Lead Us Not into Temptation

Introduction: The Lord's Prayer in Context

0:04 Just briefly, by way of review and introduction for the benefit of our visitors, we are conducting a verse-by-verse study of the Sermon on the Mount. I've been doing this over well into the second year, and are presently in the midst of the sixth chapter, in which we have the instruction of our Lord concerning what we might call the Christian and his religious life. We've looked at our Lord's instruction on the subject of giving, and are now considering what our Lord taught on the subject of prayer, and then we'll conclude this section in a few weeks, the Lord willing,

0:47 as we come to our Lord's teaching on the subject of fasting, the disciplining of our physical needs and appetites to higher spiritual goals and to spiritual ends. And in each of these instances, our Lord assumes that his followers will give, that they will pray, and that they will fast. There is no such creature recognized in the New Testament as a Christian who doesn't give, who doesn't pray, and who does not discipline his physical needs to higher spiritual ends. In the subject of prayer, our Lord is given two negative examples, or prohibitions, when ye pray, be not as the heathen,

1:31 who are characterized by their vain repetitions, verse 7, that our Lord has told us that we should not be like the hypocrites, in verse 6, who love to pray in the public places. Positive instruction on the matters for which we are to pray and the manner of our praying, we see what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer, in verses 9 through 13. It begins with the approach to prayer, recognizing who God is, is the God of heaven, recognizing our relationship to him. If we are the children of God, he is our Father.

2:13 Then there follows three petitions relative to the purposes of God, the hallowing of his name, the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will on earth as it is in heaven. Then three petitions relative to our needs. Give us this day our daily bread. We consider this last Lord's Day morning.

The Petition: Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil

2:36 And then forgive us our debts. As we forgive our debtors, this was the subject of our study last Lord's Day evening. And now this morning we come to the last of these petitions and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The most basic need as Christians is the need for bread.

2:59 Not most important, but most basic. You cannot walk with God and do the will of God and be involved in the kingdom of God unless you're alive, unless physical life is sustained. And so our Lord puts as the first petition relative to our needs, the most basic or elementary of our needs, that of the provision of physical sustenance.

3:25 Comfort comes to the Christian whose physical needs are met if he must walk about with a clouded, troubled conscience. And so our Lord teaches us that daily we should keep our consciences clear by the blood of Christ, by praying, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now if you have bread upon your table to meet your basic physical needs, and you can face the day with a clear conscience, there's only one other thing you need, and that's grace from God to go through that day in the power of the Spirit that you will not incur further stain upon your conscience and further marring of your fellowship with God by sin. And so we come to this petition,

4:09 which naturally follows the other two, to lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now let us look first of all at the meaning of the words in each phrase, and then we'll seek to bring some application of those words to our own lives and to our own prayer experience. ...us not into temptation.

Defining 'Temptation': Inducement to Evil

4:33 Now what does the word temptation mean in this instance? It's used in several basic ways in the New Testament. There are some instances where the word temptation means a trial, a period of testing. James 1, 2, We are told, my brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse or many kinds of testings.

4:56 The same word used, temptations. But there it's speaking of situations which try our faith. For the next verse says, Knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience or endurance. And then we read in 1 Peter 4, verse 12, Beloved, think it not, strange concerning the fiery trial.

5:17 Same word. The fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice inasmuch as ye are made partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory may be revealed, ye may be glad with exceeding joy. Now here it's obvious the word means a trial of faith that can come by a difficult circumstance, by persecution, by the pressures of life.

5:42 But now the word temptation, the same word, sometimes has a more limited connotation of an inducement to evil. We read in Matthew chapter 4 that Jesus was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be painted by the devil. Now he wasn't put in a trying circumstance by the devil, but the devil came seeking to induce our Lord to do that which was evil and sin. He tried to get him to gratify physical appetite out of the will of God.

6:15 Since thou be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread. He tried to get him to bypass the cross. Fall down, worship me, and the kingdoms will be yours. No sense going through that bloody baptism of Gethsemane and Golgotha.

6:29 You can take a shortcut to your rightful inheritance. There was the specific inducement to sin. This is the usage you find in James 1 further on, verse 13, where we read, let no man say when he's tempted, to evil, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man, but every man is tempted when he's drawn away by his own lust and enticed. I believe it's in this second sense of an inducement to evil that our Lord is teaching us how we ought to pray.

7:06 And so our prayer is, lead us not into temptation. The word literally means, don't carry us into a situation where we will be strongly induced, either by the devil or our own passions, to do that which would dishonor God and bring a blot upon our conscience and bring reproach to his name.

Acknowledging God's Sovereignty Over Temptation

7:31 Earlier in this prayer, it will be done in us as it is in heaven. If we are subject to God and to his will, then all the circumstances and all the contingencies of our lives are ordered by him. The all things applies here, Romans 8 and verse 28, that are working together in the life and experience of the child of God. And so in this prayer, we're asking God that if it please him, we will not be led in the outworking of his will into situations whereby the world, the flesh or the devil, we will be induced to do that which is sinful.

8:15 In praying this, there are several things, that I believe our Lord wants us to acknowledge. And we can't intelligently pray this prayer without acknowledging them. The first thing we acknowledge in this prayer is the absolute sovereignty of God over his whole creation. God is not the God who holds even the devil and the powers of darkness at his fingertips.

8:44 And this prayer loses its meaning. For how may the God will keep me from temptation, those inducements to evil, which come from the devil himself or his organized host. And that God will keep me from temptations which will come from my own corrupt nature when I'm placed into certain circumstances, unless I believe that the devil and the circumstances which would prove to be temptation are under his control. And so when I pray this prayer, I'm making that confession of Ephesians 1.22,

9:21 that Jesus Christ is head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. I think the best commentary in the New Testament on this verse is 1 Corinthians 10.13. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that ye are able.

9:45 Do you see what's involved in that? If I can be tempted by something without the devil or the host of darkness, if I can be tempted by a circumstance or situation which will find some response in my corrupt, depraved nature, according to James, every man's tempted when he's drawn away by his lust, then 1 Corinthians 10.13 says, 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 are able to bear. What a wonderful confession of the absolute sovereignty of God as we pray.

10:30 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.

10:59 But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and when thou art turned again, strengthen thy brethren. Even the devil couldn't touch the child of God without the permission of the God whose child he was. Satan hath asked for thee, he's desired thee to sift thee as wheat, and the Lord Jesus said, there's going to be a little relinquishing of that hedge of protection, he's going to be allowed to touch you, but I have prayed for thee, and when thou art turned again, strengthen thy brethren. I don't want to underestimate the power of the devil, that'll come in the next part of the petition, but I'm convinced a lot of people have too big a devil and too small a God.

11:44 If you've got a God who does not have even the powers of darkness under his sovereign control, I don't know what you're doing sitting here this morning. If I were in your place, I wouldn't be here, as far as thinking that way. I think I'd dig me a hole up in the hills of Pennsylvania somewhere and stock it full of guts of good food and take a rifle and hibernate and be a hermit with myself and my family. We can come each day with the conscience that our God is a sovereign God who works all things after the counsel of his will, and that in praying this prayer, we can have confidence that 1 Corinthians 10, 13 will be fulfilled, that he will not allow us to be tempted, above that we are able.

Acknowledging Our Depraved Nature

12:28 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

13:12 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.

13:53 I hear of a Christian who's brought dishonor to the Lord perhaps by a moral lapse or by some fall into an area of covetousness and they look so shocked and horrified. I wonder if they've ever seen their own hearts. When you've seen your own heart, beloved, you know it's only the grace of God that you're not there. For you've seen the seeds of this within your own breasts.

14:19 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.

14:47 So Lord, keep me from the situation in which I would be tempted to respond. In the earliest moments of our lives every single potential to evil is within us. The conviction that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing is not something you learn by parroting it from a book on the victorious life. Beloved, you learn that in those times when before God in the light of his burning countenance you begin to discover something of what Isaiah discovered when he says, woe is me, I am undone.

15:26 He wasn't a whoremonger. He wasn't a cheat. He wasn't a covetous man. He was a holy prophet when God showed him his heart.

15:35 And when God reveals to us the stuff of which we are made then we find great comfort in praying this petition. Lead us not into temptation, acknowledging the sovereignty of God over the tempter and over the situations by which we'd be tempted, acknowledging the depravity of our own natures. That's why the scripture says, let him that thinketh he standeth take ye lest he fall. For you see, Paul had been describing some of the terrible sins of the nation of Israel as though the people of Corinth took back and said, isn't that a shame?

16:15 How could they do that? And Paul breaks in with that word, let him that thinketh he standeth. Take ye lest, look at the second phrase, but deliver us from evil. There's a little article in there, deliver us from the evil.

Defining 'Evil': The Evil One or General Evil

16:35 Because that little V is there, there's a question as to whether our Lord is teaching us to pray, deliver us from the evil one, a name which is given to the devil, three or four times in the book of 1 John, 1 John 2.13 and 3.12. It's a phrase used of the devil in Matthew 13, the parable of the sower, where our Lord says, then cometh the evil one and taketh away that which is sown in the heart.

17:02 In Mark 4, the same passage, the parallel passage, it says, then cometh the devil. And so this phrase, the evil one, is descriptive of the devil himself, the one who stands at the head of all the organized hosts of the powers of darkness. And if our Lord is teaching us to pray, this is what he has in mind. We pray, O God, lead me not into a situation where I'll be tempted, but should I be led into that situation, deliver me from the clutches of the devil who would just delight to see me enmeshed in the sin, and instead of coming away from the temptation an overcomer, coming away defeated,

17:45 coming away in bondage, coming away stained by the stain. Now if this is what our Lord was saying we should pray, then again there are several things that he wants us to acknowledge in this prayer. When we pray, deliver us from the evil one, if this is referring to the devil, we are recognizing each time we pray this that there is a personal devil. Now it would seem almost unnecessary to announce such a simple principle, but even in our evangelical circles you'll find that there's a relaxing of some of these basic concepts of the Scripture that behind all the wickedness and sin

18:29 and blindness and rebellion of unregenerate men, and behind the stumblings and fallings and failures of much of the people of God, there is a personal devil who is the embodiment of all wickedness and sin. Does that give us any grounds to indicate that he's anything other than a personality? A personal devil? He's called the God of this world, of whom the Scripture speaks and says that the world walks after the course of this world, after the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the sons of disobedience.

19:10 And so in this prayer we acknowledge that there is a personal devil. And the second thing we acknowledge is that this personal devil is determined to hinder the people of God. In 1 Peter 5 we read, Your adversary, the devil, goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Your adversary, the devil, goeth about.

19:35 We read in James chapter 4, Whom resists steadfast in the faith. Ephesians 6, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly belief. We believe as the children of God that we are of personal concern to the devil. That's not a very flattering thing, but are you convinced of it?

20:06 Are you convinced that as a child of God the devil is determined in one way or another to bring reproach to the name of God by your life and to so enmesh your life by his machinations and deceitful workings that you will be rendered ineffective in rescuing others from his clutches? And in bringing honor to the name of your God? We read in James chapter 4, A man is never in more danger than when he rethinks there is no danger. And in this prayer, if the Lord was referring to the devil, we are acknowledging this daily.

20:47 We're acknowledging we're in a conflict. 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. This kind of a concept of Christian victory, where you sort of abide in Christ in such a way that it's what I call a Christian nirvana, where there's nothing, no struggle, no fight, no battle. I don't see a thought in the word.

21:14 When I bow on my knees in obedience to my Lord and pray, Deliver me from evil and acknowledge Jesus.

21:29 And the third thing I recognize in praying this petition is my absolute helplessness without divine assistance. We acknowledge Lord left to myself. That's for that one. He's been in this business for thousands of years of deluding and damning the souls of the unregenerate and in tripping off and scouring and marring the lives of the saved.

21:54 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.

22:12 There in the Old Testament, do you remember that instance where David was tending his sheep and into the midst of the sheep came the ravenous beast that would lay hold of one of those sheep. And the moment that beast came into the circle of the shepherd's concern and protection of his sheep, it was no longer an issue between a sheep and that beast, but it became an issue of the beast and the shepherd. David took the shepherd and took the beast and with his bare hands he swam. What a beautiful picture of our Lord as the great shepherd.

22:51 As you and I are walking in fellowship with him in the covenant of his grace, he would come. And here we are, poor helpless little sheep. And the sheep has nothing worth to battle against. ...to know that

23:15 and the issue is between the lion who's his head upon the cross. That situation as I am crying to him, Lord, deliver me from the evil one. The victory of the cross is applied in that situation and I am more than victorious through the intervention of my Lord. Do you acknowledge your absolute helplessness unless he intervenes?

23:44 Now if the petition means deliver us from the evil in a general sense, it would seem to have a parallel in John 17, 15 where Jesus said, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil I believe he's speaking there, from the evil of the world. And this would move it out into a more general sense. And this would be the connection with the first phrase. We're praying, O God, don't allow me to come into temptation, but if I do, cause me to come away unstained by the evil of submission to the temptation.

24:23 Lord, my enemy's not really temptation, but my enemy is sin and evil. So Lord, though I pray that you will not allow me to come into temptation, if I do, deliver me from the evil that would attach itself to me in the midst of the temptation. Now if this is what our Lord meant, and I frankly acknowledge most of these things after weighing them and checking the standard commentators, I come away with a conviction that the weight of the evidence is a little bit more one than the other. But I wasn't able to do that this Lord's day, so I've got a three.

24:56 It means one, but both are truths in the Bible, so I'll throw both of them out this morning. If this is what our Lord meant, then we are acknowledging that there is such a thing as positive evil. We're praying, Lord, don't lead me into temptation, for if I submit, I will do that which is evil. And I want you young people to listen to me especially now.

25:17 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

25:59 is to move into the realm of sin and of evil. The National Council of Churches, the Education Department, recently put out a publication for young people. I would advise them what to do in this matter of sex. The essence of the advice, the part that I read in an article from the secular magazine, was that after considering all the factors, some of you young people may feel it wise and right to have sexual relations before and outside of marriage.

26:34 But if you do, just be sure that you approach it intelligently and with good reason. That's the advice that our religious leaders are giving us. Fornicators have their part in the lake of fire, and fornication is illicit sexual relationship outside of the marriage part. But there's no such thing as evil.

26:57 Why? Because we've gotten into the sea of relativism, no absolute standards. Now, don't put into the realm of absolute what God hasn't. I refuse to do it.

27:06 That's why you don't hear me talking about cigarettes and beer and wine. Nowhere has God put these in the realm of the absolute. But God has put lying, cheating, stealing, disobedience to mother and father. God has put sexual promiscuity and all of these things into the realm of evil.

27:24 Relativism and the moral standards of God. I want you young people to realize this. God says, thou shalt not steal. He meant it.

27:36 And I don't care if all the kids in school are cheating. To cheat is to steal. God says, thou shalt not bear false witness. He tells us we're not to lie.

27:47 Business lies are out, men. I don't care who else is doing it. And if you and I honestly and intelligently pray, deliver us from the evil, then we're acknowledging that there is such a thing as positive evil. And we can't be relativists in the world and in the realm of what our Lord meant.

28:20 That our great enemy is not primarily temptation, but our great enemy is sin. Was it not Luther who said, among other things, the things that God uses to make a great preacher? One of them was temptation. It's the person who's known what it is in the midst of a situation where everything within his flesh and the pressures of the devil have been tugging in the direction of evil, who has thrown himself upon the mercy of God and pleaded for grace to be delivered.

28:50 That's the person who can testify experimentally of the truth of our Lord Jesus, that whom the Son sets free is free indeed. We acknowledge that our great enemy is not temptation, though we pray to be delivered from it. But our great enemy is sin and evil. And from this, we ask the Lord to deliver us.

Theological Application: Sanctification Built on Pardon

29:11 Now may I make several applications of this two-fold petition. Deliver us from temptation. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one or from the evil of the temptation. First of all, there's an application, a theological application.

29:30 You'll notice that this petition follows the petition for pardon. We pray, forgive us our debts. Then we pray, lead us not into temptation. The superstructure of sanctification of life is built upon the foundation of pardon.

29:47 And if you're here this morning as one who's never repented of sin and fled to Christ for mercy, your plea is not to be, Lord, lead me not into temptation. You must first of all come on the foundational plea, nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I bring. There is no superstructure of sanctification unless it's built upon the foundation of the full pardon offered in the Lord Jesus Christ to guilty sinners. And what is true of you outside of Christ is true of every child of God.

30:29 It will do no good for us upon the heels of a certain failure to cry, O God, give me deliverance the next time, until we face that failure honestly in the context of true Bible confession of sin. Much easier to bow than to confess, is it not? Isn't it? To fail, and then to roll up our sleeves and say, Lord, I won't do it again, is grace.

31:03 And then don't for one minute think that your vows add to His grace. To obey is better than to sacrifice, but sacrifice is easier than obedience. You know, your child done something wrong, hardest thing in the world to do is admit it. Well, he'll say, I won't do it again if he gets caught.

31:22 He'll cry and slobber, but for him to say, I did it and I shouldn't have done it and I was wrong and make amends, that's not natural, is it? See, we're built this way. Part of Adam's structure in us. And so the theological principle in this prayer, and anyone who says there's no theology in the Sermon on the Mount doesn't have the right glasses on.

31:41 It's here. Theology is this, that sanctification in the holy light is built upon the foundation of pardon and forgiveness. Now just one or two practical applications to bring us to a close. If this prayer is to be genuine, honest, then use every means possible to pray and ordain to the end for which we are praying.

Practical Application: Using Means of Grace

32:08 Now let me explain what I mean by that. If we're really praying, Lord, lead me not into temptation, we're not going to get off our knees and run into a situation in which we know we'll be tempted. We nullify the genuineness of our prayer. Deliver us from the evil one and then go out and find where he is and say, here I am, do something to me.

32:35 As one of the old Puritans said, in prayer we tempt God if we ask for that which we labor not for. Our faithful endeavors must second our devotion. If we pray for grace and neglect the spring from which it comes, how can we succeed? Now when we honestly pray, deliver us from the evil one, lead us not into temptation, if we mean that, then when we get off our knees, we will employ every means that a gracious God has put at our disposal to keep us from temptation and to keep us from the evil one.

33:12 And what are those means? Yes, that's right, right back to the old thing. Father, who gave himself for the church that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. For you to pray that you'll not be led into temptation and then to neglect the daily, thoughtful, prayerful meditation upon the scriptures is to nullify the genuineness of your praying by your actions.

33:54 Because this is the means at our disposal to keep us from sin. The place of prayer, for Jesus said in Matthew 26, 41, watch and pray that you what? Enter not into temptation. The Lord says, here's the means.

34:16 Do you pray to me? Lead me not into temptation? If you mean it, then get on your knees and pray and watch lest ye enter into temptation. The child of God upon his knees is tied in with the victory over sin of the child of God upon his feet.

34:39 But our Lord has said there's a vital relationship and if we're genuinely praying this petition, then we'll not neglect the word, we'll not neglect the grace of prayer. And then there sometimes is the instrument of defiling thoughts to some of you and sit there and pray,

35:24 God, lead me not into temptation. That's absolutely ridiculous. You mock God. Teach and get away from it.

35:31 You cannot maintain a witness and keep your own spiritual life vibrant and vital. And the Bible says, evil companions corrupt good morals. Shun them. Steer clear.

Practical Application: Specificity in Prayer and Concern for Holiness

35:49 This is the means that God has put at our disposal. And I believe a second practical application, if we honestly pray this, we'll get specific in its outworking. If we're really praying, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil, we will zero in on the specific areas where we are particularly tempted to go into temptation. So, if we're really praying, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil, we will zero in on the specific areas where we are particularly tempted to go into temptation.

36:16 So, if we're really praying, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil, we will zero in on the specific areas where we are particularly tempted and where we are prone by our own innate weakness to the subtleties of the devil. Some of you, your problem's your tongue. You need to pray like David did. Set a watch upon my lips.

36:35 Keep the door of my mouth. Some of you, your particular area of susceptibility to sin is your eyes. So, you need to pray with Job or say with Job, I have made a covenant with my eyes. Your particular problem is pride.

36:50 Swell my head with pride. Lord, shut the mouth of the flatterer who would be an instrument of temptation. Be specific with God about your own particular areas of sin. The hymn we sing, I wonder if we understand it.

37:06 Leave no unguarded place, no weakness of the soul. Take every virtue, every grace, and fortify the whole. From strength to strength go on, wrestle and fight. The last observation I'd like to make from this petition is that of the three petitions that we are taught to pray for ourselves, bread, forgiveness, temptation, two of the three relate directly to the matter of sin and holiness which is directly or which are directly related

37:50 to our walk with God. Why do we want to be forgiven? Why that our fellowship might be restored? Why do we want to be kept from temptation and from sin that there might be no breach in our relationship with God?

38:06 This tells me that the basic concern of every true Christian is that he be a holy man or a holy woman. That's why this is the prayer of the children of God. Any old sinner will come whimpering to God for bread. Such is the human heart that it will live in indifference to the commands and will of God and yet in a pinch will dare to cry out and try to snap the fingers and have deity bow to its wishes.

38:33 That's how bad the human heart is. It will try to make a servant out of God. The child of God is one who is far more concerned about God's glory, God's name, God's will, God's kingdom. And then his concern for bread is only to the end that he might be a holy man or a holy woman and have an undefiled conscience and experience an overcoming walk with God.

39:01 The doxology that follows here is omitted as most of you know in all the new translations simply because the Bible says that God is God and that God is God and so many months and years Jesus Christ Jesus is God and so many months and years and years and centuries and ages and centuries and centuries and all over we've got the new word that means that God is our bride and Our God and that God is God and that God is our birth and His name and His throne and His glory and His glory probably was not said by our Lord here,

39:45 and definitely was not in the parallel passage in Luke. I will omit an exposition of it, but put it in anyway because it's a Bible truth when you pray. Having seen Him as your Father, the great God of heaven, having been caught up in the great concerns of His heart for His name, for His kingdom, for His will, having as a little child besought Him for your bread, having looked up into His face for forgiveness, having applied yourself to the throne of grace for mercy and grace to help in time of need, what can we do but from the depths of our hearts ascribe unto Him the glory due His name and say in the words of this passage,

40:26 for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.

40:33 The Lord willing, we will consider verses 14 and 15 next Lord's Day morning, and the last phrase of that verse, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. May the Lord be pleased to teach us to pray as He Himself has given us the path. Let us bow together in prayer.

41:07 We thank Thee that in Thy condescending love You've stooped to us in our weakness,

41:17 displayed to us in this portion of Your Word Your intimate acquaintance with what we really are. We acknowledge this morning that there is within us the potential of everything, the form of sin and wickedness. And from the depths of our hearts we cry, lead us not into temptation.

41:42 Lord, You know our frame, You know our weakness.

41:46 We pray that You would keep us from those situations that would prove too much for our frail flesh, too much for our weak measure of grace.

41:59 Yet should we come into that situation, Lord, deliver us from the evil one. Deliver us from the evil that would, harass us so that our walk with Thee may be unmarred by a troubled conscience, by sin incurred in Thy children. Hear us, we pray, and seal the truths that we've considered this morning to each of our hearts and give us grace to walk in the light of them. We ask through our Lord Jesus Christ.