996. Lead Us Not Into Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. We're continuing our study series on the Lord's Prayer, and today we'll hear from Seminary Professor Dr. Stephen Hankins. Turn to Matthew Chapter 6. This provides a guide for me every day as I begin the day and I seek the Lord a structure to follow. This final petition lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, which is addressing our great spiritual need, the single greatest challenge that we face every day as believing people, as Matthew 6, verse 13 says. This provides for us really, I think, a very powerful exhortation and encouragement today as believing people, as it does every day.

And I'd like to try to capture it in my own sentence, if I can. It just simply is, petition Him for protection from sin. Petition Him for protection from sin. That's a twofold petition we find here in this passage, and we're just going to follow that structure that's provided for us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. And first, we're taught to pray. Lead us not into temptation.

And there's something immediately that strikes me about that, and I think probably strikes you. It may raise a question, but it certainly, if we look at it the right way, is an acknowledgement of His protective and controlling presence. We are asking Him to protect us as He's present with us. And of course, an answer to the question that gets raised in our own thinking here is found for us in James chapter 1. God does not lead us, of course, into sin or any kind of iniquity, any kind of transgression. As the text says there in the latter part of that verse, For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. We could really preface that first part of this petition with the phrase, As you've promised, Lord, lead us not into temptation, but then there's the qualifying comment, but deliver us from evil.

Do what you've promised to free us of iniquity and any solicitation even to evil, any drawing to evil that may come our way. But God does lead His servants, doesn't He, into testing. And sometimes in that testing, there really is potential for sin if there's failure or disobedience. As with Abraham in Genesis 22, 1, the text of Scripture reads, 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. And then what follows is that incredible test that he experienced with his son, Isaac.

That could have gone the wrong way. That could have resulted in disobedience. Instead, it resulted in great refinement and a great demonstration of faith. In the case of Job in chapter 1, verse 8, When the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?

And of course, there was great trial and great trouble and some failure on Job's part as a result of this great difficulty in his responses. Of course, the Lord Jesus experienced in the will of the Father a similar experience. In Matthew 26, verse 42, O my father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And of course, He did the will of the Father in that great test. As in Paul's case later, after the incarnate ministry of the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 12, 7, where he describes, There was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

And then he explains it. He requested three times to be delivered from this thorn in the flesh. And the response from the Lord was, My grace is sufficient for thee. And Paul submitted himself to that and saw that as actually a kind of ministry and mercy from the Lord. He could have responded otherwise.

He did not. God's intention in His testing of us, of tempting of us, is always good, of course, and always right. There always has to be a right outcome, not sin. But our inclination, even in that pathway, when God has a good intention, is not, often. This is an admission. This request is an admission of our propensity, incredible propensity, to sin.

Why? Because of the constancy of sin around us. Because of the depth and breadth of sin in us. Because of our overall weakness, our special inclinations, ourselves individually, towards sin. So due to this tremendous protective presence of the Lord in all temptation of all kinds, and our propensity, what we really have in this petition is a cry for no interruption in fellowship with God.

No interruption. Now ask me, is there anything more troubling, is there anything more challenging, is there anything more a threat constantly to you as a believing person than interruption in your fellowship with God? Because of falling to temptation. It is grieving, it is troubling, it is distracting, it is weakening, it is faith killing. This is major.

This is critical. And so we cry out to God with great hunger and great thirst every morning and all day through the day. No interruption, Lord. Lead me not into temptation. It's our desire today.

It'll be your desire and it should be tomorrow. It should be our hope forever in the future for eternity. Now this petitioning of the Lord for protection that we offer is from sin, is made complete by the next part of the verse of Scripture. But deliver us from evil. This really isn't just simply repetition for emphasis. It does complete the thought, without question. And we really understand the first part of the verse by having the second part there. The Lord doesn't lead us into iniquity. His promise is to deliver us. But there's a little something more here.

There's an enlargement here as well as a kind of lesser repetitiveness. Deliver us, Lord, from all kind of evil. Every kind of evil, and I think also rightly to understand, the evil one who strategizes, who walketh about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I've watched many specials on the Discover Channel and National Geographic Channel of lion behavior. And they are majestic creatures. They're bold. They're impressive. Little wonder that they're called the king of the jungle or the king of the savanna in Africa. They are fearless.

It's astounding. They'll attack animals far, far greater in size and in weight. But they hunt in groups. And they wait. They're stealthy. They go down into the savanna grass. And they look for the weak. They look for the young. And they mercilessly attack.

And not just one. And there's no hope. The animals can't stand against the power of that creature. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world, we can say hallelujah. But it is he who is greater than us, who is in us, who is our only hope that we be delivered from evil, from the evil one. He is smarter than you are. He is more powerful than you are. He is more tireless than you are.

He never flags in his determination to get you. All the more reason and motivation for this prayer. We cry out to be delivered from all evil in us, before us, around us. While we seek to be in the world to reach the world, we seek to not be of the world and its sin. We seek to see fulfilled in our lives 2 Corinthians 7, 1, which is such a phenomenal and sweeping statement by Paul. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved.

What promises? Where God says in chapter 6, I will dwell among you. I will be with you. You will be my sons and daughters. And I will be a father unto you. If you are determined to pursue purity and to pursue my way and my commandments. Let us cleanse ourselves having therefore these promises dearly beloved. From all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. This prayer is about that. This prayer is about having leeched out of us the inclinations to evil. Having washed out and dampened down in us the desires that rise up. That are prompted at times by what we see, by what we hear, by people that we interact with. Or just out of our own hearts from which proceed as the Lord Jesus himself said, adulteries and fornications and covetousness and all sort and manner of evil.

And this text implies something else, sort of obvious, but worth mentioning. We cry out, not only be delivered from all evil, but we cry out to be delivered from all evil through prayer. It is through, it's here, it's in this model prayer. Prayer is key to this. It isn't enough that we just think this way day to day, hour by hour. Oh, I hope that I don't fall or I don't sin or I really don't plan on sinning. I'm really strategizing to not give in to iniquity.

No, there's great intentionality. There's great purposefulness. They're right in our normal structured praying. We focus on things that we know are particularly temptations for us, inclinations to wrong for us. And we seek the grace from God to resist those things. As Dr. Cazias mentioned from the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26 verse 41, as the disciples kept falling asleep while he went alone to pray fervently before his arrest and subsequent trials and crucifixion, he said to them, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

A connection made directly with the strengthening of our souls and our lives in order to actually endure. Think about what was coming for the disciples. Think about what they faced and think about how they reacted when they faced those challenges. They got very fearful. They were afraid. They abandoned the Lord, all but Peter and John, Peter partially, and then ultimately Peter denying the Lord.

There was terrific failure. They were weak because they had not, and he said, can you not even endure for an hour with me in prayer? Watch, be alert and pray because challenges are coming and you'll strengthen your soul by those challenges. And can I suggest too that when we pray, there's specific guidance given to us by the Spirit of God about what to pray.

This is what Romans 8 26 tells us. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And yes, at times the Holy Spirit is assisting us to express our thoughts, our hearts to God in ways that we can't even put in words. But let me suggest to you that you'll go to God in seeking God in prayer in this matter of being delivered from evil, and the Lord will bring to mind, the Lord will assist you by the Spirit of God to express to him your great burden and your particular concern. Oftentimes what you weren't even thinking about when you sat down to pray.

You weren't even planning to bring up. But you experience an illumination from the Spirit of God about a weakness in your soul, about an area of danger that you can come to him and pray to him about. You know, I've often sat down to pray cold-hearted, it's terrible to confess this, but cold-hearted. Sometimes have you ever just sat down really grief-stricken over your own failure, your own sin, and you certainly didn't feel like praying, but then you cry out to God, and the melting comes as the fire of mercy and long suffering begins to warm your heart toward communion with God and fellowship with him as you confess, explicitly confess, desperately confess, contritely confess what is deeply troubling you, what has afflicted you in terms of sin and how desperately you need God's help in that manner. Every failure in sin, every time of desperation and great grief before the throne of God in confession is also a step forward in seeking God for special strengthening in that area where you're crying out to him for the future.

Lead me not into temptation, God, and deliver me from evil. I don't want to be in this place again. I don't want to experience this again. I don't want to have to be saying these words to you again, Lord.

Please help me break this pattern. Help me break this sin in my life and in my experience. Prayer is a special environment, a special God-intended environment by which watchfulness and strength of soul and spirit are gained to resist temptation. We cry out also not to be delivered from all evil and not especially in the environment and by the means of prayer, but we cry out to be delivered from all evil as made plain through the Word. Through the Word there is a vital interconnection between our effectiveness in seeking God about temptation and evil and our knowledge and understanding of the revelation of God. Remember Hebrews 5 verse 13 and 14 where the Scriptures say in that wonderful text, For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to him that is of full age, the Scriptures say, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The strong meat of the Word taken in does what? Heightens your ability to discern between good and evil. Heightens your ability to be specific and knowledgeable and sensitive when you are before God in prayer praying about your own needs and weaknesses. I think it could be said truly and accurately that the effectiveness of our prayers for ourselves in this regard are in direct proportion to the specific knowledge we have of virtue and sin as the revelation of God presents it. If I don't have specific knowledge of virtue and sin, I'm not alerted and stimulated to pray about things in my own life and experience that have been temptations.

Let me take this a little further down the road and say that the Word specifically helps us understand the primary channels of the world's allure for us and then therefore leads us to the right kind of praying about ourselves. You know that well-known and famous text of Scripture in 1 John 2 verse 15 to 17, classic passage, on love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Well, verse 16 says, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.

Okay, categories. Do you think and meditate about yourself categorically in order to understand sin and understand the primary channels of allurement that the world has for you? Of course, it all rises up out of your desires. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. What I desire in terms of physical comfort and ease and satisfaction, I think flesh is referring to bodily interest and concerns in this passage of Scripture, not just our general ethical sinful nature, unethical nature. The lust of the eyes, the satisfaction gained from seeing the beautiful, seeing the forbidden, what I should not see and how it stimulates the imagination, what I see that I want, I covet that I don't need, that someone else has. And then the pride of life, that desire that rises up that we can know the satisfaction of achieving in life and being highly regarded in life by others, no matter what dimension or domain of achievement you're talking about.

I'm proud about my life, what I'm accomplishing, what I'm doing, where I'm going. It's really important that you think clearly about these things. Now, men and women, these categories are not really all completely mutually exclusive.

They tend to overlap one another. But it helps to have a specific idea based on God's inspired instruction about the major channels in this life, in this age, how Satan tempts us. This is helping us understand strategies of the evil one. This is helping us understand how to pray. We pray against the desires that would rise up in our physical person beings.

We pray against the desires that rise up through our eyes and through pride in this life. Well, the Scriptures help us even more, specifically in this. Because we're taught through the Word to understand the primary ministry temptations that are facing us, not just normal temptations as human beings, but temptations we'll face as those planning to enter into ministry. And the quintessential example and instruction of this is the Lord Jesus himself. As we look to Matthew chapter 4, and I invite you to turn there just for a moment to Matthew 4, and look at this in your New Testament. In verses 1 through 10, Jesus was let out into the wilderness to be tested and to be tempted, and Satan was, the Bible tells us in this passage, in parallel passages, testing him continually during the whole 40 days. And it was the climax of the 40 days which were presented in these 10 verses in chapter 4 of Matthew. The crescendo, the ultimate final temptations that the evil one would present before what? Before Christ began his incarnate ministry. Before he was baptized and he began to preach and teach and heal. So this is right at the outset of his ministry. Catching any parallel here?

Right before heading out into work. And what did Satan do? Well, the first thing Satan did in verses 3 and 4 was say, if you're the son of God, turn these stones into bread. You've been fasting for 40 days.

Just go ahead and do a miracle and satisfy your physical need. And the Lord Jesus responded to him from Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 3, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. What is this temptation? This special ministry temptation that you will face now and in the future. It is the evil of elevating physical and material necessities and concerns above the spiritual.

Standard classic attack. Hey, everybody's got to eat. I've got to provide for myself. I've got to provide for my family. Anybody deny those realities?

No. But the temptation is, at any given moment, at any point in time, to deny the primary importance of the spiritual. He comes at him again in verses 5 through 7, and he takes him to the high point and pinnacle of the temple. And he says to Jesus, quoting Psalm 91, and by the way, he quotes it, of course, not in a proper contextual way, but he quotes it accurately, and he says, Throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple, and God will send his angels to gird you up and deliver you.

What a magnificent, miraculous display of God's special attention and interest you will experience. And how did Jesus respond? From Deuteronomy 6 16, he says, It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. What was this temptation Satan was offering? He was presenting the evil of seeking supernatural affirmation to prove divine blessing that was unwarranted. We don't demand miracles of God to prove that he loves us. We don't demand miracles of God that he will favor us and help us and assist us in ministry. He's promised the gospel is powerful, the gospel will save. He's promised the sustaining grace as the Spirit ministers to us. He's promised abundant blessing. I mean, what does Romans 8 say?

He that hath given his own son, how shall he not also freely give us all things? Who am I to go climbing up on the pinnacle of a temple and jumping off and asking God to perform miracles? That's a circus act, a terrible temptation, and a terrible perversion of true ministry. Well, then the final temptation was he takes him up into a high mountain and he shows him all the kingdoms of the world.

That's an interesting an interesting reality, isn't it? About Satan's power. And he says, All you have to do is bow down and worship me. And I will give you all of these kingdoms. This prince of the power of the air, this prince of this world, just bow down.

And how did the Lord Jesus respond? Get thee hence Satan, for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. What was the temptation? The temptation was the evil of achieving influence through disobedient compromise. Just bow the knee to the culture that is sinful, just a little. Just bow the knee to a slightly unethical approach and you'll gain or a pure influence. Just be selfishly ambitious.

Just maneuver to advance yourself and to become more well known. And the Lord says, No. And you know, as I look in the word and consider the word and think about you, I think too that you can learn through the word in your own meditation in it, some very helpful information, some very helpful encouragements to understand current seminary temptations, primary ones that you face. One is the evil and I'm offering these to you in a very fatherly way, not in a rebuke, but as a warning to you. The evil of being so close in with things of the word and of a spiritual and ministry nature that they become routine to you.

And you're an information gatherer rather than someone seeking transformation in your life. You're someone who comes to know the commands of God, but isn't really hungering and thirsting after God. For you it's not loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself, it's just learning ideas, concepts, theological, biblical, and getting knowledge of the commands of God.

There's also the evil, I would say, of partial integrity. Romans 12, 11 says, Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. And verse 17, just down the way in that passage says, Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Listen to Luke 962, No man having put his hand in the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Take yourself back to the moment of that fresh vision about what God wanted you to do with your life. You've been listening to Bob Jones Seminary Professor Dr. Stephen Hankins. We hope you'll join us next time as we study God's Word together on The Daily Platform.