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Religious or non-religious, atheist or agnostic, almost everyone finds themselves praying at one point or another in their lives. People pray in fear and distress, as part of some religious duty, when they want something badly, or when they simply need answers to life's questions. But what is prayer? Prayer, at its essence, is talking to God. The God who with His spoken Word brought the universe into being. The God who holds the vastness of creation together in His power. This God actually listens to us and He listens as an attentive Father, as the Shepherd of His sheep, despite how unworthy we may feel in approaching Him or feeble we may think our prayers may sound. God has done what we could never do, and made access to His throne possible for us. We need to reduce our distractions and increase our interaction with God because true prayer is the means by which we align ourselves to God's will. It's the means that we draw nearer to a Holy God, and so may we pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done".

A very good morning to all of you and welcome to Gospel Light Christian Church, our second English worship service this morning, if you're here with us for the first time, you join us in a very interesting time as we wrap up our seven part series on, teach us to pray.

This is really a series based on the Lord's prayer in Matthew chapter 6, because this is the last time, we are going to look at this passage together, I’ll like you to try to recall the seven phrases we have looked at systematically over the past seven weeks, alright.

So let's do it together, the first thing Jesus said in the Lord's prayer is? Okay, our Father in heaven. Number two, hallowed be Your Name. Number three, Your Kingdom come, number four, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our sins as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lastly today and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. So this is what we have been looking at over the past six, seven weeks.

I mentioned to you that this prayer that er Jesus taught us is an amazing prayer. It's so short, so succinct and yet so comprehensive. I think it gives us the perfect balance of what prayer should be. It begins with petitions that relate directly to God before it comes to our needs.

So the first three petitions, hallowed be Your Name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, it's God centred. I'm not saying that the rest are men centred, but the rest really deal with the needs of our lives, in order to live for the glory of God. So perfect balance, perfect priorities and I found that very instructive for my own prayer life.

So we did mention that some of you will, will have some models for prayer like ACTS, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. Some of you have, have, have used PRAY, praise, repentance, ask, yield.  Personally, I use seven Ps, you say what seven Ps? Seven Ps, here.

The first P of prayer is I learned about the Person I pray to,  my Father in heaven.

Then number two, it reminds me of my priority, that God's Name be set apart. So I'm not praying for my own glory, I'm praying for God's Name to be glorious.

Number three, I pray, I remind myself of a plan that God has in His ways. Currently this world is ruled by Satan, he's called the prince of the power of the air, he's called the ruler of this world, in fact he's called even the god of this world, but I rest in the knowledge that God will usher in His Kingdom, right now in the hearts of men and women who repent and believe in Jesus and one day when Jesus returns, He will rule over all. So I pray for the plan of God as revealed in Scripture to come to fruition in its glory.

And then number three, number three, the third petition or the fourth thing here in this prayer, seven Ps is the purposes of God. I'm praying for God's Word to be lived out. I'm not praying my will be done in heaven, I'm praying God's will be done on earth. So I'm not praying about what I want or what I desire, I'm praying for God's desires, God's Word, God's purposes to be fulfilled.

Now, the next three become far more, easy, I think for most of us- it's directly related with us.

The first one, give us this day our daily bread deals with our provisions. We pray for our daily needs, not just physical, mind you, but also spiritual because Jesus says man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, so this is about provision.

The next one is easy, the next P you can try, pardon that's right, it's very simple, forgive us our debts, pardon! I need to pray for forgiveness, not to keep my salvation as we've explained but to keep the joy of our salvation. It restores us to the intimacy, communion and fellowship with God.

The last P that we are going look at today is protection, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

So we are going to take a closer look at “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”. That is the desire of the child of God, alright. Let me tell you a story to wake you up a little. There's this man who has been driving around this block and he can't find a parking lot. So he parked illegally and he wrote a note and stuck it on his windshield so that the traffic police will come and see and give him a chance and on that note, he wrote, I've circled this building 10 times and I really need to park the car to meet my boss. Otherwise, my boss will be angry with me and I would lose my job, please don't give me a parking ticket. Remember, the Bible says, forgive us our debts.

Well, he left and he came back an hour later and he saw a traffic offence ticket on his windshield together with a note. So, he was rather upset, but he read the note and the note says, I've been circling this building for the past 10 years and if I do not give you a traffic offence ticket, my boss will be angry and I will lose my job. Remember, the Bible says lead us not into temptation.

I'm not sure if that's the way to link these last two petitions together but here we are, the child of God today does not only pray for God's forgiveness in his life, he also prays that God will not let him slip into yet another sin. In other words, he does not take God's forgiveness for granted at all, he does not presume upon the grace of God and say oh, since God is going to forgive my sins, I can sin any way I want.

He doesn't do that because his heart's cry and heart's desires, is Lord do not let me into temptation but deliver me from evil, that's his desire. The reason I think is because he recognises this is all for the glory of God. I think there's nothing that glorifies God like a man who is living in a holy life or living in a holy way. There's nothing like a man who is walking with God, there's nothing like a man who is walking right with Him. And there's nothing that brings God's Name to shame like a Christian who says, like a man who says he's a Christian but his life is anything but. So he sees that this is important to hallow God's Name, it's important so that he may be seen as someone in whom God reigns and so he prays, lead us not into temptation.

Now, mind you, it's not an easy thing isn't it to be protected from temptation, it’s not easy to resist temptation. Oscar Wilde, he is not a Christian, but he says, I can resist anything except temptation, a little bit tongue-in-cheek and Mark Twain says, I deal with temptation by yielding to it.

The reality is very few people can say I resist temptation all the time, it's very hard. The devil is very smart, the devil knows what buttons to press in our lives to lure us away from God so that we may rebel against Him and disobey Him. It's not easy to resist temptation, but it's important for you to do so and we must not assume we are immune. The Bible does call us to such a vigilance and sobriety when it says, therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall. So we must be alert to that danger, we must be aware that we are vulnerable to temptation and we can be easily slipping into sin.

I think the Bible gives us a story of someone who was overly confident in himself and thought that there was no temptation that could bring him down. I think that man you would know is, okay, there are many examples I suppose, but the example I thought of is the man, Peter. You remember Jesus, He said to them, His disciples, this is the last night, the next day Jesus will be crucified. So on the very last night, He knew what's going to happen and so He said to the disciples, you will all fall away because of Me this night, He's saying that the soldiers would capture Me and you would have nothing to do with Me. You would want to run away and say I don't know this Jesus, you will fall away because of Me this night. But Peter, the overconfident man says though they all fall away because of You, I'll never fall away, oh, John can fall, Andrew can fall, and Thomas can fall, all these lousy chaps can fall, but I am made of better stuff, Lord Jesus, I love You and I will never deny You, I'll never fall away.

Well, Jesus knew better, He said, truly, I tell you this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Now you would have thought that Peter would listen to this warning, paid attention and say yah, I, I, I think I, I'm quite vulnerable but he, he, he goes on and say, even if I must die with You, I will not deny You. Wow! So Jesus brought the disciples to the garden of Gethsemane, where He spends that night praying to God the Father and He tells the disciples, don't just sit there and please don't fall asleep, but watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation, the Spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. I know you guys, so don't presume.

But what happened to Peter and the gang, they all…, I can just imagine Jesus praying some where they were, snore..., they fell asleep even though Christ woke them up several times.

Well, what happened next was exactly what Jesus had prophesied. Then Peter began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man and immediately the rooster crowed and Peter remembered the saying of Jesus before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times and he went out and wept bitterly. He was so disappointed and upset I think with himself.

Let me ask you, do you think Peter learned his lesson after this? No? Would you, after something like this would you? Well I think he did, in some measure because later on, when he's older, he wrote letters to others and in one of his letters he wrote to them that says, be sober minded, be watchful. Why, your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. So he says, be alert, I think if he could he might have inserted this, it himself, I thought I was good enough to resist temptation, but I failed. So you guys be vigilant, be sober, the devil is real, temptation is powerful and that's why I think today, Jesus teaches us to pray, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

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I think this is something you need to pray regularly in your life, say how regular ? Well like what I would ask you the last week, how regularly should you pray, forgive us our debts? Daily in a regular way, you say why is it daily? Because of the word, this day, give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts and lead us not into temptation.

So this is something that you pray for daily regularly in your life. I'm not prescribing to you, only once a day or you must be at least one, once a day, the principle is you got to pray this regularly, because the spiritual life is not a playground but a battleground, the devil is your enemy, he's like a roaring lion that seeks to devour you and you can easily fall into sin if you're not watchful. So that's why we need to pray this prayer.

Again let me just give you another story, a man had a dream one night, this is fictitious, alright. A man had a dream one night and he dreamt of himself going to heaven and in heaven, he saw many, many clocks, you know, those grandfather clock with a hour arm and the hour hand and the minutes hand. So he asked angel, what are these clocks for ? The angel says, well these clocks record the sins of people on earth, every man has a clock and when he sins, one time, the clock hand moves a little. So he looked at many clocks and he saw the hands in various positions and he asked angel where is my clock. The angel says your clock is not here, your clock is in the kitchen. He says why is it in the kitchen? Oh, we use it for a fan.

Now, if you don't get it, it's fine, but, but in our lives, we can fall into temptation over and over again and we just sin over and over again until we can't even keep track. Now this temptation and sin is a, is a real issue. Now, if  you're not a Christian, you probably won't be bothered with it. Seriously, unless you're caught by the police or your mother or your friend, you don't think much about sin. But for the Christian, it is a deep frustration for us to know it is not what we want to do and yet fall into that which we do not want to do and that's why we need this prayer, lead us not into temptation.

So I’ve told you the why, let me tell you what. What is this verse about. Now, let's put it in sharp focus and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. On the surface this looks like a very simple verse, Pastor nothing much to explain, just say I pray God don't let me go into temptation and if I get into temptation, please save me from it.

However, if you think about it a bit more deeply, this verse does present and pose to us some interpretation challenges because the question is this, if I pray God lead us not into temptation, does it mean then that if I don't pray this prayer, God will actually lead us into temptation? You understand what I'm saying?

Okay, because the fundamental question you have to ask is, does God lead us to fall into temptation and sin? I mean, I pray, lead me, lead us not into temptation and if I don't pray this, am I thinking that God actually does lead me into temptation and sin? You understand the interpretational challenge here? Because, well, it's interesting, just this week,  this week, the Roman Catholic Church Pope, he actually came out and said, maybe we should change the words of the Bible, he said that!

You say, change to what? Change to something that goes, and do not allow us to be led into temptation. Now, I can understand a little of why he wants to change those words because he doesn't want any doubt at all to arise in people's mind, that God could lead people into temptation and sin. So he says it's probably better to change it to a passive voice, do not allow us to be led, rather than, do not lead us. You can actually go to Google it, just put “Pope lead us not into temptation”, sounds wrong, but you can Google it and you will find many, many articles written about this.

So, however, this challenge is not new to our generation, it has  been a debate for centuries. Christians, pastors, commentators have scratched their heads as it were, how do you even reconcile this. So I don't think I'm going to solve all those challenges here like that. I'm, I'm a simple guy and, and all I could do is maybe just give you some basics, some fundamentals and maybe give you a conclusion as best as I can and I hope that will suffice for you.

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So let's answer this question. First, does God lead people to temptation and sin? Answer absolutely no! Why do I say absolutely no? Because the Bible is very explicit on that. James 1, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one.

Therefore, I can understand, by the way, I'm not friends with the Pope, I think we are very different, I think we have very different theological understanding, we have different understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But here I can understand why he says it's probably safer to translate it in the passive voice because he's saying, he understands that God being God, pure and holy will never tempt anyone with sin. Alright, God being God will never tempt anyone with sin.

So, I affirm that point, however, I would say it’s never the right thing to change the Bible. The Bible is not man's word, it's God's Word and if man is to change God's Word, it does not, then it will never, it will not continue to be God's Word, it becomes man's word.

So the Word of God remains I, I really don't think anyone has any right at all to suggest changing the Word of God. Our understanding have to change, however, probably we got something wrong in the way we appreciate it. So whilst I understand the intent, I certainly don't recommend that approach at all. So number one, let's be clear, God never leads people to temptation, okay.

Number two, I want to emphasise that when we pray, lead us not into temptation, we are not saying God don't let me face any temptation at all, that's not possible. We are what, surrounded by temptation. You see someone drive a sports car, you wah, someone drives abruptly and brakes abruptly in front of you and you, you cannot take it. Your, your husband said something a little bit unkind and you get all agitated, it's all these are what, temptations. You see a pretty girl walk by and you and temptations abound.

So Jesus is not saying, He is not saying to you, this is what you pray every morning, you pray that you will be living in a bubble, that there will be no temptation that will come your way, no. I think this is a prayer not about facing temptation, but this is a prayer about falling into temptation.

What is your biblical justification for this Jason? I think my justification for this concept is taken in Matthew 26 where Jesus said to the disciples, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Obviously the disciples will face the temptation. Jesus must be taken, the disciples would not have their Master with them anymore. But Jesus is praying when that time comes, you will not succumb to the temptation to deny Me, this is what you need to pray for, you will face it, but you don't necessarily have to fall into it, you don't necessarily have to succumb to it, you get that.

So when we pray, lead us not into temptation, we are not saying Lord, don't let me face any temptation, but Lord, when I should face these tests, don't allow me to fall and to fail in these tests, okay.

The next concept you need to grasp is the word, temptation. The word temptation is a word I think worth your attention right now because this word occurs throughout in the New Testament, many, many times over and the, it's a simple word, "peirasmos", simple in a sense, it is not, well, it's a rather flexible term in a sense, it can be used to translate into what we have in English as temptation, that is a, with the some evil negative connotation or it can be translated into trial, please, thank you, thank you. So it can be temptation, I said this many times in church, okay it, it can be translated into temptation, or it can be translated, translated into trial, trial is more neutral, it doesn't have the evil connotation.

Satan always tempts us, always. But God always tries us, He never tempts us, you get the difference, same event, the devil intends it for a temptation, he's waiting for you to fail, God intends it as a trial, He's looking for you to grow, different intentions, same event. So in this case, I think it's probably best to translate this into trial and lead us not into trial.

It's interesting, the Chinese Bible, I'm not saying the Chinese Bible is of a greater authority than the English Bible in any way but it's interesting that the Chinese translators have translated

Bu Jiao Wo Men Yu Jian Shi Tan as contrasted with Bu Jiao Wo Men Yu Jian Yiu Huo

Yiu Huo is temptation Shi Tan is test.

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Well I think in this case, because God never leads people into temptations and the active voice is used, is, is not, do not allow us, but do not lead us. I think it's probably best to look at this, lead us not into a trial that is beyond us that we should fall.

So maybe I would suggest do not lead us to a trial that we fail in and sin, don't, don't lead us to a trial that is beyond us, that we will fail in and in which we sin, but deliver us. So there is both a negative aspect of protecting us from it and the positive aspect of delivering us when we are actually facing it.

Just one more point to note and that is the word evil, alright. Many commentators suggest that the word evil is better translated as the evil one but I guess it's not that consequential, whether it's the devil himself, the evil one, or evil in general I think it both works in the context here. But if you're a strict Greek scholar, you’ll probably say the evil one.

So let's put all these facts together. This is not about God leading you to temptation because He never will do that. This is not about facing temptation, but falling into temptation and you do not want that. This is probably about a trial that is beyond us, in which if we fail, we sin, but that is not God's intent that we should sin, there's a negative aspect, there's a positive aspect, this is with regards to the evil one.

So putting all that I think it's just a simple statement at the end of the day, do not lead us to a trial that we fail in and sin, but Lord deliver us from the evil one.

This prayer is the total opposite of Peter's attitude. Peter's attitude is saying, there is no trial that is big enough for me, I can handle all these trials, he's arrogant actually, but this prayer is the heart cry of a Christian who knows his vulnerability, who acknowledges his weakness and say God lead me not into such a trial that is beyond me, but deliver me from the evil one, because my heart's desire is to live in purity and holiness that You may be glorified and in vigilance I pray help me. That's, in essence what this is. Boleh, can? Tak boleh, boleh, I speak Chinese, I use some Malay, Filipino I, I not very good except for OK, never mind, alright.

Now, now you know why we pray this and what this prayer is about, let me ask you, how do you use this ? You know how people use this prayer? Morning wake up, our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one, Amen.

Yeah, all my grounds are covered and the next moment they, they, they see their wives, they get angry again. And so repeatedly you will have this experience if you prayed like what I prayed and you thought like what I thought, you will never ever say this prayer works because, that’s, I think, not how it should be done.

Jesus gave us a great verse, He teaches us the principles therein but how do you apply this meaningfully, biblically in your life. How do I pray in such a way that sin will not have a grip of my life, now that’s, I think is the crux of the sermon today.

I think there is someone who explained this really well, he's old man now, he's 91 if I'm not, I think he's 91 years old. He looks like this and his name is, his name is, that's right, James Innell Packer, J. I. Packer an Englishman who is in Canada right now. J.I. Packer is a well-known theologian, pastor, he er, he's famous for his books, one of which is called knowing God, you might be familiar. Anyway, old guy, lots of wisdom, I think you can learn from him.

Now he's going talk about what it means to mortify sin by prayer. The word, mortify, please don't be scared of that word, the word mortify means simply to kill. So he says, I wrestle with temptation and sin wants to have a grip of my life. And so I need to learn how to kill sin, I need to learn how to mortify sin and he says you do that by prayer, how just a one-liner, no. So listen to him, he's going to preach now, I got a video clip of him teaching about mortification of sin by prayer, it's actually nine minutes long, but I know you guys cannot take nine minutes, so I did a bit of Steven Spielberg, edit here and there, it's a shortened version, listen, he speaks a bit slowly, so I see if you can catch him if you are listening attentively and try to think for yourself what does it mean to pray, a prayer that will mortify sin alright, take a look.

Personal prayer begins before the throne of God with my acknowledgment that He is great, glorious, all-powerful and ready to help me and I am weak, unstable with no strength of my own to get things right in spiritual terms and thus I need His help and need it urgently. I must ask the Lord to, to …, to direct the Holy Spirit within me to drain the life out of sin, I continue to pray. I cherish grateful love to the Father of the Son in my heart, I thank the Lord Jesus for the new life that I already have in Him, risen, as indeed I'm in Christ, in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit, called to holiness and promised all the enabling that I need to achieve holiness, but I expect to find, as I pray along these lines, day by day and well it depends on the sin, that's bothering me at the moment. It may be hour by hour, but as I pray, regularly along these lines, so I look to find and by the grace of God again and again, I do find that the sinful desire which was grabbing my heart is getting weaker and love and loyalty to the Lord, Spirit of praise and adoration, thanksgiving is getting stronger and stronger and I experience at that point was through Thomas Chalmers, called, the expulsive power of a new affection, love to the Father of the Son, simply drains the life out of love for sin, for the habits and for the particular habits in which sin expresses itself. So I am called and indeed, in my heart, deep down I want to go into action with this prayer procedure for draining the life out of them and think that this is a discipline which every Christian has to wake up to, right at the beginning of their Christian life and continue with as long as we are in this world at all. So I picked up what I know about mortification, very soon after my conversion and that was more than 65 years ago, yes it was and mortification is still necessary, and from time to time, I have to go back to the beginning, and labor in the practice of mortification as described.

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I'm sure you did not catch most of what he said alright, I think it's not easy. I myself listen to him a few times, a few rounds over, to key in the words and so on. So let me try to just list out the key phrases he mentioned in this interview.

He says in the mortification of sin by prayer, he, this is what he prays, he, he has acknowledgment that God is great, glorious, all-powerful, ready to help me. He prays, I, acknowledging that I am weak, unstable with no strength of my own, to get things right in spiritual terms, and thus I need his help and need it urgently.

I must ask the Lord to direct the Spirit within me to drain the life out of sin. I continue to pray, I will cherish grateful heart- love to the Father and the Son in my heart. I thank the Lord Jesus for the new life that I already have in Him, risen, as indeed I'm in Christ, in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit, called to holiness and promised all the enabling that I need to achieve holiness.

So I am called to, indeed deep down in my heart I want to go into, action with this prayer procedure for draining the life out of them and I think this is a discipline every Christian has to wake up to right at the beginning of the Christian life and continue with as long as we are in this world at all. I expect to find, as I pray along these lines, day by day, it may be hour by hour, but as I pray regularly along these lines, so I look to find and by the grace of God again and again, I do find, that the sinful desire which was grabbing my heart is getting weaker and love and loyalty to the Lord, the spirit of praise and adoration and thanksgiving is getting stronger and stronger and I experience at that time what Thomas Chalmers calls, an expulsive power of a new affection, love to the Father and the Son simply drains the life out of love for sin and for the particular habits in which sin expresses itself. Mortification of sin by prayer.

I think you can appreciate that this is not just a mindless repetition of Matthew chapter 6. It is a very thoughtful process whereby you call upon the understanding in the Word of God, you call upon the Holy Spirit and you ask God for a real appreciation of love for Him in order to deal with the temptation that is facing you.

In other words, you are not simply ignoring temptation and say, ah, I can get by. You're not resorting to will power to deal with your temptations, but on your knees you humbly plead and you call upon the Spirit of God, the love of God, the Word of God as we've mentioned before in our messages, that in all these things you have all the enabling in order to resist temptations and this is dealing with sin, not just on the intellectual mind level, but very much on the level of the heart in your deep desires and only God can do that.

You see, some of us, we say we are vulnerable to temptation but we try to fight temptations based on mere willpower, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, that's good that you know you can't do this, but have you accessed the power that is available in the Spirit? Have you been, have you experienced what Thomas Chalmers talked about in the expulsive power of a new affection in that your love for God pushes out the love for sin, drains the life out of love for sin? Well all that, according to Packer comes together when you cry out to God in the place of prayer.

So let me try to organise this a little, I think in prayer, he gives you some hints, alright,I'm not suggesting you write them down, copy, memorise them and again pray mindlessly,  that's not the point, but these are useful tips and hints for your own life. He says, when you pray, acknowledge God's greatness and your own weakness. After all, that's what prayer is, right.

If you don't think God is great and you think that you are great, then you don't need to pray. But the reason why you pray is because you acknowledge you are weak and God is great and you say I can't deal with this lure and desire of sin and I therefore ask the Holy Spirit to drain the life out of sin. I got to ask Him to, to loosen the grip of sin upon my heart and I need to ask that I will continue to cherish grateful love to God.

This is not mere intellectual exercise, it's really about the deep desires of the heart and that can only take place if we have a deep, fresh appreciation of the love of God and then we will love Him, so it's grateful love. Appreciate our new life in Christ and the Holy Spirit who lives within us and then finally, you affirm God's call and enabling for holiness in your life.

So these are some theological truths that are helpful in prayer. I think there can be more, but I think this is a good start. I think this is what J.I. Packer after 70 years, maybe 65, 70 years of understanding mortification of sin would share and then he goes on, these are the contents, these are the contents of his prayer. But look at the practice of his prayer, simply in one phrase I say, pray regularly till the grip of sin, sin loosens and when  love for God rises in your heart. So this is not something you just say once a day, as if, that's a magical chant or mystical incantations, incantation, it's something that you need to pray regularly, perhaps day by day and sometimes hour by hour or moment by moment. You keep praying till the grip of sin loosens and the love for God rises.

For example, you are tempted tomorrow with going back to a pornography website.  You have been struggling with this for many years, no one knows, only you do, but every time you go to that pornography, you don't feel good, you're guilty and you don't really want it, but the grip of temptation is strong. So, ever so often whilst you hate yourself for doing it and you don't want to do it, you are lured into it and many times you have said to yourself, I'm going to resist that temptation, I'm going to switch it off, but somehow your desires are still for it, somehow you still slip back into it and you find no real victory and therefore today you are a discouraged christian. You say, it doesn't work, the Holy Spirit in me doesn't work. Matthew 6, doesn't work, I, I don't see it working.

Now maybe the reason why it doesn't work, is because you've not done it right, because all you do is a mindless repetition of the verse. All you do is trying to fight it in your willpower, but you never really ask God for help because to really ask God for help is doing this, praying regularly, as often as the temptation arises in you, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute till the grip of sin loosens, till the grip of sin loosens.

You know it's interesting that Packer would use the words prayer procedure, steps, it's not a lazy, slothful approach to dealing with temptations. He uses the word discipline, he uses the word labor, you see, fighting against temptation is not child's play. It's a real deal and you can't fight against temptation, you can't resist temptation if you are not coming to God in prayer.

All these things are not going to take place if you're not going to come to God and say, Lord, help me. I ask Your Holy Spirit to drain the life of sin out of me. it may be bitterness, some of you struggle with bitterness, you're so upset with someone, but you, you know you shouldn't be, but it just repeatedly torments you. What do you do? I say go to God in mortification of sin by prayer, envy, covetousness, worries, what do you do ?

Fight it on your own? No! Come to God in the place of prayer. Packer would say the activity by which the Christian directly secures the mortification of his sins is prayer,  watch and pray that we may not enter into temptation.

So he says, I picked up what I know about mortification very soon after my conversion, more than 65 years ago and mortification is still necessary. If a 91-year-old man can say that, I don't think anyone of you say I'm beyond it. It's, it's amazing, well you say, who taught Packer this, I think, if I'm not wrong, he learned deeply from this man called John Owen.

John Owen is an old guy, passed away a long time ago, but he's a classic, his work on mortification of sin is a classic and I think Packer has put it in a simpler way for you to understand, for us to understand, today.  Bunyan would say, prayer would make a man cease from sin if you pray in the right way, of course, with the right understanding and not just taking it like a mantra or a chant or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer, and finally, William Cowper would say, Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees. Why, because he's calling on the power of God.

I hope today as the last sermon in this series, this will encourage you to live a life holy for the glory of God, lead us not into temptation, do not lead us Lord, to a trial in which we fail and sin against You, but deliver us from evil. We recognise we are in a spiritual battleground, we are vulnerable and we ask that we will cherish grateful love to You, we would ask regularly for the Holy Spirit to drain the life out of sin, may we acknowledge Your greatness, our weakness, be thankful for our new position and power in Christ, keep us till You come.

Father, thank You for this morning that we can gather and to hear Your Words. It's astounding the wisdom that is found within, and we pray that we will not just learn but we will apply and that we may live out lives that will reflect Christ and bring glory to you, may you preserve this church, preserve each one of us that we may walk in righteousness and that we together will be like a city set on a hill that will shine God's light in the communities you've called us to. Thank you again for friends who are here, bless them I pray they will continue to come to hear Your Word that one day they would repent and believe in Jesus Christ and find salvation and life in Him. We do remember Christmas and the Christmas Eve services that will be help, we are that the Gospel will be clearly proclaimed, Your Spirit will move mightily, You will save many, many in our midst that You will be glorified, thereby. Again, thank You for the week ahead of us as a people go out pray, invite, reach out. Bless each one, may the joy of the Lord be our strength. We ask and pray all this now in Jesus Name, Amen.

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