Our sermon this morning is taken from Luke chapter 11, verses one through four, as we do continue to go through Luke's summary of the Lord's Prayer that the Lord taught to his disciples on a particular occasion. And we'll note again that as I come to the part that begins, Our Father in Heaven, I would encourage you to speak it along with me, so that you're saying the prayer that Jesus taught. But just a few words. Today we're going to be focusing on the sixth petition in the Lord's Prayer, which is, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Particularly focusing on the first part, and do not lead us into temptation. We'll talk about the last, some call it the seventh petition, regarding deliverance from the evil one. We'll talk about tempting, temptation, and being tempted today, and how important those things, or how important resisting those things are. Now let's, before we read the Word of God, ask for His help in understanding it. No man can read your word without light. Just as a man cannot read a page in the dark, so too we need your spirit to illuminate us inwardly so that these words would be profitable to us. We remember in Christ's time in John chapter 5, he spoke to the Jews who read the scriptures. zealously, every single day, without finding Christ in them. The veil remained over the Word. Their understanding was darkened. We pray, Lord, that that would not happen with us, that as the Word is read, you would illuminate us. Oh, Lord, give us grace to understand these things. It's your neighbor's money to buy that car once the interest rates come down, but if you are using your own money, that's not necessarily evil. Unless, of course, you buy certain cars, but we won't talk about that. But that's not the way the Bible uses this term. In the New Testament, the word translated temptation is actually parasmos, and it means a trial, a trial of somebody's fidelity, a trial of somebody's integrity and virtue and constancy. And often, it involves an enticement to sin. Something is set before you, and it's something you want. But if you take it, it would be to sin. Let's say you're walking in the city. Something like this actually happened to me once in New York City in Manhattan. And a man ahead of you takes his cell phone out of his pocket. But as he does so, a $100 bill also falls out of his pocket and hits the pavement in front of you. But the man doesn't notice. So what happens? Do you pick it up and run ahead to hand it to him? Or do you figure, hey, it's my lucky day. Look at that. See how blessed I am. What's happening? What's going on? At that moment, you're in the midst of a trial. The temptation, of course, is to break the Eighth Commandment, to steal the $100, to become $100 richer in one sense, but considerably poorer in another. What will be the result? Or let me give you another example. You stayed up too late gaming or hanging out with friends on Saturday and the alarm goes off on Sunday morning. Your mind, I don't know if this has ever happened to you, incorporates the buzzer into your dreams for a little while, you know? And then finally, maybe after about 15 minutes or so, you eventually wake up and your desire is just to roll over, hit, you know, the off button and so on. But it's the Lord's Day. Will you break the fourth commandment by going back to sleep? We can think of a limitless number of trials or temptations to do evil that might occur every single day. It's seldom that huge temptation that comes before you, you know, to murder somebody or to commit adultery outright with another person that's suddenly thrust in your face. It's usually a lot of little temptations building on one another. But the godly man who knows his own weakness will know that he doesn't want to be put into those situations of temptation, especially not on a regular basis. Which is why the Shorter Catechism has this to say about this petition. In question 106 of the Shorter Catechism, it asks, what do we pray for in the sixth petition? And it answers this, in the sixth petition, which is, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted. Note there are two different options there. To keep us out of temptation, I would prefer that one, Or, once we've entered into temptation, to deliver us out of it, so that we might not fall prey to it. Now, when some people, though, read that particular petition, as it's phrased in verse 4 of chapter 11 here, they become confused. And they say, Wait a second, do not lead us into temptation? How can God lead us into temptation? Doesn't James 1.13 say, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. So the confusion there is in one sense understandable. God's desire, though, is not that we would sin, but remember that that word, parasmos, the Greek word, incorporates the idea of trial and testing, and God I'm sorry if this is news to you, God does test His people. For instance, as we already read way back in Luke chapter 4, we read about Christ's temptation in the wilderness. It's not going to be the case that Christ who goes ahead of us as our leader and our head is going to encounter something that we will not encounter as well. He's tempted in the wilderness. Matthew puts it even more succinctly when he points out that Jesus was led up by the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And there in the midst of the desert, the devil attempted in vain to get Jesus to do something sinful. He issued a series of challenges, and in each challenge there was a temptation to do something sinful, but with a supposed reward. Jesus, do something sinful, and something good will happen. And that's the way the devil always tempts. That's the way he tempted Eve in the garden. Take and eat the fruit that God said not to eat, and it will make you wise. You will be like God. And she fell for his lie. And all mankind fell from grace in the process. Remember that, brothers and sisters. The devil does not set before you Generally speaking, when he's tempting you, something you don't want or despise or dislike, he sets before you, like Queen Jadis in the Chronicles of Narnia, he puts the Turkish delight in front of you, not the broccoli or the okra. Anyway, sorry. I'm just giving you the things I can't be tempted by, okra. Every Christian's life in a fallen world is going to be filled with those kinds of tests. Temptation is set before you. If it is resisted, you have passed the test. If you do not, you sin, you fail. What do you do after that? You repent and you return to the Lord. I wonder, though, did it ever occur to you that you are in the midst of a test right now, even as we speak? Right now, you are in the beginning, or I'm sorry to tell you this, beginning to middle of one of the hardest of the tests. All of these temptations that come at you as soon as a sermon starts. There's the temptation simply to go to sleep. There's the temptation to let your mind wander through the world. There's the temptation to watch other people. There's a temptation now to text someone, or to play a game on your phone, or to check the scores of the games you're following, to wander out to the bathroom four, five, six times, you know, whatever. Or just to veg out. There are people, and it's interesting. The pastor, believe it or not, can actually suss out. When you're looking at me, but your eyes are completely glazed. And I know you're not hearing. Incidentally, kids' parents can do that, too. So during the lecture, we know when you've checked out. I remember I used to snap and everybody says, hey, hey, come back. There's more. But let me ask you, before you came to church today, did you pray that the Lord would deliver you from those temptations? Did you pray last night? Did you pray this morning before the service? Did you pray with me as I was praying for our hearing? Because you are entering into spiritual warfare. And it's not your outward appearance. That's important. It's not how well you're dressed or how sociable you are or how expensive your Bible was. Does it have the goatskin cover with the, you know, your initials on it or perhaps your entire name? That's part of this test. In this moment, when you come in, it's what's inside of you that matters. It's, this is the test of your, ability to stand in the evil day against pressure and temptation. It's a test of who you really are and how well you have been made and how solidly you are being made up. I don't know if you've ever heard of a vessel by the name of the Vesa. She was built from 1626 to 1628 by King Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. And she was intended to be his flagship. This was an amazingly impressive ship. She was the first two-gun deck man of war in the Spanish Navy. She had 64 guns, most of which were 24-pounder bronze cannons which were very, very heavy. She was richly ornamented. The entire stern was covered in gilt and oak leaf and royal crests and so on. And to look at her, you would think that nothing could take this ship on. Well, on August 10th, 1628, the Vesa left on her maiden voyage against the captain's better, I don't know, He did not think it was a good idea to leave at that point in time. He thought more tests needed to go on, but she went out. She was going to war against the Lithuanian and Polish navies, and all her gun ports were open in order to fire a salute as she left Stockholm. Now, the sea was perfectly calm. And everything seemed well. Then a gust of wind hit the Vesa and she healed suddenly to port. And that subsided and incredibly slowly she righted herself and went on for another couple of minutes. And then another stronger gust pushed her over again on her port side. And what happened was, as that happened, the lower gun ports, which were open to fire the salutes, came under the water. And the water began to rush in and the ship swiftly sank in barely a few minutes on her maiden voyage. She looked so impressive, but the first trial that she endured, and that not a particularly difficult one, sank her. She looked great, but underneath all of the guilt and the paint, she was too top-heavy. She had too many problems that had simply been ignored. And so she was sunk by a gust of wind. Incidentally, the Vesa was raised, I'm told, in 1961. And you can go and see her at the Vesa Museum if you're ever in Stockholm. I have friends who've seen her, and they say it's very, very impressive. Looks impressive, but it'll sink every single time. Now, the connection between preparation for testing and testing should be obvious. What's the best way to prepare for trials? Well, here's the problem. If you knew that the trial was coming, then hopefully you might be able to prepare for it, right? But the problem is the majority of trials that we encounter are not ones that we expect. So the connection between prayer and testing should be obvious. There's an organic connection between testing and prayer. Isn't there a saying that as long as there are tests, there will always be prayer in school no matter what the government says? And I still remember that my students in RCCA were usually more zealous for me to pray before a quiz or a test than a regular class, although they would pray for, Not often that the Lord would bring back to their mind those things that they had studied, but they rather miraculously would implant them in their minds at that moment in time, I think, a little. But they were about to go through a test that would seek to assess what was in their noggin. And they were thinking, Lord, please help me to pass this test. Temptations, on the other hand, test our heart and soul. They test what we're made of. They test our mettle. Now God already knows what's in your heart. And keep this in mind, he knows what's in your heart better than you do. But a temptation will often be in the moment when you find out or when you realize how much you needed his help. It'll come at that time that you did not expect. And upon that moment, if you haven't been praying, you're in trouble, but you can still throw yourself upon the Lord there and then. My life seems to consist of an interconnected series of arrow prayers where something happens and I immediately launch up an arrow to heaven. Oh, Lord, help. Now, the apostle Peter did not realize how weak he really was. He thought of himself as a spiritually strong man. And he didn't realize how much he needed Christ's help until he had already gone through his trial. And in Matthew 26, after Jesus announced that he was going to be betrayed, we read that Peter says this. Peter answered and said to him, this is verse 33 of Matthew 26. Peter answered and said to him, even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you that this night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said to him, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And so said all the disciples. You will deny me three times, Christ warned. Now, Peter, keep in mind, had been with Christ for three years, and you'd think by then that he would have learned Jesus doesn't get things wrong. He doesn't issue empty warnings. And yet he still thought he had the strength to pass through any trial. We learn in Luke 22 that Jesus gave Peter another warning. In verse 31 he said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. Jesus tells Peter that Satan, the adversary, the tempter, the deceiver himself had asked to sift him like wheat. And of course, that was a process whereby after the kernels had been broken by, say, a threshing sledge or something, the wheat kernel, they would put it in a basket on a windy day and they would throw it up in the air. And what happened was the chaff, that is the outer shell, which is very light, would be swept away. And then the kernel would fall back down into the basket and so on. And that's what the devil is asking permission to do. He'd ask permission to sift Peter like wheat, to test his faith by tempting him and to see if he was a true believer. which would have meant he was wheat, or if he was a false one, which meant he was chaff. And Peter should have considered in that moment, when he was warned by Christ about that, how Job's faith was tested by the devil, and it should have terrified him, but it didn't. And so a little while later in the garden, when Jesus warns his disciples in Matthew 26, 41, watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. What should he have done? Watched and prayed. Did he? No. Instead he did what? He slept. And so the evening after Jesus was betrayed and taken, he was brought into the courtyard. You remember the high priest and Peter followed him. And the accusation was made by this little servant girl, aren't you one of his followers? A little girl accuses him of being a follower of Jesus and immediately he denies it. It's terrifying enough to cause him to deny his Lord and Savior. What is he thinking? I've got to save my skin. And so what does he do? He denies Jesus. And how many other Christians who thought their faith was too strong ever to deny Christ have done exactly the same thing in that moment of testing? There were some martyrs in the Reformation who initially made that, they were confronted with the idea of you're going to burn at the stake if you don't deny. the Protestant faith, if you don't deny justification by faith alone. And some men, like Archbishop Cranmer, actually signed a recantation. But remember this, Cranmer as he was being burned, after he had repudiated his recantation, put out his hand into the fire, the right hand, and said, let this hand that has sinned burn first. There's always a time for repentance, brothers and sisters, when we fall like Peter. But that's why prayer is so vital. We don't know how or where we are going to be tempted, but this you know, it is going to happen. So you must watch and pray ahead of time instead of being caught entirely spiritually unprepared. Now, how do you fight against temptation? Well, the first key is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is absolutely vital. The Lord's Prayer assumes that you have been born again, that you are a disciple of Christ, that you've already entered into that relationship where God has become your Father. If not, you do not have a new heart. You don't even have the desire to struggle against sin. That's why so-called, and I don't know if you've ever heard this term, carnal Christians, are always falling prey to sin without a struggle and living just like unbelievers. They may be in church, but they are not in Christ. And their hearts are still captivated by sin. They're like the Vesa. They may look like a solid ship, but when the wind blows, they fall over. They fall into temptation. Jesus said to the Jews who were following him, who were seeking worldly benefits, in John 8, 44, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. That's a description of the carnal Christian to the T. You may be following Christ for some benefit, but if your heart is not wed to him, united to him by faith and truth, you are going to fall into sin, so don't be self-deceived. Test yourself. If you feel uncomfortable among the people of God and comfortable amongst worldly sinful people, if your idea of a good time involves breaking two or more commandments, then you have not yet come to faith in Christ. So don't wait. Flee from the wrath to come. And if you know, you've tested yourself and you say, yes, although I may be weak in the faith, I am still a believer. My weak faith connects me to a great savior. That's good. The second application is now that you're in the fight, know your enemies. Keep in mind that you have three great enemies who work continually to cause you to fall. Who are they incidentally? Who are your three greatest enemies? The world, the flesh, and the devil. Very good. Your main enemy, the devil, understands this, and he never slumbers, he never sleeps. He knows you. He knows where your defenses are weakest, and he has not only allies in the world he can call on to tempt you, he has an enemy within to call upon to open the gates. Who's that? That's the flesh. And he is gonna use all of them to get you to fail. I knew a man who had been away from church for some time, and he'd fallen into persistent cycles of sin. And I encouraged him that what he needed was to be like the prodigal. You need, brother, you need to get up from the pigsty, and you need to flee back to the house of your father. And he said to me, you know, head down, he's, you know, you're right, pastor, I'm gonna be there Sunday. But I said to him this, I said, I'm glad you want to be there, that's good. But know this, the devil is going to do everything he can to make sure that you aren't there. He's going to use your friends. He's going to use your relatives. He's going to use everyone he can. And he's going to come up with solid gold reasons that you can't go back to church this Sunday. And he's going to keep doing that until you give up this idea of going back to church. You've got to pray. And you've got to set your face like Flint. I'm going to church no matter what happens. And he said, oh, yeah, I know. But I could tell he wasn't taking me seriously. So Sunday morning, rolls around, and he's not there. Sunday night, rolls around, and he's not there. And so I messaged him. I said, brother, where are you? And he responded, well, this thing came up, and my wife really wanted to do it. And it seemed like a good thing. So I wasn't able to be at church. But I'm going to be there next week. Was he there next week? No. Was he there the week after? No. Now he doesn't go to church at all. Ever. In fact, he's decided that the Christian faith isn't true. Have you ever noticed this? The sin comes first, and then the unbelief that justifies the sin follows in its train. But know your weaknesses, because you can be sure the devil does. Thomas Watson said this, he observes the natural temper and constitution of men. He does not know the hearts of men, but he may feel their pulse, know their temper and comply and can apply himself accordingly as the farmer knows what seed is proper to sow in such a soil. So Satan finding out the temper of a man knows what temptations are proper. to sow in his heart. The same way the tide of a man's constitution runs, the wind of temptation blows. Satan tempts the ambitious man with a crown, the lustful man with beauty, the covetous man with a wedge of gold. He provides savory food such as the sinner loves. He chooses the fittest season to tempt in as a cunning angler casts in his bait when the fish will bite best. So the devil knows the best time when temptation is likeliest to prevail. He's going to come at you where you're most likely to fail, not where you think you're strongest generally. So third, take every precaution you can against temptation. Do what you can to shore up your weak spots and do not think you stand lest you fall. Gentlemen, have you heard of the Billy Graham rule? The Billy Graham rule is a simple rule. It's don't be alone with a woman you are not married or directly related to. This used to be called sanctified common sense, but today we've called it the Billy Graham rule, and supposedly he was the one who invented it. He didn't. It was something that men who knew that they were men of mere flesh would act accordingly, create accountability partnerships, especially with your spouse, live transparently, and don't hang out with people you know are going to tempt you to sin. That's a simple one. There are so many men I know, and women as well, who have struggled against a sin, overcome it, and then gone back to the group that indulged that sin, thinking I can stand, or worse, the myth of, what is that, the myth of influence, that's it, thinking I'll change them. What happens? They change you. Remember that the devil can and he will make use of every person he can to get you to sin, sometimes even religious ones. The devil used Peter himself to try to dissuade Christ from going to the cross. Jesus knew and said to him, get thee behind me, Satan, and you may need to do the same thing. Here's another one that's so very, very important. Men especially, listen to this. Avoid idleness. Truly, I tell you, the devil makes work for idle hands to do. The more leisure you have, the more trouble you will get into. If the hands are not working good, the head will be plotting evil, the old saying goes. And don't spend your time thinking on sinful things. Micah 2.1, woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil on their beds. At morning light, they practice it because it is in the power of their hand, and also, then this is very important too, especially for younger people. Avoid sinful and self-indulgent emotions like self-pity and discontent. The devil tells people like that that God does not love them, that there's no mercy for them, and the melancholy soul is apt to think so and sets its hand to the devil's lies. Melancholy breeds discontent, and discontent is the cause of many sins as unthankfulness, impatience, and often it ends in self-murder. You know what that is, right? Suicide. Discontentment will lead you down that path because that's what the devil wants. Above all, remember the means of Christ. Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation. Do not cut yourself off from the people of God. Do not cut yourself off from the means of grace. You'll be like the coal that rolls out of the fire. What happens after the coal rolls out of the fire? It quickly grows cold, stops burning, is no longer fervent. And above all, last application, never stop depending on Christ. You are weak, but He is strong. Why did Peter not fall into despair after betraying Jesus like Judas did, that despair where you give up the faith or you kill yourself like Judas did? The answer is in Luke 22, verses 31 and 32. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you his wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. Adam was tested in the garden by the evil one. He failed. Jesus was tested in the desert and succeeded. Remember this. Remember this. You do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with your weaknesses. He was in all points tempted as you are, yet without sin. Depend upon him. Go to him. And when you do fall prey to temptation, run back to him. Do not say, I will stay in this pigsty. Mortify that sin and run to Christ. Dump the idol and run back to God. He will always have his arms open to receive you when you do. Let's go back to the Lord now and ask for his help in remembering these things. God, our Father, Lord, so often we think we can overcome temptation, that we're temptation-proof, that we can go anywhere, be in any group, endure any sort of tempting, and we will stand firm. Remind us of the example of Peter, the spokesman of the disciples, the man who had been with you for three years. How quickly he fell when he was challenged by a little girl. Remind us that the same thing can just as easily happen to us. Oh Lord, help us therefore to watch and to pray lest we fall into temptation, to be prayerful constantly, not to be idle, plotting all sorts of deceits. Help us instead to be active and vigorous, both in our vocations and also in serving you. Let us fill our minds with good things that keep the temptations away. Lord, let us be constantly reading your word. Constantly in the fellowship of the saints and constantly under the means of grace Lord. We need your communion We need your body and we thank you for them. We pray all these things in Jesus. Holy name. Amen. Amen