Deliver Us From Evil

Turn with me to Matthew 6:9-12. Today marks the last Sunday of our sermon series focused on prayer. I hope that these last two months have been a worthwhile investment within our Church, and when I say investment I mean it. If you recall Mathew 6:6, Jesus says, “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” My desire is that God has and will reward you when you pray with a right understanding and a right spirit. As I have stated time and time again, prayer is not optional for a true Christian. It is expected and it is crucial. With that said, let us look at our text for today, pray, and then see what final thing God has to teach us about prayer from the Lord's Prayer.

• Matthew 6:9-12 - “Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come,your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
  
  

Today we are focusing on verse 13, “ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Before we unpack this verse, I want us to ponder, once again, what is happening in the Lord's Prayer. Jesus is teaching us how to pray. The reason He is teaching us is that many of us prayer wrongly. We pray with wrong motives, with wrong purposes, and with wrong hearts. Prayer is to preeminently be about glorifying God, and equipping ourselves for God's purposes.

You can see this right out of the gates. In verses nine and ten, Jesus teaches us that prayer is first and foremost about God's Glory, not our Glory. Jesus tells us that the right place for us to start when praying is on your knees exulting the God of the Universe. Your prayer should place Him in the center of your heart and your mind. Therefore, we are taught that prayer is not a personal wish-list, it is to be an act of worship.

Next, we see Jesus then teach us how we should pray for ourselves. First, He tells us to pray for bread. Which is just another way to tell us to pray for the necessities of life. Second, he tells us to pray for forgiveness. Why? Because we are sinners and we need God's Grace through Jesus Christ to have eternal life. Third, he tells us to pray for protection in our lives, “deliver us from evil.”

The Lord's Prayer is made up of six petitions. Our Master, Jesus Christ is telling us that these are the six greatest need in our lives: God's Glory, God's Kingdom, God's will, food to live, forgiveness for our sins, and protection from evil.

Do your prayers look anything like the Lord's Prayer? Each night, or before meals, or early in the morning when you are alone with the Lord, do any of these things cross your heart and your lips? They should. Jesus is giving us the keys to joy. He is telling us point blank what our greatest needs are. We should trust him and his teaching and implement his structure of prayer into our life. By this I don't mean vainly be reciting the Lord's Prayer over and over again, but with longing and affections for these things to come into your life like a waterfall drenching you with God's Grace.

My challenge to all of you is to implement a six minute Lord's Prayer. Every day, pray for each of the six petitions of the Lord's prayer for one minute. Spend on minute praying for each of these things. For example pray that God's name would be hallowed in your life. Pray that God would be glorified in your marriage. Pray that you would cause His name to be feared in your workplace. Pray that God would give you boldness to spread His Holy name in your neighborhood. After a minute or so, move to “Your Kingdom come” and so on and so forth. Imagine the ripple effect if our small little Church took the Lord's Prayer seriously. As James 1:22 says:

• James 1:22 - “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. “
  
  

With this said, let us now move to our text for today.

• Matthew 6:13 - “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
  
  

The first thing I want to do is to answer the question that many of you may be asking, if we are to pray for God not lead us into temptation, does that mean that God tempts us? The answer to this question is, it depends on what you mean. If by your question you mean does God make people sin? The answer is an emphatic no. The Bible is explicitly clear about this in James 1:13-15.

• James 1:13-15 - “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

So the answer is clear, God does not tempt us with evil. God's hands are always clean. God is a good, righteous and Holy God and he is not to blame for my sin, I am to blame for my sin. My sin is because of something inside of me that lures me to make decisions that are against God's will.

Having said that, this does not mean that God will not allow you to be tempted, or to be tested or to be tried, by your circumstances and/or Satan. Here are some Biblical examples of God allowing temptation:

• Job 1:8-12 - “And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" 9Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." 12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.”
  
  

It was God who brought Job to Satan's attention, and it was God who gave permission to Satan to take Job in his hands. This is a great picture of God allowing a temptation or trial, yet keeping his hands clean. It was Satan who was doing the dirty work. Here is another example, Matthew 4:1

• Matthew 4:1 - “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
  
  

Who led Jesus into the Desert, the Spirit. Who is the Spirit? God, the third person of the Trinity. For what purpose does the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the desert, to be tempted by Satan. Once again, we see God's sovereignty over the temptation, but directly it is Satan's doing. Last example, Peter.

• Luke 22:31-32 - “"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you,that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."
  
  

Who was the tempter? Satan. Who allowed it to happen? Just like in our other examples, God. So the answer to the question, does God lead us into temptation? Yes, in the sense that he is a sovereign God and nothing happens in the Universe without His permission therefore he allows us to be tempted and tried.

In my opinion, this is extremely helpful in our Christian walk. Let's be honest, life is hard. Every day we are assaulted with temptation and trials. Isn't it comforting to know that God is sovereign over all those temptations. God is not a pathetic little God who is caught off guard by our struggles, but that he is intimately aware of what is going on in our lives. That Satan is merely a dog on a leash, and God can yank it back whenever he wills. It gives me great peace to know that God has authority over my struggles.

I want us now to turn our attention to the second half of the prayer “Deliver us from evil.” This is what I want us to focus on for the remainder of the time, because this, I believe, is the heart what Jesus wants us to pray.

To begin, let us understand the word “evil.” If you use the New International Version, you will see that there is a difference. It says, “deliver us from the evil one.” The English Standard Version, which I am using just says evil, your foot note most likely says “or the evil one.” It is my belief that both fit, but I think Jesus had in mind the evil one when he said the Lord's Prayer. The reason I believe this is John 17:15. In John 17 we see Jesus praying, and he prays this for his disciples:

• John 17:15 - “ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”
  
  

Jesus prayed this prayer at the very end of his earthly ministry. He was about ready to be arrested and taken away to be crucified, and he is praying to His Father and during that prayer he prays for protection from the evil one. I believe that what we are seeing in John 17 is Jesus implementing his own advice given in Matthew 6.

So who is this evil one? I am guessing that all of us know this answer. The evil one is Satan. Jesus is teaching us that one of the six requests that we should be making to God in prayer is protection from Satan. We should pray for food, forgiveness, and now protection. How often do you do this? How often do you start your day praying that God would protect you from the devil as you walk out your door? In fact, how often do you even think about Satan?

In this day in age, I worry we don't think about him enough. It is not in vogue to go around speaking his name. In fact, it is a great trick of Satan to convince you that he does not exist. He is a master of hiding. His is the not only the Father of lies, but he is the Father of guerrilla warfare. In his first temptation in the Garden of Eden, this Angelic being, who before His fall stood in the presence of God disguises himself as a little old snake so as to set the trap for Adam and Eve. Likewise, we are told in 2 Corinthians 11:14,

• 2 Corinthians 11:14 - “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
  
  

Satan is a master of disguise, and we should be acutely aware that just because we do not see Satan, it does not mean he is not breathing down your neck, and he is prepared to pounce at the time when you least expect it.

• 1 Peter 5:8 - “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.“
  
  

To ignore Satan is a grave mistake, for his is not ignoring you. The devil is real, and he is in your life, whether you want to admit it or not. He is not just the adversary in God's comic book, he is your adversary in your day to day life, and his purpose, his desire, is to destroy you. He wants to take your joy. He wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to destroy your children. He wants to destroy this Church. Satan hates you and wants you to be damned to Hell for all eternity. And he will patiently wait for the right moment to attack. The truth is that Satan has declared war against you. He hates God and he hates God's children. The question is when his attacks come, will you be ready? Will you be ready when that moment comes and the most powerful angel in existence brings thousands of years of experience into your home.

Too often we forget that we are in the midst of war, that is until we become a casualty. Since the beginning, God has been warning us of the reality of evil in our lives. Listen to what God said to Cain in Genesis 4:7.

• Genesis 4:7 - “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."
  
  

Does this sound familiar? It sounds a lot like 1 Peter 5:8, doesn't it? What happened to Cain? Did Cain heed the warning of the Lord? Did he take God seriously? No, he did not. He fell into the temptation. He did not rule his sin, he was defeated by it. Cain became a casualty. Satan had his way with Cain, and he wants to have his way with you, and he will do whatever it takes to get you.

• Ephesians 6:11 - “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”
  
  

The Devil is not a one trick pony. He has many tricks up his sleeve. For some it is money, for some it is sex, for some it is popularity, for some it comfort, for some it is time, for some it is food, for some it is tv, for some it is religion. The list goes on and on. Satan will use whatever means he can to take you down.

The question is why don't we care about this powerful enemy? Why don't we pray, “Deliver us from evil” every single morning before we step out into the battlefield of our lives. The answer is because we are arrogant. We think we have within ourselves the capacity to win the battles of our lives. Peter is a great example of this arrogance.

• Matthew 26:33-35 - “Peter answered him, "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away." 34Jesus said to him, "Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." 35 Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!" And all the disciples said the same.”
  
  

Shortly after Peter's prideful remarks, which I am guessing he viewed as valiant brotherhood, Jesus tells him to pray.

• Matthew 26:40-41 - “And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter,"So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
  
  

Did Peter listen, no, he slept, and what happened? He fell into temptation. Sin was crouching at his door and it took Peter down. Satan demanded to have him, and for a night he did. Was Peter ready for the battle of that took place on Good Friday? No he wasn't. Why wasn't he ready, because he thought he could do it on his own.

Let me ask you, do you think Peter was was happy the night he denied Jesus? Do you think he enjoyed when Satan devoured him? Absolutely not.

• Matthew 26:75 - “And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.”

The result of Peter's sin was bitter weeping. He exchanged prayer for sleep, and joy for tears. And this is the core of what we are talking about. We are undermining our joy, we are undermining our purpose, we are undermining our relationship with our Father in heaven when we lose the daily battles against Satan's schemes.

It doesn't have to be this way. Jesus is telling us that the answer is simply to ask God to deliver us, and he will.

• Luke 11:9-13 - “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
  
  

So in summary, we must recognize that Satan has declared war against us, and he is not someone that we should take lightly. If we want to avoid the the devastation of sin in our life, if we are tired of the misery that we create for ourselves when we fall into temptation, then let us wake up and pray for the delivery that only comes by the power of God.