Introduction
This morning, we’ll be wrapping up our study through the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer that Jesus taught to his followers. This prayer demonstrates how we should relate to Our Father in heaven – not just by giving us words to recite, but by giving direction to our hearts, in what we should be prioritizing and longing for. Today, as we close this series, we’ll focus our attention on the contents of verse 13, regarding temptation, evil, and the glory of God. So I’d invite you to open your Bibles with me, and I’ll read the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew, Chapter 6. I’ll read the whole prayer, including the traditional ending to the prayer which the ESV has placed in a footnote at the bottom of the page – Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 9 through 13.

But before I read the text, please pray with me:

[Pray / Read Text]
Spiritual Disease and a Desire for Fruitfulness
Some of you may know that there was a time that I studied plant pathology at Michigan State University – I studied plant diseases. We often don’t give much thought to how plants can get sick and die – but it’s a real problem. And for farmers, it can be devastating if they have a breakout of certain diseases in their fields. Even if the plants aren’t outright killed, sometimes yields can be reduced by 25%, 50%, 90% – and for many farmers, the lack of fruitfulness from their crops is very costly.

And so farmers are highly motivated to do what they can to prevent diseases, and to monitor their fields so they can take steps to protect their crops if disease symptoms start to appear. Because they want to make sure they get a good harvest.

In a similar sense, Jesus wants his followers to be like good farmers. He wants them to understand the threat, not of plant diseases, but of spiritual diseases. We can’t allow evil to flourish and spread like a pathogen throughout the field of our hearts. If we really care about our relationship with God, Our Father, we will be concerned about temptation and sin. We’ll pray against wickedness – and take steps to eradicate it.

So far in our text, Jesus has drawn our attention to the kingdom, the power, and the glory of God. We’ve been taught to pray that His kingdom would come and his will would be done. We’ve been taught to rely on His power – by depending on him for our daily bread, and for the forgiveness of our sins. We’ve been taught to esteem his glory, by embracing Him as our Father in heaven, and by praying for His name to hallowed, and set apart as sacred.

And now here at the end of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus further encourages us to live in light of God’s glory. He trains us to pray against spiritual disease in our hearts, in order to safeguard a fruitful relationship with Our Father. Specifically, here in verse 13, Jesus teaches us to pray for the prevention of evil, and for protection from evil, and to pray with perception of God’s glory. These will be my three points.
The Prevention of Evil
So first, Jesus wants us to pray for the prevention of evil. At the beginning of verse 13, Jesus teaches us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation…” In other words, we should pray that God would not bring us into a position where we’re tempted to sin.

Temptation here refers to any sort of situation where you’re urged into some form of evildoing. This urge to commit evil – it may come from your own heart or imagination – it might come from inside you. Or it might come from outside you – from a suggestion you hear from a friend or from social media, or from a spiritual, demonic sort of source. Temptation can come from all kinds of places. Sometimes the temptation is very sudden, and intense. Other times the temptation is very subtle, and more gradual. Sometimes it’s very obvious that the thing you’re being tempted to do is evil. Other times, you may be less sure – things may seem less clear cut. Sometimes, after you withstand temptation once, the circumstance passes, and the temptation is settled and gone. But other times, the opportunity to do evil is persistent, and the temptation is ongoing, constant – and it threatens to wear you down. Temptation takes a lot of different forms. But in whatever case, when you face temptation, you are faced some with a pending invitation to participate in evil.

Being tempted, generally speaking, isn’t itself evil. Our Lord Jesus, remember, was tempted. In the wilderness, with Satan, Jesus was tempted with hunger, with pride, and with power – but he never gave in. Hebrews 4:15 confirms, He “…has been tempted as are, yet without sin.” Being tempted isn’t a sin. But it is sinful when we desire the evil that we’re tempted with, and when we pursue it.

And you and I need to be wary, because we still have evil desires in our fallen human hearts. Even those of us who have found forgiveness through faith in Christ – we still have a lingering familiarity with sin. It doesn’t shock us or horrify us as it should. It’s still around in our hearts, causing our priorities and passions to be warped. We still desire for certain limits to be crossed, for shady activities to be explored, or for certain sensual desires to be indulged. And having these desires makes us vulnerable to evil. Because if we didn’t want to sin – if we thought it was gross and repulsive in absolutely every way, then temptation would be harmless. Temptation wouldn’t affect us.

But since we do have these desires, temptation is dangerous for us. As James 1[:14-15] says, “…[E]ach person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.” My guess is that most of you would agree this is true, in principle. And yet I think that many of us aren’t as troubled by our vulnerability to temptation as much as we should be.

One reason it doesn’t trouble us is because we often think that resisting temptation is easier than it actually is. But in the moment, when you’re frustrated with the burdens and stresses of life – when the air conditioner breaks, or your basement floods, or you’re sleep deprived, or you’re ravenously hungry, or you have a headache – we’re absolutely vulnerable to anger and bitterness and self-centeredness and countless other wrongs.

But another reason why temptation doesn’t trouble us is because we don’t despise evil as much as we should. We sometimes treat Jesus like an insurance policy – we think, “sin isn’t a big deal, because even if I mess up, I’m covered with fire insurance.” But instead we should be recognizing Jesus as a person – as our Lord and King, who so profoundly loved you and me that he suffered and died to cleanse us from the foulness and filth of our sin! And if you understand just how passionate Jesus was about destroying the effects of sin in your life – if you understand just how much effort he was willing to put in, how great the cost is that he was willing to pay – it makes no sense to think of sin as being “no big deal.”

We are to abhor evil. To loathe it. So much so, that we proactively take steps to avoid temptation. This is reflected in the prayer Jesus teaches us here: “Lead us not into temptation.” Jesus is urging us – even before temptation comes, pray that we won’t get close to it! Pray that we won’t get lured in anywhere close to the trap of sin. Jesus wants us to pray for the prevention of evil.

And this is a humble prayer that rightly acknowledges our frailty – that rightly acknowledges that temptation is dangerous for us. It’s a prayer that rightly acknowledges our need for God’s help. We aren’t as strong or as bulletproof as we’d like to think we are. Temptation isn’t a game to mess around with, or to test ourselves with. Instead, temptation is something to run from. Even before temptation arrives, we should run to God, saying, “Don’t bring me to the precipice! Don’t lead me into defeat, under the sword of temptation. But lead me into repentance and faith.”

But do you know anything of what it means to pray this way? Do you find that you have any sort of earnestness or urgency to avoid evil? Because if this is really your conviction – if you’re sincerely asking God not to lead you into temptation – you should be diligent to make sure you aren’t leading yourself into temptation. There may be certain places you’re drawn to that, in reality, you need to avoid – places like like bars or beaches. There may be certain situations to avoid, like staying up late, alone and without accountability. There may be certain things you need to get rid of, like a Facebook account or a subscription to a magazine. There may be certain things you need to do preventatively in order to avoid temptation. You may need to work hard at communicating with your spouse, so you aren’t tempted to snap at each other when there are misunderstandings.

This prayer challenges us to think through our lives, and to ask ourselves, are we really concerned about being tempted into sin? Or have we stopped caring? Have we stopped resisting those dangers?

I want to clarify, though – in our desire to resist temptation, I’m not saying that we should try to totally withdraw from the world, and to go off to be a hermit somewhere. There’s nothing holy and good about ceasing to use our gifts in service to others, or isolating ourselves from relationships in society and in the Church. We have a responsibility to be in the world for as long as the Lord gives us life, for the care of our families and community, for honoring God in our work and worship – things like these. We just must not be of the world, loving worldly ways, living for worldly aims.

And as we realize our vulnerability to temptation, Jesus wants us to ask for God to lead us – to lead us not into temptation, but instead into ways that are right, clean, and worshipful. If we were left to ourselves, the skewed compass of our hearts wouldn’t take us the right way. The advice, “Listen to your heart,” is like a dysfunctional GPS that tells us to turn left when we’re driving past a lake. We need God to lead us into ways that are good and right. Even before temptation comes, we should pray proactively and preventively, that we wouldn’t be brought into temptation – but instead, that Our Father would grant us the grace to avoid evil.
Protection from Evil
But we aren’t just instructed here to pray preventively against evil. We also are encouraged to pray, when we’re faced with evil, that God would protect us in the midst of it. And this is my second point – we pray for Protection from evil. This is how Jesus teaches us to pray, here: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

The evil Jesus mentions here very well may include the evil that rises out of our fallen human hearts. But it seems here to extend more broadly than this, to refer to the moral evil out there that we have to face on a daily basis – moral evil from a world which has been given over to greed and arrogance and ungodliness, and moral evil from Satan and his minions. We, of course, need to be honest about the sin within us, that we ourselves are villains in need of repentance. Yet Jesus also teaches us to acknowledge in this prayer that we are also victims in need of rescue. We need to be delivered.

But what are we victims to? What do we need to be rescued from?

Notice here, Jesus doesn’t just teach us to pray, “Deliver us from Hell – or deliver us from punishment.” And this is because even non-Christians can understand that an eternal future of torment in a lake of fire – that sounds miserable. No one in their right mind would want to go through something like that. I would imagine that there are countless thousands of unbelievers who, at some time in their life, have prayed that God would deliver them from Hell. Because fearing and hating Hell isn’t necessarily a sign that your heart has been changed to despise evil and to turn toward God.

So you’ll notice, Jesus doesn’t say, “Deliver us from punishment,” but teaches his followers to pray, “Deliver us from evil.”  Because it isn’t just the consequences of evil that are the problem. It’s the evil itself.

And so it’s no mistake that Jesus identifies that the great oppressor that the world needs to be rescued from – it isn’t a certain ethnic group, or a political party, or an elite group of under-taxed millionaires. The great oppressor, ultimately, is the pervasive presence of evil that shapes and subdues the nations of the world.

Whether it’s evil from our hearts, or evil from corrupt institutions and social figures, or evil from the Evil One, from Satan himself – there’s danger within us, and danger outside of us that we need protection from. And this is why we’re taught to pray, “Deliver us from evil.” Rescue us! Save us! Jesus here says we need to cry out to God for help – and there’s a sense of desperation in this request!

If evil were something very small and manageable, we wouldn’t need to be rescued from it. The fact that Jesus teaches us to call out for deliverance indicates that evil is something very powerful and serious. So we mustn’t just think of evil as being a minor annoyance or inconvenience, like an ant infestation in your kitchen, or a woodchuck digging in your yard, however bothersome these issues might be. Our need to be delivered from evil indicates that we’re drowning – we’re under attack – we’re in mortal danger from evil, and our own resolve and resources aren’t enough to save the day.

We can’t withstand or overcome evil ourselves – alone. The power of evil over our hearts and over our world must be overcome by a greater power than we have to offer. We need God’s own power to pull us out of the pit, to push us out of harm’s way. In the same way that the Lord delivered Lot, by basically dragging him out of Sodom and Gomorrah before the city went up in flames – we must be saved by God, if we’re going to enjoy victory over evil, and freedom from it.

Part of what makes evil so dangerous is that it’s deceitful and seductive. When temptation comes, it presents evil to us as something good – it’s disguised as an expression of love, or as a form of personal freedom. It asks the question, “How can it be wrong if it doesn’t hurt anyone?” Instead of asking the question, “How can it be right if it’s misaligned with God’s righteousness and Word?” Evil promises to give glory, knowledge, happiness, and confidence for the future – but it ultimately leads us into empty pride, cynicism, bitterness, and doubt. Evil masquerades as our closest friend, when in reality, it’s our mortal enemy. We need to be reminded that our “…adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Yet in spite of the power and ferociousness of evil, Jesus wants to remind us and assure us that Our Father in heaven cares to save us – and he’s capable of it! He’s committed to protecting His children. We can have a real expectation that God will deliver us from evil.

But also, in addition to this, Jesus wants us to genuinely desire this deliverance. Because in order for you and I to sincerely pray “Deliver us from evil,” we can’t have a secret love affair with wickedness. We can’t be at peace with it. But evil really does need to be something you hate, something you dread, something you legitimately want to be free from, in every sense. And in this prayer, Jesus is training us to depend on God to be delivered from evil in three ways: to be delivered from the punishment of evil, and from the power of evil, and from the presence of evil.

Romans 6:23 indicates that the wages of sin is death. The punishment sinners deserve for living against God and his ways is to have their lives taken away. But we’re able to be delivered from this punishment because of what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus bore the death penalty on behalf of his people, for their evils, in their place. And because of this, everyone who receives Jesus, who trusts in Him as their deliverer – can enjoy the reality of being freed from the penalty of sin.

Yet when we pray, “Deliver us from evil,” we’re also asking to be delivered from the power of evil. In those moments that we’re being severely tempted by evil, we can rely on God to rescue us from the forceful enticements of sin. As 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

And in addition to this, we’re encouraged to rely on God to deliver us from the evil desires that continue to lurk within us. With all the power he gives us, we can labor to have our minds and hearts renewed according to the Holy Scriptures. And we can expect to see, by his grace, that sin’s influence in us will become weaker and weaker as we depend on Him. This, too, is one of the things that God’s people are praying for when they pray “Deliver us from evil.”

But in addition to wanting deliverance from the penalty of sin, and the power of sin, we should also desire to be free from the presence of sin. When we pray, “Deliver us from evil,” we’re asking that God would banish evil, and put it away forever. We’re asking that God would establish a new reality, in which evil is totally absent. No more corruption. No more curse. No more conflict. No more crying.

Do you want this? Can you honestly say that your heart longs to be delivered from evil, in every sense? Jesus wants us care deeply about the abolition of sin. To run from it. To resist it. And to pray against it. And if we rightly understand the kingdom, the power, and the glory of God, this is precisely how we will pray. This is exactly what we’ll desire and long for.
Perception of God’s Glory
And this brings me to my third and final point: Jesus teaches us to pray with perception of God’s glory.

Before I explain “the kingdom, and the power, and the glory” here, I want to take some time here to briefly explain why this phrase has been placed as a footnote here in the ESV, rather than being included in the main body of the text.

It’s first important to recognize that there is a remarkable uniformity across the various early texts and translations of the Old and New Testaments. For the vast majority of the Bible, there is no question how the text of Scripture should read. But there are a few instances where the original reading is less clear. And this phrase, in the second half of verse 13, is one of the places where there has been some uncertainty.

I want to make it clear, the question at play here isn’t whether you believe the Bible or not. It isn’t a question between being theologically liberal or orthodox. The main question at play is simply what historical manuscript evidence should be given more weight?

At a basic level, it’s worth nothing that many of the early manuscripts and translations include “for yours is the kingdom and the power, and the glory forever, AMEN” – and this includes a few manuscripts that were most readily available at the time that the King James Version was written, about 400 years ago. But since then, Bible scholars have recovered many other early manuscripts and translations, and several writings from the early Church Fathers – and many of these manuscripts leave this phrase out.

From looking into this, I’m personally inclined to see the ending of verse 13 as being the original reading, which is why I’m including it in the reading of the text – and I also expect to read the full prayer in corporate worship in the life our church. But it’s worth noting here that the inclusion or non-inclusion of this phrase actually doesn’t change the meaning of the text. Because in both cases, it’s undeniable that Jesus is teaching his followers to pray these petitions in light of the kingdom, and the power, and the glory of God.

Our confidence in God’s everlasting kingship propels us to pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Our confidence in Gods’ almighty strength propels us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” And our confidence in God’s splendor is what causes us to marvel, “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name.” More than this, our confidence in God’s glory is also what motivates us to turn our back on temptation and sin – and to pray for deliverance.

People who don’t see God rightly won’t succeed in their fight against sin. If you think that God is just a slightly-better version of you – just a nagging little voice that says, “Do this, don’t do that.” You probably won’t find God to be all that wonderful or pleasant to be around. You won’t be all that interested in Him, and your heart will easily be dragged away to other things.

But if you recognize, as the Bible teaches, that He’s Holy – that He’s set apart from anything else you’ve ever known in his moral perfection, and his enduring power, and his timeless wisdom – and if you rightly recognize that this Most High God was willing to stoop down from heaven, to bear a cross for you, to deliver you from your evil, this will change everything. Because you’ll see that there’s something more noble and generous about God than anyone you’ve ever met. You’ll see that he’s more committed to your welfare than you are, yourself. You’ll be thankful for him. You’ll love him, and want to have a closer relationship with Him. And this desire for God – having a stronger desire for God than you have for evil – this is what will motivate you to turn from evil. This is what will make it possible to pray verse 13 from the heart.

The only people who will sincerely engage in praying against temptation and evil are those who desire the kingdom of God, and depend on the power of God, and who delight in the glory of God.

God’s kingdom, power, and glory – these are what drive us to our knees. Our perception of God’s glory directs us and motivates us in our prayers. And we should never fail to appreciate that Our Father in heaven has revealed himself in his word. He wants us to know him! He wants us to contemplate His righteousness, to meditate on his truth, to marvel in his glory – and as we do, it will pull our attention away from our sins, away from ourselves. It will help us to see the emptiness of our own kingdoms, power, and glory. And we’ll be all the more convinced of God’s trustworthiness and preciousness.

So as we close, let’s ask that God’s glory, more and more, would drive us further from our desires for sin, and draw us closer to Him in humble prayer.