Gardiner Spring
There is a great deceiver who is not only permitted to have the power of seduction, but is long practised in its arts. We are not “ignorant of his devices”. He knows where and when the people of God are most vulnerable. There is no dark chamber in the understanding, no unguarded outpost in the conscience, no defective spot in the heart, which he does not have his eye upon and to which he is not fertile in expedients to find access.
He sports with the understanding and would fain tempt to the belief that there is no religion revealed from heaven, no hereafter, no God. He sports with the conscience and would fain tempt to the belief that sin is a little matter, that the threatenings of God are unduly severe, that nothing is jeopardised by a single deviation from duty, that others have sinned and found mercy, and that there can be no great peril in sinning if such transgressors as Noah and Lot, David and Solomon, Peter and the thief on the cross were pardoned offenders. He sports with the imagination, painting in gaudy colours the delights of the ambitious in the hope of elevation, of the avaricious in their anticipations of wealth, of the unclean in the revellings of their impurity. He sports with the heart, adapting his seductions to every age, every constitutional infirmity, every condition and need, every employment and relation in life, every hope and fear, every opinion and prejudice, every exposure, every season of rashness, and every former sin. There is no form of sinning which he fails to exhibit in its most alluring attractions: “It is fruit greatly to be desired and pleasant to the eye; the deed is soon forgotten, and never detected; it is the best, if not the only, means of making expectations into realities to which years of otherwise fruitless toil have been devoted”.
There are three things, among others, which strongly mark the temptations of this crafty adversary. One is the untiring patience by which he would persuade men to hearken to his suggestions, the indomitable perseverance by which he employs himself with their thoughts by day and by night, pursuing and worrying, hunting and dogging his victims year after year until he has planted his barbed arrow so deep that they despair of escaping his fury. The second, inconsistent as it may be, is the suddenness of his assaults, the unexpected fury of his onsets, giving his victims no time to deliberate, entering into no discussions with them, but summoning all his artifice and energy to carry them by surprise. And the third is to keep himself out of sight, to hide himself from observation, from suspicion even, until the “bird is taken in the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life”.
1An extract, slightly edited, from The Mercy Seat, thoughts suggested by the Lord’s prayer. This volume is available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom for £16.95. Spring (1785-1872) was for over 60 years minister of a Presbyterian church in New York.
Such are some of the more ordinary exposures to sin contemplated by the request, “Lead us not into temptation”. The world, the flesh and the devil, these three mighty kingdoms, in all the strength and subtlety of their unhallowed alliance, are ever and anon directing their assaults against the men of prayer, against all men, and with an unweariedness and success that are surpassed only by Him whose eyes never slumber and who is stronger than the strong man in his armour.
Here then we may discover what a Christian prays for when he says, “Lead us not into temptation”. He would be delivered from the severity of this conflict; and, if he may not be free from it, he asks that he may be supported. “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice”, said Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “that it might depart from me; and He said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee!’” This petition more especially contemplates as great an exemption from this exposure as is consistent with the designs and will of God. In the wide range between sinless perfection and absolute apostasy, some degree of exposure is unavoidable; nor does the Christian know how much may be needful for the trial of his faith, for the proof of his integrity, for his usefulness in the world, for the conquests of divine grace and for ultimately securing his everlasting crown. It is well that the history of the people of God in this particular is an unknown history, and that it never will be fully known till the day when the promise is made good: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My throne, even as I overcame, and am set down with My Father on His throne” (Rev 3:21).
John, in the vision of the Apocalypse, heard the voice: “What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they?” It was the inquirer himself who rejoined, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14). They had laboured and suffered for the gospel. They had stood firm in a persecuting and degenerate age. They had not fallen or fainted in the “hour of temptation” that came upon all the earth, but sealed their testimony with their blood.
God has thus tempted thousands of His people, to whom He has given grace to be faithful unto death, and to whom He has awarded a crown of life. He tempted Abraham by a command filled with all the emphasis of terror. He tempted Job and He tempted Paul. “Beloved,” said the Apostle Peter to the dispersed people of God, “think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.” It is no new thing that temptations should beset them; nor is it in any way remarkable that the temptations should be turned to good account in the divine government. “There hath no temptation overtaken you,” said Paul to the Corinthians, “but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
I have known those who, from a sinful confidence in their own powers of endurance, and from a self-righteous desire to express their own meekness and submission under trials, actually desired this conflict with the powers of darkness; and I have seen them most bitterly bewail their presumption. Though good men may come unscathed from temptations, they are not to be sought. It is time enough to glory in tribulation when it comes. If God brings it, He will deliver. “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trial of your faith worketh patience,” and that it is no loss when patience has “her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing”. Nor is it any strange thing that piety, when thus unavoidably exposed, should be the gainer by every seduction successfully resisted, every trial patiently endured. There is honey even in the carcase of the lion; “out of the eater [comes] forth meat, and out of the strong [comes] forth sweetness”.
Thus tempted, the child of God has many a promise to sustain and comfort him. He who came from the bosom of the Father to destroy the works of the devil was Himself exposed to the impudent assaults of this spirit of all evil. If He did not escape the assault, much less may we. Like a brave prince, He not only commands His followers, but places Himself at the head of His embattled hosts, and Himself breasts the first onset of the enemy. It is not infrequently with them, after sore temptation, as it was with Him, when “the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him”.
While the petition, “Lead us not into temptation”, therefore does not contemplate entire exemption from temptation, it contemplates as great exemption as is consistent with the will of our Father who is in heaven. In such a world as this, and with such a heart as dwells in man, who does not feel the strong propriety, the urgent need, of such a request? Nothing is more helpless than a Christian unprotected by the providence of His heavenly Father and unsupported by His grace. He is as a sickly plant under the withering tempest. He is like the lost sheep, bleating in the lone and dense forest, or trembling on the cragged rock, pursued by savage beasts and savage men, and never secure save when He who gathers the lambs with His arm, and carries them in His bosom, makes him to “lie down in green pastures” and leads him “beside the still waters”. It is not so much in resisting temptation that his safety lies, as in not being led into it.
Let this then be the reader’s prayer: “Lead me not into temptation”. Tread not too closely on the borders of evil when there is a “highway of holiness”. Make no treaty with the foe. Beware of scenes and objects, of places, employments and men, of feelings and fancies, which ensnare. If a man is doubtful of the moral rectitude of any course of conduct, let him bring it to the test by asking the question: Is it ensnaring? Of this one thing he may be assured: it is more than doubtful, if he cannot enter upon it with the petition on his lips: Lead me not into temptation.
Listen to the counsels of heavenly wisdom when they say, “Be sober, be vigilant; for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Be vigilant, because your foes are subtle and aim their most envenomed arrows in the dark. Be sober, because levity and folly tempt the tempter. These days of temptation will soon be over; therefore “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might”. It is not against flesh and blood alone that you are wrestling; wherefore “put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day”.