If your psalter is still in hand, please turn in the back to page 63. Page 63 in the back of the psalter where we will be referring to the Catechism, Lord's Day 52, this morning. And once you have that marked, I'd have you open your Bibles to two places. First, to the Gospel according to Luke. The Gospel according to Luke, chapter 22. Luke, chapter 22, beginning at verse 31. And secondly, to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, where we find the Lord's Prayer. We will consider the Word of God together first. Then we will read responsibly from Heidelberg, number 127. Here now the Word of God is recorded in the Gospel according to Luke. This takes place immediately after the Last Supper. Jesus turned to Simon Peter and said, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. But he replied, Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death. Jesus answered, I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me. And Jesus asked them, when I sent you without purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything? Nothing, they answered. He said to them, but now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag, and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment. The disciples said, See, Lord, here are two swords. That is enough, he replied. Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives and his disciples followed him. On reaching that place, he said from the other gospel accounts to Peter, James, and John, he said to them, Pray that you will not fall into temptation. He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down, and prayed, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. And when he arose from prayer, he went back to his disciples. He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. Why are you sleeping, he asked them. Get up and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. Now turning to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verse 9, where Jesus teaches us this is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and our text for today. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And you'll note in the footnote at the bottom that the doxology is there. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Well, we come this morning to the sixth and final petition of the prayer that our Lord taught us to pray. And in it we pray for a grueling need. And with this petition, Jesus prepared his disciples and us for the ongoing opposition we will face as citizens of heaven living in the world. He taught us to pray and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And we ask in the Catechism, what does this sixth request mean? And lead us not into temptation, responding with me, but deliver us from evil means. By ourselves, we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment. and our sworn enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh, never stop attacking us. And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your 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 prize. As children of God through faith in Christ, we need this petition, whether we believe it or not. For we are at war, spiritual war. Jesus' disciples did not recognize the winds of war until the night in which he was betrayed, to be crucified. And it was not until Pentecost that they and the church was equipped for this battle with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And in their letters, which make up the rest of the New Testament, we hear the voices of seasoned veterans, those who have been in the battle, including Paul, a very late recruit. In Ephesians chapter 6, he makes it clear that the situation Jesus is addressing here is this. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. people of God as citizens of the kingdom of heaven living in the world we need our father in heaven to preserve us in battle to preserve us against mortal enemies those that seek to take our eternal life now it may seem odd for me to speak of enemies when we read in the NIV and in many other English translations deliver us from the evil one If, however, you have an English ESV, or you look at the footnote in the NIV, you find it translated, deliver us from evil. And that's the way we interact with it in the catechism. And the reason this is so, and either translation is fair, is that the Greek quite literally records Jesus as saying, deliver us from the evil. Words that can refer to the totality of evil, wherever, in whomever, and in whatever expression it comes, or to the personification of evil, the devil. It's for this reason that we consider three enemies in our catechism, three enemies that encompass the totality of evil, of which the devil is first among equals. Without a doubt, our foremost enemy is the devil, Satan. The adversary. As one theologian rightly observed, behind the temptations is the tempter. Behind the lies is the liar. Behind all the dead and bloodshed stands the murderer from the beginning. To that we should add that he's also the deceiver, the accuser, the power of darkness, the enemy of God and his people who attacks as with flaming arrows and who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. In our materialistic age, we may find it hard to believe that he exists. And he's quite happy with that. He's content to work behind the scenes and to have his handiwork seen as just so much bad luck or perhaps, as your insurance policy says, acts of God. He doesn't need to be noticed to get his work done. But for those who are interested in spirituality and seeking after spiritual things apart from what God has revealed in his word, he reveals himself. He reveals himself as an angel of light so as to deceive. And by these two major stratagems, either hiding completely or exposing himself in a fraudulent way, he works to have us underestimate and to dismiss him as a threat to our well-being. But do not be deceived, people of God. Satan is your enemy, and he is out to hurt you. But Satan does not work alone, nor does he work in a vacuum. Scripture tells us that he is the power of the darkness, the prince of the power of the air, the God of this world. And Scripture is full of the accounts of how the world has been in opposition to God's people from the beginning. And that opposition continues today. Sometimes openly, through persecution and martyrdom. Most often hidden or covertly, a guerrilla war. Through the enticements of the world to live in its way. And to ignore the ways of our Father in Heaven. But this not ought to surprise us, for Jesus warned us that if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated him first. We ought to expect it. And Adam, our father, underestimated Satan, as we all know. So that he sinned against God and allied himself with Satan. And as children of Adam, we were all conceived and born allies of Satan. Enemies of God. That's how we come into this world. But by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son, we've been saved from the wrath of God that's been poured out and will be poured out on his enemies. We pass from death to life. We pass from being enemies to being his children and heirs. Our old self, who we were in Adam, has been crucified with Christ. We've been set free from that body of sin that is enslaved to sin and is deceived by deceitful desires. We've been set free of all that. And this is all true for the people of God. This is all true for those whom Jesus would have pray this prayer. and it can never be undone it can't be lost however the old self and its practices cling to us like so much polyester on a winter day like a bunch of weeds they trip us up the acts of our old nature are obvious said Paul we know it when we see it especially in others Galatians chapter 5 things such as sexual immorality impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft. Those seem to go past us. We'd like to think we're fine. Hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like, Paul says. The list could go on. The acts of our old nature are obvious. and we are prone to give in to them. As citizens of heaven living in the world, we are continually confronted by evil that's opposed to God and his will and that seeks to separate us from God and his care. Therefore, in Heidelberg answer 127, we confess that these mortal enemies, these sworn enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh, never stop attacking us. They never stop. We'd like to think that they all stopped when we went to sleep at night. They never stop. Our enemies work together to seduce us into thinking we have no need for God, our Savior, or to provoke us to rebel against Him openly. Either way, either way they draw us more and more to think and live for me, myself, and I. Unloving toward God, unloving toward our neighbor, satisfied and self-justified in all that I do for me. They do so, Jesus tells us, by way of temptation. Lead us not into temptation, which presents us with a difficulty. The word translated temptation in our text is the same word often translated trial, And you've heard this distinction before between Satan tempts and God tries. Well, that's true. But if we get behind that distinction, we see that this word fundamentally refers to an attempt to learn, an attempt to discover the nature or character of something, to expose it through a trial, to expose it to an enticement that will expose what is hidden. And when a temptation or a trial reveals something in someone to be genuine or precious or worthy of respect, we might call that thing or a person tried and true. He's tried and true. And when it exposes the lack of such qualities, we might say that they are phony or worthless or shameful. Expectations, trials, are of two kinds, for they come from two places, two sources, two movers. One from God and the other from Satan. But they are both for the purpose of exposing our nature and our character. But they differ as to their purpose, what they're seeking to expose. Satan tempts men by appealing to our flesh. In James 1, verses 14 and 15, we are told how he works. Speaking of us, he says, Each one is tempted when by his own selfish desire, own evil desires, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And after sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. Satan tempts us to sin. He offers us occasions and enticements in the world. He stimulates us within for the purpose of drawing us away from God. Martin Luther summarized his purpose this way. He says, on the one hand, he works to make us despise the word and the work of God. To tear us away from faith, hope, and love. And to draw us into unbelief, false security, and stubbornness. Or, on the other hand, to drive us into despair. Atheism, blasphemy, and countless other sins. Either way, Satan's content. His purpose is to destroy. And James prefaces this description of how Satan tempts us. how we are tempted to sin. With this very important warning in verse 13, he says, When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. James is not saying that God does not tempt or subject his people to trial. He does. He does not tempt us or try us, as Satan does, to undo us or to sin. In his temptations, in his trials that he brings on his people, God does not lead us into sin so as to destroy us, but for the purpose of manifesting in us and to others around us the faith he has given us as his people. Do you remember how James opens his letter? Speaking to Christians. It says, consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Why? Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Same word. Paul expands on this in Romans chapter 5 where he says, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We rejoice in the good news, to be sure. But we also rejoice in our sufferings. Why? because we know that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope. We need to understand this difference between the purposes of Satan and the purposes of God in the temptations and trials of life, because the means through which it comes, whether from Satan or whether from God, look and feel the same. They're not distinguished by their appearance. They're not distinguished by their discomfort. The means may be pleasant. They may come with riches or power or prestige that glitter like gold and dazzle our senses, that entice by their flattery, that intoxicate with their sweetness. By them, Satan would have us forget God and be satisfied with such things. By them, God works through faith to remind his people that all that glitters isn't gold. And all that is flattering is not necessarily true. And all that is sweet is not necessarily good. And that we would look beyond those circumstances to our Father in Heaven from whom every good and perfect gift does come. And that He would direct us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, knowing that He will give us all the earthly things we need. And they will be good. And they will be perfect. But the means of temptation and trial may be unpleasant. They may mean hardship or poverty, affliction in body or soul, loss of life or loss of love, things that burden us by their bitterness and challenge the foundations of our confidence and hope. By them, Satan would have you grow despondent and despair that God has forgotten you. That you've been separated from his love. By them, God works through faith to remind you not to make light of the Lord's discipline. And not to lose heart when he rebukes you. Why? Because the Lord disciplines those he loves. all that he claims as his sons. We count it all joy. We rejoice in our sufferings because we know our God is at work for our good. Well, in praying this petition, Jesus teaches us to look above and beyond our circumstances to our Father in heaven who controls them and to call upon him to preserve us in battle with sovereign power, that he would intervene on our behalf. By nature, we like to believe that we're strong enough to face this battle on our own. We like to believe we're strong enough to do it on our own. The fact that Jesus teaches us to pray of our Father to lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil ought to be sufficient to tell us that we're wrong. We need it. But the history of the church is full of an endless stream of the self-deceived who seek to avoid and overcome temptation in their own strength. Seeking to prevail in the battle they attempt at various ways to live in isolation from the world. Just not going to go there. To deprive and abuse their flesh into submission. To try to beat that old nature out of themselves by deprivation or hard work or something. and to wrestle with Satan in order to cast them out in their own power. For all their zeal, for all their efforts, they accomplished nothing in this battle other than to grow weary. Paul condemns such things in the Colossian church, saying such regulations indeed have the appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining essential indulgences. There is no way to win this war by exerting yourself alone, in your own strength, with your own cunning, with your own commitment. And through trial, through temptation, our Father in Heaven disciplines us. He humbles us to know our weakness. How able Peter looked when he walked on water. How weak he proved to be when he took his eyes off Christ. How certain he was of himself in Luke chapter 22 when Jesus had warned him that Satan had asked to sift him like wheat. He answered, Lord, I'm ready to go with you to prison and to death. And how weak he proved to be when a servant girl identified him as a disciple of Jesus. how able Peter, James, and John thought themselves to be when Jesus invited them of all the disciples to come with him to pray in the garden. And he warned them, pray that you may not enter temptation. But within an hour they've given in to the pleasure of sleep. While Jesus agonized in prayer over the trial he was facing in the cross. Paul rightly warns us in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, If you think you are standing firm, be careful lest you fall. And this is our confession in Heidelberg answer 127. By ourselves, we are too weak to hold our own for a moment. Jesus announced this dark reality in John chapter 15. He says, apart from me, you can do nothing. How could it be otherwise, people of God? The old man, our flesh, that he'll cling to us all of our days, he wants to cooperate with Satan. He wants to cooperate with the world. We've met the enemy and he is us. If we are to survive this battle, we need the strength of another. Therefore, Jesus teaches us to pray that our Father in heaven would act to lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And when we pray this petition, not only are we asking our Father to spare us from temptation. Indeed, we do. We don't ask for the trials in and of themselves. We ask to be spared, but we are also asking that should He tempt us? Should He bring us trial? Or should He allow the devil or the world or the flesh to entice us, as we know that He does from the book of Job? We are praying that we may not be tempted beyond what we can bear. That He will be present with us to preserve us and to strengthen us. And that He would be at work in us to keep us from sin and to turn our eyes away from our circumstances to Jesus Christ our Lord, our only escape. And by this request, we're asking our Father in heaven to preserve us in battle from without and from within. We're asking the one who upholds all things to preserve us from without, to provide whatever we need, body and soul, and to turn to our good whatever adversity He sends us in this sad life. We ask Him to orchestrate His providence for our good. And we do so knowing that He is able because He is Almighty God. We do so trusting that He desires to do this because He is our faithful Father who works in all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. And at the same time, we're asking him to orchestrate all these things for our good. We're asking him to preserve us from within by the power of the Holy Spirit. That spirit earned for us by Christ through his life, death, and resurrection in our place. That spirit who indwells the church of Jesus Christ and each of our members. That testifies within our spirits that we are God's children. That spirit poured out upon the church when Christ was exalted to the right hand of his Father in heaven. And where he intercedes for us, even now, as he interceded for Peter, I've prayed for you, that your faith will not fail. And when you come back, strengthen your brothers. A spirit who is at work within us to will and to act according to his good purpose. Paul affirms this in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 when he says, Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. And in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. Therefore, we are going to sing in a few minutes, in doubt and temptation, I rest, Lord, in thee. My flesh and heart falter, but God is my stay, the strength of my spirit, my portion for a forever. And therefore, in Heidelberg, answer 127, we confess that by this petition we mean, and so, Lord, because of the weakness of our weakness and because of the relentless attacks of our enemies, and so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit. Answer 127 then goes on to confess the purpose for which we raise this petition. the end which we seek from our Father in Heaven, that we may not go down to defeat in the spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies. For how long? Until we finally win the complete victory. With these words, we confess that we will continue to need our Father to preserve us in battle against mortal enemies with sovereign power until final victory is ours. One day, yes, one day the final victory will come. The battle will not last forever, people of God. There is an exit strategy. Christ has won the victory once and for all at the cross. He's been exalted to the right hand of our Father in heaven, where he reigns over all for the good of his church. And he will reign there until the church is full. Until all the citizens of heaven have been rescued out of this world, into the church on earth, headed for glory. That day may seem slow in coming. But it is coming. And when it does, Christ will come on the clouds of heaven. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. The wicked will have no place to hide and will face his judgment that will cast them into hell while the saints in Christ stand firm and secure. And the saints on earth, the church militant, will be transformed along with all the saints who've gone before, body and soul, for life in the new heavens and the new earth. And then our God and Savior will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. forever. So be of good courage in the fight. The eternal day of rest and gladness is coming. But in the meantime, Jesus teaches us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. He warns us in John chapter 16 that in this world you will have trouble. It's unavoidable. We can't avoid our need for this petition, no matter how comfortable we are. But to that warning, he adds this encouragement, but take heart, I have overcome the world. And we need that encouragement. We need that encouragement because we can grow weary trusting in our own strength rather than crying out to our Father in Heaven to preserve us in battle against mortal enemies with sovereign power until final victory. The Apostle Peter we read about in Luke chapter 22. More than once he suffered the temptations of Satan. But Jesus told him he's prayed for him, that his faith would not fail, and that when he would return, he was to strengthen his brothers. and Peter did return. And he went on to a ministry amongst the Jews, primarily, and he wrote some epistles, some letters, and his first epistle opens and closes with words of encouragement that echo his experience and these promises and this command of God. And he strengthens us in the opening of his first epistle with these words, and listen carefully in light of all that we've said. He says, in his great mercy, God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade kept in heaven for you. You who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. This man knows that which he speaks and he would have us know it as well. This protection through trials is ours through faith. Faith that Jesus teaches us to Exercise when we ask our Father in Heaven to lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And faith that He promises to strengthen along the way by His Holy Spirit, through the means of grace, the preaching of the Gospel, and the administration of the Lord's Supper. And so as you examine yourselves this week in preparation for the Lord's Supper, I invite you to do so in light of this Word of God preached to you today, asking yourself these questions. Am I displeased with myself and my attempts to engage in spiritual warfare depending on my own strength? Giving the old man leave to follow after the enticements of Satan in the world. Am I displeased with all my exertions that I know are a failure? Yet, do I believe myself to be forgiven for these failings because I'm trusting in Christ alone for my salvation? Am I confident that the sin that still clings to me is covered by the suffering and death of Christ? And do I desire more and more to strengthen my faith and amend my life? Do I desire to more and more turn to our Father in heaven with this petition, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, so that I may not be overcome in this spiritual battle, but constantly and strenuously may resist our foes until we together obtain the final victory. Is that your perspective, your understanding, your confidence? If it is, then you should come to the table. As you examine yourselves this week, I want to close with this promise from the end of 1 Peter, The end of Peter's word of encouragement to us. He says, In the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, who called you to that final victory, it's yours. After you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. Therein lies our hope. Therein lies our victory. Let us thank God for it. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we have been reminded this day of our own frailty, that we are too often content to lie to ourselves about to think that we are strong. Lord, we are not. In ourselves, we run to sin. In ourselves, we follow after Satan. In ourselves, we love this world. But thanks be to you that you have acted on our behalf by sending your Son to save us. To rescue us from ourselves, from our sin and our misery. That through faith in him we are set free from that body of sin. That we are set free from that one-way road to destruction. And that in Christ Jesus, our Lord, we are given the strength to stand as we look to you in faith. Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. That we might glorify your name. That we might be sustained in the battle and not be overcome. And that we will be enabled by the power of your spirit to fight valiantly to the end. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.