Lead Us Not into Temptation
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13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
13 καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν,*
ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.
OPENING REMARKS
We have spent the past few months covering the Lord’s Prayer, or rather the Disciple’s Prayer as part of our series on prayer and today marks the culmination of our series. I hope that this mini-focus on the discipline of prayer has encouraged you to develop and grow your prayer life.
In this final sermon of the series we will be looking at argualbly one of the most contentious verses in the new testament. Though it presents us with some challenges, when rightly understood it will be a very powerful and practical aid to your praying.
To help us get the most out of this verse I am going to break it down using the following questions;
What is temptation?
Who is doing the tempting?
What are the purposes of temptation?
How are we tempted?
Why should we pray for deliverance?
WHAT IS TEMPTATION?
The concept of temptation makes no sense at all if there is no moral code by which we ought to live. For example, if atheism were true and there was no God and therefore no design in nature, no ultimate purpose to existence, no ultimate meaning. And all creatures including us simply exist by random chance, the products of blind evolutionary processes that didn’t have us in mind as an end result. In that kind of a world here can be no such thing as right and wrong, not in any real objective sense. I can’t therefore be tempted to do wrong, because there is no such thing as right. So, temptation assumes a moral law, real, objective standards of right and wrong. Yet even people who believe this in this atheistic story believe that they can be tempted; therefore they believe in a standard of morality.
Temptation is something that people in general experience regardless of whether they are confessing Christians. It is evidence that we are not like the animals out in the jungle who act out of their survival instincts. The lion doesn’t have to resist temptation to kill that baby gazelle; she just does it. There’s not a moral angle to it. We as humans however are moral creatures; even if people say they don’t believe God exists they still live as though He did.
As a youngster I used to go fishing fairly regularly. I’d fish in the canal and catch gudgeon, perch, roach, and occasionally I’d go pool fishing for carp and even went sea fishing once. What I learnt was that no one catches anything without bait; and the better the bait, the better the catch was likely to be.
The bait had to be something that the fish actually liked. You can put a clod of earth on the hook but you won’t catch any fish with it. The bait has to appeal to the fish. They have to have an appetite for it, they have to like the look of it.
Temptation is bait. It is something which to you looks appealing, pleasing. It’s something that you have an appetite for, but it’s covering a hook. What looks benign turns out to be dangerous. Temptation is deception.
The hook is on the end of a line, which is on the end of a rod being held by a fisherman who intends to catch that fish. Temptation is the same. At the other end of that hook is someone who means you harm, they deliberately baited that hook to catch you, it was no accident that you came by that bait today it was a trap. Their aim was to capture you, maybe even to kill you. Temptation is a trap.
SO WHO DOES THE TEMPTING?
There’s no getting around the words of this verse. The original greek manuscripts read in unison; lead us not into temptation. Not ‘do not allow us to fall into temptation’ or ‘may we not be led into temptation.’ That verb in the original language is active not passive. This presents us with some difficulty because Jesus appears to be saying that God may lead us into temptation. Yet it is clear in the book of James that God tempts no one
13 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.
Some have gone so far as to actually change the words of the Lord’s prayer to try to resolve this seeming contradiction. Pope Francis actually approved this word change to the Lord’s prayer in a Catholic liturgical book; instead of it reading ‘lead us not into temptation’ the new rendering reads ‘do not let us fall into temptation.’
Some have preferred to translate the greek noun πειρασμός as test or trial rather than temptation. It is translated as trial and testing elsewhere in the new testament but more often as temptation.
In the Greek language the translation of a word is driven by context as much as by the form of a particular word. And here the immediate context being about sin in the previous verse and evil in this verse lends itself heavily to the proper translation being temptation rather than testing or trials.
Spurgeon rightly pointed out that there is a great deal of difference between tempting someone and leading them into temptation. Jesus doesn’t say ‘do not tempt us, Lord deliver us from evil’. But ‘lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’. Some tranlations like the ESV tranlate this as ‘the evil one’. But the point being that God is being asked both not to lead us or ‘bring us’ into temptation but to deliver us from the evil one or from evil. It is the evil one who is doing the tempting because it is from him and his power that we must ask deliverance.
So now the matter is settled; God is not the one doing the tempting, He never has and never will tempt you nor anyone. Jesus is not saying that we ought to pray God, please don’t tempt us but rather ‘Lord, do not bring us into temptation but deliver us from evil.
Is it true that the Lord in His sovereign purposes might lead us or bring us into some form of temptation at the hands of the devil?
This might be an uncomfortable thought but let’s examine what scripture has to say.
3 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
and the Lord tests hearts.
In Luke’s gospel Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tested by Satan.
And of course we have the book of Job. God certainly brings Job into a season of testing, trial and temptation at the hands of Satan.
This is not to make God guilty of doing the tempting or of killing Job’s children; that was the work of the devil.
But why on earth would God on occasion allow for us to be brought into temptation?
SO WHAT ARE THE PURPOSES OF TEMPTATION
After the death of Jacob in Egypt Joseph’s brothers start getting a little jittery. They think; now that our Father has died and isn’t here to protect us will Joseph take revenge for what we did to him? They come to him and beg for forgiveness and offer themselves to be his slaves in return. But Joseph responds with grace and forgiveness; a picture of what God does for you when you confess your sins before him. Joseph says this; Gen 50:20 “20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
His brothers meant evil towards Joseph but God meant it, those same events, for good. It doesn’t say ‘you meant evil against me but God used it for good’ but rather than God meant or intented those events for good. The same set of events but two wills, two purposes at work. The will and purposes of his brothers subordinated under the will and purposes of God.
So what? Well that means that in our temptations there is the will and purposes of the devil against us for evil. And on occasion where God might allow us to be brought into temptation He will also have His purposes.
The Bible is very clear in telling us all about the desires and purposes of Satan are towards us
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
He is called, the tempter, the deceiver and the father of lies.
Satan’s purpose in tempting you is to devour you, to destroy you through it. That he might get you to trip up into sin and ultimately be devoured by it. He uses his immense skills as a deceiver to tell you prior to sinning that it isn’t that big of a deal and after sinning that it is too big of a deal for God to forgive.
Should God bring you into a moment of temptation what might His purposes be? God’s purpose in bringing you into temptation is the same purpose that He had in bringing Christ into the wilderness to be tempted; that you might triumph over the devil and over sin. God will never bring you into a temptation from which there is no way out.
1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
So what does this mean? It means that temptation is gravely dangerous, that it is not benign and harmless. That at the end of every hook of temptation the devil is waiting on the other end to drag us to destruction. However, God has made every temptation an opportunity for us. An opportunity to trample on the works of satan and triumph over him to the glory of God.
He also uses these moments to test our hearts. These moments of temptation reveal to us where we’re at on our journey of sanctification. They reveal to us where we’re up to in our purity , in our holiness, in our devotion to God. Temptations are tests. They are tests which we can either pass or fail.
“Temptation is the best school into which the Christian can enter; yet, in itself, apart from the grace of God, it is so doubly hazardous, that this prayer should be offered every day, ‘Lead us not into temptation;’ or if we must enter into it, ‘Lord, deliver us from evil.’ ”- Martin Luther
Graciously, every temptation is to us a lesson. We learn something. Either our growth is revealed or our weaknesses are revealed.
HOW ARE WE TEMPTED
It’s often said that any rope is only as strong as it’s weakest part and we are the same. Temptation comes at us at our weakest point; where we have struggled before. That’s what makes temptation tempting.
Sometimes temptation will be obvious to us; we’ll feel tempted to do something that we know is wrong. Other times the temptation will be more low key. For example if we receive a large unexpected bill we might be tempted to get angry at God and blame Him. Seasons of scarcity financially might tempt us to become jealous or bitter. Likewise, seasons of plenty might tempt us to glory in ourselves and forget about God.
WHY
It’s precisely because temptation attacks us at our weakest point that Jesus teaches us to pray ‘lead us not into temptation.’ And on occassion that He does bring us to be tempted we pray ‘Lord, deliver us from evil.’
Jesus prayed something similar to this in the garden of gethsemane when he prayed Mark 14:36
36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
As a Christian being aware of your weakness and fleshly frailty is actually a good thing. why? Because it drives you to prayer, to rely on His strength and not your own.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
This prayer ‘Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’ is a prayer to clothe yourself with every morning. It’s a soberminded prayer; aware of the weakness within but His great power to deliver us.
Notice that it is ‘led US not, and deliver US’. We are to pray not just for ourselves in respect of temptation but also for everyone else here in this church. Protecting one another in prayer like a phalanx of shields against the fiery darts of the enemy.
We pray for one another that we are not exposed to temptations in our weaknesses but that if we are, He might rescue us out of the snare of the devil.
Let no enemy from without be feared: conquer thine own self, and the whole world is conquered. - Augustine
If you aren’t aware of any temptations in your life at all then that’s actually not a good sign. Only a spiritually dead person never feels tempted by anything. First you must be aware of your sins before you can pray ‘forgive us our trespasses’ and only from a knowledge of the horror of continuing sin as a Christian will you pray ‘lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.’ Have you never felt at all, on any level sickened by your own sin? Then I feel within my rights to question whether you have been made alive by Christ at all. Repent and believe the gospel.
Pray