"Remember Whose Sons You Are! 1st Article Creed. Proverbs 4:10-23
September 18, 2022
Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
"My son listen..." God the Father calls us from death and enslavement under Satan to be His own beloved sons through faith in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit working through His Word. Sermon Text: Proverbs 4:10-23/The First Article Of The Apostles' Creed. Sermon Theme: "Remember Whose Sons You Are!" Preached for the 14th Sunday After Trinity, 18-September-2022, at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Tell City, Indiana by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert. THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY The ten lepers cried out from a distance, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" (Luke 17:11–19). Their condition cut them off from God and others. So also do the works of the flesh cut us off from God and others. "Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal 5:16–24). Thus we cry out with the lepers, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy," eagerly seeking His good gifts. Jesus said to the lepers, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. So too, we walk by faith and not by sight, being confident of Jesus' help before we see any evidence of it, trusting that Jesus' cleansing words of forgiveness will restore us to wholeness in the resurrection. Let us be as the one leper who returned to the true High Priest to give Him thanks and glory. For Jesus bore our infirmities in His sacrifice at Calvary. His words are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh (Prov 4:10–23). INTROIT:(Psalm 84:1,2a,4,10b,11b; antiphon:Psalm 84:9,10a) Pastor: Behold our shield, O God, look on the face of Your anointed! Congregation: For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. P: How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD. C:Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; ever singing Your praise. P:I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. C: The LORD bestows favor and honor; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. All: Gloria Patri - pg. 186 Collect of The Day O Lord, keep Your Church with Your perpetual mercy; and because of our frailty we cannot but fall, keep us ever by Your help from all things hurtful and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. +Proverbs 4:10-23+ Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many. (11) I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness. (12) When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble. (13) Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life. (14) Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. (15) Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on. (16) For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. (17) For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. (18) But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. (19) The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. (20) My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. (21) Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. (22) For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. (23) Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Gradual:(Psalm 92:1,2.) It is good to give thanks | to the LORD, * And to sing praises to Your name, | O Most High; To declare Your steadfast loves in the | morning, * And Your faithful | ness by night. +Galatians 5:16-24+ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (17) For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (18) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (19) Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, (20) idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, (21) envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (24) And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. The Lutheran Confessions Responsive Reading: The Faith: The Lord’s Prayer: Small Catechism (1529) P: As the head of the family should teach them in a simple way to his household. P: What is The First Article of the Apostles’ Creed? C: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. P: Why do we call God , Father? C: I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. P: How does God the Father care for us? He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. P: Why does God the Father create and care for us? C: All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true. P: What is The Introduction to The Lord’s Prayer? C: Our Father who art in heaven. P: What does this mean? C: With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father. Verse:(Psalm 65:1.) P: Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; C: And to You the vow shall be performed. Alleluia! +Luke 17:11-19+ On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. (12) And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance (13) and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” (14) When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. (15) Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; (16) and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. (17) Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? (18) Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” (19) And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Episode Notes
Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity 18-September-2022
Sermon Text: Proverbs 4:10-23
Sermon Theme:Remember Whose Sons You Are!1st Article of The Apostles’ Creed By Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
I.N.R.I. Proverbs 4:10-11 Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, And the years of your life will be many. (11) I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths.” A wise father instructs his children in the way of wisdom. St. Paul echos these words in, Ephesians 6:4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” We have heard the Father’s Words first written upon the human heart on the sixth 24 hour day of creation about 6,000 years ago. The Words the Father spoke from Mount Sinai to the 600,000 men of Israel plus their wives and children. The Ten Words He wrote upon stone with His very finger and gave to Moses. The Words that punish and bring death to those who disobey even their smallest jot or tittle. The Words the promise grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments in everything they think, everything they do, everything they say. Words that stand as a mirror exposing the thoughts and intents of our hearts. They stop our self-deception. Honestly looking into the mirror of God’s Ten Commandments , Jesus’ diagnosis of our heart is true...Mark 7:20-23 "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. (21) For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, (22) thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. (23) All these evil things come from within and defile a man." St. Paul echos Jesus’ Word warning us, Gal. 5: (19) Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, (20) idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, (21) envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The Law exposes our guilt, condemns us to justly die, and to eternally be separated from our Creator Father in hell. The Law cannot give us life since the day our father Adam rebelled we are conceived and born in sin and under God’s just wrath. We need a greater Word from the Father to save us sinful children. (11) I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths.” We need the Word made flesh- Jesus- He draws near to sinners bringing life and healing through His mercy. Like the ten lepers, our leprosy of sin may be so far advanced that we can no longer feel as our flesh rots away or smell the own stench of our sin. Jesus draws near to have mercy upon us. He is eternal wisdom, the only begotten Son of the Father from eternity, born our Brother of the Virgin Mary by the power of God the Holy Spirit that He might reconcile us to our God and Father.
The Crucified and Risen Savior has placed the Father’s Name upon you and sealed it with the blood red water flowing from His side into your baptism. Hear Him! Remember Whose Sons You Are! 1st Article of The Apostles’ Creed
The wise father instructs his children, “Proverbs 4:10-13 Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, And the years of your life will be many. (11) I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. (12) When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, And when you run, you will not stumble. (13) Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life.” Hear and live! Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (LSB pg. 322 1st Art. A.C. W.D.T.M? 1st para.) We need a greater teaching than the Law to save us. The Law exposed the leprosy of our sin, but it cannot heal us. We need Jesus to draw near to us in mercy and speak His healing Word filled with wisdom and life. The Apostles’ Creed flows out of Jesus command, Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.” It summarizes all that the twelve apostles taught as they had learned from Jesus. It has echoed through the Church since the days of the apostles, and its written roots can be traced back to 120A.D. . The Creed is The Faith that alone saves. Ephesians 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; (5) one Lord, one faith, one baptism; (6) one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.. God the Holy Spirit teaches us throughout all of the New Testament that Christianity is The One True Faith - not one of many faiths. To put it another way - there are many religions and beliefs, but there is one Faith.
Faith isn’t based on our feeling, our experience, our imagination, and our choosing our own paths to find God. Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith has real substance for it flows from the living Word of our Creator. It is based on real historical evidence, not man made myths and speculations.
The Christian Faith flows from the knowledge God has given us. Assent to the facts. Confidence in the love our Creator has for us. With Job we confess, “I know my Redeemer lives!” Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is an historical fact - recorded not only in the historically accurate gospels, but in Roman and Jewish records.
Remember who your Father is - He is God - He is your Father who has reconciled you to Himself through the sacrifice and resurrection of His only begotten Son for you! He has made you and all creatures! The myth of evolution has come unraveled. As the Lord blesses us with knowledge to explore biology deeper and deeper - it is irrational to think that the complexity of human life could’ve happened by chance random processes. It would be more believable that an explosion at a copper factory produced the Statue of Liberty, than to look at the information contained on every strand of DNA and say it just happened.
Know that God has made you and all creatures! He has given you your body and soul. You are a body and soul creature - knit together as a human person from the moment He created you through conception in your mother’s womb. Your body isn’t your own. He gave it to you - calling you to be male or female and wrote it on your chromosomes. Your seeing eye, hearing ear, and all the parts of your body are His gifts to you. We cannot but exclaim with David, Psalms 139:14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.
God the Father also has blessed you with the ability to think - ‘your reason and all your senses.” Only a fool says in their heart that there is no God - why? A fool denies the creation crying out around him testifying to God’s eternal wisdom and power. Christianity - The Faith - calls you to use reason - to think, explore, discover how God the Father created all things to work together. Modern science arose out of Christianity. Galileo, Kepler, Pascal, Mendel, Newton, all were devout Christians using the gift of reason to discover the Father’s wisdom within our creation. It is a lie of the false religion of scientism that Christianity is unscientific.
God the Father not only created us body and soul creatures. He takes care of these bodies. Apart from His will we could not draw another breath - we’d die. Accept the truth of your creation and the Father’s loving care for you! (LSB pg. 322 1st Art. A.C. W.D.T.M? 1st & 2nd para.)
Proverbs 4:14-19 Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not walk in the way of evil. (15) Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on. (16) For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; And their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. (17) For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence. (18) But the path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. (19) The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.” The wicked turning their back on the Father of Light in Whom there is no variation or shadow - stumble. They live in constant fear of death, judgment, and what will come tomorrow.
Not you dear child of God the Father through Jesus Christ! Know that your Heavenly Father richly and daily blesses you with all that you need to support this body and life. All you have - He has gifted it to you! What do you need to survive? “Clothing, shoes, food, drink, shelter.” These He graciously gives to you through the blessing of work, your vocation, and the vocation of those around you in your community. He blesses you with more - your spouse, your children, the years to rejoice in your grandchildren. Everything you have He richly and daily provides. Even if Satan would rob you of all - assenting to your Heavenly Father’s good and gracious will you can proclaim with Job, Job 1:21 "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD."
The Faith - is knowledge - verifiable. Assent - accepting the Truth - Wisdom from Above. Confidence - Trust. (LSB pg. 322 1st Art. A.C. W.D.T.M?) Proverbs 4:20-23 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. (21) Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; (22) For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. (23) Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” Listen to God your loving Father’s Word, spoken by Jesus - the Word made flesh to save us and live among us - even now. Jesus’ Word breathes forth the life giving Holy Spirit that you ears might be opened and they may dwell in your heart. They fill you with the very life of God. Jesus promises, John 14:23-24 "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (24) He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.” Through Christ’s Word the Holy Spirit has made your body His Temple. No longer do you live according to the flesh. You walk by the Spirit and the Fruit of Christ’s life flows through you - Galatians 5:22-24 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (24) And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.. Trusting our heavenly Father the Faith sustains us. He guards and protects us with His holy angels from the evil one. He uses lawful human authority with the power of the sword to protect human life from the moment of conception to natural death. He does all this only out of fatherly, divine, goodness, and mercy. True Fatherhood flows from God the Father through Christian fathers to their households. We fail, He never does.
For all this it is our duty. To thank, praise, serve, and obey Him. Only one healed leper returned to give God thanks through the flesh and blood of Jesus. Healed he received the greater gift - The Faith - in God the Father through Jesus Christ’s Word and healing given by God the Holy Spirit. Dear Christian - Remember whose sons you are -1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Amen.
Sermon Text: Proverbs 4:10-23
Sermon Theme:Remember Whose Sons You Are!1st Article of The Apostles’ Creed By Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
I.N.R.I. Proverbs 4:10-11 Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, And the years of your life will be many. (11) I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths.” A wise father instructs his children in the way of wisdom. St. Paul echos these words in, Ephesians 6:4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” We have heard the Father’s Words first written upon the human heart on the sixth 24 hour day of creation about 6,000 years ago. The Words the Father spoke from Mount Sinai to the 600,000 men of Israel plus their wives and children. The Ten Words He wrote upon stone with His very finger and gave to Moses. The Words that punish and bring death to those who disobey even their smallest jot or tittle. The Words the promise grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments in everything they think, everything they do, everything they say. Words that stand as a mirror exposing the thoughts and intents of our hearts. They stop our self-deception. Honestly looking into the mirror of God’s Ten Commandments , Jesus’ diagnosis of our heart is true...Mark 7:20-23 "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. (21) For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, (22) thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. (23) All these evil things come from within and defile a man." St. Paul echos Jesus’ Word warning us, Gal. 5: (19) Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, (20) idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, (21) envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The Law exposes our guilt, condemns us to justly die, and to eternally be separated from our Creator Father in hell. The Law cannot give us life since the day our father Adam rebelled we are conceived and born in sin and under God’s just wrath. We need a greater Word from the Father to save us sinful children. (11) I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths.” We need the Word made flesh- Jesus- He draws near to sinners bringing life and healing through His mercy. Like the ten lepers, our leprosy of sin may be so far advanced that we can no longer feel as our flesh rots away or smell the own stench of our sin. Jesus draws near to have mercy upon us. He is eternal wisdom, the only begotten Son of the Father from eternity, born our Brother of the Virgin Mary by the power of God the Holy Spirit that He might reconcile us to our God and Father.
The Crucified and Risen Savior has placed the Father’s Name upon you and sealed it with the blood red water flowing from His side into your baptism. Hear Him! Remember Whose Sons You Are! 1st Article of The Apostles’ Creed
The wise father instructs his children, “Proverbs 4:10-13 Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, And the years of your life will be many. (11) I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. (12) When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, And when you run, you will not stumble. (13) Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life.” Hear and live! Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (LSB pg. 322 1st Art. A.C. W.D.T.M? 1st para.) We need a greater teaching than the Law to save us. The Law exposed the leprosy of our sin, but it cannot heal us. We need Jesus to draw near to us in mercy and speak His healing Word filled with wisdom and life. The Apostles’ Creed flows out of Jesus command, Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.” It summarizes all that the twelve apostles taught as they had learned from Jesus. It has echoed through the Church since the days of the apostles, and its written roots can be traced back to 120A.D. . The Creed is The Faith that alone saves. Ephesians 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; (5) one Lord, one faith, one baptism; (6) one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.. God the Holy Spirit teaches us throughout all of the New Testament that Christianity is The One True Faith - not one of many faiths. To put it another way - there are many religions and beliefs, but there is one Faith.
Faith isn’t based on our feeling, our experience, our imagination, and our choosing our own paths to find God. Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith has real substance for it flows from the living Word of our Creator. It is based on real historical evidence, not man made myths and speculations.
The Christian Faith flows from the knowledge God has given us. Assent to the facts. Confidence in the love our Creator has for us. With Job we confess, “I know my Redeemer lives!” Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is an historical fact - recorded not only in the historically accurate gospels, but in Roman and Jewish records.
Remember who your Father is - He is God - He is your Father who has reconciled you to Himself through the sacrifice and resurrection of His only begotten Son for you! He has made you and all creatures! The myth of evolution has come unraveled. As the Lord blesses us with knowledge to explore biology deeper and deeper - it is irrational to think that the complexity of human life could’ve happened by chance random processes. It would be more believable that an explosion at a copper factory produced the Statue of Liberty, than to look at the information contained on every strand of DNA and say it just happened.
Know that God has made you and all creatures! He has given you your body and soul. You are a body and soul creature - knit together as a human person from the moment He created you through conception in your mother’s womb. Your body isn’t your own. He gave it to you - calling you to be male or female and wrote it on your chromosomes. Your seeing eye, hearing ear, and all the parts of your body are His gifts to you. We cannot but exclaim with David, Psalms 139:14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.
God the Father also has blessed you with the ability to think - ‘your reason and all your senses.” Only a fool says in their heart that there is no God - why? A fool denies the creation crying out around him testifying to God’s eternal wisdom and power. Christianity - The Faith - calls you to use reason - to think, explore, discover how God the Father created all things to work together. Modern science arose out of Christianity. Galileo, Kepler, Pascal, Mendel, Newton, all were devout Christians using the gift of reason to discover the Father’s wisdom within our creation. It is a lie of the false religion of scientism that Christianity is unscientific.
God the Father not only created us body and soul creatures. He takes care of these bodies. Apart from His will we could not draw another breath - we’d die. Accept the truth of your creation and the Father’s loving care for you! (LSB pg. 322 1st Art. A.C. W.D.T.M? 1st & 2nd para.)
Proverbs 4:14-19 Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not walk in the way of evil. (15) Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on. (16) For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; And their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. (17) For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence. (18) But the path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. (19) The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.” The wicked turning their back on the Father of Light in Whom there is no variation or shadow - stumble. They live in constant fear of death, judgment, and what will come tomorrow.
Not you dear child of God the Father through Jesus Christ! Know that your Heavenly Father richly and daily blesses you with all that you need to support this body and life. All you have - He has gifted it to you! What do you need to survive? “Clothing, shoes, food, drink, shelter.” These He graciously gives to you through the blessing of work, your vocation, and the vocation of those around you in your community. He blesses you with more - your spouse, your children, the years to rejoice in your grandchildren. Everything you have He richly and daily provides. Even if Satan would rob you of all - assenting to your Heavenly Father’s good and gracious will you can proclaim with Job, Job 1:21 "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD."
The Faith - is knowledge - verifiable. Assent - accepting the Truth - Wisdom from Above. Confidence - Trust. (LSB pg. 322 1st Art. A.C. W.D.T.M?) Proverbs 4:20-23 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. (21) Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; (22) For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. (23) Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” Listen to God your loving Father’s Word, spoken by Jesus - the Word made flesh to save us and live among us - even now. Jesus’ Word breathes forth the life giving Holy Spirit that you ears might be opened and they may dwell in your heart. They fill you with the very life of God. Jesus promises, John 14:23-24 "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (24) He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.” Through Christ’s Word the Holy Spirit has made your body His Temple. No longer do you live according to the flesh. You walk by the Spirit and the Fruit of Christ’s life flows through you - Galatians 5:22-24 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (24) And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.. Trusting our heavenly Father the Faith sustains us. He guards and protects us with His holy angels from the evil one. He uses lawful human authority with the power of the sword to protect human life from the moment of conception to natural death. He does all this only out of fatherly, divine, goodness, and mercy. True Fatherhood flows from God the Father through Christian fathers to their households. We fail, He never does.
For all this it is our duty. To thank, praise, serve, and obey Him. Only one healed leper returned to give God thanks through the flesh and blood of Jesus. Healed he received the greater gift - The Faith - in God the Father through Jesus Christ’s Word and healing given by God the Holy Spirit. Dear Christian - Remember whose sons you are -1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Amen.
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