Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 509
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:13. Psalms are entitled “Songs of Degrees.” Certainly the prayer before us might be called a Prayer of Degrees. It begins where all true prayer must commence, with the spirit of adoption, “Our Father.” There is no acceptable prayer until we can say with the prodigal—“I will arise and go unto my Father.” This child-like spirit soon perceives the grandeur of the Father “in Heaven,” and ascends to devout adoration, “Hallowed be Your name.” The child who lisps, “Abba Father,” grows into the cherub, crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Then there is but a step from rapturous worship to the glowing missionary spirit, which is a sure outgrowth of filial love and reverent adoration—“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” We do not commence our spiritual career with this mission spirit. We begin with “Our Father.” We go on to feel His Glory, and then the next natural desire is that others may behold His greatness, too, till we are ready to cry with the Psalmist, “Let the whole earth be filled with His Glory.”
In the process of education, which this prayer so well describes, we find the man very early conscious of his dependence upon God. For as a dependent creature he cries, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Being further illuminated by the Spirit, he discovers that he is not only dependent, but sinful, therefore he entreats for mercy. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” and being pardoned, having the righteousness of Christ imputed, and knowing his acceptance with God, he humbly supplicates for holy perseverance, “Lead us not into temptation.”
The man who is really forgiven is anxious not to offend again. The possession of justification leads to an anxious desire for sanctification. “Forgive us our debts,” that is justification. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” that is sanctification in its negative and positive forms. Now, it would not be the course of nature to begin a life of prayer with the supplication of this morning. This is a petition for men already pardoned, for those who know their adoption, for those who love the Lord and desire to see His kingdom come. Taught of the Spirit to know their pardon, adoption, and union to Jesus, they can cry, and they, alone—“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
I shall this morning, first of all, anticipate an objection. Then I shall venture upon an exposition. And conclude with an exhortation.
I. First let us ANTICIPATE AN OBJECTION. A great many persons have been troubled by that passage in James, where it is expressly said, “Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man.” It has been found very difficult to reconcile that express declaration of the Apostle with this prayer of our Savior. And some good, but very ignorant men, have gone the length of altering our Lord’s words. I have heard of one who was custom always to say, “Leave us not in temptation”—a most unwarrantable and unjustifiable alteration of Holy Scripture.
Because sometimes a learned minister ventures, in all honesty and discretion, to give a more correct translation of the original—can this justify a foolish unlettered man in altering the original, itself, and perverting the sense of a passage? There is an end to Scripture altogether, if license is given to alter its teachings according to our will. To teach perfect Wisdom how to speak is too great a task to be ventured upon by any but the presumptuous and foolish. When our version is incorrect, then it is a duty to present the proper rendering, if one is able to find it out. But to give translations out of our whimsical heads, without having been taught in the original tongue is impertinence, indeed!
There can be no better translation of the Greek than that which we have before us. The Greek does not say, “Leave us not in temptation,” nor anything like it. It says, as nearly as English language can convey the meaning of the original, “Lead us not into temptation,” and no sort of pinching, twisting, or wresting can make this prayer convey any other sense than that which our version conveys in so many words. Let us always be afraid of attempting improvements on God’s perfect Word. And when our theories will not stand with Divinely revealed Truth, let us alter our theories, but let us never attempt for one single moment to put one Word of God out of its place.
Neither can we get out of the difficulty by supposing that the word “temptation” does not mean “temptation,” but must be restricted to the sense of “trial.” Now, we grant at once that the use of the word “temptation” in our translation of Scripture is somewhat liable to mislead. The word temptation has two meanings—to try, and to entice. When we read that God did tempt Abraham, we are by no means to understand that He enticed Abraham to anything that was evil. The meaning of the word in that place, doubtless, is simply and only that God tried him.