Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Lead Us Not Into Temptation
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 17, 1863, BY THE REV. C. H.
SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Matthew 6:13.
Psalms are entitled "Songs of Degrees." Certainly the prayer before us
might be called a Prayer of Degrees. It begins where all true prayer
must commence, with the spirit of adoption, "Our Father." There is no
acceptable prayer until we can say with the prodigal–"I will arise and
go unto my Father." This child-like spirit soon perceives the grandeur
of the Father "in Heaven," and ascends to devout adoration, "Hallowed
be Your name." The child who lisps, "Abba Father," grows into the
cherub, crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy."
Then there is but a step from rapturous worship to the glowing
missionary spirit, which is a sure outgrowth of filial love and
reverent adoration–"Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as
it is in Heaven." We do not commence our spiritual career with this
mission spirit. We begin with "Our Father." We go on to feel His Glory,
and then the next natural desire is that others may behold His
greatness, too, till we are ready to cry with the Psalmist, "Let the
whole earth be filled with His Glory."
In the process of education, which this prayer so well describes, we
find the man very early conscious of his dependence upon God. For as a
dependent creature he cries, "Give us this day our daily bread." Being
further illuminated by the Spirit, he discovers that he is not only
dependent, but sinful, therefore he entreats for mercy. "Forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors," and being pardoned, having the
righteousness of Christ imputed, and knowing his acceptance with God,
he humbly supplicates for holy perseverance, "Lead us not into
temptation."
The man who is really forgiven is anxious not to offend again. The
possession of justification leads to an anxious desire for
sanctification. "Forgive us our debts," that is justification. "Lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," that is sanctification
in its negative and positive forms. Now, it would not be the course of
nature to begin a life of prayer with the supplication of this morning.
This is a petition for men already pardoned, for those who know their
adoption, for those who love the Lord and desire to see His kingdom
come. Taught of the Spirit to know their pardon, adoption, and union to
Jesus, they can cry, and they, alone–"Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil."
I shall this morning, first of all, anticipate an objection. Then I
shall venture upon an exposition. And conclude with an exhortation.
I. First let us ANTICIPATE AN OBJECTION. A great many persons have been
troubled by that passage in James, where it is expressly said, "Let no
man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man." It has been found very
difficult to reconcile that express declaration of the Apostle with
this prayer of our Savior. And some good, but very ignorant men, have
gone the length of altering our Lord's words. I have heard of one who
was custom always to say, "Leave us not in temptation"–a most
unwarrantable and unjustifiable alteration of Holy Scripture.
Because sometimes a learned minister ventures, in all honesty and
discretion, to give a more correct translation of the original–can
this justify a foolish unlettered man in altering the original, itself,
and perverting the sense of a passage? There is an end to Scripture
altogether, if license is given to alter its teachings according to our
will. To teach perfect Wisdom how to speak is too great a task to be
ventured upon by any but the presumptuous and foolish. When our version
is incorrect, then it is a duty to present the proper rendering, if one
is able to find it out. But to give translations out of our whimsical
heads, without having been taught in the original tongue is
impertinence, indeed!
There can be no better translation of the Greek than that which we have
before us. The Greek does not say, "Leave us not in temptation," nor
anything like it. It says, as nearly as English language can convey the
meaning of the original, "Lead us not into temptation," and no sort of
pinching, twisting, or wresting can make this prayer convey any other
sense than that which our version conveys in so many words. Let us
always be afraid of attempting improvements on God's perfect Word. And
when our theories will not stand with Divinely revealed Truth, let us
alter our theories, but let us never attempt for one single moment to
put one Word of God out of its place.
Neither can we get out of the difficulty by supposing that the word
"temptation" does not mean "temptation," but must be restricted to the
sense of "trial." Now, we grant at once that the use of the word
"temptation" in our translation of Scripture is somewhat liable to
mislead. The word temptation has two meanings–to try, and to entice.
When we read that God did tempt Abraham, we are by no means to
understand that He enticed Abraham to anything that was evil. The
meaning of the word in that place, doubtless, is simply and only that
God tried him.
But permit me to say that this interpretation will not stand with this
particular text now before us. The word here used for "temptation," is
not the word constantly written when trial is meant. It is the very
word which one would employ if temptation to sin were intended–and I
cannot believe that any other translation can meet the case.
Doddridge's paraphrase is a happy one–"Do not bring us into
circumstances of pressing temptation lest our virtue should be
vanquished, and our souls endangered by them. But if we must be thus
tried, do You graciously rescue us from the power of the Evil One."
I grant you that the word includes trial, as all temptation does, for
all temptation, even if it is temptation from Satan, is, in fact, trial
from God. Still there is more than trial in the text, and you must look
at it just as it stands. As Al-ford, says, "The leading into temptation
must be understood in its plain literal sense." Take the text just as
you find it. It means literally and truly, without any variance, "Lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
"Well," says one, "if God does not tempt men, how can it be proper to
pray, "Lead us not into temptation"? Dear Brothers and Sisters, do but
notice the text does not say, "Tempt us not." If it did, then there
would be a difficulty! It does not say, "Lord, tempt us not," but it
says, "Lead us not into temptation." I think I shall very rapidly be
able to show you that there is a vast difference between leading into
temptation and actually tempting. God tempts no man. For God to tempt,
in the sense of enticing to sin, would be inconsistent with His Nature
and altogether contrary to His known Character.
But for God to lead us into those conflicts with evil which we call
temptations, is not only possible, but usual. Full often the Great
Captain of Salvation leads us by His Providence to battlefields where
we must face the full array of evil– and conquer through the blood of
the Lamb. This leading into temptation is by Divine Grace overruled for
our good, since, by being tempted we grow strong in Grace and patience.
Our God and Partner may–for wise ends, which shall ultimately serve
His own Glory, and our profit–lead us into positions where Satan, the
world, and the flesh may tempt us. And so the prayer is to be
understood in that sense of a humble self-distrust which shrinks from
the conflict.
There is courage here, for the suppliant calmly looks the temptation in
the face and dreads only the evil which it may work in him. But there
is also a holy fear, a sacred self-suspicion, a dread of contact with
sin in any degree. The sentiment is not inconsistent with, "all joy,"
when the many different temptations do come. It is akin to the
Savior's, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me," which did not
for a moment prevent His drinking the cup, even to its dregs.
Let me observe that God, in no sense, so leads men into temptation as
to have any share in the blame of their sin if they fall into it. God
cannot possibly, by any act of His, become partner with man in his
crime. As good old Trapp well observes, "God tempts men for PROBATION,
but never for PERDITION." The devil tempts men that he may ruin
them–God tries men and puts them where Satan may try them–but He
leads them into temptation for probation, that the chaff may be sifted
from the wheat, that the dross may be separated from the fine gold.
By these trials, hypocrites fall, being discovered in the hour of
temptation, just as the rough March wind sweeps through the forest, and
finding out the rotten boughs, snaps them from the tree–the fault
being not in the wind–but in the decayed branch. James alludes to the
actual solicitation to evil in which the most holy God can have no
part, but our text deals with the Providential bringing about of the
temptation which I think you can clearly see may be the Lord's work
without His holiness in any degree being stained.
When the Lord leads us into temptation, it is always with a design for
our good. He leads us to battle, not that we may be wounded and
defeated, but that we may win glorious victories which shall crown the
head of our gracious Leader with many crowns, and prepare us for future
deeds of valor. Temptations overcome are inestimable blessings, because
they make us lie the more humbly at His feet, bind us more firmly to
our Lord, and train us to help others. Tempted men can lift up the
hands that hang down, and confirm the feeble knees. They have been
tempted in the same manner, and can therefore succor their Brothers and
Sisters.
Yet, while the benefit which God brings out of our being led into
temptation is very great, still, temptation in itself is a thing very
dangerous. Trials and distress, in themselves, are so perilous, that it
is right for the Christian to pray, "Lead us not into temptation."
Though, as Martin Luther says, "Temptation is the best school into
which the Christian can enter. Yet, in itself, apart from the Grace of
God, it is so doubly hazardous. This prayer should be offered every
day, 'Lead us not into temptation.' Or if we must enter into it, 'Lord,
deliver us from evil.' "
I do not know whether I have met the objection. Perhaps, in the
exposition that is to follow I may be able to make it a little more
clear. I wish to say that although God does not tempt men–that is
affirmed in Scripture and reason–and by God's own Character–though
all prove it to be fact, yet He may, and certainly does, lead us into
positions in His Providence, where it is absolutely certain that we
shall be tempted. And therefore, our consciousness of weakness should
constrain us to plead for escape from the terrible contest–and
deliverance out of it–if come, it must.
II. LET US NOW EXPOUND THE TEXT. Possibly we may get at the meaning of
the text better by supposing that we have just risen from our beds this
morning. We are about to engage in prayer. Before we do so we endeavor
to prepare our hearts for that hallowed exercise. We look back upon
yesterday. We remember all our follies, our mistakes and sins. We feel
deeply grieved. We are conscious that we are, this morning, just as
weak as we were yesterday.
We feel that if temptation assails us we shall as surely fall into sin
as we did on the past day. We have gathered some experience, but we
find we are still as weak as water, and that while the will to be holy
is present with us, how to perform that which is good, we find not. At
the same time we have an intense abhorrence of sin–we feel in our own
hearts that we would sooner die than offend our God–we can contemplate
sorrow with pleasure, but sin only with horror. We feel afraid to
venture downstairs. We fear that temptations may await us in the
family, and in business. We feel, therefore, constrained to pray.
We know that there is the temptation of the theater and the music hall,
but Divine Grace has made us resolute not to go there, for we feel we
could not honestly ask God to preserve us from that temptation if we
ran into it ourselves. There are our besetting sins, but being aware of
them, we cry to God for help against them. But the black thought comes
across our mind–"You do not know what is to happen today. You cannot
tell what loss you may have to suffer. You do not know what trouble you
may meet with, what rough word may be spoken to you. Your ship is on
the sea, but you know not what rough waves will beat against it–there
are sunken rocks and hidden quicksand–what if you should be wrecked on
these?"
You feel that you are about to follow the course of Divine Providence,
that whatever happens to you will be according to your Father's will,
and you put up this prayer, "Lord, You are to lead me this day. I would
follow close to Your footsteps as a sheep follows its shepherd. But
since I know not what is to happen to me, suffer me to ask one thing of
You. Do not, I pray You, lead me away from sorrow or trouble–do as You
will about that, O my Lord–but do not, I beseech You, lead me in Your
Providence where I shall be tempted. For I am so feeble that, perhaps,
the temptation may be too strong for me. Therefore, this day make a
straight path for my feet, and suffer me not to be assailed by the
Tempter.
"Or if it must be, if it is better for me to be tempted, and if You do
intend this day that I should fight with old Apol-lyon himself, then
deliver me from evil. Oh, save me from the mischief of the temptation.
Let me have the temptation if so it must be, but oh, let it do me no
hurt. Let me not stain my garments. Let me not slip nor slide, but may
I stand fast at the end of the day. May this temptation, though it be
not joyous but grievous, have so worked out in me the comfortable
fruits of righteousness, that it may be a part of that grand method by
which You shall ultimately deliver me from all evil and make me
perfectly like Yourself in Glory everlasting." That, I believe, is the
meaning of the prayer.
Possibly we should bring it out more clearly by taking several cases in
which the Lord providentially leads men into temptation. There is
poverty. No one will deny that poverty is, in many cases, directly an
infliction from God. There are some, who by their indolence and
debauchery, bring themselves low, but who pities them? But there are
others who by the loss of parents are left orphans. Others who can
never rise from the helpless penury of their first estate. God alone
knows the mass of poverty in this city. We talk about the distress in
Lancashire, and to some degree, I fear, Christian liberality has been
diverted from London.
But to my knowledge there is much distress in many of the streets of
this huge city. Some of you ride through our fine wide streets, which
are a sort of ornamental fringe upon the skirts of poverty, and you
know nothing about those narrow back streets–those blind alleys and
those courts inside of courts–where poverty is huddled together, and
where too often sin, lust, and disease become its natural consequences.
When a gracious man is brought very low in circumstances, it is God's
act, an act of God which leads that man into temptation. For poverty
necessarily has its temptations which you cannot possibly dissociate
from it.
Look at you poor needle girl–Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!–till the fingers
are worn to the bone, till her eyes are red, and her heart weary. All
that she can earn is hardly enough to keep body and soul together,
while her clothes hang in rags about her. Do you know how stern is that
temptation when a fallen sister whispers to her that there is money to
be had so easily, and paints the gainful sin in flashing colors? What
arguments can the Tempter find in that bare room, and empty cupboard,
and thin slice of dry bread–and perhaps in a starving mother dying on
a few rags in the corner. If throughout life we have been preserved
from the contamination of vice, and feel at all inclined to exalt
ourselves in our virtue, let us remember what we might have been had we
been exposed to the same fierce solicitations. And let us pray for
ourselves, and for all our Brothers and Sisters, "Lead us not into that
temptation."
Circumstances alter cases. Oh, my dear young Friends, I pray that no
terrible circumstances may ever be able to alter you, but may the Lord
who tries you, deliver you from evil. Sometimes the temptations of
poverty appear in another form. A man finds that his trade does not pay
him. He works hard, but he gets poorer and poorer. What few goods he
had in the shop are decreasing. The stock gets lower. The children are
crying for bread–his wife, perhaps, is an ungodly woman–and she tells
him there is trade to be had on the Sunday, and if he will but open his
shop he will prosper. She says everybody else in the street does it,
and all the neighbors call him a fool for putting the shutters up.
Oh, I admire that noble-heartedness which I have seen in some of you!
It has made me look upon you with greater pride than ever prince did on
his jewels, when you have said–"I can starve, but I cannot sin against
my God." But when, to my grief, some professors yield to the
suggestion, I cannot, and do not marvel. I can only pray for the
steadfast and pray for myself–"Lord, lead me not into this
temptation," for if a starving wife, wailing children, and a sickly
infant are crying in our ears, who knows how soon we might betake
ourselves to any means so as to satisfy their wants? Happy are they who
have come through this temptation, and have been delivered from the
evil of it! But happier far are they who have never been led into it.
"Give me neither poverty nor riches," was the good prayer of Agur. And
you that have never known poverty, and have never understood what
shortness of bread means, pray this prayer this morning for yourselves
and for all your Brothers and Sisters in this Church, "Lead us not into
temptation."
The Lord frequently leads His people into temptation from wicked men in
the form of persecution. It often happens that in the course of
Providence, for the wisest possible ends, a good man is put to labor
where he finds no godly associates, but where his name is the theme of
laughter. God is sometimes pleased to convert the woman while her
husband remains unconverted, and perhaps he is opposed to her religion
and will insist upon it that his wife shall not carry out her
convictions. Now, in cases like this, God has manifestly put His people
in a position where they are constantly tempted with the fear of men.
This temptation is inevitably connected with persecution–a temptation
to be ashamed of Christ, to hide one's face, to hold one's tongue when
one should speak, to run down one's colors when they ought to be waved
to the breeze–and like Peter, to deny our Lord.
When some young man has been, to use a common expression, chaffed day
after day, day after day, these cruel ridi-culings are a great deal
harder to bear than a lash upon the back. Oh, it is a grand thing if a
man can go through this, can endure the slow roasting alive year after
year, and yet is delivered from evil. But, dear Brothers and Sisters, I
think you and I may well pray, "Lead us not into temptation," for I
fear there are some of you who are like the nautilus which, when the
Mediterranean is all calm and quiet, floats in a gallant fleet upon the
surface. But as soon as ever the rough waves come and the Euroclydon
begins to blow, every nautilus draws in its tiny sail and drops to
quiet obscurity in the bottom of the sea. There are many such
professors, who, while everything goes smooth, float gloriously with
us–but if rough times should come, they would be all unknown and
unheard of.
Many there are, I fear, who walk with Religion in her silver slippers,
who might desert her if she had to go barefooted and ragged through the
street, having no place to rest–her only destiny being the prison and
the flames. We may pray, as we read the stories of martyrdom, or as we
look upon some Brothers and Sisters in Church fellowship with us who
have to be laughed at day by day, "Lord, lead us not into temptation,
or if You do, be pleased to deliver us from evil." I have merely
commenced the catalogue. Have patience with me while I mention the
daily adversities to which we are heirs.
Some of us fret and think that the Lord deals harshly with us. Let us
mend our tune. What a world of mercy God gives to us compared with what
others receive! I hear sometimes of a Believer who has lost a ship, or
a horse, or has sustained a very serious loss with a dishonored bill,
or a bad debt–or another of you is out of work for a week, or else
your little ones are ill. Well, I pity you all for these trials, but
after all, what little trials these are compared with what some endure!
Take the case of Job–house and children, land and servants, and
cattle–all swept away at a stroke–and his own body covered with sore
boils. Did not the Lord lead him into temptation, and was it not a
marvel, indeed, that Job did not go even further than cursing the day
of his birth? Was it not a wonder that he did not yield to his wife's
suggestion and curse God and die?
Surely, Brothers and Sisters, when we see the way in which some saints
have met bereavement after bereavement– the holy courage with which
others have sustained loss after loss. When we have marked the heroic
resignation with which some have borne all the "ills which flesh is
heir to"–and suffered in head and hand, and passed through painful
surgical operations which have well near brought them to the jaws of
the grave. When we note all this, we may well wonder how it is that
they have been delivered from the evil of so much adversity, and we may
with holy trembling, exclaim, "Lead us not into temptation." How
impatient you and I might have been if we had been sorely sick, or
bedridden for years.
What hard things we might have thought of our God if He had swept all
our estate away. How bitterly we might have spoken of His goodness if
our husband were in a consumption, or if our wife were in the tomb. Our
little ones are round about us and we hear their happy and cheerful
voices. But oh, what a temptation to distrust God it would have been,
if He had taken them away. Lord, do not so try us! Send not such
adversities upon us as to lead us into temptation. But if You do this,
be pleased to hold us up in the rough road, lest we fall into evil.
To change the line of thought a moment. There are not only the
temptations arising from poverty, from shame, and from trouble, but you
know, Beloved, that by far, more dangerous temptations come from
prosperity. You sometimes envy the very rich. You think of them as
having more money than they can count, and broad acres, and parks, and
lands so extensive that they hardly know their own boundaries. If you
understood the temptations which beset their life. If you knew how hard
it is to serve God and be rich–how difficult, especially, to be a
courtier and at the same time a servant of the living God–you would
not aspire to so lofty a station, but you would say, "Lead us not into
temptation."
Temptation must be incessant to the man who only has to wish and can
enjoy what he wills. Many men are kept from sin by being poor. Their
poverty is a clog to them. But when a man has strong appetites, and has
no person to rebuke him–and has, moreover, all the means in his own
hand of running into sin–we may well cry, "Lord, do not try me in that
way." Perhaps you are very anxious to attain a prominent position in
the Church. You may think, for instance, that to be a preacher,
well-known and listened to by hundreds, is a very enviable position. It
is about as enviable as the position of Blondin upon his high rope a
hundred and fifty feet from the ground. If you knew the temptations
which beset a man who lives in popularity and has constantly to preach
the Word to thronging multitudes, you would say, "Lead me not into
temptation, and if it is Your will that I must rise to that position,
then deliver me from evil."
Let me assure you, that high places and high Grace do seldom meet
together. And that even in the Church any position of eminence is
counterbalanced in the pleasure which it brings by the extreme danger
to which it exposes its occupant. Long not to be too prosperous! Thank
God for bad winds. Bless God for a little blight and mildew–yes, and
be content to bless Him even if the fig tree should not blossom–and
the flocks should be cut off from the field, and the herds from the
stall. For any trial in the world is better than unbroken prosperity,
concerning which you may well pray, "Lead us not into that temptation."
Now you may see that the list is endless. If prosperity, honor, and
esteem may breed in us worldliness, self-conceit, forgetfulness of God,
reliance upon our own strength, and a departure from simple confidence
in Him that made us what we are, then there must be trials everywhere.
But I think I ought to add that, frequently, God leads men into
temptation in the service which He requires of them. "Stop," you say,
"how can that be? When God prescribes a duty, how can that lead man
into temptation?"
I reply that to know duty is often in itself to be tempted not to do
it. And that when that duty is high and stern, and demands of us severe
self-denial and earnest perseverance, we may be tempted to shun the
engagement. Take the instance of Jonah. He is sent to Nineveh. His
prophetic soul forewarns him that the mission will not be to his honor.
He objects to go and attempts to fly to Tarshish to escape the mission
of his God. Now, such a temptation is not so rare as some suppose. You
think, "I can never face that multitude again." You have to deal,
perhaps, with cruel tongues in a Church meeting and you think, "I can
never fight that battle through."
You have been preaching in the street and the whisper comes–"Never do
that again. Never expose yourself to the insults of the passerby." You
have been teaching in a Sunday school and you may be led into this
temptation–"Give it up. It is of no use. The children will never be
blessed." You may have been a tract distributor You may have attempted
to go from house to house to speak for God and the temptation may have
been hot upon you–"Cease from it. There's no need for you to do it."
Your very duty has led you into temptation.
Brethren, pray to God against it. Ask Him that the duty required of you
may always be such as your strength shall enable you to perform–that
you may go to His Throne daily and get such help that your arms may be
sufficient for you. If not, even in the highest form of spiritual
service you may be led into temptation. What if I add to this that God
may demand sacrifices of us which lead us into temptation? Look at
Abraham. "Take you your son, your only son Isaac, and offer him up upon
the place that I will show you." I overheard a mother say, "I love my
son so much, and he is such a comfort to me, that I could not give him
up." One observed to her that she should not talk so, for the Christian
ought to stand to the surrender every hour, and be willing to give up
child, or husband, or friend at Christ's bidding.
But her answer was, and it was a true one, "I could not do it. It is of
no use my pretending that I could. I could not do it, and I am
persuaded that if God should command me to give him up–He might take
him away, and I would submit to it–but if I had to give him up
voluntarily, I could not do it. It is no use in my saying I could."
Then I suggested that therefore she ought always to pray that God would
not try her that way, but that He would be pleased to spare her the
sacrifice which she could not make–that in fact, He would not lead her
into temptation, or if He did, would give her so much Divine Grace that
she would not be tempted to rebel, but might give up her son, though he
were to her as her own soul.
Oh, dear Friends, there are many trials we talk about, and think we
could bear! But if they were once to assail us, we might find it very
difficult to do so. It is easy to be a sailor on shore, and to laugh at
the winds when you are snug in your beds. It is all very well to sing
of the waves and shout for–
"The flag that braved a thousand years The battle and the breeze," but
the battle and the breeze are very different things from what the song
would make them out to be, and we had better, I think, while we are
free from the trial, unanimously pray this prayer–"Lead us not into
temptation."
I want you to notice that word "us," for selfishness will dictate you
to pray this prayer for yourselves. But we are more than two thousand
strong, a great army for God united in Church fellowship. And you know
there are many young added to the Church, though a large proportion of
the aged also come–more, perhaps, than in any other congregation.
Remember our young members, our young men and women, who are very
greatly exposed. I charge you, elders of the Church. I charge you,
seniors in the faith. I charge you, mothers in Israel, that you offer
this prayer today and every day:
"Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Lord,
temper the wind to the shorn lamb. Put not the little boat upon the
rough billows. Send not Your little ones to stern battles. And, Lord,
since we are all weak, old as well as young–since the gray locks cover
no more wisdom than the child's curls, except as You give wisdom–so
keep all the Church, and lead neither pastor, nor officers, nor members
into temptation. But if we must be led there, we take up the latter
sentence, and pray it still more passionately, 'Deliver us from evil.'
"
I have heard of a poor pitman, who after being converted to God, had a
great dread of falling into sin. One morning, after having endured much
scorn, mockery, blasphemy, swearing, and ill-treatment from his fellow
colliers, before he went down into the pit, knelt down and prayed that
God would sooner let him die than fall into sin. He cried, "Lord, let
me die sooner than fall into sin," and he did die there and then–happy
thus to be taken up where he should no more know the annoyance of trial
from without, or temptation from within.
III. We close our discourse with A BRIEF EXHORTATION. I exhort you to
pray this prayer very earnestly, dear Friends, and I bid you do it for
several reasons.
First, remember your own heart. A man who carries gunpowder about with
him may well ask that he may not be led where the sparks are flying. If
I have a heart like a bombshell, ready to explode at any moment, I may
well pray God that I may be kept from the fire, lest my heart destroy
me. Perhaps you have angry tempers, constitutionally so. Some men still
remain hot and quick–some of our Welsh friends, always so. Such should
pray every day that they may not be tempted by any jeering words. That
they may be kept calm and quiet, and not be led into irritation. We
have each besetting sins of some sort or another, and I do not know
that the temptation to be hot and quick in temper is anything so bad as
that to be dull and lumpy and stupid.
Generally speaking, a man who has not some temper in him, is not worth
much. And those who, as we sometimes say, are as easy as an old shoe,
are not often worth more than that worn out article. We may have
temptations, however, of another kind, and just there we should put up
our prayer with great earnestness and intense passion, exclaiming,
"Lord, lead me not into that temptation." There is a weak point in each
of us. And remember, the strength of a rope is to be measured, not
according to its strength in its strongest, but its weakest part. Every
engineer will tell you that the strength of a ship should always be
estimated, not according to her strongest, but her weakest part–for if
the strain shall come on her weakest part, and that is broken, no
matter how strong the rest may be, the whole ship goes down.
Now, I say there is a weak point in every man. Indeed, where is there a
point where we are not weak? Show me where our strength lies. It lies,
surely, nowhere here, but only there in Him who makes us strong to do
exploits in His name. Therefore, because of weakness and inclination to
sin, let each man pray, and pray constantly, "Lead us not into
temptation."
To use another argument, how many have fallen who were led into
temptation! Think of them, not to congratulate yourselves, nor yet to
blame them, but to take warning. When cases of discipline come before
the Church, I have thought how gently we ought to deal, for had we been
put where these Brothers and Sisters have been, our fall might have
been even more desperate than theirs. I have often grieved when a
Brother has lost his temper, and then I have thought, "Well, I cannot
accuse, but I must not judge uncharitably. For if I had been teased one
half as much as he has been, I might have been worse than he."
When I see another man shipwrecked, I should mind that I carefully
navigate my own boat. When I see another who has caught a contagious
disease, I should be careful not to go into those quarters where that
disease is the most virulent, lest I catch it, too. And if I know that
there is a great disinfectant, a heavenly remedy by which contagion may
be stopped, how ought I to use it. That remedy is PRAYER, and the
precise prayer is in the text–"Lead me not into temptation, but
deliver me from evil, lest I fall as others have done and become weak
and vile as they."
Remember to pray this prayer, because should we fall under temptation,
how great will be our misery. A certain high Antinomian said, one day,
that if a Christian fell into sin, he lost nothing by it except–what
do you think he said? Except his comfort, and his communion with God! I
suppose he thought the Christian's comfort and his communion with God
were a drop in a bucket! But he that has once lost his comfort, and his
communion with God will tell you quite another tale! Oh, to lose your
comfort, to have to groan out with David, "Make the bones which you
have broken to rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out mine
iniquities!" Pray that Penitential Psalm over and you will soon
discover that sin is the father of Sorrow, and that a saint cannot slip
without much damage to himself.
I have marked, and marked carefully, those Brothers and Sisters who
have backslidden and fallen into sin, and have afterwards been
restored. And though I have rejoiced in their restoration, yet I never
can help noticing how different they are from what they used to be. So
quiet now–so sad in appearance, too. And though, perhaps, better men
than ever they were, yet the joy of God is gone. The spring has gone
out of their souls! They cannot dance with David before the ark now!
You never find David dancing after his sin with Bathsheba. Not he.
There was no dance in him after that! He limped to the day of his
death. Take care, man–if you would not make for yourself a garment of
sorrows, if you would not stuff the pillow of your bed with thorns, and
be perpetually wearing chains–take care that you pray to God to lead
you not into temptation.
Worse remains. Recollect what mischief a Christian's fall will do. A
thousand Believers live in holiness, and nobody says anything about
them. But if one of them shall fall into sin, the whole world rings
with it. I know not why it should be, but if they can but find one bad
fish in our net, they hawk it all round the town in four-and-twenty
hours. "See here," they say, "here is one of the people that go to hear
Spurgeon! Here is one of your professors! Here is one of your Baptists!
Here is one of your Methodists!" or something of that kind. Why do they
not look at the nine hundred and ninety-nine who stood fast? Why do
they not talk of those who serve their Lord well, and are found
faithful even to the end?
But that, indeed, would not answer their purpose. Brethren, would you
fill the mouths of the daughters of Philistia? Would you make the
children of Gath and Askelon rejoice? Would you see the banner of Hell
floating proudly in the breeze, and the escutcheon of our glorious
Christ trailing in the mire? Would you grieve the Spirit? Would you
open the wounds of Christ afresh? Would you put Him and His fair
Spouse, the Church, to an open shame? If you would, then be slack in
your prayers. But if you would not, if you would adorn the doctrine of
God your Savior in all things. If you would win jewels for Christ's
crown. If you would make men wonder at Him, and at you, because you
have been with Him, then pray this prayer–"Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil."
I cannot tell why it is that this text should come on this particular
Sunday, but it is very likely that your life this week will let you
into the secret of it. Thus says the Lord unto some of you, "This week
I will sift you and try you." Pray that you enter not into temptation.
Christ pleads for you, for Satan has desired to have some of you, that
he may sift you as wheat. Join your prayers with Christ's supplications
that your faith fail not. I cannot tell, I am no Prophet, but I feel a
call to warn you to watchfulness. There may happen something that may
make us bless God for this warning note. We are forearmed because we
are forewarned. We are able to put our helmet on in time, to gird on
our breastplate and our shoes of brass, and to put our hand upon our
sword. For the battle is coming, and the Lord has sounded the trumpet
and bids us cry–"Lead us not into temptation."
This prayer will not suit some of you. You need not be led into
temptation, for you live in it already. A man might pray to be kept out
of the water, but a fish cannot, for it lives in it. Even so, you whose
native element is sin, cannot pray, "lead us not into temptation."
There is another prayer for you to pray before you get to this, and
that is, "Forgive us our trespasses." Pray that today, and then you
shall pray this tomorrow. Your sins are accusing you before God today.
Your trespasses are clamoring at the Mercy Seat. I hear their cry. They
are crying "Justice! Justice! Justice! Lord, smite that man! Lord,
smite that man!"
With hoarse voices they cry aloud, "Let him be lost! Let him be cast
away!" While your sin clamors against you, will you not pray for mercy?
Mercy is ready to hear you. The Throne of Grace is easily accessed.
Come before God and say, "O Lord! I know that Jesus died and took upon
Himself the sins of all those that trust Him. I trust Him. For His
sake, Lord, forgive my trespasses, and let my debt be blotted out by
His blood." He will hear you, Sinner, and before you go out of yonder
doors your sins may be forgiven, and you may be white in Christ's
righteousness, and spotless as the newly fallen snow. After that, then,
use my text and pray to Him who is able to keep you from falling, "Lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."