Text: Matthew 6:13
Preacher: Pastor Brian Sauvé
Deliver Us From Evil
When you think of the demonic, what comes to mind? I want you to turn that question over in your mind. Maybe it’s occultism, Anton LaVey; maybe it’s The Exorcist.
One thing recently for me, fun fact, that comes to mind are aliens. I noticed something this year that struck me, and that is that many of these stories of alien encounters—and don’t get me wrong, I’m sure most of them are people who just want attention—but a common thread through many of the supposed “messages” that these alien beings bring are basically straight evolutionary secular humanism sprinkled with a dash of new-age mumbo-jumbo. If any of it is real, it’s certainly demonic deception.
And the demonic, and that variety of demonic activity is real. Demons are real and biblical and hate you. But as we continue focusing together on the Lord’s Prayer, in actually the final portion of it, we find that there is a much more garden-variety demonic activity that we are to be on watch for.
Look at the Lord’s prayer with me again, starting in Matthew 6:9. Let’s say it together, actually. This is the Word of the Living God:
“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
Thus ends the reading of God’s Word; may he write it on our hearts by faith.
Four Questions
We will approach this final petition of the Lord’s prayer by way of four questions:
1. If God does not tempt any to sin (James 1:13), then what does this petition mean?
2. What does the tempting of the evil one look like?
3. How can we expect the Father to answer this prayer?
4. How do we stand in testing?
Does God Tempt?
Turn with me, if you would, to James 1. I’d like to take a look at an important passage there to clarify some of the questions that naturally arise from this petition in Matthew 6:13.
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
-James 1:12–15
So we can start out by saying, point-blank, that God isn’t the one who is tempting you to sin. Now, let’s think carefully here, because there’s a way we could explain why God doesn’t tempt us to sin that would land us in a theological ditch at 55 MPH.
I’m talking about trying to explain how it is that God doesn’t tempt us to sin by limiting his sovereignty—as if that temptation came in your life, and God had no power whatsoever to do anything about it. Is that a Christian theology? No! That’s folly. God is utterly sovereign, top to bottom, heaven to earth. He is sovereign over every nation and state and tribe and city and household and person and molecule and atom and quark.
Not one thing happens in this world, save by his permission. Amos 3:6 even teaches us to say, “Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?” The answer to the rhetorical question there is “No.”
If temptations do come to us—and they do; and if God did not tempt us—and he doesn’t; and if he is yet sovereign over all things—and he is; then how do those temptations come?
Three word answer, then I’ll explain: God’s permissive will. God permits that evil, sin, temptation, and disaster exist—though he could prevent them all—because he is working them all together for the good of his saints and his own glory.
So back to James 1, what do we see? God himself isn’t enticing you to sin, even when he allows external testing and temptation to come to you. So what is happening when you sin? James is clear: The external temptation comes—say, a woman at the gym who’s father did not teach her what modesty meant—and if you sin, you sin because that external temptation found a corresponding inward desire (“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”), and that desire gives birth to sin and death.
Now, into this arena of sin and temptation, we have a promise, one that is both very sobering and very good. Sobering, because it removes excuse; good, because it is a way out of death. It’s from 1 Corinthians 10:13, and it reads,
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
-1 Corinthians 10:13
If you belong to Christ, then you can be certain that no external temptation—whether of the flesh or of the devil—will confront you beyond what is possible to bear. God always provides a way for you to escape, to refuse to sin.
So back to the question: What does this petition mean? What are we asking for? If God doesn’t tempt any to sin, what does it mean to pray, “Our Father… lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”?
Here’s my answer: In this prayer, we are asking the Father to spare us from a severe testing of our faith, to prevent us from facing a test which would lead us to utterly fall—especially a test, which would prove our faith to be counterfeit. We’re saying, “Father, protect me from myself. Forbid any testing beyond endurance. I am weak. I am dust. Keep my feet from stumbling. Don’t let me deny you.”
The Schemes of the Devil
But there is more to it than just the testing of an external temptation like what I’ve described, and it’s wrapped up in the word translated in the ESV “evil.”
Probably a better translation would be “evil one,” not merely evil. So we pray, “Our Father… lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Jesus is using a very common rhetorical device, one we see all over the Old Testament, called parallelism—where you have two lines, and the second line illuminates the importance of the first line. So, “lead us not into temptation” is illuminated by “but deliver us from the evil one.”
What that means is that Jesus is particularly emphasizing our need for God’s protection from the temptation, the testing, of the Satanic and demonic—what the New Testament often calls the powers and principalities in the heavenly places.
So this brings us to our second question, namely: What does the tempting of the evil one look like? Two examples immediately come to mind, one from the book of Genesis, and one we recently looked at in Matthew 4:
In the Garden, our first human parents were tempted by the Serpent, and they fell. Then, the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus, was tempted in the wilderness in Matthew 4, and he stood.
And the temptation offered in both cases by the evil one was nourished by the same evil root: I think we could say that the quintessence, the core, of Satanic temptation is autonomy from God.
“Adam, Eve, you could be as God, you know, if you would just seek wisdom apart from and in disobedience to him.”
“Jesus, you could have all the glory of the worlds, you know, if you would just free yourself from submission to him.”
So the kind of temptation that we are asking the Father not to allow in our live—though certainly it includes all temptation—is specifically related to the temptation of autonomy from God, of living as if we are God, the root deception of the evil one.
Think of another one tempted by the evil one, the righteous sufferer, Job. What was the enemy specifically trying to entice him to do? To curse God! The evil one had accused Job of only worshiping God because of his prosperity, and so he sought to get him to recant by removing it. And he did. He utterly wrecked Job. His children died, his wealth was burned away and stolen. His body was wracked with disease—until he sat in the dust, scraping his boils with a shard of broken pottery, surrounded by foolish friends and forced to listen to their bad philosophizing about what Job must have done to earned this affliction. I mean, if that doesn’t make you want to pray this prayer—“God, deliver me from that!”—I don’t know what will.
How Does The Father Answer?
How can we expect the Father to answer this prayer? Three ways:
1. God may deliver us from the evil one, sparing us those tests which are beyond our ability to stand.
We are spared from these daily. Pray this prayer, and you will likely be spared 1,000 different trials and temptations that you didn’t even know you were spared from.
2. In his permissive will, God delivers us through the test, causing us to stand, thus proving out our faith.
This is precisely what happened with our brother Job. God sustained him through the worst kind of testing, and proved out his faith. This is what Peter is describing in his first epistle:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
-1 Peter 1:3–9
So don’t say when you face trial and testing and the temptation to curse God and die, “God, you’ve failed me!” No, say, “God, keep me! Prove out the genuineness of my faith. May you be praised and honored through me, even in this.”
3. God may allow a test to prove the worthlessness of false faith.
Think of Judas. He was tempted with a handful of silver. The enemy knew his chink. This was a man who had been stealing from the ministry fund for some time. And what happened? Did he stand?
No, he fell. The evil one filled him, and he fell. Judas is a warning to us all, and another reason for us to earnestly pray this prayer, “Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. Father, don’t let me go the way of Judas.”
Dependent, Even For Dependence
So finally, we need to ask: How do we stand in testing? What would it look like if we were to go through the trial, the testing, the temptation, and stand? Obviously, it would mean not to sin. I mean, duh. But practically, what are we to do?
Listen: If the quintessence of the demonic is autonomy from God, then all resistance to it entails dependence upon God. And this prayer teaches us to depend on God even for our dependence upon God. Do you see that? The answer to our weakness is to depend on our Father by faith. And this prayer instructs us to pray for that dependence. So we are dependent on God, even for our dependence on God.
This is like that passage in Philippians, where we are told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling… knowing that it is God who works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Work out your salvation! But know that it is God who gave you the will—the desire, the very capacity to decide to trust the Lord—and to work—the ability to do his work, to obey the Lord.
So the heart of our our standing is the inverse of the demonic temptation: Instead of being as gods, trying to live and stand and find satisfaction autonomously from God—we rather depend on him, even for our daily dependence on him.
There is a passage that distills our resistance down to a single picture, and I’d like to end with a brief look at it to end our time together. Turn with me to Ephesians 6:10–20
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”
We begin by admitting the impotence of our own might. Listen: You are not strong. You are not that great. You are not up to the task of staring down the devil and his demons and casting them into the pit of Hell. You’re just not. As in Revelation, you can search the earth, but none can open the scroll, save the Lord Jesus.
“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
If we could see the nature of the war we are actually and presently and at every moment of every day engaged in, we would likely be terrified.
But we don’t. See, every visible manifestation of the demonic—everything you see and can point at, the effects of these cosmic powers—are just the tip of the spear. I’ll give some examples:
We’re not at war with socialism. That’s just the tip of the spear of demonic covetousness. We’re not at war with socialism—but demonic covetousness.
We’re not at war with the LGBTQ+ insanity, with TV shows promoting trans kids—but with the demonic theology of self-definition. Paying a doctor to cut off your genitals so you can pretend to be a girl is just the visible manifestation of something far worse—the demonic lie that ye shall be as God. You are in control of your own identity and essence and nature. You don’t need to submit to the nature you were given by God. You can be lord of your own self.
When you see sin, you are seeing men in league with something far more potent, far more deadly, and far more dangerous than mere arrangements of atoms moving in a certain way. And what you need to know is that these enemies would love nothing more than to tear us apart.
They would delight, for example, if we would hate one another, gossip at one another, bicker with one another, consume one another, envy one another. The cosmic powers of this present darkness would be gleeful if they could throw cold water on our love for each other. They would love it. They will do anything to do it.
And so, we pray, “Our Father in heaven, lead US not into temptation, but deliver US from the evil one.” And here’s what it looks like as the Father answers that prayer in our midst; Paul continues,
“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints…”
I am not going to exposit this passage. I simply want to commend it to you for mediation this week. Remember Psalm 119 and make God’s Word your delight, your mediation, and he will keep you.