Word of Salvation – Vol.49 No.24 – June 2004
Praying for Avoidance of and Deliverance From Temptation
Sermon by Rev M P Geluk
on Lord’s Day 52a (Q/A 127 Heid.Cat.)
Scripture Reading: James 1:1-18
Suggested Hymns: BoW 374; 66:5,6; 73:6,7,8; 454:7,8
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus has taught us to pray. With the Lord’s prayer our whole existence is brought before God. Prayer allows us to focus on God, who He is, what He is to us, and what we are to Him. Prayer is a buffer zone in our busy life full of concerns, tasks and responsibilities.
But after prayer we have to face the things of life again. From those intimate times with God we must return to the hustle and bustle of daily life. Right now we are in a church service, in dialogue with God, but tomorrow we’ve got to get back to work, back to school, back to whatever is part of our everyday life. And wherever we spend our waking hours, there we will again come face to face with many different kinds of temptation.
Most of us know from experience that in the face of temptation we can be quite weak. It depends, of course, what the temptation is. But when we are tempted in something that we like to do, even when we know it’s wrong, then we have a battle in saying ‘no’. We might even admit that we can’t trust ourselves. We might cave in, even though we know beforehand that we’re going to be sorry afterwards. So it’s not only that we are weak, but it’s also that we can’t trust our own nature. And to make matters worse, the devil is very clever to exploit us and his power is strong to push us into the wrong. Now with such situations facing us, we look to the Lord Jesus who says that we should pray: “Father, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” We are to pray, then, for avoidance of and deliverance from temptation.
1. Where lies the temptation?
When we say, “Father, lead us not into temptation”, then it seems to imply that God could do that and we pray to Him not to do it. Let us suppose, by way of example, that you are paying for your supermarket shopping and the checkout person mistakenly gives you ten dollars more in your change than you are entitled to. All of a sudden you are facing temptation. What are you going to do? Give the ten dollars back, or do you keep it?
Let’s assume that you remember that you’re a Christian and, therefore, you want to be honest. So you return the ten dollars to the checkout person. This person is rather surprised because most people would pocket the money and say nothing. You leave the supermarket quite pleased because you feel in your heart that what you did glorified God.
But later on you are thinking about the whole thing again. It then occurs to you that since God rules over all things, it must have been God who allowed that situation to happen. Earlier in the day you might have prayed the Lord’s prayer and said to God, “Lead us not into temptation.” You can’t help thinking that God did the very thing you asked Him not to do.
Let’s now assume that you kept the ten dollars and reasoned that since God led you into that whole situation, you can’t be blamed for keeping the money. In fact, it all went so quick that before you realised what was happening, the checkout person was already serving another customer and you were already on your way with ten dollars more than you should have. But you’re not feeling good about it. Your conscience accuses you of wrongfully profiting from the checkout person’s mistake. At the end of trading that person is going to discover there is ten dollars missing when the balance is done. Company regulations might require the checkout person to put in what’s missing from their own pocket.
Biblically speaking, you should be disturbed about excusing your ten-dollar win by reasoning that it was God who allowed that situation to happen. The Bible clearly says in James chapter 1, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone” (vs 13). God is altogether pure and holy, and therefore we can’t use God to talk right what’s wrong. And yet, that’s what we often do. Adam and Eve already did it. After Adam had fallen into sin and God faced him with his disobedience, Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit but ended up blaming God when he said, “The woman you put here with me” (Gen 3:12). And Eve was no better, she blamed the serpent. And some might even argue that Adam and Eve’s eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not their fault because God had allowed that situation to happen by having the tree in paradise. But even though God had put that tree there, that didn’t stop Him from holding Adam and Eve responsible for their disobedience, for He had clearly told them not to eat from it. Just like God tells us not to profit from mistakes made by others.
And yet God rules over all things, doesn’t He? Yes, He does! So how can we be blamed for the wrong things that God allows to happen? Well, we should realise that with the incident at the supermarket checkout there was not just God. You were there, too. And you’re not just a machine that can’t think. No, you have a mind and a will. From the moment you knew you had ten dollars too much, you thought about the options of giving the money back or keeping it. But the devil was also there. He was telling you to keep the money and say nothing. It was a lucky break.
But what then are we to make of Jesus teaching us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation”? Well, it’s to realise that the word temptation can also mean a test or a trial. We tend to think that temptation is restricted to evil things only. But with the ten dollars in the supermarket incident, you were not only tempted to do the wrong thing and keep the money, you were also tempted to do the right thing and return the money. To tempt is to pull you in a certain direction. The temptation is made difficult because you are faced with more than one option. The direction in which you allow yourself to be tempted is the crucial bit.
Here we must realise that God never tempts us to do the wrong thing. We ourselves play around with that option and the devil urges us to take it. God uses the temptation in order to test us, to see if we remain faithful to Him and to things pure and holy. In the supermarket situation you were on trial regarding your obedience to God. Had the checkout person short-changed you, then you would have immediately spoken up and drawn her attention to the mistake, which would have cost you money if you had not picked it up. But when the ten dollars was in your favour, immediately the temptation was there for you to keep it.
When faced with the option to do wrong, you can see how quickly our sinful nature seizes the moment to tempt us to sin. And quick as a flash, the devil is there also. Yes, go on, he whispers, it’s God who caused this situation to arise in the first place. The devil uses the same tactics on you as he did on Adam on Eve. Since God put that tree in the garden, you can’t be blamed for taking its fruit.
Can you now understand why Jesus taught us to pray, “Father, lead us not into temptation”? Not to ask God to do something that’s no good. That’s impossible for God. But God may test our obedience. And we, faced with the options of doing evil or good, may give in to evil. For that reason we pray – Lord, I fear that I may not be strong enough to remain obedient, so please do not, in your rule over all things and all people, put me in a situation where I can’t trust myself to do the right thing.
Why then does God, knowing that we are weak, proceed with putting us to the test? Well, there is still another side to situations where we are tempted. God also says this in James 1, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (vss 2,3). The testing of our faith is a kind of suffering. It brings mental anguish. Trials and tests throw us into a spin. We struggle with all the different things that might happen. We don’t like that but there is a positive side, says James. Trials and tests, if we handle them in the right way, can also produce perseverance. Romans 5 says, “We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (vss 3,4).
You see, when you faced temptation at the supermarket and overcame the urge to keep the money, then you persevered in honesty. And when you have done it once, then you can do it again. It’s like that with any sin you may face. Overcome the temptation to do wrong and you have persevered in God’s way. The Christian in you rejoices in that. A victory has been won over the devil and your own sinful nature, and God is glorified. And thus you rejoice in the trials God may put you through. Your faith won through and that builds up your Christian character and your hope in God has become stronger. All that is the positive side when God puts you to the test. Remain obedient to God and you grow in spiritual maturity and completeness as a Christian. You’ve learnt to remain faithful to God in a ten-dollar situation and next time you can be just as faithful if it were a hundred-dollar situation. Indeed, the Lord teaches that when we are faithful with little, then we can also be trusted to be faithful with much (cf Mt 25:23).
But as we mentioned earlier, we also know that in ourselves we are not so strong. We also know that the devil is very persistent and extremely clever. There are many tempting situations where we could easily come to grief and dishonour God. For example, how obedient to God are those of you who know your sense of lust is pretty strong, when it comes to resisting sexual temptations? And there is plenty of that around on the internet, magazines, television, and elsewhere. How strong are you, knowing your self-control is pretty thin, in resisting the temptation to lose your temper? How strong are you, knowing you love gossip, in resisting the temptation to say and hear things that put other people in an unfavourable light? How strong are you, knowing others are afraid of you, in resisting the temptation to bully and tease smaller and weaker kids?
When we know we can easily do the wrong thing and dishonour God in certain situations, then the Lord Jesus teaches us to pray, “Father, lead us not into temptation.” And we’ll just have to leave it to God as to when and where He decides to test our faith and make us grow stronger in self-discipline. He knows we can benefit spiritually from the temptation when we remain obedient to Him. The Lord will not put us through a trial when He knows it is too much for us.
Should the Lord in His wisdom decide to test our faith, or we in our folly put ourselves in tempting situations, then we better also pray, “Deliver us from evil.” We are well aware of how our own evil desires can drag us away from God and entice us to sin. To quote the apostle James once more, “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (1:15).
We know from experience how true God’s Word is here. Sometimes we rely far too much on our own strength and virtue. Sometimes we forget that the devil is around all the time, seeking to bring us into spiritual ruin. Sometimes the easiest person to convince to go ahead and do the wrong is our own self. When it is a question of wanting to be deceived, then no one can do it as well as we to our own person.
So where lies the temptation? Where does it lurk? We have to answer that temptation is always present, anytime and everywhere. Some always blame the world and try to escape it as much as possible. But although there is indeed a lot of evil in the world, there is also, thanks to God, a lot of good left. The problem is not always the world. It can be with ourselves and our wanting to sin. There is a tempting serpent in every paradise, but it only succeeds when we begin to listen and give in to it.
Now very often when the subject of temptation comes up, people tend to think of sexual temptations. Maybe that’s because with many of us that’s where the biggest battles are fought and lost. John’s gospel tells about a time when the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought before Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery. They made her stand before the group that had gathered around Jesus as He was teaching them, and said to Jesus, “‘In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. Now what do you say?’ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him” (8:5,6).
Jesus mixed with sinners and showed them compassion. So if Jesus was going to forgive the woman and let her go, then the Pharisees could accuse Him of breaking the law God gave to Moses. When Jesus finally answered them, He said this, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (vs 7). Well, that shattered their self-righteousness. Quietly, all the accusers left, the older ones first. What memories of sin did Jesus provoke in them? Did the woman who had sinned sexually remind them of their own sexual sins? Did Jesus’ words uncover a whole lot of lustful thinking in these men? Seeing the woman commit adultery, did they sexually lust after her?
But sexual temptations are not the only temptations and maybe they are not even the most difficult and dangerous. In an age obsessed with sex, such temptations may be more frequent, but we should not be fooled into thinking that they are the worst. More subtle are those temptations that are very difficult to detect from the outside. Think of pride. How often do we not rate ourselves higher, or more important, or more spiritual, than others? There are many ways in which we put the other person down.
There are many kind of temptations where we need to be aware that the difference between good and evil is not a wide gap but a very thin line. Those Pharisees may have genuinely wanted to stamp out adultery in Israel, believing that to be God’s will. But when they caught the woman in the act, each might well have wished to be the one committing sin with her. A moral virtue one moment can very quickly turn into an immoral act the next moment. It doesn’t take much to turn purity into impurity. To turn a normal desire into lust takes only a split second. You can sit in church with your thoughts focussed on God and the next moment you mind drifts off and you find yourself thinking things of which you are glad others are not aware that you have them. Our minds are often like a game of chess. In chess you only have to shift one or two major pieces around, and it can change the whole complexity of the game. So also our thoughts. Change them a bit and before you know it you’re no longer thinking as a Christian but as a very sinful human being. The evil in us knows exactly where to strike and when. And the devil also knows our strong and weak points.
2. The need for Christians to be on their guard
We cannot expect our journey through life to be free of temptation. But on what road should we be travelling so that temptations, when they come, can be met with the best resistance available to us? Jesus taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”, but where is the best place to pray that so that God’s power and strength can come to us unhindered? The answer in Lord’s Day 52 makes the confession that “by ourselves we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment.”
So you don’t want to be on a road where, in the words from the Catechism, “our sworn enemies, the devil, the world, and even our own flesh – never stop attacking us.” We should be travelling on a road, where, as the Catechism says, the Lord can “uphold us and make us strong with the strength of His Holy Spirit, so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory.”
Where, then, is that road? Well, Jesus tells us it’s the narrow road! He says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Mt 7:13,14). Broad is the road where they tell you: “yes, use your money, your time, your tongue, your body, just as you like. Just live the way you want to. If you happen to dishonour God, harm your neighbour, or not measure up to the rule of righteousness and love, then don’t worry about it. Do as you please. Do it your way.” That’s the broad road.
The narrow road is different. It’s a road that is characterised by honesty, decency, love for God and neighbour. In fact, all the things that Jesus taught about the kingdom of God are found on the narrow road. It’s a road where you can enjoy wonderful times near God. It’s a road where you travel with righteous purposes and a joyful heart. It’s the way of the Lord. On the narrow road there is fellowship with Him. It’s the best road to be on when you want to be on your guard against all kinds of temptations.
Oh, yes, temptations can reach you also on the narrow road. But they may also be a test from the Lord, a trial maybe, to help you become even stronger in your journey on that narrow road. On the narrow road the Lord is with you. He is before you, behind you and next to you. In His hand is your hand and He leads you. When you look to Him and pray this petition, then you will not be tempted so easily to do evil. Following Him honours Him and it becomes a blessing to you.
But we need to have a correct mental picture of the broad and narrow roads. There are pictures around from artists that may confuse things. Often the two roads are shown as separate, one going to the left with hell at the end, and the other to the right with heaven at the end. In a sense that is true. But very often these two roads are not far removed from each other. They are very close to each other, one almost on the same track as the other. You can find yourself on the narrow road and then on the broad road very quickly. It may only be one step from obedience to disobedience. Just one thought from right to wrong.
And why is the narrow road called narrow? Because God’s commandments are clear-cut, they don’t allow us to get away with things. And the road is narrow also because the world prefers the Christian to stick to churchy things. The world doesn’t want Christians reforming the world to Christ’s standards. But once you’re on the narrow road and you see and experience the many and rich blessings of God, then you find that the narrow road is not so narrow anymore. The Lord’s teaching on the kingdom of God opens that narrow road right up. When you see things properly on the narrow road, then it’s the broad road that becomes narrow, shortsighted and cramped.
But for all that, real obedience on the narrow road is hard work. You frequently have to deny yourself and not give in to the sinful part in you. If we really pray with the utmost sincerity, “Lord, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”, then we will be determined not to take the wrong option when tempted. But there are times where you don’t quite want to be the good person the Lord wants you to be. Our great difficulty is always to leave sin alone with all our heart. To choose, deep in our heart, to radically resist all forms of evil and fully serve God, and do that all the time, and for that we are very much in need of the Holy Spirit.
How can we become like that? How can we get there? By praying this prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Not to pray it, or not to mean it when we pray it, is to be overcome by all the usual temptations that we face every day again.
Amen.