And forgive us our sins
On the forgiveness of sin
I. THAT OUR SINS ARE OUR DEBTS.
1. HOW we come to be in debt to God, how this debt is contracted, and what is the ground of the action. That I may keep to the comparison, not forcing it, but fairly following it, you shall see that we fairly run in debt to God, as the children of men run in delft to one another.
(1) We are in debt to God, as a servant is indebted to his master, when he has neglected his business, and wasted or embezzled his goods.
(2).We are indebted to God, as a tenant is indebted to his landlord, when he is behind of his rent, or has committed waste upon the premises.
(3) We are indebted to God, as a borrower is indebted to the lender.
(4) Our debt to God is, as the debt of a trespasser to him upon whom he has trespassed.
(5) Our debt to God is, as the debt of a covenant breaker, who entered into articles, and gave bond for performance, but has not made good his agreement, and so has forfeited the penalty of the bond, which is recoverable as far as the damage goes, by the non-performance of the articles.
(6) Our debt to God is, as the debt of a malefactor, to the law and to the government, when he is found guilty of treason or felony, and consequently the law is to have its course against him. As the corruption of our nature makes us odious to God’s holiness, so our many actual transgressions make us obnoxious to His justice; and thus we are debtors to Him.
(7) To make the matter yet worse, there is a debt we owe to God, which is as a debt of an heir-at-law upon his ancestor’s account, of a son who is liable for his father’s debts, as far as what he has by descent will go, and as far as he has any assets in his hand.
(8) There are debts of ours, likewise, which are as the debt of a surety upon account of the principal. I mean the guilt we have contracted by our partaking of other men’s sins.
2. Having opened to you the several ways how we come into this debt to God, let us next inquire what kind of debt sin is.
(1) It is an old debt, it is an early, nay, it is an hereditary, encumbrance upon our nature. The foundation of this debt was laid in Adam’s sin, we are in debt for the forbidden fruit he ate, so high does the account begin, and so far back does it look.
(2) It is a just debt, and the demand of it highly equitable.
(3) It is a great debt, more than we imagine.
(4) It is a growing debt; a debt we are still adding to, as a tenant who is behind of his rent, every rent-stage makes the debt more; till we return by repentance, we are still running further upon the score; still taking up upon trust, and treasuring up unto ourselves guilt and wrath against the day of wrath.
3. Having seen what kind of debt sin is, let us next see what kind of debtors sinners commonly are; and we shall find them like other unfortunate debtors, that are going down in the world, and have no way to help themselves.
(1) Bad debtors are oftentimes very careless and unconcerned about their debts; when they are so embarrassed and plunged that they cannot bear the thought of it, they contrive how to banish the thought of it, and live merry and secure; to laugh away, and drink away, and revel away the care and sorrow of it. Thus sinners deal with their convictions, they divert them with the business of the world, or drown them in the pleasures of sense.
(2) Bad debtors are commonly very wasteful, and when they find they are in debt more than they can pay, care not how much further they run into debt. How extravagant are sinners in spending upon their lusts!
(3) Bad debtors are commonly very shy of their creditors, and very loth to come to an account. Thus sinners care not how little they come into the presence of God, but rather say to the Almighty, “Depart from us.”
(4) Bad debtors are sometimes timorous; and though they strive to cast off all care about their debts, yet, when they are threatened, their hearts fail them, they are subject to frights, and are ready to think every one they meet is a bailiff. Thus sinners carry about with them a misgiving conscience, which often reproaches them, and fills them with secret terrors, and a bitterness which their own heart only knows.
(5) Bad debtors are apt to be dilatory and deceitful, to promise payment this time and the other, but still to break their word, and beg a further delay. It is so with sinners; they do not say they will never repent, and return to God, but not yet.
4. To affect you the more with the misery of an impenitent, unpardoned state, having showed you what your debt is, I shall next lay before you the danger we are in by reason of this debt. Many who owe a great deal of money, yet are furnished with considerations sufficient to make them easy, but they are such as our case will not admit.
(1) An exact account is kept of all our debts.
(2) We are utterly insolvent, and have not wherewithal to pay our debts.
(3) We have no friend on earth who can or will pass his word for us, or be our bail.
(4) We are often put in mind of our debts by the providence of God, and by our own consciences.
(5) Death will shortly arrest us for these debts, to bring us to an account.
(6) A day of reckoning will come, and the day is fixed.
(7) Hell is the prison into which those debtors will at length be cast, who took no care to make their peace, and there are the tormentors to which they will be delivered.
II. The sins we are to repent of, being our debts to God, THE MERCY WE ARE TO PRAY FOR IS THE FORGIVENESS OF THESE DEBTS.
1. Let us inquire what is included in this mercy of the forgiveness of sin as a debt, and what steps God graciously takes therein toward us, when we repent, and return, and believe the gospel. He acts as a merciful and compassionate creditor toward a poor debtor who lies at his mercy.
(1) He stays process, and suffers not the law to have its course. Judgment is given against us; but execution is not taken out upon the judgment.
(2) He cancels the bond, vacates the judgment, and disannuls the handwriting that was against us.
(3) He gives an acquittance, and delivers it by His Spirit into the believer’s hand, speaking peace to him, filling him with comfort, arising from a sense of His justification, and the blessed tokens and pledges of it.
(4). He condescends to deal with us again, and to admit us into covenant and communion with Himself.
2. Having seen how much is included in God’s forgiving us our debts, because it is so great a favour, that we may be tempted to think it too much for such worthless unworthy creatures as we are to expect, let us next inquire what ground we have to hope for it? How is it that a God infinitely just and holy should be thus readily reconciled to a guilty and polluted sinner upon his repenting?
(1) We may ground our expectations upon the goodness of His nature.
(2) We are to ground our expectations upon the mediation of our Lord Jesus.
3. What is expected and required from you, that you may obtain this favour, and that your debts may be forgiven? Christ, as a surety for us, has made satisfaction; but what must we do that we may have an interest in that satisfaction?
(1) We must confess the debt, with a humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart.
(2) We must acknowledge a judgment of all we have to our Lord Jesus, who has been thus kind to satisfy for our debt. This is one proper act of faith.
(3) We must give to Christ the honour of our pardon, by relying entirely on His righteousness as our plea for it; acknowledging that other foundation of hope can no man lay, and other fountain of joy can no man open.
(4) We must study what we shall render to Him who has loved us, who has so loved us.
(5) We must engage ourselves for the future, that we will render to God the things that are His, and be careful not to run in debt again.
(6) Our forgiving others is made the indispensable condition of our being forgiven of God. Concluding exhortations:
1. Do not delay to come to an account with your own consciences, but search diligently and impartially, that you may see how matters stand between you and God.
2. Be thoroughly convinced of your misery and danger by reason of sin; see process ready to be taken out against you, and consider what is to be done.
3. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; make your peace with God, and do it with all speed. You need not send to desire conditions of peace; they are offered to you, if you will but accept of them; and they are not only easy but very advantageous.
4. In order to the making of your peace with God, make sure your interest in Jesus Christ, and make use of Him daily for that purpose: retain Him of counsel for you in this great cause on which your all depends, and let Him be not only your plea but your pleader, for that is His office.
5. Renew your repentance every day for your sins of daily infirmity, and be earnest with God in prayer for the pardon of them. Lastly, let those to whom much is forgiven, love much. (Matthew Henry.)
The forgiveness of sins
I. Notice the connection and dependence. Having prayed for our daily bread, we are next taught to pray for pardon. And this method is, indeed, most wise and most rational. For--
1. The guilt of sin many times withholds from us those earthly comforts we stand in need of.
2. Without pardon of sin, all our temporal enjoyments are but snares and curses unto us.
II. The words themselves.
1. The petition.
(1) What our evangelist calls sins, St. Matthew calls debts. We stand indebted to God, both as we are His creatures, and as we are offenders. By the one, we owe Him the debt of obedience; and, by the other, the debt of punishment.
(2) Now here to excite thee to a fervency in praying for the forgiveness of thy debts, consider--
(a) The infinite multitudes of thy debts.
(b) That God, who is thy creditor, is strict and impartial.
(c) That the least of all those thy debts makes thee liable to be cast into the prison of hell, and to be adjudged to eternal death and punishments.
(d) Consider, thou canst never pay God, nor discharge the least of thy debts for ever.
(3) And, now that I have showed you our misery by reason of our debts, and you have seen the black side of the cloud which interposeth between God and us, so give me leave to represent to you our hopes and consolation, in God’s free grace and the Divine mercy in dissolving this black cloud, that it may never more appear. And here let us--
(a) Consider what the pardon of sin is.
(b) The pardoning grace of God, in respect of us, is altogether free and undeserved.
(c) The pardoning grace of God is not free, in respect of Christ; but it cost Him the price of blood. Let us consider unto whom this petition for pardon is directed. And that is, as all the rest are, to our Father, whose laws we have violated, whose justice we have offended, whose displeasure we have incurred, and to whose vengeance we have made ourselves liable and obnoxious, to Him we sue for pardon and remission. Hence we may collect this note: That it is the high prerogative of God alone to forgive sins.
If, then, it be the prerogative of God alone to pardon sin, hence we may, for our abundant comfort, be informed--
(a) That our pardon is free and gratuitous.
(b) It is God that pardons, therefore our pardon is full and complete.
(c) Is it God that pardons? Then, for thy comfort, know that He can as easily forgive great and many sins, as few and small.
(4) NOW, in this petition we pray not only for the pardon of sin, but likewise for all things that are antecedently necessary to obtain it. As--
(a) We pray that God would discover to us the horrid odious nature of sin.
(b) We pray that God would humble us under the sight and sense of our manifold transgressions; that, as our sins have made us vile in God’s eyes, so they may make us vile in Our own, to loath ourselves in dust and ashes for them.
(c) We pray that God would give us His Spirit, to enable us to confess our sins cordially, and sincerely to pour forth our hearts before Him, and to acknowledge our manifold provocations with shame and godly sorrow, upon which God promised to grant us pardon and forgiveness.
(d) We beg a more clear understanding of the sacrifice and atonement made by Jesus Christ, through which alone all pardon is purchased and procured; to know both what it is and why ordained; and, likewise, the knowledge of God’s rich and free mercy; and the conjunction of this sacrifice and mercy together, in the great mystery of the freeness of Divine grace, and the satisfaction of Jesus concurring to the remission of our sins and the salvation of our souls.
(e) We pray that we may have a high esteem of Christ, and may hunger and thirst more after Him and His righteousness, through whom alone pardon of our sins is to be obtained.
(f) We pray that we may be brought over to close with the Lord Jesus Christ by a lively faith; that His righteousness thereby may be made ours, and we, by that righteousness, may obtain pardon of our sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified.
2. The condition or plea annexed to this petition.
(1) The act: forgive.
(2) The object: debtors.
(3) The limitation of this object: our debtors.
(4) The proportion or resemblance, in particle “as.” Our forgiving of others must have these qualifications--
(a) It must be unfeigned and cordial from thy very heart and soul; for so thou wouldst have God forgive thee.
(b) Thou art obliged likewise to forgive freely, without any recompense or satisfaction from others.
(c) We must forgive others fully and completely; for God doth so. (Bp. Hopkins.)
The forgiveness of sins
I. SINS ARE TRESPASSES AGAINST GOD.
1. Against the perfections of God.
2. Against the authority of God.
3. Against the express commandments of God.
4. Against the counsels and exhortations of God.
5. Against His warnings and threatenings.
6. Against His grace revealed to us in the gospel.
7. Against His patience.
II. GOD IS WILLING TO FORGIVE US THOSE TRESPASSES, though very great, and daily repeated. This we may conclude--
1. From God’s natural goodness and love to mankind.
2. From the declarations He has made of Himself, His mercifulness, and unwillingness that any should perish.
3. From His express promises.
4. From examples of His wonderful mercy recorded in the Scripture, for the encouragement of all truly humble penitents, though their guilt may be exceeding great, and they may have been sinners above others.
5. from the covenant made with Christ the Redeemer, that He should see the fruit of the travail of His soul, and justify many by bearing their iniquities. And as Christ the Redeemer was faithful to Him that appointed Him, and bare our sins, according to the counsel and command of the Father; so the Father will be Truthful to Him: and whosoever believeth on Him shall be justified from all things, and shall never come into condemnation, never perish, but have everlasting life.
III. QUALIFICATION OR DISPOSITIONS which must be found in all such as receive the forgiveness of sin.
1. In order to the forgiveness of sin, there must be repentance towards God, a confession of sin, and forsaking it; otherwise we have no ground (from anything that is written in the Scripture) to hope for mercy.
2. God requires, in order to a reconciliation, that we must believe in His Son whom He hath sent.
3. Our Saviour here mentions our forgiving those that trespass against us, as a qualification or disposition necessary to be found in us who hope to receive the forgiving grace of God to ourselves for our trespasses against Him: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Practical reflections:
1. Let us seriously consider and admire the condescension and goodness of God, in proposing to be reconciled to us, when He can gain nothing by such a reconciliation, but all the advantage is ours.
2. Let us pray for the forgiveness of our daily trespasses.
3. If we would receive the remission of sin, let us pray, and labour, that we may have those dispositions which are found in all such as receive a pardon from God.
(1) Let us labour to obtain, and pray earnestly to God for true repentance, a deep humiliation and godly sorrow for sin.
(2) Let us pray for that great and absolutely necessary qualification for pardoning grace, faith in Christ Jesus; true, sincere, evangelical, justifying faith, by which we may be united to Christ, and made partakers of Him and His righteousness.
(3) Let us forgive those that trespass against us; not seeking revenge; entertaining in our hearts no malice against them; doing them no harm, nor wishing them any; praying for them, and willing to serve them, and to do them good. Now, to close all--
(4) Let us bless God for Jesus Christ, through whose blood we receive the forgiveness of sins; convinced and assured, that without an interest in Him, the wrath of God abideth on us, and will to eternity. (John Whitty.)
Unwillingness to acknowledge guilt
If left to our own proud blindness, how loth are we to acknowledge our guiltiness before God, and to sue in His courts for the boon of pardon, in the deep sense of our spiritual poverty and moral unworthiness. There was, in the early ages of the Christian era, a lying magician and philosopher, Apollonius of Tyanea, whom some of the ancients tried to set up as a rival, in wisdom and might and miracles, with our blessed Saviour. One of the speeches attributed to this Apollonius by his biographer is, “O ye gods, give me my dues.” Instead of holding himself indebted to heaven, he regarded heaven as debtor to him, for what he supposed his blamelessness and eminent virtue. There bleated out the proud and impious folly of the unrenewed heart. But, as Coleridge beautifully said, in the later and more Christian years of his life, the men who talk of earning heaven by their own merits, might better begin by earning earth. Who of us really has deserved what he in daily enjoying of good, even chequered as that good may be, in this sublunary state, with mingling sorrow and joy? But, surely, in our more sober and meditative hours, even the unregenerate feel, more or less distinctly, their own guiltiness. This it is that makes solitude dreadful, and diversion so necessary, in order to kill time and drown thought. This it is that clothes death with terrors, and renders the image of a God--holy and the hater of sin--so irksome and formidable an idea to us. But how do men strive to lessen this irksome, yet inevitable, consciousness, by vain pleas and extenuations and criminations of their fellows, as these last have been their tempters, abettors, and accomplices. How do they seek to obliterate the record against them by flattering, and at times by bribing heaven. But can our richest gifts buy the All-rich, and our most lavish flatteries cheat the All-wise God? How can such a God be appeased, so that He shall efface the record of our moral indebtedness? We must recognize and confess our sin. And the devout mind, after every preceding petition in the Lord’s prayer, prepares to drop in the utterance of the petition now before us, as into the dust of lowliest self-abasement. Is He our Father? this fatherhood has been spurned by His ingrate children. Is He in heaven, our native home and our proper end? We have lived as if we had sprung from earth and were ripening only for hell. His name, dread and pure, is it worthy, always stud by all, to be hallowed? How have our daring levity and defiance profaned it; and trailed its sacred honours, as in the mire of our scorn and our filth; and hung what is the dread blazonry of heaven over deeds and tempers sprung of the pit. Is His kingdom to be hailed and extended? How have we played, toward its glories and authority, the part of the rebel and the traitor. Is His will deserving of all obedience and study and conformity? How have we preferred to it our own will, and the will of the murderer and deceiver, Satan. Gives He still, kind and long-suffering, our daily bread? How have we “crammed and blasphemed our Feeder” I To subdue this sin, will it be sufficient to secure forgiveness for the past? Not--unless we staunch the fountain of evil, and provide against its out-gushings for the future. To this later work the succeeding petitions of the prayer refer. When Jesus came down to meet our debt, and to justify us by His righteousness and death, He also made provision and purchase of the Holy Spirit to renew and to sanctify. (W. R. Williams, D. D.)
The test of our spiritual state
God calls us to a daily and domestic scrutiny. We do not show a forgiving and generous spirit, in order that thus we may earn heaven; but we are warned that the indulgence of a contrary spirit necessarily forfeits heaven. We test our spiritual condition, not by asking how our feelings are towards the dead--to our best friends--or towards angels. The Pharisees could praise dead saints, and canonise prophets, when once safe and mute in their graves. But we ask, What are my feelings towards the living prophets and witnesses of heaven--to my living neighbour, and rival, and enemy? When our Saviour healed the sick man of his long and sore infirmity, and bade him take up his bed and walk; the poor man’s lifting of his couch and flinging its light weight on his rejoicing shoulders, was not the means of his cure, or the condition of his healing. It was the evidence, tangible and visible to himself and others, in the streets along which he passed, and in the home he re-entered, that he had encountered a great Prophet, and had received a miraculous healing. And so, when the leper, purged of his leprosy, was bidden to go and show himself to the priest, as he bared the skin now clear and white to the glance of the Levite, he was not fulfilling a condition of the cure, but receiving an authentication, a public and unimpeachable and official endorsement of it. And even thus is it, in this prayer. It is not our placability that purchases for us remission. Had the imperturbable countenance which Talleyrand was accustomed to wear, even when insulted, been the index of as imperturbable a soul, free from all malicious remembrances, it would not in itself have merited eternal blessedness. But God would furnish, as it were, in the forgiving spirit of His people, a portable crucible, so to speak, in which to try and purge daily the fine gold of our own heavenly hopes. To arm us against the selfishness which Be clings to us, this petition, like all those preceding it, is not for the solitary suppliant. He asks not for himself, though like the prophet’s penitents he “mourns apart”; but he implores in unison and sympathy with the absent. He says not, Forgive me, but forgive us. And then going beyond all the other petitions, he makes reference not to the absent only, but to the alienated--the injurious--the hostile. (W. R.Williams, D. D.)
The forgiving grace
We want from God a full and free forgiveness, that has mingled with it no grudges and no coolnesses; a forgiveness that blots out our transgressions, that takes away all our iniquity, and receives us graciously and loves us freely; and that mercy which we want from Him we must be ready to show to others. We stultify ourselves by asking our Heavenly Father to extend to us a measure of forgiveness that we are not willing to extend to our brother. Such a prayer is mockery, and we know that it is when we offer it. What is more, we cannot receive the fulness of the Divine forgiveness until we are ready ourselves freely to forgive--even to give ourselves for--those who have wronged us. The trouble is not with the phraseology of the prayer, but with the facts of the case. You say that the desert is a desert because no rain falls upon it; but that is only half the truth. No rain falls upon it because it is a desert. The heated air rushing up from its arid surface disperses the vapours that would descend in rain. Some moisture there must be on the earth, else there cannot be rain from heaven. So in your heart this forgiving disposition must be, else you cannot rejoice in the fulness of God’s forgiving grace. The pardon may wait in the sky above you, but it cannot descend to you until that mind is in you which was also in Christ Jesus. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
Enmity is incompatible with profitable prayer
You have seen enmities and jealousies and grudges growing up between neighbours and brethren in the Church; and in every such case you have noticed that the spiritual life of these quarrelling Christians grew feeble and fruitless; that there was no fervour in their prayers, no joy in their praises, no sign of heavenly influence in all their holy convocations. And then you have seen a better mind take possession of them; mutual confessions and reconciliations followed; those who had been long estranged came together and forgave each other, and renewed the old bonds of charity and brotherhood. And then, how quickly, to the assemblies so long frigid and forlorn, the warmth of holy love and the consciousness of the Divine presence returned; how the pulse of the Church was quickened; and the new life from above issued in abundant fruits I Every great religious awakening is preceded by such works of reconciliation; and no wise servant of Christ expects any real spiritual growth or progress among those who are divided by petty feuds and contentions. It is not till we are ready to forgive that we find any profit in our prayers. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
An unforgiving spirit
What would you think of one who prayed, “O Lord, forgive me the many sins which I have committed against Thee; but I will not forgive my fellow-creature who has offended me”? An unforgiving spirit will stand in the way of any one being pardoned who indulges it. While the good remember kindnesses, and forget injuries, the bad practise the opposite. There are too many who, even when they claim to have forgiven others with their lips, cherish in their hearts the spirit of the old Highland chief, in the days when clan met clan in deadly feud. A man of God, who visited him on his death bed, and urged him to make peace with his enemies, in order that he might receive the forgiveness of God, at last so far prevailed, that the word passed his reluctant lips. Then, as if the death-chamber had been a stage, and the old chieftain an actor, who, having played his part, throws off the mask which he has for the time assumed, he turned his cold gray eye on one of his stalwart sons, and said, “I leave you a father’s bitterest curse if you ever forgive them!” (J. N. Norton, D. D.)
Judgment without mercy
Between a mother and her daughter there had sprung up a serious quarrel. One house could not hold them. At length filial affection triumphed over pride, and the daughter repaired to her early home. No welcome met her at the door. She humbled herself to her mother--on bended knees imploring her forgiveness. She appealed to the bosom that had nursed her; but might as well have knocked on a coffin; there was no response. Nor--though imploring her by the mercies of God, and entreating her to forgive as she desired to be forgiven--could I, called in as a peacemaker, bend that stubborn will. By and by to this lonely house came another visitor. Death, who would not be denied admittance, arrived, summoning her to a bar where they shall have judgment without mercy who have shown no mercy. (J. N. Norton, D. D.)
Forgetting and forgiving
Prince Bismarck was once asked by Count Enzenberg to write something in his album. The page on which he had to write contained the autographs of Guizot and Thiers. The former had written, “I have learnt in my long life two rules of prudence. The first is, to forgive much; the second is, never to forget.” Under this Thiers had said, “A little forgetting would not detract from the sincerity of the forgiveness.” Prince Bismarck added, “As for me, I have learnt to forget much, and to ask to be forgiven much.”
We must forgive, if we would be forgiven
During the Middle Ages, when the great lords were always at war with each other, one of them resolved to take signal vengeance upon a neighbour who had offended him. On the very evening when he had formed this bloody purpose, he heard that his enemy would pass near his castle, with only a few attendants, and this seemed an excellent opportunity for gratifying his revenge. He mentioned the plan in the presence of his chaplain, who tried in vain to persuade him to give it up. The clergyman said much about the sinfulness of revenge; but it was like talking to the wind. Seeing that his words had no effect, he added, “Well, my lord, since I cannot persuade you to give up this plan of yours, will you at least consent to come with me to the chapel, that we may pray together before you set off?” The duke agreed; and the two kneeled down before the altar. “And now,” said the chaplain, “please repeat with me the prayer which our Lord Jesus Christ taught to His disciples.” “I will do it,” answered the duke. The prayer was said without hesitation until they reached the petition, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Here the duke was silent. “Will you be so good as to continue to repeat the words after me?” asked the chaplain. “I cannot,” replied the duke. “Well, God cannot forgive you, for He has said so. You must, therefore, give up your revenge, or give up the use of this prayer. To ask God to pardon you as you pardon others, is to ask Him to take vengeance on you for all your sins.” The iron will of the duke was broken, and he hastily exclaimed, “I will finish my prayer. My God, my Father, pardon me!” For the first time in his life he understood the Lord’s prayer.
And forgive us
At this point of the Lord’s prayer we get the first use of the conjunction, and there is a great deal of beauty in that word, “and forgive us.” What was the former petition, and what is the use of the conjunction? “Give us our daily bread.” This verbal link is itself a beautiful representation of the mysterious bond that actually unites body and soul. A man who simply had bread would be a poor creature indeed, who simply had the comforts of this life. It is quite right that you should pray to have bread; but the prayer must be conjoined to a prayer for some spiritual blessing. (S. Coley.)
There are two things which this text cannot mean.
1. It cannot mean that sinful man is to set an example by which the Divine administration is to be conducted.
2. It cannot mean that God’s forgiveness of man is a mere equivalent for something that man himself has done. In suggesting an interpretation of this prayer, let it be observed that this is not the first petition in the prayer. Who are the men who can say, “Forgive us,” etc.? They are the men who have said--
1. “Our Father.”
2. “Thy kingdom come.”
3. “Thy will be done on earth. (Dr. Parker.)
Of the fifth petition in the Lord’s prayer
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Before I speak strictly to the words I shall take notice--
1. That in this prayer there is but one petition for the body--“Give us our daily bread”; but two petitions for the soul--“Forgive us our trespasses,” “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Hence observe, that we are to be more careful for our souls than for our bodies; more careful for grace than for daily bread; more desirous to have our souls saved than our bodies fed. In the law, the weight of the sanctuary was twice as big as the common weight, to typify that spiritual things must be of far greater weight with us than earthly. The excellency of the soul may challenge our chief care about it. It it be well with the soul, it shall be well with the body; if the soul be gracious, the body shall be glorious, for it shall shine like Christ’s body. Therefore it is wisdom to look chiefly to the soul, because in saving the soul, we secure the happiness of the body.
2. From the connection in the text, as soon as Christ had said, give us “daily bread,” He adds, “And forgive us.” Christ joins this petition of forgiveness of sin immediately to the other of daily bread, to show us, that though we have daily bread, yet all is nothing without forgiveness. If our sins he not pardoned we can take but little comfort in our food. As it is with a man that is condemned, though you bring him meat in prison, yet he takes little comfort in it without a pardon; so, though we have daily bread, yet it will do us no good unless sin be forgiven. Daily bread may satisfy the appetite, but forgiveness of sin satisfies the conscience.
Use 1. It condemns the folly of most people. If they have daily bread, the delicious things of this life, they look no further, they are not solicitous for the pardon of sin; if they have that which feeds them, they look not after that which should crown them.
Use 2. Let us pray that God would not give us our portion in this life, that He would not put us off with daily bread, but that He would give forgiveness. This is the sauce that would make our bread relish the sweeter. Daily bread may make us live comfortably, but forgiveness of sin will make us die comfortably. In what sense is sin the worst debt?
1. Because we have nothing to pay; if we could pay the debt, what need we pray, “Forgive us”?
2. Sin is the worst debt, because it is against an infinite majesty. Sin wrongs God, and so it it an infinite offence.
3. Sin is the worst debt, because it is not a single, but a multiplied debt--forgive us “our debts;” we have debt upon debt. We may as well reckon all the drops in the sea, as reckon all our spiritual debts; we cannot tell how much we owe. A man may know his other debts, but we cannot number our spiritual debts.
4. Sin is the worst debt; because it is an inexcusable debt in two respects.
(1) There is no denying the debt; other debts men may deny. God writes down our debts in His book of remembrance, and God’s book and the book of conscience do exactly agree, so that this debt cannot be denied.
(2) There is no shifting of the debt; other debts may be shifted off. We may get friends to pay them, but neither man nor angel can pay this debt for us; if all the angels in heaven should go to make a purse, they cannot pay one of our debts. In other debts men may get a protection, so that none can touch their persons, or sue them for the debt; but who shall give us protection from God’s justice?
(a) Other debts, if the debtor dies in prison, cannot be recovered, death frees them from debt; but if we die in debt to God, He knows how to recover it; as long as we have souls to strain, God will not lose His debt. Not the death of the debtor, but the death of the surety, pays a sinner’s debt.
(b) In other debts men may flee from their creditor, leave their country, and go into foreign parts, and the creditor cannot find them; but we cannot flee from God.
5. Sin is the worst debt, because it carries men, in ease of non-payment, to a worse prison than any upon earth.
Wherein have we the properties of bad debtors?
1. A bad debtor doth not love to be called to an account. There is a day coming when God will call His debtors to account.
2. A bad debtor is unwilling to confess his debt, he will put it off, or make less of it; so we are more willing to excuse sin than confess it.
3. A bad debtor is apt to hate his creditor; debtors wish their creditors dead; so wicked men naturally hate God, because they think He is a just judge, and will call them to account. The debtor cloth not love to see his creditor. We would think it strange if writs or warrants were out against a man, or a judgment granted to seize his body and estate, yet he is secure and regardless, as if he were unconcerned. God hath a writ out against a sinner, nay, many writs, for swearing, drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, yet the sinner eats and drinks, and is quiet, as if he were not in debt; what opium hath Satan given men?
If sin be a debt--
1. Let us be humbled. The name of debt, saith St. Ambrose, is grievous.
2. Let us confess our debt.
3. Labour to get your spiritual debts paid, that is, by our surety Christ. “And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to Luke 11:4).
What forgiveness of sin is?
1. By opening some scripture.phrases--
(1) To forgive sin, is to take away iniquity--“Why dost Thou not take away my iniquity?” (Job 7:21.)
(2) To forgive sin, is to cover sin “Thou hast covered all their sin.” This was typified by the mercy-seat covering the ark, to show God’s devoting of sin through Christ.
(3) To forgive sin, is to blot it out--“I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions.”
(4) To forgive sin, is for God to scatter our sins as a cloud--“I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions.”
(5) To forgive sin, is for God to cast our sins into the depths of the sea; which implies God’s burying them out of sight, that they shall not rise up in judgment against us. God will throw them in, not as cork that riseth again, but as lead that sinks to the bottom.
2. The nature of forgiveness will appear by laying down some Divine aphorisms or positions. Every sin is mortal, and needs forgiveness; I say, mortal, that is, deserves death. It is God only that forgives sin. To pardon sin is one of the royal prerogatives. That God only can forgive sin, I prove thus:--No man can take away sin unless he is able to infuse grace; for, as Aquinas saith, with forgiveness is always infusion of grace; but no man can infuse grace, therefore no man can forgive sin. He only can forgive sin who can remit the penalty, but it is only God’s prerogative royal to forgive sin. But the Scripture speaks of the power committed to ministers to forgive sin “Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.” Ministers cannot remit sin authoritatively and effectually, but only declaratively. They have a special office and authority to apply the promises of pardon to broken hearts. As it was with the priest in the law, God did cleanse the leper, the priest only did pronounce him clean, so it is God who, by His prerogative, doth forgive sin; the minister only pronounceth forgiveness to the sinner, being penitent. Power to forgive sin authoritatively in one’s own name was never granted to mortal man. Forgiveness of sin is purely an act of God’s free grace. Forgiveness is through the blood of Christ. Free grace is the inward cause moving. Christ’s blood is the outward cause meriting pardon--“In whom we have redemption through His blood.”
But if Christ laid down His blood as the price of our pardon, then how can we say, God freely forgives sin? If it be by purchase, how is it by grace?
1. It was God’s free grace that found out a way of redemption through a mediator.
2. It was free grace moved God to accept of the price paid for our sins; that God should accept a surety; that one should sin, and another suffer; this was free grace. In forgiveness of sin, God remits the guilt and penalty. What is that remorse and sorrow which goes before forgiveness of sin? It is a holy sorrow, it is a grieving for sin, as it is sin, and as it is a dishonoring of God, and a defiling of the soul. The greatest sins come within the compass of forgiveness. Zaccheus, an extortioner; Mary Magdalene, an unchaste woman, out of whom seven devils were east; Manasseh, who made the streets run with blood; yet these had pardon. Some of the Jews who had a hand in crucifying Christ were forgiven. God blots out not only the cloud, but “the thick cloud”; enormities as well as infirmities. When God pardons a sinner, He forgives all sins--“I will pardon all their iniquities”: “having forgiven you all trespasses.” The mercy-seat covered the whole ark; the mercy-seat was a type of forgiveness, to show that God covers all our transgressions. They whose sins are forgiven must not omit praying for forgiveness--“Forgive us our trespasses.”
Believers who are pardoned must be continual suitors for pardon. Sin, like Samson’s hair, though it be cut, will grow again. We sin daily, and must as well ask for daily pardon as for daily bread.
1. From this word, “forgive,” we learn that if the debt of sin be no other way discharged but by being forgiven, then we cannot satisfy for it. Sin being forgiven, clearly implies we cannot satisfy for it.
2. From this word “us,” “Forgive us,” we learn that pardon is chiefly to be sought for ourselves. What I will another’s pardon do us good? Every one is to endeavour to have his own name in the pardon. In this sense, selfishness is lawful, every one must be for himself, and get a pardon for his own sins--“Forgive us.”
3. From this word “our,” “Our sins,” we learn how just God is in punishing us. The text says, “Our sins”; we are not punished for other men’s sins, but our own. Sin is our own act, a web of our own spinning; how righteous therefore is God in punishing us? When we are punished, we but taste the fruit of our own grafting.
4. From this word “sins,” see from hence the multitude of sins we stand guilt), of. We pray not forgive us our sin, as if it were only a single debt, but sins, in the plural. So vast is the catalogue of our sins, that David cries out, “Who can understand his errors?” Our sins are like the drops of the sea, like the atoms in the sun, they exceed all arithmetic. If pardon of sin be so absolutely necessary, without it no salvation, what is the reason that so few in the world seek after it?
If they want health, they repair to the physician; if they want riches, they take a voyage to the Indies; but if they want forgiveness of sin, they seem to be unconcerned, and do not seek after it; whence is this?
1. Inadvertency, or want of consideration; they do not look into their spiritual estate, or cast up their accounts to see how matters stand between God and their souls--“My people do not consider.”
2. Men do not seek after forgiveness of sin, for want of conviction.
3. Men do not seek earnestly after forgiveness, because they are seeking other things; they seek the world immoderately. When Saul was seeking after the asses, he did not think of a kingdom. The world is a golden snare. You would judge that prisoner very unwise, that should spend all his time with the cook to get his dinner ready, and should never mind getting a pardon.
4. Men seek not after the forgiveness of sin, through a bold presumption of mercy; they conceit God to be made up all of mercy, and that He will indulge them, though they take little or no pains to sue out their pardon.
5. Men seek not earnestly after forgiveness, out of hope of impunity.
6. Men do not seek earnestly after forgiveness through mistake; they think getting a pardon is easy, it is but repeating at the last hour a sigh, or a “Lord have mercy,” and a pardon will drop into their mouths. But, is it so easy to repent, and have a pardon? Tell me, O sinner, is regeneration easy? Are there no pangs in the new birth? Is mortification easy?
7. Men do not look after forgiveness through despair. My sins are huge mountains, and, can they ever be cast into the sea? Despair cuts the sinews of endeavour; who will use means that despairs of success?
Having answered this question, I shall now come to press the exhortation upon every one of us, to seek earnestly after the forgiveness of our sins.
1. Our very life lies upon the getting of a pardon; it is called “the justification of life.”
2. There is that in sin may make us desire forgiveness. Sill is the only thing that disquiets the soul.
(1) Sin is a burden, it burdens the creation; it burdens the conscience. And should not we labour to have this burden removed by pardoning mercy?
(2) Sin is a debt--“Forgive us our debts”; and every debt we owe God hath written down in His book--“Behold it is written before Me,” and one day God’s debt-book will be opened--“The books were opened.” There is no way to look God in the face with comfort but by having our debt either paid or pardoned.
3. There is nothing but forgiveness can give ease to a troubled conscience. There is a great difference between the having the fancy pleased, and having the conscience eased. Worldly things may please the fancy, but not ease the conscience; nothing but pardon can relieve a troubled soul. Suppose a man hath a thorn in his foot which puts him to pain; let him anoint it, or wrap it up, and keep it warm; yet, till the thorn be plucked out, it aches and swells, and he hath no ease; so when the thorn of sin is gotten into a man’s conscience, there is no ease till the thorn be pulled out; when God removes iniquity, now the thorn is plucked out.
4. Forgiveness of sin is feasible; it may be obtained. Impossibility destroys endeavour; but, “There is hope in Israel concerning this.” The devils are past hope; a sentence of death is upon them, which is irrevocable; but there is hope for us of obtaining a pardon--“There is forgiveness with Thee.”
5. Consideration, to persuade to it: Forgiveness of sin is a choice eminent blessing; to have the book cancelled, and God appeased, is worth obtaining; which may whet our endeavour after it. That it is a rare transcendent blessing, appears by three demonstrations.
(1) If we consider how this blessing is purchased, namely, by the Lord Jesus. There are three things in reference to Christ, which set forth the choiceness and preciousness of forgiveness.
(a) No mere created power in heaven or earth could expiate one sin, or procure a pardon; only Jesus Christ--“He is the propitiation for our sins.” No merit can buy out a pardon.
(b) Christ Himself could not procure a pardon, but by dying; every pardon is the price of blood.
(c) Christ, by dying, had not purchased forgiveness for us if He had not died an execrable death; He endured the curse.
(2) Forgiveness of sin is a choice blessing, if we consider what glorious attributes God puts forth in the pardoning of sin.
(a) God puts forth infinite power; when Moses was pleading with God for the pardon of Israel’s sin, He speaks thus, “Let the power of my Lord be great.” God’s forgiving of sin is a work of as great power as to make heaven and earth, nay, a greater; for, when God made the world, He met with no opposition; but when He comes to pardon, Satan opposeth, and the heart opposeth.
(b) God, in forgiving sins, puts forth infinite mercy--Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Thy mercy.”
(3) Forgiveness of sin is a choice blessing, as it lays a foundation for other mercies. It is a leading, mercy.
(a) It makes, way for temporal good things. It bring, s health. When Christ said to the palsied man, “Thy sins are forgiven,” this made way for a bodily cure--“Arise, take up thy bed and go into thine house.” The pardon of his sin made way for the healing of his palsy.
(b) It makes way for spiritual good things. Forgiveness of sin never comes alone, but hath other spiritual blessings attending it. Whom God pardons, He sanctifies, adopts, crowns. It is a voluminous mercy; it draws the silver link of grace, and the golden link of glory after it.
6. Consideration: That which may make us seek after forgiveness of sin is, God’s inclinableness to pardon--“Thou art a God ready to pardon.” We are apt to entertain wrong conceits of God, that He is inexorable, and will not forgive--“I knew that Thou art an hard man.” But God is a sin-pardoning God.
7. Consideration: Not to seek earnestly for pardon is the unspeakable misery of such as want forgiveness; it must needs be ill with that malefactor that wants his pardon.
(1) The unpardoned sinner that lives and dies so, is under the greatest loss and privation.
(2) The unpardoned sinner hath nothing to do with any promise.
(3) An unpardoned sinner is continually in danger of the outcry of an accusing conscience. An accusing conscience is a little hell.
(4) All the curses of God stand in full force against an unpardoned sinner. His very blessings are cursed--“I will curse your blessings.”
(5) The unpardoned sinner is in an ill case at death. Luther professed there were three things which he durst not think of without Christ; of his sins, of death, of the day of judgment. Death to a Christless soul is the “King of terrors.” But I am discouraged from going to God for pardon, for I am unworthy of forgiveness; what am I, that God should do such a favour for me? God forgives, not because we are worthy, but because He is gracious--“The Lord, the Lord merciful and gracious.” “Free grace doth not findus worthy, but makes us worthy.” Therefore, notwithstanding unworthiness, seek to God, that your sins may be pardoned. But I have been a great sinner, and sure God will not pardon me. David brings it as an argument for pardon; “Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” When God forgives great sins, now He doth a work like Himself. The desperateness of the wound doth the more set forth the virtue of Christ’s blood in curing it. The vast ocean hath bounds set to it, but God’s pardoning mercy is boundless. God can as well forgive great sins as less; as the sea can as well cover great rocks as little sands. God counts it His glory to display free grace in its orient colours--“Where sin aboundeth grace did much more abound.” When sin becomes exceeding sinful, free grace becomes exceeding glorious. God’s pardoning love can conquer the sinner, and triumph over the sin. Let us labour to have the evidence of pardon, to know that our sins are forgiven. A man may have his sins forgiven, and not know it; he may have a pardon in the court of heaven, when he hath it not in the court of conscience. The evidence of pardon may not appear for a time, and this may be--
1. From the imbecility and weakness of faith.
2. A man may be pardoned and not know it, from the strength of temptation. But why doth God sometimes conceal the evidence of pardon?
Though God doth pardon, yet He may withhold the sense of it a while--
1. Because hereby He would lay us lower in contrition.
2. Though God hath forgiven sin, yet He may deny the manifestation of it for a time, to make us prize pardon, and make it sweeter to us when it comes.
How then shall we know by the word whether our guilt is done away, and our sins pardoned?
1. The pardoned sinner is a great weeper. Have we been dissolved into tears for sin? God seals His pardons upon melting hearts.
2. We may know our sins are forgiven by having the grace of faith infused--“To Him give all the prophets witness, that whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” In saving faith there are two things, renunciation, and recumbency.
3. The pardoned soul is a God-admirer--“Who is a God like Thee, that pardoneth iniquity?”
4. Wherever God pardons sin, He subdues it--“He will have compassion on us, He will subdue our iniquities.” Where men’s persons are justified, their lusts are mortified.
5. He whose sins are forgiven is full of love to God. He whose heart is like marble, locked up in impenitency, that doth not melt in love, gives evidence his pardon is yet to seal.
6. Where the sin is pardoned, the nature is purified. Many tell us, they hope they are pardoned, but were never sanctified; yea, but they believe in Christ; but what faith is it? A swearing faith, a whoring faith; the faith of devils is as good.
7. Such as are in the number of God’s people, forgiveness of sin belongs to them--“Comfort ye My people, tell them their iniquity is pardoned.” He whose sins are forgiven, is willing to forgive others who have offended him--“Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgivenyou.” A king may pardon a traitor, but will not make him one of his privy council; but whom God pardons, He receives into favour. Forgiveness of sin makes our services acceptable; God takes all we do in good part. A guilty person, nothing he doth pleaseth God. Forgiveness of sin is the sauce which sweetens all the comforts of this life. As guilt embitters our comforts, it puts wormwood into our cup; so pardon of sin sweetens all; it is like sugar to wine. Health and pardon, estate and pardon, relish well. Pardon of sin gives a sanctified title! and a delicious taste to every comfort.
If sin be forgiven, God will never upbraid us with our former sins. Where God pardons sins, He bestows righteousness. With remission of sin goes imputation of righteousness--“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.” A pardoned soul needs not fear death. He may look on death with joy who can look on forgiveness with faith. To a pardoned soul death hath lost his sting. Death, to a pardoned sinner, is like the arresting a man after the debt is paid; death may arrest, but Christ will show the debt-book crossed in His blood. Now follow the duties of such as have their sins forgiven. Mercy calls for duty. Be much in praise and doxology.
1. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities.” Hath God crowned you with pardoning mercy? set the crown of your praise upon the head of free grace.
2. Let God’s pardoning love inflame your hearts with love to God.
3. Let the sense of God’s love in forgiving make you more cautious and fearful of sin for the future. O Christians, do you not remember what it cost you before to get your pardon I
4. If God hath given you good hope that you are pardoned, walk cheerfully--“We joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we havereceived the atonement.” Who should rejoice, if not he that hath his pardon?
5. Hath God pardoned you? Do all the service you can for God--“Always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Let your head study for God, let your hands work for Him, let your tongue be the organ of His praise. The pardoned soul thinks he can never love God enough or serve Him enough. The last thing is to lay down some rules or directions, how we may obtain forgiveness of sin.
We must take heed of mistakes about pardon of sin.
1. That our sins are pardoned, when they are not. Whence is this mistake? From two grounds.
(1) Because God is merciful.
(2) Because Christ died for their sins, therefore they are forgiven.
2. That pardon is easy to be had; it is but a sigh, or, “Lord have mercy.” “As we forgive our debtors;” or, “As we forgive them that trespass against Matthew 6:12). I proceed to the second part of the petition, “As we forgive them that trespass against us.” “As we forgive.” This word, “as,” is not a note of equality, but similitude; not that we equal God in forgiving, but imitate Him.
How can I forgive others, when it is only God forgives sin? In every breach of the second table there are two things; an offence against God, and a trespass against man. So far as it is an offence against God, He only can forgive; but so far as it is a trespass against man, so we may forgive. Let it persuade us all, as ever we hope for salvation, to pass by petty injuries and discourtesies, and labour to be of forgiving spirits, “forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.”
1. Herein we resemble God. He is “ready to forgive,” He befriends His enemies, He opens His hands to relieve them who open their mouths against Him.
2. To forgive is one of the highest evidences of grace. When grace comes into the heart, it makes a man, as Caleb, of another spirit. It makes a great metamorphosis; it sweetens the heart, and fills it with love and candour. When a scion is grafted into a stock it partakes of the mature and sap of the tree, and brings forth the same fruit; take a crab, graft it into a pepin, it brings forth the same fruit as the pepin; so he who was once of a sour crabby disposition, given to revenge, when he is once ingrafted into Christ, he partakes of the sap of this heavenly olive, and bears sweet and generous fruit; he is full of love to His enemies, and requites good for evil. As the sun draws up many thick noxious vapours from the earth, and returns them in sweet showers; so a gracious heart returns the unkindnesses of others with the sweet influences of love and mercifulness--“They rewarded me evil for good; but as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting.” This is a good certificate to show for heaven.
3. The blessed example of our Lord Jesus; He was of a forgiving spirit.
4. The danger of an implacable, unforgiving spirit; it hinders the efficacy of ordinances; it is like an obstruction in the body, which keeps it from thriving. A revengeful spirit poisons our sacrifice, our prayers are turned, into sin; will God receive prayer mingled with this strange fire?
5. God hath tied His mercy to this condition; if we do not forgive, neither will He forgive us--“If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.” A man may as well go to hell for not forgiving, as for not believing.
6. The examples of the saints who have been of forgiving spirits.
7. Forgiving and requiting good for evil is the best way to conquer and melt the heart of an enemy. Our sins are innumerable and heinous; is God willing to forgive us so many offences, and cannot we forgive a few? No man can do so much wrong to us all our life, as we do to God in one day.
But how must we forgive? As God forgives us.
1. Cordially. God doth not only make a show of forgiveness, and keep our sins by Him, but doth really forgive; He passeth an act of oblivion.
2. God forgives fully; He forgives all our sins. Hypocrites pass by some offences, but retain others. Would we have God deal so with us to remit only some trespasses, and call us to account for the rest.
3. God forgives often; we run afresh upon the score, but God multiplies pardon. (T. Watson.)
Our Father’s forgiveness
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” Matthew 6:12). “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us” (Luke 11:4). Ponder, first, the prayer for forgiveness--Forgive us our debts. This word” debts” first claims our attention. There are two senses in which man may be said to be a debtor to the Heavenly Father. First: Man is a debtor in the sense of dutifulness: a dutifulness unconditional, complete, unbroken, ceaseless, absolute; and this because God is Father, and he God’s son. Of course, from a debt like this no son, so long as he remains loyal, can ever expect or even wish to be released. To owe the Father in heaven immortal obedience, thanks, trust, love, is man’s blessedness and glory. But there is a second and terrible sense in which man may be said to be a debtor to his Heavenly Father: he owes Him arrears, or the debt of default in dutifulship. And this second debt is beyond the possibility of payment. And now, if Gabriel with all his spotless innocence and celestial strength is unable to outrun his duty or do work of supererogation, what shall be said of poor, fallen, miserable man? A child of dust, conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, by nature, in the very fact of birth, a child of wrath, talking of making amends to God for past failure!
“O Judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason!”
As well might the thief claim the watch he has stolen as the reward due to his knavery, or the assassin the love and esteem of the dead man’s friends as the reward due to his deed of blood. But will God answer the prayer?
Can He, will He, forgive our debts? Most certainly He can and He will; and this precisely for the reason that He is what He is, our Heavenly Father. Were He something else, were He simply a Creator, or a Monarch, or a Judge, He might coldly say, “No! My Government must be maintained. Justice must be satisfied. The law must take its course. Or, if I forgive, it can only be in view of a consideration, the payment of an equivalent.” But precisely because God is something more than this, precisely because He is Father as well as Creator and Monarch and Judge, He says nothing of the kind. Overcoming us by a love so infinite that it must vent itself in a cross, He recreates our characters by subduing us into penitence, amendment, loyalty, sonship; and so He transfigures us from bankruptcy into sonhood. This is the way in which our Heavenly Father forgives us for His Son’s sake our debts. And now let us ponder, secondly, the standard of forgiveness: “As we forgive” (or, as it probably should read, as we have forgiven) “our debtors.” And, first, what does it mean to forgive our debtors? Precisely what forgiveness means when our Heavenly Father forgives us our debts. And you know how He forgives us, at least those of us who have accepted His forgiveness; for His pardon, as we have seen, does not really go into operation till we have actually accepted it. Recall, then, how the Heavenly Father has forgiven us. He has forgiven us freely, without stipulation or compensation. He has forgiven us fully, every one of our debts, and they are as countless as earth’s sands: He has forgiven us infinitely more than we can ever be called upon to forgive others. He has forgiven us sincerely, from the depths of His own infinite Heart. He has forgiven us everlastingly, world without end. Most wonderful of all, He Himself has taken the initiative, offering us His forgiveness in advance of our even asking for it. And as He has forgiven us, so we are to forgive one another. Take, then, the initiative in forgiving thy brother. But while it is true that our Father’s forgiveness of us is the model for our forgiveness of our brothers, yet this is not the point which the Lord sets before us in the pattern prayer. Elsewhere in Holy Scripture forgiveness begins in heaven and descends to earth; here forgiveness begins on earth and ascends to heaven--“Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.” Not that there is any merit in our forgiving one another. No, our Father does not forgive us our debts because we have forgiven our debtors; but our having forgiven our debtors is a condition of our Father’s forgiving us our Matthew 6:14-15; Luke 11:4; Mark 11:25; Jam 1 John 4:20). For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy. Again: our forgiving our brother is not only a condition of our Father’s forgiving us; our forgiving our brother is also, so to speak, the standard or measure of our Father’s forgiving us: Forgive us our debts, as, in the same spirit that, we have forgiven our debtors. It would be difficult to find in history, or in philosophy, or in Holy Writ, a more pregnant or more affecting sign of man’s greatness than this little phrase, “As we forgive our debtors.” Elsewhere in the Word we are taught to regard God as the standard of man’s action; but here we are taught to regard man as the standard of God’s action. Here is a man who has been bitterly wronged by another; he says to him, “I forgive you this, but I cannot forget it.” He enters his closet and prays: “Father, forgive me, as I have forgiven him! Say to me in words that Thou forgivest me, but do not forget my offences! Blot them not out of the book of Thy remembrance! Do to me as I do to him!” Oh, how often does this prayer, if offered sincerely, mean a curse! Once more: our forgiving our brother is not only the standard or measure of our Father’s forgiveness of us; not only a condition of His forgiving us; it is also a sign of our having been ourselves forgiven by our Father. In other words, our feelings towards those who have wronged us furnish us with a decisive test of our standing before our Father in Heaven. As a forgiving state implies a forgiven, so an unforgiving state implies an unforgiven. Ah, this is the meaning of these human relations of ours: this is the final cause of the incorporation of us into human society. The feelings we secretly cherish, as in the discharge of our daily duties we mingle among our fellows--these are the best interpreters of Christ’s doctrine of forgiveness. Let us not waste our time in judging ourselves by theoretical, distant, shadowy tests. Let us deal with our own hearts as directly and practically as Christ’s tests require. (G. D.Boardman, D. D.)
A confession before pardon
I. A CONFESSION. That naturally comes first. With God as with man, the confession must go before the pardon. But, more particularly, as bringing out the alarming nature of these debts, notice these things regarding them:
1. The countless numbers of them.
2. They are always increasing. If they were lessening, however slowly, there would be hope. But, so far from diminishing, they are growing.
3. They are all taken account of. God’s eye sees them all.
4. They are all to be reckoned for.
5. We can do nothing to meet them.
II. A PRAYER--“Forgive us our debts.” The word “forgive” means remit, discharge, send away. The word is touchingly suggestive. About this forgiveness, and as a help to our asking it, I may make these three remarks.
1. It is free and gracious.
2. This forgiveness is complete; it takes in “all sin.” It does not merely lessen it; it removes it, and leaves none remaining. I was once sent for, in great haste, to see a man who reminded me, more than any one I ever saw, of Bunyan’s “man in the iron cage.” He had at one time been on board a slave ship, and had taken part in the cruelties perpetrated against the poor negroes, and as the spectacle of their sufferings rose up before him, he was in utter despair. When I was shown into his room, he was dashing his clenched hands against the wall at the back of his bed, crying out, “Oh my sins I my sins! hundreds I thousands! If ye would but take away the half of them I could bear it. I’ve been worse than ever Paul was, and he said he was the chief of sinners,” &c. I never felt more the blessedness of having God’s free, immediate, complete pardon to offer, as I told him that God never pardoned the half of any man’s sins, that His way was to pardon all or none, that He Himself had put the prayer into the sinner’s lips, “Take away all iniquity,” and that He offered him now this present and full pardon for the sake of His dear Son.
3. This forgiveness is everlasting: the sins, the debts, never come back. They are cancelled. They are covered. This is an intercessory prayer, that is, a prayer for others. “Forgive us our debts.” We come now to look at another element in this petition of the Lord’s prayer, which I stated thus:
III. AN ENCOURAGEMENT, AND A PROMISE OR OBLIGATION--“As we forgive our debtors”; “for we also forgive.”
1. It may be regarded as an encouragement to ask for giveness from God. “Forgive us, as we forgive”: “for we forgive.” In so far as there is anything good in us, it was God who put it there. In this respect, God has made us like Himself. If I might so speak, it is a little bit of God’s image in us. On a May morning, as you are crossing a field, you see a little bit of glass, or a little drop of dew on a blade of grass, shining like a little sun. That reflection of it gives you some idea of what the sun is.
2. We may regard this clause as containing a promise, or obligation, under which we come when we pray this prayer. It is more than a promise, but it has that wrapped up in it. It is a declaration that we have forgiven all who have wronged us, for the verb is in the past tense--“as we have forgiven our debtors.” I am not fit to be forgiven,--I am not capable of receiving forgiveness, if I am unforgiving. If a child has his hand filled with a stone, and you offer him gold, or food, or ought else that is desirable, he cannot receive the one without casting away the other. His hand cannot take it in. It is indispensable, in the very nature of things, that he part with the stone, in order to be able to take the gold, without attributing any merit to/he casting away of what filled his hand before. And so, where an unforgiving spirit takes possession of any one--enters into and fills any heart--that heart cannot take in God’s forgiveness. There is not the power to receive forgiveness. The unforgivingness must be cast out, that pardon from God may be a possibility.
And after what fashion is it that this forgiveness must be exercised?
1. Heartily. It is of no use merely to say it in words. “If ye from the heart forgive not,” says Christ.
2. Universally--entirely. What kind of wrongs am I to forgive? Every kind; not only the lesser, but also the greater,
3. Habitually. Not only now and then, but constantly. Few things touch us more to the quick than unkind and abusive letters. Some Christian people have been sorely tried by these. The late Dr. Cotton Mather received many of them. After his death, they were found among his papers, tied up in a packet, with these words written on the cover, “Libels--Father, forgive them.” (J. H. Wilson, M. A.)
Prayer for forgiveness
1. The most superficial view of the nature and objects of prayer cannot fail to teach us that such a request as this should be offered with great seriousness of mind. We would not go into the presence of an earthly prince, even though it were to solicit an ordinary favour, without forethought and preparation; much less would we come as culprits to his throne to beg the interposition of royal prerogative in the exercise of the pardoning power, without respect and reverence.
2. There is also an honesty of intention, a simplicity and godly sincerity, in the man who offers this request, without which he may not hope to find access. A cold, formal, listless mind when the transgressor pleads for mercy, is in ill keeping with the object of his prayer.
3. There is earnestness in the man who, touched with his lost condition as a sinner, comes in sober verity to the foot of the throne, to crave pardon from a forgiving God, that bespeaks the struggles that are within.
4. To be offered either in seriousness or in sincerity, this request must also be offered in penitence.
5. It is a delightful thought, too, that associated as this request is with the name of Christ, it is offered in hope. Despair cannot pray.
A forgiving spirit
Our task is comparatively easy, therefore, as we proceed to show why the spirit of forgiveness in men is made a revealed condition of their obtaining forgiveness from God. The reason why a man of unforgiving spirit cannot obtain forgiveness is, that he is destitute of all true and genuine piety. The force of this remark may perhaps be the better perceived by something like the following observations.
1. Such a man has no true sense of his own sins.
2. Nor do we see how such a man can have any true sense of the Divine mercy.
3. It is equally true that a man of an unforgiving spirit has no love to God in his heart.
4. Nor may we overlook the thought, that where the spirit of forgiveness is wanting, there can be no honest regard for the interests of human society. The laws of Christ’s kingdom do not allow any man to live for himself alone. History furnishes an affecting illustration of the need of a spirit of forgiveness, in order to the retaining of our evidence of forgiveness from God. There was in the Church at Antioch, in the third century, a minister by the name of Sapricius, and a layman by the name of Nicephorus, who after long intimacy had fallen into an unhappy quarrel, and carried it so far that they would not speak to each other when they met. After a while Nicephorus relented, and took every measure for reconciliation, but in vain. He even threw himself at the feet of his former friend, and entreated forgiveness for the Lord’s sake, but without effect. About this time, a new storm of persecution arose, and Sapricius was marked out as one of the victims. The magistrates ordered him to obey the Emperor, and sacrifice to the heathen god. But he appeared ready to witness a good confession, and replied in an expression of his higher allegiance to the King of kings, “Perish idols, which can do neither harm nor good!’ The torture was applied, and he bore it firmly. The magistrate then commanded him to be beheaded, and while he was led out to execution, Nicephorus followed him, entreating his forgiveness. But it was in vain; Saprieius’s unforgiving temper remained to the last. At this juncture did the Saviour make good His word, “If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.” For at this trying period, all Sapricius’s firmness forsook him; the fear of death overpowered him, he recanted, and saved his life, while seemingly on the point of seizing the crown of martyrdom. While at the same time the Saviour’s faithfulness was remarkably expressed towards the individual who had manifested a forgiving spirit. Nicephorus, annoyed at so unexpected a change in Sapricius, exhorted him to adhere to the faith, but in vain. And then himself flaming with zeal for the Christian cause, so dishonoured, turned to the executioners and said, “I believe in the name of the Lord Jesus, whom he has renounced.” This was reported to the Emperor, and Nicephorus received the crown of martyrdom! We cannot rely upon the Divine mercy for ourselves while indulging an unforgiving and unchristian spirit towards others. (G. Spring, D. D.)
Sins ours
1. First, of them that shift the guilt of their sins upon Adam, and allege original corruption for an excuse of their transgressions.
2. But now, in the next place, if we cannot shift our sins upon Adam and that original weakness which we derived from his loins, we may perhaps upon the serpent, upon the devil.
3. We come now to the last complaint; which is most unjust of all, as being put up against the justice and goodness of God, “who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not” (James 1:5).
4. And now, in the last place, as they are only ours, so they are fully and totally ours; and if we strive to make a defalcation, we add unto their bulk, and make them more mountainous than before. And as we do minuendo numerum augere, “by seeking to make our sins fewer than they are, sin more, and so increase their number”; so, by attempting to make them less, we make them greater. (A. Farindon.)
Called aboard again
Thus you see, like men set on shore for refreshment and provision of some necessaries for their voyage, we are called aboard again; Christ did only land us upon the world’s shore in that middle petition, to refresh us in the midst of our travels, but He purposed not to afford us any long stay; for you may see man’s meditations here embarked for the furthest point of life’s voyage. For the clearing of which passage to his last home he uses all diligence in these three last petitions, which are, as it were, His harbingers to remove all impediments which might retard Him in the course of His future beatitude. See in this, man making his peace with God and the world, compounding with his creditor, God, and with his debtors, men, at one and the same rate--“Forgive us,” &c., as “we forgive them,” &c. There is nothing more dangerous to a Christian than to slight or diminish an offence. (Archdeacon King.)
No venal sins
The smallest leak which is sprung at sea may, if neglected, let in water to drown the tallest ship. Therefore, if the tide of sin have washed, though never so lightly, over thy bank, if a temptation have floated in upon thy soul by any of thy five ports, thy senses, make up the breach betimes, lest a tide or two more overwhelm, and lay thee quite under water. Despise not the smallest sin, for even that is a step to a greater. Remember thou mayest multiply pence till they come to a talent, so thou mayest link sin to Sin, till they make a chain long enough to drag thee into perpetual bondage with the prince of darkness, long enough to reach from earth to hell, till the multiplication of those acts grow into a habit, become great and strong, and heavy enough to sink thee into the bottomless pit. Remember too, that as the least coins, even to the farthing, have their value, so also the least sins shall have their punishment. (Archdeacon King.)
Our debts
There is not so naked, so penurious a thing as man. “Naked was he born, and naked shrill he return,” divested of all but his sins. We have no peculiar but this, nothing that we can call ours, but only our faults. Except that luckless patrimony, I know not what we can lay claim to, either that is without us, or in us. Bona Fortunce, wealth acknowledgeth no sovereign but fortune, we are not masters of it; and though it abide with us as a hireling, perhaps till the end of our days, then it surely takes leave, often before that, becoming any one’s save his whose it it last was. Nothing of all we had goes along with us but our winding sheet; for other things we have gathered, the Psalm says, “We know not who shall enjoy them”; sure we are, we shall not. And for that form which makes so many enamoured of themselves, can any call it theirs? when all the Parget’s art hath invented are not able to coat it against the violence of time and weather, nor by all their fillings to repair those decays and bleaches which sickness hath wrought upon it. The breath we draw, is that ours? Is it not sucked and borrowed from the next air? Our best part, the soul, is it any more than a loan, deposited for some years with the body, after whose expiration it reverts to I-lira that gave it. And, lastly, for our body, is it anything else but a lump of walking clay, a little earth inanimated; the certain restitution whereof we owe unto the dust from whence it was taken. What is there, then, of our whole selves which we can call ours, unless our sins? These are effects springing from our own depraved nature, the fruits of a vicious crooked will, our true legitimate issue, though born against all law, both human and Divine. They are nostra, “ours,” by many assurances, curs by all titles both of right and possession. (Archdeacon King.)
Of duties to be observed because every sin is mortal
The knowledge of the nature of every sin, and of the due desert thereof, ought to make us diligent in searching into the law of God, that thereby we may know what is sin, for “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” And knowing sin, carefully and consciously to avoid it; for “the wages of sin is death.” And no way make ourselves accessories to the sins of others, for so we bring the blood of others upon our own heads. And if we have committed sins ourselves, or made ourselves accessory to the sins of others, not to soothe our consciences with the smallness thereof, and thereupon remain secure, not caring to repent thereof. “Except ye be born again ye shall perish.” To work the more thorough repentance we ought thoroughly to search ourselves, and from time to time strictly to examine our thoughts, words, and actions. And as we discern any transgressions or alterations in any of them, instantly to crave pardon for them. Yea, because we cannot be ignorant that many sins unawares pass from us, to desire a general discharge of all other sins (which two points are expressly noted in this fifth petition). As we crave pardon for all sins past, so ought we to be watchful over ourselves for the time to come, even so watchful as to “abstain from all appearance of evil.” Not regarding the common scoffs against preciseness, as the world termeth Christian, careful and conscionable watchfulness over a man’s self. Commonly the wickeder sort do most justify themselves, and the upright most judge themselves. The upright use to judge themselves for their very ignorances and negligences. And surely sins of ignorance or negligence were better be judged, that they may be destroyed, then excused that they should be nourished. For “every thing must be brought to judgment,” and “of every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account in the day of judgment.” Let not therefore the small sins be slighted. Floods are made with small drops. Water soaketh through small chinks, the ship is therewith filled, and if the pump be not plied the ship is drowned. (W. Gouge.)
Of the many debts wherein we stand bound to God’s justice
1. Our souls will be the more wounded and humbled for them. The benefit whereof will be that God will be the more moved with pity and compassion towards us.
2. Our desire of discharge will be the more fervent. Whereby the Lord will the rather be moved to grant our desire.
3. The long-suffering of God in bearing with so many sins, so many ways committed against Him, and from time to time heaped one upon another will be the better discerned.
4. The riches of God’s mercy in forgiving not a few pence, nor yet a few talents, but “many thousand talents” will be the more admired and magnified; and He Himself the more loved. (W. Gouge.)
Revenge is a kind of fire
which if it be not presently quenched, will soon prove unquenchable. Nay, it is a deadly poison, which if it once seize on the soul will soon destroy it. No fire, no poison of a more increasing nature than revenge. Did men know what a wolf, what a tiger, what a viper wrath and revenge were, they would at the first sight thereof be startled, and get themselves as far from it as they could. If scorpions and apes were in men’s houses, what pains would they take to cleanse their houses, that they might dwell securely? But they keep anger, wrath, malice, hatred, revenge, which are so many scorpions and serpents, and cleanse not the house of God, which is their heart. Yea, such a perverse disposition have many, as they use all the means they can to retain and nourish revenge, and to keep it in mind and memory. By oath, by imprecation, and other ways they will bind themselves not to forgive. They forbear not to say, “I may forget the wrong, but I will never forgive it.” Hereby they provoke God to keep their sins in perpetual memory, and to bind Himself to execute vengeance on them. (W. Gouge.)
Of the force of this particle “as” in the condition annexed to the fifth petition
This note of resemblance, therefore, is not here used as it was in the third petition, for--
1. There that from whence the resemblance is taken is more eminent. Here much meaner, It is there taken from those that are in heaven. But here from us on earth.
2. There it noteth a pattern for doing. Here, an evidence of doing.
3. There it is used for direction, to show what we should do. (W. Gouge.)
Pretences for not forgiving
1. He that hath wronged me is a base fellow. What more base to thee, than thou art to God?
2. The wrong done is unsufferable. What! more unsufferable than thy sins against God?
3. It is not the first time that he hath wronged me. Didst thou never but once sin against God?
4. He may wrong me again and again if I put it up. Why dost thou think so uncharitably of thy brother? But mayest thou not sin again and again against God?
5. It beseemeth not my place and honour to put up wrongs. Is God so accounted for bearing with sins? If God do thus, why art thou so much incensed with wrath, when any doth any wrong to thee? Thou shouldest rather behold thyself, how thou hast carried thyself against God. If anything will make thee forgive, surely this will. (W. Gouge.)
God’s mind toward us
Learn hereby how to know God’s mind towards thee. Thou needest not to climb up to heaven there to behold the face of God, whether He frown or smile, whether love or anger be seated in His eyes, but dive into thine own heart, and there observe what is thy mind towards thy brother. No looking-glass can give a truer representation of thy face than thine own heart a demonstration of God’s heart towards thee. “We love, because He first loved us,” and we forgive because He first forgave us. (W. Gouge.)
God’s mercy is operative as fire
It warmeth that heart in which it abideth, and worketh mercy therein. Where, therefore, no mercy to man can be found, there is just cause to suspect no mercy of God hath been showed. The soul of an unmerciful man is no fit receptacle of the mercies of God. It abuseth, it perverteth them. (W. Gouge.)
The prayer for forgiveness
I. Let us consider THAT GOD IS THE SOURCE OF ALL FORGIVENESS. This is His right. It belongs to Him; it is His property; and He is jealous of it. “To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses.” “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” But not only is it the right and prerogative of God: it is His glory. It floweth out of His mercy. Forgiveness is but the stream, and it ariseth from the goodness and the mercy of God. And the reason why I lay stress on this, and I do it often, is because I see so frequently, and find so often in my own heart, this principle--a sort of harsh principle as it regardeth God; a loving principle as it regardeth Jesus, but some stem view as it regardeth the Father; whereas the glory of the gospel is, that if we have free forgiveness, it floweth out, like the bubbling stream from the overflowing fountain; it cometh forth from His glory; it is His glory. And yet it flows in a pure and unsullied channel; if you and I love God as we ought to love Him, we should say, I would not have mercy at the expense of Thy holiness. I want no exhibition of God’s goodness upon the ruins of His holiness; I do not want to see the wreck of God’s holy law, in order that He may exhibit His forgiving love. It emanates forth from the glory of God; and gloriously does He exercise it. It is indeed a bubbling fountain, ever full and ever running over. Hast thou ever seen the honeycomb drop honey out of its fulness? Did any argument of thine persuade it to drop? Why did it drop? Because it was full of honey. And why doth God forgive? Because He is God; and that which He doeth, He doeth like Himself, gloriously. Oh! yes, what God doth, He doth as God; and when He forgiveth, He forgiveth as God. And when one asks what are those sins that He forgives, see how the Holy Ghost describes them: sins deep as scarlet, and red as blood.
II. HE LEADS THEM TO PRAY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF THEIR SINS--“Forgive us our sins.” And there seems, too, I think, involved in this petition, an imploring of God for all the blessings that spring out from forgiveness.
III. THE PLEA WHICH OUR LORD PUTS INTO THE HEARTS OF HIS DISCIPLES--“For we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.” (J. H. Evans.)
And lead us not into temptation
Lead us not into temptation
I. WHAT SUGGESTS SUCH A PRAYER AS THIS?
1. Watchfulness.
2. Next, it seems to me to be the natural prayer of holy horror at the very thought of falling again into sin. I remember the story of a pitman who, having been a gross blasphemer, a man of licentious life and everything that was bad, when converted by Divine grace, was terribly afraid lest his old companions should lead him hack again. He knew himself to be a man of strong passions, and very apt to be led astray by others, and therefore in his dread of being drawn into his old sins, he prayed most vehemently that sooner than ever he should go back to his old ways he might die. He did die there and then. Perhaps it was the best answer to the best prayer that the poor man could have offered. I am sure any man who has once lived an evil life, if the wondrous grace of God has snatched him from it, will agree that the pitman’s prayer was not one whit too enthusiastic. It were better for us to die at once than to live on and return to our first estate and bring dishonour upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. He who has once been caught in the steel trap carries the scars in his flesh and is horribly afraid of being again held by its cruel teeth.
3. The third feeling, also, is very apparent; namely, diffidence of personal strength. The man who feels himself strong enough for anything is daring, and even invites the battle which will prove his power. “Oh,” says he, “I care not; they may gather about me who will; I am quits able to take care of myself and hold my own against any number.” He is ready to be led into conflict, he courts the fray. Not so the man who has been taught of God and has learned his own weakness; He does not want to be tried, but seeks quiet places where he may be out of harm’s way.
4. This prayer seems to me to arise also somewhat out of charity. We should not be too severe with those persons who have done wrong, and offended us; but pray, “Lord, lead us not into temptation.”
5. This prayer breathes the spirit of confidence in God. Of course He will lead me, now that I am His child. Moreover, now that He has forgiven me, I know that He will not lead ms where I can come to any harm. This my faith ought to know and believe, and yet for several reasons there rises to my mind a fear lest His providence should conduct me where I shall be tempted. Is that fear right or wrong? It burdens my mind; may I go with it to my God? May I express in prayer this misgiving of soul? May I pour out this anxiety before the great, wise, loving God? Will it not be impertinent? No, it will not, for Jesus puts the words into my mouth and says, “After this manner pray ye.”
II. WHAT ARE THESE TEMPTATIONS WHICH THE PRAYER DEPRECATES? or say rather, what are these trials which are so much feared.
1. Men may be led into temptation by the withdrawal of Divine grace.
2. Another set of temptations will be found in providential conditions.
3. There are temptations arising out of physical conditions. Diseased livers, palpitating hearts, and injured brains are hard things to struggle against.
4. Mental conditions often furnish great temptations.
5. There are temptations arising out of personal associations, which are formed for us in the order of providence.
III. LESSONS.
1. Never boast your own strength.
2. Never desire trial.
3. Never go into temptation.
4. Do not lead others there. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Temptation and deliverance
I. WHAT TEMPTATIONS ARE. Temptation, according to the proper signification of the word, is no other but a trial or probation. And this may be of two kinds--exploratory, or suasory. There is an exploratory temptation; to search out and to discover what is in man, what his graces and corruptions are. There is a suasory or enticing temptation, that inclines the will and affections to close with what is presented to them.
1. Now, in general, we may observe five several sorts of temptations: whereof some are of the former, others of the latter kind.
(1) Some, whereby one man tempts another.
(2) Some, whereby we tempt ourselves.
(3) Some, whereby we tempt God.
(4) Some, whereby God tempts us.
(5) Some, whereby the devil tempts us.
Now among these many various kinds of temptations which have been reckoned up, those temptations which we are to pray against are of three sorts--such as proceed from our own lusts and corruptions; such as proceed from other men’s persuading us, either by motives or examples unto that which is evil; or, lastly, such as proceed from the devil. Or, else, they may be reduced to these two heads--the temptations which proceed from our own inbred lusts and corruptions and those which proceed from the devil; for, indeed, wicked men are but his agents and instruments, when they tempt us to that which is evil.
2. Now, that our Saviour Christ should make it the great matter and object of our prayers to beg of God that we may not be led into temptation, we may observe that it is a Christian’s duty, not only to keep himself from sin, but also to endeavour to keep himself from temptation to sin. For--
(1) It is a very ill sign of a rotten and carnal heart to be content to lie under a temptation, although it doth not consent to the commission of sin.
(2) If you suffer a temptation to lodge in your hearts, you are in imminent danger of being prevailed upon by it.
(3) Consider that, as all temptations are dangerous, and that we have great reason to fear lest, in the end, they should prevail upon us to commit the sin to which we are tempted; so most of them are not only temptations, but sins also.
II. How GOD MAY BE SAID TO LEAD MEN INTO TEMPTATION.
1. God is said to lead us into temptation when He providentially presents outward objects and occasions which do solicit and draw forth our inward corruptions.
2. God is said to lead us into temptation when He withdraws the influences of His grace from us, and leaves us under the power of a temptation.
3. God is said to lead men into temptation when He permits Satan and wicked men his instruments to tempt us--yea, sometimes He gives them commission as well as permission; and appoints and sends them to do it.
(1) He leaves these Canaanites to molest us, to teach us the wars of the Lord; to make us continually watchful; to breathe and exercise our graces; to administer matter for our conquest, and occasion for our crown and triumph.
(2) To convince us of our own utter inability to stand of ourselves, without His help and assistance; thereby engaging us to depend upon His arm, and to call for Divine supplies and succours.
(3) To glorify both His justice and mercy. His justice, in giving up wicked men to the rage of temptations; to be hurried by them from sin to sin, till at last they put an end to the succession of their sins in eternal damnation. And His mercy, in succouring of and supporting and delivering His children out of all their temptations.
(4) God permits His own children to be tempted, that, by their victory over temptations, He may confound the malice of Satan, and commend the excellency of His own ways and service.
III. DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL.
1. The thing here prayed against.
(1) Satan.
(2) All other evils are here meant; whether they be of sin or sorrow; whether they be transgressions or punishments; and that either temporal punishments, in those judgments which God inflicts upon sinners here, or eternal judgments, such as He hath threatened to inflict upon them hereafter. From all these we pray to be delivered--but the greatest of all these is sin. For--
(a) It is greatest in the nature of it, as being the only thing that is contrary to the greatest good, even God.
(b) It is the greatest evil, in the effects and consequences of it.
2. And whereas we are taught by our Saviour to beg this of God our Heavenly Father, we may observe that it is only the almighty power of God that can keep us from sin.
3. It now remains to show you the ways and methods that God takes to do it.
(1) God delivers us from evil, by His restraining providence--putting a hook into men’s nostrils, and a bridle into their jaws; and, by a powerful hand, reining them in when they are most fiery and furious.
(2) God preserves from sin by His restraining grace. Now this restraining grace is that which is common, and vouchsafed to wicked men as well as good. Indeed, God by it deals in a secret way with the very heart of a sinner; and though He doth not change the habitual, yet He changeth the present actual disposition of it; so as not only by external checks laid upon men’s lusts, but by internal persuasions, motives, and arguments, they are taken off the prosecution of those very sins which yet remain in them unmortified and reigning.
(3) God hath another method of keeping men from sin, and that is by His special and sanctifying grace. And this is proper only to the children of God who are really sanctified and made gracious. Now, whatever sin God doth thus preserve any from, He doth it by exciting the inward principle and habit of grace to the actual use and exercise of it. There is a twofold grace always necessary to keep the best Christians from sin; habitual and exciting--and God, by the one, quickens and stirs up the other, which else would lie sluggish and dormant.
Now that which we pray for in this petition is--
1. That if it shall please God to lead us into temptation, yet that He would not leave us under the power of temptation; but, with every temptation, “He would make a way for us to escape, that we may be able to bear it.”
2. That if, at any time, temptation should get the upper hand, and prevail over us to the commission of sin, yet that God would not leave us under the power of that sin; but raise us up again, by true repentance and godly sorrow, that so, at last, we may he delivered from the great and soul-damning evil of obduration and impenitency.
3. That God would not only deliver us from gross and self-condemning impieties; but from every evil way and work, and preserve us blameless to the heavenly kingdom of His Son.
4. That He would be pleased not only to deliver us from that which is in itself evil, but from all the occasions and all the appearances of evil--for these also are evil, if not in effect, yet in tendency. (Bishop Hopkins.)
The sixth petition
I. THE MEANING OF THIS PETITION. Keep us from all occasions of sin, such objects as would prevail upon us to commit it. Suffer us not to yield to temptation, and to fall into the sin to which we are enticed--let us not be left to ourselves when we are tempted. Permit us not to be brought into any temptation or snare. Suffer us not to be entangled in any dangers and difficulties which may not be easily supported by us. That God will give us a way of getting out of any temptation that befals us. That we may not be overcome by temptation; or that we may be kept from any such combat in which there would be great danger of our being vanquished. Such a request we are encouraged to offer up to God by these words in 1 Corinthians 10:12-13, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” It is our duty to watch and to take heed; this is required of us--but the grace of God alone is sufficient to keep us from falling.
II. WHAT THIS PETITION SUPPOSES AND INCLUDES.
1. A real sincere belief of the particular providence of God, and especially towards His faithful servants.
2. Trust in God, His care, His wisdom and goodness to direct us.
3. Deliberate, firm, steadfast resolutions to follow the Divine conduct.
4. Fear of offending God, and of backsliding, and falling into a loose, careless way.
5. Watchfulness against temptations.
6. Courage to resist it, even the strongest temptation, such as falls in with our greatest infirmity, attacks us on our weakest side, such am promises us pleasure or worldly gain.
7. Fortitude to support us under troubles, to enable us to bear affliction for Christ’s sake, and to suffer for Him rather than deny Him.
III. WHAT GROUNDS WE HAVE to hope that God will answer this request, and not suffer us to be tempted (if we take proper care of ourselves, and do not provoke Him to forsake us, and leave us to ourselves; which we may do, and which is actually too often done); or, that if we must fall into temptations and snares (which is unavoidable in the present life), God will concern Himself for our confirmation and establishment under all such trials of our faith and patience. The grounds of hope of a gracious audience and acceptance, in our humble petitions of this kind, are such as the following--
1. That God is able to strengthen, stablish, and settle us, to deliver us from evil, and to secure us under the greatest dangers.
2. That there are some promises in the Word of God which encourage us (such at least as desire to be faithful) to hope that He will vouchsafe us this grace.
3. That we find in reading the Scripture, that such grace has been granted; and why may not God be favourable to us, as well as to others, if we are not negligent and careless ourselves?
4. You may derive hope (such of you as are the children of God, give me leave to use the Scripture style, you may derive hope) from your filial relation to God, that He will not suffer you to be seduced entirely from Him by any temptation that may befal you.
5. The intercession of Christ gives you such hope. Does He direct you to pray, “Lord, lead us not into temptation?” He Himself makes such intercession for you, “Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou wilt keep them from the evil.”
6. You may go boldly to the throne of grace with this petition, because you are commanded to do it.
IV. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS.
1. Let us pray that we may not be tempted above what we are able (by the grace of God with us) to bear; that we may never enter into temptation, and--for our boldness and adventurousness, and want of a just sense of our own weakness, and a due fear of God--be there left; left to ourselves, to the devil and his instruments to seduce us, and to lead us into sin and ruin. And let this petition in our prayer proceed from faith and trust in God.
2. Let us watch, as well as pray, against temptation.
3. When we are tempted to sin, and commit it, let us not say we are tempted of God; either externally, by His putting us into such circumstances as to necessitate our sinning; or internally, by corrupting our minds, raising sinful thoughts in us, and exciting us to sinful practices: this, I observed, is the devil’s work, not God’s.
4. When we pray that God will not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, and the evil one, and not suffer the devil to lead us captive, let us not tempt one another. This would be no other than to be the instruments and servants of the grand enemy of mankind, the great seducer, who was the occasion of the first breach between God and man, and has found some to promote his interest ever since.
5. When we fall into temptation, let us with steadfast resolution resist it, and endeavour to keep ourselves from the evil to which we are tempted.
5. Let us succour them that are tempted, by good instructions, and serious advice and earnest persuasion; so you may be instruments of delivering others from evil, and perhaps of saving them from death. All Christians should be like their Lord, and have compassion on them that are out of the way, or going out, seduced by temptation, and do what they can to prevent their error. (John Whitty.)
Lead us not into temptation
I. DOES GOD LEAD ANY ONE INTO TEMPTATION?
1. God allows temptations which are devoid of the strictly moral element: trials (James 1:2).
2. God allows temptations which have in them some sinful suggestion, for the sake of our moral discipline. Job. Augustine’s natural passions kept pressing him even after conversion, but drove him to hide himself more completely in God. A Christian lady was noted for the serenity of her disposition; no one heard from her a complaint in whatever trial she might have been. She confessed to a naturally irritable temper which the Lord never took from her. She was so afraid of giving way that she ceaselessly prayed for restraining grace. It was the Divine peace that we saw, which descended about her like a halo sent down from heaven.
3. God allows sinful temptations to come against us as a consequence, and thus a punishment, for past transgression. But at the same time He saves all who call upon Him from their own undoing.
III. OBSERVE THE CLOSE CONNECTION BETWEEN THIS AND THE FORMER PETITION, “Forgive us our debts.” Only when the guilt of sin has been discharged at the Cross does the sanctifying influence follow. This will account for the failure of many of our cries, “Lead us not into temptation.” We have not established a basis for help, because we have not yet been forgiven.
IV. WE ARE SAVED FROM TEMPTATION BY USE OF THE PRAYER. It would be a grand thing to withstand sin if we could do it in our own strength; but it is a grander thing to stand in God’s strength, and to know that we have His and not our own keeping. (J. M. Ludlow, D. D.)
The danger of self-sought temptations
If we walk without care and without vigilance, if we acknowledge not God in our ways, and take counsel at Ekron, and not at Zion--leaving the Bible unread and the closet unvisited--if the sanctuary and the Sabbath lose their ancient hold upon us, and we then go on frowardly in the way of our own eyes, and after the counsel of our own heart, we have reason to tremble. A conscience quick and sensitive, under the presence of the indwelling Spirit is like the safety-lamp of the miner, a ready witness and a mysterious guardian against the deathful damps, that unseen but fatal, cluster around our darkling way. To neglect prayer and watching, is to lay aside that lamp, and then though the eye see no danger and the ear hear no warning, spiritual death may be gathering around us her invisible vapours stored with ruin, and rife for a sudden explosion. We are tempting God, and shall we be delivered? And if this be so with the negligent professor of religion, is it not applicable also to the openly careless who never acknowledged Christ’s claims to the heart and the life? With an evil nature, and a mortal body, and a brittle and brief tenure of earth, you are traversing perilous paths. Had you God for your friend, your case would be far other than it is. Peril and snare might still beset you; but you would confront and traverse them, as the Hebrews of old did the weedy bed of the Red Sea--its watery walls guarding their dread way, the pillar of light the vanguard, and the pillar of cloud the rear-guard of their mysterious progress--the ark and the God of the ark piloting and defending them. But without God’s blessing, and committed blindly to Satan’s guidance--returning prayerless from a prayerless sanctuary to a prayerless home, and seeking a prayerless couch at night, and beginning on Monday a prayerless week, which is to find on Saturday evening its still prayerless end--you are like a presumptuous and unskilful traveller, passing under the arch of the waters of Niagara. The falling cataract thundering above you--a slippery, slimy rock beneath your gliding feet--the smoking, roaring abyss yawning beside you--the imprisoned winds beating back your breath--the struggling daylight coming but mistily to the bewildered eyes--what is the terror of your condition, if your guide, in whose grasp your fingers tremble, be malignant and treacherous and suicidal, determined on destroying your life at the sacrifice of his own! He assures you that he will bring you safely through, upon the other side of the fall. And SUCH IS SATAN. (W. R. Williams, D. D.)
In what sense we may pray against temptation
But you may say that if temptation is thus the lot of all men, we ought not to pray as in the text, “Lead us not into temptation.” This does not follow: sickness is the lot of our race, and yet we may pray to God for health, and God will send it to us so far as He sees it to be good for us; indeed we may pray for all things, if only we use the proviso which our Saviour added to His prayer, “Nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done!” and thus we may pray against temptation, because it is a dangerous thing, and a thing painful to endure, even though we should come off victorious in the end. But after all, I conceive the spirit of the prayer against temptation is to pray quite as much for grace to withstand temptation as for freedom from it, quite as much for strength when tempation comes as for the happiness of its not coming at all: the man who prays against temptation, who fears to encounter Satan, who is always alarmed lest he should find his enemy at his elbow enticing him to sin, this man will in his prayer most certainly include another for grace and strength; he prays against temptation, at the same time he knows that it is not likely that he will be exempted from that which falls to the lot of all, and therefore he trusts that he may by God’s grace be found ever ready for the conflict, armed with the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit; he prays that no temptation may come upon him greater than he has strength to bear, but that God will make a way for him to escape that he may be able to bear it, and that however strong that enemy of his soul may be, there may he ever with him one stronger than the strong, even the Holy Spirit of God (Bishop Harvey Goodwin.)
The temptations that surround us
We carry about us an internal enemy, in that heart “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” a traitor not plotting without and at the gates, but in the inmost citadel, cherishing even there his proneness to backslide from Shaddai to Diabolus, and but too eager to sell afresh the town of Mansoul to its old tyrannous usurper. We are surrounded by evil influences and ensnaring examples in the world which hems our path. “Ill-speech” is not only shouting his proclamations at “Ear-gate”; but in the frivolous and foul literature of our times, this orator and herald of Diabolus is sending his letters missive to “Eye-gate” as well, in ceaseless profusion. Then, let us remember the accursed alchemy of sin in us and in our tempters, both the visible and invisible--that hellish heart of corruption which can make God’s works and choice gifts occasions of temptation to us, and render our very blessings a curse. Thus, a mother’s kindness may injure the child on whom it is lavished. Friendship and kindred, and home and love, all may ensnare us. Wealth, in itself God’s gift, how often is it made, by man’s coveting, “filthy lucre.” Knowledge, the food of the soul, how may it become the poisonous and baleful fruit of the forbidden tree; and worldly honour and worldly power, what crimes have they incited, and palliated, and protected. Life, may become--as in the case of many of the antediluvians it seems to have done--though its every hour throughout its long centuries were a new favour of Heaven--may become, in consequence of the treachery of man’s heart misinterpreting its lessons, a fresh and stronger temptation to persevere in sin; and its extension may but serve to foster the hopes of prolonged impunity in wickedness. Our Bibles, and Sabbaths, and sanctuaries, and religious privileges, may be all so used or relied upon as to become but a seal of aggravation to our guilt, and of hopelessness as to our final conversion. The prophets’ tombs, and Abraham for an ancestor, helped to make the Pharisees the more the children of hell. Social progress may become the watchword of revolt against revelation and God--liberty be perverted into an occasion of licentiousness--and the very ordinances and creeds of Christianity be transmuted into a veil and den for Antichrist. The power of immoral transmutation, of turning good into evil, possessed by our fallen nature, is most tremendous and appalling. Aye, the blood of a scorned Saviour, may be made, by your unbelief and mine, the deadliest element in our present sin and in our coming woe. Despite done to the Spirit of grace may convert His benign ministerings and proffered comfortings into the foundation of the sin that hath no remission before God, and no hope for all eternity. And in no scene of earth--in no condition--are we exempt from the incursions of temptation. If we flee to the desert, and brook not the sight of our fellow-creature’s face, we bear thither the fiend within; we cannot build out or bar out the indwelling devil. The gratings of the monastery cannot exclude the wings of the fallen seraph, nor solitude sanctify the unregenerate heart. In the garden or the grove, the palace or the hermitage, the crowded city or the howling wilderness, sin tracks us, and self haunts us. If the poor is tempted to envy and dishonesty; the rich, as Augur testified, is equally endangered by pride and luxury. If the man of ten talents is puffed up with self-confidence and arrogant impiety; the man of one talent is prone to bury slothfully the portion intrusted to him in the earth, and then to quarrel with its Holy Giver. The great adversary has in every scene his snares, and varies his baits for every age and variety of condition and character. Each man and child of us has his easily besetting sin. (W. R. Williams, D. D.)
Temptation may be advantageous to us
Temptations drive the Christian to the grace and throne of Christ. And the victory of the plaintive, and feeble, and mortal disciple over the proud, and subtle, and mighty, but fallen archangel--notwithstanding all that archangel’s talents and resources--illustrates to all worlds the wisdom, and faithfulness, and goodness of God. According to promise, “the worm Jacob” is made a brazen “flail to thresh the mountains.” Our twining, pliant, and vine-like weakness, becomes in God’s hand, rigid, piercing, and irresistible strength. Even here, we can see Paul profiting by the messenger of Satan, the thorn in his flesh, sent to buffet him. We see Luther towering into new boldness of faith, and shooting as from the pinnacles of temptation to a loftier height the rocket of his testimony; as, in Christ’s strength, he goes to encounter the temptations of worldly wrath and Satanic hate, at the city of Worms, though, as he says, the devils he may meet there be many as the tiles on the roofs of its houses. You see Cranmer, out of the coil of the temptation that had once pinioned and thrown him, rising to a noble martyrdom, and thrusting resolutely into the blaze the guilty hand that had once denied his Lord’s truths. And, as Luther said, such discipline, rugged and keen as it may for the time be, is necessary to Christian usefulness. “Prayer, meditation, temptation,” said that reformer, make the true minister of Christ. Men learn the source of their strength, and the might of their Helper, and the love of their Heavenly Father; and “that the way of man is not in himself,” but that our sufficiency is of God. (W. R. Williams, D. D.)
The great salvation
This petition recognizes the fact that every man has his weakness and limitations, and that it is safer” for him to be surrounded with good influences than with evil influences; that character grows better in a congenial than in an uncongenial atmosphere. We must encounter evil, our daffy duty will bring us often face to face with it; but some paths are safer than others, some associations are less hostile to virtue than others; and the prayer is that God will lead us into those paths where the danger is least; that, so far as it is consistent with duty, His kind providence will keep us out of associations where our virtue will be assailed. To ask God that He will not lead us into such exposures is not to imply that He is likely to do this, and must be besought not to do it; it means, simply, lead us out of and away from temptation. The petition contains something like what the logicians call a negative pregnant, in which the negative of one thing implies the affirmation of the opposite.
1. The petition implies that God will lead us if we ask His guidance.
2. It also implies that if we will follow Him, He will lead us into safe places, and away from the snares that are set for our feet.
3. It expresses our desire to be kept, so far as may be without neglecting duty, from exposure to the allurements of vice and sin; to be surrounded with virtuous rather than with vicious influences.
4. It confesses our faith that God will so keep us if we put our trust in Him. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
To the young
When you offer the Lord’s prayer, do not forget to let your desire rest firmly and fervently on this petition. Ask the Lord to keep you away from bad company; from the society of those who are vicious, and corrupt, and profane; from association with those whose minds are filthy, and whose talk is vile; from all communion with evil minds, and, so far as possible, from all knowledge of evil things. People talk about seeing the world, about getting their eyes opened, and all that; but do you see just as much of the good of the world as you can, and just as little of the evil. Get your eyes open as wide as you can to behold the truth of nature and the beauty of the Lord, but shut them tight upon visions of sin and shame. I tell you, young people, that familiarity with evil words and evil ways bring no gain to you--nothing but loss and sorrow. There is one kind of ignorance you need never blush for--ignorance of the names, or of the arts, of vice and crime. If your too knowing associates jeer at you for such verdancy, thank God that you are not proficient in such knowledge. The less you know of the things that you are ashamed to speak of, the better for you. If by any possibility you have learned such things, forget them as soon as you can. And always remember, that, except as you seek to overcome evil with good, the safest way is to shun the evil. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
An intercessory petition
We must not overlook the plural form of this petition. It is not only a personal request, it is an intercessory petition. “Lead us; deliver us.” Our thought takes in others besides ourselves; the shelter and deliverance that we implore for ourselves, we ask for all our fellow-men. And surely if we ask the Lord to keep our neighbours out of temptation, we shall be careful how we ourselves do anything to place temptation in their way; we shall do all that we wisely can to make the surroundings of their lives helpful, and not corrupting, to their virtue. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
To parents
When we pray that our children may not be led into temptation, let us do what we can to choose for them a place to live, and a manner of life in which they shall be exposed to the least possible temptation. Many a man prays at the family altar, “Lead us not into temptation,” and then rises from his knees, packs his movables, and goes with all his family, where Lot went, straight down to Sodom. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
Parental folly
In modern days the first aim of all Christian parents is to place their “children in circumstances where the temptations (which they are apt to call “opportunities’) maybe as great and as many as possible; where the sight and the promise “of all these things” in Satan’s gift may be brilliantly near, and where the act of “falling down to worship me” may be partly concealed by the shelter, and partly excused as involuntary, by the pressure of the concurrent crowd. (John Ruskin.)
Prayer against temptation
I have read in history that two men were condemned to die as martyrs in the burning days of Queen Mary. One of them boasted very loudly to his companion of his confidence that he should play the man at the stake. He did not mind the suffering, he was so grounded in the gospel that he knew he should never deny it. He said that he longed for the fatal morning even as a bride for the wedding. His companion in prison in the same chamber was a poor, trembling soul, who could not and would not deny his Master; but he told his companion that he was very much afraid of the fire. He said he had always been very sensitive of suffering, and he was in great dread that when he began to barn the pain might cause him to deny the truth. He besought his friend to pray for him, and he spent his time very much in weeping over his weakness and crying to God for strength. The other continually rebuked him, and chided him for being so unbelieving and weak. When they both came to the stake, he who had been so bold recanted at the sight of the fire and went back ignominiously to an apostate’s life, while the poor trembling man whose prayer had been, “Lead me not into temptation,” stood firm as a rock, praising and magnifying God as he was burnt to a cinder. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The reach and worth of Christian intercession
“Lead us not into temptation.” O strange and mysterious privilege, that some bedridden woman in a lonely garret, who feels that she is tempted to distrust the love and mercy of Him who sent His Son to die for the helpless, should wrestle with that doubt, saying the Lord’s prayer; and that she should be thus asking help for those who are dwelling in palaces, who scarcely dream of want, yet in their own way are in peril great as hers; for the student, who, in his chamber, is haunted with questions which would seem to her monstrous and incredible, but which to him are agonizing; for the divine in his terrible assaults from cowardice, despondency, vanity, from the sense of his own heartlessness, from the shame of past neglect, from the appalling discovery of evils in himself which he has denounced in others, from vulgar outward temptations into which he had proudly fancied that he could not fall, from dark suggestions recurring often, that words have no realities corresponding to them, that what he speaks of may mean nothing, because to him it has often meant so little. Of all this the sufferer knows nothing, yet for these she prays--and for the statesman who fancied the world could be moved by his wires, and suddenly finds that it has wires of its own which move without his bidding; for her country under the pressure of calamities which the most skilful seek in vain to redress; for all other countries in their throes of anguish which may terminate in a second death or a new life. For one and all she cries, “Lead us not into temptation.” Their temptations and hers, different in form, are the same in substance.
They, like her, ate tempted to doubt that God is, and that He is the author of good, and not of evil; and that He is mightier than the evil; and that He can and will overthrow it, and deliver the universe out of it. This is the real temptation, there is no other. All events, all things and persons, are bringing this temptation before us; no man is out of the reach of it who is in God’s world; no man is intended to be out of the reach of it who is God’s child. We must not crave quarter from the enemy: to choose for ourselves where we shall meet him, is to desert that guardianship in which is all safety. But we may cry, “Lead us not into temptation,” and praying so we pray against ourselves, against our evil tendencies, our eagerness for that which will ruin us. Praying so, that which seemed to be poison becomes medicine; all circumstances are turned to good; honey is gathered out of the carcase; death itself is made the minister of life. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
Lead us not into temptation
Dr. Talmage once stood on an anniversary platform with a clergyman who told this marvellous story: “Thirty years ago two young men started out to attend Park Theatre, New York, to see a play which made religion ridiculous and hypocritical. They had been brought up in Christian families. They started for the theatre to see that vile play, and their early convictions came back upon them. They felt it was not right to go, but still they went. They came to the door of the theatre. One of the young men stopped and started for home, but returned and came up to the door, but had not the courage to go in. He again started for home, and went home. The other young man went in. He went from one degree of temptation to another. Caught in the whirl of frivolity and sin, he sank lower and lower. He lost his business position. He lost his morals. He lost his soul. He died a dreadful death, not else star of mercy shining on it. I stand before you to-day,” said that minister, “to thank God that for twenty years I have been permitted to preach the gospel. I am the other young man.”
Temptation
1. It is not implied in the petition that God is our tempter. But--
2. It does imply that, in some way, God has a control over the influences or the powers that tempt us.
3. The petition implies on the part of us who offer it--
(1) That we feel our weakness;
(2) That we shall be watchful against the circumstances and conditions in which temptation is likely to find us;
(3) That we shall keep ourselves mindful of our particular weaknesses;
(4) That we shall quicken ourselves to watchfulness by keeping mindful of the sad results that can come from yielding to temptation;
(5) That we keep ourselves aware of the fact that temptation usually comes in some fair disguise;
(6) That we are watchful against the first approaches of sin, the first steps in evil. (G. W. Field, D. D.)
We must not flatter ourselves that this petition will be granted in its full extent. We must not flatter ourselves that God will enable us to go through life without being exposed to any sort of temptation. For this world is a place of trial and discipline. Now without some kind of temptation we should have no trials, and no opportunity of exercising several of the Christian graces. It is only in war and in battle that the soldier--and the Christian, remember, is God’s soldier--can learn his duty thoroughly. He may learn to handle his arms in peace; but the coolness, the quickness, the watchfulness, the caution, the steady, unbending courage, which distinguish the veteran from the recruit, are only to be gained on actual service. So it is only by actual service against God’s enemies, it is only by passing through temptations and trials, that the Christian can be trained to his work. He needs to be taught the lesson of his own weakness. He needs to be taught to watch and guard against the surprises and stratagems of the foe. He needs to be perfected in faith and patience. How is all this to be done, if he is kept, like a plant under a glass, from every breath and touch of temptation? No; we shall assuredly be led into temptation whether we pray against it or not; because there is no earthly road to heaven but has its own pitfalls and its own snares. This is a sad but certain truth; and I should only deceive you were I to tell you otherwise. (A. W. Hare.)
The sixth petition in the Lord’s prayer
“Lead us not into temptation.” Doth God lead- into temptation? God doth permit sin, but doth not promote it. He who is an encourager of holiness cannot be a patron of sin. God doth not tempt to that which He hath an antipathy against. What king will tempt his subjects to break those laws which he himself hath established? But is it not said, God tempted Abraham? Tempting there was no more than trying. God tried Abraham’s faith, as a goldsmith tries gold in the fire; but there is a great deal of difference between God’s trying His people’s grace, and exciting their corruptions. Whence do temptations come? From ourselves. The heart is the breeder of all evil. The heart is a perfect decoy.
2. Temptations come from Satan. He is called “the tempter”; he lies in ambush to do us mischief, “he is always ready for battle”; the devil lays a train of temptation to blow up the fort of our grace. A saint’s whole life, saith Austin, is a temptation. That we may see in what danger we are of Satan’s temptations--consider
(1) his malice in tempting. Satan envies man’s happiness; to see a clod of dust so near to God, and himself, once a glorious angel, cast out of the heavenly paradise, this makes him pursue mankind with inveterate hatred. Consider
(2) Satan’s diligence in tempting--“he walketh about.” He neglects no time; he who would have us idle, yet he himself is always busied. Like Marcellus, a Roman captain Hannibal speaks of, whether he was conquered, or did conquer, he was never quiet. More particularly, Satan’s diligence in tempting is seen in this.
(a) If he gets the least advantage by temptation, he pursues it to the utmost. If his motion to sin begins to take, he follows it close and presseth to the act of sin.
(b) Again, Satan’s diligence in tempting is seen in this, the variety of temptations he useth. He doth not confine himself to one sort of temptation, he hath more plots than one. He will tempt them to leave off ordinances; he will pretend revelations. Error damns as well as vice; the one pistols, the other poisons. Consider
(3) Satan’s power in tempting. He is called “the prince of the world,” and the “strong man.” He is full of power, being an angel; though Satan hath lost his holiness, yet not his strength. The devil’s power in tempting is seen several ways.
(a) He, as a spirit having an intellectual being, can convey himself into the fancy, and poison it with bad thoughts.
(b) Satan, though he cannot compel the will, yet he can present pleasing objects to the senses, which have a great force in them.
(c) The devil can excite and stir up the corruption within, and work some inclinableness in the heart to embrace the temptation; thus he stirred up corruption in David’s heart, and provoked him to number the people. Satan can blow the spark of lust into a flame.
(d) Herein lies much of his power, that he being a spirit, can so strangely convey his temptations into our minds, that we cannot easily discern whether they come from Satan, or from ourselves; whether they are his suggestions, or the natural births of our own hearts. A bird may hatch the egg of another bird, thinking it is her own; often we hatch the devil’s motions, thinking they come from our own hearts.
(e) Satan’s power in tempting appears by the long experience he hath gotten in the art; he hath been a tempter well nigh as long as he hath been an angel. Who are fitter for action than men of experience? Who is fitter to steer a ship than an old experienced pilot?
(4) Consider Satan’s subtlety in tempting. He hath several sorts of subtlety in tempting.
(a) The devil observes the natural temper and constitution. The devil doth not know the hearts of men, but he may feel their pulse, know their temper, and so accordingly can apply himself. As the husbandman knows what seed is proper to sow in such a soil, so Satan finding out the temper, knows what temptations are proper to sow in such a heart. That way the tide of a man’s constitution runs, that way the wind of temptation blows; Satan tempts the ambitious man with a crown, the sanguine man with beauty, the covetous man with a wedge of gold. He provides savoury meat, such as the sinner loves.
(b) Satan chooseth the fittest season to tempt in. As a cunning angler casts in his angle when the fish will bite best; the devil can hit the very joint of time when a temptation is likeliest to prevail. There are several seasons he tempts in. In our first initiation and entrance into religion, when we have newly given up our names to Christ. The devil tempts when he finds us idle, unemployed. When a person is reduced to outward wants and straits, now is the devil’s tempting time. Satan tempts after an ordinance. Why cloth Satan choose this time to tempt in, after an ordinance? One would think this were the most disadvantageous time, for now the soul is raised to an heavenly frame. Malice puts Satan upon it. The ordinances that cause fervour in a saint, cause fury in Satan. As after a full meal, men are apt to grow drowsy, so after we have had a full meal at an ordinance, we are apt to slumber and grow secure, and now Satan shoots his arrow of temptation, and hits us between the joints of our armour. Satan tempts after some discoveries of God’s love. Satan, like a pirate, sets on a ship that is richly laden; so when a soul hath been laden with spiritual comforts, now the devil will be shooting at him to rob him of all. Satan tempts when he sees us weakest. He breaks over the hedge where it is lowest. A subtle policy of Satan in tempting is, he baits his hook with religion; the devil can hang out Christ’s colours, and tempt to sin under pretences of piety. Now he is the white devil, and transforms himself into an angel of light. Subtlety of Satan is, to tempt to sin gradually. The old serpent winds himself in by degrees, he tempts first to lesser sins, that so he may bring on greater. Satan’s policy is to hand over temptations to us by those whom we least suspect. Some, like the spunge, suck in Satan’s temptations. There are five sorts of persons that Satan cloth most fit for brooding upon by his temptations.
1. Ignorant persons. The devil can lead them into any snare; you may lead a blind man any whither.
2. Satan tempts unbelievers. An unbeliever will stick at no sin; luxury’, perjury, injustice.
3. Satan tempts proud perseus; these he hath more power of. None is in greater danger of falling by a temptation than he who stands high in his own conceit.
4. Melancholy persons. Melancholy is a black humour, seated chiefly in the brain. Melancholy clothes the mind in sable; it doth disturb reason; Satan doth work much upon this humour. Subtlety of Satan is, to give some little respite, and seem to leave off tempting a while, that he may come on after with more advantage. Satan, by feigning a flight, and leaving off tempting a while, causeth security in persons, and they think they are safe, and are become victors, when on a sudden, Satan falls on, and wounds them. Subtlety of the old serpent is, either to take men off from the use of means, or to make them miscarry in the use of means. Satan endeavours to discourage from duty by objecting want of success. Satan knows duties done superficially were as good to be left undone. That prayer that doth not pierce the heart will never pierce heaven. Satan can colour over sin with the name and pretence of virtue. The next subtlety of Satan is, he labours to ensnare us by lawful things. More are hurt by lawful things than unlawful, as more are killed with wine than poison; gross sins affright, but how many take a surfeit and die, in using lawful things inordinately? Subtlety of Satan is to make the duties of our general and particular calling hinder and justle out one another. Subtlety of Satan in tempting is, to misrepresent true holiness, that he may make others out of love with it. He paints the face of religion full of scars, and with seeming blemishes, that he may create in the minds of men prejudice against it. Subtlety of Satan in tempting is, to draw men off from the love of the truth to embrace error, “that they should believe a lie.” Satan is called in Scripture not only an unclean spirit, but a lying spirit. As an unclean spirit, so he labours to defile the soul with lust; and as a lying spirit, so he labours to corrupt the mind with error; and indeed this is dangerous, because many errors do look so like the truth, as alchemy represents true gold. Satan thus beguiles souls. Another subtlety of Satan is, to bewitch and ensnare men, by setting pleasing baits before them: the riches, pleasures, honours of the world “all this will I give thee.” How many doth Satan tempt with this golden apple! Subtlety of Satan in tempting is, to plead necessity. The tradesman pleads a necessity of unlawful gain, else he cannot live; another pleads a necessity of revenge, else his credit would be impaired; thus Satan tempts men to sin, by telling them of the necessity. Subtlety of Satan in tempting is, to draw men to presumption. Presumption is a confidence without ground; it is made up of two ingredients, audacity and security; this temptation is common. Subtlety of Satan in tempting is, to carry on his designs against us under the highest pretences of friendship; he thus puts sugar upon his bait, and dips his poisoned pills in sugar. Subtlety is, when Satan hath tempted men to sin, he persuades them to keep his counsel; like them that have some foul disease, they will rather die than tell the physician. Subtlety of Satan is, to make use of fit tools and engines, for the carrying on of his work; that is, he makes use of such persons as may be likely means to promote his tempting designs. Subtlety of Satan in tempting is, he, in his temptation, strikes at some grace more than others; as in tempting, he aims at some persons more than others, so he aims at some grace more than others; and if he can prevail in this, he knows what an advantage it will be to him. If you ask, what grace is it that Satan in his temptations doth most strike at? I answer, it is the grace of faith; he lays the train of his temptations to blow up the fort of our faith. “Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king.” So faith is, as it were, the king of the graces; it is a royal, princely grace, and puts forth the most majestic and noble acts, therefore Satan fights chiefly with this kingly grace.
1. Because this is the grace doth Satan most mischief; it makes the most resistance against him--“whom resist steadfast in the faith.” No grace doth more bruise the serpent’s head than faith.
2. Satan strikes most at our faith, and would weaken and destroy it, because faith hath a great influence upon the other graces; faith sets all the graces a-work. Like some rich clothier, that gives out a stock of wool to the poor and sets them all a-spinning, so faith gives out a stock to all the other graces, and sets them a-working. Subtlety of Satan in tempting is, in broaching those doctrines that are flesh-pleasing. Satan knows the flesh loves to be gratified, it cries out for ease and liberty; it will not endure any yoke unless it be lined and made soft. The devil will be sure so to lay his bait of temptation as to please and humour the flesh. He who sells cheapest shall have most customers; the devil knows this is a cheap easy doctrine, which will please the flesh, and he doth not doubt but he shall have customers enough. Subtlety of Satan in tempting to the act of sin is, the hope of returning out of it by speedy repentance. Subtlety of Satan in tempting is, to persuade men to delay their repenting and turning to God. He saith, “the time is not come.” Subtlety of Satan in tempting is, to infringe and weaken the saints’ peace. If he cannot destroy their grace, he will disturb their peace.
By what arts and methods doth Satan, in tempting, disturb the saints’ peace?
1. Satan slily conveys evil thoughts, and then makes a Christian believe they come from his own heart. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, but it was of Joseph’s putting in; so a child of God often finds atheistical, blasphemous thoughts in his mind, but Satan hath cast them in.
2. Satan disturbs the saints’ peace, by drawing forth their sins in the most black colours, to affright them, and make them ready to give up the ghost.
From this subtlety of Satan in tempting, let me draw three inferences.
1. It may administer matter of wonder to us how any soul is saved.
2. Is Satan subtle? See then what need we have to pray to God for wisdom to discern the snares of Satan, and strength to resist them. Why doth God suffer his saints to be so hurried and buffeted by Satan’s temptations?
The Lord doth it for many wise and holy ends.
1. He lets them be tempted to try them. “Temptation is the touchstone of sincerity.” By temptation God tries our love.
2. God suffers His children to be tempted that they may be kept from pride. The thorn in the flesh was to prick the bladder of pride; better is that temptation that humbles me, than that duty which makes me proud.
3. God lets His people be tempted, that they may be fitter to comfort others who are in the same distress; they can speak a word in due season to such as are weary. A man that hath rid over a place where there are quicksands, is the fittest to guide men through that dangerous way.
4. God lets His children be tempted to make them long more for heaven, where they shall be out of gunshot; there they shall be freed from the hissing of the old serpent.
What rocks of support are there, or what comfort for tempted souls?
1. That is not our case alone, but hath been the case of God’s eminent saints.
2nd Rock of support, that may comfort a tempted soul, is, that temptations, where they are burdens, evidence grace.
3rd Rock of support or comfort is, that Jesus Christ is near at hand, and stands by us in all our temptations.
1. Christ’s sympathy in our temptations.
2. Christ’s succour in temptation. Christ’s agility in succouring. How and in what manner doth Christ succour them that are tempted? Several ways:
(1) Christ succours them, by sending His Spirit, whose work it is to bring those promises to their mind, which are fortifying.
(2) Christ succours them that are tempted by His blessed “interceding for them.”
(3) Christ succours His people by taking off the tempter.
4th Rock of support. The best man may be most tempted.
5th Rock of support. Satan can go no farther in tempting than God will “give him leave”; the power of the tempter is limited.
6th Rock of support. It is not the having a temptation makes guilty, but the giving consent.
7th Rock of support. Our being tempted is no sign of God’s hating us.
8th Rock of support. Christ’s temptation was for our consolation.
9th Rock of support. The saints’ temptation shall not be above their strength. The lutenist will not stretch the strings of his lute too hard.
10th Rock of support. These temptations shall produce much good. See in what continual danger we are. See man’s inability of himself to resist temptation. Here is matter of humiliation, that there is in us such an aptitude and proneness to yield to temptation. See hence, a Christian’s life is no easy life; it is military. Exhortation: Let us labour that we be not overcome by temptation.
1. Avoid solitariness.
2. If you would not be overcome of temptation, beware of the predominancy of melancholy.
3. If you would not be overcome of temptation study sobriety; “be sober, because your adversary walketh about.”
4. Be always upon your guard; watch against Satan’s wiles and subtleties.
5. Beware of idleness; Satan sows most of his seed in fallow ground.
6. Make known thy case to some godly friend; the hiding a serpent in the bosom is not the way to be safe.
7. Make use of the Word. This the apostle calls “the sword of the Spirit”; a fit weapon to fight against the tempter.
8. Let us be careful of our own hearts that they do not decoy us into sin.
9. If you would not be overcome of temptation, flee the “occasions of sin.” Occasions of sin have a great force in them to awaken lust within.
10. If you would not be overcome by temptation, make use of faith--“above all things take the shield of faith.”
11. If you would not be overcome of temptation, be much in prayer.
12. If you would not be overcome of temptation be humble in your own eyes: such are nearest falling who presume of their own strength.
13. If you would not be foiled by temptation, do not enter into a dispute with Satan.
14. If we would not be overcome of Satan, let us put on Christian fortitude.
15. If we would not be overcome of a temptation, let us call in the help of others.
16. If we would not be overcome of temptation, let us make use of all the encouragements we can. (J. Watson.)
“And lead us not into temptation”
I. This, then, is the meaning of life: it is a probation. The real problem of every man’s existence is his own character, what it is and how it shall issue. And to this end everything is probing him. Adversity is probing him; prosperity is probing him; and not only life in its generals, but life in every one of its details, is probing him: Every influence he feels, whether of the Holy Spirit, or of the angels, or of his fellow-men, or of demons, probes him.
II. Observe now, that our heavenly Father, in His wise love, is sometimes pleased to subject us to unusual temptation, testing, probing. This is implied in the petition which His Son, our Lord, has taught us to offer: “Father, lead us not into temptation!” There is in this word “lead” a distinct, emphatic recognition of the Father’s administration, or, as we say, providence. Our circumstances in life are not the result of chance on the one hand, or of fate on the other. Thus He led Abraham when He commanded him to offer up Isaac. It came to pass that God did tempt, i.e., try, prove, Abraham. And all this explains the prayer which our Lord bids us repeat: “Father, lead us not into temptation.” It is the prayer of genuine humility and profoundest self-distrust.
III.
Observe now, that each one is to offer this prayer not only for himself, but also for the whole world.
Human society is a brotherhood of peril; let it therefore also be a brotherhood of intercession and sympathy and mutual help.
In drawing our meditation to a close, let me beseech you to keep away from temptation as well as to pray against being led into it. And yet our heavenly Father, for purposes of testing us, of revealing us to ourselves, of developing, fortifying, and perfecting our characters, of animating others by the example of our steadfastness, may deem it best not to grant the petition which His own Son has taught us: “Lead us not into temptation.” “Prayer, meditation, temptation, make the theologian,” said the great Augustine; and, let us add, not the theologian only, but also the Christian. Nothing so buttresses character as a great victory over a great foe. (G. D. Boardman, D. D.)
Temptation deplored
All the changes that men meet with are trials of their character. Hero was a very different man while the pupil of Seneca from what he was as the emperor of Rome. Solomon was a very different man in the early part of his reign from what he was in those voluptuous periods of his history during which he brought such reproach upon the throne. Men do not know themselves. Hazael the subject was a very different man from Hazael the prince. Who would have thought the youthful Mary, the Queen of England, the translator of the Gospels, would ever have deserved the appellation of the “bloody Mary”? Who would have supposed that Robespierre, once so sensitive to the sufferings of his fellowmen that he resigned a lucrative office under the government rather than condemn a culprit to the scaffold, would have filled Paris with blood; or that William Dodd, once so celebrated for his usefulness as a minister of Christ, would have been executed at Tyburn for forgery? Sometimes a mere change Of place, an unexpected conflict with an individual or a party, an unhappy alliance in business, or an unlooked-for alteration in public affairs, proves a touchstone to the character, before which truth and integrity wither, and gives a blow to the spirit of self-confidence, which is never so renewed that the sufferer can lift up his face before the world. Sometimes these very incidents result in a well-tested integrity and honour, prepare those who endure the trial for still severer conflicts, and furnish them for exemplary toil and sacrifices. They had this effect upon Abraham, Joseph, Nehemiah, Job, Jeremiah, Daniel, Paul, and thousands of others in later times.
1. The man who offers this request with a becoming spirit contemplates his exposure. The world is full of those who have been led away by temptation, who, before they were led astray, would have said that it could have had no influence upon them. Most of the boasting among men proceeds from the want of being tried. It should never be forgotten that a pardoned sinner is not past all peril. “Watch and pray,” says the Saviour, “that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This exposure to sin arises principally from the following sources: In every human being this side the grave there is a melancholy tendency to evil. There is a great deceiver, too, who is not only permitted to have the power, but is long practised in the arts of seduction.
2. This petition more especially contemplates as great an exception from this exposure as is consistent with the designs and will of God. While the petition, “lead us not into temptation,” therefore, does not contemplate an entire exemption from temptation, it contemplates as great an exemption as is consistent with the will of our Father who is in heaven. (G. Spring, D. D.)
Of leading into
Our English maketh a manifest difference betwixt “unto” and “into,” which is worth the noting in this place. The latter implieth a degree further than the former. A man that cannot swim may be led unto a deep pool, and yet be safe enough; but if he be led into it he is in great danger of drowning except he be pulled out again. They who translate it, “Cast us not into temptation,” do well express the sense. (W. Gouge.)
Of the many ways of delivering from evil
How may one be delivered from evil?
1. By keeping away that evil which is ready to fall upon him. Thus were the Israelites delivered from the host of the Egyptians that eagerly pursued them.
2. By assisting him on whom the evil is fallen, so as he is not overwhelmed and overcome therewith. For this purpose read Psalms 69:14-15.
3. By altering the nature of the evil, and turning it to a man’s good. Thus God turned Joseph’s abode in Egypt to much good. Herein this proverb is verified, “I had perished if I had not perished.”
4. By taking away the force of the evil; as the force of the fire was taken away so as it burned not Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. This deliverance Christ promised to His disciples.
5. By removing the evil clean away. Thus God delivered Israel from the devouring pestilence.
6. By taking one away from the evil to come. Thus the good son of wicked Jeroboam, thus the good king Josiah, thus many righteous men have been delivered. (W. Gouge.)
Of the general points for which we are taught to pray in the last petition
What are we to pray for by virtue of the last petition? Such things asconcern the whole petition in general, or the distinct parts thereof in particular.
1. In regard of the whole, we ought to pray for sanctification. Thus doth St. Paul pray for the Thessalonians: “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly.” As our own happiness moveth us to pray for justification, in the former petition, that we may be acquitted of sin, for which we should otherwise be damned, so the honour of God should move us to pray for sanctification. For this is the will of God, our sanctification, and thereby is the holy God much honoured.
2. In regard to the manner of setting down this petition negatively, we are taught to pray for freedom against the power of sin, as the Psalmist doth where he saith, “Cleanse me from secret faults: keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” For in sin there is a guilt which maketh us liable to God’s vengeance (this is prayed against in the fifth petition) and a power which holdeth us in bondage, and maketh us such slaves thereto as we cannot serve God.
3. For this end we are taught to pray for participation of the power of Christ’s death; and--
4. Participation of the Spirit of Christ. For in Christ’s death there is distinctly to be considered a merit and a power. The merit thereof freeth from the guilt and punishment of sin; the power thereof from the dominion, yea, and by degrees from the very act of sin, which in the saints, after the death of their body, shall utterly cease. Of this power of Christ’s death thus speaketh the apostle: “We are buried with Christ by baptism into death,” &c. And again: “Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” This power of Christ’s death is conveyed into us by the Spirit of Christ. For we are “dead in sin.”
What are the particulars to be prayed for under the first part of the sixth petition?
1. Knowledge of our spiritual enemies. Without knowledge of them there will be no fear of them, no desire of help and succour against them, or of freedom from them.
2. Sight of the danger wherein we are by reason of them. When Elisha’s servant saw the host of Aram that compassed the place where he was, then he cried out, “Alas, my master, how shall we do?”
3. Wisdom to discern their wiles, their many cunning stratagems, and kinds of assaults. David, who obtained such wisdom, undoubtedly prayed for it Psalms 119:98-100).
4. Understanding of our own weakness.
5. Knowledge of the almighty power of God. Thus doth the apostle expressly pray in behalf of the Ephesians that they may know what is “the exceeding greatness of His power towards them that believe.”
6. Restraint of Satan’s power. This the angel intended when he said to the devil, “The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 1:9).
7. Assistance from God; for though Satan be restrained, yet cannot we stand of ourselves, but shall fall, even through our own weakness.
8. Confidence and courage in God.
9. Sufficient grace to bear out assaults when we are tempted; for sometimes it is needful for us to be tempted.
10. Power over the flesh.
11. Contempt of the world.
12. Patience under all crosses.
13. Removal of judgments.
14. A blessed departure out of this world. So long as we are in this world we are subject to many evils, which lie and press sore upon us. (W. Gouge.)
Of the things for which we ought to give thanks in the last petition
What are the things for which thanks is to be given by virtue of the last petition.
1. Every sanctifying grace.
2. Freedom from the power of darkness. For both these we have the express pattern of the apostle. In regard of the former he saith: “I thank my God for the grace of God.” Under this indefinite word “grace” he compriseth every particular sanctifying grace. Wherefore he addeth: “In every thing” (that is, in every grace) “ye are enriched.” And “Ye are not destitute of any gift.” In regard of the latter he also saith: “I give thanks to the Father, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.” We heard before that sanctification was the sum of this petition. Rut particular sanctifying graces--whereof nine are reckoned up together (Galatians 5:22-23)--are the parts and members which make up that sum. Of these, therefore, we must take notice, and for these we must give thanks. Now, because that sum is implied under the negative, we are answerably to give thanks for freedom from the contrary, which the apostle styleth “power of darkness.” Under darkness he compriseth sin, death, devil, and damnation. While we are under the power of these we are their vassals. It is therefore a blessing worthy of all praise to be freed from them. Other particulars generally concern the distinct parts of this petition. (W. Gouge.)
Of the particulars for which thanks is to be given by virtue of the first part of the last petition
What are the particulars for which the first part of the sixth petition requireth thanks to be given?
1. Understanding of the law, whereby we know what sin is when we are tempted thereto, how fearful a thing it is to yield to such temptations, how wretched their case is that are left to the power of temptation. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” That, therefore, which giveth us notice of so great danger is a thing praiseworthy, especially if we have understanding thereof. In way of thankfulness doth David oft acknowledge this.
2. Wisdom to discern our enemies and their assaults. This proceedeth from the former, and goeth a degree farther; and in that respect it bindeth us to more thankfulness. With thankfulness saith the Psalmist to God: “Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies.”
3. The victory which Christ hath gotten over our spiritual enemies. It is in praise of Christ that the Psalmist saith to Him, “Thou hast led captivity captive.” By captivity he meaneth the world, the flesh, sin, death, the devil, and all other enemies of our soul. Were not these by Christ made captives, and so chained, restrained, and kept in, we could not stand against them; they would soon lead us captives. For our sakes did Christ enter combat with them and get victory over them. We reap the benefit thereof; we therefore must give the thanks to Christ, and say (as the heavenly spirits do): “We give Thee thanks because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned, and destroyed them that destroy the earth.”
4. Strength to withstand our enemies. As Christ Himself hath overcome them, so by His Spirit He giveth us power to overcome, in which respect it is said: “He hath given to us the spirit of power.” On which ground saith the apostle: “I thank Him who hath enabled me.”
5. Resolution to yield to no allurements, whether they come from the flesh or the world. A true, settled resolution is a great means to keep us safe. This comes from God; for by nature our disposition is wholly inclined to the world and to the flesh. Wherefore, as David blessed God for assuaging his passion, and keeping him from shedding blood, so we must praise God (whensoever our mind is alienated from the world and flesh) for that alteration of our disposition.
6. Patience to bear out all brunts. Afflictions to our weak flesh are sore temptations; but by patience we are kept from being swallowed up by them. In which respect the apostle saw great cause to thank God for the patience of the Thessalonians.
7. Power in all conflicts to overcome. Such, though they be led unto temptation, are not led into temptation. It is expressly noted of them that had gotten victory that they sang a song of praise. (W. Gouge.)
Of the particulars for which thanks is to be given by virtue of the last part of the last petition
What are the things for which the second part of the last petition requireth thanks?
1. Repentance after sin committed. This is a sure evidence of deliverance from a great evil. Therefore the Church glorified God because He had granted repentance.
2. Rescue out of Satan’s clutches. If Satan have at any time got any advantage against us, as he getteth great advantage against witches and sorcerers, yea, and against other impudent and audacious sinners whom he hath fast in his clutches, to be rescued and recovered out of his hands affordeth just cause of much thanks, which Mary Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, well knew to be most due, and therefore, in testimony of thankfulness, she followed Christ, and ministered to Him of her substance.
3. Recovery out of the world. The apostle ascribeth glory to Christ for delivering us from this present evil world.
4. Conquest of the spirit over the flesh. For by the spirit’s conquest are we freed from the dominion of the flesh. For this, therefore, the apostle giveth express thanks.
5. Removal of judgments. Judgments and all manner of crosses are in their kind evils; and removal of them is a deliverance from those evils; whereupon the saints have been thankful for such deliverances. The Israelites give thanks to God for freeing them from the Egyptian bondage; and David for causing the plague to cease; and Hezekiah for taking away a deadly disease; and the Church for returning her captivity.
6. Victory over death. Death in itself is a dreadful evil, the very entrance into damnation. But by Christ the sting of it is pulled out, the nature of it is altered. It is made a gate into eternal glory. This is that victory for which St. Paul giveth thanks.
7. Hope of resurrection to life.
8. Hope of eternal glory. These are full and final deliverances from all evil. God’s promise of these to such as believe is as a performance of them our hope, therefore, resting on God’s promise for these, affordeth just occasion of rejoicing and praising God, as St. Peter doth, and St. Paul also. (W. Gouge.)
Of duties required in the last petition
What duties are we to endeavour after by virtue of the last petition?
1. To abstain from all sin; for this is the main thing here prayed against. This is it which maketh temptation so hurtful as it is. The more we forbear sin, the less damage shall we receive from any temptations. Many, many, therefore, are the dehortations of Scripture against sin.
2. To perfect holiness; for under the avoiding of any evil an endeavouring after the contrary good is always in Scripture implied; yea, they are very oft joined together. Now, holiness is perfected both by adding one grace to another, and also by continual growth in every grace. These two duties arise from the general sum of the last petition.
3. To be jealous over ourselves, fearing lest at any time we should be overcome by any temptation; for we are not only weak, easy to be overtaken and overthrown by every temptation, but a]so very prone to yield to Satan’s temptations, because they are either agreeable to our corrupt humour, or else we so fearful as to think we shall never stand out against them. This Christian jealousy will make us the more instantly and constantly to seek help of God.
4. To avoid all occasions of evil. Occasions of evil are temptations to evil. Should not they, then, who pray against temptations avoid them as much as possibly they can?
5. To withstand beginnings. So did the apostle when he would not give place to false brethren (who were dangerous tempters), no, not for an hour. Thus much also he intendeth in this exhortation, “Give no place to the devil,” which is as if he had said, “If Satan at any time tempt you, yield not an inch to him; let him get no advantage at all, which he cannot but get if at the beginning ye yield any whit at all to him.” Much good is got by a due observation of this duty, and much wisdom is manifested thereby; for that evil which in the beginning is easily prevented can hardly, if at all, without very much damage, be redressed after it hath found some entrance. Instance poisonous and pestiferous diseases, fretting and festering sores, fires, breaches of water, and enemies entering within the walls of a city.
6. To watch continually. This is a duty whereunto in Scripture we are much exhorted, and that not without cause; for our spiritual enemies are always ready to tempt us, narrowly prying where to get any advantage against us. And soon they will get too great advantage if we be not the more watchful. To show that this duty is fitly inferred out of this petition, Christ expressly joineth it with prayer against temptation, saying, “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.”
7. To be sober and temperate. Where these are not, every tempter will rule as he list; for intemperance and all excess blind the understanding, and open a passage to all manner of evil desires and filthy lusts, and make us unfit to pray, to watch, to fight, and to defend ourselves against our spiritual enemies.
8. To cast off every burden. By burdens are meant not only such things as are simply evil in themselves, but such also as being in their nature good, and may lawfully be used, yet through our weakness and inability to use them well, prove impediments to us in our spiritual combat; as the riches of that ruler whom Christ advised to sell all that he had, and to give it to the poor. Thus if honours, offices, recreations, companies which we frequent, or any worldly thing wherein we delight, prove a burden to us, and make us unfit to resist temptations--yea, rather make us yield to temptations--we are to cast them off, to avoid and forsake them.
9. To mortify our members on the earth. The flesh--that is, our corrupt nature--which containeth in it the mass of all sin, is styled a body. This body is made up of several particular lusts and evil motions, as a body of members. And as a body exereiseth all functions by the members, so the flesh executeth all mischiefs by particular lusts; and one lust helpeth another, as one member another, and as dear are these lusts to the natural man as the members of his body. Those particular lusts are therefore fitly styled members, and they are said to be members on the earth.
(1) In opposition to the spirit, and the graces thereof which come from heaven, and bring men to heaven.
(2) In their own condition, which is, as the earth, base, filthy, corrupt, and vain.
(3) In their operation, whereby they make men grovel and dote on the earth, and the things therein. By mortifying these, the foresaid body (which is a dangerous tempter) will in time be deprived of all strength, and we freed from the danger of the temptations thereof. Be diligent, therefore, in searching them out, and having found them, spare them not, as Saul did the fat beasts, but deal with them as Samuel did with Agag, and Joshua with the kings of Canaan.
10. To beat down our body. This is done by forbearing to pamper ourselves, and to satisfy our carnal desires, that so the flesh may not wax wanton, and, like a pampered jade, become unruly; but that we may live within the compass prescribed and limited by God’s Word.
11. To renounce the world. The world is such a tempter, as the friendship of it is enmity with God. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Demas, that old disciple Demas, by embracing the world, was brought to renounce his Christian profession. It is therefore most meet that “the world be crucified to us, and we to the world”; that our hearts be clean alienated one from another, and that we have no more to do one with another than the living with the dead. Thus shall we be sure not to be overtaken by the temptations of the world.
12. To resist the devil. This is the only way to escape his temptations. He is like a wolf, which fiercely pursueth, and never leaveth such as fearfully fly from him, but flieth from such as manfully stand against him. So saith the apostle: “Resist the devil, and he will fly from you.”
13. To put our trust in God. To what end do we else pray unto God?
14. To suffer afflictions patiently. All crosses and afflictions are temptations. By a patient enduring of them we keep ourselves from being overcome by them. Let patience, therefore, have her perfect work. The last twelve duties arise from the first part of the last petition.
15. To avoid that which is any way evil. This we, praying against, must carefully avoid. The apostle exhorteth to “abstain from all appearance of evil.”
16. To return from that evil whereinto we have fallen; for they which pray to be delivered from evil must not lie in evil. All the exhortations in the Scripture to repent tend to this purpose.
17. To take heed of relapse. A relapse in bodily diseases is dangerous; much more in the soul’s disease. (W. Gouge.)
Of duties required in the last petition in regard to others
What duties doth the last petition teach us in the behalf of others?
1. To consider one another.
2. To keep others from sin.
3. To edify others. They who are well built up in grace are well armed against all temptations.
4. To encourage others against their enemies. What a notable encouragement is this of the apostle: “Watch you, stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men, be strong.” Another like, but more large encouragement, is set down (Ephesians 6:10-13, &c.).
5. To strengthen the weak. This did Christ expressly give in charge to Peter.
6. To keep others from falling from the grace of God. The apostle adviseth to look diligently hereunto (Hebrews 12:15).
7. To restore such as fall.
8. To save the obstinate with fear.
9. To receive the penitent.
10. To pray for others. (W. Gouge.)
Lead us not into temptation
My first task is to show God is no cause of sin. For is there any so far gone in error as to suppose the clear fountain of all goodness can be the foul sower of sin? Can good and evil flow from the same head? Or can the Judge of all the world play booty with His clients, receive a prayer with one hand and deal a curse with the other? It is true the tongue can bless and curse with the same breath; but God, who gave it motion, making it the organ of speech and interpreter of the heart, made not the perverse language which the tongue utters. Cursings were never stamped in His mint, but cast by him who is the author of lies and forgeries. Contraries never rose from one spring, nor do the brackish and sweet waters flow from the same rock. What a monster then should that man breed in his imagination that should pronounce God the author of sin! If nature abhor to teem with opposites in one and the same womb; if the grape and the thorn, the fig and the thistle, be births which one stock bears not; if bitter and sweet be qualities which necessarily derive themselves from a different parentage; then much more are good and evil births which the God of nature never yet reconciled in His acts. And sooner shall nature run counter to herself, inverting her even course; sooner shall the congealed frost lodge with the fire, and winter become the preposterous mother of the harvest, than the true Father of Light be brought to father the spurious issue of night, sin, and error. (Archdeacon King.)
Presumption
There is no ship so tall built or strongly ribbed which can be confident she will not founder in the next storm, nor is there any man of such a confidence who, if a tempest or temptation rise up against him, can be assured that at the instant he can call up so much reason and religion as to withstand it. Would you not judge him mad who, being come to an anchor in a safe road, would, like the dolphin, hunt the storm, and choose to ride it out at the main sea? Is it not enough thou hast an antidote to expel poison, but thou must turn empiric upon thyself, hazard the empoisoning of thine own body, to try the power of thy medicine? It is no discreet religion which seeks out dangers, and glories in temptations; nor is he wise to salvation who presents himself to that hazard which Christ taught him to pray against. “Fateor imbecillitatem meam, nolo spe pugnare victoriae ne perdam aliquando victoriam,” saith St. Hierome. To hazard a set battle in hope of a doubtful victory is to outdare a man’s judgment. It is possible that he who exposes himself to the danger of a fight may overcome, but it is probable he may fall. The peril is certain, the victory doubtful. In unneedful temptations I had rather distrust myself than make trial of my strength in apparent disadvantage. (Archdeacon King.)
Meeting temptations
Which are so many that, if we will compute our danger, we need not send out our wishes to meet temptations or bring them home to us; they come too swiftly, and unbidden, like rough winds that blow from every corner of the sky; and in that number, as if each minute were computed by them, so plentiful is the spawn of sin in our waters. (Archdeacon King.)
The devil lights his temptations
To make which more plausible it is ever his cunning practice to attire them in that dress and livery which best suits each man’s humour and complexion. To the fantasy of the melancholy he whispers nothing but horror, plying him with all objects that may bring him to madness or despair. To the sanguine complexion he presents those wanton delights whereunto naturally it leans. The phlegmatic, like marshes which every tide overflows, he seeks to lay quite under water by the habit of that moist vice, which like a deluge covers the greater part of the earth--drunkenness. Lastly, the furious and choleric he prompts to quarrels,cherishing that unruly flame so long till he has made them believe that murder is the triumph of reputation; so causing them to purchase the opinion of an unhappy valour by bloodshed. At which luckless period he leaves them to the torture of a guilty conscience in this life and the fearful expectation of vengeance in the next. Thus doth the devil, like a politic engineer, besiege us in our own works, turning our passions, like daggers, upon our own breasts. (Archdeacon King.)
But though the devil be the chief instigator of sin, the flesh is the instrument. Nay, saith Origen, “Etiam si, Diabolus non esset, heroines haberent appetitum ciborum et Venereorum”--Were there no other devil, we have one at home, an invisible devil that lodgeth in the blood, the seditious appetite which urges us to perpetual mutiny against the good motions of God’s Spirit. (Archdeacon King.)
Prayer the only protection
We are assured, though there be many windows and ports and doors for temptation to enter at, there is but one key to let us out or to lock us up against it, God’s assistant or prevenient grace. (Archdeacon King.)
Which promise He performs either by giving us ability to decline them when they offer themselves at us, or by allaying them in such fashion that they become healthful medicines to cure, not poisons to corrupt us, and happy probations not to waste but to refine us. As gold runs purest from the furnace, finding no abatement of the substance, but the dross only, or by apportioning them to our strength that they do not overmatch us, so though He gives us not peace, yet He gives us means, by a fair defensive war, to hold out the siege against them. Be this then our comfort, that as temptation hath some ill in it, so it hath much good. It was said of the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, “If in that action there were anything of glory, it belonged to Brutus, but all the malice and cruelty of the design was imputed to Cassius. I make a juster application: Whatsoever good is occasioned by temptation we must ascribe it to God, but the malignity which accompanies it belongs to the devil. (Archdeacon King.)
Fear of temptation
God has given to most of His creatures an instinct that leads them to fear, and as far as possible to avoid danger. If you lift your hand against any of the lower animals they will do their utmost to avoid the stroke. God has made that a part of their nature. If they see danger coming they try to get out of its way; and if that cannot be, they do their best to provide against it. You may have seen a flock of sheep, when a storm began to gather, all crowding together as if for mutual defence, and hurrying to that part of the field where they would be most likely to be safe from the fury of the blast. So common and natural is this fear of, and desire to avoid danger, that we wonder when we see anything else. When we see the moth fluttering about the evening lamp, attracted by its brightness, unwarned even after the flame has once and again taken the edge oft its wing, darting at length into the very heart of the flame, and falling lifeless on the table, we wonder at that; and while we pity, we cannot help thinking and calling it a silly foolish creature. Now we, too, have got the same instinctive fear of outward danger. We fear disease, and do everything we possibly can to keep out of its way. We tremble at the thought of cholera coming among us. Fire-escapes, immense ladders, and other apparatus in towns, life-boats on land, and life-preservers on board ship, and many things else, tell how we fear, and will do the utmost we can to escape, approaching danger. One thing more dangerous and terrible than any of these we do not fear, we do not avoid. I mean that which is not necessarily sin in itself, though it so often leads to sin--temptation.
I. A THREATENING DANGER--“temptation.” When I speak of danger, you expect to hear of something alarming. When you were ill, and the doctor came to see you twice a day, you understood what was meant by there being danger. But when I speak of temptation, that alarms few or none. If you were to go over all the thousands that fill the cells of our prisons, they would all have something to say about having been tempted--that if they have not been tempted they would not have committed the crime, and so would not have been there. Every cell would re-echo the word “temptation,” and, as you leave it, I can fancy I hear you saying, “What a dangerous and dreadful thing it must be to be tempted!” These temptations or solicitations to evil are so dangerous.
1. Because of the quarter from which they come--the devil, the world, and the flesh.
2. Their suddenness and unexpectedness make them dangerous. Ordinarily they give us no warning; they take us by surprise. During the mutiny in India, where warning was given, precautionary measures were at once taken; and when the enemy came our countrymen were ready for him, and, in more cases than one, were able to hold out. In this way the British Residency at Nagpore was saved through the instrumentality of that noble-hearted missionary, Stephen Hislop. But temptations, for the most part, give no warning.
3. Their power makes them dangerous.
II. A CRY FOR HELP--“Lead us not into temptation.” Perhaps some one asks, “Is it not interfering with God’s providence to pray this prayer?” I answer, No. I am allowed to pray that I may be kept out of *,he way of other dangers, such as disease, or poverty, or death. And may I not ask that I may be kept from this danger as well as from these others? It may be needful and good that the temptation or the trouble otherwise should come, but I may lawfully pray to be kept from both. Perhaps some one asks, “Is it not cowardly to pray this prayer? Is it not shrinking back from the battle instead of manfully fighting it?” It is indeed an acknowledgment of weakness. It tells that I fear. But fear is one thing, and cowardice is another. Let us see, then, more particularly what this prayer asks.
1. It asks that we may be kept out of the way of objects that might entice to evil. To see certain things, to be in certain places, is enough, in many cases, to constitute a formidable temptation. There is a girl of dishonest tendency. The mere sight of money within her reach might again secure her fall. Surely she may well pray that things may be so ordered, that it may not be needful that she should go near them at all.
2. It asks that opportunities of evil may be kept out of my way. Oh, how much sometimes depends for my doing evil on my having the opportunity that favours it.
3. It asks that solicitations to evil may not come to us. I may be of a soft, yielding nature--very easily advised, very open to persuasion, not able to say, No.
4. It asks that examples of evil may be kept out of our way. How much the seeing of evil done influences others to do the like. (J. H. Wilson, M. A.)
But deliver us from evil:--
The prayer for deliverance from evil
The Italian poet, in painting the world of woe, ranges its several dreary mansions along a narrowing and descending volute. The lower it sunk the narrower it grew in his vision. Escape from the influence of hell is, in the structure of the Lord’s prayer, represented by an image the converse of the poet’s. The higher the way of escape mounts, the broader it becomes. As by the winding pathway and the successive stages of this form of supplication we are borne upward out of the bowels of the pit into which the Fall had plunged us, so we find the path widening perpetually as it goes on ascending; as we proceed from one grade and platform of prayer to another the subject of request extends itself out more and more widely. As we climb the heavenly heights, new and broader prospects open around us. We begin by deploring sins within ourselves, and grope about the narrow and dark den of our own hearts; we then expand our petitions by reference to the temptations in the circle around and without us; and finally, in the words now before us, we look beyond the limits of sin in us and temptations around us, to the sorrow and pain which may remain, even where sin is renounced and where “temptation is resisted. Beyond this state of probation we look to evil as it shall be recompensed and perpetuated in the world of retribution, and to yet another world, where all effects and traces of evil are effaced from the heart and lot of the blessed. Taken in this sense, then, the sentence includes a prayer for the repeal of the primal curse on man and earth.
I. The cry of our text, STAMMERED, as by the unregenerate and heathen world, it universally is. The burden of the text is heard in the voice of the new-born babe, sending back the first draught of air which its tiny lungs have made, in wailing, as it lies back on its nurse’s arm; and it is found in the death-rattle of the gray-headed grandsire, breathing his last after well-nigh a century’s experience of life, and its toils and its woes. Each contest that sets man against his fellows--from wars like those of Tamerlane or Napoleon, that littered a continent with their millions of dead, down to the street-fray or the village lawsuit; each statute, tribunal, and prison, and penalty; each party-gathering and each party-badge; each form, and voice, and look of human anguish; the pauper’s thin and trembling hand; the maniac’s shriek, and the captive’s asking eye; the sick man’s hollow cheek; all the diseases that crowd the beds of the hospital, and perplex the physician’s skill, and crowd the volumes of a medical library; all the remedies and diversions that seek to while away care or suppress thought; the drunkard’s bowl, and the song of the reveller, and the gambler’s dice-box--all the wild utterances of human revenge and hate; murder scowling on the brother whose presence it cannot abide, and jealousy and envy nibbling at character, and hinting dislike; all the ills of childhood, maturity, and age; each bead of sweat rolling from the brow of honest toil; each tear that falls from the eye, and each sigh that quits the burdened heart; every pang felt, and every complaint uttered? but waft upward to God or send around to our fellow-man the one sad, monotonous cry, “Deliver us from evil.”
II. That cry ARTICULATED, as by the penitent and Christian, now taught to know the plague of his own heart; it is--
1. Taught of God’s Word, he traces back all evil, social and physical, to moral evil, and finds the guilt of its introduction into our world resting on his race, and of its continuance resting on himself.
2. But who shall satisfy for past offences, and who uproot the strong tendencies for ill within him? Is there help in his fellows? They may aid and instruct and cheer him onward. The Christian Church, like travellers in arctic climes, watching to detect the first evidence of frost seizing the face of a fellow-traveller, its unconscious victim, and applying promptly the remedy, may aid him in watching against the frost of spiritual death, that unsuspected would else steal upon him. But they cannot make the atonement, or work the regeneration which he needs. May he look higher than earth and man? He must; for man and earth cannot solve his doubts or quell his fears. He is dying--who shall unsting death? He is to live and bide the doomsday? Oh, who shall give him acquittal there? God could, but will He? To Him he resorts.
III. That cry answered, as it is, by God come down to our deliverance. (W. R.Williams, D. D.)
The great deliverance
“There is none righteous, no not one.” Such is the Word of the Book. It is true. Rather startling to the moral man, who believes that he is doing the right thing; paying his way; just to all; owing no man; paying 20s in the f. But it is true. Examine yourselves, and see what answer your conscience will give. “I am no worse than my neighbours,” says one. Yes, there is a good deal of this negative goodness in the world. People are very anxious to declare what they have not done. But are they doers of good? Few, if they speak the truth, will dare to say, as did the Jewish Rabbi, “If there are ten righteous people in the world, my son and I belong to the ten; and if five, we belong to the five; and if two, we are the two; and if one, I am the one.” No, the Scripture is true--“There is none righteous, no not one.” “We have left undone those things that we ought to have done, and have done those things we ought not to have done.” “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” Well, then, we may pray--“Deliver us from evil.” “Evil is ever present with us.” Look around. It starts in loathsome guise from the pavements of our streets. It staggers from the glaring gin-palace at the corners of our highways. It rears its leprous form, sin-spotted, in palace as well as in hovel. It has left its mutilated wrecks in our hospitals and infirmaries. It lifts its hydra-head and horrifies us almost wherever we go. Nor need we go far to meet with it. It is near at hand. It is among our friends and acquaintances. It separates father from son, and son from father; mother from daughter, and daughter from mother. It comes between friends, who seemed made to cling together, and cleaves them asunder for the rest of their lives. It enters our very homes. It sits at our tables. It is at our firesides. Nay, it is in our very hearts. Well, then, may we pray--“Deliver us from evil.” Evil has been said to be perversion of good. It has also been defined as absence of good. But if we accept either of these negative definitions, the question naturally presents itself--“What is good?” Goodness is obedience to God. Evil, then, must be disobedience.
I. THE PRAYER IMPLIES THE NECESSITY OF DELIVERANCE. Sin springs from three causes.
1. From the influence of Satan or his emissaries over the hearts of men. Quaint old John Bunyan has well illustrated the power of Satan thus in his “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Christian is passing through the valley, close to the mouth of hell; and the evil ones step up to him, and whisper foul blasphemies into his ear, so insidiously that the poor pilgrim thinks they are the utterances of his own heart. May God deliver us all from this evil.
2. Another fruitful source of sin is our own lusts--our own passions. Man is, in his structure and his appetites, but a superior animal, moved by the same instincts, by kindred wants and wishes implanted in him, as in the inferior animals, for his own preservation, and the propagation of his species. But he has what is with them wanting--the moral control. God has breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Man has become a “living soul.” And that God who created him with these passions gave him power to control them, a power fatally weakened and largely lost by a long course of inherited sin, but which can be strengthened by the heartfelt wish expressed in the prayer “Deliver us from evil.”
3. Then there are the temptations afforded by the world. In our business, and in our pleasures, evil is continually present with us. The customs of business, the exaggerations of trade, the pushing manners of our own times, the very anxiety, laudable as it is, to be in the forefront in our walk in life, all these are fruitful sources of evil. And in the street, and in tram, and ‘bus, and rail, on the way to and from our business, evil continually assails us, in the daily, habits and customs of those with whom we are brought in daily contact. Our pleasures too often lead us astray. Amusements, innocent in themselves, cause us to neglect the serious duties of life, and thus become positive evils.
II. THE PRAYER IMPLIES THE NECESSITY OF DELIVERANCE FROM ANOTHER SOURCE, We cannot deliver ourselves. (The Weekly Pulpit.)
Deliver us from evil
I. A VERY GENERAL PETITION.
1. Evils not specified, because--
(1) The catalogue would be endless.
(2) Things evil in some circumstances are not evil in others, and therefore could not be classified in set phrases.
(3) That which would be an evil by itself may work out its own compensation: storms that hasten the ship, sickness that brings the soul to religious faith, trials that have their reward in heaven, &c.
2. Anything sinful is a real evil in itself.
II. ALL MORAL EVILS ARE ONE.
1. No such thing as a little evil.
2. No evil that belongs only to the individual.
3. No temporary evil coming from sin.
III. THE POWER OF EVIL IS PERSONAL.
IV. THE UNITY AND PERSONALITY OF EVIL A HOPEFUL FACT. Jesus has conquered the evil one. A “roaring lion” will be cowed by the glance of his conqueror. If we are with Christ, the devil will slink away. (J. M. Ludlow, D. D.)
Deliver us from evil
The revelation of sonship is also the revelation of evil. Until we know God is Father, and we His dear children, we do not know how evil a thing is sin. You can see the reason of this. The slave, who has no idea of freedom, is content to wear his fetters. The man to whom this world is all does not feel it to be a prison. But let the revelation come: “Ye are not the son of the bondwoman, but of the free; ye have not received the spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption, whereby ye cry, ‘Abba, Father,’” then how galling the fetters become, and what longing there is for the liberty of the children of God. Let the revelation of a man’s true nature and destiny come to him, then the world is too little for him--it is stifling in its narrowness and closeness. His spirit wants a broader and loftier breathing-place. It is not the things God has made that can satisfy him tie wants God Himself. His heart and flesh cry out for God, for the living God. His prayer is, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” And as long as evil comes between him and the light of his Father’s face, his prayer must be, “Deliver us from evil.”
I. THE PRAYER OF GOD’S CHILD--“Deliver US from evil.”
1. The evil God’s child prays to be delivered from. It is necessary to have clear ideas upon this point. Many things we call evil are not so in reality. They may be but the hiding of some good, deeper than our poor minds can grasp, or the painful shocks that are bringing health and freedom for some captive child of God. The only real evil is sin. When we pray to be delivered from evil, we do not pray to be delivered from suffering, but from repining in suffering; from the blindness which does not see the hand of God in it. We do not pray to be delivered from poverty, or calamity, or death, but from the evil in us which would prevent us from turning every loss into gain, every trial into strength, and every vicissitude in out changing experience into a means of spiritual progress. In a word, we want to be delivered from the impulses and sway of the old nature, that we may enter into the life and freedom of the new. We want to escape the corruption that is in us, through becoming “partakers of the Divine nature.”
2. This prayer is in perfect harmony with God’s purpose in redemption. The student of the Bible and of history must see that deliverance from evil is the great object of the Divine discipline and culture of our nature. The Old Testament is a revelation of the righteousness of God. Its aim, from beginning to end, is to expose evil that men may know it and escape its thraldom. Even the judgment that followed swiftly upon transgression had at its heart a yearning desire for the deliverance of the sons of God. It was not because God delighted in vengeance, but in mercy, that departure from righteousness brought pain, and obedience, blessedness. And what is the purpose of the New Testament but emancipation from evil? Its light and its love--the revelation of the mind and heart of God in Jesus Christ--what is its aim if not salvation from the evil? The ideal of manhood as realized in Jesus shows you that you were not made to be the slaves of sin, but the free sons of God. The cross--the at-one-ment between humanity and God- shows you how through crucifixion of the evil your nature may be brought into complete and responsive harmony with God’s, and so be delivered from the evil.
3. The desire of the prayer shall be completely realized. This is a blissful assurance to the man whose sense of evil is keen. He longs to be free from it, and would willingly die if so be he might become as stainless as the light, as pure as the heart of God. Now, use this prayer. Jesus would not have taught it you if He had meant to mock you. He would not have shown you the evil, if He had not intended to deliver you from it. He would not have carried light into your prison, and troubled you with a Divine discontent, if He had not intended to save. The same spirit which makes you cry, “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” will put a new song into your mouth, “Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
II. THE REASONS FOR USING THIS PRAYER
1. The evil is within us. A man cannot flee from the plague of his own heart by going into a desert or shutting himself up in a cell. Dore, in his picture of the Neophyte, by a touch of genius all his own, has shown how the ideal the young man has chosen is failing to realize his hopes. In that beautiful face of his, so marvellously expressive, we see hope trembling between fear and disappointment; we see the shadows gathering over the beauty of the young man’s ideal. The brutal countenances of some of the men that surround him, the stern scowl of others, the sensual look of most, these surely cannot express the purity and beauty of God’s ideal. No; the young man has made a mistake. The picture says: The cloister is no more sacred than the world. Escape from the world is not escape from sin. See, these men still live in the old sensual nature. Escape from that. Come out of the old nature into the new. Live, not in the flesh,-but in the spirit. Let Christ be formed in you, His spirit possess you, and then you shall be free. “For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
2. Then the evil is so subtle. Just here is our danger and our need of this prayer.
3. We must be delivered from evil before our salvation is complete. The evil destroys our peace, and comes between our souls and God. It dims our vision to all that is most beautiful in His character, and most Divine in His works. (W. Hetherington.)
Deliver us from evil
I. This petition implies THAT WE ARE LIVING IN A WORLD IN WHICH IS THE PRESENCE OF EVIL.
II. This petition implies THAT THOSE WHO USE IT ARE UNDER A SENSE OF BEING IN BONDAGE TO EVIL.
III. This petition implies THAT NOTHING LESS THAN THE OMNIPOTENT ARM OF GOD CAN DELIVER US FROM THIS EVIL.
IV. This petition implies THAT NOTHING CAN BE SATISFYING TO THE CHRISTIAN BUT THE ENTIRE EXPULSION OF EVIL FROM THE WORLD. (W. Dodsworth.)
Deliverance from evil
The first of these three petitions asks for forgiveness; the next that we may he spared the grievous inducements to the sins which need such forgiveness; and the following and concluding prayer embraces deliverance from all the power and all the consequences of sin. Deliver us from evil--from all the wretched fascination and all the miserable results of sin, from its blindness and insensibility, from its unspirituality and rebellion, from its hardness and its punishment, from all that dishonours God and ruins the soul, from its guilt, its power, its shame and its doom. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.)
It is worth while to remark the difference between the notion of evil which the Bible teaches and that which the world teaches. If you ask a man of the world what evil is he will tell you everything that gives you pain, or annoys you, or makes you uncomfortable. Bad health, for instance, he will say, is an evil; a lazy servant, a hard master, a quarrelsome neighbour, a damp house, poverty, afflictions of all kinds are evils. In short, evil, according to the worldly man, is whatever troubles the body, or interferes with our worldly comfort or prosperity. But is this the Christian’s notion of evil? Is this the answer which St. Paul or St. John would have given if any one had asked them what evil is. They would tell you that the only evil of any consequence is what is against the will of God. So that the devil is above all the evil one; because he is the great opposer of that goodness which God wills and delights in. Worldly afflictions are indeed grievous so long as they last, so that we may indeed pray against them. But such a prayer must be offered up with a full sense of their comparative insignificance, lest we be troubled by them above measure. It must be offered up moreover in humble reliance on the wisdom and goodness of our Heavenly Father, lest peradventure we should be praying against a blessing. In a word, we must pray against them with an if. But our sins need no if in praying against them. Their danger, their burthen, their grievousness, their shame, their curse, we know too well from sad experience. God Himself has declared them to be evil. Therefore they should be the uppermost evil in our minds when we say, “Deliver us from evil.” (A. W. Hare.)
Deliverance from evil
The wildest legends of the mediaeval times usually contain within them an incrustation of fable, a precious germ of truth. Here is one which strikes us. A certain noble lady of Assisi had quitted her father’s house by stealth, and had become a Franciscan. Her little sister Agnes, ten or eleven years of age, filled with love to her sister, and burning with religious fervour, followed her into her seclusion. Naturally enough, the parents could not endure that a second child should be lost to their home. They gathered together a company of armed men, attacked the sister’s retreat with rude violence, and tore the child away despite her tears and entreaties. As she would not accompany them of her own will, they began to drag her away by main force. Friends were helpless even to attempt a rescue; but the story tells us that she suddenly became heavy as lead in the arms of her captors, so that they could not carry her further, and were obliged to let her lie upon the ground. Despite their united efforts, she seemed to have become immovable, and they were compelled to leave her in the wood. When they were all gone, the child joyfully arose, and returned to her sister, never to be separated again. Strip the whole story of its unnaturalness, and its superstitious wonders, and you see what God does for His children when sin would make them its prey. At first the world would fain drag the young convert back to his former ways and pleasures. It comes with the rude force of persecution or temptation, and attempts to make a captive of one who has fled from it. When the young convert is utterly unwilling to be seduced from his consecration to his Lord, it is not long before he becomes “as a burdensome stone” to those who would bear him away. There is a weight of character, a solidity of grace, a sobriety of thought, and possibly a strangeness of manner about him, which is too much for them. He is not good company; even as a target for their jests he is a failure. They do not understand the reason, but they quit their hopeless work. Henceforth they admit the reality of the religion which at first they ridiculed as a temporary fancy, Right gladly delivered from the further solicitations of the worldly, the convert returns to his brethren, and rejoices in the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Temptation to be avoided
The writer saw at Chicago notices placed on several houses with the warning, “Smallpox is here”; “Fever is here.” Only those having necessary business, or bound on errands of affection and philanthropy, would enter such a house. But may not the mark of moral pestilence be seen on the forehead of many a boon-companion, and over the entrance of many a saloon of pleasure? Is it not inscribed on every fascinating temptation to sin? Should we be less cautious regarding the health of the soul than of the body. (Newman Hall.)
The devil’s chief servants
The devil has a great many servants, and they are all busy, active ones. They ride in the railway trains, they sail on the steamboats, they swarm along the highways of the country and the thoroughfares of the cities; they do business in the busy marts, they enter houses and break open shops; they are everywhere, and in all places. Some are so vile-looking that one instinctively turns from them in disgust; but some are so sociable, insinuating, and plausible, that they almost deceive at times the very elect. Among this latter class are to be found the devil’s four chief servants. Here are their names. “There’s no danger.” That is one. “Only this once.” That is another. “Everybody does so.” That is the third. “By-and-by.” That is the fourth. When tempted from the path of strict rectitude, and “There’s no danger” urges you on, say, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” When tempted to give Sabbath up to pleasure, or to do a little labour in the workshop, or the counting-house, and “Only this once” or “Everybody does so” whispers at your elbow, do not listen for a moment to the dangerous counsel. If the Holy Spirit has fastened upon your conscience the solemn warnings of a faithful teacher or friend, and brought to mind a tender mother’s prayers for your conversion, do not let “By-and-by” steal away your confidence, and, by persuading you to put away serious things, rob you of your life. All four are cheats and liars. They mean to deceive you, and cheat your soul of heaven. “Behold!” says God, “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” He has no promises for “By-and-by.” (Dr. Talmage.)
But deliver us from evil
What evil do we pray to be delivered from? First, in general, “deliver us from evil”: we prey to be delivered from the evil of sin. Not that we pray to be delivered immediately from the presence and in-being of sin, for that cannot be in this life, we cannot shake off this viper; but we pray that God would deliver us more and more from the power and practice, from the scandalous acts of sin, which cast a reflection upon the gospel. That sin is the most execrable evil, appears several ways.
1. Look upon sin in its original; it fetcheth its pedigree from hell. Sin is of the devil.
2. Look upon sin in its nature, and so it is evil.
(1) See what the Scripture compares it to. Sin hath got a bad name.
(2) Sin is evil in its nature, as it is injurious to God. It is a breach of God’s royal law; “sin is a transgression of the law”; it is high treason against heaven.
(3) Sin is evil in its nature, as it is a foolish thing.
(4) Sin is a polluting thing. Sin is not only a defection, but a pollution; it is as rust to gold, as a stain to beauty; it is called “filthiness of the flesh and spirit.”
(5) Sin is a debasing thing, it degrades us of our honour.
(6) Sin is an enslaving thing. A sinner is a slave when he sins most freely.
(7) Sin is an unsavoury thing; “they are altogether become filthy”--in the Hebrew, they are become stinking.
(8) Sin is a painful thing, it costs men much labour and pains to accomplish their wicked designs; “they weary themselves to commit iniquity.” “Sin is its own punishment.”
(9) Sin is a disturbing thing; whatever defiles, disturbs.
3. Look upon sin in the judgment and opinion of the godly, and it will appear to be the most prodigious evil. The primitive Christians said, they chose rather to be devoured by lions without than lusts within. The godly testify sin is a great evil, in that they desire to die upon no account more than this, that they may be rid of sin.
4. Look upon sin in the comparative, and it will appear to be the most deadly evil.
(1) Compare sin with affliction: there is more evil in a drop of sin than in a sea of affliction. Sin is the cause of affliction, the cause is more than the effect. Sin is the Phaeton that sets the world on fire. Affliction doth but reach the body, and make that miserable, but sin makes the soul miserable. Afflictions are good for us; “it is good for me that I have been afflicted.” Thus affliction is for our good; but sin is not for our good, it keeps good things from us--“Your sins have withholden good things from you.” A man may be afflicted, and his conscience may be quiet. Thus, in affliction, conscience may be quiet; but when a man commits a presumptuous, scandalous sin, conscience is troubled; by defiling the purity of conscience, we lose the peace of conscience. In affliction we may have the love of God.
Afflictions are love-tokens--“As many as I love, I rebuke.” But when we commit sin, God withdraws His love; it is the sun overcast with a cloud, nothing appears but anger and displeasure. There are many encouragements to suffer affliction. Thus sin is worse than affliction; there are encouragements to suffer affliction, but no encouragement to sin. When a person is afflicted, only he himself suffers; but by sinning openly he doth hurt to others. Affliction can hurt a man only while he is living, but sin doth hurt him when he is dead.
(2) Sin is worse than death. Were it not for sin, though death might kill us, it could not curse us.
5. Look upon sin in the manner of its cure; it cost dear to be done away; the guilt of sin could not be removed but by the blood of Christ; He who was God must die, and be made a curse for us, before sin could be remitted. How horrid is sin, that no angel or archangel, nor all the powers of heaven, could procure the pardon of sin, but it cost the blood of God!
6. Look upon sin in the dismal effects of it, and it will appear the most horrid prodigious evil--“The wages of sin is death,” that is, “the second death.” Is sin such a deadly, pernicious evil, the evil of evils? See, then, what it is we are to pray most to be delivered from, and that is from sin; our Saviour hath taught us to pray, “deliver us from evil.” Hypocrites pray more against temporal evils than spiritual. If sin be so great an evil, see, then, the folly of those who venture upon sin, because of the pleasure they have in it--“but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” If sin be so great an evil, then, what wisdom is it to depart from evil? “To depart from evil is understanding.” If sin be so great an evil, then, how justifiable and commendable are all those means which are used to keep men from sin? If sin be so great an evil, see, then, what should be a Christian’s great care in this life, to keep from sin--“Deliver us from evil.” Some make it all their care to keep out of trouble; they had rather keep their skin whole than their conscience pure; but our care should be chiefly to keep from sin.
(1) Take heed of sins of omission.
(2) Take heed of secret sins.
(3) Take heed of your complexion-sin, that sin which your nature and constitution doth most incline you to.
(4) Take heed of your sins which attend your particular callings.
(a) The godly have something which may restrain them from sin.
(b) The sins of God’s people are greater than others, because they sin against more mercy.
(c) The sins of the godly are worse, and have this aggravation in them that they sin against more clear illumination than the wicked- “They are of those that rebel against the light.”
(d) The sins of the godly are worse than the sins of the unregenerate, for, when they sin, it is against great experiences.
(e) The sins of the godly are greater than others, because they sin against their sonship. Secondly, in this petition, “deliver us from evil,” we pray to be delivered from the evil of Satan. He is “the evil one.” In what respect is Satan the wicked one!
1. He was the first inventor of evil; he plotted the first treason.
2. His inclination is only to evil.
3. His constant practice is doing evil.
4. All the evils and mischiefs that fall out in the world, he hath some hand in them.
(1) He hinders from good.
(2) He provokes to evil. The devil blows the fire of lust and strife. Thirdly, in this petition, “deliver us from evil,” we pray to be delivered from the evil of the world. In what sense is it an evil world?
1. As it is a defiling world. It is like living in an infectious air; it requires a high degree of grace to “keep ourselves unspotted from the world.”
2. It is an evil world, as it is an ensnaring world. The world is full of snares. Company is a snare, recreations are snares, oaths are snares, riches are golden snares.
3. It is an evil world as it is a discouraging world. It casts scorn and reproach upon them who live virtuously.
4. It is an evil world, as it is a deadening world. It dulls and deadeneth the affections to heavenly objects.
5. It is an evil world, as it is a maligning world. It doth disgust and hate the people of God--“Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
6. It is an evil world, as it is a deceitful world.
7. It is an evil world, as it is a disquieting world. It is full of trouble. The world is like a bee-hive; when we have tasted a little honey, we have been stung with a thousand bees. A man may abstain from evil, yet he may go to hell for not doing good. “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” “Deliver us from evil,” that is, from temporal evil.
We pray that God will either prevent temporal evils, or deliver us out of them.
1. We pray that God will prevent temporal evils; that He will be our screen, to stand between us and danger--“Save me from them that persecute me.”
2. We pray that God will deliver us out of temporal evils; that He will remove His judgments from us, whether famine, sword, pestilence--“Remove Thy stroke away from me.” Yet with this we may pray to be delivered from temporal evils only so far as God sees it good for us. In all the troubles that lie upon us, let us look up to God for ease and succour--“Deliver us from evil.” “Should not a people seek unto their God?” (T. Watson.)
The dread of sin
One of the most effective means of deliverance from this great evil, is prayer. Why do the children of God thus fervently pray to be delivered from sin?
1. Sin is itself “exceeding sinful.” It is “an evil thing and bitter.” It is the poisoned arrow; the dart that most bitterly wounds the soul.
2. When men are born of God, and become His children, they imbibe a portion of His nature and spirit. Because sin is odious in itself, and hateful to Him, it is hateful to them.
3. It is not like other evils which come upon them, and which they mourn over, but which have no moral turpitude.
4. To this upward progress sin opposes the most humiliating obstacles; it acts upon the mind just as a stupefying or inflammatory disease acts upon the body. To a greater or less extent, every sin does this; while habitual and aggravated sin does it to an alarming degree. The heart, the great moral principle, the master impulse of the wondrous machinery, itself disordered, throws into disorder all the natural faculties. True religion, wherever it is felt in purity and power, always produces the most happy effect upon the mind that embraces it. Nor is there anything that preventeth these joys from being constant, unless it be the chilling, withering influence of sin. Sin is the atmosphere of death. It is like returning winter to the soul when sinful thoughts, sinful passions, and sinful pursuits agitate it. The Christian who is even surprised into sin, finds it difficult to return to his wonted enjoyment of God. Sin also diminishes, if it does not destroy the Christian’s usefulness. True piety is efficient and operative. Another reason for this request is found in the fact, that sin is so universally destructive in its tendencies upon the happiness and best interests of the world in which we dwell. There is still another reason for this request: it is found in the claims of redeeming love. The suppliant is one who addresses the God of pardon. He has become reconciled to Him through that mighty Sufferer who hung upon the cross. God is His Father now; He would not wound that heart of paternal love. (G. Spring, D. D.)
But deliver us from evil
We must admit that it is an evil world. Look, first, at the physical world. How many accidents there are in it! How many diseases and deformities and agonies and deaths! What a world of sickrooms and infirmaries and graves! Is not that an evil world in which death is the inexorable issue of life? Again, look at Nature itself. Nature as a machine is perfect. But among the products which the working of that perfect machine turns out are the volcano and the earthquake, the morass and the desert, the flood and the drought, the famine and the pestilence, deadly beasts and loath some vermin, painful accidents and misshapen forms, agonies and death. Again, look at the intellectual world. See how partial, unsymmetrical, are many of its judgmental With what sidelong, tortuous course does it approach truth, careening toward it under preponderant stress of self-bias. Again, look at the emotional world. What cares and apprehensions and silent griefs chafe and corrode and shrivel up the world’s soul. How envy stings it, avarice cankers it, passion scorches it, hate chars it with coals of hell. How often purest affections are misplaced, most loving confidences betrayed. But it is when we enter the region of the distinctively spiritual world that the signs of evil are thickest and darkest. Man, although the son of God, is evidently, conspicuously, out of harmony with Him. He who is the all-pure and all-holy One is manifestly the object of human distrust and aversion. And the world’s ceaseless prayer, whether consciously expressed or not, is this, “Deliver us from evil!” So, too, does the pagan stammer our prayer. Behold his pilgrimages and sacrifices and self-lacerations! Oh, what a cry for deliverance is that which goes up from the writhing dances and flaming suttees and gory Juggernauts of the heathen world! So, too, does the Christian articulate our prayer, oh, how distinctly and frequently and fervently! And now a momentous question comes up: Will the prayer be answered? Most certainly it will. For, first, it is the Son of God Himself who bids us offer it. Again: this prayer is to be offered to a Father--a Father, too, who is heavenly. And so did He once for all appear that He might put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And therefore, when He, the Son of God, was about to be born into the world, an angel bade Joseph call the name of the coming child Jesus, i.e., Saviour; for His Saviourship would consist in this very thing, namely, He would save His people from their sins. And salvation from sins is salvation from sin’s consequences as well as from sin itself, from grief as well as from guilt, from the evil of circumstances without as well as from the evil of character within. And this leads us to our last point, the completeness of the deliverance which the heavenly Father will give those who approach Him filially, in the name of His Son, our Divine next-of-kin or Elder Brother. It is a threefold deliverance. And, first, it is a deliverance of the spirit: that august part or side of man’s threefold nature, which links him with Deity, which can know Him intuitively, by sense of kinship, which can commune with Him who Himself is Spirit and the Father of Spirits. And the deliverance He offers is a full, complete, everlasting deliverance: the deliverance of the spirit from sin, from sin’s penalty, from sin’s dominion, from sin’s guilt; in one word, from evil. Secondly, it is a deliverance of the Psyche, or soul, that mysterious principle within us which seems to be the centre and seat of our personality; that subtile bond of union which unites spirit and body; that inscrutable, undiscoverable pivot on which are suspended the conditions of life--life bodily and life spiritual; that seat of sensibility and thought and emotion; that mysterious thing which is life itself. And this life or soul, sharing as it does in the fortunes of the fallen spirit, operates and is operated on at every disadvantage. And the deliverance which the Son of God offers is a deliverance of the life and all its faculties from these unfavourable conditions: a deliverance of the judgment from all prejudice and perversion and blindness, of the imagination from all that is impure and untrue, of the memory from all unholy or bitter reminiscences, of the instincts from all sinful drifts, of the affections from all that is unheavenly or sorrowful; in short, from all evil. And, thirdly, it is a deliverance of the body: that wonderful structure in which life finds alike its home, its carriage, and its avenues. Sharing in the fortunes of the fallen spirit, the body shares its curse, and so is amenable to disease and anguish and death. And the deliverance which the Son of God offers is a deliverance of the body; its deliverance from imperfection and weakness and disease and mortality; in one word, from evil In fine, the deliverance from evil for which the Son of God bids us pray is the repeal of the Eden curse. (G. D.Boardman, D. D.)
Deliver us from evil
We will show--
1. What it is to be “delivered from evil.”
2. That it is the work of God alone.
3. That being delivered we must offer up the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving Jovi Liberatori, “to God our Deliverer,” and give all the glory of the victory to Him alone.
1. When we hear of deliverance from evil, we may conceive perhaps such a deliverance as may set us at such a distance from it that it may not come near us. But there is a further deliverance, ut prosit, “that it may help us,” that “out of this eater may come meat” (Judges 14:14-15), even “sweeter than honey or the honeycomb” (Psalms 19:10). We may truly say, “The very finger of God is here” (Exodus 8:19). For it is the work of God to create good out of evil, and light out of darkness, which are heterogeneous and of a quite contrary nature.
1. First. When we pray to be “delivered from evil,” we acknowledge that God hath jus pleni dominii, “such a full power over us,” that He may, if He please, without any injustice deliver us up unto Satan, as He did Job, to be “smitten from the sole of the foot unto the crown” (Job 2:7); that He may withdraw His blessings, and make us smart under the cross.
2. But, in the next place, because we are men, not angels, and converse on earth, where is officina tentationum, “a shop where the devil forgeth his terrors and his allurements, his fearful and his pleasing temptations,” we send out prayers as in an humble embassage to crave God’s aid and auxiliary forces. For as God hath His army to fight against His enemies--His locust, His caterpillar, and His palmer-worm (Joel 2:25)--so hath He His army to defend those who are under His protection--His angels and archangels, who “are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.”
3. But further yet, in the last place, we beg God’s immediate assistance, His efficacious and saving grace, that He will not only send His angels, but make us angels to ourselves. For no man can be “delivered from evil,” nisi in quantum angelus ease coepit, “but so far forth as he is become an angel,” yea, nisi in quantum Deus esse coepit, “but so far forth as he is become a God,” “partaker,” saith St. Peter, “of the Divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), and endued with “wisdom from above” (James 3:17). Andas we pray for sight, so we do for foresight. (A. Farindon.)
Devout
‘Tis sometimes seen that grief makes us eloquent; I am sure danger often makes us devout. Necessity prompts men to seek relief, and the apprehension of an ill, ready to fall upon us, sends us to God for shelter. (Archdeacon King.)
Deliver us from evil
I have heard of different kinds of animals--the timid hare as well as the sharp-toothed rat--when caught in a trap, actually gnawing through the unfortunate limb that had been seized, glad to escape with life, though they left a foot behind them, furnishing us with an illustration of a text of Scripture, the right meaning of which we would do well to keep in mind: “Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or mained, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.” And so is it with men when danger of an outward kind threatens. They will try to keep as far as possible out of its way, and when they are face to face with it, in the very midst of it, what desperate efforts they will make to escape!
I. WHAT THE PRAYER MEANS--what we ask when we offer this petition. The word “evil” is that upon which this head turns. If you ask me what I think is meant by this, I must give you my answer all at once, by saying, “It is sin and its consequences, in this life and the next.” More particularly it asks--
1. Deliverance from sin within. If I break my arm, or suffer from toothache, or am ill otherwise, I think it bad enough, but it is nothing like what is when I have sinned. Sin is the great destroyer of happiness. There is such a thing as a happy poverty, a happy sickness, but there is no happiness possible in connection with sin. Happiness and sin can no more agree together than light and darkness. Now where does sin have its seat--its dwellingplace? Is it not within? Is it not in the heart, so that you have it called in God’s Word “an evil heart”? When I speak of evil, you think of something outside of you--some danger, or suffering, from which you need to be delivered. And yet the most dreadful of all the evils that you have to do with, and that you need to pray against, is the sin that is within you. In regard to the evil of it, this prayer asks deliverance from two things--the power of sin, and the love of it. A slave may love his chain, as wellas be bound by it. He may like it, and be proud of it, as he looks at its gilded links, and hears the ring of it. He may cease to love it, and it may still be there: its power remains even when the love of it is gone. So, even when we have ceased to love sin--even when we hate it, as seeing what an evil thing it is--it may yet, more or less, hold us in its grasp, and get the advantage over us; and so we need to have its power broken, as well as the liking for it taken away. Both are included when we pray, “Deliver us from evil.”
2. It asks deliverance from temptation without.
3. It asks deliverance from suffering and sorrow. These are what we oftenest think and speak of as “evil,” and most earnestly seek deliverance from.
II. How GOD ANSWERS THE PRAYER.
1. By granting the request, by delivering us from evil. He does this in a variety of ways.
(1) By His providence; removing the opportunity or occasion of sin from us, or us from it, putting forth some providential restraint, creating some sudden diversion, so that the mind is turned to something else. There is a young servant, fresh from her country home, where she has been brought up in the fear of God. Her fellow-servant is trying to lead her astray, is bringing influences no way for good to bear on her, and there is danger that the attempt will be successful. She prays, “Deliver me from evil.” And she falls into bad health, or is not required any longer, or otherwise has to change her situation, to the regret of herself and her friends. It is the Lord’s way of removing her out of the reach of harm, and answering her prayer, Sometimes the danger is escaped from by getting something else to do. You have seen a child amusing himself with a knife or razor, to the utter terror of his mother. He might not part with it otherwise, but she holds out to him a whistle or toy, and the dangerous weapon is thrown aside. Or he is engaged in mischief, and is cured of that by getting some useful work to do.
“Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.”
The doing of good is the best preservative against, and cure for, the doing of evil. The best preservative against the love of evil is to have the heart occupied with the love of God. God, in His providence, sends the one in our way, and so delivers from the other.
(2) By His grace. You remember how it was with Esau and Labau in the case of Jacob: God so wrought in their hearts that they were kept from sinning and carrying out their evil intentions. Sometimes we fear the evil, and are delivered from it in another way, by seeing it in its true colours, stripped of its mask. You have heard of men fighting duels. When one person wronged or insulted another, it used to be common to decide the matter with loaded pistols, and one or other was often wounded or killed. It was thought manly and brave; and the refusal so to fight was regarded as mean and cowardly. It Was called an “affair of honour.” How was the evil stopped? By seeing it to be murder. Sometimes He makes use of love, and this oftenest and best. He loves us out of our sin. I have heard of boys making an assault on an old lady’s garden to steal the fruit, and being caught. She had them brought into her parlour, and when they looked for punishment, she told them she would “like them to get what they wanted in a right way.” A plateful of cherries was accordingly brought in, they were kindly treated, and were told that the next time they wanted anything of the kind, they were to come in and ask for it. I need hardly say there was no more stealing. Kindness killed and cured these young thieves. The grace of God working in the heart is indispensable to any real and lasting deliverance.
2. God answers the prayer by refusing the request. I mean this, especially in the ease of such apparent evil, but real good, as I spoke of before. A boy begins to learn Latin, and when he comes to find it so hard and difficult, he would give anything to get out of it again; pleads to be allowed to give it up, and thinks it very hard to be refused. By and by he becomes a famous doctor or scholar, and how often he thanks God he did not get his own way when he was a boy, for then he never would have been what he is. So we often ask deliverance from fancied evils, when it would not be good to get it. (J. H. Wilson, M. A.)