Well, after some time, we're returning to our study in the Lord's Prayer, and we conclude as we've been working through the Heidelberg, we conclude that study and end the Heidelberg Catechism tonight, so I invite you to turn in the Prayers and Forms book that are in front of you to page 257, that's Lord's Day 52, that's page 257, and then after this we'll read genesis 3 genesis 3 1 through 7 but i will ask the question tonight again of lord's day 52 this question 127 28 and then the conclusion in 129 and please respond with the answer this is again page 257 lord's day 52 question 127 what does the sixth petition mean and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil means we are so weak that we cannot stand on our own 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 by the power of your holy spirit so that we may not be defeated in this spiritual fight but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory how do you conclude this prayer for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever this means we have made all these petitions of you because as our all-powerful King you are both willing and able to give us all that is good and because your holy name and not we ourselves should receive all the praise forever. And then finally, what does that little word Amen express? Amen means this shall truly and surely be for it is much more certain that God has heard my prayer than I feel in my heart that I desire such things from him and now we'll turn to God's word tonight from Genesis chapter 3 consider what happened at the fall in light of this petition this is the word of the Lord beginning at verse 1 now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the lord god had made he said to the woman did god actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden and the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden but god said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden neither shall you touch it lest you die but the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made for themselves loincloths and there will end tonight the reading of God's word well tonight we conclude our study in the Lord's prayer and we are specifically asking of the Lord, think of this great petition that he inspired and told us to pray that we would not be led into temptation. And I'm wondering if in all honesty, how often do we pray this? Really? How often do we actually ask the Lord that we would not be led and to temptation. I wonder, I can even say as a pastor, if all the petitions of the Lord's Prayer I have been most neglectful right here. And my guess is, this is a reason for this, is because really we struggle every single day to live independently from God. We think we're, we say of course in Heidelberg 1 that we are not our own, but we were bought with a price, but we really we're sort of practical arminians we really live on our own we get up out of bed we make our choices we're going to plan our day and little thought is giving to given to the fact that we need the lord to order the day not realizing how dependent we are that dependency is so important in this dependent we are in every little detail if god does is sovereign over every square inch he's also sovereign over every square inch of our lives isn't he and to appreciate the other reason that we don't pray this probably as much as we should is because we really haven't come we're moderns and we really don't think a lot about the devil and demons and spiritual fight and battles that we're in we we're kind of above that now those are ancient things so he just we don't think like that anymore but the bible constantly presses us to it we have three sworn enemies constantly coming at us and they're not little enemies the devil the world and your own sinful nature inside but maybe part of the problem as i was reflecting on this is that we have not appreciated precisely what we're asking of the lord uh and given a lot of reflection into this petition maybe this is captured a little bit with what the pope did to the prayer um he challenged it didn't he and he ex cathedra changed it i mean it's really a remarkable thing the pope changed the prayer of jesus's words and the pope said lead us not into temptation is not the right way we should say it i'm changing it too do not let us fall into temptation now that may sound like that may sound wise it may make a little more sense to us but is that the intention of the prayer that jesus inspired does god lead us into temptation did the spirit lead jesus into the wilderness to be tempted surely god doesn't himself tempt anyone james makes that clear let no one say when he's tempted i'm being tempted by god for god cannot be tempted with evil and he himself himself tempts nobody but that doesn't mean that our own human nature will not run into it at every point if the circumstances in God's providence and sovereignty are not ordered. The scriptures often speak this way. Do we change them? Remove from me the way of lying. Incline not my heart to any evil thing. To practice wicked works with men that work iniquity. I was thinking a little bit about the Westminster Confession in the larger catechism which is really helpful on this and in 195 we don't really give a lot of attention to the Westminster so I thought it would just be helpful for a minute for you to hear it the way that it addresses this particular issue on temptation listen to the words of 195 in this petition which is lead us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil acknowledging that the most wise, righteous, and gracious God for various holy and just ends may so order things that we may be assaulted, foiled, and for a time led captive by temptation. 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 one of watchfulness are not only subject to be tempted and forward to expose ourselves into temptation 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 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 that's a lot did you get all that but isn't it an interesting statement to humble our pride god may order things for a time that we are led captive by temptation maybe the reason the very reason this is absent in our prayers and we feel ourselves sometimes foiled by temptation is because we're not praying and he's drawing us back to pray now that takes on a huge implication tonight for understanding this we need to pray this this is this is an integral part of prayer this is an important this is why jesus told us to pray this how many of you feel that times as we sang in the psalm this morning 65 our sins rise up against us prevailing day by day and god constantly shows us mercy doesn't he but in pride because of the sinful nature, we open the door to temptation and sin. That's what we're good at. We live in it. This is what we often pursue. And this prayer is the really humble posture of expressing our dependency upon the Lord to always order the circumstances of our lives, to be aware of that. This is the great, I think, if you know when you've sinned, you stop and you say at the end of it, why did I do that? The basic answer, first off, was you were not aware of it. And you put yourselves in the situations to do it. And that what this prayer is expressing is our absolute dependency upon the sovereignty of God every single day of our lives to keep us and to preserve us. Order my life, O Lord, that I would not be led into temptation and that my sinful nature, that it would be kept in check from me running right into it. You are so sovereign, I need you to order my days. You are so sovereign, I need you every morning as we call out to you to order my days because there I go if you don't. And that's the point of this tonight is that every day you have no idea what's coming at you and God has so preserved you throughout the course of your life. I'm sure when we get to the last day, we will see how much He kept us from things we didn't even know and never asked for. But the Lord wants you to recognize this and to ask Him to order your day, to guide your circumstances, to watch over your souls and lives and bodies and the interactions and the things that happen and what is set in front of you, what is set in front of your eyes, what you see, how that works on desires so that you would be kept from falling into this. That is a wonderful Father who cares about that. Now, to appreciate this, we have to understand what's coming at us constantly. The stress tonight in this petition, it's stressed that we would recognize, you'll notice, our three sworn enemies. The Christian life is called a warfare. Christian life is called a battle. The Christian life, and we are told to put on armor. armor to deflect and to fight against the flaming darts of the evil one and anyone who goes out to war without knowing his opponent who he is facing really is a fool who would go out to war without knowing the opponent and that if one underestimates the enemy he is setting himself up for defeat I mean this is all over the scriptures every time Israel underestimated the enemy and didn't look to the lord they were beaten and they were beaten bad the most successful of sports teams in our day know this um the way to beat the opponent is to understand the tactics to understand who the players are and what they are what their skill set is and what they are trying to accomplish i mean that's just basic to to the battle in sports my dad was a very successful coach and i as i stand back and look over his coaching years i remember how many hours he would spend studying his opponents and he would know exactly what they did and then the all the practices were framed to teach us how to how to know the opponent know what they were going to do to know their plays and how to beat them the effort and time that went into this as a as a coach was really really remarkable when i stand back from this our enemies are doing the same thing to us by the way part of the problem is is that we have little strategy and awareness of the problem but it's it's one of those cases that that it should be where our enemy's greatest weaknesses that should be his greatest failure and we should see that where the enemy's greatest weaknesses are there is his failure where's the weakness that's what we're looking at a little bit tonight to have a good idea of his tactics and that we would be able to understand really the same tool that he has used throughout history there is a single tool he has used throughout history from which all the tacks and foils and and problems and and assaults of the evil one come and this is what paul said paul was constantly speaking this way we're not ignorant of satan's devices We know them. We're aware of them. We study that. Again, you see how modern Christians just don't think like this. He has devices. The devil is not an old dog with new tricks. He just knows how to recast them. So what is the tool that he uses? And this is what I want to consider a bit with you tonight. what we have revealed about Satan to know how he works, how he generally works is in two ways. If he could, he would simply persecute you and kill you. That's one of his tactics. That's what he tried to do in the early church in large part of the world to this day. This is what he tries to do is to simply stamp the holy seed out of existence. If he can't do that under God's providential sovereignty, remember, the devil can't do anything on his own. He is kept in check. He is put under chains. He may be on a long chain, but he is chained up even as he roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The other way he works is to craftily undermine, great tool I'm talking about, the word of God. This is all over Paul. We are aware of his underhanded and crafty ways that he uses through his false mouthpieces. We are aware that he sends those as angels of light. We are aware that he sends angels of light that come as ministers and appear as ministers of light and righteousness but are right out of the pit of hell. And that's where I thought it would be helpful tonight to see how Genesis, right at the beginning, integrates all three of these sworn enemies, the devil, the world, and our flesh, into the equation of the very fall of Adam and Eve. And I think that helps us to be aware with this very familiar passage of how this all began, how we got here, and that this is nothing new. Consider the temptation of Adam and Eve at the fall. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, stop? Has God indeed spoken something? And then he goes into it. You shall not eat of every tree in the garden. what was satan's first attack well the first satanic assault in the garden was an assault on god's word and if you could trace i wish i had time to go through every vain philosophy that has ever come at us throughout history all those we study today and all the philosophy books and every idea that has come out of cultures that have stood against the word against um jesus it has always been in some way shape or form when you see it it has always been an assault that sounds just like the garden of eden did god indeed say it's always been an assault on the word and it's of no small notation here that jesus was when he was being tempted that he overcame and combated every single temptation that came at him with the word so there you go jesus knew exactly what satan was doing every one of those temptations were twisting the word undermining the word trying to take captive the word to satan's devices and jesus every time combated it with the word so this is the issue this is the tool but notice how he does it first he raises the question of authority and he does this by challenging the integrity and the good intention of the lord in his creative design. Notice he begins, has God really said that you shall not? That's a really interesting way to frame things. Not what? Eat of every tree in the garden. The perceptive reader stops and says, wait a minute, wait a minute. That's not what God said. That's not what God said. Boys and girls, notice this. God didn't say that. What did God say in Genesis 2? God said, of every tree in the garden you may freely eat. Here's freedom. Look at all of this. It's all yours to enjoy. But there's one tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I don't want you touching. I don't want you eating of it. Come back to touching. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. You may eat of everything. It's all yours. Just not that one. That was the great test in that arrangement. Now, you see what he did. You see what his tactic was. We have all these beautiful beaches down here in Southern California. And just imagine that one beach is off limits. And the law says, listen, if you go to that beach and you go and touch that, if you go and enjoy that beach, it will kill you. Stay away from that beach. Devil, did God just say you can't use all those beaches? Is that what he said? God had given one prohibition and had given them to enjoy freely of all the trees in the Bible, in the garden. It's no wonder Jesus said he's the father of lies from the beginning. He twisted the words as subtly as he could, and notice that, as subtly as he could. And with the great goal, you'll notice here, notice the temptation that comes out. Has God really said, here's the temptation. This God has oppressed you. This God is restrictive. This God is oppressive. This God has held you back, Eve. He's not out for your best interests. He's not a good God. He doesn't wish the best for you. you're in chains. You're in a straitjacket. You can have your own autonomy. You can live in true freedom apart from Him because you're not a free person. He is inhibiting and He is taking from you what is rightly your. i think that's the heart of the temptation here which throughout history reverberates in how many movements all the movements now it's important to understand what temptation temptation is not sin when it originates outside of us temptation becomes sin when we entertain and we welcome the sinful desires of our hearts and act upon him and this is where we see the fall happen you know i may be um i think when dr bittner preached the other day on on first corinthians 10 he said uh you know he talked about temptation and he talked about uh from first corinthians 10 the temptations and he said something that i thought was really helpful and i just want to repeat it here i may be tempted by the chocolate piece of cake it may not be sin to eat that's a wisdom issue is it good to go eat the chocolate piece of cake now i may be gluttonous and i may down the whole cake then i've got a problem but there's wisdom in these things there's wisdom in the things that come at us that we have to exercise but notice the specific issue here when it comes to temptation satan uses god's law and he challenges it as something oppressive something that he uses to arouse desire now that's just what paul said um in the sinful human nature of what happens he says sin seizing the opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness this is this is the classic you know your your child is there and you say don't and now you that you said don't that desire has ignited and they go do it right i mean this is this is what we know about human nature and and and this is all being described for us right here satan sets a bait something of the the law the law of god that is forbidden in the world that that we are not to touch taste handle we are to stay away from because it's bad for us and God has something good for us and we begin to question the command. I see this all the time in the church. Sinful desire has been aroused and we have begun to take the word and we take the word and we start saying in our hearts, did God really say? did god really say and off we are and anyone who confronts that and says no god did say you are unloving i mean that's our day so satan sets the bait the command is questioned the law of god is questioned desire is aroused by the sinful nature there we go this is the temptation and this was right in front of Israel the whole time what was what was set in front of Israel in the wilderness the whole time what did God say to them live will you live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God believing it's good and right or will you accept the lie that this thing this choice will bring me the fulfillment that it promises which Satan said is happiness you'll be your own God you'll rule your own life you'll live fulfilled i think you see the importance now of the prayer i hope lord lead us not into temptation don't ever let the bait be set help us with sinful desire to keep our wills in check it really goes hand in hand with your will be done. Help us not to lust after what is set in the trap. Help our desires to be kept in check so that we're not going after what's in the trap. And that's what happened here. Satan first assaulted God's word. He twisted it. He planted the seed. You're not happy. And everyone, and let me just say, this is what sin is. This is what you have to understand what sin is. Sin is rebellion against God. So notice what happened in the mind of Eve. This is where it gets interesting. Well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. now the devil has instigated the devil has come and beginning the question here the real meaning of the commandment she's entertaining the idea that god is unreasonable and now she's reinterpreting it she throws a whole slant in on the command you know what you're right you know we're not even to touch it which wasn't ever said sure it may have been implied but you see what she's doing in her mind to god this happened in the blame game that took place afterward the fall they're blaming everyone else this is the kind of god he is yeah you know this is this is just ridiculous this is completely unreasonable this is restrictive this is binding this god doesn't want me to be happy and she's pondering this she's feeling like she's being hindered as soon as she has entertained this thought as soon as she has entertained this sinful desire the desire has given birth and and and here we are fall has is happening and as soon as this has happened as soon as she says that the next word shoot out of the devil's mouth you will not surely die there's no consequence for this did he say that see there's no judgment that is out of the question don't even let that come into your mind you are free so we read the sad words in verse 6 that got us into this mess all of us so when the woman now notice the threefold 1 John picks this up with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life when the woman saw that the tree was good for food that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable notice how it's all working on desire to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate her faculties all of them ran right into this the fall just happened and she gave to her husband with her he was there totally neglectful and he ate he should have risen up like the savior he should have been and crushed the head of the serpent that's why you need us that's why you need jesus all of us this statement becomes the defining path of temptation into sin throughout the whole history of the human race i mean you can just trace it throughout the scriptures david one day is lazy on his bed the nation's off to war he's completely careless he is not praying in the morning lead me not into temptation he's the king no guard was up he did not pray the bait was set there she is strolls out onto the roof and there's Bathsheba bathing with a temptation from the world ignited by the inward desire of the sinful nature David is now a pornographer and he questions, I'm sure, the law of God. I'm embellishing a little bit. I bet this is exactly how it went. I'm the king. I can have whatever I want. Has God withheld her from me? And he went and he took her. And Eve entertained the lust in questioning God's word. The tree became pleasant to the eyes. It looks so good all of a sudden. That's why we can't get our minds off things when we're being led in temptation and sin and everything is now the focus of our lives right there. And we begin to lust. And we desire. And she wanted to become her own God. perceiving it was a tree desirable to make her wise she ate pride of life and here we are i should say sometimes it's just the power of lust that overcomes us it's so strong we run into it all the more to pray um i was talking to a pastor not so long ago and he said yeah he was doing some counseling with a young man and the young man said to him you know pastor i just have more i just have stronger sexual desire the way i'm wired than more men and the pastor said stop it all men have that problem every woman has a problem with faulty desire you don't get a special treatment in this see how they all work in tandem the devil the world and our flesh our own desires paul says all these things war against our souls They war against us. That's why John says, don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything that belongs to the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of one's life is not from the Father, but it's from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God's will remains forever. Now, all that to say, what an encouragement to pray. Here's your lifeline. Here's your SOS. you have satan leading the charge you have the world entire world coming against you and you have your own hearts you don't stand a chance i don't stand a chance you see why you need the prayer it's the prayer for sanctification the petition and that's why i said it's i hope i'm inspiring tonight to recognize it's it's such an important and often neglected petition we've prayed way more about forgiveness of our sins which is important than the stopping of them we have prayed way more that the lord would let it all go than the prevention of the circumstances that got us there in the first place and i think you see the danger in that do we really hate sin and what it promises enough to not entertain it and to ask God to keep us and order the circumstances of our lives so that we don't go into it that's that's at the heart of this petition and to not ask the Lord just to let it all go but then for us to never take seriously what got us into the mess or to never ask him to keep you from it all your life belongs to the Lord what does it sound like Lord, forgive me of this trespass, but you know how weak I am. And I know, even though I am a pardoned saint and sinner, and all of you can testify, this particular sin or these sins continue to crouch at my door. Temptation always seems to smack me in the face. And without you, I will give in to temptation every time and sin. So Lord, order my life today that i might not sin against you you know he wants to help christ is is telling us that god chooses to help you in this i think this is so important for our day because we have so many who feel defeated in sin well here you go your king who sits on the throne says you have at your disposal a great and powerful deliverer who has sent the holy spirit who is what indwells you and who sanctifies you and it is his will for your life your sanctification to put to death these things how important then is the plea lead me not into it uphold me lord by your spirit and this is how the heidelberg says it so that we will not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle that we may firmly resist our enemies until we finally and completely win the victory and we will in jesus we have it's a bit more challenging obviously to pray to one who doesn't understand right It would be quite scary to go to one who has no idea about the attacks. They say when the Titanic was going down and they sent out the SOS to the other boat, the other boat had no idea of the seriousness of the call and the boat couldn't get there in time. Down they went. You think your father's going to do that to you? He owns everything. He orders everything. He controls everything. He's the king of heaven and earth. He's declared his love for you. The Lord hears. And if you don't think he understands, he sent his son here. Who himself was tempted in every way as we are yet was without sin. For we don't have a high priest. Remember Hebrews as we're going through it? Who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. So what does it follow up with? Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You know what those times are. And he's inviting you to come. he's inviting you to talk to him he's inviting you to rest in him and he is giving you every resource you need christ has gone through all this for you to set you free to give you true freedom and he sympathizes with us in our weaknesses and is able to give aid to the children of abraham because you are his covenant children christ has overcome temptation for you let me make that clear that's what the devil in the wilderness was all about he beat it he won he set you free but now he calls us to walk the same path and to look to him for grace and help in our time of need for deliverance and forgiveness and to order our lives that we might be a special aroma to him something of a good treasure that he has formed in his likeness in the likeness of christ so all the more i want to encourage you and i take i say this just as much to me this coming as we enter our new weeks pray to the lord lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from all evil let's pray together heavenly father what an encouragement tonight from your word again and to help us to understand how we came into this mess of sin and misery in our first parents, our first Adam. And the shape that that took, the tactics that were used, the assaults and the affronts of the evil one, we confess tonight that even our own sinful natures are so great we cannot hold up in this fight ourselves at all. And everything about the world is greatly attractive to us. And we're ashamed of that. But we thank you that you give strength and power to overcome. And so we pray in our lives, you know everyone here, you know the particular temptations and struggles that the sheep face. we pray together that you would help us and that you would lead us not into temptation. Order our lives. Govern our lives in such a way that we, Lord, would more and more in dependency and prayer rest on this unshakable foundation that you hear our prayer and that you're ready and willing to answer our prayer. And that as that wonderful little end of the catechism says, when we say amen, so let it be, you are more eager and willing to answer our prayers even more than our desires to have them answered. So thank you, O Lord, for this reflection in prayer in the Heidelberg Catechism. Bless it to our hearts. And may we more and more be a praying people for it is the greatest discipline of the Christian life. And we need your spirit to help us more and more to do it. Thank you for this Sabbath day of rest. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.