Dec. 17, 2023
From The Series: When
We Pray…
Part 6 Of Temptation
and Deliverance…
Matthew 6:13
Mountain View
Evangelical Missionary Church
We are now in part six of our sermon series on what is commonly known as
the Lord’s prayer as found in chapter six of the Gospel of Matthew. We did
cover that this prayer should be referred to as “the Disciples’ Prayer” because
of what we looked at last week in verse 12. Since Jesus was sinless, He did not
need to ask the Father for forgiveness of any sins.
Jesus did however face temptations or trials. Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “15 For
we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses,
but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did
not sin.”
It seems that Jesus dealt with all the
temptations that we are faced with yet managed to remain pure and sinless. But
for Jesus, the curse of the original sin was not passed on to Him through the
seed of His earthly father Joseph, for His true Father, Yahweh, was also Holy
and upright. But, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Jesus was not able to
remain sinless simply through His divine power, for the mystery remains that
Jesus was fully God and fully man at the same time.
The Bible tells us that Jesus remained sinless
through the use of Scripture, through God’s Word. Remember in Luke chapter 4
when Jesus was tempted by Satan three times in the wilderness, what was Jesus’
defense: Scripture. Jesus battled Satan’s temptations with the writings of God
and His Scripture.
While it is true that we fully humans have the
added burden of our inherited sin nature, as Christians we also have an added strength,
we have Jesus. Regarding mankind’s facing of sin, especially, Christians, F.B.
Meyer wrote something very edifying. F.B. Meyer was an English
pastor and evangelist who lived in the late 19th century and early
20th century. He was a contemporary of D.L. Moody.
Teaching on the subject of temptation in the life of a Christian, F. B.
Meyer in his book, “The Christ Life for
Your Life:” wrote this, speaking of the power of Jesus Christ: “Remember further that His purpose is to
deliver from the power of sin. The guilt is gone, but the power remains, and He
can only deliver from that gradually. Now, understand me.… I do not believe in sanctification;
I believe in the Sanctifier; I do not believe in holiness; I believe in the
Holy One. Not an it, but a person; not an attribute, but Christ in my
heart.”
Let me repeat that, “Remember
further that His purpose is to deliver from the power of sin. The guilt is
gone, but the power remains, and He can only deliver from that gradually. Now,
understand me.… I do not believe in sanctification; I believe in the
Sanctifier; I do not believe in holiness; I believe in the Holy One. Not an it,
but a person; not an attribute, but Christ in my heart.”
This is powerful advice. Meyer was saying that he
did not put his faith in a thing, or a process, or a character aspect of God, but
rather Meyer placed his trust in a person, the person of Jesus Christ. As a
matter o fact, Meyer went on to state that he didn’t just put his faith in
Jesus, rather, Meyer placed his trust in all of the Trinity.
Meyer went to say, “Abide in
Jesus. Let the Holy Ghost in you keep you abiding in Jesus, so that when Satan
comes to knock at your door, Jesus will go and open it, and as soon as the
devil sees the face of Christ looking through the door, he will turn tail.…”[1]
Did you catch that? “Abide in Jesus. Let the Holy
Ghost in you keep you abiding in Jesus, so that when Satan comes to knock at
your door, Jesus will go and open it, and as soon as the devil sees the face of
Christ looking through the door, he will turn tail…” Let the Holy Ghost in you keep you abiding in Jesus. We don’t have to
do anything other than not interfere with the work of the Holy Spirit. If we
are true and committed followers of Jesus, The Holy Spirit will keep us abiding
in Jesus Christ and when faced with temptations being brought by Satan, the
face, or the appearance of Jesus living in your life will be enough to cause
the Adversary to turn tail and run.
So, ask yourself this question. Is there
enough evidence in my life that I am a follower of Jesus that Satan
would recognize it and be scared off? Are you being obedient enough to the
teachings of Jesus to be recognized as one of His, as an adopted family member
of God the Father? Are your actions in line with the Savior’s enough, that
anyone can see the evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life?
We are going to look a little further into
the biblical teaching on temptation this morning. Let’s open our bibles
together this morning, or turn on your devices and follow along. If you didn’t
bring a Bible with you to church this morning, there should be one underneath
one of the chairs in the row in front of you. That is what is known as a Pew
Bible. Please turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew and the sixth chapter
starting today at verse 9. That will be page 787 of the Pew Bible.
Once again, we are right in the middle of the
section of Matthew known as the Sermon on the Mount. It is purported to be one
of the first public teachings that Jesus did to a large group. We have been
studying what our Lord taught about prayer and praying to the Father. For
context, I will read the entire prayer and then we will pray, and once again we
will circle back to the text that we will examine a little closer today.
READ MATTHEW 6:9-15
PRAY
OK, let’s zero in on what we will be looking
at today.
READ MATTHEW 6:13
It strikes me that with just a simple and
isolated reading of the text, one could get the impression that God the Father
could lead us into temptation. Right? Doesn’t that seem to be what Jesus is
asking the Father not to do? I mean if the Father is not leading
us into temptation, then why would Jesus ask the Father not to do that? That’s
a double negative which should turn it into a positive, meaning that the Father
leads us into temptation. Right? It seems simple, doesn’t it? That’s just
simple logic.
If the Father didn’t lead us into
temptations, or at least if the Father didn’t have the possibility of leading
us into temptation, then Jesus would not need to ask the Father not to
do that. Doesn’t that seem to be what the text is saying here? At least it
seems to, if we isolate this text and just take it at face value.
To understand this text completely and
accurately, what must we do? Well, first we must examine if our thinking is in
line with what we know about the character of the Father. That’s a good place
to start. Reading what we have read in the Bible and understanding what we know
about the characteristics of God will help us to clarify this text.
If we have a right understanding of who God
is, if we understand God’s holiness and goodness properly, we will see that
these attributes of His will not allow His leading anyone, certainly not
one of His children into a place or experience in which they would purposely be
induced to sin.
James 1:13 tells us the following, “13 When tempted, no one
should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does
he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are
dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.”
Here is the paradox of what Scripture teaches.
We know that trials are a means for our growing spiritually, morally, and
emotionally. Yet we have no desire to be in a place or position where even the
possibility of sin is increased.
Even Jesus when He prayed in the Garden of
Gethsemane, first asked, “My Father, if it is
possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Matthew 26:39. Jesus was horrified at the prospect of taking sin upon Himself,
yet He was willing to endure it in order to fulfill the will of the Father to
make possible the redemption of man.
Of course, the biggest difference between Jesus and us when we sin is
that we do not become sin, like Jesus did on our behalf, rather we engage
in sin out of weakness or for the seeking of some type of pleasure or reward
for ourselves.
When Jesus was hanging on that Roman Cross and suffering the most excruciating
form of death that Rome had devised for common criminals, Jesus still
did not sin, He became sin on our behalf. 2 Corinthians 5:21 explicitly
tells us this, “21 God made him who had no sin… to be
sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus became sin, why would He do that? Up until that
moment Jesus had never committed a sin in eternity past nor for
the 33 years that He took on the human nature of His creations and walked the
earth.
While Jesus was on the Cross, Mark 15:33 gives us a taste of what
experienced, “33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.” Up until those horrifying three hours at Calvary
when the skies darkened and the sun refused to shine, while the Father poured
out His wrath, a wrath that was merited to us, Jesus had never sinned. He lived
a perfectly obedient life with the Father. Then, on the Cross, He became
sin, to pay our sin-debt owed by us to the Father for our sinful
disobedience. Even on the Cross, Jesus was still perfectly obedient to the will
of the Father.
In His obedience, He experienced our punishment. A punishment that was
so terrible for Jesus, an occurrence that was so awful for Him, that it caused
Jesus to cry out in Aramaic, “34 And at three in the afternoon
Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi,
Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?”)”. An experience that was
so terrible for Jesus, that it caused Him to cry out in such anguish. How do I
know He was grieved so deeply? This is the only prayer of Jesus recorded in
Scripture that does not start with the phrase “Father”. Instead, Jesus cries
out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
You know, being so far removed from that event, and living in a time of
Grace as we are now, a time unlike the Old Testament or even in the time of the
early church. Being in a time when God is patient with us and He refrains from
striking us dead on the spot when we sin. When we are living in such a time as
this, it is easy to take for granted the price that was paid for Jesus on our
behalf. A price that was paid just so that we could be reconciled back to the
Father, and then become adopted children of His and then be able to claim all
the rewards that come with that inheritance. Being this far removed from that original
event when the payment was made, it is easy for us to downplay or even ignore the
significance of the event at the cross.
We may choose to ignore it by ignoring the gift of Grace that is being
offered to us. We may choose to devalue the gift through continued disobedience
to the teaching of Scripture. We may choose to devalue the gift by developing
theories that replace the substitutionary atoning work that Jesus did on our
behalf. We may try to explain away the horror that Jesus faced by reducing the
seriousness of our sin. We may try to explain away our disobedience by ignoring
our wickedness and proclaiming that people are essentially good, and we just
tend to make bad decisions.
Scripture tells us something completely different. John 3: 19-21 spells
it out in pretty stark details that we try to ignore. John 3 tells us, “19 This
is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness
instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who
does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their
deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes
into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has
been done in the sight of God.” Boy, don’t those verses fly in the face of
today’s humanism?
Are you starting to see what Jesus has done for you? Are you prepared to
receive this gift called Grace? Are you willing to accept Jesus as your Savior
and make Him Lord of your life? If you have not yet done these things, then
please come and talk to me after the service and we can discuss what Jesus is
doing in your life.
Knowing what Jesus did for us, how should we react to the temptations of
sin? First, let us look at the word in the original language to get a better
understanding of what we are talking about when we use the word “temptation” in
this passage.
πειρασμός [peirasmos /pi·ras·mos/] n m. is basically a neutral word
in the Greek, having no connotation either of good or evil, unlike our English
word “temptation” which refers to inducement to evil. The root of this word, πειράζω [peirazo /pi·rad·zo/] v. to try, make trial of,
test: for the purpose of ascertaining his quantity, or what he thinks, or how
he will behave himself. To try or test one’s faith, virtue, and character, by
enticement to sin.
How does that statement sit with you? The Bible says that we will be tempted.
Not tempted to sin by God the Father, but rather to try or test one’s faith,
virtue, and character by the enticement to sin. How will we react when
faced with the possibility of committing a sin? How are you doing with these
struggles in your life? Are you resisting? Or are you succumbing to the
temptations of Satan?
This brings to mind the trials and testing that Job faced. Turn with me
in your Bibles to Job chapter 1 starting at verse 6, and let’s go through this
together. If you are following along in the Pew Bible, that will be on page 402.
READ JOB 1:6-12
So Job is living a
pretty blessed life, and according to this account, Satan comes before God and
after listening to God proclaim the blameless and uprightness that Job is
living, Satan says, “Yeah, but that’s because you have put a hedge of
protection around him and Job is living a charmed life.” Then God allows Satan
to test Job by putting him through a series of trials that would cause any of
us grief.
I have to admit, when
I was a new believer and I first read this account, I was very indignant at
what God did here. I thought, “Who does God think He is to mess with someone’s
life like He does with poor Job, here?” From my still man-centered perspective
back then, and my low view of who God truly is, I thought “How dare God do this
to Job. Job worked hard to accumulate all his possessions, and Job was doing
the right things by raising a family and making sacrifices to God on their
behalf. How dare God do anything to upset this man’s life!”
The problem with my
thinking was that it was man-centered and works-based. As I grew in my
knowledge and understanding of what Scripture taught, and how it revealed the
character and attributes of God, my thinking gradually became more God-centered
and Grace-based.
Verses like Isaiah 64:8 helped me to
mature and change my perspective. Isaiah 64:8 which reads, “8 Yet you, Lord,
are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of
your hand.” This along with the famous passage in Romans, taught me that, as
Creator, as the “Potter” God was free to do whatever He pleased with His
Creation.
We have to get rid of
the concept of fairness when it comes to God’s actions. Our culture is so
unrighteous and our present-day ideas of justice are so far from the norms that
are taught in the Bible, that the word fair is incompatible with
biblical thinking. Our justice system thinks that life is a giant baseball
game, and we get three strikes before we are seriously punished. It’s not
“fair” for the employee to have to pay back the money that they embezzled to
fund their gambling addiction. It’s not “fair” that I get an impaired charge
when I have been drinking and I crash my car on the way home. It’s not “fair”
when my spouse wants a divorce after I am caught in adultery. It’s not “fair” when
people stop trusting me after I have lied to them. According to the Holy and
Righteous standards of God, what would be fair is if we were treated like
Ananias and Saphira were when they lied about the sale of their property.
Acts 5:1-11 tells the
complete account. We don’t have time to read the whole thing, but you will
remember when a man and his wife sold their property to help support the early
church, they lied about holding back a portion of the monies. They didn’t have
to sell, or even give all the money, the sin came in the lying and the chasing
after the praise of men. How did God deal with them? What was the example that
The Lord set for all the people in the early church? He struck down dead, first
the husband and then the wife, and, “11 Great fear seized the
whole church and all who heard about these events.”
If we got what was
fair, what we deserved when we sinned against a Holy and Just God, I doubt that
any of us would have seen our fifth birthday.
So, if God does not
“lead” us into temptation, how then are we to understand this text? Perhaps it
would help if we thought of this verse as “And do not bring us to the test!” We
saw in the definition of the word pierasmos that it has to do with
testing or proving oneself or one’s faith.
I’ll ask again, how
are you doing with the testing in your life? Are you resisting? Do you know how
to resist? How should we handle this testing?
Back to the paradox
presented in this Scripture. We know that trials are a means for our growing
spiritually, morally, and emotionally. I think that this is part of the problem
and confusion in the younger generations that I see today. I see in my nieces
and nephews, the errors that their parents made when raising them, errors made
with the best of intentions. Their parents tried to protect them from
encountering too many obstacles when they were younger. Experts at the time
told us to shield the children from too much drama while they were still young
to allow them more time to develop.
The problem is that
they never developed. Too many young people are crippled by seemingly simple
issues, that they lack basic problem-solving skills to deal with. I have a
nephew in his thirties who constantly ran out of gas in his car because his
mother was always putting gas in his car for him. He rarely checks the gauge
because someone else is always filling his tank for him. When he runs out, he
calls his Mom and someone comes and rescues him. We learn to deal with life’s
big problems by solving life’s little problems as a youngster.
Too much help is
crippling and becomes enablement. Don’t get me wrong, we all need help now and
then, but if you are constantly running are you really helping? Instead of
doing for, stop and teach so that they can do for themselves.
So how do we handle
our spiritual maturity when faced with life’s trials? As Christians, our first
and natural instinct is to flee. We have no desire to be in a place where even
the possibility of sin is increased.
The early church father Chrysostom taught
that Jesus is not speaking of logic or theology here but referring to a heart
desire and inclination that cause a believer to want to avoid the danger and
trouble sin creates. It is the expression of the redeemed soul that so despises
and fears sin that it wants to escape all prospects of falling into it,
choosing to avoid it rather than having to defeat temptation.
Back to James for an idea, “2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,
whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that
the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” In James 1:2 we see the same
root word for trials (pierasmos) being used here and James goes on to tell us
that this testing produces endurance.
A way to handle the trials is to do what
Jesus did and follow His example. I
mentioned earlier how Jesus used Scripture to deflect the attacks of Satan in
the wilderness. Jesus also prayed to the Father in the Garden to remove the sin
that He was about to face. So, we can ask the Father to remove the trial from
us.
Or, we can follow the advice of F.B. Meyer
from the start of this sermon and lean into Jesus through our obedience and
trust Him to defeat the attacks of Satan on our behalf. We must guard against a
false sense of security in ourselves and our sense of self-sufficiency. Pride
is our downfall in these situations. If we remain humble and dependent on
Christ and trust in His character, then He will see us through it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 brings me comfort in
these situations, “13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And
God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But
when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
The way out is through prayer and faith in Jesus.
Why can we have faith in Jesus that He will understand what we are going
through? Again, the passage from Hebrews 4:15 earlier, “15 For
we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses,
but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did
not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time
of need.”
That is why we can pray the second half of this verse in Matthew 6, with
confidence, “but deliver us from evil”. 1 Corinthians 10:13, and Hebrews 4:16 instruct
us that the help is there when needed if we simply humble ourselves and ask the
Lord for His help.
James 4:7 will also give us comfort in these situations, “7 Submit
yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
CONCLUSION
Just a brief conclusion today.
God does not lead us to sin. I know there was a spirited discussion in
the Ladies' Bible study yesterday, and in His Providence, God has me speaking
on the same thing this morning. It is important to keep the character of God in
mind when reading the Bible. Not every example in the Bible is a positive
example. There are numerous examples of negative actions that we are to learn from,
rather than repeat the same mistake as told in the Bible and have to deal with
the consequences. God will never ask us to lie, or to murder. We saw in our
study of Habakkuk, that God allows certain events to unfold to accomplish His
will, but then those acting are still accountable to God for their actions.
Follow the advice of Meyer and don’t try to fight these battles on your
own and don’t depend on your strength alone, instead, tap into the
awesome delivering power of Jesus Christ and His Word in our hearts.
There’s that heart thing again. The part of us that is most precious to
Jesus and the part that He is most concerned about. Our heart.
[1]
Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete
Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed.
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 727–728.
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