“13 “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.””
When you put a bit of cheese in a mousetrap, you are not thinking about the cheese. You are thinking about the moment the trap will spring. When a mouse finds that cheese, he isn’t thinking about the trap. He is thinking about the cheese.
When Satan tempts a woman, he isn’t thinking about the temptation. He isn’t thinking about sloth or pride. He isn’t thinking about the cheese. He is thinking about the moment that trap springs. He wants the woman focused on the temptation because he doesn’t want her to notice the trap.
Satan doesn’t tempt just to tempt. He tempts with a purpose. Just like you have plans for that mouse, so Satan has plans for you. The bait is just a means to that end.
Do you know Satan’s plans for you? If not, you are at a distinct disadvantage. If you can identify the bait but not the trap, you are at a disadvantage. This morning, we will focus on what Satan hopes to accomplish with his temptations, not the temptations themselves.
We have already studied some of his temptations. Satan tempts us through the flesh. He tempted Eve through her desires. He tempted Job through his pain. He tempts us through the world. He tempted Daniel with its power. He tempted Jesus with its people. Next week we will focus on more temptations by studying Satan’s battle with Jesus in the wilderness. This week I think you will be best served by studying Satan’s aims. What is he after when he tempts? What is he tempting you towards?
Satan wants you deceived, ashamed, and dead. Pray for deliverance. That is the claim of this sermon: Satan wants you deceived, ashamed, and dead. Pray for deliverance.
We will study this in three points. First: deceived. Second: ashamed. Third: dead.
First: deceived. Satan isn’t instinctual like an animal. He tempts with goals in mind. He tempts you to spring the trap. His first trap is deception.
Satan wants you to be deceived. Satan wanted Eve deceived about God’s commandment about the fruit. He wanted her to believe that God was withholding something that would make her happy.
Satan wants you to be deceived. He wants you to believe that God is withholding something that would make you happy. Satan wants you to believe that God cannot help you with what is happening in your life right now. Satan wants you to believe that God is no longer in the business of doing what we see Him do in Scripture. Satan wants you to believe that there is something that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus and that maybe you have stumbled into it this week. Satan wants you to be deceived.
Satan aims for deception because he knows that he is no match for God. Satan knows that if people see Jesus for who he is, they will be drawn to him. Satan knows that if people soberly compare what he can offer with what God can offer, he cannot compete. He must lie. He must hide the facts because the facts are against him.
Satan’s temptations towards deception are crafty. He is an expert at the half-truth. As an example, let’s take a Christian woman who has no assurance of salvation. She is a believer. She has the Spirit, but for a number of reasons she doubts her salvation. Satan will begin by telling her a truth. ‘You don’t feel like a child of God.’ That is true. She doesn’t. Next comes the lie; ‘you don’t feel like a child of God because you aren’t really a Christian. Look at how many times you have asked for forgiveness. What kind of a Father would refuse a child who came to Him in need?’ Satan began with a truth. This woman doesn’t have assurance of salvation. He then twists that truth into a lie to deceive this poor woman. He can’t have her; she already belongs to Jesus; he can, however, make her miserable by deceiving her about that fact.
Satan can’t change facts. He works to deceive humanity about the facts. Satan can’t change the fact that the Son of God has come into the world. He can deceive people about who Jesus is. Satan can’t change the fact that God has inspired His word in written form. He can deceive people about its reliability.
Satan traffics in lies because he wants people deceived. Jesus, of course, was right when he said, “When [Satan] lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Satan wants to trap you in deception. Jesus tells you to pray for deliverance, “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”
God delivers us from deception with truth. Satan tempted Martin Luther to believe that he was a hopeless sinner. Luther responded by remembering the truth. “When Satan tells me that I am a sinner he comforts me immeasurably, since Christ died for sinners.”
Godly hymns train you to remember truth. They help keep you from being deceived. “When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within upwards I look and see him there who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.”
When Paul told the Ephesians how to stand against the devil’s schemes, he began by telling them to put on the belt of truth. If you want to be delivered from Satan’s deceptions, you need to hear God’s truth. You need to be reminded that you don’t stand alone but that you are united with Christ. You need to remember that he is praying for you. “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies,” said M’Cheyne, “yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” Satan doesn’t want you to remember that Christ is praying for you. Satan wants you to believe you fight him alone. He will tempt you towards a thousand different lies. He wants you deceived. You need to remember. You need to remember God’s truth.
Satan wants you deceived. He also wants you to be ashamed. That is our second point: ashamed. It is not surprising that the last thing we read about Adam and Eve before Satan’s temptations is that they were naked and knew no shame. It is not surprising that the first thing we see them do after they sin is to cover themselves with clothing because they were ashamed.
Satan wants you to be ashamed because shame isolates you. You will not speak of what shames you. Some of us have never shared our shame with anyone. We have sinned in ways that we find unspeakable. We have been sinned against in ways we find hard to talk about. If we would speak this shame to a wise Christian brother or sister, the shame would weaken. Satan doesn’t want your shame to weaken. He wants to isolate you from others. Satan doesn’t want you to be known. Satan doesn’t want you to be loved. He wants you ashamed.
Satan wants you to be ashamed because shame keeps you from God. After Adam and Eve sinned, they felt ashamed and they hid from God. Shame keeps people from prayer. Shame keeps people from worship. Shame keeps people from God. This is a particularly malicious ploy of Satan because, as Curt Thompson puts it, “Those parts of us that feel most broken and that we keep most hidden are the parts that most desperately need to be known by God, so as to be loved and healed.”
Satan wants to trap you in shame. Jesus tells you to pray for deliverance, “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”
God delivers you by coming near. When Adam and Eve hid in shame, God found them. He drew near them. He invited them to confess their sin. He sacrificed an animal to cover the shame of their nakedness. He promised that one day He would crush Satan for what he did.
God drew near in the incarnation. God taking on flesh is a great antidote to shame. “We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” Jesus knows the temptations that trapped you in shame. He knows their power. He became like you so that you might go free.
God drew near by the Spirit. Shame tells you to hide from God. Once you come to Christ, God’s Spirit proves that you have no need to hide. He proves that by living within you.
Think of it in terms of marriage. I was afraid to get married because I was afraid of being known. That is quite common. What would happen when she got to know me? I could put up a good front for a few dates but after a few years of marriage, she would know that I had problems. Marriage healed that by giving me a safe place to open up.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t just live with you like a spouse. He lives in you. Just as in marriage, the Spirit has promised to never leave you and never forsake you. You can open up because you are loved. You don’t need to be afraid. John explained it this way, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” The Spirit shows you that the sin that shames you is nailed to the cross. He shows you Jesus hanging naked on the cross for your sin so that you can again be naked before God and unashamed.
Satan wants you to be ashamed. He also wants you dead. That is our third point: dead. Jesus tells us, “[Satan] was a murderer from the beginning.” Satan told Adam and Eve that they would not die if they ate from the tree because he wanted them to die. He wasn’t curious about what would happen if they ate from the tree. He knew what would happen and he wanted it to happen. He wanted Adam and Eve to die. Do you hate anyone to the extent that you wish them dead? Satan hates you to the extent that he wants you dead.
Do you want anyone to spend an eternity in hell? My hope is that no matter what someone has done to you, you would rather see that person repent and grow in grace than be damned to hell. My hope is the doctrine of hell is difficult for you to process. My hope is that you have the attitude of M’Cheyne in you. He asked his friend Andrew Bonar what he preached on the previous Sunday and when Bonar told him, “hell,” M’Cheyne asked him, “did you preach it with tears?”
Satan sheds no tears when men die in their sins and are damned to hell. He is giddy about hell in a way that I hope any of us would disgusting. The only thing he doesn’t find delightful about hell is the fact that he is going to have to suffer it.
What makes Satan’s excitement for hell worse is that he knows what hell is all about. Some foolish people think they would like hell. They talk like AC/DC, “Living easy, living free, season ticket on a one-way ride; asking nothing, leave me be; taking everything in my stride; don’t need reason, don't need rhyme; ain’t nothing I would rather do; going down, party time; my friends are gonna be there too; I’m on the highway to hell.”
They are talking beyond their knowledge. They know less about hell than a six-year-old knows about what to do after running away from home.
If you understood hell, you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy. Satan understands it. He wishes it on you. He wants you to die in your sin. His temptations are just the cheese to lure you into this trap. He wants you deceived. He wants you ashamed. He wants you dead.
Satan wants to trap you in death. Jesus tells you to pray for deliverance, “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”
Jesus delivers you from death by taking the death you deserve. Listen to Martin Luther, “when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: ‘I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where he is there I shall be also!”’
We humans are so quick to try to justify ourselves. We try to explain away our sin. Satan loves that. If a man tries to take away his own sin, he won’t confess it to God. He won’t see his need for the cross. Satan wants you to deal with your sin yourself because then you will die in your sin.
Admit that you deserve death because of your sin. God tells you that the wages of sin is death. Don’t argue that point with the devil. Admit it and then boast in the cross.
Jesus has dealt with sin. Has he dealt with your sin? Can you sing, “my sin, oh the bliss, of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul.” Is that your song?
Satan wants you dead in your sin. Satan wants you ashamed to come to God. Satan wants you deceived about your situation. If you don’t take his aims, you won’t feel the need to pray, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” You might pray those words because you’ve learned the Lord’s Prayer, but it won’t be your prayer. If that is you, you need to wake up. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Don’t be that someone. Amen.