching of the remission of sins. MAR 1:4 teaches, "...repentance for the remission of sins." We may not get those two priorities mixed. We cannot separate the two; we cannot have pardon without sanctification. That connecting word and teaches us there is no separation between justification and sanctification. The fifth petition asks for forgiveness of sin; that's our justification. The sixth petition speaks about the daily living of the Christian life, or our sanctification. Jesus is teaching us that when we ask for the pardon of our sin, in the same breath, we are asking for sanctification. We are asking for the Lord to keep us from yielding to temptation and to keep us from all evil. Any right understanding of what Jesus Christ paid as the penalty for sin is always connected with a true hatred for sin. If we are coming to the Lord Jesus to ask for pardon, if we understand what that pardon cost, then we would hate the sin that brought about the penalty which He paid. This is why we cannot separate the two; justification and sanctification are always connected with that little word and. They cannot be separated. Upon our first reading of this petition, "And lead us not into temptation..." immediately there seems to be a contradiction with JAM 1:13-14. So let's see where the perfect harmony is. JAM 1:13-14 says "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." Stop and think about this. Upon the first glance does this not raise the question, why did Jesus teach us to pray, "lead us not into temptation"? We may not take from the words of our text that God does tempt us or lead us into temptation, "for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." This is not a contradiction to our text. Jesus often used a negative approach to teach a principle; a negative approach is used in our text. Let's look at a few of the many Scriptures to see how Jesus used a negative approach rather than a positive approach in His teachings. For instance, JOH 6:37 says, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." This is a negative approach. He could have said this in a positive sense by saying, "and him that cometh to me I will bring into My Kingdom." Another example of the use of such negative expression is found in MAR 9:1, "And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." In a positive sense, Jesus actually said "There are some that stand here, who shall remain alive until they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." Notice, this is what the Lord Jesus is doing in the Lord's Prayer in "lead us not into temptation." The teachings of Jesus often teach a truth through the use of negative expressions. It is very important that we understand the meaning of temptation. The word temptation as found in our text is taken from the Greek word peirasmos which has two very distinct meanings. 1. "A putting to proof by experiment of good." 2. "An experience of evil solicitation." The English word also has these two meanings. The first meaning is testing or trying our faith by an experiment for good. We must understand what the Lord is saying. It is exactly what we read in JAM 1:2, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." The word temptation as used in our text must be understood to mean "A putting to proof by experiment of good." These trials are not an enticement to evil! Jesus is teaching us to ask the Lord not to put us through trials which are stronger than our faith, but to give us faith which is stronger than the trial. See what this is doing. The second expression qualifies this meaning. "But deliver us from evil" is asking the Lord to spare us and keep us from any evil inclinations of our own evil heart. Scripture uses the word temptation also to mean "An experience of evil solicitation." That is what we read in JAM 1:13-14, "Let no man say when he is tempted [when he has been solicited into evil], I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." The temptations to evil are only from being enticed by our own lusts. This is covered in the second portion of our text, "but deliver us from evil." Another Scriptural reference which uses the word tempted as "A putting to proof by experiment of good," is the case of Abraham. GEN 22:1 says, "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am." God put Abraham to a trial of his faith for his own good; that is not the same as enticing him with evil. This experiment of good was to prove Abraham's obedience, or righteousness. What was the fruit of Abraham's trial of faith? GEN 22:12 tells us of the conclusion of the matter, "And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." The trial of Abraham's faith was to see if he would obey and to know he truly had a holy reverence for the will of God. That is the meaning of "God did tempt Abraham." It teaches us that God tried his faith, drew him into this trial of faith for his own good, "for now I know that thou fearest God." Our text says "Lead us not into temptation," but it goes on to say, "but deliver us from evil." On the positive side it means "deliver us from the temptations of Satan and sin." God would not lead us into temptation, but this Scripture is teaching us to ask and beg that we be delivered from the power of Satan and our own evil heart. GAL 5:17 says "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot [`God forbid,' as it is in the original], do the things that ye would." The Holy Spirit, by His restraining grace forbids us from doing the things that we would, but our text teaches us that we must ask for this restraining grace. God allowed Job to be tempted by Satan. This was "An experience of evil solicitation," as it is recorded in JOB 2:6, "And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life." The Lord placed Job in the hand of Satan, and Job's faith was tried when his friends, brothers and sisters turned against him. His own wife came and tempted him to curse God! "Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die," JOB 2:9. However, Satan was not able to overthrow Job; he was not able to lead him into temptation. Job answered, "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips," JOB 2:10. Job was tempted, but Satan was not able to lead him into yielding to it. The real substance of our text is that God will deliver us from the temptations of Satan and sin. Any true believer who has learned to know the deceitfulness of his own heart will understand what Paul said in ROM 7:21-25, "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. [We need daily prayer to be delivered from the power of Satan and sin because the law of sin is present in the heart.] For I delight in the law of God after the inward man [the inner desire of his heart was to do God's will]: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." Paul saw that sin is death, and wanted to be delivered from this body of death. That brings us to our prayer, "lead us not into temptation," Paul saw he had no might against the power of that great enemy, but he also delighted in the law of God. That is why we must daily plead for the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. Deliver us from evil daily, and give us the grace to walk in the ways of righteousness. The true Christian fears Satan's power of fascination to sin as his greatest enemy. Many people preach about the danger of hell, but have we learned to see the danger of sin? Do we see the power and fascination that Satan uses to lead us into sin? If we see this, our true prayer is "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Our prayer for a pardon, i.e., justification, cannot be separated from our prayer for sanctification. We may have a desire for sanctification, but there are two sides to this principle that we must see. First, it deals with heart sins, to be delivered from evil lusts, sinful desires. The Lord Jesus Christ taught the spirit of the law; the law is: we may not commit adultery with a woman. The spirit of the law says we may not lust after her in our heart either. We are not only forbidden to kill our neighbour, but we may not hate him in our heart. We must understand heart sin; the sins of the heart are also sinful in the eyes of the Lord because on the other side of this principle, they lead to the sins of action. This second side of the principle reveals the evil temptations, which are born in the heart and mind, committing the evil which lust has placed in the heart. Consider this example; suppose Satan is tempting you to steal something. Satan builds the desire to have it in your heart; you covet it. You have not yet committed the sin of stealing, but you have already committed the sin of coveting or desiring something that is not yours. Sin has already been conceived in your heart. If we learn to understand our heart, then we want to ask the Lord to deliver us from the power of heart sins because heart sins lead us to sins of action. If we allow this to brew in our heart, the next thing we know, the power of covetousness will lead us to actually take that which is not ours. "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death," JAM 1:14-15. We need to be sanctified from the desire of evil as well as from the very act itself. Those who truly love God want to walk in the ways which are pleasing to God. If our heart has been delivered from the power of sin by sanctification of the Spirit, then we desire not only to be preserved from the acts of stealing or murder, but also from the heart sins which lead to them. Then we can understand what our text is really saying, "O God,please keep me from sinful desires, from sinful temptations; deliver me from evil thoughts, from words and actions that are sinful." The Lord Jesus is teaching us to come before Him with a tender heart that pleads to be delivered from sin. When we see how corrupt our hearts are with the law of sin that dwells within us, we need to pray daily for God's restraining grace. In the last sermon we studied "And give us our daily bread..." which begins with and as does our text. So it is a daily need to be saved and delivered from temptation; daily we must be delivered from the power of sin. The petition, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," is one petition. We must pray to be delivered from the evil of our own heart. I very seldom quote people from the pulpit, but John Bunyan made a beautiful comment. He said, "Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer." Prayer will cease when we begin to become careless about sin. Our heart turns cold if we walk in sin; that will entice us to stop praying. Jesus said in MAT 26:40-41, "And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Why did Jesus single out Peter? Peter was not alone. He wasn't the only one who slept, but--Peter was the one who boasted he could stand. Peter committed the sin of presumption in his heart. He had the pride in his heart that he would be able to go with Jesus to death, to prison, or whatever. Peter had a proud heart of presumption which caused him to stop praying. That is the danger when sin is allowed to dwell in the heart. Jesus said, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." Isn't that beautiful? That is the Lord's commission to each one of us, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." In other words, that you do not yield to temptation which is on every side. We are not able to stand in our own strength. It was Peter, the one who thought he was so strong in faith, who was found sleeping instead of praying. As Jesus said, so often we find "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." The greater the portion we receive of the Spirit of Christ, the more we understand and have the work of the Spirit of Christ in our heart, the more we will understand of what Paul said in 2CO 12:9-10. "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." Now we can begin to understand our weakness, that we have no might against the great enemy of sin. We are not able to stand against sin and the powers of Satan; we need the prayer, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." In other words, deliver me from the temptations of Satan and sin and deliver me from all evil. Paul takes pleasure in all these fiery trials so the power of Christ may rest upon him. That is the Spirit of Christ. It is what James said, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." Paul understood that and we will understand it when we have the Spirit of Christ, "in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." As we grow in the knowledge of Christ, we grow in the knowledge of ourselves; we learn to see more and more of who we are. Oh, beloved, we must cry out with David, "set a watch before the door of my mouth." Have you and I ever noticed how we bespeak ourselves, how Satan will tempt us to use that one little member of our body to set the whole community on fire? We must learn to understand what James said in JAM 3:6, "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." Stop and think what the tongue can do and how we use it. "Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be," JAM 3:9- 10. Oh, beloved, how often we must cry out with David, "Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties," PSA 141:3- 4. This is synonymous with our text, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." This includes an evil tongue. Our text is a prayer for sanctification, not only to be delivered from evil lusts, sinful desires, but from actual sins, i.e., committing the evil which lust has placed in the heart. For example, if a person would pray, "Lord help me with a drinking problem," yet he carelessly spends his leisure time in a bar among those whom he knows will entice him to drink, his prayer is a mockery! His profession and his walk of life do not agree. Many people today pray to be spared from this sin or that sin, then they place themselves in a set of circumstances where they expose themselves to that sin. In Proverbs King Solomon said about the harlot, "Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel," PRO 5:7- 9. Why entice yourself? Why put yourself in a position to be lured into the sin from which you want to be delivered? Where Christian life is real, the heart is a battlefield. There is spiritual warfare. If we walk in the Spirit of Christ, we do not walk in the places of temptation. In GAL 5:16-17 we read, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." There is constant warfare in our struggle against the power of sin. Entertainment is a multi-billion dollar industry. Can we truthfully pray, "Lord, lead us not into temptation," and at the same time, serve such an idol? Think about this. How can we serve the idol of entertainment and pray for the Lord to keep us from temptation? One deplorable aspect of today's entertainment is the emphasis on violence. God abhors violence; it is ungodly! The Spirit of Christ is submission and subjection to the will of God. Violence is so ungodly, yet the entertainment industry glorifies it. They present it as humorous and exciting as entertainment for our children by using it in all kinds of cartoons. Such cartoons are used to glorify violence and set the stage for acceptance of violence in other areas. Can we entertain these ideas, and then ask God to deliver us from temptation? You see, that is mockery. We must watch that we are not entertained by violence. If our hearts cleave unto such an idol, may God give us grace to see how He hates all forms of ungodliness. Oh that the Lord would open our eyes to see, and our hearts to understand, how He hates sin. God hates disrespect for authority and mockery. And what comedy could you see today that doesn't use mockery and disrespect for authority or some kind of impurity in its jokes. Authority becomes the object of ridicule. Can we pray, "God, deliver me from evil and temptation," yet cherish that type of comedy? Satan has a very effective philosophy in today's professed Christian circles; in fact, it gets into the area called "carnal Christiandom." It is Satanic. He says you just need to use Christian discernment; you can go to these places if you sort out what is good and leave the bad. According to this philosophy, you can attend these places of entertainment and glean the good. You don't hear the bad language, you overlook the indecent dress, and you don't laugh when they mock. Is it true that you can overlook the bad and glean the good? Satan wants you in those places so he can catch you off guard. There is no such thing as being a carnal Christian; carnal means of the flesh, fleshy, unregenerate. The two words are opposites. There is no such thing as being able to go to these places and pray to the Lord to be spared from temptation. We are exposing ourselves to the power of Satan and sin when we deliberately go near the harlot's door. There are professed Christians who will argue that they can subscribe to magazines which display lewd pictures saying, "I don't look at the bad parts, I get it for its educational interviews; I read just those sections." The argument or defense of such behavior points out that he ignores any bad parts and doesn't have anything to do with them. However, on the way to finding those wonderful interviews, Satan plants the seeds of lust because the eye will see what is printed on the pages. These pictures are designed to cause more than a passing glance. The professed Christian argues that he does this in such a powerful Christian spirit that he can overrule the bad, leaving it lay. All he does is read the wonderful interview; it's an interview by whom? It is an interview by Satan right out of hell. This is a very extreme example, but it illustrates the point. We cannot expose ourselves to these sins; we cannot come near the harlot's door. This principle can also be considered in the light of the harlot church which will tell you that you can have a little God and a little sin. As a good Christian, you can sort it out as you go right to the harlot's door! Such a Christianity knows nothing of the confession of Paul in ROM 7:18-20, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing [If we understand that within us dwells no good thing, that the fountain of sin dwells within, then we won't feed and nourish it. We crucify it. Then we can't go to those places that use entertainments which gratify the fountain of corruption which is in our heart.]: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. [We find we cannot do the good that we would do, so we must watch that we do not expose ourselves to those places or those things which will lead us into temptation.] For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." Paul has not exposed himself to the power of sin; he has begged the Lord to deliver him from it. V:21-24 go on to say, "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" That is the prayer and the heart's desire of a true child of God. We cannot feed and nourish our lusts and come back to the Lord asking to be delivered from temptation. "I fed my lustful desires, now keep me from allowing them to break into action," is not an acceptable prayer. No, it is absolute mockery. Can we thank God through Jesus Christ for delivering us from the power of sin while we still take pleasure therein? Oh, No! If our heart's desire is not to be delivered with a true, upright heart before the Lord, then to come before Him and pray to be kept from temptation and delivered from evil is mocking God. Our text says, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." "Thine is the kingdom;" in other words, I want Jesus Christ to sit on the throne of my heart. Now I want to show you what it says in JAM 1:27, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this [See what should entertain our hearts], To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." Unspotted means we avoid the door of the harlot; we cannot entertain ourselves, or hearts, with anything that is vile. Our minds can never be just blank; there is always something in our minds. How are we going to defeat evil in our hearts? It is done by walking in the ways of the Lord, by visiting the fatherless and those in need, and by keeping our hearts and our minds entertained with serving the Lord in those things which are pleasing to Him. This is the way we keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Amen. |
|
