Are We Children of God?

Okay, very good. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Fortnum and Stone Reformed Baptist Church. It is a great blessing once again to have you worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ with us. I'm going to invite the brethren to open up your Bibles to the Book of Romans, Romans chapter eight.

By God's grace, we're going to continue. We've already studied through this beautiful chapter, the 8th chapter of the Book of Romans. And today, once again, we're going to be addressing verses 12 through verse 17 on the 8th chapter of the Book of Romans. Last week, the emphasis that we gave was the emphasis of the Holy Spirit. We spoke about this spirit of slavery that leads to fear.

Compare with the spirit of adoption that leads us to cry of a father today. I want us to consider what the spirit of God does in the christian according to what the apostle does there or explains there and that is our Adoption or better that the fact that we are children of god if we were going to put it in terms of a question The question that I want us to consider this afternoon is how do we know that we are? Children of God. How do we know that we are Children of God? And actually, if you pay attention there to verse 14 before we read, you will see that this is the key topic that the apostle is addressing in this section.

In verse 14, he says, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God or Children of God. If you go there to verse 15, he says, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons or children by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Even there in verse 16, it says, The spirit himself births witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And there he says in verse 17, And if children, then heirs. It continues even in verse 21.

If you go to verse 21, it says that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the Children of God. And the apostle says the same there in verse 23 when he says, and not only the creation, but we ourselves. We have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. So the apostle is going to give us different evidences that proves us that we are the Children of God. So if we were going to put it as a question once again, we're gonna ask this question of how do we know that we are the Children of God?

We are going to be reading together from verse nine. to verse 23. And also we're going to be reading another passage, the passage that is found in first john chapter three from verse 10 to verse 12. Also the apostle in first john speaks about the fact that we are the Children of God. So that is what we're trying to answer today.

How do we know that we are the Children of God. Let us come before the Lord and let us pray before we read our two passages and may the Lord help us as we address this very important question in our lives. How do we know that we are the children of God? Let us pray and come before the Lord. Father, we come before you in the name of your son, Jesus Christ.

We have the scriptures before us, Lord, and apart from your grace and apart from your Holy Spirit, the Scriptures are closed to our eyes and to our hearts. We pray, Lord, that you will bless us by your Holy Spirit, that you will illuminate us into understanding the great blessing that we have of being children of God and that you will teach us, Lord, to know how we are, why we are the children of God through the spirit of adoption that has been given to us. There might be people within the sound of my voice who are not the Children of God. So I pray, Lord, that even just by reading the Scriptures or whatever word that we may say according to the truth of this text and what you have for us, Lord, that this person or these people will be drawn to the feet of Christ Jesus and that indeed we will be united not only in a venue, but that we will also be united by the Holy Spirit as the Children of God. Help us, Lord, please, to consider the greatness of the blessing that you have given us, that you loved us in such a way that you sent your only begotten Son to die upon the cross so that we should become the Children of God with the greatness of the love that has been bestowed upon us.

Help us, Lord, to comprehend that, to understand that, and help us, Lord, to be washed by and through Your Word and to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We pray that You will do this. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So Romans chapter 8.

Let us read together from verse nine all the way through verse 23. Now, if you see me that I'm getting very close to the Bible is that I don't have my Bible, and this Bible has a smaller font. So that's why I have to just get very close to the pulpit there. So Romans chapter eight verse nine. Let us read together to verse 23 and then 1st John chapter three.

Roman chapter eight verse nine. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is live because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brethren, he says in verse 12, and this is what we're gonna be paying attention. So then, brethren or brothers, We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Why?

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive... the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father, the spirit himself is witness with our spirit that we are Children of God. And if Children than heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we might also be glorified with him.

That is with Christ. Verse 18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revelation of the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the Children of God.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation. But we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption, as sons, the redemption of our bodies. That is the passage in Romans, Chapter 8. And now if we come to 1 John, Chapter 3, we can read there together. 1 John, Chapter 3, verse 10 through 12.

There the apostle will tell us about this comparison between the children of God and the children of the devil. Pay attention to verse 10 on the third chapter of 1st John. It says in verse 10, By this it is evident who are the Children of God and who are the Children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another.

We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Amen. This is the reading of God's word.

And as I said today, I want us to consider together this question. And that is, how do we know that we are the Children? of God and I suppose that from the scriptures that is a very important question to ask and to consider because if you pay attention there to verse 10 on the third chapter of the first letter of the Apostle John, the Apostle John is going to divide humanity into two different categories. Those who are the children of God and those who are the children of the devil. From a spiritual perspective, humanity falls into two categories, those who are the children of God and those who are the children of the devil.

And that is a very shocking and difficult statement. There are many people who say that we are all the children of God, that we are all the creation of God. And while there is a sense in which that is true, God is the creator of all humans. When he comes to an spiritual point of view from a spiritual perspective, humanity is divided into two categories. That is, those who are the Children of God.

and those who are the children of the devil." Now, we know that those who are the children of God are those who have received the grace of God by Jesus Christ, and they have become, by faith, Galatians chapter 3, the children of God. This is not of themselves, but this is the work of God that brings them from being the children of the devil, from the kingdom of darkness, and now they are converted into the children of God. while the children of the devil are all of those who are just begotten as humans. Every single human is born in sin.

That's what we're told, not only in Psalm 51, but also in Ephesians chapter 2, that we were dead in our sins, in our trespasses, in which once we walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the year. The Apostle Paul calls these prints of the power of the year, the spirit of disobedience that is working in them. That is the spirit of Satan that is operating in these sons of disobedience or Children of wrath. He will say there in verse three. That is that we have two categories spiritually speaking of people, those who are the Children of God and those who are the Children of the devil or the Children of Satan.

And actually, as I said before, that is quite a shocking statement because we feel a little bit more comfortable saying that there are believers and believers, whether they're Christians and non Christians or their people that follow the Lord Jesus Christ and those who Do not follow the world, but also the Bible tells us that the world is divided in Children of God, the Christians, the believers and the Children of the devil or the Children of Satan. And if you actually pay attention to that statement that puts in perspective when we just simply walk out and go to the streets. When you see people there, they're walking. You don't know them, and they share with you many traits as human beings. You have been created by the same creator.

But if they are not in Christ, then that means that, according to the Apostle John and the Scriptures, they are the Children of the devil, that they're the children of Satan. It does no matter that we live in the same city or in the same country, that we share the same language or perhaps the same culture. If a person is not in Christ Jesus, then that person is a children of Satan. Even that brings into more perspective, perhaps your workplace when you go and work and you have that person next to you that is not in crisis. Yes.

This is your co-worker or the person that walks next to you or the person that is studying next to you. But if that person is not in Christ Jesus, that person is not a children of God or a child of God. That person is a child of Satan, of the devil. And that is actually very hard to say and even to consider. But that is what the Scripture says.

You're either a child of God or you're a child of the devil. Even that makes it a little bit more difficult because when we come into the privacy of your home, Perhaps there are people who in your house are not in Christ and they have been begotten from you. Perhaps they are your Children or your spouse, your wife, your husband or your family. If they are not in Christ, then that means that they are Children. of the devil, and that's why we proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, because apart from Christ Jesus, we are all dead in our sins, in our trespasses, and we are all, by nature, children of Satan, just like Cain and Abel.

The Bible says there in 1 John chapter 3 that the reason why Cain killed Abel is because Cain was of the evil one. He was a child of Satan. And not only in society or not only in your workplace or where you study, but even in the context of your house, of your family, but also in the context of the church. It does not matter that people come and they're seated in chairs and that we have the Bibles and that we read them or that we pray. If the grace of God has not transformed the heart of that person, then humanity is divided into only two categories.

The children of God, those who have received generally the grace of Christ and have been converted and saved, or children of the devil, children of Satan, walking through the doors of a building that is called a church or having our Bibles on our laps, opening them up and being able to read them does not mean that there has been a transformation in the heart of a person by nature. We're getting our sins in our trespasses that were Children of Satan, Children of the devil. And in perspective of that truth, I suppose that the question, how do we know that we are the Children of God gains importance? How do we know that we do not remain being the Children of Satan, but that we are the Children of God? How do we know?

And that is the one of the topics that the apostle addresses here in Romans chapter eight after he has spoken about the work of the Holy Spirit. He's also saying now that this Holy Spirit, one of the things that he does in genuine believers is that they become the Children of God. And what the apostle is going to do here in verses 12 through 17 is that he's going to give us evidences or proofs that are going to help us understand what is the nature of the characteristics of those who are not the Children of Satan, the Children of the devil, but the Children of God. We are going to address or we're going to study together two of those evidences that the apostle is going to give us here. The first of those evidences is that those who are the Children of God are led by the Holy Spirit.

And as we have said before, leading being led by the Holy Spirit is equal to sanctification. In verse 14, the apostle tells us For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, or children of God. Those who are the children of God are equal to being led by the Holy Spirit. That is, one of the evidences that I know that I'm a child of God is that I'm being led by the Holy Spirit. Why?

Because the Scripture says that all who are led by the Spirit They are the sons, the children of God. And as we said last week and the week before, to be led by the Holy Spirit is equal to sanctification, as the previous two verses there say in verse 12. So, brethren, the apostle says, We are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Why? For all who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. So we have evidence number one. Those who are Children of God are those who are led by the Spirit onto sanctification. They are being sanctified.

You cannot have a child of God who is not being led by the Holy Spirit onto sanctification. Second evidence that the puzzle gives us during verse 15 through 16 is that we have received the spirit of adoption. Pay attention to verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. This spirit, the spirit himself, bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God."

So to receive the spirit of adoption is also an evidence that I'm a child of God. The child of God is one that is led by the Holy Spirit unto sanctification. And second, the child of God is one who has received the spirit of adoption by whom he or she cries, Abba, Father. The children of Satan, the children of the devil, is not anyone that is in a process of sanctification. They're dead in their sins and their trespasses.

And second, they have not received the spirit of adoption by whom they cry of a father, but rather they have the spirit of wrath of the spirit of disobedience. A vision chapter two that is operating in them. We have these two evidences here, sanctification and adoption. Every single child of God is one that is in a process of sanctification and second one who has received the spirit of adoption. Those are the two things that we're going to explore today.

So we have first that one of the evidences of the way that I know that I'm a child of God is if I'm being led by the Holy Spirit, and that is if I'm being sanctified once again, that is what the puzzle says there in verse 14. being led by the Holy Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the body, not living according to the flesh, but living according to the Spirit. But what is to be sanctified? What is to be living in the Spirit and not according to the flesh? Well, we could say that to be sanctified is, first of all, to be holy.

The Christian was unholy, was in the things of the world, And now, by receiving the Holy Spirit, now the Christian is becoming holier, set apart from the deceitfulness of this world and the things of this world. Now the Christian has been set apart and he's becoming holier and holier. Not only to be holy, but second, also to be righteous. Not only we have been forgiven of our sins, but also we are becoming more righteous. That is that we're becoming more like God.

Not only that we have been set apart, holy from the things of the world, But also that we're becoming more righteous. And someone even may say that it's not only about holiness and righteousness, but also it's about obedience. Now that we can hear the voice of God and we can apply that word of God and we can follow it and let me I submit to you that even though all of those are very good definitions of what it is to be sanctified, to be holier, to be more righteous from a practical point of view, and to be more obedient to God's commandments, it's very important that we understand the ultimate purpose of sanctification. And that ultimate purpose of sanctification, as the Apostle states it here very clearly in verse 29, It is to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have been begotten and have been adopted as the Children of God, they will be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn among many brothers.

He says that inverse 29, the very well known verse there in Chapter eight, verse 29, it says, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He may be the firstborn among many brethren." We can say that the object of sanctification, yes, it is to be holier, yes, it is to be more righteous, yes, it is to be more obedient. But ultimately, all of those elements of holiness, righteousness, and obedience are meaningful in the person of Jesus Christ. We are told here that God has predestined his people from eternity past in order to be conformed or to be made after the image of his son, Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn among many brothers. If you are the brother or sister of Christ, that means that you are a child of God.

And that is going to be evidence in that the Spirit of God is working in you to become more holier, or to become more righteous, or to become more obedient, ultimately to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, when he says in verse 3 of chapter 1, Holy and blameless, in love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. So we were predestined for adoption as sons in Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. To be a child of God is to have been chosen before the foundation of the world. to be holy and blameless, like the person of Jesus Christ.

That is what is called sanctification. When a person has been forgiven of their sins and their trespasses, that person has been justified by the grace of God. That person enters into a process of becoming conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot have A person who claims to be a child of God or to be a brother or sister of Jesus who is not being conformed to the image of the Lord. The Spirit of God will be working in that person so that person will be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sanctification is an evidence that the person is a child of the Lord. And of course, we distinguish that from justification. In justification, we receive the imputed righteousness of Christ and that position of forgiving. But here, in sanctification, we also receive the righteousness of Christ. Not the one that justifies, but the one that conforms us to his image.

We are conformed to his image. One of them is the imputed righteousness of Christ. The legal righteousness of Christ. The other one is a practical, imparted righteousness of Christ that we receive through the Holy Spirit. If I was a liar, now the Spirit of God is working in me so that I will speak the truth in love, just as Christ Jesus did.

So I will be holier, more righteous and more obedient. If I was captive to sexual immorality, then the Holy Spirit is working in me so that I will be pure as the Lord Jesus Christ was pure, and I will be holier, more righteous and more obedient. like the Lord Jesus Christ. If I have thoughts of envy, or if I was taken captive by resentment or bitterness, now the Holy Spirit is working in me to be holier, to be righteous, to be more obedient, like the Lord Jesus Christ who was compassionate and who was loving. He is the object of the conformity of the Christian.

Every single Christian is in a process of dying to self and becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what it is to be a child of God. So if there is any message of the gospel, or if there's any doctrine that allows or presents a Christian remaining in the state of unholiness, unrighteousness, or disobedience just because grace abounds, then that is not the transformative power of the genuine gospel that changes the heart of the person, not only from faith, being guilty into forgiven, but also from being unholy and righteous disobedience to becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Does this mean that the person is going to be perfect? Of course not.

The person is never going to be perfect in this world until glory arrives, but that person is going to be in a process, ongoing process of becoming holier, more righteous, more obedient, conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle gives us in verse 12 and 13 three statements that helps us consider this idea of sanctification a little bit deeper. If we were going to ask the question, what does sanctification requires? We could answer it there with the three clauses that are given to us in verse 12 and 13. We could say, if we ask the question, what does sanctification required, we could say first that sanctification requires a commitment, not to the flesh, but a commitment to Christ Jesus.

Pay attention there what it says here in verse 12. So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. The apostle says there, therefore, or then, because he's connecting the previous reality that he explained in verses 9 through 11. He says, because you have been saved, Because you have received the Spirit of Jesus Christ, because the Spirit of Christ is dwelling in you, and because you have the promise that your mortal body of sin is going to be resurrected in newness through the Spirit that resurrected Jesus Christ. Because you have the Spirit of life of Christ in you, then you are no longer indebted to the flesh.

You are not debtors to the flesh. Implicitly, the Apostle says, you are debtors to the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sanctification requires that we are no longer committed to the flesh and its passions, but that we are committed to the Spirit of Christ. In chapter 6, the Apostle Paul has presented this as the two masters. You are either ruled by the flesh or you are ruled by God himself in the Spirit of Christ.

If you come to Romans chapter 6, there in verse 12, that's what the apostle says in 6.12. Romans chapter 6, verse 12, he says, reign in your mortal body. Verse 12, the sixth chapter. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. That is, that we are not debtors to the flesh, to carry on the desires of the flesh, but now we are debtors to Christ and to his spirit. Do we have perspective of that? When temptation comes and when this desire to go and do that which is unrighteous, because it happens even within the Christian, do we have awareness that now we are not debtors anymore to that passion that is producing in us the desire to go into that direction but that we are debtors to Jesus Christ? That we are to be committed to Christ and to His Spirit?

Are we committed to the principle of the gospel that Jesus Christ came to die upon the cross to set us free? When we have perspective of that, in that moment of temptation, brethren, that is when we are empowered to look to Christ and not to look to the desire and to be taken by the sin that is still within us. We are no longer debtors to the flesh, But we are debtors to the Holy Spirit and to the person of Jesus Christ. Second, if you return there to Romans chapter 8 verse 12, it is not only the sanctification requires that you will be committed to Christ and not to the flesh. But sanctification also requires that you will be aware that the result of death, or better, the result of sin is death.

We need to be aware that the consequences of living in sin is equal to a spiritual death. The apostle says there in verse 13, For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. That is, if the person is given as a master or better a slave to the passions of their flesh, and they live according to the flesh, the outcome of that is always going to be death. The wages of sin is death. The result of being under the power of sin is always going to be death.

Do we uphold and we believe that God has saved his people and he's going to keep them and preserve them until the end? We hold that, but we also have to have the reverence of the consequences of what it is to play with sin. If we live a type of life that is subject or submitted to a practice of the flesh or of sin, the outcome to that is going to be death. Actually, death is the result of those who are in the flesh. And even though they may think that they are in the spirit, now they live according to the principle that is operating within them.

Sanctification requires not only that we are committed to Jesus Christ and not being debtors of the flesh, but second, sanctification requires that we will have a reverential understanding, that we are not to play with sin. But rather, sin is deathly and it kills. And if we live according to the flesh in lives of sin, that is going to produce final death to whoever it is that is living that life of sin. Thirdly, we also learned there from the teachings of the apostle. Not only the sanctification requires a commitment, not to the flesh, but to Christ, or that we are or that we are not to live according to the flesh, but thirdly, also that we have the power by the Holy Spirit or the empowerment by the Holy Spirit to mortify sin.

You see, when we are dead in our sins and our trespasses, there's nothing that we can do to come to God. He's the one that draw us to him by his Holy Spirit. He's the one that brings us, opens our eyes so that we can repent and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But once the Holy Spirit has come and transformed us and changed our nature and given us a new heart, open our eyes to see Jesus Christ. Now the will of the person has been liberated from the previous bondage to sin and to the flesh.

And now it is in the freedom of the Spirit of God. So now this person, by virtue of the presence of the Holy Spirit in them and by the empowerment of that spirit, has the ability to put to death the deeds of the body. That is what we're told there in verse 13 verse 13. For if you leave according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will leave.

Sanctification requires that we will know that we have now a renovated will, a renovated heart, a heart that can do the things of the Lord by the Holy Spirit, praise God. And by virtue of the presence of the Holy Spirit, we can bear those fruits of righteousness in Christ Jesus for the glory of the Father. There's an expression that the apostle uses in chapter 6. If you go there to chapter 6, I think it's in verse 17. where he says that we have learned the principle of obedience.

Let's see verse 17. I think it is. Verse 17 in Chapter 6, But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. Pay attention to that expression. But thanks be to God that you who was once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

The heart of the Christian has been transformed and has been changed to the point that God can call the Christian obedient. We cannot be obedient in and of ourselves when we're doing our sins and our trespasses. But when the Spirit of God comes and liberates us from the dominating power of sin, now the Bible considers us to be obedient to the standard of teaching to which we were committed. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has come and opened our eyes to see the gospel of Jesus Christ and now has empowered us To hear the voice of the Savior and to be followers of the Savior and to be obedient.

Sanctification is a proof and is an evidence that a person is a child of God. Is faith a proof that a person is a child of God? Of course. Is the fruit an evidence that the person is a child of God? Of course, the sanctification, becoming holier, more righteous and more obedient, conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, is an evidence that the person is being a child, or is a child of God.

Of course, the question that follows from there, I suppose, is, are you being sanctified? Are you being sanctified? Are you being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ? Are you living according to the flesh? Or are you debtor to the flesh instead of being a debtor to the Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus?

Are you living by the Spirit and by the Spirit putting to death the deeds of the body? Or are you living in the flesh and still following the principle of the flesh? Because one thing is to understand these things. Another thing is to apply these to what the Lord says that we ought to be and do in Christ Jesus. Are you being sanctified and being conformed?

to the image of Jesus Christ. The question is not, are you perfect? The question is not, are you the best possible Christian that you can ever imagine? The question is, is the Spirit of God working in you from the moment that you said that you believed in such a way that when you look back, you were dead in your sins and your trespasses, and now you are becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ, that there is a deeper commitment in your heart not to live according to the flesh, because you will die, but to leave according to the Spirit and by that spirit to put to death the deeds of the body or even beyond that. Have you put to death any deeds of your body?

Has the Spirit of God worked in you in such a way that you can testify with the Spirit that there has been certain things in your life that the Spirit of God has put to death in you by what he has done because of Jesus Christ? Why? Because those who are the sons of God are those who are led by His Spirit. And those who are led by His Spirit are the ones that are not debtors to the flesh, but debtors to Christ. Are the ones that are not living according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

And by the Spirit are put into death the deeds of the body. But someone may ask, and these are some of the questions that you have asked in the past. How can I be more sanctified? How can I be more holy? How can I be more righteous?

How can I be more obedient? The answer to that is only one word. That word is Christ Jesus alone. But I want to point you to things that the scripture tells us that we ought to do in Christ and by his spirit that will make us holier that we make us more righteous and that will make us more obedient and for that I'm gonna call your attention once again to the first letter of John where the Apostle not only addresses what it is to be a child of God but also in chapter 1 gives us three important practices of the Spirit of God in the life of the Christian that leads the son or daughter of God to be holier, to be righteous, or to be more obedient. Three things that I think are going to help us understand the work of the Holy Spirit in those who call themselves to be the children of God.

The first one is going to be confession. The second one is going to be reliance upon Christ. And the third one is going to be obedience to His words. Let us see these three in chapter one. The first one we're gonna find it there in the famous passage there in verse eight and verse nine and verse 10 of chapter one.

The apostle says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. This is verse eight of chapter one. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have no sin, we make Him a liar and His worth is not in us.

The practice of confession by the leading and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. How do we become more like Jesus Christ? How do we become more holy? How do we become more righteous? How do we become more obedient?

We do that by not being deceived by our own sin that makes us believe that things are okay, but when we sin, we do not abide in the guilt of our sin, but rather come to the feet of Jesus Christ and we confess our sins, knowing that he's just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The way that we deal with our guilt, the way that we deal with our sins, the way that we deal with our unrighteousness, the way that we deal with the things that we say that we shouldn't have said, The way that we deal with our sins is by confessing those scenes before the Lord. We're never going to be perfect, and it would be rational of us to expect to be perfect, not even the best version that you think that you could be spiritually speaking. The only one who can empower us to bear fruit is the person of Jesus Christ on part of the process of becoming more sanctified is to develop the practice of confession before the Lord. That when we sin, we just don't simply abide in our guilt, and then our mind goes into this place of, how can I improve myself?

How can I change that? How am I going to avoid that practice? Yes, we should think about that. But when we sin, it is not only that we're falling from our own standard of what we want to do, but we're sinning against the Lord. And if we are sinning against the Lord, then we are to confess our sin, knowing that He's just and faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The Gospel promises us that He's just and faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And when the Spirit of God reveals that to us in the midst of guilt, there's always going to be peace. And the burden of guilt is going to be lifted, not by the efforts of the flesh, but the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Do you confess yours? Do you confess your sins?

Are you pierced by the Holy Spirit in such a way that you can see the unrighteousness that is in you? Because sometimes it's better for us just to see the unrighteousness in other people and to see the sins that other people should repent of and should come to other people and to point to the things that they are wrong and the things that they are falling short and very slow to look into our minds and to our hearts and to confess our own sins. before the Lord. Are we confessing our sins before the Lord, knowing that he's just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? It's not only the confession of sin that makes us holier, that is to be led by the Holy Spirit as the children of God.

But second, very importantly, it is to, in that process of sanctification, to rely upon Christ. Pay attention to the first two verses of Chapter 2 of 1 John. It says, first two verses, My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. So he says, I'm writing all of these things because I don't want you to sin. I don't want you to fall into unrighteousness, unholiness or disobedience.

But he continues. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. John points the eyes of the person who sins not to fix themselves and try to perhaps just to keep the commandment to obey the commandment. But rather, Paul, or better, John is pointing the sinner to the fact that in heaven there is someone who is Jesus Christ, the righteous, the one who has not broken any of the commandments, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who happens to be, not only in the past, but presently, the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.

If there is a guarantee that our sins are forgiven, it's not the depth and how good you confess your sin and how you examine yourself. The certainty and the guarantee that we have that our sins are forgiven by the justice and the goodness of Christ is that he is alive and that he's seated at the right hand of the father, that he's our advocate that is interceding for us. So if I have a hope. that I'm going to die to the sin that is in me. If I have any hope that there might be a point in the future in which I'm going to die to the things that are within my heart, it's not based on my maturity or the sermons that I preach or the many days that I can be a Christian.

It's rooted in the fact that there is someone who is seated at the right hand of God Almighty that happens to be Jesus Christ, not only my Lord and Savior, but also my brother, who is interceding for me. And the intercession of Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit is the one that keeps me in the gospel of Jesus Christ and makes me recipient of the grace of sanctification. And for that reason alone, I can have hope that there may be one day in which those thoughts, there might be one day in which those words, there might be one day in which those intentions are changed and cleansed and made like the words, thoughts and intentions of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in that process of sanctification, we're not only be to be led by the Spirit to confess our sins, but we are to rely upon Christ for that sanctification alone, and not in ourselves. And only when we understand the importance of confession and relying upon Christ is that we can move on to what the apostle says there in verse 3.

How can we be then sanctified? It is by obedience. He says there in verse 3 of chapter 2, verse 3. By these we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected. By these we may know that we are in him that we're Christians. Whoever says that he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which And by this we know that we have come to know him. In the words of Paul in Romans chapter 8, by this we know that his commandments whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar so sanctification does not only require that I confess my sins by the power of the gospel being led by the Holy Spirit to come to the feet of Christ knowing that he's just and faithful to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness but also sanctification requires that in that process I look to heaven and not to me knowing that Jesus Christ is the righteous one who My advocate that is seated at the right hand of the Father, that is the propitiation for my sins, trusting and relying upon Him. And as I do that, I am to be obedient to the commandments of God.

The power of the Holy Spirit enables me and empowers me to hear the voice of the shepherd and to follow the shepherd. to follow his words, to follow his commandments. The voice of the shepherd now is not only treasured up in my ears or received in my ears, but it's treasure up in my heart. And if he's treasure up in my heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, then there's no commandment of the Savior. That is burdensome what Paul or John better says in first John chapter five or three for there's the commandments of the Lord are not burdensome when when those commandments are carried in the spirit, not in the flesh.

So when I hear the voice of the Savior, the Savior is the one that empowers me to be obedient to the commandments of the Savior. And how can I hear the voice of the Savior? How can I hear the voice of Jesus Christ? How can I know him? Nobody just simply closing my eyes and saying, speak to me, speak to me, speak to me, but rather by coming to the Scriptures and keeping his word that it says there in verse four and five, treasuring up his words so that love might be perfected.

It says there in verse five, but whoever keeps his word in him truly, the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked, keeping his word here. The apostle means not only obeying his word, But there's also an idea that he explains in chapter 4 of treasuring up, keeping his word in you. The more that we keep the words of the Savior in us by the power of the Holy Spirit, the outcome is going to be that we live according to the Savior.

Help me, O Lord, please, to treasure up your word in my heart, the psalmist says, that I might not sin. against you. The amount of the word that is treasured and kept in your heart and in your soul is the amount of holiness and fruit that you are going to bear by the power of the Holy Spirit. And pay attention that I did not say the amount of the words of Christ that abide in your head, but rather the amounts of the words of God that abide, that are sunk in your heart. that have become part of your lenses, part of who you are.

The amount of the words of Christ that are abiding in your soul and in your heart that have become sweet to you is what is going to be correlated to how much you walk in Christ, how holy and righteous and obedient you are. And that's why the Christian, if we want to be followers of Christ, we are to be followers of his words. We are to be keepers of his word. We are to be students of his word. Because it's through the Word of God that we know this Jesus Christ in whose image we are being conformed.

How do we know that we are the Children of God? We know that we are the Children of God when we're being led by the Holy Spirit. And being led by the Holy Spirit is to be sanctified. And to be sanctified is not only to be holier, more righteous, more obedient. it is to become like the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ, we are no longer committed or debtors to the flesh, but we're committed to Jesus Christ, who is our Lord. And we understand the seriousness of what it is to live according to the flesh. The result of it is death. And in doing that, we're empowered by the Holy Spirit to live not according to the flesh, but to live according to the spirit. How?

By confessing our sins, by relying upon Jesus Christ and by being obedient to the words of the Savior. As I asked you before in your confession before the Lord, do you rely upon Jesus in the midst of your sin? Do you rely upon Jesus when guilt comes and when you realize that you have said and done the thing that you were not supposed to do? Do your eyes go to heaven when unrighteousness visits the door of your conscience, or when guilt arrives to the doors of your heart? Does your mind abide in heaven, or rather abide in your shell, trying to fix yourself with your own strength and your own wisdom?

Is your heart moved to rest upon the one who is seated at the right hand of the Father? Or rather, are you trying to fix your things so that you feel satisfied with how you have fixed your things? My dear brother and sister, even though we ought to do things to avoid the sin that is in us, the main thing that we ought to do is to look to Christ by the Spirit and through His Word, and in Him we find the rest and the power that is needed to solve the matters of the earth. Because that which is heavenly is where we find the power and the sustenance to address that which is on the earth or that which is earthly. The child of God is one that is being sanctified, conformed to the image of the Savior.

Let me please, in the last 5 or 10 minutes, just return to our text and let it just go into the second evidence. The second evidence is not only that we're sanctified. How do we know that we're children of God if we're being sanctified by second? And very importantly, the apostle tells us that in verse 16 and 17, we know that we are the children of God if we have received the spirit off adoption. the spirit of adoption.

It says there in verse 15 for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to pull back into fear. You have received the spirit of adoption by whom that is the spirit of adoption. We cry Abba Father that he's in 16 the spirit. This is the spirit of adoption, the spirit of Christ that is in us. The spirit himself bears witness or testifies with our spirit or let us know makes us aware What gives us that information corroborates to us, in other words, that we are the Children of God.

How do we know that we are the Children of God? We know that by the testimony of the Holy Spirit that bears witness with our spirit. But in order for that spirit to burst, witness with our spirit that we're the Children of God. We need to receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry of a father. The Children of God are not only those who are sanctified, but the Children of God are those who have received the spirit of adoption.

And, of course, the question is, what is the meaning of receiving the spirit of adoption? What does it mean? Not only from an understanding point of view, but from a practical point of view. What does it mean to receive the spirit of adoption, the spirit of Isaam? Galatians Chapter 4, By whom we cry, I have a father.

Two words. The first one is change of position, and second one, transformation. The spirit of adoption does two things in the Christian. It changes the position, the legal position of the Christian, that is number one. And second, it transforms the one that has received the spirit of adoption.

This idea of position is found in John chapter one. If you come to the Gospel of John, you may remember there in John chapter one verse, 12, if I can find it here, in John, the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John, it says there in verse 12, but to all, verse 11, He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. Verse 12. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, pay attention to this. He gave the right.

Some of you may have something like authority or something like this in that verse 12 there. He gave the right to become the children of God. who were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of men, but of implicitly the will of God. Those who received him by faith, he gave authority. He gave the position, the legal position to become the Children of God.

Those who are born not according to the will of flesh or blood of men, but according to the will of God to be adopted. It is to change the position from a spiritual world of the devil into the spiritual world of God. As I said in the beginning, Humanity is divided only in two categories, those who are the Children of Satan and those who are the Children of God. And when we are the Children of Satan, Satan has authority over those who are his Children. That's why the spirit of disobedience operates in them and through them.

But when we are made a new creation by the power of the Holy Spirit, now we are taken from the dominating power of the kingdom of Satan and we become the Children of God. And he gives us the right to be his Children. Just as in human terms, a person when they do not or are not able to have kids, they will come and adopt a child and that child will become their child legally once they sign the document and the right of the authority has been transferred onto the parents. Now, it does no matter that that child was not begotten from the flesh of these parents. Once they've signed the document, that child has now become legally in the position or under the authority of those who have adopted him or her.

So those who are outside of Christ, when the Spirit of Christ comes and takes us from the spirit of darkness into the kingdom of the Savior, we become the children of God by right. The position of the Christian has been changed as a child of God. The difference from the analogy of the adoption of parents to a human child, from the adoption of the Heavenly Father to a human child, is that when heavenly or better earthly parents or human parents adopt a child, that legal status is not equal to transformation. That is that there's no guarantee that that child is going to become a copy or is going to represent what the parents are. There is a chance that that child that was adopted might take a very different path to the path that the parents have in their constitutions and their faith and whatever they are.

But when the heavenly father adopts a child taken from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, that new status that this child has, him or her, does not only come with a legal position of authority of now you have been adopted as a child of God, but also comes with the guarantee that the reason why you have become the child of God is to be transformed to the image of the Savior. Paul or better, john explains that in first john come with me to first john. And with this I will finish in first john chapter three. He is going to give us this glorious truth of transformation for the Children of God. First john chapter three.

First john chapter three. The apostle john says there see first john chapter three verse one. See what kind of love the Father has given to us. 1 John chapter 3 verse 1. See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God.

So we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who does hopes in him purifies himself as he It's pure.

I don't see very well there, but I hope that it makes sense. What it says there, the apostle, is this, that because we have become the children of God, now we have the certainty that even though we know how we are now, we know that there's going to be one day when we see Jesus Christ as He is, and we will become like Him. In the language of Paul, Romans chapter 8, this is the revelation of the sons of God, to be a child of God. is to change the position that we have from the kingdom of darkness into the position of the kingdom of the Father. And this position requires or it also implies that we are going to be transformed.

And the key element that impacts and transforms, practically speaking, the life of the Christian is this love. when the christian grows in an understanding of the love of the father given so that we can become the children of god positionally and transformationally the more that the christian grows in understanding of the excellency and the greatness of the love of the father bestowed upon us so that this could be a reality The greatness of that love is going to lead the Christian to assurance by the Holy Spirit and this assurance to obedience. This is the line that the Apostle John explains not only in chapter 3 but also in chapter 4. Just go with me through this and I promise that I will finish in 30 minutes. Pay attention once again to verse 1 in chapter 3.

The Apostle says, has given to us that we should be called the Children of God. Literally, it says, Behold, it is a very strong word. Please open your eyes. Behold, what kind of love? Literally, what it says this is this love that was given to you is not of the earth.

What kind of love? That is what that expression means is a love that is not of this world. Behold, what kind of love the father has given to you in becoming a child of God. Then later in the chapter, the apostle is going to connect this love of beholding this greatness of this love with assurance and certainty. Pay attention there, please.

The verse 21 beloved of Chapter three beloved. If our heart does not condemn us, this is very connected to Paul. the spirit of fear in Roman chapter eight. But anyway, verse 21. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and what pleases him.

And this is the commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us. Pay attention to 24. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. How do we know that we are in him by the spirit that he has given us?

And by this spirit we abide in the father and in his love, and he abides in us. John makes it a little bit more clear in verse 16 of Chapter four. Come with me to 16 verse 16 of Chapter four. says in verse 16 so we have come to know verse 16 of chapter 4 so we have come to know and to believe pay attention to this the love that God has for us 16 so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.

Because as he is, also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar.

For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God. whom he has not seen. Love is the experience of the Christian that connects us with the reality of being a child of God by the forgiveness that we have in God. This is very important for John, the famous verse John chapter 3 verse 16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have an everlasting life. The more that the Christian grows in understanding of the greatness of the love that God has had for your soul, the more that we comprehend the price that was paid by the Father in sending His Son to die upon the cross for the propitiation of our sins, the more that you abide and meditate in thinking in the greatness of that love that the Father has manifested for you, the more that you comprehend what took place upon the cross, and the love of the Father for His Son, and the love of the Father for His Church, the more that you recite, abide in certainty and assurance by the Holy Spirit, and that is going to produce transformation and obedience to the commandments of the Savior.

That's why the apostle says that if we love, or better, that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments because the empowerment to obedience is found in the realization of the love of God given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. And that is the glorious truth of what it is to be a child of God. That is the expression of Abba Father. The spirit of the person that is led to cry, Abba, Father, is the one who has understood that even though he or she is a sinner, he's received and accepted in the presence of the Lord because of the completed work of Jesus Christ. When guilt is in our hearts, when doubts are in our hearts, we don't come with certainty and cry, Abba, Father.

But rather we say, Are you going to punish me? Have I lost my salvation? Have I been removed from your presence? Are you upset with me? Or there's going to be condemnation upon me?

Because when there is guilt, there is no confidence. But the more that the Christian appreciates and understands by the Scripture and through the Holy Spirit, the greatness of the love of the Father in making us his Children, the more that our heart is going to be inclined to cry, Abba, Father, and in that there's going to be communion, not only communion with the Father, but communion with the Son and communion with the Holy Spirit. And in communion with the Triune God, there's going to be holiness. For who is going to go and sin after he or she has been in the presence of Christ? For who is going to go and lie when he or she has been in the presence of the Spirit of God?

For who is going to go and be given unto sexual immorality when he or she has been in the presence of the Savior? They manifest to their heart that they have been loved and forgiven in Christ Jesus. For who is going to go and utter words of hatred? towards another person when that person has been in the presence of Christ Jesus. For who is going to go and kill other or hate another person when that person has been touched by the hand of the Savior in the secret place, in the secret place of prayer and communion with the Word of God, in the secret place of weakness in fasting, in the secret place of communion with Christ?

Who is going to go and leave according to the flesh when that person has been in the presence of Christ Jesus and behold the love of God in sending his son to die for your soul? It is in Christ Jesus alone that we find the power that is needed not to live according to the flesh, but to live according to the Spirit. And when we are sanctified by His grace, and when we receive the Spirit of adoption by His grace, we have that glorious promise that these sufferings of this present age do not compare with the glory that is going to be revealed, that we are heirs, heirs not of this world, but heirs with Christ Jesus of the world that is to come. Then the things of this world enter into perspective, that your life is not 50, 60, 80, 100 years upon this earth, but that your life goes beyond that. And that you have been loved in Christ Jesus for the purpose, not of your studies, your works, or your accomplishments, which we should be faithful for, but rather for eternal purposes.

that you have been chosen, selected, predestined, and loved, and chosen in Him so that you will behold the beauty of Christ in eternity that is to come. And now we are to be transformed like Him. If we are children, then we are heirs, co-heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer, that we go through the sufferings of this present time as we await for the glory that is to come. And in that glory, there is going to be not only rest, but also forgiveness. And there's going to be peace for those who are the children of God, who are being sanctified by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and who have received the spirit of adoption.

As I said in the beginning, and with this I finish, the world is divided in two categories, brethren, the children of the devil and the children of God. And the difference between those two is not if they go to church, is not if they read the Bible, is not if they do certain things. The difference between the Children of the Devil and the Children of God is that the Children of God had received the Spirit of Christ that has led them to repent and to believe of their sins, coming to the Savior. And because they had generally come to the Savior saying, Lord, I'm a sinner that deserves hell. But you have given me grace and you sent your son to die upon the cross for my sins.

That then this person now has received the grace of sanctification. And this person is receiving the Spirit of God that reveals to them that even though they are broken and they deserve hell, that they are children of God by whom they can cry, Abba, Father. And they can enter into the throne of grace with boldness. Boldness that is not established upon their performance, but upon Christ Jesus. So the question is not so much, how do we know that we are the children of God?

But better, the question is, are we the children of God? Are we, by the Spirit, abiding in Christ Jesus? And if the answer, perhaps, of some of you may be, No, I'm not a child of God, but I'm dead in my sins and in trespasses. So then the message is come to Him. Come to Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Repent of your sins. All the things that you've done, the lies that you have said, the things that you've done that you should have not done, the things that you should have done that you haven't done, the people that you have threatened with your words and with your actions and the things that you've done. Come to Christ. Because there's going to be one day in which you are going to die, and you're gonna have to give an account before the Lord. And on that day, the only thing that counts is not the type of life that you lived, but what it counts is that if you're in Christ, Jesus or not.

And for the rest of you, my dear brothers and sisters, let us come to Christ, not only to continue to receive the greatness of His love, but to continue to be empowered in our sanctification and in our adoption, that we may not live according to the flesh, brethren, but that we may live according to the Spirit, that we may not live according to the principle of the world, but that we may live according to the Word of the Lord, that we may live in the power of the Holy Spirit, to bear fruits of righteousness, that we will be able to stand in the truth of Christ, even if the world compromises, even if others compromise, that we will stand in the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, both in the things that we do, or better, that we say, and more importantly, the things that we do with no one sees. May the Lord help us, brethren, to abide in our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the great privilege of what it is to be a child of God. Amen? Amen. Let us pray.

Father, we give you thanks, Lord, for your word, and we give you thanks for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray, O Lord, that you will help us, Lord, with all of these things that have been said. I pray, Lord, that you will deposit something of truth or any truth in the hearts of my brothers and sisters. I pray that you will mature them, that you will mature me. I pray, O Lord, that you will grant us, Lord, a great awareness of your love the love that you have manifested in sending your son to die upon the cross.

Sanctify us, O Lord, please. We want to be conformed to the image of Christ, Lord. Sanctify us, give us victory over sin, Lord. Help us, Lord, not to be hardened in our hearts, not to confess our sins. But even as we're praying now, Lord, we confess our sins before you, Lord.

We know that you're just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, Lord. We confess the sins of our eyes, the sins of our minds, the sins of our hearts, the sins of our mouths. Lord, please forgive us for the sins that we have committed. Reveal unto us that which is secret and healing our hearts, not for the purpose of breaking us with our guilt, but for the purpose of drawing us closer to you, Lord. We want to live, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Protect us, Lord, from Pharisee, Colovidians, and from a legalistic righteousness, but rather give us the righteousness of Christ imparted by and through your word and by your Holy Spirit in the person of Christ. I pray, Lord, that you will teach us to love one another, to be united in you, to forgive one another, to forbear with one another's burdens. Help us, Lord, to minister unto one another. Help us, Lord, to remember one another in our prayers when we wake up in the morning, in the afternoon, or at night when we come before your presence. Help us, Lord, to remember each one of the names and the faces of our brothers and sisters and to bring them before your throne of grace.

Help us, Lord, please, to always look to heaven in times of guilt and in times of seeing Lord, that we will not look into the mess that has been caused by our unrighteousness and try to undo it or cover it to protect it, Lord, but rather that we will come before you and knowing that you're just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I pray, O Lord, that you will grant us and give us by your grace times in your words and in prayers and in fasting and in your presence, O Lord, where we're ministered by your presence. We grow in understanding of your word. that we will become humble, Lord, that we are touched and impacted by your presence, O Lord. Give us times in which we open the scriptures Lord if we are going through a season of dryness Lord as we come to the scriptures and it's difficult to open the scriptures and go through them and if we see if we feel that there's nothing that is granted unto us or we pray that you will lift up from us Lord and grant us a Time of a revelation understanding of your word Lord that your word will be treasured up in our hearts can't is Lord understanding make your words sweet to us Oh Lord that the sweetness of this world and the things of this world and the sweetness of money and work and the sweetness of entertainment and the sweetness of the Internet or the sweetness of whatever other thing that this world offers will not compare with the sweetness of your words and your presence, Lord.

Help us please to enjoy and to be in the gospel, meditating upon the great love that you've had for us, Lord. And when we are tempted to despair, when we are tempted to deviate, when we are tempted, Lord, to focus, in the things of this world, Lord, we will see them enlightened in perspective of our life in you. I pray, Lord, that you will protect our children, Lord, that you protect our young brethren as they grow, not only in years, but also in maturity. I pray that you will protect them, Lord, from sexual immorality or from temptations or from deviating, Lord, from the ways of the Lord. We pray, Lord, for our young children, and we ask, Lord, that you will bring them to you.

We leave them, Lord, before you, Lord, and we pray that you will protect them. We pray for the one that is sick and in weakness, Lord, and we ask and intercede for them, that even though we might be weak in the flesh, that we will be strengthening the spirit to trust in Jesus Christ and to know that he's our Lord and Savior. I pray, O Lord, for our brethren who may be struggling, Lord, with lack of assurance, with lack of certainty where they are in Christ Jesus. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit will be the one that testifies to their spirit that they are children of God. I pray, O Lord, that the gospel will be so clearly revealed that in Christ Jesus they will find the assurance that is needed.

I pray, O Lord, for every one of my brothers that you will make us men according to your will, that you will make us strong and valiant in the word, and that we put on ourselves the armor of God, and that we will face the unrighteousness of this world with the truth of your word. Pray for my sisters, O Lord, that you will make them lovers of the things of Christ, that you will make them lovers of the truth, and you will make them lovers of your spirit, Lord. Help us and guide us as families and marriages, and as a church, Lord, in the feebleness and in the weakness of our ways, and in the shortness of our steps, and the many errors that we commit, Lord. I pray that you will forgive us, that you will grant us unity in love and in truth, and that you will strengthen us and empower us to rejoice in the fact that we've been forgiven in Christ Jesus. Bless us, we pray, as we are now going to partake in the table.

I pray that you will do this in Jesus' name. Amen.