Temptation and Deliverance

We continue, this morning, with our studies in the Lord’s Prayer. We’ve come to the petition in Matthew 6 verse 13:

“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

First, something by way of introduction and to recap. As we have seen, the Lord’s Prayer presupposes what life in God’s family and God’s world should be like. It is to acknowledge that God is our personal heavenly Father. He is not the impersonal “unmoved mover” of philosophers nor the impersonal “ground of our being” of liberal theologians. No! He is “Our Father in heaven”. He is personal or more than personal. He is also the King (or King of kings) you want to be under and whose will you want done and done “on [this] earth”, not just in heaven. So you must be concerned and praying about how you live in the present on earth. You’re not just to be concerned for heaven. You must, therefore, be concerned and praying for “daily bread” and all the necessities of life. You must also be concerned and praying about the past. You need to live in the present creatively and not forever crippled because of past failures. So you are to pray for forgiveness for all your past sins - and you must forgive others.

But how do you deal with the future? Many people deal with it by worrying. Perhaps you have just lost your job. I was talking to someone on Thursday and a shortened working week means for them a significant loss of income. A number of people are losing their jobs (or with their jobs under threat) in this congregation. But Jesus says later on in this chapter – Matthew 6 verses 25,27,32-34:

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body ... Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life … Your heavenly Father knows [your needs] … [So] seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow.”

What, then, are you to do about the future when it is hard and threatening, if you are not to worry in a wrong way about it? Answer – obviously pray about your present problems (as Jesus has just taught) and plan sensibly. However, says Jesus, the main thing with regard to the future for all of us is to be on the alert against temptation. Temptations will lie ahead of you whatever your situation, whether good or bad. You are to be concerned, therefore, about being seduced into doing wrong not only in bad times but also in good times. So as well as praying for the necessities of life for the present and for forgiveness for the sins of the past, you are to pray against giving into temptation in the future. That is our subject for this morning.

And I have four headings: first, THE STRANGE NATURE OF TEMPTATION; secondly,THE SOURCE OF TEMPTATION; thirdly, THE CONTENT OF TEMPTATION; and, fourthly, HOW TO RESPOND TO TEMPTATION.

First,THE STRANGE NATURE OF TEMPTATION

It is strange because the word translated “temptation” can also be translated as “testing” or a “time of trial”. There is something ambivalent about temptation. Nor should we be surprised. For things and situations God uses to test us for our good, the devil uses to tempt us for harm.

I can remember hearing of two young fathers. Both tragically had lost their very young children. One had died of leukaemia while the other had drowned in a swimming pool. One father had been a professing Christian but the experience turned him into a militant atheist. The other father had been a humanist but then, through his experience, was drawn to the Christian faith. People can react to suffering and hardship by becoming bitter and resentful. Others, as happened with the second man, through their suffering open their lives to Christ as they turn to “the God of all comfort”, as Paul describes God in 2 Corinthians 1.3. And as time goes on they discover that God is teaching them and maturing them through their suffering. So temptation is ambivalent – it can be positive as well as negative.

Secondly, THE SOURCE OF TEMPTATION or of the negative aspect of temptation.

The source is never God but human evil, behind which is the evil one (or the devil) and if we give in it is our fault.

James in his epistle says (chapter 1.13-14):

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.”

And you can see how things work so clearly in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 4 and Jesus’ temptation that we read as our New Testament reading. So will you now turn back three pages to Matthew chapter 4. Look at verse 1:

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil [not by God].”

Here you clearly have an ambivalence. Jesus was led by the Spirit but tempted by the devil. At this point someone may be saying: “but can you really believe in the devil today? Isn’t that just some primitive superstition?” Well, no! Ignore pictures and paintings featuring the devil with horns and a pitch-fork. That doesn’t come from the Bible. Rather the Bible, in its teaching about the devil makes clear that the totality of evil in the world is not accounted for by the totality of human misdeeds. There is, as it were, a “super-plus” of evil. And that super-plus is to be thought of more as an evil personal being than as an evil impersonal force. The devil is a real enemy. He was prepared to attack even Jesus as we see here in Matthew. Jesus said elsewhere:

“he was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8.44).

Peter says:

“the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet 5.8).

Paul says he can appear as an “angel of light” (2 Cor 11.14). That is the most dangerous disguise of all. So the Christian believer should be alert to the reality of the devil. But the Christian believer must never be frightened. The Bible says:

“resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4.7).

The Bible assures you, as we learnt recently in our Home Groups:

“the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4.4).

The Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Jesus – is far superior to the devil. The devil is a defeated foe. Jesus came to defeat the devil. That he finally did on the Cross:

“the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work” (1 John 3.8).

This side of Jesus’ Second Coming the devil is “down”. But he is not yet “out”. He still tempts you and needs to be resisted.

So there is an ambivalence about temptation; and its source is the devil but God can use what the devil throws at you for your good and his glory.

Thirdly,THE CONTENT OF TEMPTATION

Jesus experience of temptation is almost archetypal regarding its content. It is so true to life. But first note two things about Jesus’ actual experience.

One, it occurred just after his baptism and so right at the beginning of his ministry. That undoubtedly was a profound moment for Jesus. It was a spiritual high. But immediately after that there was this sinister spiritual low of being tempted. The devil will regularly tempt you when life is wonderful. Someone has just professed faith in Christ and expect all will be well. But suddenly they face a huge problem. When that sort of thing happens to you, you are in good company! Jesus faced the devil immediately after the amazing experience at his Baptism.

And note, too, this account of Jesus’ temptation confirms that he was a miracle worker. The account must have come from Jesus himself. No one would have invented it. For Jesus was believed to be beyond temptation. But the temptations assume he can work miracles. He would not have told such a story about himself, if people knew he never did such things. And no third party would invent a story about someone unless already known for miracles. So these temptations are evidence of Jesus’ miracle working power.

But what was their content of them?

Well, look at Matthew 4 verses 2 - 4:

“After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’

This is a temptation to give in wrongly to physical desire. That is a classic temptation. This is also a temptation to use your gifts (in Jesus’ case, supernatural gifts) for your own immediate self-interest rather than for God’s longer term plan. And in Jesus’ case it could also have been a temptation to see his mission as simply supplying human material needs and ignoring fundamental spiritual needs that meant his cross. It was a choice between doing what the world would have liked and popularity or doing God’s will and being opposed. Anyone facing that sort of choice this morning?

Yes, the world needs bread but not “bread alone”. Jesus did not deny the need for supplying this world’s needs. Some get this wrong. Jesus as we have seen tells us to pray for food and about the present. And when talking about worry Jesus doesn’t say that food and clothes are unimportant. He says there is something “more important”.

The devil will regularly tempt you to think that God’s word and will are less important. So private prayer and the study of God’s word in the Bible will take second place. Coming to church or your small group to learn God’s word will take second place. Giving (especially in this recession) to God’s work for the teaching of God’s word will take second place. All that is the first temptation.

And note, Jesus countered this and each temptation by quoting the Bible. “God’s word written” (to quote the phrase from the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles is, therefore, an essential weapon for use against the devil.

Look now at verses 5-7 and the second temptation:

“Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

This is a temptation to self-display and so pride. It’s also the temptation to demand the miraculous before you will believe that God is real. And it is the temptation to demand from God what you want when you want it and then grumbling and doubting God when he doesn’t give it to you. This is a special danger for a certain sort of believer. You see, Jesus is quoting here in verse 7 Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 16 which says: “Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah.”

“Massah” was a reference to Exodus 17 and where the Israelites were having a hard time in the desert. They wanted water and wanted it quickly. So they grumbled at Moses. But Exodus 17 verse 7 says the place was called Massah and Meribah ..:

“… because the Israelites quarrelled and because they tested the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’”

They doubted God’s presence when he was not providing miraculously what they wanted. The miracle came late in the day. You get the same today. Some grumble and doubt God’s presence because all is not to their liking. So Jesus says: “Do not test the Lord your God”

Of course, this temptation is also the temptation to do stupid things presuming that God will help you out. But why should he? And it is the temptation to misquote or misapply the Bible to support something that is wrong. “The devil,” as Shakespeare famously wrote “can cite Scripture for his purpose.”

Then, thirdly look at verses 8-10:

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’" Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”’

This is the temptation to some great prize but on the wrong terms. For Jesus it is was the temptation to be Lord of all, but on condition he submitted to the devil. For us, therefore, it is the temptation to commit a serious sin for some seemingly great advantage. It is doing one seriously wrong thing that good may come.

You’ve got this temptation, surely, in human embryo experimentation (to take a modern issue in the news this past week). Thank God for Christians resisting the temptation to destroy nascent human individuals in this way. That has resulted in attempts with some success to find other ways of achieving goals in terms of stem cells as has recently been reported.

Is there anyone here this morning being tempted to commit some one sin for something good that you desperately want. Well, be warned by Jesus. So much for the content of temptation.

Fourthly, and finally, HOW TO RESPOND TO TEMPTATION.Jesus leaves us in no doubt. We are to pray and to pray for two things. First, that God would not lead us into temptation. It maybe that Paul had these words from Jesus’ prayer in mind when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 10.13:

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. 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 stand up under it.”

So we are to pray “lead us not into temptation.”

Secondly, we are to pray, “deliver us from evil.” We are to pray for protection from evil and the evil one. We live in a spiritually dangerous world. Have no mistake. The great pre-Reformer, John Wycliffe, who features in our West Window, once said that the duty of a clergyman was threefold – I quote:

“to feed his sheep spiritually on the word of God … to purge wisely the sheep of disease, that they may not infect themselves and others as well … [and] to defend his sheep from ravenous wolves.”

People certainly need to be delivered and protected from spiritual hunger. They need to feed on “God’s word written”. But there are spiritual diseases that well-fed people can catch. Paul catalogues some in Galatians 5 verse 19:

“sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like.”

If you think you have got beyond sexual immorality and orgies, what about jealously – that can be so subtle, as are selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy. These are all evils we need to pray to be delivered from when not in the middle of them but before we get there. We need to be delivered not only from evil outside us, but also from evil inside our own hearts which is in the form of these things.

I must conclude. This may all sound very hard. But remember! We are to pray these two clauses after we have prayed for forgiveness, as we heard last week. So this is not about the past and the temptations we have fallen into. It is about the future. So if you have never sorted out the past and come to Christ for forgiveness for the first time, why not do so this morning? And then in a right relationship with God you will have a sympathetic Saviour. According to Hebrews 2.18:

“because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

And Hebrews 4.15 says:

“we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.”

And then Hebrews 7.24-25 says:

“Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”

So, yes, we must pray for ourselves not to be led into temptation and to be delivered from evil. But Jesus, now risen, ascended and reigning is also praying for us. That is, indeed, good news.