Sermon on the Mount – Lord’s Prayer – Deliverance from temptation of sin

—
Hymn 137
I need Thee every hour,
Most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine
Can peace afford.

REFRAIN
I need Thee, O, I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Saviour,
I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour;
Stay Thou near-by;
Temptations lose their power
When Thou art nigh.

REFRAIN

I need Thee every hour;
Teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promise, Lord,
In me fulfill.

REFRAIN

THE HOLY BIBLE (New Living Translation)

Matt. 6:9, 13

Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Matt. 4:1-4

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.‘”

Gen. 25:19,29-33

This is the account of the family of Isaac, the son of Abraham.

One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”) “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.” “Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?” But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.

Ps. 78:18-19, 23, 24, 41, 42

They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved. They even spoke against God himself, saying, “God can’t give us food in the wilderness. But he commanded the skies to open; . . . he gave them bread from heaven. Again and again they tested God’s patience. . . .They did not remember his power and how he rescued them from their enemies.

Matt. 4:5-7

Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.'”

Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.'”

James 1:13-14

[W]hen you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.

Gen. 27:1, 4, 5, 10-13, 15-16, 18-20, 30, 33-34, 41

One day when Isaac was old and turning blind, he called for Esau, his older son, and said, . .. Prepare my favorite dish, and bring it here for me to eat. Then I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you, my firstborn son, before I die.” But Rebekah overheard what Isaac had said to his son Esau. So when Esau left to hunt for the wild game, she said to her son Jacob,. .. take the food to your father so he can eat it and bless you before he dies.” “But look,” Jacob replied to Rebekah, “my brother, Esau, is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth. What if my father touches me? He’ll see that I’m trying to trick him, and then he’ll curse me instead of blessing me.” But his mother replied, . .. Just do what I tell you. Then she took Esau’s favorite clothes, which were there in the house, and gave them to her younger son, Jacob. She covered his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skin of the young goats.

So Jacob took the food to his father. “My father?” he said. “Yes, my son,” Isaac answered. “Who are you—Esau or Jacob?” Jacob replied, “It’s Esau, your firstborn son. I’ve done as you told me. Here is the wild game. Now sit up and eat it so you can give me your blessing.” Isaac asked, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” “The Lord your God put it in my path!” Jacob replied. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and almost before Jacob had left his father, Esau returned from his hunt. Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably and said, “Then who just served me wild game? I have already eaten it, and I blessed him just before you came. And yes, that blessing must stand!”

When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry. “Oh my father, what about me? Bless me, too!” he begged. From that time on, Esau hated Jacob because their father had given Jacob the blessing. And Esau began to scheme: “I will soon be mourning my father’s death. Then I will kill my brother, Jacob.”

Gen. 31:3; 32:9, 11

Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you.” Then Jacob prayed, . . . O Lord, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau. . .

Gen. 32:24-28 (KJV)

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

John 13:34

I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

Gen. 49:1, 3-6, 7, 27, 17, 18, 2-24, 8, 10

Then Jacob called together all his sons and said, “Gather around me, and I will tell you what will happen to each of you in the days to come.

Reuben, . . . You are first in rank and first in power. But you are as unruly as a flood, and you will be first no longer. For you went to bed with my wife; you defiled my marriage couch.

Simeon and Levi are two of a kind; their weapons are instruments of violence. May I never join in their meetings; may I never be a party to their plans. A curse on their anger … .

Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, devouring his enemies in the morning and dividing his plunder in the evening.

Dan will be a snake beside the road, a poisonous viper along the path

that bites the horse’s hooves so its rider is thrown off.

I trust in you for salvation, O Lord!

Joseph is a fruitful tree beside a spring. . . .Archers attacked him savagely; they shot at him and harassed him. But his bow remained taut, and his arms were strengthened

by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.

Judah, your brothers will praise you. The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants, until the coming of the one to whom it belongs, the one whom all nations will honor.

Heb. 4:14-15

[W]e have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, . . .[who] understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

Matt. 4:8-11

Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me. “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.'” Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

I John 2:15-17

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

SCIENCE & HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES by Mary Baker Eddy

SH 17:8

[L]ead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;

And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

SH 16:15-23

In the phrase, “Deliver us from evil,” the original properly reads, “Deliver us from the evil one.” This reading strengthens our scientific apprehension of the petition, for Christian Science teaches us that “the evil one,” or one evil, is but another name for the first lie and all liars.

Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord’s Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick.

SH 387:27

The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering.

SH 7:27

The danger from prayer is that it may lead us into temptation. By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, uttering desires which are not real and consoling ourselves in the midst of sin with the recollection that we have prayed over it or mean to ask forgiveness at some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion.

SH 527:6-14

Genesis ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting man, but the Apostle James says: “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man

SH 529:21-22

Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love?

SH 307:31-4; 308:8, 16-28

Above error’s awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice of Truth still calls: “Adam, where art thou? Consciousness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou in the living faith that there is and can be but one God, and keeping His commandment?”

This awful demand, “Adam, where art thou?” is met by the admission from the head, heart, stomach, blood, nerves, etc.: “Lo, here I am, looking for happiness and life in the body, but finding only an illusion, a blending of false claims, false pleasure, pain, sin, sickness, and death.”

Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, — struggling with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter with its false pleasures and pains, — when an angel, a message from Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew, or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual strength in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said the spiritual evangel: “Let me go, for the day breaketh;” that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee. But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light until his nature was transformed.

SH 22:20

Love is not hasty to deliver us from temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and purified.

SH 66:10-11, 31-1

Trials are proofs of God’s care. The furnace separates the gold from the dross that the precious metal may be graven with the image of God.

SH 562:11

The twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals, — separated by belief from man’s divine origin and the true idea, — will through much tribulation yield to the activities of the divine Principle of man in the harmony of Science.

SH 589:1, 2-3

Issachar (Jacob’s son). . . envy; hatred; selfishness; self-will; lust.

SH 590:11

Levi (Jacob’s son).  A corporeal and sensual belief; mortal man; denial of the fulness of God’s creation . . . .

SH 593:12

Reuben (Jacob’s son).  Corporeality; sensuality; delusion . . . .

SH 582:4-6

Benjamin (Jacob’s son. . . . human knowledge, or so-called mortal mind, devoted to matter; pride; envy; fame . . . .

SH 583:26-28

Dan (Jacob’s son). . . . so-called mortal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out the designs of error; one belief preying upon another.

SH 589:23

Judah. A corporeal material belief progressing and disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and man appearing.

SH 589:19

Joseph. . . . a higher sense of Truth rebuking mortal belief, or error, and showing the immortality and supremacy of Truth; pure affection blessing its enemies.

SH 581:15

Asher (Jacob’s son).  Hope and faith; spiritual compensation; the ills of the flesh rebuked.

SH 586:21

Gad (Jacob’s son).  Science; spiritual being understood; haste towards harmony.

SH 564:12-16

Since Jesus must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate, met and conquered sin in every form.

SH 42:21-23, 26-28

Because of the wondrous glory which God bestowed on His anointed, temptation, sin, sickness, and death had no terror for Jesus. . . . This demonstrates that in Christian Science the true man is governed by God — by good, not evil — and is therefore not a mortal but an immortal.

SH 218:25-26

Resist the temptation to believe in matter as intelligent, as having sensation or power.

SH 404:3-9; 405:5-8, 19

If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and destroy these errors with the truth of being, — by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering which his submission to such habits brings, and by convincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appetites.

Christian Science commands man to master the propensities, — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty . . . . Immortal man demonstrates the government of God, good, in which is no power to sin.

SH 676:11-20 (np)

A NEW LIFE GAINED

Leaving home when a young man, I carried with me a protection against the temptation of a great city, — a mother’s prayers and a small Bible. For a time I read the Bible and prayed, but without understanding. This did not suffice, and evil seemed to gain the victory. I soon omitted to read my Bible; forgot to go to God in prayer for guidance and help, and looked to the world for that which it never has and never can give, — health, peace, and joy.

Thus, years later, when Christian Science came into my home, it found me prayerless, churchless, godless; a home discordant, and with no thought or knowledge of spiritual things. Up to this time, my wife had for years been seeking health through the physicians, but without success, and as a last resort had been sent to Christian Science. The help received was so wonderful that I commenced the study of Science and Health. . . . I went in silent prayer to God, that I might see the light and truth which would enable me to become a better man. “Ye must be born again.” . . . In a few weeks’ study of Science and Health together with the Bible, and without other help, I was healed of a desire for liquor, of years’ standing, and of the use of tobacco. Ten years have passed and these appetites have never returned. — W. H. P., Boston, Mass.

SH 67:25

Man delivered from sin, disease, and death presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.

SH 267:28-32

(James i. 12.) “Blessed is the man that endureth [overcometh] temptation: for when he is tried, [proved faithful], he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

Hymn 15
As gold by fire is tested,
Its purity shown forth,
So cleansing fires of Truth may prove
To man his native worth.

And as a mirror shows us
A likeness clear and bright,
So God forever sees His child
Revealed in radiant light.

‘Twas thus the loving Master
Saw man’s perfection shine,
Beheld God’s child forever pure
In radiance all divine.

Hymn 290
Press on, press on, ye sons of light,
Untiring in your holy fight,
Still treading each temptation down,
And battling for a brighter crown.

Press on, press on, and fear no foe,
With calm resolve to triumph go;
Victorious over every ill,
Press on to higher glory still.

Press on, press on, still look in faith
To Him who conquers sin and death;
Then shall ye hear His word, Well done!
True to the last, press on, press on.