Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. Also, it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge, and he sins who hastens with his feet. This concludes our reading of God's Word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that your Spirit would come upon us in a mighty way to illuminate this passage before us, to reveal the truth that you have contained within this, that we may understand, that we may apply to our lives these truths, that we may become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we may serve you better, and that we may respond to you in gratitude for all that you have done for us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. is a bad thing. It's a sin, according to our sermon text. Many times the Bible identifies something as a sin. That should grab your attention, right? You should want to know what the Bible has to say about that sin so that you can identify it and then avoid it. So you can walk in such a way that you can avoid that sin or abstain from that sin. And should you read what the Bible has to say about a particular sin, and then discover that that sin has already taken hold in your life in some manner, then you should want to know what to do about that. How to be delivered from that sin. How to put off that sin and replace it with the righteous fruit of obedience. Well, haste is a sin. But do you know why it's a sin? What do you know about haste? Do you know what the Bible says about haste? And is it true that all forms of haste are sin? Well, to answer the last question first, there are times in which haste is used in the Scriptures and it's not sinful. For example, in Exodus 12, 11, we read where God actually commands the Israelites to eat the Passover in haste. That obviously is not a sin. In Judges 13.10, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah, we read that she ran in haste to tell her husband how the angel had appeared to her. And this simply means that Manoah ran fast without wasting time. That's not a sin. In 1 Samuel 23-26, King Saul was trying to kill David. And so David, quote, made haste to get away from Saul, end quote. And David was wasting no time in fleeing from Saul, fleeing for his life. And that was not a sin. In Luke 19, 5, when Jesus was passing under the sycamore tree and looked up at Zacchaeus, he instructed Zacchaeus to make haste in coming down, to which Zacchaeus obeyed and was not in sin. And we even find the word haste in a familiar song that we sing, When Peace Like a River. We sing, O Lord, haste the day that my faith shall be sight. And we're not entreating the Lord to do something sinful when we sing this song. And so the word haste does not always imply sin. The word can be used to describe something righteous that's done swiftly or without delay. But there is a sinful form of haste as well. And it's that which Solomon is writing about in our sermon text. In very general terms, Haste is a sin whenever we fail to submit to God's timing. You hear that? I'm gonna provide a more detailed definition to this as the sermon progresses, but understand up front that haste is a sin whenever we fail to submit to God's timing. Impatience, therefore, is an obvious form of sinful haste. We see an example of this with Abraham when he became impatient waiting for God to give a son to Sarah. And so Abraham acted hastily in siring a son of Hagar and that was a failure to submit to God's timing. Making rash vows is another form of sinful hate. When a person commits himself to something without first knowing all the necessary details of what he's actually committing to, that person is acting hastily. Deuteronomy 23, 21, as well as Ecclesiastes 5, 6, makes it explicitly clear that a failure to fulfill a vow is a sin. So God doesn't prohibit his people from making vows. He simply requires us to pause long enough and to discern what we are committing ourselves to in order that we can commit ourselves only to righteous things, things that we have the reasonable expectation that we can fulfill. Think of King Herod's rash vow to Herodias to give her anything she asked for, up to half the kingdom. When she asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter, Herod realized he had acted hastily. Explosive anger is yet another example of sinful taste. Over and over again, the Bible commands that we be slow to anger. And if you allow your anger to explode, you're failing to submit to God's timing as it relates to the expression of your emotion. Like I said, I'll provide more details about sinful haste in just a few minutes, but recognize the difference between righteous haste and that there's, you know, righteous haste where there's simply a sense of urgency within the situation, and sinful haste, which is responding to a situation without submitting to God's timing. And the sermon today is about sinful haste. And I'm not gonna designate, every time I say the word haste, I'm not gonna designate it as sinful haste. Just know that every time I do say haste, I'm referring exclusively to this concept of sinful haste. And the question I have for you is, do you know how to recognize the sin of haste when you see it? Or if you're guilty of it. And if you are guilty of being hasty, do you understand that it's actually a sin? Do you feel the burden and conviction of that sin? Do you understand that you have a God-ordained responsibility to put off the sin of haste and to put on righteous obedience? Or is haste just another one of those socially acceptable sins that we've become so familiar with and we've learned to ignore and overlook? Do you find comfort in applying unbiblical labels to your haste? What would you think of the hasty person who says, it's all good. I'm just a type A person. That explains why I am the way I am. Realize that the Bible doesn't have a separate standard of righteousness for type A, B, C, and D people. Ephesians 4.4 says that there is one spirit, one calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father overall, and he has one standard of righteousness that everybody from type A to type Z must be obedient to. Do you know where this type A behavior assessment even came from? It was a man named Dr. Meyer Friedman. He was a cardiologist. His ambition was to identify the link between stressful behavior and heart disease. And so during the 1950s, he began working with a colleague named Dr. Ray Rosenman, and they started researching and documenting how a stressful lifestyle increased the risk of heart disease. And their research was groundbreaking. These two men sparked a revolution in healthcare, of wording the medical community to the detrimental effects that stress and anxiety have upon a person's heart. It means the clinicians that Friedman and Rosenman were, they weren't exactly creative in the name which they gave to people whose lives were filled with stress and anxiety, so they simply referred to them as Type A. Well, in 1974, Friedman and Rosenman released a book. The book was titled, Type A Behavior in Your Heart. And it was in that book, that book is what brought the Type A behavior into the public sphere. Friedman and Roseman defined the Type A person as one who is competitive, driven, impatient, easily angered, and always feels as if he doesn't have enough time in the day. Examples of Type A personality, or behavior I should say, are those who are quick to honk their horn at other drivers. Those who get upset at slow traffic. Those who become irritated at sluggish storklers. Those who feel compelled to do several things at once. Type A people often find it difficult to sit in a chair for a long time. These are people whose schedules are quite often so tightly packed that there's very little wiggle room for anything else. Type A behavior, as defined by Friedman and Rosenblum, is not something to be proud of or to pursue. Rather, it's something to be avoided because of the harmful effects it has upon a person's health. In fact, if you read their book, you'll see them talking about recovering type A people, as if if you are a type A, you shouldn't remain a type A. You should be a recovering type A person. Interestingly, the medical community never really adopted that label type A behavior. Instead, they preferred to use the labels stress and hypertension. And yet, the label Type A continues to be used today, but not by the medical community. It's used by the pop psychology community. And that's, there's just one subtle difference, though. Pop psychology does not refer to Type A as a behavior. Rather, they call it a temperament. Do you see what these labels do? These labels have the effect of removing personal responsibility from one's own behavior. When it all started, Friedman and Rosenblum were all about behavior. They were focusing on behavior. They said, Type A behavior is bad. People need to stop behaving this way. But then the medical community took the research and presented it with the label hypertension. And the focus was no longer on personal responsibility for your own harmful behavior, but now it was a focus on being a product of your environment. Is there stress at work? Is there stress in your marriage? Is there stress with your in-laws? You see, now the type A person is a victim of his environment rather than the one who's behaving in a harmful way. Then, pop psychology took it one step further. By changing Type A to a temperament rather than a behavior, personal responsibility for one's own actions was removed one step further. It's no longer a question about the choices you make in life, the behaviors that you engage in. Now it's just a matter of how you've been wired. How does your brain work? What's your temperament? Some people happen to be high energy and live a fast-paced life. Other people are not so energetic and they take things slower. One's not necessarily any better than the other. It's just the way people are. It's the personality you ended up with. Or so says pop psychology. But there's one major flaw in this way of thinking. As with most believable lies, there's truth mixed in with error. And Christians need to be discerning of these matters. Pop psychology rejects the Bible's teaching that everyone is born with a sin nature. And therefore, pop psychology says that our temperaments are amoral, not immoral. amoral, meaning there's nothing inherently right or wrong about a person's temperament. There's no moral value to a person's temperament. Some people just happen to be type A. Other people just happen to be type B. And this is how personal responsibility for one's own behavior has been removed from the equation. It allows a person to say, I can't help it. I'm a type A. I can't help it. I'm a type B. But the Bible is clear that we are born with a sin nature. And while it's true that God didn't create all people with the same temperaments, that's the truthful part of the equation, it's not true that our temperaments are amoral. One person may struggle with anger issues more than another person struggles with anger issues. One person may struggle with laziness more than another person struggles with laziness. But we cannot conclude that because the person has that temperament that it therefore must have no moral consequences to it. The fallacy that pop psychology is promoting is that temperament is being amoral is to be able to say, I was just born this way. That's the way I'm born. It must be okay because I was born this way. And that's the same fallacy that the LGBT proponents have been trying to use for years. That's why there's been so much interest in trying to locate a quote-unquote gay gene or some other biological factor that can be said to determine a person's sexual orientation. It's assumed that if a person is born that way, then it must be okay. But how many people are born liars? Does that make lying okay? How many people were born with a hot temper? Does that make outbursts of anger? Okay. How many people were born selfish? Or how many people were born a thief or born a murderer? If we believe what the Bible says about our fallen human nature, then we expect people to be born enslaved to sin. You hear that? We expect people to be born enslaved to sin. We expect people to be selfish. We expect people to be angry. We expect people to be thieves and murderers. But we also expect God to hold those people accountable for their sinful behaviors. Nobody can say to God, hey, I was born this way. Therefore, I can't be held accountable. You might be a type A person. You're ambitious. You're competitive. You have drive. You set goals for yourself. You value efficiency. There's nothing inherently wrong with being that type of person. Nothing. Nothing at all. In fact, the apostle Peter appears to be that type of a person. God has a place, a specific use for type A people within his kingdom. But let me say this. If you're a type A person, if that's how you perceive yourself, then you, specifically, must be exceedingly cautious about the sin of haste. Anybody and everybody can sin in haste. It's not exclusive to Taipei people. But the people who are ambitious and self-motivated and who are always on the run are people who are at the greatest risk of falling into the temptation to haste, of failing to submit to God's timing and manners. It's very easy for Taipei people to become impatient with others. or to make rash vows, or to become explosively angry. Just like Peter, Type A people are prone to being impulsive, moving forward without proper consideration of God's timing. And if this describes you, And if you find that you've acted hastily in a certain situation, please, please don't try to shift the blame away from yourself by resting in an unbiblical label. Don't say to yourself, that's just my type A personality coming out. Rather, you need to confess, that's my sinful nature coming out. Will you please forgive me for being hasty? When we look at what the Book of Proverbs has to say about haste, we discover that the sinner is always personally responsible for his behavior. The sinner is always personally responsible for his behavior. Proverbs 14.29 says, He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty in spirit exalts falling. So if you become irritated at the sluggish store clerk because she's taking too long, then you're demonstrating a hasty spirit which exalts folly. That's a sin. If you find yourself honking at other drivers because they're not exceeding the speed limit like you want them to be, then you have a hasty spirit that exalts folly. That is a sin. Proverbs 21.5 reads, the plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty surely lead to poverty. And this verse describes the person who's impulsive and spontaneous in his plans. This is a person who says yes to an invitation without first checking to see if his schedule is even open. or before considering whether accepting this invitation would be a wise use of this time, or whether there are competing responsibilities that this person ought to be doing rather than accepting that invitation. Solomon says that the person will suffer poverty. Not necessarily financial poverty, but that could be the case as well. The meaning is that his plans will fail and his life will become unraveled because he's not contemplative when making decisions. He's hasty, and therefore he doesn't consider the primary, much less the secondary and tertiary, effects of his decisions. Proverbs 25.8 describes the way a hasty person brings allegations against his neighbor. Do not go hastily to court, for what will you do in the end when your neighbor has put you to shame? And this describes a person who brings charges against his neighbor without really understanding the full context of the situation. Solomon says, a hasty accuser will be put to shame because once his neighbor fills in the details that the hasty man has overlooked, never considered, it will be evident to everybody that the accuser acted foolishly and sinfully. Robert 2920 asks, do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Hasty people open their mouth and foolish things come out. They have no fear of speaking about matters that they really don't know anything about. They say things that they never should say. They injure people with the words they speak. In Job 20, verse 2, Zophar, the Nehemiathite, confessed to speaking hastily. He described it this way. He said, My anxious thoughts make me answer because of the turmoil within me. Do you know what he's saying? My anxious thoughts make me answer because of the turmoil within me. And I think we can all relate to what Zophar is describing here. We've all experienced those situations that cause our minds to be unsettled. And when things happen, when we hear people say things, or when we watch people do things, We become anxious in our thoughts and we want to react to the situation with words that are driven by emotions. The very emotions that we're experiencing within the context of that situation. And that's exactly what so many people do. They let their emotions burst forth out of their mouth and they speak in haste. Zophar spoke in haste. And how did Job respond to him? Very appropriately, Job told Zophar to put his hand over his mouth. In other words, Job told Zophar to stop talking. Zip it. Listen to what Proverbs 15, 28 says. The heart of the righteous studies how to answer. The heart of the righteous studies how to answer. But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil. The difference, therefore, between the righteous person and the hasty person has everything to do with submission to God's timing. The righteous person pauses to study and contemplate before reacting. The hasty person just reacts. So here's the question. And it's the question I posed way back at the beginning of the sermon. Does the hasty person know he's hasty? Does the hasty person know he's hasty? And you can make the argument that the sin of haste is a self-perpetuating sin. It creates a cycle of rash, erratic, and impetus behavior that's difficult to break, difficult to see for the person himself. After all, it's the very nature of being hasty that causes a person to neglect the proper assessment of the situation, right? It's the very nature of being hasty that causes a person to fail assessing the situation. And so what makes us think that a habitually hasty person will ever pause long enough to assess the damage that his haste has already created? Imagine a truck. driving down the road carrying a load of gravel. The driver is driving down the road and every time he hits a little bump, several pieces of gravel come out of the tailgate of the truck, bounce on the pavement, hit the windshield of the cars behind him. The spilled gravel is damaging vehicles. Now, if this were a contemplative truck driver, he'd be looking in his mirrors, he would see what's going on behind him, and then he would know to take the appropriate action. He would know that he's spilling gravel and it's damaging vehicles behind him. The habitually hasty man is like the truck driver who never looks in his mirrors. He never takes the time to assess the implications of his behavior, and therefore he never knows the damage that he's inflicting on others. He just keeps driving down the road. This would be a great cause for consternation if that were the end of the story. But Solomon tells us that there is a remedy to this situation. There is a way to break the self-perpetuating cycle of haste. And it's not to tap the truck driver on the shoulder and tell him to look in his mirrors. The remedy is given to us in the first line of our sermon text. It's knowledge. Knowledge is typically understood as something that is gained in an academic enterprise. Schools train people in knowledge. Books teach knowledge to those who read them. But if that was the type of knowledge that Solomon is putting forth as a remedy to haste, then we would have to conclude that the best educated people are the least hasty people. But it's not in the halls of academia that we find deliverance from the sin of haste. If we back up to the very beginning of the book of Proverbs, Solomon defines his terms for us. And he defines what he means by knowledge. In Proverbs 1.7, we read, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of, guess what? Knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And knowledge, the knowledge that Solomon is writing about, is what comes from fearing the triune God of the Bible. This is much more than simply an intellectual knowledge. This is an experiential knowledge. It's knowing God with your heart as well as your head. It's having a relationship with God in which you are able to see and taste that He is good. I mentioned Peter a few seconds ago, a few minutes ago. He was a Type A person. We know that Peter struggled with being hasty. So who better to explain to us how to overcome haste than Peter? I'm going to read from 2 Peter 1, verses 2 and 3. And I ask that you listen for two things. First, listen to what Peter says about the role of knowledge in a believer's life. And second, listen to what Peter says about God's divine power. 2 Peter 1, verses 2 and 3. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus, and His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Let me read that again. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And the knowledge Peter is writing about here is the same knowledge that Solomon is writing about. It's the personal relationship with God. Peter says that grace and peace are multiplied within the context of this personal relationship with God. And then Peter goes on to say that when a person has this personal relationship with God, God's divine power equips that person with all things that pertain to life and godliness. That, of course, is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power of God that provides all things that pertain to living a life in submission to God and His timing. And many people can talk about knowing Jesus, but they don't have the experience of knowing Jesus. They can speak of His salvation, but if they haven't had the experience of salvation, if they haven't experienced the effects of salvation, then they don't really know what they're talking about. It's like trying to describe the taste of honey. If you've never experienced a taste of honey, then there's very little that you can really say on the subject, right? I mean, you can listen to other people describe what honey tastes like. You can read books and you can try to repeat what other people have said about the taste of honey. But if you've never experienced the rich sweetness of honey, then you really don't know. So it is with knowing Christ. When you've tasted His salvation, then you have personally experienced the sweetness of His intimate companionship. That's when you know Christ experientially. That's when you know Him with your heart and not only with your mind. The person who knows Christ experientially will have certain evidences within his life. And let me list just three such evidences. First, there will be the fruit of Christ's sufferings. The fruit of Christ's sufferings. Hebrews 5.8 says that Jesus, and I quote, learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Jesus learned obedience through the things that he suffered. So when I say that the person who has experienced a personal relationship with God will see the fruit of Christ's suffering in his life, I'm saying that this person will be characterized by obedience to God. When Peter writes that God's divine power has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness, this includes the fruit of Christ's sufferings. And the person who has experiential knowledge of God, therefore, will want to be obedient to God because he has inherited Christ's obedience when he was saved by God's grace. The very obedience that Christ learned through suffering. The second evidence of the person who knows Christ experientially is the comfort derived from God's promises. Take the book of Psalms as an example. Over and over again, you will read the psalmist's identified threats and dangers in his life. Enemies seek my life. The wicked oppress me. They hate me without cause. My soul is amongst lions. But after identifying these threats, the psalmist always takes refuge in the promises of God. For my soul trusts in you. And in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge until these calamities have passed. Those who have never tasted the sweetness of Christ's salvation cannot trust in this manner. They cannot rest in the face of such threats. They have no peace in the midst of adversity because they know that these threats are beyond their control. The person who has experiential knowledge of God also knows that these threats are beyond his control, but he's not trusting in himself to overcome these threats. He's trusting in God and God's promises. So he takes refuge in the shadow of the Lord's wings. The third evidence of having experiential knowledge of God is the power to put to death the sin that is in you. The power to put to death the sin that is in you. Which is, in the context of the sermon, that includes the sin of haste. Romans 8.13 describes how the power to mortify or to put to death our personal sins is available only to those who are dwelt with the Holy Spirit. Listen to Romans 8.13. 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. So the man, woman, or child who has no desire to live in obedience to God, who doesn't trust in the promises of God, and who's unable to put to death the deeds of the flesh, that man, woman, or child has no legitimate reason to believe that he's been saved. There's no legitimate reason to believe that such a person has experienced the sweetness of communion with Christ. And as I said a few minutes ago, there are a lot of people who say that they know God, but all they really have is a general concept of a divine being. They don't have a personal relationship with the three persons of the Godhead. They don't know God the Father. They don't know the Father as a child knows his daddy. They don't know the Son as their Savior. They don't know the Spirit as their comforter. This was the concern that the Apostle Paul had about the church in Corinth. And he wrote to them about the necessity of possessing experiential knowledge of God. And when he wrote, he explicitly challenged them, saying that some of them don't know God. Listen as I read 1 Corinthians 15, 34. Awake to righteousness and do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of God. And I speak this to your shame. Do you hear how bold Paul is there? Awake to righteousness and do not sin. The verb form there really says stop sinning. For some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. These were church-going people that Paul's writing to. Everyone in the Church of Corinth sat in the pews week after week. They heard the Word of God preached from the pulpit. They attended the Wednesday evening Bible study. They spoke to one another using Christian terminology. But what Paul has written in 1 Corinthians 15-34 is that some of them didn't have experiential knowledge of God. They all had intellectual knowledge, but some of them didn't have experiential knowledge. Paul was able to know this, not because he had some special ability to look into people's hearts and figure that out. but because he witnessed the evidences of salvation in the people's lives. By witnessing each person's desire to be obedient to God, to put their trust in God's promises, and the ability to put to death the sins of the flesh, Paul could discern which people possessed experiential knowledge of God and which ones didn't. So he called them out on this point. He commanded those who were continuing in their sin to awake to righteousness and stop sinning. You don't have the knowledge of God, he says. And then he goes on to highlight their shame. It's not religiously correct, if I could put a spin on political correctness, it's not religious correctness in the modern church to challenge people's salvation. But it needs to be done. If the pulpits of modernity were a little more faithful with the examples of preaching that are in the scriptures, then the church would not be such a comfortable place for unrepentant sinners to hang out. If the pulpits of modernity were just a little more faithful about preaching the shame of unrepentant sin, then perhaps the churches would see more people driven to the cross of Jesus Christ, where that shame and reproach are removed. And if the pulpits of modernity were a little more faithful at condemning the sin of haste, then perhaps more people would, quote, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, end quote. Did you know that's possible? 2 Peter 3.18 says that you can grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So if you struggle with the sin of haste, or for that matter, if you struggle with any sin, any sin at all, if you struggle with sin, experiential knowledge of Christ is the remedy to that sin. Therefore, it ought to be good news to all of our ears to learn that you can grow in your knowledge, your experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can grow into a deeper and more intimate relationship with Jesus, which will give you increased strength to throw off the sins that have so easily entangled you. And this growth will come through regular participation in God's ordinary means of grace. You've heard me say this before. I can't say it enough. If you need growth, if you need grace, then you need to be regularly participant in God's ordinary means of grace. This means that you can expect a deeper relationship with God when you persevere in your prayer life. You can expect growth with your relationship with Christ when you receive the sacraments in faith. and you will experience a richer relationship with God when you sit under the faithful preaching of his word and meditate upon his promises. As your relationship with the triune God grows sweeter and deeper, your ability to wait in submission to God will become easier. Haste will be put off as patience is put on. Impulsive behavior will be put off as diligence is put on. Rashed speech will be put off as prudence is put on. Explosive anger will be put off as self-control is put on. Folly will be put off as wisdom is put on. But of course, Your relationship with Christ can only grow if there is already a relationship. If you have never tasted the sweetness of Christ's salvation, then you don't have a relationship with Jesus. And that's a problem. That's a big problem. But once again, knowledge, experiential knowledge, is the remedy to this problem. What you need is for God to graciously give you the knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior. Listen to 2 Corinthians 4, 6 as it speaks to how this knowledge can be attained. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge, the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So if you have not been saved by Jesus Christ, or if you are unsure whether you've been saved by Jesus Christ. And here's what you need to do. You need to pray to God, asking him to shine the light of this knowledge, the knowledge of Jesus into your heart. Pray to God, asking him to shine the light of Jesus Christ into your heart. And then confess your sins to him. Pray that He will forgive you of your sins and allow you to taste the sweetness of salvation in Jesus Christ. And then trust that He will fulfill that promise. His promise. What promise? Do you remember the assurance of pardon that I read earlier in today's worship service? It was from Isaiah 44, 22. God says to all who repent of their sins in the name of Jesus Christ, I will blot out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Today is the day to call upon the Lord in repentance. I can say, in the righteous sense of the word, to make haste in returning to the Lord. Don't delay. Seek him while he may be found. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Glory be to God. Let's pray. Our dear Lord and heavenly Savior, we come before you repentant. Father, we repented earlier in this worship service, and we already heard your assurance of pardon and take refuge in forgiveness. But Father, we're reminded again to question even our own salvation, to understand whether we truly have the experiential knowledge of knowing Jesus as our Savior. Have we tasted the sweetness of his salvation? And Father, you have given certain evidences of that to the degree that the Apostle Paul, when spending time in the Church of Corinth, can discern which had and which had not received the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so, Father, we pray that we would be able to make this assessment of ourselves, and that we would be able to have the comfort and assurance of knowing of our own salvation, that we can rest confidently, because you do give that confidence, you do give that assurance. Father, we pray that we would then be able to receive your grace and to be able to grow in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that our relationship may be strengthened and deepened and made even more sweet, and that we may become more strengthened to put off the deeds of the flesh and to throw off the encumbrances of sin, the sin that has so easily entangled us in the past, and that we would be able to walk mightily in the Holy Spirit and in His power. And so, Father, this is all done and accomplished through you and your grace and your mercy to us. And so we plead with you. We come before you and we plead that your grace would flow forth in such a way as to accomplish these things. And Father, we pray for our loved ones. We pray for our children. We pray for our parents. We pray for our aunts and uncles. We pray for our siblings. Father, we pray for our neighbors, our coworkers. We pray for all those whom you have placed in our life. And we pray that you would give us the boldness to continue to proclaim the lordship of Jesus Christ and the necessity of repentance in order that sinners may be saved, in order that they too may have this relationship with you. And Father, we pray that we would never be so timid as to deny our Savior, to deny our faith, because of the hostilities of those who find Jesus offensive. And so, Father, hear our prayers, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.