The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 6. We will read from verses 9 through 13.
Thus therefore pray ye: Our Father Who art in the heavens,
Let Thy name be sanctified.
Let Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so upon the earth.
Give us today our needed bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but save us from evil.
We have been considering together the so-called Lord’s Prayer. We mentioned at the very outset that this is the prayer that our Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray. And yet we call it the Lord’s Prayer because we do believe that our Lord Jesus would never teach us anything that He Himself does not practice.
So evidently it is the Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer that our Lord Jesus prayed while He was on earth, and it is the prayer that He wants His people to join with Him in praying.
We mentioned that this Lord’s Prayer is based upon a relationship, because it begins with, “Our Father Who art in the heavens.” We can pray because He is our Father.
And when we pray in this manner, it is more than because He is our Father. It is because we, as His children, have grown up and begin to understand His thought and hear His burden.
That is the reason why, when we first believe in the Lord Jesus, we do pray. At that moment, we all cry out, “Our Father.” Prayer is natural to us. It is our right; it is an enjoyment to us as God’s children.
But you will notice that, in the beginning, when we pray, we pray as babes in Christ. And as babes in Christ, of course, all that we are interested in with our Father is to receive something from Him. Our prayer is rather self-centered and self-interested. But this is the initial stage of our being in God’s church.
As we grow up in the Lord, as we are discipled to Christ, as we begin to be under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, and as we learn to know Him more, our prayers should change. In other words, our prayers should not be centered upon our needs, but upon God’s purpose.
We should not be self-centered in our prayer life; we should be more God-centered in our prayer life. So, in a sense, this Lord’s Prayer that our Lord Jesus teaches His disciples to pray is not a prayer that every child of God is able to pray in this manner.
We may have recited this prayer from childhood. We may know the words intimately. But oftentimes we simply repeat the words without really understanding what we are praying. We do not enter into that prayer as we should, and because of that, the prayer does not mean much to us.
But we must remember that this is a prayer that our Lord Jesus teaches His church to pray—those children of God who have become disciples of Christ, those who have grown up to understand the Father and to stand with the Father in His purpose.
It is upon that basis that we pray, “Our Father Who art in the heavens.” We mentioned at the beginning that, in the original Greek, it is “our Father Who art in the heavens,” in the plural.
We believe that this tells us that our Father is not only in the third heaven, where His throne is, but our Father is in the second heaven, where the stars are, and our Father is in the first heaven, where the air is. In other words, no matter what happens, whatever it may be, there is our Father, and there is He with us.
A sparrow falls to the ground not without your Father. In the original, we do not have the word “permission.” It says that not a sparrow will fall to the ground without the Father. In other words, not only does the Father permit the sparrow to fall, but as the sparrow falls, He actually comes down with that sparrow. He has never left us nor forsaken us.
So, brothers and sisters, we do see that our Father is our Father in the heavens. He is in control over all things. No matter what happens to us, there He is with us. And it is to this Father that we are praying.
In the Lord’s Prayer, you will find that the primary subject of prayer is not our need; it is our Father’s need. In other words, we stand on the side of our heavenly Father and pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Thy name be hallowed.”
It is His name, His kingdom, and His will. Now, we know that the will of the Father prevails in heaven. He has all the angelic hosts executing His will. We know His kingdom is supreme in heaven, because there He rules supreme. Everything is under Him, and everything in heaven takes up His character.
We also know that, in heaven, His name is always hallowed—sanctified. Wherever in the Bible you find people seeing the heavens opened and catching a vision of heaven, you hear the cry of the living creatures, the seraphim, and the cherubim:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.
There His name is always honored. There His name is unchallenged. There His name is respected; it stands alone above everything—unique and special. That is the name of our Lord Jesus in heaven.
But unfortunately, we find that this is not yet true on earth. One day it will be true. One day His name shall be hallowed on earth as it is in heaven. One day His kingdom will come upon this earth as it is in heaven. One day His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We know it is coming, and it is coming very rapidly. But today we find that it is not yet universally true. Unfortunately, it is not even universally true in the church.
The church is where His name should be hallowed. The church is where His kingdom really is, and the church is where His will is being done. That is what God wants the church to be; that is what the church ought to be.
But unfortunately, we find that, as the church of God and as His people, oftentimes His name is not honored by us. On the contrary, we bring disgrace to His name. Sometimes we put His name to evil use, to ourselves, to other people, even to our own things. We make it common; we profane Him. That is a very unfortunate thing.
For this reason, we need to pray that His name will be honored and hallowed in the midst of the church. And then, through the church, His name will be honored throughout the whole universe.
The same thing is true with His kingdom. Are we really characterized by His character? Wherever He rules, His character will characterize us. But is it true with us? Are we manifesting the character of God? Instead, we often manifest our own character.
How we need transformation! How we need His kingdom to be supreme in our lives! For this reason, again, we have to pray, “Thy kingdom come”—not only that His kingdom will come one day in the future on earth, but that His kingdom will be a reality in us today.
And the same thing is true with His will. His will is done in heaven, and we are supposed to be a people who do His will. But oftentimes we do our own will. We need to pray, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.”
So, in other words, brothers and sisters, as God’s people and as the church of God, we need to stand with God and pray this prayer. If we pray in this manner, it shows that we stand for God’s glory, we stand for God’s right, and we stand for Him.
As we pray, the Holy Spirit first begins to work in our lives and makes all these things real in us. Whenever the Holy Spirit works in our lives, the cross will be the mark. You cannot find the working of the Holy Spirit without the mark of the cross.
How our self-life must be crucified in order that He may increase and we may decrease. This is the centrality of prayer, the very center of the Lord’s Prayer. Hopefully, we may take it seriously.
This morning, we will come to what we may call the universality of prayer. After we have prayed, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, Thy name be hallowed,” then the Lord Jesus says that we should continue to pray:
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
In this Lord’s Prayer, you will find a divine order. We need to pray for His name, His kingdom, and His will first. Then we pray for our own needs.
Oftentimes, we reverse that order. Or we only have the last part and never really touch the first part. In our prayers, we always put ourselves first—our needs, our bread, our soul, our good spirit. This is what we are really interested in. We are such self-centered people, and we need deliverance from that. We must put God first.
In our Christian life, priority is very important. Life is so complicated. Life deals with so many things, and there are so many businesses that we have to attend to. Our time is limited and short. That is why priority is such an important factor in our Christian life.
If we do not have the right priority, we will be led astray. But if we set our priorities correctly, then the direction of our life will be correct. Unfortunately, among God’s people, we often do not set our priorities correctly. Because of that, how much we suffer, and how much God suffers because of us.
In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus said that before we ask for these things, our Father already knows. In other words, our heavenly Father knows what we need before we even ask Him.
That is why the Lord Jesus said, “Do not worry. Do not be anxious about your life—what you should eat, what you should drink, or what you should be clothed with.” These are the things that the nations, the Gentiles, seek after. But certainly not you, because your heavenly Father knows that you need these things.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
You cannot blame the people of the world for seeking after these things—what they should eat, what they should drink, and what they should be clothed with. They have to seek after these things because there is nobody else to take care of them. If they do not seek for them, they will not have them.
But this is not true with us who are God’s children. We have a heavenly Father, and our heavenly Father knows that we need these things. Certainly, He will take care of us. Therefore, it is not right for us to seek these things first.
The people of the world are not content simply to have their necessities. They want to live luxuriously. They want something more than is necessary. Because they want more than is necessary, they are never content or satisfied. That is why they fall into all kinds of temptations and lie down in sorrows.
But we, as God’s children, are told in the Bible that godliness with contentment is great gain. In other words, we know that our heavenly Father will supply all our needs, and we are content to have our needs met. We are not trying to live in such a luxurious way because we are pilgrims and strangers upon this earth.
If this earth were our permanent home, then we would have to decorate it in such a way that we might enjoy it to the uttermost. But as strangers and pilgrims, we are just passing by. You may be here today; you may not be here tomorrow. This is not our home.
Therefore, godliness with contentment is great gain. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us. These things should be added; these things should not be sought.
There is an example in the Old Testament. The children of Israel—a remnant—came back from Babylonian captivity. Why did they come back?
During the seventy years of Babylonian captivity, the Jewish people were captives in a foreign country. But even in that foreign country, they lived a good life. They began to settle down. They were good at making money, and they began to establish businesses, build houses, and enjoy their lives in the strange land.
Under Babylonian rule and under Persian rule, they were given a certain degree of religious freedom. They were able to worship God in the land of captivity. Actually, their captivity healed them of idol worship, and in the land of captivity they wanted to worship God.
But there was no temple, no altar, and no sacrifice. They could not do that because the temple had to be built in Jerusalem, on the site that God had chosen, where His name was put. You could not offer sacrifices anywhere else.
Yet in the land of captivity they had freedom to worship, and they wanted to worship. So they invented a most ingenious religious invention: the synagogue system.
In the synagogue, you could do almost anything you wanted. You could read the Torah, read the prophets, sing songs, pray prayers, and exhort one another. There was perfect liberty in the synagogue. Any Jewish man could stand up, ask a question, or give an address. It was free.
Better than that, if you did not agree with anyone, you simply gathered another nine Jewish men who had time and were willing to devote some time to God, and you could have a synagogue of your own taste. You could worship God according to your own taste. Now, is that not wonderful?
No wonder that, after living in Babylon for seventy years, when God gave them the opportunity to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, very few cared to go back. They were God’s people, but in the land of captivity they lived for themselves. They were not irreligious people; they were very religious. But they lived for themselves.
Here, however, you find a remnant. They answered the call of God and returned to Jerusalem. In other words, they were a people who returned to live for God. They did not live for themselves; they lived for God.
Jerusalem was in ruins at that time. There was nothing there. Yet they went back to rebuild the temple. In other words, they went back for God’s name, for His kingdom, and for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. What a glory it was!
But even with those people, when they met a little opposition, they gave up building the temple. They said, “This is not the time to do that. It is not convenient.” They did not give up completely; they simply said they would wait for a more convenient time.
But time must be occupied. If they were not building the temple, they had to build something. What did they do? They built their own houses.
If you read Haggai, you will find that the houses they built were not just ordinary houses; they were paneled houses. They wanted to live very well. During those ten to fifteen years, they left the temple lying waste and began building their own houses. Did they enjoy their lives?
If you are in Babylon, you may. But if you are in Jerusalem, you will not.
When the prophet Haggai was sent by God to them, he said, “Consider your ways.”
Ye have sown much, and bring in little;
ye eat, but ye have not enough;
ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink;
ye clothe you, but there is none warm;
and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
In other words, they were supposed to live for God, but when they began to live for themselves, they did not have the privilege of really enjoying life. God would not allow them to do that. Now, that is the mercy of God.
Is this not true with regard to God’s people today? If you care very little for God, you may be able to love the world and live a pretty comfortable, even luxurious life.
But if you love the Lord, understand that your life belongs to Him, and know that you have to live for Him—if you have the intention and heart to do so, yet somehow your priority is wrong, somehow you are trying to build your own house while leaving the house of God in ruins—then you will never be satisfied.
Thank God He does not allow you to be satisfied, because He wants you to live completely for Him—for His kingdom, for His name, and for His will. So, brothers and sisters, we need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us.
With the children of Israel, that was true. After they resumed the building of the temple, the Lord said, “From this day onward, it will be different.” They would have abundance. God would open the windows of heaven and pour down His blessing. How true that is today.
Do not seek after the things of this world. The Gentiles and unbelievers seek after these things, but these things are below our dignity. They are not for us to seek. We seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these things will be added unto us.
Now, if this is the case, someone may ask, “Why is it that the Lord teaches us to pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’? Is it not true that He knows what we need beforehand? Why should He want us to ask for these things?”
I think there are several reasons. Number one: He wants us to cultivate a spirit of dependence, a spirit of humility.
Sometimes we may think, “We seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first, and therefore we do not need to care about our daily bread. He will add it unto us. We are too spiritual to bother with physical and material things.” But in taking such an attitude, we may become spiritually proud.
We may think that we depend upon our spirituality to obtain our daily food, instead of depending upon God to give us our daily food. God does not like that. He wants us always to have a sense of dependence—how we depend upon our heavenly Father for our daily food.
Number two: He says, “Give us this day our needed bread.” This is the prayer of the church. In other words, the Lord’s Prayer is not a personal prayer; it is a corporate prayer.
You may not have a need for daily bread today, but somewhere your brothers and sisters, members of the body of Christ, may be in need of daily bread. Because of that, we cannot be selfish. When our own need is met, we cannot simply stop praying. We must remember that we are members of one body.
In the Lord’s Prayer, there is created within us a body consciousness. We are not only thinking of our own need; we are thinking of the needs of our brothers and sisters throughout the whole world.
There is always such a need for prayer. We live in a hostile world, a sinful world. In many places all over the world, there is always famine and hunger. When our needs are met, thank God for that; but do not forget our brothers and sisters in other places of the world.
Number three: We need to pray for our daily needs because we have an enemy upon this earth, and this enemy is always trying to starve us. He tries to wear us out—not only spiritually, but physically. Satan is a murderer.
We live in this hostile world, and the enemy is always trying to oppress us and deprive us even of our daily needs. He will make conditions difficult, and they are difficult. The people of the world can do many things that we cannot do. Because we cannot do unrighteous things, we sometimes find it difficult to make a living.
The enemy is trying to deprive us of our very maintenance. For this reason, we need to pray. Through prayer, we overcome the enemy. Through prayer, we find that the enemy is not able to deprive us, wear us out, or starve us to death.
The fourth reason is this: when we pray this prayer and have our prayer answered, it increases our praise and thanksgiving unto God. When you find your daily living supplied in a marvelous way, you know that no one can do that but your heavenly Father. For that you are thankful, you praise God, and you glorify His name.
So I do believe there are many reasons why, even after the Lord says, “Seek first, and all these things shall be added unto you,” He still wants us to pray for our daily bread.
Give us this day our daily bread.
God is the supplier of all our needs. Brothers and sisters, God is love. When God created man, He first created the things that man would need. He first created trees bearing fruit before He created man, because the man He created needed to eat.
There were all the wonderful fruits in the Garden of Eden. There was plenty; there was no lack of food. God always provides for His own.
Because man sinned, the earth was cursed. Man had to labor and toil for his living. The earth still grows wheat and corn, but it also grows thorns and thistles. Therefore, you have to sweat in order to make a living.
Even if the earth is cursed, there is still plenty upon this earth. Why is it that food has become such a great problem in the world? It is not because God does not give plenty; it is because of the greediness and sinfulness of man.
It is the sin of man that deprives people of food. God always gives plenty. There should be abundance. But on this earth there is hunger, and perhaps one-third of the world’s population lives in hunger and starvation. This ought not to be. Why? Because this world is under the evil one.
If you read Psalm 104, you will find that it is a beautiful psalm. It tells how God created all things, and after He created all things, how He gives food to all things. God is the giver, and we need always to remember that He is the giver of our daily bread.
The world thinks that they earn their bread by their own labor, but we ought not to think that way. We know better. It is true that we have to labor; it is God’s will for us to do so. But even if we labor, unless God blesses, there will be no fruit.
Or, you may have food, but you may not have the appetite to eat. So we do know Who is the giver of every good thing, and we look to God for our daily food.
When we thank God at meals, it is not a ritual or a form. Why is it that, when we take meals, we give thanks? Because we know Who gives us our daily bread, and we are thankful. This is what it ought to be.
Brothers and sisters, God wants us to live one day at a time.
Do not be anxious about tomorrow,
for tomorrow has its own evil.
In other words, every day has its evil. We live in this evil world, and every day has its trials, temptations, testings, tribulations, and problems. Every day has something.
Therefore, do not borrow tomorrow for today. It makes today unbearable. The Lord wants us to live one day at a time, simply trusting Him.
That does not mean that we cannot plan. It does not mean that God wants us to be careless or irresponsible. There are some people in this world who live one day at a time in the wrong way: they eat and drink, for tomorrow they die. They enjoy today and do not care about tomorrow. That is not the kind of life God wants us to live.
We can plan, but of course we know that God controls all things. In the book of James, some people say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into a certain city, stay there for a year, do business, and make a profit.” But the Lord says that you do not know what you will be tomorrow.
All you need to say is, “If the Lord wills, then I will go there.” Brothers and sisters, that should always be our attitude: “If the Lord wills.”
We live daily before the Lord, trusting Him to take care of tomorrow as He takes care of today. This kind of life takes away anxiety.
The problem today is that people live under the constant pressure of insecurity and anxiety. “What will happen tomorrow? What will happen ten years from now?” They accumulate, not merely for a lifetime, but because they do not know how long they will live—whether ten years will be enough, or twenty years will be enough.
The Lord Jesus told of a man who said, “I have so much. I have prepared all that I need. Now I can rest and enjoy myself. I have enough for my whole life.” But the Lord said, “Tonight you will go.”
So, brothers and sisters, we need to see: “Give us today.” Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Today, God will take care of you. So ask for today: “Give us this day our needed bread.”
God promises to give us all that we need, but God has not promised to give us more than we need. So do not try to get more.
May I say something? Modern civilization is very convenient in one sense, but in another sense it is not conducive to spiritual life. Why? Because it is too complicated. We live with so many things that are not needed, and these unnecessary things are the things that entangle us.
If we can live a simple life, we will find that our life is much easier and more conducive spiritually. That is what our Lord Jesus wants us to do when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
On the one hand, this prayer creates within us a spirit of looking to God for our physical needs. We know that He is our supplier. On the other hand, it gives us a consciousness of the body of Christ. At the same time, it helps us to live a simpler life.
This is not merely a prayer that you pray. When you pray, it affects you first. Do not think that prayer changes God. Prayer never changes God; prayer changes you. If prayer does not change you, it is a prayer of the lips, not a prayer of the heart.
When we pray this prayer, it relates to physical things and material things. We need these things; we cannot live without food. Our Lord Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone. He did not say that man does not live by bread. We do need bread.
Sometimes the Bible uses the word “soul” to represent man. Seventy souls entered into Egypt; in other words, seventy people entered into Egypt. The soul is the seat of our personality.
But unfortunately, when man sinned, sin entered into man’s soul and reigned within him. Romans tells us that sin reigned in our soul. Our personality became contaminated and poisoned.
Therefore, you find that self becomes the soul-life. The soul-life itself is the natural life. Everything that comes from our soul expresses ourselves—what we think, how we feel, and how we decide. All of it expresses that selfish, corrupted soul-life. That is how fallen we are.
Oh, thank God! Our Lord Jesus came into this world to save us. He saved our whole being—not just our body, not just our spirit, but also our soul.
That is why in Scripture you find the term “salvation of the soul.” For instance, in 1 Peter 1:9, you find “the salvation of your souls.” In Hebrews, you find the saving of the soul. Sometimes we mix these things together—soul and spirit—because we do not see the difference between soul and spirit.
For an unbeliever, that is understandable, because his spirit is dead so far as God is concerned. So with him, soul and body are all that he knows. When I was in China, a missionary lived with us. We called her Grandma. She brought my father to the Lord, and after she retired, she lived with us.
Whenever something happened, she would say, “It is all my soul and body.” It became an expression. Where was the spirit? People do not know that they have a spirit. They think they are only soul and body—that is all.
But when you are born again, what is born again? Born again is the revival of your spirit.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
He who is born of the Holy Spirit has a new human spirit. That is why the Holy Spirit can dwell in that new spirit and cry out, “Abba, Father.”
When we are born again, deep down within us, our spirit is born, renewed, and brought into life with God. We are born of God. A relationship is made with our heavenly Father, because God is Spirit, and we have a renewed human spirit that can contact and commune with God. That is what we call being saved.
But after we are saved, how about our soul? Sometimes we say that you have a new heart, but you still have an old mind—an old brain. Is that not true?
Many Christians today are saved, thank God for that. In their hearts, they have believed in the Lord Jesus. The Lord dwells within them; there is no doubt about it. There is every evidence that they belong to the Lord.
But unfortunately, their minds are as old as they were before. They still think the same way. They still evaluate things in the old way. Their outlook has not changed. They love the things of the world just as the people of the world do, and they have little desire for spiritual things.
They still desire worldly things and do not desire spiritual things. In other words, they still carry with them an old mind and an old soul. Their soul needs to be transformed.
Transformation in Scripture refers to the soul. When our soul is transformed, our soul is being saved. I will not go into that too much, or it will take us until tomorrow.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, what did the Lord Jesus do? When He died on the cross, He not only bore our sins in His body. Through the shedding of His blood, our sins are remitted and forgiven. Thank God for that.
But our Lord Jesus did more than that. When He died on the cross, He died as us. In other words, not only did He take our sins upon Himself and die for us, but He took us within Himself and died as us. Therefore, when He died, we died.
On that cross, our Lord was crucified, and in His crucifixion our self-life—the life of the soul—was crucified.
Know ye not that ye were crucified with Him?
Paul said:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh
I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
When Christ died on the cross as a man, you and I, as human beings, were crucified with Him. The old “I”—your “I,” my “I,” all the “I”—was crucified with Him on the cross and done away with.
That is what the Lord has done on the cross to save our souls. He has done it. Because He has done it, the Holy Spirit today applies the cross to our lives to make that self-life dead, so that it may become a reality in us.
When the Holy Spirit applies the cross to our self-life, then, in the measure that self decreases, Christ increases in us. That is transformation.
Our old character begins to fall away, and the new character of Christ begins to be formed in us until we are conformed to the image of Christ. That is the salvation of the soul.
Our Lord Jesus has done it. All that needs to be done is to stand upon the finished work of Christ and let the Holy Spirit do it in your life. This is a lifetime process—not a momentary process, but a lifetime process from glory to glory.
When the Holy Spirit is going to do this work of transforming your soul, your soul needs to be in a right condition. That condition is that you are not under a guilty consciousness.
When a person is under a guilty consciousness, all the work of God seems to be stopped. God does not have an entrance into your life because you are under a feeling of guilt. You are wrapped up with yourself, and you do not allow the Holy Spirit to work within you.
Therefore, for our soul to be in a right state for the salvation of the soul to come to us, we need to have a soul without a guilty feeling. That can only come through forgiveness.
A forgiven soul opens the door to the working of the Holy Spirit in transforming us. A guilty soul shuts the door to God’s working. When a person is under guilt, no matter what you say, it does not enter. He is bound up with himself.
Unfortunately, many of God’s people today are living under a guilty consciousness, and that hinders their progress in the Lord. So we need to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, we come to the Lord Jesus and confess our sins. His blood cleanses us from all our sins. He forgives us. He not only forgives us; He even forgets.
The Bible says that in the New Covenant, He not only forgives but forgets all our past sins and all our debts. What is debt? It is what you owe—sins of omission. Sin is also what you commit—sins of commission.
Whatever we have committed or omitted before we believed in the Lord Jesus, nobody can count how much we have omitted and how much we have committed. But thank God, when we come to Him, our Lord Jesus forgives us all. He not only forgives; He literally forgets.
If you want to remind Him again, He says, “I do not remember.” That is how good His forgiveness is. What a wonderful feeling it is to be forgiven! Thank God for that.
After we are forgiven, is it not true that we continue to owe and continue to commit? Our Lord Jesus used a parable when Peter came to Him in Matthew 18 and said, “My brother sins against me seven times. Is that not enough to forgive?”
To forgive seven times was quite an accomplishment for Peter, because he had a quick temper. For a person with a quick temper to forgive seven times is endurance. I often think that it was probably Peter who offended his brother, and he thought that his brother had offended him.
Peter’s brother was Andrew, and Andrew was such a quiet and good fellow. That is often the case. When you offend people, you think you are the one being offended. You think you are so kind and generous to forgive. When you forgive seven times, you think, “Well, that is enough.”
So our Lord Jesus used a parable. A servant owed his master ten thousand talents—an immense debt. The master had every right to seize him, sell him, and sell all that he had to repay the debt, though even that could not repay it.
But the servant begged his master, and the master had compassion on him and forgave him everything. Then he went out and saw a fellow servant who owed him only a hundred denarii—a few dollars.
He took him by the throat and said, “If you do not pay, go to jail.” When the master heard about it, the master called him back and said, “I have forgiven you everything, and you do not care. Go to jail until you pay every penny.”
What was the Lord trying to teach in that parable? He was expressing this: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive.”
Brothers and sisters, you have to see the difference here. It is important. Before we are saved, we are forgiven without forgiving anybody. It is all grace. Why? Because it is impossible for us to forgive.
We often say, “To err is human; to forgive is divine.” In other words, forgiveness is divine, and you are not divine. You cannot forgive. As human beings, we always want people to pay us back. We cannot forget; it is impossible.
If our forgiveness were based upon our forgiving people, we would never be forgiven. Thank God that we are forgiven freely, without any condition.
But what is grace? Grace is not merely something that comes to us freely. Grace is a life. When it comes upon us, it carries with it the same character as the Giver.
We who have been forgiven now have a life—the divine life. Because we are God’s children, we have our Father’s character and disposition. Therefore, as God’s children, forgiving is within us.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Oftentimes, God’s people ask for forgiveness, yet they continue constantly under guilt. Why? They are not enjoying forgiveness because they have not forgiven those who owe them. They are still holding evil feelings and hatred against some brother or sister.
That is why they do not enjoy the liberty of forgiveness. This is very important, brothers and sisters. Today, our being forgiven is conditioned upon our forgiving our brothers and sisters.
The new life is within us. The new nature of forgiving is in us, and we should not waste the grace of God.
If God’s people knew how to forgive one another, what a difference it would make! When God’s people are together as a family, it is almost unavoidable that there will be some omissions and some commissions.
Sometimes you do something to your brother that you should not do. Other times, you owe your brother something that you ought to do. These things happen all the time.
If we hold onto these things and these debts, what will happen? The whole body will be blocked. There will be no fellowship, no flow of life, and the whole body will enter into death. Brothers and sisters, that is what is happening in the church today.
The Lord wants us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” We need to forgive that we may enjoy forgiveness, and our brothers and sisters need to forgive that they may enjoy forgiveness.
Then we will have the kind of situation in which the Holy Spirit is free to work in all of us, to do the work of transformation. How He longs to work!
The Lord continues to say, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
We have a physical need: “Give us this day our daily bread.” We have a soulish need: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” But we also have a spiritual need, because we have a human spirit—a renewed spirit—and the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit.
Our spirits need to be sound, clear, unblemished, and free from oppression. Therefore, our spirit also has a need. That is why the Lord wants us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Our Lord Jesus said, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” Temptation is everywhere in this world because the world is under the reign of Satan. Satan is the tempter.
He tries to tempt people everywhere, in anything, at every time and place. Temptations are around us. For this reason, the Lord wants us to watch and pray that we do not enter into temptation.
I believe there are many temptations that we enter into unnecessarily because we do not pray. We do not watch.
Temptation comes from the enemy. God never tempts, and He is not tempted. That is what the book of James teaches. God never tempts anyone, and God cannot be tempted.
What is temptation? Temptation is an attempt to draw out from you the lust of the flesh. When the lusts of the flesh are drawn out, then it ends in sin. That is temptation.
Temptation always has an evil thought behind it. Its purpose is that we may fall. Unfortunately, we have a fifth columnist within us—the lust of the flesh—which responds to temptation, and we fall.
God does test us. God does not tempt us, but He tests us. There is a difference. When God tests a person, He is trying to draw out the grace that He has already put into that person.
When that grace is drawn out, it is strengthened, and God is glorified. That is testing. So let us make no mistake: God never tempts us, but He tests us.
Thank God that, even though we live in a world full of temptations, if God does not permit it, the tempter cannot enter. Everything is under God’s control.
That is why, in 1 Corinthians 10, you find that you will not be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. In other words, God measures even your temptation.
Sometimes we go beyond measure because we suddenly want to do so, and God allows it. But even then, God measures it. Do not think that you are tempted beyond what you are able to bear. When you endure for a period, He will open a way of escape. That is the grace of God, even with temptation.
But the prayer here is not, “Do not let us be tempted.” The prayer is, “Lead us not into temptation.” How does God lead us into temptation?
We say that God does not tempt us. We say that God sometimes permits us to be tempted. But does God lead us into temptation? Why should we pray such a prayer?
I can think of only two reasons why sometimes God leads us into temptation. One reason is that God is so confident of us that He dares to challenge us before Satan.
In the case of Job, Satan came before God. Satan was not accusing Job, perhaps because he did not know how to accuse him. Most of the time Satan knows where to accuse us, but Job was such a perfect man.
Satan watched Job, but he could not find any ground for attack. That was why he did not come to the Lord to accuse Job. God challenged him. God said, “Have you considered My servant Job? There is no one as perfect as he is.”
Then Satan tried to obtain permission. He said, “You have built a hedge around him. You have blessed him and everything in his hand. No wonder he fears You. Take away all these things, and he will curse You.”
God said, in effect, “All right, I challenge you. Do that.” Here you find that God led Job into temptation.
But the outcome was glorious. God’s name was honored. When all these things were taken away, even when Job was stricken with sores, he worshipped God.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Job hallowed God’s name. God was glorified, and Satan’s mouth was shut forever. That is one reason. Sometimes God can do that because He has confidence.
Another reason is that sometimes He leads us into temptation because there is some weakness in us of which we are unaware. There may be no other way to teach us except by leading us into temptation.
The case of Simon Peter is one example. Simon Peter said, “Lord, I will die with You. I love You. I will die with You. Other people may go, but not me.” At least, he believed it. He did not know his own weakness.
How was the Lord going to teach him that lesson? The Lord said, “You will deny Me three times.” Peter said, “No, never.” Teaching did not work.
So the Lord led him into temptation. He was tempted, and when he was tempted, his weakness was revealed. Because of that, he repented. When he repented, he was strengthened.
What was of Peter fell away; what was of the Holy Spirit took over. Brothers and sisters, this is why sometimes the Lord does lead us into temptation: for our good, that we may learn lessons we could never learn otherwise.
But we do need to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” Do not be self-confident.
Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
Some people think, “Well, I am strong. God can use me to challenge the enemy. I have no reason to fear.” Well, that is dangerous.
We need to pray, “Lead us not into temptation. Lord, You know my weakness. You know my flesh. Do not allow something to happen. Lord, have mercy upon me.” We need to maintain that kind of attitude. That is being poor in spirit.
“Deliver us from the evil one.” If it is Your will that I have to go through temptation, then, Lord, You know I cannot do it. You have to deliver me from the evil one.
Thank God, He does. Our Lord Jesus said, “Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith shall not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren.”
Brothers and sisters, how we need to ask the Lord to deliver us from the evil one. Remember, we are no match for the evil one. But our Lord Jesus is. He has overcome. Therefore, even in temptation, He is able to deliver us.
So we have the needs of the whole being: the physical need, the need of the soul, and the need of the spirit. We need to pray this prayer, not only for ourselves, but for the whole church.
As we pray, you will find how wonderfully He answers. This is the prayer that our Lord Jesus teaches. May the Lord help us that we may take up these prayers in a very real and practical way.
Dear heavenly Father, we do thank Thee that Thou hast taught us to pray.
We give ourselves to Thee. We are willing to be the prayer vessels through which Thou mayest pray.
Thy name be hallowed.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our needed bread.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.