Deliver Us from Evil

Deliver Us from Evil

What would a world without evil look like?

It would be a paradise, a utopia, a modern-day Garden of Eden. Last week we read a bit about the Garden of Eden – how the devil tempted Adam and Eve to sin, how Adam and Eve broke the only rule God gave them, how they gave into temptation and tasted the forbidden fruit. This week, I want to read a bit about the fallout from that fall in to sin.

This is where we left off last week. After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.[1]

As we read through this section of Scripture, I’d like us to keep a tally of the fallout from the fall in to sin. Do you see a consequence of their sin already here? Adam and Eve felt shame. They had never had low self-esteem or a negative body image before. They had never had selfish sexual thoughts about each other before. But now their eyes were literally opened to an entirely new spectrum of sin.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”[2]

What further fallout was there from Adam and Eve’s fall into sin? They were afraid of God. Their relationship with God had begun to fracture and it was entirely their fault. For the first time in their lives, they weren’t sure whether God would love them anymore. The rift between God and humans had begun.

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”[3]

What further fallout was there from Adam and Eve’s fall into sin? They began to blame each other. Their relationship as husband and wife – man and woman – began to fall apart and they started to see each other as the enemy, or at the very least a stumbling block.

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”[4]

Any further fallout from Adam and Eve’s fall into sin? This is related to what we’ve seen already, but there’s a lack of accountability. Adam and Eve were not willing to own up to their sin. They were far more eager to throw someone else under the bus and pass the buck than to take responsibility and repent and ask God for forgiveness.

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”[5]

What further fallout was there from Adam and Eve’s fall into sin? Do you know what enmity is? It’s hatred, conflict, considering someone else your enemy. God was saying that for the rest of human history there would be severe spiritual warfare between the devil and humankind. They would never again enjoy the rest and peace they had known in the Garden.

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”[6]

What further fallout was there from Adam and Eve’s fall into sin? Pain in childbearing. Ladies – mothers – can you imagine the unqualified joy of bringing a child into this world without pain? How amazing would that be?

There’s more fallout here, though. God puts into words what Adam and Eve had already shown with their actions – tension, discord, disunity between men and women. We’re still fighting the “battle of the sexes” today and we still bandy about terms like “militant feminism” and “toxic masculinity.” There is still strife between man and woman, between husband and wife.

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are to dust you will return.”[7]

And finally, what further fallout was there from Adam and Eve’s fall into sin? The ground was cursed. Thorns and thistles. Problems with ecosystems and the climate. Natural disasters. Famines. Floods. Fires. Have you seen any of those in the news lately?

There’s more. What other fallout was there? Painful toil. Not work. Work is not a curse. Adam and Eve had jobs to do even in the perfection of the Garden of Eden. But now because of their sin, work would be a burden. Now work would be exponentially more challenging and emotionally draining.

All this and we haven’t even mentioned the worst of the fallout from the fall into sin. Death. “Dust you are to dust you will return.”[8] Adam and Eve had been immortal. Had they not sinned, they would have lived in perfection, in paradise forever. But now, specifically because of their sin, they – and every human who would follow them – would die.

So, let’s recap. What is the fallout from the fall into sin? My notes have shame and shamelessness; broken relationships between God and mankind and between men and women, not to mention spiritual warfare with the devil; pain in childbearing, painful toil; the ground itself was cursed and we are cursed to go to the ground in death. That’s a lot of evil that didn’t exist before Adam and Eve fell into sin. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Even if no one else in the world ever committed another sin in human history, we would all still have to live in this fallout from the fall into sin. But you know as well as I do that Adam and Eve were not the only weak ones. Adam and Eve are far from the only sinners. You and I continue to give in to the devil’s temptations. We continue to contribute to and compound the evil and the hurt in this world. We throw each other under the bus. We do not readily accept responsibility for our actions. We resent and hurt each other.

We hurt physically and emotionally and spiritually. We feel the curse of sin in our bodies and in this world and we see it play out in our lives every day. Evil is all around us. Ours is not a utopia; it is a dystopia. We do not live in the Garden of Eden. That’s why we pray, “Deliver us from evil.”

I don’t think it takes a whole lot to convince anyone that evil exists. The much more difficult task is to understand what God does about it. How does God answer our prayers when we ask him to deliver us?

There are a couple different Bible passages that give us some answers. Here’s one from Psalm 91 – it’s probably what most of us are thinking when we pray this petition:

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.[9]

What is one way that God can and does deliver you from evil? He keeps it from happening. Have you ever been in one of those situations, e.g. if that car had entered the intersection a split second sooner, you would have been roadkill, but it didn’t, so you get to go on with the rest of your day with nothing but a bit of high blood pressure to show for it? That could have been one of those moments where God intervened in your life to deliver you from evil.

And that’s the stuff we might know about. How many bad things could have happened to you but didn’t because God was delivering you from them? It’s impossible to know, because they never happened! One way that God can and does deliver us from evil is by keeping it from happening altogether.

But sometimes bad things do happen. You get into an accident; you get the diagnosis you were dreading; you break up; you get divorced; you lose your job, your family, your friends. Sometimes bad things do happen. Did God fail to deliver us from those evils? No. Even when bad things happen, we have these promises from God:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.[10]

What does God promise to do for you even when evil things happen? He promises to use them for your good. That’s a really difficult thing for us to understand, and maybe even harder to accept. I mean, what good could possibly come from someone being near death in a hospital bed for 2 years? Lots of good, actually:

We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.[11]

When our strength fails, God strengthens our faith. Without challenges in our lives, our faith in God can grow weak. But as we face adversity, as we endure evil in our lives, our faith in God’s grace grows, until we have a perseverance that can only come through suffering.

Or you could think about what Paul says to the Corinthians:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.[12]

What other good could possibly come from being near death in a hospital bed for 2 years? You could have an opportunity to witness your faith… to the person in the bed next to you, to the nursing staff and doctors who take care of you, to the family and friends who visit you, to people who hear about you and all you went through. Your suffering could actually mean someone else’s salvation. I’d say that’s something good that God could work out of evil.

Sometimes God prevents evil from happening altogether. Sometimes God works even evil for our good. But ultimately, the final deliverance from evil is something we’ve already heard. It’s not just one of, it is the first fallout from the fall into sin that we heard explicitly from God in Genesis 3:

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”[13]

What did we identify earlier as the fallout from the fall into sin from this passage? Enmity, i.e. this ongoing, spiritual warfare with the devil. That’s true. But God does not merely predict spiritual conflict; he declares a victor: he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”[14]

Who is the “he” in this passage? That’s Jesus, i.e. the offspring of the woman sent to defeat the devil! That’s Jesus, i.e. the Son of God sent to earth to win our salvation. If evil is only present in this world because of sin, then Jesus came not to put an end to war and usher in world peace, not to solve the problem of hunger, social injustice or climate change, but to solve the problem of sin. And he did it, not by treating the symptoms, but by addressing the root cause.

When Jesus died on the cross, he defeated the devil. The devil wants nothing more than for you to die and spend an eternity with him in hell. But when Jesus died on the cross, he gave you eternal life with him in heaven. The devil wants to tempt you to sin and then heap endless accusations against you so that you fear God the way Adam and Eve did. When Jesus died on the cross, he forgave your sin and showed you how much God loves you despite your sin. All the evil that is present in this world exists because of sin. When Jesus died on the cross, he put sin in its place and gave us the hope of a future without sin or any of its fallout:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”[15]

Think about how many of the consequences of sin – think about how many of the evils that we tallied up earlier – find their resolution here.

Cursed is the ground because of you. – Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth.”

“I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” – God’s dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Dust you are and to dust you will return. – There will be no more death.

With painful labor you will give birth to children. Through painful toil you will eat food from [the ground]. – There will be no more mourning or crying or pain.

For every problem that sin presents, there is an answer in Jesus. For every evil present in this world because of sin, there is perfection and peace in heaven. The ultimate way that God answer this petition – “Deliver us from evil” – is by securing a future for you in heaven by his death on the cross.

Of course, God willing, for many of us heaven is still many years away. But we don’t have to wait for God to answer this prayer. We know that God does intervene in our lives in the meantime. Some evils he keeps from happening altogether. The other evil things that do happen in life he works for our good. And because of those promises we can have two things, that both start with the letter “h,” that will enable us to endure any evil until he takes us home.

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.[16]

What two things has God given you that enable you to endure evil in your life? He has given you help and hope. He is your deliverer from many evils in your day to day life, but, above all, he is your Savior, who gives you the hope of heaven through his Son, who taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil.” Amen.

[1] Genesis 3:7

[2] Genesis 3:8-10

[3] Genesis 3:11,12

[4] Genesis 3:13

[5] Genesis 3:14,15

[6] Genesis 3:16

[7] Genesis 3:17-19

[8] Genesis 3:19

[9] Psalm 91:9,10

[10] Romans 8:28

[11] Romans 5:3-5

[12] 2 Corinthians 1:3,4

[13] Genesis 3:14,15

[14] Genesis 3:15

[15] Revelation 21:1-4

[16] Psalm 146:5

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Keep Us from Temptation

Keep Us from Temptation

“You can’t stop birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from making a nest in your hair.”

Just yesterday morning, I counted 19 magpies between the parsonage and the church. I thought I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Most of the time I don’t mind magpies. They do their thing; I do mine. But, as I sat down at my desk to get some work done, I kept hearing a noise: “Bang! Bang! Bang!” The magpies kept flying into the windows.

At first I thought I could just wait them out. They would figure it out eventually, right? Wrong. Maybe it was the repeated concussive force on their tiny bird skulls, or their pea-sized brains to begin with, but it just kept happening. “Bang! Bang! Bang!” What would you do in a situation like that?

I just opened the front door. As soon as they saw me outside they flew away, never to bang their silly bird heads on the glass again – at least, not yesterday. This morning they were back out there. If I had to guess, I would assume they’ll be out there again tomorrow.

Temptations are kind of like those magpies. There are so many of them, and they are everywhere. Just about at any moment of your life you could look out the window and count 1 or 2 or 19 of them. You might successfully scare them off one day, but they’ll be back the next, and the day after that, and the day after that.

“You can’t stop birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from making a nest in your hair.”

The Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer is all about temptation: “And lead us not into temptation.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, temptation is a major theme in the Bible. God has a lot to say about temptation – what it is, what it looks like, how he dealt with it and how we should.

Let’s start at the beginning: What is temptation? Our catechism proposes this definition:

Temptation – any situation in which someone may be led into sin, false belief or despair.

There are a lot of situations that could lead someone into sin, false belief or despair. We don’t have time today to identify each and every situation, but we do have time to identify temptation’s origin. In other words, where does temptation come from? The Bible has some answers:

The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.[1]

According to Revelation, where does temptation come from? The devil. In fact, you could say that temptation is the devil’s main occupation. He spends all his time trying to lead you astray, trying to lead you to sin or to some false belief or even to despair.

Are any of you boxing fans? Even if you’re not, do you know what a “1-2 punch” is? It’s a combination of punches. That first punch is not meant to be the knockout blow. It’s just setting you up so that the second punch is even more devastating, catches you off guard, at a place and time where and when you are most vulnerable.

The devil has a devastating 1-2 punch, and I think a great example of it is the very first sin we read about in the whole Bible. You might remember this from Genesis 3:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”[2]

Long before he ever points out the forbidden fruit, what is the devil tempting Eve to do? He is tempting her to doubt God, and specifically, to doubt that a certain action would be sinful.

Eve, to her credit, gives a great answer:

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”[3]

So far, so good. But the devil’s not done:

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.[4]

What did the devil convince Eve to think about the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat? He convinced her – and Adam, who was with her – that eating it wouldn’t be so bad. In fact, eating it would actually be really good.

The first part of the devil’s devastating 1-2 punch is to convince us that sin isn’t so bad, or convincing us that doing something that God forbids would actually be good for me. The first part of the devil’s devasting 1-2 punch is to convince us that sin is no big deal. Then he throws the haymaker:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”[5]

In the moment of temptation, the devil convinced Adam and Eve that their sin would be no big deal. How did he make them feel about their sin after they committed it? They felt horrible about it – so much so that they tried to cover themselves with leaves and hide from their God.

First, the devil convinces us that sin is no big deal. Then, once we’ve committed that sin, he convinces us that it was such a big deal and that God will be so mad at us for doing it that he’ll never love us again. Temptation is the devil’s way to drive a wedge between us and our God, and sadly, all too often, he succeeds.

Which of the devil’s lies do you believe? Which sinful desires drag you away and entice you to sin? It’s different for each of us. It’s different within each of us at different times of our lives. When we’re quite young – between the crib and college – what is a common temptation? Disobedience and disrespect.

How about when we’re a little older – between puberty and parenthood? What is a common temptation at that time of life? The lusts of the flesh – adultery, overindulgence.

What about when we’re in the middle of our lives, busy with careers or children? What is a common temptation then? Security, stability, safety.

Or what about when we’re mature – when the kids are moved out of the house or after we’ve retired? What is a common temptation then? Pride and despair, which are really just two sides of the same coin.

Temptations are like magpies - there are so many of them, and they are everywhere. Just about at any moment of your life you could count 1 or 2 or 19 of them. You might successfully scare them off one day, but they’ll be back the next, and the day after that, and the day after that.

When you put it that way, it sounds rather hopeless. But God did something about our temptations. He sent his Son to face them too. And where we have failed, Jesus prevailed. In stark contrast to the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, we have the account of Jesus in Luke 4:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.[6]

The devil came to Jesus at a vulnerable moment in his life and kept throwing temptation after temptation at him. But how did Jesus respond? Flawlessly. He never once gave in. He remained sinless and perfect – and not just here or for this moment, but again and again and again. No matter how many temptations and no matter how many times they flew overhead, he never once allowed them to make a nest in his hair or a home in his heart. Jesus was perfect.

And that’s important for you. This is the way the writer to the Hebrews puts it:

Such a high priest truly meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.[7]

What did Jesus’ blamelessness enable him to do for you? It enabled him to offer himself as the sacrifice for our sins.

When Jesus died on a cross, it wasn’t for any crime he had committed, but for every sin you have committed. He suffered the punishment that you deserve for every temptation you give into, and then he gave you the credit for his perfect life, so that now, when God looks at you, he doesn’t see a sinner; he sees the sinlessness of his Son credited to you.

God did something about temptation. He sent his Son to face it and to be victorious over it. He sent Jesus to resist it and to save you from it.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you will never face temptation in this life. Temptations are like magpies. They’re everywhere, all the time. Even when we scare one away, they come back in full force the next day. But your situation is not hopeless.

“You can’t stop birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from making a nest in your hair.”

Not only has God given you salvation through his Son’s perfection, but he even gives you promises to help strengthen and protect you from the temptations that you will continue to face day after day.

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.[8]

What promises does God give you about when temptation confronts you? First, you’re not alone. Chances are that there is at least one other person in this room who faces the exact same temptation that you do. Second, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. In other words, God will never put you in a situation where sin is your only option. And this second promise ties in well with the third – God will always give you a way out.

Think back on the temptation of Jesus. What was his way out of every one of the devil’s temptations? It was the Word of God. The Bible cuts through every one of the devil’s lies and empty promises. You have that same Word, and it is your greatest weapon against temptation.

Is the devil trying to sow the seed of doubt in your heart? “Does God love me?” “Will God provide for and protect me?” “Is God holding out on me?” The answer to each of those doubts is in the Bible.

It might be difficult to remember what the Bible has to say in the moment, but how can we help ourselves recite God’s Word the same way Jesus did to the devil? We have to be in God’s Word, whether that means going to church on Sunday morning, reading your personal devotion throughout the week, sitting down to memorize verses and passages of the Bible, or all the above. Your single greatest weapon against temptation is the Word of God. Use it.

But amazingly, as effective as God’s Word is at fighting temptation, it is not the only weapon God gives you. The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way:

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.[9]

What other weapon does God give us to fight temptation? He gives us each other.

Martin Luther once said, “When you are tempted by sadness or despair or some other pang of conscience, then eat, drink, and seek to converse with people.”

That’s true because of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians: No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.[10] You are not the only person to face whatever temptation overtakes you. There are some who have already faced it and others who are still struggling with it. You can work together to “spur one another on” and to “encourage one another.”

God gives us his Word as the greatest weapon against temptation, but he gives us each other too. God builds in escape hatches to every temptation and will never put you in a situation where sin is your only option.

We won’t win every battle, or fend off every magpie from making a nest in our hair. But the key to victory does not lie in our strength or skill in wielding the weapons God gives us. The victory is ours through Jesus, who faced the same temptations we do but overcame them; who lived a sinless life, but sacrificed himself on a cross for you; whose innocent blood cleanses you of all your sin, and gives you the sure and certain hope of heaven.

That’s what Jesus wants us to remember when he teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” Amen.

[1] Revelation 12:9

[2] Genesis 3:1

[3] Genesis 3:2,3

[4] Genesis 3:4-6

[5] Genesis 3:7-10

[6] Luke 4:1-13

[7] Hebrews 7:26,27

[8] 1 Corinthians 10:13

[9] Hebrews 10:24,25

[10] 1 Corinthians 10:13

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