Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil

Take your Bibles this morning and open once again, I would say one last time, to Matthew chapter 6.

Well, at least one last time in this series of messages, okay? Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 through 13. We've come to the final phrase in this prayer, this famous prayer, the model prayer.

If you'd have it, the Lord's Prayer, that's what most of us know it by. Anyway, the final phrase of it. And therefore, I've come to the last sermon in this series.

And then we'll move on to something else next Sunday. Kind of have an idea what it'll be, but I'm not going to tell you yet, okay? Now, you found it there in your Bibles, but once again, I want to read it from the J.B. Phillips translation.

I just like the way he puts it. And so, if that's a little confusing for you as you look at your copy of Scripture, then just look up here if you want, because I want you to pay close attention to the way this is phrased.

This is how J.B. Phillips translated it. Pray then like this. This is Jesus speaking. Pray then like this.

So, this is an example. The model. And this is how Jesus taught us to pray. Our Heavenly Father, may Your name be honored.

May Your kingdom come. And Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day the bread we need.

Forgive us what we owe to You, as we have also forgiven those who owe anything to us. And then here's our focus this morning.

Keep us clear of temptation and save us from evil. Love the way that's put. He put that just right.

Keep us clear of temptation and save us from evil. Now here's what we've learned in this prayer.

Just a quick review. Prayer is about resting. Resting in God, our Heavenly Father. Prayer is about reverencing.

Reverencing God. As He put it, may Your name be honored. Always honored. In me and in the world. Prayer, thirdly, is about reigning.

Reigning in the kingdom of God. May Your kingdom come. Jesus said, this is how you ought to pray. May Your kingdom come. May it come in my life and in the world.

Prayer is about resigning. Resigning to the will of God. Your will be done. In earth as it is in heaven.

Prayer is about requesting. Requesting what we need from God. Give us this day the bread we need. Prayer is about releasing.

Releasing the sin debt we owe. God releasing us because we've sinned against Him. And us releasing others when they sin against us.

So prayer is about releasing. And now one last principle. Prayer is about relying. Relying. Relying.

Relying. Relying upon God. Relying upon Him to keep us clear of temptation. And to save us from evil. We're to rely upon Him.

Or as it is rendered in the New King James Version. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

That's how the New King James puts it. It's a very literal translation. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Alright, now. On the front end here, in this introduction to this verse or portion of the prayer, I think there is some clarity needed.

And so for purposes of clarity, let's just deal with a few issues. Maybe you've thought about this as you have read this passage. Maybe you have not. I don't know.

But I want to say a few things here. In the first place, let's know, let's understand that God does not, cannot tempt us to evil. God doesn't do that.

He cannot do that. And so He would never lead us into temptation. Alright, let's know that on the front end here. Let's look at the verse. Now the verse seems to imply that He would or could, but He never does.

Never could. Lead us into temptation. God's Word does not contradict itself. And the best way to interpret Scripture is to let Scripture interpret itself.

And so let me just point this particular verse out to you. James chapter 1 verse 13. It's a very familiar passage. Let me read it to you very quickly. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God.

Very clear, isn't it? God doesn't tempt you. He goes on to say, For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. So where does it come from?

Or how does it happen? Well, He goes on to tell us. James chapter 1 verse 14. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away. That is, lured. Kind of like a fish being lured by the bait.

Each one is tempted when he is lured, drawn away by what? His own desires or lusts and enticed.

That is, literally, caught by the bait. That's how it happens. It's not God tempting you. Not God drawing you away to sin. It is your own lusts.

Your own desires. And you're caught by the bait. That's how it happens. And so I say this, or point this out to you, because the valid question is this, concerning this prayer that Jesus is teaching us here.

The valid question is, what is the sense of praying that God will not do what He has promised He would never do? Have you thought about that?

Good question. What's the sense of praying that? God will never do that, that is tempt you, or tempt you to evil. God will never do that.

God cannot do that and remain true to His nature and God will always stay true to His nature. So, why pray this? Pray. And this is why I think we need some clarity with dealing with this passage.

In the first place, God does not, cannot tempt us with evil. But let me point a second thing out. God does promise that we will be tempted.

He promises that will happen. God does promise that we shall experience times of testing, and that would include the temptation to sin. Let me refer back to James 1 and go back a little bit to verse 13.

James wrote, Blessed is the man who endures temptation. He's blessed. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

The implication being, God has promised that this will happen. And blessed are you when you endure it. And so that leads us to another question.

The first question was, God does not tempt us to sin, so why ask him not to do something he has promised he would never do or cannot do. And so the second question is, God says to rejoice, to rejoice when temptation comes, so why ask him to keep us from something?

He said we'd be blessed by it. So what's the point of this prayer? What's the answer? What is Jesus teaching us here?

Well, it's not really easy to answer. I'll just go ahead and admit that to you because the language here in this portion of the prayer is difficult to interpret, difficult to understand.

And yet I think I can give you an answer. We must interpret the first part of this two-part petition.

There are two parts here. We must interpret the first part of the petition by keeping it connected to the second part. Huh?

That is, we understand the phrase, do not lead us into temptation by keeping it attached to the phrase, deliver us from evil.

You've got to keep that attached. Because see, here's the main point. Evil is the main point here. Evil is the subject here. Sin is what Jesus is talking about.

And so here's how we need to understand this. Our prayer is that God would not allow us to be so enticed, so drawn into temptation that it literally overwhelms us.

And that can happen. And that's why we need to pray this way. That is, temptation and the allurement of temptation and the enticement of temptation can so overwhelm you that you're defeated.

It can happen. It's happened to you. It's happened to me. And so we need to pray. And so our daily prayer should be that God would rescue us from evil in all of its forms.

From sin, from disobedience to God's Word, from wickedness and wicked behaviors of every kind to deliver us from evil.

evil. That's what we should pray every day. And so I would say to you that this prayer is in the first place an open and honest admission to self and to God that the devil is too strong for us.

We need to admit that. He's too strong. Don't ever think that you can by yourself defeat the devil or even understand him.

And so this prayer is an admission first to self but also to God that the devil is too strong for us and also that temptation to sin is too alluring for us.

Too tantalizing. It is. And it also is an admission that our flesh is too weak.

Too weak. But it is also an admission that God will rescue us if we will call upon Him daily. That's the point here that Jesus is making.

Jesus is teaching us to rely rely upon Him in our prayer and to do so every single day and a number of times throughout the day.

Prayer is about relying upon God. And so this verse is all about trusting God in the greatest challenges we face.

And it's not the challenge to put food on the table. That's part of the prayer. Remember we covered that already. That's not our biggest challenge. And the challenge is the greatest challenge is not to put clothes on our back.

Our greatest challenge is not to seek forgiveness for our sin. The greatest challenge that we face is not even the challenge to forgive those who have treated us wrongly or badly or sinfully.

Now these are challenges, yes. They certainly are. And that's why these things are part of the prayer. They are challenges for us, but not the greatest challenge.

The greatest battle we face. Because the greatest challenge we face, the greatest battle we face, we find ourselves engaged in every moment of every day, is the battle against the temptations of the flesh and the attacks of Satan.

It's the greatest battle we face. And the war is waged and won on our knees in prayer. prayer. And so prayer is about relying upon God for victory.

Now having said all of that, that's all introduction. I want you to consider three aspects of this prayer, this petition. The petition being, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

There are three aspects of this. First of all, there is the reality of evil. You say, well, I know that. Do you? Do you? Do you? Do we?

Do we really know the reality of evil in this world? Looking at the second phrase, a word-for-word translation of the Greek text would be, and there are six words in the Greek text, and if I just take each word and just literally translate it, and even in its order, this is how it would read, but deliver us from the evil.

There are six words. But deliver us from the evil. You don't see it translated that way in your translation or really in any version of the Bible. The thing that is glaringly missing is the word the, the definite article.

There's a definite article that appears right before the word evil. The evil. Now, it's very common in translating from the Greek to leave the definite article out because nearly every noun in the Greek text has a definite article in front of it.

And we're not going to put that in and have it read smoothly in English. But in many cases, it's important for us to note that there is a definite article there. The evil, Jesus said, deliver us from the evil.

But the problem is Jesus doesn't identify the evil. He doesn't tell us what it is. He doesn't say the evil this or that or any specific thing. It's just kind of left open-ended.

And so, we need to supply something there. We could. We don't have to. And so, we could either translate this the evil thing, and that would be a reference, of course, to sin.

Lord, deliver us from the evil thing. Sin. Or we could translate it as the New King James version translated it, and you might have noticed, they translated it this way, deliver us from the evil one.

The evil one. And that would be very valid. And that would, of course, be a reference to Satan, wouldn't it? And we need deliverance from him. And so, either way, we could have the evil thing or the evil one.

And I think it's valid to believe that both are the case. It's all right to say both. And that's why I think Jesus left it, so to speak, open ended.

We are to pray, deliver us from evil, from every kind of evil. Every form of evil. Everything that is evil.

Deliver us from sin, also from Satan. And you see, evil is such a huge reality in our world, isn't it?

Huge reality. And so, we are taught to pray for deliverance from all kinds of evil. From every degree of evil. From every occasion of evil.

From all the subtlety of evil. From all the destructive power of evil. We're to pray for deliverance from all of these things, and so forth, and so forth.

See, here's the point I think we need to get. It's crucial that we live this life, and especially pray, with our spiritual eyes open.

And not be blinded, or turn a blind eye from the reality all around us, and not only around us, but in us. We're to pray with our spiritual eyes open.

There are the powers of darkness all around us, dear people. All around us. The fact that you can't see them does not mean that they are not there, but then we can see them, can't we?

And we see the manifestation of the powers of darkness that are all around us. All around the world. And so, there is evil all around us in the world with all of its allurements, and all of its entrapments, and snares, and all of its subtle temptations, and all of its diabolical deceptions.

But listen, there is also evil in our own hearts. In every one of us. I hope you agree with that.

You're deceived if you don't. There is evil in our hearts. Evil. There is evil in our flesh. The reality of evil. It's such a real thing and a huge reality.

And so, we're to pray with our spiritual eyes open. It's kind of like driving a car. Though it's, that's a pretty poor illustration. When you drive down the road, you don't drive with your eyes shut, do you?

I hope you don't. I'm convinced that some people do. And likewise, you don't drive down the road with your eyes fixed on any one object.

Or fixed in any one direction, do you? I mean, we've all taken driver's education when we were younger. Hopefully you did. Or some kind of education, whether it was from your parents or whomever.

And we were all taught, I'm sure, that you need to keep your eyes or place your eyes on all different things and not on any one thing. And so we, we need to keep them forward and, and, and look in our rear view mirrors constantly and to the right side and the left side, because there are potential hazards and dangers all around us when we're driving.

Certainly came, became aware of that in New Orleans. my goodness. And I grew for the last several years, been in Memphis and I thought it was bad.

But even in Bartlesville, there are hazards all around us. And so we need to keep our eyes in the front of us and to the side of us on each side and even below us.

Just look at the road and, and behind us through the rear view mirror and to see what's all around us. We need to keep our eyes on the speedometer too, right? And other elements there, other kinds of things that, that give us information about our car and about things.

And so we don't dwell on any one thing. We keep our eyes open. We're always aware of our surroundings all the time. And that's how, how, how we ought to drive and to drive safely. And that's how we ought to live and to live safely, to be aware, keep our eyes open to the forces of darkness and the prince of evil and the forces, the power of evil.

There's all around us. The reality of evil. The second, consider. The reach of evil.

The reach of it. It's far reaching. The Bible, very clear when it speaks about evil, it spends a lot of copy.

God did a lot of copy in his word to describe evil, to give us a heads up about evil, to tell us the seriousness of evil, to also identify the evil.

The Bible tells us that Satan is evil. Certainly we know that. The Bible says sin is evil. Certainly we know that. The Bible also tells us that the world is evil. This fallen world is evil.

The Bible also tells us that our own flesh is evil. That is the corrupt, our corrupt nature, that fallen part of us that is yet to be redeemed.

The flesh is evil. And Satan, of course, uses all of these things to try and destroy us, to feed us and to destroy us. Let me give you a quick heads up, maybe, on Satan's methods.

His methods to disrupt your life and to destroy your life. And not just your life, but looking beyond just you and what he wants to destroy through you. Here are some of his methods.

Number one. Perhaps Satan's favorite approach is to deceive you and to allure you into some long-term struggle with one particular area of sin.

And as soon as I have mentioned that, you, in your heart, in your mind, you say, you know, that's right. That's what he likes to do.

That's his favorite method. To get you. Not to get you to commit all sins. But just one.

That that would be your struggle. That that would be the area where he would try to hold you captive. One particular sin.

And it's one certain sin or category of sin that your flesh is particularly inclined toward. You know what I'm talking about.

I mean, there are a lot of sinful things out there that you're never tempted by. Never. But there are those certain things.

One thing. A category of things. That you just constantly struggle with. And that's where Satan attacks you. And he wants to hold you captive to that. That's how he works.

Like fear. Let me just name one there first. Fear. Anxiety. Fear. Which, of course, is a crippling kind of thing in a believer's life.

Fear. Rather than trust God. And so it's anxiety and fear. Maybe that's it. Maybe it's anger. Fear. You thought I would start with some other things.

Well, I'll get to those here in a minute. But how about anger? You just can't keep your cool. Things happen. People say things. Certain kind of people, you know, in your life do things.

And just things happen. And Satan has held you captive to anger. To react angrily.

Or maybe for you it is pride. I hesitate to mention that one because I think that is an area of sin that Satan tempts us all with.

There aren't any of us here free of it. We're all tainted by it. But I mean particularly, you know, pride in the sense of self-centeredness.

That it's all about you. And what I want. What I like. And so that's an area that Satan can keep you captive. It's pride. Self-centeredness.

Or maybe in another area it would be self-reliance. And so I don't need anybody. I don't need God. And so you are constantly tempted to be self-reliant in an inordinate way.

In a sinful way. Or maybe it's sexual immorality. You thought I would lead with that one. And I'd say it probably would be at the top of the list.

Satan's methods to hold people captive. Sexual immorality.

Our culture is just permeated with it. It's just everywhere. Can't escape it. And yet it can become rooted in your life.

And Satan would seek to keep you captive to that one area of sin. That's his favorite method. Or maybe it's sins of the tongue.

Gossip. Critical spirit. Just always tend to be critical. The people.

Judging them. And critical of things. And it can just absolutely render you captive to sin.

And there are, of course, other sins of the tongue. How about, more specifically, substance abuse. Some substance. That maybe helps you escape or helps you feel better or, you know, some drug or drugs or alcohol or even tobacco.

And he can just keep you captive to these things. Or materialism. You know, the love of money. The love of things.

Material things. And the desire to not only keep what you have and never give it, but the desire for more and more. And it's an insatiable desire for more things.

And I could go on and on, perhaps, with the list. But here's the point. Understand that Satan would like nothing better than to keep you captive to some area of sin, and some sinful behavior, and to keep you then defeated by some moral failure.

In this area. To keep you in failure. Let me give you a second thing. Satan will work to get you to commit some public sin that will dishonor the name of God.

You see, I'm convinced that Satan's plan is not just for me to fail. I mean, I'm just one person.

How insignificant. How prideful to think that it's all about me. Satan's desire and plan is on a broader scale. It's to move through a man or a woman or a church and to move from there out to try and destroy Christendom, in a sense.

Though he could never do that. To defame God. To dishonor the Lord and His work. To discredit His Word.

Or to somehow hinder the Gospel. Oh! That's Satan's desire. To bring shame not only upon you, but upon your family.

And not just upon your family, but upon your church. And not just maybe your church, but on the work of Christ in the world at large. How many times have we seen that over the years?

I'm convinced he cannot win. But to bring it back down to the individual, he can win with you. And your sin can have far-reaching implications in the destruction of other people's lives.

That's Satan's method. Have you recognized that? Let me give you another favorite method of Satan. Satan will work to make you feel comfortable with your sin. Kind of lull you into a place of toleration.

You're comfortable with it. Kind of get you to rationalize that your sin is really not all that bad comparatively.

I mean, we know other people who have sinned and my sin is not like their sin. That's a simple one. I mean, to get us to think comparatively that our sin is really not all that bad.

Or worse than that, and more diabolical than that, to get you to thinking that it's almost justifiable. Your sin. What a twisted logic.

And what I mean is, it's justifiable seeing that we're all sinful creatures. You know, it's just who we are. It's just what we are. And surely God understands that we can't help ourselves.

And so we just kind of, sort of, justify it. It's just part of the human experience. You know, and, well, one of these days, the Lord's going to come and free me from all this, and I won't have to sin anymore.

It's just a rationalization. It's just a justification. I'm convinced that Satan is always working to do that. And he uses other methods, and there are other features of that where we just become kind of tolerant with sin.

Not only our own sin, but the sin of our culture. It no longer bothers us. It's no longer outraging to us. Haven't we all experienced that?

That's Satan's method. Let me give you a fourth method. And I would call this a kind of second level. The next level of sin. And that is, for a believer, when God the Father chastens us when we sin, and He does.

When He does that, Satan attempts to plant in our hearts a seed of resentment. We kind of resent it. Maybe even become angry with God.

Either because we have totally disconnected the correction from the sin itself, and so we think then that the correction is unjustifiable. That God is being harsh.

And not loving. Either we do it that way, or we think, well, God, I can't help it. I'm just a sinner. Why are you so harsh with me? And so we then complain against God, or get angry with God, or we become bitter inside because of the punishment from our sin, or the natural result of our sin, the fruit of it that God allows in our lives because He loves us.

And so rather than seeing Him as a loving Father who chastens His children, we see Him only as a harsh God, a harsh deity. You know, He just won't let anything pass.

You know. Come on! There are far worse things I could do, God. You understand? This is the way Satan works.

And you know it is true. And let me give you a fifth method. Satan will try to lead you into despair and discouragement over your sin. This is the second level of sin.

I mean, the sin is there, and you've failed. And so the second level to it is to take you deeper into captivity by causing you to despair over it and to be discouraged.

It is a remorse over sin of a sort. But it's not a remorse that drives you to God in repentance. It is a remorse that rather drives you to despair and keeps you captive.

It keeps you captive to your struggle with the sin. And you just say to yourself, I'll never be any different. I'll never ever be able to conquer this thing.

It's just hopeless. The reach of evil. Well, you know these things are true, don't you?

I can see it on your face. And you say, huh, you know, you're right. The reach of evil into your life. And if you allow it, it will reach deep into your heart and devastate your life and the lives of those around you.

And the reach of it is not only deep, but far. Far-reaching. No sin is private for long.

But for a born-again believer, it does not have to be this way, does it? Not if we believe Scripture. Because don't forget, according to Colossians 1.13, we have been delivered from the power of darkness.

We've been delivered. Not being delivered, but we have been delivered from the power of darkness. And so you need to know this about Satan. He no longer has any lawful authority over your life.

None. And though he wields an awesome power, we admit that, and though he has as his tool an oppressive power against us, he has no effective power or authority to rule our lives unless we grant it to him.

And there's where our problem is. And this is why we need to pray. This way. Every day. I must quickly add, before going to the last point, it is certainly true that God permits Satan to work in this world to molest us and to harass us.

That's certain. God does allow that. And it is also true that God allows Satan to stir up our enemies, the enemies of the faith, to persecute us.

God allows that. But, and don't ever forget, Satan's success depends upon your failure. Your failure to rely upon God.

Every day. And every moment of the day. The reality of evil. The reach of evil. And then one more. The rescue. The rescue from evil.

The petition, but deliver us from evil or the evil, as I've said, is a plea that God would rescue us from the evil in the world.

Evil sin. Evil things, that is, the evil one. Satan. I've already said that. But, there's more to it than just the simple rescue from sin.

There's more to it here. There's more implied here that we need to understand. In the first place, for this prayer, this prayer is, first of all, a prayer for divine illumination.

That's implied here. And I've already alluded to this to some extent. You and I must be enabled, we need an enablement to detect Satan's methods. Now, I've listed some of his methods and kind of thrown those out there and we can all kind of relate to those things and we know these things are true, but we need far more than this.

On a daily basis, we need God to illuminate us to the presence of Satan and the work of evil around us so that we're not caught by surprise.

We need to be alert to Satan's attempts to ensnare us before we are ensnared. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11, Paul reminds us that we are not ignorant of his devices.

That is, Satan's devices. We're not ignorant of them. And I want to say, Paul, do you have a frog in your pocket? Because I think I am ignorant. Paul's saying when he says we, he's talking about himself primarily.

And so, here's the idea. If you're going to be like Paul, the Apostle Paul, and be aware, not ignorant, of the devices of Satan, if you're going to be like Paul, then you and I need divine illumination.

We're to pray for that. Divine illumination when it comes to Satan's devices. Satan is far too subtle for human wisdom.

Don't think you can figure him out by yourself. He's far too subtle and wily and deceiving for you and I to figure all that out with human reasoning.

We need divine illumination. This prayer assumes that. But second, this prayer is a prayer for divine strength.

Of course it is that. For divine strength to resist Satan's attacks because, let's admit it, Satan is far too strong for human resistance.

You can't resist it. Not by yourself. That's assumed in the prayer here. In the rescue. This is part of the rescue.

Divine illumination. Divine strength. And let me give you a third one. For grace, divine grace to mortify the flesh.

Now put it down just like that. Take notes. We need divine grace to mortify the flesh. The flesh is wicked.

The flesh is polluted. The flesh that is that fallen part of us is evil. Don't ever forget that. It is polluted by wickedness and so its insatiable hunger for sin must be denied.

Must be denied. John Owen, that great Puritan, wrote much on the mortification of the flesh. Listen to what he wrote.

He said, Salvation from the love of sin must always be preceded by the destruction of its dominion in our heart. Did you get that?

He said, well, how do I do that? You mortify the lost. whatever those lusts are for you. You mortify them.

What does that mean? It means you put them to death. Colossians 3.5 Remember this verse.

Colossians 3.5 Paul said, mortify, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.

That is, that's part of your fallen nature. put that to death. And then he lists several of them. And guess what? Number one on the list is sexual immorality. And then he says impurity and passion, that's sinful passions, and evil desires, and covetousness, which he says is idolatry.

We're to put those things to death. That's what it means to mortify the flesh. You say, well, how do I do that? Simple. Don't feed it.

Don't feed it. It's just that simple. Don't feed it. Don't feed your flesh. Don't accommodate your cravings, the cravings of your flesh.

A starved lust will die. It will. Paul said in Romans 13.14, make no provision for the flesh.

That is don't feed it. Don't make any provision for it. Don't accommodate it. Don't put into your life the things your flesh wants.

Those things that you just really struggle with. Just don't put them there. Or don't put your place there. Whatever the case may be. Don't put your eyes there.

Don't put your mind there. Don't put your ears there. Don't feed it. Don't make any provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts, its desires, its cravings.

Let me tell you something else about the mortification of the flesh. Steadfastly resist the devil. Steadfastly resist the devil.

1 Peter 5, verse 8 and 9. Be sober. Be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him.

Resist him. Steadfast in the faith. That's how you resist him. In the faith. The faith. The Word of God. In relationship and communion with the Lord.

Resist him in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. It's a common experience. And also, don't forget the promise in James 4, verse 7.

Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. He will. Let me give you another word of advice concerning the mortification of the flesh.

We need divine grace to mortify the flesh. Let me give you another how-to about this. Stop loving the world. Stop loving the world and the things of the world.

I didn't come up with that on my own. Listen to 1 John 2, verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. There it is. Plain English. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, all those things are in the world. All those things that are in the world, those things are not of the Father, but of this world, John said.

And the world is passing away. All those things you desire and want and sin to get and sacrifice your communion with God to have, all those things are passing away.

They're all going to be gone one day. But he who does the will of God abides forever. So, we're talking about this prayer, this petition.

And I've said it's a prayer of rescue. A rescue from evil. First, we must pray for divine illumination. Second, we must pray for divine strength to resist Satan's devices and attacks.

Third, we must pray for divine grace to mortify our lusts, the lusts for evil. And then fourth, we must pray for divine repentance.

Divine repentance when we do sin. Because we are going to. We need to repent. And this is very important because unrepentant of sin has a tendency to deaden our senses when it comes to how we think and what we think about sin.

And it brings us further into captivity. Unrepentant of sin hardens our hearts toward God. We don't care as much and love as much God as we once did.

And it deadens that. And it deadens our hearts toward His Word. We don't want to read His Word anymore. We don't care as much about it and don't hunger for it as much as we did.

That's what unrepentant of sin will do to you. And for spiritual things, your heart will be deadened to spiritual things. Fifth, this is a prayer for the removal of guilt from our conscience.

We need a divine removal of guilt from our conscience. That's part of the rescue as well. Let me give you a sixth thing. That we would be so rescued from evil, this is our prayer, that we would be so delivered, so rescued, that our souls are restored again to communion with God, closeness with Him, a fellowship with Him.

And let me give you a seventh one real quickly, that God would be glorified even in our failures. This is part of the rescue from evil.

That when we do fail, God would be glorified still. That He would work all of it out for His glory.

That He would work through our failures for our ongoing good and usefulness in His kingdom.

Now, we don't sin so that we can experience that. But we do pray that when we fail, and we're going to, that God would still be glorified.

Victory can be yours in the battle with temptation. It can be. Let me ask you a question as I close. Do you need help in your battle over temptation?

Do you need help with that? If you're alive here this morning, you do. We all do. And the help we all need is right here in this simple prayer prayer.

To pray, Heavenly Father, do not allow my path to lead me to the place where sin overwhelms and overcomes me.

Rescue me, dear Father, from the evil one and evil thing that would seek to destroy you.

and pray that every day. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.