Lead Us not into Temptation

Turn with me, please, in the New Testament to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 26, and we read from verse 36 to 46. And if you're able, as is our custom, let's stand for the reading of God's Word. Matthew 26 and verse 36. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to the disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch with me. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh, my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, What? Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray. lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again a second time he went away and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So he left them. went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to his disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. God bless the reading of his word to our understanding by the Holy Spirit. Please be seated. When we began the series on the pattern prayer, I did say to you that it would be dependent upon the Lord in his providence providing the opportunity to get through this petition. Well we're at the penultimate address and I do want to thank the Lord for his goodness because at the time it wasn't quite clear whether I would have the privilege of going through the eight sermons in the series. So we come to the seventh sermon tonight, which is the last of the six petitions contained in the pattern prayer. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. The more one examines this prayer, the more perfect it appears and the more precious it becomes. It is unquestionably one of the most priceless treasures that Christ has given to us in the New Testament. To read and meditate upon its words of infinite worth is the most fruitful and soul-satisfying activity we can possibly engage in. We have seen that all the petitions are God-honoring. because they acknowledge the greatness of his name, the desirability of the coming of his kingdom, the priority of his will being done on earth as it is in heaven, the faithfulness of his provision in giving our daily bread, the graciousness of his pardon in forgiving us our sins, and now the certainty of his protection. But you know, there is another way of looking at these petitions, because they not only tell us a lot about God and all the important needs and priorities of things in relation to God, they also tell us a lot about the person who is praying these petitions. To begin with, he or she is a trusting child who looks to God as his or her Father in heaven. He or she is a reverend worshiper whose chief end is the hallowing or the honoring, the glorifying of God's name. They are loyal citizens whose life is spent extending the kingdom of God. Then they are obedient servants whose greatest delight is to do God's will on earth as perfectly as it is done in heaven. Fifthly, the person who prays this prayer is a humble dependent who looks to God, the Heavenly Father, to supply all their daily needs. And sixthly, They are forgiven debtors who, in gratitude, are willing to forgive others the debts they have incurred against them. And now in the seventh place, the person who prays this prayer is an earthly pilgrim who knows their need of protection from the evil one as they walk the narrow road that leads to life eternal. I want you to notice that the appeal for forgiveness is now linked with the appeal for deliverance from the evil one, and it's linked by that little conjunction, and. Our experience of forgiveness, in other words, must not lessen our concern about our inclination to sin. Rather, it heightens our sensitivity to sin and our desire to avoid it. For given much, our hatred of sin increases and only deepens as we realize how often God has to forgive us. So the user of this prayer not only admits that he or she is a sinner, but also that he or she is a weak sinner, and therefore desperately needs the power of God to protect them. As we turn our thoughts then to this final position, it is important that we consider in the first place the meaning of temptation. The meaning and use of the word temptation is far wider than its popular use would suggest, for it is most commonly used as an enticement, as a reference to the enticement to sin. And therefore the thought that God may lead us into such temptation comes rather as a terrifying thought, an uncomfortable and shocking thought. But things grow clearer when we pray this prayer as we come to the understanding that the word temptation literally means test. or a trial, that is, a situation which reveals how well we love God and obey God and want to do what is right in His eyes and avoid what is evil. And you know, a driving test is in that sense. a temptation or a test. It is designed to enable, to show the examiner how well you can handle the car, do what is right and not what is wrong. Indeed, any training program must of necessity have periodic tests. for gauging progress in what you are training for. And the experience of passing such tests can only be encouraging to the trainee. Well, the same applies in God's program of training, maturing, and developing His adopted children. God does and must test us regularly to prove what is in us. and to show how far we have got in our Christian life. And his purpose in this, of course, is wholly instructive. It is to strengthen us and help us forward. And so, you remember the story of Abraham in Genesis 22, verse 1, where we are told that God tested Abraham and told him to offer up his son Isaac. And when Abraham, in total obedience, took his son to Mount Moriah, built an altar with the help of Isaac, and then laid his son, tied him up and laid him on that altar and raised the knife to slay him as a sacrifice in obedience to God, God halted him and said, He had proved the test because you have obeyed my voice." Now then, if temptation or testing is beneficial, we come to another question. Why then, should we pray, lead us not into temptation? There are three good reasons why. First, whenever God tests us for our good, the devil, the tempter, will always exploit that situation for our harm, for our destruction and ruin. And so Peter says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil always walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And you know, this is precisely what he did in the Garden of Eden to our first parents. God tested their obedience to him by saying, of every tree of the garden you shall freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. But Satan, in the guise of a serpent that is unnoticed, used that situation as a means of tempting Adam and Eve to doubt the motive behind God's prohibition. You will not surely die, he said to them. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. It was half true, half false. They would suddenly go out of a stage or a period of innocence, not knowing what evil is because they had never done it, but unlike God, They would now know what is evil subjectively, whereas God only knows what is evil objectively. And unfortunately for them and the whole human race, they believed the tempter and they fell into spiritual ruin. They lost their innocence and they became fallen, sinful creatures. But of course, that was not how God wanted it to turn out. This was a test to show that they truly believed in the wisdom of God and in the goodness of God in providing them with every tree in the garden to eat except this one, which was a test tree. God, I say, never tempts to evil. James 1.13, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone in that sense, to do evil. But, says James, each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Which brings us then to the second reason why we should pray this prayer, lead us not into temptation. Our awareness of our weakness to fall into temptation and Satan's Tremendous power and subtlety should compel us to cry out in humility and self-distrust regularly. Lord, lead us not into temptation. It may be God's will to put us to a test, but only a fool is going to look forward to it and want it. True, Satan's power is not unlimited, but on the other hand, we are clearly no match for him. With the skill of a mastermind, he attacks our strong points and our weak points alike. And so, while avoiding one hazard successfully, we often fall victim to another. We can never be self-confident in the face of temptation. And so I'm so glad Chip read the passage. He always reads the right passages for me when he chooses them. But I'm so glad he read the passage where Paul warns us, let him who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. And then the third reason why we should ask God not to lead us into trial is that the pressure in times of trial can be so overwhelming that we would shrink from them like the plague, like cancer. God, however, is sovereign in what He permits to happen in our lives. And if it should be some dreaded disease, or some heart-wrenching divorce, or a business failure, or whatever, and we have no alternative but to go through this trial and through this test, our Lord knows what He is doing. And He doesn't allow us to be tested. without some good reason. And our Lord, of course, is our great example, as always, in how to approach such times of horrific pressure. And He never faced a greater pressure than He did in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was going to die on the cross in God-forsakenness. And he was right to start his prayer in the garden with the words, O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Don't lead me. Don't allow me to go through this trial. But he was as right to pray that as he was to end his prayer with the words, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Now, before I move on, let me sum up what we have learned on the first point. There are only two Testings are different from temptations in that Satan tempts us to bring out the worst and to destroy us and ruin us spiritually. But God tests us to bring out what is good and what is best and to help us in our spiritual growth. Satan tempts us in order to destroy. God tests us to prove our sincerity and to increase our strength. To go through any trial, friends, is no picnic. This prayer is a very important prayer to pray every day of our lives. It behooves us to come to God daily, praying, Father, lead us not into temptation. Now, the second thing we need to consider is the way in which God delivers us from temptations or trials. When Jesus found his disciples asleep in Gethsemane, he said, watch and pray. lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, it wants to do what is right, but the flesh is weak. It's the flesh that constantly gives in, in the wrong way to the trial. The disciples had been asked to watch and to pray with Jesus, to support Him. in the struggle that he was going through to prepare himself for the cross, and they had fallen asleep. And so, what our Lord is telling us here in his experience in the Garden of Gethsemane is that there is only one way to overcome temptation to sin, or a trial to test how far we have got in our Christian life, and that is to watch and to pray. But before we go any further to elaborate what those two simple words mean, I want to draw your attention to an important difference in the translation found in the New English Bible, the New International Version, and the New King James Version. They all have, deliver us from the evil one. And it is the same translation which is found in the footnotes of the Revised Standard Version. And there is a good reason for doing so. Evil cannot exist by itself. The only evil in the world is to be found in persons. Not just human persons, but also angelic persons, and especially demons. So, when we say, deliver us from evil, we do not mean, as the liberals tend to suggest, from some impersonal, unconstructive force that is out, or negative force that is out there in the world, but we mean deliver us from a personal devil. Elsewhere in scripture he is called Satan, the accuser of the brethren, the wicked one, the devil, our adversary, the prince of the power of the air, who now works in the sons of disobedience. So friends, you and I have no true understanding of life, and we are ill-prepared for life. if we do not understand that we are up against every day of our lives a personal, active devil and his host of demons. Persons who are more intelligent and powerful than any individual or group of individuals in the world. a person whom Jesus called a murderer and a liar, who is so subtle that you cannot recognize him when he comes to you, because he always comes as an angel of light. Sometimes he will come to you hiding behind the face of your spouse or your best friend, and you have to say, in effect, get behind me, Satan. just as Jesus said it to Peter. So, don't underestimate the power of the evil one. God's word describes him as a prowling lion, as a great fiery red dragon, and as a wily serpent. What then are we to do against such a foe? We are to do what Jesus told his disciples to do in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are to watch and we are to pray lest we enter into temptation. Temptation itself, of course, is not sin. It is succumbing to temptation that is sin. As Luther used to say, you can't stop the birds flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair. And that is what Jesus means when he says that our first responsibility is to watch. Though he is subtle, though he disguises himself, we have to be on the lookout. We have to be like soldiers who are on guard duty, watching for the first signs, the tiniest little noise, the tiniest little movement out there in the darkness that betrays the approach of the enemy. If we are not watchful against sin's first approaches to compromise God's truth or God's standards, we will find it very much harder to resist the devil. Temptations, you know, are like weeds. They're very easy to pull out when they are young, when they're just so high, but a much difficult proposition when they become bigger. We must pull them out. before they have time to grow. Again, like weeds, they also pester us throughout our life. I mean, I didn't start gardening until after I retired from the ministry. I was so busy preparing or visiting or chairing business meetings, all sorts of things that I just didn't have the time to plow up ground and plant But when we retired, we decided we were going to plant our own little garden and furnish our own table with the good things that God provides from the soil of the earth. But boy, I have found those weeds don't let up from spring through to fall. They are bothering you all the time. If you turn your back for two or three weeks, believe me, they will have taken over just about everything. So, we must constantly be pulling up the weeds. Some temptations are more potent at different stages in life. Teenagers have different temptations, or should I say they experience some temptations more powerfully. than others do later on in life. But every phase of life presents each person with its unique temptations. Watchfulness then means identifying the ways in which Satan most commonly comes to us so that we may take preventive action within our power by the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome it. The evil one knows the moments when we are weakest. And so, when he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, when did he do it? When Adam wasn't there. I don't know, but perhaps if Adam had been there between the two of them, they could have decided a better course of action. But Satan chooses what is for him the best time to tempt us. When, for example, we are alone, or at a loose end and idle, or when we are physically low. That's a very vulnerable point in our lives, when our physical resources have been drained. Or the reverse, when we are at a very spiritual high, and thinking we are being so successful in our service of God that we are beyond certain mistakes. Now, as with most errors, there is an element of truth in the fact that we do need to have good self-esteem and self-respect. But one of the great temptations that the devil brings to us in life is the need to constantly build up our self-esteem and to think well of ourselves in the sense that we think often we are better than others. But there is truth in the fact that we should always respect ourselves and esteem ourselves because we are made in the image of God. And as the old teacher used to say, I don't see it anymore, how does it go? God don't make no junk. And that is true. But we are not to think so well of ourselves that we do not face up to the sad truth of our fallen human nature and of our sinful inclination to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. You know, Joseph, as a young man, succumbed to pride when his father lavished unwise words of praise upon him. Oh, you're the best out of the twelve, and here's a lovely multicolored coat for you. And this obviously affected Joseph, and he stirred up the ill feelings of his brothers. We need to watch out for pride. Satan works hard to encourage sinful pride, since pride was the sin that brought about his downfall. Pride is insidious. It leads us to think well of ourselves and badly of others, and it causes us to boast and to be arrogant if not outwardly, then inwardly. And unchecked, it can creep into everything we do, even the holiest things that we do, praying, worshipping, preaching. These are times when we are very vulnerable to the devil's attacks. Another temptation to watch out for today is illicit sex. Morality, polls reveal that only a minority of men and women across the nation believe in morality or disapprove of immorality. And the published opinion of many psychologists and even clergymen is that pornographic material and premarital sexual relationships or extramarital sexual relationships are quite alright. It is a matter of personal choice. Our sexual appetites, however, can be easily stirred and quickly inflamed by the media and modern literature, which is so obsessed with sex that we need to be very careful in these matters, especially when we are young and our hormones are red hot. Watch out for these things and avoid them like the plague. We also need to be much more wary than we are about the way in which friendships between two Christians of the opposite sex can so easily turn into sexual attraction and erotic love. I want you to listen to how C.S. Lewis explains it in The Four Loves. When two people of different sexes discover that they are on the same secret road, that is, the Christian road, the friendship which arises between them will very easily pass into erotic love. Indeed, unless they are physically repulsive to each other, or unless one or both have already loves elsewhere, it is most certain to do so sooner or later. If you disagree, you are in for a rude awakening. This is something church leaders need to constantly bear in mind as they make appointments in the leadership of the church. We need to avoid putting single men and women too close together in daily work or Christian service. And the third area we need to watch out for very carefully is our imagination. For Satan knows how to tempt us deep within our personality, in our mind, in the depths of our imagination and even our subconsciousness. He is skillful in stirring up troublesome memories of past injustices or fantasies of wealth or fame, unhelpful things that we may have foolishly watched and looked at when we were younger, These he brings afresh to our minds from time to time, and such temptations may come at the most unexpected moments and in the most unlikely circumstances, for Satan has no respect for the spiritual or holy nature of our activities. Sometimes he will sow seeds of doubt in our minds, about God's love and about God's providence, especially when we are facing a personal crisis concerning maybe our health, maybe the length of life that is remaining to us. Satan knows where to aim his fiery darts when failure occurs or when sickness comes. or when bereavement hits us. Another time it may be to question whether holiness is such a pressing urgency. When we are in the company of other Christians listening to the Bible being taught like tonight, then holiness is so obvious. It is a priority, an undisputed one. But when in the week, during the week, We are faced with opportunities to cut corners in business. We are easily tempted to do so and to be immoral, unchristian. Your standards are too high, says the devil. You need to cut yourself some slack. Is there really an everlasting kingdom of joy and peace to look forward to? Now, we know in our mind there is, but there are moments when sometimes the doubt begins to surface. Suppose you are mistaken, he says. Think of what you are missing out on in life when you decline all these worldly activities you could be sharing with your neighbors and friends. Well, I would love to go on if time would permit, but let me deal with just one more evil suggestion that God's will is not really good and desirable. That kind of thought is never more subtle or powerful, young people, and I'm glad to see you here tonight, than when you are facing the temptation to become married unequally with a non-Christian. In that situation, both heart and mind are working against the will of God, as Satan sows the thought, well, you may be missing out on the best chance you will ever have to be married. And you like this girl, you like this man very much. I mean, surely God doesn't begrudge you this opportunity of happiness. Surely God will help you to convert this person and to remove the inequality of the marriage. when one is a Christian and one isn't. Watch, I say, is the first sign of temptation. Watch for the first sign of temptation, and then do the other thing Jesus told us to do, and that is pray. And the word pray, of course, points to the kind of prayer that Jesus had just prayed in Gethsemane. Prayer for strength. to do what we know God wants us to do. For good and necessary reasons, essential for our Christian growth, we shall not be spared all temptation. But when God does allow Satan to tempt us to sin, if we will but watch for his approach, and then pray for the help and the power of the Holy Spirit to resist him or to flee from him, God will deliver us out of it. Our Heavenly Father is sovereign over every attack of the evil one. And because He knows how much we can take, as Chip read this evening, He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to withstand. God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And so as I come to an end, my brothers and sisters, I urge you this evening, I thank God for bringing you here tonight, and I want to urge you, because this is such practical theology or doctrine or teaching, I want to urge you not to be careless in your watching and in your praying. Not to be foolhardy enough sometimes to court it. by picking up that magazine or looking at that movie. And when it comes, do not doubt God's power to deliver you from it. When you are not conscious of temptation, always pray, Lord, lead me not into temptation. And when you are conscious of temptation, pray with Jesus as he suggested you should pray, deliver me from the evil one. And God will do just that. Let's pray. Our gracious and Holy Father, As we come to you tonight, your word has humbled us under your mighty hand, and we ask for fresh forgiveness for succumbing to temptation, whether it is wittingly or unwittingly. Lord, we do so every day in so many matters, in thought, and in word and in deed. And we have no excuse to offer but our own weakness and fault. Lord, help us to watch constantly for the first approaches of all sin all through the day, even in our holiest moments. And help us to nip that temptation in the bud by praying for strength from the Holy Spirit to resist the evil one, to reject the thought or the desire or the deed, and to come through the test, proving that we are growing under your direction in our Christian lives. O God, we do not want to be led into temptation. But when we are, we ask again, help us by watching and praying to resist it and to become spiritually stronger. For the sake of our Lord Jesus, who taught us this prayer with great purpose. Amen.