Deliver us From Evil (Matthew 6:13)
Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Sermon
Sermon
Key Passage
Key Passage
“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Today’s Passage
Today’s Passage
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
Introduction
Introduction
Today, we conclude our journey through the Lord’s Prayer.
It is my hope that today, we can cover the last verse that remains, as well as put all of this together into a real and tangible application of prayer.
As we saw earlier in our series on prayer, it is my concern that what was foundational for Jesus and foundational for the early church has become supplemental in our time.
We will never be a city on a hill or a light in a dark place unless we uncover the value and commitment of prayer to an almighty God.
Our primary passage today is brief, but there is a ton of truth packed into these few short words.
Sermon #1
Sermon #1
I have to say that I have heard this passage preached probably over 100 times and I have never heard it discussed how we are going to discuss it today.
I always worry when we come to a different conclusion on a verse that we are doing it wrong. If everyone else is saying “this is what it means” and we go in a different direction, did we mess up somewhere?
I don’t think so. I am also not going to say that everyone else has it wrong.
All of those sermons I heard as a kid and as an adult were truth and used the Bible to interpret the Bible.
I wanted to give this small teaser so those of you who have been in church for a thousand years won’t tune out because you’ve “heard this one before”.
In order to get to where we are going to go today, I want to take us on a journey of good Biblical interpretation.
The Bible is God’s Word.
The words in this book were written by human authors under the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit.
Since it was overseen by the Holy Spirit, we can know that the words of this book are completely perfect.
The Bible is infallible, inerrant and authoritative
This means that we submit to what the Bible says. We don’t try and conform the Bible to what we want it to say, or what we think it should say.
The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to humanity
All of what we know about God can be found in the Scriptures.
Certainly we can know God relationally and we are called to know and love God as disciples of Jesus
However, God has perfectly and completely revealed Himself, His nature and His will through His Word.
The Bible is God’s revelation of humanity to humanity
The Bible tells us who we are.
We are not on a journey of discovery in this world. We are discovered. We are fully known by an All-Knowing God.
The fact the Bible exists shows us that God wants to be known.
If God wanted to remain a complete mystery, He would have never orchestrated the Bible to be written.
However, God through His Holy Spirit, empowered human authors to write into the Scriptures:
God’s nature so we can know Him
Humanities need, so we can approach Him
His faithfulness, so we can trust Him.
This is why we take careful care to interpret the Word of God with as much accuracy and clarity as we can.
This is not just some words of wisdom from smart people a long time ago.
This is God’s revelation of Himself, His creation and His plan for us.
This leads us to our passage today.
In order to interpret God’s Word, one of the most important things to remember is context.
If one verse is talking about one topic
The next verse is talking about the same topic
The next verse is a bit confusing
But the following two verses are talking about the same topic as the first two verses.
We could reasonably conclude that the on verse that was confusing likely needs to be interpreted by understanding what is said in the verses before it and the verses after it.
I lead into our discussion today with this, because this is how we built the content of what we are talking about today.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
The first verse has to do with forgiveness
The third verse has to do with forgiveness
The fourth verse has to do with forgiveness
How should we interpret the second verse? What is its context? Forgiveness.
Whenever I have heard the “Lead us not into temptation” sermon, it always has to do with general temptation to sin.
But I believe Jesus is being very specific in revealing His desired heart in prayer.
It is about knowing who we are with God and knowing who we are with others.
And that knowledge has to do with the impact of sin on relationship with God and others.
So to break this verse down, I want to start word by word through this so we can see what Jesus is saying here:
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
The first word I want to highlight is the word “lead”
The word ‘lead’ should mean quite a lot to those of us who are disciples of Jesus.
Definition of Disciple
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
A disciple is following Jesus
He leads, we follow
A disciple is changed by Jesus
As He leads, we are changed by the One who is leading
A disciples is obedient to Jesus and making fishers of men
We go and make more disciples. As we follow, we encourage others to follow the lead of Jesus.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
This verse first has to do with the recognition of our surrender to God.
We’ll get more into this when we look at prayer as a broad topic
If we are following Jesus, we go where He leads.
When we break this verse down, it has two contrasting points.
You can see that there is one destination that is not desirable, contrasted with a destination that is good.
There is a lot of discussion and confusion around a part of this passage, but I don’t think it ought to be confusing at all.
It seems at face value that Jesus is begging God not to lead him into temptation.
The incorrect conclusion is that God is leading us to a place where we will get distracted from Him and sin.
Like God is a sadistic trickster trying to get us to fail.
Scripture very clearly addresses this topic
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;
but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
Temptation is a place of our own evil desire and enticement to sin.
I want you to hear this. God is not trying to trick us or pull us into sin.
We need to read this passage in its entirety and I believe the answer to this is right in front of us.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Last week we talked about our debt to God and how we must go to God in humility and confession for the sin we have committed in our own lives.
Also, when others have wronged us and have incurred a relational debt to us, we would forgive them as well.
Then we read the concluding passage about forgiveness as well:
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Jesus says, “If you forgive others, I’ll forgive you.” then we have the contrasting word, “but” meaning that He is stating the opposite as well.
If you do not forgive others, then your Father won’t forgive you.
This is a heavy statement.
In this, as Jesus, disciples, we know our need for forgiveness before God is the very foundation of our salvation in Jesus Christ
Sin always breaks relationship. It broke relationship between God and us. It also breaks relationship between us and others.
The contextual tension in this passage is our need for forgiveness from a holy God and our sinful nature that wants to work contrary to a Holy God.
In the middle of this text we have the passage that says
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
What is the temptation? The temptation for all of us as human beings is to not forgive others when they do wrong against us.
This has been the theme all the way through the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus has already said:
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Jesus said that we are to be salt and light in a world of darkness
What is the temptation?
The temptation is to be like the world. It is to embrace the flesh. It is to live how I used to live before I began following Jesus.
When someone does wrong against me, the temptation is to give an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Vengeance, grudges, judgment, and anger.
All of these are issues of our hearts that Jesus addresses in this passage.
God, don’t lead me to a place where I would embrace my flesh, lead me to Your holiness.
I want you to see the second half of this passage!
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
God, don’t lead me to a place I have led myself so many times. Rather...
Deliver me from evil is the contrast to our old ways of living
You see the phrase “evil one”
That isn’t a very good translation of the Greek word (Poneros), which means bad, wicked or evil.
Now I want to pull our context together into this.
This is a relational context that has to do with forgiveness.
What is our flesh? What is the darkness that we used to live? What is the saltless living that we used to have?
It was unforgiveness
Because of this, the impact of the sin of the people around us had massive effect on our lives.
In fact, the sin of others dictated my relationships, my view of God and my view of the world around me. In many ways, unforgiveness controls us.
It controls our emotions, controls our relationships, controls our thoughts, and actions.
Is it any wonder why Jesus would use the phrase, “Deliver”
Forgiveness is deliverance
No longer is the punishment and judgment of the things that have happened in the world on your shoulders. You place them in God’s hands.
You place your pain in God’s hands.
There is one more thing that I think that we need to see here.
The sin of unforgiveness isn’t labeled as “just a struggle”
It is evil.
Sometimes we label our sins really friendly and soft names so it is easier to live with them.
Unforgiveness is evil. It is a cruel master that will control you and turn the joy of the Lord into bitterness, conflict and strife.
What do we do with sin and evil in our lives?
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
We confess them before God as the sin that it is.
Then we forgive others.
This is God’s heart for humanity.
It is that we would know His heart and that His heart would grow within us.
By experiencing God’s love and forgiveness, we would be salt and light in this world and give love and forgiveness to people and situations that are completely undeserving.
We show grace, we show mercy, we forgive, because God has done this with us.
I love how Jesus prayed before He went to the cross:
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—
I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Unity between God and man and unity amongst God’s people is the very heart of God.
It is what He desires within us and within His church.
If we allow unforgiveness to rule in our lives, then the mercy, grace and love of God cannot be seen through us.
May we not be tempted to our sinful nature of unforgiveness, rather may we be delivered from the evil of unforgiveness through Jesus Christ.
Sermon #2
Sermon #2
As we conclude, I want to build on the last point and bring us to a very simple and practical “How to” of prayer.
I know over the last four weeks, we have spoken about prayer. We’ve had it defined, clarified, and taught.
But the underlying question may still remain, “So how do I pray?”
I don’t want to leave this subject without us having clarity to know the answer to this question.
Prayer is relational, not religious
God loves you. He knows you, and He wants you to know Him
There is joy in the heart of God when His children open their hearts to Him
Prayer is relational, not religious
Prayer acknowledges God for who He is
As I said earlier, the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself, His heart, His nature and His will.
Also, as we live our lives, we can see God at work.
We see Him at church in our own lives.
We see Him at work within the church
We see Him at work in our world.
How we see God at work in the world will always be in line with who God says He is through the Bible.
God is good, holy, pure, all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present, self-sustaining, and is pure glory
This and more we can discover about God through His word.
This is the beginning of worship.
What value is worship of a God we do not know? It is empty words.
But when we pursue knowledge of who God is, we acknowledge what we have seen in Him.
In the Lord’s prayer we see this in action.
“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Prayer is relational, not religious
Prayer acknowledges God for who He is
Prayer is recognition of who we are
As we go to God, we can acknowledge in worship who He is.
But prayer is also an recognition of who we are.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
We recognize that the earth is the Lord’s and everything within it.
We are not self-sustaining. We need Him.
We are sinners in need of forgiveness.
We are commanded to forgive others.
Which brings us back to the place where we recognize that prayer is relational.
My son had an electrical problem in his car this week.
I went to Jason because I know he has worked on cars. I don’t work on cars for fun.
I went to him because he knows more than I do about the situation I had.
How many situations are in your life that God knows more about them than you do?
How many of those situations have you gone to Him and asked for His wisdom?
How much of our sin have we asked forgiveness?
How many people in our lives have we asked God for the strength to be obedient in forgiveness?
Our lack of prayer will stem from one of three problems
Three reasons we don’t pray:
I don’t really know who God is
Three reasons we don’t pray:
I don’t really know who God is
I don’t really know who I am
Three reasons we don’t pray:
I don’t really know who God is
I don’t really know who I am
Both
If God is who He says He is, then I would go to Him for every situation in my life.
If I am who God says I am, then I recognize that I need Him more than I realize.
The situations that this is revealed to us pelt us every! single! day!
My sin, my confusion, my anger, my pride
Going to God is humbling. It is recognizing my need and His sufficiency.
May we go to the Word of God and seek God’s heart, nature and will.
May we recognize His greatness.
May we open our hearts in absolute vulnerability, humility and honesty.
May He change our hearts, change our eyes, change our lives so we can be more like Him.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Real Life in Action:
Head: Where do I struggle forgiving?
Heart: Ask God to help guide me to deliverance and forgiveness.
Hands: Pray continually.
We cannot forgive as God asks us to forgive in our flesh. Our forgiveness must be dependent on Him. We must be in a regular practice of prayer.
God will always lead us to His holiness. Temptation is a place where our humanity falls short of His glory.
Holiness is perfect relationship with God and others
Temptation is what breaks that relationship, a path I’ve lived out my whole life
Our hearts ought to be for the hearts of God and deliverance through forgiveness of the broken world around me.
