And lead us not into temptation.
I. God permits us to be tempted for his own glory, to discover the freeness and riches of His grace, that men may be driven the more earnestly to sue out their place in the name of Jesus Christ. We keep off from the throne of grace till temptations drive us thither. As when the sheep wander, the shepherd lets loose his dog upon them, not to worry them, but to bring them back again to the fold: so God lets loose Satan to drive us to Himself.
II. For the trial of that grace which he hath wrought in us. Grace doth appear better in temptation than out of it. A great tempest discovereth the goodness of a ship and skill of the pilot; so these great trials discover the soundness of our hearts and the fruit of that grace which God hath wrought in us. Gold is most tried in the fire, and discovered to be pure and perfect. Stars that lie hidden in the day shine in the night. The valour and worth of a soldier is not known in times of peace, but when he is out in action. When we are put to some difficulty and straits, then is faith seen.
III. To humble us. That we may never be proud of what we have, nor conceited of what we have not. Spiritual evils need a spiritual cure. Outward afflictions humble, but not so much as temptations do.
IV. To conform us to Christ. We must pledge Him in His own cup; it must go round; He Himself was tempted.
V. To mortify sin. When men have smarted they grow more cautious.
VI. To make us more meek to others. We are very apt to be severe upon the failings of others. But now, when we are tempted ourselves, we learn more pity to them.
VII. To give us experience of the care and providence of God, and the comforts of His promises. A man doth not know what the comforts of faith mean till he be exercised by temptation. (Thomas Manton, D. D.)
Temptation
1. This prayer recognizes temptation as part of the discipline of life.
2. It traces temptation to the source whence it originates.
3. It intimates that temptation generally results in sin.
4. It expresses on our part a shrinking from temptation through a sense of weakness.
5. It is a joyful acknowledgment of God’s power and strength to rescue us. (F. Edwards, B. A.)
The temptations of those who are unhappy
I. Those temptations that are related to God himself.
1. Persons who are unhappy often murmur against the government of God.
2. To “withhold prayer before Him.
II. Those temptations respecting mankind.
1. They are tempted to hate their race.
2. A determination to change their position.
3. A temptation to destroy their enemies.
III. The temptation that comes upon ‘the unhappy themselves.
1. To obtain unlawful information respecting their destiny.
2. To secure an oblivion of their wretchedness.
3. To seek to obtain relief by suicide. (J. Blackburn.)
I. If God, provoked thereto by our careless-hess, doth justly bring us into, or doth let us enter into temptation, we shall infallibly run into many grievous sins and mischief.
II. We continually need God’s instruction to guide us, God’s hand to uphold us, God’s care to guard us.
(1) When our condition and circumstances minister dangerous occasions of sin;
(2) When the world would frown or smile us into it; or
(3) Satan thrust us toward it;
(4) Then, in such cases and seasons, God’s interposal is necessary to remove those temptations, or to support and defend us from the prevalence of them. (Isaac Barrow, D. D.)
“Lead us not into temptation”
I. In praying thus, we desire not to be absolutely freed from that reluctance of flesh against the spirit, but from those additional trials that surprise, forgetfulness, or public affairs may bring upon us more at one time than another.
II. The petition is not the effect of sloth, but a wise provision for our safety, and we thereby only desire to be discharged from such trials as make our perseverance not only difficult, but doubtful.
III. We, in this petition, desire God to excite our own care and watchfulness. Humility, caution, and charity are the several lessons which we are taught in the right use of this prayer. (Thomas Mangey.)
The sixth petition
I. This is an appeal to our leader.
1. It implies that our Father is our Leader.
2. We make this appeal to our Father with a sense of His nearness.
II. This petition comes from the fear that when, in answer to the last petition, our sins are forgiven, we shall be tempted to sin again.
III. We thus pray because we know that our path abounds with instruments and occasions of temptation.
1. In business.
2. By the habits of society.
3. We may be led into temptation by retiring from the world.
4. We may be so led even when we feel most secure from it by communion with God.
IV. It implies a sense of our own temptableness.
V. That we have no will to go into temptation unless it be the will of God to lead us into it. (Dr. Stanford.)
The sixth petition
I. What is meant by temptation? The primary idea is test, or trial for discovery. The test may be applied with various motives-by friend or foe.
1. Inducement to sin.
2. Afflictions or trials are temptations in the sense of being tests of faith.
3. Temptation for the distinct purpose of testing (Genesis 22:1).
II. What is meant by asking God not to lead us into temptation.
III. Consolation for the tempted.
1. Temptation is not sin.
2. Temptation is not peculiar to the individual.
3. Christ Himself was tempted.
4. The prayer is presented to our Father.
IV. Practical lessons:
1. We should not go into temptation.
2. We must resist temptation in the way Christ Himself has appointed.
3. We should specially guard weak places in our defence.
4. Turn stumbling-blocks into stepping-stones.
5. We should not bring others into temptation. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
Believers tempted, yet safe
1. The universality of temptation.
2. We are concerned about the safety of others as well as our own.
3. When you notice the sins and failings of your fellow-Christians, remember they were tempted.
4. The special temptations of the believer.
5. The most gifted, perhaps the most tempted.
6. The safety of the believer.
7. Jesus protects us by His loving sympathy, faithful intercession, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Dr. Saphir.)
Lead us not into temptation
I. God’s people are exposed to much temptation. In the old dispensation they were a tempted people. It is exemplified in the varied experiences of the saints. The world is a great temptation. The outward plague of sin: Satan. There are peculiar seasons of temptation: Abraham.
II. What is to be understood by this petition. It does not imply exemption from temptation. The Lord likes to know the reality of the grace of His people. Leads them to watchfulness. God does not entice men to sin. A wise prayer. A holy prayer. (J. H. Evans.)
The watchful spirit of the Lord’s prayer
I. The present scene of the christian one of temptation.
1. There are temptations that arise from the power of Satan.
2. From the world.
3. From within the Christian.
II. The petition.
1. The entire exemption of the believer from temptation would be exemption from some of the greatest blessings of his life.
2. We are not to infer that God can solicit men to evil.
3. The prayer is that God would, by His providence, keep His child out of the way of temptation.
4. That God would either weaken the power or remove entirely all existing temptation.
5. It is a petition that God would not withdraw His restraining check from the believer.
6. It asks to be preserved from the great tempter.
III. Practical conclusions:
1. While praying not to be led into temptation, we should be watchful against voluntarily running into it
2. The unselfishness of the petition-“us.”
3. It is offered in the name of the Tempted One. (Dr. O. Winslow.)
The sixth petition
Pardon for past is followed by implored grace for the future.
I. Temptation generally, as belonging of necessity to the condition of moral agents. The word temptation suggests moral experiment for good or evil. It has come to mean invitation to sin. Exposure to illusory suggestions is only what the analogy of natural government would lead us to expect. In our ordinary worldly interests what attractiveness appears to hang about a wrong course of conduct, whilst difficulty seems ever to dissuade us from what is right. We find that men are free to stand or fall.
II. In what sense God can be said to lead us into temptation,
1. When God brings us providentially into the neighbourhood of hurtful influences.
2. When He allows temptations to come upon us with all their unmitigated force without restraining influences. God never leads us into temptation to make us fall.
III. How much of the leading into temptation is due to ourselves.
1. The blame is our own when we without cause expose ourselves to any moral hazzard.
2. When we allow ourselves to be carried away by sinful conformity to the world.
3. When we do not habitually restrain those tendencies and appetites, without which any temptation would be powerless.
IV. The beneficial ends for which our temptations may be permitted.
1. In order to the trial of our religious sincerity.
2. In order that God may get honour to Himself by our successful resistance.
3. The mercifulness of those permitted trials, in that our very failures may conduce to our greater spiritual humility. We should never separate the prayer for deliverance from the pledge to keep ourselves. (D. Moore, M. A.)
Lead us not into temptation
No man should go into the future with God till he has a clear past. When the soul has tasted forgiveness, it has the fear of sinning again. Shall a man recovered from a malignant fever, go and breathe infection? Temptation is the precincts of sin. Admire the anticipatory character of God’s care for us. Preventatives of temptation. Prevention may be effected in three ways. The occasion may not be presented. Every sinful inclination may be taken away and overruled, or the power of Satan to deal with one or the other may be abridged or withdrawn. Temptation depends mainly upon the bias of the natural character. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The Divine guidance in the midst of dangers
A guide on the mountains leads the Alpine climber where dangers exist. The summit cannot otherwise be reached. In avoiding or conquering the danger, the traveller’s skill, courage, and endurance are both tested and improved. His health and manhood, as well as his enjoyment, are secured by his being thus led where dangers abound. But the leader knows what path is practicable, what perils should be shunned, and is ever ready to lend a helping hand. Thus our Heavenly Guide leads us by His Providence even when we are beset by snares. (Newman Hall, LL. D.)
Men should avoid circumstances favourable to the development of evil tendencies
It would be a great misfortune to a man with weak lungs to call him to live in a cold, bleak air. So would it be to a man with weak eyes, to fix him in a situation which required much study by candle.light. Now it is to the full as dangerous for the soul of the ambitious man to be put into the road which leads to high stations, as it can be for the lungs of the consumptive man to give him a house on a bleak hill. (Newman Hall, LL. D.)
Men must not unnecessarily expose themselves to temptation
It is said that at the battle of Waterloo, a wealthy merchant of Brussels, who had been allowed access to headquarters, asked Wellington whether he was not exposing his person to great danger, as shot and shell were falling around. The general replied, “You have no business here, but I am performing my duty.” So let us never go into spiritual danger from idle curiosity, but only when duty calls: then, and then alone, may we expect to be safe. (Newman Hall, LL. D.)
There are certain temptations which our natural constitution and temperament should lead us to avoid
There is in old Arabic fable the story of a great rock that was a great magnet, drawing ships, so that they were dashed into splinters on it. If I have been magnetized by a certain sin, I would not be led near the loadstone that might draw me into destruction by its malignant potency. If I carry in me the gunpowder of some slumbering badness, I would not be led where sparks are flying. If I am “Little Faith” bearing precious jewels, I would not be led through “Dead Man’s Lane,” where robbers lurk. If I am short-sighted, I would not be led into “the land of pits.” If I am timid and fear “ the power of the dog,” I would not be led near his chain, but far as may be beyond the reach of his spring. (Dr. Stanford.)
In the moment of defeat temptation may gather new force
But sin seems to be strongest when it has had its death blow. The eagle, when down, strikes at you with a beak like a bolt of iron, and may flap you dead with its wing. The red deer, when down, may fell you with its antlers. The dying horse may, in the plunge of its agony, break a man’s limb. A harpooned whale may dash a boat over. Sin is like that. Speared through by its conqueror, it may grasp us in its last convulsions, and seem to be stronger dying than living; but we shall soon spring out from it, and cry, “Deliverance!” (Dr. Stanford.)
Lead us not into temptation
1. There is no evil in temptation unless complied with.
2. Temptation is a necessary element in a life of probation, such as our life on earth is.
3. It is a useful discipline to brace our energies and increase our strength.
4. If successfully overcome they confirm our graces and become helps in the way to heaven.
God may be said to lead us into temptation-
1. By the dispensations of His providence.
2. By giving Satan permission to tempt us.
3. When He leaves us to ourselves.
Lessons:
1. To know and acknowledge our own weakness.
2. Temptation not a thing to be courted, but feared.
3. Cannot be avoided by the saintliest.
4. Are under God’s control.
5. We must pray against temptations, especially such aa we feel we are most likely to fall under.
6. To prayer we must add watchfulness.
7. We must avoid the seducing opportunities of evil.
8. How many lead themselves into temptation.
9. We must be content to deny ourselves some things that are lawful if we would not be lead to the commission of what is unlawful,
10. We mast be jealous about the approaches of temptation.
11. We must beware of little temptations.
12. We must listen to the slightest whispers of conscience.
13. We must remember “the devil varies his temptations to suit the changing circumstances of our life.
14. The consciousness of our own individual danger must not make us insensible to the need of our brethren.
Us We are not fighting alone. (F. C. Blyth, M. A.)
Keep far from danger
He who has no mind to trade with the devil should be so wise as to keep away from his shop. (South.)
If you would not be drowned, what do you so near the waterside. (Baxter.)
Let us not tempt the devil to tempt us
The lion may cross our path, or leap upon us from the thicket, but we have nothing “to do with hunting him. (C. H. Surgeon.)
Temptation
1. The source, of temptation may be divided into three: those within ourselves, those that surround us, those from the spirit-world.
2. This petition does not mean that we should ask God to give us an easy time.
3. Temptations are just as liable to come to men from things that are good as from things that are bad. What is nobler than industry well applied-property-regulated anger? These are full of temptations to avarice, etc. The Divine conception of life is that it is a conflict.
4. Modes of resisting temptation. Many of them are to be forestalled. We are to watch against weak hours. A safeguard against temptation is the strengthening of the natural antagonisms of the passions; over against cruelty lies benevolence, etc. (Beecher.)
Deliver us from evil.
Deliver us from evil
I. That is, if we be led into temptation, let us be kept from the evil of it. It is a more wonderful providence to be kept from the evil, than from temptation. If a garrison be never assaulted it is no wonder that it standeth exempt from the calamity of war.
II. The evil of sin is greater than the evil of temptation.
1. Because it separateth us from God. Poverty, sickness, blindness, loss of goods-let a man be never so low, yet, if in a state of grace, the Lord taketh pleasure in him.
2. Because it depriveth us of God, who is the fountain of our comfort.
3. It reproveth our folly. We complain of other things, but do not complain of sin, which is the greatest evil. The evil of affliction is but for a moment; like rain, it drieth up of its own accord; but the evil of sin is for ever, unless it be pardoned and taken away. Sin is the cause of all the evils of affliction; therefore, when we complain, we should complain not so much of the smart, as of the cause of it. (Thomas Manton, D. D.)
Deliver us from evil
1. This prayer looks upon evil as something separate from ourselves.
2. It regards our personal deliverance from evil as our great need.
3. It leaves with God the decision as to what is evil.
4. It leaves with God both the mode and time of the desired deliverance.
5. It recognizes our dependence on God for this desired deliverance. (F. Edwards, B. A.)
Deliver us from evil
I. That is principally from sin, or evil,
(1) moral and spiritual; or evil,
(2) penal and afflictive. From all
(3) mischief, from the
(4) root of all evil.
II. We absolutely request of God that He, in His mercy, would also deliver and free us from
(1) remorse of conscience,
(2) anguish of spirit for having violated His laws, and neglect of duty; from
(3) blindness of mind,
(4) hardness of heart,
(5) want of love, reverence, devotion toward God; of
(6) charity and good-will toward our neighbour.
III. We are hereby taught not to be studiously punctual and particular in oar prayers, as if God needed our information, or were apt to neglect the particulars concerning our good. (Isaac Barrow, D. D.)
Our supplication for deliverance
1. This petition is supported by the authority of human experience and history. We are led into situations of trial.
2. It is the natural language of the human heart. It is the utterance of fear.
3. It is the prayer of wise self-distrust.
4. It must always be a prayer springing from our trust in God.
5. The prayer now beet)rues an aspiration, a prophecy. It gathers up all the great hopes and faiths of the gospel. (W. Hubbard.)
This prayer implies-
I. That we are living in a world in which is the presence of evil.
II. That those who use it are under a sense of being in bondage to evil.
III. Nothing less than the omnipotent arm of God can deliver us from this evil.
IV. That nothing can be satisfying to the Christian but the entire expulsion of evil from the world.
V. Let our petition be presented in fervent faith of an answer. (W. Dodsworth.)
The devotional spirit of the Lord’s prayer
Deliverance from evil. This the cry of humanity.
1. From the evil of sin.
2. From the evil of the world.
3. From evil men.
4. From the Evil One.
5. A daily prayer: what evil one day may expose us to. (Dr. O. Winslow.)
The seventh petition
I. The agency of satan.
1. The existence of orders of beings superior to the human race is antecedently probable; as those below us, so some above. Scripture confirms this.
2. What are the limits of this agency, and how are the personal attributes requisite for its success to be reconciled with our notions of a finite being? Satan has some form of access to the heart, he has insight into our ruling mental tendencies.
II. The means used by Satan for the carrying on of his designs.
1. Our enemy is personal.
2. He avails himself of outward accidents to stir up motions to evil.
3. When he cannot find, he seeks to make, occasions of sin.
4. He turns our permitted enjoyments into evil; our friendship, our religious feelings.
III. The provisions made for our deliverance from this adversary,
1. The restraints constantly put upon the tempter in the exercise of his own power.
2. A gracious Father has provided many forms of unseen and unknown deliverance.
3. God more generally delivers His children from the adversary by enabling them to deliver themselves. We must resist
(1) at first
(2) earnestly. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The last petition
It stands last because all previous petitions are summed up in it.
I. Evil is around and within us.
II. Evil has a central unity-“the evil.”
III. Who delivers. God delivers in Christ.
IV. The promise involved in the petition. In the resurrection delivered from evil. (Dr. Saphir.)
But deliver us from evil
It surrounds the purest, clings to the holiest, shadows the brightest, embitters the happiest.
1. The true suppliant will try to see evil from the point of view from which God sees it.
2. There is no good which has not in its constitution some evil, so there is no evil that is not mingled with some good.
3. An enlightened man will leave the time and way of deliverance to God.
4. God’s plan is by ransom; He delivered Christ to evil that He might deliver you from it.
5. The believer’s liberty, sanctity, and rest. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The seventh petition
I. The evil one.
II. The evil caused by yielding to the evil one-the result of sin.
III. The evil in ourselves. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
The seventh petition
I. Identify the evil.
1. Not the world.
2. Not affliction.
3. Not death.
4. But sin.
II. Notes on the petition.
1. In offering this petition we have to keep in mind the whole connection-connect it with the prayer for forgiveness, with the prayer against temptation.
2. We offer this prayer in that Jesus is the medium of deliverance.
3. This prayer fits the lips of Christians in a time when old sins seem to recover new power.
4. Our thoughts rush forward to the day when this prayer for deliverance from evil will have its finished and perfect answer. (Dr. Stanford.)
Evil may be productive of good
Like the merchant who lost his all in a storm, and was thus driven to learn philosophy at Athens, many who have been deprived of earthly comforts, have learned that Wisdom is better than Wealth. (F. C. Blyth, M. A.)
The universal prayer-cry
1. The evidence of all all-pervading and ever-present evil is irresistible.
2. If we cry for deliverance it is because we have a lingering recollection of a promise that there will be a Deliverer.
3. But God’s children intelligently offer this prayer to the Divine Father; they feel that He is not the Author of evil.
4. As brethren we pray this petition: the successive generations have used it.
5. Estimate the price paid for deliverance; not silver and gold. (Dr. Cumming.)
Afflictions not necessarily evil
Only as you call a flail evil that separates the grain from the chaff; a wheel evil that grinds jewels to shine ins crown; a knife evil that prunes a tree; a tree evil that bears good fruit; a plough evil whose coulter crashes through the hard soil, opens it to the chemistry of nature, and makes it a soft, porous, receptive seed-plot for the harvest; the medicine evil that brings back the colour of health to the white face, and the flash of gladness to the dim eye; the hand evil that snatches back a heedless child from the nest of the serpent, or the lip of the river, just in time to save its life-only in this qualified sense can you call an affliction an evil. Out of our greatest sorrows grow our greatest joys. (Dr. Stanford.)
Suitable that this should be the last petition in the pra
yer:-
1. If this be granted all other blessings are comprehended in it.
2. It will grant us the gift of perseverance.
3. It presupposes all that has gone before. (F. C. Blyth, M. A.)
For Thine is the kingdom.-
Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory
I. The kingdom.
1. God’s kingdom is universal over all men or things, over all persons in the world.
2. It is special. Which notes His relation to the saints. It is the duty of a king to defend his subjects and provide for their welfare.
II. The power. Titles without power make authority ridiculous. We can ask nothing but what God is able to give-yea, above our asking.
III. The glory. The honour and glory of all will redound to God, the comfort accrueth to us.
IV. The duration. For ever. All excellencies which are in God, are eternally in God. (Thomas Manton, D. D.)
Thine is the kingdom
That is:
I. Thou hast a perpetual and unmoveable authority whereby justly to dispose of all things; an indefectible and irresistible power, whereby Thou canst effect whatever seems just and good to Thee.
II. Therefore we profess only to rely upon, and seek help from, Thee; with hope and confidence we address ourselves to Thee for the supply of our needs.
III. Thine is the glory; all honour and reverence, all love and thankfulness, are due unto Thee, therefore we render our adorations and acknowledgments to Thee. (Isaac Barrow, D. D.)
I. The kingdom-“Thine.”
1. By eternal right.
2. By assuaging wrath.
3. By infinite purchase.
II. Thine is the power.
1. Upon the intellectual world.
2. Upon the political world.
3. Upon the ecclesiastical world.
4. Upon the invisible world.
III. Thine is the glory. (T. Mortimer, M. A.)
The doxology
1.Our confidence in the acceptableness of our prayers is derived from God and not from ourselves.
2. That the power by which our desires are brought about is Divine, and not human.
3. That our certainty of success is based upon our faith in God.
4. That our confidence in our prayers ought not to waver.
5. That our prayers ought always to be confirmed and ratified by ourselves. (F. Edwards, B. A.)
I. What is here ascribed to God. The kingdom. The glory.
II. The advantages arising from this ascription of praise. We shall feel that we have presented to God the strongest arguments to ensure an answer to our prayers. We should be encouraged to expect great things in answer to our prayers. We shall feel how eternal and unchangeable is the basis upon which our expectation rests. We shall feel calm and hopeful after prayer, whatever the circumstances in which we are placed, or our views of the world around us, (W. O. Lilley.)
The ordering spirit of the Lord’s prayer
There is the kingdom:-
1. Of nature.
2. Providence.
3. Grace.
4. Glory. (Dr. O. Winslow.)
The doxology
I. The offering of praise as a necessary part of religious worship.
1. Praise is the most disinterested form of religious worship.
2. It is a divinely appointed type of devotion because of its inspiring and elevating influence upon the mind of the worshipper himself.
3. Praise comes nearest to the worship of heaven.
II. Those characteristics of His holy nature and ground for which we are here taught to show forth His praise.
1. We ascribe to the object of our adoration boundless and universal sovereignty.
2. We are instructed to make grateful mention of His omnipotence.
3. His glory.
4. But our doxology rises in the majesty of its ascriptions-dominion, power, glory-for ever. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The doxology
I. A sevenfold view of praise.
1. Prayer ends in praise. Our God who sees the end from the beginning, sees praise in every petition.
2. Praise is the language of the soul in communion with God.
3. It is the culminating point of prayer.
4. The doxology is an argument.
5. Praise is faith and more than faith, it is an anticipation of heaven.
6. The great bond of union is praise.
7. Praise is God’s gift.
II. The threefold ascription of praise.
1. There is the kingdom.
2. The power.
3. The glory.
III. The kingdom, power, and glory, as belonging to the triune God.
IV. For ever. (Dr. Saphir.)
The doxology
I. The doxology a confession of faith.
II. An argument in prayer.
III. An ascription of praise. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
For Thine is the kingdom
I. Doxology.
1. All prayer should gather itself up and crown itself in praise.
2. Praise should not be for gifts and graces, but for what God is in Himself.
`II. An argumentative doxology. “For thine,” etc. It establishes a plea for every petition.
III. The virtue and sufficiency of prayer lie in a threefold recognition of God.
1. His kingdom-perfect, sovereign, regal.
2. True prayer never stops to ask how.
3. It fixes itself on the glory of God. (T. Vaughan, M. A.)
Amen
1. It is a word of veritable history in Israel and in the Church.
2. It announces God’s truth and faithfulness.
3. It is the name of Christ.
4. It is the seal of prayer.
5. It is the voice of faith.
6. It is the answer of a good conscience.
7. It is a renewal of our dedication to God. (Dr. Saphir.)
The “Amen” of Christ
1. Christ is the amen of the Father’s love.
2. Christ is the amen of the Father’s holiness.
3. Christ is the amen of the Father’s sovereignty.
4. Christ is the amen of the Father’s will.
5. Christ is the amen of the Father’s bestowment.
6. Christ is the amen of the Father’s forgiveness.
7. Christ is the amen of the Father’s guidance.
8. Christ is the amen of the Father’s deliverance.
9. Christ is the amen of the Father’s eternal kingdom and power and glory. (R. W. Percival, M. A.)