The Gospel of Luke (46) Encouragement and Instruction in Prayer (2) 11/26/2023

First Baptist Church Leominster

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and remains so today. 1 John 5 1

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John 5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the

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Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him.

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By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey

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His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

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For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

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Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is

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He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not by the water only, but by the water and the blood.

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And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the

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Spirit and the water and the blood. And these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.

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For this is the testimony of God that He is born concerning His Son. Whoever believes in the

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Son of God has the testimony in Himself. Whoever does not believe God has made

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Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning His Son.

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And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life. And this life is in His Son.

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Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

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I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

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And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will,

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He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.

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If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life.

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To those who commit sins that do not lead to death, there is a sin that leads to death.

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I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is a sin that does not lead to death.

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We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning. But he who was born of God protects

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Him, and the evil one does not touch Him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

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And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know

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Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ.

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He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank

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You for Jesus Christ. We thank You that He is God, and He became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld

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His glory. Glory is of the only begotten Son, full of grace and truth.

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And Lord, in Christ Jesus alone we have salvation, for He accomplished the law of God.

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He accomplished the will of God. He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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And Lord, I pray that in our own lives we would fix our eyes on Jesus, in the good times and the bad times, that we would focus on His character, focus on His nature, focus on the life that He lived, and in the power of the

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Spirit, Lord, we pray that we would walk in those same steps. Lord, as we continue to worship

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You this morning through the preaching of the Word, we pray for Pastor Lars, that the

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Word would be boldly proclaimed, and that we would line up under it. We pray,

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Lord, that You would do a great work in each one of our lives, and we pray that You would be pleased by our worship this morning.

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Thank You, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's turn in our

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Bibles again to Luke chapter 11. John made reference in 1

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John 5 to a sin that leads unto death, and for someone to commit that, we're not supposed to pray for them.

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What in the world is that about? Probably within the context of that, he was referring to someone who had once believed in the

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Holy Trinity, the deity of Jesus Christ, but apostatized and came to embrace the

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Gnostic teaching that Jesus was truly God, but He only looked like a man and wasn't a true man.

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To apostatize from Jesus Christ is probably what John was referring to as a sin that leads unto death.

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They've forsaken Christ. It's no point in praying for them. They're heretics, and they deserve

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God's judgment. That's probably the context of that verse. Well, last

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Lord's Day, we began to consider our Lord's instruction on prayer given to His disciples.

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The passage, of course, itself is rather long, and so we knew it would take several weeks to work through it.

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I thought it would take two weeks. Well, it's going to take at least three. Okay, so we're not going to complete it today, but we should get a ways through it.

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Here, once again, is Luke 11, verses 1 through 13. Now, it came to pass as He was praying at a certain place when

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He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught

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His disciples. So He said to them, when you pray, say,

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Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come,

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Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

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And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And He said to them,

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Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him.

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And he will answer from within and say, Do not trouble me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed.

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I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him, because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

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So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.

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For everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. To him who knocks, it will be opened to you.

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For everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?

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Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

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If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your

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Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them, to those who ask him? Now last

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Lord's Day, we took time and effort to address the nature and reason for the different content between the

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New King James Version, which we just read, and the ESV Version, English Standard Version.

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For there are words and phrases in our New King James Version that are not in the

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ESV. The New King James Version is longer here in Luke 11 than the

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ESV. Probably, most certainly, because a scribe, when copying

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Luke's Gospel sometime in the past, had intentionally conformed our Lord's Prayer in the

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Luken text, the text before us, to the wording of the longer form of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew's Gospel, which of course is recorded in the

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Sermon on the Mount, Matthew Chapter 6. This scribe's changes to the text were then copied in subsequent texts that were later used in early

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English translations of this passage. And so, we should understand that our

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Lord taught the shorter form on this occasion to his disciples, but had taught the longer form to the crowds in Galilee in his

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Sermon on the Mount. This effort to conform the words of one

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Gospel to another Gospel was unfortunately not an uncommon practice among New Testament scribes.

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In our consideration, this passage, we're following the text of the New King James Version. For even though the additional words were not spoken on this occasion when our

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Lord taught his disciples, he did teach these words on an earlier occasion in his

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Sermon on the Mount. So, we're not doing wrong, of course, by addressing them. They're all the

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Word of God. However, that there are two different forms of the

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Lord's Prayer provided for us in the Scriptures is helpful for us in one respect.

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It reinforces for us that the Lord's Prayer is not to be read or repeated verbatim as a form prayer.

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Rather, it's a model prayer to set forth the kinds of things that Christians are to pray to their

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Heavenly Father to provide for them. William Hendrickson addressed this regarding the differences between Matthew and Luke's accounts.

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This variety is pleasing. It teaches us that it was never Christ's intention to demand that time after time exactly the same words be spoken.

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Certainly, the exhortation he answered, when you say, pray, say, here in Luke, suggests that for a start these very words may be used.

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But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, this then is how you should pray. This shows that the

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Lord's Prayer is essentially the model prayer. It should serve as a model or pattern for our devotions.

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Now, we've already addressed the first three petitions of this Lord's Prayer last week. We're first to pray that our

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Father's name will be revealed and held in the highest esteem, certainly by us, but by all others as well.

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We pray first, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Of course,

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God's name is hallowed or is glorified most and best when God answers our second petition.

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We're to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's how

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God is most glorified when there is conformity to his will.

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We're to pray that God will accomplish his purposes in history. We're to pray that he will enable us to obey him.

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And after we pray for God's glory and will to be done, then we're encouraged to petition our

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Father with respect to our personal concerns. Often when we pray, we immediately go to our personal concerns, but our primary concern should be for the glory of God.

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He is first. He is central. We live in a theocentric, Christocentric universe.

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And so, here the first petition of our own needs reads, give us each day our daily bread.

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Perhaps it would be good to recall that this Lord's prayer is instructive and applicable to Christians only.

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We stressed that last week. Only true Christians may call upon God as their Father, and God has promised to provide bread for his children.

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This is not a prayer, but it can be offered by anybody and everybody, whether they're

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Christian or not, but nobody but a Christian can really, in faith, anticipate

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God's positive answer. And so God may choose to be merciful and gracious to those outside of Jesus Christ, but the specific petitions of the

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Lord's prayer is given to disciples of Jesus Christ only. If you're a

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Christian, a true Christian, you are encouraged to pray to your Father, give us each day our daily bread.

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He's promised to provide daily bread for his people when they make their request of him.

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The manna in the wilderness were the children of Israel, not the people back in Egypt.

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And the bread mentioned here is bread for the children of the Father, those who know

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Jesus Christ, his Son. What is meant by bread? Is this a request of God to provide our bare necessities?

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Is this a petition for tomorrow's provision? Is it merely a request for physical bread or for the spiritual bread that comes down from heaven,

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Jesus Christ himself, who gives life to his people? Well, it should probably be understood as a request for God to continue to provide for us that which is necessary to sustain life day by day.

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And so it could be both physical bread and spiritual bread as well. As the

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Father sent to Israel their daily provision of manna, bread from heaven, so he provides each of us with that which daily sustains us.

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J. C. Ryle wrote, we are taught to ask for bread, give us this day our daily bread. Under this word bread, no doubt is included in everything which our bodies can require.

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We acknowledge our entire dependence upon God for life and breath and all things.

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We ask him to take charge of us and provide for us in all the concerns this world. It is the prayer of Solomon under another form, feed me with food convenient for me.

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Taken from Proverbs 30. Of course, the

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Scripture set forth God to be the provider of all that we need. But do we always recognize this from his hand?

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Or rather do we regard our bread as the product of our hands or the gift of our employer with each paycheck or perhaps even a government check, a handout?

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Who do we look for as our provider? God is our provider and we ought to recognize him as such.

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And when we pray in this fashion, we're doing that, aren't we? Spurgeon wrote, we pray for providential supplies for ourselves and others, give us.

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We ask for our food as a gift, give us. We request no more than bread or food and needful for us.

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Our petition concerns the day and ask only for a daily supply, bread enough for this day.

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We ask not for bread which belongs to others but only for that which is honestly our own. Our daily bread.

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It's the prayer of a lowly and contented mind. Of one who is so sanctified that he waits upon God even about his daily food.

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And of one who lovingly links others with himself in his sympathy and prayer. Give me, Lord, both the bread of heaven and of earth which feeds my soul and sustains my body for all

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I look to thee, my Father. And pray in this prayer faithfully, we'll fix this in your mind and recall you back to the reality and the truth of it.

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God the Father is your provider if you are a Christian in Jesus Christ.

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And that does result in a contented mind, doesn't it? I think of, you know,

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Mueller, George Mueller of Bristol, back in the middle of the 19th century.

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He was a German who moved to England and he came to the

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Doctrines of Grace, the Reformed Faith, and he wanted to prove that God can provide for his people and so he started orphanages for this very purpose.

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And one of the principles he established the orphanages with is that he would never ask anybody but the

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Lord for provision for these kids. It got to the point he had over 900 kids in his orphanage and God provided.

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He never asked for money except for the Lord and the Lord wonderfully, miraculously provided for years.

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And his whole intention was to show the world that God is the provider of his people.

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And even there was an occasion when the children were gathered for breakfast, they didn't have any food, he didn't know where he was coming from, but he led them in prayer thanking

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God for his provision and knock on the door and the man's bread truck broke down outside or milk truck,

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I forget which. But at any rate the breakfast was provided right then and there.

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His book, George Mueller Bristol, actually written by Arthur Pearson, there's many of them but that's the best one, it testifies of God's provision.

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He is our provider and we ought to pray Lord, Father, give us our daily bread as an acknowledgement of this, regardless of what comes down in the world.

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And so we should not take for granted our God daily sustaining us. We ought to pray as though he might stop if we fail to ask.

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But we should pray with confidence that he will provide if we do ask him give us each day our daily bread.

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And of course with each request for bread today it would be good for us to thank him for the bread he gave us yesterday.

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The whole idea is that God is our provider. Well the fifth petition simply says forgive us our sins.

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We're to pray that God would forgive us our sins. And once again remember this is specifically a prayer for Christians.

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Although God has forgiven his people through Jesus Christ for their sin, they still sin. Through the sin they commit,

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Christians grow indifferent and distant from their Father. They need ongoing forgiveness of sin to maintain and continue a close walk with their

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God. And so we are to pray that God our Father would forgive us when we find ourselves having sin, which is daily.

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We are to pray that God our Father would forgive us our sins at the end of every day, every week, certainly upon every occasion we gather for the

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Lord's Supper. Whenever we gather in the house of God as a people of God.

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But notice this next clause because this can be problematic in some people's minds.

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Forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. God is gracious to forgive sins.

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You cannot merit his grace. He must bestow it freely. But God chooses not to be gracious to them who refuse to be gracious to others.

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Our Lord repeated this teaching on other occasions that his forgiveness of us is contingent on our forgiving others their sins toward us.

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Luke 6, judge not, you shall not be judged, condemn not, you shall not be condemned, forgive and you will be forgiven.

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There's a condition. Mark 11, whenever you stand, pray and forgive, if you have anything against anyone so that your father also in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

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God forgiving you as a Christian is contingent on you forgiving others that sin against you.

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And then the extended passage in Matthew 18, Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him up to seven times?

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That would be quite magnanimous according to Peter. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

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In other words, an unlimited number of times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

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When he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10 ,000 talents. That was a fortune.

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But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all they had in the payment be made and sold into slavery.

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The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master, have patience with me. I will pay you all. There's no way he could have.

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Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii.

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About 100 days of wages of a day laborer. And he laid hands on him, took him by the throat, saying,

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Pay me what you owe. And so his fellow servant fell down at his feet, begged him saying, Have patience with me and I will pay you all.

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And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servant saw what had been done, they were very grieved, came and told their master all that had been done.

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And then his master, after he called him, said to him, You wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.

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Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?

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And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.

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And then here's the lesson Jesus gave his disciples. So my heavenly father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses.

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That's what Christians do. When somebody sins against you and you find it hard to forgive them, it takes

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God's grace to do so, well one way is just to be mindful of the great debt that God has forgiven you through Jesus Christ.

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Now Luke's words on this matter differ slightly from what our Lord taught in his Sermon on the Mount. Recorded in Matthew, whereas Luke recorded

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Jesus's words on this occasion, forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

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Matthew recorded our Lord teaching his disciples and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

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Now the two accounts are slightly different in wording but they are the same meaning. Indebtedness is mentioned also in Luke.

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The word sin has essentially the same idea in Luke's Gospel as indebtedness. That is to sin against God is to become indebted to God.

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This is a common idea even in our own culture, or once was anyway. When one commits a crime and is caught and convicted we say that he must pay his debt to society.

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He had an obligation to society to be a good and lawful citizen. When he broke the law he had to pay for his crime, to pay his debt.

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In the same way when we sin against God we incur debt to God. Our sins are debts that we owe to God.

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We owe God our obedience and when we sin we fail to render him that which we owe him.

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So we are to pray and forgive us our debts. We are born into this world owing a great debt to God as our creator.

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We owe him our full and faithful obedience. We also owe

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God our complete obedience because Christ redeemed us with his own blood. Our debt we owe

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God increases over time. It's a debt which we are unable to pay. If God is to forgive us it must be according to his grace, according to his compassion toward us, according to his abundant mercy.

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He may justly do so toward us because Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sin when he died upon his cross, fully paid it.

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So he may freely do so because he is gracious toward his own. The debts of the

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Christian cannot condemn him but they can certainly hinder him from receiving the blessing of God that he would otherwise bestow upon him.

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This petition reflects the reality that the forgiveness of our sins is a continual need daily.

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The Wesleyan teaching of complete sanctification that you can arrive to a point where you aren't sinning any longer is so contrary to the

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Bible and so contrary to human experience you wonder how anybody even John Wesley devised such a thing because we sin continuously.

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You never do with full devotion whatever is set before you by the word of God.

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You never do it with complete sincerity, complete consecration. You never love the

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Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength to the degree you should. In everything we do we fall short.

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We sin. We don't love our neighbor as ourselves to the degree we should with the same devotion, dedication, and enthusiasm that we should we sin in everything we do.

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The question might be asked if we have been forgiven of all our sins when we first believed the gospel why are we in need of current forgiveness?

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Again the simple answer is we sin frequently and even daily. Our sinning cannot condemn us as true

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Christians but our sinning can defile us. Of course when we first believed on Christ our

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Lord God forgave us all our sins. The scriptures declare this forthrightly.

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Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Paul was quoting

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David of course from Psalm 32. David wrote that after his sin with Bathsheba, after his murder of Bathsheba's husband.

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Then John wrote, 1 John I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake.

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Our sins are forgiven. Ephesians 1 7 in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

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Colossians 1 13 and 14 he's delivered us from the power of darkness translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins.

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We have the forgiveness of sins as Christians. And Colossians 2 you be dead in your trespasses the uncircumcision of your flesh he is made alive together with him having forgiven all your trespasses all of them.

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Our sins cannot condemn us. There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

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When we pray for God to forgive us our sins we're reminded of our indebtedness to his grace.

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We're to pray for forgiveness of our sins for by our confession we're acknowledging our sins.

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William Hendrickson wrote it is true that the basis of our daily forgiveness has been established once for all by means of Christ's atonement nothing need be and nothing can be added to that but this total objective cleansing needs daily application for the simple reason that we sin every day.

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A father may have bequeathed a large inheritance to his son it now very definitely belongs to the son nevertheless this does not mean that the latter is immediately allowed to withdraw the entire huge amount from the bank and spend it all within one week.

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Very wisely the father included a stipulation limiting the withdrawal privilege to a certain generous amount each month so also when a person receives grace in regeneration this does not mean that all of that which

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Christ merited for him is immediately experienced by him. If it were would it not overwhelm and crush his capacities rather God giveth and giveth and giveth again.

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Now our Lord tells us to pray and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors and so here is a condition placed on receiving forgiveness.

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Does this bother you? It bothers some a great deal. Does this pose a conflict in your thinking regarding the ways of God with his people?

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Does it not smack of works righteousness that by forgiving others you earn the right to be forgiven?

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Sounds that way. You of course would be wrong to think so. We must understand that this is not a prayer which says father because I have forgiven others

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I merit your forgiveness of my sins. That would be error. Rather the idea is father because I have forgiven others their wrong against me nothing stands in the way of you being merciful and gracious to me and forgiving my debts.

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God is gracious to forgive sins and we cannot merit his grace. He must bestow his forgiveness of our sins freely to us but God chooses not to be gracious to them who refuse to be gracious to others.

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He'll not have mercy on the one who refuses to show mercy to others. If you're harboring resentment towards somebody because they've sinned against you, you better deal with it because you are not going to enjoy or receive the benefits of God in Christ that you would or could while you harbor your unforgiving spirit.

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James wrote judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. You cannot earn mercy but you can forfeit mercy.

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As the Lord says in another place forgive and you shall be forgiven. Luke 6 37. Now we need to diverge on a matter at this point which

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I hope will not be overwhelming for some but it's important that we make this note. We take issue with statements of classical dispensationalists regarding this matter.

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When we say classical dispensationalists we're distinguishing them from more progressive dispensationalists who have changed their view, moderated some of the more extreme views of the classical men.

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They've recognized their errors of their earlier mentors and have moderated their positions but by classical dispensationalists they largely shaped the theology of dispensationalism.

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We're referring to men like J .N. Darby, a 19th century teacher who influenced many in America and Britain.

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He was associated with the Plymouth Brethren there in Plymouth, England. C .I. Schofield of course who produced the

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Schofield should be referenced Bible in the early 20th century. Louis Perry Schaefer who founded the

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Dallas Theological Seminary and other promoters of errant teaching include John Walvoord who was the president of Dallas Seminary, Charles Ryrie who was professor of systematic theology, has the

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Ryrie Study Bible which I would advise that you not read and study. Their views were very popular unquestioned by many, still are, and it's assumed what they were saying is true.

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Their teachings are often not scrutinized closely and the implications are not seen by many but they have some fundamental differences of opinion from our own or with historically formed understanding of the scriptures.

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The scriptures we have quoted. We should say just a word about the theology or the beliefs of dispensationalism just to lay some ground work for us to understand where they're going with this.

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God they say has dealt with different people in different ways in different periods of history which are called dispensations.

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Most dispensationalists would say that biblical history is to be divided according to seven dispensations.

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These include first the age of innocence in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned.

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Second, after they sinned there was age of conscience from the fall in the garden until the flood.

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Third, there was the age of human government from the flood to the calling of Abraham. Four, there was the age of the family from the call of Abraham to the giving of the

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Mosaic law at Mount Sinai the Exodus. Fifth, the age of the law from the giving of the

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Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai until the cross of Christ. Six, the age of grace from the cross to the second coming really the first second coming not the second second coming.

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There's confusion over that whole thing but we won't go there. And then seven they teach that there will be a thousand year millennial kingdom age after the second coming of Christ.

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And so they say this is how you need to read and understand the Bible to understand it rightly.

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Well we would certainly agree that God has dealt with different peoples in different ways in different times and indeed we would agree that a clear distinction should be made between law and grace but not as they do.

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Classical dispensationalists see a dichotomy such a difference, a dichotomy, a conflict between the way that God related to people before the cross under the law and the way

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God relates to people after the cross according to grace. And so the teachings given before the cross are not binding on believers who live after the cross.

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Essentially they say what mattered then was how you live, what matters now is what you believe. And that is false teaching.

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They teach then God related to people conditioned on how they behaved now he relates to people with regard to how they, not how they behaved but how

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Christ behaved on their behalf. And that is the error of antinomianism turning the grace, should not be grave, the grace of God into lasciviousness.

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Jude verses 3 and 4. And therefore they would say any blessing of God conditioned on man's response is a legal principle.

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Forgive others and God will forgive you. That is legalism they would say.

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It's not a principle of grace and therefore has no literal application for the believer. And so consequently when they come to a statement as in verse 4 of Luke 11.

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And forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Or what

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Matthew records forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

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They are troubled. That's not grace teaching that's legal teaching. This teaching does not agree with their concept of the grace of God in the gospel.

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They compare features in these verses which appear to them to be legal grounds that are not grounded in grace.

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And as a result they declare this teaching to be legal pre -cross teaching which is not applicable for the

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New Testament believer. They say we are under grace not law therefore

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God never conditions his blessing on what we do. That is legalism. The bottom line is

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Luke 11 verse 4 does not apply to you and me. That was before the cross. And so here are

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Scofield's words from my Scofield reference Bible on the Lord's Prayer. This is from the

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Sermon on the Mount Matthew 6. Used as a form the Lord's prayer is dispensationally upon legal not church ground.

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See it's law not grace. It is not a prayer in the name of Christ and it makes human forgiveness as under the law it must the condition of divine forgiveness and order which grace exactly reverses.

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In other words he quotes Ephesians 4 32 which tells us that we are to forgive others because Christ because God has forgiven us for Christ's sake.

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In other words they believe the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer is set forth here in Luke 11 3 and in Matthew chapter 6 have no direct application for the

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Christian. In Scofield's comments on Matthew's Sermon on the

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Mount he set forth the reasons the sermon reflects teaching under the mosaic system and not the age of grace.

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He writes for these reasons the Sermon on the Mount in its primary application gives neither the privilege nor the duty of the church.

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Sermon on the Mount does not apply to you and me. This is what Scofield taught. These are found in the epistles.

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If you want to find Christian instruction you've got to go to Paul's epistles. Again what he's saying is that it does not apply to the

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Christians. Now our Lord told his disciples in Matthew 6 14 and 15 for if you forgive men their trespasses your

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Heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive men their trespasses neither will your

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Father forgive your trespasses. Here are Scofield's words on this. This is legal ground.

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Compare Ephesians 4 32 which is of grace. Under law forgiveness is conditioned upon a like spirit in us.

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Under grace we're forgiven for Christ's sake and exhorted to forgive because we have been forgiven.

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So again what he is saying is these words in the Sermon on the Mount do not apply to the Christian.

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Incredible. They believe the teaching of Jesus is recorded in the

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Synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke is only partially applicable to the church. Essentially these three books are removed as authoritative scripture for Christians.

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Jesus taught before the cross to people under the law but we're under grace and therefore they don't apply.

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And so you can mark a cross and disregard most of the teaching for it does not apply to New Testament Christians for it is legalistic.

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Well what results from this kind of teaching which dominated the 20th century among most evangelicals?

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What results from this? Anything that challenges, anything that confronts, anything that suggests a duty upon the professing

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Christian or even on the non -Christian for that matter is regarded as legalism and is to be avoided.

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And so preachers and pulpits all over this world who are classical dispensationalists never confront people with their behavior, with their attitudes, with their relationships.

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They're solely concerned with the content of their belief system. The result of this skewed teaching is that there is often found in churches a form of godliness but no power to transform the people.

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They have self -willed, rebellious, careless, presumptive believers in their churches who despite their behavior are being assured by many that they have salvation.

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When someone like a reformed teacher stresses that every word of the Lord Jesus taught is binding upon Christians, he is suspected and accused of being legalistic.

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There are people in our region who believe this church is legalistic and I am a legalistic teacher because I don't adhere to this classical dispensational view of law and grace.

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It's heresy, it's error. They say that Jesus lived under the law, taught under the law, but all that has changed with the cross.

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Now it does not matter how you live as long as you believe the gospel. And so when the

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Scriptures confront that one with his sinful behavior, he easily justifies himself.

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It doesn't matter how I live. We're not saved by works. We're saved by grace through faith. So as long as I believe, it doesn't matter how

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I live. And that is heresy. Preachers who teach such things will pacify their consciences, will soothe the conviction that the

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Spirit of God begins to work in their minds and hearts. They think to themselves, well, it need not apply to me for I'm under grace.

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Yeah, I know I should forgive that one who's offended me but I don't want to and I refuse to do so.

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Well, that's dangerous for you. Well this corrupt concept of grace and courage is licentiousness.

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In other words, sin without consequences is not the grace teaching of the New Testament. Jude 3 and 4 speaks about certain men coming into the churches, creeping in unaware, who turn the grace of God into licentiousness, a license to sin.

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And that's the kind of gospel that is promoted by about 50 % at least of evangelical churches, the so -called

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Bible -believing churches. Now, a lot of people in the pews wouldn't believe this or accept that kind of direct teaching, but they're not aware that their preachers do and therefore the preachers will shave the content of their preaching and just tell people what they're supposed to believe, not how they're supposed to live because that's legalism.

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And that is why we have such a great problem of nominal Christianity in the world, here in America but also in other countries where they've been influenced by American Christianity, American evangelicalism.

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It's a great problem. Well, seventh, on the top page seven of your notes, we are to pray, lead us not into temptation.

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Some think this is a request that God allow us not to put God to the test, which would be a violation of Deuteronomy 6 .16.

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Do not put the Lord to the test. Don't tempt the Lord thy God. But that would be wrong.

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This is a simple request that God not allow us to be placed in situations where we will be tempted to sin against him.

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Let's be reminded at this point, our temptation to sin can never be laid at the feet of our Lord. That's clear,

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James 1. When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed.

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Nevertheless, of course, the Lord leads his people, and his leading them may bring them into the place where temptation may be possible.

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The Lord Jesus himself was led by the Spirit in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. God didn't tempt

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Jesus. The devil did, but the Spirit led him there. And as the

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Lord leads us, we may encounter periods of time, places where temptation is present or greater than in other places at other times.

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I remember as a new Christian, we had moved away from our hometown in Fort Bragg, California, north coast,

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Mendocino coast, and we were away in Texas for a couple years. We came back, visited our hometown, and as we were driving into my hometown, the fear of God came upon me because I heard the call of the wild and, you know, it was a place of temptation.

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Lord, deliver me from this. There's places where you can be tempted in ways where you're not tempted right now.

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We're to pray, Lord, lead me around these things so that I'm not tempted to sin against you. Lead us not in temptation,

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Lord. But wait, doesn't the Scripture say in 1

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Corinthians 10, 13, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man? God is faithful.

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He will not let you be tempted above your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

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Yes, that's true, but it's the way of escape that we're to resort to because you're going to be tempted in places where you cannot deal with it apart from the grace of God.

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He gives you the way of escape. There's no temptation that you will encounter that's not common to all of us, but we need grace to escape it.

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And besides, although God has provided a means to escape temptation, it's far better not to enter temptation to begin with than to fight through temptation after you entered it.

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And so, Lord, don't let me go there. Don't let me be in that place where I'm tempted. And so it's a good thing to pray continually,

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Father, do not allow me or my children or my friends to encounter temptation. Preserve us from this trial.

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We cannot escape all temptation. It'll come. It's common to man. Nevertheless, it's good and right, and we're encouraged by the

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Lord to pray. Do not permit me to enter temptation. But rather, the eighth point of this, but deliver us from the evil one.

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This is another clause that is in the New King James version, but not in the ESV, but it was assimilated by a scribe from Matthew's Sermon on the

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Mount, so we'll consider it's teaching. A post -World War II German commentator,

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Helmut Thielecke, he was a good man, wrote these words regarding this petition.

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Literally translated, this petition reads, deliver us from the evil. And here again, what is meant is not evil in general, and therefore what is bad, imperfect, vicious, perhaps even demonic, but rather the evil one.

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It is therefore a personal magnitude. It is nothing less than the devil. From his tyranny, may the

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Father deliver us. This is what Jesus teaches us to pray. And then after he wrote of the tendency of commentators in the early 20th century to resist or explain away the teaching about the devil, he wrote these words, and I suspect it was with reference to the

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Nazi era that he lived through by this time he was in America.

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Dear friends, in our time we've had far too much contact with demonic powers. We have sensed and seen how men and whole movements have been corrupted and controlled by mysterious abysmal powers, leading them where they had no intention of going.

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We've observed all too often how an alien spirit can ride people and change the very substance of men who before have been quite decent and reasonable persons, driving them to brutalities, delusions of power, fits of madness of which they never appeared to be capable before.

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Year by year we've seen an increasingly poisonous atmosphere settling down upon our globe, and we sense how real and almost tangible are the evil spirits in the air, seeing an invisible hand passing an invisible cup of poison from nation to nation and throwing them into confusion.

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I say that we have seen all this too clearly. We've been far too shocked by all this for me to have to prepare your mind and mine in order to discuss the question of the devil without embarrassing you.

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The overwhelming power of these experiences is so strong it simply breaks through all the intellectual insulation which are so prone to interpose in order to keep out these dark powers.

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And those words were written in 1959, and can you imagine today?

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And we see. You know there's more people in America who believe in the existence of the devil than they do God. I've read polls about that.

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So this is a petition for the Lord to deliver us from the devil and his designs and efforts to defeat us and ensnare us in sin.

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Satan is one of the main instigators of temptation for people. In fact, there are two places in Scripture when he is described as, or called, the tempter,

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Matthew 4 and 1 Thessalonians 3, the tempter. And here in Luke 11, 4, the devil is referred to as the evil one.

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In other places, the devil is referred in the same Greek words, meaning the evil one. Matthew 13, it is translated the wicked one.

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Same Greek word, the wicked one, for the evil one used here in Luke 11 verse 4, but it's translated as wicked there.

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And also in Ephesians 6, 13 and following, the wicked one, the same Greek word translated the wicked one, is translated the evil one here in Luke 11, verse 4.

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Thankfully, because of the authority the Father has given to his Son, the devil is no real threat to the Lord's people.

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The devil cannot do anything to any one of the Lord's people, which the Lord does not permit. And that's why we can pray to our

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Father to deliver us from the evil one, for we know that the Lord Jesus may and will do so on our behalf.

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You need to beware of him, but you do not need to be terrorized by him. Remember, there was a time when the devil desired to tempt

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Peter to forsake Jesus. Abandoning his faith in him, Peter was not aware of what was about to take place.

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But the Lord warned him, the Lord knew what was taking place, and so the Lord said to him,

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Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. Satan had to get God's permission.

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But Jesus said, but I prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you've returned to me, strengthen your brethren.

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And Peter foolishly said, Lord, I'm ready to go with you, both to prison and to death. No, I tell you,

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Peter, the rooster will not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know me.

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So our Lord prayed that Peter would not enter temptation, turning the occurrence into our

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Lord's testing of Peter rather than the devil's temptation of Peter, if we can use that terminology.

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Our Lord prayed for Peter regarding temptation to keep him from the evil one. Similarly, Jesus Christ prays for his people as our high priest.

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He prays for you and for me. For he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

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We are to pray for ourselves. We are to pray for one another. Jesus Christ prays for us, and the Holy Spirit prays for us, according to Romans 8.

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John Bunyan sought to convey the need to pray for deliverance from the devil. He described Christian and the pilgrim's progress in his battle with the evil one.

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It's an extended quote, but it's so illustrative. I included it for us once again.

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I've done it in the past. Bunyan wrote of Christian's experience, I saw then in my dreamer the whole pilgrim's progress was in a form of a dream of the narrator.

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I saw that in my dream, so far as this valley reads, there was on the right hand a very deep ditch.

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That ditch is it into which the blind have led the blind in all ages. Both, they are miserably perished.

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And behold, on the left hand there was a very dangerous swamp, quagmire, into which if even a good man falls, he can find no bottom for his foot to stand on.

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Unto that quag King David once fell, did fall, and had no doubt therein been smothered, had not he that is able plucked him out.

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Psalm 69 14. Plucked him out, set his feet on solid ground. The pathway was here also exceedingly narrow, therefore good

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Christian was the more put to it, for when he saw it in the dark to shun the ditch on the one hand, he was ready to tip over into the mire of the other.

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Also, when he sought to escape the mire without great carefulness, he was ready to fall into the ditch, and thus he went on.

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I heard him here sigh bitterly, for besides the dangers mentioned above, the pathway was here so dark, and often times when he lift up his foot to set forward, he knew not where or upon what he should see it set it next.

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And so Christian's going through this terrible trial. About in the midst of this valley,

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I perceived the mouth of hell to be, and it stood also hard by the wayside. Now, thought

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Christian, what shall I do? And ever and on, in other words at once the flame and smoke would come out in such abundance with sparks and hideous noises, things that cared not for Christian's sword.

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It did Apollyon before, in the previous valley he fought the devil Apollyon, the demon with his sword, the sword of the spirit, the word of God.

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But now these sparks and noises cared not for Christian's sword, the word of God. It troubled his conscience, that he was forced to put up his sword and betake himself to another weapon called all prayer.

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Alright, you commonly hear the sword of the spirit in Ephesians 6 only has one offensive weapon, the sword.

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Really he had a second weapon, all prayer. So he cried in my hearing,

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O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Thus he went on a great while, yet still the flames would be reaching towards him, and also he heard doleful voices rushing to and fro, so that sometimes he thought he should be torn in pieces or trodden down like mire in the streets.

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This frightful sight was seen. These dreadful noises were heard by him for several miles together and coming to a place where he thought he had heard a company of fiends coming toward to meet him, he stopped and began to muse what he had best to do.

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Sometimes he had half a thought to go back, then again he thought he might be halfway through the valley.

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He remembered also how he had already vanquished many a danger, and the danger of going back might be much more than to go forward, so he resolved to go on.

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And yet the fiends seemed to come nearer and nearer, and when they were come even almost at him, he cried out with a most vehement voice,

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I will walk in the strength of the Lord. And so they gave back and came no further. But then it's this last portion that I wanted to include.

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One thing I would not let slip, I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded, he did not know his own voice.

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And thus I perceived it, and just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, stepped up softly to him and whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind.

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I know Christians that experience this, they think it's their own mind, it's really the devil putting thoughts into their mind, how could

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I possibly think these thoughts, these blasphemous thoughts, it's of the devil. This put

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Christian more to it than anything he had met before, even to think that he should now blaspheme him that he loved so much before.

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Yet if he could have helped it, he would not have done it, but he had not the discretion either to stop his ears or to know from whence these blasphemies came.

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And so when Christian had traveled in this disconsolate condition some considerable time, he thought he heard the voice of a man as going before him saying, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

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I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Pilgrim's progress,

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I was emailing some young lady this last week, a friend, who very, very troubled to what she's experiencing, and I urged her, once again, read the pilgrim's progress.

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John Bunyan was a gifted man, a genius who set forth the Christian life, all aspects of the

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Christian life in a manner so illustrative and yet biblical that you find instruction and encouragement in whatever you're facing.

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Now we've shown how the devil is the evil one for whom we should pray our Lord to protect us, and we need to pray for escape, but perhaps we should take care not to limit the cause of temptation only to the devil.

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Thomas Boston rightly spoke of the need to pray to escape from other sources of temptation. He listed them, three of them.

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The grand tempter is the devil. He was an angel of light but has now turned to a tempting devil, an apostate from God for whom there's no hope, and being

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God's irreconcilable enemy goes about withdrawing men from their allegiance to their sovereign Lord.

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He's an expert tempter and is now the experience of several thousand years in the hellish trade.

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He has his devices for entrapping poor mortals and knows how to suit his temptations as they may best take.

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He's more skilled at tripping you up than you are to avoid him. You need the grace of God.

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You need to pray to deliver us from the evil one. But secondly, men are tempters to one another. Satan so prevails with them as to act his part one against another.

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Sometimes they set themselves to drive others into sin by force, sometimes gently draw them into it, and Satan gets not only wicked men but many times godly men yoked to this tempting work, as in the case of Peter.

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Peter tempted Jesus. No, we're not going to let you die. This will never happen to you.

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Get behind me, Satan. You savor the things of men, not of God. And then third, the lusts of the heart are temptations to all, our own lusts.

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This is the most dangerous enemy as being within. These are Satan's trustees, the lusts, which effectively lead us off the road and rob us of our purity.

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They are deceitful lusts, and as the heart of man is furnished with them, it is deceitful above all things.

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Reference to the heart, of course, in Jeremiah 17, 9. Deceitful above all things.

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And so when we pray that the Lord not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, we're prayed for deliverance from all sources of temptation, from the devil, from other people, and from our own sinful impulses.

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And so may our Lord help us to be faithful and pray this Lord's prayer as our Lord has taught us.

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Amen? It's a model prayer, tells us how and for what we should pray for, not just a rote thing that we recite from memory and think that we're more religious for having done so.

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Let's pray with understanding, with substance and content, and pray in faith.

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Thank you, our Father, for your word and for the clear teaching, Lord Jesus, that you provided us, your disciples.

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Now help us, our God, to apply these matters in our own souls. Help us, our God, to be always a praying people.

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Lord, pray that you would, your name be hallowed, that the

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Father be exalted, and that your kingdom would be realized, Lord, in this world as it's expanded, as people are converted, and as your kingdom is more realized, as we are more obedient and faithful to you, conforming our thinking and our lives according to your laws.

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And we pray again, our God, that you would provide for your people. There are some here, Lord, that are very needy with regard to physical things, things that are needful for getting by in life.

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We're living in a difficult world. Inflation's a real problem, our God, and limited resources and finite incomes,

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Lord. We're experiencing difficulty, some of us. We just pray that you would provide, as we look to you, our

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God, as our provider. And then, our God, we pray that you would forgive us of our debts, our sins, our

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God, and give us grace, our God, and warning, Lord, that we should and that we will forgive those who have sinned against us, that we might become more like you as a gracious and merciful

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God to us. And then, our God, we pray that you deliver us from temptation, that we would be able to live lives of holiness before you, our

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God, without being drawn off or troubled to a great extent, that we might live lives of liberty and freedom and holiness before you,