“Pray then like this:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’” Matthew 6:9-13
We have been looking at the Lord’s Prayer for the last couple of weeks. As I have said, more than once, in this prayer we have seen a “full” prayer. My on-going prayer is that this prayer would become precious to us and to our families for it along with all the other prayers in the Bible are given to us to teach us how to pray but also to be incorporated into our hearts for the times when we do not know what to pray.
Today, we will look briefly at the 7th petition, “…but deliver us from evil…(or “evil one” as many translations seem to indicate”…which is the last of the petitions of this prayer. If the alternate translation “evil one” is the right one, what does it tell us? First, it does what the rest of Scripture does and personifies a specific enemy…one who is seeking to undo us personally. Second, it lets us know that there is one who has his hands in every truly evil event in history and that this one is more powerful than we are on our own….that he hinders good (that we might do) and provokes even more evil…he is restless to his perceived cause. Third, this reminds us, as Jesus reminded Peter, that Satan wants us and we need to pray to Jesus for us to be delivered, for without Him there is no hope. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”(Luke 22:31-32) But with Christ we will be delivered. “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:15-16.) And 4th, we pray this not simply for ourselves…the request is “but deliver us”…not “deliver me”…making it clear we are to pray this for each and every member of the household of faith.
So there you go, why do we pray this petition because only God through Jesus can deliver us from evil and/or the evil one.
Cyprian, a 3rd Century bishop of Carthage, said in his ending of his treatise on the Lord’s Prayer… “After we have prayed this we stand secure and safe against all the devil and the world can do. For what fear can he have of the world, who has God for his protector in the world.”
I will end today’s teaching with the Westminster Larger Catechisms Question 195: What do we pray for in the sixth petition?
Answer: In the sixth petition (which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil), acknowledging, that the most wise, righteous, and gracious God, for divers holy and just ends, may so order things, that we may be assaulted, foiled, and for a time led captive by temptations; that Satan, the world, and the flesh, are ready powerfully to draw us aside, and ensnare us; and that we, even after the pardon of our sins, by reason of our corruption, weakness, and want of watchfulness, are not only subject to be tempted, and forward to expose ourselves unto temptations, but also of ourselves unable and unwilling to resist them, to recover out of them, and to improve them; and worthy to be left under the power of them: we pray, that God would so overrule the world and all in it, subdue the flesh, and restrain Satan, order all things, bestow and bless all means of grace, and quicken us to watchfulness in the use of them, that we and all his people may by his providence be kept from being tempted to sin; or, if tempted, that by his Spirit we may be powerfully supported and enabled to stand in the hour of temptation: or when fallen, raised again and recovered out of it, and have a sanctified use and improvement thereof: that our sanctification and salvation may be perfected, Satan trodden under our feet, and we fully freed from sin, temptation, and all evil, forever.
What a Day that will be when all of this is finally accomplished! Hallelujah!!!
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
