Steve Hopkins' sermon, titled 'But Deliver Us from Evil,' focuses on the crucial role of prayer and divine reliance in the Christian life, particularly concerning the seventh petition of the Lord's Prayer. He emphasizes the need for complete dependence on God to resist the trials and temptations posed by the flesh, the world, and Satan—the greatest adversary. The sermon underscores the necessity of prayer for deliverance from evil, highlighting that while Christians are not promised a life free from trials, they are assured of divine assistance and deliverance. Hopkins references various theologians, scripture, and historical Christian writings to illustrate the believer's struggle against sin and the devil's schemes. He stresses that Christians must rely on Christ's strength and intercession, as exemplified in the experiences of biblical figures like Job and Peter, to overcome evil and remain steadfast in faith. Ultimately, the sermon calls for believers to trust in God's preserving power through ongoing, earnest prayer.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. This week Pastor Alkins will continue his series on the Lord's Prayer. Good morning once again. If you would turn with me in your Bibles once again to the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, where we will be reading once again together verses 9 through 13. But first, Wednesday, this goes out.

So we've already had our gospel tracked. Every one of us has sinned and broken God's law. All of us have come short of the glory of God. The bad news on the back and the good news on the back. We've already sent this out to 5, 000.

So this will be the second group. Now all of 78611 area code will have received one of these probably by the end of the week. Supposed to go out on Wednesday. So, we'll be praying, praying that God uses this. That means that all of our neighbors in our zip code will have received a gospel tract.

And I was telling the family this week that we've been in our house, well, since 1998. I've never received anything from a church that had the gospel, not once. And I think it's something that we need to continue. We need to saturate our community with the gospel of Christ. That and, of course, the preaching of the Word in the streets.

The boys have now given out, I think we lost count, but somewhere around 1, 200 Bibles at the intersection of 29 and 281 over the last several years. Be praying about that as well, please, on Wednesdays. We've seen lots of opposition, but we've also seen lots of support. So, with that, let's stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord. Let's read together verses 9 through 13 of Matthew chapter 6.

Let's read together. After this manner therefore pray ye our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen Let's be seated. Let's pray father High above all You're great. Oh god and greatly to be praised We are weak and frail and needy, and in our spiritual poverty, we cry out to you, God, once again, asking that help may be sent down.

By your Spirit, O God, give us understanding, as we who have been so graciously given eyes to see and ears to hear, open your holy Word, for we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Thomas Brooks, in his book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices from the Middle of the Seventeenth Century writes, The strange opposition that I met with from Satan in the study of this following discourse has put an edge on my spirit, knowing that Satan strives mightily to keep those things from seeing the light that tend imminently to shake and break his kingdom of darkness, and to lift up the kingdom and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the souls and in the lives of men." Brothers and sisters, I have also met with strange opposition as I prepared this message on the seventh petition of the Lord's prayer, but deliver us from evil. And if there's one thing above all else I pray our Lord may be pleased to impress upon every heart and mind this morning, it's this. We must rely upon God for everything. We must rely upon God every moment of our lives.

I stressed this last week in the sermon on the sixth petition, and lead us not into temptation. And I said we cannot face this life on our own. And this week we'll be similarly saying we can't face this life or the wiles of the evil one on our own. We must transfer all our trust from ourselves to God. We must cry out to God daily with complete dependence and complete reliance upon him for every grace needed to survive in this crooked and perverse generation in which we live.

In our last session I said, when we pray the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer and lead us not into temptation, we must remember that we are not asking to be exempted from any and all testing and trials of life that our Lord has determined are for our good and for His glory. When we pray the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer and lead us not into temptation, we're asking that we might not be directed into any situation or trial of life or trial of our faith beyond that which we can bear. And we can bear nothing apart from divine assistance. That's the message. When we pray and lead us not into temptation, We're praying, Lord, we are weak, but you are strong.

It is a prayer of admission, as I said in our last session, it is a prayer of admission that cries, Father, I cannot go forward on my own. I cannot handle the trials and the temptations of life on my own None of us can None of us can and so we pray and lead us not into Temptation God we are completely and totally dependent upon you to hold us up and to carry us through whatever lies ahead. As we looked at the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer, I said it's an acknowledgement that apart from God's help, that apart from divine strength, that apart from our merciful Father's preventing and upholding grace, we would not be able to stand, but we would most assuredly fall. We looked at the Psalm of David, Psalm 51 verse 12 of David, where he cries out, uphold me by thy free spirit. And we are to cry out in the same way as the psalmist, uphold me by thy free spirit, not trusting in ourselves to be able to even hold ourselves up in situations of trial and of testing and of temptation.

Calvin says we are liable to constant stumbling and ruinous falls if God does not uphold us with his hand. Psalm 119 verse 117, David says, uphold me and I will be delivered. Uphold me and I will be delivered. To pray the sixth petition of the Lord's prayer is to cry out along with the psalmist, the Lord is my shield, the Lord is my shield, the Lord is my strength and my shield. Psalm 28 verse 7.

When we pray and lead us not into temptation, we are displaying our trust in God and our distrust of ourselves. Again I quoted Calvin from his Institutes of the Christian religion in our last session where he says concerning the sixth petition, we need to be, quote, made fully conscious of our weakness and so impressed with a sense of our weakness as to learn to distrust ourselves and to distrust ourselves so as to transfer our confidence to God. John Bunyan in his great work Pilgrim's Progress is confronted at one point in time. He is attacked, the man with the club, and he says in his discourse back and forth with another person in the story, this person asks him, were you not afraid? Were you not afraid when you saw him coming with his club?

To which he replies, Christian replies, it is my duty, said he, to distrust my own ability, that I may have reliance on him that is stronger than all." I also quoted last week, A.W. Pink, where he writes that God often permits Satan to harass and assault us in order to humble us. He does so in order to humble us and to drive us to himself and to glorify himself by manifesting more fully to us his preserving power." As Christians, we must come to understand the absolute necessity of relying upon God's preserving power every moment of our lives. When the apostle Paul sought deliverance from his thorn in the flesh, he was told to rely upon the grace of God. My grace, God said, is sufficient for thee.

I also quoted John Owen from his 1658 book entitled Temptation where he says quote, we will not know the power of grace Until we feel the power of testing, we must be made to realize the glory of being preserved by God. Which brings us to the second half of the verse 13 and the title of the sermon this morning, but deliver us from evil. But deliver us from evil. Again, there is an obvious connection, as I said in the last two messages, between the petitions, between this petition and the previous petition. We pray, Father, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Now there has been some controversy over the centuries as to the correct translation of that last word, evil. How many of you are familiar with the controversy? Anyone? The literal translation of the text is, but deliver us from the evil. But deliver us from the evil.

Calvin, Henry, Matthew Henry, A.W. Pink, and many others have pointed out that the evil may either be taken, quote, and this is Calvin, in the neuter gender as signifying the evil thing, or in the masculine gender as signifying the evil one. Most of the modern translations translate the text The Evil One. Calvin cites John Chrysostom from the 4th century AD as referring the 7th petition to the devil, quote, who is the contriver of everything evil and as the deadly enemy of our salvation is continually fighting against us. But it may with equal propriety, says Calvin, be explained as referring to sin.

And he says there's no necessity for raising a debate on this point, for the meaning remains nearly the same, that we are in danger from the devil and from sin if the Lord does not protect and deliver us. And that is the point of the sixth and the seventh petitions. We are relying upon God and upon Him alone. The position we'll be taking is that we who are in Christ continually face three great powers of evil working against us after our conversion, the flesh, the world, and the devil. But the greatest of these three powers is the devil, who is, as We read from Calvin, quote, the contriver of everything evil.

The contriver of everything evil. The contriver is a plotter. A contriver is a schemer. And it's the devil who plots and schemes continually to incite the remnants of corruption within us who believe, what is known as indwelling sin. He is the plotter and the schemer who is continually working to incite the remnants of corruption within us who believe and it is the devil who continually Seeks to allure us and entice us by the evil things of the world Without us that is outside of us and all with the intent to devour us.

First Peter chapter 5 and verse 8 tells us that the devil goes about as a roaring or raging lion seeking our downfall. Be sober, says Peter. Be vigilant, says Peter, speaking by the Holy Spirit, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He wants to devour the believer, the Christian. John Gill says on this passage, Satan is called a roaring lion, quote, both on account of his strength and also because of his rage, his malice, and his cruelty, which he breathes out against the saints, who, though he cannot destroy us, will do all he can to terrify and to fright us, as he is continually employing, quote, insidious methods, wiles, and stratagems to surprise us and to get an advantage of us.

Like a lion, Gill says, coming around behind us, like a prowling lion, at times when we are the least aware so that we need to be continually Watchful sober and upon our guard in quote Peter goes on to say you remember in verse 9 of 1st Peter 5 whom resist Steadfast in the faith whom resist steadfast in the faith. Whom resist steadfast in the faith. The response of the Christian is to resist the devil. Our response is to resist the devil. But brothers and sisters, never in our own strength.

Never never in our own strength. Martin Luther's hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, speaks of our ancient foe who seeks to work us woe. His craft, he says, and power are great and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not His equal." And then he goes on in the next verse to say, did we in our own strength confide? Did we in our own strength confide?

Our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He, for he must win the battle. The devil is a formidable opponent we need to realize but he is also a defeated, ultimately defeated opponent.

Christ crushed the serpent's head at the cross and all our hope and all our strength to resist the devil must be found in him, must be found in Christ. But our text teaches us that the Christian must pray, right? This is the text about prayer. We must pray. We must pray for divine help, for divine deliverance, as the hymn says that we sang earlier, that help may be sent down.

We must pray, deliver us from evil. We must pray, deliver us from the evil one. It is an acknowledgement once again of our complete and total reliance upon God. Our complete and total reliance upon God. We cannot face this adversary on our own.

We cannot face this adversary on our own. We desperately need help from outside of ourselves. And the Christian's only hope is to turn to the Almighty One for deliverance from the evil one. Amen? The Christian's only hope is to turn to the Almighty One for deliverance, for rescue from the evil one.

When we pray the sixth and seventh petitions of the Lord's Prayer, we're praying, Lord, lead us not into any situation of temptation wherein we may succumb, but deliver us, O God, from the evil, from the evil within us, from the evil without us, outside of us, but especially God from the evil one who is the contriver of all evil. Again, we are not promised anywhere in Scripture that we will avoid trial and testing in this life. There is no place in the Scripture that we are told that we will avoid trial and testing in this life. There is no place in the scripture that we are told that we will avoid trial and testing in this life. In fact, that's guaranteed, for it is written, we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

We must through much trouble, much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. We must through much trouble, much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God, Acts 14 22. But we are promised the hope of deliverance. We are promised the hope of deliverance. The Lord, 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9 says, the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation.

The Lord knows, The Greek word is also translated trials. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and trials. The Lord knows. The Lord knows. The Lord knows how to deliver, how to rescue His people from Falling as we go through the trials of this life that he has ordained that we face He knows You haven't noted anything else so far in the sermon note this the Lord knows He knows he knows It's a word of encouragement He knows how to deliver us out of trials and out of temptations.

Our job is to look to Him who alone knows how to rescue us in times of trial and testing and learn to rely upon Him alone and nothing within ourselves. We must trust in God and cry out to Him daily in prayer. That's the context. We need to be crying out to God continually, daily in prayer. Are you doing that, brothers and sisters?

Has this become, has the Lord's prayer become your prayer? Has the Lord's prayer become your prayer? He commanded it to be so. He said, when you pray, pray after this manner. Pray like this.

Pray after this manner. We must trust in God and cry out to him daily in prayer and especially in times of temptation and trial Crying out to him who alone is able to keep us from falling He alone is able to keep us from falling. In a sermon by Charles Spurgeon in the late 1800s, the Prince of Preachers says, quote, if I must be tried, Lord, deliver me from falling into evil and especially preserve me from that evil one who above all seeks my soul to destroy it. Above all deliver me God from that evil one Lord who seeks my soul to destroy it." Satan has many titles in Scripture. One of them is the destroyer.

Revelation 9-11 says, and they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon, which is interpreted destroyer. John MacArthur comments here, quote, this is either one of Satan's most trusted leaders or Satan himself. Whichever is accurate, one thing we know is that the whole realm of the evil one is employed in destructive activity against the people of God. We see the evil one putting forth his power continually to destroy souls, to destroy marriages, to destroy families, to destroy churches, and to bring destruction to anything and everything that is of God. We see it continually.

But praise God. On the other hand, 1 John 3 8 gives us words of encouragement and of hope. 1 John 3 verse 8 tells us, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested. This is why he was brought forth and made known.

This is why he was revealed. This is why he came, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Again, we must remember, brothers and sisters, that while Satan is still operating in the world, he is an ultimately defeated foe for the Christian. Jesus crushed the serpent's head at the cross, triumphing over sin and death and hell for us, for his people. So our victory over the devil has already ultimately been won.

Our job is to resist him in the strength of the Lord as we submit ourselves to God. Everyone have this? That's our job. Resist the devil, not in our own strength. Resist him in the strength of the Lord as we submit ourselves to God James 4 7 says submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you.

To resist the devil is to transfer your confidence to God and take your stand in Christ as a blood-bought child of the living God, striving against him whom your Lord has already ultimately defeated. Satan has many names in Scripture. He's called the Temptor. Not only is he a destroyer, but he is also a tempter the tempter See how he tempted our first parents in the Garden of Eden with a lie John chapter 8 verse 44 says that Satan is a liar and the father of them, the father of lies. That's the original lie that came forth from his mouth right there in the Garden of Eden.

Oh, yeah, has God said? Oh, really, is that what God said? Well God knows. And then here comes the lie. Well God knows, you know, that's not really true what he said.

God knows and then he presents the lie before us. He is the great tempter. See how he tempted Job. He tells God that his righteous servant Job doesn't serve him for nothing. You think he serves you for nothing?

Look at all the wealth and the power and the prestige and the family and friends. You've given him everything. He doesn't serve you for nothing. Let me go after him, the devil says to God basically, and he'll curse you. He'll curse you.

He'll curse you before the sun. He'll curse you to your face. And God, of course, grants Satan permission to do whatever he wants to do to Job, only to spare his life. Loss of family, loss of his children, loss of wealth and possessions, loss of health. He loses it all.

Loss of reputation with his friends. Job's own dear wife, Thinking he would be better off dead than to suffer so much Suggests that Job just get it all over quickly That he cursed God and died. I can't imagine nor do I think anyone in this room can imagine going through the trials and the temptations and the testing that Job endured. But Job passed the test. He passed the test.

But brothers and sisters, not on his own. Not on his own. In Job 13 and verse 15 Job says, Though he slay me, whatever comes upon me, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Job's trust was in the Lord. Job's trust was in the Lord and it's the only way that Job survived.

He trusted in the Almighty, in the power of the living God. In Matthew 4, Chapter 4, we read of Satan's temptation of our Lord Himself. Jesus was tempted while fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. And the first thing the tempter says to Jesus is, if thou be the Son of God, if you really are the Son of God, then do this. You're hungry, aren't you?

Command these stones that they be made bread." To which Jesus responds with scripture, quoting Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 3. He says, it is written. His response to the evil one is, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We should also quote scripture when we are tempted of the tempter. We should also quote Scripture.

Every Christian should be actively engaged in the memorization of Scripture. You've probably heard me say on more than one occasion that the day may come when you may find that the only Bible you have is the Bible in your head. There are brothers and sisters in nations, foreign nations today, like China and other places in North Korea, who don't have the Scriptures in their hand, but they have the Scriptures in their head. The day may come when you find the only Bible you have is the Bible in your head. We must memorize God's Word, and we must trust in God's Word, and we must quote God's Word in our times of temptation and trial, just as Jesus did.

When the tempter says to you, for instance, if you really are a Christian, has anyone ever had that one? If you really are a Christian attempting to sow doubt in our minds, we should say it is written, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And I believe in Jesus. Our trust is in Jesus. And Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

John 10 28. I said in our last session, we must look to Jesus, look to Jesus, look to Jesus when the tempter comes tempting. Remembering the words of the writer of Hebrews in chapter 2 and verses 18 through 19, we're speaking of Christ, he says, for in that he himself, Jesus himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help us. He's able to succor us. He's able to help them that are tempted.

He is able to help us and we have God's promise that He will. Hebrews 4.15 says, For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our firmities. He can, and He has been. He was in all points, but was in all points tempted like as we, yet without sin. We will never face a temptation that Jesus did not already face.

The devil threw everything at Jesus that he had in his arsenal. Every fiery dart of the evil one was thrown at the Son of God. Let us therefore, the scripture goes on to say, come boldly, come boldly brothers and sisters under the throne of grace. You can come boldly into the throne of grace. Christ is in you, you are in Christ through faith in him.

Come boldly into the throne of grace so that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in your time of need. And you will. He will deliver us from the evil one. He will deliver his people from the evil one. We're praying for something that God has already promised in his word that he will do.

Jesus will deliver his people who call upon his name. Satan is also called in the scriptures the accuser, the accuser of our brethren, Revelation 12 10. And the accuser of our brethren wants you, he wants the Christian, to live in a defeated posture. He wants you to walk about with your head hanging down and your arms hanging down. He wants you to live in a defeated posture.

He wants to bring you to despair. How many have read Pilgrim's Progress? If you haven't read it, if you haven't read it recently, please read it. In Pilgrim's Progress, a Pollyon who represents the devil attacks Christians' failings and former sins. He begins to bring those up.

He begins to bring up his past, the things that Christ was punished for, died for, and put away by the blood of his cross, and he begins to bring them up to Christian. He wants Christian to despair, even to the point of taking his own life. He wants Christian to despair and to take his eyes off of Jesus and concentrate instead on his failures. That's what he wants. When the accuser says, But you've sinned and broken God's laws and the scripture says the soul that sinned it must die The Christian may respond true, but it is written as far as the east is from the west So far as he removed our transgressions from us So far as the east is from the west so far as He removed our transgressions from us.

So far as the East is from the West, so far as He removed our transgressions from us. Let us pray, O Lord, deliver us from the accuser. Let us be delivered from the accuser of our brethren. Many true believers, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, who have experienced Christ's deliverance from both the penalty of sin and the power of sin through Christ's obedience and death, continue to struggle with feelings of guilt. And one thing we need to understand is that feelings of guilt and guilt itself are two different things.

The guilt of sinners who have trusted Christ for forgiveness and cleansing is gone. The guilt is gone. Feelings may remain, but the guilt itself is gone for those who have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and the cleansing of their sins. David says in Psalm 32 and verse 5, I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and thou forgave us the guilt of my sin.

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1, 9. But again, the evil one is a liar and was a liar from the beginning. And one of his favorite lies is to tell the believer who has left their former life of sin that temptations themselves are sin. Even when those temptations are rejected and the believer does not yield to the temptation. In one of his sermons back in the 1960s, One of my favorite ministers, Martin Lloyd-Jones, talks about a woman in a church in his community who just one day just gave up.

She just threw up her arms and quit serving God. She confused, he said, temptation with sin. She thought that suggestions of the evil one with her were blasphemous thoughts that were coming into her mind from time to time, were her own thoughts. And so she just quit. She stopped serving the Lord.

She stopped serving those in the church. And she went about depressed and hopeless, ceasing to do anything and everything she had been doing to serve the church and God's people because she was plagued with guilt. Lloyd-Jones asked this very sensitive older woman in the church a series of questions to get to the bottom of her problem. He said, quote, here's the test. Here's the test.

Do you hate those things that are coming into your mind? Do you hate those things? I hate them with all my being, she said. Do you regard them as evil? Of course I regard them as evil.

Do you long to be rid of those thoughts? I'd give the whole world if I could." Then he went on to say, "'As you are tormented by these things, can you say, quite honestly, that your chief desire is to know God, to love him, to serve him, and to ever be to the praise of the glory of his grace, to be a true child of God. If you can, I care not what all the thoughts and imaginations, " said Lloyd-Jones? You're a child of God and these are the fiery darts of the evil one. Your defenses are down.

It's not you at all. You're just being troubled and trapped and deceived by the wiles of the devil." End quote. Some of you may be saying, but what about me? My situation is different. I've actually given way to great temptation.

And though I know Christ has forgiven me and I'm living in obedience to him now, I remember a day when I gave way, a day when I fell into sin and it haunts me. Is there any hope for me? Is there any hope for me? To you I say, remember Peter, remember Peter? He fell but not to his eternal ruin.

And Jesus predicted it ahead of time. In Luke chapter 22, we read that Satan asked to have Peter to sift him his wheat. And he did sift Peter. And Peter did fall. But there is hope in this for everyone who has fallen to some sin that has grieved the spirit, injured their conscience, and on account of which they now go about hopeless, floundering, wallowing in feelings of guilt, depressed, and languishing.

Remember what Jesus said to Peter before Peter even fell? He predicted, he said, look Peter, you're going to sin against me. Guess what? You're going to sin against me. You're going to deny me.

In fact, you're going to deny three times this very night that you even know me. Remember what Jesus told Peter? This is key. If you don't get anything else, Please get this. Jesus said, but I have prayed for you.

But I have prayed for you. But I have interceded for you. Oh, the love of God in the intercession of Christ for his people. Oh the love of God. Oh the power of the intercession of Christ for his people.

Jesus assured Peter that he would be restored. You're gonna be converted And not only that he would be restored after turning back to Jesus, but listen, but that he would even be a useful tool for the advancement of Christ's kingdom. Yes, there is hope. When you have been converted, Jesus said this, when you have been restored, when you've turned back, Jesus said, remember, I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. He's saying, you have faith, you have true saving faith.

It's the same thing as saying you've got saving faith Peter, but you're gonna sin. You're gonna sin against me this very night and you're gonna sin grievously against me this very night. But When you've turned back, not only are you going to turn back to me because I've prayed for you, because I have prayed for you, but I'm going to use you in the future for my glory. Yes, there is hope. Yes, God can still use you.

Jesus said when you've turned back, go and strengthen the brethren. There's still work for you to do. Go and strengthen the brethren. Now go and do my work. Now go and take all the experiences of what you've gone through, don't repeat them again.

Go and help the brethren. Go and strengthen the brethren. Peter's going to fall, but Peter's going to be restored because Jesus prayed for him because of the intercession of Christ, against which no evil in heaven or earth below the earth can stand. Nothing can stand against the intercession of Christ. Peter will be restored and Peter will be useful to Jesus.

And Peter, after he falls, after he goes out and weeps bitterly and is restored, will go and strengthen his brothers and the Lord. And so can you. And so can you. So can you. Peter repents and Peter does not go back to the sin of denying Christ.

Very important point here. Peter is not the perennial Christ denier. He is now the perennial Christ testifier. He now serves the Lord. He goes and he strengthens the brethren.

And one day he will prove his repentance was genuine in the ultimate sense. Peter will be nailed to a cross outside Rome. And He will die for the love of Him who died for His sins and clothed Him in His perfect righteousness. O Lord, deliver us from the evil one. In John 17, as we close, Jesus prays for His church.

He intercedes for His church. And Jesus is still interceding for us right now at the right hand of the power on high. If you're a child of God, he's interceding for you right now. And you may fall, but you will not come to ultimate ruin. You have the intercession of Christ.

In that prayer Jesus says, I pray not that thou shouldest take them, speaking to the Father, out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. I'm not praying that you'll take them out of the world, God, but that you'll keep them from the evil one. Psalm 97 10, God preserves the souls of His saints. He preserves the souls of his saints. Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 18, and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever Amen.

Now unto him, now unto him who is able to keep you from falling, Jude 24 and 25. Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless, yes faultless, before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the intercession of Christ.

And we thank you, God, that you are able to keep your people from falling. And we thank you, Lord, that you present your children faultless before the presence of your glory with exceeding joy for Jesus' sake. And we thank you for the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. And that yours, O God, is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.