But deliver us from evil.
What does this mean? We pray in this
petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil
of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour
comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow
to Himself in heaven.
In this last
petition we pray that the Lord would deliver
us from evil. According to Greek grammar,
this phrase could also be understood to say “Deliver us from the evil one.” The Large Catechism emphasizes this
understanding of the text. After all,
there are many evils present in this world, but there is one that stands behind
it all, one primary enemy who knowingly and willingly stirs up evil, and that
is the Devil. The Small Catechism is
offering a brief summary and so it goes with a more general treatment; “all
manner of evil” it says. Evil of body
and soul, possessions and reputation. But
there is one who stands behind this evil and who initiates this evil, and that
is the Devil.
You and I
live in a very secularized society, one that places a high priority on reason and
rationality. People will say, “I'll
believe it when I see it.” “I’ll believe
it when you can prove it.” This makes it
very easy for the devil to hide from us. Our world is full of very outspoken atheists
and agnostics and skeptics who doubt that there is a spiritual realm, who believe
the world is only material. As far as Satan
is concerned, that is just fine. It fits into his game plan. He doesn’t want to give people a reason to
believe in God so he stays behind the scenes.
But he is still there and he is only all too real.
We know this
because the Scriptures tell us. The Lord
records for us in Genesis the first appearance of the Devil in the Garden of
Eden when he tempted Adam and Eve to sin.
We also see him battling Jesus with temptations in the Wilderness. The Gospel of Mark tells of a boy who was possessed
by a devil and this devil tried to destroy him.
It would throw him into the fire to burn him and it would throw him into
the water to drown him. (Mark 9:22) We see terrible things like this that
happen in our day and age; drownings and murders, insanity and suicide. Our
news media loves to report these sorts of things and so we hear about them
often. We look for material explanations. Drugs, Despair, Greed, Coincidence. Luther finds evidence of the work of the
Devil. [LC III p. 115]
The devil
works on us too. His tools are lies and deceit. His goal is to destroy us. His strategy is much like that of a lion hunting
its prey. When a lion goes hunting it will
look for one who is vulnerable in some way, weak or injured. He will separate that one from the rest of
the herd and give chase. Wear it down
until its tired and then pounce. Satan
does the same with us. When we are weak
or injured, when our defenses are down. When
we are tired, stressed, grief stricken or angry, Satan will come to attack us. If he can he will try to separate us from Christ
and His body the Church and he will try to wear us down through repeated
attacks. He will get us to blame God, to
blame other Christians for our suffering.
He will push us to sin. And he
will try to destroy our faith.
The battle
ground for this attack is always the conscience. Satan wants to destroy your conscience. Your conscience is a gift from God. It lets you know when you have broken God’s
Law and it lets you know when you need to confess your sin and receive
forgiveness. When it is functioning
properly it points you to Christ. Christ
wants you to have a good conscience, a clear conscience. He wants you to be sure and confident of your
forgiveness and salvation. That is why
he died for you; to set you free from sin and free from the accusations of the
Devil. (1 John 1:7-9; Hebrews 9:14) How much more will the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14 ESV) You
can face your sin with confidence because of Jesus. Satan knows that the Forgiveness of Christ
undoes all his work and so Satan attacks you to and tries to pull you away from
God’s forgiveness.
Satan
attacks your conscience first with temptation.
He entices you to violate God’s law.
Since we are sinful and weak, we are only all too happy to give in. And then, once we have given in, once we have
broken the commandments he sets to work on the conscience. When your conscience is working correctly it
tells that you are guilty when you are guilty and it tells you that you are innocent
when your are innocent. A broken conscience
works just the opposite – it tells you your are innocent when you are guilty or
it tells you that you are guilty when you are innocent. Either one is
bad. A presenter at the
conference I attended this past week compared it to a broken gas gauge. If your gas gauge tells you your tank is full
when it’s empty that’s bad. If it tells
you you are empty when you are full, either one is bad and either one can get
you stuck on the side of the road.
So here’s
what Satan does. God’s law says you
should not slander. God’s law says that
you are guilty when you say things about another person to destroy their
reputation. Satan questions that Word of
God. He gets you to doubt whether or not
that is true. “Yes, gossip and slander
is wrong, but it’s okay in certain situations.
It’s even necessary. It would be
wrong not to tell what I know.” And so we give in. And once we have given in, Satan now has what
he needs to work on conscience. He tells
you that you are innocent. That you haven’t
done anything wrong. That you did what was right. Others might say it was wrong but what do
they know. This compounds the sin. It pushes you do it again and again and
again. And that sin has consequences. It causes offense. It alienates you from other people, from
other Christians, from your church. It’s
dangerous.
But then
there is the other side, the other strategy.
Let’s say you slandered another person – shared some piece of
information and caused offense. But you
knew it was wrong, you went to that other person, those you sinned against and
confessed that sin to them. They forgave
you. You confessed that sin to God. You received absolution. You are forgiven. God’s Word says you are forgiven. But Satan says you are not. He brings this sin up again and again. How could you have done that? You hurt that person. You destroyed their reputation. You know how gossip is, once it goes out you
can’t ever get it back. Who knows that
gossip is probably still going around and it’s all your fault. And so your sin comes up again and again and
again. God has said you are
forgiven. Satan says you are not. You believe the devil.
All of this
is really no different from Satan’s usual tricks. He attack the Word of God. God has two Words, words of law that condemn
you and words of Gospel that save you.
He attacks both, he gets you to doubt both. His ultimate goal is to destroy your
conscience so he can destroy your faith.
Our prayer
in this petition is that God would deliver us from the Devil, that he would
deliver us from these tricks that the devil plays against us and that we would
not be overcome by them. Luther says “There
is nothing for us to do but pray against this arch enemy. For unless God preserved us, we would not be
safe from this enemy even for an hour.” [LC III p.116] On our own we have no hope of defeating the
Devil and standing against his attacks so we must pray that God will deliver
us.
Luther says,
“If we are to be preserved and delivered
from all evil, the name of God must first be hallowed in us, His kingdom must
be with us, and His will be done. After that He will finally preserve us from
sin and shame, and, besides, from everything that may hurt or injure us.”
[LC III p 118] You see, God has already delivered
us from this evil. God has already
delivered us from Satan. This is the
last petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Luther
says the name of God must first be hallowed.
It has been.
God’s name is kept holy when the Word
of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also
lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But
anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God
among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father! God does this for you.
He gives you His Word and Spirit to bring you to faith and keep you firm
in that faith. He provides for you
teaching and instruction in the Word.
That’s what we are doing now!
God delivers
us when his kingdom comes. It has
come. God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit,
so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time
and there in eternity. That has been
done! You have received the Spirit. It was given in your baptism, when you also
received the Name. The Spirit gives you
faith so that you turn away from sin and to the Cross! You see there the life of Jesus given for
you. Your sin is forgiven!
God delivers
us from the devil when His Holy Divine Will is done. God’s
will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the
devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s
name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word
and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.
God’s Will
has been done for you. It is being done
for you. That, again, is why we are here
this morning. To receive the forgiveness
of sin in the absolution. To hear the
word of God preached and the forgiveness of sins declared to you as if by God
himself. To receive the forgiveness of
sins and strengthening of faith in the Lords Supper where you receive the body
and blood of Jesus given for us Christians to eat and to drink. The work of Satan is being undone right here
and right now. God’s name is here right
now! God’s Kingdom comes, right
now! God’s will is done! Right Now! We have prayed to the Lord the prayer he gave
us to pray and he is answering that prayer with a resounding YES! Right Now!
In the Lord’s
Prayer Jesus gives to us everything that we need. He invites us to pray for those things that
are most necessary for us. God’s name,
his Kingdom, His Will, daily bread, forgiveness, deliverance from temptation
and finally deliverance from evil. When
we have prayed these things, when we have believed them and received them in
faith, there is only one thing left for us do.
Only one response left for a Christian and that is to say Amen. Yes it
is so. I do believe it.
I have
challenged you to pray this prayer. I
offer that again. Pray this prayer in
faith. Believe and do not doubt. Receive the gifts God has given. As we make our way through this 2012 calendar
year, let us carry this prayer with us in faith know that God will do what he
has promised this year and every year.
Amen.
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