Lord Teach Us To Pray – Week 10 – Deliver us from the evil one

In our series Lord Teach us to Pray, this week we look at the next section of the “Disciple’s Prayer” in Matthew 6. Deliver us from evil.  We look at God as our deliverer and Savior and deicover how he protects us from the evil one.

Lord Teach Us To Pray – Week 10 – Deliver us from the evil one

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Well today we continue in our series of on prayer and we look at the Phrase … Deliver us from the evil one

I am glad you are here today. I think today If you will press in and pay close attention today that God is going to reveal something to you that could change your life completely. I am going to show you something at the end of the service that has done that for me. Are you ready?

This is the 7th and final petition in this prayer. There are several significant ideas to in these few words and we will not be able to fully explore all of them but we will try and break this down into two thoughts. The first is simply this.

God is our deliverer. When we are overwhelmed, when we are attacked, when we are persecuted, when we are tempted and put between a rock and a hard place…. it is God who is our Rescuer.

As we have seen in this series when we pray this simple prayer we are encouraged to know God better and deeper. As with any spiritual discipline they are given to us to help us press in more and more to Him and to grow in our relationship with Him. While we see Him as Father, Lord, King, Provider, Forgiver & Guide there is nothing more comforting than to know He is our Savior, rescuer and protector.

The second thought that is evident in this phrase is we have a real enemy and he is not on our side. His desire is to destroy our fellowship with our Heavenly Father and to keep us from being led by His Spirit as we talked about last week.

So as we look at this phrase what does it mean to know Him as Savior? What does He save us from? And How does that work out into or daily lives. Remember we are told to ask for daily bread, so this leads us to believe that we need to ask for Him to deliver us daily as well.

In Luke chapter 1 Zechariah (the father of John the Baptist) prophecies about the coming of Jesus, and he says this…

LUKE 1:68-75
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come to His people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a Horn of Salvation for us in the house of His servant David
70 (as He said through His holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember His holy covenant,
73 the oath He swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve Him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.

In this we see that God sent Jesus to save us in a few different ways. Salvation is tricky word in the New Testament, and is often confused because we don’t understand that there are several components and times associated with the word. In 2 Corinthians we see it explained in 3 different ways.

2 Corinthians 1:8-11
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Paul speaks of 3 phases of our deliverance. A past, a present and a future deliverance. This is the salvation process that each and every child of God experiences in their lives. Do you realize that your salvation is not finished yet? What? Now I know that sounds wrong. Jesus said “It is finished!” And that is true. He finished His work on your behalf on the cross, but that does not mean that God is finished working on you. That should be a great encouragement to each of us. That is the work that God wants to do in each of our lives. He wants to be the one who is right by your side bringing about your complete salvation.

Paul wrote in Romans 13:11, And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

So the natural question that comes up is if my salvation is not complete, does that mean I can loose it? The answer is NO. If you did something to obtain it, or did something to make it happen then that might be so. But salvation is a work that Christ does in us and for us, not something we do or work for. Whew, that is a relief right? Once we understand the process of this deliverance we see how amazing and beyond us it truly is.

Ephesian 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

These verses are speaking of our past deliverance. They are speaking of your deliverance from the Penalty of Sin. This is the first part of our salvation. Romans 6:23 reminds us the Wages of Sin is death. But Jesus forgave the debt we incurred. He did that on the cross. He paid the penalty of sin on our behalf. He did this when we accepted the gift He offers by placing our trust in Him to be our Deliverer our savior.

Ephesians 1:13-14
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

The very moment you believe you are delivered from the penalty of sin, and you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. He is given as a down payment of our complete salvation and inheritance. All this is done by God on our behalf.

The Holy spirit points to that day when our salvation is finally complete. Our Future Deliverance, where we are saved from the Presence of Sin.

Hebrews 9:28
So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Jesus is coming again! This is the Glorious Hope that we have. The first time He came it was to bring salvation, but the second time He comes it will also to bring salvation. Salvation from the presence of sin.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Philippians 3:20-21
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Wow! Do you see that We are going to be perfect, completely holy. We will no longer struggle with the flesh because we will have new bodies. Glorious means perfect like God. But notice how do we get this perfect body? He gives it to us. Nothing we do, it is the power of Jesus Christ.

Here is the powerful point, It is God who delivers us from the penalty of sin and God who delivers us from the presence of sin, so wouldn’t it make sense that God delivers us from the power of sin as well?

We are delivered from the power of sin in the present. Deliverance from the power of sin is also part of His process in our lives. But many times we feel it is up to us. Jesus did His part now we have to do our part. But that is not what Scripture tells us.

So why is it so hard to live the life God calls us to? Because we have a real enemy and he is battling against our salvation. He is called “the god of this world” and “the prince and power of the air” (2 Cor 4:4, Eph 2:2) The evil one is none other than Satan himself. The truth is we don’t stand a chance against him.
Great pastor, so what do we do?

Philippians 2:12
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

Work out – katergazomai – means to let it come to full completion – by the means of obedience

The words fear and trembling are used to indicate complete and total submission

So see, we have to do it, right? We have to deliver ourselves from the power of sin right? NO!

Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.

You see He is the one who does it. It is by His power and His grace that we live the life He calls us to. (Guitar) We are the instrument in His hand. He is the musician. We can do nothing on our own, but if we trust ourselves into His hands He will work in us and do what pleases Him. But unlike the guitar which is a passive instrument, we are active instruments. We have the ability to rebel and to follow after other passions, passions that The Evil one (satan) puts in our path. This is where the relationship comes back into play.

As I said we are powerless to defeat the Evil one. So, it is a good thing that we do not have to. Jesus does that for us as well. 1John 4:4 reminds us… You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. If we submit ourselves to His loving hand He does this all for us. We pray deliver us from the Evil One. Why because we cannot do it ourselves.

NOTE: I have had people ask me “Are we to address Satan in our prayers? Should we rebuke Him, or bind Him? That sounds good, but there is nowhere in Scripture we find that. Anywhere. In fact, even the angels who are more powerful than us, won’t rebuke Him. So how do we defeat Him?

James 4:7 says …Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. You see the truth of the matter is, it is not us who does any of it. It is only in our submission to Christ, that He does those things in us.

Let me show you a pattern that I have seen for many years that has always frustrated me and then let me show you another that I recently discovered that defeats it hands down.

Many of you know this first pattern. The Evil One (or one of his minions) comes along and tempts you. All the time you are struggling, he throws accusations and taunts at you for being too weak to overcome. If he is “successful” He then piles more condemnation on you for falling prey to the struggle. On the other hand if we overcome he then tries to use our pride to make us think we are inoculated to that scheme, or he accuses us of being a “goodly two shoes” or “Holier than thou type”. He will use others snide remarks and then ratchet up the pressure even more in another area.
Does anyone know what I am talking about? It seems you can’t win either way. I have looked at this pattern for many years and been frustrated that it seems he has an answer for any eventuality, and at times it has caused me to wonder is there any real “deliverance”?

Here is what I realized this week. God also has a two fold plan and it defeats Satan’s puny little plan every time!

Lets look at the same scenario. The Evil One (or one of his minions) comes along and tempts you. While you are struggling, God is calling you to venture deeper into His love and Grace. He is calling out to you, asking you to draw closer to Him so he can deliver you from the Evil One. If we fail and sin, our old nature is exposed and Satan’s attack is revealed, and God is glorified in that we are shown how we need to turn to our deliverer, to “throw our selves on the mercy of God and draw closer to Him.

On the other hand if we overcome and we have victory, it is only because we are already “in Christ” in the first place. And we can rejoice in the fact that He has delivered us from His clutches. In either case believers are able to give God the glory, to exalt His name and proclaim Him as deliverer, which draws us closer to Christ, and our relationship with Him.
So, all temptation loses its ultimate power. God is always the victor. We are drawn either (1) to a need for the grace of Christ due to our fall or (2) to rejoice because we have received a victory over sin because we were in Christ.

If we stay close to God in prayer and stay in relationship with Him, He promises to rescue us. To Deliver us from the Evil One.

Invitation:
Seekers
Maybe today you are here and you have never made Him your deliverer. You can do that today!
Remember it is not complete today but he gives us the Holy Spirit to empower us to see it completed in us.

Believers
Remember that in 1 Corinthians 10:13 is says…
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

You see He is always there providing everything we need to walk in His power and His strength. What an amazing God we have!

Lets Pray.

 

For more on this series check out the rest of the series here.