Our scripture reading this morning is Ephesians chapter six. Ephesians chapter six. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for that is right, this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants, be subject to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ, Not with thy service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters do the same things unto them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there any respective persons with him. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me. That utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. But that ye also may know my affairs and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs and that ye might comfort your hearts. Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace, Be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. So far we read God's holy word. The basis of that and many other passages of God's word is the instruction of the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 52. We consider today simply question and answer 127, which asks, which is the sixth petition and the answer, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil? That is, since we are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment, And besides this, since our mortal enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh cease not to assault us, do thou therefore preserve and strengthen us by the power of thy Holy Spirit, that we may not be overcome in this spiritual warfare, but constantly and strenuously may resist our foes, till at last we obtain a complete victory. Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, in Ukraine and many other places in the world today, people are living with the reality of war. Ordinary people lying in bed hear the sounds of bombs exploding. Some explosions may be far away, some may be near, but they wonder if they will come close enough to destroy their home. There are people who hear the sound of tanks. and of trucks carrying enemy soldiers, and hear the sound of soldiers smashing down their door, and soldiers running into the home with guns drawn, taking prisoners, some of whom will be shot, some will live in prison camps. It is a difficult and uncertain life that they live. Are you aware that you are in a war? That when you wake up in the morning, you have a foe, an enemy, sitting on top of you, waiting to wrestle you into complete submission. your own sinful flesh. And if you reach for your phone and turn on the phone, the cell phone, then there are lurking in the shadows the enemy with weapons aimed at your heart. And that your home is under siege, that the devil and his host are hate-filled enemies waiting to put shackles on your wrists and to lead you away captive. You are in a war. You're in a battle that goes on all day, every day. Your flesh is battling for domination. Your flesh is wicked. It's not your friend. Your flesh is strong. It is relentless in the battle. The world hates you. They may mask that with pleasantness as they invite you with smiles to join in their activities, their sinful activities. Have you seen the movie? Have you seen this video on TikTok? And if you're not interested and if you reject their pleasantness and their invitations to sin, then they will criticize and mock. And at times that world attacks violently and puts to death physically. The devil is working through it all, making the good to seem ugly, uninviting, making that which is evil to look good, pleasant, enjoyable. But this is not, you understand, a small matter. This is not a fight that is merely interesting. The new life that you have in Jesus Christ is under attack. It often seems as though that life is so weak We have but a small beginning of new obedience. It's almost sometimes like a 10-year-old with a slingshot standing against the Marines with their helicopters and their planes and well-trained, well-armed soldiers. But it is a real battle. Your enemy is Satan and his host of millions. of fallen angels. It is the whole world of the ungodly united in hatred against Jesus. It is your own sinful flesh. This stands against God. It stands against Jesus Christ. It stands against you because you are part of the cause of Jesus Christ formed in His image Righteousness, holiness, true knowledge of God. The enemy can see that. And the enemy attacks. You've been brought into this war. The Spirit gave you the life of Jesus Christ. When the Spirit leads you to make a confession of your faith, Then you say before all the world and before the devil himself, I am of the army of Jesus Christ. But I say again, this is not a mock battle. This is not a mere training. This is a battle to the death, to the death. The devil hurls at you deadly darts, fiery darts. That's why Paul tells us as Christians, put on the whole armor of God so that you may resist, so that you may stand. And that's why Jesus tells us to pray. lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil, preserve us, strengthen us, make us able to stand, because we can't, not in our strength. So let's consider the instruction of the Heidelberg Catechism under the theme, The Prayer of the Christian Soldier. Well, notice first of all the request, secondly the need, and thirdly the certain answer. The request is twofold. Lead us not into temptation. Temptations are part of life because of sin. If there were no sin, there would be no temptation. There are various kinds of temptations, of course. The Bible uses it in more than one way. One way is to describe that which is really a trial that is described in James chapter one, my brethren counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, trials, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. God sends trials. that can be of all sorts of different forms, physical infirmities, diseases, broken bones, the death of a loved one, heartache in our life. These are all trials. It can be extremely difficult circumstances at work, in the family. It can be a child with special needs. It can be persecution by the world. God determines it. Hebrews chapter 11 speaks of Abraham when he was tried, and it's a word really that's translated usually tempted, but obviously not tempted in the evil sense, but tried. And it was God who told Abraham, go offer Isaac on the altar. Abraham was being tried. But whenever God brings a trial, Satan will try to use that same circumstance to tempt to sin, to make God's people to become angry, to become bitter against God. God sends these trials to prove his people. He knows, of course, our spiritual state perfectly. He knows our strengths. He knows our weaknesses far better than we do. And you may send a trial exactly to bring out what He has worked in His people to make us aware of His work and then to strengthen us even more. Or He may send a trial that will bring out a weakness of which we were not aware. And now we know that we need to fight against it. He brings trials for our spiritual benefit, to mortify the flesh, to tame our wild passions, to cleanse us, and to strengthen us spiritually. That's one kind of temptation or trial that God sends for the good of His people. There is another kind of temptation which is more often in our mind, and that is deliberate attempt to lead into sin. James warns us God never does that. God does not tempt someone. God who himself hates sin would not try to make someone sin. He never does. It is of Satan, it is of our sinful nature that these temptations come. Temptation has two sides generally. On the one hand, it is an attempt to make evil to look good and desirable. To make working on Sundays or going to the beach on Sunday look enjoyable, something good. To make stealing, to make yourself rich so that you can buy things to look good. to make fornication, sexual activity on a date or in a group, making this appealing to the youth instead of something that is accursed of God outside of marriage, making it to look like something that this is what I want, something good, making evil to look good. That's what Satan does. He's working very hard in American society, making drugs like marijuana to be something that's good. Something that makes you feel good, even though it will lead very likely to sins you wouldn't otherwise commit, even though it's destroying the temple of God's spirit, your body. Satan says, look at how good it is. making divorce appear good. Marriage isn't very good, so divorce looks like a good thing, and then marry someone else. He's making that look desirable, something much better than living in this relationship. He's making homosexuality, which God calls an abomination, Something good. Changing your gender because you don't feel like what God has made you, a male or a female, is something desirable, something good for you. His efforts, again, are to make evil look good, to have society approve of it, and even encourage people to walk in these sins. The other side of the temptation is to make good look bad, undesirable. Sabbath observance, going to church twice, is made to be something bad. An honest day's work, faithfulness in marriage, even unto death, having children, raising them in the fear of the Lord, That's made to look evil. But now, while Satan is the one doing the work, making good to look evil, making evil to appear desirable, God is still sovereign. Absolutely. Nothing happens apart from God's eternal plan. In fact, he sends both the trials of life and he determines the temptations of life for our good to force us to do battle. We are in a war. I cannot stress that too much. One of my greatest concerns for this congregation for the Protestant Reformed Churches and for all of the Church of Jesus Christ in America is that we are not aware that we are in a war. We have a lot of money. We have a lot of free time. When we have a lot of money and free time, we can enjoy the world. which the Bible warns us about. What are you going to find there? Lust of the eyes, pride of life. You won't find the fear of God there. You will not find godliness, but everything that draws us away. So the society around us encourages us. Life is fun and games. Life is for Entertainment. It's for sports. It's for vacations. It's for enjoying television and the internet. One works for the weekend. One works so that he can do these things, enjoy these things. That's why a person works, so society tells us. And my concern is that that's shaping our thinking. I look at our bulletins and I see how much time is inviting, we are invited to do things that are of little profit, Paul said, of little profit. We will have some of the best trained children They can go to camps to learn how to be better basketball players and volleyball players and softball players. We will have athletes who can golf and run cross-country. But none of those things are preparing us for the battle. And the danger is that with all of this activity, our attention is being drawn Away from the battle and we don't even think there is a battle life is fun and the pursuit of fun That's by great concern But what gets squeezed out is the spiritual work Spiritual work A Bible study, for example. Growing up, societies went, met for nine months out of the year. Now that's whittled down to six. What are the serious, what are the work of reading serious material? Something that takes mental and spiritual struggle to get a hold of this and to to apply it to self, something that will strengthen us for the battle, prepare us for the battle. Satan is at work. The wiles of the devil. Children, wiles means sneakiness, deception. The devil does not come announcing This is a temptation. In fact, what the devil does is take something totally innocent, playing ball, golf, whatever, and so drawing us into that, that it consumes our thoughts and our time and our money. And we don't have time for the other. We don't have time. And we're not engaged in the battle because we're too busy playing. These are some of the wiles of the devil. Fathers, fathers, what are you teaching your children? What are you teaching your children? What's important in life? Do your children understand? Not merely because you mention it sometimes at devotions, yes, we're in a battle, but because they can see in your life, you are in a battle. You are fighting the battle. Can they see that? That's what we need to be teaching our children. We're at war. We fight not with guns, not with Legislature, we fight with spiritual enemies, says Paul. Spiritual enemies in high places. Powerful. This is a serious matter for the child of God today. About 35 years ago, a man who was an unbeliever wrote a book entitled Amusing Ourselves to Death. And the point of the book was, look what television has done. It has made it so that all of us expect to be entertained all the time. Well, it's far worse today. Not only with television, but the internet and the smartphone, this is what we expect, to be entertained, to be able to watch video after video after video, consuming hours of time every week. And it has destroyed our ability to think deeply and meditate at any length of time on anything. So that attention spans are shrinking. What does that mean? How can you delve into the truth of God in just a couple of minutes of devoted attention? You see, you can't. You can't. What does that mean for reading a two and a half page standard bearer article? And really thinking it through. Or a heavy book on theology. These are the things we need to strengthen us for the battle. The devil knows that. If he can divert our attention, if he can get our attention off from the Bible, off from spiritual things, he has won a tremendous victory. And so we pray. Lead us not into temptation. What are we asking? We're asking that God not lead us down those paths. Don't let us go down those paths. where we are immersed in the things of this world, where they take over our life, even things that are not in themselves wrong, not sinful in themselves, and that he not allow us for sure to go down paths where it is outright wickedness. It means recognizing our own weaknesses. What are you prone to? What are you prone to? What's the delight of your life? Recreation? The world's entertainment? Some other kind of sin that is a besetting sin? The prayer is, Lord, don't let me go down those paths. Chasing me. Turn me around. Keep me from falling into these sins, the deception of Satan. The Bible illustrates over and again in the lives of God's people how serious this is. Jesus even warned his disciples, Peter here, Peter's so enthusiastic, so devoted to Jesus. Jesus warned him, Peter, Satan desires to have you and all the rest of the disciples. He desires to have you and sift you as wheat. But Peter didn't pray. Lead me not into the temptation of pride, trusting in self. And he fell grievously, grievously. What's your weakness? We need to go home, every one of us, you and me, every single one of us, and say, what is my weakness? What am I prone to? And then pray. Lead me not into that. Not into anything, because I might not even see what exactly is my weakness. Probably don't. But what I do see, I must pray specifically about and then generally do not lead me into temptation. Do not let me go there. That's one part of the request. The other part is then, but deliver us from evil. This is a prayer for sanctification. This is a prayer that God will not let us join the enemy but rather that we will oppose the enemy. We need strength for that. That's what we're praying for. Don't let me go down that path, but now strengthen me for the battle. We are born in sin. Ephesians chapter two describes what our natural condition and we are born children of wrath. We're prone to sin just as much as anyone in the world. Absolutely no better. A radical change happens in you when the Spirit regenerates, when the Spirit gives you the life of Jesus Christ, when He gives you a new heart, and into that heart He pours the love of God abundantly. And we begin to walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Sanctification is the work of God, the work of the third person especially. God, the Holy Spirit, sanctifies His people. And that means, first of all, He delivers from the power and corruption of sin, the power of sin. He delivers from that. He breaks the bondage. He makes the child of God to love God. He makes the child of God to begin to hate sin, to avoid it, to fight against it, and to walk in all good works. That's sanctification, the work of the Spirit, breaking the power of sin, delivering from the corruption of sin, making us to love God, hate sin, and walk in obedience. That's what we're praying for, deliver us from evil. We need to pray this, we need to pray it fervently. not only in general against all the evils that we see in society, the evils we see in the church of Jesus Christ, the evils we see in our own families, but we need to be specific and personal. What is your besetting sin? What are you asking God to give you strength to fight against? Don't make it merely general. Make it personal. Make it your own prayer. It's easy for someone who has no strong inclination to stealing to say, Lord, give me strength to be honest. Well, that's fine. But if you are prone to breaking the Sabbath and skipping service, then you need to pray about that. If you are prone to belittling your wife, you need to pray about that. Deliver me from evil. It doesn't matter if you take the evil to be the devil himself or sin, because they are inseparable. Sin is what the devil uses against you and me, so it doesn't really matter. Deliver me from the devil, yes. Deliver me from evil, yes. This petition is closely related to the fifth petition that we considered last week, forgive us our debts, forgive our sins. Because God's work of salvation is a very orderly work. In God's work of salvation, there is forgiveness and then there is sanctification. They always go together. Justification and then sanctification. because Christ redeemed and freed his people from the sin, the guilt of sin by his own blood. Because he did that, he will free his people from the power and corruption of sin. They always go together. Just as in this life, a man who's locked away in a jail cell is allowed out of the jail cell when he is declared to be not guilty. And of course, he must be freed then. He's not guilty. He doesn't belong in that cell. And so when Jesus says to you and me, you are not guilty, I forgive you your sins, then you must be freed also from the power of that sin. And that's what he does. So forgiveness and sanctification go together. One always follows the other. And that's why I say it's important here because if a man prays, Lord, forgive me, forgive this sin that I have in my life, but he's not sincere in that, he doesn't really mean that, he really wants to hold on to that sin, then when When he gets to the next petition, the one we consider today, and he says, deliver me from the evil, God will not do that. He will not give us the power to fight the sin if we're not truly repentant of it. He simply will not. We ask for forgiveness from the heart. We pray from the heart, deliver me from this evil. We need that. The Christian soldier needs to make this prayer. Because we are in danger of falling, there is tremendous danger when you consider the strength of the enemy. Anyone who goes to battle looks first at the enemy. What kind of an enemy am I fighting? What's the strength of that enemy? The devil. is a powerful angel, so powerful that the archangel Michael did not dare to bring a railing accusation against him, but said, the Lord rebukes thee. That's how powerful angel Satan is. He's ahead of millions of evil spirits. Every one of them hate God with a burning passion. All of them are evil to the core. Sometimes you might You might see or read something about someone that is so evil that shakes you to your core. Can there really be someone that evil? If you could look into the heart of a devil, it would terrify you. They are pure evil. There isn't an ounce of good there. It's total evil in their hearts. That's our enemy. Satan and his hosts want to destroy you spiritually. Their goal, of course, is to bring an elect child of God to hell with them, that's their goal. And even though they know from the Bible that won't happen, they won't stop trying, and they will, then if they can't bring you to hell, they will wound you spiritually, they'll try to hurt you spiritually, weaken you, and at the same time dishonor God and his cause. That's what they will do, if at all possible. We have other enemies under Satan's influence. We have the world, the ally of Satan, billions of people who hate Christians. And then there's our own sinful flesh. There's nothing good in your flesh. There's nothing good in my flesh. The Bible says this is the only thing you can do with your flesh. Mortify it. Put it to death. Don't feed it. Don't get cozy with it. It's your enemy. What's coming out of your flesh, that desire coming out of your flesh, is not a good desire. Mortify. Sin is very powerful. Sin can grip a believer so that that believer cannot get out of the sin in which that believer is immersed. It corrupts, it defiles, it weakens spiritually so that the Christian soldier cannot stand against the wiles of the devil. There is great danger. You will face temptations. You are facing them. God has determined that for his church. Even as God in the Old Testament left enemies in Canaan for the Israelites so that they would learn war. So God leaves the enemies for us. The devil, the world, our own sinful flesh are there. Because we need to learn war. We have to learn how to fight. God does not have in mind that we can simply glide through life effortlessly, no spiritual dangers or struggles. So He has determined trials and temptations. That's why Ephesians 6 says, You need to stand. You need to resist. You need to fight. You need the armor of God to do that. Sometimes, of course, we need something to run from temptations. Paul doesn't say to the Corinthians, now when you're facing the sin of fornication, stand up and fight. No, he says run. Flee it. It's too powerful for your flesh. Run from that. But then pray. Pray for God's strength, because the enemy is strong. The other reason we need to pray is because of our weakness. Praying this prayer, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, is confessing, I cannot stand myself. That's what we are saying. I am prone to evil. I cannot stand in the army of Jesus Christ. I will fail. I will give up. I will compromise for a false peace. Do you believe that? Do you believe that about yourself? We don't like to admit it. We think we're pretty strong early. I will stand. I will stand. I will be faithful to Jesus. I will not give up his truth. And yet. We sometimes see fellow soldiers fall. God's people believers can fall terribly. We might boast within ourselves, I will stand if the employer says you need to work Sundays in order to keep your job. I will stand if all my family and friends forsake the truth, I will stand. I will stand if I open up the phone and there's a link there to a pornographic site, I will stand, I will not fall. That's not true. We cannot stand. We will not stand except by the power of God's grace. That's why the prayer says the catechism is this, preserve us. Preserve us so that we are not overcome by the enemy, so that we do resist and fight continuously, strenuously. That's the language of the catechism. Fight continuously, strenuously. So we pray. But will God grant your request? When you look at how unfaithful we can be, when we look at what poor soldiers we can be, will He say, you know, really, there's no sense giving you strength because I know what you do. You're unfaithful. Will God hear? And the answer is, he certainly will. He delights, he delights in the prayers of his children who come to him with sincere request. In fact, he's the one who brings us to that place. When you cry out, From the heart, this prayer, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. It's God that has brought you to that place. And he delights. He delights in it because he loves his own name and his own cause. He wants his people to stand. He wants them to fight. He wants them to hold fast to his truth and to godliness. He does. Because you understand, that's how His power is revealed. All these enemies, the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh are there because without them, God's powerful work in us would not come out. To stand against evil, to stand against the lie, to stand against godlessness, would not come out if there was not the lie and godlessness to confront. Even in our own soul now, not merely out there, but here is the battle first in us. We can be absolutely certain that God will hear our request and will give us what we're asking. But ultimately We can be absolutely sure because of Jesus. He's the king triumphant. He defeated Satan. When Satan came to him with the greatest temptations, Jesus shunned them. When people came controlled by demons, Jesus cast them out. When Jesus went to the cross to accomplish the work that God gave him to do, the host of Satan raged against him and Jesus stood. And he overcame and he accomplished all the work his father gave him to do. He destroyed sin and the grave and hell and Satan's power. we're in a war and in any war there is a victor there are those who are conquered can't be any different that's what a war always brings about those who are victorious those who are conquered our war is such that the victory is accomplished Satan is defeated by King Jesus. We fight in victory. We do fight. We do fight. The Catechism reminds us of that. Till at last we obtain a complete victory. Till at last we obtain a complete victory. We are called to stand. We are called to fight, to do battle. Until that day that we obtain the complete victory. Understand, that does not mean until we ourselves gain that victory, until we have overcome Satan and the world in our flesh. Jesus did that. But he tells us, you must fight. You must stand, you must resist. Until that day that you obtain what Jesus has earned for you. Complete victory. The death of the old man of sin. Deliverance from this life. And ultimately, when Jesus returns, Satan and his host cast into eternal hell. The world, all the enemies of God, vanquished. That's the complete victory. That's what we're looking forward to. The victory is certain. The victory does not depend on us. Understand. Does not depend on us. But that is not an excuse, then, to lay down the arms and say, well, Jesus did it, so I can go relax. I can enjoy life. No. Fight. Stand. Resist. The victory that we have, says John in his first epistle, is faith. Daily we take hold of Jesus by faith. He fills us with the power of His Spirit. He fills us with the grace that we need, that strength. And He defeats the power of Satan, not only generally, but in us. The power of the devil in us. That's the victory. that overcomes the world, our faith in Jesus. Soldiers of Jesus Christ take hold of Jesus every day. You're powerless in yourself to stand, you will not. Pray continually that you enter not into temptation. Sin is so powerful. Christian soldiers, stand, fight, and pray. Always. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the victory that is certain Because it's already accomplished. And that we may live out of that. Live out of the power of Jesus Christ. Live out of the power of His Spirit. Lord, strengthen us. We are weak. The battle is great. Temptations are very deadly. Deliver us from the evil. And Lord, do not lead us Do not allow us to go in paths of sin. Where we already are in paths of sin, deliver, take us out. Glorify thyself through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. We sing of the power to battle in Psalter number 36. As thou, O Lord, hast made me strong to overcome my mighty foe, so now to fight against the wrong and conquer in thy name I go. The first four stands as 1 through 4 of number 36. Because Thou, O Lord, hast made me strong to overcome my mighty foe, so now to Thou Oh, strike the melty memory and make the visions on high stray. Change people's ways. ♪ To hold the limbs and bust his feet ♪ ♪ I run, I run, I am mutely blest ♪ ♪ My Savior who delivers me ♪ ♪ And will away For grace and mercy ever near, our hopes of good and victory's wine, all nations of the earth shall hear. O come, O come, Emmanuel, O come, O come, Emmanuel, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.