Deliver Us from Evil
W. Hetherington. Luke 11:4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation… The revelation of sonship is also the revelation of evil. Until we know God is Father, and we His dear children, we do not know how evil a thing is sin. You can see the reason of this. The slave, who has no idea of freedom, is content to wear his fetters. The man to whom this world is all does not feel it to be a prison. But let the revelation come: "Ye are not the son of the bondwoman, but of the free; ye have not received the spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption, whereby ye cry, 'Abba, Father,'" then how galling the fetters become, and what longing there is for the liberty of the children of God. Let the revelation of a man's true nature and destiny come to him, then the world is too little for him — it is stifling in its narrowness and closeness. His spirit wants a broader and loftier breathing-place. It is not the things God has made that can satisfy him. tie wants God Himself. His heart and flesh cry out for God, for the living God. His prayer is, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." And as long as evil comes between him and the light of his Father's face, his prayer must be, "Deliver us from evil." I. THE PRAYER OF GOD'S CHILD — "Deliver US from evil." 1. The evil God's child prays to be delivered from. It is necessary to have clear ideas upon this point. Many things we call evil are not so in reality. They may be but the hiding of some good, deeper than our poor minds can grasp, or the painful shocks that are bringing health and freedom for some captive child of God. The only real evil is sin. When we pray to be delivered from evil, we do not pray to be delivered from suffering, but from repining in suffering; from the blindness which does not see the hand of God in it. We do not pray to be delivered from poverty, or calamity, or death, but from the evil in us which would prevent us from turning every loss into gain, every trial into strength, and every vicissitude in out changing experience into a means of spiritual progress. In a word, we want to be delivered from the impulses and sway of the old nature, that we may enter into the life and freedom of the new. We want to escape the corruption that is in us, through becoming "partakers of the Divine nature." 2. This prayer is in perfect harmony with God's purpose in redemption. The student of the Bible and of history must see that deliverance from evil is the great object of the Divine discipline and culture of our nature. The Old Testament is a revelation of the righteousness of God. Its aim, from beginning to end, is to expose evil that men may know it and escape its thraldom. Even the judgment that followed swiftly upon transgression had at its heart a yearning desire for the deliverance of the sons of God. It was not because God delighted in vengeance, but in mercy, that departure from righteousness brought pain, and obedience, blessedness. And what is the purpose of the New Testament but emancipation from evil? Its light and its love — the revelation of the mind and heart of God in Jesus Christ — what is its aim if not salvation from the evil? The ideal of manhood as realized in Jesus shows you that you were not made to be the slaves of sin, but the free sons of God. The cross — the at-one-ment between humanity and God- shows you how through crucifixion of the evil your nature may be brought into complete and responsive harmony with God's, and so be delivered from the evil. 3. The desire of the prayer shall be completely realized. This is a blissful assurance to the man whose sense of evil is keen. He longs to be free from it, and would willingly die if so be he might become as stainless as the light, as pure as the heart of God. Now, use this prayer. Jesus would not have taught it you if He had meant to mock you. He would not have shown you the evil, if He had not intended to deliver you from it. He would not have carried light into your prison, and troubled you with a Divine discontent, if He had not intended to save. The same spirit which makes you cry, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" will put a new song into your mouth, "Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." II. THE REASONS FOR USING THIS PRAYER 1. The evil is within us. A man cannot flee from the plague of his own heart by going into a desert or shutting himself up in a cell. Dore, in his picture of the Neophyte, by a touch of genius all his own, has shown how the ideal the young man has chosen is failing to realize his hopes. In that beautiful face of his, so marvellously expressive, we see hope trembling between fear and disappointment; we see the shadows gathering over the beauty of the young man's ideal. The brutal countenances of some of the men that surround him, the stern scowl of others, the sensual look of most, these surely cannot express the purity and beauty of God's ideal. No; the young man has made a mistake. The picture says: The cloister is no more sacred than the world. Escape from the world is not escape from sin. See, these men still live in the old sensual nature. Escape from that. Come out of the old nature into the new. Live, not in the flesh,-but in the spirit. Let Christ be formed in you, His spirit possess you, and then you shall be free. "For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2. Then the evil is so subtle. Just here is our danger and our need of this prayer. 3. We must be delivered from evil before our salvation is complete. The evil destroys our peace, and comes between our souls and God. It dims our vision to all that is most beautiful in His character, and most Divine in His works. (W. Hetherington.) Parallel Verses KJV: And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. WEB: Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'"