Exodus 20, before we read God's Word, let us pray. Our great God and Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for this day that Thou hast given us. We thank Thee for Thy holy Word. We ask that Thou wouldst be with us now as we consider Thy Word, as we consider the fifth commandment, how we are called to honor our fathers and our mothers. Give us insight, we pray, into Thy holy Word. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Please turn to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus 20, and let us begin reading in verse 1. And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired Word. Now, this Lord's Day morning, We come again and return to a series of messages that we had been studying at the end of last year, and that was the Ten Commandments. We've thus far looked at the first table of the Ten Commandments, and this morning we begin our consideration of the second table of the Commandments. I want us to realize just how significant these words that we find in Exodus 20 are. In verse 1, we read, "...and God spake all these words." There are not many words in Scripture which God Himself speaks directly without any mediary. But there's also, if you read Exodus 19, you'll get a perspective of the circumstances in which God gives these words. And we'll see that that is quite unique in all of Scripture. But then we also learn in Exodus 31-18 another unique regarding the Ten Commandments, and that is in Exodus 31.18, we learn that there were two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, which God wrote with His finger. Literally, it says in Exodus 31.18, written with the finger of God. God wrote these words on tables of stone. And what I think we have to understand, we might think when we consider the tables of the law, is that there were four commandments on one of these pieces of stone and six on the other. I would contend that that's probably unlikely. There were probably 10 commandments on both. And what that was a picture of was a contract, one of those being, if you made a contract with somebody in the antiquity, you would have a copy and each of you would take a copy of all of the contract. You wouldn't have one person taking half of it and the other taking the other. So I believe that all ten commandments were on both tables. But yet we talk about tables of the law. And what we mean are the first four commandments which focus upon our unique relation to God, and then the second six which explain our duty to man. Jesus Himself gives us this division in Matthew 22, 36 through 40. Please turn with me there. Matthew 22, 36 and following. We've looked at this a while ago when we began to study the Ten Commandments or the moral law, but I think it's appropriate for us to reconsider this passage and its implications. We have a lawyer speaking to Jesus, tempting Him, and he says in verse 36, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Here, in this passage, Jesus tells us as He explains to this lawyer what is the first commandment and what is the second that's uniquely tied to this first commandment. He basically takes the Ten Commandments and rolls them into two. Love towards God, a full-orb love towards God, as well as a love of our neighbor. And so, we basically see that the Ten Commandments divide themselves up in that way. Now this commandment here in verse 12 is the first commandment in the second table. There are some people, some theologians that believe this is actually in the first table. And I think it clearly is a bridge from the first table where our duties are focused upon God to the second table where our duties are focused upon men and obviously God secondarily and primarily, but it's through our serving and loving one another. Now here in this command we have a precept and a promise. The precept is, honor thy father and thy mother, and then we have a promise, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Paul says in Ephesians 6.3 that this is the first commandment with a promise. Because there's an explicit, positive promise regarding obedience to this command. This morning, as we begin to consider this command, I want us to consider the importance of this duty or this command. Then I want us to consider the object of the duty. Then I want us to consider what I'm calling the reciprocal nature of this duty and then the dual nature of this duty. You're going to see that reciprocal and dual, though they're synonyms, I'm referring to two different aspects regarding this commandment. First, let's consider the importance of this duty or this command. First, I think we need to remember its emphasis in Scripture. Consider with me Leviticus 19.3. Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father." Every man. And here the word man refers to everyone. It's not speaking just to males, it's speaking to everyone. No one's exempt from reverencing their mother and father. There's no exception. Consider Exodus 21, 15. He that smiteth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. You see, if we don't reverence our parents, we might hit them. And we see just how serious that sin is in the civil Penal sanction applied here in Exodus 21. Consider Exodus 21.17, "...and he that curseth his father or mother shall be put to death." Not only the child that hit his parents, but the child that cursed his parents was to be put to death. We see a little bit, don't we, of the seriousness of this commandment. Consider also Proverbs 30.17, "...the eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." Pretty graphic language about God's displeasure towards those that mock their fathers or fail to obey their mothers. So we see its emphasis in Scripture. Secondly, I think we have to recognize its position in the Ten Commandments. It is the first commandment of the second table. It is a transition commandment from the first four to the next six. I think as we consider this, we have to recognize that sin is ultimately, at the core, a rejection of authority. It's choosing to do what we want to do rather than what God has told us to do. Wasn't the first sin of Adam and Eve ultimately a rejection of God's authority? Another question we must ask ourselves is where do humans first learn to submit? Or fail to learn to submit? Where is it but the family? The family is the nursery of the church and the state. And how we raise our children for good or for ill dictates how they will behave themselves in the church and in the state in their latter years. Not only do we need to consider its emphasis in Scripture, its position in the Ten Commandments, but I think as we consider its importance, we also need to consider the society that we live in. The society that we live in. Paul could say in 2 Timothy 3, 1 and 2, "...this know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves..." and then he gives a list, a litany of various sins that will be prevalent in these perilous or dangerous times, and one of them is disobedient to parents. He says those periods of dangerous times will be marked by the sin of disobedience to parents. Now, clearly we understand, we've heard the last days explained many times. The last days in Scripture refer to the period between Christ's ascension and His return. What Paul is saying is throughout that period there will be dangerous times. But there will be more dangerous times and less dangerous times. And I would contend we live in one of those more dangerous times Because we don't just live in a non-Christian society, we live in a post-Reformation society. We don't live in an un-Christian nation, we live in an apostate nation, or certainly apostatizing nation. We've rejected and squandered the Gospel. That's worse than a society that's never had the Gospel and Reformation light in it. But we have. And so we are in a desperate plight. I believe it's a plight that's consistent with the description that Paul gives to us in Romans chapter 1 in those latter sections where people are given over to greater and greater sin by the Lord. And in Romans 1.30, again, in the list of the various sins that are committed amongst those people that are given over, the people are marked by disobedience to parents in Romans 1.30. And as that chapter ends, Paul says, these people commit these crimes that they know themselves that death would be the appropriate penalty for. Disobedience to parents, there in 2 Timothy, there in Romans 1, is ranked right up with sodomy and other sins of the sort. You get an idea about how serious violations of this command are. Fourthly, this is important because of the promise attached to it. "...that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." There's a promise. Yes, there's a threat. We've just seen some of those, haven't we? But here's a promise. Paul could say in Ephesians 6-2, this is the first commandment with promise. He goes on to say in verse 3 of Ephesians 6, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth." See, now he expands the implications of the promise that related to the land for the old covenant people of God, and he now expands it and puts it in new covenant terms. It reminds us that this command just didn't apply to children there in the promised land. It applies to all of God's people throughout. the ages. Question 66 of the Shorter Catechism asks the question, what is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment? And the answer is given, the reason annexed or connected to the fifth commandment is a promise of long life and prosperity as far as it shall serve for God's glory and their own good to all such as keep this commandment. You see, there's a caveat that the Westminster Assembly understood, and that is that long life isn't automatically a mark of obedience. Sometimes God is pleased to give His obedient children even better gift, and that is to take them to glory before the ordinary time. Instead of giving them silver, He gives them gold, and He takes them to Himself early, and they're recognizing that that clearly is understood in the commandment given the whole rest of the teaching of Scripture. Now, one other reason why we should recognize the importance of this commandment, and that is that in honoring those in authority, we are honoring God. Or failing to honor those in authority over us is, in fact, failing to honor God. You see, in 1 Peter, 5.1-4, we have duties regarding shepherds. They're to feed or shepherd the flock, but they're to do so recognizing that they serve the chief shepherd. You see, so their duty, they're not the ultimate authority. The ultimate authority is the chief shepherd. They're just instruments of his authority. That's why Paul could call ministers in 1 Corinthians 5.20 ambassadors of Christ. They're not Christ to you, but they're called to bring Christ's Word to you, and when they bring only Christ's Word to you, you must receive it as such. And failure to receive them when they bring Christ's Word is failure to receive Christ and the Father. Also in Ephesians 6, 4, fathers in particular, clearly though by implication, mothers as well, are to nurture their children in the Lord or with the nurture or the chastening and admonition of the Lord. They don't bring their own chastening and admonition. They don't set their own expectations and enforce their own expectations. We as parents are to set for our children God's expectations and enforce those expectations. The nurture that we bring is of the Lord. We're but the instruments in which that comes. And so, failure to respond positively to those that God has placed in authority over you is, in fact, raising your fist against God. Listen to God speaking through Isaiah. In Isaiah 1-2, "'Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.'" We rebel against those in authority. We rebel against the one that's placed them in authority over us. Consider also 1 Samuel 2.30, "...them that honor me I will honor, but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." When we fail to honor those in authority over us, we're not honoring God and God will not honor us. So, we see the importance of this commandment. I want us to consider the object of this commandment. I believe in this precept, in this commandment, we have a figure of speech that's called a synecdoche. And what that is, it's a big word, comes from a Greek word, but what it is, it's a figure of speech where the part is put for the whole. What that means is what is referred to is a generic and it refers to something or specific that refers to generic implications. That's why in the larger catechism, answer 124, we learn that the object of this commandment is all our superiors in age and gifts, and especially such as by God's ordinance are over us in place of authority, whether in family, church, or commonwealth. That's why John Cotton in Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes could answer the question, who are here meant by father and mother with the answer, all are superiors, whether in family, school, church, and commonwealth. So let's just go over these various fathers. We have political fathers. In Isaiah 49.23 we have kings. referred to his fathers. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers." You see, a godly civil magistrate should have a paternal relation with those whom he serves. He's to serve those under his authority as a father. And when he does so, he does well. But we who are under his authority are to give him honor in 1 Peter 2.17. We're to pray for those in 1 Timothy 2.1. We're to pay tribute in Romans 13.6 and 7. Not only does this refer to political fathers or those in the commonwealth, it also refers to aged fathers. And we live in a society where youth is exalted and age is despised. And yet, it should be just the other way Consider Leviticus 19.32. I'm speaking of children in particular. Have you been molded by your culture in this regard? And do you show disrespect to those that are elderly? Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man. Do you do that? We're called to do that. We once lived in a society where that was common, even amongst those that knew not the Lord and obeyed not the Gospel. And yet they knew that there was to be respect. Even in China, in a pagan nation, they understand respect for their elders. Children, consider the story of Elisha, 2 Kings 2, 23 and 24. Do you remember what those children did? It says, as Elisha went up to the city, there came forth little children out of the city and mocked him and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head. He turned back and looked on them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Elisha wasn't just personally angry with them. He cursed them in the name of the Lord. He recognized who he was and what they had just done. And it says, "...and there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tear forty and two children of them." Forty-two children engaged in speaking ill of the old prophet as he went to the city. And we get a picture of God's hatred for not honoring the aged. Next, consider spiritual fathers. Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 4.15 that he was the father of many there at Corinth because they had come to Christ through His instruction. Paul could say in Titus 2.15 to Titus, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. He's just delineated for Titus the kind of teaching, particular teaching that he ought to give to old men and young men, to older women and young women. Very detailed instruction. He says, keep teaching this. Do it with authority. Then he says, let no man despise thee. In other words, behave in such a way as to not bring down the authority that you have in people's eyes. He's not necessarily telling him to beat his chest and tell everybody he has the authority, but he's saying behave in such a way that your authority is not undermined, so that your teaching in these things will be more likely to be received. We've spoken of political fathers, aged fathers, spiritual fathers. Also, I'm calling this group commercial fathers or those in the work world. It's very interesting that Naaman's servants called him father in 2 Kings 5.13. It's also interesting in Matthew 8.6, the centurion calls his servant his son. Do we sustain those kind of relationships with those that we work for or those that work for us? Do we maintain a paternal relationship with them as father and son? Because that ought to affect the way that we behave in the workplace. In 1 Peter, we read, 1 Peter 2.18, servants, be subject to your masters, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward. You see, you have to be subject no matter how good and gentle they are. You still have your duty. You still have your duty regardless of whether they're carrying out their duty. And in Titus 2.9 we learn that the servant is not to answer back. And in the Greek it literally means he's not to give a cross answer. He's not to respond in a way that's counter what's just been spoken. Doesn't mean he might not speak back by saying, well, how high do you want me to jump? Or how deep do you want the ditch dug? Or give me some more details on what your expectations are regarding this, sir. What it's saying is don't talk back in such a way that undercuts the authority of the one giving us the duty. And also, lastly, this clearly refers to domestic or natural fathers. We're to give them obedience. Colossians 3.20, children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. So we're to obey. We're to have an inner esteem for them, but it's to be worked out in our obedience. A willingness to do what they tell us to. We'll consider a caveat to that next week as we consider the fact that there may be times when those in authority call us or command us to sin. And we'll see then that we should submit to a higher authority, that is we should submit to their authority and ours, God first. We're also, not only to obey our parents, we're also to requite them in old age, or we're to give them back. In 1 Timothy 5.4 we read this, but if any widow have children or nephews, let them first learn to show piety at home and to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable before God." Quite an old English word that basically means to pay back. And here Paul in 1 Timothy is talking about the real reality of widows in the early church. In a time when there was no life insurance and when women's occupations were given uniquely in the home, they were not out at the gate in the commercial sphere that when a man died, the woman was left. without a means of support. And so the early church had to deal with that issue in a significant way. And Paul is explaining how to deal with it. He's saying, first, their family ought to help them. That's the first place they ought to be looking for help. And children ought to understand that they're to pay back and support their parents in old age, routinely their mother. And that's why the widow is emphasized. But also, it's obviously saying to their father who may be beyond years of ability to earn an income. And not only must we obey and requite our parents, and there's many other duties we'll consider next week, but I want to at least mention another, and that is submission to their teaching. Consider Proverbs 1.8, My son, hear the instruction of thy fathers, and forsake not the law of thy mother. There's been an erroneous teaching that's made its way in conservative Presbyterianism, and that is that because the father is the authority in the home, that the mother has no place of teaching in the home. That cannot be supported by Proverbs 1.8. The wife, under the husband, still instructs and directs the children. She explains expectations and she enforces those expectations when the father is not present. And so, children, you are to submit to the teaching of your parents. Now, we've looked first at the importance of the duty. We've also considered the types of fathers and the object of the duty. Now, I want us to consider briefly the reciprocal nature of the duty. That is, that this commandment refers not only to those under authority in the home and the church and the state, but we have to remember, as David said, the commandments are broad. They're exceeding broad. And this commandment refers also to those that are in authority in these various spheres. I think, for example, in Ephesians 5, 21 and following, We have a good example of that where Paul begins with the duties of wives to their husbands to submit, then the duties of husbands to love their wives. But he begins in verse 21 with the command that we are, when we're filled with the Spirit, we're to submit ourselves one to another in the fear That means whether we're in authority or under authority, we're to think more highly of the other than ourselves. We're to live self-sacrificially in our response to others. And so we see that these duties, they're relational. And there's always two sides to the relation as inferiors or superiors. Consider wives and husbands in Ephesians 5, 22-33. Colossians 3, 18 and 19. Paul is very concerned about recognizing, and it's very interesting, in Ephesians, the passage that deals with husbands and wives, children and parents, and then masters and servants, is wedged between the effects of being filled with the Spirit and his teaching on spiritual warfare. Do you want to know where spiritual warfare takes place? It takes place in your relationship with your spouse, with your children, or your parents, or with your master, or your servant. That's where it takes place. And how we behave towards one another in these reciprocal relations tells us something about whether we're filled with the Spirit, as Paul says in Ephesians, or whether the Word is dwelling in us in Colossians. Peter deals with husbands and wives in 1 Peter 2, 1-10. It's very interesting that when the apostles deal with, ordinarily when they deal with the duty of those under authority, they deal with those in authority too. They connect the two. We see that also with children and parents. Ephesians 6, 1-4, Colossians 3.20 and 21. Peter again deals with children and parents in 1 Peter 2, 18-25. And we also see slaves and masters dealt with, or superiors and inferiors in the business world. Ephesians 6, 5-9, Colossians 3, 22-41, Titus 2, 9 and 10. James Durham could say this. He said, May I the heavenly reward in sweeping the house as well as in the religious duties of God's immediate worship." So when you come and you're called to sweep the house, you should be thinking about doing it to God's glory just as much as when you come into His house on the Lord's Day to worship Him. We're to glorify God in everything. that we do. And even the menial tasks that we're assigned in the home or in whatever sphere are to be carried out in the fear of God in an attitude of doing it unto the Lord and worshiping Him and even sweeping the house or cleaning the toilets. So we considered wives and husbands, children and parents, slaves and masters, also sheep and shepherds. I referred to 1 Peter 1-5. And I'd again remind you of the fact that in the church, shepherds do not stop being sheep when they become shepherds. In that there is no single person that has no authority over them in the church. So shepherds still remain sheep. And they're still responsible to those over them in the Lord, to all the rest of those shepherds that are over them. And then also the relationship of citizen and magistrate. Romans 13, 1-7. There, in that passage, Paul doesn't very carefully break up, this is the duty of the citizen, this is the duty of the magistrate. It seems like his focus is the duty of the citizen, but interwoven throughout that text implications and tell us a lot about what the magistrate is to do. But he doesn't just deal with one side of the coin and the other. He just kind of rolls them all up together in those seven verses and lets us know what our duty is as a citizen and what the magistrate's duty is. We also learn something of those duties in 1 Peter 2, 13 through 17, Titus 3, 1 and 2. In the epistles, we have the condensed teaching of God's Word regarding how Christians are to live in the church and in the world. If you notice from just those references, you see that a lot of the epistles are spent in dealing with these relations of superiors and inferiors, as the Puritans used to say. So, we've considered the reciprocal nature Those in authority are to learn something from this commandment as well as those that are under authority in these various spheres. And lastly, I want to talk briefly about the dual nature of this duty. They're not only reciprocal duties. Those in authority have a duty to those under them. Those that are under those in authority have a duty to them. But what I want us to understand is that there's a dual nature to this commandment. I want us to understand there's a dual nature to all the commandments. That is, there are such things as sins of omission and sins of commission. Do you understand the difference? When I make the difference, I'm not suggesting that one is necessarily more heinous than the other. But there is a distinction to be made. A sin of omission is not doing what we ought to do. And a sin of commission is doing what we ought not to do. Omission, not doing what we ought to do. Commission, doing what we ought not to do. We've been forbidden to do certain things. If we do them, they're sins of commission. We've been told to do certain things. If we fail to do them, it's a sin of omission. The Shorter Catechism in question 14 asks, what is sin? The answer is given, sin is any want of conformity unto, that's a sin of omission, or transgression of the law of God. That's a sin of commission. And so that's why in the shorter catechism and in the larger catechism, they answer these questions or they ask the question, what is required in this commandment and what is forbidden? Now, if there's something required, there's always its opposite is forbidden. So when we look at a passage that just deals with the threat, then we can understand the positive implication. If we look at something that tells us what to do, we can understand what we ought not to do. And so, we'll consider next week, and we will for the following weeks as we look at these commandments, considering what are we to do and then what are we not to do. It's opposite vice. So, we'll consider godly character traits and then their opposite vice. In the shorter catechism, for the fifth commandment, we have the question asked, what is required in the fifth commandment? The answer is, the fifth commandment requireth preserving the honor and performing the duties belonging to everyone in their several places and relations as superiors, inferiors, or equals. Then they ask the question, what is forbidden in the fifth commandment? The fifth commandment forbiddeth the neglecting of or doing anything against the honor and duty which belongeth to every one in their several places and relations. And we've looked a little bit at what some of those duties are. Next week, we will consider those duties. We won't consider those duties under each situation in which we are under authority, but we'll consider them as a whole and we'll consider five to ten duties that we have to those that are our superiors. And we'll consider the opposite traits that our superiors, or we as superiors, ought to display towards those under our authority. But in closing, in the application, consider the words of Psalm 112, 1. Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. You see, the commandments have three purposes. They drive us, they show us, they reveal to us sin. And so they are used by God to bring a person to recognition of their state of sin and misery. The commandments are also used as a guide to the civil magistrate in laying out laws. There's no law that isn't subsumed under the Ten Commandments. There's no crime that can be committed in the civil realm that's not a violation of one of the Ten Commandments. So it has a civil aspect, but then it also is for the Christian who has been redeemed by Christ, and who out of gratitude wants to serve the Lord. It's the standard for us to serve the Lord. And we are to greatly delight in His commandments. And God promises blessedness to those that fear God and do His commandments. And in closing, I think we need to consider the model. That one who perfectly obeyed his parents. that one whom if we are not in and not united to, we will never see God. Consider Christ and His life, His childhood is spoken of in Luke 2.51 and following. This is what it says. If you remember the incident, He was up, He went to Jerusalem with His parents and they had headed back thinking He was with some family members and found out He wasn't, they returned to the temple and find Instead of the Pharisees questioning him or catechizing him, he's catechizing them. And they take Jesus and return and it says, "...and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them." Here's a situation where a child's parents were not inherently superior to him. Jesus was sinless and He had to live in a family with sinful parents. And yet, He was subject unto them. See, if He wasn't subject unto them, there would be no salvation for us. He was subject unto them, but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with man. Christ's full-orbed growth took place in the context of His humble submission to His parents. We need to follow Him. We need to walk in His footsteps. That's the path that God has called us to as little Christ, as little Christians. Let us pray. Great God and Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for Thy holy Word. We do thank Thee for this commandment that directs us how we ought to show our love to our neighbors, We thank Thee for Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for the author and finisher of our faith, and we pray that we would follow Him in humble submission to those that are in authority over us, that we might live a long life, a life full of prosperity. We thank Thee, O God, for the promise that's connected to this commandment. We pray that Thou wouldst forgive us for our many violations of this commandment, where we have failed to honor rightly those in authority over us, but where we have also, as those in authority, failed to give due respect and honor to those under our authority. Forgive us for our sins in this regard, we pray. And be pleased, O Lord, to assist us to walk in new obedience and in repentance. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.