Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1402
“Lead us not into temptation.” Matthew 6:13.
LOOKING over a book of addresses to young people the other day, I met with the outline of a discourse which struck me as being a perfect gem. I will give it to you. The text is the Lord’s prayer and the exposition is divided into most instructive heads. “Our Father which are in Heaven”—a child away from home. “Hallowed be Your name”—a worshipper. “Your kingdom come”—a subject. “Your will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven”—a servant. “Give us this day our daily bread”—a beggar. “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”—a sinner. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”— a sinner in danger of being a still greater sinner.
The titles are, in every case, most appropriate and truthfully condense the petition. Now if you will remember the outline you will notice that the prayer is like a ladder. The petitions begin at the top and go downward. “Our Father which are in Heaven”—a child, a child of the heavenly Father. Now to be a child of God is the highest possible position of man. “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” This is what Christ is—the Son of God—and “Our Father” is but a plural form of the very term which He uses in addressing God, for Jesus says, “Father.” It is a very high, gracious, exalted position which, by faith, we dare to occupy when we intelligently say, “Our Father which are in Heaven.”
It is a step down to the next—“Hallowed be Your name.” Here we have a worshipper adoring with lowly reverence the thrice holy God. A worshipper’s place is a high one, but it attains not to the excellence of the child’s position. Angels come as high as being worshippers, their incessant song hallows the name of God—but they cannot say, “Our Father,” “for unto which of the angels has He said, ‘you are My son’?” They must be content to be within one step of the highest, but they cannot reach the summit, for neither by adoption, regeneration, nor by union to Christ are they the children of God. “Abba, Father,” is for men, not for angels and, therefore, the worshipping sentence of the prayer is one step lower than the opening, “Our Father.”
The next petition is for us as subjects, “Your kingdom come.” The subject comes lower than the worshipper, for worship is an elevated engagement wherein man exercises a priesthood and is seen in lowly but honorable estate. The child worships and then confesses the Great Father’s royalty. Descending still, the next position is that of a servant, “Your will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven.” That is another step lower than a subject, for Her Majesty the Queen has many subjects who are not her servants. They are not bound to wait upon her in the palace with personal service though they acknowledge her as their honored sovereign. Dukes and such like are her subjects, but not her servants. The servant is a grade below the subject.
Everyone will admit that the next petition is lower by far, for it is that of a beggar—“Give us this day our daily bread.” A beggar for bread—an everyday beggar—one who has continually to appeal to charity, even for his livelihood. This is a fit place for us to occupy who owe our all to the charity of Heaven. But there is a step lower than the beggar’s and that is the sinner’s place. “Forgive” is lower than, “give.” “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Here, too, we may, each one, take up his position, for no word better befits our unworthy lips than the prayer, “Forgive.” As long as we live and sin we ought to weep and cry, “Have mercy on us, O Lord.”
And now, at the very bottom of the ladder stands a sinner afraid of yet greater sin. He is in extreme danger and in conscious weakness, sensible of past sin and fearful of it for the future. Hear him, as with trembling lip he cries in the words of our text, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” And yet, dear Friends, though I have thus described the prayer as a going downward—downward is, in matters of Divine Grace, much the same as upward—as we could readily show if time permitted. At any rate the going down process of the prayer might equally well illustrate the advance of the Divine life in the soul.
The last clause of the prayer contains in it a deeper inward experience than the earlier part of it. Every Believer is a child of God, a worshipper, a subject, a servant, a beggar and a sinner. But it is not every man who perceives the allurements which beset him, or his own tendency to yield to them. It is not every child of God, even when advanced in years, who knows the full meaning of being led into temptation—for some follow an easy path and are seldom buffeted—while others are such tender babes that they hardly know their own corruptions. To fully understand our text a man should have had sharp brushes in the wars and have done battle against the enemy within his soul for many a day.