Hello and welcome to this week's service at Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church. We are located out of Prairie View, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago. We are so glad you decided to join us today. This is our next sermon in the series on the Lord's Prayer by Pastor Brett Malin. Our scripture reading will be Job 1, 6-12, and 2, 1-10, and Matthew 26, 36-46. Our sermon text will be Matthew 6, 9-13. Sermon text. No surprise to a number of you who have been here the last two months or so, that being Matthew chapter 6, starting at verse 9, and working our way through to 13 and 13 itself. This is the word of God. Jesus says, for this manner therefore pray ye, Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Let us pray. Our God in heaven, be with us by your spirit and open our eyes up. Open our eyes that we might see great things in your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. The Bible tells us that Eve was deceived by the serpent when she was tempted by him. We understand that Adam was not deceived and his temptation was temptation Eve very well knew. very well knew what he was doing when he parted book. We can certainly say that they were both culpable. Both Adam and Eve were culpable. But there was a greater culpability because she was to see the greater culpability for Adam because he knew more so and more intimately what he was doing was wrong. We read that the serpent was more subtle than the other beasts of the field, the other beasts which were in the garden. The serpent was more subtle because we believe, based upon faith in the Word of God, that in some sense Satan that tempting serpent was found in that serpent, namely the one which was in the Garden of Eden. And the Apostle Paul writes on this, he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit many centuries later, and he desires that a certain church, the Corinthian church, that they would not be deceived, does not want them to fall into temptation like the way that the woman fell into temptation. So in 2 Corinthians 11 3, Paul says, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Paul's concern is that you would not be deceived. Of course, he's writing to the Corinthians. But by writing to the Corinthians in this inspired letter, he's writing to every single Christian. He is writing to every one of us over the last 2,000 years. and his desire is that we would not be deceived. In other words, we do not see that as some historical event that's locked and sealed off from us. It has ongoing application for us, because just as Eve was deceived, so can we be deceived by the subtlety of the temptations of the serpent. What I want you to take away from this sermon, you may not be surprised, is simply this, that you should pray that God would not lead you into temptation. That you would pray that God would not lead you into temptation, or that he would lead you out of temptation. Many people, though, when they hear this or when they pray this, they begin to wonder, they begin to say, does God lead people into temptation in such a way that I need to pray that He would not do that? Many will fall into sin, or many will not just fall into it, will embrace it fully. Some do not simply get their feet wet. Some are more than happy to cannonball into sin. And then they think, well, it's okay. Because God is the one who led me into this. And since he's the one who led me into this, I can, in some sense, even if in a small way, I can put the blame upon Him. Well, you know that that's not going to work. I want to declare to you today that that is not going to work. It's not going to work to blame someone else, to shift the blame. Understand, it did not work for Adam. He falls into sin. then seek to blame, for him to blame his wife. That did not work. Of course, she was culpable. She was used against him. But he bears the responsibility. And of course, she has culpability as well. But what does she do? She seeks to shift the blame to Satan. Well, that didn't work either because she bears responsibility and bears the consequences of that. Oh, how bold would it be for someone to say, well, God did it. It's not to blame your husband or your wife or to blame an animal that tempted you, but to blame God himself. low one to anyone who would even begin to do such a thing. But I think that even in our hearts, we might begin to think that. We might start to think, well, does God bear some bit of responsibility for my sin? Since he tempted me, some would say, or think. I would point you to James chapter one, James chapter one and I'm just going to read a couple of verses from James chapter one beginning with a little bit of commentary on each one to see if that is going to hold any weight. Now understand that in a sense the book of James is simply a further expanding and a further expounding upon the Sermon on the Mount. We understand that the Sermon on the Mount takes place in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. In very close, clear ways, I'd encourage you to see that James is simply expanding upon that. Indeed, in a sense, many of the epistles are doing just that. So we have this comment, lead us not into temptation, James, expanding upon that, James 1, verse 2, he says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Count it a joy. When we run into hardships or difficulties and even temptations, we should count it joy. Not because we love pain, Not because we love suffering and hardships, not in anything like that. But he expands on it in verse number 12. This is what he says. There are blessings to avoiding temptation. There are blessings to avoiding temptation. He says, blessed is the man that endureth temptation. For when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life. which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Here's the thing, you cannot blame God when you fall into hardship or temptation. James 1.13 says, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man. So we have that right there, as we would read that, lead us not into temptation. James is saying, just in case there is not clarity here, it is not God who leads you into temptation. God tempts no man. But it is indeed the fault of us when we are tempted and drawn away Verse 114 says, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Very important. A man who would stand before God and seek to offend God and the few of God by saying, you have a part in this. You are the one who is tempting me. That one will be rebuked. not only by God himself, not only by God the Father, but of course the Lord Jesus, who would say, that's not what I was saying when I talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount. And James himself will come as a witness and say, that is not vintage water. Then where does it come from? It comes from our own lusts. It comes from our own enticements. And then in verse 15, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. If I can summarize what James is saying, it's not God who brings you into temptation, It isn't. It is your own desires. It is your own lusts. He expands on that and helps us to understand a bit about that. Isn't it interesting? Once it hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. In other words, what it's saying here is that something might be presented to us. It might be found before us. And what happens is we begin to consider it. We begin to take it very seriously. It begins to capture us. It begins to take a certain amount of our attention. You could even say that it begins to take a part of our heart. Lust is conceived, and then it brings forth sin. We see many things in our world. Many, many things are before us. But these things are contrary to God's word, absolutely, of course. Understand we ought to look away, turn our eyes, She could be like Job, but I made a covenant with my eyes, basically not to look upon a maiden. He's not saying he never looked at any woman at all, but basically he's not looking in that sort of way that brings about lust, that then is conceived and brings about sin. Indeed, there is a sense in which anything that we look at, anything that we can see, we can make it into an idol, a lust after that thing, be it material things, be it things that other people have, or have, it might be sexual lust and gratification, in the sense it is some sort of substitute god for us, and it captures us. and we begin to be drawn into it. So away with any idea that it is God who would tempt you, or that could be blamed for tempting us. Indeed, we must not blame the one who provides us help, the one to whom we pray, asking for deliverance. We would say, though, just to be specific, what we're talking about. There are temptations external, and there are temptations internal. Or we could simply put it in a singular. There is temptation external, and there is temptation internal. Satan is the one who tempts externally, or the things of this world. tempt us externally, that is externally outside of ourselves. Even if the Lord Jesus was tempted of Satan, we would not say that that was internal to the Lord Jesus, that was external to him. Satan came and tempted the Lord Jesus, but Jesus was not tempted. Now I speak internally. He was not tempted, by that temptation external. This is what Satan sought to do, Job. First, to take all that he has, and then to take away his health. Your internal self, your internal self is drawn to the temptations external to yourself. So we must be mindful of this distinction. We're going to understand the Word of God as it is presented to us. The world and Satan tempt us and our flesh internally our person often responds to this in a positive way giving affirmation to that thing or those things which are sinful but of course these things are not positive ultimately because they give birth to sin and that sin brings about death indeed so many ways James and Paul are in agreement. Indeed, every way they're in agreement. Sometimes people try to point to ways that they think that they are in disagreement, but they are not. They're not in disagreement. They are in full agreement. But we would say, just as James says in 115, sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. It's almost like an echo of the Apostle Paul in Romans, or maybe Romans is an echo of James, that the wages of sin is death. People of God. And let me say, even to unbelievers among us, people of God and to unbelievers, that is every single person here Let me tell you that Satan desires to tempt you. He desires to draw you in. And he is more subtle than any other. He desires to have you. And if he cannot have you, then he desires to bring damage to you on your way. He desires to tempt you when you are weak. When you are weak physically or when you are weak spiritually, that is the time in which Satan desires to bring you into temptation. And his temptations you must see are manifold. he tempts in many, many ways. His methods and his warfare is not a simple, gruntal assault. He does do that, but he comes from the right as well, and from the left, and he comes from the back. and he is seeking to tempt you from below and he is seeking to tempt you from above. He is seeking to catch you when you are weak. He is seeking to catch you and tempt you when you are discouraged. Oftentimes we can be discouraged and this can lead to self-pity. which can lead to further discouragement. And so we think, well, what I need now is some sort of pick-me-up. I need some sort of encouragement. And so we are tempted by sinful things to feel better about ourselves by those sinful things. But of course, then we sin, then we realize, what have we done? We've fallen in again, and we are even more discouraged than we were before. He seeks to come after us and tempt us when we are tired, when we are not as strong as we would like to be. Because we are so tired. Because we are tired, we come off as weak. He seeks to to tempt us when we are confident. You see what I mean by he is tempting us from above and from below, from the right, from the left, from the front, from behind? Because we would not say that if you are weak, then you are susceptible. But if you are strong, then you are not susceptible. Indeed, you are susceptible then. If you are weak, he will go after a certain weakness. If you are strong, he will go after your strength. He will go after your pride. And he will seek to encourage your pride. See the many ways that he comes after us and the ways that he tempts us. Laziness leads to sin. Laziness leads to sin. That seems to be, if we could just summarize, probably many summaries of many of the Proverbs. That's one of them. Laziness leads to poverty, according to the Proverbs. Laziness leads to sin, though. If we're not waking up with purpose, waking up with things to do, with things to accomplish, then understand that we are in great danger. It has been said, I don't think too often that idleness is the devil's playground, but it is very true. It's very right. When we are idle in the things that we have to do, The devil is in the playground, and he can tempt us into all sorts of things. When we have things to do, when we get out of bed and we think, oh, I need to pray, I need to spend time with the Lord, and then I have many tasks which I need to accomplish, whatever they may be, Whether they be hammering nails at a work site, whether they be pounding on a computer, whether they be in a cubicle, whatever it may be, we need purpose. Whether it be studying, whether it be changing diapers, we need things to do. Because when we are able to just sit around and twiddle our thumbs We are so drawn in to Satan's ways. And he tempts you sexually. He tempts you sexually, especially in this age in which we live. This age in which we live, we have people around us whose very identity, so they think, is tied to their sexual preferences. To deny their sexual preferences is to deny their very being itself. That is what they get all animated. They are not affirmed the way they think that they should be affirmed. You see how pitiful this is. The identity is tied or something like that. Where is the Christian's identity, though? The Christian's identity is in their union with Jesus Christ. Indeed, we could say when someone asks us, who are you? Where do you work? Where were you born? These sorts of things. And we have all these identity markers as well. In a sense, we could think, I am where I work or I am what I do. I am my hobbies. We can almost fall into that same sort of thing or something similar to the way that the world thinks. Indeed, for a Christian, I am not where I was born. I am not where I work or what I do. I am one who has been united to Jesus Christ. I have been united to Him in a faith union. I am one who has died with Him. I am one who has been crucified with Him, buried with Him, and raised with Him. I am one who has been seated with him in heavenly places according to Ephesians 2.6. That's my identity. And that is a continual identity. It is not the passing things of this world, wonderful as they are, including sex. things are passing but the things that are not passing like our union with Christ these are continual and these are eternal but still satan would love to tempt you and does desire to tempt you sexually when you feel though you have been denied by someone else or by God himself that he desires. Satan desires to tempt you. He desires to tempt you with pride. He desires to tempt you and cause you to think that God does not care for you, that God does not love you. Satan goes to the Lord Jesus and says, if you are the son of god somebody lets out some temptations external temptations against the son of god well you might think well where's my identity i may not be the eternal son of god like jesus christ but you might have an understanding as the bible tells you that by faith union with Jesus Christ, I am adopted into that family. And therefore, I can say that I am a son of God. I am a daughter of God. Satan comes to you much as he did with the first Adam. Similar to the way he did with the second Adam, or did with the second Adam, so he does to you. If you are truly a son of God, If you are truly adopted into the family of God as his daughter, then why doesn't he give you what you desire? Why does he not give you the things that you think would glorify him the most? But you see, God plays our life. He gives what he gets when it is time to be given, when he sees fit. The Lord Jesus, he speaks to Peter and ultimately to you. He says in Matthew 26, 41, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit is indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Those are words that I've told many people. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Here is the apostle Peter. Here is the disciple. Oftentimes we're inclined to put these men on a pedestal and think, those are like the super Christians, the apostles. The Bible teaches us that they are men much like us. Susceptible to the sorts of temptations that we are. However, here's one who walks with Jesus. That's this something. That accounts for something, sure it must, right? He is walking with Jesus, and still he is told, is told, watch and pray. Some people might think, well, he's able to walk with Jesus. So he has things that we don't have. Therefore, he's a little bit stronger than us. No, no, if the Apostle Peter needs to be told to watch and pray, if he needs to be reminded to watch and pray, even though he is walking with the Lord Jesus, taught you not to watch and pray. Watch and pray that you not fall into temptation. Why? Because the spirit is willing. God knows that your spirit is willing. He knows that your flesh is free. Let me ask you this though. Does it make sense to spend your day Busy, busy, busy, all the time. So busy that you do not pray, and then you go to the Lord finally on the pillow and you say, now it's time that I pray. Indeed, it makes no sense. Indeed, as I've said in the previous sermon, so let me say again, let me remind you, those who are here, and those who weren't, please listen to this and hear this. Understand that one of the implications of the Lord's Prayer is that we ought to pray in the morning, not to discourage anyone from praying at night, but the Lord's Prayer itself implies that we ought to pray in the morning. How much sense does it say, or how much sense does it make, rather, to spend our lives the opposite of the idleness and the devil's playground they're being taken care of over here. But Satan would also tempt us to be so busy that prayer is a minor priority at best, or it is no priority at all. And then out of some maybe guilt or some desire, finally pray to God, and then to say, at the end of the day, give me this day my daily bread, and now keep me from temptation. That would make no sense, or very little sense. We begin the day with an acknowledgment that we are dependent on God even for our daily food, our daily bread, even if it's in the refrigerator, even if it's in the freezer, even if it's sitting on the counter, we would say, give me this day my daily bread before the day has truly begun. And similarly so, the day is new and we think of the things which will be presented before us The temptations to idleness, or the temptation to excessive busyness, that we're so busy that we forget about God. Temptations on both sides. And everything in between. We begin the day saying, this day leads me not into temptation. Lead me away from those things that would bring me into sin. Away from those things that Satan would love to get me entangled into. And if I should be found in temptation, Lord, draw me out of it. Help me out of it. Help me to have strong Holy Spirit, power to lead me from that which is contrary to me. May we not think that we can be strong in and of ourselves. 1 Corinthians 10, 12 says, wherefore, let him that thinketh, he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Isn't that amazing? stands up and says, no, no, I'm all right. I am not susceptible to this sin and that sin. And in his own power, in his prayerlessness, he says, I'm gonna be all right. He is in greater danger. He must behave lest he fall. The hope of the gospel, though, is not ultimately defeating of temptation. That's just a fruit of the gospel. Defeating temptation, defeating lust, and defeating sin. This is not the gospel itself. God gives the hope of the gospel to poor sinners, not only poor sinners who will enter into the fight against sin today and tomorrow, but also to those who have fallen weak to and succumbed to sin. Because we look at the law of God and we look at God's perfection and we think in many ways that we have fallen into sin. We have seen the external temptation, and our own lusts have been brought in by these things, then that lust has given way to sin. And we think, who am I? Who am I to even be loved by God? Who am I to be considered by him? And I say to God, what is man? And what am I? That you would be mindful of man, that you would be mindful of me. But that is the beauty of the gospel. That Jesus did not come for the healthy, as if there were any. He came for the sick. He came for the needy. He did not come for the strong, He came for the weak, that He might magnify and glorify the love and grace of the triune God. Jesus Christ comes into this world. He comes into this world to suffer and die for a people. People who have succumbed to temptation, who have given in to that weakness. Those who have sinned against God. Comes to those who have been deceived by Satan like Eve. He comes even to save those who have sinned, who have been culpable, all the while knowing what God's righteousness demanded. Like the first Adam. The second Adam. not only gives His perfect death for the people of God, but He gives His life as well. You would not be full, you would not have the fullness of the righteousness of Christ if you would just have the suffering of the Son of God and His death imputed to you. You must have righteousness of his law-keeping and the righteousness of his conquering temptations. And therefore we would say that Satan sought to catch the Lord Jesus in temptations. In Matthew chapter 4 Jesus had been fasting for 40 days. Talk about physical weakness. Now understand that Jesus, having done that, was in the opening chapters of Matthew, especially, he is replaying the Exodus narrative. He's replaying the Exodus narrative. Out of Egypt I called my son. There is a Pharaoh who kills children. There's a Herod who kills children. He is baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist to repeat or recapitulate the fact that the children of Israel go through the Red Sea. He's redoing this. This is 40 days to account for the 40 years of wilderness wandering. And of course, he sees the way that the children of Israel in the wilderness succumb. They fell into sin and he is seeking to conquer and to succeed where they failed. So the devil comes and he says, turn these stones into bread. Just as the people who wrought in the wilderness had complained about food and then manna or bread comes from heaven. They complain about that and he gives them meat to eat. But the point is this, the weakness and the sin had to do with food and God's allegedly not providing what was needed or wanted in a Satan as he had been successful there, seeking to be successful against the Son of God after his 40 days. And he goes and had that failing, he says, he takes Jesus to a very high place and he says, cast thyself down and I'll catch you. The angels will catch you. God will not even, he uses a song, God will not even Allow your foot to be hard. Why do you think Satan is concerned about Jesus' foot? He's concerned about Jesus' foot because that's Satan's ultimate concern. Because the promise of the gospel in Genesis chapter 3 is that the seed of the woman, Jesus, is going to bruise the head of the seed of the serpent. And Jesus says, we've not tempted the Lord our God. That was what the people of Israel in the wilderness did. And then he says, okay, how about this? Here are all of the kingdoms of this world, Satan says. Well, if you'll but fall down and worship me, I'll give them all to you. of what was another one of the major problems in the wilderness. It was idolatry. They worshiped a golden calf and imputed all the things that God had done to the golden calf. What we're seeing in the life of Jesus, again, is the replaying of the book of Exodus. truly remarkable, truly beautiful when you consider it. Let me just say, some people, they do not have ears to hear these kinds of things, subtle nuances, things in the Word of God. I can say this as a slightly colorblind person. Some people do not have the ability to see, even in the Word of God, the shades of color meaning. that God gives a man a tolerance for this. I stand back and look at the way that the Bible has been put together so perfectly and so carefully. So many things are expanded upon later. What does this all teach us, though? Is this just like intellectual parlor games? No, it's here to show us that Jesus is the new Israel. He is the true Hebrew, the ultimate son of Abraham, son of Isaac and Jacob. Where the first Adam fails, and where Israel, the son of God as Israel is called, fails, here the son of God, the end times son of God, The eschatological Son of God, Jesus Christ, succeeds, and it is glorious. So we see this one who has succeeded. He has done perfectly in all of his law-keeping. He has done perfectly in all of his fighting off of temptations. He has been tempted externally, but he has not succumbed. internally and he defeats Satan on that day in Matthew chapter four with the word of God. Isn't it remarkable? He, he, he, he declares Deuteronomy. He, he conquers with Deuteronomy of all things. He puts Satan in his place and he is preparing Satan in that. for the time when the foot of the Lord Jesus will be placed upon the head of the serpent. But of course we know that Jesus, in placing his foot upon the head of the serpent, is bruised, or we could say even pierced itself. So that we see on the cross that the Son of God is conquering Satan, But we would also see that the Son of God is being pierced by this, the one who sought to do Him wrong. But it was ultimately the Father who was unleashing the wrath of God upon the Son, that we might be right with Him. So that God might impute to you and to me, not just Jesus in his perfect life, but also Jesus in his atoning death. Romans 5.8 says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. What was the purpose of this? So that we might be found righteous. So that we might be found to be right with God. Romans 519, I close with this. For as many as by one man's disobedience, that is Adam, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. How are you righteous? You are righteous by the obedience of the Son that has obeyed the law of God and repeats that to you. And he obeyed by going to the cross and suffering for you, to atone for you that you might be washed from your sin. The glorious obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. which excels and undoes the disobedience of the first Adam and also does far better and far greater than the disobedience of Israel, the son of God. Thank you for tuning in. Please review our Facebook and YouTube pages for further teachings. We pray you will join us next week. If you are interested in or have questions about visiting us in person, please contact us at secretary at wrpc at gmail.com. Thank you.