Lead Us Not into Temptation

Driving home: God will not allow me to be tempted above that which I am able, therefore he's controlling the devil and all the circumstances of life to keep his children from situations in which they would be tempted above that they a…

The account of Jesus telling Peter that Satan desired to sift him as wheat, but Jesus prayed for him, illustrates God's sovereign control over the devil and His protective care for His children.

Lead us not into temptation. Perhaps the best illustration of this in a real life situation in the New Testament is found in the life of Peter, where we read in Luke chapter 22 and verse 31, a familiar verse to some of us, I'm sure. Luke 22 and verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired you, that he may sift you as wheat.

10:30 - 10:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Every form of wickedness that's ever been committed is in germ form within your own breasts. You never quite understand professing Christians who seem almost overly pious in their shock at certain things that people do.

The human heart is described as a 'tinderbox of dried wood chips' that can easily ignite into 'raging flames of lust and passion,' illustrating the inherent depravity that makes us prone to sin.

Now, a second thing we acknowledge in this petition is that our natures are basically corrupt and depraved, even though we are the children of God. When a man gets on his knees, in the morning hours or whenever he prays, and looks up into the face of God and pleads, O God, lead me not into a situation where I will be induced to evil, he's confessing that there is that in him which is prone to sin, and that's why he wants to be kept from situations where he will be tempted to sin. He's acknowledging that his heart is a tinderbox of dried wood chips and any kind of a spark

12:28 - 13:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Every form of wickedness that's ever been committed is in germ form within your own breasts. You never quite understand professing Christians who seem almost overly pious in their shock at certain things that people do.

The example of professing Christians being overly pious and shocked at others' moral lapses or covetousness highlights a lack of self-awareness regarding their own depraved hearts and the grace that keeps them from similar falls.

can ignite it in the raging flames of lust and passion and the corruption of human nature can burst out of this man. He's acknowledging that this is what his heart is. Every form of wickedness that's ever been committed is in germ form within your own breasts. You never quite understand professing Christians who seem almost overly pious in their shock at certain things that people do.

13:12 - 13:53 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Every form of wickedness that's ever been committed is in germ form within your own breasts. You never quite understand professing Christians who seem almost overly pious in their shock at certain things that people do.

The analogy of negative and positive polarities in a magnetic or electrical field illustrates how the corrupt nature within us (negative polarity) is drawn to temptation (positive polarity).

That's why we pray, lead us not into temptation. We're acknowledging before God that there is in our hearts a negative polarity and every temptation is like a positive polarity and as a negative and positive want to get together in a magnetic field or in the electrical field. This is the attitude of our hearts. We acknowledge, oh God, there's something in me that can respond.

14:19 - 14:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No view of the Christian life which takes out the reality of the conflict, the wrestling, the striving, the panting after God, the resisting of the devil is a biblical concept.

The analogy of a shepherd protecting his sheep from a ravenous beast (like David fighting the lion) illustrates Christ as the Great Shepherd who intervenes to deliver His helpless sheep from the devil, making the conflict His own.

He's a cunning one. And I bow before God acknowledging I'm no match and I say, Lord, you deliver me. And I think there's a wonderful analogy in the life of the shepherd and his sheep. For we read in Peter that he goes about as a roaring lion.

21:54 - 22:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explores whether 'deliver us from evil' refers to 'the evil one' (Satan) or to evil in a general sense (sin). He argues that if it refers to Satan, it acknowledges a…

The example of the National Council of Churches' education department advising young people that premarital sex might be 'wise and right' if approached intelligently, illustrates the modern loss of absolute moral standards and the rise of relativism.

You're being reared in a generation that has lost its moorings of absolute standards. You've heard talk about the new morality. Someone has said it's not new morality, it's just old immorality. But this could never have found root in the thinking of so-called intelligent people unless there had been a preparation of several generations of moving away from the concepts that God's moral standards are absolute, that God has given guidelines for the conduct of His creed, and that to move away from those guidelines embodied in those ten words that came thundering out of Mount Sinai

25:17 - 25:59 Read in full sermon