Lead Us Not into Temptation

If you'd like a title to our sermon study today, the title is Lead Us Not Into Temptation. Lead us not into temptation. And we're going to look at a couple of passages of Scripture just to set the foundation for our topic. Of course, our topic is this whole matter of temptation. Temptation being that of being enticed or lured from God's way. First set of Scripture that we want to turn to is found in Luke 11.4. Luke 11.4. So if you'd like to turn there, of course, Luke 11.4 is where we find those words of our title. It is the concluding words of the model prayer. Jesus's disciples, one disciple in particular, ask Jesus to teach them to pray. And here in Luke 11, verse 1, of course, we've been going through this model prayer over the past weeks. Lord, teach us to pray. Beginning in verse 2, Jesus first turns their attention on to the Father. Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And then beginning in verse 3, of course, we looked at turning our focus on to our petitions or our requests from God. First, give us there in verse 3 our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, verse 4, as we forgive everyone who's indebted to us. And then, remarkably, Christ concludes this model prayer with these words having to do with temptation. Verse 4, the second part of verse 4, and lead us not and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Now, next, if you'll turn with me, if you want to keep your marker there, and turn with me to James chapter 1 verses 12 through 15. James 1 verses 12 through 15, where we find additional information and direct instruction on this whole matter of temptation here.

Again, temptation is the the enticement, the lure to go against God's way. So let's look and see what James says regarding this topic. James 1 verses 12 through 15. James says, Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Verse 13, 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.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Verse 15, Then when desire, when that temptation has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death. Let's stop there. You know, in beginning this study, I think we can say right up front, see if you agree with me, that we can confidently say that there's no period of our Christian life in which we are exempt or free from temptation.

I'm sure most of all agree. And when I was younger, I always thought, you know, when we grow older, surely this whole power of temptation will subside. I don't know how many of you have thought that, but what you will find, young people, is that as you grow older, those same old temptations are still there. They're still there, looking to bite at your heels, looking to bring you down. And if that's not bad enough, what you will also find is that often there's a whole new batch of temptations that are added along the way.

And these new temptations that we face, they're often very clever, and they're often very specific to whatever specific circumstance or specific vulnerability that we're going through. They almost seem tailored fit to come in at whatever part in our journey in our life that we're struggling with. And so, yes, temptation is a reality, and yes, it's unavoidable. And the only time that we'll be free from it is eventually at the end of our physical life when, God willing, we are called to meet Christ at His return. It's a fact. So, at this point, we might ask, why is that so?

Why is it that the Christian would be involved in a continual, unyielding spiritual struggle of this type? Well, the answer to that is simple. It's the fact that the same grace which calls and reconciles an individual to God, it is that same grace which then antagonizes us to the devil. All right? So, in being called and reconciled to God, coming into that relationship, everything changes. When I was not in that relationship with God, Scripture says, in a sense, I was a friend to the devil. But then, simultaneously, when I am called to be a friend to God, that makes me an evil—an enemy, if you will—to the evil one.

And so, from that point in the Christian's life, Satan will bring all his endeavors to bear upon the life of a man or woman who says, yes, I submit to Christ, I want to live for God, I want to follow him, and making that commitment in that statement of faith does not then place you in wonderful, peaceful pastures of ease. Rather, what we discover is it places us on a great spiritual battleground.

And that's the battleground that we sung about just a minute ago. There. And we discover that the real battle begins with regards to temptation at that time. We won't turn there, but of course, that whole notion is found in John 17.

Jesus prays for those to whom God would call and bring to him, and he says, I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but he says, I pray that you would protect them from the evil one. And so when we read there in Luke 11 and the model prayer, lead us not into temptation, we pay special attention to the second part of the phrase that says, deliver us from the evil one. So in a sense, we're echoing that prayer of Christ there in the garden. So it is this part of the prayer that Christ instructs us to conclude with, where the believer is asking for deliverance from Satan the devil, and to be protected specifically from the temptations that will put us in Satan's grasp if we would allow it.

Therefore, the Christian must figure out how to deal with temptation. And that's what we're going to talk about today. How is the Christian to understand and to ultimately deal with the temptation to sin? For our help, I've broken it down into four parts. Four parts to understand temptation and to successfully then engage in the battle to resist temptation, to go against God.

Four parts here. Number one, the first part to understand is simply, number one, understand it is a daily battle. Okay? Pretty simplistic, that first point, but it's profound really. Understand that the fight against these temptations, it is in fact a daily battle. It is part, there in the model prayer, that we're to pray daily that model of this is one of our daily petitions to God.

We need to be concerned with this daily battle. The Christian deals with temptation by actively engaging with it each and every day.

So, a helpful practice, whether you write it down on paper or whether you write it down on your heart, these words, to really have these words written down, these words, I will engage in this battle of temptation each and every day.

Why is that statement so important?

Well, you've perhaps felt in your heart along the way, and I know any of us who have been involved in counseling, our own experience, and involved in the counseling of others, what you will find sometimes is this temptation or this notion to believe that somehow or another, once we've made this commitment to God, that we are removed from the battlefield, if you will. But the scripture is very specific. There is no such experience to which will remove us from this battlefield. The truth is, no matter what spiritual victory you had yesterday, you know that as you move out this morning, you will be faced with the task, once again, to resist whatever temptation comes your way today. In other words, no matter how successful I was yesterday, I know this morning is another day to refuse to allow my eyes to wander off to sin. I know it's another day, another morning, to refuse to allow my mind to contemplate something that is sinful. I know it's another day, every day, it's another day that I must refuse to allow my affections to run after something or anything other than God in His way. So my ability to be victorious is not in my ability to think back on a previous day's victory, but rather it's in my ability today to close or avert my eyes, my ability today to shift my thinking, my ability today to align my affections back on God. So number one, understanding when we start to think about temptations is to understand it's a daily battle. And you will find this, I'll find this in counseling, where the individual will say, wow, I was doing so well and I thought I had overcome it and bang! There it was. This last week it came back on me full force and what they had unintentionally done is let their let their guard down. But receiving God's grace does not remove us from the battlefield. And if you really want to know something about it, it's just the opposite. When we receive God's grace in His Spirit, it actually intensifies the battle. I don't know if this is your experience or not, but once you make that commitment in baptism, what you will find is with the Holy Spirit now with you, you are now made fully aware of all the areas that are not in step with God. It's almost like your senses are so alert, your spiritual senses are so alert to now all the sin that you didn't even realize was here before.

So Jesus teaches in response to His disciples, asking Him to teach them to pray. He makes sure, just in the very few petitions that He puts in that model prayer, He makes sure that this is the one that wraps them all up, really, the very thing that we should be praying.

You know, do not lead me into temptation. Deliver me from the evil one. Why is this such a powerful part of the prayer? Why do you think this is such a powerful part of the prayer? Why do you think Christ reserved this for the concluding part of His model prayer? Well, there's probably several reasons, but I just think that resisting temptations to go away from God, it is so powerful and it's so purposeful and it's so beautiful. When we do this every day, it is one of the most beautiful things that a believer does. There's nothing more beautiful than the Bride of Christ showing their love, their commitment, their devotion to the bridegroom each and every day. Father, today, just like yesterday, I am yours. I am yours.

And one way I will show you I am yours, my wonderful bridegroom, is by not putting my affection on anything else other than you.

So, when we raise our head from this part of the daily prayer, Father, do not lead us into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. We're making that new commitment every day to be His. And it's a beautiful thing. So, it's a daily battle.

Number two, second aspect to understand with regards to temptation. Number two to understand is that, number two, God is never and cannot be the source of temptation. Okay? That's the number two understanding. God is never and cannot be the source of these temptations. If you're still in James 1, verse 13 again, very clear, verse 13. James 1 verse 13, James says, let no one say that when he or she is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted. He cannot not be tempted by evil. Nor does he himself tempt anyone. So, it's absolute, it's categorical, it's stated by James there. And you really can't escape the logic here. God is unable to be tempted. He's incapable of being tempted. So, therefore, he will absolutely never ever tempt you or I. Right? Very important second understanding here.

Because when you think of this request that we are to pray in the model prayer, we can ask, why would we even pray this to the Father then? I've even had some of these discussions with some of you. It's an interesting part of the model prayer. You know, we have already addressed the Father at the beginning of the model prayer. Why would we even pray this? Because James says here that God is not the source of temptations there. God is not tempting me. He cannot be tempted, therefore, he doesn't tempt anyone else. However, if we think back on Luke 11 verse 4, we're instructed to pray to the Father, Father, lead us not into temptation. So, what are we asking God to do? If God does not do this, why would we ask him not to do it?

Good question. I'm glad you asked. And really, we don't have to be too complicated with this. And essentially, the answer comes in knowing the original Greek word for tempted or to be tempted. Understanding the original Greek word will help us in this. The Greek word in the model prayer there in Luke 11 and the Greek word here in James 1 is pareasman. I knew I was going to stumble on that. Pareasman. Let me spell it to you versus try to say it. It's the spelling P-E-I-R-A-S-M-O-N. Pareasman. P-E-I-R-A-S-M-O-N. It can also pareasmas. It can also end with a U-S as well. And it's the same Greek word in Luke 11. It's the same Greek word here in James 1. And this Greek word can actually be translated either trial, test, or temptation. You will find this word translated in various ways in the Bible. Translated either tried or to be tried or to be tested or to be tempted or temptation. And the determination in how you look at it depends on the context. Okay, so let me explain it as simply as I can. We want to get this as we consider Luke 11 and James 1 here. So here's how to think about it. Here it is. What God may allow into our experience as a genuine and necessary trial or test, the evil one may seek to use as a source of temptation. Okay, I'll repeat that. What God may allow into our experience as a necessary test or trial, the evil one will come along and seek to use it as a source of temptation. All right? In other words, what God allows trials and tests into our lives, those trials which he brought about so as to produce character, so as to produce spiritual maturity, the evil one seizes upon those and takes that which is a test or trial and seeks to turn it into a temptation.

Okay, for example, God tested Abraham. We know God came to Abraham and Sarah with a test. He says, I am going to promise you a son, but you're going to have to wait. And the trial and the test is in the waiting. But Abraham is tempted to take matters into his own hands and to bring about the promised son sooner by having this promised son through their servant, Hagar. So what happens? What happened? Satan came along and takes the test from God and says, I'm going to present this test and I'm going to attempt to turn it into a temptation for you, Abraham. So Satan tempts Abraham. Abraham listens. He fathers a child through Hagar, and all chaos and disaster emerges from it. And the chaos and disaster that emerged from was not as a result of God tempting Abraham to sin with Hagar, but as a result of Abraham giving into the temptation to sin in this way. Abraham taking the test which came from God and coming to the temptation to bring it about himself.

Most all of us can identify with that, you see. So just know that Satan is always ready to turn a test or a trial from God into a temptation to sin.

Now the good news, of course, God's very patient. God wasn't finished with Abraham, and God presented another test, another trial to Abraham, where Abraham found himself being faithful to the later test by God in God's request to sacrifice that son Isaac. All right? So in that trial, in that test, Abraham resisted the temptation and was faithful to God in the test in the trial. So when you begin to wrestle with the subtle, subtle distinction between testing from God and temptation from Satan, you understand it this way. When we pray, lead us not into temptation, what we are saying essentially is, God help us so we don't turn the testing, which is from you, into a temptation from Satan to do evil. All right? So again, we're to be praying this daily. This is our daily petition. Father, if I'm going into a severe test here, don't let me go without your power. Don't let me go without your protection. During this test and trial, please help me to deliver me from this evil one, the evil one who I know is going to come during it. Deliver me from him. Do not let me be tempted to give in to the seductive allure, which can come from our testing. So just know that, you know, God's purposes are always good and noble. So anytime God gives a test or a trial, it is his intention for us to pass and not to fail. Satan's intentions are always evil, and he seeks to always bring about failure.

And all of his temptations are to that end.

So just know and understand that God is never and cannot ever be the source of enticement to evil. All right, building on that, number third, we're going to move to the third point to understand.

And the number third understanding for us to have as we think about temptation. Number three, temptation begins with our own desires. Okay, that's the number third point to understand about temptation. Temptation always begins from the inside. It begins from our own desires, ultimately.

So, in other words, the evil desires and enticements that come upon me, the temptations, while they are exacerbated by the devil, while they are enhanced by the devil, and the devil comes and tries to move us, while that is true, the fact is, these evil desires ultimately come from within us. They ultimately emerge from within. Now, that fact is made clear all throughout Scripture. One of the most direct places in Scripture where this is for sure a fact is found in Mark chapter 7. So, if you'd like to keep your marker here in James 1, we'll come back. But turn over to Mark chapter 7 verses 17 through 23. Here in Mark 7, it really punctuates the point of where the defilement, where the uncleanness comes from, and it ultimately is from within our carnal nature, our carnal heart.

Here in Mark 7, beginning in verse 17, I'll just give you a little context here. Christ is chastising them for ignoring his commandments. There in verse 8, they were, as a symbolic picture, washing the pitchers, the cups. They were very clean on the outside, and so Jesus uses that imagery to point to the fact that they may look clean on the outside, but there's a real defilement. There's a real uncleanness from the inside, from their heart. So picking up at verse 17, when he, Jesus, had entered a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him concerning this parable. So he said to them, verse 18, are you without understanding also? So he's speaking to his disciples. He's speaking to us today, God's people. Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from the outside cannot defile him because it does not enter his heart but his stomach and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods? So of course the stomach is designed to do its job even if we didn't cleanse our hands, if we ate with dirty hands, kids don't do that. That dirtiness, that defilement, of course the stomach is designed in such a way to purify that. But notice verse 20. And he said, now, what comes out of a man, that defiles a man. Okay. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed, here's the list, evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, those are all impure sexual desires. Moving on to murders, we get talk about anger, staphs, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. Verse 23, all these things come from within and defile a man. All right, let's stop there. So it is from within, from the heart. This, so this alert emerges from within a man or a woman. So you begin to think about this and take it to its conclusion. You really understand this. You know, any parent knows from very early on in a child, you spend a lot of time teaching just the littlest guy or the littlest girl, for example, not to lie, you know, Jimmy, tell the truth. Did you eat that cookie? I can see the chocolate on your mouth, you know. So you think, why is that? Wow. Or we often have to teach our little ones not to take what is not theirs from a very early age, you know, and you take it away from it, give it back, and of course the temper tantrum occurs. So from the very earliest that we can see in our human experience, while we know the devil does come and entice the carnal nature, while that is true, we also know through the strength of Scripture that carnal nature is there, and it is there waiting to be stirred and stirred up by the devil. We won't turn there, but maybe for your notes, Genesis 4.7, Genesis 4.7, a very familiar Scripture, it says, sin lies at your door and desires to have you. Another translation is sin is crouching at your door. So think of that imagery. Sin is crouching at your door, and it's waiting to have you. It's waiting to jump on you, but then there in Genesis 4.7 it says, but you must rule over it. You must rule over it.

So with all of this, the fact is, temptation cannot open the door to sin. All right? Temptation cannot open the door to sin. And did you know even the devil cannot open the door to sin? Even the devil cannot do it. So Tom Sawyer was not correct when he said the devil made me do it. That's not true, Tom, because who ultimately opens the door to let it in? It's crouching there, it's waiting. Who ultimately opens the door? Well, as we see in Genesis, sin is crouching at the door. Satan the devil is right there, but he says you must rule over it. We ultimately have the choice, the power, to either open that door or not.

So we try to explain away sin in various ways. Are young people, I said this when I was young, well, it's really my horrible friends, honestly. You know, the reason why I went down this path is if you met so-and-so, she's horrible, you know. The reason I'm here in this predicament is because of her. Well, I remember using this excuse. If you knew my upbringing, you know, I had this struggle in my upbringing with my family. That created the weaknesses, and that is why I now succumb to these temptations. How do we explain it away? If you knew my environment at home, if you knew my wife, if you knew my husband, you name it, that will explain why I am living contrary to God's way. But we cannot hide behind our environment. We cannot hide behind unruly friends or family. We cannot hide even behind the devil himself. The fact is, if you want to turn back there now, James 1 verse 14, the fact is, James 1 verse 14, we cannot escape the personal responsibility in giving into temptation. Yes, it's crouching. Yes, the devil's there. Yes, we have weaknesses created in us by all various ways. Ultimately, you and I are the ones that have the power and the choice to open that door and go down that path. So we see now why it is a daily battle. And we have understanding that these temptations are not coming from God. And we understand Satan is always there to take a test from God, which is to develop a beautiful character. Well, Satan's always there to turn it into an ugly temptation, always there to sin. But despite Satan's efforts, we are responsible ultimately for ruling over these desires.

And that brings us to our fourth and final point to understand with regards to temptation. And this fourth point is really going to help us in our grappling with and our daily dealing with this struggle. Number four, understanding with regards to temptation. Number four is to know temptation in and of itself is not sin. It's how we respond to it that matters.

Very important to understand the fourth point. Temptation in and of itself is not sin. It's how we respond to it that matters.

So there is a response that will either lead to life or it'll lead to death. That's what James 1 verse 15 says. So we're tempted by our own desires, verse 14. But then verse 15, then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it's fully grown brings forth death. So here in verse 15, when desire, we could say when temptation to go against God has conceived. Interesting analogy, it gives birth to sin. Sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death. So we see there's a process here by which when temptation comes in, a process by which we can nourish, nurture, allow to grow that temptation, which will lead to sin. And when it's fully grown, it brings forth death. And I know some of the some of the sin that I have in my life right now, it is full blown sin today. Because I allowed that initial temptation to stay in my life. I made excuses for it. I fed it, I nurtured it, and it began to grow and grow and grow. And now it's full blown sin. And if I don't, if I don't do something with it, it's going to bring forth death. And it would have been much easier to deal with it. And when it first came into my experience, much easier to deal with it now that it's really such a major part fully, it's fully grown in my life here. So this fourth understanding really gets to the day-to-day wrestling with this.

Again, the temptation in and of itself is not sin. Let me try to give you some examples. I think this is important for young people and old people. For example, it's not the accidental opening of a lewd website that's sin. So very easy to do these days. You clicked on the wrong thing. There it is. It was accidental. You didn't realize you were going into that area. There's the temptation. It's arisen. There it is. And you didn't realize it. So you immediately close it down. You avert your eyes. You go and move on to something else. Get your mind off of it. It wasn't what you expected. That is not sin. It's sin when you allow it to be conceived, begin to grow in your heart, and you kept it up. And you begin to place your affections onto it. Instead of having your affections onto the bride groom, you're now moving over to idolize and put your affections on someone else other than this wonderful bride groom, Jesus Christ, who we're waiting for to return. It's not sin when the temptation of gossip hits you. That's not sin. When is it sin? Well, it's sin when you find yourself whispering in that ear. I can't tell you how many times I have had something hit and I went, oh well, you know, and then you've caught yourself. Has that ever happened to you? And that's a beautiful thing because that's God's Spirit saying, ah, nope. And you say, well, nah, I probably shouldn't say that. That is beautiful. That's wonderful. That's exercising character. That's a test. That's a trial which you have passed. And you moved on from it. Reflecting on the earlier message, it's not sin when the temptation of anger hits you. And, yeah, guys and girls, but, man, it hits you. And it would feel you're so tempted to say what is on your heart and boy, it's going to be a good zinger. And it's going to put them in their place. And you're ready to do it. But then, oh, you stop yourself. You count to 10 and you say, let's talk about this later. I need a little time. And then you're ready to do it. I need a little time, honey. And you remove yourself from the situation. And you think about it and boy, then you're able to handle it in a much better way. And that's beautiful. That's a beautiful process. And you're building character. It's only sin when you were given pause by the Holy Spirit and you ignored that prompting and you go ahead and you let loose and you lay it out on your family. So James is telling us here, when it becomes sin, and there in verse 15 again, it's this you can think about it in kind of a conception process. And nurturing it and giving birth to this sin and it leads to death when it's fully grown.

So there's always a moment from this wisdom that you become aware of the temptation or enticement to sin. And there's a choice whether to let it grow or whether to deal with it right at that point. So let me state it as simply as possible. Sin is born the moment you become aware of its existence and you refuse to get rid of it. Sin is born the moment you become aware of its existence and you refuse to get rid of it. And so Christians must deal with temptations at the moment of their appearance, deal with it with urgency, deal with immediacy in that way. Again, it's not temptation when it arises in our hearts. It's how we respond to it in that moment. And so now we understand why this is such a purposeful and such an important part of our daily prayer. We need to be praying daily for this. Help me recognize, Father, the sin when that temptation. Help me to recognize it and then give me the power to count to ten, you know, in that way.

Well, we need to be praying these words daily and confirm our commitment back to our bridegroom daily in this way. And so we're going to be in to work to a conclusion here. And as we begin, as we continue to think or conclude our thoughts on how to deal with these temptations, I want to conclude with a little bit of encouragement. Again, God's intention always with these tests and these trials is so that we would have success and not failure. And with that purpose in Him, we know that He makes a promise to us. Let me show you this promise. I'm going to conclude with just one passage of Scripture here where God makes a promise to us. It's 1 Corinthians 10.13. We'll conclude with this verse. It's a powerful, encouraging promise from God to all those who are in this fight, a promise to all of Jesus Christ's followers who are in this battle to resist temptations every day. Here's the promise. 1 Corinthians 10.13.

God's promise to you as you're in this battle. No temptation has overtaken you except such as common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with every temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. That's the promise. God is faithful. There will never be a temptation in your life that is too powerful for you to overcome. God is calling you, beloved, to overcome. While these things are common to man, yes, and woman, God is calling us to overcome and to rise above. Acknowledged today, there has never been a temptation in my life that was too strong to escape it. So, as we are praying this part of the prayer in a greater way, may we pray to God, help me pass the test each and every day. Do not allow a temptation to sin, become too powerful for me. Father, I know I'm weak. These desires are deep within my heart. Create in me a new heart daily, Father. Help me respond ruthlessly and immediately to these things when they come. Make the way broad enough, Father. Make the escape broad enough so that I may be able to bear it. Father, lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one.