the word of our God. After this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. May the Lord add to us richly his blessings under his word this morning. You remember that the first or the second major section of the sermon is a section of exposition The Lord Jesus comes to set before us an explication of the law in all of its spirituality. The Lord Jesus comes to correct that exclusively external comment on the law that the rabbis had given in that first century. He came to show us what was always in the law. That is, precepts that bound the heart, not just the lips. not just the hand. Now, as we remember from our comments from Matthew 5, we remember, don't we, just how rigorous that exposition really was. We remember that the Lord Jesus speaks to us of heart murder. We remember that he talks to us about heart adultery, heart perjury. And in all of these cases, the Lord Jesus is showing us that kind of righteousness that must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. A righteousness, again, that is not simply clean in the exterior, but a righteousness that adheres within. What kind of person possesses that kind of righteousness? And friend, to make that question all the more important is what you find, of course, in Matthew 5 in verse 20, where the Lord Jesus tells us that this is non-negotiable, that you must possess this kind of righteousness in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's a striking thing, isn't it? When you look over Matthew 5 and you see the Lord Jesus show us that the spirituality of the law in his spiritual disciples is really acknowledged. And friend, to that degree, really pursued. Well then friend, I think we're confronted with a truth that has been long neglected. Our text in Matthew 6. is very much organically tied to what we saw in Matthew 5. I've said this to you in several ways over these past several Lord's days, but I think it's important to remember the Lord Jesus is still showing us what is that righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. And he does so in this text by showing us how these people pray. These are still marks of spiritual discipleship that we're encountering in this text. Now we've seen thus far, as we've looked through this prayer that the Lord Jesus shows us, that their manner of praying is rational, it's reverent. And as you come down to our text, verse 13, you notice as well that it's very much tied not only to things generally, but even to ourselves individually. But come with me down to that 13th verse, You find the petition and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now, as you and I, we look at this text, you'll remember that we're confronted again with another injunction, the second, sorry, conjunction that we've encountered thus far. And he says, lead us not into temptation. If you remember our comments last Lord's Day, you remember that that conjunction is quite important. It ties us back to what you and I found in verse 11. And verse 11, you remember that the prayer turns to those things that are daily necessities. And verse 11, specifically to those things that pertain to the body, to our physical wellbeing. And so the way the prayer runs is that give us daily what is necessary for our lives. But then in verse 12, you find the conjunction, and forgive us our debts, in which the Lord is telling us that his people pray, just as they pray daily for food, they pray daily for pardon. So in the same timeframe that the disciples here are thinking of their daily needs, they're also thinking of their need for pardon. And as you come with us to our texts, the same theme continues. That conjunction carries with it the idea that this is a petition daily to be made. Every day, friend, the prayer of the disciple is, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now that word lead us there is really important. Ispharo is the word in the Greek there translated lead. It's the idea of carry. You could translate it thus then legitimately, do not carry us or bear us into temptation. But the text reads, deliver us from evil or instead deliver us from evil. And you and I were confronted again with another conjunction. The word but there is also quite important. Just as the word and at the beginning of the verse, it ties us to what has gone before up to verse 11. The word but here reminds us that here the disciple is not giving two distinct petitions. The conjunction joins the first clause with the second. So when the disciple prays, in this case, do not lead us into temptation, he is asking substantially for the same thing when he prays, but deliver us from evil. It's one petition, in other words, but put in two ways. In the first case, it's put to us negatively. Do not lead us into temptation. In the second case, it's put positively. Deliver us from evil. It's one petition presented in two ways and its subject friend is singular. The disciple prays in this case against sin. In both clauses, the disciples focus is sin itself. Now, I want just to make two inferences at this point before we proceed any further. The first is one that I suppose I've alluded to already. That's the general symmetry of the prayer as a whole. As you and I, we look at this text, you notice that we have three distinct petition, sorry, six distinct petitions. but three that relate immediately to God and three that relate immediately or directly to ourselves. But then, not only do I want to emphasize that within that symmetry there's a particular order. that before you come to self, you're first of all praying for the glory of God and the advancement of his cause on the earth, and then you come to self. But then, friend, not only within that symmetry and that order, you also have this, a degree of proportion that ought to be recognized as well, where you have in the last three petitions, one, given to our daily physical necessities, and two, that directly respect sin. Friend, that should correct, I think, in so many ways, the ways in which we pray. Not only to pray, first of all, with a preeminent desire for the glory of God, but this prayer instructs us that even when we're praying about self, our principal needs, folks, our principal needs are spiritual. And now what we must pray against most are not physical difficulties and afflictions, not temporal adversities. But friend, the very proportion of this prayer teaches us that we need to be praying most against sin. The second inference I want to draw from this though is also that this prayer exudes in every line, a real and a vital sense of dependence upon God. Now, as you look again, back at verse 11, you recognize that they're the disciples acknowledging that all of his necessities, even the common, the mundane things of this life, they come only to him at God's leave. And he can only make use of them with God's permission. The smallest of mercies in this prayer is traced back to God. But so also, as you come down to verse 12, it's acknowledged, isn't it? that we stand wholly dependent at God's mercy for pardon. Pardon is something we could not merit. As we come to our text this afternoon, friend, that sense of dependence, it hasn't evaporated. Here the disciple acknowledges that he is dependent still upon God, even, friend, in how he walks. Even as he seeks to continue as a faithful disciple of Christ and abstain from sin. He acknowledges that he is dependent upon God in all of these things. And so that takes us, I suppose, friend, back to where we began. This is a picture of how a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, a spiritual disciple, comes to the throne of grace. This is how somebody prays who is possessed of that new work of grace. That work that makes one regard the spirituality of the law. That work by God's grace that does produce a righteousness that exceeds that of the legalist. Here, friend, you see that in two ways. You see here someone who hates sin. Secondly, you also see here one who is possessed of real and evangelical humility, dependence upon the grace of God, even to obey. Our theme then for this afternoon is that Christ's disciples, they pray earnestly against sin. Christ's disciples pray earnestly against sin. I want us to see that under three headings. I want us to see, first of all, the determination of the disciple of Christ as we see it in this text. Then secondly, I want us to see those two petitions. One petition for direction, and then another petition here for deliverance. So take first of all, the determination of the disciple. As you go back to our text in verse 13, you again, you find one petition, but given to us in two ways. Lead us not, that's the petition given to us negatively, and then deliver us, that is the petition positively. And you might say, well, that seems rather redundant. If it's one petition in the whole, wouldn't one clause suffice? Friend, we shouldn't think of this as redundancy. In fact, in time, God willing, we'll see that there is a real progression of sorts between these two clauses. But the point, friend, that you and I need to grasp, first of all, is that this kind of repetition, this sustained focus beyond perhaps what we might think necessary, it really exposes to us the sense of feeling, the zeal that one has for the thing. And in this case, friend, it shows us that the Christian has a real zeal. A real zeal against sin. Why do I say that? Well, friend, the disciple in this text, he doesn't just say, you know, lead me into temptation or simply deliver me. But the idea is that he's asking, keep me in every way possible. Keep me in every way from sin. As though one clause was insufficient, really, friend, to express what was the desire of his heart. One clause wouldn't do it. It exposes to us, friend, in so many ways, the determination the spiritual disciple of Christ has against sin itself. And we need to see this. We desperately need to see this in our generation. This is a prayer against sin itself. This is a determination against sin, not against its consequences, not against God's chastisement. And it's so important for us to recognize this because even as you go back to our comments from verse 12, you recognize that there, there the disciple is praying. He's praying against God's fatherly displeasure and so the chastisement that his sin has rightly merited. But in this text, he's not praying against any of that. He's praying against sin. My friend, it's not a wrong thing for us to pray that God would remove his rod from his people. Indeed, the apostle tells us, doesn't he, that no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. And so God's people throughout the running centuries have prayed that God would remove his hand of chastisement. It's a right thing to pray, but that's not what's prayed for here. It's sin. And friend, in this text, what you and I, we encounter is the reality that the Christian hates sin, not for its consequences, but for itself. Beloved, the Christian hates sin, not for hell's sake, but for God's. Because he loves God, he hates sin. Christian, as you and I, we read through this prayer, we ought to make note that that is precisely what is being expressed. Here the Christian is saying, it's not only the consequences of sin that concern me. It's not only the expressions of God's displeasure that excite me and lead me to pray for deliverance. He hates sin itself. We see this throughout the scriptures, don't we, in so many ways. I mean, you go throughout the Psalter and you can hardly miss it. Just a few examples from Psalm 119. Rivers of water, says the psalmist, run down my eyes because they keep not by law. As the spiritual disciple of Christ looks at the world, he sees sin and he hates it. And friend, this is so important, isn't it? He doesn't just shake his head and say that's a shame. He's grieved in the inmost part of his being at the existence of sin. I beheld the transgressors and was grieved, the psalmist goes on to say, because they kept not thy word. Grieved, he says, simply by beholding sin. I hate and abhor lying, he says, but thy law do I love. Friend, the Christian has a settled disposition against sin for its own sake. He hates sin not for what it does to him by way of consequence. He hates sin for itself because he loves God. And friend, the Christian, as he makes this petition, it comes from that same principle. It's because he hates sin that he prays against it particularly. Take Lot, for example. In seeing and in hearing, Peter tells us, Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. It's interesting in that particular text, the word vexed there is active. The idea is not that he was vexed, but it carries with it the idea that Lot labored to keep himself sensitive to sin as he saw it. That as he was residing in Sodom, That as he saw it, as he beheld iniquity in front of him, he labored to keep up a conscience that really was tender. He didn't allow himself, as Peter tells us there, not to kind of simply write it off and shake his head. He vexed himself, says the text. He labored, friend, to keep up this loathing against sin itself. And the disciple of Christ in Jude is said to be those who hate even the garments spotted by the flesh. They hate sin for its own sake. But you see this, don't you friends, so powerfully in Romans 7. Here you have a man who's delivered from hell fire. A man who will say in Romans 8 and verse 1, there is no condemnation. And he knows that he has an interest. He knows he has an interest in that grace. But oh, friend, how he laments sin within. Friend, this is the picture of the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, really. Somebody who prays against sin itself. And what this teaches us as we look at this text, and even as we relate verse 13 to verse 12, we're taught, aren't we, that Christ's spiritual disciples, they are those, friend, who not only ask for pardon, they're not only those who seek, friend, to be relieved from the guilt of sin, but they're those who also long to be free from sin itself. There's a tradition in evangelicalism today, friend, that will preach about hellfire, and we should preach, by the way, about hellfire. But they don't preach this. The Christian salvation as it's presented to us in the Gospels is not only deliverance from the consequences of sin, but it is deliverance from sin's dominion. A progressive deliverance that conforms us more and more into the likeness of Christ. And so is it no wonder, friend, that you can talk to people on the street who say, I got saved. And then I backslidden, but at least I'm not going to hell. Is it no wonder, friend, whenever all that we are told again and again by people is we need to escape hell, that that's all the people are concerned about? We find very few people who actually hate sin itself. And friend, for all of those people who are saying they're saved and they're not at all worried about sin, they simply want, friend, to put it crassly, their insurance policy for eternity. And is it any wonder there are so very few spiritual disciples of Christ today? No, the disciple of Christ, as we presented in this text, he is one who hates sin, has a set determination against sin for God's sake. Now that's his determination, but what of the petitions themselves? Take the direction that you have here. Lead us not into temptation. Now that's a shocking turn of phrase, isn't it? It's shocking, of course, in light of what you find in James 1. Let no man say, says James, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempteth he any man. But we're praying here, aren't we? Lead us not into temptation. Do not carry us into temptation. What does this mean? Well, friend, I want you to notice first of all, that this petition in this case, it does not read, do not tempt us. It's very important that we recognize the terms. The disciple here prays, do not lead us, do not carry us into temptation. The idea is one being born along and born into a context And we'll explain that in just a moment. But here, friend, you at least can see this much, that this petition is praying really that, praying that God would preserve them. And it comes from that sense of dependence that preservation is only from the mercy of God. What does this mean? Well, first of all, I want you to recognize that while it's certainly true that God tempts no man, as James put it, God does carry his own into temptation. That's scriptural. And that's you find that right throughout the word of God. The word temptation is also the word for test. And so you find God testing Abraham and God testing other servants of old. But let's bring this quite specifically to the issue of temptation to sin. Take for instance, what you have in the occasion when David was tempted to number Israel. In 2 Samuel, we're told thus, that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say, go and number Israel and Judah. God, we're told in this text, moved David to number Israel and Judah. But if you were to go then to the parallel text from 1 Chronicles 21, The same occasion is described thus, and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. Well, which is it? Was it God who moved David to number the people or was it Satan who did? Well, friend, this particular example from the scriptures is very helpful, I think. Because in the first case, we're told that God in his wrath, he permitted Satan to come against David. to tempt David into sin. The idea, friend, is that yes, he was born, if you like, into that occasion, into that context where Satan will tempt him. But even more than that, friend, as you look at the text, you recognize that also God, He withdrew at that time those gracious influences from His servant David that would have withheld Him from numbering the people. But that means then Christian that however you look at it, David fell by his own corruption. Yes, he was born into a context of temptation. Satan was permitted by God so to tempt him. And God, of course, he withheld his gracious influences so that David did fall. But friend, the only reason David fell was because of his own native corruption. Can I make that point a bit clearer? We, just months ago, looked at the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Did you notice, friend, the language there the evangelists use? Jesus was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And Mark, it's even clearer, even if you like a bit more dramatic, immediately the spirit driveth him. into the wilderness. So there you have very much, friend, in parallel ways, the context that we read from 1 Samuel, sorry, 2 Samuel. There, the Lord God did call the Lord Jesus into a time of temptation. But unlike David, Jesus stood. And why? Well, friend, there was no native corruption in him. None whatsoever. So you have Satan permitted to come against the Lord Jesus Christ to tempt him. Christ is called to the combat to endure that time of temptation. And he stood. Because again, friend, unlike David of old, there was no inherent corruption, no corruption at all. And if you were to turn with me, friend, back to James, where we find that text, that there the apostle tells us clearly that God tempts no man. We actually find this self-same idea presented to us. In James 1, you can turn there if you'd like. James 1 in verse 13, we're told that, that let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man, note this, is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do you note, friend, what there the apostle is saying? That the kind of temptation he's talking about there is that kind of temptation that emanates from the flesh. And so in verse 13, he's saying this, God doesn't put that kind of corruption in the heart of man. That temptation that flows from the flesh, friend, it is not of God. And no man can say that I have been coerced by God or the devil by having my own inward disposition to evil. None can say so. That's what the Lord says in verse 13. But as you come to verse 14, the apostle goes further. When he is tempted thus, that is, when he is tempted from his own flesh, that corruption that is in hearing, he is drawn away of his own lust. The apostle is making it very clear, isn't he? That friend, when man sins, it's because of his own native corruption. Now, why belabor the point? Friend, I think by going through this, you and I, we understand a bit more clearly what we're really praying for in this petition. We're acknowledging, friend, clearly, without any confusion, when we make this prayer, that God does call His people to come to times of testing and tempting. He does in His providence, He does call us to come to times where we will be presented with temptations to sin. And so in this petition, friend, really what we're pleading from God are two things. That God in His providence would keep us from such snares. So praise the psalmist. Psalm 119, turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. He praised this friend because he knows his own native corruption would be drawn towards sin. For no one should pray to enter temptation. None. It may be God's will that we enter such a time of testing, but none should pray for it. But also secondly, we're praying here that God would maintain his gracious influences to keep us from succumbing to temptation. Friend, this is a petition pleading that God in his providence would keep us from such times. And that also by God's grace, he would withhold us, hold us within those times when they come. This is a prayer for direction. Not a direction of intellectual understanding, it's a direction of understanding of the heart, isn't it? Praying that God would impart, friend, that grace within, even in times of temptation, to stand and to walk aright. So says the psalmist, oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Friend, that really is in substance the petition of our text. Can I stress, friend, this point before we move further? That here you have the Christian acknowledging clearly that he cannot stand on his own strength. He prays against coming into these times of testing and tempting because he knows his own weakness. And he prays, friend, here in this case, pleading for God's gracious influences to continue because he knows that he cannot stand without them. That's illustrated, I think, very helpfully in the Pilgrim's Progress. And you'll pardon me for giving this illustration probably now the fifth or sixth time. You remember whenever there a Christian is brought into interpreter's house and the interpreter brings Christian there to a fireplace. And he sees on the one side of the fireplace, a man who is hurling water, furiously hurling water onto the fire. The smoke is billowing and the man who with the buckets of water is covered in black. And then the interpreter takes Christian to the other side of the fireplace. And he sees another man. And this man too is pouring buckets onto the fire. And Christian asks, well, what does this mean? Bunyan has the interpreter tell us that on the one side, the one who is covered in soot and pouring water onto the fire, that's the devil, ever trying to extinguish the Christian's graces. But on the other side is Christ, pouring the oil of his gracious influences to sustain the Christian all the while. Friend, that image, that idea is very much behind our text. The Christian acknowledges that he stands in need daily, and note again the conjunction, daily and moment by moment of God's gracious government and his gracious influences to keep him aright. But thirdly, and finally, as we leave this text, The Christian here also prays for deliverance. So reads the text, deliver us from evil. And friend, that word deliver is so pregnant with feeling, isn't it? It gives that sense of an inexorable bondage, this idea that the man is groaning as though in slavery. And so in this case, friend, what you recognize is again, that the Christian hates sin, really. He has a settled disposition and determination against it. And he loathes it still. But there is a progression between the two clauses. The first clause, friend, you remember, it's leading us away from such sin. Again, by God's providence and by the influences of His grace. In that case, friend, it's a petition pleading for preservation. But in the second clause, it's a little bit deeper, isn't it? Because here it presupposes that the Christian has, well friend, he has come under sin. The idea there is not preservation, but again, explicitly deliverance. Not only keep me from sin, the first clause, but now deliver me out from it. What you and I, we see in this text friend is that then the Christian also is conscious of his need for restoring and for recovering grace. Christian, it's important for me to say this again. This is not a petition to be delivered from chastisement. This is a petition to be delivered from sin. to come out from it again and again. What do you mean by that, Joey? Well, look back with me into the idea that you have in Psalm 51. I mean, there the psalmist is very clear, isn't he? He is praying for a kind of deliverance. He prays, create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me. Cast me, he says, not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. The Dutch annotations put it this way. And paraphrase, they write, renew by a steadfast faith a firm and settled resolution in my soul to obey thy commands that I do not fall nor slide as I did. Friend, that's precisely what the Christian is praying for here. He is praying in this case to come out from under, those sinful dispositions that are within. Yes, even the sins to which he has succumbed and to be so restored, as again, the paraphrase reads, to have a firm and settled resolution in soul to obey the Lord. When you and I are praying for deliverance, friend, that's what we are praying for in the text. Now, as we leave this text, friend, we find again, as we said from the start, a picture of Christ's spiritual disciple. These are those, friend, who pray really and earnestly against sin itself. This is an exposition once again of the spiritual disciple's heart. This is a mark of the true Christian, friend. The Pharisees, they can make a very good exterior. They can look well, but in the end, they can only be whitewashed sepulchers. The legalist can try to reform himself externally, but in the end, he will still always has his pet, his bosom sins. He won't be at war against all corruption. At least he won't be at war against pride. But not so Christ's spiritual disciple. Friend, the true, the spiritual Christian hates sin and prays against sin itself. Friend, it's a wonderful thing to be delivered from the fires of hell. And the Christian should rejoice in that and will spend eternity rejoicing in it. But the true Christian will rejoice not only to be delivered from sin's consequence, but from its dominion. A Christian will not only be anxious to come out from underneath the rod of God's chastisement. This text reminds us that the Christian is anxious to put sin to death. There is no true spiritual disciple of Christ without this mark, friend. And so that is the point of examination. For us, as we leave this text, do we have that settled determination ourselves? Do we acknowledge that we can only stand by God's grace, that we are wholly dependent upon the influences of his grace to uphold that work begun? Friend, if you are in the Lord Jesus Christ this afternoon, I want you to remember that this petition is supposed to be made daily. And because it's made daily, that's grounded on the promise from the Lord God is pleased. He is pleased for his people daily and moment by moment to seek recovery. It presupposes, doesn't it, that there will be lapses after conversion. It explodes the notion of a kind of Christian perfectionism. It presupposes that daily the Christian will need to pray, not only for pardon, but for a restored heart, for continued gracious influences by God's Spirit to keep him in the right way. Friend, it's then grounded on the promise that the Lord God is pleased to supply again and again, those graces. I don't know, Christian, perhaps you've fallen and you've fallen very recently. And you've wondered and doubt whether or not you can go again and make such a petition, pleading both for pardon and for quickening grace. Friend, you have it from the lips of our Savior. You're supposed to do so daily, time and time again. And the reason why that is so, Christian, is because the Lord God is pleased, day and daily, to come to restore his own again after their falling. We saw this already, didn't we? In the Song of Solomon. You remember that at the end of Song of Solomon 2, there the bride prays, come over the mountains of Bather, but it's not just come over once. In the Hebrew, it carries over, come always. Come constantly over the mountains of division. Friend, that's the same petition of our text. When the disciple of Christ prays, deliver us from evil, they are praying simply come over the mountains of Bather. Beloved, pray this knowing that you have a Christ who is pleased to go into the wilderness, to seek, to reclaim his own, and to even do so daily. And so Christian, as we leave this text, this is to be our prayer. Our prayer looking to a Christ who is altogether sufficient. A God who is altogether delighting in mercy. One who calls us by his own word to pray. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.